We have been making ourselves extremely comfortable since we arrived at Vietnam. The whole journey is to refresh and to rejuvenate. This is also why we prefer travel package to group tour.

Sandra stays in bed until late in the morning. I usually rise up earlier. I had a morning walk alone two days ago. I stopped by Banh Cuon LA for Vietnamese spring rolls and free WiFi. I plan to go to swim the next day.

After Sandra has risen up, we plan where we should head for in the afternoon. We usually pick a museum or an attraction for tourist to go. We went to the church of Notre Dame and Benh Tay market on the second day; Cholon and Unification Palace on the third; National History Museum on the fourth.

In between we went in different restaurants to stuff ourselves up. We went to Temple Club at the first night we arrived. It was like a posh Vietnamese restaurant for foreigners. I thought of Hu Tong in Hong Kong. We completed our first night with a visit to Fanny Icecream. On the second day, we filled our stomachs in Banh Cuon LA, Pho 24, Fanny Icecream (encore!) and Quan An Ngon. Pho 24 and Quan An Ngon served authentic Vietnamese dishes. On the third day, we had lunch in a food stall inside Bin Tanh market in Cholon. The food stall was run by a local Chinese. We had “pho bo” (beef noodle soup) and fresh juice. Fresh juice is something you cannot miss in Saigon. Do try juice of those peculiar fruit like acerola, sapodilla, soursop, etc. The juice with or without yogurt is unexpectedly delicious. At night, we dined at Au Manoir de Khai, a reputed French restaurant in Saigon. USD95 to USD130 for a 5-course dinner. It was less expensive than a decent French dinner in Hong Kong. But we ordered a la carte instead as we thought we only wanted what we needed.

On the second day and the third day, we finished our journey with a glass of iced tea with lime in the cupcake shop Pacey right at the corner opposite to our hotel Intercontinental Asiana. Of course we also used the free WiFi service there. As I write this post, we still have not yet decided where we would have our meals on the fourth day. But we have made up our mind that we have to try Pho 2000 (a noodle restaurant which Bill Clinton tried when he last visited Ho Chi Minh City), Kem Bach Dang (another local icecream parlour) and perhaps Sax’n Art (a popular jazz bar). If only we had more than one stomach.

Do not think that we have to hurry to and fro. Our trip is in fact very relaxing. I have not mentioned that we went back to our hotel every day around 4:00 not because we had forgotten anything but only because we would like to flee from the humid weather and lay on the bed doing nothing for an hour or two. We also went in coffee shops frequently for a chilling drinks only to avoid the fierce sun in the afternoon.

Well, there is no other description than the Cantonese word “Hea” which can best describe what we have been doing in Saigon. It is exactly such feeling of Hea which gives us the sense of getting control of ourselves and our life. And this makes the whole trip much more meaningful than we expected.

I really want to talk about the food of Ho Chi Minh City. For those hot dishes, you will find some hints of Cantonese style with South East Asian style. For the desserts, you will find them unexpectedly good. By desserts I mainly refer to icecream.

Icecream is something inherited from the French. There are several icecream restaurants in HCMC. First, they are local business. There are dozens of authentic flavours including avocado, young rice, anise, chilly chocolate, soursop, ginger, etc, in addition to those flavours you can find in icecream vendors in Hong Kong.

Second, all flavours are creamy and thick. When you scoop a spoonful, you will find the icecream quite thick and substantial. The texture in the mouth is smooth and most important of all not too sweat not too bland. I tasted ginger and chilly chocolate. The hotness of ginger and chilly is different. The hotness of ginger was detected immediately after I put the icecream in my mouth. It was not strong at all and concentrated in the central part of the tongue. But when I put chilly chocolate in my mouth, the sweetness of chocolate attacked each taste bud of my tongue. There was a kind of happiness in it. But after I swallowed the smooth silky melted mixture of chocolate cream, a hint of hotness occupied the whole mouth. It was very very mild but it reminded you that you could taste food with not only your tongue but the whole buccal cavity. The hint of hotness extended to the throat. The whole experience could be described as an orgasm in the mouth.

Third, both the restaurants and the icecream are very presentable. One of the restaurants has a patio. Customers can decide whether to sit inside or sit on the patio. The interior decoration can be compared to any icecream vendor in Hong Kong. We visited these restaurants nearly every night. We ordered scoops of icecream instead of sundae as we liked to taste the original tastes of the icecream. But when the waitress put the icecream on our table, I found that they had put a slice of pineapple, one or two grapes and some ornaments on the icecream. The presentation was not tacky at all. Instead it lightened me up because of the performance of tastes.

Fourth, the price is surprisingly attractive. Four scoops of icecream were almost a must every time we visited. It only costed us around HKD32 to HKD40 for the whole package of tastes, free WiFi, services and the cosy time of being an outsiders of the crazy buzzing World.

You may look for happiness everywhere. But happiness is indeed so simple and within your reach.

PS: The fruit in HCMC is also great. But I would rather drink it. There are different kinds of fruit like acerola, soursop and sapodilla. Sapodilla juice is already tasted like smoothie. I have tried it in shake with other juice like mango and avocado. The outcome was extremely tasteful.

When I got on the plane of Vietnam Airlines, I thought about my great grandfather although I had no chance to see him in person. It would be the first time I set foot on the homeland of my great grandfather. I wondered what kind of people I would meet.

My ancestors went to Vietnam from Guangxi Province. My great grandfather was one of the largest rice merchants in Vietnam in his time. My grandfather was his second son. My father was the largest grandson. I can never imagine how they lived in the old days. But those TV programmes featuring a large family clan living in a very big mansion with this couple not going well with that couple and they tried to frame each other gives me some ideas even though it might not be real. What I am sure is that my father could not be touched by any ordinary servant but a few trusted ones under the supervision of my great grandfather. What else do I need to know? To certain extent, my grandfather and my father were spoilt. I am also spoilt by heritage then.

When the communist party took over the government in North Vietnam. Most of the family clan fled from the country. My grandfather’s family came to Hong Kong. Many of my grandfather’s siblings went to the US, Australia, France, Belgium, etc. This is also why I have relatives seen or unseen all over the World. It seemed some kind of fairy tale to me when I was small. But living in modern Asia, similar stories exist. As I know, one of Sandra’s aunt was a Laotian princess. When the communist party took over the government in Laos, she fled to Taiwan. When we talk about the modern history of communist countries, there must be some pathetically romantic elements in it.

Sandra and I reached Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) yesterday. We stayed in Intercontinental Asiana. We were stunned by the beautiful architecture of the city. We found that Saigon was a melting pot of South East Asian architecture, Chinese architecture, European architecture and also American architecture. The weather forecast said that there would be scattered thunderstorm with 60% chance of raining. It seemed that we were on the remaining 40%. The atmosphere was extremely hot and humid. After several minutes in the street, we had to get into some coffee shops to chill ourselves out. The food in Saigon was great. We hopped into one after another restaurants following the suggestions of the travel guide books. But Vietnam was like Mainland China in the 80’s with some surprise of getting WiFi everywhere. The fact that Facebook could not be accessed any time again reminded you of Mainland China.

I am now sitting in a posh cupcake shop putting a scoop of double chocolate cupcake into my mouth and sipping my iced tea with lime. This cupcake shop is called Pacey, at the corner right opposite to our hotel. Norah Jones’ soothing voice is played in the air. The street is still busy with scooters and taxis. You cannot distinguish whether time is frozen or progressing slowly without any hints. I dare say this is not the Vietnam my great grandfather once lived. But I think my great grandfather also lived in such romantic earth before he died. If only every one survived from the difficult period of the modern history of South East Asia.

I have not written any post in this blog for a long time. It is simply because I am dry and empty.

As one of the middle management in a school, I think I have been doing buffering jobs. On one hand, I am a teacher. I have to exhaust myself in preparing lessons and offering assessment of their learning to my students. I enjoy this part very much. I find that preparing learning materials for the students is the most fruitful and rewarding task. I am also the one who advocates metacognition strategy and cooperative learning in the school. I find that the pedagogy is fun.

On the other hand, I am a “manager”. I need to carry out the school policy and supervise my colleagues to be aligned with the school’s main directions. This task is a kind of art. I have to talk to my boss, simply the Principal, and make suggestions to the visions and missions of the school. By visions and missions I do mean the developmental needs of the school instead of those slogans on the signboards. I also have to explain to my colleagues the details of these policies. This role also widens my horizon. When I talk to my students and their parents, I do not concentrate on whether I win or not. Some colleagues will set winning over the other parties as their ultimate goal in a row with the stakeholders. But I do not see any dialogue in this way. I have to make everyone focus on how every party will develop from the dialogue. Therefore the dialogue should not and will not turn out to be a row.

However, I come up with some challenges whom I have never imagined. I find myself working alone to do the buffering duty. People around start blaming each other for this and that. I find my whole support system collapses. The people I believed turn out to be some grumpy cynical people. As an education practitioner, I believe in the power to change of every person. I believe that opportunity will change a person. I believe that encouragement is essential to all these. The whole entanglement of learning and development is based on commitment, teamwork, trust and positive interdependence. If one player does not play in good will, all the other players will be discouraged. and start ignoring the foundation of good will. The more key role the player, the more severe the impact.

Life is sometime ironic. There must be times when what you see may not be what you believe. It is a kind of test of belief. If you live in a life that everything is up to your standard and expectation, life is not meaningful at all. It is exactly because life is not always what you think and you consistently stick to what you believe that you are worthy and your life becomes meaningful.

Being a teacher nowadays is not easy but still joyful when I face my students. Being a middle management in the school is not easy either but also meaningful when I face my students and parents. It seems that I am reproaching. To certain extent, I am. But at the same time I would like people know that I can quit at any time and they can fill in if they think that they are capable.

當了老師已經十八年有餘，今年覺得最難過。箇中原因很多很複雜，曾經覺得意興闌珊，如今倒覺得是一種試煉。最近開了很多會，有很多改革和變遷，也有很多將會陸續有來。面對鋪天蓋地的指令，學生固然有微言，同事更是怨聲載道，矛頭直指新來的校長。

改變根本就是無處不在，不會因為一兩個人的出現而引致。當然，新人事新作風，自然改變更多。但若果連這樣的改變都受不了，哪怎樣面對將來社會上的不同改變呢？講句公道話，最近學校很多的改變，由不同人提出，不應把情緒全投射到一個人身上。眾多改革變遷的提議，有些經過廣泛討論，有些沒有；有些有它的道理，有些不明所以。我個人認同某些部分，對某些有所保留。至於討論過程，我參與的部分，我可保證是開心見誠。我沒有參與的部分，我沒資格批評。作為教師團隊的一員，我尊重我的學生，也尊重我的同事。一個團體，有它的規矩，這是自然的，不是每一個成員都完全認同每一條規矩。但作為其中一份子，我會問個究竟，也會努力遵守，這是我的責任。中秋端午對很多外國人來講都很無謂，但一起做些傻事，也是一種歸屬和驕傲。

風頭火勢，說這些應該不中聽。 我是一個老師，我學生的老師，學校裡面教師團隊的老師，訓導團隊的一位老師，校長旗下的一名老師， 對於上星期的每一個討論環節和將會接踵而來的改革，百般滋味，不便一一說明。無論如何，校規有道理也好，白癡也好，還有很多更重要的事情要做好。當年中學時期唸的是英華書院，名校不名校，見仁見智。但唸的時候，學校已經一百七十五週年，這樣傳統的學校，莫名其妙的校規多得如恆河沙數。二十多年後，校規有多無聊已經記不清。仍歷歷在目的，倒是當年跟同學和老師的每一個互動細節。所以，我會好好把握這兩天假期休息，星期一回學校我要跟我的每一個學生，過好未來每一天校園生活。

My colleague spoke to the whole school at a morning line-up assembly. He quoted what Sir Run Run Shaw responded to the accusation of a reporter in an interview. The sharing was quite inspirational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAy6ZYJTHPc Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH5ighNQtTU Part 2

The attitude mentioned in the speech can be possessed by everyone no matter you are a student, a teacher, a subordinate or a boss.

“Let’s keep silent for a minute,” I responded to the question what life education of the school would be all about.

Keeping silent is not as easy as we think. There are around 40 people in the classroom. There must be one distracted by other stuffs happening in the room. It may be only a fly. It is even more difficult if all these people can be tranquil and meditate for that 1 minute.

“What do you feel?” I asked after 1 minute. Of course, that 1 minute of silence was not very quality. That was what I had expected. After all, the school would kick off the curriculum in the following year and the question hit me off-guarded.

“We are busy not only every day but also every minute. Have you thought about why you are busy an what for?”

My question was followed by silence. (I could see some of the students were not still there with me but obviously there were some of them really hit by my question.)

“The school would do something really meaningful. When we look at the people and the community around us, we find that there is anger and hatred. Even if you have some good ideas, they are always presented in very provocative ways. Why? There are no needs to scold at someone to make yourselves clear. Are there any problems with every one of us?”

Those who asked me only to amuse themselves were silent. I found them deep in thinking.

“There should be something more important about life. Have you thought of why you have to help the elderly even you do not know them? Our parents raised us no matter what. They paid their efforts. Therefore we try to make their life easier. All elderly may be parents of somebody else. We help them in order to pay tribute to our parents. This comes back to the starting point. Are all parents respectable? This is not the right question. It should be whether we know how to be grateful. As your teacher, I have to say that we excel because we have gratitude to everything instead of hatred.”

Now, many of the students were deep in thoughts. Whether they bought my ideas or not was not important. The most important was this precious moment that my students could stop and think what they need in their life.

The programme of life education next year cannot be too large because of the limited resources. But I am eager to be involved in the programme.

Traditional Tangyuan (glutinous rice dumpling) requires lard in the filling. Lard actually makes the filling smooth in texture. Any substitute seems healthier but at the same time leaves the texture greasy instead.

My parents came over to have dinner last night. Sandra and I made a miraculous move. She prepared the glutinous rice batter while I unwrapped a bar of Toblerone chocolate and cut them into the right size. Then Sandra wrapped each piece of chocolate with glutinous batter. After the dinner, she boiled a pot of water with ginger and added a few blocks of Okinawa black sugar. Then she boiled the rice dumplings in the sweet ginger soup.

When we presented the rice dumplings, my parents and my brother looked very excited. The dumplings looked like ordinary Tangyuan. But when they scooped one with the black sugar ginger soup into their mouths, they recognised the difference. The chocolate filling was smooth as there were no substitutes as vegetable softening or margarine but only cocoa butter. The chocolate burst out of the sticky glutinous rice wrapping. But it was not airy at all. There were lumps of honey in Toblerone chocolate. They found some tiny chewy sweet lumps in the dumpling. The black sugar ginger soup was a compliment to the dumpling. It added some spice with unique black sugar flavour to the whole mixture in their mouths.

As a result, not a single dumpling was spared. The idea of having chocolate as the filling of glutinous rice dumplings was proved great.

PS: Osmanthus syrup does not work with chocolate filling. Do not use it as the soup base. We haven’t tried this but we think that fermented rice can go well with chocolate filling. We may try it with rock sugar as the soup base next time.

What makes us a family? Is there sibling rivalry among brothers? I think these are interesting questions we have not studied really carefully in our daily life. The inclusion of Choco into our little family of two let me start thinking of the first question; that of Zero, the second one.

Like alma mater, your family may give you many reasons to have reproach. But when someone say something bad to your family, you will not hesitate to defend against the accusation. But unlike alma mater, your family will not be what you can choose. Families must not be perfect to every family member. This is also how we can learn to interact with different people, especially those you may not like, through the within family interarction. The fact that we cannot choose our family members pushes us to learn faster within the protection of family.

What have happened between Choco and Zero are even more inspiring to me. It is not only the fight for nutritions. It is a fight among performance and capability. It is not only about how you can accept your inferiority in certain kinds of performance. It is about how you can accept the superiority in certain kinds of performance of the others. Appreciating who you are is basic to be human. But appreciating others’ strengths is another thing and therefore it is a virtue.

Choco and Zero fight and fight every day. Do not think that Zero is smaller but he is also younger and more daring. Most of the fights were induced by him. They fight for toys or even with no reasons. However, when we walk them, they like to cling to each other. Zero always follows wherever his big brother goes. What really touches us is the attitude of Choco. It turns 180 degrees from how he behaves at home. Choco leads the way in the street. And he turns back at times to check whether Zero can follow him. When we taught Zero descending staircase again, we asked Choco to show Zero how to descend the staircase. Choco walked down two steps, stopped, looked back and waited. Zero stumbled two steps and stopped. Choco walked down two steps again and repeated the cycle. The bonding of the two brothers was touching.

Is there any sibling rivalry? Yes! I am a big brother. I know. There must be some among the siblings in various areas not necessarily on the conscious level but on the subconscious one. But such imbalance can be a kind of positive tension to each of the siblings to excel to be a better person. It is quite sad to discover that nowadays nuclear families become too small. One-child policy in China, for example, on one hand, like some environmentalists claim, does help protect the environment in certain way. But it, on the other hand, nurtures a generation of arrogant strawberry-like people who can neither interact with one another in the same way as we do nor deal with crisis. This is so partly because they lack the learning opportunities our generation once had and also partly because many nuclear families are not as functioning well as we think. In fact, many of them can even be described as malfunctioned.

It sounds as if I were a sociologist. I am not, indeed. But shifting from individual to the society, there are still many layers. These layers help nurture individuals and at the same time absorb the impacts of various crises to individuals. As a teacher in peripheral district, I am completely heartbroken to learn that there are quite a number of malfunctioned families. These families ruin the children. When we talk about social change, globalisation and how advanced our society has become, we should think of the impact of all the elements to the families, which are in fact the basic elements in society, especially society of oriental cultures.

I went to gym yesterday. I plan to resume work-out. What makes me make up my mind? It is a guy without limbs.

I am reading Nick Vujicic’s Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life. I am not a christian. And I do not buy the concept of God very much. But I buy his concept of faith. The reason is simple. When you face a guy without limbs, what ground can you hold to reject his belief helping him fighting for all those difficulties of life? In front of him, I am small even though I have my four limbs. I remember last time we played Nick’s video to the whole school. That was the first time the whole school went dead silent and all students were absolutely attentive. Nick is so powerful that you can feel it by only looking at him.

According to him, there are two kinds of changes. One comes from the external. The other comes from within. We cannot reject the first one. But we can initiate the second one. This really hits me somewhere. I was quite open-minded to changes. And I always considered myself a change agent. But there have been many changes. They have once suffocated me. I forgot what I had once been. There are so many changes which I cannot manage to resist. I can choose to change accordingly. But keeping up with those changes blinded me from those changes I should initiate from within.

I plan to resume work-out because I want to cure my back pain and neckache. The most important of all, I want to get hold of my life again. If I do not have some requests of my own health, what else can I achieve? Therefore, I did weight training and treadmill running yesterday. I plan to alternate with swimming. Well, I do not whether I can persist or not. But this is only the first step. After all, I am only 40. If I give up on myself at this moment, how can I survive the remaining half of my life? If I have already consumed most of my life, how can I waste the little remains of my days?

My eyes went watery on the day Nick’s video was broadcast in the campus. Life is meaningful and purposeful no matter what.