Addicted to Japanese

Don't remember when and why it was started.. I have been eating Japanese food at least three times a week now. It seems Japanese is the obvious and convenient choice for weekday lunch.

Another JP lunch at Kiku - eel and sashimi set for HKD230. The set comes with a small appetizer of a piece of crab leg, steamed egg custard and marinated seaweed. I like the tiny touch of beauty with a small daisy next to the sashimi. I LOVE the eel as it was cooked perfectly and the meat was so soft and melted as soon as I put into my mouth. The sauce was soo addictive I chowed down the whole set with a full stomach..

Vietnam here I come...

I am finally taking this overdue vacation... a weekend haul at Ho Chi Minh this coming Friday...

This is the hotel I am going to stay at... A colonial style luxurious Park Hyatt. I am loving it!

I heart my iPhone

That's what they say - PCs are for geeks, Apples are for aunties....

Not that Apple is inferior in terms of technology, comparing to PCs, they are more customer-oriented, they understand what customers want, providing hassle-free turn-key solution to the not that tech-savvy but deep pocket customers...

They like to follow where the money is, launching hit products one by one that induce mass adoption... that's why the not-so-innovated MSFT's share price got stuck at 30, but Apple gave you over 2000% return in the past 5 yrs, which is quite unusal in the everchanging tech space.


I think iPhone just take us to another level of convenience with its mobile device.. it is nothing special and techy about it, there're others that gave you wifi, internet access, walkman features before, but iPhone is so much more streamline - fast and responsive.

I remember last year when the phone first came out and of course it instantly became the talking point at a christmas lunch hosted by a broker...I believe the phone would be a big hit because of its user-friendliness and versatility and ability to view webpage in a single screen, these by far exceed what a normal cell phone can do. A 40 yrs old analyst argued that it's gimmicky and not that innovative at all.... well.. a 40 yrs old geek just don't get it.. they are not the targeted customers and failed to think like a normal consumers.

I love my iPhone..I have my podcast on the go, listening to cnn, cnbc, bbc anytime anywhere.. IM chat... rss news feeds... sherlock homles ebooks.. organizers installed. This is simply not just a voice and sms only cell phone.

Traveled to CWB for lunch one day..Sushi Hiro lunch special, HKD250 for assorted 16 pieces of sushi, ~150 for a chirashi.. i always love great deals!

Weddings

Two weddings in a row for my two best friends…. Although feeling exhausted and tired over the past 2 weeks, I am extremely grateful to see my friends being able to find their significant others to spend the rest of their lives with.

I have to applaud M's effort in organizing such a warm and successful wedding not only for herself, but also for her guests. Different from some normal weddings, it is a wedding filled with love and passion. The guests appeared at the church and banquet were not the ones who just wanted to show their faces for the sake of attending the event, they went there with their best blessings to celebrate the joy for their dearest friends. There were sooo many people even though I was the usher and traffic facilitator for the day, I lost track of the faces for the ceremony and the banquet and kept asking the same questions to the same people, it was quite embarrassing but at that point I just wanted to get my job done.

I probably have wept the most of the weddings I've been to, except for my sister's wedding...that was when the reverend depicted how the groom brought the bride to church one day and indicated she was the ONE, I started weeping.. when the groom expressed his respect to his grandma and honored his mom for upbringing, I wept again.. then the bride thanked her mom for being her best friend and stayed alongside all the time, I wept nonstop.. when it was my turn to take pictures and I hugged the bride in silence I wept again.. at night during the dinner when the groom went up to the stage and sang the song he wrote for the bride, my tears burst out again.. and then when the maid of honor was giving a toast, I wept again...when I shared some private moments with the bride inside the changing room, my makeup finally all melt with tears...

It is their honesty and passion that touched me.. they know how to treat each other with respect and understand that it took them a long time to find each other so they need to cherish the relationship. I wish them the very best and the groom's promises last for eternity.



Unlike some brides who make the bridesmaids wearng ugly gowns.. M is nice enough to let us look pretty on her wedding day too.. This is my ensamble for the day. Champagne color dress with puffy bottom, I match with pearl necklace and a pair of beige satin marc jacob pumps.



I was pretty annoyed by my daily garbage look and untidy hair so I went to perm my hair the following day... The perm turned out perfect, but the process looked hideous...doesn't it look like a brain washing machine from the star war movie...?!



I would kill myself if this is the finish product..

What a drag

Decision was supposed to be made last week...if not, why hurry to do all the interviews during my crunch time?!

One week passed already.. still haven't heard a word about it.. my boss seemed very stress and there're quite a few ppl spending a lot of time in his room with door closed.

Next week he will be traveling to India, so I wouldn't be able to get an answer for another week.. what a torture and what a drag. Another week of waiting, another week of uncertainty.

This whole thing has been fallen out of my plan. I am supposed to declare victory by now, celebrating my friends' weddings and go traveling stressfree. This become such an overhang, I feel like sailing without a direction.. being afraid of hitting an iceberg or into a whirpool.

I am so exhausted, I had put up with a fierceful fight. I don't think I can possibly achieve more. I just want my fair piece of rewards.

Looking forward to my Vietnam trip next week.. for a marathon of relaxing massage and french cuisine.

Aunites

It was absolutely hilarious.

Last night at the wedding of my elementary school buddy, I met up with a couple of other elementary school classmates...it's amazing that we still keep in touch from time to time, especially so many of us once moved to different countries or lost contact after graduation, we still manage to dig each other up and organize reunion dinners...and every time we meet up is like going down the memory lane, talking nonstop of our childhood stories and teasing about how silly we were back then.

The funniest of all that I have gathered last night was that my classmate N, who used to be quite wacky and weird, is sort of in the entertainment business....I have no recollection of such a group existed before, but my friends reminded me of a boy band called aunites, which was a one-shot group and was created to make a mockery of cookies a couple of years back. Classmate N was one of them, they made MV and performed at tv shows just exactly like cookies, except that they are boys instead of girls... I was laughing so hard when watching the videos, I think it is absolutely hilarious and silly for a bunch of college kids to do sth like that but I have to applaud for his bravery and guts to perform in front of tv.

Success is...

I am not too much of a person who is keen on personality test as I often find the answers generic and doesn't tell really anything. It is like when the answers turn out to be something nice, you would say "oh..I cannot agree more".. when it turns out to be something bad, you quickly veto and say "this personality test sucks!!"

Since I received so many requests for the personality test at facebook, I decided to spare 5 min of my time to give it a try. This is a test to identify a picture to describe something, 8 choices were given per item.. I didn't find the test particularly interesting until I was given 8 pictures to describe what is success?

I pondered on this question..the obvious choice would be money/wealth or family or being with someone you love....but I was reluctant to choose the obvious choices. I wouldn't define money as a success because it isn't the first priority in my life. Family wouldn't equate to success because it is not something you compete for.. it is something that comes by naturally. I wouldn't say holding hands with your lover walking in the beach as a success either because it takes two to tango.

I then reckoned that an A+ is the meaing of success...probably it's just me... getting an A+ means more to me than monetary rewards, because it means recognition.

Eastern delight

Weather starts turning cooler.. it's time to eat something that gives you warmth. My favorite eastern sweet - black sesame soup..perfect dessert for a cool evening.. too bad I don't have tofu fa to go with it..

Another precaution from catching a cold..

Are you getting paid?

VP is going public. Not that we are interested in investing in VP..why would we invest in our competitor anyway...we were eager to find out the profitability of the company and the PMs' remuneration scheme, and we kept shaking our heads when comparing theirs to our shitty pay.

Why would people want to invest in hedge fund in a bull market when you can easily make 100% this year by selecting the key China names?! Not only you are paying the management fee but also a 15% cut of your profits... this doesn't sound like a good deal particularly when VP has actually been underperforming vs. its peers... looking at the profitability, 3.0% net margin to AUM vs. ~0.1% for long-only...is not like our performance is worse than them..

From the listing the senior PM each is getting 400+mn HKD worth of stocks..And you know how much bonus they received last year? Our back of the envelope calculation tells us on average the PMs got 8yrs bonus..8 YRS! bloody hell..no wonder the property prices shoot up sharply, the BV bags are out of stock, ferrari cruising in central, no steep discounts anymore.. all of a sudden my financial status soo far lags behind.. I feel so poor...

My colleague told me that he was once given an opportunity to join VP a couple of years ago, if he did do so, he would have 4mn HKD worth of stock by now..he claimed he rejected the offer because he loves working with us... I know that's just an excuse to console his sorrow..but a sweet lie is always nice to hear..

A glass of milk

Looking at D, I started to worry about brittle bones when doing active sports. It's painful to be immobile and to be in cast..

A glass of milk as my new everyday routine, a precaution if I ever fall again...

Joking about subprime

Career advice from Marc Andreessen

If you are young and want to have an impact, you want to be in an industry where there is a lot of growth and change and flux and opportunity.

If you're going to enter an old industry, make sure to do it on the side of the forces of radical change that threaten to up-end the existing order.

Once you have picked an industry, get right to the center of it as fast as you can.

Never worry about being a small fish in a big pond. Being a big fish in a small pond sucks -- you will hit the ceiling on what you can achieve quickly, and nobody will care. Optimize at all times for being in the most dynamic and exciting pond you can find. That is where the great opportunities can be found

Apply this rule when selecting which company to go to. Go to the company where all the action is happening.

Also apply this rule when selecting which city to live in. Go to the city where all the action is happening.

Sunday Mix

I thought the scene of hungry camera men and car show girls would only exist in MK....no.. surrounded by the gangs of bun bun, there's an motorcycle show held by harley davidson in the middle of central on sunday.... obviously the targets of the cameras were not the motorcycles but the half naked girls... although the girls might be enjoying being shot by strangers (probably imagining themselves turning into a star with one of the pictures), I felt sorry for them..being identified not by who they are but what they are wearing...I am so glad that I got the education that I needed..for not being ended up with one of them.

Tea set at Mandarin Oriental. Delicious finger sandwiches, interesting savory pastry with fusion variation, traditional desserts which identify four major elements of sweet pastry: fruit, mousse, cheese and chocolate.
Well baked scone on the side of the tea set with the signature rose jam...I was so tempted to buy a jar of this back home.. =P...


I've BROKE my promise!!!!! I promised myself to buy a pair of classic black leather pumps after I cash out of my CM investment.... Unfortunately I lost control of myself.. I decided to buy this pair of Ferragamo instead of Miu Miu (4" heel is really too much for me). These come in handy for the parties and social events in the next 2 months.

Okay.. I probably have been giving a deceptive image of me being high-maintenance with all the expensive clothing and dining experience..In order to prove that I am not, this is what I was wearing today: H&M purple sweater dress, no-brand black patent leather belt, blue heros distressed cigarette jeans and anya hindmarch leather boots...but still looked expensive.

Those are the days... the minuscule chairs and tables and chalkboard brought me back to the old days..I remember sitting in one of these little chairs feeling dumb but eager to learn, I wasn't the smartest but always wanted to be better..seems like my mantra hasn't changed for 20 yrs..

In the middle of a group dinner:
Girlfriend X: I am learning how to drive..I just had my first lesson last week.
Me: Really?! that's great..are you planning on getting a new car?
Girlfriend X: No... I just have a lot of free time during weekends.. I don't know what else I can do, since I don't have a license yet..so I decided to pick up driving..
Me (feeling puzzled): So, you are not planning to drive after you get a license? but you need to practice in order to master the skills...
Girlfriend X: Yeah.. I don't know.. I just want to get the license..
Me (giving up on understanding her rationale): hum.. since you said you have a lot of free time on your hand.. Why not volunteer?
Girlfriend X: .......... (then go on discussing which branded fad bag she should get next)

Not being judgmental.. but sometimes I do have problem communicating with some of the girls..

Yang Chen Lake crabs

These are the real Yang Chen Lake hairy crabs I had last week.. indeed a belated entry.. =P The identifications of authentic Yang Chen Lake hairy crabs are gold and spiky hair, a watermark on the shell, and a certification label.

Fresh and plump crabs that nobody can resist.

We are at the later part of hairy crab season, and traditionally we would have the female first and then the male ones for the latter part of the season.. according to my dad (don't quote me if I am wrong), reason being the female ones get fattening earlier in the season, and the male ones would get fat until the weather becoming cooler... Now it's the best time to enjoy the male.

I prefer the male over the female because of the translucent scrumptious fat. It doesn't have the tangy flavor as the female, but the glutinous fat from the male crabs is like a seafood version of lard.. with a few drops of brown sugar and vinegar that's the best combination ever existed.