Cognitive Dissonance - My Sign

It was a free and easy Saturday which started with Dim Sum at 蓮香樓 at Wellington Street with Alvin, Daisy, Lynn and Da. It has to be the most crowded restaurant I had been to so far. While it still served Dim Sum in tradional way, i.e. in carts, it was so crowded that one had to literally fight for the Dim Sum .. for the carts would have been empty by the time it reached you. Not much of a relaxing sit-down-and-wait-to-pick-your-dimsum style I supposed. As such, Alvin and Daisy braved the maddeningly crowd to get a share of their Dim Sum before the cart came our way. In fact, ambushing outside the kitchen was something we were contemplating as well.

It was truly no mean feat to partake in a feast of good Dim Sum in the authentic setting ... amongst a rowdy crowd, dangerously close seating, and grouchy waiters with their hot kettles and sudden movements when refilling the teapots.

After that, me and Da proceeded to have some cold desserts to avoid evaporating in that heat. After that, we had to rush to IFC to avoid getting a heat stroke. Yes, it was that unbearably hot for any unsheltered space other than the beach. So we spent some time in Starbucks reading newspaper and caught Wall-E.



A enchanting show which managed to amazingly evoke many emotions like love and humour though there's almost little dialogue. The first thoughts that came to me mind was how Da has lost his voice due to an ucler in his throat. .. and how it was in real life not so easy to communicate, let alone demonstrate actions of love if one cannot speak. As such, one has to give the thumbs up to Wall-E who managed to do that effortlessly. Also, I liked the show very much for its environmental themes who I didn't expect (as I didn't know what Wall-E was about) and it subsequently dawned upon me that perhaps it's a sign to me. In fact, what happened after the show were signs after signs.

Wall-E awakened the environmental activist in me which was pretty much in a coma for the last 3 years, in the pursuit of career and everything else. I have looked at the new awakening in the Green movement and simply reflected that it was exactly like how I imagined it could be popular..i.e. through making monetary cents or through making it hip and fashionable. Well, just look at the tussle over "I am not a plastic bag" and all the hype ard "An inconvenient truth" and such.

Shortly after, we had dinner and passed by a shop selling resin-silver jewellery from Paris and it got me thinking abt my wish to be into some kind of business. But before I did, I gave them some business for their inspiration to me .. .

Mine's the white-silver-brown version.

And finally, the last inspiration came most unexpectedly in the ParknShop supermarket. I was looking for the most gentle washing detergent and was almost about to pay for the $27 bottle when something caught my eye ... an entire shelf of environmental friendly products...ranging from detergent to tolilet cleaner, to recycled hand towels to washing liquids... And its tagline is "For people who care" ... They are Ecover, mainly manufacturing ecological detergents and cleansing agents. This is what i found on their webby.

Ecover stands for careful enterprise. This means that we produce our washing and cleaning products in an ecological, economic and socially responsible way in a unique ecological factory. Honest and open, we respect people and the environment. In our view, this is the only way to guarantee a sustainable future.

So i exchange my $27 for the $50 per pop detergent.

Clearly.. the business opportunity is in closing that tremendous gap unless target audience is going to be for the rich or uber rich.

Anyway, my idea is born (trade secret). And I even thought of the name ... Green Jene (pun intended "gene").

Now the only thing left is to strike Mark Six (aka Hong Kong Toto).

And finally, the inspiration is wrapped up nicely by the recent signs and cognitive dissonance ... recall last blog on the focus group training when I was rated as an environmentalist but somehow my actions don't match up ... and I recall also how guilty I feel for using all those disposible styroform for my morning coffee and takeaways. All that cognitive dissonance CAN go away if I make that bit more effort.