Got to write something

It has been a long time since my last post. Not because there is nothing to write, but too much to write on.

• My trip to Zhangjiajie (张家界) and Fenghuang (凤凰)

During Apr 16th and 19th, I was in Zhangjiajie/Fenghuang with my colleagues. It is an annual event when company acknowledges the employees\’ contribution in a fairly material way. For me, this trip is a tragedy:

As the camera was brought to Europe by my wife, I borrowed a camera from Linghu. His camera was equipped with a 1G CF card, which surely was not enough for 3 days\’ shooting. So I bough a 4G CF card. Due to time constraint, I had no time to test that CF card and brought it with me. It turned out that this CF card was bad. After about 100+ pictures taken, the camera will prompt me saying Err CF. I took no pictures during this trip. What a horrible experience!

When I returned home, I went to the shop and talked to the JS to swap a new one for me. Luckily, this time the CF card is working fine after dumping a lot of MP3 on it.

As I said earlier, I am not very fond of natural scenes. Zhangjiajie is famous for its natural scenes. My mood is even deteriorated with the broken CF card. Anyway, when I reached Fenghuang, I felt better because it has some cultural landscapes. It is also the hometown of Shen Congwen (沈从文). So I bought 2 books there for my own collection.

When I departed from Shanghai PVG to Zhangjiajie, the flight was delayed for almost 1 hour. But the return flight was even worse. I did not get to my home bed until 0400 hr the next morning. Tired and exhausted.

One thing very remarkable was that at the dinner in Zhangjiajie\’s last night, the group had a wonderful team activity. Boys and girls sang songs in alternative turns and we did drank a lot of beers!

• The earthquake in Yushu

Just within less than 2 years, we experienced another national disaster. A huge earthquake occured in Yushu. This originally-unknown-to-most-of-us-city became the national and international focus.

I felt deeply sorry for the lost lives. But as I had always said, there is no reason to exaggerate how brave we are in fighting against the catastrophe, how many people we managed to save out of the ruins. There is no winner in front of nature, especially in front of a natural disaster.

WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES: WHY THIS SHOULD HAPPEN? WHY NO ALARMS? WHY SO MANY PEOPLE DIED?

and most importantly:

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE?

The deepest sorrow brought by Wenchuan earthquake is not alleviated yet and now we have to face a similar situation again. Is there any kind of same root cause between the two, and with other natural, non-natural disaster? Are there someone really doing a serious investigation into it?

• The volcano eruption in Iceland

My wife SMS me when I was in Zhangjiajie that she may not be able to come back on time as most of the airports in Europe were stopped. I comforted her by saying that the situation will definitely become better and the interesting thing to say is that, in such a circumstance, it is safer to stay on the ground than flying in the air!

Later, I heard that the flights are somehow resumed. So I am expecting my wife to come back as soon as possible. Dear LPP, I miss you, very much.

Ironically, the earth during these days are greener than it used to be because there should have been much more carbon-dioxide released by airplanes during these days than that relesed by the volcano itself!

=======

So much for today. When I really want to write something, I will. I promise.