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I don't know why everyone seems to be inclined to have New Years resolutions, but I just wish to have some changes for my life. So here is my list.

Work smart, play more.

Sit less, move more. (therefore the standing desk)

Don't get hurt while working or exercising. (never again)

Buy less, give more. 

Reuse what we already have.

Slow down.

Stretch.

Take care of myself first, it may mean less learning and more experiencing and experimenting with what I learned.

Make space to enjoy life with people I love and care.

Aisle seat

Do you know how long it takes to fly from San Francisco to Hong Kong? 14 hours. It's a long trip for sure.

It was a red-eye flight. At midnight, we were served dinner, which includes choices of chicken, fish or pasta and complementary wine.

After dinner, I sat in my seat and fell asleep for 4 hours. Slowly I was awaken by the numbing of my lower back and tail bone. I got up, went to the restroom, then naturally, I stretched in the aisle next to my seat. 

Here are the poses/stretches I found very useful for long flights. Believe me, it makes a world of a difference.

The first four poses help stretch the legs. Do these poses on both sides and try to hold for 5 breaths.

• Warrior I & II without the arms. Just use a hand to hold on to the seat back so you are stable. 
• Modified dancer's pose: with one hand holding on to a seat back for balance, raise one leg back toward the tailbone, and hold that foot with the hand. Lightly lean the body forward and the back leg may lean backward.
• Put that foot forward and place it on the other thigh while slightly bending the other thigh. Do the other side.
• Lunge pose on both sides.
• Sit in the seat, lift your feet off the floor and slowly rotate them.

The following poses help stretch the neck, shoulders and upper body.

• Slowly rolling the hard from right to left, then left to right. Repeat 5 times.
• Slowly look from left to right then right to left. Repeat 5 times.
• Shoulder rolls front to back, back to front. Repeat 5 times.
• Seated twist. While sitting in the seat, twist from your core to the right, hold. Then twist to the left.

After stretching I fell back to sleep. Two hours later I woke up again and I performed similar stretches. So on and so forth. 

Throughout the flight, I drank a lot of water and move around a lot. Additional hint, use an eye mask and ear plus to help sleeping on flight.

When I got to HK, my body didn't feel fatigue, and it was amazing. Additionally, the flight went amazingly fast, so it was tolerable.

It's nice to be back

Last year was
tough, hectic and challenging.
Holidays came and went,
it helped empty the heaviness out of my system, and I'm my relaxed happy self.

I went to the office today.
It's very nice to work in a day that's not chopped up by meetings,
and it's good to be productive.
I should savor the moment, as I don't know how long it will last.

What am I looking for in this year?
First and foremost,
I wish to avoid adding loads to my days.
I wish to just live and be, instead of seeking and searching...

For a while, for a change.

Bitter gourd

Last Saturday Jack and I went to this Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale, which was highly recommended by my picky Indian colleague to be the best Indian buffet in town.

We were very happy with the choices of food, despite having to wait for 30 minutes for the buffet to open. Jack's favorite, to my surprise, was tandoori vegetables. It was similar to tandoori chicken but had marinated crunchy vegetables instead of chicken.

We came across this tiny strips of fried green vegetable in the tandoori, which we had never had anywhere else, but Jack liked the taste. I tasted it, and to me, it was bitter, and I didn't like it at all. I told him I thought it was fried bitter melon, but Jack didn't think it was possible, because he disliked any kind of melon, not to mention the bitter ones.

I smiled. Deep down, I knew how bitter melon tasted like, because it was one of my favorite exotic green vegetables! Deep fried, tandoori flavor or otherwise, I know how bitter melon taste like.

I told Jack: why don't you ask the server what it is.

Jack seemed to be as curious as I did, so he said OK. He went to where the dish was placed and asked his question.

When Jack came back, he said: "It was bitter gourd." I laughed with satisfaction. Then he continued: "The first waiter didn't know what it was, so we asked the waitress, and she said it was bitter gourd. Then the Chinese lady asked if it was bitter melon, and the waiter told her, 'no, it's bitter gourd.'"

How does the saying go? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Random

We are watching 27 dresses to test the Roku configuration.

Jack: is it interesting that New York has a Central Park and San Francisco has a ...
Ying interrupted: Union Square?
Jack: Golden Gate Park.
Ying: oh, Central Park is actually a park?
Jack: haha, Yes. :)
Ying: I always thought Central Park was like some kind of a square.

Smile

Allowed

Last night I watched the 10 o'clock news. While the advertisements were on, and I was dozing off, I was reminded that we have been in the middle of the holiday shopping season. It was actually refreshing for me to see Christmas shopping commercials, listening to Christmas music, watching pictures of snow and festive colors.

Usually between Thanksgiving and New Years, I would be totally overwhelmed by various holiday ads from different channels, and pulling my hair out. 

It helped that I just came back from a 3-week trip to the Far East. I have been reacquainting myself with my day to day life, while unmistakeably soaking in and appreciating every moment. It was as if my "cup" was some how being emptied, filled with my Asian experiences, then it was emptied again and now it was being filled again, slowly, happily and steadily.

Once in a while, it's nice to be able to choose to allow commercials to amuse me, instead of being frustrated by them. The question is, how do we "drain our cups" once a while, so that we can look at things, even possibly annoying things with a child-like innocence?

Missing

I have been missing myself lately.

I just came back from an international trip, and over the last few days, I had been exclaiming: how nice it is to be back!

It's nice to have clean toilets which flush properly. A toilet flush is like melody to my ears.
It's nice to be out and about where there is no cigarette smoke, nor people talking loudly.
It's nice to be able to plug in to electric outlets without worrying about destroying my gadgets.
It's nice to have Internet access at my palm using my beautiful new iPhone, without worrying about wifi availability.
It's nice to be able to drive myself to places in my own car.
More importantly, it's nice to be home!

While I'm shaking my Asia blues, I seemed to remember why I didn't make these trips more frequently. On the other hand, it's nice to be truly appreciative of what I have once in a while.