New Year Present

 

Happy New Year! I brought a handmade souvenir to Hong Kong. Now I changed this to New Year Present for 2016 ... HaHa!

What is it? It is a secret trick to be happy 快樂幸福秘笈 J

I wrote this trick in Chinese by hand, now I translated it into English...

 

Everybody wants to have a happy life! The topic of my secret trick is "life change starts from the heart"

(改變命運從心開始) ❤

It means the important factor to change one's fate is from the change of one's mind. That is why there is a Chinese saying 相由心生 (one's appearance is reflected by the heart)

 

Life will gradually become better when one keeps thinking in a good way.

This trick is not for instant result. But it is simple and easy to practice. Then good returns will slowly come.


1st Level of the Trick: Don't blame too much, be more appreciative (少怨恨, 多感恩)

When you start to blame everything every day, please think deeply ... are you the top 10% luckiest person in this world? Don't believe? Let's pay attention to the statistics.

• If you have enough to eat, to wear and a shelter to live, you are wealthier than 75% of world population
• If you have savings, cash in your wallet. WOW! You are already among the wealthiest 8% in the world
• If you are not ill and you don't have disaster, you are better than 1 million people who cannot survive through this week.
• If you have never experienced war and never in prison, you are better than  500 million people

Also can you imagine?

70% of world population live in THIRD WORLD
50% of world population have less than $3.50 CAD to spend each day
1 in 3 people have no toilet to use in the world

A shocked news is 10% of world population is child marriage, with most of them are Forced Child Marriage!!!

That's why we can practice appreciation more often ... show appreciation for our meals, our clothes, our house and don't forget to show appreciation for the TOILET ... HaHa!

 

 

 

2nd Level of the Trick: Be less cruel and more kind (少殘忍, 多愛心)

Most people think they are not cruel at all, and they are full of love and compassion!!!

They would think ... "I never hurt people, never kill people, treat everybody kindly, always donate $ and give seats to elderly , super care my family and friend.  Absolutely level 0 in cruelty, level 200 in kindness!"

Undoubtedly you are very good ... to humans. If you can treat all animals the same way, then you are truly full of love in your heart. ❤❤❤

 

Not only pet such as kitten and puppy, but all animals have feelings, have nerves, have consciousness, can feel pain, can feel scared ...

All animals include those who can fly in sky, walk on the ground and swim in the sea.

Remember people always say : when someone passes away, don't burn the body or donate the organs immediately since this person still has consciousness within 8 hours. In fact, other animals are the same! When they are cut right after being killed, they would feel extremely PAINFUL!!!

OK, now you know then you can treat animals in a good way J
 

• Eat less meat, especially the fresh meat from slaughter of a live animal.
• Buy less animal skin products.  Don't try to look cool by wearing animal skin fashions including jackets, pants, boots and handbag that are made of animal skins. Think of many animals are killed and have blood removed while they are not completely dead and are conscious. This is a BIG SUFFER!
• Don't try to look noble by wearing animal fur. It is a very BLOODY  product  as animals are being killed or their furs are removed while they are still alive .
• Buy less silk product: the process of making silk is to use boiling water to kill huge number of silkworms
• Buy less products which are tested on animals: You and me would feel painful when chemical gets into eyes, rabbits feel the same pain too! In fact many big brands and high end skin care or cosmetic products do tests on animals, this can be searched on web with the words "peta cruelty free"
• Be careful with fragrance purchase. Not because of  real or fake perfume, but many high end fragrances contain MUSK. Musk can be from the killing of male musk deer or civet.
• Many Chinese banquets have stopped serving shark fins which is nice. But they are still serving roasted baby pigs per table, serving lobsters. Do they know the roasted baby pig 乳豬 is a piglet fed on its mother's milk and is slaughtered between the ages of 2 and 6 weeks ... very pity L Lobsters suffer greatly when their urethras are destroyed before they are killed, too brutal LLL

That's why not only we need to love cartoon animals Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, not only we need to love our pets Hello Kitty and Snoopy, we can add more compassion to love other animals J
 

 

 

3rd Level of the Trick: Treasure more, reduce waste (多珍惜, 少浪費)

This one is very easy, just always keep in mind that "We don't need too much, but we want too much". Because when most people find items on BIG SALE, their minds keep thinking "Buy more, buy as many as possible, I got to buy  all stuffs with the best deal!!!" How many will they actually use?
 

It is a waste to buy the stuff but never use it, not environmental friendly too! To have a good use of every single product that you purchase and to treat the product like a treasure. This is a very good practice J

Do not think that buying all the products is to benefit the makers or labours, except the product is FAIR TRADE. The process of manufacturing products pollute the environment. Example: the spray of pesticide on cotton (except organic cotton).

That's why we can spend less $$$ on buying stuff, then use the $$$ to improve our fates.

Fate Investment Project  ★★★★★

Want to have a better life, better fate? Then do more things with good deed !

The most convenient way is to donate $$$ to the trustworthy charities.
 

Just to name a few of them is easy ...

World Vision
Plan Canada
Oxfam
Salvation Army
Medecins Sans Frontieres/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Unicef
UNHCR

The return is you will have a happy heart ❤ since helping others is the root of happiness 助人為快樂之本 ... haha!

 

 

 

Earthquake in BC Canada last night

Wow! There was an EARTHQUAKE last night! According to the news this morning, it was 4.3 magnitude (Canada) and 4.8 magnitude (US). I didn't know it was an earthquake, otherwise I would have been more well-prepared. Luckily no damages, no tsunami and nobody gets hurt J

At around 11:39 pm last night, I was watching YouTube on laptop in my bedroom. Suddenly I heard strange noise from the ceiling and then it started to shake slightly. "What are the neighbours above doing???" I thought. Then I started to think "But the neighbours above us are old couple. Although they are big but their motions are super slow due to their age." ... "Do they have a guest staying overnight??? Just above my bedroom?" ... "Is the guest pushing HEAVY STUFF around to destroy the room?!" OH NO!!!"

 

The noise from the ceiling did not stop and it kept shaking. "What should I do, it's scary ~~~". I looked at my YouTube then back to the ceiling, YouTube again then back to the ceiling, YouTube again then back to the ceiling. My mind was already saying "STOP, be quiet".

All of a sudden, I felt the ceiling was moving forward to the window side and finally reached to the point that the corner JUMPED forward.  I was SHOCKED!

天花板一跳, 嚇得我個心都一跳!

 

What was that? I had never experienced it before. I went to my brother's bedroom right away and checked with him. "Was there a shake?" ... He said yes. Then go to my mom's bedroom, but she fell asleep already. I hope the structure of our building is safe ...

死啦,會唔會又嚟架? 都係上床瞓.

"Will it happen again" ... " I don't know " ... "turn off laptop, turn off light, sleep". That was my solution. Next morning from the news, I knew it was an earthquake. What a relief! Not from my neighbours or building damage.

Fortunately it lasted less than a minute and the shake was not too strong. I practiced this before at work but didn't do it properly last night. I should review it ...

 

 

 

But I hope I never have to do this ... hehe J


 

Trip to Hong Kong - Part 2

The second part of my Hong Kong vacation was from November 28 to December 10, 2015. We were in Hong Kong from November 15 -21 then travelled to Okinawa on November 22-27. There are too many photos to share so I will write about Snoopy World, Cheung Chau Island and Ocean Park separately. I will also share my pleasant experience in Okinawa on my blog shortly. Stay tune for it!

 

We stayed in Yuen Long for about 10 days so there should be more to write about. The above picture was taken nearby Long Ping Station 朗屏站 while we were walking to bus terminal for 268C to Kowloon Bay 九龍灣. I used to think Hong Kong is lack of green spaces since it has excessive high rise buildings. I have changed my thought from this visit when I saw many green trees or plants along highways and in some residential areas.

 

It is unbelievable that now it only takes 50 minutes to travel from Yuen Long to Kowloon (36 km distance based on Google Map). It took me 30 minutes to drive from home to work in Vancouver for travel distance of 18 km without traffic! During my childhood, this Yuen Long - Kowloon Bay route took almost 2 hours. Without highway and tunnel, we used to take bus 68M from Yuen Long to Tsuen Wan Station 荃灣站 then transferred to MTR (mass transit railway) to Prince Edward Station 太子站 then transferred to another MTR to Kowloon Bay Station.

 

 

 

Someone must be a big fan of Hong Kong bus, videotaped the whole trip of 268C ... cool! Good video for those who have never been to Hong Kong but would like to know how its typical roads and traffic are like.

 

 

 

More pictures from Yuen Long, I think this small local cake shop or dim sum restaurant  街坊麵包店/街坊茶樓 represents  the life of middle or low income class in Hong Kong.  Although they are not franchised,  they got tons of customers!

We couldn't resist the yummy mango cakes so we bought some.  It even had 20% off for seniors! Unlike Vancouver, the price of cake was not calculated by inches but by weight such as 1 lb or 2 lbs ...

 

Am I professional in blurred photography 沙龍照片? Nope, it just happened that I got to take these pictures in a quick motion to avoid being scolded by the store owners or customers ... hehe. 估唔到變咗咁靚沙龍相 J

 

 

Remember the yummiest breakfast we always had in Yuen Long. Bored to take out all the time L so we spent one morning to eat there. No deep fried dough or put chai ko, instead we had deep fried dough wrapped in rice roll 炸兩 and plain congee J

Without having Hong Kong style lunch was not a complete visit in Hong Kong (一定要試嘅港式茶餐廳). There were many unique things about Hong Kong style meals 港式茶餐 such as fresh butter toast 鮮油多 (I just translated it directly word to word, the more appropriate term is thick butter toast since there was a thick piece of butter in the centre). I know this was unhealthy but once in a while should be OK, right? They even had coffee sugar for Hong Kong style coffee 港式咖啡, what a perfect match!

There were days that I need to be vegetarian so the choices on the menu became very limited to me. But still the meals without meat were delicious and quite filling (素食都好豐富). Most important is not to have gout 痛風 as people with gout cannot eat good vegetarian food like tofu and mushrooms (有痛風想食齋都唔掂).

 

 

   

Do you think the dishes, soup and dessert look mouth watering??? Wa! 睇見都流口水? These were all vegetarian food from a Veggie Palace in Wan Chai (灣仔一間叫貴德宮嘅私房素菜, it was my first time having 私房菜 ... with全齋宴).

Very special hey! I recall we were served with unusual tea like lavender.

From left to right, top to bottom. 1st photo is salad platter with sushi, 2nd photo is ... I forgot ... hehe, like we got to put the deep fried food with carrot, cucumber and sauce into the bun. 3rd photo is eggplant! 4th one should be pan fried cucumber with seaweed at the bottom. 5th one ... 6th one ... 7th one ... too many, let's skip to 8th photo since it looks more interesting. It was a curry dish which we could dip the toasted bread to the curry sauce ... hehe. 9th is soup of pumpkin and sweet corn. 10th photo shows walnut paste and osmanthus jelly.

Thanks cousin Elly and cousin-in-law Mingo for the treat there J

The atmosphere in Yuen Long was different on Sunday. See how many customers Western Union had. Why???

These were Indonesian maids 印傭sending $$$ back to their families, I think. Sundays are their holidays also picnic days. There were so many having picnic on the street or in the park. I kind of understand, they are also humans who need buddies to communicate but I hope they would not leave garbage everywhere after picnic. I was told by the street cleaners that they left lots of garbage after picnic back in year 2012. 同好姊姐傾心事唔緊要, 最緊要保持香港清潔.

This song was for Hong Kong civilians, after 20+ years I think same song can be advertised to certain foreign labours and for certain tourists.

 

 

 

You may think they were Indonesian maids, actually they were Philipino maids in Central on Sunday.  菲傭幫在中環  picnic day! Same thing  again - please don't leave garbage. 同好姊姐傾心事唔緊要, 最緊要保持香港清潔.

 

 

When we went to Kowloon Bay, we had a quick visit to Amoy Garden s 淘大花園. Amoy Gardens became famous worldwide in 2003 due to the outbreak of SARS. I took picture of it not because it is well-known, but I spent 6 years dwelling there before I came to Canada. Every time when I visit Amoy Gardens 淘大花園, memories come to my mind ... http://chan38.blogspot.ca/2009/03/memory-of-lower-ngau-tau-kok-estate.html.
怪唔得小學時有位老師成曰講"想當年"又"想當年"又"想當年".

 

 

December 10 was time to go back to Vancouver, flew with Cathay Pacific. Can you see the Canadian Flag? Air Canada was at the next gate and its flight took off 7 minutes ahead of ours. I believe it was exactly 7 minutes since I counted it ... hehe. Air Canada we were following you J