Slow down, please

I have been running around the office for the last couple of weeks, and have some difficulty of slowing myself down. So you can predict what will happen -- my knee produces those "knock knock" sounds again. Not as painful as before, but you know it's not good to produce those "knock knock" sounds. You can feel that the bones are "crunching" each other, which makes me feel even more scared.

Have to exercise some self-control and slow myself down.

Sunblock

I seldom use sunblock (cause I try to avoid going under the sun :) But as I am getting older and older, I consider using them and bought those for the face and for the body. Then, you know what happen -- it rains and rains and rains and rains and rains......I hardly find a day that these sunblock thing can be used!

Time to sleep. Sweet dream :>

Go Oilers Go!

Stanley Cup Final opens on 5 June.
Can anyone update me on the final from time to time?

五月的陽光

現在我彷似在等待，等，等那一天來；
莫道你心痛不可耐，我心更哀。

若問我想找的所在，找，找我的將來，
為著我心中的希望，生命已擲門外。

看著這如病染的祖國，誰亦要奮起叫嚷！

放下眼前原屬我的一切，五月的陽光在照耀……

Typhoon ChanChu

So typhoon ChanChu has come and is now going away.

It only got to Typhoon Signal #3 today, so everything was running as usual except kindergartens were off today because of the weather :) It also didn't rain as heavy as the Observatory predicted, but it's very windy.

How windy? Well, all the garbage bins on the streets were tied to a lamp post or something strong like the picture on the left. When I had my evening walk tonight, my hair was of course flying in the air, but at some point, I even had to hold my glasses tight or I was afraid it would fly away too.

More Elmo stuffs

Keys with Elmo key-mets :)

Rose & Di & Ed, I still have your dad's house key with my other key chain. Have they changed their lock?





Elmos linked to my mobile. The blue ball is supposed to flash when the phone rings :P I am not quite sure if the battery is still on though.

The Japanese Elmo is of course from Japan. I think it's the only Elmo I have with Japanese costumes.


Last but not least, the "do it yourself Sesame Street chocolate" set from Pheon, with a pack of chocolate, a mold and some wrapping paper! Fantastic! I guess it's similar to those clay thing I made before.


Since there's a typhoon coming, and it's going to rain heavily in the middle of the week, the temperature drops suddently from 30C+ to 20C+ these two days. Nice weather to sleep in and have a walk outside :) Lots of kids running around and lots of people fishing when I went for my walk late afternoon today. I have been walking on a treadmill in the gym in the club house of our estate lately cause it's too hot. So it's very nice to have some fresh air outside today.

How's your Mothers' Day? I had a nice dinner with Mom and we will go out again next Saturday when everyone's in town.

What's going wrong?

It's 11pm at a Sunday night, and I am on the computer working on an English translation of a video script!!!!!

What's going wrong?

I had already spent the whole afternoon working on a set of letters! IT'S SUNDAY!!!!! My original plan was to visit the Arts Museum :(

Anyway, I will go next Sunday instead. That's going to be the "world museums day" next weekend. Hope it's not very hot. The celebration events are outside the Arts Museum and Cultural Centre. Hot, hot, hot!

And I am very tired now :(

Disappearance of Physics Building and V-Wing

Oh, my God! This is what I read from the alumni news.

The main office of the Civil Engg Dept has already been relocated from the C(ivil-)E(lectrical )B(uilding) to the new Markin/CNRL Natural Resources Engineering Facility some times ago, and now the Physics Building and V-Wing are even being demolished.

So sad.

I don't think I had had a lot of classes in the Physics Building, but V-Wing was almost my third home during my years in the U of A. (First being HUB and second being CEB, especially during my grad school year when I had an office there.) There's even one time when I almost dropped all the way down from the top of the stairs at a V-Wing lecture theatre cause I wasn't quite woke up yet.

Those were the days.

BUREAUCRATIC JUSTICE: THE INCARCERATION OF MAINLAND CHINESE WOMEN WORKING IN HONG KONG'S SEX INDUSTRY

I haven't quite read through the following yet, but am glad that someone (all women!) from the legal sector are working on the issue. Hope they don't mind I am copying their work here.

If you are interested, here are the two organizations in HK supporting sex workers:

Ziteng http://www.ziteng.org.hk/
Action for Reach Out http://hkaids.med.cuhk.edu.hk/reachout/

***** *****

SUMMARY FOR THE ROUNDTABLE ON 27 APRIL 2006

(by Dr.Robyn Emerton, Dr. Karen Joe Laidler and Dr. Carole Petersen of the University of Hong Kong)

In the new millennium Hong Kong has witnessed a rapid and dramatic increase in the number of mainland Chinese visitors to the territory, including women who cross the border to engage in sex work. While sex work itself is not a crime in Hong Kong, several related activities, such as soliciting, are prohibited. Moreover, sex work is treated as a form of work for immigration purposes and visitors who engage in work without an employment visa are in breach of their conditions of stay. More than 10,000 mainland Chinese women have been arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced in the past five years, causing Hong Kong's female correctional population to expand beyond capacity.

This paper presents information from interviews conducted in 2004 with 58 mainland Chinese women incarcerated in three correctional institutions in Hong Kong for criminal and/or immigration offences related to sex work. The interviews were arranged with the kind assistance of the Correctional Services Department.

By interviewing an incarcerated population, we were able to access women who had worked in a variety of settings, including women who had worked under third-party management. This group is usually inaccessible to researchers, as the women remain hidden in villas prior to their arrest. Our study showed that the majority of women came voluntarily and were assisted by others who profit from them, both on the mainland and in Hong Kong. Certainly some organized crime involvement exists, but its extent is unclear from the women's accounts.

Most women reported financial considerations as the primary factor influencing their decision to come to Hong Kong. Some were driven by urgent and dire economic circumstances, while others believed that this opportunity could offer higher earning potential than working in factories or the service industry in the mainland. In fact, many of the women were arrested before making a profit, but others reported significant earnings on this or a previous visit (as much as HK$80,000 in one case).

The women's responses to questions about the criminal justice system indicate that cases are processed efficiently, but with limited regard to individual circumstances or to the defendants' understanding of their alleged offences. Describing their experiences in police stations, the majority said they understood the charges for which they had been arrested, but nine were confused, believing they had been charged with “prostitution” rather than immigration charges. Some women were not clear why they had been charged in the circumstances: four of the 19 women charged with soliciting said that the police had initiated the transaction, and five women arrested on the street for soliciting or immigration offences said they were not working when the police stopped them. The majority of women were allowed a telephone call, were provided with an interpreter and generally agreed with the statement, or chose not to read it. Seven women reported, however, that they had signed statements which they were not able to read, either because they were illiterate or because the statement was in English and traditional Chinese. One woman reported that she signed several blank pieces of paper. Finally, the accounts of three respondents raise concern about responses to women who allege that they were deceived and then forced into sex work. Despite informing various officials of their situations, these women's cases were handled in a standardized fashion.

In court, one strategy to expedite cases involves the duty lawyer conducting group interviews, and the magistrate hearing certain cases together. Five of our respondents had experienced such collective treatment. Two of them reported that their individual circumstances were not put before the court, and one said that she believed herself to be innocent, but pleaded guilty because the others in her group had done so. Six women complained that the translation was too fast, and that they did not understand the proceedings. Nearly all of the respondents (N=53) pleaded guilty when they first appeared in court, which clearly contributes to the expedient processing of cases. The remaining five, who initially pleaded not guilty, changed their plea to guilty at their second court appearance, having been advised by other women on remand that pleading not guilty would result in a lengthier trial process than pleading guilty. Our observations of the proceedings in the magistrates' courts between July 2005 and April 2006 confirmed the speed and routine with which these cases are managed. The average time to complete an individual defendant's case was only three minutes.

In this context – the volume of cases, the grouping of cases, routine guilty pleas, the standardization of cases, the tendency to ignore individual circumstances, and normative sentences – the criminal justice system takes on the features of a bureaucratic machine. The consequence of this bureaucratic response – the short-term imprisonment of a large number of women – is expensive and has yet to demonstrate a deterrent or rehabilitative effect. Although the majority of the first-timers said they would not return to Hong Kong for sex work once released, 15 of our respondents had been arrested on one or more previous occasion, which raises questions as to the individual deterrent effect of current practices. Further, current policies have yet to demonstrate a general deterrent effect in discouraging other mainland Chinese women from coming to Hong Kong to engage in sex work. There has been a recent decrease in arrests, which the Secretary for Security attributes to vigorous law enforcement and improved immigration control. However, this decrease may reflect a decrease in the rate of police detection. In any event, a higher prosecution rate has meant that the number of mainland women being incarcerated in Hong Kong has continued to rise.

In light of "one country, two systems", how might the respective governments and authorities begin to better address this issue? Consideration could be given to alternative approaches, such as a "suspended sentence" for first time offenders accompanied by a slower and more individualized judicial process, in which women are clearly advised of the nature of their offence and warned they will receive a much stiffer penalty if they repeat it. Thus far, however, there has been little public debate on alternative strategies for addressing the issue. Some discussion has taken place amongst government officials and the Legislative Council on the regulation of the sex industry generally and on the possibility of creating of red light districts. Such measures might arguably assist the situation of local sex workers, but they would not resolve the thorny issue of how (or whether) to create a space for migrant sex workers. Without changes to Hong Kong immigration law, this group would still be contravening the law simply by working.

Raining, raining, and raining...

It's raining cats and dogs outside, going from the yellow to red rain storm warning signals in just a few hours. So good that I am already home.

It's always like this during the last few weeks -- raining heavily during weekdays but sunny and hot over the weekends. Last year that's the direct opposite.

My knees were going all right this morning. But then it's going worst in the afternoon, around the time the thunder storm warning signal was up! I think the Observatory should hire me to predict the rain.

Lately I am extremely busy in the office and at lesiure as well. So many books to read, got hooked up to cross stitching again (and don't forget the knitted baby sweaters for Christmas!), and busy with memorizing the Putonghua pin-yin...... So many things to do but so little times.

Ida Observatory

If I am trapped in a closed room with no window at all, I can still tell you what's the weather outside.

How?

My knees can tell.

It's like having "rheumatic disease". My knees hurt when the temperature drops suddently, or the humidity goes up. Last week when it got wet and rained a bit, my knees hurt very much and I went to acupuncture again. When it became sunny over the weekend, my knees suddently go better and I could do my evening/morning walk again.

So sad...

Boring...tired (not yet exhausted)...and boring again...

...actually is because I don't want to (or can't go to) sleep at 1am...

How's your Easter?

I had done a lot and I had also done so few during the four-day holiday I longed for.

One the good side, I spent 3.5 hours in the salon to have my new hair do on Good Friday. Now my hair is as straight as ruler, a preparation to keep extra long hair as in school days :P

Also, I went to Ocean Park on Saturday with Mom. The objective of the trip was to see the "jelly fishes" (the guide said they were not "fishes"; they should be called "sea jelly") at the new attraction "Sea Jelly Spectacular", and of course to do some "walking" before it's getting hot! I have been doing quite good on my evening walk thing, except I didn't lost any pounds yet, and it is now become a habit, especially after a full meal.

On the bad side, I was stucked in the office for two afternoons, with my magnetic access card broken that I needed assistance from the security guards everytime going in and out of the lift lobby. To add on that, the bathroom on our floor is also out of service. We (it's "we" cause I was not the only one in the office!) needed to go downstair to use their bathroom.

Also, I am busy with the group project due on 26 April for my corporate communication course. We will meet again tomorrow evening and we have been working on it since the end of last month. The progress is good and I always try to contain myself not to overwhelm others during these meetings. But still, I spent a lot of time "amending" a member's contribution as she couldn't quite express herself using English (no problem when she's writing in Chinese). I have been thinking back and forth about if I should do that, but at the end I couldn't control myself so I did it and it used up quite a lot of my time.

So that's my Easter long weekend. I thought I could do some reading and knitting (I have an idea of knitting sweaters for babies I know that are under five as Christmas presents this year) over the long weekend but then I didn't do any. Too bad.

"Waterfront Park" @ Heng Fa Chuen

Here's where I have my evening walk. It's too cloudy that you can the "sea" on the left.

The 20-pound Mission (Impossible)

I watched a local indie band show couple of weeks ago. Among the audience, I saw quite a number of young, pretty and skinny girls with sleeveless tanks. I think, although I couldn’t be young and pretty, at least I should try to lose some weight for the summer. So, here’s my most important project during recent years – to lose 20 pounds for the upcoming summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget about the number. It’s only a slogan to show my commitment. But I really want to lose some weight to buy clothes more easily :)

So. My number one and most important challenge of this “20-pound Mission” is that – I practically can’t do any exercise due to my knee except swimming, which is something I don’t know how to do and I don’t like to do.

So. What I am going to do focus mostly on diet and “walking exercise”:

On the diet part,

* avoid any oily food, food with source, sweet, pops, junk food, etc. (That almost means I can only have sandwich, sandwich, and sandwich for lunch!)

* don’t eat so full each meal, especially dinner; eat as little as possible during dinner time

* eat more fruit and drink more water

* may be drinking more green tea, which is said to be “fat-burning and cancer-preventive”

On the exercise part,

* walk as much as possible (Walking is the other exercise my doctor recommends, but it only includes walking on “flat” surface. Going uphill, downhill, upstairs and downstairs will all hurt my knees), including

* to buy lunch at Pacific Place, so I can walk around the HK Park

* to walk around 30 minutes after supper along the “waterfront park” under my apartment

* last but not least, those leg strengthening exercise my doctor recommends

So. I had tried almost all of the above today. When I tried to do the 30-minute walk at the “waterfront park”, I saw a lot of my neighours doing after-supper exercise there too. I never know HK people are so healthy.

Let’s count how many days I can stay on this mission impossible.

But another thing I think I need to do first is to buy a reliable scales. The digital one Mom has is “funny”. According to it, in just one day, I already lost 2-kg! But last time, it said I was gaining 1-kg per day for a week, when I didn’t do anything special, or wear heavy clothes!!!!!

Sesame Street X Bossini

Can't wait till they are released next Monday!

I have wanted this Elmo t-shirt for a long time, but only find it through on-line shops that don't ship products out of America or ship them with expensive postage. I thought of asking the on-line shop to ship the tee to my cousin's address and then ask him/her to send it back to me. But then, the shipping is still too costly. Now, the tee will be available in Bossini starting next Monday with a number of other items too.

I am thinking to buy the whole set...may be two...one for wearing and one for collecting..haha...

Then, I find this place from the internet yesterday -- Sesame Place! I know that will be my favourite place, especially the new Elmo's World rides and the show Elmo's World Live!

Let's start saving up :(

Ah ya，痛到飛起

The red dots had come and gone, disappearing like they never had come. Unfortunately, my knee is feeling painful again.

It really hurts. I had a hard time when I was at grocery shopping tonight. I am actually feeling the pain for the last few days but I didn't pay very much attention as I thought it's only because of the change of weather -- it's really "wet" in HK during the past few days. But then I start walking not quite good, and getting worse and worse. I can't stand up right this afternoon again.

So sad. I put on the "ointment" the doctor gave me last time and hope it will get better soon. My doctor's appoinment is in August......

@ Jojo's Wedding Yesterday

That was Jojo and Daniel's wedding yesterday! Congratulation!

The heart-shaped cookies were made by the bride. I ate one pack and am still alive :)

Wall Painting at Prince of Wales Hospital

So finally I can upload the picture. This is the wall painting we did yesterday at the Prince of Wales Hospital. This is the part done by we five gals and the leaves at the left end, to the right of the stones were coloured by me :)

Well, when the other four were all fine arts graduates, all I could do was colouring.

The painting is located at the North Wing of the Hospital, along one of the busiest hallway. Other volunteers and the artist working out the original painting have been working on it for several weekends. We, in a group of five, had "coloured" all day from 10am to 5pm yesterday, and all we could finish was the leaves you see from the picture :)

That was the first day I participated in Arts in Hospital event, and it was quite an interesting experience. It's Sunday and the Hospital was not that "busy". Patients and families walked by and telling you how they were amused about your "good" work. Nurses and other hospital staff discussed and told you that they wanted a bird, a chicken and a duck (maybe because of the bird flu :) or may be some more flowers in the painting. A mom wheeled her son in a wheel chair to see us working to cheer him up... The painting was not yet done but you know what you are there for.

P.S. Below is the other end of the painting, done by other group of volunteers, one of them is a CUHK fine arts master!

Arts in Hospital

Today is the first time I joined the volunteer service of Arts in Hospital, and we finished a part of the wall painting at the Prince of Wales Hospital. I will upload some pictures later. There's something wrong with Blogger that I can't upload any pictures, and I am very tired now :(

HKCATS

Oh, I think I like this HKCATS, although cats for me are extremely disturbing:

HKCATS 於 2002 年 7 月 成 立 ， 03 年 8 月 得 到 香 港 特 別 行 政 區 政 府 批 准 成 為 慈 善 團 體 ， 宗 旨 是 為 貓 咪 謀 取 福 利 、 促 進 人 貓 之 間 和 諧 共 處 、 改 善 貓 兒 的 社 會 形 象 及 減 少 流 浪 貓 的 數 字 。 除 貓 兒 福 利 外 ， 我 們 更 透 過 與 小 動 物 接 觸 來 拉 近 人 與 人 之 間 的 距 離 ， 以 及 教 育 青 少 年 尊 重 和 保 護 生 命 的 意 識 。

(For those who can't read Chinese, the highlighted part said "HKCATS strive for the well-being of cats, promote harmony between human beings and cats, enhance public image of cats")

Rose, I got your T-shirt

I received the package when I was struggling with the credit card customer service, that had some problems verifying my signature to return me the extra credit, this afternoon.

So, thanks Rose. It arrives safely and shorter than two weeks :) Please tell your dad the Canada Post is very reliable :)

My "next desk" colleague suggested me to wear the Elmo-tee with a long-sleeve T-shirt underneath. I guess I will try it on this Saturday, on that, I plan to visit the Arts Museum after work :P

In addition to receiving the Elmo-tee, things also begin to get normal. The customer service woman finally, successfully verified my signature after I signed four times. My arms and legs are also getting better, especially the arms. If I got darker skin, maybe the dots are even less visble. This afternoon when we went to "drink Chinese tea" for lunch, the three of us could only order chicken and Chinese mushroom congee, tu-fu, vegetable and BBQ pork bun, cause two out of three of us needed to stay away from a variety of different foods!

For my cousins, yesterday morning we went "bai shan" of our great grand mother (my dad's grandma). We were supposed to meet at 7:30am (!) at Fan Ling Kowloon-Canton Railway station. This means we (i.e. Sara and me) needed to travel on MTR from HK Island East (home) all the way to the west of the Island, then across the harbour to get on the KCR and travelled all the way to Fan Ling (i.e. north-east of New Territories)!!!!! It should take us around an hour, much shorter than during "day" time as the trains were pratically empty in early morning of Sunday. But then, we came across a guy that for some reasons fell on the rail when we were in the middle of the way to Fan Ling and we got stuck on the train for half an hour! We all said we should stay in bed longer instead :(

We finally arrived the KCR station at 8am and then took a taxi. I haven't been to "bai shan" for quite a number of years, but I still could remember those pictures of elderly beside our great grandmother :)

We left at around 10am and arrived home at 12:30pm something. The first thing we did was to rush back to bed!

P.S. Suddently I think that maybe the irritation is due to the dry weather...you know, old people are more sensitive to the external environment. When I was young, I didn't even put on body lotion in Edmontion!

A miserable day

I haven't blogged for anything "interesting" for a long time, but I am going to tell you a series of bad lucks I had yesterday, all happened within eight hours.

In short, I lost my bank book yesterday. According to the teller, I had to close my old account and open a new one. I stood in the bank for an hour, and when the procedure was almost done, the bank book was found! [Things always happen like this.] I dropped it in the shopping mall of my housing estate on the way to the bank, and someone picked it up and returned it to the bank before I walked the same route twice to search for the bank book :(

And then, I tried to transfer some money to my mom. But well, the ATM machine told me I didn't have enough money! No enough money? I am always left penniless but I am not that poor to have less than a few thousands dollars. So I checked out the transaction for the past month, and I found that when I paid for my credit card balance, I paid one more zero...i.e., if it's only HK$1,000, I had paid HK$10,000!!!!! I called the credit card customer service centre and they promised to send me the extra amount in a bank draft in seven working days :(

So all this happened in late morning. When I left home again at around 2pm to watch a drama, I found that my right wrist had some red dots on it. I put off my jackets and saw that both of my arms were full of red dots...scary...

I spent two hours for the drama, went to the office to pick up some personal stuff I left behind and went to a hospital out-patient clinic. I waited for about 45 minutes (All day yesterday was about lining up and waited and wasted the whole day. Good that I always have a book with me.), and answered no to almost all questions the doctor asked about possible cause of irritation (no to new pet, no to new cleaning items, no to any known allergic, etc.). So. The doctor's conclusion was that it's either an irritation or sign before a big flu. He gave me nothing. No pills cause he couldn't confirm what it was yet; and no cream cause it was not even itching...

So. That's my day yesterday.

For the red dots, they seem to get better when my skin is not scratching with anything (e.g. clothes). My arms are much better cause I wear short-sleeves T-shirt at home. My legs are also a bit better as I wear loose pants but worst when I wore jeans this morning and yesterday. I will see how it goes and decide if I need to see a doctor again.

For my new bank account, still a lot to follow up...chaning all the autopay accounts (especially the salary part!), apply for a new "pay by phone service" account...etc.

:~

P.S. So I know now where my money goes -- the doctors and taxi drivers!

I was sick; and I recover now.

I caught a cold over the weekend, and slept for 16 hours straight from Saturday evening till Sunday noon. But since I am busy at work, I went to see the doctor first day I felt wrong and I am as strong as I always am now.

Lesson learnt -- go to see a doctor early, especially if you have medical insurance!

Jesus! May be I should stuck in the field when I was young!

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Mathematics 75% Engineering 75% Chemistry 58% Philosophy 58% Journalism 58% Art 58% Psychology 50% Dance 42% Sociology 42% English 42% Biology 33% Anthropology 33% Theater 33% Linguistics 25% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

Elmo B-day Cake :)

I have my eyes set on an Elmo cake this year ;>

But it's too big that I think we can't possibly finish it :(

Ida doesn't go to Lamma Island

Here's my friend's explannation on my explannation of not going to hiking in Lamma Island. Buddy Rita does know me really well.

You must learn Ida's physical and mental condition well.

1. She can't take ferry and she'll vomit like old lady. [Ida: Star Ferry is OK, although I don't like the speed. Going to Macau is killing me.]

2. She's super scared of those cute animals like cats and dogs. [Ida: The list also includes birds, rabbits, hamsters...pratically everything.]

3. She can't walk too far away although I also agree Lamma Island is a great short family hiking trial. Only 1 hour but I think Ida's knees will complain those uphill / downhill portion. [Ida: Doctors said no more going up/downhill/stair for me forever!]

Crazyyyyyy

Happy Chinese New Year!

Well, it's never too late to send everyone a greeting, and it's not even 15th of Chinese January yet.

I accidentally had a half-day off this afternoon, so I did some crazy shopping :) and some New Year cleaning.

The cleaning was supposed to be done before CNY but somehow it got postponed till today. I took out all of my clothes and washed all of the drawers. It hasn't been washed so long that I don't even want to tell you when's the last time. I cleaned, and I re-arranged the clothes in different drawers. So, now, I have a whole drawer empty for new clothes in the summer!

Updates and more updates

To follow up my previous post, I found my old cushion cover after I bought a new one. Also, I got an email from PCCW today about exchanging gifts with phone bill points, and I found in the catalog the dream "cushion chair" I was looking for.

Things always happen so unexpectedly.

Some updates on my knee too. I feel much better lately -- I can walk quickly and smoothly even other people can observe it. I stop going to the physical therapist or the private specialist. All I am doing now is to take health supplements (glucosamine) for joints recommended by my doctor. Unfortunately, as I am busy with the "end of the year cleaning" these couple of weeks, I always need to bend my knee and it starts to hurt again. I have to be careful. My appointment to the government specialist is in August!

My new "chair"

Since I was being complained of not posting frequent enough, here I am showing you my new "chair", under my bed, for some leisure reading.

I used to have a bean bag sofa, also under my bed. Unfortunately, the stitches got loosen up a few months back and hence I had to find myself a new chair.

I had been shopping and shopping and shopping but still couldn't find a good one. So finally, I decided to dig out my big cushion (the one in the bottom, bought by Florence a few years ago when I was living alone) instead and buy a new cushion cover (the old one was stucked somewhere now that I couldn't find it). But then I found one cushion was too close to the floor, that was no good to my knee (i.e. I had to bend my knee in order to sit on it). Hence I bought another one and with Elmo (from Rita some years ago), those cushions together become a rather comfortable chair for some leisure reading.

So. I have been talking about "leisure reading". Yes, my new year resolution this year is to do more reading, especially reading not related to work. I knit and I do cross stitching. However, I find myself not reading enough and got quite "dried up". Hence, I set up my mind to read more. The first step towards my goal is to get off from work early, at around 6pm ideally; and the next step is to sleep early. Yes, to sleep early so I can read some pages during the trip on the MTR.

This is the first day I work towards my new year resolution. Hope I can stick on it for longer than a week :P

Melanie trapped in my mobile

Kid size 出前一丁 instant noodle

Interesting discovery during leisure grocery shopping. Good to eat less to reduce some weight (well, shouldn't eat instant noodle at the first place).

Merry Christmas

Sara's graduating from her master...

...so Mom had collected all her three masters...

I was wearing shorts in winter! Well, I had a doctor's appointment before that.

陳日君主教對世貿和平示威者被捕的聲明

2005年12月19日, 10:30 a.m.

本人昨晚收到本教區勞工事務委員會、正義和平委員會及其他兩個亞太區天主教組織的新聞稿，抗議警方不人道對待被扣留的反世貿示威人士，並要求政府立即釋放他們。

本人知道勞委、正委職員正在灣仔，就馬上去了馬師道為了解情況，有不少傳媒也在那裡，本人向他們發表了一些意見，現在更準確表達如下：

『本人早已說過本港政府根本不宜請世貿來此開會，因為以這個小城市的警察力量並不一定能應付像在別處發生的反世貿抗議行動。政府既已作出邀請，也該適當準備，但事實證明政府根本沒有做足功課，警方很不恰當地處理了這件差事。

警方說本來還有九龍區豐富人手沒有出動。為什麼不用更多人手保證警員安全？在部份示威者用暴力時又未能立即拘捕他們，卻在事後拘捕大批和平示威者。拘捕行動竟用了十數小時！有被拘捕者竟被困車上數個小時，看來警方根本沒有準備地方安置他們。

警方嚴重疏忽了對被拘捕者應負的責任：食物、水、防寒物、衞生需要。警方拒絕向被拘捕者的伙伴，友好和社會交代被拘捕者的所在。也拒絕讓志願律師及翻譯員探訪被捕者。還有善良的修女受到侮辱性的待遇。這一切是我們香港人的羞耻，我也向韓國和平示威者道歉』，這一切嚴重損害我們國際都市的名譽，有關人士應為此負責。

警方既提不出控訴，應在今天下午3:00時前釋放所有被拘捕的和平示威者。

本人今晨前往觀塘法庭尋找被拘捕的修女，受到警方高級官員的粗暴待遇，並在等待兩小時後也不得知悉修女和兩位神父的所在。本人保留對此提出控訴的權利。

陳日君主教
天主教香港教區主教

灣仔淪陷

今天明報的頭條竟然是「灣仔淪陷」！

真不知所謂。若果灣仔真的淪陷了，一定是淪陷給警察，因為昨晚「警方控制了灣仔」(這可是警務署署長李明逵說的)！

香港的傳媒真令人嘆為觀止，先有電視台記者做直播時帶頭盔(當時場面平靜，她後面的途人還可以在鏡頭前行來行去沒有事)；接著就來個「灣仔淪陷」(這份知識份子報連日來到會議內容的報導比蘋果還要少)、「港島大暴動」；還有「鐵腕清場」、「鎮暴清場」、成報的副題則是「武力清場」(那些被「拘留」的士威人士可是排著隊等警察拉上車的)。

唉。怪不得香港的傳媒(以至警察)給人笑。

倒是蘋果的頭條最沒有加鹽加醋。(What a surprise.)

Urgent appeal by Hong Kong People's Alliance on the WTO

Dear friends,

Urgent appeal by Hong Kong People's Alliance on the WTO

We write to request your immediate solidarity action against the Hong Kong government’s mass arrest and violence against the anti-WTO demonstrators on 17th and 18th December 2005. On the 5th day of the WTO MC6 in HK, thousands of local and overseas demonstrators marched from the Victoria Park to Wanchai Convention and Exhibition Centre where the WTO meeting was being held. They were stopped by thousands of HK Police around 5 PM. Soon the police used pepper spray, fire hose and subsequently tear gas bombs were fired upon the demonstrators without any warning. 60 demonstrators suffered injuries and 3 were hospitalized.

All of them were detained by the Police soon after discharged from the hospital.

Around 900 demonstrators peacefully sat in at the Gloucester Road but were surrounded by hundreds of armed police for ten hours. They were denied of food and other backups. Subsequently they were all arrested around 3.30AM of 18th December 2005.

The HKPA is trying our best to continue our struggle against the WTO and to plan more local and international actions for the immediate release of those who were/are being arrested, who are mainly non-HK residents.

18th December 2005

Suggested action:

Please send protest letter to the following persons:

Mr. Donald Tsng
Fax :(852) 2509 0577
E-mail :ceo@ceo.gov.hk

Mr. Pascal Lamy
General enquiries
Tel: (41-22) 739 51 11
Fax: (41-22) 731 42 06
email: enquiries@wto.org

cc to HKPA secretariat

For more information, please contact:
Mabel Au (pawto2005@yahoo.com.hk)
Phone no. 852-93250030

Victoria Park on 17 Dec 2005

These are pictures I took at noon, way before the unhappy event. (Well, I won't call it a "riot" as the newspapers do. The "event" was very well organized and targetted only to the police. No one on the street was hurted and no store damaged.)

Police's banners in different languages telling you the "do's and don'ts".

Yellow and red ribbons making up the most frequently shouted slogan "down, down, WTO".

Many local vistors were at Victoria Park yesterday.

Mad Cow Disease: A pair of scales, eight meters high. On the one arm a dead cow is hanging by its legs, on the other a number of Africans (in copper). A symbol pinpointing that the rich world is spending five times the amount of their development aid to subsidise their own agriculture.

Survival of the Fattest: A huge fat woman from the West sitting on the shoulders of a starved African man. The 3.5 metres high sculpture epitomises the imbalanced distribution of the world's resources, preserved by a biased and unjust world trade.

Hunger March: Twenty copper sculptures of starved children. The March will appear as a mobile manifestation in the many demonstrations during the WTO summit.

One-quarter of the NGO activities site, only the site for flower marker during Chinese New Year and many major rallies.

The main stage.

Another main stage.

When the agriculture part is almost done, the WTO will seriously enter into the "service" stage, in which, the HK service industry will be affected too.

Store just across the road from Victoria Park -- wooden boards blocking the display windows.

South Korean university students expressing their anti-WTO stance in Causeway Bay.

My blog

I know there are not many people reading my blog, but I also know my blog has regular readers. I know it from the number of people concerning my knee in the last few months.

Lately, it's an very effective mean to communicate with my cousins in Canada. They know what I am doing, and I also know how they step into different stages of life by reading theirs. Most importantly, I can now show their pictures to my mom so that she won't keep asking me about my cousins any more...hahaha...what a relief.

Blogs and other cyper world media also help me to understand more about what's going on inside the WTO MC6. Although there are tonnes of WTO coverages on various media every day, the local media focus almost only on the protests. Some local NGO workers that take part in the lobbying and some local citizens helping or participating in NGO activities write in their blogs or to other internet media what they see inside the conference hall and on the spots of various NGO activities. They give us a wider view of MC6 than the "simple, sometimes naive" local media.

WTO MC6

This is the third day of the sixth ministerial conference of the WTO. While protests, seminars, cultural activities, etc. are being staged outside the conference hall days and nights; there is still no sign of any successful negotiation inside the door.

Well, for me, no deal is a good deal, especially if it's not going to do the poor any good. Just the same as the current polictical reform in HK, status quo is better than any change that turns our political system backward.

My first "encounter" with the WTO was my one-month stay in CUHK. My job there was to organize a conference on "Beijing + 10 meets WTO + 10", i.e. how WTO is going to affect women, with an aim to remind the negotiators and advocates the gender perspective. It turns out that I left CUHK quicker than I ever thought, but my interests keep going on.

If you are living in the Kowloon side of HK and you do not read any newspaper or watch the news, you will not notice that the MC6 is going on just across the harbour. The conference and the related NGO activities (watch out, the NGOs not only stage protests, there are also a variety of other activities from cultural performance, seminars and forums, to launching of a new book) are located from Wanchai (where the official and NGO conferences locate) to Causeway Bay (base of NGO activities), i.e. the northern side of the HK Island. Other than these areas, lives of HK people are rarely disrupted.

My office is located in Central, west to Wanchai. Most of the protests are not extended to Central. However, the security measures of the building are also escaluated. Well, no surprise. Our office located at CITIBANK TOWER! But the so called "escaluated" measures are simply blocking all the entrances except one and every one has to get his/her entrance pass out in order to get into the lift lobby. I always doubt how much more secured it can get, except making us walk longer.

The security measures are more serious at my old office. I went to pick up something from EOC this morning. Where it locates? The same clusters of buildings as the one where the NGO WTO forum is, and just next block to the real conference venue. So you can imagine that it looks like a police state around the buildings. Non-office users will need to get pass the x-ray machine to get going.

There are three more days till the end of the MC6. I will drop by the Victoria Park (an interesting place in HK where old people play tai-chi, youngsters compete in ball games, people shop at the biggest local "flower market" in CNY, and political events from left to right take place) tomorrow and over the weekend to have a taste of the NGO's WTO activities. It is expected that the protests will continue to escaluate if the negotiations are not in favour of the poor.

Sick

I caught a cold, plus the "micro current" thing done by my phsyical therapist make me very tired. I shouldn't have gone to work. I better work quick and go back home early.

Make Trade Fair

Just for a record, it's WTO-MC6 in HK from 13 to 18 December. Make Trade Fair for us all!

WTO official website
http://www.wto.org/

WTO-MC6 official website
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min05_e/min05_e.htm

Oxfam Make Trade Fair website
http://www.maketradefair.org/en/index.htm

I think I am sort of sick...

...infected by Mom...

12.4

I've been reading others' blogs and viewing others' pictures of the 12.4 rally on universal suffrage. But surprisingly, it seems that I don't have any thing special to talk about, despite the fact that I was at the Victoria Park since 10am last on Sunday and didn't finish my task till 2am midnight.

Since the candle night vigil in April last year, I am always tasked with the job of fund raising at major CHRF rallys, and I was working on the same task again during the 12.4 rally. Although this was already the fourth time I worked on the same role, interestingly, I still found my lesson to learn and room for improvement next time (if there's any).

One thing I don't like about fund raising at rally is that I don't get the chance walking through the route. Everytime I just took the MTR or a taxi to travel from the starting point (Victoria Park) to the destination (usually the government headquarter) so as to wrap up the fund raising at the end point. I missed the fun seeing all the creativity of the public, and also the memory of working with a whole lot of strangers on the same goal. May be next time I should just stay in the crowd.

P.S. My knee didn't get especially worse even though I stood for the whole day on Sunday. But it is not feeling very well these couple of days when the weather changes. I am getting tired of the unstable condition. I think I will stay the same forever and ever.

Ida's News Updates will stay tune for updates on democracy campaign from now till Christmas. Please scroll down for real Ida's News Updates.

See you on 12.4

We Want Democracy Blog

Don't forget about your ribbon!

「12.4爭取民主普選」

團結網上絲帶行動

http://www.hiradio.net/images/action/124_hiradio.html

Last but not least, see you on 12.4!

爭取普選活動時間表

www.rebuildhk.com

Quick updates

I tried out another specialist on Thursday, took x-ray of my knee (finally), and reserved a time slot on 13 December for physical therapy. Not sure if it's going to work this time, but the medical cost sure is EXPENSIVE. My shopping plan was once again postponed :( So sad.

Watched at 17 in concert also on Thursday. I stood half of the concert (well, I had to. everyone stood and they blocked my view.) and needless to say my knee suffered these few days :(

South Park Ida

I have never been a South Park fans, but this is definitely funny. That's the sort of glasses I want to get. The hair looks like mine (but I want to keep it LOOOOOOONG). And the red jacket just fits Christmas.

Click on this to make your all South Park characters pictures.

P.S. I walked and I stood for a long time this evening. And ;~, my leg feels like broken > <

More Idas

I said I woud put on pictures of my latest craft works. So here they are.

They are again come from the Page One children section. They come with bodies of the dolls, materials to make the clothes and hair, and even glue and double ahersive tape, so you don't need to use a needle. (It actually made me quite disappointed. But in fact it said so on the box. I just didn't notice. Not a very smart consumer I am.)

The dolls are now hanging "dangerously" to the petition of my seat in the office. My colleagues perform acupuncture to them using pins!





















P.S. Rita, I suppose they are called Ida again. How about Ida Pand and Ida Ng this time?

Christmas @ Charter Garden

Charter Garden, Central, is a place where I walk through every night after work, cause the MTR exit beside is the closest MTR entrance to me office.

This year, Charter Garden is being decorated as "Santa's Town" with some display booths, photo shooting booth to take pictures with Santa, snack booth (of course), etc. It's not yet fully furnished when I took the pictures this morning. Let see if my little camera can capture the Christmas fun at night.

Physical Disability

After claiming "physically disabled" to defer my Mandarin class, all the sudden my knee gets a bit better, or at least I thought so.

I went site visit with the exhibition contractor this morning. I thought I was in a good shape and walked very smoothly. But then the contractor asked what's wrong with my leg.

I think I am too used to my physical disability now that I think everyone walks like me. But the "difference" is still easily noticed by others.

Ginger bread latte without ginger bread

You can only find Starbucks' ginger bread latte during festival season. In order to drink my favourite drink as much as possible during this one-and-a-half-month, I will have to visit the Starbucks very very very often. But, well, this was what I got this morning -- a tall ginger bread latte without ginger bread. This makes my day miserable :(

Hi Hi

My colleagues said I haven't updated my blog for a while, so I decide to drop down some words.

First, updates on my knee -- bad, bad, and bad. Ever since the line dance class couple of weeks ago, my knee is getting worse. It can't touch the bed again when I lie down :~ And I have great difficulty walking as well, which makes me very tired every night. (I sleep a lot and I thought it's because of the medicine. But now since I am not on it, I am quite sure it's note due to the pills.) I am thinking to visit another specialist. The Chinese medicine doesn't do me any big progress after the first trial, and making the Chinese medicine every day is a big burden to me as well :P

Second is my continuing education. I am taking a 30-session foundation cert on corporate communications at the HKU SPACE starting last month. Well, I know at least half of the stuff they cover, but I've never attended a similar course before. (My friends in the PR field already advised me not to take a whole degree on it.) I guess if I really want to stay in the field, the cert programme is something I need to do sooner or later, and the outcome is sort of expected -- I already find the course very meaningless and sometimes I even feel kind of frustrated as I find the lecturers can't even deliver the things I know in a confident and well-organized way. But, well, the wrong decision is made. I have to stuck with it till May next year.

At leisure, I stopped drawing and calligraphy classes because of different reasons, even though I would like to continue. Also, due to my knee problem, I stay home most of the time, which means I am not even visiting the museums (I guess I won't be able to visit the museums frequent enough to make my annual pass worths the $$), nor going to shopping :(

So sad.

I had done some craft things though, and am also making some more. I will post a picture later.

P.S. When you have time, I encourage you to visit my cousin's blog to see the lovely dog house my uncle made.

Line dance

I took the risk to attend line dance class this morning. I thought line dance was easy enough without any big movement, and the teacher also kept reminding me not to do those movements that needed to bend the knees. But gee...it hurted after the first half hour. It actually required more knee movement than I thought. I finished the whole one-and-a-half-hour though, but I also plan to have some good rest this weekend (the dancing teacher also said there's nothing I could do except DON'T MOVE AND REST)...after Sandy Lam in concert tonight :)

網上行動 -「12.4爭取民主普選」團結絲帶

請各位協助廣傳!謝謝!

「12.4爭取民主普選」團結網上絲帶行動，邀請你的網站參與。

只要將網上絲帶掛在你的網站內，把訊息傳播開去。

詳情 click入 http://www.hiradio.net/images/action/124_hiradio.html

“就讓我們的聲音，掛滿在網上每個角落。”

如有任何問題，歡迎電郵我們。

係播網絡電台 上
http://www.hiradio.net

(*此概念設計藍本源自make poverty history)

=====================================

天下無分你共我‧聽你聽不到的‧在係播！
係播網絡電台(http://www.hiradio.net)
icq:30903371
=====================================

First time to a Chinese doctor

I went to see a Chinese doctor last Saturday. First time ever.

It's not that I don't trust Chinese medicine, but I just find it too troublesome and works too slowly. I always want things done quickly and these two reasons alone make me say no to Chinese medicine without any hestitation.

But people try different things when you are desperate.

One of my colleagues gave me the contacts and said this Chinese doctor works very good for joint problems. So I visited her last Saturday and I did everything from the very bitter Chinese medicine to acupuncture, radiotherapy and something like tui-na (similar, but not exactly). What amazed me the most was that, before asking why I was there, by just checking my pulse, the doctor could tell I have some problems with my nose, stomach and the wasit muscle! Amazing! I find she's more like a fortune teller!

After all these treatments and interesting experiences, it only costed me HK$290. Last time the specialist charged me HK$840! I think we really should do something to enhance Chinese medicine's professional image, so they can have better respect and return.

So, did I get any better? Yes...for yesterday and this morning. My right knee made less "kwoking" sound these two days so I walked as quick as I used to be. Outcome? My knees hurt again!

Lesson to learn -- be patient.