OT: Today is a Happy Day …

… because someone dropped two hundred dollars …

… and I found it just in front of me while I wandering around …

… and I could pick it up without anyone noticing it …

… and I could not find the one who dropped the money …

… and I then found a donation box in one book store …

… and I donated the two hundred bucks to someone in need …

… today is a happy day …

Shanghai – One Hundred Years’ Old

It was pretty new to me. A water village closes to Shanghai city – Zhou Zhuang. It’s new to me because there are dozens of shops there and somehow every restaurant, inn, cake shop, souvenir shop etc. etc. all claim they have one hundred years’ old histories. They must be kidding … you can see how greediness destroyed this beautiful water village.

Anyway, a picture of one of the old “restaurants” there.

One inn in Zhou zhuang

OT: Travel Guide Books

No matter where I travel, I would visit the bookstore there. So I visited the biggest bookstore in Shanghai in my conference trip there and as usual, I visited the travel book section first.

The first book I picked up, among many books in the same category, reads “Beijing : The Travel Guide”. And I flipped to one chapter and it starts with “Dear sir and madam, in front of you is the Great Chinese Wall …”.

Ooops … believe it or not, this is a book for travel guides. A “reference” book for this group of “professionals” such that they can study / memorise the history and stories.

Amazing …

#55

Every year, around that time, I will buy a lot of books and magazines … all about news of the year, photos of the year, products of the year, person of the year, quote of the year etc. etc. It’s hard to explain why I have such consumer behavior, but I guess you will understand it when you’re getting older … when you really want to save time in a bottle … 😎

And if you looked back the past 12 months, you would probably find a few moments that you felt really upset, anger, sad, tired and frustrated. I think it is OK and normal, because we all want to do a good job and be a good person. The bottom line is, how we can make each failure, complaints, and setbacks to be a driving force and opportunity to improve ourselves, our systems and our work … to impress our customers once again.

Thank you. Thank you.

It reminds me the line by Captain Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) in the movie “Apollo 13″:

… it’s been a privilege flying with you …