Oxford University Philharmonia Concert Tour to Vienna 29th March - 4th April 2007

Janacek, Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen

Elgar, Cello Concerto in E minor, op.85

Smetana, Ma Vlast

Conductor, Hugh Brunt

Soloist, Madeleine Ridd

3-day rehearsal camp at the Dragon School  

    posing with the 2006 award winners

Sightseeing in Vienna......

   overlooking Schonbrunn Palace with my chief tormentor during the tour

Musical treasures inside the Haus Der Musik - (from left to right) Karajan's baton in his last concert, Brahms' glasses, Mahler's conductor score for Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Schubert's glasses

The room inside the Esterhazy Palace in which Haydn signed a contract with Prince Esterhazy, and where the Kaiserquartett was performed -

   Haydn Saal in the Esterhazy Palace - an ensemble was making a recording during our visit! 

Funky church where our first concert took place  

More relaxation... (from left to right) - me, ryan, me

Highlight of the tour - performance at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, home to the Vienna Phil

Rehearsal -

Before the performance -

   Intermission - (middle left) - wing kin law, arguably the most successful export of HKU in our generation.  I can find no words to express my gratitude to him, for taking the arduous journey from Washington DC after his Jessup Moot to listen to an amateurish performance.

After the performance -

A very rewarding musical experience, and as Hugh said before we went on stage, most of us would probably never have the chance to perform in that hall again......How I wish this would not be true!

Visit to Cambridge 25th November 2006

First of all, congrats to BLawyers for doing so amazingly well in the QP Case Analysis Competition!  Missing you guys...Jnlam, buy me a PS3...or a Christmas card at least lol

Went to Cambridge with Sean for his Prince Philip Scholarship interview, two years after my own......Well done for getting Professor Huang to open his mouth and Stuart Martin to shut his!

on the train from King's Cross

DBGS at the Backs 

There have been so many twists and turns in my life in the past two years.  If I had known my complex numbers and had been a little bit more clever, I might have been reading my first-choice subject at my first-choice university by now.  On the other hand, I would then have missed the chance to go on the unusual path that I have taken.  I really should count myself as lucky to have met so many wonderful people and to have been given the opportunities that I have now.

As the end of my first term at Oxford draws near, I'm probably feeling almost as lost as I did two years ago.  The road ahead seems tough.  Yet it can't be worse than what I had to face two years ago.  Time to show some real guts and determination again...

Trinity, Cambridge - where it all finished and began......

HKU 2005 - 06

Flipping through the pages of my diary, I can recall all the things I did at HKU.  And some of the regrets I have.

Life at the beginning of the first semester was admittedly tough.  I found it difficult to get accustomed to life here.  Lectures were boring, the learning atmosphere in tutorials was hardly stimulating, the long travelling times were exhausting, accounting was killing me and I really missed my music-making.  The happy me seemed to have gone.  On more than one occasion, I doubted if I had made the right decision in coming back.  After my first ever Law & Society tutorial with Anne Cheung, I was cursing repeatedly up and down the Sun Yat-Sen Steps before my Arabic lesson...'Do I really have to spend five more years like this?'   

I had a much happier time in the second semester.  The study workload was considerably less than the first semester.  Although I found studying BBA intellectually unrewarding, I really enjoyed the three group projects, especially the Marketing one.  Events at the Global Lounge made my life much more exciting.  A number of ad hoc engagements such as the Union Choir Mini Concert and being MC for the Investment Society Inauguration also meant I rarely got bored.  But the most enjoyable thing must be going to the cinema at Cyberport with my parents every Tuesday afternoon when the other BLawyers were having their Chinese lecture!

This summer I experienced some of my happiest moments at HKU.  World Cup at the Global Lounge was fun, apart from making lots of money.  Writing journal articles for PPAA and doing research for Lusina and Joe Lau brought back to me the enjoyment of academic pursuits.  BA orientation gave me a chance to experience what I missed the previous summer.  The chamber music concert allowed me to experience what I missed for one whole year.  On top of these, the tradition of overnights at my home began and shall be continued...   

I'm grateful for all the experiences and opportunities I've had.  I feel fortunate to have been taught by Lusina, Fanny and Cynthia.  I'm glad to have met young people whom I would never have had the chance to meet if I had not come to HKU.  I thank everyone of you for being a part of my time here, and for tolerating a somewhat strange person.  As I said, I'm leaving with a number of regrets, one of which would be not getting to know better some of the people I've met, some of whom I really, really admire.  As to my other regrets, I guess I'll have to keep them to myself...

I wish I could have the universal remote control in Click, so I can relive another year at HKU..........in a slightly different way...... 

Chamber Music Concert at the Global Lounge

A big thank you to Doris, Sean, Ryan and Albert for performing, Convi for being the Stage Manager, and other friends who came to support.

The DSRF Quartet after the dress rehearsal -

 Looking, but not sounding, like the Emerson Quartet

 The umpteenth performance of Passacaglia? What a funny little piece...

Sean and I staring at Doris; Ryan pointing at the heavens 

 Nice bows

It was a nice experience to play in such crap acoustics.  We should definitely do more string quartets in the future.  And I hope more and more concerts will be held at the Global Lounge.  In the meantime, I'd better do a bit of practice!

Business Association Ocamp

Thank you Carrie for asking me to come to oday and then ocamp, cos I refused when Lesty first invited me   =)  

Frankly, it's a bit odd that someone who didn't attend orientation last year became a group dad this year...

How funny that my feelings towards BA have changed in the past few months...

Sim-Biz (From left to right: Park Lane, Central Star Ferry, World Trade Centre)

Goldia OCs:

 John Lam, peel off!

Pretending to play mass game

 Pretty Jennie

Thank you group sons and daughters for being so wonderful!  For putting up with the rather pointless exercise of running around HK and doing my favourite banana dance in CWB, for being blindfolded for so long in Night Adventure, for showering before eating desserts, for being such thoughtful detectives, for making the perfect heart in the Group Cheers competition, for not falling asleep during Professor Chiu's visit, for letting me sleep, etc...

Can't remember when this pic was taken, but it's a nice one -

What a shame that the campfire was over before it hardly got going.  I would have enjoyed 'Go Round and Round the Valley' and Jolin's dance so much!!

It was also nice to meet Jerry, my fellow BLaw leaver~

Goldia - Champions on both oday and ocamp!!