Leglessbird Sharing

Dear Family and Friends,

Dec 2018 (Click for larger image)

Happy New Year! Another year passes so quickly. It has been a very eventful year for us, for a start, we made a very bold MOVE (literally) - We moved from a building in Pokfulam, South of Hong Kong to a village house in Lam Tsuen, Tai Po. We now fully indulge in nature, being very close to a Waldorf school for Jin and CUHK where I work part-time since 2016. Moving to the country side is not without challenges, we managed to overcome them all and I'll start driving soon. Our life style has changed dramatically as a result: More meals at home, fewer visits to the "city", Jin enjoys picking fruits from trees, playing with shrimp and fish at a river in the neighbourhood, eating cheese cake at a cafe where he can climb trees, turning our roof top into his playground. We found a few farmers nearby to buy fresh vegetables.

I asked Irene what was her personal reflection of the year, she said she was surprised that she was in Hong Kong everyday this year.

I continue to enjoy writing "letters to Jin Jin" (給晉晉的家書). As of today, I have written 165 letters to Jin (since new year day 2015). I hope to find time to publish it as my 3rd book. Thank you to everyone who expressed how much you like these letters and those who provided valuable feedback, your words are very encouraging to me, especially those who came talking to me at various events.

Another big change of the year is that I have been contemplating to quit some of the social media platforms, namely, Facebook and Instagram, even though I am a very heavy user of social media and it has been a very useful medium to connect to friends and family, and express my thoughts. However, I detest the way it makes money by using our private data in such an abusive manner and constantly violating our privacy. I cannot be a willing accomplice in the crime against myself. I have decided to significantly reduce my time spent on these social media, I challenged myself to stop using Facebook and Instagram, and have not checked in since 6 Dec 2018. The day I stopped using it, I started to draw a list of friends who I want to see in person and can enjoy a coffee together. I would like to share this article to everyone who are thinking about abandoning some of the social networks - "The year social networks were no longer social " https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/23/the-year-social-networks-were-no-longer-social/

We wish you and your family a healthy, happy and prosperous 2019.

Love,
Jin, Irene and Dominic

Jin is now 4 years old, fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Growing up so fast and healthily. Teacher says he provides a lot of "entertainment" to the class (whatever that means!). Fire engine is still Jin's favourite, so is using Lego and other wooden building blocks to make his own structures/toys which shows a lot of creativity, especially the stories that he makes up while creating the structures. Reading books and/or telling stories every night before going to bed. He often turns himself into a cat which makes communicating with him a lot of fun. His ability to reason and making logical argument/ conclusion has surprised as well as amused us on numerous occasions. His career aspirations has changed from (1) A firefighter (2) An engineer (3) A Chef and (4) A pilot to (a) A scientist (b) An engineer (c) An archaeologist and (d) A Professor.

Family

Jin was very happy to see his aunt Agnes (Canada) + uncle Richard, aunt Bibiana (Australia) and his cousin Janet (Canada) + Brain + Jin's little 2nd cousin (表外甥) baby Everett in Hong Kong and stayed with us. Jin's another cousin Jonathan becomes father in Dec, that makes Jin a 表叔 and me a 舅公 again. Jin also enjoys talking to Grandma (Canada) through video conference. 

Travel
In 2018, I have only done a few trips along with EMBA and MBA students to Taipei, Berlin, Cambridge and Beijing.

Education
Entering 3rd year of teaching at the Business School of CUHK covering courses such as entrepreneurship, management consulting, venture investment, from startup to reality. I have taken one of the EMBA courses on I-ching (易經). To refresh as well as learn something new, I took a number of courses on the Coursera platform including Blockchain, "Machine Learning", Cryptography. I appreciate the learning opportunities from the 4 study trips with the EMBA and MBA groups covering social innovation, Industry 4.0, Hidden Champions, Stakeholder leadership and China Economy & Finance. It was fun making various public speaking including one on the topic of "To P[hD] or not to P[hD]", "Nurturing young children to speak multi-language", "Introduction of consulting industry" and "Entrepreneurship"

Consulting and angel investment
Due to my other commitments, I am doing less consulting engagements, typically conducting strategic planning meeting, and more corporate training and coaching. Innovation, entrepreneurship, strategic thinking and critical thinking are the most in demand topics. For Dark Horse angel investment, this year we sold back our shares in one of the companies to the founder and had an IPO for another.

Cambridge:
We had numerous formal halls in Hong Kong, a Biennial dinner and Cambridge Campaign Event hosted by the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge. Established a Trinity in Hong Kong group; The visit in July included a surprise visit to the Trinity college clock tower.

Books I read/ am still reading: "Brief answers to the big questions", "AI Super-powers", "讀易經，通管理", "Mindfulness", "Parenting for a peaceful world", "Mistakes were me, but not by me", "Give and Take", "Misbehaving", "Thinking fast and slow", "The art of strategy", "How to raise an adult", "Black Swan", "The billionaire who wasn't".

Movies/ Shows that I enjoyed: "Black mirror"(Season 4), Bodyguard" (2018 netflix)

Favourite quotes heard in 2018 that I find inspiring: "It is not how well you can fight, it is what you fight for!" "別活得太舒服" (this one is a self-realization)

December 2018

HKUST 20180501

Jin's 4th Birthday 201808

Ginger Bread House 201812

Fireman Jin 201804

Starhill 201810

Starhill Walk 201810

CUHK 201812