Questions show the mind's range, and answers its subtlety.
- Joseph Joubert

What irks me about cleaning up after my team member is:
Not only does he forward mistakes to me, he is so eager he forwards them to the customer too.
Then I have to clean up and resend to the customer.
And he doesn't apologise and admit his own mistakes.

Put it this way, he sprinkles raisins on a cake after it's baked and considers it a raisin cake.

Today I phoned my best friend but didn't manage to reach him. Happy birthday, and you've got an incoherent voice mail on your mobile phone. :)

Baking analogy at work. Co-workers were debating over how best to serve an over-sized cake with the most minimal effort. I wasn't paying attention but when I realised they were still thinking of trimming the cake to fit the plate, I leaned over and told them to simply get a bigger plate. Sigh. Bakers seem to understand only ovens and cakes, and plates are too low-tech.

Today I also listened to a new song (Jose Gonzalez's "Crosses") and learnt an English proverb. It says: "A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder." Maybe I won't ever have a quiet conscience then.

Tomorrow is Casual Wear Day in Hong Kong (they have a TV ad on this). Everyone's supposed to dress casual to work to show equality in rank, and along the way we donate money. Hmm.

Haven't had a chance to blog for a few days cos I was away at another HK office. What transpired in the interval was:

Typhoon 3 alert came and left. It's bright and sunny again.

I've watched Jim Jarmusch's latest film "Broken Flowers" starring Bill Murray. Tomorrow night I'm watching a German documentary on the eccentric singer Klaus Nomi at the HK Film Archive.

I've finished reading Neil Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" and bought a Chinese translation of Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore". Surprisingly, I'm able to read it with less difficulty than I had imagined.

Tonight is laundry night and well, that's basically that.

Today I was educated on Hong Kong's typhoon alert number system.

"So it's typhoon 1 alert now?"
"Yes, looks like it may be alert 3 soon. If it hits 8, we won't have to come into work."
"That's still quite far off right?"
Pause.
"You do know there is no alert number between 3 and 8 right?"

There isn't?!

At work, I don't like slackers but I also don't like people who are too eager to throw results back before they think it through. For the latter, I often end up cleaning after them, and they don't understand why I'm not ecstatic with their quick work.

I think I must've mellowed.

My fridge is now slightly better stocked. Last night I bought grapes (which never made it into the fridge cos I finished them), apples (which I remember now that I've forgotten to put into the fridge), milk (low-fat high-calcium) and blueberry yogurt (surrogate ice-cream). I considered celery or carrots cos they can be eaten raw but they looked too hard to be chewed on. I also pondered over the pre-prepared salad mix (everything is shredded already so you just need to toss and add the salad cream), but I'm too bochup to toss.

Anyway, they raised the typhoon 1 signal for the 2nd day in a row and it's not even raining. However the weather forecast here is quite accurate (unlike Singapore, weather here is slightly more exciting) so we shall see.

Read a couple more stories from Neil Gaiman's book and tonight I'm going to a book cafe to listen to an indie folk-pop band called So In Love. Mm yes, dodgy name.

Baking analogy at work. Not only am I overseeing 2 cakes baking in separate countries, I've also resorted to helping customers with their work cos they're lagging behind. Cos I've scheduled one baker to fly in next week, there's logistics to plan, and I've not even thought about flying myself out to the other country, not to say back home. Still, it's all fun.

Finished my second tub of ice-cream last night so I did a guilt remedy run this morning in the gym before work (it's a 36 hr gap, glow! that's nearly alternative days isn't it?).

Saw a book in the bookstore that I nearly bought. It's called "101 things to do before you die". Then I figured I should know by now what I need to do before I die, and it'll be quite pathetic if I weren't doing them already, so I didn't get it.

And I chew gum continuously throughout the day now.. I think I'm addicted. What am I going to do when I relocate back home?!

I've been running more frequently in the building gym. I ran everyday from Sunday till Tuesday, and last night there were 4 people in the gym (which's a record high). Unfortunately, the other guys didn't realise I thrive on running and I sensed they tried to compete though they gave up anyway and left. Now everytime the security guards see me, they ask if I'm going running. Need to watch those knees.

Went back to my apartment and added back what the running took away when I scooped dinner out of an ice-cream tub (chocolate sundae flavour). Woohoo.

You once told me you couldn't imagine life without me. Well, here's a glimpse of life without you.

I've become an incidental wanderer, and dare say I've travelled to more countries than you now. I enjoy travelling alone though sometimes I talk to myself. It's not too bad a price to pay.

I'm still not domesticated. A girlfriend came over to my service apartment and opened my fridge for a look-see. She was flabbergasted to find 2 tubs of ice-cream, 2 instant pound cakes, a pack of tiny tomatoes and lots of mineral water. Yes, I have a kettle but I'll rather buy water than boil it. I also have a frying pan and recipe book lying dormant in my apartment. Haha.

I'm still awkward with kids. But on Saturday when I went to Disneyland (too small but thankfully not too crowded) with a couple and their 6-yr-old niece, I played finger-guessing games with her and she laughed and held my hand voluntarily.

I've developed a knack of sniffing out obscure activities to occupy time. I watched a 7-hr art film last night alone. It was Hungarian director Bela Tarr's Satantango, which American writer Susan Sontag loved so much she hoped she had a chance to watch it once every year of her life. Let's say it's beautifully shot but at such a slow pace I won't hope to watch it once every year of mine.

I still talk to strangers. The girl sitting next to me at the Satantango screening was nodding off so I offered her chewing gum, and later we swapped phone numbers. She told me she's never met a film buff who's a bad person and I found some strange logic in that. I've also met a young boy in my apartment's laundry room who helped me look after my laundry more than once when I wasn't in time to collect it. I guess I'm lucky when it comes to strangers.

I'm curious to try out new food places. Over the weekend, I ate the roast goose at Yun Kee restaurant (recommended by Fortune magazine); the egg tart at the Honolulu Island Cafe (listed on a tourist map); and tiramisu at Fat Angelo's (not so much cos it was voted one of the best restaurants in Hong Kong in 2003 and 2004, but because I was on a subway train and a little girl came onboard with a Fat Angelo's stick-on tattoo on her chubby arm and she looked damn cute).

Now I think falling in love is like catching flu. Though I've not vaccinated myself against it, I'm more inclined to weather it out till it's gone. At the current moment, I will consider my state as healthy without a trace of flu.

I don't miss you, but rather the idea of you.
Hope everything is fine in your world.

I had dinner last night with friends.. they were a Singaporean couple who came to attend a wedding in Hong Kong. I still have the slightly surreal feeling meeting fellow countrymen here and showing them around, like I belong here. My project fate is still uncertain, but this weekend I'll be going to Disneyland, attending the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in Victoria Park, and watching that epic 8 hour Bela Tarr movie VJ swore people should fly in to watch.

Just realised how Sufjan Stevens got his name. Sufjan (pronounced Suf-yan) is an Armenian word that means "comes with a sword". Amazing.

Last night, I ran at the gym for the 2nd night in a row and went back to my room to read "Smoke and Mirrors", a collection of fiction by Neil Gaiman (one of my birthday gifts). Tonight I'm going with a girlfriend to Happy Valley to check out horseracing. Not bad.

Weather hasn't turned cool yet, it's just warm days without rain. Hopefully it holds.

A library is thought in cold storage.
- Herbert Samuel, politician and diplomat (1870-1963)

So my childhood dream to be a librarian can actually be replaced by being a check-out girl at Cold Storage? Hmm yes, flippant and uncalled for. :P

Why is it only Tuesday?

...prepared in innocence to meet our king of glory
and so we have this
you have it in your secret windows
and you're understanding to understand it and to bring it forth
it takes minute detail
it takes a holy life
it takes emotions
it takes dedication
it takes dedication
it takes a death
and only god can allow it
and you couldn't do it if you're not the seed of god
and so the path through the great corridors
these are corridors unto his perfection
that is which the prophet and the oarman summoned has penetrated
that through this great sea of blackness
that i penetrated through these corridors
and i went through that last segment
where i went through these dark serpentines
i passed through that corridor
where they sat
where they are
and when you penetrate to the most high god
you will believe you are mad
you will believe you've gone insane
but i tell you if you follow the secret window
and you die to the ego nature
you will penetrate this darkness
oh yes there's many a man or woman
that's been put in the insane asylum
when this has happened to them
and they're sitting there today, people think they're insane
but they saw something that's real
and they see it when they're on drugs
the only thing is they see it
not through the light of god, and the way i show you
i show you to see it through the light of god
and the understanding of god
because when you see the face of god you will die
and there will be nothing left of you
except the god-man, the god-woman
the heavenly man, the heavenly woman
the heavenly child
there will be terror under this day of night
there will be a song of jubilee waiting for your king
there will be nothing you will be looking for in this world
except for your god
this is all a dream
a dream in death

and so i went through that window
and the tower of hell and the great serpentines of the highest order
and i went through that when i showed you chart #3
the question is asked and learned and someone who....
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hungover as the Queen in Maida Vale

The morning after my birthday, I put my iPod on shuffle and it coughed up an epic song by Godspeed You! Black Emperor called "Hungover as the Queen in Maida Vale". It's a whopping 18 min 10 sec song, with a voice-over probably only after 10 min in. Amongst other things, the voice said: "This is all a dream".

Exactly.

For my last 2 visits back to Singapore, I've gone to eat Yat Kun kaya toast (but no fried carrot cake or char kway teow, though I've managed to sneak in laksa). When I watched Eric Khoo's "Be With Me" on Sunday, the closeups on the food made me drool.

Learnt more Cantonese slang. To study in a single-sex school is referred to as "sek zai", or to be vegetarian. To study in single-sex schools all the way is "ho zai", or very vegetarian.

Did more Cantonese boo-boo. I mentioned that gays are more acceptable in Hong Kong, because "gay hei" (gay films) are often banned in Singapore. Everyone got thrown off for a while, before someone realised I wasn't talking about "gay hei" (machines in Cantonese). Then fearing my lack of understanding in Cantonese, I was asked in Mandarin if Singaporeans are very "chun" (pure in Mandarin). However, I echoed "Chuen?" (which meant dumb in Cantonese). Suffice to say I've definitely let our country down. lol.

Oh, and I maybe going to Disneyland this weekend with a Singaporean couple I know. I bet it's going to be packed but since I don't yet know my fate in Hong Kong, it's best to visit places while I still have a chance.

BK breakfast at the airport and now blogging before boarding. This time it's a one-way ticket cos I've no idea when I'll be back and where I'll be flying in from. Just now while I was flipping through my passport, I realise I've actually been to 4 countries since my last birthday, not 3. I need sleep.

Over and out for now.

I have the nicest friends who go out of their way for my sake. :)
Thank you, I hope never to take you all for granted.

My 2nd generation iPod has a weird problem now. Its battery will die when I try to transfer new music over from my laptop, so I'm stuck with the 17GB of music which currently resides in it. To change the battery will cost about the price of an iPod shuffle, so I guess when I'm back for good, I can consider upgrading my iPod. But I'm still reluctant to give up the current one which has served me so well. :(

Since my last birthday, I'm on my 3rd job and travelled to my 3rd country. I've no idea what next year's will bring, but life is full of possibilities isn't it?

Thank you everyone for making this birthday so memorable. :) It's times like this that I am reminded of why I persist in flying home, even just for the weekend. If only you were all in Hong Kong.

5am in the morning and I've uploaded my HK pictures finally. You can check them out at Flickr. Don't do the slideshow though, or you won't be able to read the descriptions on the pictures.

4am in the morning and

I'm wondering how blogging by email will look like.

I have a young colleague in the Hong Kong office who loves taking pics using the camera on my mobile phone. Sometimes when I leave my mobile phone on my desk and go away, I'll come back to find strange pictures she's taken on it.

Every year I've 2 criteria for my birthday:
1) to be in Singapore, and
2) not to be working.

Cos of this strange logic, this year I got a late flight out of Hong Kong and found myself in a taxi queue at Changi airport, with a million people in front of me just moments before midnight (and my birthday). By then I was determined not to cross over midnight amongst strangers, so I phoned Dave in order to well, talk me over this duration. So he did and I made it. :)

To solve my comments problem, I switched blog template. And it's about time really.

Yesterday I told my building security guards I'm taking a trip back home tomorrow. My exact words were "Ngor tin yat fan home". As you can tell, the last word is English. It took them a while to understand me before one blurted out, "Fan home? Like ET fan home?" lol.

Can't stand men with ego problems who can't tolerate female bosses and think I'm competing with them. Relax lah. I'm just trying to finish my work so I can go home. But just the other day, when a key user placed her arm around my shoulders to tell others how she appreciated my hard work, everything felt worth it. Or maybe I should just stick to the project in Hong Kong.

And then there's 5 things I can't figure out about:
1. Why you turned vegetarian.
2. Why you asked during lunch if I were depressed, as if you saw through my cheerful front.
3. Why you work so hard, and why I know absolutely nothing about you outside work.
4. Why you're so popular and yet aloof.
5. Why I bother.

As you can see, after I've removed my old Blogback comments, I've screwed up all comments. :(

Yesterday I met up a friend for dinner, and we went shopping afterwards. At a shoe store, we tried on 2-3 pairs of shoes while the storekeeper was busy yakking on his phone. When we made to leave, he stopped me to ask for tissue to wipe the inside of the shoe I was trying on. This is the rudest gesture ever! It wasn't even branded shoes to begin with, and he knew I knew he was putting me down. Asshole. I've learnt some rude replies in Cantonese I can hurl back but what the heck.

We went a few shops further and I bought myself a top instead.

I've not planned any trips home after this coming weekend cos I know I've got to schedule work trips to Thailand some time soon though I haven't. I do love to procrastinate.

Cooking? Not yet.
TV? Following OC every night (nearly) faithfully now.
Reading? A book on Cantonese slang (based on Hong Kong movie lingo; my colleagues kept giggling as they circulated this book, so I guess it must be really rude)

It may sound odd, but one thing I appreciate about being me is I know how to amuse myself when I'm alone.

On Saturday I joined a free 2-hour architectural tour round Central, organised by volunteer architects. The English tour was fully booked so I opted for the Mandarin one, but I ended up being the only person in that tour. The strange thing is the architect leading the Mandarin tour realised I was reasonably conversant in Cantonese, so he did the tour in Cantonese instead. It was much better than the English tour as he could chat with me rather than conduct a one-sided lecture.

We strode round looking at buildings, and talked about: the use of bamboo poles in Hong Kong construction; the idea of increasing human traffic through Hong Kong buildings by connecting them via bridges as opposed to other countries' concept of open spaces between buildings (and it's the building owners who paid for these bridges, not the government!); and the more liberal government regulations which forbade building owners from chasing away the public who loiter under the buildings on weekends (namely the foreign maids.. Causeway Bay is the haven for Indonesian maids while the Filipinos gather in Central). I went up the Bank of China building designed by I M Pei (the sharp angled building which looks like a blade) and compared that with the HSBC building (built like a suspension bridge so there are no columns within the middle of it, so one could actually see through the entire building).

After the architectural tour, I took a ferry to Cheung Chau (the island where the cartoon pig McDull went to look for his teacher and learnt to eh, snatch buns) and walked round the place. It was like Hong Kong way back in the 70's, and a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong now.

To round off the day, I went to an indie concert on the far side of Kowloon too. The opening act was a Hong Kong indie rock band called Oliver (who sang in English), and the main act was a Taiwanese indie rock band called Echo (who sang in Mandarin). Both lead singers were guys who wore white shirts, narrow ties and jeans, and the music was surprisingly better than I expected. I'm definitely going for more of these.

Oh, and I also stumbled onto my favourite cafe in Hong Kong. It's within walking distance of my service apartment, and it's filled with cats owned by the cafe owner. Basically cats will roam the cafe and climb into your lap or onto your table imperiously, and allow you to stroke them if you're lucky. I was lucky. :)

Still not met with Steamboy (he works on Saturday too) but I've met the gorgeous lawyer girl again for tea and dinner. She's starting work this Wednesday though, and after that I'm afraid she'll be too snowed under to meet. Oh well, there's a price to working in this country.

And it's Monday again.

Because I knew he would understand, I told Chuan that when people say don't count your chicks before they're hatched, I've gone beyond that. I've stopped counting. And he replied that for people like us, enjoying the moment may be the next best thing.

Baking analogy at work. Our cake is ready to be served but we're not given the go-ahead to take it out of the oven. So we've just switched off the oven and left the cake inside, while we wait for approval. Bizarre, but I've got other cakes to mind.

Ironing Board sounds weird. I'm going to rename him Steam Boy instead (cos there's no iron without steam right? Hahaha!). Well I've not had dinner with Steam Boy, but I came back to the apartment building early from work yesterday and was introduced by the guards to a young gorgeous female lawyer staying there too. On impulse, I asked her out for dinner and she agreed, so we had a lovely time trying out a new eating place. She also showed me some other eating places to try (Fat Angelo's for the tiramisu, the Macau restaurant for the egg tart etc).

All in all, a wonderful start to the weekend.

While chatting with the security guards yesterday, they showed me a name list of all the tenants in the building and I finally found out the name of my next-door neighbour (henceforth referred to as Hottie). The guards told me Hottie is Eurasian and speaks a bit of Cantonese, and they advised me to bake a cake for him so I can introduce myself; and if I don't dare to, I can offer them the cake instead. lol. The guards are so much fun to talk to.

Oh, and I made my first friend in the building. He's an Aussie Chinese I met in the lift a couple of nights ago, carrying an ironing board he's purchased back up to his room. I looked at the board and couldn't resist saying, "There's an ironing board in the laundry room, you know". Then he sighed and we whinged upon buying mismatched bedsheets on our first night there, before I made it to my floor and stepped out of the lift. And I didn't see him again till this morning in the lift.

Sidenote about those lifts (which I've demonstrated to the guards too on their mysterious time zones): the 3 lifts in my building don't have a central button to summon them, ie. the button you press only activates the lift next to it. Hence, sometimes I'll do the evil routine of pressing every button and stepping into the first lift that arrives.

So this morning I did this and stepped in the lift to find Ironing Board (yes, what a shame I've to assign him this nickname). We said hi and then I carried on to greet everyone who stepped in on the other floors (including a schoolboy who's starting his first day of school today and held the front door open for me later, sweetie!).

[I don't know why I've this compulsive habit to greet people in a) hotel/ apartment lifts b) in the mornings c)in foreign countries.]

Anyway, Ironing Board stayed back to chat with me as we left the building and we decided to do dinner one of these days. :)