[樂否] L.O.V.E.

What is LOVE?

對於愛的樣貌，每個人的描繪詮釋如同一中各表，
理解與想像的差異性源自於每個人為愛所能做出的實踐各異，
每副交感神經對愛的接收能力也有差別。
或許，這就是LOVE之所以複雜也最趣意盎然的部分。

對於 30 something(陳述不代表承認)的我來說，
望向愛情的期許就像工作一樣，
不知道自己想要的是甚麼，只知道自己不想妥協與犧牲的是甚麼。

不過我說的是，
excluding "I am falling in love at the first sight" and "You had me at hello"，
扣除這類前幾世修成的福報善德之外，
正所謂萬事起頭難，
到底要如何進入Phase of " Pre-Love"--
這個讓你通往對某人說(或聽某人說)通關密語"I love you"的命運大門前的機會庭院?

Is Love, to you, a question of  biology, psychology, or mathematics?


在踏進機會庭園之前，
很多人會先做初步的篩選，
計算身高體重血型出生年月日產業別職稱抬頭動產不動產
以及雙親的產業別職稱抬頭動產不動產，
以及家族病史愛情史...

怦然心動是運算的結果，兩情相悅變成雙方合意，
以求風險減低，成交率提高，售後服務完整，永久保固。

check list究竟是對愛的永不妥協? 還是最低的愛情規範呢?

青春的我們因為無知所以無懼，身強體壯不怕死，
把今天當做生命的最後一天來過，活在當下，想愛就來。

成熟的我們因為無知所以恐懼，年老體衰怕得要死，
卻盤算著明天怎麼過得比今天好，風險趨避，想好再來。


What is LOVE?
可不可以，吻了再說?

2011.09.04  I saw a sincere hug and sweet smiles at Marble Arch, London.

[非自由] Caged

南港好像一個大鐵籠，

中午用餐的人潮就像定期洩洪的長江三峽大壩，來得又急又多。

有點想念伊通公園，南京東路，油煙巷，四平街的

另一種緩慢蔓延。

至少，有幽靜小巷可以讓人藏身，

或者，那個讓陳傑克找不到的屬於我的咖啡小店。

回到台灣超過一個月了，

除了麵包、英式紅茶越嗑越兇之外，

英文退步了，思念稍微減弱了，規律的生活也不再。

因為工作填滿了大部分的清醒，

連昏沉，也是因為工作，哈。

咖啡成了我的鎮定劑，一杯咖啡的時間，重新注入給自己的快樂力量。

就像Clara找到Costa café就覺得被settle了一樣。

今年聖誕假期，決定不遠遊了，

真正的pleasure不應該建立在未來的匱乏或不安，不然就失去它的本質了。

沉住氣存積蓄，明年繼續挑戰，探索，與追尋。

(written down on one day of November.)

The encounter at a telephone kiosk is too good to be true.

I prefer the summer one. :)

[通勤人生] commuter's life

Carelessly left my headphones at the office .

On the way home, all the noises in MRT seem to become ringing in my ears.
The air without music is just like the riverbed without water.
Now I am crawling forward in the channel and dying of thirst.

This photo is from here

Actually I preferred bus to underground in London.
However,I miss the grey color of the underground from time to time.

And now, I commute by Taipei MRT.

This photo is from MangoVine Adventures in East Asia

[開工] 大吉。

Back to Capitalism since October.

每天都有新的感觸與心得。

第一天的感覺是臥虎藏龍，
大家都有自己的專長背景期許，也會展現personality，

這樣很好，因為我本來喜歡新鮮事物與刺激，特別是跟不同的人種擦出奧妙的火花!

其次是會議效率，大家都超忙，
所以”時間管理”似乎是基本風氣，準時開始、準時(或提早)結束，

同樣是表現對同事heavy loading的尊重，
但跟前公司的風格大相逕庭(等你十分鐘後換等我十分鐘)，

即使我目前參與的會議以new hire training為主
(but training lessons are more than expectation!)，但同樣適用，

我喜歡可以掌握工作步調的效率感，這樣可以保持思緒清晰與流程邏輯。

第二天，打開耳朵聽同事與客戶溝通的方式，

我想起之前也是這樣邊聽邊偷學前輩的技巧，真懷念!

其次，儘管大家是各自有分配到的vertical產業、獨立作業，
但彼此交流切磋的頻率很高，
分享同樣的客服問題與解決方案，討論進攻客戶的策略，

不只是上對下的指導，更多來自於業務們的彼此請教，
甚至也有下對上提出看法與建議，

每個人的價值在這個部門是流動的、不侷限的。

第三天，早上的教育訓練講令人驚嚇的三個系統，開始有hold不住的壓力感XD，

終於可以理解為甚麼從外頭的世界看本公司業務是”某種德性”，
現在覺得情有可原了…希望我能早日上手，減少客訴。

中午參加了內部自組的英文讀書會，讀了一篇空中英語教室的文章教材，

大家都很謙虛說自己英文不好，希望跟大家混熟之後，可以分享我的遊學經驗，

其實咱們亞洲人的英文不差，大家只是對自己的發音沒信心，不敢講罷了，

應該要去找個西班牙人來說英文給大家聽，大家就知道自己有多厲害了。哈。

今天又多認識了幾位同事，讀書會交流、即時通問候、見面微笑、
或是小地方(但很重要)提點，

大家雖然爆忙，但都很溫暖親切，這就是業務的正面人生吧。(笑)

Honestly, 目前身心靈還沒有完全平衡，my spirit對英倫情緣還是相當懷念，

加上時間分配問題，目前通勤時間很長(預期未來是working overtime)，
讓leisure time相對較短，

資本主義與浪漫主義的槓桿傾斜得厲害，
繼續下去my flesh會太快把這段美麗時光累積的positive energy用完，

所以需要好好整理心情跟生活環境，to settle self down.

Still, it is always good to have numerous things to eager to do.

Trips(Italy, Germany, Australia, Beauty of Taiwan)

English, Third foreign language

Reading, Philosophy, Literature, History of Taiwan

Photography, Music appreciation

Tea time

Relationships(TBC…)

P.S.今早在捷運繼續讀Oscar Wilde，心情變得很輕盈。所以，時間跟乳溝都要認真擠才行。:)

[UK life] Follow the Sun

2011.09.03 the Hyde Park.

The best moments in UK is napping in the sunshine.

With my creativity and imagination.

Then you live in my word, in my mind, in my pen.

Not in the real sensation.

[UK life] New life in Brighton

The furious storm today is the worst weather I have met in UK. When I was taking the bus from the city center to home, the bus was almost blown away.

It could be called a typhoon in Taiwan.

The weather deteriorated my bad mood so I chose Starbucks and Dorian Gray instead of the class.

Then I came home at 12.

In the afternoon, I stayed in the warm house to listen to Chopin, read Oscar Wilde, have a cup of English tea.

Then the cat jumped up in my blanket and fell asleep.

I love the atmosphere. Terrible weather outside, comfy air inside.

[UK life] Fire Alarm at night

I have enough of my face for only basic cleansing everyday. After buying an exfoliating polish and a cleansing flannel in The Bodyshop, I did a thorough face cleansing and super skin care tonight.

However,in three mimutes after everything done, the fire alarm suddenly rang loud in the whole youth hostel building. All guests including me, with my cellphone,camera and roomcard, ran out of rooms to the ground floor.

While going downstairs, I scared a kid and made some people laugh by wearing a mask on my face and a towel on my head. It's really embarrassing!!!

Not for long, the alarm wad confirmed as a mistake.

"Now everyone recognizes you." said my roommate after entering back the room.

"No, they can't. I got the mask." I answered as convincing myself.


====================================================================

YHA I stayed: London Central YHA

"5 stars" of Sunny's rating !! Strongly recommend it!!!

Lobby and food

Kitchen



My bed

 Dinning space

 Reception

[UK life] Military Tattoo

Tears filled in my eyes as the first play started.

Magnificent, passionate,touching.

Thanks God gave me a nice weather to enjoy it.

Thanks Helen prepared a blanket and a seat pad for me to keep warm.

I love bagpipe.

I love Edinburgh.

I love Scotland.


Looking down from section 6 BB5，

the upstanding military uniform with Scottish kilt is exactly a turn on to me.
===============================================================

從The Mound(National Gallery of Scotland)眺望晚上七點多的Edinburgh city centre。
一整片的綠是Street Garden(天氣好的時候相當好躺)。

觀眾陸續往城堡廣場進場，警察人員設置了臨時入口，檢查大家的隨身物品。

進場後找座位，我的第六區BB5幾乎跟壁紙沒兩樣...將近貼牆。:P

儘管低溫風大，每場軍樂表演幾乎都是滿座。主持人在開場時，會相當熱情地問"Where are you from?" 、"Anyone from Italy?"、 "Where are the people from Germany?"、"Where are the people from Taiwan?" 每當自己國家被問到的時候，觀眾就會瘋狂尖叫，台灣也有被問到唷!! 超感動的~

The Massed pipes and drums are the best!!!

[UK life] Carsickness

Clara is going to a highland trip today.
Because it's easy for her to feel bad for a long-distance on the bus or ship, she wanted to figure something out to solve this problem.
However, what does work in Italy seems not helpful here. The pharmacy which she had asked yesterday didn't have something like a "Plaster" which is generally used in Italy to prevent sickness in one's trip. ( In fact, neither had I heard about this medical product before.)

She wanted to know how to explain this kind of illness to the driver so that she might be able to sit on the first seat to feel better today.

We started with consulting the dictionary about "how to say feeling ill on the vehicol?"
The anwser is "carsickness" or "seasickness"!!
We burst out laughing because it's unbelievably easy.
I was thinking that it's weird because you feel carsick when you are in a car, you feel seasick when you are on the sea,but you are homesick when you are NOT at home.

It is said as the meaning of  "bad sea" in Italian.

It sounds more reasonable for me, because:
When you are on the bad sea, you feel seasick.
When you are in the bad car, you feel carsick,
When you are in the bad host family, you feel homesick.

Hahahahaha!!!

[UK life] Good food settles

今天跟偉勝學長賢伉儷一起去吃韓國菜，我點了Spicy seafood noodles soup,還有跟大家share海鮮煎餅，超級無敵好吃!!!!又有種更喜歡愛丁堡的感覺了!

吃完飯後在新城散步，聊到wetherspoon這間pub,學長提到這家連鎖餐廳有間很厲害的分店，是開在百年舊銀行辦公室，以前的金庫也在，它的名字The standing order,是按月支付的意思。好特別!!! 因為可以帶小孩進去，所以我們在那邊喝下午茶，我跟學長點咖啡，學姐點a pint of cider beer,學長順便跟我介紹當地的啤酒。他們的咖啡不比星巴克差，而且也便宜，我好喜歡這家店，人們就這麼自在地與古蹟共處，真的好舒服，感覺下次來愛丁堡，絕對是為了pub culture，就像學長的冰島同學一樣，來個pub巡禮!!

接著我們去Leith散步，學長繼續介紹幾家好餐廳，都好想找個伴去試試，因為這兒的份量太多了，而我已經有淡菜的教訓,哈。

跟學長相聚是我在愛丁堡的第三個禮拜，當時學長帶我走了超過我的經驗值的哩程數，還有介紹餐廳，景點等。開始敢進餐廳點菜對我來說是個重要的轉捩點，當我想念家鄉或心情不好時，有了重新獲得力量或自我安慰的方式。

After that day we met, time seems flying faster. And in an instant  it becomes my last week in Edinburgh...

學長說他完全可以理解，當年他在紐約也是因為一碗超好吃的越南麵線，讓他整個人找到在異鄉生存的動力。(學姐說"上次你已經說過了...") 所以說學長更確定食物很重要，讓你有settle的感覺。I can't agree with him any more.

離別之前，把心愛的小禮物wine stopper送給賢伉儷。好喜歡他們，讓我看到長久的relationship，除了彼此照顧還一同成長，hope them live happily ever after. ^_^