Leglessbird Sharing

Irene and Dominic in Biei 美瑛,Hokkaido 北海道 Aug 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a while since our last sharing in March, a lot has happened around the world: the world economy continues to deteriorate, oil prices hitting US$145 and fell back, there was the controversial Olympic torch relay around the world, the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, Nepal becomes a republic, US presidential election campaign, the conviction of Bin Laden's driver, the war in Georgia and of course the spectacular grand opening of the Beijing Olympic, 16-day of Olympic competition that saw China topped the Gold Medal table and more...

We have been busy too in the past few months...
On the travel side, visiting Yunnan, Thailand, Fukuoka, UK, Iceland, Norway and most recently Hokkaido. We hosted a talk on "Antarctica: The last place on earth" in April and is planning another one in September. Also organized another book club gathering in June.

We are continuing our Japanese lesson, though 1-hour a week is clearly insufficient, it still proves to be useful while travelling in Japan. We plan to spend sometime in a language school in Japan in the near future. On the French language side, though we are not getting enough practice to upkeep whatever limited ability we have acquired so far, we do try to seize every opportunity at the French Alumni Association(FAA) annual dinner and FAA Swedish party.

While continuing to go to the gym 2-3 times a week, we did a Sunday Tai Chi course which was fun.

As always please drop us a note when you are free, we would love to hear how you are getting on.

Best wishes,
Irene and Dominic - August 2008

What is Dominic up to?
Dominic has taken on 2 non-location-bound business consulting projects that enable him to work and travel at the same time (thanks to Irene who makes sure the accommodation always has good internet and phone access. She also manages the schedule to balance the work time and sight-seeing/activity time).

In June, Dominic co-founded an angel investment group called Asia Angels Alliance (AAA) focusing on investment in early stage ventures that have highly scalable business model with leading technology and/or intellectual property protection in many different industries such as e-commerce, social networking, business process outsourcing, distance learning, retail and gaming etc

He also started a new service on Leglessbird called Friends Finder to connect international-minded people together from all over the world

On the Cambridge side, Dominic hosted a 1-day workshop in Cambridge University in July for a group banking executives from China. Always great to be in Cambridge! In July and Aug, he organizes the Friends of Cambridge Mentoring Seminars in Hong Kong, and is very glad that so far the first 2 seminars, namely "Management Consulting", "Banking and Fund Management" were well attended and enjoyed by all participants. The next and last seminar to be held on 30 Aug is on "Startups and further studies"

He is loving his 2nd low cost mini-notebook Asus EEEPC 900 which is excellent for travelling or working outside the office.

He is also looking forward to 2 weddings in Sept and Oct of two of his best friends!

What is Irene up to?
Irene has been a frequent visitor of the travel section of the central library.

Travel recommendation: Laos (Pakse, Vientiane, Luang Prabang) December 2007

Click photo to view album

Laos is a nice small country next to Thailand that isn't usually well known by people. The people are very friendly and we particularly like Luang Prabang.

Read more about Pakse, Vientiane and Luang Prabang)

Restaurant suggestion: Gingko House

G/F 44 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
+852 2545 1200
www.gingkohouse.org

This is a restaurant run by senior citizens (many of them over 70 years old) except the chef. Read more...

Movie: Shall we kiss? Un baiser s'il vous pla?t

Romantic comedy, France 2007
Director: Emmanuel Mouret

Story: Emilie was out of her home town and met a stranger Gabriel who gave her a lift. They ended up spending the day together and had dinner together, just when they were going to part and say goodbye for the night, Gabriel tried to kiss her and she resisted. Read more...