Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I'm reflecting

Long story short......for the coming year ......try to be a better person since I was not......

(1) Less drink, restrict to max 1 bottle of wine a week, no more scotch/bourbon unless curing coughing

(2) One non-fiction book a month at least

(3) Be more objective while addressing things/ideas

(4) Be more patient: talk slower, don't cut ppl when other is talking......need to improve "listening skill"

(5) Less online shopping & start saving more

(6) Be true to myself/my feeling

(7) Learn to calm self to internalize CFA III testbooks in 2 months

....... and more

Friday, January 16, 2009

Flight 1549

When we started boarding US Airway flight 2502 from LGA to PIT on Thursday afternoon 15th of January 2009, we heard the final boarding call at the next gate for the flight 1549 to Charlotte……

I sat at the window seat and fell in sleep without hesitate once I buckled up the seat belt for take-off. The caress of the sun made me feel warm and safe, I felt like I could just sit there forever. It was a short nap till the captain announcement waked me up, the breaking news was that another US Airway flight got crashed into the Hudson. How could this happen, it sounded scary and unreal, since everything in such a sunny winter afternoon looked just so perfect. We didn’t know if there was any casualty or not. The next thing we were told, the airport was going to be shut down immediately, and no flight would be allowed to take off. The plane started taxiing back to the gate. When we almost got there, the pilot announced that we might be able to fly again...15 minutes later, we took off.

Everyone was on the phone talking to their beloved ones after we landed in PIT, I got voice messages from the family to make sure I was not on that crashed plane. I guess the initial news didn't provide detailed flight info, and both flights have almost the same departure time from the same airport. Well, it's not my final destination yet for sure, I'll be around for a while, quite a while and be happy. :-)

And I'm glad to hear that everyone survived from flight 1549...salute to the captain of flight 1549, he is the hero! I'm looking forward to the new episode of "Mayday" on Discovery channel soon......It is a good TV series for anyone, especially those travelling a lot.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Dirty Dance 1/2/09

After staying home doing nothing for the whole day of New Year day, Lei and I decided to go outdoors for a change. Friday morning, we went to OHIP office in the early morning. On the 2nd day of year 2009, I finally got my Canadian health card after waiting for about half an hour, which was not too bad, considering there were 50+ people ahead of me, it’s a pretty efficient process. I should be able to enjoy the free, universal healthcare in Canada in about a month, somehow this reminded me of Michael Moore’s documentary “Sicko”.

Lei bought the musical tickets for the afternoon show; we then drove to Chinatown in downtown Toronto for a quick bite before the show. Talking about the food in downtown Toronto, it’s the best - cheap and authentic, although I have to admit that most of them do look little shabby and I try not to think about how the kitchen would be like. We had steam buns and la mian … Yummy!

When we were led to our seats in the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the show was about to start. Till then, I realized the show we were about to watch was “Dirty Dance”. I absolutely love the original movie by Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, one of the few English-speaking movies we were introduced to when we were little in China. I remembered this movie, also because this movie inspired my sister and myself desire to learn dance, although it later ended with nowhere like many of our other ambitions. Talking about the show, I like it, the stage design is creative and efficient, a lot of dancing with a lot of energy and emotion. The actresses and actors are cute. I like the lead actress and actor for Baby and Johnny; they do look like Jennifer and Patrick in the movie.

I guess I became snow-phobia after that accident. When we got out of the theatre, it started snowing. I changed our plan of spending the night in downtown immediately when I saw the snowfall, it was a quite heavy snow, and my black jacket was all covered by a thin layer of snow after just 2 blocks walking to parking lot. Yes, let’s go home immediately, I dislike the snow driving.

The rest of the week was relaxing. I watched couple DVD’s to make up for the ones I missed when I was traveling. “The invisible” is a 2007 movie, which talks about a teenager became invisible to the living and near death after an attack leaves him in limbo. The movie has very favorable soundtrack music, topped by my favorite artists, “Open Your Eyes” and “You’re All I Have” by Snow Patrol, and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by DCFC. The story itself is not very convincing, although not bad for killing one and half hour if you simply don’t want to do anything but relaxing. “ The others include “The Black Dahlia”, “Superman Returns” and “Beyond the Border”, unfortunately I fell in sleep while watching 2 of them.

Overall, it’s a very relaxing New Year weekend, and I’m fully pumped to go back to Stamford for my final two weeks of audit. I’m looking forward to conference in Atlanta, where I’m going to see a lot of co-workers and friends I got to know during the last two years.