A Week To Remember.

Nov 21st to 27th, 2020.

• Winter Fair, where 400+ people showed up. I was in charge of pasta. Made two sauces, and they tasted good. I got to use the full size kitchen at the school. Everything was so much hotter! I felt useful. The school is coming alone, albeit all the challenges, albeit the humongous loan.
• Their performances were lovely. Not great, but lovely. Seeing them struggling through the songs and poems was the best show on earth. 😂

• The most rewarding experience from the fair was Jing’s ensemble with her friends Jenna and Ceres. A week ago they sounded terrible. We practiced almost every day. They came and slept over and practiced. In the end, they didn’t sound great, but at leas they were able to finish the piece!

• We celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday. Yes. Everybody is still around.
• Met up with Andy. He was the first person I know from HK that went to Tony Robbins’ courses. It was refreshing to get to know his story, his struggles, and just him. He reached out just because of something I wrote. He acted out of serendipity. I admired that, and it was a fantastic reminder.
• Play practice breakthrough – I was able to get pass regurgitating the lines and started to act. It was a refreshing experience. Zoran has been disrupting the course of my life, and I gladly accept that.
• I had a few good conversations. With K, J, G, and even E. I tried to point to the greatness of K, that he was an amazing creator, and was driven to grow. Same for J, who has been committed to grow and change. My relationship with G has improved. We laughed with each other’s lame jokes. But he’s very thoughtful. I wish I could reason things out like him. And then E. He knew everything I knew. He was tackling things I had never dealt with. But I think I was able to make myself useful to him. He is an amazing human being. I admire him. He cares. As Zoran said, you don’t have to be great, be good, but at the minimum, you must care.
• I had a talk at HKU. I am very grateful that Kevin thought I could be useful to the students. I enjoyed the chat because I noticed how rusty I was. My awareness seemed to have improved so I felt I was a lot more objective in observing myself. This wasn’t a skill I had. It was refreshing to also see how driven, well equipped, positive, those students were, especially those from China. I feel sad that folks in HK are really falling behind, and are complacent.

• I had to pitch to a company for a leadership training program. That company was very discipline in building their young company. I was amazing to see a group of people trying to bring the teachings of Dalio (and the book scaling up). We had to show my deck on a PC, and it looked terrible. I was ok with that, which in hindsight was unacceptable. I will never let that happen again. I will either turn it into a PDF, or create a PowerPoint friendly version, or make my keynote more “device agnostic.”

• Lastly, we had the Advent Spiral for the Kindergarten. It was Chai’s first time, and he refused to walk it. Sharon had to carry him, and it was a beautiful scene. Sharon violated her own rules (again!) and wore dress-like pants. It put out a few candles and thank goodness she didn’t set everything ablaze.
• Personally, I enjoyed being able to play the background music. The process was boring, but the fact that I was able to add something to the ceremony felt good. I am very grateful I have this skill.

These skills.

Perhaps that’s what I am most grateful for. I had opportunities to be useful. I got to cook some pasta, practice with the girls, make some keynotes, present a little, make some music, talk to people.

I don’t feel like I am bragging, even though I keep wondering if this post is a humble brag. But then, even if it is, fine. Because I feel very grateful. I am very lucky. I must have done something right. Sniff.