Dressmaker

In my opinion, two of the most important people in a girl's life are:
1. Lifetime partner
2. Personal designer/ dressmaker.

I'm fortunate enough to have found my personal dressmaker (before she becomes unaffordably famous), who's been making me beautiful clothes since last October when I needed a special gown for an unusual wedding.

A really good personal dressmaker makes a girl feel so special with one-of-a-kind, flattering outfits made especially for her, tailored to her curves (or thelackof), suited to her style. Mind you, custom-making a dress actually costs a lot less than buying a nice one off-the-rack.

That feeling of specialness is so addictive I recently started asking Hannah (oh yes, my dressmaker has a name!) to make me some everyday wear.

Here's her sketches to give me some ideas for a very simple skirt (to wear with my many tank tops), and a very simple floral dress: (Note the hairstyle!)



And here's some more pictures of clothes she made me:



























Black and purple waist-band made instead of the yellow one below...

Sad night in Jakarta

Recently, many unfortunate things happened to people I care about.

An old friend of mine, Carlos, was diagnosed with cancer about 1.5 years ago. After treatments and a number of operations he thought he recovered and came back to Hong Kong (from Brasil) for a visit. By chance I bumped into him and his wife on the street one night as I was leaving the hair salon. He saw me walking by and called my name. I stared at him and couldn't recognize him at first, as he had lost his hair and Brazilian tan after all the cancer treatments. Still, he looked happy and healthy, and I was sooooooooooooooooooooo happy to see him and Cibele (his wife), as well as Joyce, a common friend. We arranged to have dinner together 2 weeks later to catch up. I was planning to book Bistro Manchu, their favourite restaurant in Hong Kong, only to find out a few days before the dinner that Carlos found out his cancer came back. The only chance to save his life is going to the States to be treated by Dr Einhorn, the best in this area (germinative cancer).

Since the news, his friends in Hong Kong started getting people to donate money to fund his medical fees, as he would need some 300K USD to start the treatment. His insurance plan could not cover medical treatment in US. After about a week or so, he raised some 81K USD, still far from the 300K target.

All friends have already posted his blog link to facebook, getting other friends to donate money. I did the same a few times, and also donated what I could afford. I really wish there was more I could do to help. I feel so sad for him, Cibele and their baby girl, Julia. I still remember the 2nd last time I had seen him was at the Paris airport - running into each other taking the same flights from Brasil to Paris, Paris to Hong Kong. It must be destiny I ran into him in Central again last month.... I hope I will run into him once again in the future after he recovers - and he HAS to recover from this as he is such a great person with the kindest heart.

If you have time, check out his blog friends created to help generate awareness: Save Carlos Sales . He also posted a few notes.

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Separately, today I learned of some other news about another friend of mine, who worked with me for years and is like a younger sister to me. Without getting into details, she was unfairly, wrongfully terminated from her job a week after her resignation.

I felt so angry and sad the whole day. In a way I felt guilty I had left TNS, and she had no one to stand up for her. If I had been around, I wouldn't have let anyone treat her with such cruelty and unfairness. I only learned about the termination from my boss, and I myself guessed (correctly) the reason for termination.

The corporate world is so cruel and cold-blooded. And it's not the company which is cruel but the people running it. Those people conveniently forget how some people devoted 5 years to the company and its clients, endless late nights to ensure prompt delivery of research service! How can any person with a heart be so ungrateful?! I still feel so disturbed by what happened that I want to send an email to my ex-bosses, asking them HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?

I'm on business trip in Jakarta and feeling incredibly sad in my hotel room.

Dragon Boat

Lately I've been extremely busy with work and dragonboating, so haven't had time to update my blog.

I've already had 9 practices (including a pre-race on May 1) since end of March, with Credit Suisse team. It's really fantastic to be paddling for the 3rd year now, and this year with a more serious team. I did feel a bit of pressure at first, getting back into shape after months of zero exercise, but in the past few practices, I felt myself progressing well - adjusting my form so that I could use more of my back muscles, and as a result be able to save energy for longer and more powerful strokes.

I have also been blessed with Kevin paddling with me, exchanging links to dragonboat-related articles, sharing our thoughts on team/self performance... Like only this year I really started to rotate more of my body, but I realized that I did not always de-rotate/ untwist my torso during the Pull phase in order to maximize the power of the pull...

Anyways, I gotta get ready for my practice tomorrow morning (10am for Sundays, 9am for Saturdays), so I will leave my other thoughts on this subject for next time.