Bilingual post

Hi! My Dear readers,

I decided to start a Chinese post whenever I have more free time. Originally, I think a Google translator may help, but after some tests, it is not working good, may be it's because of the sentence structure and the existing of some Cantonese. So, I finally prepare a bilingual post, hopefully all of you can enjoy.

In Hong Kong, we are going to have our Chinese New Year this Saturday with 4 continuous public holidays. This year is quite special because our first Lunar date is also Valentine's day, so may I take this chance to wish you all to have a

Happy Chinese New Year
and
Sweetest Valentine's Day
to
your family, lover, friends and pets!

protowork annie @2010

火機?火雞? Lighter ? Turkey?

自從911之後, 各国機場安檢相對變得嚴密. 那天我工幹後由北京機場準備回港, 人己是十二萬分疲倦,冷不防在出境時被叫停, 一位高傲冷漠的女同胞說: huo ji...(忘記告訴大家, 我的普通話實在普通過普通) 哎! 什麼呀? 請她再說一遍 :huo ji...火雞?怎麼可能, 又不是聖誕節.再問, 又是huo ji...開喼嗎?

我在人來人往的通道, 毫無頭緒之際, 突然想起, 呀! huo ji = 火機! 用以點香薰爉燭的打火機. 就這樣把"違禁品"交給那個目無表情的女同胞, 然後才回到現實.

事實上, 這絕對是我的錯, 因為国內習慣把完整字句縮短, 例如 : 廣交會 = 廣州交易會; 奧運開幕式=奧運開幕儀式; 無論如何總得比原文短一點. 所以, 除了學好普通話之外, "自動句子還原系統"設置是必需的......如果市面上有供應的話, 我想, 我很需要!

Security checking is more & more important in the airport after the disaster of 911, I remember I was returning from Beijing after a business trip, so tired that I wish I could sleep right away in the airport at least for an hour or two. When passing the security check, an airport officer - a cool lady stopped me in Putonghua :huo ji...what? Turkey? how come? it's not Christmas, there would not be a turkey in my suitcase. So I asked her again, she replied in the same tone: huo ji...(by the way, I have to confess that my Putonghua is only in kindergarten grade) did she said open the case? I wondered......

My mind was full of question mark, no body was willing to give a helping hand as they were rushing into the gate. Suddenly, I know what it should be, the lighter (similar pronunciation as turkey in Putonghua, except it's normally in 3 words in Cantonese). The one for my aroma candle that fly from Hong Kong. So, it was sacrifice and I was free.

Truly speaking, this is my fault, not only because of my poor Mandarin, but I forget people in China,they used to speak in short form, like : 廣交會 = 廣州交易會; 奧運開幕式=奧運開幕儀式,
one or two word less is still good to them; so if there is a kind of built in software something like "recovery to original phases", I definitely need to install one to survive !


廣州交易會= Guangzhou trade fair
奧運開幕儀式 = Olympic Game opening ceremony

Kunming - My first fly

Six years ago, I started my China business trip for one of my client. To me, it's a bit excited but not attractive; because I am the kind of person who don't have much good impression to the China cities, especially I had to deal with a big problem that time - my first client, my first project and my first fly.

Kunming is well known as a good travel spot, it has brilliant weather and scenery. It is quite far away from H.K., as far as I've remember it took almost 4 hours for me to fly, but fortunately was I took the Dragonair, so the facility and airplane lunch were good enough to me.

I was travel with my client, so we went to the site straight away after arrival and worked till 9 p.m., followed by a very deluxe dinner with their franchisee (actually I was already exhausted, so I needed a coffee instead of chicken) and went back to site by 11:30p.m. until......1 a.m. something......

It was around 8 in the morning, I was sitting in the hotel coffee shop, waiting for the confirmation of whether I needed to stay for another day to assist. The coffee was not good to taste, the world outside window was not attractive, but this was the moment that I waited so long, alone. I knew there were much more for me to discover other than the business zone here; but my time was so limited and my thought was full of work.

A few hours later, I left the city, the problem had not been totally solved yet, it had to be continue treated remotely from H.K.; but I have to say, you will forget all your tired when you saw your client feeling relief from their difficulties. By that time, I understood that, we are under the same sky.

中文網誌? Chinese Blog?

仍然考慮是否加入中文網誌? 因為打字很慢, 卻很想聯繫到"中文人". 或許先登出這篇呼籲, 看看有沒有人回應. 如果機緣巧合給你看到, 請留言提議, 謝謝!

I am still thinking whether I should add some Chinese blog here, so I can share with Chinese reader without open another blog in Yahoo, I like to use Blogger, especially when I discover "pages" can now be easily added. So I make an announcement here to see if the search engine can help me to connect any Chinese blog reader.

But I will continue to post my English blog, because it is where I've started and I enjoy a lot.

Being positive

The weather is very bad, cloudy and wet, it is the sign of Spring in Hong Kong. It also makes me depress and don't have the mood to write my blog. To deliver a positive message to reader is the original idea to this blog, but these days, I fail.

I try to gain some energy by reading others, it do work a bit. Hopefully I can return to my normal situation and write some good stuff next week!

Hi ! Stranger

Have you ever fear of one day when you wake up, you are no more in a place that you are familiar with? I am not talking about travel or work in other countries, but your hometown, the place where you've grown up.

I had this fear since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997; and recently, this uncomfortable feeling do affect my daily life.

I love H.K. very much, I grown up here, we have our local culture as a small city, we work hard and play hard,too. This small international city was built bit by bit though different generations, so naturally.

These days, everything around me are so weird. The most frequent heard language is Mandarin, limousine buses to China cities everywhere on the street follow by hundred and hundreds of people nearby, bicycle rider on the pedestrian, fake products occupy the low end market; rarely international T.V. advertisement but wine, snack & health product from China. When I walk to the tourist area that used to be like Tsim Sha Tsui & Causeway Bay, what I can find are extraordinary luxurious brands target to big spender from China, too. Our city is operating only to serve our motherland - China.

I know this is the fact that I have no hope to change, but before I become a total stranger to this place, I wish I can take a break, just for one day, one hour or one minute, back to the H.K. that I loved, the place that I would like to spend the rest of my life there and stop being criticize like a "devil".

Vanishing Beauty

When I saw this on the grassland of a park in Japan, I thought it was a manhole cover; when I walked closer, it's not what I thought but a decor or a sign - a beautiful metal piece with bird, tree, sakura and the park's name.

You may say "why bother?"if comparing with the size of the park, this icon is so small even visitor may not aware of it's existing.

Actually this is something that I admire - detailing with sense of beauty. Not only Japanese, there were lots of good craftsmen found in Europe, or even old Chinese; they had technique as well as good sense of beauty, but are now vanishing !

Technology creates new materials which control the outlook of the end product, see what we've got in our modern architecture ? curtain wall, curtain wall and lifeless curtain wall......designers or architects are no more working by their design sense, but the availability of product or technique in the market.Where are the architecture master like Gaudi who left us the marvelous Sagrada Familia, Guell Park, Casa Batllo'? Human feel stone structure with fine metal details......

Hey! protowork annie, you must be insane, we are in the year 2010; there is no luxury time waste for such an art piece. We need "landmark" that draw money to our city !!

I know, but I just want to take a break from the reality of what money oriented lifestyle that surround me; and that's why I can only write a post to express my never come true desire here.
I will wake up then, just give me one more minute.