Another encouragement arrived last week over a coffee with a friend who finished reading my book.

He said he had already started taking a painting course that he always wanted to do in the past few years, but hesitated. He is now enjoying the course. I have not seen any of his paintings yet.  However, as I said in the book, each person is on his/her own journey at a speed suitable for him/her and the most IMPORTANT thing is having FUN and enjoying the “ride”.  Don’t let others and/or yourself discourage you!

A friend of mine who is taking an evening French class to brush up her French told me last night that my book helped her.

She followed my example of bringing a drink (non-alcoholic just for the record) to the evening class and it actually boosted her concentration in class.

Yes, it is difficult to stay alert after a long day of work, but we can find little things to help us fight the battle of “dozing off”.

 

It has taken a while but the figure finally arrived today from Amazon. I have sold 5 copies of Kindle version of my book: 2 copies from the U.S., 1 from the U.K, Germany and Canada each. Oddly enough the profit margin is roughly the same for both printed and Kindle versions even though there is no printing cost in the case of Kindle.

A good friend of me who is a shrewd professional investor and also a board member of a major UK financial film, proposed to invest in the audio version of my book for an undisclosed portion of its profit. He recognized its potential particularly for people who prefer listening to reading and/or long-distance commuters.

 I took it as a compliment and promised him to look into it.

Today I followed up with a few people that had expressed interest in purchasing my book at last Friday’s Christmas party. Some of them recalled it after a gentle reminder of the conversation but some failed to remember probably due to the intake of alcohol at the party (or other unknown reasons). Well, I am sure people made more costly promises than the purchase of a book under the “influence of alcohol”. I eventually managed to sell 2 copies today and there are still a few reminders that I need to gently provide later this week.

Funny things ususally happen when they are least expected.

Over a coffee with a few friends today, we had a controversial discussion of my hobby as a frog miniature  collector.  I said I had written three blogs recently on this subject.

After coffee, I went the V&A museum in London to have some quiet moment alone and I spotted an unusal status.  I looked closer and found out that it is called The Frog Princess.

Details of the princess are:
The Frog Princess
1929; cast 1938
By Gilbert Bayes (1872-1953)
The Frog Princess was commissioned by Bayers’s old friend Mrs Margaret Huston Jones for her garden in California.
England (London)
Bronze
In the possession of the sculptor at the time of his death
On loan from the Gilbert Bayes Charitable Trust

Upon numerous requests at tonight’s Christmas party, I was persuaded to make a concession offering Christmas discount of my book!

It will be offered at a reduced price of 6 pounds instead of 8 pounds which is a 25% discount of the original retail price during Christmas season.

Some people asked me how big my collection is. Well, I did not really count them, but I think it is in the vicinity of 100 items.

Due to the limitation of living space in London, I took close to 20 stuff-animal frogs to Canada for my 2 lovely nieces last year. I am very glad that I found a sweet home for my frogs. It would not be fair to the stuff-animal frogs if I left them in boxes without displaying them in my flat. Last time I checked when I was in Toronto this July, the frogs and their owners were happy. It is good to share and create win-win situations.

I used to have 4 pet frogs!

It was quite a long while back when I lived in New York. My colleague (back then) Tina gave me 4 tree frogs that she found in her swimming pool as my obsession of frog was evident in the office. I bought a small tank and kept them for the summer. I remembered buying them crickets as food and ended up having crickets all over my apartment :>

At the end of that summer, I made a tough decision of setting them free in the nature (an undisclosed location). My good friends Alan and Florence came with me as they knew that it would be very emotional (or dramatic) for me.

Actually I was ok. To love is to set someone free – in this case my frogs, they would be happier in the nature than my little tank.

Why is frog my favorite animal? First, frog is an amphibian which can live in water and on land. I am like a frog in the sense that I have 2 sides (I don’t mean right and left). I enjoy quiet hobbies such as music and reading. On the other hand, I like sports (more in my younger years) such as swimming and fencing. In other words, I am a quiet and yet active person (not bipolar though).

 Another characteristic of frog is its strong survival power. You can find frogs almost everywhere in the world. They can use their bodies to adapt to different environments for survival such as changing skin colors and ejecting skin toxins. Like a frog, I too have a very strong determination to succeed. I will overcome hurdles to reach my goal through hard work and strong will power. I will leave out the toxic part – we don’t need to get there.