« Greetings - May 2009Greetings - August 2008 »

Greetings - December 2008


Yamasa Institute, Okazaki, Japan Sep-Nov 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this season greeting finds you well.

Time flies, year 2008 is almost over and as we prepare to embrace the new year, it is also time to reflect. "Year 2008 was an eventful year" would be a serious understatement. Here is my list of the big events around the world (not in a particular order)

  • World financial crisis of colossal magnitude, perhaps the biggest in history when the unthinkable happened in terms of business collapsing and worldwide government bailouts
  • USA elected the first black/white mixed blood president (do you call a zebra black?)
  • The biggest and best Olympic Game ever with most participants, volunteers, and medals
  • The launch of the largest (27km circumference) and most expensive particle collider ever built - Large Hadron Collider
  • 1st space walk conducted by a Chinese astronauts
  • Crude oil price hitting USD147 a barrel and fell
  • Direct transport link between Mainland China and Taiwan
  • Tainted milk powder and food products on a massive scale
  • 1st seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum in Rome
  • Numerous earthquakes including multi-hit in Sichuan
  • USA supplying nuclear technology to India - a non-signatory state of the Nuclear non proliferation treaty
  • The announcement of the USD2,000-petrol-powered-car by Tata group in India, (think about the environmental impact!!)
  • AIDS patient cured by a bone-marrow transplant
  • Bangkok unrest
  • The Mumbai attack

Sadly, the world doesn't seem to be going in the right direction. In the meantime, our planet is still suffering from global warming and pollution.

On a more cheerful note, "year 2008 was an eventful year" for us too, since our season greeting in Dec 2007.

On the travel side:http://www.leglessbird.com/travel.html

  • Visited Laos, an interesting but not so well known country
  • A dream-trip to Antarctica the land of the cute penguins and completing an unplanned goal of visiting 7 continents together
  • A tour of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)
  • Chinese New Year visit to Paris to see my nephew and to practice our French
  • Trip to Yunnan, one of the most beautiful areas in China
  • A break in Thailand
  • European: Seeing friends in UK, sight seeing in Iceland the land of ice and fire and did the Norway in a nutshell tour
  • Seeing bird-nest and water-cube in Beijing
  • 2 trips to Japan (Fukakuo and Hoikaido)
  • 2 Japanese language trips and explore the country

On other leisure side: As usual through Leglessbird Events organized a few book club meetings and hiking trips; Participated and/or organized parties for French alumni association; Attended a short "Tai Chi" course; Visiting the gym at Cyberport on a regular basis; Enjoyed a few arts exhibition in Hong Kong.

On the alumni side: Dominic has helped to organize and participated in alumni events this year for The Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong. Vice Chancellor's visit, Newnham Principal's visit, Professor from Judge Business School, Chinese Medicine Research, A mentorship seminar series for Consulting, Financial industry, further studies and start-ups, an information seminar for secondary school students applying to the Prince Philip Scholarship. A bi-annual Cambridge dinner in Hong Kong for alumni and friends.

We also attended the British Council Gala dinner in November commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the British Council in Hong Kong, and also the Warwick University annual dinner in Dec.

On the work side: When in Hong Kong or overseas, we have been working very hard. Thanks to advancement in internet technology and together with a virtual network of global business experts, some of Dominic's consulting projects (through his Decisive Consulting Limited) can be conducted from any location while serving international clients. This has enabled us to work and travel at the same time. However such location-free work style also means the end of work-free holiday, such is the trade-off.

Dominic is working on a few other projects in Hong Kong and China including a web/phone base e-learning venture called "Meephone" (China/Hong Kong) which offers very convenient English 1 on 1 oral language training program through telephone and will be launching a Mandarin service soon.

Asia Angels Alliance - the angel investment company that Dominic co-founded now has six committed partners and will be renamed to Dark Horse investment soon. The investment focus is early stage venture (pre-venture capitalist round) that is highly scalable preferably using technology.

We hope to hear how you are getting on, please drop us a few lines if you have a moment. Look forward to hearing from you!

We wish you and your family good health and a prosperous 2009.

Best wishes,
Irene and Dominic - Dec 2008


Leglessbird Travel Recommendation
Iceland and Norway

Iceland July 2008 (Read More) Norway July 2008 (Read More)

Leglessbird Movie Recommendation
Zeitgeist
Documentary 2007 & 2008
I highly recommend this documentary (2 x 2 hours), you can even watch it online for free. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

We live in a society that we inherited from the generation before and they inherited it from the generation before them and so on, we accept many (perhaps too many) things without questions or doubt, we simply take it for granted, we follow the systems whatever they are, monetary, capitalism, moral and religious. Most of us go to school, get a job, work for the system in exchange for a salary to support our living expenses, we incur more expenses by taking out loans and in turns paying interests to the system and accept this as the norm of life without ever challenging the system. We are exposed to established religious without really understanding the root of their origin.

How is money created? Who controls it? How did Federal Reserved come into existence? Who fought against it and perished? What's the similarity between Jesus and the Egyptian Sun God? Is it a pure coincidence?...Read more

Leglessbird Restaurant Recommendation
Nino's Cozinha, Portuguese restaurant, Wan Chai

Read more

No feedback yet