Travel History - A Look Into The Past

I worked in the airline IT industry for 34 years: 28 in Cathay Pacific and 6 in Qantas. As such, I had the convenience (being an airline staff) and the necessity (due my IT work) of traveling quite a bit over the years. I do not have the slightest intention to show off anything here, but really I just think it's time to look back and take stock of what I've done in the past. Following are lists of cities I've visited and airlines I've traveled:

A. Cities visited - by air with overnight stay and not including stopovers in transit

Country	City
Hong Kong	Hong Kong
Australia	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ayers Rock, Alice Spring, Hamilton Island
New Zealand	Auckland
Fiji	Fiji
USA	Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Houston, New Orleans, Tucson, Minneapolis/St Paul, Atlanta, Philadelphia
Canada	Toronto
Brazil	Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Falls do Igaucu
Columbia	Bogota
UK	London
France	Paris
Germany	Munich
Denmark	Copenhagen
Bahrain	Bahrain
Japan	Tokyo, Osaka
Korea	Seoul
Taiwan	Taipei, Hualien
Singapore	Singapore
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur, Penang
Thailand	Bangkok
Philippines	Manila

B. Airlines Traveled

Airline Code	Airline	Country
CX	Cathay Pacific Airways	Hong Kong
QF	Qantas Airways	Australia
JQ	Jetstar	Australia
AN	Ansett	Australia
TA	Trans Australian Airline	Australia
AA	American Airline	USA
DL	Delta	USA
NW	Northwest	USA
PA	Pan American	USA
PS	Pacific Southeastern Airline	USA
TW	Trans World Airline	USA
UA	United Airline	USA
US	US Air	USA
AC	Air Canada	Canada
CP	Canadian Pacific	Canada
BA	British Airways	UK
KL	KLM	Netherlands
SK	SAS Scandinavian Airlines	Sweden
JL	Japan Airline	Japan
FE	Far East Airline	Taiwan
MH	Malaysian Airline	Malaysia
RG	Varig	Brazil
	Crucero	Brazil
AV	Avianca	Columbia

Who's Smart?

A man and a woman were sitting next to each other on the plane. The man asked the woman, "Hey, wanna play a game? Let's ask each other a question in turn. If you don't know the answer, then you give me $5, and if I don't know the answer to your question, then I'll give you $5 too."
The woman said, " I really don't want to play unless you give me a handicap. If I don't know the answer, then I'll give you $5, but if you don't know the answer, you'll give me $50. Okay?"
The man thought he was much smarter than the woman, and so he confidently agreed.
There he started, " How many moons does Jupiter have?" After a few seconds, the woman said, "I don't know." And she reached into her purse and gave the man $5.
So came the woman's turn, "What goes up the hill with two legs and comes down with three?"
Reluctant to lose, the man hastily took out his laptop and searched the internet. After half an hour, the man sighed, "I don't know." And he reached into his purse and gave the woman $50.
A few minutes later, the man couldn't help but to asked the woman slowly in a low voice, "What was the answer?"
"I don't know either." The woman reached into her purse again and gave $5 to the man.

What Have You Missed in Your Life?

"What have you missed in your life?" The wife asked the husband when she was 25. Despondently the husband replied, "I missed a chance for promotion."
When she was 35, the wife asked again. Angrily the husband told her, "I just missed the bus."
At 45, annoyingly the husband said, "I missed the meeting with my client."
At 55, disappointingly the husband said, "I missed a good chance to retire."
At 65, hurriedly the husband replied, "I missed a dental appointment."
At 75, the wife didn't ask the husband anymore. The husband sat beside her bed who was very sick in the hospital. Remembering what the wife used to ask him all over the years, the husband asked her the same question. The wife reflected for a moment, smiled and answered peacefully and contentedly, "I have not missed having you with me in my life."
Deeply moved, the husband tried hard to hold his tears. He held the wife's hand tight. Regretfully he said to her, "I think I have missed the dearest and deepest love in these 50 years."

Life and love are very simple. While we are busy in life pursuing riches and fame which could be trivial when we look back, we might have neglected the most faithful and precious love already in our hands.

Truth and Reality

A CEO of a large corporation died and went to heaven. He was greeted by an angel at the gate. The angel counldn't find his record as there were seldom any CEOs in heaven. So the angel asked him to decide where he wanted to go - heaven or hell. The angel said, "You don't have to decide now. Go to each of these places to have a look, spend an hour there, come back to me and let me know your decision."
The CEO first went to hell. When the door opened, he saw a frantic party was going on inside. All his former collegues and friends were there. They were all celebrating like crazy. Everybody was enjoying delicious food and fine wine. The place was filled with handsome boys and beautiful girls. After an hour, they said goodbye to him and wished him to come back very soon.
Then the CEO went to heaven. Inside there was a tranquil and peaceful environment, with endless beautiful scenaries. There he relaxed and enjoyed comfortably for an hour.
Finally the time for making decision came. The CEO went back to see the angel and said, "Heaven certainly is good. But hell looks more attractive to me." So the CEO chose to go to hell.
Before long, the CEO was sent back to hell. Once the CEO entered the door, he was completely shocked by what he saw. Inside it was a desolate place. All his former collegues and friends were either being beaten by devils or being burned by fire. He was horrified and asked the staff at the door, "Why is it like this? Last time when I was here, it wasn't like this at all."
The staff at the door replied, " Last time you just came for an interview. Now you are one of our staff. Welcome to our corporation! HAHAHAhahahaha.............."

A job in a large corporation may look very appealing. But when you started, you'd work like hell!

Illusion or Reality?

You probably have the following experiences:
1. You were flying on a plane from one destination to another (say Sydney to Hong Kong). The plane was so smooth and quiet that you could hardly feel any movement. You remained seated without moving around in the plane. So you thought you were not in motion. You threw a ball straight up in the air, and the ball fell straight down back into your hand, indicating that you were not in motion at all. But on a second thought, you knew the plane was moving at a ground speed of 500 km/hr away from Sydney. You also knew you yourself were moving (together with the plane) similarly at a very fast ground speed of 500 km/hr away from Sydney.
2. You were traveling on a train from one city to another. You felt tired and fell into a nap. The train was so smooth and quiet that, when you woke up, you didn't know whether the train was moving or not. You thought the train was stationary at a train station. You looked through the window on the left side of your train. You saw another train overtaking yours slowly carriage by carriage from your back to the front at a speed of about 10 km/hr. You then turned your head and looked through the window on the right side of your train. From the views outside, you then realized that your train was in fact moving forward at a very fast speed of 100 km/hr passing non-stop over the station. You then also realized that the other train on your left was in fact moving forward at a even faster speed of 110 km/hr passing non-stop over the station.
3. On another similar occasion, you woke up from your nap on a long train journey. You thought the train was stationary at a train station. You looked through the window on your left side. You saw another train passing by yours, carriage by carriage from your front to the back. When all the carriages had passed over, you could see other views outside the window. You then realized that the other train was in fact stationary at the train station, and your train was in fact moving forward passing non-stop over the station at a speed of 100 km/hr.

Your experiences above indicate that:
1. Your position at any time is determined by some point of reference. After an hour, you were still in the middle of the PLANE, but you were 500 km away from SYDNEY.
2. If your position (to some point of reference) doesn't change over time, you are stationary and not in motion (to the same point of reference). During the entire hour, you remained seated in the PLANE, you were stationary and not in motion (with reference to the PLANE).
3. If your position (to some point of reference) changes over time, you are in motion (to the same point of reference). During the same hour, you were further and further away from SYDNEY. So you were in motion (with reference to SYDNEY). Hence, motion is the change of position (to some point of reference) over time.
4. As motion is the change of position over time and position is determined by some point of reference, so motion is also determined by some point of reference. While you were on the train, your train was moving at 100 km/hr (passing over the STATION), but the other train on your left side was moving at 10 km/hr (passing over YOUR TRAIN).
5. Likewise, non-motion (being stationary and not in motion) is also determined by some point of reference. You were not in motion (in the PLANE) although both YOU and the PLANE were moving at a very fast speed (away from SYDNEY).
6. If you are moving (with reference to some point of reference) and the point of reference is also moving (with reference to some other point of reference), then you are also moving (with reference to that common point of reference). The train on your left side was (overtaking YOUR TRAIN) at 10 km/hr, and your train was moving forward at 100 km/hr (passing non-stop over the STATION), then the train on your left side was also moving at 110km/r (passing non-stop over the STATION).
7. When there is no common point of reference, motion can only be relative. As in your experience 3 above, without any common point of reference (the STATION), it can be regarded that either YOUR TRAIN was in motion and the OTHER TRAIN was stationary, or YOUR TRAIN was stationary and the OTHER TRAIN was in motion. Hence, without any common point of reference, it can only be regarded that YOUR TRAIN and the OTHER TRAIN were moving towards each other at a speed of 100 km/hr.

As motion is the change of position over time, apart from being determined by some point of reference, it is also determined by TIME. We shall leave the discussion of TIME in some later blogs as TIME permits.

Radio Conversation

Following is a recording of a radio conversation between a US navy ship and the Canadian Coast Guard off the coast of Newfoundland:

U. S. A.: "Please change your direction 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision."
Canada: "Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision."
U. S. A.: "This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course."
Canada: "No. I say again, divert YOUR course."
U. S. A.: "THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER - ENTERPRISE. WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!"
Canada: "THIS IS A CANADIAN LIGHTHOUSE. UP TO YOU!!"

Sunday Service

One Sunday morning after the mass, little Alex was staring up at the plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. It was covered with names. Small national flags were mounted on the side of it.
The priest saw him , and approached him and said, "Good morning, Alex." "Good morning, Father." replied the young man. Still staring at the plaque, Alex asked, "What's this?" The priest said, "Well, son. It's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service."
Little Alex's voice began to tremble. In a very low voice, he asked, "Father, is it the 9 or 11 o'clock service?"

EQ or IQ

A man bought a new pair of trousers for his primary schoolmates' reunion dinner. When he tried out at home, he found that the trousers were too long by 10 cm.
He asked his mother to help him shorten the pants. His mother said she could not do it as she was not feeling well and would like to rest early. So the man approached his wife to shorten his pants. His wife said she was very tired and had a lot of work to do that night, so she could not help him to shorten the pants that night. Then the man asked his daughter. His daughter apologized for not able to do it that night because she had agreed to go dancing with her boyfriend. "Ah well!" The man thought and decided he could just wear his old trousers to the reunion.
Later that night, his mother thought to herself, "My son has been very nice to me. I'll just help him to shorten his pants before going to rest." So she shortened the pants by 10 cm. Then his wife finished her work and thought, "My husband knows I am always very busy and seldom asked me to help him. I would oblige him today." So she shortened the man's pants by another 10 cm. His daughter came home from dancing, and thought, "Papa loves me very much and when I declined to shorten his pants, he was not angry at all! I would help him to shorten his pants." So she shortened her dad's pants yet another 10 cm.
On the next day, the three ladies told the man that his pants were shortened. He tried them on and found that his pants had become shorter by 30 cm. The man laughed heartily, and said, "I must wear this pair of pants to show my schoolmates that my mum, my wife and my daughter are such loving people."
At the dinner, his old classmates were very envious of his loving family. When he returned home, he told his family. His mother, wife and daughter were all very happy to learn about his classmates' reaction.

Many of us have high EQ when dealing with people outside the family, and low EQ when dealing with family members. Treat your family with appropriate EQ as well. At times, we should put more emphasis on EQ than IQ for good reasons. A matter may become a good one if we handle it with a little bit more sense of humour.
If you were the man, what would you do? Have a big laugh? or start to swear XYZ?

How To Become Happy

In my blog 'How To Become Happier' on 26Mar10, I discussed that we can always be happier disregard we are happy or not, and went through some ways that can help us becoming happier. In this blog, I'll take one step further and discuss on how to ultimately become happy.

A. Always Be Happier
    As a first step, we can always be happier as mentioned in my previous blog, and as such, I do not intend to repeat here any further.
B. Appreciate What We Have
    While we should always aim for higher and better, nonetheless we should always be content of what we are having; our family, friends, what we process and our status quo. Remember, the present is always already a present. Do not be unhappy unnecessarily.
C. Seeing People Around Us Happy
    We will feel happy when we are surrounded by happiness. When we are in Disneyland, we feel happy because we are surrounded by a happy environment and atmosphere, and by happy people everywhere. Likewise, when we see that our family, friends and neighbours are happy, we will be happy too.
D. Making People Around Us Happy
    By making people around us happy, we can have happiness around us. As result, we'll feel happy as mentioned in C above. There are various ways we can make people around us happy. We can employ whatever means appropriate to us, e.g.:
. buying a gift for our family and friends
. sharing funny and interesting stories, and our favourable experiences with others
. helping out with people needing help
. making donations to charity
. performing voluntary work in our community
. to a larger extent, be a philanthropist and contributing back to the society (some of) what we gained from them
E. Seeing That We Can Make People Around Us Happy
    When we see people around us happy as result of us making them so, we'll have a very high degree of personal satisfaction. The happiness we acquire from such at that moment is usually far beyond any words of description.

As we expereience, happiness from material gains (e.g. living in a big house, having a delicious meal or enjoying a luxurious holiday etc.) is usually superficial and short-lived. Happiness gained from sharing happiness with others are mostly much more intense and long-lasting, and surprizingly, usually comes for free!

Be happy always!

Happiness and Unhappiness

A woodcutter went up the hills to cut trees for his living everyday. One day, he went to the hills as usual. On his way, he saw a wounded little bird. The little bird's body was covered with glittering silver feathers. It was very beautiful. The woodcutter said, " I've never seen such a beautiful bird before." So he took the little bird home and cured its wounds. During the rehabilitation process, the little bird sang to the woodcutter sweet and beautiful songs. The woodcutter felt very very happy.
One day, the woodcutter's neighbour came to visit him and saw the silver bird. He said to the woodcutter, " I've seen a little bird with golden feathers. That gold bird was much more beautiful than your silver bird. Besides, it sang much better than yours."
The woodcutter wondered, "Is there really such a gold bird? How beautiful is this gold bird? Can it sing very beautiful songs?" From then on, the woodcutter began not to enjoy songs sang by the silver bird. Gradually, the woodcutter became more and more unhappy each day.
Now the silver bird fully recovered from its wounds. It was about time for it to fly away. Before it went, it flew to the woodcutter and sang to him for the last time. After the silver bird finished, the woodcutter sighed, "Your silver feathers are very beautiful, but I think you are not as beautiful as the gold bird. Your song is very beautiful too, but still I don't think it's as beautiful as the gold bird sings."
The silver bird then flew to the direction of the setting sun. Under the golden setting sunlight, the bird became a beautiful glittering gold bird. The woodcutter then realized that the gold bird he's been dreaming for so long was really just the one beside him all the time!

Happiness does not rest on how much one possesses, but on how less one bothers. Sometimes we don't appreciate what we are having is already a fortune. We just realize (and regret to realize) only when we lose it. So appreciate what we have and don't make unnecessary comparisons.