Leglessbird Sharing

Dear Family and Friends,

On Jin's 3rd birthday (Click for larger image)

Happy New Year! Time flies when you're having fun. 2017 has been another good year for us. Hope this greeting finds you and your family well and that year 2017 has been kind to you.

Watching Jin growing up is the biggest highlight and blessing of 2017. There have been many enlightened moments for me in terms of parenting and principle finding, and I have put my realisations into my "letters to Jin" (給晉晉的家書). Writing to Jin about my values, my view of the world and his growing up is now my favourite hobby. The world in 2017 as we observed had taken so many wrong turns, events unfolding in Hong Kong are simply worrying, to say the least. At times like this, it is especially important for us to guard and defend our values. I can only hope things in the world in 2018 will be better.

2017 is the beginning of the boom of Artificial Intelligent, while we are enjoying the benefits of technology advancement that brings ever higher efficiency and effectiveness, we are losing the very precious human touch, my biggest concern is that the future generations without having what we experienced cannot even comprehend what is lost. I had engaging conversations with a new friend who is going to launch a global forum on world issues in Cambridge.

In order to be closer to nature and better education choices for Jin, we have decided to move to Tai Po in March 2018. You are most welcome to visit us.

We wish you and your family a healthy, happy and prosperous 2018.

Love,
Jin, Irene and Dominic

Jin
Jin is now 3 years old. He can speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English confidently and fluently, he is much more able than papa at the same age. I still find it rather amusing (and amazing) that I can have a proper conversation with this little guy. I am responsible for nurturing his Mandarin speaking ability, the methodology is known as "one parent one language". His current career aspirations include becoming (1) A firefighter (2) An engineer (3) A Chef and (4) A pilot. He has already been to 6 countries spanning 3 continents, again beating papa at the same age hands down! Some of Jin's favourite songs include "錫灑你"，"男兒當自強", "Canoe Song"

Dominic
In 2017, I have done a fair bit of travelling for work: Myanmar, Israel, Taipei, Shenzhen and Shanghai, and for leisure: Cambridge, Phuket, Penang, and Kazakhstan,

This year, I think I have confirmed my ikigai*, namely, "Education and Training" / "Transforming others" (* ikigai = "What you love" + "What you are good at" + "What the world needs" + "What you can get paid")

On the education side: CUHK has been keeping me very busy, apparently, despite my part-time arrangement, I have exceeded the teaching load of full time academic. I do enjoy very much teaching various courses, in particular a new course on "Entrepreneurship", also "Management consulting" and "From idea to reality". Also launched a MOOC course titled "Doing business in China". I have also taken up a new challenge, that is to teach and supervise two groups of DBA students with HKMA.

On my private practice: I have been serving more clients than any previous years. I created a new programme on data analysis and decision making. Also enhanced many existing programmes, such as change management, strategic thinking, incorporated many new things that I learned during my trip to Tel Aviv University. And conducting strategic workshops for some clients.

Cambridge University:
In July, I had my last meeting as the board member of the Alumni Advisory Board, having served the maximum of 6 years. I have been returning to Cambridge at least once a year, I am glad that I will be there again in July, taking a group of EMBA students for a 1-week study tour.

As of today, , I have written 128 letters to Jin (since new year day 2015). I hope to share my views, my values and how we can make sense of this world with others through my letters to my son Jin. It is my wish that the letters will be published into a book. I hope together with many able and like-minded people we can somehow transform the world into a better place one step at a time. Quoting Jin's favouite song 男兒當自強：用我百點熱，耀出千分光！

Books I read/ am still reading: "Mistakes were me, but not by me", "Give and Take", "Nudge", "Misbehaving", "The invisible gorilla", "Thinking fast and slow", "The art of strategy", "How to raise an adult", "Black Swan", "The billionaire who wasn't". Movies that I enjoyed (wish I watched more): "Gifted", "Ghost in the shell"

Quotes heard in 2017 that I find inspiring: "I don't have to is the reason I do it", "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm", "腹有詩書氣自華", "世界是自己的，與他人毫無關係".

Irene

To come soon!

December 2017 (Follow us "@About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin)

Okinawa 201612-201701

Okinawa 201612-201701

Phuket 201708

Phuket 201708

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)

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)

Greetings! Hope this sharing finds you and your family well.

Time passes so quickly, especially when you are watching your young baby growing up. In January 2015, Jin was still feeling excited about simply able to roll over while laying on his back, now he is able to walk the stairs unaided and even run. He has since outgrown his baby crib and moved into a much bigger "bed" for his size. We are glad that we have been there at every little milestones he passes: smiling, rolling over, crawling, standing, walking, saying "papa", "mama", mimicking our sounds and actions, drinking from a straw, feeding himself, first playgroup visit, first overseas trip and more. Glad to say that we are very much into our new roles without much issues. We have Irene's parents to thank and also our new helper who arrived in March, we cannot imagine how we will survive without them. We have been taking advantages of working from home since 2006, it would have been impossible to continue to do so with a baby in the same flat. We are fortunate to have a home-office flat and a family flat that are just a staircase away and within 30 seconds from each other.

One of Dominic's 2015 achievements is that he started writing "給晉晉的家書" "Home letters to Jin" since 1 Jan 2015. He certainly enjoys writing them, sharing his views of life, current affairs, the world and little stories around Jin's world, and more importantly, communicating his values to Jin. Although Jin is a bit young to be able to read them yet, but we hope someday he will appreciate this is the best gift from us! Our friends seem to enjoy reading these letters too! Some have even caught on the idea of writing to their kid(s), others like to show these letters to their kid(s). One of the best/ funniest comments received from a friend, while he loves the letters, he said he wouldn't be able to write such open and "肉麻" (translation: corny) letter to his own son. :-) Dominic hopes to publish these letters as a book in the future.

While Dominic made a number of appearances on TV this year, he never thought he would be on a weekday's afternoon live show targeting mainly housewives, and actually being interviewed together with a famous alumna, such is fate.

Work-wise, Dominic has been busier than ever, apart from consulting, he is engaging in more corporate trainings, and more involvement in technology startups and angel investments, mainly through CUHK, PolyU, Science Park and Cyberport. In May, he made a very interesting trip to Israel to visit startups, VC, Co-working spaces, angel conference and government officials. In Oct, the Google CUHK EYE Programme brought him to Taipei together with 10 startup teams. He also seems to be more involved on the education front: teaching a Bachelor course in Entrepreneurship, Masters course in Leadership, and next year an elective for EMBA and another business course.

From the time of expecting Jin to Jin's arrival, we inevitably spent less time travelling. Nonetheless, between us we will make a total of 7 short trips in 2015 (including destinations like USA, Israel, Canada and Australia), and we postponed and cancelled a trip. Jin enjoyed his first aeroplane experience in June, he loved teasing the air hostresses. We are brave enough to be bringing him to Sydney for a hot December week! In December last year (2014), Dominic was saying how we have always travelled somewhere during December since we first got together, and 2014 we took a break of that tradition because Jin was only 4-months old, but the travel bug has bitten us once again, so Australia, here we go!

On the Cambridge front, Dominic enjoys co-running events such as formal halls, mentorship programme, and the biennial dinner celebrating upcoming 35th anniversary of The Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong and Prince Philip Scholarship (Founded by Dr David Li in 1981).

Please drop us a few lines when you have time, we would like to hear how you are getting on.

We wish you and your family happiness, good health and a prosperous year ahead!

Love,

Jin, Irene and Dominic

December 2015 (Follow us "@About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin)

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year (Click for larger image)

Meet Jin, our first child   Our travel book 夢想"侶"遊  (Dream Journey For 2) published in June 2014 (click to order)

2014 has been the most exciting year (yet) for the Leglessbirds,  we welcome a new addition to the family, our son Jin was born in August 2014. We finally published our travel book in June. Also we bought a second flat anitcipating an expanding family. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in July, and we couldn't ask for a better gift than "Jin". 

We have always maintained a free and caring lifestyle, we enjoy our freedom in terms of time, location and spirit. We seem to have surprised many of our friends because during the past 24 months,  we bought two flats and decided it was time to have a baby. Life certainly won't be the same again, we now enjoy very much spending our time at home with Jin. We are blessed with a healthy and happy child. We are constantly thinking how we can continue to explore the world and bring Jin with us.  

We published our travel book 夢想"侶"遊(Dream Journey For 2)  in June,  it was really great to see so many friends at the book launch party. Dominic is already working on his third book.

Since our Leglessbird Sharing 2013, we have only travelled to South Korea, South Africa, Macau, Singapore and UK as we were expecting our baby. 

To earn some money for baby's diaper, formula, clothes, toys and future education (because we already spent all his education fund on our exotic trips, it is called SKI Spending Kids Inheritance. So happy skiing, parents! ) , Dominic continues to work hard on business consulting projects, corporate training and also various programmes related to entrepreneurship with CUHK, PolyU, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Cyberport and Hong Kong Design Centre.

During 2014, Dominic is reading Full Spectrum Dominance, Nudge, The invisible gorilla, How to think like a freak,  The Art of Strategy, Thinking fast and slow,  and of course plenty of parenting books  Dominic made a number of appearance on a TV show "I am Boss",  he was covered in the press as the acting centre manager of Pre-incubation centre of CUHK, and spoke at various conferences.

Jin is enjoying his first Christmas while Irene and Dominic enjoys their first Christmas in Hong Kong since they became a couple in 1999. 

(Irene's update to come soon...watch this space)

Please drop us a few lines when you have time, we would like to hear how you are getting on. We wish you and your family happiness, good health and a prosperous year ahead!

Love,

Jin, Irene and Dominic

December 2014 (Follow us "@About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin)

Travel (Dec 2013 - Dec 2014) For list of albums, click here

Cambridge, UK   Macau

Singapore

South Africa Cape Town, Johannesberg, etc

Seoul, South Korea

Cambridge related (Dec 2013 - Dec 2014) For list of albums, click here

"20140104 Class 1988 Reunion"	20140319 Cambridge Formal Hall at Agnes b	20140410 Vice Chancellor's Dinner Reception	20141217 Cambridge Christmas Hall
Alumni-Advisory-Board	Prince Philip Scholarship Award	20140410 Vice Chancellor's Afternoon Reception	Mentorship Programme 2014

Other Fun Events 

20140531 Party at Ho Sir's Studio	20140622 Book Launch Event	10th Wedding Anniversary	20141123 FAA Picnic
20141213 Jin's 100 day party	20140307 My Birthday Dinner

Public engagements

TV Show "I am Boss"	Internet Society Startup Lab Sharing	20140217 ICT Award Judge Panel	20140223 EYE Google Programme
20140302 EYE Google Programme	20140407 ICT Awards and Dinner	20140410 IT FEST Internet, the next big thing	20140423 Asia Innovation Forum
Ask me anything	20140510 Macau JCI talk	20140614 Charity Dinner	20140704 EYE program phase 2
20140820 JA Asia Pacific Fedex Express Int'l Trade Challenge	20141011 Wow-X Judge	20141017 Lions Club Host and Kowloon joint dinner	Pi Centre Interview

Dear Family and Friends,

End of Year Party at China Club

2013 has passed by so quickly, we almost wish time can slow down. We bought a flat last Oct and finally moved in the new place in Feb, thanks to a dear friend who did the interior design as well as project managed the process of a total overhaul of the place, as a result, we had a completely trouble-free renovation experience (something almost unheard of in Hong Kong or elsewhere).  We are enjoying the new flat very much. 

Dominic has found himself drawn more and more towards reading books on life philosophy, titles like Justice (what's the right thing to do) ; What money can't buy (what money shouldn't buy) ; The Grand Design; How will you measure your life ; how much is enough (to live a good life);  and Many lives many masters. Combined with what he learned from Harmonious Life and Life Academy, he becomes more and more philosophical about life and behavour! 

This year, Dominic got more involved in the entrepreneurship scene in Hong Kong, more engagement with the Centre for Entrepreneurship of Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK) providing training, consulting services,  as a judge on some overseas competition, as well as screening committee on incubation programme and startups.  He was involved in a number of consulting projects including strategy for insuranace company and FMCG in China. also did a number of corporate training on creative problem solving, decision making, project management, risk management.

Irene is finding it harder to balance work and leisure and she is feeling bad that her time spent with her friends has significantly reduced this year. There are many lunches that she is just lazy to plan ahead and ending up eating alone. However there are still many blessings to count:

Bjelasnica Bosnian Mountains, Bosnia,

This year we have kept ourselves overly busy that we only visited our favourite organic farm once in 2013 :-(. That has not stopped us from visiting some interesting places, since Dec 2012, we went to  Ecuador (incl. Galapagos Islands), Peru (incl. Machu Pichu, Amazon jungle); Chiang Mai (Three and a half day fasting surviving on drinking clear vegetable soup and juice only.), Bangkok; Bhutan (we joined our first Hong Kong private group to Bhutan不丹 and had a great time in this happiest country in the world.); UK/Croatia/Bonsia; Seoul. This Dec/Jan, we will be going to South Africa and we'll share with you our photos in Jan 2014. Finally, after much delayed, our travel book is really going to be published in Jan 2014.

Please drop us a few lines when you have time, we would like to hear how you are getting on. We wish you and your family happiness, good health and a prosperous year ahead!

Love,

Irene and Dominic

December 2013 (Follow us "@About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin)

Travel (Dec 2012 - Dec 2013) For list of albums, click here

Ecuador (Galapagos Islands)	Peru (Machu Pichu)	The Netherlands (Amsterdam)	Chiang Mai (Detox Centre)
Thailand (Bangkok)	Bhutan	Thailand (Bangkok)	Bosnia
Croatia	UK (Cambridge)	South Korea (Seoul)

Irene's paintings 2013

#1

#2

#3

Cambridge related (Dec 2012 - Dec 2013) For list of albums, click here

"Cambridge: Treasure Island in the Fens"	Prince Philip Scholarship Award Ceremony	Trinity College Master Sir Gregory Winter	Biennial Dinner
VC & Heads of college Reception	Judge Business School talk	Mentorship programs	Formal Hall in HK
JBS Dr Simon Taylor's talk

Organic Farm

Harmonious Life Training

French Alumni Association Xmas Party

Public engagements

HKEJ Forum	Cocoon Pitch Night Final	Cocoon Pitch Night	Cocoon CASE conference
Social Venture Competition Asia (Seoul)	Travel talk on Bhutan	Talk on travel and social responsibilities at Happy Valley Rotary Club	TVB 新聞透視 - 創業夢
SMECC Talk	Global Entrepreneurship Week China	Entrepreneurship Talk at British Council

Dear Family and Friends,

Organic Farm

Time really flies, another 12 months have passed too quickly. So much is going on that we couldn't keep up with writing biannual update, we are going to stick with just one Leglessbird sharing a year. So in the last 12 months:

We finally did something that we thought was not very leglessbird-like, we bought a flat after careful considerations. We discussed with a number of wise learned friends, We think it is the right decision given our future plans, being property market neutral, having a place that we can truely call "nest", though the price now is not low but the market is of less speculative nature. We believe it won't affect our financial flexibility and sense of freedom that we always treasure very much. Rennovation work is now underway which is quite fun(!??). (Irene: the funniest part is to work with a designer friend and sometimes he rejects our ideas. It's truely a blessing to have him to look after the renovation. The worst part is to have visited 60+ units in 6+ different areas by myself before finding a home where we'd like to live in and it is in fact where we are currently in).

Beach Wedding

We attended a number of weddings as well as funerals, such is life. I spoke at a young couple's wedding (as an elderly brother figure and ex-boss) on marriage, to summaries my speech in one sentence, "Bring the best out of each other!". We went to a funeral to pay respect to someone whom we have not actually met, it was important to us to be there with our dear friend at his father's funeral.

The organic farm in Lantau is still our favourite getaway place, we have brought many friends to enjoy nature and the produce from the farm. We continue to practice qi-gong but not persistent enough :-p

Last year, we attended the "Harmony Life" training, this year, a mentor recommended to us "Life Academy", I have completed their level 1 course - "Power of Change" and have found it very inspiring, I will be a volunteer and hope we can bring more positive energy/thoughts to others.

On the work side, we have both been very busy. (Irene: the increasing workload finally made us to recruit our first personal asisstant for sustainable personal and business growth, it's a new learning for us to look after someone as a team member. I gain more strength when my working buddies and partners went from 5 to 17 in 2012. I truely appreciate our group effort in perfecting our quality of work and services). I have been serving a number of consulting clients, conducting corporate trainings, speaking at conferences, adjudicating in a number of competitions and taking university students to Texas and Shanghai competing in business challenges.

Catching King Crab

With our work committment we are unable to travel as much. In the last 12 months, we went to Malaysia, UK, Norway, USA, Canada, Korea, Taiwan and Shanghai (China) (Irene: I was there spiritally for half of these trips). The Norway trip in April visiting the northern remote part was one of the best journeys yet. This Dec/Jan, we will be going to Amsterdam, Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Machu Picchu (Peru), Amazon (Peru) and we'll share with you our photos in Jan 2013. Our travel book is scheduled to publish in Q1 2013!

Please drop us a few lines when you have time, we would like to hear how you are getting on.

We wish you and your family happiness, good health and a prosperous year ahead!

Love,
Irene and Dominic

December 2012

Follow us on "About.Me" Dominic Chan, Irene Sin

Travel (Dec 2011 - Nov 2012) For list of albums, click here

Taipei	S Korea	USA	Canada
Norway	London	Cambridge	Penang
Kuala Lumpur	Macau

Cambridge related (Dec 2011 - Nov 2012) For list of albums, click here

Trinity College Dinner - Nov	Cambridge admission talk	Prince Philip Scholarship	Boat Trip
CU Chinese Society dinner	Reflection Conference	Mentorship programs	Formal Hall in HK (Aug)
Vice Chancellor	Formal Hall in HK (Feb)	Cambridge Visit	Alumni in Malaysia
Trinity College Dinner - Apr

To be processed CJBS EMBA HK visit, Cambridge lecture day in Hong Kong, Global alumni conference.

Organic Farm

28 Oct	01 Oct	15 July	22 Apr
12 Feb	CNY

Public engagements

New Era New Entrepreneurs conference	Kairos Society Dinner	HKU Entrepreneurship Academy	HK Sustainability Jam
Innoasia Conference	Lions Club Lingnan University Career Forum	Talk on Antarctica	Asian Innovation Award
Youth-e-start