Blitz post in 10 minutes before a meeting.

Over the weekend.
I watched a german documentary entitled "Rhythm is it", which is about teaching 250+ ordinary teenagers to dance to Stravinsky's "Rite of spring" (hope I got that right). Really enjoyed it, especially the interview with a 19 year old boy who admitted that he's a loner and dancing was difficult for him as it was necessary for him to touch other people in dance.

Realised then that I am a loner too, no matter how friendly I am with people. Perhaps I talk to people more due to curiosity than any craving for their company.

I spent only 4 hours at Macau (during which I tried the original Yee Shun steamed milk concoction, and took 3 buses to get around). Thereafter I came back to Hong Kong to watch Hou Hsiao Hsien's latest film "Three Times", which has 3 love stories set in 1966, 1911 and 2005 (I only like the 1966 segment).

I also went with friends here to the Ocean Park Halloween bash. The feel here is better than Disneyland, or perhaps as someone aptly pointed out to me, it's cos there were no mainland China tourists cutting queues here.

Oops. Time's up.

Kindness is when someone sends you songs you've asked for, even though they won't be bothered to listen to them. Thanks! Too bad they can't go into my iPod till I get back home.

I often go for morning runs before the building gym is even open, so I've established a routine of going down to the lobby to ask for key no. 15 (yes I've memorised the gym key number). I also bring my own room's air-con remote to turn on the gym's air-con, to reduce hassle for the security guards.

Then after my run, I'll go back to my room, shower, have a light breakfast (mostly yogurt), and then walk to work with my iPod on shuffle in one hand, and an apple in the other. Along the way, I'll pick up a free Chinese newspapers from the subway entrance and when I hit the office, I'll make myself a cup of coffee I seldom finish drinking.

I don't know about you, but simple routines make me content.

Did 29km in 5 runs during the past week. There's a charity sedan chair race here in mid November where 8 runners will carry a sedan chair seating a passenger, and I can be a support runner if I want (to run alongside). I don't think so but I'll definitely go take a look.

Baking analogy at work today. Someone served the styrofoam mock-up cake as the real one to customers, and I'm now doing damage control. Luckily the folks here have a sense of humour.

Baking analogy at work.

I miss my previous batch of bakers who're cooperative, nice and smart. My current batch is either too rigid ("Why should I add icing to the cake? It's not difficult but it's also not in my recipe!") or too dumb (when we ran out of cake boxes, this type of baker will use another bakery's cake box as it is to place our cake in.. without changing the brand on the cake box).

No wonder I feel more empathy for my customers than my bakers in this current job.

Over the weekend.
I watched Johnny To's "Election" (especially good to hear it in its original Cantonese). Got asked for proof of age twice by the ticket seller and usher, both who explained to me that this film is Category III. Yes but hello, the age limit for Category III is 18?! Sigh.

Went gallivanting everywhere. Visited Sai Kung (seaside town, also with a Tin Hau temple), Wong Dai Sin (famous temple to seek fortune-telling, but no I didn't), Chi Lin Nunnery (beautiful and zen-looking, with a feel more Japanese than Chinese) and Sam Shui Po (electronic goods wholesale market). Also tried the Katong Laksa here (nearly authentic 'cept they don't have the thick bee hoon and substituted it with glass noodles), and gave up queuing for the famous Tai Cheong egg tarts (which Governor Patten used to love).

The weather here seemed to have changed overnight, like a giant air-conditioner was turned on by mother nature. Lovely. Hope I've got adequate clothing for this though.

As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.
- Calvin Trillin

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.
- Cyril Connolly

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
- Robert Frost

What happened between the last post and this one:

I went to Thailand and missed Hong Kong when I was there. Yup, not Singapore, but Hong Kong. Everyday in Thailand was spent shuttling between the hotel and the office, and each time the cab driver didn't know how to get to our destination. Attended teleconferences there as well, and missed the ones which took place while I was transiting between countries. I really didn't see much of Thailand after all.

I got home and discovered that my US travelmate left me: 2 bottles of beer, 1 lime, 2 containers of yogurt, a stack of magazines and a tube of hair conditioner. lol. Thanks dear!

Last weekend, we went to my usual cat cafe as well a dog cafe. There were only 4 dogs in the dog cafe and they were hyperactive. They also yelped a lot and weren't as accessible as the cats. The cat cafe beats the dog one hands down. But then I've just discovered a new dog cafe featuring 4 dogs too, this time including a St. Bernard. Maybe I should go check it out this weekend.

During my trip to Thailand, I had a few interesting conversations with a Hong Kong colleague. One topic we talked about most was the difference between Singaporeans and Hong Kongers. In Hong Kong, they have these ads for tuition agencies where the teachers will pose like glam models, and they'll claim that their track record is students scoring 50 A's, 100 B's and 500 C's (ie. high pass rate). I told my colleague that these ads won't fly in Singapore. First of all, we don't trust glam-looking teachers. Next, in Singapore the track record will have to be reversed, like 500 A's, 100 B's and 50 C's (meaning high score rate rather than high pass rate).

I'm just glad it's coming up to the weekend. Maybe it's time for another trip to an outlying island.

Baking analogy at work.
"Let me get this straight: on top of my current work, you want me to write a recipe.
For a cake which has already been baked, and won't be baked again.
For a cake which I didn't bake, and am not sure what the recipe should be.
Just for the sake of filing the recipe?"
"Well, yeah."

I like bantering with the security guards. I like watching them play chinese chess late at night as they egged each other on to make stupid chess moves. I like scrutinizing the security cameras with them to check out who's cute in the apartment building. I like standing around the building lobby, munching on a fruit the guards have offered me and watching people come and go.

I think an alternative career for me besides being a receptionist may actually be a security guard. lol.

Baking analogy at work today. A baker has absentmindedly taken from another baker's ingredients to bake her own cake, and not informed the latter. I found this utterly irresponsible especially when we all have short leadtimes here. Plus why is it that the bakers don't know what one another is doing when they're all sitting in the same room, and need to keep tabs via me who's sitting in another country?

Today I got so mad listening to this crap in a teleconference that I was literally shaking. How can people be so selfish in a project team?

"How Can I Describe A Place So Dark That Life Has Lost Its Face?"
- the most interesting line I've read today.

Granted today is only 8am in the morning, but believe me, I know.

Next week I'm going to the land of smiles. I remember my first trip there was about 10 years back, and the drive to the project office took about an hour. We actually held meetings in the mini-van during transit, 'cept writing minutes in a moving vehicle made me nauseous. Surprisingly unlike my friends, I've not gone there for leisure yet. It's going to be a hit and run trip this time too.

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
- H.L. Mencken

Last minute desperate shopping at Changi airport for foodstuffs to bring back for Hong Kong folks. Actually I've brought darn near everything back before, so there's only those cheesy Merlion cookies left. I almost bought them too, 'cept I flipped the box over to see the manufacturing details. It was printed clearly: "Made in Malaysia". Great. The Hong Kong folks would have never let me live it down, so I passed on the foodstuff.

Blogging while listening to Depeche Mode's "Useless" on auto-repeat at the airport.

Nearly there.
Nearly.

I went jogging outdoors the morning of my flight back to Hong Kong. Mum thought it was too hot but I've not let the heat stop me before. When I got to my usual route, I found that they've repainted the tarmac so the length of the path was clearly marked. We used to suspect that the path was shorter than its supposed 2km (each way), but now I realise it's actually nearly 100m longer.

I bought a round mother-of-pearl shell ring this trip home. It was an impulsive buy while waiting for a friend, and I jokingly lamented to the sales lady that I have more rings than I'll ever need. She said that there're never too many, as long as you can look at your fingers and smile sometimes. So I'm wearing this shell ring back to Hong Kong, just for smiles.

It seems I've taken so many flights back and forth now that I've got flight schedules at the tip of my fingers. I'm just too lazy to haul myself off alone to the airport now but I know I soon shall.

It's a sunny quiet day. You can't ask for much more than this.

Before she left for the other place, the magician's assistant sat on a rock and rested there, cupping her face in one hand. The magician saw and came to squat beside her, so they could talk face to face. She liked it that he did this instinctively, but perhaps it was because he understood more than the rest what she does.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "It's going to be a longer trip this time."
She didn't acknowledge him. She didn't have to.
He carried on. "You know I have no control over where you go. You're just back when you're back."
"I know," she said.
It was his turn to be silent.

And then it was time to go.

I bought the latest Neil Gaiman novel "Anansi Boys" and watched Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" today. I'm lagging behind reading the newspapers though.

I've permed my hair again but my hair-stylist made the curls so mild that my hair seemed merely naturally wavy. And it's ironic that my skin isn't used to the humidity and is breaking out here while nothing's wrong with it in Hong Kong.

I didn't blog about being back in Singapore cos I wanted to relax this trip. I don't plan to come back again till my project is over in maybe December, but I'm no longer sure. I wish I can celebrate Oktoberfest before I go but it's too late.

And yes, the photos I've taken are with my camera phone. Isn't it amazing the quality of photos the little gadget can produce? Bro said my photos reminded him of those dad used to take, and I'm glad.

Today I transferred Depeche Mode tunes into my iPod. A drinking buddy of mine kept obssessing over Depeche Mode's "It's No Good", and would often burst into the first few lines of the song. I heard him sing it again on Saturday night and suddenly it's stuck in my head as well.

"I'm gonna take my time.. I have all the time in the world."

But I don't.

I don't know how we were all high on drinks and still ended up with 53 photos on my camera phone but we did. I can't remember the exact sequence of the pictures and who took what, but I had fun. It's wonderful to be able to drink with friends.

Just transferred 1530 songs, which translates to 9.05GB of music into my new 60GB iPod. Now I can wash up and prepare for bed, but I think there's that brunch at 10am I'm going to be late for. Oops.

The second installment of my photos in Hong Kong.

There's a promotion for free entry to Happy Valley race course for the whole of October. Hottie (who turned out to be a young Tahitian, and the first Tahitian I've ever met actually) and I went for 2 out of 8 races there on Wednesday night. Basically it's a lot of waiting round for each race to begin, but we had fun drinking beer and betting (on a horse which didn't win, alas).

Life in brief.
Yesterday when I got back to my apartment, the hottie next door was just leaving his room and said hi. He thought I was Filipino (damn the tan!) and told me he's part French. Anyway, he asked me for dinner tonight and I told him I plan to go watch horse racing, so now we're both going dinner and horse racing tonight. And a security guard gave me hot tips on 2 horses to bet on, just for fun. Finally! After 3 unsuccessful attempts to watch horse racing [(a) friend was ill, (b) another friend had to attend a late night teleconference, and (c) the race track was closed], I'm really going to the races!

There's a model couple staying in my apartment building and they're probably the most beautiful people here. The male model looks like Beckham. Really.

A colleague in the office saw the DVD I bought ("The Straight Story") and immediately recalled that the director was David Lynch. I was stunned. People here never cease to amaze me.

Glow mentioned that he's got HKD5.20 spare change, and asked if that could get him anything. I replied that it wouldn't get him chewing gum, and not to say a drink. On hindsight, you CAN get an egg tart with that amount, but just not at the airport. :)

My iPod battery has deteriorated to the extent that after it's fully charged, it can only play half an hour of music.

What I read in Hong Kong (besides my own stash of books).

On weekday mornings, I'll pick up a free copy of the Chinese morning newspapers on my way to work. Every Monday night, I'll buy a copy of Touch, which is a local weekly Chinese magazine which circulates every Tuesday. Then every Wednesday night, I'll buy a copy of Milk, which is another local weekly Chinese magazine which circulates every Thursday. It's from these local magazines that I find out about the independent music and obscure art events I frequent, as well as local street fashion I can't bring myself to adopt.

Later in the week, I'll switch to reading English. On Friday, I'll pick up a weekly copy of HK Magazine, and sometimes the fortnightly issue of BC Magazine. And to wrap the week up, I'll read my Sunday South China Post faithfully.

To know another language is to have a second soul.
-Charlemagne, King of the Franks (742-814)

Over the weekend, I watched Stanley Kwan's "Everlasting Regret". The set design was beautiful but Sammi's Mandarin made me cringe. Bought the novel to read instead (yes in Chinese, I'm ambitious).

I also went to an obscure book fair held by an artist community called Cattle Depot, attended an independent label's music concert, shopped, visited a cafe which plays old Jazz classics and serves different types of bread, and went hiking at Lamma island. The only activity I didn't do alone was having dinner with the lawyer girlfriend in my building last night, but to be frank, I do like being by myself.

Woke up on Sunday morning with a tune running through my head which I knew was on my iPod. I couldn't remember which song it was, but it's one of those seemingly chirpy ones with sad lines. Then I scrolled through my iPod till I found it.. the Magic Numbers' "Forever Lost". Once I found the song, order was restored in my world again, and it didn't matter that I don't know where I'll be in the next few months or that my life seems on hold till I do.