Dinner with old friend moving away & Bro's concern

RB had dinner with his mother and her old friend who was moving away soon.

RB has also been receiving daily calls from his brother, who is concerned about his goals and where he's going.

Mom's biopsy

RB's mom had growths removed from her stomach last week.  The biopsy results, thankfully, indicated that they were not tumours.  Phew.

Helping aunt

Heading out to HK today, to meet aunt to help out her money issues.

Engagement Anniversary

RB and MM has been engaged for a year already!

Taxes & Ideas

RB was talking to a friend about tax deductions, for future businesses.  Also to better understand tax rebates for the bamboo business.

RB also had a few more great ideas, that he added to The List.  E.g. Master Mind or Science Kits, and also bamboo charcoal.

Where'd all the chicken's go?

RB revisited the friend who sold chickens, only to find his yards empty.  He thought maybe business was great over the chinese new year, but turns out the friend had decided to get out of chicken farming.

Tennis

RB met up with his brother for a good old game of tennis.  Who will win??

Ball bearings

RB accompanied his brother to visit a friend who made machines.  When RB showed this friend his idea for the ball massager, the friend immediately recognized it to be similar to a ball bearing.  RB was given one as a sample!

" it is an industrial product mainly used on production line to smooth
the moving of items. its call 牛眼轮 (bull's eye wheel) in chinese... "


RB tested it on his mother, and she liked it.  First, they had a small talk...so they were on better terms again.  Second, she may be biased, but RB and MM believe in their product!

New start to a new year?

RB's mom finally returned from Hong Kong.  Not on talking terms quite yet.  But RB knows he must initiate.  He also knows that he must find a shared solution with his siblings.

He also started thinking of making a prototype of his massage ball! Yeah!

Mediation?

Remember that dinner over which RB's mom got very upset about him considering having her immigrate to Canada?  Well, the 80+ yr old friend who happened to be there, felt obligated to help mediate the situation.

RB is meeting her for dim sum, while his mom is hiding out in Hong Kong.  She honestly told him that she understands where RB is coming from and should live his life how he sees fit.  However, she was unable to say this truth to his mother.

RB realized, or rather confirmed his suspicion, that his mother hears only people agreeing with her.  No one has dared to be impolite or mean to say otherwise.  He must do the difficult task of confronting her.

Rethinking bamboo & Massage Ball design

RB was rethinking his decision to partner with the bamboo friend, since he realized it was would not utilize his talents or time well.  It was also risky due to the lack of organization and uncreative.

He also drafted a very nice 3D design of the massage ball.  MM was very impressed!

Home

RB spent the day at home.  Yes, his mom was still giving him the silent treatment.

Support for MM's interview

MM had an interview coming up on Wednesday, and RB was awesome and provided lots of support all weekend, despite his own family difficulties. 

Year of the Dragon

RB made no progress with his mom.  He still got to enjoy his cny by having lunch with his younger uncle, and then dinner with his father.

His father was okay with RB's engagement and even gave the advice to ignore his mother...does this ex-husband know his ex-wife well?

Chinese New Years Eve

RB's mom continued to ignore him and hid in her room.  RB ended up having dinner with his brother, and his mother spent it hiding in her clinic alone.  Apparently, this is how she spends each chinese new year.

Unforeseen plans

RB had dinner with his mom and some friends.  During the dinner, the friends asked what RB's near future plans were.  He mentioned that he was considering bringing his mother to Canada.

RB's mom became very upset and angry and pin-pointed that she did not want to immigrate and that it must be because he had plans with me.  She accused him of abandoning her and she started to give him her famous silent treatment.

They did not end up going to Guang Zhou for chinese new years after all.

Chinese New Year celebrations begin

RB travelled back to Guang Zhou to spend chinese new years with his uncle.  Hopefully, his 7th uncle could convince his mom to go too!

Home with Mom

RB returned to Shen Zhen to his mom's home.  Took it easy.  But also already began thinking about what to discuss and do with his bamboo friend.  He knew he needed to work out the expenses with him if they were to partner up.

It was his sister-in-law's birthday and they had dinner together.  Unfortunately, due to a preceding conflict, his mother ignored her the entire time.

In a conversation with MM, he admitted a bit of fear with respect to confronting his mom.  MM assigned the small task of beginning his training on being a more proactive "counselor" by honestly, but kindly pointing out to his mom, the unpleasant effects of such an ongoing conflict.  Results?  To be continued...

He also went to visit his "7th uncle".

Return to HK

RB arrived in HK and stayed over at his aunt's place for a few days.  He was to help her with some personal financial/legal issues.  Briefly, she tried recruiting him into Christianity, but to no avail.  His first day back, however, was largely spent sleeping to recover from the time lag and long flight.

Brief stay in Japan...'s airport

RB had a 10 hr lay over in Japan.  Unfortunately, due to the cheapness of the flight ticket, it was at night, so there wasn't anywhere he could go.  He slept a little bit, chat with MM when she was in the Vancouver airport a couple times (that was MM's favourite time in the airport).

He almost missed his flight back to HK because the clock he was looking at was set an hour late.  Luckily he heard his name being paged!