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Leglessbird Newsletter Dec 2016

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Dear Family and Friends,


Happy New Year (Click for larger image)

 
Our travel book 夢想"侶"遊  (Dream Journey For 2) published in June 2014 (click to order

Hope this greeting finds you and your family well and that year 2016 has been kind to you. If "Time passes quickly when you're having fun!", then for the leglessbirds, 2016 has been a quick year. It's that time of the year to count our blessings and reflect on our lessons learned. We have included a summary of our 2016 below. For Irene and I, 2016 marks the 10th year into our journey of becoming our own boss as independent professional, there are no shortage of realisations. (Link to "10 years and another 10 years") The new year is just around the corner, we shall plan and prepare ourselves, and look forward to new excitements and challenges 2017 has in-store for us.

We wish you and your family a healthy, happy and prosperous 2017.

Love,
Jin, Irene and Dominic
Dec 2016

Summary of 2016

Jin Jin
In Sep, Jin started attending pre-school unaccompanied, he did cry a little at first, soon he likes the school very much where he is encouraged to explore and be creative. He can converse confidently in Cantonese, Mandarin and English; asking all sorts of funny questions; he enjoys eating, gardening, farming, fixing things (that don't need fixing), cooking and making drinks for papa/mama; observing and mimicking any sorts of worker in action. he loves running and climbing but often asks mama/papa to carry him. He can name all sorts of cars and enjoying making them with papa out of paper packages.

Jin has done a bit of travelling to meet papa's side of the family in Canada and Australia. Grandma in Ottawa was especially pleased to see Jin, and Jin was very excited to attend his cousin Janet's wedding in Toronto.

Dominic
Enjoys taking care of Jin, learning about parenting, and plenty of family time. Although travelling excessively, family reunions are always time well spent, including seeing my mother (Dec 2015) and celebrating her mother's 81st birthday (March), attending niece's wedding in Canada (Sep) and visiting sister in Australia (Dec 2015). I was also glad to have visited Cambridge twice in July as board member of University of Cambridge Alumni Advisory Board member and professor/group leader for CUHK EMBA Cambridge study tour. While I would like to reduce my travel, I do look forward to at least two EMBA study trips in 2017, revisiting Myanmar and Israel.

In addition to taking care of Jin, one of my favourite activities is writing 給晉晉的家書 (Home letters to Jin Jin), since 1 Jan 2015, I have written 70 letters to Jin, I hope to pass on my values through these letters with examples spanning from Jin's and Papa's encounters, local affairs to world affairs.

Irene and I also kept some much needed Jin-free time to enjoy ourselves as a couple and took some short holidays, I am sure other parents would understand and appreciate this. On Irene's suggestion, I started practising yoga and liked it very much, we often attend the classes together. "It's so good that your husband practices yoga with you" was the most common comments received, I wonder why it is not the other way round...

The biggest change for me in 2016 is joining the Business School of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as an Associate Professor, and the Associate Director of EMBA Programme, spending more time in education while maintaining some consultancy as well as corporate training work. My main teaching duty at CUHK includes a course on consulting (MBA), "From idea to reality" (MSc), "Entrepreneurship in China as part of Doing business in China" (MOOC, Coursera platform), Anatomy of Entrepreneurs (Undergraduates Minor).

The books that I enjoy reading in 2016 include "Give and Take", "Thinking Fast and Slow", "Mistakes were made - but not by me", "The rule of law", "How to raise an adult", "Black Swan". For TV and movies: West World, The man who knew infinity, Star Wars (The force awaken), 45 years, Right between your ears, Planet Earth II, The Mask you live in, Mis-representation, Who should we invade next.

Irene
Jin is growing up fast, taking care of him requires Irene to constantly adjusting many aspects of her life. Here are the goals that she set for herself.
- transform myself, connect more with nature
- relationship with family, more fun and love
- hope to take care of Jin different from the conventional way, considering home school or not
- farm to supply some of the veggies to my family
- cook more together as family
- exercise to build up core and muscle strengths. Each week: 1 to 2 hr yoga, 1 fitness coach session, 3 hikes in Chi Fu trails
- meditation everyday: familiar with pointing finger exercise, heart centre meditation

Per month: cycle, countryside travel

December 2016 (Follow us "@About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin)

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