很久沒聽電台, 想不到再聽的時候卻有這麼觸動心靈的歌。 很久沒見過歌和詞都這麼高水準的歌曲, 看得出很多心機放進了這這首歌中。

歌名：愛得太遲
歌手：古巨基

I haven’t have drinks with colleagues for a long long time. I think last time I do such crazy drinking was in Thailand. However АEHИH Lenin bar has a specialised bar (-5° Ice Lounge) for Vodka and pretty much a cool bar for cocktails.

Firstly the bar food definitely is full of creativity. Apart from the normal chips and wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli source, the pancake with roasted pumpkin, chicken and mash potato is also a nice side dish for drink and Vodka-base cocktail. The pancake is the normal think crepe type with the pumpkin, chichen or mash potato filled between.

 It is amazing that I still can remember the drinks I had in sequence, even though some of the drinks’ name I wasn’t sure. First is the drink where you dunk a shot glass into a tall glass and drink it straight up. Then I have my Paraskaya Martin, a creamy martin with coconut cream and rawsberry. Then came the shots of Vodka, vanilla, wet pussy, cow boy. And then my female colleagues are stuffing me with another martini that I don’t even know the name, but taste like Sublime (a martini with mandarine vodka and citris juice). Not to mention that before we start the cross team drinks night out, we already start our usually Friday night drinks at our office with beers.

Now I am definitely want to revisit this place for the Vodka bar they had.

從悠閒到忙碌, 從不重要到每個細節也要看清楚, 真的很大轉變。 至少每天每時每刻腦細胞都在活躍運動中, 總好過人叫你做什麼你交什麼就過關, 就算多做了也不影響大局。 但看過一些朋友, 薪酬高過我, 地位也高過我, 但要理的事卻少過我不知多少, 真是同人不同命…

薪高, 量準, 福利好, 無事做, 若找到這樣的工作就完美了…

An Italian place located at Darling Harbour, specialise in home made special pasta. I think they are a bit exaggerating in their claim. The only 2 house specialties that caught my eye were only the garlic prawn with saffron and squid ink linguine and the prawn parcel with coconut cream sauce. Of course I tried the prawn parcel and there are other pasta and pizza.

The prawn parcel is definitly worth recommending. The ravioli type prawn parcel goes well with the coconut sauce. The interesting part of the coconut sauce is it is slightly spicy like Thai flavour, however the creaminess definitely masked the spiciness in a nice way.

Another specialty is the capsicum tagliarini. The sauce is really nice and the capsicum tagliarini goes really well with chicken.

Pizza is also nice but seems to lack the originality like the special pasta dish.

If you are going to have dinner there, I would suggest sticking to the house pasta specialty dish. Also the dinner I had was of great value due to Entertainment Book discount.

以前公司有 laptop, 所以若要回家工作的時候就把 laptop 帶回家。 那時覺得這樣才是方便, 因為所有資料全都在電腦裡, 連email 也可以 draft 好然後等回公司再送出去。 現在沒有 laptop , 但一點也感覺不到不方便, 若要趕工, 我那一條1GB的USB memory也足夠把資料全帶回家, 加上沒有特別的程式要用, 全都是 MS Office (WORD or EXCEL) 就能做到的事, 任何電腦也可以, 自己家裡的 Tablet 已綽綽有餘。

 想不到從自己小學時的五吋半磁碟, 到中學時的三吋半磁碟, 再進化到大學時的全用了 email 來當磁碟, 再到現在拿USB Flash memory來當磁碟用, 越來越小而容量越來越大, 也不須要太過依賴要有 personal laptop 。

當男人步入中年後就很容易禿頭, 通常「光頂」而形成「地中海」, 亦即頭頂的頭髮脫了, 剩下周邊的頭髮圍著一圈。 一直想知道英文是怎樣說, 而今天我終於知道了: 

Solar Panel of the Sex Machine

 不得不寫一個服字…

慢慢地紅色炸彈浮現, 以前多數一年前就通知大家, 令大家有所準備。 但現在卻是last minute通知, 給我隨時有「中獎驚喜」的感覺。 雖然不是投訴, 但這種事很容易把我的情緒抬高拉低, 變得情緒化。

 這種突如奇來的「驚喜」卻像小石子, 投進我的情緒海, 搞起了一連串的漣漪, 若果在舊公司我想一定會受影響, 現在新環境這麼忙, 又有這麼多正經事把我的注意力引開了, 所以影響給減少到最細。

 新轉變來得很及時, 把情緒控制了。

During my first job the email system was Lotus Notes. I was satisfied to use either Lotus Notes or Outlook until the email client becomes more than just email. If you have used Lotus Notes before you sure know what I mean. The knowledge can be organise into database and stored locally. Back then Outlook wasn’t really great at doing that on a company level. Of course Bill Gates saw this issue and turns it into an opportunity.  

When I was sorting out my old pictures during the weekend I saw this last photo of Lotus Notes email I took before I quit my second job. Interestingly that reminds me that even the company of my first job, which once skeptical about Outlook and budget issue, had also dumped Lotus Notes and changed to Outlook a few years ago.

 I remember when I worked as consultant it is quite easy to know if you are on a good project or not. Those who use Outlook are usually the better clients. Their projects are always value added in order to get the company ahead of their competitors. They are the forward thinking type and prospectus companies that everyone wants to get themselves involved. Those who use Lotus Notes are the opposite. Usually someone in the company realised that there is something in the company is not right. However they know that it is hard to do the job themselves or they had no clue on how to resolve the problem they had. These projects aren’t that complicated as usually there were already solutions out there (from the better clients). The only problem you would face was politics and stuborn people. These projects are definitely not good to get on as the only skills you can get are people management skill. Most of the time these projects you just need to modify the solution that better clients had already adopted and proven working to suit the current. You don’t need to put in much brain power but at the same time you don’t develop your potential either.

 ‘If you want to know more, start small’. I guess whether a company is using Lotus Notes or Outlook already hinted to you whether they are market leader or not.

自己一直認為實力最重要, 包裝只要放在最後, 記得要做就沒有問題。 皆因最後勝利永遠取決於實力, 包裝只是開始時吸引人的手段之一, 而自己喜愛的名句之一「The last one standing and laughing is the winner」也道出了事實, 時間把實力顯露了出來。

 剛剛給「灌輸」了今年港姐冠亞季軍的資料, 也是寧要有學識教養家境背景中上的, 也不要一眼就讓任何人覺得美的來當冠軍。 我想這不單是有實際需要(因為始終是有機會代表香港和接觸上流社會), 也有點上流社會的虛偽。 一出現就以美貌迷倒大多數男人的女人, 永遠就是少了那些「紳士」們認為重要的自我收藏性。 那些容易有新聞出現的人永遠就不能委以重任, 因為太容易成為焦點, 不能收放自如。 包裝是可改變, 令人有控制的空間, 想令你注意的時候你的眼睛絕對離不開, 不注意的時候你無法抓到目標。 但實力不一樣, 有就是有, 而且不可能一瞬間變出來給你。

First 4 weeks of new career and already the second drinks with the whole department in a nice bar. This time we also have the chance to enjoy some delicate finger food to make the opportunities more special.

I must say I am revisiting my early days of career lately. Work is not just about getting the job done but also socialise and finding more about the person(s) sitting next to you. It is not an enjoyable work environment if your colleague is a boring person.

I must say I am looking forward to the next visit to Industrie for their dinner. The food to serve with the drinks we have is excellent. First comes a cheese platter, then with deep fry calamari and terreyaki chicken with plum. After that we had the squid sashimi with beetroot, follow by tuna sashimi on mushroom cake. Then we finished up with lemon and garlic prawn and deep fry eggplant wrapped with tofu skin.

It is one of those classy drinks that you enjoy most as you know your boss is paying for it. Since it is a work function, I definitely can’t take out my camera to shoot all the dishes we were having. But for me the images definitely would last a while in my mind.

每一次去婚禮都是表面式, 很少用心去看一個婚禮背後的東西, 但今次自己「自動自覺」地去留意和比較一些細節, 或者新轉變令我的觸感開放吧。

到現在為止, 所到過的婚禮都看得到男女雙方是天作之合, 不單止是單單新人如此, 連他們的家景, 親友等等, 相去都不是太遠。 記得和好朋友討論過竹門對竹門, 因為結合在一起不單是兩個人的事, 而是兩個「社團」的事。 看來以前莎翁寫Romeo & Juliet時可不是亂來的。 我想不是你的始終不是你的, 強求是無用, 就算今朝給你得到, 你也不可能長久擁有。

從婚禮上的擺設和選址也看出了主人家的風格品味, 究竟是傳統, 或是新潮, 崇尚清淡高雅, 或是講究派場。 當然自己已有一點期望, 因為怎也知道朋友的一些喜好, 但當置身其中時感覺就是不一樣, 也看出了主人家所花的心思。 而看在場的來賓也可以推測到很多事, 例如家境, 社交圈子, 家教, 平時的喜好等等, 若果你有心, 只要一點偵探的好奇心和探索精神, 你就能對身邊的人有更深的認識。

每一個契機, 每一個經歷, 都像星火一樣, 慢慢點亮一個人的人生, 但照亮在不同人的心中不同的地方, 令每一個人都是獨一無二。

This is kind of hard for me to say if I like the food or not. First I always took account of the restaurant’s décor and atmosphere to see if the place matches well with the food offering. Second the chef for a restaurant usually has one’s own ‘signature’ that carries the style and specialty of the place. However reviewing cuisine for a wedding banquet at a five star hotel is definitely not my style.

Nevertheless being a five star hotel shouldn’t have any excuse to offer anything that is less the best.

The entrée did catch my eye. The mushroom tart and the crab cake is a nice way to start. However that night was quite cold and therefore I would prefer the entrée to be served warm rather than cold

In a western style wedding reception you don’t expect any creativity on the ingredients, and steak and chicken is pretty much I expected. This is what they call risk management and that’s why I am saying it would be tough to either recommend or not recommend a place based on this. However if you ask me the dishes were exception and I can personally guaranteed on the steak. Unfortunately I can’t have the chicken also however the display warranted a good impression on the taste.

The dessert is absolutely loaded with calories. I was struck with the triple shot of fat and sweet – Chocolate mousse, Crème Brulee and chocolate brownie. Seriously I need exercise.

在出發吃婚宴前和好朋友說了一會話, 越發覺自己在財富上落後於人。 想著自己這時應該不需太為錢作推動力, 比起自己所見, 年薪六個位, 有樓有車, 有自己的生財之道的比比皆是。 雖然自己比下的不是太差, 但比上的也不是差距近。

人老了, 就開始向錢看, 廣東話就是「發錢寒」。

今年第一個婚禮, 感覺像是遙遠的久遠記憶裏。 但查一查自己的記錄, 上一次婚禮只不過是八個月前, 想來這幾個月節目太豐富, 太多事情發生。 感覺上只不過有過一些大聚會, 而上一次見這一對新人是一個半月前吧, 想不到一轉眼就是婚禮。

渾渾噩噩中已到八月, 很快另一對又在十月拉埋天窗, 就這樣, 我己在倒數2006年。