2015 Christmas Letter
20/12/15 22:31 Filed in: Christmas Letters
Dear all,
The letter is a bit late this year because I've had to re-edit and cull the content as I wasn't aiming to write "War and Peace".
It's still a long letter though because a lot had happened this year. Really.
Firstly, let's talk about the "firsts" for me:
I learnt how to make pizza! It started because my sisters wanted to buy a food processor. As it's a "gadget", the IT guy in the family (me) needed to review and produce a feasibility study. I watched the online videos and when I saw that we could make pizza dough from the food processor, I was sold! I even negotiated the price and picked up the machine!
And because I'm making pizzas, I also had to slice onions, garlic, tomatoes etc. so I've peeled more onions and garlic in the last 3 months than my entire life! This food processor is great!
I also made bread rolls (basically same dough concept) though my customers have complained that it's too salty. Still working on that one.
My repertoire so far: I have the pepperoni, the tandoori chicken, the prawns, the supreme, ham and pineapple, the Bevan Special and the Vimiera Special.
Photos in order: bread rolls, pepperoni, and prawns.
Oh, I do "half and half" pizzas too. It's usually $2 extra but for family, it's free. 😉
I will strive to get the dough to be super thin and soft…which I often thought it may be easier to just go to the Italian pizzeria down the road to have it!
Now to other news - let's start with the bad news.
I attended two funerals in a month, I got sick 3 times in 4 months, I changed job, and then I'm out of a job. There you go, that's all in a nutshell.
It's Christmas and I don't want to ruin my letter with anger, so I'll just say that I was enjoying my job, then my boss gave me a new job in May, as he wanted me to help with a problem area (plus there's a lot of politics in the background), then I started getting sick which I think a lot has to do with the angst of dealing with the @%#^% etc and the politics I encountered in the 5 months I was in that job, was more than the politics I've encountered my entire working life.
Long and short of it, I left the company in October. The CEO (who I reported directly to), left 2 weeks later. I think it was a blessing in disguise for me.
That's it for the bad news. I was getting angry just writing the last 2 paragraphs.
So what have I been doing since? Lots.
I decided to try freelancing. I'm sick of working for other people and having to deal with a******s and b******s.
I've been busy since October:
Dad had produced 2 LP/CD (LP as in a vinyl record - remember those?). We have a few copies at home but once they are given away, that's it. I have the master tape but that's not going to do me any good.
The front and back cover above was just "found" today (along with the original cassette tapes), from a mint copy of the original LP. By chance I discovered where dad hid them. 😊My guess is, the album (records and cassettes) was made in 1973.
The result? I put them online. Yep, they are now available on all online stores, like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon.com and all the online streaming services. If you have an iPhone, ask Siri to identify the songs. It's quite cool…dear old dad's music, now available worldwide.
They are playing on Jango.com - an online streaming radio service. So far we have 30 fans (subscribers) from all over the world. I thought that's cool.
This means that when I die, Samuel Ting's music get to live on. Let's hope there are still people who appreciate art songs and traditional sacred songs - churches these days have a rock band with electric guitars and drums…Jesus Christ Superstar?
Putting these two CDs online was an eye opening experience. It took me about 1 month to get both albums published. I won't bore you with all the details (I had actually written them but deleted them) but it's not hard but not that easy to do, especially if you have Chinese song titles!
Then, to help sell the CDs, I set up a Facebook page to promote them. From that led to the creation of a website and then Google AdSense, and understanding analytics with GoSquared and… Don't know what I'm talking about? It's ok, 3 weeks ago I had no idea what all these things were! 😊
Wait a minute - I said creation of a website didn't I? Well, the computer program I had been using was primitive and outdated so I bit the bullet and learnt more about a new program which I have used for the last few years in limited capacity (because I didn't have time to learn how to use it properly).
This is the result: I converted (and upgraded) my old website to this new look and best of all, one website (i.e. I just have to set everything up once) that can be viewed on desktop computers, smart phones and tablets! (It's called "being responsive", as I found out) I had to maintain 2 versions in the past: one for desktop computers, one for iPhones / iPads which was time consuming and a pain in the you-know-where.
From that experience, I created a nice website for dad: http://www.samuelting.org. I bought the domain name in 2007, after dad died and it's been sitting there doing nothing till now.
I don't know if dad ever planned to put his music online because iTunes was basically non-existent when he left us. But one thing I DO know is he wanted to make his music more readily available to a worldwide audience. He very much wanted to publish his music (especially music for church choirs) and was keen to know how to put his sheet music online for people to browse and buy (free for church choirs) and an easy way to get the music to them, once they bought the music.
Well, 8 years ago I had no answer for dad (as I didn't know how to do it), now I do. Quite easily, actually.
In the 3 weeks of setting up the website and learning all the new website building skills, I also found out how to set up an online shop. All I need now is find some more time to print his music into PDFs and I can set up a shop on his website and sell the sheet music. All within a day.
Not bad eh? So if nothing else, at least I finally got to fulfil some of my promises to dad. He never asked me to do them but I made him that promise after he died and over the years, I'd been feeling bad that I hadn't done anything (hence the domain name sitting idly for 8 years). But I'm getting there.
See? I did say this was a blessing in disguise.
During this time, I've also had to review all of his compositions and made sure that they are registered with the Composers Association. Going through all the songs that dad had written, I realised it's been over 30 years since I heard many of the songs sung. Hold that thought, there's a point to this…read on.
The photo here shows SOME OF dad's compositions, arrangements, the variations (arranged for different vocal parts), printed, filed. He had written a lot of good music and I want to make sure they are around when I depart this world.
So, a future plan: when I have a steady income again, I'm thinking of picking up a hobby by forming a quartet (poor man's choir). My plan is the quartet will sing more of dad's compositions, record them and we'll release more albums. If you live in Sydney, love singing and are interested in joining this little project, give me a call. 4 people and a pianist. I have all the technology, I just need bodies (and voices).
I've also created a blog: http://www.bevansbubble.com to blog about mainly old movies, TV shows, pet peeves (e.g. don't get me started on the A380!) and other "stuff", which basically means whatever I feel like writing about. I don't know if it'll make money but at least I'll have fun writing about things I like to talk about. Feel free to click on the links to have a look.
I am also, when I get around to it, going to start writing some apps for iPhones and iPads. That's always my fallback - back to being a computer programmer. So far too busy doing everything else but do this. I guess I'll be working over Christmas. Just wished someone would pay me for having fun!
And if all that fails, then I guess I'll start looking for a job. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying being my own boss - lousy pay (what pay?), extremely long hours (11am to 3am) but I (the boss) promised the employee (that's me) it'll get better once I have all the initial things all set up.
If you are STILL reading up to this point - congratulations and thank you!
Now for the best parts of my year:
We had some of the best trips this year. The family went to Hong Kong in March. We really played tourists this time. Cousins from dad's side showed us parts of Hong Kong we've never been. A friend showed us around Cheung Chau (an islet off Hong Kong) where a cousin from mum's side also now lives there. It was a lot of fun!
View from Stanley Market (I think):
Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong view:
One of the views from Cheung Chau (sorry it was cloudy that day and I was too busy catching my breath from the walking than taking photos!)
While we had an excellent time meeting up with my cousins (dad's side of the family), it was not all good news on mum's side of the family. A cousin lost her son tragically on Chinese New Year's Day. The funeral happened to coincide with our visit to HK, so it was an opportunity to see many relatives (unfortunately not under happier circumstances).
One of mum's brothers would always, but always, calls us on Chinese New Year's Eve to wish us a happy Chinese New Year. He didn't call this year. We found out that he was in hospital. We visited him while we were in Hong Kong. Two weeks later he died. Amy and I flew up to Hong Kong to attend the funeral. He was good to me. When I briefly worked in Hong Kong years ago, I used to hang out at his place ('cos I don't have that many friends in HK). He looked after me. I will miss him.
In June, I went to Taipei for a fact-finding trip. It was a relaxing trip. Being alone, I was free to do whatever I wanted, at the time I wanted! I caught up with a couple of friends for lunches and dinners.
In September, we had a mini family reunion with dad's side of the family (again!). We thought we'd make it special by having it around Mid-Autumn (aka Moon Cake) Festival. Sounds like a good thing at the time.
Talk about bad timing! We forgot September is still typhoon season! We had the pleasure (or displeasure) of Typhoon DuJuan visiting us during our stay….and ruined one whole day of my tour plan, which was probably the most "important" day of our trip.
But looking on the bright side, my cousins got to see a typhoon up close and personal, the winds were so strong the hotel was swaying and we were getting a bit "seasick" on the 36th floor.
You know what? It was kinda fun. A bit scary at the time, but it was an experience. Check out the video I took:
(Trying out my selfie stick and was photobombed. 😀)
Before the typhoon hit town though, we did manage to go to a place just outside Taipei where you can make wishes and release them on a sky lantern. Check out this video:
We played games we used to play when we were kids, when we met up for Mid-Autumn Festival in Singapore. It was great to have relive them for nostalgic reasons. For one of my cousins, she grew up in Hong Kong so she got to experience the fun she missed out when she was a kid.
It was another memorable reunion. All the group photos we took turned out really good this time too - a bonus.
I really do enjoy the breakfast and dinner sessions. Haven't had the "big family" atmosphere for a long while.
Don't know what to do for next year. I don't think they'd want to go to Taipei again (though we do have "unfinished business" - interrupted by Typhoon DuJuan)! 😀
We had spoken of another city but that's out of my control so tune in next year to see…'cos I absolutely have no idea where we're going!
We've only said goodbye to cousin Eugene and his family a few days ago. They came visiting Sydney 3 years in a row. Sydney must be doing something right!
We also did something a little differently this year - we made a day trip to Canberra!
We really do enjoy their visits. Always a lot of fun and laughs. They even got to try my pizzas!
Hopefully next year, my pizza skills would have improved when they visit again!
Speaking of next year…this is the end of this long winded letter…I hope I didn't bore you too much. I could have finished the whole year in 6 words: "2015 was not bad. Merry Christmas" but what would be the fun in that?
I hope 2016 brings you much happiness and good health. I hope it brings me that and some wealth…The Nikon D6 is due and I'd like to get one. 😉
Nah, with my luck, it (wealth) won't happen to me.
Oh, one more thing: Kismet!
Isn't she a cutie?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Your friend,
Bevan
