Lunchtime Ramblings.

Reappear.

2012-03-18T13:20:42Z

The lazy bugs were striking again and it's been another couple of months since I last posted another journal entry. I guess when we get older, sometimes things get so repetitive and mundane you would rather not let the world know how boring your life has been. Anyways.

Like I said, everything has been fine for the past couple of months, nothing too special. For work, I had the luxury of making 2 working trips out of Hong Kong (rejoice!) and I understand how tough that can be. That said, I would jump at the chance if I get to go again. On a personal level, I'll have two trips to look forward to as well. One to Manchester, the other to Beijing - both in the month of April. The trip to Manchester is really to fulfill a childhood dream - watching Manchester United play at Old Trafford. As for the Beijing trip, I think most will chuck to hear that I'm going there for (yet another) Mayday concert. I wouldn't have bothered if the concert is going to be hold in just any other stadium, but it's the Bird Nest that we are talking about, so there's no reason not to make the trip.

Knicks won this morning (Hong Kong time), United coming up later in 10 minutes' time. Hopefully it will be another win for the Reds. And yes, I'd like a Chelsea win over Manchester City as well. Thank you very much.

Brick.

2011-11-23T05:57:24Z

The geek in me woke up yesterday and it asked me to try to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy Tab to Android Honeycomb from the earlier Froyo. And just like my favourite team Manchester United, I did things the hard way and am now stuck with a semi-bricked Galaxy Tab. Luckily for me, the geek in my is Googling all over the place and found some rather useful solutions, and now the geek mode is switched on again and hopefully I can resuscitate that piece of plastic soon. Either way, I couldn't bring it back to Samsung to get it fixed (for reasons best known to geeks only) and I think that is too much an insult for a computer science student like me (OK I did major only in electronic commerce). So I'll continue to try on my own, and all I can say is, I managed to get Odin to detect that piece of garbage, so that's a good start.

Though just as I was finishing, the first attempt to resuscitate the Tab failed. Never mind, I've got the whole day...

Run.

2011-07-13T05:49:38Z

Yesterday's experience at California Fitness was good, and for the first time in my life, I didn't have enough of physical exercise! I was actually just trying out some brisk walking on the treadmill, and after the first round of a 20-minute walk, I felt that I was just getting the hang of it and promptly did another 15 minutes more! I would be starting a more targeted programme today with the assistance of a physical trainer, so I hope to be able to build a good routine and hopefully get down to having a healthier lifestyle.

There has been a bit of rain this morning, so it didn't feel as hot when I woke up. Having said that, I don't really like bringing out an umbrella and then for the whole period I don't get the chance to use the umbrella. I brought mine out today, and I hope to be able to use it - even for that few minutes' walk from the bus stop to home later when I'm done at Wanchai!

Oh by the way, for the first time in my life, I finally get to experience how it feels like to be running on a treadmill next to the window looking at all the people walking outside. I thought it would feel weird, but actually when you are running (or in my case, brisk-walking) on the treadmill, you probably don't really care what's going on outside. I had my music on, and I was happily listening to the music, and didn't bother with all the people outside who were staring at this fat guy walking on the treadmill.

Looking forward to the session later. Haha.

Rain.

2011-07-12T05:32:47Z

Finally a few droplets of rain have poured down here in Wanchai, and while it probably didn't help to reduce the heat, at least it does give me hope that a heavy downpour would be coming up.

I mentioned last week that I've downloaded a free trial pass at California Fitness, didn't I? Well, I'm going to head over there this evening after work to see how the place is like and if it's something that I like. Seriously, I think summer is the best time to shed a few of those extra pounds off me, and hopefully the experience there tonight is going to be nice enough for me to go back there. And you know what, I'm actually looking forward to going there even at this point of time! Now all I need is an affordable membership plan and I would be going back more often.

I went to the International Christian Assembly Church in North Point last Sunday for service and surprisingly my first English service in Hong Kong was remarkably good! It seems to me that the English-speaking church experiences that I've encountered are very much different from the experience that I'm having at my church. Somehow worshiping in English feels a bit different from worshiping in Chinese, and it was actually quite exciting. I think I may consider going there again in the future. That said, I think the most important thing is the mind and the truthfulness that we put into our worship that pleases God, and the format or procedures are perhaps secondary.

Another half a day to go and I have a bit of work to do in preparation for the training delegation that is coming in next week. With a few experiences in such training delegations in the past, I think I should be just fine.

Shopping.

2011-07-08T05:59:21Z

I didn't meet anyone for lunch today, but as I was kind of getting bored of eating lunch alone in the office, I decided that I would go out and eat lunch alone in some restaurant today instead. Because I know I'm by myself and I kind of eat lunch pretty quickly, I chose to go to do some shopping first before eating. Bought myself a set of cheapskate earphone as a backup to my bluetooth earphones and a nail-clipper as I think that my fingernails were getting a bit too long for comfort and I didn't want to wait till I get home to get them chipped. I also managed to get my disposable contact lens, something that I have been telling myself since the end of April but never quite remembered to do so. As I'll be playing a bit of football in the coming months, I think it would be a better idea to play with contact lens on rather than my glasses. Not that the contact lens are going to make me a better player, but I thought it would be more convenient especially when I'm heading into the penalty box and try to get a header on corners or something like that.

After yesterday's meeting, I kind of discovered that I will be busy all the way to October with a minor break somewhere in September - something that I actually thought to be quite good. To be honest, I'd rather be busy than idling, and to see my calendar packed with activities until November actually felt good! I do think that I'm getting the hang of my job right now and while it may sound strange, I kind of enjoy doing the things that I'm doing now. Sure, sometimes the work that I need to do would be a bit mundane and is fairly hard to derive joy out of it. But then again, I believe when people say "do what you enjoy", they usually have a hidden meaning of "enjoy what you do if you don't get to do what you enjoy", and I think that's a fair reflection of myself now. But yes, I still like to have a long vacation every now and then. I am trying to see if it would be possible to squeeze in a trip here and there, but due to a highly depleted budget, I guess it might be a little bit on the no-frills side!

I think I'm getting a little bit happy and hyper. Haha.

Hot.

2011-07-06T05:38:11Z

It's another hot day, and to minimize the time that I stay under the hot sun, I decided that I would just grab a lunchbox from the shop opposite my office. At 33 degrees, it's never a good idea to be exposed to the sun and the heat for anything more than half a minute.

As you'd probably know, I went to see a ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist and $1,7xx later, the ENT specialist told me that there's nothing wrong with my throat. Not exactly the best answer to hear because I have always been thinking that there's something wrong with my throat, but I can at least take comfort that there's nothing wrong with my throat. Though the pessimist in me would say, the problem would be somewhere else. The specialist did say that he suspected it's my respiratory system that might be the root of the problem, and he has written a referral letter for me in case the cough doesn't ease up within this week. I hope I don't have to resort to seeing another specialist because I don't like the idea of paying another $1,7xx to see another doctor only for him to tell me there's nothing wrong with me!

I downloaded a free 1-week trial pass for California Fitness and I'm contemplating to go to the centre in Wan Chai after work on Friday. I think summer is probably the best time for me to really try shedding off a bit of my weight. Haha.

Oh by the way, I overslept on the bus on my way to work today again. I think I'm really not having enough sleep.

New week.

2011-07-04T05:36:03Z

After a pretty long break, I'm back in office today feeling more refreshed, though deep inside I would have prefer to have a few more days of break - you can never have too much holidays, can you?

I was at my church's retreat camp last weekend and I think I had a good time. Managed to straighten out quite a bit of my thoughts and I left the camp feeling more clear about my own thinking and all that. Also managed to untie a few knots that have been going on in my head for a while - Glory be to the Lord.

When I was heading to work this morning the weather was so hot that it was almost unbearable. Looks like the summer is really here and it would be quite a while that such weather would persist. As I have been saying all the time, I'm never a summer person and I would truly appreciate if the weather is not that hot. Worse still, I don't have an air-conditioner at home (well actually I do, but it doesn't seem to work properly most of the time so I don't even bother turning it on), so it does get a bit unbearable. I think I might get someone to install one at home for me, just to hopefully see me through this scorching heat.

Would be having my Korean class after work today. Nice way to end an otherwise not too impressive start of the week.

Specialist.

2011-06-29T05:28:15Z

I'm done with lunch already and with the weather being so unstable as it is now, actually it does feel good to be hiding inside office.

I'm finally going to see a specialist to get my cough a closer examination and hopefully that is going to at least give me some answers about my condition - it does feel weird to be coughing all the time and not know what actually is wrong. I hope it's just an annoying problem that won't go away rather than a serious and persistent one, but I'll leave it to God.

For the past couple of days I found myself sleeping fairly early - usually before 12 - and somehow I keep feeling very tired during the day, wanting to get some sleep. Since I'm on leave tomorrow and won't have to return to office until next Monday, I suppose that really isn't too bad a thought. Having said that, I know that I'll have 3 training delegations in a row again in July, but compared with that of last year, I think this year's volume is one that I should be able to manage.

After Thursday, there will be no public holidays until September, I think I would take a day off sometime in August.

Getting a bit tired, maybe a power nap will do me good again.

Hiatus.

2011-06-28T05:27:19Z

After such a long time away, I'm back bringing you this edition of lunchtime rambling again. The last couple of weeks have seen me busy preparing and taking care of another training delegation, and I think this delegation was one that I'm unlikely to forget quickly, albeit for all the wrong reasons. There were too many mishaps along the way that tested my reflexes to a great deal, and while I think I managed to take care of most of them without too much of a hassle, I still think I could really have done without them. Either way, that's good experience - good experiences gained through bad experiences are still good experiences.

My cough is still as bad, and now I'm losing quite a bit of my voice - I think I've lost about 70% of my voice so far, and to be honest, I don't like to hear myself now. My voice is so coarse that it's kind of beyond recognition, and I have no idea why it has become like that or when I'm going to get out of this problem. One thing I could establish right now is that it's my throat that's giving me problems, so I suppose it's not pneumonia or something to do with the lungs. Either way, I'll probably be seeing another doctor this week and hopefully things would really start to look up.

We are getting into July soon. That means another month closer to winter, which is nice. But I can still do with a good break. Everyone tells me that I need to rest in order to let my cough recover, but the problem is, I can hardly get any!

Korean.

2011-06-15T05:36:32Z

Lunching in office again. Had a $17 lunchbox which is even cheaper than the $20 that's offered at another shop. Of course, you get what you pay for, and for $17, I won't say the lunchbox is bad, but it was quite a long way from actually being delicious. Oh well, I shouldn't be moaning about that.

I shan't talk about my cough today because I don't think anyone of you is interested any more. I mean, if I don't have a post declaring the end of the coughing, you can safely assume that the cough is still acting up badly, and I am coughing so much that for certain periods of the day I could hear Jesus calling me home.

I have been looking around for Korean classes and after 3 terms at the FTU, I am now at a crossroad, deciding whether to do it for the FTU for the 4th term, or go to somewhere else where I might be able to get more serious with learning the language. The plus point about going to FTU is that firstly it's much cheaper, and secondly for the first time in learning the language, I would be able to follow through with the previous instructor (heck, I actually had 3 different instructors for the past 3 terms and none of them used a standardized learning package). Of course there's always a down side, and to be honest, learning at FTU actually isn't as serious as some other specialized language centres, and you have to live with after one year of learning you probably still can't really converse well in Korean. I mean, when I was in Korea last month, I could converse just a little in Korean and most of the time it was still English or Japanese or Chinese or hand signals for me. Anyway my sister has decided that she might want to do at a specialized learning centre, and I'll tag along today with her for the registration just to have a feel of what that place has to offer. The course at FTU won't start until end of the month, so I still have a bit of time to consider. Anyone keen to learn Korean with me? We could then perhaps do at a specialized centre together! For the selected few, I could sponsor part of the lesson fee (please call to check if you are the selected few)!

Didn't sleep well for the past few days, and I'm feeling really tired today at work. Thank God the work that I'm doing today is keeping me awake - strange but true. That said, I'm seriously contemplating taking one or two days' leave next week to couple with the HKSAR Establishment holidays to really have a rest. June has been quite hectic for me, but I think the break is not to go out and play - I think I need a rest to recuperate from my cough (or perhaps have a really serious bout of cough for 5 days and then miraculously recover)!

Monday.

2011-06-13T05:17:23Z

After one whole week away on a training delegation, I finally had the chance to have my lunch in office again! The week that has just gone past wasn't too bad as most things turned out the way that I've visioned them to be, so it was nice in that sense. That said, I was still knackered by the time the whole programme ended, and it certainly wasn't very exciting that I had so much work to attend to that I had to come back to office on Saturday!

Today has been another busy day for me so far, as I have another training delegation that is coming in next week, and I have quite a fair bit of preparation to do. Before I started this morning, I went through all the work that I'm supposed to do, and I found out that besides the usual preparations, I have another set of specific tasks that I need to be doing, and to be honest, it does look quite daunting! But I'm sure that everything will work out well.

The cough is still not going away. I went to see a Chinese physician yesterday and was given some Chinese herbal medication. Nowadays Chinese herbal medication come in ground form and all I had to do was to pour a sachet into hot water and just drink everything down - gone are the days of having to boil the medication on my own! That said, the medicine still tasted bitter, as they always did. But if that kind of bitterness is going to cure my cough, I'll gladly have it. After two dosages of the medication so far, I can't really say that my condition has improved tremendously. I do tend to think that I'm coughing less (which is good), but each cough was more uncomfortable than before (which is bad). My brothers and sisters at church are suggesting I go see another doctor for a third advice, and perhaps request for an X-ray scan. I'll see how it goes.

And rumours have it that Manchester United are going to get listed in Hong Kong. If that is going to happen, I think I'll try my hands at getting a lot or two. And yes, it was rainy and sunny at the same time this morning - I think the weather is really getting very strange.

Training.

2011-06-08T05:21:55Z

This week I'm coordinating another incoming training delegation and actually I'm not supposed to be free during lunch, but for today only I could squeeze out some time so I'll continue my lunchtime ramblings.

The weather for the past few days have been really hot and stuffy - the rain that the Observatory has promised did not seem to have materialized in a way that I wanted it to be. I had actually hope for some heavier rain rather than the drizzle that we are getting, really just to wash the heat away because the worst kind of hot weather is those when you feel the rain is about to fall but it proved to be non-coming. The kind of stuffiness that kind of weather creates is really quite uncomfortable.

Did I mention that I went to the Baptist Hospital to get my cough attended to? It turned out that even that didn't help because the doctor didn't think it was anything other than URTI. I wasn't quite convinced but since he said so I'll leave it as it is. Having said that, I'm still contemplating to see a Chinese physician and try some TCM to see if that would be useful.

I was back in BU because going to the hospital last Saturday and it was nice to see Yvonne at the SA Office - I think we had quite a good working partnership back then so that was memorable. Having said that, I'm in no particular hurry to going back to work with students yet! I guess I'm enjoying what I'm doing now, and while it may not be those kind of jobs that get your adrenaline pumping all the time, it still has a fair amount of excitement which is just nice for someone with a weak heart like myself!

Off for a quick break and then it'll be back to work. See you all around.

Work.

2011-06-03T06:03:57Z

I was out at work for the past two days so I didn't get to eat lunch in office. It's good to get a breather out of office every once in a while, but with the weather being this hot, sometimes it's really not that fun too. That said, I enjoyed the last two days tremendously.

The cough seems to be making a comeback after I declared a few days back that things seemed to have turned for the better. It's usually at its worst at night and in the morning, when I could really cough up to a minute non-stop. I think I'll head out to the Baptist Hospital tomorrow morning and see what the doctors there have to say - somehow I don't think I could trust the doctor at my estate any more. It's not so much about not giving me an MC, but to have paid that kind of money and still not recover certainly didn't sound too exciting. Let's just hope the doctors at the hospital tomorrow won't suddenly find something serious about me and admit me to stay a few nights there.

Tomorrow marks the start of a 3-day holiday with Monday being the Dragon Boat Festival. As always, I would not be heading out to see the dragon boat races (primarily because of the weather), but if anyone of you is participating in a race (in Hong Kong, may I add) and would like some moral support, let me know and I'll try to make it.

Stay faithful. God bless.

Hot.

2011-05-31T05:28:41Z

Another lunchbreak spent in the office with a $25 lunchbox! Haha!

I was actually contemplating of going somewhere else for my lunchbox, but the moment I stepped out of my office tower, I could feel the smothering heat ready to devour anyone in its way. As such, I decided that I would minimize the amount of time to spend out there, and grabbed my lunchbox from the nearest stall. Turned out to be a great move because I was back in the office tower within 3 minutes!

Anyway thank you everyone for your prayers and today the cough seemed to have been eased up a little. Not a massive improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. Please continue to have me in your prayers as I also will for God to do the healing. Time for faith!

As June approaches, a lot of work is coming my way, and hopefully everything is going to turn out just fine. However I think I'm quietly confident of how the things will come out, given that I already have (kind of) stocked up a year plus worth of experience under my belt. Of course situations do change and nothing ever stays the same, but I hope that whatever I've done in the past would be a good enough sample to work on.

The football season is officially over as of Sunday, and now it's time to endure a near-football-less two and a half months. Besides the few occasional friendly and pre-season games, I think these couple of weeks might be rather unbearable. One good thing is though, I finally have my weekend afternoons back! While it should be really hot in the summer, I think a few excursions to the countryside might do me good. And yes, that endurance and stamina rebuilding regime that I've been talking about for ages - maybe it's a good time to start too.

Weekend.

2011-05-30T05:48:33Z

The weekend that has just gone past wasn't exactly the best weekend that I've ever had in my life, especially the period from 2:45am to 7am on Sunday morning. Manchester United getting outclassed in the Champions League final by Barcelona certainly did not make for any pleasant experience, and to see Edwin van der Sar bowing out of the game in such a manner was particularly painful too. But if you ask me, for this United squad to have come this far, it is already an achievement. Losing isn't an issue, though I would have appreciated more if Barcelona didn't have to roll on the floor upon the slightest contact by a United player. It does irk me to see them still diving around even when they are 3-1 up.

The cough that I'm having is still not showing any sign of easing up. It was especially painful at night, when on more than one occasion I was woken up by my own cough. And it wasn't as though the coughing was light ones, they were really long and heavy coughs that I felt that some organs inside me were about to come out of my mouth. I just hope that it's not something like bronchitis or pneumonia that's acting up.

The weather is getting hot and hopefully I can last through this summer, which I believe will run from now all the way to the end of October. I can, however, make do with a few typhoons and black rainstorm signals - only for the sole purpose of cooling down. If these phenomena are going to cost people to lose their belongings or lives, then just forget it. I'll bear the heat myself then.

And yes, please continue to pray for me regarding my cough.

Giddy.

2011-05-27T05:43:37Z

I've done it! For the entire week I have been eating my lunch by myself in the office!

Anyway as I'm still recovering, my physical condition really isn't at top notch - not that it is most of the time anyway - and it could be really small things that can make it drop further.

Microsoft Office is actually a great software. It allows me to convert Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese (and vice versa) in a click of a button, it allows me to include Hanyu Pinyin reading to the Chinese words... but there is one thing that absolutely made me go nuts about this phonetics inclusion. Why isn't the software smart enough to list the Hanyu Pinyin of all the characters in a document at one go? It seems to me that after every 8 or 9 Chinese characters, the Hanyu Pinyin will go haywire. That means I have to do this conversion once every 8 or 9 characters! Also, why does the default language get set back to its original every time even though I have turned it to become Chinese (PRC)? What happened was I have to select 8 or 9 characters, choose the language to be Chinese (PRC), and then open the phonetics guide, scroll to see if all the Hanyu Pinyin has been correctly converted, before I could click OK for the conversion.

After I was done with this repetitive task for 2 documents with a total of 8 pages, I was definitely getting giddy and I think my head is still spinning right round like a record. Not fun.

Can the great engineers at Microsoft take a real look at this issue?

Doc.

2011-05-26T05:22:55Z

Finally succumbed to the cough and went to see a doctor this morning before coming in for work. After 5 minutes of consultation and 5 different types of medication later, I am back for work, feeling actually rather lethargic and not really in the best of shape. But what to do, when the doctor refuses to give you an MC there's no choice but to come back for work. It's not like I hate coming for work, but when you are not in the best physical condition, coming for work (or really, doing anything) is not really such a good idea.

For two days in a row (Tuesday and Wednesday), I fell asleep on the bus after work and for both days I managed to overshoot where I have intended to get off. For Tuesday, I was heading to church after work, and while I should have gotten off at the Tate's Cairn Tunnel stop, I happily slept past it and when I woke up, I was in Ma On Shan. Yesterday I was going home from Wanchai, and I was also happily asleep until the bus pulled over at the Terminus. I think these two incidents could show that how tired I was, and it certainly didn't help when I coughed so much last night that I woke up several times in the middle of the night because of it. Even as I'm writing now, the cough that I'm having is still quite horrendous.

I am contemplating if I should stay in the office for the afternoon. Either way, I'm off for a quick nap and see if I get any better after waking up.

Wednesday.

2011-05-25T05:28:19Z

The cough is still not going away yet, but thank you for your concern. I don't know when this is going to stop, but I'll keep praying and try all kinds of remedies that have been recommended to me. Would you also have me in your prayers as I really don't want this cough to last so long that it affects my daily life? I don't want to be a germs-spreading dummy in the office as well...

After pondering for about a week, I've finally decided to put ink to paper for that 4-year deal that I've been offered. Not sure what to expect for the next 4 years, but to be honest, while I can't say that I love it here, I am definitely more than content to be here. In a way, perhaps it is His signal that I should stay longer here - considering that it was His grace that I've gotten this job, and if the duration of the contract is anything to go by, He definitely wants me to be here. Either way, I think I am getting more and more accustomed to how things are here and I'll be happy to extend my stay. So for those of you in Singapore, looks like I'm going to be in Hong Kong for a tad longer!

I was looking through my past journal entries and little did I realize it is the 10th year that I'm penning my thoughts and happenings here. My first article was in 2001, and even though I have been lazy for more than half a year beginning from October last year, I am just glad that I have this journal to let me have reminiscence of some sorts. There are ups and downs for the past 10 years, and I'm just glad that things have been generally turning out well for me.

I have a seminar in the afternoon to take care of, and I think I'll head out to start preparing for it. Hope everything will be fine. And yes, I would truly love to go home early today.

Cough.

2011-05-24T05:43:23Z

The cough is still not going away, and it seems that it's even getting worse. The cough is making my throat hurt as well as my head spin. Do we call this "Post-Holiday Syndrome"?

For the second day in a row I've had my delicious lunchbox at the comfort of my seat in the office. I was actually contemplating eating somewhere else today, but the convenience and cost of that $20 lunchbox is too much to resist. I think I'm really getting a bit too lazy for my own good at times.

I am feeling the after effects of all the late nights beginning from last Friday - I am feeling totally exhausted even though it's only Tuesday today! I think I'll do another 15-minute power nap before resuming work at 2. I was thinking of going to see a doctor as I think I'm getting a bit sick (inflicted by the Post Holiday Syndrome), but I think I'll leave it till Thursday, as I have some important work to do tomorrow.

Champions.

2011-05-23T05:50:42Z

A league title win is always sweet, and a 19th win for Manchester United that overtakes Liverpool's 18 makes it even sweeter.

I was with the Hong Kong Reds at the Manchester United Restaurant & Bar last night for the final game of the Premiership season 2010/2011. The match started at 11 and even though we all knew the trophy is coming back to Old Trafford whatever the results, all of us wanted a United win to round off the league season in style. We got what we want, and when the final whistle went, we were celebrating another win! The scenes at the MURB was really amazing and everyone was cheering, clapping and singing (Are you watching Merseyside?) - it was definitely a very hyper night and it didn't end until 2 in the morning!

Waking up and getting to work this morning was always going to be a struggle because I slept at about 2.45 in the morning earlier, so I think basically I'm running on my spare battery right now and hopefully there's enough to last until I'm on the bus home later! That said, I'm not really sleepy or whatever, I guess it was just tiredness that's acting up. The win last night (or should I say this morning) was really a good power perk and I think that should be enough to see me through - I still remember 3 years ago when United won the Champions League, I had about an hour of sleep before having to go back to work the next morning! So I thought today is definitely much better - I slept for 4 and a half hours!

I've been having a very bad cough since returning from Korea - gut feeling tells me that the massive amount of kimchi that I had in Korea is finally acting up now. It's been a long time ago since I coughed till my throat hurts! Anyone has any good remedies to recommend?

Returned.

2011-05-20T05:35:16Z

As you would probably know, I was in Korea last week and once again, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. Language was still a barrier, but armed with the limited Korean that I have after 3 terms at the FTU centre, I did have some headway with the locals - at least I managed to order food without having to resort to English on several occasions! Having said that, I think I might want to really start to be seriously learning the language. Learning at the FTU centre isn't too bad, but with just 90 minutes of lessons per week, it's not really an ideal way of learning. Maybe I'll look around for some other available courses or centres.

Anyway I returned to work on Wednesday, but was practically out for the whole while until now because I had some visitors to take care of. This month we'll be receiving a lot of people, and I hope everything is going to be fun. It's not easy to be doing some of these work at times, but I suppose with that little bit of experience that I have with me, I should be doing fine.

My current contract here is going to be up at the end of August, but I now have a contract extension offer on my desk. This time round the contract is going to be longer - 4 years - and to be honest, I have no idea what I should do with it. Maybe I need to have a good thought about it and see how I'll go from here.

One more afternoon and it'll be the weekend - though last week this time I think I have just landed at Incheon airport. OK, I admit - I miss Korea. Haha.

Tomorrow.

2011-05-12T05:42:33Z

By this time tomorrow I think I should be inside the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, or perhaps hovering somewhere above it. Yes, I'm flying again! After just 2 days in Hong Kong, I'm flying to South Korea with my sister and while it's her first ever trip there, it's my third and I hope I still remember the place enough to not lost my way!

As instigated by some of my friends back in Singapore, I started looking around at recruitment advertisements from Singapore and for a staunch supporter of the opposition parties (well, actually just Workers Party), I find it amusing that I was actually looking at the Careers@Gov website. Some of the jobs there look pretty attractive (like those at IE Singapore), and to be honest, I really don't mind trying those out.

I always get asked this question which I actually hate to answer: Which is better, Singapore or Hong Kong? I don't think there's ever an answer to it. Hong Kong is where I was born in, while Singapore is where I grew up with all the memories in. So in a way I hope for the best for the two places. It used to be that I absolutely hate being in Singapore, but now I guess that kind of "hatred" is more or less reducing - I guess when we grow up, we see things in a different way and some of the things that we don't like might turn out to be something we treasure in the future.

What's tomorrow going to be, we'll never know. But before tomorrow comes, make sure today has been lived well.

I think I'm go for a 15-minute power nap before starting work for the afternoon.

Return.

2011-05-11T05:36:49Z

So after 4 days of absence, I'm back to bring you this edition of Lunchtime Ramblings.

The last few days in Singapore were quite good - except for the weather which was so hot that it almost became unbearable - as I went to the polls, went to a post-election assembly, met up with old friends... basically did a lot of things that I didn't regret. To see Workers Party toppling PAP in Aljunied was about the highest point of the whole trip! When I was in Hougang Stadium from the late evening of 8 May to the early morning of 9 May, I could sense the buzz that was being generated inside the crowd, and I think that's where you can really feel the resentment towards the PAP runs real deep among the people. I've said before, and I'll say again - for a government to be relevant with the people, they should stop thinking that they are saints and instead should treat its people as people.

As always, a lot of my friends are instigating me to return to Singapore. For me, I would say I'm still very much open to that option. If the right opportunities come along, I would be more than happy to take that chance. But as things stand, I haven't really got anything that would make me return immediately. That said, stranger things have happened so I'm not discounting any possibilities. And I would say as I conjured up enough guts to do some things that I probably have not done before in a long time in these few days in Singapore, who's to say things are not possible? But of course, it's still important to look forward, and if I keep reminiscing about Singapore for too long, I may end up as a Liverpool fan for living their lives in past glory!

After this rather unscheduled trip back to Singapore, the scheduled trip to Korea is coming up in 2 days' time! Getting rather excited, and hopefully things will be fun!

Election.

2011-05-05T06:29:43Z

For the uninitiated, I'm flying back to Singapore tomorrow evening for the elections. To be honest, this is one trip to Singapore that I didn't plan for at all, but since I'm a Singaporean (holding a pink IC and did my NS and all), I should contribute to the well-being of the country by fulfilling my responsibility as a Singaporean. I think I mentioned somewhere that I'm flying back because my registration as an overseas voter has lapsed, and guess what, my sister is voting in Hong Kong as her registration was confirmed a few weeks ago. Interesting.

I was actually very compelled to write about the elections because it's so easy to write something about it now. But I guess you don't need to do with another of those "vote opposition instead of PAP"-esque posts, so I'll keep my comments to myself this time round. If you are really keen to know my view, I'm free for supper after midnight, 7 May.

I was having a chat with a friend and I think we had a very interesting conversation. The following is the excerpt:

Friend: "I will not find a colleague sitting in the same office as me as a girlfriend."
Me: "Why not?"
Friend: "Because chances are due to work arrangements, it will never be possible to do a lot of things together."
Me: "Like what?"
Friend: "For one, it will be very difficult to take leave and go for holiday together. Then if later get married, a bit hard to go honeymoon also."
Me: "Then how?"
Friend: "Make her ask for a transfer, or maybe I'll get a transfer."
Me: "Sounds like a good idea."
Friend: "Better still, if in the future things don't work out, also no need to see each other everyday mah. Less paiseh (Ed: embarrassing) like that."
Me: "But wouldn't it be easier if right from the start you look for someone out of your workplace meh?"
Friend: (after a long pause) "Ya hor."

Nice chatting with friends, sometimes.

Volatile.

2011-05-04T05:38:48Z

Hello. Welcome to my lunchtime ramblings again.

I've decided that I'm going to keep this lunchtime rambling a habit whenever I'm eating my lunch in office. Ever since my usual lunch kakis have moved to other locations, most of the time I would have my lunch alone. Not too bad a choice sometimes, considering that I can have some time on my own to really do what I want to do - to finish up some reading, to have a quick nap, etc. Now I'll just add updating my journal into these lunchtime things-to-do-list. Given that I'm not someone who's too particular about my food, I usually just grab a takeaway lunchbox at the fast food stall opposite my office tower and bring it back to the comfort of my seat. Usually lunch would be a 15-minute job, leaving me with 45 minutes to my own.

As I grow older, I discovered that I'm kind of developing dual characters. On the one side of me, I now tend to keep a lot of comments and opinions to myself, not really getting upset about things or airing these grievances like I used to; but on the other side, I still grumble quite a bit, and still getting irritated very easily. As to when or under which situations would I be displaying traits of one of these characteristics, I have no idea myself too. What do you call such behaviour? Volatile?

Anyway, I would tend to think that it's more of a case of me getting a bit more mellowed than I used to be. Perhaps with more life experiences, I see more, I understand things more, which makes it easier for me to understand and accept things that used to be difficult to swallow. Of course, having a religion works too. Sometimes whenever things get a bit edgy, it's time to look up to the Bible and see what God has to teach me. Of course it's not like you open up a page and then use your finger to point to a verse and say that's the thing that God wants me to learn today, it's about reading the verse, think on it, understand it, and see what that leads you to. I dare not say I'm good at it, and it's something I'm still learning.

May is going to be an exciting month for me in terms of both work and life. Two trips out of Hong Kong to look forward to, having two weeks of the entire family in Hong Kong in the later part of the month, then a lot of interesting events coming up at work... life is getting exciting. There are of course still some worries hovering around at the back of my mind, but I guess I can take them all in my stride because I know who's leading me around.

By the way I think I'll give the AFC Cup match tonight between TSW Pegasus and that Vietnamese team a miss tonight. Perhaps I need a bit of time to get over South China getting knocked out of the competition, though I wouldn't say that I'm overly upset with that. There are perhaps more things in life that I could be upset with.