Leglessbird leisure guide

Cuisine: Japanese in Causeway Bay
My rating: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 3
Price per person: HK$ 200
怡和街2-6號英光大廈3樓

3106-0183

Special dishes: Ox tongue, 盛八 Duck Breast

Review: It is rare to find Japanese BBQ restaurant in HK. I like this restaurant rather than 和宴 in TST. Good quality of beef, variety of food, nice environment......

Stand Out! Branding Strategies for Business Professionals (buy from Amazon) by Simon Vetter
Type: Business Self-improvement
Author: Simon Vetter
My rating: 2
Book introduction:
This book is about personal branding strategies for Business Professionals. Learning from the case studies of some of the world's most successful speakers, independent professionals.

My review:
Interesting collection of cases and invaluable lessons, I'm trying to incorporate these ideas in everyday life. It is sometimes not very obvious how you can do the same

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (buy from Amazon) by Malcolm Gladwell

Type: Business
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
This book talks about how snap judgement can be tremendous useful at times and at other times, we can be so stubborn about our first impression of something which is wrong. How we can rely more on our gut feeling reliably.

My review:
Another interesting book by Galdwell - author of Tipping point. I like the many concepts and experiment that he talks about in this book which tells us how we 'think' , or actually conclude or act without 'thinking' and our instincts are often right. But also when we have to make a decision in a hurry like in an emergency situation, how our intrinsic bias will affect our decision without being consciously awared that we have been affected. I no longer think about thinking the same way again.

Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey (buy from Amazon) by Phillip Berman
Type: Biography Leisure
Author: Jane Goodall
My rating: 5
Book introduction:
This is an auto-biography of an amazing and fascinating woman, Dr. Jane Goodall. Very inspiring individual fighting for a cleaner, safer and better world for people, animal and earth for many generations to come. Dr Jane as she is commonly known, is world reknown for her pioneer research on chimpanzee, our closest cousin in the animal kingdom. This book is about how she started that spirital journey that has allowed her to filfull her curiosity and fascination of Africa, through the same journey, she has gained a deep understanding and appreciation of the relationship of mother nature and human beings. The book also described how devastating that we human being, the smartest animal on earth is not taking care of the planet, instead we are destroying it along with the wonderful diversity of living creatures, and we must do something to reverse such destruction and give mother nature a chance to heal. The message of the book is clearly stated in the title, Reason for hope. Despite all the terrible things that are happening around us in the world, there is still reason for hope and we mustn't give up the fight.

My review:
I bought this book at a seminar given by Dr. Jane while she was in Hong Kong during December 2005. The title of the seminar was "Why I left the forrest of Gombe", it was a very thought provoking and revealing seminar. It described very different situations around the world from the environment that we know and live in every day and yet we are sharing the same planet that we depend on.

I would like to share a few points that I found intriguing from the seminar:
- In the anicent world, senior leaders of the tribes made major decisions of important matters in the interests of the whole tribes collectively not in the interest of some corporate.

- We own and waste so much things today that we don't need. Clothing in any family in a western country for example, is enough for one tribe in Africa. People used to have very simple need and waste very little.

We have seen so much damaged done to our world - all sorts of pollutions, global warming, global climate changes, destruction of environment, cruelty to animals, exploitation of poor countries, aggression of developed countries, rapidly spreading of incurable diseases and the list goes on.

While there exists so many problems in our world, I would like to share with you the reasons for hope as told by Dr. Jane (1) The human brain; (2) The Resilience of nature; (3) The energy and enthusiasum that is found or can be kindled among young people worldwide; and (4) The indomitable human spirit.

When children learn about rights from wrongs, they are determined to do the right things, educate our young ones properly. Mother nature is resilient, we must give her a chance to heal and she will recover. Human beings are intelligent beings, if we can send people to the moon for fun, we can deal with the problems at home.

Dr. Jane kindly signed her autograph on my copy of her book, she wrote - Follow your heart. I hope more people would listen and follow their hearts.

Digital Fortress (buy from Amazon) by Dan Brown
Type: Adventurous Fiction
Author: Dan Brown
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
National Security Agency (NSA) has received an unbreakable code and it is being held hostage as a result. It they cannot crack it, it will result in US intelligence service being completely cripple...

My review:
Another interesting novel from Dan Brown. I particularly like this plot involving encryption and trying break secret code. Though I must say I was a somewhat disappointed with the ending.

Deception Point (buy from Amazon) by Dan Brown
Type: Adventurous Fiction
Author: Dan Brown
My rating: 3

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
A shocking scientific discovery by NASA has such profound implication that it will be used as a political chip in the White house race...

My review:
I have read 3 other Dan Brown's novels, they are all very gripping, Deception Point's story somehow is now as intense and it doesn't have the same effect as the others - wanting to know what happen next! Nonetheless it is a very entertaining book for leisure reading.

1421: The Year China Discovered America (buy from Amazon) by Gavin Menzies

Type: History
Author: Gavin Menzies
My rating: 5

Book introduction:
Based on 10 years of research by Gavin Menzies, piecing together evidence that Zheng He had conducted a great sea voyage to explore the world in the early 15th century. Many of the evidence, ideas and facts contradicts the conventional beliefs that many of the places were discovered by European explorers. This includes America, Australia and more. Gavin went as far to claim that the European explorers already had some maps obtained directly/indirectly from Chinese. If the research work of this book are proven correct, history books will have to be rewritten. It also explains technical breakthrough and long history of star charting practice, for example the Chinese technique to accurately measure longtitude, 300 years before the Western world was able to master the technology.

My review:
Gavin Menzies has an interesting combination of background that makes him unique in undertaking this research work, his link to China (he spent his years in China), he is an experienced navy navigator and is able to comprehen deeper meaning and extract more information of ancient maps.

Chinese has long known about the great exploration by Zheng He during the Ming dynasty, this is a more complete and extensive collection of evidence.

This is certainly a very interesting and easy to read book, whether you agree with its findings.

View more information from the official website http://www.1421.tv

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (buy from Amazon) by Freeman Dyson

Type: Biography
Author:Richard Feynman
My rating: 3

Book introduction:
A collection of short works of a great physicist - Prof Richard Feynman

My review:
I must say, I am not as excited reading this book as some of other books on Richard Feynman that I read. Another book recounting the interesting things that Feynman did in his life. I still prefer Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman.

The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World (buy from Amazon) by Peter Schwartz

Type: Business
Author:Peter Schwartz
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
A book that teaches people how to plan for future scenarios and position your accordingly, it illustrates its point by many real business examples.

My review:
This books talks about how to make major decisions by looking at different scenarios, the goal is not to score well if the best scenario pervail, but rather how you are do well in all cases.

Cuisine: Japanese in Causeway Bay
My rating: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Price per person: HK$ 51-100

G/F, 19 Cleveland, Causeway Bay
2882-2187

Special dishes: Coffee and cakes

Review: This is a westernised Japanese restaurant which has a very modern feel and is famous for it's coffee.