OMG I absolutely cannot believe that it has been almost a month !

ALMOST, but not quite, luckily I thought about this place a lot and it came up tonight.

Well after another week of mind numbing work, it was time to GO TO MELBOURNE !! WOOHOO ! And I did, with a little stopover in Adelaide for two hours for the connecting flight.

When I first got off the plane, there was such a huge feel of arriving home, and the sky was clear, very very blue, and the weather was fantastic, sunny but cool. Simply amazing. SherBear picked myself and FredBear up and then it was a trip to DFO for some shopping. Did not see much that I liked/could afford so actually for the first time in my life left with nothing ! That is quite an achievement for me as I actually tried on many things !! But of course, I got dropped off at Seasons where I met up with CCBear and KenBear and then we went for some Brunetti's where things just seemed to stay the same ! Walked along Lygon and bumped into AmyBear and WayneBear as well. Then we all got picked up by CKBear's car and went over to Canning. Great dinner with many many visitors including JasBear, DanBear, AaBear, JaqBear, AlleBear, RayBear (actually stays there so should not count), MLBear, JoeBear, KaiBear...great to see so many young people. Then there were several rounds of board games including an introduction to Dominion and that was the first night.

The next week went completely by SO fast that it seemed like a dream. I only recall certain events so will just list them down here in point form - I cannot wait to get back to Melbourne !

- Walked around St Kilda - attended TasBear's birthday, met BuckBear and so other friends - Dinner at Freshwater Place - JarBear, LucBear, ElBear, NelBear, RachBear, DaveBear, VeeBear - Greco's for cake for FredBear's birthday - AaBear's place for late night games for 2 hours as CKBear having late night assignment - met HaoBear and EdBear and JonBear

- Uni visit - 7 seeds for coffee and great relaxing breakfast - CKBear meetup - CBD shopping trip - bought new Dominion - Smith Street - 4 pairs of shoes - KenBear and CCBear for dinner with AlleBear, CKBear, AaBear and JaqBear following which, played Dominion till past midnight

- Bridge Road shopping- jeans and tops - Port Phillip Arcade - Tourist Centre - HarvBear for lunch - Walk along Elizabeth - 2 bookshops - Baba Budan coffee - KenBear's engineering exhibition - picked up at Grattan Street - Richmond for Roast Duck - SherBear's house for dinner also met JessBear - almost missed train back to city - made it by running - thanks for gym training - Intersection

- CBD shopping - coffee - Max Brenner's - waffles yum - Chicago Musical - coffee on Queen's Street - Elizabeth Street Shopping - dinner was Korean - LaTrobe Street - DamBear also attended - games at Seasons till late

- FredBear breakfast - St Ali - South Melbourne - Chef's Hat - Port Melbourne beach - sunny day - Victoria Market - Rented car with HarvBear - RMIT visit HarvBear's place for first taste of Guitar Hero - late for dinner at Brunswick Street with PatBear/KimBear - huge pie - picked up by KenBear and FangBear for seconds - pizza along Nicholson Street - call from work - solved - Seasons - late night Dominion and PS - stayed over

- Drizzling - slept in - AlleBear, CCBear and HarvBear - Mt Dandenong - Pie in the Sky - Miss Marple's for scones and tea - Sweet Shoppe - Cuckoo Clock restaurant - Dinner with SherBear and XXBear - walked from city to College Square with WayneBear - Convinced RayBear for more Guitar Hero and Rock Band PS games at AlleBear's place

- Packed - walked to city from Canning with CKBear to yumcha at Crystal Jade with JaqBear, AaBear, AlleBear, MLBear, JoeBear - AaBear's place for super board games - afternoon and pizza at night - PratBear and SteveBear - picked up by SherBear and FredBear to airport - long phone calls of anguish - boarded - noisy babies on plane - back to HongKong

And that was my fantastic pretty unplanned Melbourne biannual trip. Will the next trip really be in 2011 ? Or would it be sooner ?

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2 trips to the gym so far this week, and I completed about 20 km total ! Yay !

Tonight I went for dinner with FredBear and RoxBear at this little Japanese place in Tai Hang. It was so small there were only three tiny tables and some bar space. Teeny Tiny. We talked a lot and caught up at that dinner. The place was called Mashyu and had pretty good udon, but the pork cutlet was not up to standard. Later we walked over to CRC and talked some more while watching old ladies play tennis and eat ice cream.

One of the topics that was brought up was the past, as always, and we talked about the good old times in university and how much people have changed. Then we talked about looks and how everyone looks older now. And more matured. Then FredBear said I looked exactly the same. Then RoxBear said I actually looked younger ! Wah. Gratified.

I look younger. Best compliment for a while.

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The parents came and left and it was one week of some touristy stuff plus home life. I took the week off and spent some time also at the dentist which cost me a whopping 4 grand. Crazy. They also told me I needed some work done and the potential cost was about 10 grand, not including the wisdom teeth surgery. Yikes. I have also finally scheduled my medical checkup which would be in the first week of November and would cost me another 8 grand. Life is hard, when everything costs so much ! Luckily, currently this is all covered for by the company I work with. I also finally joined a gym here, and it will cost me 929 a month for the next year. With the parents, a visit to Macau was in order of course, and we stayed at the Venetian. No better reason to splurge. So all about money these past 2 weeks, and surprise surprise, my credit card was maxed out one fine day. For the first time in my life, I could not sign on my credit card. Bleh.

After a long mahjong session on Friday night, I had breakfast at the famous macaroni on a sidewalk place with MrTam and FredBear. It brought back memories of the first time that I arrived in HongKong last year. Life was different then, but also same. I am still working, my friends are still around, and there is still time to have fun. Later spent a few hours in the arcade with MrTam before going off to the gym to run. The fact that the gym costs so much is proving to be a big incentive to go and reduce the cost per visit ! So I ran, and managed to finish off two episodes of House Season 3. Yes I am that Backward ! I figured that the gym's huge series library in DVD would also be a great reason to exercise and I am right !

After 8 km and a shower, I MTRed up to Cheung Sa Wan to meet GAHil and GACin for an hour at the driving range. Still trying to improve the swing. Hitting the ball is good. Also spent some time reading articles in Chinese. Later we adjourned to La Fleur in WanChai for some great French food and a great bottle of wine from South Australia. While the girls had duck/chicken, oysters and foie gras, I contented myself with salad, soup and a fantastic fish. No butter and dressing. Not bad at all. Still great. And it was great fun too. We stayed till everyone left, and talked some more. Also learnt a lot about mortgages and the process of getting one. You see, by the time my contract expires next year, and if I do stay on, I am toying with the idea of buying my first piece of real estate in the very expensive market of Hong Kong. After all, I would be paying rent so why not a mortgage instead.

It is however a very tricky decision, and I am glad I have months to go before making a decision. Today, the lazy genes took over, and I skipped gym, but will do some weights at home before heading out to badminton in the evening. So still some exercises today, and I shall be able to cover my conscience with that.

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I just realised that I am updating less, and will need to pick up the habit of typing again. After all, this is the 5th year of my blog, and I would not want it to die before it reaches ten years old right ? I think a month without updates qualify as dead, so I definitely need to ensure it does not happen.

So what has happened in the past 3 weeks or so ?

Well firstly of course, there was much excitement about moving to the new office. Spent the week cleaning up my table space and also had a lot of fun watching my colleagues clear 10 years of stuff. There were old photos of ex girlfriends, bills from ten years ago, as well as office memorabilia of all ages ! They also managed to collect between them 4 kilogrammes of coins. It is amazing how much rubbish one can collect.


Then on Friday the 11th, I believe it was GAJoe's wedding. Some of us squeezed into a taxi and went to Whampoa, where the wedding was being held. It was very disappointing not to have mahjong tables at the wedding, but we had fun and took some photos. The great thing was having most of the HK IGs all together in one place. Have not seen them all together for a long time ! It brought back a lot of memories and we could not stop talking about a lot of things.


That weekend also saw the trio of IzyBear, SLBear and StephBear come to HK for a short visit. Was amazed at how much sleep the youngsters needed, and also their method of vacationing. I remember I had to go to the office to try out the new machines and it was great fun, taking photos and all before going over to play 2 hours of tennis at Victoria Gardens again. We then played mahjong for a few hours before FredBear and I picked up the trio and went to ShamTseng for a roast goose dinner and the customary mango desserts !


The weekend after that was mostly spent playing with the Wii, fixing it on Saturday...taking it to the shop, replacing parts and programmes, and then going back to have dinner with JanBear and JeffBear. The next day, MRTam and I went back to the arcade, where we played some games (the arcade has always held a lot of mysteries to me, having never spent much time there in my youth) until FredBear was home. He was testing out all the new games that he had bought for the Wii of course, and we tried them out later as well. We met up with GABish for GenkiSushi before more Wii. I was dead tired that Sunday night, and luckily only had to work for two days.


The reason was because I was one of the IGs picked for exemplary performance, and was flown back to KL to give a speech to the new batch of IGs, of which SharBear and KeiBear were part of. There was also a question and answer session as well, and brought back loads of memories as we always had a lot of questions to which noone really had the answer to. Those three days in KL were ridiculously short, mainly because my parents had gone to HK, so I was not spending any extra time in KL at all. Activities done in those three days include 1 short mamak gossip session, 1 shopping session at Pavillion, 1 crazy night of Bavarian Bierhaus/Social/Zouk/Bukit Bintang McDonalds, 1 visit to Scope Bukit Jalil, 1 three hour massage, 1 session of binge roti eating (2 rotis are considered bingeing for me), 1 massive karaoke session of almost 7 hours, 1 nasi lemak brunch at Bangsar, 1 teatime at BV2, and of course a ride in the limo to the airport. All in, quite a lot done I must say, but of course, did not have time to meet anyone at all apart from the colleagues.


This week it is all about the parents and the two public holidays I guess. Let me update on that later !

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I have just returned from a very satisfying Saturday, and I thought I would blog about it now, while it is all fresh in my mind. But first a little recap of last weekend when GAIst and GAMunu was in HK. We spent some time at the Press Room having lunch, then had a two hour massage, followed by a good dinner at Ngau Kee at Kau U Fong. While they met up with their friends for drinks later, I watched GI JOE. Probably one of the better movies that I have enjoyed this year. Saturday and Sunday I went along to Macau, where we ate so much, including a breakfast at this Michelin rated chinese restaurant. We had a lot of yummy dim sum and we also went shopping where I met this FANTASTIC Burberry coat that I wanted to buy but it costs around HKD12 thousand. Maybe...next time. But love at first sight.

Work went by really quickly and on Friday after work (work has been great these few weeks, achieving loads and having lots of fun) met up with FredBear and we cruised for Wii games, and ended up at Toys R Us, and took a look at the games there before getting one for the night. Then we made a drive by at KFC, and got some chicken for dinner. Watched TVB with the chicken and then later had some rounds of Ghost Squad around, am now up to level 88 !! If I do finish it, it would be the second game that I have completely finished on Wii, after Wario in 2007 at Mornington.

Saturday morning was a morning of Plants and Zombies with my Chinese class as well, and it was a fun, and we continued talking in Chinese and then we had breakfast with her boyfriend, MrChui. We are great friends now. We later went to a games arcade and played some of the newer games that have come out, sort of like Dance Dance revolution but for your fingers. There is also a game that is pretty much like the game in NDS that I was hooked onto, should be quite fun. Will be quite interested to go back again. Later I went shopping for jeans, and there was H&M which was having a sale on denim. Unfortunately I did not find any jeans that I liked, but rather found loads of shirts and sweaters that I would have bought had I not resolutely walked out, thinking of the masses of clothes I still had.

Took a cab up to FredBear's and was greeted with a salmon bagel. Played some Wii for a while before meeting his colleague MsAda and her boyfriend MrPP. Haha. They are fun people and before you knew it, we played 8 rounds of mahjong, punctuated by a very filling dinner from the Indian Village at Mosque Junction. Yummy food. Gladly, winnings from mahjong covered the dinner, though I was down at one point. Then watched about half of Oliver! before I got too sleepy and left. But after a shower I am a bit fresh, and spent about half an hour reading financial news.

Gotta rest soon, a lot of cleaning and laundry, not to mention my very last class of Korean for this semester !!

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Have been really busy these past couple of weeks. Had a senior dealer on a long leave, and also with the IG deploying permanently away from my department, all of a sudden I had a three man workload to deal with. There were some points I thought I would just go crazy, especially when dealing with some unreasonable people and also some extreme deadlines. The long hours did not help as well, and I calculated I clocked in about 70 hours at the office last week. I was taking the cab home every day as was completely pooped, and usually took the cab to work as well, as got up late since exhausted. As usual, did not step out for lunch and just ate at the desk. However, I must say that it went really well, and I did receive those good job done kinda reaction from my manager. That is all and fine, but need to get it translated into promotions and or pay rise and or big bonus. Lol.

Played tennis for consecutive weeks in the blazing hot sun and last week it went on for two hours, and was really hot. So hot that I was peeling skin from my face throughout the week ! Ouch. My arms are slightly brown though now ! Later that night also went to Lau Fau Shan which is in the North West of New Territories. We went right through the end, which meant that we could actually see the buildings of Shenzhen across the bay. Amazing view, and also had good seafood at that area as well. It was fun.

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Time flies and I've probably said this a million times.

Where does the time go ? I was just bemoaning the fact that it was Monday and that I would have to go back to the office again, and now suddenly it is Thursday night ! And I cannot even remember what I had for dinner on Monday !!

What I do remember was how heavy the rain was yesterday and it was the night that my team and I went for a dinner together at this Japanese restaurant. I normally would not go to such restaurants, mainly a sake place, with small eats, appetizers, to whet your appetite while you order loads of sake. But it was amazingly fun, and it is great what a full meal appetizers can make. And loads of fun too.

It brought me back some concept of fun. It gets harder and harder to have pure good clean fun nowadays. Every event ought to be treasured, and for those of us who are still able to live fun lives, we should be very glad.

I am very glad that I still do have a lot of fun. From work, to family and friends. Studies, food, everything still interests me.

Ah. Turning 25 is not such a big change after all.

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