Above all else

I heard it said that it's not what you know, but who you know that counts. So here's a story about that. I recently went for a dinner with some colleagues - I got a last minute invite because a couple of people couldn't make it at the last minute!  So as I was leaving for the dinner appointment, I mentioned it to my wife, and she reminded me that we actually knew someone who worked there.  Just an ordinary lady who serves at the restaurant, who we became friends with and brought to church as part of my cell group outreach activities.  So I told my wife, yeah, I'll definitely say hi if I see her there. So when I got there, she did happen to be working that night, and I said hi, and I even managed to get some extra dishes for free!  But boy were my colleagues impressed, because they'd been lining up for months to get a reservation at this restaurant, which was evidently super popular (neither Lynette nor I are foodies, so I guess we didn't understand the s...

Well, all the exams finally ended a couple of weeks ago for my kids - what a relief!  So here's a bit of reflection on our experience... First, for the Primary Six one - as I wrote in an earlier blog entry here , Nat was hoping to get into a particular school through the Direct Schools Admission exercise, and didn't quite make it at the final interview. I had wanted her to go to that school because I'm from the affiliated boys school.  At the same time, Nat also didn't get an offer for my wife's alma mater, which my wife wanted her to go to, especially because it's near home.  So... basically I didn't get what I wanted, my wife didn't get what she wanted, and Nat didn't either. Or so I thought. So a few days after Nat got the rejections from schools A and B, we got an email from School C.  Nat got a confirmed offer!  We had been reluctant for Nat to interview for this school, because it's rather far away from home.  But Nat had insisted...