Sick...

...again...

...I call in sick today and plan to sleep the whole day...

...so...sweet dream...

8:23am, Tuesday, 29 August

Christmas presents...

... for Karen's twin boys :)

Of course they will become two sweaters by then :>

Police

I just went to an anti-WTO concert at Arts Centre. Again, no special meaning. Just a friend asked if I wanted to go and I happened to have nothing to do tonight.

It’s a concert you could never expect what would happen next. It’s divided into different segments with different bands you never heard of before (well, for me, at least); while you also couldn’t hear what one of the MC was saying with the other one’s basically doing some “background sound”.

The bands’ quality varied. With the better and more experienced ones, they would tell you the background of the song and what they wanted to deliver via the song. Even if you don’t understand the language (one song’s in Filipino), the music could still touch you. However, there were also some bands you didn’t even know what they tried to do, and how that related to (anti-)WTO, globalization, justice…..

There’s one band singing two songs to “praise our police”. One song’s name was “None” (沒有). The other was “Police’s Coming” (警察殺到). So you know what they wanted to talk about.

The songs reminded me about the police recruitment API (Announcement of Public Interests, i.e. government commercials/advertisement) I watched at the KCR on Sunday.

The setting’s a rainy night, with a car crushed up side down and the MAN DRIVER trapped inside. A group of five to six POLICEMEN tried to push the car over to save the MAN DRIVER. When the POLICEMEN went “one, two, push”, one of the POLICEMEN hurt HIS leg with blood coming out of HIS boot. However, HE didn’t stop nor screamed. HE kept on pushing until they rescued the MAN DRIVER, and the background came a slogan “The Mark of Pride and Care” (一段痕跡 一段經歷). At the end, one POLICEMAN (without seeing HIS face) did HIS police salute and then some words came out telling you the police was hiring.

This API ignores me a lot. First, it’s a single sex world – POLICEMEN and MAN DRIVER. Where’re the women? (Well, don’t complain, you should be pride that I learn my gender perspective.) Second, I don’t need our police to value any other things more important than their own lives (I don’t need them 攞命博). We are recruiting police that serve the community, not hiring SUPERHEROS (watch out, it’s SUPERHEROS! SUPERHEROINES are not welcome.) We don’t need a Superman.

It really ignores me.

I never doubt our police’s efficiency and professionalism. But when you have quite extensive power, we always need to be on guard if someone will overdo.

P.S. I always remember what my colleague from Save the Children told a group of international school girls when they asked if we found our jobs at the Save meaningful – “Every job’s serving the community. If you put your heart on it, every job’s meaningful.”

We need people with heart. We don’t need superhero.

My MBT's first outdoor experience

I had bought my MBT for almost a month. However, today's the first time I wore them outside.

Why? Cause for the first couple of weeks, I needed to practice them indoor to FEEL the difference (instruction from the coach when I bought them). Basically, MBTs are (expensive) runners with curved bottoms. So supposingly, when you simply try to balance, your hip, hind and stomach muscles need to work extra hard and you also need to keep your posture right (that's what the ad said!) Therefore, it's not recommended to overwork yourself at the beginning or you will hurt yourself or feel dizzy like on a ship!

However, the more realistic reason is IT'S EXTREMELY HOT OUTSIDE. Other than cats, hot summer is my No.1 enemy!!!!! And when it's not so hot, it's raining cats and dogs. Again, that's the condition I rather stay under a roof.

But today, when I went out to eat at the little shopping mall this afternoon at around 3pm, it seemed that the weather was quite good -- outdoor was not as hot as in the house with a little bit of wind. So, I decided to try my MBT outdoor for the first time and walked along the waterfront for around 45 minutes.

Frankly, I can't tell if there's really any difference compaired to walking with conventional runners. And after the first 10 minutes, I was already all wet and was kissed by a mosquito :( However, with the nice view, and cutie children, sweet babies and their parents also walking, running and playing along the waterfront, it sure was much nicer than inside the house. It's even better after taking a LONGGGGG shower!!!!

Nice to have some exercise and a shower afterward :)

P.S. Florence's finally back! But she said she will be gone soon.

P.P.S. I visited the government specialist a couple of weeks ago. What the doctor said was something I heard over and over before, but he said it in more concret and positive terms, which make me feel better. He also pointed out some important points when working on those hind strengthening exercise, and my muscles seem to be stronger now (or is it the result of using MBT :) I will visit the specialist again in November and attend physical therapy in February 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.P.S. Haven't posted pictures for a long time. Here's me at work, picture taken with me noticing :( It's sometime ago and my hair is much longer now :P

A friend missing... ...

My friend Florence seems to be missing since the time she quited her job quite sometime ago. I receive her postcards from around the world from time to time but have tremendous difficulty to locate her.

Hey, so where are you birthday girl?

Happy Birthday, in case you ever read my blog :)