Newsletter Dec 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Sabah, Malaysia Sept 2010

Time passes too quickly, it is the end of the year again, we would like to share with you what we have been up to in 2010. (A full account of the year is given at the end of this letter). Here is the highlight.

We have not been travelling as much, with Irene settling in her new career as an independent advisor and Dominic committed to teach during semester.

• Dec 2009, enjoyed a 14-day visit to Myanmar to get a first hand experience interacting with the people in different cities and appreciating their history and culture
• June 2010, thanks to the Savantas Policy Institute, we had a fruitful trip in Shanghai attending the Expo,a training course covering many aspects of modern China, and made many new friends
• Sept 2010, a relaxing trip to Sabah, Kota Kinabalu. We saw the Orang Utan, Proboscis (long nose) Monkey and fireflies. Thanks to our friend and her mum who showed us round their beautiful home town
• A getaway weekend in Macau in Nov was most refreshing

We'll be spending Christmas and New Year in India, more about that in our next sharing.

Since 2009

• Less meat, more vegetable diet. More meals at vegetarian restaurants
• Organic farming in Lantau, ploughing, planting, watering, harvesting
• Brought friends to the farm to appreciate the joy of growing your own food, back in touch with nature and see fireflies which are still found in the area

Dominic's 2010 highlight:

I have finally published my book 八載劍橋 (My Cambridge Days) in July this year, it has been my dream to share the experience gained during my 8 happy years at Cambridge University. In Nov, I had the pleasure of giving my book in person to the current and immediate past Vice Chancellors of Cambridge University.	MyCambridgeDays.com
I enjoyed running as the chairman of the BEA International English Contest (HK chapter). I went with the 19 HK student representatives to compete in the 5-day national finals in Beijing. Our students had won many prizes including the championship in the junior and senior high division.	Click to view album
This year, in addition to consulting work, I have been doing a lot of teaching, training and speaking at numerous universities/ conferences/ corporate/ business & social clubs in Hong Kong, Macau, Xi'an and Han Zhou. I must admit, I am a very talkative person who loves an audience :-)

Irene's 2010 highlight:

Making Turkish Coffee

• A wonderful year yet also filled with exciting challenges, sometimes poor sleeping quality; on the positive side, nice surprises, supportive friendship and many blessings.
• Most fortunate to encounter 2 mentors - one advising me on enhancing my professional and communication skills, the other teaching us Qigong(氣功)and wisdom to be applied to both health and life.
• Some new friends and co-workers sharing good practices in asset management, nutrition and organic farming, etc. Surrounded by all these smart people with good heart and commitment, I feel most encouraging that the 4 important pillars of my life are gaining more solid grounds: health, knowledge and experience, family and friends, resources.

I wish to share more on my personal blog, what do you want to hear from me?

Events for learning this year that I found very useful
1) Brain-based learning for children
2) Investing with Wisdom

Next year events may include story-telling communication skills, Turkish buffet, organic farming ... if you have any good idea for learning, please update me

Please drop us a few lines when you have a moment, we would love to hear how you are getting on.
(making Turkish coffee in the photo)
Have a great holiday and wish you a healthy and prosperous 2011!

Love,
Irene and Dominic

December 2010
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FULL ACCOUNT on year 2010!

WORK
Consulting and Corporate Training highlights:
This year, my clients works are mostly on business development, feasiblity studies and restructuring. I continue to work with an international expert network GLG. I have also teamed up with an executive training company to provide a wide range of corporate training areas. For example, influencing skills workshop in Han Zhou for an MNC's offsite meeting; E-marketing techniques in Macau for an MNC regional meeting; "How to write and present a compelling business plan" for a local university; negotiation skills workshop in Shenzhen for a Chinese technology company; and trusted advisor workshop in Hong Kong.

Angel investment (Early stage venture investment):
Through Dark Horse Investment (http://darkhorseinvest.com) and personal network invested in ushi.cn 优士网 (The next China Linkedin+Ladder). We also invested in two biotech firms in Singapore in nano technology and cancer detection technology.

Teaching at universities
An MSc e-commerce module at Tonli College, Xi'an, China; a 14-week MSc module in Wireless Computing Systems and Applications (Mobile phone, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth) at PolyU; A 3-part series on "How to launch your independent career / business" for Entrepreneurship Centre, CUHK; A diploma on "High quality IT infrastructure on a limited budget" in Macau for HKU SPACE.

TRAVEL
200912 Myanmar
We visited Myanmar in December 2009 and had a great time visiting over 6 cities. Irene did an extensive search and managed to find a very good local travel agent that provides reasonable price for private tour, excellent ground trip planning and with nice and knowledgeable English speaking guides in every city, what more can we ask for? We did all our correspondence in English via email. Let us know if you want the contact info. It far exceeded our expectation, this is much more interesting than seeing through the narrow window of heavily biased Western media;

201003-201004 Silicon Valley, Ottawa
I went with the Savantas Science and Technology Delegation to Silicon Valley at the end of March. It was a very successful trip where many interesting and useful discussions/visits were conducted. Hopefully, the delegation collectively has learned the key factors that make Silicon Valley the most successful technology innovation place globally and apply them to Hong Kong. He also assisted one of his clients to settle into "Plug and Play Tech Center" in Sunnyvale. Above all, he enjoyed seeing many of his old friends in the area. Afterwards, he had a nice family reunion in Ottawa, Canada.

201006 Shanghai Expo, Training course and Suzhou	201007 Han Zhou
201009 Kota Kinabula, Sabah, Malaysia	201011 Macau

FRIENDS OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY IN HONG KONG
It has been my wish since 2002 to share the experience gained during my 8 happy years in Cambridge to fellow alumni, youngsters who have yet to explore their options, also friends and family. It took me 8 years to put everything together. Written in Chinese, a big surprise to my friends, since none of them have seen me write anything in Chinese ever since I went to boarding school in UK at 14. In November, I had the pleasure of giving my book in person to the current and immediate past Vice Chancellors of Cambridge University.

My Cambridge Days book launch	Prince Philip Scholarship award ceremony
Mentoring program	Current Vice Chancellor and immediate past Vice Chancellor's visit

Movie on Cambridge: Bachelor of Hearts

PUBLIC SPEAKING

MAD Conference (Make-A-Difference) http://www.m-a-d.asia/
In Jan 2010, Dominic helped moderated a session on "Entrereneurship" during the MAD conference (a great youth conference for promoting creativity and providing alternative career choices). It was great talking to 3 entrepreneurs and learning from them how they have each created their business from scratch and are of very different natures.

Moderating at the Web 3.0 conference on "how to get funded" at Cyberport in November 2010
Speaking on startup venture investment at InnoAsia Conference in November 2010
Speaking at HKU on "how to setup your company with minimal resource" during the Entrepreneur Seminar Series in Dec 2010
Sharing travel experience on Antarctica and using Open Source Software at offlice club talks of iProA (Internet Professional Association)
Sharing with Leo Clubs on "My Cambridge Days" and "Exploring the world"
I enjoyed tremendously running as the chairman of the BEA International English Contest (HK chapter) and subsequently, I went with the 19 HK student representatives to compete in the 5-day national finals in Beijing. Our students had won many prizes including the championship in the junior and senior high division. We are very grateful to our sponsors Sir Dr. David Li, Bank of East Asia and Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong. After the competition, all the students and their family had a great time at the celebration dinner at China Club Beijing, thanks to Sir David (Tang).

LIONS CLUB
I'm the honourary secretary of Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong this year. We have many events including Magical Night and various luncheons featuring Mr. David Webb, Mr Cheah Cheng Hye, Prof. Tony Chan and Dr. Hui Siu Ping

Book review:
不去會死 Dying to go! (Review written by Irene)

Author: Yusuke Ishida 石田裕輔

Have you ever thought about where the most beautiful place is in the world according to your own definition? This Japanese author cycled around the world for 7+ years to search this place. His encounters reveal his emotions to different places and people, the beautiful and ugly side of humanity and "a world" that you probably do not have a chance to see during your life time.

I found the title echoes my inner voice as a passionate traveller. We travel as if we will die tomorrow. I truely admire his courage to embark on such an adventurious journey. It actually reactivates my travel DNA when feeling drained after work.

Dominic's comment: The title of the book reflects our view towards travelling! 不去會死

Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTUyODU1OTk5

Leglessbird sharing May 2010

Newsletter May 2010

Bagan, Myanmar Dec 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a while since our last update in Dec 2009. We hope this sharing finds you well.

In the past 6 months, there seems to be endless disasters around the world with numerous devastating earthquakes, volcano eruption, oil spill in Mexican Gulf and Singapore; major international incidents Euro zone crisis, unrest in Thailand, escalated South/North Korea conflicts. Makes you wonder what the most important things in life are.

Highlight of our activities in the last 6 months:
Travel: Christmas trip to Myanmar and Easter trip to Silicon Valley and Ottawa (more details below)

Farming: We started sub-renting a small piece of farm land in Lantau and we are loving the planting, the harvests, and the taste and health benefits of eating freshly picked organic vegetables. We wish to spread this idea and more friends can appreciate the goodness of "back to basic" lifestyle. What we have harvested so far Chinese cabbage, lettuce, shark's fin melon, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, beans, potatoes and corn (菜心，生菜，芥菜， 魚翅瓜，車里茄， 紅蘿蔔， 青瓜， 豆角， 薯仔, 玉米).

Teaching: In addition to his consulting work and angel investment, Dominic has been doing more teaching, executive training and public speaking: Xi'an Jiaotong (China), PolyU, HKUST, CUHK, HKU SPACE, Independent Professional Association, MAD (Make a difference) conference and La Salle College

Irene's new career: Irene is happy with her lifelong career as an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor)

Networking: ushi.cn 优士网: Dominic becomes one of the charter members of a new online business network community that aspires to be the Chinese Linkedin. Follow this link, and become Dominic's direct contact on the network Connect with Dominic on ushi!

Community Work: International English Contest National Finals in Beijing and regional finals in Hong Kong

Protect the environment: (1) We have started to bring our own mugs, chopsticks, knifes and forks to fast food places (instead of using their paper cups and plastic); (2) We put a sticker on our mailbox that says

支持環保! 拒收無收件人姓名和地址的垃圾郵件。
Protect the environment! Refuse to accept junk mail without recipient's name and address.

Leglessbird: Leglessbird blogs have a new look and platform: Leglessbird, Restaurant, Movie, Book, Wealth, Independent Professional, Dominic

Upcoming talk: e-Presence/e-Profit workshop, Sat 12 June 2010, 3pm
"Want to maximize your online presence?"
"Want to make money online 24x7?"
http://www.ip-a.org/events.php

Please drop us a note when you have time, we would love to hear from you!

Cheers,

Irene and Dominic,

May 2010

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TRAVEL
Myanmar
We visited Myanmar in December 2009 and had a great time visiting over 6 cities. Irene did an extensive search and managed to find a very good local travel agent that provides reasonable price for private tour, excellent ground trip planning and with nice and knowledgeable English speaking guides in every city, what more can we ask for? We did all our correspondence in English via email. Let us know if you want the contact info.

Golden Rock, Myanmar

Lake Inle, Myanmar

Click to view album

Silicon Valley, and Ottawa trip
Dominic went with the Savantas Science and Technology Delegation to Silicon Valley at the end of March. (External link), it was a very successful trip where many interesting and useful discussions/visits were conducted. Hopefully, the delegation collectively has learned the key factors that make Silicon Valley the most successful technology innovation place globally and apply them to Hong Kong. He also assisted one of his clients to settle into "Plug and Play Tech Center" in Sunnyvale. Above all, he enjoyed seeing many of his old friends in the area. Afterwards, he had a nice family reunion in Ottawa, Canada.

Irene's new career: Irene is happy with her new lifelong career direction.

After all the efforts, I finally enjoy working every day again. I felt so blessed when working with like-minded colleagues and delivering good values through my job or leisure activities. My mini crisis started from 2000, when I was confused what my purpose of work should be and felt that I was wasting my time. I went to study a Master degree at Warwick hoping to find my direction. An amazing year passed, but I was still lost. The past 4 years of being an independent professional has given me many chances to travel and discover myself. Gradually I realize that my goal is to do something that I can continue to learn and grow, at the same time I can enrich other people's life by sharing my knowledge or experience. This is what motivates me and makes myself most contented. Looking back, I consider our mindset, health, resources management (time & money etc) are the factors enabling Dominic and myself to enjoy our balanced and healthy lifestyle. Since 2002, we have engaged an independent financial advisor to guide us on our investment. My objective of working with our advisor is to assist others to pursue their ideal lifestyle and realize their dreams in life. Though education and sharing, more people are better off.

TEACHING AND TRAINING Dominic taught an e-commerce module (part of a master course) in Xi'an, China over a weekend in Jan 2010, which he enjoyed very much. He is also doing some talks at PolyU, CUHK and HKUST.

Click to view album

Executive training
We launched Independent Professional Association at the end of last year as a platform to promote independent work and support the independent professional community (consultants, translators, writers, trainers, designers and more). We did our first 3-part training series on "How to launch your independent career/business", the course is being adopted in Dominic's weekend teaching at CUHK's entrepreneurship centre.

Dominic has also teamed up with Simitri Group to provide consulting, training and coaching to corporate clients in Asia. He is also working with another corporate training company.

At the end of May 2010, he conducted lectures in Macau with HKU SPACE to help small medium enterprises and social enterprises to set up their low-cost high performance infrastructure for web domain, web applications (e.g. email, website, CMS), software (office, accounting), telecom (VoIP, e-fax) and mobile office.

MAD Conference (Make-A-Difference) http://www.m-a-d.asia/ In Jan 2010, Dominic helped moderated a session on "Entrereneurship" during the MAD conference (a great youth conference for promoting creativity and providing alternative career choices). It was great talking to 3 entrepreneurs and learning from them how they have each created their business from scratch and are of very different natures.

Click to view album

International English Contest Beijing National final 17-22 Feb 2010. Glad to say that our Hong Kong representatives have won many prizes including the Championship of senior high and junior high schools.

Click to view album

BEA International English Contest - Hong Kong finals 12 Dec 2009, 20 students were selected to represent Hong Kong to the Beijing Finals We are very grateful to all our sponsors including Bank of East Asia, Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong, Cambridge University Press, Gowell Software, Dr. David Li, Mr. Fred To and all the judges including Sir Ti-Liang Yang.

Click to view album

CAMBRIDGE (The Friends of Cambridge)
Cambridge alumni Reception to meet Professor Alison Richard, Vice Chancellor of The University of Cambridge - 7 April 2010

Informal microfinance chat - 'a number of ways to make a difference' - 27 Feb 2010

ORGANIC FARMING - in Lantau

Harvesting

插秧, Transplant rice seedlings

Antarctica talk at offline club of iProA, 6 Feb 2010 Photos album

Reunion with the Hong Kong representatives of the International English Contest

Click to view album

BOOK REVIEW:
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, PhD
I have got this book as a gift from a friend who bought this at Stanford University's book store during our visit.

This is an interesting book that talks about mindsets, specially, the author classified them into two types, namely, Fixed and Growth. The fixed mindset people cares more on preserving their current success (if any), or avoid anything that they may fail, especially in front of others, if so, they blame on others or circumstances instead of themselves. The growth mindset people love to learn, and get better, success and failure are all learning experience and they are hungry to get more.

Read more...

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Fridge
48 Peel St, Soho, Central (walk up from Hollywood road, next to Makuba Bar)
+852 28101098
Western food in Central

READ MORE ...

MOVIE REVIEW: This film imagines that not so far ahead in the future where earth has become inhabitable due to human activities in an unsustainable manner. The sole survivor looks back in time to inspect what the humans could have done to stop the disaster but failed to put their act together - The Age of Stupid - Fail to act to save ourselves while still could. The film put together a lots of clips of signs, events and try to look at how humans are so selfish and/or stupid in reacting to the threat...

READ MORE

APPLICATION: Online virtual file server solution Dropbox