a night of jazz

haven't had a chance to update my blog lately, so i am going to share with you some nice jazz music that we enjoyed over the weekend at a concert.

alpha testimony

last tuesday i was asked to share in our church's alpha course. and the night before that as i was digging through my heart trying to figure out what to say, this particular dialogue in a movie suddently came to mind -

"i am trying to free your mind, neo, but i can only show you the door, you're the one that has to go through it"

that's what morpheus told neo in the movie "the matrix". in a sense, alpha's exactly like that - show you the door, not opening the door for you, nor pushing you through. but first, in order to even spot that "door", you have to free your mind - forget everything about what you thought you know about god, about christianity, about the purpose of life and go through all these issues from afresh during the course.

it so happened that as i joined alpha for the first time 5 years ago, it's at a time of renewal for me - a new home, a new life, a new relationship. i was able to keep a free mind for everything and give this a whole new thought. that, i think, is the key ingredient of why i think alpha's such a great personal experience.

in case you wonder what alpha's about, here my previous blog entry on it: http://g4gary.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-there-more-to-life-than-this.html

almost like white hart lane

this is saturday night when my friend r and i went out to watch the big spurs vs arsenal game with a bunch of spurs lads. what a turnout.



btw, the picture was taken from www.spursinhongkong.com. just to give proper credit to the original picture source.

golden rule

these cannot be more right... just that many people still didn't realise it. sigh.

golden rule of project management

1. it takes one woman nine months to have a baby. but it cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.
2. nothing is impossible – for the person who doesn't have to do it.
3. you can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
4. a user will tell you anything you ask, but nothing more.
5. what is not on paper has not been said.
6. i know that you believe that you understand what you think i said, but i am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.
7. there are no good project managers - only lucky ones.
8. fast, cheap and good – you can only have two.
9. anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.
10. only two things are as certain as project over-runs – death and taxes.

h one

we closed out august with a visit to h one at ifc, with cyy and our friends d and h. harlan g's perhaps the most successful restauranteur in town since the turn of the century and h one, located on the podium floor of ifc, is his latest venture. that has brought up our expectation a little bit, but then, with his portfolio thinning up so rapidly in the last few years (he grew from a single outlet to five restaurants and a bar!), we sorta know what we are getting into.


this evening we picked the 5-course tasting menu - that's what we came for anyway in the first place so this is a no-brainer. it came with a starter, soup, pasta, choice of entree (fish or beef) and dessert. overall, the food's decent, portion's nice, nothing too creative or out of the line, but then nothing worth the "woos" and "wahs" either... sorta like when you are in a 7-inning stretch and up 3-nothing, all you want to do is to avoid doing anything stupid, throw some fastballs here and there, and close out the match.

i personally like the appetizer of salmon tartar with caviar - it's a simple dish but i just like it. can't complain about the rest but nothing to praise particularly either. i picked the oven-roasted sea bass as entree but i heard some good comments of the grilled beef that cyy and d picked. i continued to crave for a full-bodied chardonnay - don't know why - so the chassagne montrachet's just perfect for me.

the menu's grandly named "ultimate dining experience", or the tasting menu as you may say, but to us, it's more like a very expensive "AB餐" with sorta everything being thrown in a set. but considered the price, the location, the decor, and the amount of food we got, it still turned out to be a decent deal and a good evening out for us. one of those "been there done that" places - and again, you can't fairly comment on a restaurant til you actually tried it. think we will return? that's hard to say.

august 1, m at the fringe. august 31, h one. what a way to start and end a month, and i am ready to kiss summer goodbye any time now - just can't stand the heat anymore.

and oh, what's supposed to be a dinner for four turned into a long table with nine people... well, that's just another story. it's a small world after all.

details:
when? august 31 2007
where? h one, ifc
menu highlights? wild salmon tartar, caviar and chopped organic egg salad
drinks? verget chassagne montrachet pimont 2004