goats really like to nibble

Was travelling in Spain and Portugal for 2 weeks, and saw, as expected, many amazing things - astonishing mountains, the other end of the ocean, great buildings and works of art. Learnt a lot too about history, people, culture, cooking and ourselves.

At present though feeling jetlagged and cross-eyed from clearing 400 emails from the berry.

There should be time in the near future hopefully for putting words to images and remembering the things that God spoke of during this time.

It was such a great trip, but you know, I did miss the rainforest rain now falling sideways into the Treehouse balcony (which happily kept the plants alive by the way) ...

I slept for most of the plane journey back which was unusual indeed. Didn't realized how exhausting the First Return Trip as a Visitor was.

There was a long queue at the customs both at the arrival and departure halls. At arrival, I remembered to join the Visitors queue (verily long it was) but did not remember to fill up the embarkation card as I was so used to just flashing the HKID. The officer was nice about it, and said Welcome Back to Hong Kong. They still had the sour plum sweets at the counters.

The 2006 Offsite was held at Aberdeen in mahogany rooms filled with ancient marine maps and other colonial artifacts. While doing multiple presentations in the long boardroom, one had the view of the southern rocky islands set in the bluish grey South China Sea.

The Ritz had the view of Statue Square set against the Bank of China, Cheung Kong and the mid-levels. I was only on the 7th floor, but this gave the eye the perfect elevation view of the city set against the cloud-capped Victorian Peak range. There's something about that sight. It's Hong Kong at its most elegant and beautiful. In the diffused lighting of a drizzly summer morning, it would still be one of the most romantic views in my mind of any city.

Causeway Bay became doubly crowded with pedestrians holding up large golf umbrellas in the rain that fell relentlessly from morning till the afternon.

The sashimi steak was still as thick and scrumptious at Yun Shan. :)

It was an exhausting week - I had almost forgotten how much information there was to take in constantly in Hong Kong. How the mind has had to jump from one thing to another. To listen to 12 different accents from the world over in the office. The flood of familiar faces in the church congregation in a sea of new faces. People coming and going and coming back again in this pulsating city that was home for a while.

But it was still a good week of conversations with life's best friends - how many of those might be our last ones face to face for a while? Of seeing things come to a full circle and knowing that healing can, and has occured. And then of putting away past mistakes, and hurts, and laughing about headless chickens and fainting goats.

It just struck me the other day that I don't think we can play pick-up sticks with people. In relating to someone, you can't just choose the parts that you are comfortable with and avoid those that interwine and touch like spaghetti with the scarier parts, all in for fear of losing the game. By doing that, you are already out of the game, and you will only be dealing with the peripheral and superficial. What it really takes is great care, patience and perception to decide which stick to move first, the right order at the right time, gently, so that you don't scramble the delicate sticks or the person.

Interesting reads from The Economist this week:

Wall Street vs Wall Street Why the stock prices of U.S. investment banks are lacklusture despite record earnings (read: why the recent announcement that we will get more stock options in lieu of cash bonuses does not bode well :-( ).

Obituary of Kenneth Lay, founder of Enron, who died of a massive heart attack last week - he believed he was innocent until the end, and was likened to Job in his misfortunes. erhmm.

Every older brother that a man has increases his chances of being homosexual by 33%. Having younger brothers and female siblings have no effect on his sexual orientation.

The Confucius Institute is fast becoming an icon of Chinese language and culture overseas, much like the Goethe Institute, Alliance Francaise and the British Council are for the respective countries they represent.

(Note: Some articles are only available in the print edition in the staff lounge)