4th day in Beijing, if I counted it right

Very confused about the date and day of the week. Busy, busy, busy, busy...

Saturday was the first day in weeks that I could have seven hours sleep, but that was followed by three busy days in a row.

On Sunday, we had a meeting about the exhibition at 9am. Then, we were in the hotel waiting for the delegates to arrive. It turned out going smoothly, except very tired and long day for us.

On Monday, I woke up at 5:30am! Not because I couldn't sleep but because there were works, works, works, and again, busy, busy, busy...

Today, it's the exhibition opening. Again, things went fine but making you very very tired.

The exhibition is supposed to be opened every day from today till Sunday from 9am to 5pm. But today, it "closed" at 3:30pm. Why? Because it was "sealed" for security check to prepare for the special session for Communist Party and Government leaders.

Only two working staff were allowed in per counter, i.e., me and an AS. May be the lowest rank "working staff" among all the Chinese cities' exhibition booths (Macau, our next door neighour had a Bureau Secretary!). We ended up having Wu Yi and a few other important leaders whom I couldn't name visiting the exhibition, and I took a lot of pictures of Wu Yi visiting the HK booth :)

I couldn't turn on the camera and downloaded the pictures. Hopefully, that's only because the camera is out of power (the camera is my colleague's).

P.S. I can write to the blog but can't see the blog from Beijing. I can't visit any blog from blogger.com and blogspirit.com I don't know why, but it seems that it is being blocked here.

Ida @ BJ, again

Yes, I am in Beijing again, 2nd time in four months.

This time is also for work trip. A conference cum exhibition on Beijing + 10. Ends up the scale of the conference is much bigger than I ever expected. Let see if I will write about it next week.

Arrived at noon today. Somehow for no reason the girl who helped me to check-in in the hotel thought I was from Taiwan, when I am holding a home entry permit and barely speak any Mandarin.

Been to check out the exhibition counter, visited a huge book store and had a nice dinner tonight. Will have a busy day tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Better get some good sleep tonight.

The good thing about today is because the hotel (owned by one of the organizers of the conference) is fully booked, I got upgraded to the uppest floor...hehe...

The room has a nice view to the main street. I opened the window and took the picture below.

Cantonese VS Mandarin

Still exhausted.

Lately, I am working around the clock. Proofreading the conference proceedings even when I am in the MTR or the elevator. But still, I am too slow. My office hours are full of ad-hoc things that suddently pop up, and I can only sit down quietly at home (!) to do the proofreading.

Apart from work, I have two agenda items lately: (1) on diet; and (2) last minute practice of Mandarin.

I find that I am 15-lb heavier than two years ago (that was the MSW time) so I am alarmed. I try to eat less and do some exercise. Unfortunately, this is not successful. Firstly, I am very tired and always want to eat something good. Secondly, I am too busy for any exercise.

For item #2, it's also in a bad shape. Well, I can't even squeeze the time to do anything else except work, work, work, work and work...

But something interesting happen. The organizer for the Beijing + 10 conference at the end of the month has assigned a not very low rank staff to handle the HK delegation -- someone CAN SPEAK CANTONESE!!!!! What a big surprise!!!!! That really light up my life.

Back to work now...to bad...

Tired......

I am exhausted.

People just can't believe that working in the government can be very busy. But here's the walking (if I still can) prove of that.

Want to show you the home-made lotion by Rosey, but I am too tired and busy easy for taking a simple picture. May be later.

Water colour classes starting this Friday. Finally. Desperately looking for a teacher or a place so that I can keep up the momentum. I really want to do something in leisure.

Going to Beijing on a work trip from 26 August to 5 Sept. Ten solid days. Extreme challenge to my "negative level" of Mandarin.

好忙呀！HP6 is out!

The drawing class got cancelled

Just received a call that said the drawing class starting tomorrow is cancelled. So disappointed :( Good that Harry Potter will be released on the 17th.

1 July 2005 (Part 2)

I didn't join the rally both this year and the last. So I quite enjoyed viewing those pictures taken yesterday by some newsgroup people.

Although I didn't join the march, there're still something funny that worth writing down.

(1)
I asked the CHRF staff to prepare some "envelops" for collecting money after we counted the donation. Since we are talking about hundreds of thousands dollars, a major portion of the amount is coins and $10 or $20 notes, we usually (or have to) use those big thick brown envelops.

I took it for granted that when I said "envelops" the staff must know what did I mean. So guest what did I get? A few 4" x 5" white envelops! We couldn't help but laugh for the whole day.

(2)
Yesterday, it either rained heavily or was hot with sunshine. In order to cool down a bit, we sticked those 退熱貼 on the forehead. It had a bit of cooling effect but people asked us if we had a fever :P

(3)
Only me and Ah O had walkie-talkie at the secretariat. Since I had to let the volunteers knew when to go to Central to pick up those selling carts, I kept on informing the people where the beginning of the march was with the information I got from the control centre through the walkie-talkie.

One time after I announced the updated location, one volunteer looked at me curiously until she noticed my earphone...she must be thinking that God had told me the whereabout of the march!

1 July 2005

So, the 1 July 2005 rally is finally over. Were you there? Had you voted at the mock referrendum?

I was at Victoria Park last night to help a bit on the set up. It rained heavyly and I got all wet from top down. I took a hot bath after I returned home and drank a cup of hot lemon to prevent getting a cold.

I was at Victoria Park again at around 10am today. This year, I helped coordinating the "sales team" -- we were not allowed to fund raise at the Park and along the route of the rally, so we had to sell stuff. The staff had already helped finding sufficient people to join the sales team and arranged for most of the materials. So my toughest part was to "dispatch" the volunteers in groups in different locations around the Park and made sure all the money boxes returned.

It went quite smooth, except it rained again before the march and when we were packing stuffs at Central; the Police was giving us lots of trouble; and most importantly, not raising enought to support the operational cost of the rally.

I didn't "join" the rally both this year and last. I used transit to travel from Victoria Park to Central. Last year, it's because it's too hot and Ah O told me not to walk between the two spots or I would be sick in the middle. This year, it's because we would like to transfer the left over materials for sales. I really wanted to join the rally though. So I could see the street stations and interact with the public.

One of my friends said yesterday that I was keen to participate in CHRF's events. But I think more accurately, I like the sense of feeling that many people are joining the effort to achieve one single task, to fulfill one single dream. That's the sense of feeling I am searching for a long time.

This year, we have controversy about number of people joining the rally. The problem this year is the CHRF announced a number that many participants thought it was too low. But regardless the number is 17,000; 21,000 or 45,000, the fact is that when CH Tung stepped down; when the economy seems to be improved; when the society seems to have less to angry about, hundreds of thousands of people still walked on the streets to express their concerns, there can only be two reasons: (1) 1 July rally has become a HK culture; and/or (2) there's a common dream in our hearts.

My McMug Badges

Lately, I am doing some "mo-liu" stuff -- collecting McMug badges from Circle K.

The badges come in two series -- the first is the 26 alphabets plus 4 "hidden badges"; while the second (i.e. current) series of eight are of different characters in YellowBus: McMug, McDull, the Principal, Miss Chan, May, June, Mrs. Mak...and last but not least, the turtle Ah Fai.

It happens that both my sis and one of my colleagues are big fans of Ah Fai. Although my sis keeps telling me to buy HK$20 stuff from Circle K to get a badge is too expensive (cause she said Circle K is more expensive than Mannings), she still joins the treasure hunt for Ah Fai.

So what happened? My sis has three badges from the second series, two of them is Ah Fai!

So we sort of like kids trading cards -- my sis traded one of her Ah Fai for one of my Miss Chan (I had two of them originally). Then, I went back to work and trade my Ah Fai for my colleague's Principal.

Well, it's absolutely very mo-liu. But life is short. Why don't we try something funny once in a while?

Here's my partial collection:

The valuable Ah Fai

My other badges

Of course I don't only have McMug badges. Here are some you may still remember.



On 1 July this year, the Civil Human Rights Front will sell badges to raise fund too. Don't forget to chip in your part. See you at Victoria Park. 不見不散.

Volunteers

Lately, one of my friends are being upset by a group of volunteers and also his superiors at work. It eventually leads to his resignation.

Although it is what I had suggested, I still feel a little bid of sadness after working with him so so many years.

It all sounds very familiar, cause it's exactly what I had faced during the election last year. I had tried to leave the campaign twice but eventually stayed cause I had to and had no choice. It's the only one time that I agree with CH Tung so much -- "to leave is easy; to stay requries courage".

I stayed. But I had to say I am exhausted both physically and mentally. I think that's why I want to switch my carreer path and start a new life.

See You There

日期 :2005年7月1日(星期五)
時間 :下午三時正
地點 :維園集合，遊行至政府總部
請於當日穿著白衣，並歡迎自備橫額或示威牌

Sketch Book and Drawing Pencils

My first drawing lesson will be on 5 July. Tonight, cause I was in Yaumatei for a meeting, I went to shop for drawing materials: sketch book, pencils, colour pencils, erasers, etc. (Oops...I forgot the paper stick eraser...) I got very excited when I saw all the drawing tools. Hope I can go through all the courses this time.

自由花

忘不了的，年月也不會蠶蝕，心中深處始終也記憶那年那夕；
曾經痛惜，年月裏轉化為力，一點真理，一個理想永遠地尋覓。

悠悠長長繼續前航不懂去驚怕，荊荊棘棘通通斬去不必多看它，
浮浮沉沉昨日人群雖不說一話，不想清楚分析太多真心抑意假。

但有一個夢，不會死，記著吧！無論雨怎麼打，自由仍是會開花，
但有一個夢，不會死，記著吧！來自你我的心，記著吧！

忘不了的，留不了不死意識，深深相信始終會變真某年某夕；
如此訊息，仍賴你跟我全力，加一把勁，將這理想繼續在尋覓。

More 民運歌曲 -- http://www.alliance.org.hk/64/song/song.html

International Appeal for Release of Ching Cheong

http://www.petition-chingcheong.org/

Jointly organized by the Reporters Sans Frontier and Hong Kong Journalists Association

We, journalists and press freedom activists, call for the immediate release of our colleague Ching Cheong, unfairly detained in China since 22 April 2005. Our colleague, correspondent for the Singapore daily Straits Times, is an experienced and honest reporter who respects journalistic ethics.

We reject the accusations of spying brought against him by the Chinese government, which are liable to create confusion and cast suspicion on the entire profession.

Ching Cheong was in China to carry out his work as a journalist and for that reason alone.

Thanks for coming

I am always curious whether there's anyone ever visit my blog in addition to myself. But anytime when I thing there's no one coming, I see comments from friends overseas. Whenever I think I am writing to myself, I figure out from conversation with friends that they have always knew my whereabout when I've never mentioned it to them. The only answer to the situation is they have come here.

Thanks for coming.

伴遊 Wanted!

I am likely to go to Beijing again on a work trip at the end of August to the beginning of September. This time I might stay there for longer than a week! How ironic! I can't even speak Mandarin.

This time, there might also be chance that I will stay in Beijing ALONE for a few more days after the colleagues are left. So I am starting to look at tourist books to see what can I do at night. I thought of bringing those stacks of VCDs that I had bought for years but are still on the shelf untouched. But, then, I thought it's a waste not going outside for at least some time.

Would you by any chance will be in Beijing at the same time? Do let me know so I will have companion.

What a surprise

Lately, I am seriously thinking about taking an art cert at HKU SPACE. Before that, I will take some short and simple drawing classes at a community centre to see if I can still hold a drawing pencil.

When's the last time I drew? I guess it's about 10 years ago during the summer I graduated from college. That summer I stayed in Edmonton, holding a summer research position and preparing to enter grad school. At the same time, I took a drawing class at U of A Faculty of Extension.

I remember I was the slowest at the class. When others were already in the third task, I was still at the first one. But, well, I drew pretty good comparing to the other students in the class so the teacher just accepted my "slowness" and asked me to concentrate and finished the drawing.

I remember I drew a shell during one class and it was given to Mimi when she returned to HK. Her sis told me she saved the front seat to the picture, while asking the sisters to stuck at the backseats.

That was 10 solid years ago. I think the picture was long gone by now.

I took fine arts in F.4. If I didn't go to Edmonton, I always think I would study design in a design school. Arts couldn't fit in my class schedule when I landed on Edmonton to stay at high school, so it was put aside for six years until I took that drawing class, and it is another 10 years since then.

P.S. Why I name this piece "what a surprise"? I read my friend's blog today and she said she's picking up arts again, after ten long years! What a surprise!!!!!

三十而立

最近，不同圈子的朋友都紛紛步入三十多歲的階段，大家都不約而同的思考，甚至以行動實驗「再出發」這個問題：有的暫停了工作、有些準備籌組自己的公司、又有些計劃或已經轉行、有的在愛情長跑之後結婚......

我也在思考「再出發」這個問題。這個階段，我想暫停工作(事業？)上的衝刺，有多些私人時間培養不同的興趣、多看些有用無用的書。三十歲相信是我們的第一個分水嶺。

甚麼時候我又再裝備好自己？還是我從此便停下來？