Traditionally, the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner is the MOST important dinner in the entire year. It is the time that a family got together for dinner to say goodbye to one year and welcome a new one collectively.

Living abroad for a long time I was not planning to do anything special tonight. It just happened (by the God’s grace) that a friend from an evening course suggested a group dinner at her flat tonight as this week is a half-term in the U.K. To top it off, there were 8 people at the table. 8 being a lucky number representing prosperity, I think we are heading off to a great start :>

In the introduction of the book (p.12 of Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), I found a funny analogy that made me laugh on the subject of ageing. “Like waiters in a restaurant starting to place breakfast settings on the surrounding tables while one is still having dinner, these intimations of mortality plainly communicate the message: Your time is up, it’s time to move on.”

Actually I have a different picture in my mind that I have shared with some friends before. The picture is: I am on a train ride and enjoy it so much that I refused to get off at the various stops that most people normally do.

Put it in the context of Mihaly’s analog, I will enjoy my dinner as long as I want to. For all I care, the waiters can set other tables for breakfast to their hearts’ content.

Simply put, I think whatever meal you are having, as long as you enjoy it, keep it that way and let no one spoil your mood.

On the subject of motivation and drive, I am reading a book called Flow written by the renowned psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the United States.

First, let us define what Flow is and then I will offer my thoughts based on the content of the book which is considered as a classic on the subject. According to Mihaly (p.6), “’Flow’ is the way people describe their state of mind when consciousness is harmoniously ordered, and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake.”

I have just started reading the book and thus, the upcoming blogs will be based on my daily readings. Hopefully it won’t take too long to finish.

In this weekend’s edition of Financial Times, columnist Harry Eyres reflected on his once-in-25-year school reunion. In his Slow Lane column, he wrote “The reunion was characterized by warmth and a sort of heartiness. With age, people generally get kinder and a touch less painfully shy. No one seemed to have returned to settle scores.”

I agreed with him PARTIALLY. In my opinion, as one gets older, one has a choice between becoming a grumpy old man or a mellowed and kinder person. It is a decision that one has to make, consciously or subconsciously. I think as one matures, one needs to make an effort to focus on the positive things in life and let go of things including past incidents that we can’t change. Forget, forgive and open up heart and mind to march on the path of maturity.

Today is Valentine’s day. Though I am against being a victim of commercialization, it is good to have another occasion to appreciate our loved ones. We can make every day of our lives a Valentile’s day, but for today, we can “go with the flow” and enjoy the “love in the air” atmosphere without being ripped off by overpaying for flowers and chocolate. Be creative and come up with other small tokens of love and often time, the simplest way works the best.

The phrase “I love you” has magical power and can work wonders :>

Next week is half term is the UK. Students will have a week off. I did not appreciate it that much before. But now that I am taking 3 courses outside of work. I felt that I can definitely benefit from having a week off from my lessons.

Breathe Breathe Breathe.

As part of our human nature, it is very common and easy to become bitter when things go wrong or not go as we expected.
How can we turn it around?
1) Identify the source of the bitterness. Sometimes the bitterness is so overwhelming that we don’t even know where it is rooted from. Reflect and think deep.
2) Calm yourself. Take a moment and step away from it. Take a breather and leave the “crime scene” if you can.
3) Sort out if there are remedies or not (short-term, medium-term or long-term).
4) If the situation cannot be resolved, let it go and move on.
5) Think broadly and freely of any lesson(s) you can learn from this experience. New insights? Preventive measures in the future?
6) Stay focused on the positive things of life and don’t let the bitterness “consume” you. It is not the end of the world.

Today I went to a venue to book for an area for an after-work drink for approximately 15 people next Tuesday. After taking down the information, the hostess asked since it is a quiz night with a 50-pound cash prize tonight, would I like to SWITCH the reservation from next Tuesday to tonight?  I held back my tongue and mockery and firmly said “No, thank you”. Do I really want to ask 15 people to change the agreed date for a quiz night with such an extravagant prize?

To test my common-sense and patience further, she then told me that the reservation was done for the basement which was the default. I forced myself not to roll my eyes and told her calmly that I prefer the bar at the street level with glass windows. Is she serious that customers prefer the “dungeon” with no windows nor trace of civilization than the bar at the street level?

Not sure if it was a case of ignorance or a trap. It was certainly a test of my mockery and patience!

I have been a fan of 2 programs of the BBC Radio 2, the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Moira Stuart during weekday morning and Paul O’Grady Show on Sunday afternoon.

The Breaksfast Show has children as young as 6 calling in to share what they have done for the first time in their lives (such as performing and/or going to a museum). I love that. It is a great way to start the morning.

The Paul O’Grady Show is hilarious. Paul is a riot. I thought he was Irish until my friend Gary told me that it is actually a Liverpool accent not an Irish one. Never mind, Paul always cracks me up with his outrageous comments.

Anyway, I am going to send each of them a copy of my book to see if the favorite radio DJs like my book.

I am a big fan of physiotherapy because it is based on sound medical knowledge of muscles and discipline of the patient (for doing the exercises).

My parents are fans as well in particular my dad who benefited from it in the past few years. They are both very keen learners to know more.  As soon as they knew that I started physiotherapy, they began to pick my brain every weekend on what I learned to see if it was new to them. After 3 months of weekly drilling, I finally managed to impress them with one new way of doing a physio-exercise yesterday. I admire their excellent attitude of learning new things irrespective of their ages.