人生 就是無常 和徒勞無功啊

套句「那些年」的台詞 人生本來很多事情就是徒勞無功啊～

1. 上星期爸媽來訪 星期二 爸爸要去美國出差 結果要搭飛機當天才發現美簽在沒有帶來的舊護照上面 所以整個美國行程只好取消

2. 取消後 爸爸開始牙痛和頭痛 星期四 去給醫生看過以後 發現嚴重蛀牙 需要根管治療Root Canal 因為即將離開加拿大 所以先開止痛藥 回台灣在找牙醫治療

3. 爸爸星期六離開 Jason就有點落枕的跡象 脖子不能轉動 移動會痛
星期天等了兩小時看醫生 醫生看了說應該是muscle spasm 開止痛藥和肌肉鬆弛藥
到今天星期三早上為止 都還沒有真的好轉的跡象 只有一點點的比較不痛
這幾天無法上班 好好睡覺 一直熱敷 也不知道何時可以完全恢復

4. 星期一 唯一的同事離職了 只剩下我一個人獨稱大局 管理公司資料庫
當下真的無言以對 擔心自己要24/7值班 會累垮 一方面開始想找出路
因為一個人真的無法負荷兩個人的工作啊 更別提目前沒有任何誘因值得考慮

5. 星期二 發現 原來加拿大認識的朋友 一點也不是朋友 許多的付出換來冤枉 只能說心寒

6. 星期三早上上車上班 發現東西亂灑在座椅 喔喔 果然 車門好像沒完全關緊 所以沒鎖好 結果小偷跑進來 偷了我車上的Canadian Tire Gift Card 大概$200-$300 偷了我上禮拜剛買的TomTom GPS （可是沒拿專用的充電器也沒用 真是哭笑不得）還有竟然零錢和Canadian Tire Money都拿 人心世下啊 我在猜應該是teenagers拿的 車上另一台舊的GPS剛好被紙擋住 所以沒被偷走
打電話給年費$400的AMEX 竟然說車子裡面被偷的東西不能保險 家裡的可以 又一個三條線...
唉 我最心疼的竟然是我的新GPS 上禮拜剛買 拿到車上測試 沒有收進來 竟然就這樣不見了
只能說 花錢銷災 以後真的要多注意車子和家裡的門都要鎖 還以為自己住在安全社區呢～

結論
1. 人 真的健康最重要啊！
2. 朋友 患難見真情 家人 則是一輩子 當你最脆弱的時候 願意陪在你身旁照顧你
3. 壞事來的時候 擋也擋不住 而且會一起來 上星期二到今天星期三 一個星期內發生的事情比我一個月碰到的不如意還多
4. 我原來滿心歡喜安排的四月西岸旅遊 現在也懸在空中 影響的是11個人啊！即使加薪或假期 也不是我想要的啊

祈禱 希望 烏雲過後 太陽會出現 而我的問題會一一解決和越來越好～

大時代需明大是非

大時代需明大是非

大劫難需養大慈悲；

大無明需要大智慧，

大動亂需要大懺悔。

TRIP - 2011 Christmas in Washington DC

Pictures - picked among 1500 pictures
Map
 
Intro
I have the Christmas week off from work and didn't want to stay at home for 1.5 weeks. So I started looking for short-haul flight destinations, and Southwest happens to have a sale Buffalo to Baltimore for $100 round-trip vs. much higher fares for NYC/Boston/LA/Las Vegas/Florida

I have wanted to visit Washington DC for many years (for Cherry Blossom, and that I've never been to DC), so the decision was easily made and thankfully I booked a good 4 full days in DC to truly enjoy everything it has to offer.

Lastly, all attractions are FREE in DC, so we can come in and out easily, with a baby

12/24 Travel Day

• Left home late (10 am instead of 9 am) and arrived at Buffalo airport only 20 minutes ahead of departure. Thankfully the US custom only took 30 minutes and hotel shuttle was fast. Southwest flights felt really short and rushed because we fed Ella on the plane, and SW still gives free drinks and peanuts/pretzels.
• Upon arrival at Baltimore, we had food court lunch and took the B30 bus ($6/person) to Greenbelt Metro and subway's to Crystal City to walk to our hotel, and went out for Thai food for dinner.

12/25 Christmas

• As it's X'mas, everything is closed, except the US Botanic Garden, with its miniature train display. We also saw the US Capitol and its X'mas tree.
• We visited the White House front lawn to see the National Christmas Tree

12/26

• Walk of the Town FREE Tour - 3 hours, tip-only, awesome guide Tim
• Visited the National Air & Space Museum for 2 hours - it's huge and lots to see
• Walked to Safeway Grocery store to buy Ella's food

12/27 the only rainy day

• We went back to the Air & Space Museum for a tour @ 10:30-1 pm
• Visited the Old Post Office Tower for a sky view of the DC
• As it rains today, we visited National Archives (waited 20 minutes to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights)
• Ended in the National Museum of Natural History - Mammals, Ocean, Dinosaurs

12/28

• Library of Congress - Thomas Jefferson Building, missed the tour as it was full
• US Capitol Tour - Definitely worth taking as guides take you to see the Rotunda dome
• Took the Maryland MARC train to BWI airport, and again, last ones to board (our names were called urgently in the PA system, that's a first)

12/29 Buffalo

• Checked out with leisure, visited Target ($40) and Walden Galleria for PF Chang Happy Hour
• Drove home to see snow @@

Transportation, Safety, Food
Overall DC is easy to get around on the Metro, unfortunately the National Mall area (especially the West Mall where monuments/memorials are) still can only be walked around vs. every attraction has a Metro stop within 5 minutes. Be prepared to WALK A LOT!!
 Getting to/from airport (BWI or IAD) can be annoying though, allocate 1.5 hour each way

Safety is very good with police around all the time, never felt in danger even at night

Food We didn't dine out much, in part due to the rush schedule, holidays closing, and free breakfast/dinner from the Residence Inn hotels (3 breakfasts, 2 dinners)

Hotel
Night 1 - Radisson Reagan National Airport - $100 USD

• This was actually a last minute addition, thanks to the Radisson's "Earn 50000 points for 1 night stay". Club Carlson 50000 points is enough for one free night in Europe 5* hotel, so I shorten my Marriott stay and paid $90 (+tax/fees) for a stay at Radisson with free breakfast. Think of it as "Pay $100 for a fancy hotel stay in future". Some people even found a loophole of "phantom stay" where they found a Texas Radisson to check-in over the phone. People called from Ireland, geez
• Turns out, I earned 60000 points instead of 50K, due to bonus here and there!! I love them already

Night 2~4 - Marriott Residence Inn DC/Capitol, with Kitchen. $432 USD

• This was the highlight of our trip, because Wendy wanted a Kitchen, Fridge to prepare baby food, so our choices were very limited in DC, and Priceline/Hotwire is out of the question due to their "unknown hotel" nature, so Residence Inn it is...plus Marriott has a MegaBonus promotion running, where you earn 1 free night after 2 stays (but I won't get it as I only booked 1 stay of 3 nights, and not 2 stays of 1+2 nights...Marriott wouldn't extend the courtesy, so I won't stay at Marriott either in future)
• Best part about Residence Inn, we have free breakfast daily, and free dinner M-W. For 3 of us that was quite a saving, as we received 3 breakfast and 2  dinners in total (that's 15 meal portion). Not to mention the food is actually decent and the kitchen staff best of the best with friendly attitude and prompt speed. 

Breakfast

• DIY Waffle, Sausage/Burger/Potato, Cereal, Oatmeal, Banana/Apple/Yogurt, Juice

Dinner

• Cabbage roll/mashed potato, Teriyaki chicken/noodle + Salad/Soup + Bread/Garlic bread + Drinks

Night 5 - Buffalo Marriott Niagara - $60 (=$77 USD) - Pricline

• A 5-day parking would've cost ~$60 at airport parking, so instead I just booked a hotel (with free parking) for the same price, and we get to stay over upon returning from DC, win-win. The hotel is nothing to write home about, typical 3-3.5* hotel with no amenities but many parking.

Expenses
Transportation 
Flights Buffalo (BUF) to Baltimore BWI) = $120x3 ($360) - so cheap vs. flying out of Toronto
B30 Bus $6x3 ($18), MARC train $6x3 ($18), Metro cards $20x3 ($60)
Walk of the Town tips $20x2 ($40)
Gas $50

Food
Lunches = BWI $20, Post Office $20, American Indian $30, Walden $20, Capitol $20
Dinners = Urban Thai $80, BWI $35, PF Chang $55
Snacks from T&T = $40
Safeway $27

Shopping
Souvenirs $23
Target $40
Stroller Rain Covers $50
Basketball shorts $72
Old Navy $13

Tips here and there - $5, $5

Total (thanks to Excel) is about $1600 for all 3 of us, 6 days/5 nights in DC/Buffalo

Notes

• Next time, leave EARLIER than expected to not miss the flights 
• DC people are really friendly everywhere
• Winter was very kind to us, giving us almost 10C sunny weather for 3 out of 4 days
• There are so many movie references - National Treasure, Nights at Museum
• What's left to see next time, and needs another 3-4 days
• National Zoo,  Kennedy Center, National Air and Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Center
• Ella - she was so cooperative in many ways: she napped in her stroller when she's tired, doesn't cry for food or nap, and she's curious to see/touch new things. We are so thankful for her kindness as we cannot imagine this trip with Ella fuzzy 24/7

Conclusion
I am glad we took the trip to truly enjoy a vacation away from home, in warmer weather. Even though we were tired from the walking, travel, baby-caring, it is a great X'mas memory. Sometime in future I would like to re-visit in DC in non-winter seasons.

ELLA - Y0.M11 Ella is almost One Year Old

Sorry I skipped the Y0.M10 post, because of busy schedule and not much new happened

Month 11 has a lot more to tell because Ella had her first Christmas, and New Year!!
Plus she went on a week trip with us to United States, showing how good of a girl she is~

• 她有六七顆牙齒一段時間 咬人會痛了 而且他咬人用力到全身顫抖
• 現在會開始一直要試著站起來了 可以30到60秒 沒問題 有時候他自己還沒發現
• 吃的食物越來越多 喝奶越來越少
• 現在還是跟我們一起睡 小姐需要爸媽陪睡 睡得東倒西歪的 踢來踢去 不過這也是一輩子的回憶吧

Pictures

Aeroplan devaluation, and 2012 Mini-RTW

I meant to post this when Aeroplan was busy de-valuing itself in Nov 2011.

Then December 2011 came and they ran a "secret promotion" to redeem Business class for only 75000 miles, same as redemption for Economy class. Normally one needs 125K miles to redeem Business class so this was a great promotion (that lasted 2.5 weeks to everyone's surprise). We took advantage of booking one Mini-RTW trip to Taiwan for Summer 2012, so now I feel slightly better.

Compared to my 2011 Mini-RTW planning (days and $350 in fees), this one only took hours thanks to the limited # of YQ-free airlines and Istanbul lounge has been nominated as the best *A lounge so a visit is an easy decision. It was booked simply as Multi-City on Aeroplan.com

• YYZ-IST TK J on 777
• IST-ICN TK J on A330/340
• ICN-TPE TG J on A330
• ....................................................... 
• TPE-NRT NH J on 767
• NRT-ORD UA J on 747
• ORD-YYZ AC J on E75 but who cares...

Fees only $220 as we avoided most YQ-airlines

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=YYZ-IST-ICN-TPE&MS=bm&DU=mi

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=TPE-NRT-ORD-YYZ&MS=bm&DU=mi

My own calculations of Aeroplan mile's value 
I did a dummy Aeroplan booking for CNY 1.21-1.29
75000 Aeroplan + $400 in fees for 1-stop Y both ways (Tokyo, Beijing)
vs.
TourEast.ca
2-stop = Delta $1200 to United $1350
1-stop Cathay $1460

Let's take $1400 - $400 fees = $1000 for 75000 AE miles..
= 1.3 CPM.. worse than Gift Card redemption

Here are some complaints, taken from FlyerTalk
- No more earning points on Flight Purchases (1/$3.00 spent)
- addition of extra seats to the E90
- elimination of free baggage on transborder flights
- minimum flight/miles requirement on AC metal
- drastic devaluation of the E benefit package/gutting of the Elite program
- Increase to the mileage required to book travel.
- Tango fares no longer earning 100% miles on int´l routes and AC introducing Tango fares in many markets
- no more domestic 2-cabin F segments on int´l J/C awards
- implementation of fuel surcharges on *A partners without any/much notice
- retroactive application of new T&C, generally much less transparancy, the goodwill AC had managed to build with many FFs over the last years has pretty much disappeared
- LMUs offered before all upgrades on the waitlist have cleared (not confirmed, but also no statement saying otherwise as we received in the past)

Latest one being the new 2013 Top Tier program de-valuation. I'm glad I was never near Elite status because I'll be upset too

Just another note, my friend booked even crazier route to.... AFRICA

2012 New Year Resolutions

First of all, I wish everyone a happy new year and a better 2012 than 2011.

It's our first new year with Ella, and she was actually tired & fuzzy all day long.

Here are my resolutions for 2012

1. Everyone is healthy and happy
2. Ella will continue to bring joy to all of us, as we all watch her grow
3. I hope my MBA will be on pace for an early September graduation (end of 3 year school!!) 
4. RIM to do better, please
5. Go on trips to West Coast Canada, Los Angeles, and Taiwan
6. Maybe... Ella may have a sister/brother 

For Reference, here's what I did last year (i.e. not much)
http://blog.jerryhung.com/2010/12/happy-new-year.html

Monthly Recap - MBA, Travel, Ella, RIM @$^#

Can't believe I did not post at all in last 30 days, so here we are, for my loyal audience (of 1, my wife, especially if Facebook stops importing my blog RSS feed)

You can say it was as expected, a crazy month before the holiday

MBA

• Wrapping up 2 courses in the last few weeks, with crazy 35% individual case, 45% group case & presentation, 40% final exam (which made everyone work hard for every question... $^@#%&)

Travel

• Booked my parents' flight to Canada for Chinese New Year 
• Thanks to Aeroplan's unadvertised "book Business class with Economy 75000 miles" promotion, booked my brother's Summer trip to Taiwan in All-Business class on Turkish, United, ANA, Thai Airways. Departure: YYZ-IST-ICN-TPE, Return: TPE-NRT-ORD-YYZ 

Ella

• She is 10 months old, oh my god, closer to 1 year old than 6 months 

What Else

• RIM disappoints, again, and again, and again, for the last 4 quarters. Sigh, enough said.
• PlayBook was $199, and it was amazingly sold out like it should be, and I can only hope OS 2.0 will make it even better and more attractive to consumers/companies to save RIM 

Holiday

• It won't be a quiet one either, as there is X'mas party dinner gathering here and there
• Catching up with Movies and TV shows
• Baby-proofing the house, with baby stair gates 
• We'll travel to Washington DC with Ella, gonna be a fun experience

Acura Wheel Alignment and Brake Pads/Rotor story

So my Acura TL visited the dealer to do

• Diagnose and replace RF Tie Rod - done, about $200
• Wheel Alignment - done at $99+tax
• They found my brake rotors rusty, brake pads worn, again (they just did a regular maintenance in July, 4 months ago and didn't recommend replacing). Now they recommended me to replace them at dealer for ...wait for it... $1200 + tax!! No thanks to 3 hrs/$330 labour and $800 parts

Then I called to this Chinese mechanic whom I never used, but I've met his wife and son in Tzu Chi chinese school in Mississauga. Small world isn't it... Andy lives in Oakville and commutes to Kitchener to work!

All I need to say is look at the prices below, how fair, and all parts were Premium parts
Now my car is all good, no noise or shakes when braking, for half price.

Front Pads (Pro) $58.8

Rear Pads (Pro) $46.89

Front Rotors (Raybestos Pro) $62.42 x 2

Rear Rotors (Raybestos Pro) $54.34 x 2

Labour $120 (he spent 1~2 hours on it)

+ tax = $518.91 total

光明汽修 PNT Auto Service
C103-1601 Victoria Street North, Kitchener, N2B 3E6
* go into 1601 plaza and drive to the back, and circle back on the left side
http://www.kwcg.ca/supersite/?action-viewnews-itemid-18813

I probably won't visit the dealer again, especially with their super long shuttle waits (twice in a week I waited hours for shuttle)