Tough Decisions...

I remember when I was young the toughest decisions I ever had to make was what I should wear the next day; whether I should go to a party or stay at home and study for an exam... oh that one could keep you up all night.

These days we have to make decisions in a structured way, in a way that will be the most beneficial in the long run. Choosing where you live, choosing who to be with, choosing... These decisions will determine your life forever, determine other people's lives forever. What if I had done this? What if I had chosen that? Would life be different? Would things have turned out better...

What's more difficult than making a tough decision? Living with it, without regret. If you can't live without regret, you wouldn't want to make any more decisions.

So in order to keep making my tough decisions, I must live without regret every day.

Hong Kong City

Going back to Hong Kong after 12 years was a nostalgic and surreal experience. I felt like I was going to a country for the first time, but I felt familiar with it somehow... I got the hang of things very quickly. I loved the metro when I was little - that was always my favourite. I also realised just how small Hong Kong is.

I had lunch with Anthony Cheng while I was there. He was an intern in New Zealand about 4 months ago. He really misses NZ and he plans to come back to visit one day, yay! It was good to see him again and to speak Cantonese with him haha. I miss speaking my mother tongue, now that I've moved away from home, I want to speak it again whenever I can.

This is the two of us saying good bye at the train station. Going to Sha Tin is quite a journey! He works at a place called Lee & Fung now, a big trading company. So he only had an hour for lunch and went over time just a little bit for me. So nice!

The streets of Hong Kong - walking on my own it was a little bit intimidating, especially after coming back from the empty Netherlands but I got the hang of it. Only got lost once!

Hong Kong's member committee apartment is in Sheung Wan - the last stop on the metro - and it's on Des Voux Street where all the dried seafood shops are! I got quite a shock when all I saw there were only seafood shops around before I realised this was the street for seafood.

I wish I could've gone back to the street I used to live on in Kowloon Tong but I can't remember the name of it - d'oh!

The Wild and Crazy Guys

At IPM 06 we had a session about My Stand - searching our past and our passions to find our stand in life. Ghandi was a stand for non-violent protests, Martin Luther King was a stand for equality and end to discrimination.

My stand is the sustainable development of our societies and our environment. I identified this stand by searching myself - what pulls me, what jumps out at me, what excites my interest.

One of my friend has joined a team in the Oxfam Trailwalker - 100km walk in 36 hours, four individuals working in a team to complete this feat. I feel this cause is very worthwhile. I think Oxfam is doing a great job and I hope there will be others out there who will support this team and feel a connection with the stand.

We should not sit and wait while people fall further into poverty and the environment into further degradation. It is not sustainable for countries to trade their goods at prices 10 times less than their worth.

To donate, click on the logo above or go to this site: The Wild and Crazy Guys Fundraising page.

Snow Fall in the Netherlands

IPM06 141
Originally uploaded by Amy Lily.

The first time I've seen snow fall and been out in the snow. I felt like we were inside a snow globe paper weight. Also had my first snow ball fight - it was outside a converted monestary; got completely annihalated, as my brother would put it.

This is a photo of the view outside my bedroom window after a morning of snow fall.