Category: Anything and everything

January – there isn’t much to remember, work celebrated new year at a water park, we were on the raft dropped off a small waterfall. It was a lot of fun but I thought could have been a bit more exciting.

Feb – the family birthday months started, celebrated both mum and Bella’s birthday. We went to Lantern Festival with Jennifer, it was really nice to visit together with my parents , Isabella and Magnus.

March – Celebrated Magnus birthday, with my aunty and uncle visiting as well. My uncle has lung cancer, we were very grateful that he could visit us during his treatment. My mum crashed her car on Queen street with a bus while Magnus and I were at WOMAD. Also the shooting in Christchurch happened the same day on our way to WOMAD. New Zealand isn’t the same any more. I had my first share of sickness of the year.

April –  Both mum and I got sick, went to Easter hunt with Tony and Eri. They have found out about their move to Japan in two months because of Tony’s work.

May – We celebrated my birthday in Norway, also it was the first time I visited Norway during their national holiday. The spring in Norway is lovely, but can still be quite chilly in the morning. Isabella spent lots of time with grandparents.

June – Mum crashed her car the 2nd time, this time it was a bit more serious. On the 29th Magnus and I visited the temple.

July – 1st July Monday evening Magnus came home early from soccer. I got quite sick for the 2nd time due to a chest infection, this time it took about 4 weeks to recover. We also went to the 1st house auction and didn’t meet the price the vendor wanted.

August –  Magnus and I went out to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. I had an ultrasound and found out I have endometriosis. Insurance did not approve to cover the medical costs, so continue going through public care.

Sep – Dad came back from China after 4 weeks. We all went for James and Ferren wedding in Bali. It was a really good trip with my parents and all of our friends, lots of good memories to keep.

Oct – China celebrated its 70s anniversary. The chaos in HK continued. We bought a house and will move in in January. The whole house hunting took us about 6 months, the day we signed the offer is two days off from the goal I set a year ago.

Nov – Double 11 this year it not as crazy as the last, the global economy is slowing down significantly. We also realised growth will not be never ending, and we pay a huge price for keep it growing. My parents went on 2 weeks camper van trip in Australia.

Dec – End of the decade! Isabella is talking a lot and she tells me a lot of stories. We enjoy conversations together and she always say thank you before she goes to sleep. A very grateful and kind little one.

 

 

For the last two days I have been helping my colleague to host 6 Japanese visitors, they are from our partner company. Four of them won the best store managers around Japan.

Day 1 we heard about their experience at their store, how they educate consumers about the brand and the importance of sustainability . They all prepared lots about our brand and how they can incorporate the values with Japanese consumers. The biggest challenge is that most people live in the city  are out of touch with nature. Therefore for them to understand the impact we have on the environment and then how that affect ourselves are a bit far-fetched. Most people think of functionality and price as the most important thing. Persuading them to pay more for a product which is better for the environment is not a strong factor to change their purchasing behaviour.

This insight is similar across most Asian countries, ordinary every-day people buy things for good value. To include sustainability in their purchasing choice is not a common concept.

In the afternoon we went to the flagship store to meet the founder of our company, Malcom Rands. It is always a valuable experience for me to hear him talk about how everything started. Malcom believes the three key factors we should address to new customers are:

1. works just as well as mainstream products
2. price per usages is not more expensive, as our products are quite concentrated it could even work out to be cheaper
3. safer for you

The concept of safer for you works very well with the laundry products, we thought about which part of our day our body is not in contact with fabric, its that very little time in shower or bath. Majority of our times we are in close contact with clothes, bedsheets, towels, socks etc. Therefore who would want to have close contact with nasty chemicals day in and day out?

Also Malcom talked about collaborating with good artists to build our brand creatives. The products not only need to work but also should be beautiful to look at. It reminds me to stay true to our brand identity and tone, not sway easily when the market requires something more colourful or “loud”.

Then we went sailing with two sailors from the Japanese sailing team, it was such a treat to be out on the water in a workday afternoon. We sailed under the harbour bridge , had cheese and crackers on board. The weather was beautiful we all got plenty of sunshine and fresh sea breeze. I would consider get Bella to learn sailing once she is older, we are living in the city of sails, its a pity not to get involved in this activity which is so widely available.

The next day we visited the factory where all the products are made. Its good to be reminded that marketing is juts one small part of the company, manufacture is the pillar of what we do. There are lots of efforts made to achieve better efforts on making our production more environmental friendly. We reuse carton boxes, plastic wraps, also collecting empty bottles to remake them into new packaging. There are many steps of the process are designed to produce less waste, but also efficiently to achieve financial result. The Japanese visitors were impressed we play music at the factory, they think that make the workspace more enjoyable.

Afterwards we went to dispatch, they are responsible for moving our products to different parts of the globe. The storage place was clean and spacious, the team out there are good hosts, showed us which section of the products going to what part of the world. It gives me new perspective on the scale of the work we do.

We then head out to Muriwai to visit our colleague Huia who is in charge of product research and development. He lives out west and gave the visitors a very good Mihi. He acknowledged the tribe Ngati Whatua who own the land we stood on, also welcomed the visitors from Mt Fuji. In the middle of the greeting, a little sparrow came and landed in the middle of us. It made us felt like nature is listening and we are connected to everything around us.

I felt a lot happened over the last two days, it reminded me of the days at the Foundation. I am mostly impressed by these Japanese people’s dedication to their work and the sense of purpose and responsibility they have about their job. It reminded me to think about what I am doing daily, move on with a clear purpose.

It is good to know this journey is meaningful in some ways, and I hope the contribution I made also improve little things along the way.

 

Lets talk about money! I am anxious, we asked for my parents to help financial with the new house. I felt guilty to touch more of their saving than we intend to. Also we will increase our weekly expenditure quite significantly once the mortgage payment begins.

Today we had a meeting with a personal finance planner, she advised us to sell the place my parents living in now and buy a property with higher rental yield. I understand the methodology behind her approach, its basically an aggressive way to turn your current asset into something value adding. also means we don’t pay tax to the current rental income.

However I don’t want to do this, as my parents are very settled in that place. I can not let them rent somewhere else and live temporarily. Their retirement is in NZ and they should enjoy the rest of the retirement here filled with days with Bella and to travel a bit more.

Also this personal finance company make more income from mortgage and insurance, its in their best interests to loop us in a bundle deal with our future investments. I am not very comfortable to be monitored and influenced by them for every step of my way towards financial freedom.

I love rules, structures and crave for stability but then sometime I rebel against stereotypes and “the money rule the world” approach. I am not sure this finance planner understand from my Chinese perspective how I need to look after my parents rather than using their retirement as my investment assets. My parents already helped me so much from supporting my overseas eduction to secure our property.

So I don’t think we will go along with this finance company. Also they know we have a big mortgage coming up and yet still suggesting the most expensive package on their service. I think they may see the fear in us approaching a life switch to paying a mortgage. But I have confidence in myself to figure this out. It will be hard and challenging, but with books to read and people to talk to, I think we will be alright.

After all I have been living overseas for almost half of my life, never once I got in trouble financially, I can manage my wealth and creating more. This could be a chance to push me to make more money in creative ways. Change is inevitable.

最近挺好，房子买了，身体也无大碍。 心里有时候还是会乱，担心下一刻会发生什么不好的事情。但在读一本关于疾病的书，给心里一些勇气。人生啊，生老病死，再正常不过。

见一个人，之前因为工作认识。很佩服中国姑娘们，全世界跑，做很多有意思的事情。有时也羡慕她们，但想想自己也有过那么自由的日子，只是当下的我，需要专注在一个地方，好好经营自己的家庭生活。

有时还是会想念在路上的日子，那种充满无限可能性的时光。现在人不动，心有时还会动。就要训练自己，能真的沉下心来，好好的过每一天。认真陪伴小雨，和小麦共同生活，对爸妈更有耐心，把自己的小日子过好，也是一种难得的能力和修炼。

人生路，说长不长，说短不短，心境时时刻刻有起起落落，重要的是能有一个定下来的点，能够反思自己，梳理思绪，整装前行。就算心思再多，想得再杂乱，其实还是会选择有逻辑的生活。就像曾经共事的人说过，我是一个逻辑性很强的人。年纪越大，越不会随心所欲，反而更会希望自己做每件事是打心底觉得值得花时间和精力的。

写得有点没有重点，杂乱无章，也许之后回头看这些字，才能理出头绪，知道自己当下的状态具体是怎样的。这一年不知不觉就要过完了，过去的近一年时光，多多少少经历了一些之前没有经历过的事情，遇到了没有解决过的难题，还好，都走过来了。没有遍体鳞伤，只是对别人的苦难和痛苦多了一丝体恤。

家人健康平安，远方亲人朋友都安好，人生就很满意了。

The title should be more like country and woman. Today is the 70th birthday of the country I was born, it made me think of my relationship with my country. A person’s relationship with her country mostly depends on how she feels about her country. Its only when you need to apply for a passport or visa, you have to face the reality that your feelings toward your country do not mean much, rules are rules, borders are borders, the world is divided in many ways. There are boundaries.

The reason I want to record this day is because 70 years is a bit special. My grandparents contributed to how this country was founded, I grew up there till I turned 18. My parents have been through some of the most dramatic changes a person can have in terms of political and economic development in a short span of 65 years. I can continue to write and write about how significant this day is, but now let me just take notes of a few moments of today made me think of my country.

Woke up at 7am, open social media apps, read that the media company I used to work for has officially shut their operation. I worked there from 2015-2016. There were lots of memories, made some great friends, also learnt a lot about myself. Its definitely not an ordinary place to work, lots of talented people creating some unique stories. It does not surprise me to hear this news considering what is happening between the two big nations at the moment. Sometime it is not about what you do, its about where you are and when the time is. 天时，地利，人和，缺一不可。However, this place is just a platform, I trust these people who made contents that touched hearts and opened minds will continue to create good stuff.

On my way to work read an article about the amazing progress this country has made in the past 70 years, how many people were lifted out of poverty. I thought about how I came to NZ to study, if not because the motherland opened up to the world, and the economy improved dramatically from the 90s, I would not be where I am and typing these words down in English.

Got to work listening to songs from Band of Summer, this reality show helped lots of independent bands became well known. Its one of the best thing happened this summer, I watched pretty much every episode online, made me feel closer to the motherland I liked about, full of talented people who strive to make something no matter how difficult the environment they are in. Sometime it is like a pressure cooker, under pressure, amazing things can be achieved.

Lunch time went on Instagram, saw this journalist’s feed on some protests happening somewhere. A young girl aged in early 20s got pinned on the ground by three police, she kept looking into the journalist’s camera and repeating her name again and again. The journalist explained in caption that the girl did this so that if she disappeared the press could help to find her.

On the way home the national day parade started, my social media feeds were filled with shots of very handsome solders participated in the parade. Many people saying how proud they felt about the motherland. 70 years the country has been through so much, it is not easy to lift up this nation to where it is now. I can’t help to also feel moved by this emotion shared by masses of people.

Got in the car talking to M about my day. I told him this observation I suddenly had. His relationship with his country is very healthy and simple, they celebrate their national day also with parades and parties all over the country. They are very proud of who they are, there are lots of joy shared amongst ordinary people on this day. My relationship with my country is a lot more complicated and twisted. There is rarely a pure joy associated with my country’s celebration, it always comes with some history or current affairs make me think twice before I shout with pride that I love my motherland.

So country and woman, a strange relationship. At least to me it is. I hope one day I could just say without much hesitation that I am very happy and proud to be part of this nation, that is thriving, unstoppable and undefeatable.