Stories

Story 663

2012-01-04T22:29:00.003+08:00

In further efforts to catch up on last year's posts, here we are again.

After the Korea trip, life went back to normal. I had family visitors from home, and then I flew home twice, once for SailorJeow's wedding in July and once for GAIst's. Around that time they disbanded my team at work and I was at risk of losing my job ! But then I was kept on (phew) and rejoined the local team. Blessings in disguise and I got to work in a team which I had been very interested in. At the same time, having worked my previous two roles I was very well placed to do the work here, as I had a lot more contacts and knowledge that could be put to use as well as transferable skills. It was however a prerequisite to say goodbye to two colleagues as well and the move happened in July.

EstBear came to visit in HK, and then of course I went to the Kylie concert as well. (Think this is about June). It was interesting and my first time at a concert held at a convention hall. All this time of course, there were bouts of dieting and I was busy losing weight. I think I hit a year's low sometime in September. Due of course to a combination of late nights at work and careful watching of my food. I do not think I exercised as much as first, but slowly there was a combination of youtube videos and exercises which I tried to do every few days. Surprisingly I received more than 150 birthday wishes on my facebook, I think that is a new record which was all very sweet. Funniest thing was that around this time I discovered a dead cockroach in the kitchen and I joked that it must have died of hunger as I had no food in the apartment at all. In fact I have since switched off the fridge !

A bunch of high school friends came to visit and we had a lot of fun catching up. My sister came to visit again and I think we had a lot of fun going through Big Bang Theory. (this is in September by the way). Work started to be really crazy and it was due to of course it being near the end of the year and I was doing several persons' work. Think I managed to get a weekend off and went up to China for a hot springs trip with some friends off a Groupon. With a lot less mahjong playing instead I was off on more weekend sports games either playing squash with GAEyeung or badminton with the usual MrTam. By the time early November rolled around, RaeBear, DinoBear, WoobyBear, SharBear and more came around to attend RoxBear's wedding. It was fun just going around but gosh, did we eat a lot. I think I definitely laughed when WoobyBear announced he had gained 4 kg during the week he was here.

Finally at long last I made it to my block leave in November. Not having had anything planned at first, then I was joined by GABish, MrTam and their friend MsWin and we all went to Hualien for a few days. The main point here was to visit the alpacas that GABish loved but it was a good time and we had time to visit the Taroko gorge and other seaside places. After about 4 days, I flew to Tokyo to join my mom and sister of a last minute trip. They were there courtesy of cheap AirAsia tickets and I had time to join. It being the autumn season, there were beautiful foliage everywhere and we even had time for two day trips out of the city as I was getting bored of the city. We spent a day in Yokohama where the weather was gorgeous and there were theme parks, and malls and lovely walks. We also spent a day going up to Niko, travelling around old temples and even braving the local bus system to spend a couple of hours at the local hot springs !

I had another break in December where I went home just to hang out and I also went home for the Christmas weekend ! It was my first time back in 4 years for Christmas and one very big reason of course was that it was NickyBear's wedding. One of the big things to look forward to all year ! The wedding was great and I also participated in the morning traditional events. The reason why it was greated than usual was because I got to meet with all these school friends some of which I have known for 20 years ! There were also many that were back from overseas for the wedding and holiday season, from Denmark, Germany, Australia and Singapore, to name a few. It was also very relaxing to spend some time with the family during the holiday season.

All this time as well I had been taking French lessons, starting from early in the year. As of now, I have completed four semesters, two exams and will start Level 5 in a week's time.

2011 was a very happening year in which a lot happened. Perhaps 2012 will be even more happening.

I hope so.

Story 662

2012-01-02T17:32:00.002+08:00

Tradition states that the first post of the year always states the resolutions of the year so let me start off with the results from the previous years.

2006 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2007 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2008 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2009 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2010 : Achieved 8 out of 10.
2011 : Achived 8 out of 10

While the 2011 results seem to confirm a declining trend, it was a surprise that for the first time since 2006, the unmet resolution was not the weight loss resolution ! This year managed to lose14kg off my peak weight, and I am currently at -10kg for the year after very terrible holiday food consumption.

The resolutions unachieved were the investment resolution and the run resolution. The investment one I guess was not too clear in the first place and sort of fizzled out after a very busy year at work. As for the run resolution, somehow just did not happen. After I mised the HK marathon due to rain and Guam holidays, I did not even run much at all until late in the year as part of the weight loss initiative and as well as preparation for the 2012 HK marathon.

However here is hoping that we will get back on track with the latest 2012 resolutions !

1. Lose 10 kg. (Lost 14 off peak. To be clear, resolution is to lose ten from here on.)
2. Travel to 2 countries (non HK / Malaysia)
3. Save more than I saved in 2011
4. Complete 4 levels of French courses. (Going really well)
5. Keep home clean and laundry to be done timely.
6. Complete 2 half marathons plus 1 more extra run. (Target one half marathon at 2hours 15 minutes)
7. Make more new friends.
8. Do well at work.
9. Keep up blogging instead of the phenomenal fail this year where nothing was posted in H2.
10. Strengthen family bonds.

Story 661

2011-07-30T08:18:00.002+08:00

This is running very late !!

After the the Guam/Taiwan trip, there were a flurry of things to be done. Loads of planning with MunBear who was finishing his work rotation here meant having to meet up to discuss where to go and what to do. Luckily MunBear is a similar kind of traveler, willing to try everything, willing for hardship and interested in doing and seeing stuff rather than big city shopping. We worked out a rough plan at first and then finetuned the details. We would spend about 2 days in Jeju before taking a ferry up to Mokpo and driving eastwards and northwards before going back to Seoul. We used the Korea Tourism Website a lot in those days and it was easy to plan a route complete with GPS pictures and length of time required between each destination. The hardest part was actually booking the car, as we had to return the car to a different city and that is not easy to do ! In the end though it was solved because I had MsSong help us out and even then it was a very long conversation in Korean.

Halfway through GATrac decided to join us which was great since it decreased the costs of car rental though the room rental worried me a little. She could also have her moods which may bust the whole trip down the valley of unhappiness. But her being easy on the details meant we did not have to change anything we wanted to do.

The first problem came on the flights though. GATrac decided to fly a day earlier through Shanghai to save money but her connecting flight was cancelled. In the end, MunBear and I went to Jeju first and familiarised ourselves with driving (it was easy for me as I had just driven in Guam and Taiwan) on the wrong side of the road. When GATrac finally made it half a day earlier she was so relieved to be there. Haha. One of our first stops was to stop at a beach side rock formation to gawk at the rocks and try seafood being taken out of the sea right in front of us. it was that fresh ! Other things we did on Jeju including feasting on the famous black pork, visiting the villages, lava tubes, and climbing the Sunrise Peak to see the sunrise. Though our mornings started early, we were all tired out as we walked a lot and did a lot more in a day that one would usually do on tour.

One serious problem we faced was that all our ferries to Mokpo were fully booked ! Something we did not count on. We managed to get ferry tickets to Busan but that would mean cutting out most of the Southwest and more importantly we needed to change our car booking ! The friendly ferry person helped us sort through this after a lot of sign language and we took an overnight ferry to Busan. It felt a little like Titanic even though we were second class passengers meaning we were in a four bunk cabin. There were areas we could not go, but it was fun and my first time as far as I can remember sleeping on the sea. We arrived in Busan very early and rested a while before trudging to find the car rental. And we could not find it. It took us more than an hour to find the office which had sneakily changed places before picking up GATrac from the train station. But by then we were set.

More fresh seafood we had before finding lodgings at Haeundae. We walked by the beach in the sunset and had a great barbeque dinner before resting our tired selves in a huge Spa at Spaland. Complete with 27 saunas and many different pools of different temperatures. The next few days we slowly made our way northwards along the coast and visited tombs, temples, museums, villages, old schools and cities, all the while feasting on great healthy Korean fare. Among some of the best things we did were going to visit a Penis Park (literally a park of phallic sculptures) and riding a railbike hidden in the valleys and mountains of East Korea. We made our way through the historical Gyeongju before spending the night in Pohang, home of the steel industry. Then up to sleepy Andong in the heartland and then the fishing village of Samcheok. After the scenic Jongseon in the mountains, we arrived at the Northeast port of Sokcho. This was a place where you could see into North Korea and there were evacuation plans and lighthouses and barbed wire on the beaches ! It was also home to the best and yummiest crabs in the world.

We spent a few hours taking a cable car and then climbing to the peak of Seorak mountain before spending a few romantic hours on the famous Nami island. This was my second time here as I had been to Jeju and the norther parts of Korea 3 years ago. Nami island was just as I remembered it, fantastic scenery, appropriate village decor, and remnants of Winter Sonata everywhere. We spent the night in Chuncheon munching on the famous dakgalbi. We were now very close to Seoul and we did one more detour to the largest botanical garden in Korea where it was like stepping into many pieces of heaven stitched together. Rivers, tiny chapels, model trains ran among many different themed gardens and it made a fantastic place to rest your soul. When we finally entered the city of Seoul, we spent a few hours at the Palace and the National Museum before retiring to have a 20 course dinner at the Cultural Korea House followed by an hour long cultural presentation.

The last two days were spent shopping and looking at Korean goods, visiting another spa, getting a massage, and basically just soaking in Korea. Korea to me is like Australia, a healthy sunny happy place. I loved it. And now I know it so much more. It was a very satisfying trip to make and took 10 days. Perhaps someday I will have time to travel down the West side as well.

Story 660

2011-05-15T22:06:00.003+08:00

On the way back from Guam, we had the same transit at Taiwan, so some of us took the opportunity to visit the Taipei International Flower Expo. Although it was a huge area, I must say that the place was a little disappointing, mind you the expo had been going on for almost 3 months and only had about a month to go, so perhaps, the flowers were a little tired of visitors. Haha. We also met up with one of our old friends GAPet who is now working in Taipei and we had dinner together with other Taiwanese colleagues as well. After spending one night at a budget hotel there, we took the train to Taichung and our journey really began.

After a little fiddling with the GPS, it was time to go. It was very sunny and we took quite a while navigating through tiny rural roads and then twisting mountain roads. Boy I was glad that I had experience driving on the right side in Guam because driving in Taiwan is also on the right side. But the view when we were up in the mountains of Taichung was great. It reminded me a little of Camerons Highlands as many many hostels or hotels here were intentionally built in a Western style so you would find cottages, or Bavarian castles like in the picture above all around the mountain. We had high tea at that castle and stayed at another cottage higher up the mountain.

The mountain itself was famous for livestock so we went to this tourist farm, which allowed visitors to ride horses, pet sheep, see dogs running around and herding sheep and other 'farmy' stuff. The next day we also went to the Sun Moon Lake which was famous for its beauty in the mountains. And true enough driving around the lake was a great experience and very relaxing. There we also took the cable car up to this theme park in the mountains. It was a park built around the 9 kinds of indigenous people living in the mountains of Taichung but also had the mechanical rides as well as huge flower gardens. Walking in the crisp air, with flowers everywhere, it seemed like a dreamland. It was a good transit !

Story 659

2011-05-14T11:39:00.004+08:00

This was not meant to be a monthly posting place nor is this meant to only have a post once every quarter. I did so wish to post at least once a week but a combination of laziness and business (??) has thwarted that plan. Since my post in February, I have been to Guam, Taiwan, South Korea, China (twice) and had millions of other adventures. I hope that I will be able to catch up and post more soon in the next month or two.

The trip to Guam was for GABish's wedding with MrTam and it was such a fun trip. It is probably the only place part of US that would not require me to get a visa for, and we had a relatively short flight with a short transit in Taiwan. Due to it being a naval base for the US, most flights would arrive really late at night or very early in the morning. We arrived at about 5 am and were whisked off to a city tour, starting with us being let loose in Kmart. Kmart is similar to the one we have in Melbourne except that there were loads of stuff that you could not get anywhere outside US and Canada. Many people bought special kinds of food or even medicine ! The city itself is not large, and you could probably drive around the whole island in a day. The interesting thing about the island is that it feels like a mini Hawaii, so you see things you would expect in the US, like large sized people, the typical Taco Bells and fast food restaurants. There is even a mini strip near the larger hotels, where you could buy branded goods and souvenirs.

The wedding itself was held on a very nice and sunny day. It was amazing to see all the great chapels that the hotels would have on the best spots of the beach especially for people to come and get married. Blue skies and white clouds made the whole thing perfect and lovely. In our spare times before and after the wedding, we would drive around the island, and explore the few curios the island had to offer. There was not much, mind you, but being my first time driving on the right hand side of the road was also a fair experience ! We ended our trip with a beachside barbeque complete with a show with dancing locals, fire blowing and coconut wearing girls.

Story 658

2011-02-24T22:53:00.002+08:00

Kapow and a whole month just flew by.

With the Chinese New Year festivities happening and me being on my ownsome (family wise) in Hong Kong, I took the time to hang out with friends and play a lot of Mahjong !! Thanks to JinBear's family who came for CNY, I had dinner with them and also took the time to go with them to visit the temples on Lantau Island. Though I have been there before, it was great to be able to go to the private meditation rooms and see what they looked like on the inside and also have a great vegetarian meal. As the weather was freezing, I slept in a bit on the second day of the new year before meeting up with GANay to watch the fireworks from the office and going for dinner later. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into so many other friends there that night though I must say fireworks were kinda boring, and held little significance to me. After dinner, we even joined GASte for drinks, which led to a crazy but immensely fun night at Shore.

Woke up really early to make it to MrAl's house at To Kwa Wan, where we made our way to MrSim's place for two hours of poker. For me at least. That was because I had to rush to Tsuen Wan to play mahjong ! I think they played poker the whole day long ! When I reached MsDor's house, I was berated for being late but we played for 12 hours ! And it was one of the most successful Taiwanese mahjong sessions that I have had. Even had a couple of games which MsDor herself has not eaten. Wahaha. I am really getting the hang of it now.

After Chinese New Year however, it was back to work with some really bad news for my teammate MrThai. He tore his ACL skiing in Japan and had to be wheelchaired to his flight home. It was good for him to rest at home, but he spent the next three weeks at home before going to Thailand for an operation. In the meantime, I was crazy busy at the office as everyone went back into full work mode again. The only thing which kept me sane in this time were some games that MrTT downloaded onto my iPhone against my weak protests. In a fit of competitive mode, we tried to finish various games before the other person, and I must say, I have NEVER EVER played so much games in my life. I would spend my time on the bus, mealtimes, and even in bed, playing the games and trying to figure out puzzles or trying to make my fingers coordinate enough to win a game. I have never been good at this, as I have never played much computer games or video games for that matter, so it was a very humbling experience. Though now that I have completed a few titles, I am more confident. I think the key was that it was not so much playing the game that was fun, it was more fun to be competing with someone. MrTT knows that, so he waits for me to start a game at the same time that he does, so I still get the urge to play. Otherwise, I would just ignore the game, as I have a few games he had previously downloaded but finished before giving them to me.

The next big excitement is of course that we are now all going to Guam for MrTT and GABish's wedding !!!! Quite an exciting time and everyone who is going have been busy visiting the dentist, going for facials, buying new clothes and so on. Myself, I made a new suit (gray) and also made 2 new glasses as well as a pair of sunglasses. Very over the top, but gosh, spending money is too easy. I think I will not have to make any more glasses for 2-3 years !! I will also be stopping by Taiwan on the way back from Guam for a few days and that would also be interesting as it will be the first time for me in Taiwan as well ! So I kill two destinations with one stone !! Not to mention my April trip to Korea with MunBear !!! Tickets are booked for that as well, and when I come back from Guam, we will finalise our schedule and car booking !! And yes, I will be driving in both Guam and Taiwan and Korea and they are all left hand drive countries. Interesting............

During the marathon weekend as well, GATTY, SailorJeow, SailorIT, GAKS, GAYH, MrSC, MrLaw were all here in HK. They made it really fun and we all went on a little yacht to Sham Tseng for roast goose. This is becoming a yearly event ! Some of us even played Mahjong on the ride to ward off seasickness. Too bad it was really cold and rather wet, and the visitors from Malaysia and Singapore were freezing ! Haha. SailorJeow and I even made time to try the fusion chef's menu at Bo Innovation, which was surprisingly simple and yummy. Nevertheless, it strengthens my own belief, that fusion is not for everyone. I found it a bit lacking, and rather preferred full flavored French food instead of simple Chinese fusion, even though many courses were interesting as they were presented with much fanfare and is part of what they now call molecular gastronomy.

Speaking of French, I started my French classes in January and after a month of classes am really enjoying it. The grammar makes sense, and it is like magic how Eric, our teacher makes us speak sentences. Vocabulary is challenging of course, but I am definitely learning faster in class compared to my self learnt Spanish. It is a great thing to be learning and just like my Korean, this is really fun and is something that I want to further. After completing the PRM exams earlier in December, I really want to concentrate on languages in the next two years.

MrTT's bachelor party is tomorrow and I shall be flying off to Guam on Saturday !! Hurray !!

Story 657

2011-01-15T00:14:00.001+08:00

Tradition states that the first post of the year always states the resolutions of the year so let me start off with the results from the previous years.

2006 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2007 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2008 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2009 : Achieved 9 out of 10.
2010 : Achieved 8 out of 10.

Let me not waste time and instead list out the 2011 Resolutions !! Drum roll..........

1. Lose 10 kg. This is a perennial failure. (Hope to achieve it this year. I was close, at one point losing 8kg, but have gained 3kg back !)
2. Travel to 2 countries (non HK / Malaysia)
3. Save more than I saved in 2010. (could be hard !)
4. Improve investment strategies. (one of the more interesting goals this year with good results already)
5. Complete 2 levels of French courses. (bonus would be more Korean and Spanish)
6. Keep home clean and laundry to be done timely. (very serious)
7. Complete 2 half marathons plus 1 more extra run. (hopefully with a faster time as well)
8. Complete a year of Sunday School teaching.
9. Make more new friends.
10. Do well at work.

That settles it.

In a year that included trips to Japan and China, where I got promoted and switched teams, moved apartments, ran two half marathons and studied Korean, Chinese and Spanish, got another three alphabets after my name, pulled out 4 wisdom teeth at the same time, it was a pretty exciting year !

But now for this year. After SZBear and mom came over for the Christmas and New Year, it was some of the coldest days of the year ! We were freezing and running from the shower into clothes. But pretty fun. After a very slack last few working days of the year, the first few weeks of the new year has been absolutely crazy filled with work. The bright part of course is that, now I can practise my trading skills since mom has a trading account. That can be interesting and in fact has been very much a learning process and has helped me get more discussion topics with MrSng.

Chinese New Year will be very early this year and is just two weeks away. Who knows what will happen in the year of the Rabbit ?

Story 656

2010-12-19T01:12:00.002+08:00

The next exciting thing which came along was a two week break !

I took the time off to go back to Malaysia and also drop by Singapore.

On the first weekend I arrived, it was by good chance that it was EugBear's birthday barbeque, and I managed to get information on it on time ! After a family lunch I headed out to the barbeque, and it was good fun to be chatting with friends from high school about nothing and catching up ! Time has passed pretty fast, and every year lots of things change with the group. Manage to see some people that I have not seen for years even, so it was very eventful.

A weekend of time with the family and the night market later, I spent some time at the family orchard before falling really sick ! The germs passed from SZBear and it infected the whole family. The next few days were a haze as the strong medication from the doctor got me sleeping and eating medicine almost the whole time. Fever flu and cough were all in attendance, and I was really worried that the fever would get me banned from Singapore !

Luckily the fever subsided enough for me to get on the plane. MrLaw and myself were staying at MsJeow's home after a Friday dinner at Chjimes, we used Saturday morning to tour the Singapore office and get our runner's pack. Feeling sickly, as was MsJeow, we shopped a bit for food, then retired home for an afternoon of being couch potatoes. After a great Japanese dinner, I slept early in preparation for the half marathon on Saturday. It was an effort getting up in the morning, and I still had my awful cough, but I made it to the starting point and stood for a full hour before the run started. The run started in Sentosa and went through Universal Studios, so at least I can say I have been there. However it was a challenge as the weather was much hotter compared to Hong Kong, and the roads were windy and hilly as well. I finished around 3 hours, much worse than expected !! A nice surprise was a plan to catch up with EstBear only to find out that she was in labour ! Managed to spend a day shopping in Orchard and see the baby at the Singapore General Hospital before heading back to Malaysia.

Now that I was no longer sick, I spent the time traveling around, meeting some friends, and of course relatives as well. It was good just to do nothing, but spend it just meeting people and being. Managed to catch BKT with SharBear, RaeBear and JinBear, OldTown with IzyBear, and also had a night of board games and mamak with high school friends like AndBear and YapBear.

Heading back to Hong Kong after that was a bit of a bubble bursting, as there was so much more that I had wanted to do in Malaysia. However the Christmas season was a bit cheerful, and Mom and SZBear would be around for Christmas and New Year as well. With the temperature dropping to 7 degrees at one point, HK was cold ! Hopefully the last two weeks of the year would be an easy time at work, thus freeing me just to slack off a tiny bit.

Story 655

2010-11-27T07:22:00.007+08:00

After a great trip to Yunnan, I was all inspired by the beauty in China, so when I was asked last minute by a friend to join a trip to Beijing I did not hesitate. With only two weeks to go before the trip, it was two weeks of frantic preparation, including setting the itineraries. As my family has been there twice, I knew it was not likely that I would go again soon. After lots and lots of research and talking to many friends, we had an awesome itinerary set up for a 3 day 2 night stay. Very short, but our list of things to do was amazingly long !

On the First Day, we knew we had our work cut out for us, so we left the hotel room at 8, and started scoffing down a huge breakfast. The buffet breakfast in China is special because they have so many kinds of Western food, and yet so many kinds of Asian food ! I ate a combination of pancakes and dumplings ! After 30 minutes, we started walking down the Wangfujing area, and reached Tiananmen Square. Though nothing more than a large square with loads of tourists, it was very moving. After that, in succession, we walked through the Forbidden Palace, climbed up Jingshan Park to take photos, hiked through Beihai Park where we also had a simple lunch. Then we visited the Drum Bell Tower and had a small bike tour through the hutongs.

Dead tired after that, we still took a long walk home through Nanluguoxiang, where we tried some desserts and looked at some of the hip and trendy shops around. We rested for a bit at the hotel, and since we had some time to spare before dinner, we had a massage at the spa across the street. Though it was not cheap, service was good. Then we walked (Yes we walked everywhere !) to Dadong restaurant, to eat Peking Duck at half past six. The restaurant had been named in many places as the best place to eat, and we were very satisfied with the food there.

After the dinner, which was not very expensive, we walked back down Wangfujing area, where we sampled some of the desserts and hot food on offer. There were smelly tofu, starfish, cockroaches, all manners of dumplings and noodles - the list was endless ! We walked in and out of the food stores and also in and out of some of the malls, and ended up at the hotel very tired.

The next day, after a huge breakfast again, we got into our specially chartered car. We were going to the Summer Palace first of all. Which was really just a huge park with many things to see, including lakes, bridges, buildings and no end of hills to hike on !

Then after a very quick lunch, the car took us to the Great Wall of China. They say that you have to go there at least once in your life and I have to agree. The view was fantastic, the emotional feeling was amazing. We took a cable car up and slowly walked down. The weather was perfect, with huge clouds, very blue sky, and a very cool temperature, in the teens. Perfect for hiking around the top of the Great Wall. Later that night in the city, we got the driver to drop us off at Houhai which is sort of the hip place in the city to have dinner. We walked around for a while, then back to the hotel to sleep. As we only had half a day the next day, we walked to the Temple of Heaven to look around, before having lunch with an ex colleague. After a hotpot of delicious Yunnan food, we did a small bit of shopping where I got covers for my iPhone. Although I was pretty glad of my bargaining skills, buying them for 25% of the original price, I did not feel good. I need to bring my mother next time. No guilt !

All in all, it was a quick and intense trip which was just what I needed to get on with working life. Perhaps if I could take a short trip every month, that would be good ? Perhaps.

Story 654

2010-11-09T23:04:00.008+08:00

Well I know I have since been to Beijing and back but thought it would be nice to bring you around Yunnan.It was a family trip, probably the first for the last 13 years or so !

All in all it was pretty exciting, and I flew there from Hong Kong while the rest of the family flew from Kuala Lumpur. We met up in Kunming and then one of the first things we were brought to see was the karst forests.

The karst forests are actually rocks that have been moved up and through the Earth's crusts many many times. In fact on many of them, you are able to see the ocean line, where the water cut through the rocks. Yes, even though these rocks are now about 3000 metres above the current sea level, at one point, they were underwater !!

After visiting more parks and some temples in Kunming, later on the journey we went to Lijiang. Along the way, we were brought to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge. So called because the massive water waves caused by the river smashing upon the rocks were likened to a tiger leaping ! It was fantastic how close one could get to the water, and many people were drenched by the spray, even though it was quite a walk down the mountainside to reach the river side.

Upon reaching Lijiang, we were all amazed at the wonderful mix of old and new. There were new golf courses and new shopping malls and new buildings but there were also really old stilt houses where they entertained guests and danced and sang and ate all night ! There was a big bonfire in the courtyard, and the hospitable locals invited everyone to dance along with them. I even got to take part in a customary wedding ceremony !

The last stop in Shangrila was perhaps one of the best ever. There was a big outdoor auditorium in one of the National Parks that we visited and there was a huge show on, put on by about 5-6 different native minority clans. It had beautiful music and was conducted by Zhang Yimou. Was so tempted to get a DVD of the performance, it was so good !!

Walking around in the native park later, it was amazing to see just how clean the water was, it practically glowed blue with healthy algae. The mountain air was crisp and fresh, and it was also really nice to walk among the clouds and just breathe in really cold air. There was a whole part of myself that wanted to just move to Shangrila and relax the rest of my life in front of the internet and get lost in the sea of natural surroundings.

If you just look at the bright blue sky, the white fluffy clouds and all the amazing landscape all around you, you would have to agree with me, that this is truly somewhere that everyone must visit at least once in their lifetimes !

Fantastic !

Story 653

2010-10-17T23:02:00.003+08:00

After getting my cupboards I am almost done with the whole moving process ! I say that because I still have some clothes in a bag that I have not unpacked. Once that is done, I will be 100% done. Did most of it in a fit of cleaning madness, so just have that bit left. But oh, the thief of time, procrastination is evilly doing its job !

After more than a month of properly living in my new place, I have gotten used to it. The travelling to work, the food nearby, the shops and so on. The transport I am still figuring out as it seems that there are many buses that come here from work, but it is matter of choosing the cheapest option !

I have had the usual bunch of friends over a few times now, so it seems that things are alright. No big problems or missing pieces. I am cooking as well, and have not found anything lacking. Although now I do not have a microwave oven, it is not a problem yet. But I think I did not use it much as well in my old place. The biggest difference here is of course the lack of cupboard space. I could buy more cupboards or shelves but it just seems to me as if that would just add even more furniture to my belongings !

Went once again to the Ocean Park Halloween Scarefest, this time working a bit as part of the staff. Spent an hour helping out and realising that so many people take staff for granted ! I will be nice to all staff of events in future, not that I am not already. Only went to two Ghost Houses, as really not my thing, and the two we went to were not even scary any more. Perhaps, I only get scared once. And these were exactly the same as before. Left around midnight anyway. Found out later that there was a new House where you had to lie in a coffin, and it is like a ride, so perhaps it was good to miss that one out ! Or not.

Phone was certified dead, and could only send and receive messages. So it worked more like a pager ! Pressed for time to get a new phone, and with a decision made not to get an iPad, I settled for iPhone 4 in the end. Was told the waiting time was one month but I got it 3 days ago after only 2 weeks ! A pleasant surprise. Though spent the next few days looking up youtube on how to use the iPhone and do random stuff on it. Have not stopped playing with it since ! Really addictive ! Which is good in a way as it means it is not wasted.

Just came home from watching Grease the musical at the Academy of Performing Arts. They mixed up the music a little and of course the sequence is totally different from the movie. Enjoyed the songs and especially the ending where they made all the audience stand up and dance around as well. Really nice touch. The APA is of course also the place where I am doing my ballroom dancing classes! I have already done 2 out of 10 classes, and have just finished learning the waltz. Tomorrow we start on the tango. Which is supposed to be easier. Though I say finished, it is only because the teachers have finished teaching it ! So now I know the basic steps but definitely do not look very graceful or skilled doing it ! Perhaps more practice is required. Actually not perhaps, but definitely ! Have lots of fun learning it though, and does make me feel like I am learning something.

A long week ahead, as my team mate is on leave, and I have a very long to do list !

Good luck !!

Story 652

2010-09-26T21:40:00.002+08:00

After two false starts, the cupboard guy finally came to my place to fix my cupboards ! The first time he said he was too busy, and the second time, it was raining. Well we finally agreed on a time to set up the (almost) last bits of my new place. And now I have two wardrobes.

The reason I chose what I chose to buy almost a month ago, was because they were cheap and large enough to be properly functional. However ! now that they are set up, there seems to be some small miscalculation. They currently do fit into the apartment well enough. Just for some history, I bought two of the same cupboards, due to the price and functionality. While the one in the hall is great ! Being tall enough to put umbrellas in, and all the bits and pieces of every day, life, the other one that I had planned to put into the bedroom posed some kind of problem. It is overhelming the whole room !

It takes up about 40% of the floor space in the other room, and if I were to open up the foldup bed in there, there would be almost zero standing space ! A bit of miscalculation there ! Though this is just guess work since I have not really cleaned up in there, but I am dreading it ! Perhaps the next post can tell you more. The height is fine, and it is just the depth of the cupboard that is bothering me. It is definitely too big for the room but the problem is that now it cannot be moved out of the room as it is wider than the doorframe ! LOL !

Let me keep you posted more on housemoving drama !

Meanwhile, my Sony mobile phone, which is the second mobile phone EVER that I have purchased became mute. First the ringtone died off. After about a week, now I cannot talk on it. Or hear anyone else talk. So, it can only send messages and now is more like a pager rather than a phone. After long talks with many many parties, I have come to the conclusion that I would need to buy a new mobile phone. The third in my life. Which one may be a question I hope to have answered tomorrow. In the meantime, I may have to put off buying an Ipad. Guess too many expenses in the same month will kill my budget.

Story 651

2010-09-13T20:09:00.002+08:00

2 months of no posts can you believe it !!

Neither can I.

With a quick run down on the past two months, it has mainly been about :

1. Looking for an apartment to stay in - now that the lease on my first apartment in Hong Kong has ended, it was time to look for a new home. It was not easy ! Seeing as how I would have to pay all the rent on my new place, I got really picky and choosy about my new place. I saw many many places and sometimes even in the rain. Nothing seemed perfect. Some places I liked but were rented even before I could look at it a second time. Luckily I saw the place that I am in now on a Sunday, and I signed for it on Monday. I was too tired to look at more places by then. Not to say that the place I have now is fantastic and great, it is not, there could be many improvements, but it was definitely one of the better ones that I saw out there. The price is reasonable and I feel comfortable enough in it. Convenience played a big role. So come and visit me at my new place in Wanchai !

2. Working in a new role. But of course - not too interesting there.

3. Went for a week to Yunnan. It was fantastic. More on that later. With pictures of course.

Story 650

2010-07-17T11:12:00.002+08:00

The weekend after my wisdom teeth extraction, I was invited along with MrTam to go to the horse racing jockey club to celebrate FredBear's Father's Day with his family. So we had a few hours of horse racing along with a splendid buffet of food. The only problem was that I could not eat much, so I was largely limited to congee, ice cream and steamed fish. It rained very heavily as well so the horses were very erratic. After winning in the first race, I did not win as much in the subsequent races. We left around the 8th race in search of coffee at this place which was having an exhibition of around 80 expresso cups. That was pretty fun.

I spent much of the next week at home, due to a fever and a cold and spent many hours sleeping. It was good to take a rest though. It refreshed me greatly for the next 2 weeks at work. I was in a new team, and the tasks were significantly different though related to what I was doing before. In a global team I had to look after everyone in the world, and as an example, was asked to do an in depth review of the banking industry in Oman and Qatar. This was after I did Taiwan. Interesting ! And also a large learning experience that I am enjoying so far. The team itself is great and fun, though sometimes I do have some conflict of interest having worked for a local team before, that I have to learn to get over.

I have signed everything I need to start work here as a local HK employee so the next part would be to go look for an apartment to live in. I guess will have to look for a place near work as well since that is still a mainstay in my life but the question is how big, how near, where and so on. Haha. The mind boggles.

Well such is life.

Story 649

2010-06-28T16:45:00.003+08:00

What a month ! It was amazing how it flew by, given that during the time I felt time was passing really slow indeed.

To try and recap, during this month, a whole bucketload of people got engaged and it was pretty amazing. That was good news indeed and the bad news was that HK is so hot and humid that I am extremely reluctant to go outdoors at all. The first week of June of course to carry on from before was a lot about exercise and a very careful watching of diet. As a result, I lost about 6 kg in a course about 2 weeks.

Then I spent quite a lot of time surfing fashion at yesstyle.com then housing at various real estate places as well out of boredom. Yes it is really getting quite boring. By the time the third week of June rolled around, my manager was out of town and I was just willing the week to go by faster.

On Friday, I went to get my wisdom teeth removed. All 4. It took about 3 hours and the night before I went to a buffett just to make sure I would not starve over the next few days. Did not work though, I am just simply unable to store a lot of food in one sitting any more. It started at 8 and ended about 11. The whole time, they had me plugged into some orchestra music channel on my request and though uncomfortable, the surgery was not painful at all. It was just tiring having to keep my mouth open for so long.

Unfortunately, the previous night I had a slight cold, and coupled with this surgery, I spent the rest of Friday in bed. Had some porridge for dinner and promptly spent the whole Saturday in bed again. By this time the fever was getting quite bad and I had a cough coming on as well ! Anyway, now that the fever is gone, my stitches are due to be removed on the coming Friday and I am glad to reach that day. Since I am on medical leave today, and Thursday is a public holiday this will be a short working week.

And the best part is that this will also be the LAST working week in my department.

Quite excited about the new adventure about to begin ! Heard some good things about my upcoming job and also will be getting to know (Hopefully) my package for this job.

Story 648

2010-05-26T22:26:00.002+08:00

I have gone through 24 hours with no carbs !! And no side effect yet. Hopefully this time this diet will work.

I made my way back to KL for the weekend for the SCB Treasure Hunt, having had many wonderful memories. And this was great too. We rented a huge Starex for the hunt and had a lot of fun hunting, though I must say, sometimes it got a little easy, and yet being lazy, missed a couple of questions. Still got 8th place though, and as a bonus, got the best team name award !! Haha. That was slightly unexpected.

Had quite a bit of local food, like lomakai, and siew pau and even had seafood one night with the family.

Also sat for the exam I signed up the week before and it took all of 20 minutes. Hope I pass though, then I can take the last one to qualify for the PRM designation. Talking about designations, I got my CFA charter confirmation today, which is great news. Now I have two designations.

Work is not getting any more interesting though, at the moment.

Along comes a headhunter. Let us see what he has to say.

Story 647

2010-05-17T00:16:00.002+08:00

The blog came back to me in a flash and I was left wondering what I have been doing for the last 3 weeks that has been the time before my previous post and this. It is sometimes disconcerting not being able to remember what you have done in the last few weeks, but concentrating, I remembered.

I remember that my mom came over at the end of April. I remember taking a day off, to visit Lantau Island again, and go up Ngong Ping in the crystal cable car and visit the Big Buddha. I remember working, and on the following weekend, going up to the Peak for breakfast before walking all the way down again.

How time flies !

And how weird it is that sometimes one can do so much in a short time and sometimes it takes such a long time for anything to happen !?

Although I cannot say this is a very stagnant part of my life - I think the last quarter of last year was it - I am starting to feel a little restless. Very restless, or as some would say having an itchy bum. On an impulse I printed material for the PRM exam. And no idea why, paid for the Level 4 exam just a few minutes ago. I think I need something new. With Chinese classes ending soon, perhaps it is time to revisit Korean/French and or look at the CAIA exams as well.

Need to start scratching this itch.

Story 646

2010-04-25T01:21:00.001+08:00

So it has been three weeks after the awesome kickass Japan trip and at the same time three weeks since I moved to the B side of my team. The B side is different from the A side in that while the A side plays a much more central role overall within the whole organisation, the B side plays a much more independent role and only looks toward the A side for guidance. In a sense this gives a whole lot more scope for B to do stuff as B would not need to look at what other parts of the organisation is doing to plan its own activities. This move was meant to be a 3 month rotation so that I could learn more about B before doing a better job at A. However, what with the frustrations of no promotion this year in a year where so many other departments were promoting, the boss suggested this change and also a further move to Team C after the stint. So, even though the departure from A was meant as a short term change, it seems that I will not be going back for quite a while, perhaps a very long while.

It is so interesting because you can plan and plan for yourself and sometimes just not know what the future will bring. How true is that ? Exceedingly true of course. Here I was thinking how I could contribute more to A, while actually my moves were being planned ahead. Yes of course I could have had a say by refusing point blank or moving to another organisation, but what would that serve ? In life, there comes a time, when you can get too comfortable and everything seems to be going smoothly. It is at this time that you should be very careful and reassess your position as this means you are not being challenged enough and may not be making a difference in the world. This I picked up from the Big Boss, and I want to adopt this thinking. How can I make a difference ? To myself, to my organisation, to my friends and family, to the world. What good will be my life if I did not manage to leave a mark upon the world, or within my individual teams for that matter? I realised that as I was working in Team B and wondered why I was putting so much pressure on myself to improve the work process, and to find out all I could to make sure the work ahead for the teammates in B would be easier later. Perhaps that is just how I work.

After all, just before I found out about my move, at a luncheon (part of an award I received last year) my fortune cookie was as follows; Your life will get more and more interesting.

Interesting.

Story 645

2010-04-02T12:28:00.009+08:00

As you can see from the picture, it was always fantastic to be staying on the inside, feeling all warm and cuddly while having hearty breakfast. We would look at the icicles falling from the trees or at the snow, which lumped around like so many millions of tiny marshmallows.

On the way back to Fukushima now, we stopped at these group of islands called the Matsushima islands where they had very rich history. We even learnt that the imperial horses are sent to these islands to retire. We also had a fun time feeding the seagulls.

The place was great with large forests, wide avenues and a really crisp nip in the air. One could really stay here for a really long time, with so much peace in the air.

That evening, we went to a large factory outlet type store, however most of it catered to women, so the boys had a lot of fun going through the toystores such as the Lego outlet.

Dinner that night was at a famous sushi and sashimi place where they sold these crab soups for like 25 ringgit, very very cheap. We ordered about 5 of these at least. However, they also had many grades of fish for the sushi and GAHil ordered a piece of tuna that costs about 50 ringgit for a single sushi. She said it was very worth it !

The last day, we spend the morning at a park in Fukushima, where flowers were just beginning to bloom, so it was not at its best yet, but I still found it very peaceful. It is truly a very Zen place, and I could imagine having such a garden in Melbourne would be fantastic, if it were not for the constant droughts.

Then, it being our last night in Japan, we went to this all you can eat Japanese barbeque. Where we ate and sang and drank till late, before hitting the nightlife. Our choice of nightlife being those game arcades where you could try your luck picking out soft toys with giant pincers.

The next morning we hunted for kitchen appliances and high grade knives in the Kappabashi-dori area before moving back towards Ginza for some shopping. It was all quite rushed after that as we convened at the hotel by 5 to get to the airport.

Such a dream of a holiday...

Story 644

2010-03-29T23:47:00.011+08:00

And that was my face after we cleared off some snow from the car only to find there was a whole lot more snow all around and on top of it. It took some shovels and even some scrapers to get the car clean and able to move. And we had to work fast because even as we worked more and more snow was coming down.

Freezing, we cleared off to a fish market where we were able to get fresh sushi and sashimi as well as other odds and ends of food. We even met some Tourism Japan people who were quite excited to see us and asked us a lot of questions.

Then we drove into this reserve near a big lake. Along the way there were many many frozen waterfalls and rivers. The pictures that we took here were all like postcards ! They were really magical and we felt we had walked into another winter wonderland.

After freezing our bodies, we went to the famous Wanko Soba where we each (the boys) ate more than 100 bowls of soba to qualify for the certificate and a wooden plaque certifying that we successfully completed the wanko challenge !

That night, we checked into the last hot springs resort of our trip. It was actually a group of three hotels, and you could walk into each one through tunnels and each one had its own special hot springs. By this day, we were already pretty dried from all the hot springs. They feel really good but you get dehydrated. But we had alot fun still....and there was a great breakfast provided too !

Story 643

2010-03-27T08:14:00.013+08:00

The next morning, we woke up to a fantastic view. We could see the huge lake at the base of the mountain and it was so beautiful. And that was where we went right away.

As the lake was still mostly frozen, we tracked across the snowy lakeside to the floating swans and small boats. We had a lot of fun posing in the flotillas and speedboats but it was also freezing.

Our next stop was at one of the old samurai castles in Aomori. And it was great to walk around and imagine what it was like in the olden days. Lots of old bridges and old buildings and as you can see pagodas and temples nearby.

Then we moved on to this little clay village, where we took lessons on how to make clay products. We had a small lesson, and then we were unleashed to make our vases, cups and plates. It was messy fun and there were no romantic times with the wheel, but we had our cake bases to turn our creations around.

Finally we arrived at our seaside getaway hot springs. It was too dark to soak outside, so we made do with the indoor pool. Our dinner was fantastic though and we had some good soju to go with it. And fantastic ice cream.

So when we finally went to the outdoor seaside pool the next morning, it was fantastic. Since it was at the seaside, it was freezing to walk there, and we hurried to soak in the pool. We learnt that during the warmer months, the seawater would come in, so it was really a good experience to be able to soak in the pool. The view was amazing, as you can see.

After a good breakfast, we visited a wet market where there were a lot of seafood available. We had a whole load of scallops cooked in a variety of ways for lunch, which was so fantastic.

After a very full lunch, we slowly made our way up to another mountain and then by cable car to the top of the skiing slope. There we managed to view one of the great wonders of nature - frozen trees. It was amazing as we could see every leaf coated with white snow and icicles. Very postcard like.

Coming down from the freezing mountain, we visited this cultural village where they made giant lanterns for the village matsuris or festivals. There was even a fantastic lantern of Pikachu !

That night, we had a fantastic dinner at this little lane, where there were many stores, much like a hawker lane at home. But the food presentation and cooking method were so different that it was very much another cultural shock and a very interesting mealtime !

Story 642

2010-03-24T23:13:00.007+08:00

Well after a big freaking breakfast, first thing we did was to go to this museum where we saw all sorts of lanterns and lights and how people would carry it around on their shoulders through the streets in festivals in Akita. We also had a go and tried to carry some of these huge lanterns around. Even though they were not very heavy, it was hard to balance such long bamboo poles !

Then we had a small stop at this shopping mall where we were so mesmerized with all the wonderful cakes, puffs, pastries and snacks on offer that we bought a couple and scoffed them on the spot ! They were wonderfully yummy apart from just looking delicious. Ah. Later on, we went to the basement of the mall where we had the real reason we were there, a special kind of soba noodle that was very famous. It was white in colour and was certainly particularly good, even though we were having it just plain with soy sauce.

That night, we wound our way up another mountainside to another h0t springs ryokan. This place was fantastic. After we celebrated MrTam's birthday we enjoyed the facilities. As you can see from the pictures, this place also had several outdoor baths where it was great because the view was also great ! The best part was that midway through our soak, it started snowing and it was so romantic and happy looking at the powdery fluff starting to coat the floor outside the bath, but melting as soon as they reached our fingers. There are some partially nude photos of course but they cannot be shown here. One reason is that this particular pool was also a mixed gender pool, so everyone just had a tiny towel to wipe their faces and for the really private parts.

And of course what ryokan would be complete without a fantastic breakfast ?

Story 641

2010-03-23T23:07:00.008+08:00

So when we met up with FredBear and MrTam, we whizzed for about 300 kilometres before reaching Yamagata prefecture. In this place first we went to this old forgotten city/citadel, which had a real moat and everything. It also had some statues as you can see below. This place was really Japanese and it kind of reminded you of how living in the samurai era would be, as this would be a whole village/city for one clan. Just like a Naruto village !

After this we rushed up a snowy mountain hoping to see some frozen tree spectacle that would be lighted up at night only to learn that they had all melted in the unexpected warm weather so there would be no point. Disappointed, we stopped at a coffee house and had coffee and cake before driving to our accomodation for the night.

As you can see, it makes a very grand spectacle. It is just a teeny tiny little village made of about 10 resorts with about 10 rooms each. They span each side of a mountain river and there are bridges every few metres. Being a tiny village high up on the mountain, it was great how fresh the air was and it was so breathtakingly beautiful.

This place of course had its hot springs as well as it was a ryokan and you can open the large windows to let fresh air in. The great thing about this place was that you could book the whole place to yourself and thus have loads of privacy ! Crisp outdoor hot springs definitely the place to be !

As it was a ryokan, famous for hot springs and good food, I included my dinner there for you to see. It has about 24 courses. And breakfast the next day was just as fantastic. Of course we were all provided the yukata to wear as well as heavy wooden clogs. Sleep is great and deep when you are tired and have soaked in hot water.

Story 640

2010-03-20T21:22:00.005+08:00

So I am finally back from the most fantastic two weeks holiday in Japan !! It was freezing cold in some places but totally immensely fun. Feels like a dream as it passed too fast. Let me put down some details of the trip.

The first part of the trip was actually a Wwoof trip where myself, GABish and GAHil worked on a farm in return for board and lodging. The farm that we were going to was located in Kitakawa which was in the prefecture of Fukushima, one of the 6 prefectures in the area north of Honshu island (where Tokyo is also located). As it was a very late night flight, I spent most of the night in the plane asleep. After we arrived at the airport in Haneda, we had to brave the subway to Shinjuku to catch a bus to Fukushima. Luckily it was really early in the morning, so there were not many people to witness our nomad-like selves pushing large baggage around in the train. We pushed and heaved and finally made it to a little place which was open so we could get some breakfast - we were all starving ! Though it was on the third floor, luckily it had a tiny elevator which we could only go on one at a time. We had some coffee and sandwiches and rested before going onto a large bus, much like those people take from KL to Singapore. From Fukushima, we took a train to Kitakawa, and in the middle we had one of the best ramen noodles we have ever had. You could put it down to the ravishing hunger as well as the freezing weather. At this point we were already surrounded by snowy mountains and the whole landscape was a very glaring white.

The farmer of the farm on which we would be working had a little cottage where we would be staying. There would be a housekeeper there who would be looking after us on the side. He was not really a housekeeper per se, but he was an environmental/ecology university graduate doing some research. He picked us up from the station in a red pickup and then we reached the cottage where we did some unpacking. At first we thought of living in two separate rooms but it was freezing and the girls decided that we could conserve more body heat. The farmer came to visit and to say hi and let us know what time he would pick us up the next day for work. In the evening, we found out that there was a hot springs / public bath near by and were very relieved as we suspected (correctly) that there would not be much hot water in our wooden rickety cottage.

The hot springs was great, being primarily a sort of small clubhouse with separate facilities for the males and females. There was a place where people could relax and order some snacks and watch television. (Our cottage did not have a television.) Then there were the public baths. It was not exactly my first time at one (I have been to one in Hong Kong) but it was certainly the first time at one in Japan. Of course, all the people, like everyone else in the village, were over 50. Haha. But it was very comfortable to be able to take a bath with all the hot water you want, and then soak in the hot springs. Especially the one outdoors. You could feel the nip of the snowy weather and yet be wonderfully warm.

After a breakfast of ham and eggs, we were picked up by the farmer. Turns out the farm was not near at all, but about 30 minutes drive away. I always thought that farmers stay ON the farms, but apparently that is not the case. So we reached the farm, which were actually more like fields and fields of snow, and we see 6 greenhouse frames there. We were to be working on the greenhouse frames, to start preparing it for the spring to plant tomatoes. The funny thing was, we were working knee deep and at some times, waist deep in snow. And it was freezing. Our boots being made for wet conditions and not snow, we soon had snow in our boots which numbed our feet. The snow would slowly melt, leaving us with freezing toes in cold cold water. After work, we were always able to turn our boots upside down to unload about a litre of water ! Gross.

We would work about 2 hours in the morning, before going off for lunch with the farmer. After about an hour's lunch, we would go back to work for another 3 hours or so. Then he would drive us back. We would usually rest for a while before going off to the hot springs for our bath. We only went after 5 pm because it was half priced entry then ! Haha. After we come back from our bath at around 8, we would take our time to cook dinner. Exhausted, we would retire to the room at 9, to rest, play some Monopoly Deal, and fall asleep by 10. Really quite a healthy lifestyle to be getting so much sleep. We slept on the floor on tatamis, and I still find it funny to say, usually buried under mountains of blankets. There being no heater, it was very cold. To make matters worse, the floor to ceiling sliding window, was a very thin barrier against the snow outside, and being wooden, there were lots of holes and uneven places where the wind blew in. Brrr..

That was our main schedule for the week, and we worked for four days, as we arrived on Monday, and left on Saturday morning. By that time, we felt really exhausted of working on a farm and could not wait to leave for the start of our real holiday !

Story 639

2010-03-14T20:41:00.002+08:00

All too soon the gang of former work colleagues gathered in Hong Kong. SailorJeow, followed by GAJan, MrKap, MrLin and GAAow were all here. After everyone was settled and had put their things down at their respective habitats for the next few days, we all gathered for some late night supper at Tsui Wah. Where else ?

The next morning saw us gathering at City Hall for a big dim sum breakfast, before taking a walk through Central. While the rest of them took trips around, I headed for a few hours of mahjong as well as a dinner at a Chiuchow restaurant with some of my HK mahjong gang. We had so much food I almost puked and I rushed home at 11 so that I could go to bed early as I would be running the HK half marathon early on Sunday morning.

I was so full the next morning I did not need to eat breakfast but I ate 3 eggs. Just in case. The race was exactly the same as the previous year. Which meant I was pretty familiar with the course. I wanted to die after the first 3 km, and wanted to go home after 10 km. By the time I reached the Western tunnel, it was too late to go back, so once again, cursing myself for joining, I finished the half marathon. If you add this to the one last year, I have ran a whole marathon !!! I am still pretty proud of myself for finishing it again, even though my time was exactly the same as last year, within one minute's difference. So weird. Although this year I actually did more preparation, such as running at the gym and so on. So there was less pain after the race compared to last year.

I remembered last year, I just collapsed in bed after a shower before going on a 3 hour massage spree and sleeping again before limping around in soreness for the next week. This year, I went home for a shower, played mahjong for an hour with GAJan and GAAow, before meeting all the others again for a porridge brunch. Then we all trammed from WanChai to Central before walking up the Escalator for a 2 hour massage. Then it was off to Sham Tseng for a roast goose dinner. The gang even brough a yee sang box that we ate there. So funny, because the proprietor probably thought we were nuts for asking for a big plate and then tossing food onto the table cloth. But fun.

I then rushed home while the others met up with other people for drinks. I needed to do some last minute packing and then it was time for me to go to Japan again ! But this time for a much awaited holiday, one in the works for 3 months !

Tell you more about that soon.

Story 638

2010-02-24T23:41:00.002+08:00

And so horror of horrors the day before the holidays started I got handed a big assignment, a large piece of paper to write. I had no idea how to get it started and worse still I was in great fear that I could not get it finished before my long awaited holiday road trip to Japan !!!

I slogged through much of the Chinese New Year holidays and went back to the office twice to work on it even though JinBear and KaiBear were visiting with their parents. Had CNY eve dinner with them and FredBear before going on the midnight tour of the temple and praying with his family. Unfortunately this year there was a slight drizzle and it was getting pretty wet. It was pretty interesting though, just like last year. Lots of cultural and religious learnings, and though I did not pray at the temple it was interesting to hear about why they did what they did. Though a little ludicrous.

The days are a bit blur, but I do remember it being freezing cold the whole of CNY weekend. I could barely get out of bed and when I did, it was to work and to eat. Did some minor visiting and of course some tiny bit of mahjong and also had dinner when RoxBear and MrChris came over to visit. We also celebrated an early birthday for RoxBear with HaagenDaaz ice cream cake and a Coach baguette. I believe I won five bucks from KaiBear at a very short game of 3 player mahjong.

A very short week at work later it was the weekend again. I had my Chinese class before returning home to help a friend move his stuff into my apartment as he would be sharing the place for a few months. I also treated myself to a very hard massage that night. Sunday I spent having a meeting on my Japan trip with my fellow road trippers before going off to SaiKung for a round of golf at the driving range and a steak dinner at Tom's Bar and Grill.

Now it is midnight on Wednesday and it is only 1.5 working days to the weekend since I took half of Friday off to start welcoming the guests for the weekend. SailorJeow and GAJan and MrKap and MrLin are all coming during the HK marathon period. And very soon the marathon on Sunday will happen and I shall be flying off that night itself. Au Revoir Hong Kong !

The best news of course is that I have just completed the final draft of my large paper and have handed it up again. Just in time to have a great holiday !!

Story 637

2010-02-13T11:26:00.002+08:00

How in the world is it possible that my previous post was the New Year post and it is already the first week of February ? It seems that the month has just flown on by and I cannot even recall most of it. But basically after the first month of January, I was told to go to Japan for another two week stint crossing over the end of January into the first week of February. Spent some time preparing for that as a colleague was on leave for almost the whole of January anyway. Successfully made it through without any problem and so I left for Tokyo happily.

This time I had two weekends free in Tokyo itself as compared to last time when I was only there for the five work days so I had plenty of time to discover the city. Armed with a Lonely Planet on Tokyo which I bought at the HK Airport on my way home to KL for the weekend for MsJlee's wedding, which incidentally was a great time, and also gave me a chance to see my family as well as various personalities from the Causeway MA channel and old colleagues, I made the journey on an airplane while watching some great movies. I had read the book quite a lot and made some research as well as to where to go so I was pretty prepared by the time I touched down. I flew on Thursday so only had to work on Friday before going on my great exploration trip.

Friday night I went around Akasaka and Roppongi which I had sort of covered the last time round anyway, but I did some revision and also found more secrets in the busy part of town. Saturday started off with a very early visit to the Tsukiji fish market where I had the chance to see giant tuna and eat fresh seafood as well as experience the feeling of being at the biggest fish market in the world. Later I walked to Ginza, where along the way I passed some small temples and a Kabuki Theatre before I reached the shopping haven of Tokyo. I was early so had to wait for about ten minutes before the large shopping centres like Mitsukoshi and Matsuya opened and was one of the first people in. It was quite an experience as I usually went straight to the top and along the way at every floor, the staff would be at full attention and would bow and wish me a happy shopping trip and a great morning. This was one place to be if you wanted to feel like royalty and have people bowing to you at every step. Fantastic.

After that I skipped back to the apartment for an hour's nap until I met up with MsChil who was there on her last day of her months long work trip. She had been there for about 13 month so she knew loads about the city. She brought me to Omotesando, very reminiscent of 5th Avenue where we witnessed a big wedding and many large brand shops and some very interesting architecture. We weaved our ways through the little alley that is Harajuku before passing the Meiji Shrine and looking for cosplay participants. A small walk later and we ended up in Shibuya where we crossed the busiest road crossing the world where masses of people walk around in every direction. In the middle we also had a great sushi lunch in a hidden basement restaurant. We had dinner right there among the bright lights before I took a bus home.

On Sunday, I made a beeline for Asakusa where I visited the big and great Sennonji Temple. The sights and sound were drowning and it was fantastic. There were temples and pagodas and lanterns and worshipers as well as a monkey show. It was a good time to be there as well as there seemed to be some sort of carnival on the temple grounds selling knick knacks and various snacks. Then I walked blocks across Ueno to the Kappabashi area which was a whole collection of shops selling all kinds of things for the kitchen and restaurants. Then it was blocks again to the Imperial Palace to walk around in the gardens and another trip to the Yasukuni Shrine. By this time my feet were killing me and I had walked for double digit hours. Thankful to be at home again, I fell asleep really easily.

The next week at work flew by and sometimes I went looking around after work as well. Several mornings the city was covered in snow for a while so it was pretty amazing, especially walking while the snow was coming down. Really a dream come true. And not to mention that the food in the city was amazing. I loved all the food from sushi to sashimi to tempura to nabe to ramen to soba and tonkatsu to omuraisu to okonomiyaki and the list just goes on an on. the next weekend I had a visit from SailorJow and we went around the city and I even managed to meet her friend from Tokyo as well. I only had to work Monday before flying on Tuesday so it was a pretty short week and now it is already the weekend which is incidentally followed by two holidays as it is Chinese New Year. So here I am typing away finally, before going off to the office as there is this big piece of work that I need to get done and I really have no idea where to start and it has been hard to concentrate while other people are around. Hopefully this will turn out good. Ciao

Story 636

2010-01-02T00:25:00.002+08:00

And once again !! The New Years Resolutions Post !!

A flashback to 1/1/2006, with comments on 1/1/2007.
1. Lose 15 kg. At least. (Crap. Failed miserably)
2. Get a job and enjoy it for a year. (OK, well 2 weeks to go..Considered Achieved)
3. Start professional certification studies. (Started. Exam Dec 3. Achieved)
4. Keep in touch with all my friends. (Achieved, well.. yea I consider it achieved)
5. Make new friends. (Totally Achieved)
6. Save some money. (Achieved)
7. Go on one overseas trip. (Achieved - In Shanghai now !!)
8. Have a much cleaner house with more systems. (Achieved)
9. Improve my Chinese, and start on Japanese. (Achieved)
10. Try to make some effort towards world peace. (Making friends counts. Achieved !!)
Result : Achieved 9 out of 10.

A flashback to 1/1/2007. With results today.
1. Lose 10 Kg. At least. (More reasonable...but not achieved - I blame Melbourne)
2. Keep plugging on at my job and achieve success. (Not bad at all in this area !! Great !)
3. Pass Level 1 of my professional studies and start Level 2. (Passed Level 2 !!!)
4. Keep in touch with most of my friends. (Easily done)
5. Make new friends. (Ha ! Even this week I made at least 2 new buddies !)
6. Save more money than in 2006. (Technically failed. But should have been expected. Technically, if you look at it, by just not going to Melbourne I would have achieved this goal. And I paid for 3 exams in this financial year too. So. Achieved on technicality.)
7. Go on one overseas trip. (Done - Vietnam, Australia, Singapore twice...)
8. Buy less clothes of higher quantity. (Easily)
9. Improve my Chinese, my singing and learn more skills. (I think so...at least relearnt macros)10. Keep on having fun times and be positive all the time. (Had great fun with Cranium!)
Result : Achieved 9 out of 10.

A flashback to 1/1/2008. With results today.
1. Lose 10 Kg. (><"" The face says it all. Failed miserably)
2. Pass CFA Level 3. (YAY ! Passed !)
3. Travel overseas at least twice. (Cambodia, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau...)
4. Keep in touch with old friends and make new friends (Not too bad...considered achieved)
5. Get a good suit. Hugo Boss. Or Armani. Or Calvins... (Done and achieved)
6. Get promoted. (Haha foregone conclusion. Achieved)
7. Fall in love. (Fell in love with Hong Kong. Achieved. And note not to include as future resolution)
8. Improve my Chinese, my singing and learn a new language and more skills. (Achieved in parts)
9. Save lots of money. At least as much as this year. (Achieved with great results)
10. Stay happy. And healthy and fun. (Easily)
Result : Achieved 9 out of 10.

A flashback to 1/1/2009. With results today.
1. Lose 10 Kg. (Failed again ! At least I did not gain any)
2. Meet at least 10 new good friends. (Achieved)
3. Travel to at least 2 other countries. (Macau, Singapore Australia, Japan, China)
4. Visit New Territories and discover more areas (Achieved)
5. Save twice the amount I saved in 2008. (DONE !)
6. Perform great at work and get commended (Great but could be better)
7. Go home at least twice !!! (April and September)
8. Improve Chinese, and start a new language. (French and Korean. Actually went for classes)
9. Keep my house clean and do my laundry/washup at proper times. (Achieved)
10. Be happy and healthy working away from home. (Done)
Result : Achieved 9 out of 10.

NEW YEARS' RESOLUTION 2010 !!!
1. Lose 10 Kg. (Seriously and I mean it !! Joined gym already and am running)
2. Travel to at least 2 other countries. (Non HK / Malaysia)
3. Visit New Territories and discover more areas
4. Save more than I saved in 2009.
5. Perform great at work and get commended and hopefully promoted (half resolution)
6. Go home at least twice !!!
7. Improve Chinese, revise Korean/French. Start Japanese
8. Keep my house clean and do my laundry/washup at proper times.
9. Start investing money
10. Be happy and healthy working away from home.

Last year has been crazy and it was pretty scary how fast it ended. A very very hot year for weddings and perhaps may just be a signal of how many more I will be attending/facing in the next couple of years. I already have two before Chinese New Year to attend. I spent some time reading through some entries from before and it was really really good to look back and see what has happened in my life so far and sometimes draw conclusions. It also seems to have a lot of mahjong playing in it. But for sure, I ended 2009 and started 2010 the same way I ended 2008 and started 2009. Playing mahjong with MrTT and GABish and FredBear. The same four people in the same four seats at my place with different rules, given that we have now all advanced to playing with 12 Joker Tiles. Amazing. I think I would have died without Mahjong. Also have a fairly new obsession with Farmville. One thing that I am rather glad is that I have not bought any winter clothing this year, which is great, since it is all about saving money. This year I do want to save more. And spend less. Upcoming travel includes a trip to Japan and I want to make sure that this does not cut in too deeply. I may have to spend more time at work, and this may affect studying. I doubt I would have the time to go in for full time Korean courses, but this also means that I would have to be more disciplined about studying it myself. I need to draw up some timetables. With my contract coming due in July, it would also be time soon to think about the future, I have had some talks with my manager, and it seems I may stay for at least another year. The conditions however are not clear yet of course, and I find myself still thinking as well if I would prefer to stay on the same conditions or on a local package. With so many things happening, I have zero time for any relationship and sometimes I think it is better this way. I am still too full of activities and need so much myself time that I cannot see how I can make time for anything else in my life at this moment. Not really living life to the fullest at the moment but definitely very full. Need to continue to work hard this year !

Story 635

2009-12-20T23:28:00.002+08:00

Oh it was a terribly busy weekend with perhaps too much mahjong involved. I think with the combination of the late hours we were spending as well as too much sugar and too much mahjong, there were plenty of short tempers around, but I guess you can only do this with close friends.

A group of friends had managed to snag the Lantau Island Bungalow for another weekend, so we all grouped up to go for a weekend of relaxation. It started off with mahjong and late night hotpot. The next morning after more mahjong, and a great breakfast of sausages and eggs, I went back to HK Island to pass my keys to PatBear and KimyBear who were here for 3 days. I also walked them down back to Central before taking the ferry back into Lantau. Once back we settled in for a very heavy dinner of barbeque meat, as well as steamboat boiled vegetables and various meatballs. It was followed by a very vague playing of Space Risk, which FredBear bought all the way from Melbourne. More mahjong later, everyone went to sleep only to wake up the next morning for more mahjong. Haha. Call it addiction.

And then I just spent the last two hours, going through my expenses again, as the year is almost ending and I want to be sure that all my numbers are correct going over the year. With Christmas coming up, I have a whole truckload of work to get done before the New Year as well, and I am not even sure because I may have to work on Christmas Day ! Perhaps.

Story 634

2009-12-14T23:42:00.002+08:00

So it was a week in Tokyo !!!

It was pretty exciting, but had a minor headache on the plane due to a very late night the night before, in fact I only started packing at 2 am, and had very little time to nap at all. I was nodding off on the train to the airport, and falling asleep in the lounge. A little into the flight I asked for a Panadol, and suddenly an inner part of me urged me on, and I kept up the act, and became very sick. So sick that I asked for a place to lie down, knowing full well that they would have to give me a business class seat for that to happen. After a little more fantastic acting worthy of an Oscar, I was lying down in Business Class. What I did not anticipate was that the head steward making an announcement asking for a doctor on the flight. And there were actually two which came to feel my head and looked for a fever, took my blood pressure and asked loads of questions. Somehow, I managed to fend everyone off and made them believe I just needed sleep, which I did.

Arriving at the airport, I was pretty excited and after getting my limousine ticket to the city and having some time to spare, I settled for spending some yen and bought two hotdogs. I was starving as I had not eaten since dinner having slept on the plane. It was surprising how far Tokyo was from Narita airport and it took about two hours to reach my apartment. I was picked up later by my manager in Japan and a colleague and we went for fast food, Japanese style. It was great ! Then we walked around a bit so that I could find my way to the subway the next day for work. I went home and slept after that. Oh and soaked in the big tub of course. Looking around the apartment, I guess I could get used to staying in a studio apartment in the future, however, this might mean less room for guests.

Next morning bright and early I woke up and had breakfast downstairs. A short subway ride later, I was an hour early and spent the time walking around the Parliament, a little shrine on a hill and took some photos of the amazing dawn. Work was getting used to a different setup with the same basics and also getting used to hearing Japanese all around me. It really was a little kawaii to hear them speak, and at the same time, it felt like I had just stepped into an office themed Japanese dorama. So funny. My first lunch in Japan that day was ramen, followed by a complicated multi course dinner at an Izakaya later with the manager amidst much warm sake and I also had my first taste of horse carpacchio. The following days were a blur of work and fantastic lunches, having tried a fabulous tonkatsu, some great sashimi and sushi, a vegetarian buffet and also tempura with MsChil (who was coincidentally in Tokyo for work).

At night I started walking around Roppongi on Tuesday and explored quaint little shopping streets that were unfortunately closed (due to my late hours). On Wednesday I walked round and round Akasaka and had a great gyudon. Thursday was also spent having a great time as I followed a secretary on a track across Shinjuku on a hunt for a Sanrio store where I had orders to buy some presents for a colleague. This was followed by a fantastic multi course dinner of ChankoNabe, over much sochu and laughter. My last dinner was of course sashimi, korokke and various other seafood, with a colleague and the secretary at a Tsukiji fish market themed restaurant. It was fantastically fun, with a rowdy atmosphere and more sochu ! I love sochu !

I escaped to Roppongi later that night to watch the Christmas decorations and also managed to sneak into DonQuixote where one supposedly could find various things to buy from second hand branded goods, to diamond rings, costumes, sex toys, televisions, gloves, clothes, shoes, food, cosmetics and so on at the very cheapest prices ! It was fun to root around as the whole place was a mess and reminiscent of a large warehouse of loot. I finally had some stuff to bring home for souvenirs in the form of food and snacks and spent the rest of the night packing up. I napped for two hours before going off to the airport again where I was bound for Singapore !

And the reason I was in Singapore was of course for EsdaBear's wedding ! It was really great. I went up to the room I was sharing with JinBear and SherBear, XXBear and FredBear were all already there. We took some time to change and then went down to the ballroom for cocktails. After finding our table, we caught up on lost time, even though I last saw JinBear in September and I last saw XXBear and SherBear in October, and I saw FredBear the week before. We went through the motions of watching the bridal pair walk in, flinched through a lousy best man speech, and oohed and aahed at the powerpoint on display of the day's celebrations. All too soon, it was over and we adjourned to a hawker centre, for roti, chilli crab and oyster omelette. Stumbling back to the hotel room, I fell asleep on a not very nice bed.

The next morning, CNN woke me as we had promised to have breakfast with EsdaBear as she did not have any time to talk to us during the wedding. We talked and talked as I have not met her for about almost 4 years, though we catch up from time to time online. Then it was back to the Singapore airport in less than 24 hours and a flight home. It was altogether an eventful week and marked the second time that I have had to fly in to another country for a friend's wedding. It was a reminder to me that I would be doing so again next year as XXBear's wedding was coming up next as well !

Story 633

2009-12-01T23:25:00.002+08:00

I have been looking forward to the next week very much, because it was all planned well in advance. It involved flying over to Singapore, cranium games and dinner, then a half marathon run. Then there would be a weekday's worth of home, meeting friends and family, and you can be sure there were lots of plans there. Then it would be back down to Singapore again to attend EsBear's wedding, with close friends flying in from around as well.

Unfortunately, there is only so much planning that you could do, and even though you have booked the air tickets, booked the hotel room, applied for all the right marathon timings, and started the expensive gym visits to train for the half marathon, things could still not go your way.

I got an sms at 10.30 pm on Sunday night, asking me if I were able to make an emergency trip to Tokyo for a week. And then realised that I could not run and be at work on Monday in Tokyo, so that was off. And since the only flights to Singapore from Tokyo would see me arriving in late evening, I would miss my friend's reception in the afternoon. And would probably only spend a short time in Singapore before going back to work on Monday in Hong Kong.

So, a week's worth of plans. Smoosh Kaboom. But who knows what will happen in this week ?

Life is an amazing wondeful journey. Walking down alleys sometimes is how you discover treasures.

Story 632

2009-11-22T23:58:00.002+08:00

Well I have just returned from a weekend trip to Guangzhou, where I was the opening act with GAAnn, singing Endless Love for GATer's wedding. It was quite exciting to be actually involved in a wedding and we took it quite seriously. First of course, there was the applying for the visa. And then there was the tiring job of actually memorizing lyrics, something which I have not done for a long long time. Then the week before the actualy event, which was last weekend, we even went to RedBox to practise the song with microphones. We went through several versions of the song before choosing a version with the right harmonisation and sang it several times.

On the morning of the wedding itself, I gave myself 45 minutes to leave my apartment for HungHom but I still had to run the last 50 metres to make it in time for the train departure. Never underestimate travel time in Hong Kong. On the journey, I enjoyed playing some card games and also travelling in China by train for the first time, looking at fields of farmland and farmlife as well as bustling cities from th sidelines. We reached the hotel and it was VERY large. Walking around outside, a group of us finally found food in a wonton noodle shop. We then walked back to the hotel for a microphone and sound check where we bumped into the bride and groom taking pictures. The restaurant was done up very nicely, a Western buffet style, with Hello Kitty and big bows everywhere.

We got the music and had to rush dressing up while practising. We sang it about ten times in the hour before the wedding ceremony was due to start. By the time we actually sang it, it was already easy. People appreciated the song, and I loved the standing on the stage. It was really fun. I think this first experience as a wedding singer was great, and I am open to doing another one ! Haha. Very fun. After the wedding we went out to sing karaoke in Cashbox till 1 am. After which several of us discussed careers and company politics till 3 am. A good sleep after that saw us going to a great old place for lunch in Guangzhou, where we were served individual teas on trays, and I also tried eating turtle, as well as some bitter gourd cake. Guangzhou is the home to people who eat anything alive, so it was a good experience to see civet cat and peacocks on the menu as well ! Very interesting. Turtle was adventurous enough for me though, as far as animals go.

We squeezed through the subway in China for a few stations before leaving for home and we played cards all the way. I ended the weekend with a dinner at FredBear's place with all the other people who had just finished their FRM examinations where we had pizza, sushi and some chocolate cake with home made ice cream. Lots of serious conversation tonight - someone just had a break up - but fun. Ah work tomorrow. Or rather in 7 hours.

Story 631

2009-11-15T22:31:00.002+08:00

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 ?

Story 630

2009-10-16T23:28:00.002+08:00

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.

Story 629

2009-10-11T11:59:00.002+08:00

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.

Story 628

2009-09-28T00:15:00.004+08:00

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 !

Story 627

2009-09-06T02:54:00.003+08:00

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 !!

Story 626

2009-08-23T00:58:00.002+08:00

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.

Story 625

2009-08-06T22:38:00.002+08:00

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.

Story 624

2009-07-26T10:25:00.004+08:00

And so, it was a big surprise at first to receive 2 dozen of these amazing cupcakes at work and everyone was oohing and ahhing....about. They really look great, and taste pretty good as well, but some people only ate the cupcake and not the purple cream on top. Haha. The best one had a tangy lemon flavour, and not that much cream at all.

Later, for lunch, my colleagues bought like a gigantic mega sushi platter, and we just ate it in the boss' room amidst much laughter and discussion on how to play Omaha. That was real fun. Then surprise again, in the afternoon, GAZ told me there were flowers for me. She picked it up and there it was, a real bunch of flowers with a soft toy. Whoa. Even the ladies at office were impressed, and then my colleague told me he has NEVER gotten flowers in his life. Everyone had a good laugh and quite a few people came over to look at them. Haha. It was fun. We finished work comparatively early that day, around half past seven, and I rushed off to have dinner with SoBear + MsC, RoxBear + MrC, and FredBear.

It was an all you can eat Japanese food kind of place, and it was pretty tasty. Had it before a couple of months back. The cake that we had then, was a very light sponge, with sprinklings of golden honeycomb. I have not had such a light cake in a very long time, most cakes you have nowadays, are heavy cheese ones, or have too many layers, so it was REALLY great to have a light fluffy cake. Super full, we finished around 11.

Now, at least I can say that I have had a pretty memorable 25th Birthday. Next milestone is only 5 years away. Arghhh. I have to get used to saying I am 25 by the way. I answered 24 when someone asked for my age yesterday.

Story 623

2009-07-22T07:10:00.000+08:00

Oh no ! I am no longer 24.

Story 622

2009-07-19T13:00:00.002+08:00

Another week, another week of work ! Time sure does flies and I am sure that I type that here all the time !!

But somehow this week has resulted in several days where I was spending about 14 hours at the office. Add to that several seismic organisational changes globally and you can imagine all the excitement that must be happening. But senior people moving around, getting promoted, leaving, and all can be very political, so one must always be very careful in giving comments on all this. Have personally witnessed several faux pas personally, and I like to believe that I am pretty good in this political business. So far so good. One of the reasons that I am also spending a lot of time at the office now is that some colleagues have been on leave lately, so have had a lot more responsibilities. It does not help that I did mention recently that I would like to have more responsibilities as well. Oh well, more work is always good, as long as one can still cope, as long as it comes with the reciprocal benefits.

Some excitment of course was that so many people have confirmed their trips to Hong Kong and I will be getting 2 visitors per fortnight on average till November. And in fact there was a surprise visit from RegBear and we went out for dinner at Gingko House on Friday. This place is always a nice place to walk to, very quiet and peaceful at night. Seared duck breast again for me. I believe SunBear will visit next then GAIst, then more and more. It is pretty great. And now that SoBear has finished his exams, he has been out more as well. We went to Pantray along with FredBear for a great brunch after my Chinese class on Saturday morning. Haha then back to FredBear's place where we had another lesson on coffeemaking and had some cake too. Some Wii later we went out for dinner with the others at a place called GuGu Cafe. Hahaha Funny name.

Story 621

2009-07-05T22:48:00.002+08:00

A reminder to self about what I did this weekend.

Friday after work was sauna and massage till midnight.
Saturday woke up late. Cleaned up. Watched television. Studied for Korean exam. Watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. Watched Sakura Cardcaptor. Had dinner. Played poker.
Sunday. Korean. TV. Class. Laundry and Ironing. Watched Ice Age 2.

OK. Phew. My memory is not that bad !

Oh no, another weekend flew by just like that and it is time for work on Monday again. And a busy week it will be as I have to do the quarterly KCSA as well. Urgh.

Story 620

2009-07-04T11:53:00.002+08:00

So it is July and half the year has flown by. This year I have fallen behind in some of my resolutions, I would say that work is the main culprit. Work takes up a lot of my time nowadays, and it seems that a lot of what I do has to do with work. Nevertheless, career can be an important part of one's life especially at this stage, and with the results that I am getting, I do not particularly believe that it is such a bad thing. Anyway I am having loads of fun at the moment. I do have a Korean exam tomorrow, which is terrible, because I have a whole list of vocabulary to memorise. Though it is still great that I can read, because I never thought I would have the patience to learn a new way of writing, which was one of the reasons why it was so hard to pick up Japanese properly. But perhaps it is because I am going to a class which helps make the learning more fun and easier as well. But memorising in another language words for strawberry, hat, sea and waves takes me back to primary school. Though it never seemed to be so hard to remember that hat meant...hat ! If you understood that at all. How did we know that meant hat ? But why is it so hard now to say hat in another language. It was not that hard to learn it in Malay.

Time flies so much now that sometimes I cannot even remember what I did the previous weekend. I only remember that I watched Transformers at Cyberport after some drinks with the colleagues. Saturday was a day spent at Megabox, where we went ice skating, playing arcade games and then bowling till almost midnight. Sunday, was a lot of sleep plus Korean, and that was another weekend flying by. Luckily of course 1st of July waa holiday, one of the rare times, and it was great to have a midweek break. It brings back memories of when I would schedule Wednesdays off during university times. Having had a night of poker with colleagues the previous night, I woke up late, and did some grocery shopping and realised the newsstand under my apartment block was closed. Then made my way to a friends birthday party where Wii and Mahjong was involved. We had pizza and sushi for dinner. Work flew by again, which included meetings with some Koreans, though it was hard to understand them.

And now it is the weekend again.

Revision for exams....tomorrow. Perhaps a break for poker ? Or maybe a movie.

Watched Night at the Museum the other night, which was just alright, not particularly fantastic. Looking forward to Harry Potter though.

Story 619

2009-06-23T22:25:00.003+08:00

Another day another fun trip. But first Friday night, saw a whole night of Mahjong back at the Lucky Centre, with MrSng, wife and a friend. 9 hours of solid fun, a good seafood dinner, and a winning ending kept me very happy. Just happy enough to collapse in a cab and going home for a shower and a very short nap.

This time we rented the holiday house of the bank in Tong Fook, in Lantau Island. We gathered at the pier to leave around 12, and after a short ride, we were there. It was a very hot day and it was fun to go and pick up the car at the island. It was a real clanker and looked old and the air condition did not really work. We drove around the island toward the holiday house and had a great roadtrip kind of feel.

At the house, it was great to just sit and rest with the air conditioning on, but as the rest prepared to go for lunch, I volunteered to stay in. Actually I really wanted to just tan on the beach, so while they were all gone, I nipped down the backyard stairs and just tanned for a whole hour. It was great. Have not spent so much time in the sun, doing nothing but tanning for a while. I could feel all the sweat coming out and my skin burning as well. After an hour, took a cold shower, and then went swimming in the sea again when some of the others came back.

As the rest slowly all arrived, we settled in for some good old mahjong, and some people started preparing the food for barbeque as well. Barbeque was hot work, and led to many many burnt sausages. Steak was good though. After the food, we took turns to shower and then play more card games. We had a round of poker, where I won 500 bucks. More mahjong lasted till 2 am and I was soooo tired, especially after the previous night. Fell asleep in the hall and only woke up the next morning when people handed me a coke and an ice cream to start the day.

Rushed back to central after a McDonalds lunch as it was Korean class day as well. For the second week running, I was a very tired boy in class, but worth it, as by the end of the class I could read !!

Yay ! I can read Hangul now, but have no idea what the words mean.

Story 618

2009-06-21T08:37:00.003+08:00

And that was because later that week, on the Wednesday no less, we went horse racing !! That was really fun. We all got stuck into work, tried to finish early and then jet setted across to the racing ground. Though we missed the first two races, there were still about eight to go. And we quickly got into the racing form and talked about strategies and reasons for each horse to win.

We were there in a restaurant overlooking the racing ground, so we could see the real horses on the ground. Pretty fun. The great thing about being in the restaurant was that we were inside, where it was cool, while outside the Summer was really hot. The great thing was, I won quite a bit of money at the races at well, and had a really great track record at picking out the winners. The team was a bit impressed, though I must say, it was a lot about looking at the statistics. All in all, it was a very very fun night. Racing in Hong Kong, another great experience !!

Story 617

2009-06-20T12:34:00.006+08:00

Ooh I am falling behind..

Anyway, so the week after the yacht, was when my team had a barbeque. Perfect, with the hot weather. It was very fun, and a change from normal BBQ. The reason being, we had huge chunks of meat, large prawns, fish, gourmet sausages. Haha, such a difference from BBQing with friends of the same age. Drinks were beer, wine, and a huge bottle of sake.

One of the best things was the skyline from up there. This is at my boss's aparment. What a view right ? You can fall in love with Hong Kong just looking at the view. In this picture, you can actually see my aparment, somewhere in the middle. And you can also see my new office, into which I would be moving into in September. It is the tallest building in the picture. It will be very exciting.

Later on that evening, when the kids went to bed, we moved to poker, a perennial favourite of our team. Fun + huge winnings for me that night. And it was only the beginning of a very lucky week for me.

Story 616

2009-06-11T21:30:00.007+08:00

The yacht was loads of fun. We set off into the morning sun, with a strong westerly wind, and headed towards the wide open sea.

It had been slightly rainy earlier in the morning so there was no sun tanning or swimming going on. Rather, we aimed for Ma Wan, which was a place where cars could not access and was pretty special in that respect.

We reached the jetty and were welcomed by colourful flags. We got off the boat and walked around the little village and took many pictures. Towards the other side, we arrived at one of the newest attractions in HK, Noah's Ark. Basically it is a huge model of the Ark, with animals, museums and restaurants. We walked around, had some ice cream and walked around the Ma Wan park as well.

Later we got back on the boat and headed for Ping Chau island. Practically a village on an island and we took a long walk around the place before hopping to the next island Cheung Chau for a seafood dinner. Superbly cheap and delicious ! The ride back at around 9 pm was great, as all the lights were on in Hong Kong, and the feeling of the wind in your face, while you sit around telling ghost stories was also awesome ! We also took some funny photos.

It was a great feeling, and there was hardly any feeling of seasicknesses. It was also fun to get real close to some of the container ships to find out how huge they really were !!!

Fantastic and loads of fun !!

Story 615

2009-05-28T22:36:00.002+08:00

Somehow, the days are seemingly flying by. I can hardly remember what happened last week at work, or what I did last weekend.

I only remember that me and FredBear met up with SoBear for dinner and some drinks later. Had a lot of inane fun, which is great and was good to meet him as well. He has finished his exams and is just now waiting for his results, and will probably start work as a lawyer in September. Amazing. Finally into the workforce. Very proud. Has put on a little weight too. Hehe. But then, so have I.

Ah...it was a weekend of extremely little sleep.

After work got hauled along to a bar at LKF, where I had no drinks, and then dinner at Cafe Siam. Then FredBear joined GATra and GAG and myself to MJ at GATra's place. Till about 4 am. So tiring. After a long day's work.

I know I started Saturday off very sleep after only a couple of hours sleep and stumbled to Chinese class. Had a very short nap at home before revising some French then taking the Subway all the way to Hang Hau, to meet GATra and FredBear for dinner. Dinner was pretty good though VERY unhealthy, and we ended up renting Burn After Reading to watch at FredBear's place. As you can imagine, we also bought some dessert to eat. By the time we started the movie it was almost midnight. Slept at 4 I believe.

I think on Sunday, I just slept. Perhaps cooked. Really blank day because I remember turning up on Monday really dazed and wishing for the day to go by really fast and yet, it crawled. Coffee did not help. I am having some trouble sleeping nowadays and usually wake up around 4 am. Is this my body telling me to go out for a run, and then go into office early !?!?!? All the tiredness concluded in me falling asleep at 8.30 pm on Monday. Luckily it was UK and US holiday, and that made us able to finish up really early and go home at 7. Real early by my terms as usual days finish up by 8 pm.

An event happened at work which got me slightly sore. We discovered that some people were doing deals with customers that were not really good for the bank and yet when we started investigating them, they got all cranky and stopped giving us information. I am not giving up though, as I have started collecting information, and as you very well know, being in OCC before, I am able to get my information easily and understand as well. I thank the IG rotations that I am really able to understand more of the bank else I doubt I would be able to understand the BCA enough to discover what they were doing wrong and how they were hiding it. More saga to continue as I do not know how the bosses are going to solve this yet but I know that somebody is going to get hurt real bad. To think that they tried to lie that this was the only case but in fact I have hard proof on at least two other cases. Fun.

This will make us some enemies though. But justice has to be served.

Today is Dragonboat Festival and so it is a public holiday here in Hong Kong. Nevertheless made the trip back to office as I wanted to clear up some project work on FERMAT and test the new application. Got quite a lot done in the almost deserted office so it was great. Also met up with some new colleagues so that was ok. Went for lunch later near Happy Valley and finally topped up my prepaid for my mobile. Also managed to get a small Korean phrasebook for only HKD40. Really cheap, but was really tempted to get the French one with the CD as well, but I guess I wanted to save that as I do not really want to be all confused with learning two new languages at the same time. I think I shall be able to catch up with my French again later, quite easily. But since my Korean starts next week, I am really excited !! Have even got to buy a textbook but my chief grouse is that CUHK does all its student communication in Chinese !!! so it took me a while to get through all the rules of the course and stuff.

Going on a yacht tomorrow ! It is quite fun to pack.

Story 614

2009-05-18T06:45:00.002+08:00

Well it seems that I have gotten myself into a set of automation in life at the moment. It is absolutely totally work during the weekdays, followed by minor entertainment on Friday nights. This is usually followed by Chinese classes on Saturday, some form of sports like tennis or golf, probably ending up with mahjong, and dinner. Sunday is laundry day, cleaning up, and sometimes grocery day. So it is quite rare when there comes those special days when you do something different.

Last weekend, as part of Volunteering Week at office, I went on this tour of an organic farm with Single Parent Families. GAPet came along as well. It was quite fun, though hot. The volunteers first met up at a train station and then took the bus. Drowsing off, the bus arrived an hour later, on a slope of a mountain. As we walked along a trail to the organic farm, it was like taking a walk to a hidden lost valley. From the jungle shrubbery, we emerged upon fields and fields of crops on slopes. There were huts here and there, and hardworking farmers around as well. Was really surprised to have this kind of view in Hong Kong of all places.

About 40 volunteers and 120 of the SPF members showed up. First we had a lot of talk on the ground rules of the place such as no soap allowed, pick up the trash, do not kill the bugs and so on. All made a lot of sense and I remembered thinking that the presenter was very good and funny. He must do this a lot.

We started off, with groups of people having plots of land. Where we had to till then plow the place, leaving freshly turned earth looking up to the sun. We were then given other tools to form furrows for the seeds, which everyone had a great time sowing. After watering, we were all surprised that it had taken about 2 hours of much work and laughing to get the job done. We rested then in the shade for a while before the second activity. Split into groups again, this time we were baking bread from organic wheat flour. Again interesting, as the presented seemed quite skilled at baking bread as well. The kids had a lot of fun making bread into different shapes and then decorating them with raisins and sesame seeds. The aroma of freshly baked bread is intoxicating after a long afternoon's work in the fields.

All too soon that was the end, although it had taken up about 6 hours ! But that was just one of the rare times that I deviated from my usual weekend activities so it was quite fun.

That can hardly be compared to this weekend, where I watched Angels and Demons on Friday night at Cyberport, then went to FredBear's place for a empty house party with about 9 other people. It was great as we got to meet RoxBear's new man, as well had a lot of fun making pizza and I even learnt how to make lasagna from GAHil. Our pizza tasted great and I had second helpings of lasagna. The night descended into mahjong as predicted before we got into the Wii. Went to sleep sometime at 5.30 on the couch, and then woke up to Wii. Had lunch at Outback before going shopping for kitchenware. Saw some great ceramicware that would have loved to buy if were at home. Went back to his place before watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Superhero movie. We also had delivery of Indian food, before watching Beautiful Cooking (which is a cooking show by girls who get judged by guys). Finallyarrived home after 30 hours of leaving it.

I guess you could say that this weekend was not normal as well.

By the way, I received news that my application for Korean classes has been approved and should start in June.

Story 613

2009-05-10T08:37:00.002+08:00

Well the week just seemed to fly past, punctuated by the fact that we had about 10 very big bosses visit us. There seemed to be a flurry of cleaning up the office and being on best behaviour. This culminated in a great dinner at a great restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong, the Indochine. Great atmosphere and it was amazing how much and how fast wine went down here. This was also the week that I switched some duties and it has suddenly become a little more free for me. Nevertheless, the learning process continues and it is only a matter of picking up new duties before I start getting busy again.

Also managed to visit La Brezza for a dinner one night. Started off with some warm bread, salad, followed by pumpkin soup, grilled Japanese Kurobuta, and finished off with fantastic souffle. Total Bill for two : HKD 780. But the best meal of the week so far has to be my visit to Zuma, once voted Hong Kong's top restaurant. Japanese themed, it has fantastic rock carved walls and table top. I managed to get a seat by the sushi bar and it was fantastic. Food was great tasting, service was wonderful and even talked to the head chef who was friendly and gave us water on the house. Yea, usually the water is charged ! Total Bill for two : HKD 1,230 for two. So it does seem as if the next week has to be somewhat low key, as need to get back on track for my monthly spending, as I have also been to massage this week. Oops. I have spent in 10 days in May, what I have spent in a whole month in February.

Story 612

2009-05-03T00:18:00.002+08:00

Ohmigoodness I am so unbelievably exhausted !

The week went by quite smoothly and though some things happened at work, which are not exactly great, but not really crap as well, the week was good. And I am moving on to other things at the same department so all is well on the work front. New challenges, new job, more work, and hopefully more recognition and superstardom is just the next step.

The weekend started off with a great massage on Thursday night. I slept like a baby that night. Friday I woke up and it was a great public holiday ! Woohoo. Have not had one since Easter. Which was about a whole month ago. Nevertheless, I still made a journey to the office, cleared up some stuff, before walking up the stairs home. It is henceforth to be known as the HK Midlevels Stairway to Hell. Then it was time for the afternoon. The plan was to meet with the usual weekend group for some cycling at Dai Wai area, somewhere north of Sha Tin. Unfortunately by the time we got there, there were so many people there that most shops were literally out of bicycles. There were still some left going at about HKD150 rental which was three times the normal price I heard.

Luckily FredBear drove over (as he was late) and we piled in instead for a change of plans. We went all the way to Gold Coast, where it was sunny and bright and there was even a beachside bazaar much like StKilda. We wanted to go for a massage but it was fully booked. After some ice creams and some photos we went on to the next destination which was this Dragon Drum Beach far far away. We arrived safely and proceeded to walk on the beach followed by a Barbeque buffet dinner. The fun thing was that you had to cook all the food yourself. Of course, the danger being that impatient people could end up with raw meat.

After much meat, we moved on to Yuen Long to try the famed B-Boy Grass Jelly. We were warned that it would be big so we ordered two for 5 people. Turned out that we could have done with just one, and it was really funny for us to eat such huge bowls of fruit and grass jelly. It was amazingly huge. And we were filled to the brim. We were so full after that, our brains did not even work that well on the way home. And that is where went. Since it was about midnight by the time I even arrived home.

Saturday was another trip up and down the Stairway to Hell, since I wrongly thought I would have to go for Mandarin class but it was not to be. Apparently it was another public holiday related to Buddhist rites. Put off, I went grocery shopping before taking a nap. Then went for some tennis at Victoria Gardens and I can tell you that it was burning with midday sun. We had a lot of fun though, and I did enjoy being out in the sun. I do feel a slight sunburn on my neck though.

And then I made a spontaneous decision to go to Lamma Island with GATra ! Crazy. But I did so. And this time we walked the mountain trail the other way round. Since I have walked it before I knew that it was not very difficult and we even spent some time at the beach, writing words in the sand, my extra Mandarin class. Lol. Had a great view of the sunset and also a lot of discussions on life, money, job satisfaction and so on. The ferry was also faster than I remembered and we made a beeline for home where we ordered takeout sushi. Then she did her CFA revision (glad that that part of my life was over) while I read my Xmen book.

And thus ends another day of the long weekend.

Luckily there is still Sunday to go, and I already have mahjong lined up. Woohoo.

Story 611

2009-04-27T00:51:00.002+08:00

Another night, but it seems that it was well and truly another week that has passed. How time flies, and yet do we ever appreciate it more, even knowing that fact ?

I know I should sleep, as it is about 1am and there is work to be done tomorrow, but yet tonight, there is bewitchment in the air, and I feel the urge and need to put something down. Not pen to paper, but the tapping on the keyboard is strangely comforting, in my half dimmed apartment, with the saintly voices of Libera and Angela Aki in the background.

A key point this week, was my Q1 review with the boss, and somehow, I was highly commended. Great, but sometimes I wonder if there is something in me that I miss, because somehow, I do not always think that I am worthy of what is said about me and yet, I strive harder and harder so that I hear praises. Perhaps that is what I find lacking in myself. This continuous push leaves me little time for much, for myself, and for the people around me. In the midst of reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie at the moment, it gets me thinking whether I am chasing the right things ?

The key as always would be moderation and striking the right balance, but who is around to tell you what is the right balance. I type faster now, the tapping on the keyboard sounding like so many bullet sounds thudding against a window, the adrenaline flowing through, myself trying to see how many words I can type at high speed without actually making a mistake. I wonder if there are people who type with all ten fingers, because i find myself typing wiht perhaps only 7 fingers I think. Wait. Those are just for the alphabets. I have realised that I use my left pinky for the Caps Lock and the Shift button. The fourth finger has found its niche in the QAWS area and of course the second and middle finger are doing a lot of work, while the left thumb seems content with merely the spacebar. On the right side, the thumb is not participating at all. The second, third and fourth finger do a lot of work on the right side, and the little finger seems to do all the Entering. So I do type with 9 fingers after all. The right thumb just pressed the Space Bar, so I guess at times, it can do a little work after all. It just depends on what word was typed before the Space Bar was needed. Why is the tapping on the keyboard so addictive ?

And yet I am a doofus with most computer games.

So back to getting the right balace, I guess we just have to work our way through it right ? There are hundreds of things to do, places to go, people to meet, and we have to prioritise. How often do we get it right ? How often do we regret ?

I write this blog with the hope that someday, I can look back and see if I have improved. Perhaps this is one reason why I find Angela Aki's song, about a letter to her 15 year old self, so haunting. How many of us want to go back or forth in time to find out what our other selves are doing ? Any advice to be given, or perhaps help, or just some comfort ?

And yet perhaps one should think that God is the answer ? But is He not always ? The real question should perhaps be how He channels His love for us. Through family or friends ? Through our own actions as well perhaps ?

God Bless everyone tonight.

I mean, all the time.

Story 610

2009-04-19T00:05:00.002+08:00

Ah the week was simply great. The days passed by, I caught up on some French, felt great at work, and was very satisfied with this week's work. By the time I finished on Friday, I had a big sense of achievement. I had actually learnt something and was doing my part to keep my bank alive. A bit exaggerating, but yes, so many people in so many departments must all do their part to ensure that their company runs smoothly. Else, so many things could go wrong.

Finished off Friday with a hotpot dinner with some past IGs who worked in my department along with some current colleagues and it was fun and lively. A lot of animated discussions, about the economy, life in general, and even about weddings and how much they would cost. I find that these are great in the sense that you are able to help each other form opinions, and really learn more about people and the world in general. At one point we were discussing how someone could have managed to save enough money for her wedding and a deposit on her first home, while someone else, on the same pay was unable to do so. We talked about lifestyles and spending and habits. Great night. Sigh. And that is a happy sigh.

Woke up late Saturday morning to rush for breakfast with MrTT and FredBear near Kau U Fong, where I had the famous toast, was last there in July 08. Though it really is near my place. Perhaps about 10 minutes walk. Even helped some foreigners on the way, leading them towards their destination and having a nice chat on the way down. We then drove around in FredBear's new car for a while before I got dropped off at Causeway Bay as I was going to have my Chinese class at the Neway CEO Karaoke. It was fun. Three teachers and three students.

By the time it ended though, it was pouring with rain outside, and my teacher, MsCw and I had a good time walking through the rain to the nearest station. I took a nice long walk from IFC back home, stopping on the way to pick up a bun for lunch and some bread for dinner. It was really raining hard and I was reminded of the song which goes, "it is raining and (I) have no money to buy bread!!".

Went home and got my laundry done. Did my first ironing for about a month ! and boy it was tiring. Even ironed my Tshirts. Wished I could get someone to do that for me. I love well ironed clothes but hate ironing. Oh well, what can you do. Put on some soup to boil for the next few days. With fresh meat and veggies. It should be good. Though I am feeling a bit peckish now, might steal a small bowl around now...which is about midnight. Watched a cooking show about Indian cuisine and read two chapters of Slumdog Millionaire. I bought a whole bunch of books over the holiday, and I do mean to get a fair amount of reading done. Brought some home as well, so that I had place to put them.

Got absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of clothes I had the last time I cleaned up and am still surprised when I was putting back my ironed clothes into the cupboard. It is weird that I have absolutely not enough space for my clothes such that I have some in boxes, and yet, all the time, I feel that I am lacking something very very crucial for my wardrobe !? Extremely strange.
Did some more lessons of French - my last week of the 3 months course is next week and I have an assessment coming. Oh and did I mention I am seriously considering taking up Korean lessons every Sunday ? For 3 months as well ?

Learning is a habit, and should be nurtured.

Typing this at midnight with classical music playing in my earphones, make me nostalgic. Of the time when ParkyBear and I would drive along the streets of Sydney at 3 am, blasting classical music and the soundtrack of Star Wars while we cruised. Funny.

Story 609

2009-04-14T00:31:00.002+08:00

All too soon, the long weekend flew by. After work on Thursday, went along with some colleagues to a French Restaurant called Les Jardine d'Ulysses I believe, where we had an amazing dinner with great wine to boot. Think the five of us finished several bottles of wine along with our meals of goose foie gras, wagyu oxcheek and warm chocolate cake, plus a fantastic soup of mushroom bisque. Walked back home after that, and just cleaned up a bit.

Woke up at about noon on Friday as it was a holiday, and watched some television before going down to the office to clear up some work. Finished what I wanted to do by about six and then went on to some spontaneous suggested activity with some China IGs, where we first went to a Korean barbeque restaurant before heading to Elements where they stayed to play 80 points. It took me several rounds to catch up on all the rules again since I have not played for about two years. Nevertheless, we only managed to stop at around 4 am, and it was because we were tired and not because the game was finished. Then watched Sweeney Todd, which was gruesome. GANat and I left around 6.30 am, and took the MTR back.

Took a 4 hour nap after a shower as I had agreed to have breakfast with FredBear at Jockey, at Happy Valley. Had some good onion rings, but felt really oily afterwards. Went along for tennis at Victoria Garden and it was fun to be in the sun till 3pm. Had something to drink while resting, before going back to FredBear's place for mahjong with GACle and MrTT. Won almost HKD700 in a few hours. We then drove down to buy dinner of porridge and picked up GABish to replace GACle and continued to my place for more mahjong. Only played till about midnight though.

On Sunday, did a fairly good spring cleaning, did some laundry and then met up with MrTT as we had planned to go to this massage place. It was fairly good and 50% cheaper than places that I would usually go to, though perhaps one might not want to travel as much. Very acceptable anyway. Met with GABish as well and we had lunch at about 3 pm after which we went up to FredBear's house again to Wii. Time flies when you Wii, and soon I was having dinner with FredBear and his dad. Then we watched Definitely, Maybe and Marley and Me (3rd time for DM and 2nd for MM) before I headed off.

Lazed around at home, consisting of more cleaning up, making soup, and catching up on my French. Now I am finally back on target after falling behind for about a month. There are only 2 weeks left of my 12 week course and I would really like to pass the assignment at the end ! Still managed to squeeze in some time to have the courage to set up the Wii at my place this time to play around. Not that hard after all. But I agree it would hardly be something that I would do all the time. Wii is much more fun with friends.

Work tomorrow though. But only a four day week ! Woohoo.

Story 608

2009-04-09T00:00:00.003+08:00

I swear time flies on purpose so that you look back on it fondly.

Before I knew it, it was time to pack up and go back to Hong Kong. It was so sudden, I only packed on the morning of the day that I was to return. And even then, I left behind loads of unmet friends, unfinished business, and un-done excitements.

Did manage to meet up some people from high school for a great game of Risk at B-Wings, where it was really refreshing to have no pretences but pure old friendships. Then some pretty bizarre topics as well later at mamak, I believe the second time for these three weeks only. Thanks for a great time, YapBear, SahBear, AndBear, PhilBear and EugBear. And I also managed to have Korean dinner with NickBear as well and it was great to catch up !! On Saturday managed to catch Confessions of a Shopaholic with JeanBear at Cineleisure. Quite fun, but perhaps I had too high expectations for the show. It could have been much much better. Also celebrated MeiBear's birthday at Solaris, which I must say is pretty admirable. It would be a great place to hangout, I feel, and has sort of the aura of The Curve when it first opened, big empty spaces with great restaurants and lots of parking. Nice, and a good place to go to for food.

All too soon, it was lockup day, but had a great visit from JeanBear, RaeBear, JinBear, ChewBear and KeeBear, at my place. Tea and cake were provided by the visitors so that was fun, however the rain was pelting down the whole time. Later, had dinner at Le Meridien, where the buffet boasted a great Japanese table, but I feel that the rest of it was pretty poor.

Used the weekend to catch up on some movies too, including YesMan, Bride Wars, Wolverine and of course Slumdog Millionaire, which I feel and this is my personal opinion that it is in NO way, even a contender for the Best Picture Oscar. Disgraceful. But then again, what do I know, I thought The Dark Knight was pretty boring too. And of course all this coming from someone who enjoys chick flicks with friends. Haha. But yes, that is my opinion and I am sticking with it. Summer is coming up and seems to be a whole load of new movies that I am dying to see !

The flight back was pretty uneventful, except that they showed the movie Marley and Me, and though it was alright, it is hardly MAGNIFICIENT. The people in the movie could have been played by almost anyone. The dog was great though. The plane was nearly empty and I got on with about 26 kg of luggage. Immigration took 10 seconds with my HK ID card, and the luggage came out 10 minutes later. Only later when I unpacked that I realised now I have way too many clothes in HK. I have absolutely run out of space in my closet, and I already have three boxes of clothes in addition to the closet. Fantastic. Perhaps I should donate some, though every time I try, I end up realising instead what I do not have and go out and buy more stuff !

But I must admit it was absolutely lovely to get back to the Dealing Room, and feel all the electrical charges in the air. Though it took me a whole day to clear my 4000 emails, I was really back in the game today, and it was great. Also will be joining in a couple of important initiatives and also felt great, doing some complicated but powerful excel work. Best news is that it is a short weekend since Good Friday is a holiday, but even better is that next Monday will also be a holiday, though I forsee myself going into the office one of those days anyway to clear off some work.

Ah, Hong Kong. Live it, Love it.

Story 607

2009-03-30T11:46:00.002+08:00

I am still home and there is one week to go !!

I have absolutely no idea how the week went by so fast but there are some bits that I remember, like going for dinner with KeeBear, JeanBear and ChewBear and then mahjong...on a weeknight. Had lunch with grandparent on Wednesday. Slept a lot on Thursday and zapped my finger on Friday. Also had karaoke on Friday night as well.

And that makes a week!

Saturday was the Day of Indulgences, as the facebook event was called. It all began with a breakfast at La Bodega at 10 am. Attendance : 6 pax. About an hour later we adjourned to SailorJeow's place. While waiting for the rest to come, managed to play about 10 rounds of mahjong and I lost. Crap. With everyone arriving soon, there was a feast of bak kut teh, fresh from Klang. Attendance : 11 pax. Then the Cranium games began. Competitive by nature, there was a whole load of heckling and trash talking. We managed about 4 rounds before the next event, karaoke at Red Box. Attendance : 8 pax. Mostly English songs, and loads of crazy and emotional shouting. 10 pm saw us move on to Bamboo. Attendance : 12 pax. We danced till 3 am. That in itself was a record, and we were all feeling the age. But ridiculously fun. Mamak next, attendance : 6 pax. Roti Telur.

Given that there were people in and out of these event for the whole day, the actual amount of people who were involved was actually 16 I believe. What great organisation, as there were people from Hong Kong and Singapore as well, so you really must applaud all the work involved in getting this day to work. Amazing.

Legendary.

Story 606

2009-03-23T09:20:00.002+08:00

And so, I have returned home.

After a very close shave with missing the flight at 9 am (woke up at 7 am) I was safely on board and was finally deeply engrossed reading the local newspapers ! They were quite interesting, and might I say, unchanged from where I left off. It is these kind of things that make you feel that time seems to have stopped somehow.

Got behind the steering wheel for the first time in about 8 months and it was grand, although weird, driving along the highway, surrounded by sky and trees instead of hulking buildings and neon signs. I missed the signs though. Had a nap in tha afternoon until evening as was waiting for the HK IGs to turn up. Their flight ended up delayed and when they arrived we went out to SS15 AsiaCafe for supper only to find that every single available seat was taken up by those football crazy Malaysians watching the Liverpool-Man U match. Luckily we were late, so there was only about 10 minutes before suddenly the place was empty again. After food, everyone was so exhausted that we fell into bed pretty fast.

Checking into the hotel was fun, as met many many other IGs from other countries, including those that have completely slipped your mind, and it was great to catch up as well. After cocktails, most people could be found walking around in Pavilion. Myself, took some time to play Monopoly HK Version, and we were there till about 2 am. Training finished up the rest of Monday, and it was not very interesting, however it was nice to meet up with the team as well as the whole room. Brought some cookies back to KL office to meet and greet. Heavy rain stopped me from returning and ended up at Red Box with SailorJow singing till 11 pm. Just the two of us sang for about 4 hours. Did not even give the buffett a second glance. Returned to the hotel room to luxurise in the bath and then spent the next hour watching ANTM.

Tuesday flew by in a blur of sleepines, lunch with the IGs at Wongkok and ended at about 2 am in the Main ballroom with most of the presentation for Project RABA done. Snuck out for a snack at Jalan Alor with about 7 others, which was a bit regretted later due to very dark eye circles on Wednesday Morning. Got a hair cut at Sungeiwang where was mistaken for a HK Student and also looked at some clothes at Pavilion. Took a nap, and prepared for the presentations in the afternoon. The evening gala dinner was done quite well, with a James Bond theme, hence all the black tie hoohaa. There was even a baccarat table where you could gamble beer and wine coupons. Myself and GAHil ended up bankrupting the casino ! Later was also chosen as Top 6 Dashing Males for the night. LOL.

Thursday saw me sleeping in and then driving to Bukit Jalil where I met some of my back office people and learnt from them how their tasks were done. Even made a couple of calls and saves between HK and Malaysia. Talk about hardworking ! Friday was an errands day, and managed to renew road tax and driving license though the queue took FOREVER ! Somehow my allergies resurfaced during the weekend as well, but kept in check while I met up with JeanBear and StephBear and WengBear. We were off to KLPAC to watch a Japanese dance troup The Condors which were a mixture between dance and theatresports. Fun. Completed the night with a visit to JinBear's place for mahjong and then for some Indomee later.

Did Cheng Beng duties early Saturday followed by dim sum lunch at DJ. Went home for a rest before spending the rest of the afternoon at the MPH Warehouse Sale where spent close to HKD1000 on books. Worth it though. Bumped into SailorJow there too. Sweated like a pig in the hot sun though. Dinner was at Pantai Seafood with JinBear, RaeBear, SharBear, PLBear, KeiBear and TEBear. Way too much food though it was finished. Went along for some beer till about midnight.

Met up with SailorJoyo back from Singapore with SailorKuang at Prince Cafe at about 1 where we talked and talked and talked. Went baby toy shopping before that as well for a gift. Then adjourned to 2 3 Square to meet SailorEL, with hubbie and baby in tow. They were then replaced by LawleyBear and TrBear. Seemed like an overdose of Finance people ! But fun to just sit and talk. Later went out for dinner near Penchala with family at a new rustic place, very similiar to Tamarind Springs but much closer. Had French Onion Soup, Fried Calamari Rings, Lamb Shank and Honeydew Juice. Yum. Fell dead asleep at 11.

Story 605

2009-03-14T02:42:00.003+08:00

All too soon, it is time to leave Hong Kong.

But just for 3 weeks. I miss it already !!! Even though I am still sitting in my room, with my suitcase half packed. 6 hours to the flight. Looks like I shall not be getting much sleep tonight.

The last couple of days have been even more fantastic as I have been getting more and more done for more and more people. I love my job. It helps that bonus was paid out in the last couple of weeks as well. Haha. But I seriously love my current job and my team now. We work well, are happy and will overcome all obstacles that come our way. Fingers crossed, we can meet our budget by the end of Q1. But that is just the first hurdle. As we move along the year 2009, many more will come our way. But we shall overcome.

These last couple of hours was spent rushing some work before my long holidays, handing over some work. I was really proud to be coming up with some smart comments on some large project we have going on as well. Unfortunately this time I was really too rushed to go shopping for people, perhaps next time, if I have more time, I could actually get gifts. As it is, went for dinner with FredBear all the way in Repulse Bay for Thai food. Had baked crabs, which was okay as tonight was really windy and cold. Then we went looking for massages (again) but ended up at our favourite Joy Ocean. Was there till half past one am.

Now am sleepy, newly showered but not yet packed.

Story 604

2009-03-08T08:53:00.002+08:00

It is freezing again. Well. Perhaps just cold, but cold enough to kick me back into hibernation mode. I just want to sleep and sleep but it is never enough and stupid things like work get in the way of sleep.

Well I guess I cannot really decide not to go to work, as they just paid me my annual bonus, so I guess that is incentive for me to keep on working. Anyway, in times like this, I guess most people would rather have a job than no job. So continue working. The lucky part is that I do like my job. Well, actually, I enjoy my job very much. I have a great boss and a great team, fun to work with and small enough to be close knit.

Just the other night we had dinner together at the Shanghai Club, where we just had wine, and played drinking games, and talked about cars, mortgages, traffic police, horse racing, and so on. I must say, even though the youngest one of them was at least ten years older than me, I had a really great time. I think it is an advantage being so young as well, as currently I am not seen as a threat, so everyone is willing to teach me. At the same time, bright enough (lol) to do what they need, so it is all good. Work is good.

So good in fact, that I will miss it very much when I go on holiday, and in fact I have resisted the urge to go on holiday for a very long time. But in conjunction with training, I shall be home for 3 weeks, from 14 March to 6 April. Aw. Though I do not really miss home, there is a kind of eager anticipation and excitement to be going home. It is rather like a holiday.

One of the good things about my job is of course the brokers. While I was in corporate banking, I had clients, and we had to bring them out for lunch, remember their birthdays, and basically keep them happy. Now that I am a client of the broker the opposite is happening to me. I just casually mentioned how much I enjoyed scallops and the next thing I knew, I was having a buffet lunch at the upscale Conrad hotel, having scallops. It was fun. On average, I get about 20% of my lunches taken care of. It is great because they bring me to restaurants I do not think about going to, and also teach me a lot about the market as well. These people are of course all at least ten to twenty years older than me too.

That is why I do believe that I will miss work. But everyone needs some time off sometime.

Story 603

2009-02-28T00:05:00.002+08:00

I was looking at the news as usual and I came across this article about the top 10 things to do in Hong Kong.

1. Victoria Peak - nice enough to visit perhaps a couple of times and I have. Though I have only walked the 3.2km route on top only once, that is perhaps something I should do more often, provided the people I go with are actually willing to walk that far. But it was quite fun, and makes for good conversation since there are no distractions other than the natural flora, as well as a few huge bungalows.

2. Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront - Orginally went over there for the first time to look at the lights, then went back a second time for the Symphony of Lights show, since then I have been there a few more times, including during Chinese New Year when I watched the annual fireworks display.

3. Ladies' Market - I like this place ! Very much like a nicer version of Petaling Street, with cheap stuff to ogle and buy, it is like Victoria Market as well, fun for a day trip, with jokes and cheap fake goods, and nice food nearby as well !

4. Stanley - This is the StKilda of Hong Kong, I feel, it has a very comfortable setting, and I like sitting at the beachfront cafe's and of course the market there is a plus ! This can be a whole day trip, especially since there are several nice restaurants nearby.

5. Repulse Bay - I usually combined my visits to Stanley with Repulse Bay, since they are on the same bus route. However, Repulse Bay is usually FULL of beachgoers but has a couple of very nice restaurants and of course that very old club which is beautiful.

6. Mongkok - Always a must see, and since it is basically near the Ladies' Market, fun for all. There is something to do for everyone, toys, clothes, brands, food...Very fun and happening place. An older part of town that makes it very interesting.

7. Central District - Since I work here, I do not really see the fun of going here for a trip, but I guess it can be pretty amazing to look at some really good architecture as well as look for branded goods. Also all the major banks are around as well, so you get to see many well-heeled people. Mostly for shopping I guess.

8. Disneyland - The one place on this list that I have not visited. In due course, but not yet. There are still loads to do before Disneyland.

9. Ocean Park - However, I have been to Ocean Park, but for the Halloween special programmes, so it is more special than just normal Ocean Park. It is big, and you would need lots of energy to go through it properly. Very fun at night, and there are pandas, and fish, and cable cars.

10. Sheung Wan District - Now it was quite a surprise that this was on the list and not one of those places like Wan Chai or Causeway Bay, but I suppose it is kinda historical and has all those antique shops, and old chinese food places, as well as some good fashion haunts. I have walked through here several times, and there are really a lot of good food here, including the seafood shops and bird nest shops.

Well that was the top ten list of the places to visit in Hong Kong, so well I have done nine out of ten and it was pretty fun with the right people. Maybe if you visit, I will come along with you !

Story 602

2009-02-15T23:28:00.002+08:00

Possibly the hardest and toughest Valentine's Day/Weekend ever in my life.

Friday night started with a huge team dinner at Sang Kee in Wan Chai. It was a really huge dinner with about 12 courses including fish, prawns, crab, abalone, pork, chicken, beef, congee and I cannot really remember much else. But it was good fun as it was quite some time since the whole team had an outing together, and it was more informal this time as everyone has now been working together for a while, so there was no need of the "Everyone tell something about themselves" kinda segment. After dinner, which was really about half past ten, I went home to wait for ParkyBear who would be spending two nights here on a stopover back to China. We talked a bit but both fell into bed exhausted.

In the morning, I brought ParkyBear along with me over to Chinese class where we played some games and also tested our oral. The teacher was fun enough to keep score on our Chinese, and of course was quite amazed at his vocabulary. Then we made a visit to the Sun Yat Sen memorial, at Caine Road, and it was pretty nice. The building itself actually used to be a big mansion, owned by the once richest man in Hong Kong. At one point, ParkyBear actually turned to me and told me that he would buy it. So would I, if I could. It was about 4 floors, which wood panelling, and carpets, a beautiful staircase, wonderful tilework, huge marble fireplaces and was altogether something that you would expect in the early 20's in a good suburb in London. Amazing.

We got home so that I could get changed for tennis, then we got picked up by FredBear. We dropped off ParkyBear at Causeway Bay, and then it was tennis time. But spring was definitely here and it was terribly hot ! After the game and some lunch, where we shared burgers and salad, we went up to FredBear's place for mahjong. Fun. At about seven, I then met up with ParkyBear to watch the Symphony of Lights at Victoria Harbour. Unfortunately the heavy fog meant that the lights show was not as spectacular as it usually was. We walked around TST for a while before heading home since GAG, MrTam and GABish were coming over for more Mahjong ! ParkyBear actually got a fair idea of how to play by the time we were done.

Due to the late night, ParkyBear and I only stirred around 11 and we had some bacon, eggs and sausages for brunch as he had to leave to catch his train to Guangzhou by 1. I did my long procrastinated laundry and ironing before heading off to Kowloon for some golf at the driving range. After golf, went back to FredBear's place where we had some coffee and watched the movie Ip Man. Not too bad, and it was quite a while since I watched these HK Kungfu movies. Went for hot pot dinner with his dad as well before the two of us went to play table tennis with GAHil and GAG at Kornhill. We were there for about 2 hours.

And now that the weekend is almost over I am pretty amazed that I did so much sports over the weekend. It was fun, but I sadly neglected my French. I shall try to catch up this week.

P.S. For the Year 2009, I am down 2.5 kg. That is seriously good news. And need to be improved.

Story 601

2009-02-12T00:05:00.003+08:00

I would not really have typed this but I was reading about the death of another blog and I felt really bad for neglecting my own. After all, it has been almost 4.5 years.

Somehow the week after the karaoke night passed really fast and before I knew it, I was looking at the weekend again. Somehow, got myself invited for a hotpot with MrAl, GAGo and 2 more friends who I became quite close to during the night. You see, you CAN meet new friends in a new country ! In fact, that is quite redundant cause I am pretty sure I have made QUITE a number of new friends here ! We started with the hot pot close to nine due to everyone working late, and it was a new thing for me too, since we had quite different food. For example, one thing that we ordered was chicken pieces ??? and also we had this HUGE fish head....things I would not usually order. And of course we polished off about 20 bottles of beer.

Somehow we staggered around, looking for a place to buy dice and cards and finally made it to Olympic to GAGo's house with another 20 bottles of beer. Playing poker betting on how many drinks was a KILLER game, and it was not too long before we had to stop to take some rest. MrSte fell asleep during that time and the the rest of us got into huge arguments and discussions about the economy, interest rates and currency movements. Now this felt really good as it was really manly man talk, and for a moment, it was nostalgic remembering conversations from my youth but yet I was also surprised that there we were, talking our thoughts out loud, asking for opinions and so on. It was fun in its own way. Boy, am I growing old..

Left around 4 am, and made it home for a quick shower and some shut eye as I had to wake up for my Chinese class the next morning at 8. After class on the way home, I bought quite a few buns from the bakery. Went back to sleep straight away. Woke up sometime in the evening, groggy and slowly polished off some of the buns. Watched 300 and Hairspray on HBO, and went back to sleep at 8pm. Woke up at 4 am and made up some bacon and eggs for breakfast. THIS WAS MARATHON DAY !

Well, half marathon day at least for me. I had signed up for the half marathon in Hong Kong about 3 months earlier and did not get to do much training at all. I reached the venue at TST at about 6 in the morning and walked around for an hour. My race started at 7.10. It was quite exciting and there was a lot of energy for such an early hour ! Many people were warming up and letting themselves go in the short stretch. All too soon, it was my turn to flag off, and somehow I found myself standing in the frontline of the pack. The countdown started, the gun went off, and we were running. There were thousands running around me, and it was good that I was in front, because many people stuck in the middle and at the back had no place to run. By the time everyone was running, I was alreayd at the 2 km mark and the crowd was more sparse.

I thought I was about to die when I reached 3 km. I seriously did. But the thought of giving up and stopping was hardly an option, and I laboured on till I reached the turning point at around 7 km. It was quite a blur how I managed to reach 10 km later in 49 minutes. Then it was time to run in the Western Tunnel across the Hong Kong harbour. It was quite interesting to run first on the highway then under the tunnel. It was great, as there was a strong wind, and there was a strange darkness in that tunnel, and echoed the excited shouts that many were doing. Lots of people stopped to take photos as well, as it is not every day that you can take a photo standing in the tunnel.

I walked much of the last 5 km. I could hardly move my legs and it was quite a torture. Though I did run the last few hundred metres as we were in WanChai by then, and there was quite a crowd watching. I do believe one can run more and dig into reserves more when there is a crowd watching ! It must be a natural high. A funny thought was how GREAT it would have been to perform in a concert ! With thousands in a frenzy watching you on stage !? I finally finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I grabbed a banana and ate it early. I was starving. I did not stick around long as I knew I needed some sleep.

Somehow I got lucky and got onto the right bus. I fell asleep anyway and my legs were killing me. I limped quickly back home and had a shower and slept till the afternoon. I decided to have a massage that evening as well. Then not just my legs hurt, but my whole body did too.

But it was a great experience. Now that I have done it, there is no reason for me to say that I cannot do it the next time. Life is about challenges. This was one that I conquered.

Story 600

2009-02-01T12:52:00.003+08:00

Out of nowhere, absolutely nowhere at around 10 pm, GAHil, FredBear and I went for karaoke.

There was not even any rooms available in the first place we went to, and had to go to another place for karaoke. And stayed there till 3. This is seriously uni behaviour and should probably not happen again any time soon. It is physically and mentally exhausting plus I was nursing a cold.

Gosh.

But it was fun.

Story 599

2009-01-28T21:15:00.002+08:00

Chinese New Year is done and dusted with ! It was a great stretch of long holidays and that is also very good except that it started to freeze !! I dug out my doona, and its great again !

The week before the New Year just seemed to fly by and that is always great when you have a long holiday to look forward to. All too soon it was the weekend. Had a couple of great lunches, especially a sort of reunion lunch on Friday. Also went along to the Flower Market that night and that was really interesting. Something that I had only heard of in TVB, the flower market is sort of like the Royal Melbourne Show dedicated to Chinese New Year. There are snacks for sale, a lot of CNY decorations, and of course all manner of weird things. For example, there were nutcrackers for sale, there were giant blowup dolls, cow costumes, whirligigs, and so on. And of course all manners of flowers that people would use for CNY !

Saturday was a day of more mahjong games and spent Sunday mostly at home, resting with television. Went out for lunch with RoxBear and FredBear at the quayside place, where we had some brunch and then went along to the Flower Market again. The market in the daytime was different as there were more products for sale, and also a lot of younger kids. Given that Sunday was the eve of CNY as well, there were also a whole lot more people who came along for some last minute bargains ! Went home in the evening after some dessert and lazed about. While FredBear had his reunion dinner, I had some sandwiches. Had to wait as I was going to join his family in making those first prayers of the year. It was really interesting, going to temples in the middle of the night. In fact we went to three places, and I think they prayed to gods, and then to ancestors, and also to the luck people. Then off we were in search of last minute flowers again. Went to Sheung Wan and then towards the Flower Market again. Found some near the market around 1 am. All the cold air at night got me wide awake, so stayed online for a long time. Somewhere along, I got all riled up about learning another language and signed up for a 3 month online course in French. Hopefully, it goes well.

Spent Monday afternoon, dancing to hiphop on Youtube as well as learning the Tell Me dance, as later went to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the cinema with some friends, followed by dinner at Temple Street. The movie was in my opinion, something to just watch once, and was too long, and nothing to shout about. I spent Tuesday doing all my long forgotten chores, including the cleaning, laundry, cooking, ironing and at one point it felt great to hear the pot bubbling on the stove, the washing machine rumbling, and the iron hot in my hand. Later had coffee at the Intercontinental with FredBear at TST as we were awaiting the grand fireworks to be held later that night.

We were joined by GAHil, GATra and GABish and we started making our way into the human mass gathered on the harbourside at TST. There were so many people there that it was pretty impossible to move much. We stood in the crowd for about 90 minutes before the fireworks started, and they lasted for another 25 minutes or so. So it was a VERY long stand. Have not stayed in one place to watch fireworks for a long time. Colourful, but could not really get into the mood of them, (never have) and patiently waited for it to end. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and had some heavy topics involving marriage, work and currency movement.

Today basically got woken up by a call by FredBear at noon to go out. Considering that I had a very late night the night before, was not too pleased. Dressed up in the cold, we eventually decided to have high tea buffett at the Shangri La Hotel but that would be at 3.30. We got some snacks to munch on, and then went to Pacific Place to laze around the additional hour and a half. The food was disappointing to say the least. I have been to much better meals in Malaysia for the same price and it got me thinking about Rakuzen at one point ! Stuffed, we ambled along to Toys R Us to look at Wiis, but went home empty handed. Took a two hour nap, and am still stuffed and sneezing.

Will sleep soon. Another CNY over.

Story 598

2009-01-18T15:49:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I got picked up. Haha. It is a fun story.

So after Chinese class, MsCong and I went for shopping for toys, as it is one of her hobbies. We went to this alley in WanChai and goodness, it was packed. Mostly with people shopping for the New Year as it was also filled with all kinds of CNY decorations ! I had a great time wandering around the tiny shops where you could find all sorts of old toys, such as those tin toys, and you could even buy whole sets of toys that you could only get from those Egg machines. It was very fun, and we eventually bought a set of gian pick up sticks ! Each one is about 80 cm long ! I guess we would have to play this game on the floor as there is no way that it would fit on a table ! We took the tram back to Central and had curry (her recommendation) with roti canai. I was pretty much starving, having had no dinner the night before except for a couple of waffles, and it tasted good. Slightly pricy for roti, but oh well.

Later that afternoon, I went over to GAG's apartment where we played table tennis for a while. It was then that we got picked up. Two kiddies about the age of nine came over and challenged us. We agreed, as it could be fun. I think GAG was slightly disappointed over their level but I enjoyed it very much. They were about my level, which is to say, we can hit the ball, and sometimes smash but no fancy stuff like spinning or magic shots. They were very precocious and would shout Great Shot ! everytime they got a point in self praise. And sometimes when they made a mistake they would say, GOSH, free points for you. So very fun. After about an hour, continued on to the Gym where had a great time working out (never thought I would say that) and then some time in the sauna. This got me thinking about joining a gym again, but there is no gym really near my place and boy are they pricy ! So maybe some exercise videos ? I dunno.

Story 597

2009-01-12T22:15:00.002+08:00

Lalala. I am still exhausted but perhaps because of different reasons ! SailorJow, SailorIan and GAJan came over to visit and are actually still here, well, actually in Macau at the moment but they are here for a week and are bunking in ! I have never realised that my tiny place can fit so many people ! But yes, here we are, and it is packed ! I swear, it is really hard to have so many people around one toilet ! Added to the happy party, ParkyBear also turned up for the weekend !

Over the past week, I have had hotpot, and went to The Peak, Repulse Bay, Stanley, The Press Room, Wan Chai, Sogo, Causeway Bay, Sham Tseng, Sai Kung, Central....it seems that every time a new posse comes to town, I have to retake the Grand Tour of Hong Kong. As it is, I am extremely glad to have FredBear, RoxBear and SoBear show me around Hong Kong and helping me learn what a great place it can be. This has helped greatly in showing people around !!

Tonight was another dinner with one of my brokers, and it was pretty sad cause it was a sort of farewell. We have been having a better working relationship recently, but he has been retrenched due to the Financial Crisis, and will be out of work by the end of January. A very sad story but at the same time, repeated millions of times around the world at the moment. Just hope to hold on to my job safely, and learn more ! Had a very nice dinner at an Italian place in Soho. Meal started out with yummy beef carpaccio with truffles and mushrooms, as well as a mixed salad. Then we moved onto a fantastic seafood linguine with huge prawns and oysters and mussles and cuttlefish, and then onto my favourite, cream cheese stuffed chicken breast wrapped in pancetta. Absolutely divine. Am definitely coming back for that again. Add to that again, I had a superlicious cannoli for dessert. The honeycomb bits melted into my mouth ! Yum.

Which reminds me, I have not trained for the marathon for weeks. Shits...

Story 596

2009-01-06T22:45:00.003+08:00

I am so exhausted at work. It seems like after a tremendously hard year in 2008, everyone just wants to be better in 2009, and it seems like we will all have to buck up. Learning curve still steep, and I dream about my work all the time.

Dreaming about work is pretty serious. I think I am confirmed workaholic.

Story 595

2009-01-01T21:45:00.004+08:00

Story 594

2008-12-28T01:27:00.002+08:00

Merry Christmas ! albeit a rather belated one !!

Having taken off two days off last week, it was a rather short week for work. As it is, I believed I spent the first day watching movies on HBO and pining for my office, and I actually went into office on the second day. By the time I was back into the office officially on Wednesday I felt really good. Work was kind of sparse, and it was a pretty fun and relaxed environment with most people going home by around mid afternoon. My team proposed a short trip to Macau for Christmas Eve night, and having nothing better to do at that time, I agreed. I took a cab home for my passport and off it was to Macau !

An hour's ferry ride later, we were in Macau. We first partook of quite a fancy Chinese dinner, over which I had a whole load of advice given to me regarding work. Walking through a dark tunnel with computer generated images and sounds of flowing water to reach the table was a pretty interesting affair, and much more so the food. Tiny pieces of suckling pig, followed by equally minute portions of jellyfish on seaweed, wine marinated chicken pieces, snow asparagus, followed by a soup. Yummy, but not really satisfying. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed satisfied and it was time to hit the tables.

I spent most of the night (from nine to about three) walking around tables, laying down some money in the name of saving Macau's economy from time to time, and mostly watched humans at play. Human nature is fascinating. Probably half the people were local, and it was slightly disconcerting to see thousands thrown over the table when the economy is not doing so good *( I knew someone who could have used that money - me !) hehe.

Around three am, I was hunted out by MrAx to go for some mid morning porridge. I was introduced to this fantastic fishy porridge, no bones, and over which I was treated to more work advice. Somehow I seem to get a lot of advice about work. I wonder why ? Is it because everyone thinks I suck, or is it the fact that I am at least 10 years younger, or is it because I actually AM bad at my work ? I appreciate it anyway. I get a lot of information this way, from different sources.

By the time I arrived home from Macau, it was about six in the morning on Christmas day, and I had a nice chat with the taxi driver on the way home. Slept most of Christmas day, until I met up with FredBear for dinner (!!!! yea slept till dinner). Had Chicken Noodles at some dingy coffeehouse place (WORST CHRISTMAS DINNER EVER !) but I was starving due to not having eaten anything, so it tasted pretty good. Oh, except a whole tiramisu cake that I scoffed just before I left the apartment that FredBear bought the day before. The WHOLE thing. Sigh. 2 million calories.

26th was spent accompanying some extended family members at Mongkok before rushing back home for the party. Decorations were up a few weeks earlier, thank goodness, and just had to wait for people to arrive. They started to arrive and by eight both my tables were brimming with food including a giant turkey, ham, sausages, LOADS of salad, giant buns, pasta, mince pies, pizza, juices, cordials, soft drinks, ice cream, cake, chicken wings.............the eating went on and on until a mahjong game got started and the rest went in for poker on my living room floor. By midnight, most were gone, part of the Hong Kong Transportation Disadvantage where one has to leave a party near midnight so as to catch the last train home, something which is never a problem at home. So it went that a Mahjong game went on till about three am. Which I became the big winner. Woohoo.

That equals a Merry Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!

Story 593

2008-12-20T16:30:00.002+08:00

Ah, life.

Is it not terrible that people can be in love with several other people at the same time ? Or perhaps that is not love.

Work was tremendously busy this week, and I am really glad I made it through the week. Christmas week is next week and I am looking forward to it, even though I will not be home for Christmas. This will my second Christmas away from home in 3 years, and again, it will be a cold, though not white Christmas. Lovely.

My cheque for USD 450 arrived today, and it was wonderful to receive it. It is from Citibank though, so I better cash it in soon. What should I get myself ? Being such a piece of luck, I am going to spend it on something really evil. A new suit perhaps ? Or a flight ticket ? So much choices, what do I do ?

Ah.

Story 592

2008-12-14T22:53:00.002+08:00

I really do not intent to let this be a weekly event, so I do need to find time to post here more often. With most other pages left along, they seem extremely desolate, and I would be hanged if I do abandon this place, as I really love it here. I have taken to reading some of my older entries, and nostalgia abounds. I think everyone who enjoys delving back into the past needs one form or another of reminders from the past, and blogging is a fantastic way, very much like writing a diary.

Even if my weeks now are filled with work, and I just get the weekends to myself, I still have loads to say to myself in the future. I just want to tell myself (the one in the future) that I am extremely glad to have a job that I love, and one that I love to go to every day, even though it means 12 hour days. In recent days, I have taken over the local currency book and also am in charge of setting rates for the entire bank. Whether someone is quietly supervising me or not, I still feel that with great power comes great responsibility. And taking on more responsibility will lead to one getting or feeling older. No longer can one be as reckless or lackadaisical as before. It really is time to grow up.

With all this new responsibility, it comes at a cost. The cost of time for myself, family, friends, social life, or learning. I do not really have as much time for myself. I used to read a lot more and plan and dream and have more thoughts. I realised that today, as I spent a couple of hours finishing "The Other Boleyn Girl". A great book. Got me going back into old English history which still fascinates me. But the best part, was just sitting down and reading a book. Comfortably. I promise to spend more time like this. Family and friends. Obviously work has taken me far away from both family and friends, which is unfortunate. Nevertheless, life is a journey and while there are a million memories which we carry with us, there are billions more to be made. I both envy and pity those who stay in one place, comfortable, with day to day life as they are used to, but unable to appreciate the width and breadth and depth of the world. Sacrifice is a word tossed around usually, but to me, it is a matter of understanding what you need and want in your lifetime. I am still finding that out for myself. Social life. Went to a club on Friday night and partied till past 3 am. Walking home in the cool weather with lingering cigarette and alcohol smells on my jacket made me reminisce about winter nights spent in Chapel Street clubs and the fun times that ended earlier and earlier as I got older. Late nights spent bobbing around to loud music with the sole aim of getting pissed is no longer and probably never was interesting to me now. I so much more appreciate the gathering of friends, sometimes just to be.

Ah life.

With GAIst and GANay visiting this weekend, it made me slighly wishing for the good old times of 2006. Where fresh faced into the workplace, everything was an adventure, and it was easy to give 200% at your job everyday. For a moment, watching the lights show at the harbour, eating goose at Sham Tseng, travelling to the Peak, there were times where I wished that we could turn back time. Until I realised that in 2006, I was wishing for the good old times of 2003, my first year at university. And it just goes on. Until we can fully appreciate the here and now, we will never be truly happy. I am learning. Learning to let go of the past, and understand that it has passed, and that is why it is called the past. Learning that I am extremely fortunate to still remember why I want to turn back time, and that I would have wanted to relive the life that I had because then it would mean that I had a good time. Learning that perhaps I should spend more effort making the present a great time to be in, as I would need to look back upon this time in the future and wish that I could turn back time to Christmas 2008.

But I am fortunate. Ah, even as I jot my thoughts down here, I think, perhaps this is all just a dream and I might wake up one day. But while I am still living the dream, happiness, is something that I can make, and control. And I will be happy.

Time to grow up.

Story 591

2008-12-07T20:32:00.002+08:00

Went on a dolphin watch today, meaning about 50 people, mostly staff and family went on a pleasure boat. We travelled almost two hours before we reached a Marine Park, sort of a protected area for marine animals. It brought back memories of the Houseboat though of course a lot more bumpy ! The sea could be considered calm, though being a small boat, we still bounced quite a lot. Since I knew noone on the boat other than GAHil and of couse GARic, it was not very eventful. However, I spent most of the trip listening to the WWF people introduce the Chinese White Dolphin. Must be a pretty good job doing what you are interested in, thought I must say, I could not imagine spouting the same speech over and over again.

We stopped at the Marine Park and 50 pairs of eyes went roving about in search of the dolphins, white in colour. Not too long, the boat captain spotted three about 30 metres away. It is not like how you imagine them to be, jumping over waves and making squeaky noises. In fact, all you see is more like a flash of white bodies. After a collective of oohs and aahs, it was all over. And people starting lining up for food. Gosh. How I hate cramming for food. Remind me not to do this again. Having a buffet line with kiasu people in a small boat is not that fun. Argh. The rocking of the boat killed my appetite anyway. I almost fell asleep in the wind, and in fact that was what I did in the end. I spent most of the trip home asleep, as did most people. Except for those bratty kids !!

By that time, I was feeling pretty seasick and ridiculously tired. So I just taxied home. But I did not dare to sleep as I was afraid it would spoil my sleep later. So I am just spending some time, cleaning the house, getting some food in, ironing...television. I am feeling sleepy...............................

Story 590

2008-11-30T01:23:00.002+08:00

Phew it feels like the week just flew by in a heartbeat sometimes.

On Monday, I got a call booking my time for some mahjong on Friday and the next thing I knew, the days I flew by and I was having dinner with some of the GAs and FredBear at this Beijing Dumpling shop. I personally will never ever go back to that shop again. I thought the food was really lousy ! Was introduced to GaVin's girlfriend MsJoa and friend MrJoe. We had quite a good time and spent time at the mahjong table until about half past two.

By this time I was really sleepy, having been up for the last 20 hours ! Took a quick shower and fell into bed only to awakened by the alarm clock reminding me of my Chinese class. Fortunately, today was German Bridge day with Teacher MsCar and another teached MsCin. The plan was to make me talk more in Chinese so that it will improve, so no really formal stuff, but more like informal speaking to get me to get more used to speaking in Chinese. It was a really fun game and we even managed to squeeze in a game of BigTwo and 2 rounds of Bluff.

Went home for quick change and had lunch with FredBear at the Fenwick pier cafe. It was a place where we had to show our ID and go through a metal detector to get to. I soon realised that this was because it was a hotspot for naval officers from the US. We saw a lot of servicemen around as well. We had our food, a Caesar Salad and some Scrambled Eggs in double quick time as we were almost late for our weekly tennis appointment ! As it is, we rushed and huffed and puffed and managed to make it for tennis after all. Exercise is always good and today was really really bright and sunny. Strange for a Winter Day.

We then bought some food at Macca's and headed back to the apartment for more mahjong ! Being too lazy to cook, we ordered Pizza Hut delivery and FredBear also made some Coke chicken wings, which funnily enough to me, tasted just like plain old soy sauce wings. Not impressed ! But it was another fun time, especially at the mahjong table, with another group of friends.

Now it is actually already Sunday morning and I am almost ready to turn in as soon as I hang out my laundry. I plan to have a good long sleep, scrounge up some food, and then will be off to RoxBear's church as she will be getting baptised !! Good for her, and will be nice after all the trouble that she has been having lately. Later I should go for my half marathon training, and hopefully will be able to finish my 5 km in less than an hour. I have made a pact with GACle to do some runs together soon.

Yawn.

Yawn. Beddy time.

Story 589

2008-11-23T16:59:00.002+08:00

Sorry !!

Haha, my mom came over for the second week of my holidays, and basically it was more or less a summary of my last three months ! We did almost everything that I have done on the weekends, including the shopping, the places, the monuments, houses, attractions, food......and even managed to do a bit more than I previously did. During the second week of her stay here, while I was at work, it was good to come home to food, without cooking, and of course, no need to do laundry for a week !

But all too soon, 2 weeks flew by and it was back to work +life again. And this past week has been really hectic. And will stay so for the next three weeks. Someone or the other from the team will be on leave, so the rest of us have got to pick up the slack. Add to that the many volatile happenings in the world market today, and have we got a whole lot to do. I am also learning a lot and taking up new responsibilities so you can imagine all the extra work !

That being said, the weekly tennis games are proving to be some healthy outdoor activity, and since I signed up for the half marathon, I suppose the time has come to start training for it. 21 km ! I must have been crazy when I did. But then again, it is a good self challenge right ? Take it as an early 2009 resolution !! (speaking of which, am not looking forward to the annual resolution post and analysis).

So far today, I managed 4.5 km in 35 minutes. Not exactly fantastic, but it was a start to get my butt off the chair at least. Hope to bring this down to 30 minutes at least, and also to start increasing the distances. So far, this 4.5 km is along my street and up the hill to another street, pretty steep in some places. I got FredBear to drive along yesterday to mark the distances, so I am quite sure that the route is 4.5 km. The target is to do two of this route by end of December, which makes it around 9 km. Then by January, will be around twice of that, just in time for my half marathon on February 8. The bad thing is that it is pretty near the Chinese New Year, which may be a time for over eating and lethargy. However, I plan to overcome that this year !!

Hopefully, on weekdays, I can finish a little earlier, and get home by nine so that I can do some weekday runs as well. It was not as tiring as I thought it would be once I finished, but you can be sure that I walked plenty of times. Which was kinda disappointing since the last time I ran 10km, I did not stop for 4 km. So one target would be to complete this route without stopping. I am confident that this would cut the time from 35 minutes to at least 25 minutes. My boss is running the half as well, and he completed it last year in One Hour and 50 minutes. The man is crazy. I guess my target (at the moment anyway) is to finish within 3 hours. I think that is pretty fair, as that means around 7 km an hour. While I guess I can finishe the first 7 km in an hour, I am not as sure about the consequent ones.

Just got to work on it.

So it has been a pretty healthy weekend so far. Yesterday, I skipped Chinese since I had a very long week at work, and did not do my homework. Slept till about 9 and started cleaning up house, which had taken on a very messy look. Watched the movie The Out of Towners on HBO, which was a movie that I had wanted to watch since primary school but did not get to until now, and then went for brunch at The Press Club with FredBear. It is a great place and remind me to take you guys there if you are in Hong Kong. I had to resist all the oysters and lobster omelettes, and crab cakes and ended up with a brunch of grilled chicken with salad. (Someone had the FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST !) Though I traded some leaves and a piece of chicken for a poached egg.

After brunch, we walked around MidLevels West while listening to some historical facts of the area from my friendly tour guide. Incidentally, we also went into a temple so that he could touch the 'brush' at the altar, for good luck for his upcoming exam. We walked uphill, and old staircases and it was a pretty good walk, since it is such good cool weather now, so it was good exercise as well. Then we walked to his under renovation house for a look and then took the car for a drive. This was when I measured my training route.

Back at the apartment, I did some internet, chatted to NiqBear and SherBear and watched Superbad. Had a sandwich with eggs and sausages for dinner, just two pieces of bread...no butter...and also danced around to ABBA songs for a while before taking a shower. (I was alone, since FredBear had dinner with his family.) I like dancing and/or having a private concerts while along at home. I had to cut short this concert, and rushed over to Victoria Garden for the weekly tennis meetup, and even had some fun looking at the racing cycles happening !

Heroically resisted more 'fried ghost' for supper and instead of getting my iced coffee/milk tea, I had a hot honey with tangerines. I need to get some honey to make some drinks at home instead of relying on sweetened juices and zero sodas. Note to self.

Ah.

Work tomorrow. Who can tell me what will tomorrow bring ?

Story 588

2008-10-31T14:24:00.002+08:00

Holiday !!

Truth be told, the holiday has been really rather relaxing, but there is some part of me that has itched to get back to work.

Monday, was probably the most tiring day, as first I visited SoBear at CityUniversity and then had lunch at Festival Walk shopping mall. After that I somehow took it upon myself to walk around Mongkok area to familiarise myself with that area. Not satisfied, I walked onwards to YauMaTei, Jordan and finally arrived at TST. By this time, my feet was killing me and I went for a two hour massage. As it was just about evening, met up with FredBear and had dinner at his place.

Day Two started off with breakfast at McDonalds and then Chinese class. After class walked around 360 degrees (supermarket at Landmark) and then went to the wet market. Bought herbs, vegetables, meat, tofu, and felt like Jamie Oliver. Haha. got back around 2 and had a nap till 4 before starting to prepare dinner for FredBear and GAHil who was gonna visit for dinner. Had the television on, and after three hours, had 2 dishes and a soup. Dish one was Turkey bacon wrapped winter asparagus on tofu-egg bed. Dish two was Tiger prawn steamed eggs with minced pork. The soup was herbal pork soup. Yum. Had fun cooking, but it was rather tiring. You can tell that it is not a job that I want for life !

Day 3 was spent lazing at home. Did not step out of the apartment at all, not even to throw away trash. By this time I had looked through how to play Taiwanese mahjong but had noone to play with. Then with the insistence of SharBear, picked up GoStop, this Korean card game and got absolutely hooked. Spent most of the day juggling between SATC, GoStop and online Mahjong. Was probably also on facebook a fair bit and also MSNed with Jeanbear too. Fried rice for dinner.
Then more of the same at night.

Day 4, started pretty much how Day 3 ended. GoStop, SATC and food. By this time I had almost cleaned out the whole fridge, and finished the loaf of bread and the bacon and eggs and sausages, well most of the food. Did more laundry, cleaned up again, and did some Chinese homework. GoStop. Ahahaha. Watched Ghost Rider, and some Halloween movie and also America's Sweethearts on HBO. By evening, I changed and went down to the Jockey Club to pick up some Mark6 lottery tickets. First prize was 48 million dollars !!! Too bad did not win though. I spent some hours planning what to do with my winnings. Met up with FredBear and SoBear at the Outback at CWB for dinner where we just hung out and talked.

Today is Day 5, and so far, I have watched Grease 2, played GoStop and watched more SATC. Hahaha. I have chinese class later though. Ah holiday. I like that there does not need to be too much plans. Very relaxed. And also because there are so few people around here, and most of them are working, I do not even need to think and choose who to call, cause they are not free.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. In fact, next week will be a busy week. Still on holidays !!

Story 587

2008-10-27T00:42:00.002+08:00

Another story another week.

This week passed by relatively uneventfully, partly due to benign market conditions, and the face that I was willing each day to pass by faster so that I could start my holidays ! Lo and behold Friday arrived, and I stepped off from my desk at 8 pm. Woohoo !! Another work week completed, and only about a fifty years to go.

This is starting to resemble a weekend activites only blog, and I guess it will have to continue for another week.

This weekend was REALLY busy and tiring. Friday night work ended with an hour's walk around Soho area for self amusement, and ended up buying some paratha and briyani rice with aloo gobi back for dinner. Rather uneventful, and fell asleep after several episodes of SATC. My Fridays are pretty much spent thus. So far.

Saturday began with Chinese class. Urgh. Having slept at around 4 am, I was bleary eyed and MsCarmen (teacher - one year younger than myself) could see it clearly. That was probably why we ended up conversing over animal chess, five in a row, and reversi. Haha ! THAT is what I call a fun and engagin alternative learning method !!!! We had a lot of fun though, and we did improve on conversing and also did some canto conversation too !! I got homework though - ugh.

Then walked around Sheung Wan while waiting for FredBear to introduce this supposedly fantastic claypot rice shop. It was ok. Not fantastic. Haha. Hung around the area, walked into Wing On Department Store where I bought something I had my eye on for a long time - digital weighing scales. It is white !! And 30% off !! And requires 4 AA batteries !! It was a presale. I love presales. You feel like you are VVVVVIP for going into the sales first. Wahaha. Visited Starbucks where I sipped my Macchiato waiting for GABis + MrTo to arrive. They arrived with a cake in tow for FredBear's birthday. We shared a cab back to the apartment for MJ !!! and cake. We sang. And had one candle on the cake. Hahahaha. FredBear's birthday wish ? To win the Mark6 Lottery. WAHAHA.

We split up for dinner then, as I accompanied FredBear's birthday dinner with the family. The dinner was REALLY interesting, and it seems that the family has enough drama for several generations and more. The material that we gathered was enough for a few years' worth of TVB !! At around 10 pm, we arrived at Victoria Gardens for tennis. Joined by some of the other IGs, it was pretty fun to be playing some sport for a while. I think we all got pretty excited and hyped up by the adrenaline, because we have all started to look forward to next weekend and even talked about making sports our weekly group event !

Sunday became a sleepy day, and GACle came to visit. Ended up teaching him some tricks about Mahjong that I use, and then we left the apartment at about 4ish to trawl Soho and Sheung Wan for some food. Ended up at this place for brisket and wonton noodles. Yum. I have fallen in love with brisket. Walked towards Admiralty and finally MTRed to Taikoo where he stayed as I wanted to check out KornHill. The place was very much like a hotel room, with an added cooking area, the size of mine. So it is sort of like a studio, but smaller. A small studio. I love that there is carpeting, central air conditioning, many tv channels, and free internet though. But the best part is the clubhouse !!

First we played some squash, about 7 games - non stop !! After the previous day's tennis, I started to feel really sore, but was also very satisfied with the exercise and sweat. Gymmed for about half an hour, where I was delighted to find my favourite machine - the baby birther (my nickname for it). Did that, and also tried the latest air walked-climber. A quick shower and then into the sauna we went. Oh, that was good ! Went several rounds, and had plenty of water sweated out of me ! I love it. The only thing missing was a deep tissue massage after !

With so many facilities available, I look forward to coming back for more sports. Perhaps I should bring my sports equipment over ! Lingered a while as the tv was showing The Mummy Returns and Bridget Jones 2. Oh, my favourite sequels. But had to get my ass moving as it was getting really near midnight. And so now I am back at home, typing this before beddy time, and will promise myself to enjoy the next two weeks off from work.

I need it.

Story 586

2008-10-19T10:35:00.005+08:00

The day started out well. I had a Thirteen unique wonders win. Wahahaha. As can be seen above. My tiles are those at the bottom.

Made myself a bacon sandwich before going for my Chinese class at 11. By the time it was over, I met up with FredBear and we walked around Sheung Wan for a while. This was quite an interesting place and you could all kinds of shops and was a really busy and older part of the city. Then we met up with GAHil for some dim sum. Before that we also managed to visit FredBear's family business. Interesting stuff. We walked around after lunch, and got egg tarts at Soho as well, right out of the oven. Very good, and it was very smooth too. Then we looked for this coffee shop, which was tucked away, where some coffee beans were transacted. Very sweet and relaxing little place, and is really a gem !

By the time we got home, there was just enough time for us to shower and change as we were going to join GABish and some other friends to go to Ocean Park for the Halloween themed celebrations ! We met at the station, and took a bus there. There were so many schoolkids and unikids, that one could get sort of stressed with all the youthfullness around. I have NEVER ever seen so many kids in one place before ! FredBear said he got really stressed. Haha.

We reached Ocean Park at about six and the sun was just beginning to set, making it a really good atmosphere for a Halloween party. The lines were crazy, and luckily we had free VIP tickets to go in. Still, the line was long. You could see some people who had dressed up and of course the theme park itself was selling all sorts of costumes and crazy hats and shiny accessories that you find at theme parks. There was even a whole bunch of friends who wore blood spattered school uniforms. Fun.

Once we got in, we had to push our way past a whole crowd of people and also walked past a pool of flamingoes. It was kinda creepy still, seeing them hardly moving and pink against the dark water. But when we reached the Big Square, it was really happening. There was some kind of Halloween concert with dancers happening at the far end, and sandwiched by two Ghost Houses, there was a huge crowd. With music blaring loudly and the youthful crowd, you could almost believe that you were in a rave party !

We lined up for about 20 minutes in the Fast Lane (due to VIP passes) before we could get into the first Ghost House. The fun part was that people in the line could see into the houses through some video cameras and we could even press the button which made a skeleton pop up and scare the people INSIDE the house. Haha. However it was not so funny when we went in. There were mechanical ghosts as well as real life costumed people. The set was made very well, and it was all dark and eerie, with scary sounds everywhere. Occasionally, the 'human' ghosts would wait in corners and dark areas and scare you. Sometimes I felt that the screams of the frightened people was more scary than the ghosts! Personally I did not feel too scared, it was more like shocked by the sudden appearances than scared.

Either way, we made it through the first Ghost House which was called "Ghastly Entertainment City" and had scary video games with heads popping up from Pacman and bodies everywhere. The second one that we went into was a "Ghostly Estate of Horror". This was more scary, as it was a maze and they would separate people going in sometimes, so you would sometimes be first, or last, or separated from your friends. We also went into the "Grusesome Greenhouse", which had deadly plants, and a Sci-Fi themed "4th Dimension" with mirrors and lasers and generally made you all dizzy. Then there was the "Deadly Doll Factory" which had dolls everywhere and more body parts and big eyed dolls and Chucky lookalikes. Then there was the "Nightmares of Bamboo Theatre" which was Chinese opera themed. So we went through some scary dressing rooms with Chinese ghosts. Lastly we went to the "Tomb of Doom" which had scary Chinese soldiers and terracotta warriors, sandy floors and weird statues.

Along the way I also took a ride on the roller coaster which took about 1% of the time that it took to queue up. Did not love the ride but it was good to go on a roller coaster after a long time of abstinence. I remembered why I did not really like it, and I guess this would be the last for a long time as well. All around the grounds there were masker killers, ninjas, werewolves, witches, butchers, dolls, and any amount of scary personnel that you could take pictures with. In addition to piped in screams and eerie children's laughter, you would hear real human screams all the time from the scared patrons.

The funny part was sometimes the boys in the groups would scare the girls from behind, causing even more screams and laughters, whether in the Ghost Houses or outside. People would also pretend to see nobody on the road ahead, or that there were ghosts on the road ahead. Random screams also drew more screams ! Another funny part was when we were on the cable car crossing the two mountains, we heard another cable car from the opposite line singing the song asking the girls in the opposite car to look over ! Very funny.

By the time we finished it was almost eleven and we had been there for about 5 to 6 hours, mostly standing up ! Dead tired, we took a bus back to Admiralty and then a MTR to Causeway Bay for dinner, as we had not eaten yet. The taxi home was almost a relief and you can be sure that I was very relieved when I finally laid my tired self onto the bed.

But it was a fun day.

Story 585

2008-10-15T20:48:00.003+08:00

OK this should really have been written about earlier !!!

A much awaited trip to Cheung Chau happened on the weekend and it was really really fun. I had to cancel my Chinese class to go but I felt it was really worth it. FredBear, JanBear, GAHil, GABish and MrTW came along as well. We met up at pier 5 and after a little discussion, went on the luxury class level of the ferry. Basically it had air conditioning, compared to the open air decks below. Haha. We even had luxury toilets and an outdoor deck which was barred to prevent other people from coming to it. When I say luxury though, it was more like just clean. Played some cards, made some plans of what to do in Cheung Chau and it seems like the journey just whizzed by. In reality it was probably around an hour.

It was a totally different world when we stepped off the ferry. It looks like a little fishing village with a lot of tourists ! We looked at some shops selling local produce and also at some bicycle shops. Had a seafood lunch, before starting off. We rented bicycles for HKD30 each and rode Southwards. It felt really good to be wheeling along, free, with the wind in our faces. The best part was that we were far far away from tall buildings and work, and busy people. It was very relaxing. When we reached the tip of the South we went back to the pier before moving North. This time, I tried the 3 wheel cycle, which pulled a long a covered seat for a passenger to sit behind. Quite fun. We went all the way South this time and took pictures at a beach.

Then it was back towards the Pier before heading East this time for dessert. We ended up at a place for watersports. It was a very nice beachy cafe and we stopped to rest and had cool drinks. We also watched some people sail. fly kites and just hung around the beach until it was time to go home. It was quite sad to return the bicycles and get on the ferry home, but I guess every holiday had to have an ending. At night, we started to ache from all the cycling and I decided that I would just stay at home on Sunday to rest.

Until someone asked me to go karaoke.

Story 584

2008-10-05T21:16:00.002+08:00

What a weekend.

Friday was like any other, work till about 8 pm. Uneventful night, leading to a relatively early bedtime. Which was just as well, because it turns out that Saturday would be a very tiring day. I cancelled my Chinese class because I had a wedding to attend which was scheduled to start at 12. I left the house at about 10 as I needed to get the cash coupon for the wedding from the bank. Did you know that instead of real money in the red packet at weddings, here they buy cash coupons from the banks ? It was something new to me. I immediately felt poorer, as the going rate here is about 4 times as high as back home for a wedding red packet !! In fact, it was about 20% of what I would usually spend in a month ! Having planned my route with the help of Centamap, I then took a slow walk to the church. It was still early, as it was easier and nearer than expected (note that maps in Hong Kong are pretty deceiving as the distances are actually much nearer compared to maps in other countries -things that look far away, are actually near and very walkable).

I reached the church at about a quarter past 11 and walked into the midst of a wedding. All too soon I realised that this was not the wedding of my colleague but I stayed to watch anyway. It was over by 12, and my other colleagues starting flowing in. Then I learnt that, most weddings are run with a strict schedule and usually only take an hour to start and end. This is because there are many other people waiting for their turn to use the church as well ! A bit sad really, since this once in a lifetime experience is so rushed !

It was pretty nice though, and we travelled to the Aberdeen Marina Club later for the wedding reception. It was a poolside lunch buffet, and was very yummy. The place was all silver and white, and it was fun. I think it is very true what was said in the movie 27 Dresses, that one of the best things to watch at the movie is the groom's face. It reveals a lot about his feelings about the whole thing. It was great to see him so happy.

Got home at around 5 and changed. I had a few friends coming over for mahjong. Played a bit and ordered in pizzas as we were all reluctant to go down to eat. While we played we watched Kung Fu, and then Finding Nemo, and then Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. And somehow, we ended our game at 5 am ! By the time I showered, it was pretty exhausting and I woke up finally only when my phone rang.

Had a late lunch of some curry noodles at about 3, and then I did my laundry (ugh) and then watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Took an afternoon nap, only to wake up when the sun had started setting. We went down to the Macau ferry pier, to pick up FredBear's crystal coffee cups from a friend, and had dinner at a Macanese food restaurant. We had some pork chop buns and roasted pigeon. It was raining quite heavily though, and now that I am back I am drowsy all over again even though I had coffee to drink.

It is a pretty good thing though that Tuesday is a public holiday again, because it means that I get some additional rest. The flip side is that this means that I will probably end up at work on Monday for quite a long time. I predict a 9 pm finish.

Story 583

2008-10-01T11:52:00.002+08:00

You see, it is not just once a week ! I can do more than a post a week !!

Anyway.

Sunday was one of those really tiring relaxing days. What was meant to be a quiet day at home, with ironing and washing turned out really different. Waking up around 9 meant it was too late to go to morning church so I settled for going at 11.30. Took my time getting ready, watching some SATC, and finally went in and sat down. Good thing I was early, because by the time it started for real, it was really full ! Perhaps it will be less crowded at the earlier sessions. Got out at about 1 to go for lunch with FredBear and RoxBear all the way at Repulse Bay, SouthSide of HK island. We went back to the St Kilda-esque place called The Repulse Bay, where we ate at Spices. It has received lots of good reviews and we were pleased with the food we ordered there too. Cold fruit drinks, fried rice, butter chicken curry, aloo gobi...yum.......

Then we took our time walking around the seaside, not actually on the beach, but on the road next to the beach, and dreamt about buying houses around the area, and just talking rubbish. It was quite amazing to see the number of people on the beach, but I guess it is still technically the end of summer, so still a lot more sun to go around. It seems that, tanning is back in fashion too, as you can see many going around with really dark tans. Drove around the area for a while, before dropping RoxBear off at Pacific Place. This was also near where GAHil lived, so we dropped by her place for a while.

Fielded around lots of ideas for plans for the evening, and finally decided to first pick up GATra and MrWai, which was an adventure, since FredBear rarely drives to Kowloon. Armed with an iPhone GPS and a trusty navigator (me) we, started out for Sam Sui Po. We got there in the end, about half an hour later. Then we decided to head off for Gold Coast, for dinner. Halfway there though, we got sidetracked by thoughts of roast goose at Sham Tseng. So off we went there for for the famous roast goose. Being so far away, it was kind of surprising and also an eye opening experience to see parts of Hong Kong that you will rarely see without travelling in a car. Very interesting indeed. Food was fantastic and we also looked at some great views along the road. Apartments with these views are very expensive but it seems to be really worth it. Not only do you see the famous Tsing Ma Bridge, longest suspension bridge for traffic and rail in the world, you also get great scenes of the sea, HK Island and views of the bay.

By the time we got back home, we were really exhausted and faced with going to work the next day was really depressing. Luckily, Wednesday is National Day for China and is a holiday.

Now that it is noon, and it is halfway through the holiday, let me do a little recap. Worked from 7 to 9.30 yesterday and was lucky that did not promise to go to Ocean Park with many of the rest of the bank staff (they booked the whole place for a Halloween bash). Got home late, hungry and tired, but ended up with dinner of Pringles, Ritz and Vitamilk. Got up at about 8 in the morning, after about 6 hours of sleep (it is really automatic now for me), and then cleaned house. First it was wiping all the countertops (really dusty arghh killing me) then the floor. Then did 2 weeks of backdated ironing. Blah.

Now just thinking of the rest of the day. Hopefully a quiet day.

Story 582

2008-09-27T12:41:00.003+08:00

Seem to be making a lot of mistakes at work lately, perhaps I should be getting more sleep to be more alert at work. Thank goodness so far have been getting help from different people. Sigh. Work.

Sigh. Housework.

And I SWEAR I shall not let this become a once a week thing. I do want to write more, and I always have so much that I planned to write, but by the time I have time to sit down and write, either it is all gone, or I have lost the mood to write about it.

Swamped at work.

Arghhhhh, in fact was working on a mega excel sheet. Urgh. But am stuck. Need to get out and think about how to do it.

Well it seems as good time as any to look in my fridge and see what I have got in there.

2 lemons. (to make cocktails, if I ever need to do so)
1 orange. (2 weeks old)
2 plums. (used to be 3 until 2 minutes ago)
1 packet of dark chocolate low fat milk with 200% more energy. (my current addiction)
Half a tub of olive butter. (2 months into the eating)
Half a dozen beef ribs. (frozen)
Half a dozen chicken thighs. (frozen)
2 packets of ready made dumplings. (frozen)
A bunch of strange vegetables. (no idea where they came from)
1 tomato. (leftover)
3 eggs. (gone by Monday)
120 ml of Green Tea. (too lazy to finish it off)
1 can of 7up. (evil)
2 cans of Tsingtao beer. (waste of space)
Quarter a stick of cheese. (hard as a rock)
1 onion. (ewww)
1 tub of Dreyer's ice cream. (I did not buy that)
Quarter a loaf of bread. (frozen)
2 rolls of egg tofu. (ready to be cooked with some minced pork)
1 packet of minced pork. (as above)
1 packet of pork chops. (YUM !)

I think that is about it. Really strange no ?

Oh, just went to check and found the additional.

XO Sauce.
Satay Sauce.
Mayonnaise.
Minced Garlic.
Heavy Cream.
1 can of Hershey's chocolate syrup.
1 bottle of sesame oil cured beancurd with chilli.
1 packet of cola candies.

LOL. WEIRD

Story 581

2008-09-20T22:47:00.002+08:00

I had a tissue paper disaster in my washing machine today. Had to look on the internet to see how to solve it. Quite interesting, though, the little things that you take for granted. Also, it seems as if the floor can never be clean for more than an hour after you clean it ! There is always a hair somewhere, or some lint, or something somewhere that makes you so angry ! Or makes me angry at least.

Then there is the rubbish bin which seems to fill up so amazingly quickly and needs to be emptied. There are those crumbs on the floor and those watermarks on the toilet tiles. There is dust from the blankets and rain marks on the windows. You can really feel the need for a maid ! OR you can do them yourself.

But when you are working 60 hours weeks, and get home tired and late and hungry, there is hardly any wish to do it.

Blah. Housework.

Story 580

2008-09-15T21:15:00.002+08:00

What a wonderful holiday weekend...

Hehe, woke up really late on Saturday, only to go off with FredBear to buy some coffee at NorthPoint. We also picked up RoxBear to have some porridge with some kinda yau char kway. The porridge was quite good (we were starving, it was 2 pm) but the kway was a bit weird tasting. Picking up coffee beans in a little old building was kinda an experience, it was just a tiny office packed with paraphernalia and beans !! Freaky. But eye opening. Went to Taikoo and just randomly shopped around, went around in a bookstore and even managed to get my hands on a Godiva Dark Chocolate Decadence. Haha. First introduced to me last December in Singapore, it still tastes good, though I must say, the magic has worn off a little. Dinner was a buffet at Grand Hyatt with FredBear's family. Quite a place. Lobster, liver pate, mango salad, wagyu steaks, duck confit, and salmon rielle (I think). Yummy. Maybe a return there, in cooler months. Feeling really stuffed, we went for a massage later that night nearby.

Another really late start to the day on Sunday happened as expected, but it was fun, and cooked a breakfast of poached eggs, bacon, toast, and sausages with cherry tomatoes. Yummy. More lying about, with internet and television for myself, and CFA for FredBear....before we went out for a walk .. phew, fresh air ! I worked on rejuvenating my HSX portfolio and dinner was baby beef ribs with noodles. Quite yummy if I may say so. And a plan for a quiet evening did not happen as GABish and boyfriend came up to wait for some others to got for a drink at LKF. What happened instead was that the four of us got so engrossed into our mahjong game, that we decided to fly airplane and skip the drinks part. Besides it was really hot, and I think none of us wanted to brave the crowds. We ended up MJing until 6 am.

A short nap later, met SoBear for lunch at this Italian place in Soho. Had a grilled fish, SoBear had a angel-hair pasta, while FredBear had duck breast. Later, we lounged around at this other place, which had a cheese room attached, for some beer and small talk. Quite fun and relaxing. The area was pretty cool for the brunch scene too. Definitely a place to go too. Let me know if anyone is interested, I am personally quite interested to return there to discover more culinary secrets !

The rest of the day, just napped, watched tv, internet .. the usual. Read up a on a load of financial news - big things are happening, which is just as well, since work starts tomorrow (oh no..). At least now there are only 4 days left to the weekend.

Story 579

2008-09-13T02:16:00.002+08:00

Worked 14 hours today and ended up at a dinner appointment 2 hours late.

But I guess the great part of it all was that, it was an enjoyable time at work even though it was crisis time, and the whole team worked wonderfully well together and provided great support. At that time, it felt great to be part of the team. That has gotta be good news.

And then later at mahjong, self picked a 13 Unique Wonders Hand, after watching 2 people almost get it. Wahaha. Happy.

Am ridiculously tired nowadays, and actually accidentally fell asleep at 9 pm yesterday night. Slept till 4 am before I realised. I guess I should really try to move my sleeping time back to latest 11 pm.

Now it is about half past 2 am, Saturday morning, and though my eyes are really tired, I am just trying to stay awake for a while more. After all, this is long weekend !! Monday is a holiday for MidAutumn and is my first non work weekday !! What a relief. After having to forgo two whole almost public holidays for everyone else due to typhoon...........

Finally time to relax...

Story 578

2008-09-07T16:36:00.002+08:00

Now that my internet is finally connected, I believe that I will update here more often. Thanks to pccw, I am back online. However, this past month without internet has also taught me a lot of things, such as how I can really stay offline without dying...and how much time I actually waste on the internet, as I had a lot of free time when I was not online. I had time to read and clean and wash and cook; so I guess from now on, I should try to aim for some moderation between internet and real life.

Cooking has been an experience, as I do not eat at home everyday and am also unlikely to visit the supermarket every day. Planning has to be careful, and it helps to know what you are likely to cook before buying anything else you might end up with things in the fridge for a long time. Ironing and laundry is happening, and is easier than I thought. Partly because since I am at work most of the time, I do not end up with too many changes of clothes. Cleaning is really easy since the place is small, though I seem to be turning into a neurotic for keeping the floor clean. it is white tiles, so I get really obsessive. Same with my table tops.

I think I have started getting into the swing of things, both at work and life. Work is getting easier, though the hours are still long, but it is still a fresh challenge each day. I hope my progress increases though, and I am sure it will. At least now, currently I am not really studying for anything, except perhaps Chinese in the future. Even had time to do some swings at the driving range, look at a couple of new restaurants, and yesterday even had time to go to Mongkok for karaoke and some drinks. Meeting quite a few new friends all the time. That is good.

JinBear and RaeBear visited last week, and though I really only spent less than 10 hours with JinBear and perhaps only around 3 hours with RaeBear, it was kinda great to see familiar faces for a while. It does take you back to the country that you left. Could not make it to Macau with them though, as I was busy collecting my ID card, and anyway it had been a long week. Still fitting in things at the my place, including setting up cable tv and internet, playing with the new computer, arranging stuff...life goes on. I still think I need to get a hobby sometime, maybe art, or dance classes, or maybe another language. We will see.

It is worth a think about life in Hong Kong though. Sometimes at work, when I was busy, I would be eating lunches of curry and rice for about 27 dollars, and yet at the same time, there would be times when I would be having one scoop of ice cream for about twice that price. It can be quite a big difference sometimes. That is why you can sort of understand the sacrifice that one has to make sometimes to save some money. Why, my whole week's worth of lunches was cheaper than the one hour's worth of massage that I had on Friday night ! That is how much your spending can change your net worth.

PingKBear is here for 2 weeks for work. We met her for lunch at this little place that FredBear and I wanted to go for lunch last week after meeting GACin and GAHil at the driving range. Unfortunately it was full at that time but this time we booked, so no problem. Food was not bad, and the price was cheap too. It is a place that I can see myself going back too, though it is not exactly walking distance.

Now, typing this, with Stacey Kent singing in the background, I really get the feel of being overseas...

Story 577

2008-08-23T22:02:00.002+08:00

Another week another typhoon. This being my second typhoon I sort of understood more of what to expect. Few souls around this time, and also a lot less rain. In part because this typhoon was more powerful and indeed did reach up to level 9 later that morning. I love working during the typhoon now because there are hardly anyone else besides my team around. That makes really good for working, since there is less work and also you kinda bond better with your team when there are no other people around.

I finally got my brain to work a bit this week and managed to learn more and work. Just in time too, as the person I replace is leaving this week. I forsee more hours at work ahead. I really look forward to working at my department, too bad the boss is acting a little bitchy at the moment. It cannot be too bad though.

Otherwise life is pretty good. Since it is Summer, it gets bright here really early so by the time I walk to work, it is as good as daylight, even though it is before 7. Yes I walk to work every day and back home as well. Good exercise eh ?

Cooked this week as well since now all the stuff is here. Had pasta by FredBear on Monday, then also some noodles with spam and eggs Friday night. Just had curry chicken with pratha a while ago, and ingredients have already been prepared for dumplings tomorrow night. Watching James Bond in The World Is Not Enough on tv now, as am slightly sick of Olympics. Though I must say it has been a pretty interesting week for sports. Wonder what will it be like after the Olympics ?

Made a second visit to Ikea today to get some odds and ends, like a bigger pot, some baskets for the kitchen, sucker pads for the bathroom, a bigger chopping board, a shoe rack and a bin as well. It is amazing how much money one can spend to sustain a living. Haha. No wonder people can complain about not having enough money, and worrying about their children and their future......

Big Boss will also be back this week, so hopefully all goes well at work.

Story 576

2008-08-17T20:41:00.002+08:00

It feels like a very long time and believe me, I have been wanting to update for the longest time, but I still have not had time or cashflow to get my computer but I am pretty confident of getting it by September so maybe more time for facebook and blogging then.

Hmm quite a lot has happened since the last time I updated and you can mostly blame work. Work has been crazy what with a new boss, a new department, a couple of colleagues leaving, as well as people going on Summer breaks....stress. Sometimes I even get stuck with 14 hour days. I guess in a sense I saw it coming, as noone actually ever talks about non stress in Hong Kong. It was quite bad in the first week but it has eased off slightly in the second week, but a niggling problem is my frustrations with systems setup and IT. Urgh.

But anyway, enough of work. I look so much forward to the weekends and also the time when I get off from work now. At least I have my tv and there is so much Olympics broadcasting here ! Almost seems like 24 hours a day, you can find something to see. I have definitely watched more tv this year than any of my previous ten years !!! It is so easy just to sit on the couch and do nothing, since it is so hot outside. I guess if I had a computer I will also watch tv less. But in the meantime tv is my main source of entertainment. I have started reading some of my books that arrived, and am currently in the middle of PS I Love You. It is really good so far, and having watched the movie before reading the book, I am still of the opinion that the movie could have been so much better. But sometimes I guess that is how it goes, right ? A few people have seen my book Jumper and said that the movie was crap. I did not get to watch the movie though I want to, but I felt that the book was pretty good ! Oh well, but sometimes not too many people read this kind of books and believe that the movie will sum most of it up.

Speaking of my books, it is because my container has arrived !! All 18 boxes arrived safely, and I basically spent the whole morning and afternoon unpacking and clearing up. It is such a relief to get everything done, and now I can almost believe that it is home, now that I have all my kitchen utensils, various odds and ends, as well as a mountain of clothes. I had absolutely no idea how many clothes I have until I started unpacking. And then there seemed to be clothes EVERYWHERE !!! At the moment, since it is Summer, I cheated a little and packed thicker and Winter clothing into boxes, so that I do not have to think about where to put them. But still, I seriously underestimated the amount that I have and gosh, even now it chills me to think of how much money I have spent on clothes !! I absolutely resolve to only buy clothes when I REALLY cannot help myself, but in the meantime will try to live a less clothes filled life. Seriously, I have ten times the amount of clothes that I actually need. The only consolation, is that I actually almost have something in every colour. Wahahahaha. Stop me from buying clothes if I am with you, unless I tell you that I NEED it.

Gosh. Since the stuff only arrived yesterday, I have not cooked at all. Usually I just get something to eat along the way back, or have some food with colleagues. Because I walk back along the MidLevels escalator, there are huge amounts and varieties of food available. In that sense, I am well covered. Since FredBear drives around sometimes, I have travelled around Hong Kong island about twice, but not really gone down from the car. I can pretty much find my way around Causeway Bay and am comfortable from WanChai to Central. Also had minor experiences in Stanley, Taikoo, North Point, Kwun Tong, TST and Shek O. Hopefully over time, I will get to know more places better.

Speaking of knowing more places, today I accompanied FredBear and his family to Lantau Island. He was doing his yearly prayers and it was a good opportunity for me to go along. Views of the place was fantastic, and it was also fun visiting some of the temples, with huge golden buddha statues, kneeling stools, giant joss sticks and ancient bells. The natural surroundings were great, and I can forsee some hikes around here when it gets cooler. The beaches here look really nice as well, and I hope to spend some time on them someday.

FredBear moved in last Monday so it has been almost a week. He will be staying with me for about 3 months while his apartment gets renovated. Though he lives here, I hardly see him. I go off to work before seven in the morning and I get back around 9. He usually goes off at 8.30 and comes back at 7. Usually when I get in at 9, I just want to shower, watch an hour of tv and go to bed. So we do not really see each other that much or clash for toilet use. In fact, in the one week that he has been here, I only had dinner with him once ! It is good to have him here though, it does not get too lonely or quiet. Also we get along quite well, so I do not think there is much potential for any arguing at all. At least he is generally clean....HAHAHA. On Friday night, I was so tired, that we just spent the night having red wine, eating cheese and crackers while watching the Olympics until I got too tired at about 11 pm.

Oh and speaking of the Olympics, did anyone watch the opening ceremony ? I tried to, but I got home around nine. I watched some of it, but I fell asleep by about ten. I was SO tired. That weekend, I mostly just spend the hours sleeping, getting used to the then empty apartment, and watching television. And oh, I have done laundry three times !! There just seem to be a million and one chores when you are living outside, and perhaps it is the size of this place. Somehow, I do not remember being so particular with cleanliness at home, but here I have this need to mop the floor about twice a day !!! I do not even bother with the windows, but with the cleaning up and mopping of the floors, it is so tiring ! I DO like to mop though. It is very calming for me, cleaning up house. At the moment, I ignore FredBear's room altogether. I consider it out of bounds territory, out of my area of significance, though I do wipe the door. Hahaha.

FredBear brought over his coffee machine as well, Lucy, and she has been pretty nice to me, providing me with a coffee or two, very good, and without sugar. I guess I can get used to the taste, it is not bad.

At the moment, I am just whiling away the time to bedtime, watching some diving and gymnastics on television, while typing this on FredBear's laptop. He is out for dinner with his family. I do not envy him not just because of the long day that we already had, but also because we only slept after sunrise today since we had an all night mahjong session with JeffBear and SoBear. Phew. So tired now though. Would be an early night for me.

Glad to get a bit of stuff off my chest, and it feels really good to be updating here ! Woohoo.

Story 575

2008-08-05T07:35:00.002+08:00

I have my very own mahjong table and tiles. So happy.

The last week has been so busy with handing over the house, moving into the house and furniture shopping. So troublesome because everything is so small, that you have to properly measure every inch of the apartment's dimension before buying. Planning is also a must as you might end up with a sofa that would block your bedroom doors.

I moved in officially on Friday and by that time electricity and water and the phone has already been supplied. Had dinner at FredBear's because needed to watch tv at 9.30 pm. Yes that is right. I have become one of those who chase TVB dramas at 9.30. I cannot forsee this going on for too long as I doubt I can stand staying at home every Friday night but I guess that remains to be seen as I bought a tv on Saturday so now I can indulge at home and NOBODY would know. Except of course those who are looking at my apartment. I swear I am still not used to the fact that people can look right into your apartment !! Well because they are so close together maybe I am just paranoid. But maybe it is also partly due to the fact that I have yet to buy curtains. So lazy !!

Still also need to buy a computer (I am typing this at work) but again, lazy. I will get to it some time. Need some time to settle down. Work is foreseen to not be stressful, but perhaps longer hours might be needed at least in the beginning. I think the most fun part so far are actually doing things that I wanted to do in Hong Kong like walking aimlessly and stuff, but decorating the place is also quite fun. Unfortunately that has to be done on a budget as well, and I do not get paid till the 20th I think so I have also slowed down since the initial spree.

Back to work for now.

Story 574

2008-07-28T20:57:00.003+08:00

All too soon, I am already in Hong Kong.

The last week in Malaysia seemed a blur of farewells, hugs, things to buy, things to pack and various things to do. Things were so rushed, since I only found out the week before that I only had one week to go before going off to Hong Kong.

Some things were easy, booking the hotel and flight for example, (even though I could only collect the ticket on Friday) and packing of course. Most of my stuff were packed by the packers leaving me only with the immediate clothing needed. Of course after a while I even had loads more stuff to bring and did not realise that I had forgotten them earlier. Perhaps next time. Even with so much planning there were loads of things I did not have time to do or people that I did not meet.

A lot of people had to be satisfied with SMSes, and facebook messages and emails as I could not personally meet with everyone in the short time frame. As it is, I know I mixed up a few groups of farewells. Also things that I did not manage to get done include going to the dentist, collecting my new glasses and contact lenses, getting another suit made, buying some simple furnishings and fabrics for curtains, the list can go on and on.

What was most sad of course was leaving the family. It felt a bit like leaving Melbourne almost 2.5 years before that. Because you know that it will be a long term thing and it is not longer just for a month or two. While we all know that I will probably make trips back, who can say that those trips will not be quick, and rushed and hardly enough time to do everything that I needed to do ?

Getting here has been a university time dream. Now that I am here, I will have to make the best of everything. Today I spent some hours at the Immigration Department sorting out my visa, then learning to take the bus to my new apartment and also the subway. Also timed myself walking to office from home and of course measured out my entire apartment. As of now, I am already planning the layout, and of course the apartment is smaller than I imagined. It will be more than a month before it will finally feel like home, but then of course, this is the challenge. And of course, it will never be exactly like home can it ? Thank goodness for the friends here though. They have been invaluable in information, comfort and companionship.

More adventures later. Later this week I have a department dinner, handing over of the apartment keys, buying of furniture, a mahjong session, applying for credit cards, applying for my HK ID card, getting my accounts settled, decorating, laying in food supplies, unpacking my boxes, finding a good laundry, some quick food pickups, the list goes on and on.

Come and visit some time.

Story 573

2008-07-21T07:16:00.003+08:00

And so I am back in Malaysia.

It has just been a huge whirl of activity and sometimes it gives me such a headache. But it can be fun too.

I flew off on Sunday and was met by GAHil and GATra at the airport. Watched "21" on the plane and quite enjoyed it. We were met by a car which took us all the way to the hotel. On the way, I was pointed out to all the different areas of Hong Kong. After checking in was met by FredBear, RoxBear and SoBear. We drove around some parts of Central and moved on up to the Peak for some tea. I had a burger, quite yum actually. Then it was more driving around, looking at places, mostly trying to familiarise myself with a couple of areas. We ended up with looking at this apartment that I had been interested in, and also more streets, before having dinner near the racecourse. At one point I was really shocked because the apartment was so small, and what I thought was just a store room turned out to be a bedroom !!! Walked around a bit, including the Muji store for RoxBear to get some pens for JinBear.

Went to office on Monday and met my new department mates, talked to the boss, and also looked for some old friends. Also sampled having lunch with a whole city of busy people in packed places. Back to the hotel for a change and then I met up with SoBear to walk around, take the MTR and had some drinks. (I swear my mind is blank now about what we did after that. Am pretty sure met up with FredBear for dinner..................) Aha ! I remember now, we met up for dinner and then bought a pack of cards to play back at the hotel. Then it started raining like crap, and it sure was heavy.

On Tuesday, I started the day off by walking the travelator up the mountain, meeting up with FredBear and walking around the whole area. We also had breakfast at the roadside. Spent some time at his place before we went to some computer place to look at stuff. We separated after that as I went back to the hotel to change for dinner with the IGs. We had some Shanghainese food and talked a bit. Then met up with SoBear, FredBear and RoxBear again at this Mahjong shop, where we played mahjong on an automated table !! Super fun. And I can bet you that I will be returning often.

Wednesday we met up with the real estate agent and it was quite tiring walking around places you knew you did not like, or could not afford, while in the sun. But it was all good as I got a very good idea of what to expect after a while. Luckily one of the last apartments that we saw was alright to me. We decided to go yumcha for lunch but not before waiting to see another apartment somewhere else. It was fully furnished but was so small and noisy that it was quite depressing. Yumcha was good, though we had too much food. Walked around some more before going to RoxBear's place for some good old WiiFit. Hehe. Had so much fun that might buy one for myself. Dinner was at a Korean barbecue buffet. Ate so much that died and at one point even had to sneak food back to the main tables !!

Went back to office on Thursday and met some urgent calls with the Relocater, Agent and Visa people. After some frantic calls, made an offer for the apartment, found out that my visa was approved and that I could start renting soon. Talked over some stuff with my boss and decided not to stay for lunch. Went up to FredBear's place again, and back to the hotel to change. Then we drove around the southern and eastern parts of the island. We visited some huge houses, the golf course, the beach area, and even a market. Quite interesting and some place that I would want to return to some day for a day trip. It was quite amazing driving around the mountains and also looking at billion dollar houses !! We had steaks by the seaside and drove people at work like RoxBear and RaeBear and JinBear with our pictures. Very nice place. Picked up SoBear from his haircut place and then we proceeded to get some dominoes and then back to FredBear's for dinner. After that we loaded up on some drinks and snacks and proceeded to domino the night away. RoxBear came in for a while too.

Friday woke up bright and early and was off to Pacific Place to sign my rental documents and get my visa. That done, had breakfast with FredBear and then walked around Seibu as well. Near about 11, I packed up at the hotel, and took the car to the airport and was met by SoBear for lunch. Then back I flew. Watched "Over Her Dead Body". Puke. Waste of time.

So now, if possible, and it is quite probable that I will fly off for good on Sunday. Movers coming in on Monday and Wednesday and there are loads of things for me to do. Paperwork, taxes, bank stuff, get new contacts...the list goes on. Packing is a chore, especially when you are packing for a house, and its no longer about whether you bring this blue jumper or that red shirt. Sigh. So much stuff.....and I have a headache since now I really have to divide my wardrobe. I cannot have everything there, but I do not want to leave stuff that I like, but I guess I have to since I cannot be carrying over everything back again when I am back. It is soooooo complicated.

And I also lost my voice la....

Perhaps it was because on Saturday night went for a fun wedding dinner (MrCK's wedding..and then for some catchup times later at Pulse), and then so much work buying stuff, (spent so much money) and then also packing.

So tired....off the office now.

Story 572

2008-07-09T06:58:00.003+08:00

So anyway went on a Treasure Hunt last weekend. It was loads of fun. It was my third one and although I went with two new virgin hunters this year, it was still fun. SailorJow was supposed to go, but there were some personal problems so she was unable to make it. So I ended up going with RaeBear and GANay. This will be the third year in a row, that one of my teammates got jinxed and could not make the treasure hunt at the last minute. In first year it was SailorJap, second year was SailorJoyo. Sigh. And all their names started with J too.

So this year the trip was to Penang. And it was fun there. I will not go too much into Treasure Hunting, but rest assured it is something that I would like to do again and again. Though this year they reintroduced the physical challenges and that is something that I really do not like. Other than that we answered 27 out of 29 questions correct, and got 3 out of 4 treasures correct. So not too bad. However, that was only good enough for 7th place ! Sigh. But the team members were great at guessing the answers too and GANay, was a great driver. Fast enough and brave enough.

By the time we reached Penang, it was all about the food. I am not really a foodie and was not particularly impressed with the pricy Char Kuey Teow. The Chendol as alright. I think RaeBear was gonna kill me when I said that as both of them are from Penang and go there regularly for food. LOL. The CKT was yummy but so pricy, that my utility dropped. Then we checked into the hotel and freshened up before dinner. We were mostly full, so just snacked on salmon pieces and dessert. Then how we laughed at the candid photos and all the clues, and how disappointed we were when we did not manage to get any lucky draw prizes.

Later that night, which was about eleven, out we went again for some food, at Gurney Drive. Met many people from the bank there, as well some of the foreign GAs which went for a visit. It was quite a surprise visit for me, as I have not been there for years and years and years. More food. And this time, I could sense the food atmosphere though I did not each much again. Oops. Shy. We also went to buy DVDs and this was fun. Thumbing through millions of titles, trying to decide which one to get. I got a couple...

On Monday, even though I felt so tired, went back to office to sign my contract. So it is now signed. And I am definitely going to Hong Kong now ! Just a matter of waiting for the visa.

Jang Jang Jang.

So tired.

Story 571

2008-07-03T22:44:00.001+08:00

The whole world seems to be in a mess.

US is in a mess.

Malaysia is in a mess.

My IM team is in a mess.

What a mess......

Story 570

2008-06-28T20:31:00.002+08:00

Another weekend ! Woohoo, somehow they seem to be reducing in number. Exciting, yet slightly sad.

Am in midst of negotiating salary. Very exciting. Or interesting at least. Fight Fight Fight @! What is the balance of being greedy compared to wanting to live a little, and not just merely survive ?

Watched "Wanted" at the cinema yesterday and was slightly disappointed with the movie. The movie itself was not too bad. I just felt that it had so much more potential that it did not fulfil. It could have been almost magical, but it stayed at good. Oh well.

And woke up this morning to go to the driving range. I can hit the ball more than half the time I try now, and send it further than 5 metres...so I guess you can call that improving. This makes it the third time I have done anything with golf balls, after my first experience with FredBear at Albert Park, Melbourne, and the second experience with GANay at District 11, Ho Chi Minh City. Third is now Sunway, Malaysia. Three experiences in three different countries.

Now my back aches, I have a blister, and some slightly sprained fingers. Ooh. Pain. But fun. Something that I would try again.

Story 569

2008-06-25T09:07:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a pretty good fun and nice day by any standards.

I went into office, and found emails from HongKong and Malaysia, for tax planning, for visa applications, for moving......a whole lot of forms to fill and that was just the morning's excitement. Then came the tax and mover calls from Hong Kong. Amazingly fun, to be dealing with HK people. Haha. It is just me. Anyway, great to slowly gather more information about tax matters. And also to find out stuff like where will I stay, how much, who chooses, who moves my stuff and so on. It was pretty fun. It was like there were several assistants for me, and as soon as one called me to advise me on all my tax stuff, promising to come back with this and that, another one would call and brief me on how my stuff and/or furniture would be moved...good life. I plan to have many assistants in the future. One for my personal life, and of course several to plan my life, shop, advise, and so on. Haha. Perhaps the best part was the flurry of phone calls. And dealing with different people. Now that is something that I like.

Speaking about people, I also had a long postponed lunch with JengBear. Have not seen him since we sent him off at the airport to UK 2 years ago. He has been back for a year, but we just did not manage to meet up. Great thing was, JengBear is one of those low maintenance high yielding friends. As in, those you do not have to meet up that often, but when you do, everything is still just as comfortable and really promises to be one of those friendships that last ! Great. He will be going off to UK again to do his Masters at about the same time that I would be leaving, so it was a great catch up session.

Speaking about UK, CCYBear will be moving to London to work in August as well. Still within CSBank. But how great fun. There was a round of congratulations and counter congratulations. What a great coincidence that we are both moving, and at the same time, and within the same bank.

Speaking about coincidences, I later met YvBear at the opening night of Beauty and the Beast musical at KLCC. I had earlier e-mailed YvBear about my move, and what great fun it was to catch up with her as well.

Speaking about Beauty and the Beast, I was there with JeanBear and her parents. They had a spare ticket, and JeanBear very kindly invited me to come along. It was fun to watch a musical live again. I have not done that since The Producers in Melbourne and that has been 4 years ago. How time flies, as JeanBear's dad and I were saying. We were saying how we first met about 2 years ago, and time just flew by as well. So funny. There was a technical error leading to an instant replay, which was funny, but I guess I had some personal expectations going into the show which led to certain disappointments. Gaston was too scrawny, Belle a bit too plump. The Beast was not beastly nor big enough, and as JeanBear said, Lumiere was really too round for a candlestick. Chip had a distinctly private school Malaysian accent, and I think the presentation of the entire thing could have been better. Mayhap I still have a better affinity for people characters as I really enjoyed The Producers and Fame, but then again, Cats was alright, though I would have hated The Lion King, so perhaps it is just that I have seen the movie version ? So I would have certain expectations. All in all, a 3.5 point out of 5 experience.

Speaking about musical, our very own Oweek HappyFeet Award PatBear finally met us up for dinner at Delicious at BVII on Monday night. His hair is shorter than we are used to, but he is just as funny and delightful. IzyBear, JeanBear and KeeBear made up the dinner party. We had a lot of fun just joking and laughing and talking about our experiences and lives. I swear we laughed a lot and were very loud at the restaurant. But super fun. Super Duper Fun. People should do this more often. And I think they do, because I think very often you would find groups of friends at cafes or restaurants just catching up. Which is a very nice thing to do.

Speaking about catching up, on Sunday, IzyBear, JeanBear and KeeBear and myself caught up for Round 1, at Bubba Gump Shrimp at the Curve. Quite a smoky place, and the clothes smelt after a while. The shrimps themselves were alright though nothing to scream about. Portions pretty large though and service pretty good. Again, all the typical laughter that we have during one of those dinners. We also went in search of the mysterious bowling alley at Cineleisure which only IzyBear has visited but had no idea of its location. We finally found it, and it was not bad, and I look forward to bowling there one day. We ended up foosballing downstairs and it ended with a draw because mysteriously there were only 8 balls. Nevertheless, I believe that it is fair to say that JeanBear and I won, because we reached the score of 4 first. Plus, we scored the opening goal. Plus, we scored with the old black ball we found in the table before we put our token in. Hooray. Celebrate victory !

Phew.

Story 568

2008-06-21T21:49:00.002+08:00

Today I did something which I have not done for a while.

Tried on clothes in a changing room and did not buy anything !! ... Lol. Took some pictures though.

The best thing was, they fit pretty well.

Must continue the diet.

Story 567

2008-06-18T23:18:00.002+08:00

I am so full I am going to explode.

Combination of too much soup, bubble tea, aloe drink and water. I feel like a water bag.

Die.

And I cannot pee.

Lol not cannot, but have not peed.

Wahahaha. Ooh, GAGjj is here from Shanghai. He was someone whom I dealt with a lot when I was there. Now that he is working here for 6 months, I might take some time to show him around.

OK I am seriously bloated.

Yuk. What a yukky post.

Story 566

2008-06-16T21:17:00.002+08:00

So...a lot of excitement generated, and seems like I may even have a big welcoming party.

But of course there are things to settle and things to consider before I get there. As I did not go to work today, I guess I could say I still do not have any more details then I did on Saturday. But in the meantime, just a little reminder of things to settle before and after going.

Before

1. Tax (ugh)
2. Sharesave (ugh)
3. Bank accounts (should be easy...almost completed)
4. Job details - accomodation, salary, benefits (should be easy as not done by self??)
5. Read up on job ? (ugh)
6. Wardobe packing (fun fun fun)
7. Wardrobe purchase (more fun !!)

After

1. Mobile number
2. Internet
3. Computer purchase
4. Karaoke (yay)
5. Mahjong (double yay)
6. Work ? (double triple ugh)

Well my brain is absolutely not working, so perhaps I should just continue with this list later.

Story 565

2008-06-14T09:24:00.002+08:00

Well, so finally a decision was made, had to be made. Let me take you through the process.

Application 1 - London
Application 2 - Dubai
Application 3 - Shanghai
Application 4 - Shanghai 2
Applicaiton 5 - Hong Kong.

Within 3 days, rejection was given for Applications 1 and 5.

Depressed, because would no longer be going to Hong Kong.

After one week, had interview for Application 3.

Second interview for Application 3. Questions were asked if I would be interested in the role if it was switched to Hong Kong instead.

Start praying.

First interview for Application 2.

Third interview for Application 3.

First interview for Application 4.

2 weeks crawl by.

Second interview for Application 2.

Another week crawls by, punctuated with CFA examination.

Offer given by Application 3 on the condition that it would be based in Hong Kong. Whoa. Amazing.

Not much details yet....

Story 564

2008-06-08T22:07:00.002+08:00

It is over !!!

No more exam. Such a relief.

Just job search now. Such a pain.

Perhaps now that for the first time after university that I have finally nothing to study any more, I will have to find something else to do. At the moment however I cannot think of anything.

Dance class ? Gym, perhaps improve Chinese.

The mind boggles.