Back to work...but...

there's no internet!!!!!

Yes, it's right. There's an earthquake in Taiwan last night, and even people in HK could feel it (not including me though...I was already quite dizzy myself after taking coughing pills all day...) Some tele-cables underseas were broken, and it affects internet, long-distance calls, etc. The internet is slow, and I can't (slowly) log in gmail and browse my own blog until now.

And yes, I kept coughing and I could hardly speak until now. But then my knee hurts again, I guess, because of the cold weather. I think I need to see a doctor soon.

Merry Christmas

114 for Leong, the race for chief is on

This is the headline of the South China Morning Post today.

I always like the headings of English newspapers over the Chinese ones. This heading makes you think the whole town is in the heat of the Chief Executive election in March next year, while in fact no one really cares, or NO ONE CAN CARE except the 800 members of the Election Committee who can vote in the election (well, unless you are going to participate in the civil referendum).

I belong to the social welfare sector. It's interesting enough that all of the candidates from the Social Welfare Department and many of the agency heads lost. I guess that's life when most of the voters are frontline social workers.

The last time we had an "election" for CE was ten years ago. The 2nd election in 2002 and the by-election last year was uncontested (!!). While I might not be absolutely in favour of Leong, I sure do to want to see a competition.

Election Committee Sub-sectors Elections 2006

This is the first time I voted at a "small circle" election. Even though I don't agree on it, I think it's important to make sure those I support are in and those I don't are out.

P.S. Today's the International Human Rights Day. What a coincident.

Article 21(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.

Maintenance

The estate I live in is under major maintenance (changing new tiles on the outside building walls) lately. This is how it looks like now. We, the people, not the cars, need to "de-tour" going in and out of the buildings. Last Saturday, I almost couldn't find my way back home after having breakfast at the shopping mall!

It's raining... ...

... ... outside, right now, at the end of November... ...

It has been raining almost every day since mid-November. There's even yellow thunder storm couple of weeks ago. Yes, in November. It usually rains very suddenly and heavily, at night, and stops quickly too. It always catch me by surprise, as I seldom bring an umbrella.

We already has the hottest October and November, and we are likely to have the most rainy November in record!

Family Reception Counter Simulation Exercise

I participated in an airport drill organized by the Airport Authority this morning. Kind of disappointed. Good that we seldom have aircraft crash, or I am quite sure the AA can't handle it. Funny things this morning:

1. The scenario was about a plane from Taiwan to Macau, and it got something wrong and had to detour to HK in the middle, and somehow it had problems when it landed. We were the friends and relatives coming from Macau to check out our families or friends. Can you imagine that no staff in the drill could speak Mandarin, when the plane was from Taiwan?

2. Not only Mandarin, the staff didn't speak English either. Not until I complained that we had real Japanese volunteers in the drill who didn't speak Cantonese that the staff started speaking English and Cantonese.

3. Even if they spoke English, they didn't speak clear English. The staff making announcement couldn't differentiate "13" and "30" in English. When she said "13A", I thought it's "38" and there were only 20 banquet tables for the families and friends to gather and wait!!!!!

4. You might think I shouldn't make fun of others' English. But when the only mean you could find your families and friends was listening to their broken English announcement (no signs, no notice broads, etc.), you could imagine how frustrated the real families could be.

5. One volunteer's role was to ask for a priest so she could pray. When she prayed, she asked God for more wisdom to the airport staff!

6. When the staff called the first group of families to the reunion room to find their relatives, she said "wait at the exit THERE", and there're two exits. When she's short and there were plenty of people around, we couldn't even know where's the announcement came from (they liked to make announcement from different places in the ballroom every time!) and of course we couldn't know where's "there".

... ...

Many other things too. There's a nurse in our group and she said the drill done by the Hospital Authority is much more serious and real!

I am confused...

...with the date, the day of the week... I only know what I need to do the following day, and what're left undone...

...very confused...

Terribly busy!!!!!!

Busy both at work and at leisure.

Here are a list of things I am working at after office hours:

1. Mandarin -- Mandarin class started again on 11 Nov. Busy busy. Have to pass the national exam by July next year. Busy studying.

2. The Historian -- Finally gets to a point that's exciting and approaching the end. Want to finish it ASAP to start a new book...or devote the time for Mandarin as well...

3. Red Cross -- I joined the psychological first aid team. Just finished the five-session course and have a take home exam within a month. I will participate in the airport drill next Monday. Will tell you more about the volunteer service after the drill.

4. Baby sweater -- Far from finish and Christmas is approaching!!!!!!!!!!!

5. Drama -- A few shows coming during the next few weeks.

Busy busy!!!!!

Welcome home!

If you have a habit of visiting my blog regularly, you should have noticed that I haven't post anything during the last week or so. It's because my home computer broke and I took it to the Samsung maintenance immediately. It stayed there for about a week, and only came home tonight.

Welcome back!

I almost finish installing everything back and everything should be back to business from now on.

P.S. Happy belated b-day to Alice and Rose! Couldn't do anything without the computer last week. Hope you have had a great time.

Not getting any better

This blog becomes my medical record again.

My allergy not only doesn't get any better, but is getting worse. I think the main reason is because I wore long pants and I kept walking all day from 7am till 3pm or 4pm. My pants scratched with my thighs and the irritation could only become worse.

So, I tried to make a doctor's appointment in the morning...but...my doctor's taking a week's off this whole week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!! She's almost the only doctor I trust in the whole world and she's not with me when I need her so desperately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My goodness!!!!!!!!!!

I tried calling other doctors but not successful (long story). I ended up went to the St. Paul Hospital out-patient as in last time when I got allergy.

The doctor said I didn't have any problem with my heart and lung functions (!), and I didn't seem to be food poisoned either. It also didn't look like eczema (濕疹). He gave me some pills and cream for these couple of days. If it didn't go out, I would need to see a specialist.

Hope I don't need to see the doctor again.

Unknown allergy

I got some unknown allergy again today on my thighs, the left side is worse than the right and evening seems to be worse than in the morning and afternoon... ...

:~

This time, I didn't eat anything unusual. So it shouldn't be food poisoning.

After discussing with friends and colleagues, I have two hypothesises:

1. The dry weather -- my friend told me she had similar problem when she's in Edmonton cause the weather is dry. (...I didn't need to use any lotion even in winter during those days...but of course...I was only at my early early 20s... :P

2. Mixed use of baby oil and body lotion -- I used both baby oil and body lotion on my thighs this morning...because I found the skin there very dry, so I doubled up the moisture protection... There's no problem in other parts of my body where I only used either one.

I have a third hypothesis when I am back home:

I had used a new formula of White Flower Embrocation (with nicer smell) yesterday. Actually I have been using it since last Saturday, but I had used more yesterday since I got some mosquito bites when I slept...

... many suspect ...

I will stop using baby oil, may be the White Flower Embrocation too, for now, since my friend said baby oil's no good. I will go see a doctor tomorrow after work if I don't get any better.

OK. Time for ER, and I will sleep after that. I need to be at the Convention Centre tomorrow at 7:30am!!!!!

Mouse

Today, I disconnected the mouse and see if I can survive without that.

The main reason for not using a mouse is my desk is too small. Getting rid of it would save me a little more space. Second, should be more important but actually not the main reason this time, is more wrist hurts again.

It all begins when I was working on my MSW dissertation back in 2002. I had to rush it through the deadline, and I wrote much more than required. The worst part was I got lots of tables (more than 40 or may be even more) in my dissertation. I kept using the mouse to drag the information here and there, change format to make them easier to read, etc.; and at the end my right wrist hurt so much that I couldn't even hold a pen. I thought I couldn't write any more.

Then, it gets much better later on, but it hurts again one day when I woke up last week. May be I am doing to much knitting lately (yes, knitting and knitting to rush the a Christmas present for a pair of twin boys). I hope not using the mouse and depending on commands can be a relief for my wrist.

So, I am going to the doctor again this Friday. Have to prepare for it. I guess after this visit, I shouldn't need to go again anymore until the next pain hits me. My knee's getting better and better, except walking up and downhill too much, and after the first half hour of the stretching class. However, I also notice that since I am not doing enough "exercise" (well, I didn't do any in the past, but at least I used the stair!) for a year, I am not as "strong" as in the past. It's hard work simply walking a few steps up.

P.S.(1) Back to work tomorrow, after Chung Yang Festival long weekend. No more public holiday until Christmas :(

P.S.(2) I am reading "The Historian". Critics said it's comparable to the Da Vinci Code, but I find it not as attractive though. I will try to find a copy of 1984 to prepare for the HK Arts Festival next year (there's a 1984 drama performance). Last time I read it was in Grade 12 as English 30 reading, and I am twice as old now! My goodness.

The bird outside the office

Can you see a bird outside the window?

I heard a bird singing while I was at work this afternoon. Our office is at the 10/F, so very often we can see birds flying beside us outside the window. At first, I thought the bird would fly away soon. However, it kept singing for a while, so I stood up and looked out the window -- oh, there you were!

So I took up my mobile, turned it on and took this picture. I tried to zoom in more but by that time the bird was gone.

The bird sang for longer than a minute. Nice music in the middle of a boring afternoon.

Can't wait to show you this

My 2007 Elmo diary!

I saw more than 10 different sorts of Sesame Street diaries at UNY tonight. Never see so much at once before, and I stood there for quite a while before I could finally make up my mind. Too bad they are not in different years :(

I think I will take a picture with Elmo :P

杏花新城芝麻街We嘩大派對

內容：表演及教小朋友製作芝麻街面具、南瓜及填色等攤位遊戲，並有Elmo與Ernie跟小朋友見面

日期：10月29日(周日)

時間：下午2:30至3:30

地點：杏花村杏花新城

P.S. That's the shopping centre at the housing estate I live.

Oh my god!

...... I lost my bank card again. Have to check with the bank tomorrow to see if there's any strange transaction.

...... oh my god!

Dangerous!

The previous tenant of our new apartment had left owing our landlord a few months of rent. Today, we received a letter from the mailbox asking the previous tenant to pay for their debt and it's the last call, in big red Chinese characters (It reads 欠債還$$$，最後通知 with the names of the tenant and a phone number).

Mom had already informed the landlord, and I will tell the security guard tomorrow morning, and probably will call the police just in case as well. Mom will be going for an Europe trip for 11 days and it will be just me in the house. Have to be very careful.

yeah yeah yeah! i will receive my pink ipod nano tomorrow!

So I will be very available if you buy me breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, late night snack, etc :P

P.S. Extremely tired after stretching class tonight, a sub teacher teaching something entirely different.

P.P.S. Mandarin exam on 22 October. Still haven't start studying :( Nervous.

Thumbs up for HP technical support

OK. After an one-week long struggle, I finally fixed my all-in-one HP Officejet 4355. I haven't installed the driver yet, but at least it doesn't tell me "paper jam" any more and I can hook up with the phone now. Never imagine this kind of telephone technical support can work. I planned to bring it to the maintenance at the beginning.

Also thumbs up to the frontline staff of the Leisure and Cultural Service Department. I am an annual pass holder for LCSD museums. Staff there are always so nice and cheerful and of course very helpful too. They always make my experience there extra fantastic. Also big thanks to the library girl (also under LCSD) who made all the troubles to make a roving exhibition of mine possible around major public libraries in HK. Although it's part of her work, by pushing her alone I know it's a very ignoring and tedious job. I think I should write to the Director of LCS to compliment her (or his? can't remember) staff.

The day after Mid-Autum Festival

I had lunch at the flagship store of Charlie Brown Cafe at TST today, on my way to the Science Museum. The best thing of the Cafe is it didn't have many customers around 12:30pm to 1pm so I could have a nice sip of coffee and read some pages of book.

I then visited the DNA exhibition at the Science Museum. It isn't so good in the sense that you could read all the materials from a book and don't need to go to the exhibition.

However, I saw that the Illusion exhibition is part of the regular exhibit now, although in a much smaller scale. If you haven't visited it when it's on, I strongly recommend you to go. It's simply amazing and fun.

I then went to the History Museum just across the platform. There's no special exhibition today but I always like the regular exhibit of "Hong Kong Story". Again, if you haven't been there before, I strongly recommend you go at least once. It's so fun. It's already the fourth time I was there. Last time I had to leave in the middle cause it needed to close for the day. Although it's a regular exhibit, I think some of the items are new that I have never seen them before. Lots of students were at the two Museums for school works, and the History Museum is always full of tourists. I plan to visit the Heritage Museum after Mandarin exam on 22 October. There are some interesting exhibitions going on there, but it's so far far away for me that I have to plan ahead and find a date that those I want to see are on at the same time.

Festival dinner tonight. I wanted to buy that small cheese whole cake with the sugar Charlie Brown on the top. But when I looked at the price closely, the sugar Charlie Brown piece is charged I bought some cakes from the Charlie Brown Cafe for dessert as we are having Mid-Autumn HK$30 extra!!!!!!!!!!!! (Not to mention the cake itself is rather expensive.) So forget it. I bought some sliced cakes instead.

I also plan to have a walk at the "water front part" tonight after dinner to see kids playing lanterns :) Last night I went too early (8:30pm to 9pm) that the kids only came when I left :( I also have to resume this evening walk thing again as I finally had to face with my increasing weight last night when I tried to buy a pant :(

Family pictures

Aunt and Uncle 2's visit 2006








Aunt and Uncle 3's visit 2005








The Lam family's visit 2004








Although I don't want to admit it, but we sure do look older and older each year :(

Some of the stuffs I threw away when I packed

We moved

Before we moved in...



















In the middle of the moving...



















We still haven't finished unpacking yet, and it seems a never ending story. Scary.

I took last Friday off to pack and yesterday was China's National Day so it's a public holiday today, i.e. I have a four-day holiday this weekend, and I almost forgot how the office world should be. A bit nervous about going to work tomorrow :(

beta.blogger.com

I just transferred my blog to beta.blogger.com, and some Chinese are therefore missing. I will take care of that after I settle down in the new apartment.

Back to packing now, or mom will start yelling.

Last mintue packing......

......busy......busy......

Tulips banner

Inspired by the Action Blue Sky Blog, I finally managed to change the banner of my blog. Do you like it? I also added a website counter at the end. Make sure you keep on clicking in!

磁碟重組

Anyone can tell me what's 磁碟重組 in English? Problem of using Chinese Windows for so long.

So, that's what I am doing with my room (not my computer) lately -- throwing away stuffs that I don't think I will need in the near future, using different sizes of paper/plastic boxes to re-arrange the stuffs to minimize space to prepare for some new stuffs :) And of course, everything is done to prepare for the moving early Saturday morning this week.

Basically, what I am doing is to re-arrange the stuffs in different small paper boxes (those from IKEA) and put them on the bookshelves first. So when I have my day off on Friday, I can pack all these small boxes to the big ones.

Very good planning :>

I am taking pictures with stuffs I throw away, and I will put up the pictures here with pictures of the new apartment later. Hope you won't see the stuffs you gave me in the "throw away collage" :p

Oh, yes. I attended my first "Free Dance Stretch" class yesterday evening. Basically, it's taking out some modern dance movements and postures and using them as stretching exercise. So it will also have some music, and the movements look more beautiful than normal warm up exercise. I think I like it. I would like to do more stretching to make my muscles and joints less stiff so I guess it might work. It's slow and has some holding position, so it's very tired after class. But the problem is it also stretches my knee to the limit. I think I should slow down my walking speed again. I won't have my next medical apointment till November and the first physical therapy till February next year!

P.S. I am obsessed with Alvin Kwok 郭小霖's songs lately. Keep listening to it. My favorite is 他是誰 with some good-old-days memory. But I can't the lyric in the internet.

P.P.S. Check out the new links on the right. Do let me know if you know someone I should know that have a blog or a website.

Disneyland Today!!!!!

So I went and it kept raining heavily all day :( Well, the HK Disneyland is so small that the rain actually made our stay longer or we could leave by noon!

Today is the 1st anniversary of the HK Disneyland. However, I guess 2/3 of the guests were using complimentary tickets like us, cause most of the people we saw were elderly from elderly service centres, people with mental disability from hostels and students and parents from special schools. We rarely saw tourists or people out of those groups, and except the "Winnie the Pooh ride", we didn't need a fast pass at all.

This is the second time I had been to a DisneyX. Last time is the LA Disneyland 10 years ago. I think during the last visit, I (or we were) was more exciting. Today, I only found Disneyland is not something that should appear in HK or Mainland. It totally doesn't fit here.

BTW, if you haven't been to HK Disneyland, my advice is "DON'T GO". It doesn't worth the HK$300+ per ticket.

So we are moving...

Finally Mom and I had found the right apartment -- moving from Block 38 to 37 of the same housing estate :P My new room's window faces the little crossing from the MTR station so I can "monitor" those who are coming home!!!!!

We will be moving on the 30th this month. Mom said that's a good day for moving so she tried her best to make it real.

In the mean time, my Uncle and Aunt 2 will be coming to HK from Edmonton next week and stay for a month. Let's see if I can meet them more frequent. I stayed at theirs (weekend only) during university time and had some great memory there (hehe...I still got their key)

BTW, I will be going to the HK Disneyland tomorrow, on the day of its 1st anniservary. One of my friends got free tickets so we are only planning to go for a walk :P My friend has classes at night so I guess I will also leave daytime and miss the firework. But I think we can't spend so long there anyway. It's a very small Disneyland after all.

Last time when I went to Disneyland in LA is 10 years ago. Oh, my god!

It's good for HK$200

See my bookshelf? No, no, no! Not the Elmo cookie jar nor the picture with me, Sara and Simon all wearing the same clothes! Look at my books. See what do I have?

Tonight, mom invited a contractor home to check out the price for our moving at the end of the month. (Yes, we are moving again, but we aren't confirmed where to move yet!) Mom said the lady looked around and saw this particular shelf with all the books I bought at the time when I was studying for my MSW, and asked "Is your daughter a social worker? It's so meaningful! I will ask for HK$200 less." So here we are saving HK$200 for all those I spent on tuition :P

P.S. Quite a few of my friends are leaving for long trip -- one going to Dubai for a half-year work trip (!); one going for South Africa for three months (!); and one go to all those places I can't figure out where they are until her money's all gone (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) So, have a nice trip, friends :)

P.P.S. The moving lady looked at mine and my sis' doors and asked mom, "One of your daughters likes McMug, and the other one likes Snoopy. Are they little girls?"

Keep coughing...

...skipped Mandarin class today...so sad...tired...

Sick...

...again...

...I call in sick today and plan to sleep the whole day...

...so...sweet dream...

8:23am, Tuesday, 29 August

Christmas presents...

... for Karen's twin boys :)

Of course they will become two sweaters by then :>

Police

I just went to an anti-WTO concert at Arts Centre. Again, no special meaning. Just a friend asked if I wanted to go and I happened to have nothing to do tonight.

It’s a concert you could never expect what would happen next. It’s divided into different segments with different bands you never heard of before (well, for me, at least); while you also couldn’t hear what one of the MC was saying with the other one’s basically doing some “background sound”.

The bands’ quality varied. With the better and more experienced ones, they would tell you the background of the song and what they wanted to deliver via the song. Even if you don’t understand the language (one song’s in Filipino), the music could still touch you. However, there were also some bands you didn’t even know what they tried to do, and how that related to (anti-)WTO, globalization, justice…..

There’s one band singing two songs to “praise our police”. One song’s name was “None” (沒有). The other was “Police’s Coming” (警察殺到). So you know what they wanted to talk about.

The songs reminded me about the police recruitment API (Announcement of Public Interests, i.e. government commercials/advertisement) I watched at the KCR on Sunday.

The setting’s a rainy night, with a car crushed up side down and the MAN DRIVER trapped inside. A group of five to six POLICEMEN tried to push the car over to save the MAN DRIVER. When the POLICEMEN went “one, two, push”, one of the POLICEMEN hurt HIS leg with blood coming out of HIS boot. However, HE didn’t stop nor screamed. HE kept on pushing until they rescued the MAN DRIVER, and the background came a slogan “The Mark of Pride and Care” (一段痕跡 一段經歷). At the end, one POLICEMAN (without seeing HIS face) did HIS police salute and then some words came out telling you the police was hiring.

This API ignores me a lot. First, it’s a single sex world – POLICEMEN and MAN DRIVER. Where’re the women? (Well, don’t complain, you should be pride that I learn my gender perspective.) Second, I don’t need our police to value any other things more important than their own lives (I don’t need them 攞命博). We are recruiting police that serve the community, not hiring SUPERHEROS (watch out, it’s SUPERHEROS! SUPERHEROINES are not welcome.) We don’t need a Superman.

It really ignores me.

I never doubt our police’s efficiency and professionalism. But when you have quite extensive power, we always need to be on guard if someone will overdo.

P.S. I always remember what my colleague from Save the Children told a group of international school girls when they asked if we found our jobs at the Save meaningful – “Every job’s serving the community. If you put your heart on it, every job’s meaningful.”

We need people with heart. We don’t need superhero.

My MBT's first outdoor experience

I had bought my MBT for almost a month. However, today's the first time I wore them outside.

Why? Cause for the first couple of weeks, I needed to practice them indoor to FEEL the difference (instruction from the coach when I bought them). Basically, MBTs are (expensive) runners with curved bottoms. So supposingly, when you simply try to balance, your hip, hind and stomach muscles need to work extra hard and you also need to keep your posture right (that's what the ad said!) Therefore, it's not recommended to overwork yourself at the beginning or you will hurt yourself or feel dizzy like on a ship!

However, the more realistic reason is IT'S EXTREMELY HOT OUTSIDE. Other than cats, hot summer is my No.1 enemy!!!!! And when it's not so hot, it's raining cats and dogs. Again, that's the condition I rather stay under a roof.

But today, when I went out to eat at the little shopping mall this afternoon at around 3pm, it seemed that the weather was quite good -- outdoor was not as hot as in the house with a little bit of wind. So, I decided to try my MBT outdoor for the first time and walked along the waterfront for around 45 minutes.

Frankly, I can't tell if there's really any difference compaired to walking with conventional runners. And after the first 10 minutes, I was already all wet and was kissed by a mosquito :( However, with the nice view, and cutie children, sweet babies and their parents also walking, running and playing along the waterfront, it sure was much nicer than inside the house. It's even better after taking a LONGGGGG shower!!!!

Nice to have some exercise and a shower afterward :)

P.S. Florence's finally back! But she said she will be gone soon.

P.P.S. I visited the government specialist a couple of weeks ago. What the doctor said was something I heard over and over before, but he said it in more concret and positive terms, which make me feel better. He also pointed out some important points when working on those hind strengthening exercise, and my muscles seem to be stronger now (or is it the result of using MBT :) I will visit the specialist again in November and attend physical therapy in February 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.P.S. Haven't posted pictures for a long time. Here's me at work, picture taken with me noticing :( It's sometime ago and my hair is much longer now :P

A friend missing... ...

My friend Florence seems to be missing since the time she quited her job quite sometime ago. I receive her postcards from around the world from time to time but have tremendous difficulty to locate her.

Hey, so where are you birthday girl?

Happy Birthday, in case you ever read my blog :)

Quick short notes

I have been working on some translation these two days (well, in addition to Mandarin class and other mo-liu stuffs), and still haven't finished. Actually I have been working on it for quite some times now (but can only focus on it these couple of days), and now I have become a "mechanical English teacher" without putting much heart when amending those translated pieces.

Boring, boring.

What else lei?

Highly recommend this BB blog:

http://www.babyhome.com.tw/namnamho

Very funny. Make sure you visit it, especially when you are tired.

...em...oh yes. I will be visiting the government specialist this coming Friday, 4 August. Have to dig out that x-ray film and check out old posts and my diaries (yes, I keep a real diary in addition to this blog) to prepare a summary of my symptoms and the progress for the doctor!!!!! Have to wisely spend the very short consultation time!!!!! As I am feeling quite good lately, I think the doctor will kick me out and ask me not to return again :P

Today is last day of July. It seems that summer will be gone soon, before I have ever realized it has come......

Funny taxi driver

Yesterday after work, I took a taxi from office to Causeway Bay. When I paid the driver, the funny taxi driver said I had a sweet voice...hahahahahahahahahaha...

He should hear me yelling :) not to mention I am always out of pitch...hahahahahahaha...

Monday morning depression

Monday morning blues -- back to work again :(

愛得太遲

詞：林夕

我過去 那死黨 早晚共對 各也紮職以後 沒法 暢聚
而終於 相約到 但無言共對 疏淡如水
日夜做 見爸爸 剛好想呻 卻霎眼 看出他 多了皺紋
而他的蒼老感 是從來未覺 太內疚擔心

最心痛是 愛得太遲 有些心意 不可等某個日子
盲目地發奮 忙忙忙其實自私
夢中也習慣 有壓力要我得志
最可怕是 愛需要及時 只差一秒 心聲都已變歷史
忙極亦放肆 見我愛見的相知
要抱要吻要怎麼也好 偏要推說等下一次

我也覺 我體質 彷似下降 看了症得到是 別要太忙
而影碟 都掃光 但從來未看 因有事趕
日夜做 儲的錢 都應該夠 到聖誕 正好講 跟我白頭
誰知她開了口 未能挨下去 已恨我很久

錯失太易 愛得太遲 我怎想到 她忍不到那日子
盲目地發奮 忙忙忙從來未知
幸福會掠過 再也沒法說鍾意
愛一個字 也需要及時 只差一秒 心聲都已變歷史
為何未放肆 見我愛見的相知
要抱要吻要怎麼也好 不要相信一切有下次

相擁我所愛又花幾多秒 這幾秒 能夠做到又有多少
未算少 足夠遺憾忘掉

多少抱憾 多少過路人 太懂估計 卻不懂愛錫自身
人人在發奮 想起他朝都興奮
但今晚未過 你要過也很吸引
縱不信運 你不過是人 理想很 愛於咫尺卻在等
來日別操心 趁你有能力開心
世界有太多東西發生 不要等到天上俯瞰

***** *****

No special meaning. Just I caught some of the lines in the chorus while listening to the radio and at work at the same time, and I find I like it so I think you will like it too :)

So. Those busy people. May be it's time to slow down and look around.

I just came back from the Book Fair (it opened till 2am today!). I finally bought two books at the last store I visited before I left. Kind of tired now but don't want to sleep yet so I guess I would like to do some work instead.

So. I am sort of busy for lots of "mo-liu" stuff lately. Keep working and working and working but couldn't see the output and still lots to do!!!!!

I think I will need a break.

Very hungry

This is 11:45pm, and I am terribly hungry. It's only a bit better after drinking 1/2 mug of milk (yes, a mug, not a glass, and an Elmo mug too :)

So, what I have been up to lately?

Nothing much, actually:

1. Counting my $$$ to pay for the tax next year :(

2. Start another 13-week Putonghua class this afternoon. That's four hours every Saturday afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will try to keep awake all four hours, but I have to say it's killing me.

3. I applied for a job at ICAC, and my application number is 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God knows if there will be over 3,000 applications after the deadline. Who said the economy is doing good?

4. Trying to clean up my room and bookselves and pack stuff to be given away for charity tomorrow and at the end of the month. Not very successful though, especially when Putonghua class starts again.

5. Trying to enjoy my "five-day-work-week". Last week, I slept till noon both days and so couldn't do much. I will watch Cars tomorrow. Hope that will be good. I have already changed my wallpapers at home and office to Fillmore and Guido :)

Tax

Got the tax payment voucher today. Need to pay more than one month salary for tax next year!!!!! My goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tulips

I like the tulips. I put it as the banner of my 1% finished blog in WordPress (www.idatse.wordpress.com), and it's so beautiful. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to master WordPress yet, so I put the flowers here as well so that everyone can share the joy.

Have a good summer!

WordPress

I am trying to figure out how to use WordPress, but so far no luck :(

Nice Weekend :)

What a nice weekend! Without the conference and putonghua exam, my weekend is even more fruitful:

1. Packing, cleaning, packing, and cleaning -- throw away some stuff you won't use any more; and pack those you won't use but with good memory in boxes, a preparation for moving again in September
2. Bought a 40G external harddisk -- transfer all those files still in floppy disks there. some files are as old as 1994! let me post some of the things I wrote when I was young here later. (bad thing is I changed the cartiage of my old printer and then it doesn't work now :(
3. Walking on the treadmill in the afternoon -- you can see people swimming in the pool just underneath, which is something I can't see when I go at night. Fun to see all those kids and I should try going in day time more. (let see if my knee can stand another 30-min walk later tonight)
4. Bought five chocolate tarts @ Maxim -- cheap cheap chocolate tarts but rich in chocolate. yummy :) usually they are out of stock when I am back home at night. And the sales ladies at the little store at the Heng Fa Chuen MTR station are always nice and sweet. Unexpectedly good service every time :]
   
5. Not enough? how about sleeping till 11am?

Saturday Night @ Office

That was last Saturday, not this one.

Last week, we were preparing for a conference to be held on 18 and 19 June. So, I was stucked at the office on a Saturday night (not to mention the overnight set up on Sunday!). After two solid weeks of greasy Canteen food (the rather expensive cafeteria downstair from office is really called Canteen), I decided to made a change. I bought fruits for supper on my way back to office from my Putonghua class. Here're what we had -- assorted fruits and those in the bags were muffins and ham and cheese sandwich. We had three people in the office that night, and we were almost full after the fruits!

Slow down, please

I have been running around the office for the last couple of weeks, and have some difficulty of slowing myself down. So you can predict what will happen -- my knee produces those "knock knock" sounds again. Not as painful as before, but you know it's not good to produce those "knock knock" sounds. You can feel that the bones are "crunching" each other, which makes me feel even more scared.

Have to exercise some self-control and slow myself down.

Sunblock

I seldom use sunblock (cause I try to avoid going under the sun :) But as I am getting older and older, I consider using them and bought those for the face and for the body. Then, you know what happen -- it rains and rains and rains and rains and rains......I hardly find a day that these sunblock thing can be used!

Time to sleep. Sweet dream :>

Go Oilers Go!

Stanley Cup Final opens on 5 June.
Can anyone update me on the final from time to time?

五月的陽光

現在我彷似在等待，等，等那一天來；
莫道你心痛不可耐，我心更哀。

若問我想找的所在，找，找我的將來，
為著我心中的希望，生命已擲門外。

看著這如病染的祖國，誰亦要奮起叫嚷！

放下眼前原屬我的一切，五月的陽光在照耀……

Typhoon ChanChu

So typhoon ChanChu has come and is now going away.

It only got to Typhoon Signal #3 today, so everything was running as usual except kindergartens were off today because of the weather :) It also didn't rain as heavy as the Observatory predicted, but it's very windy.

How windy? Well, all the garbage bins on the streets were tied to a lamp post or something strong like the picture on the left. When I had my evening walk tonight, my hair was of course flying in the air, but at some point, I even had to hold my glasses tight or I was afraid it would fly away too.

More Elmo stuffs

Keys with Elmo key-mets :)

Rose & Di & Ed, I still have your dad's house key with my other key chain. Have they changed their lock?





Elmos linked to my mobile. The blue ball is supposed to flash when the phone rings :P I am not quite sure if the battery is still on though.

The Japanese Elmo is of course from Japan. I think it's the only Elmo I have with Japanese costumes.


Last but not least, the "do it yourself Sesame Street chocolate" set from Pheon, with a pack of chocolate, a mold and some wrapping paper! Fantastic! I guess it's similar to those clay thing I made before.


Since there's a typhoon coming, and it's going to rain heavily in the middle of the week, the temperature drops suddently from 30C+ to 20C+ these two days. Nice weather to sleep in and have a walk outside :) Lots of kids running around and lots of people fishing when I went for my walk late afternoon today. I have been walking on a treadmill in the gym in the club house of our estate lately cause it's too hot. So it's very nice to have some fresh air outside today.

How's your Mothers' Day? I had a nice dinner with Mom and we will go out again next Saturday when everyone's in town.

What's going wrong?

It's 11pm at a Sunday night, and I am on the computer working on an English translation of a video script!!!!!

What's going wrong?

I had already spent the whole afternoon working on a set of letters! IT'S SUNDAY!!!!! My original plan was to visit the Arts Museum :(

Anyway, I will go next Sunday instead. That's going to be the "world museums day" next weekend. Hope it's not very hot. The celebration events are outside the Arts Museum and Cultural Centre. Hot, hot, hot!

And I am very tired now :(

Disappearance of Physics Building and V-Wing

Oh, my God! This is what I read from the alumni news.

The main office of the Civil Engg Dept has already been relocated from the C(ivil-)E(lectrical )B(uilding) to the new Markin/CNRL Natural Resources Engineering Facility some times ago, and now the Physics Building and V-Wing are even being demolished.

So sad.

I don't think I had had a lot of classes in the Physics Building, but V-Wing was almost my third home during my years in the U of A. (First being HUB and second being CEB, especially during my grad school year when I had an office there.) There's even one time when I almost dropped all the way down from the top of the stairs at a V-Wing lecture theatre cause I wasn't quite woke up yet.

Those were the days.

BUREAUCRATIC JUSTICE: THE INCARCERATION OF MAINLAND CHINESE WOMEN WORKING IN HONG KONG'S SEX INDUSTRY

I haven't quite read through the following yet, but am glad that someone (all women!) from the legal sector are working on the issue. Hope they don't mind I am copying their work here.

If you are interested, here are the two organizations in HK supporting sex workers:

Ziteng http://www.ziteng.org.hk/
Action for Reach Out http://hkaids.med.cuhk.edu.hk/reachout/

***** *****

SUMMARY FOR THE ROUNDTABLE ON 27 APRIL 2006

(by Dr.Robyn Emerton, Dr. Karen Joe Laidler and Dr. Carole Petersen of the University of Hong Kong)

In the new millennium Hong Kong has witnessed a rapid and dramatic increase in the number of mainland Chinese visitors to the territory, including women who cross the border to engage in sex work. While sex work itself is not a crime in Hong Kong, several related activities, such as soliciting, are prohibited. Moreover, sex work is treated as a form of work for immigration purposes and visitors who engage in work without an employment visa are in breach of their conditions of stay. More than 10,000 mainland Chinese women have been arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced in the past five years, causing Hong Kong's female correctional population to expand beyond capacity.

This paper presents information from interviews conducted in 2004 with 58 mainland Chinese women incarcerated in three correctional institutions in Hong Kong for criminal and/or immigration offences related to sex work. The interviews were arranged with the kind assistance of the Correctional Services Department.

By interviewing an incarcerated population, we were able to access women who had worked in a variety of settings, including women who had worked under third-party management. This group is usually inaccessible to researchers, as the women remain hidden in villas prior to their arrest. Our study showed that the majority of women came voluntarily and were assisted by others who profit from them, both on the mainland and in Hong Kong. Certainly some organized crime involvement exists, but its extent is unclear from the women's accounts.

Most women reported financial considerations as the primary factor influencing their decision to come to Hong Kong. Some were driven by urgent and dire economic circumstances, while others believed that this opportunity could offer higher earning potential than working in factories or the service industry in the mainland. In fact, many of the women were arrested before making a profit, but others reported significant earnings on this or a previous visit (as much as HK$80,000 in one case).

The women's responses to questions about the criminal justice system indicate that cases are processed efficiently, but with limited regard to individual circumstances or to the defendants' understanding of their alleged offences. Describing their experiences in police stations, the majority said they understood the charges for which they had been arrested, but nine were confused, believing they had been charged with “prostitution” rather than immigration charges. Some women were not clear why they had been charged in the circumstances: four of the 19 women charged with soliciting said that the police had initiated the transaction, and five women arrested on the street for soliciting or immigration offences said they were not working when the police stopped them. The majority of women were allowed a telephone call, were provided with an interpreter and generally agreed with the statement, or chose not to read it. Seven women reported, however, that they had signed statements which they were not able to read, either because they were illiterate or because the statement was in English and traditional Chinese. One woman reported that she signed several blank pieces of paper. Finally, the accounts of three respondents raise concern about responses to women who allege that they were deceived and then forced into sex work. Despite informing various officials of their situations, these women's cases were handled in a standardized fashion.

In court, one strategy to expedite cases involves the duty lawyer conducting group interviews, and the magistrate hearing certain cases together. Five of our respondents had experienced such collective treatment. Two of them reported that their individual circumstances were not put before the court, and one said that she believed herself to be innocent, but pleaded guilty because the others in her group had done so. Six women complained that the translation was too fast, and that they did not understand the proceedings. Nearly all of the respondents (N=53) pleaded guilty when they first appeared in court, which clearly contributes to the expedient processing of cases. The remaining five, who initially pleaded not guilty, changed their plea to guilty at their second court appearance, having been advised by other women on remand that pleading not guilty would result in a lengthier trial process than pleading guilty. Our observations of the proceedings in the magistrates' courts between July 2005 and April 2006 confirmed the speed and routine with which these cases are managed. The average time to complete an individual defendant's case was only three minutes.

In this context – the volume of cases, the grouping of cases, routine guilty pleas, the standardization of cases, the tendency to ignore individual circumstances, and normative sentences – the criminal justice system takes on the features of a bureaucratic machine. The consequence of this bureaucratic response – the short-term imprisonment of a large number of women – is expensive and has yet to demonstrate a deterrent or rehabilitative effect. Although the majority of the first-timers said they would not return to Hong Kong for sex work once released, 15 of our respondents had been arrested on one or more previous occasion, which raises questions as to the individual deterrent effect of current practices. Further, current policies have yet to demonstrate a general deterrent effect in discouraging other mainland Chinese women from coming to Hong Kong to engage in sex work. There has been a recent decrease in arrests, which the Secretary for Security attributes to vigorous law enforcement and improved immigration control. However, this decrease may reflect a decrease in the rate of police detection. In any event, a higher prosecution rate has meant that the number of mainland women being incarcerated in Hong Kong has continued to rise.

In light of "one country, two systems", how might the respective governments and authorities begin to better address this issue? Consideration could be given to alternative approaches, such as a "suspended sentence" for first time offenders accompanied by a slower and more individualized judicial process, in which women are clearly advised of the nature of their offence and warned they will receive a much stiffer penalty if they repeat it. Thus far, however, there has been little public debate on alternative strategies for addressing the issue. Some discussion has taken place amongst government officials and the Legislative Council on the regulation of the sex industry generally and on the possibility of creating of red light districts. Such measures might arguably assist the situation of local sex workers, but they would not resolve the thorny issue of how (or whether) to create a space for migrant sex workers. Without changes to Hong Kong immigration law, this group would still be contravening the law simply by working.

Raining, raining, and raining...

It's raining cats and dogs outside, going from the yellow to red rain storm warning signals in just a few hours. So good that I am already home.

It's always like this during the last few weeks -- raining heavily during weekdays but sunny and hot over the weekends. Last year that's the direct opposite.

My knees were going all right this morning. But then it's going worst in the afternoon, around the time the thunder storm warning signal was up! I think the Observatory should hire me to predict the rain.

Lately I am extremely busy in the office and at lesiure as well. So many books to read, got hooked up to cross stitching again (and don't forget the knitted baby sweaters for Christmas!), and busy with memorizing the Putonghua pin-yin...... So many things to do but so little times.

Ida Observatory

If I am trapped in a closed room with no window at all, I can still tell you what's the weather outside.

How?

My knees can tell.

It's like having "rheumatic disease". My knees hurt when the temperature drops suddently, or the humidity goes up. Last week when it got wet and rained a bit, my knees hurt very much and I went to acupuncture again. When it became sunny over the weekend, my knees suddently go better and I could do my evening/morning walk again.

So sad...

Boring...tired (not yet exhausted)...and boring again...

...actually is because I don't want to (or can't go to) sleep at 1am...

How's your Easter?

I had done a lot and I had also done so few during the four-day holiday I longed for.

One the good side, I spent 3.5 hours in the salon to have my new hair do on Good Friday. Now my hair is as straight as ruler, a preparation to keep extra long hair as in school days :P

Also, I went to Ocean Park on Saturday with Mom. The objective of the trip was to see the "jelly fishes" (the guide said they were not "fishes"; they should be called "sea jelly") at the new attraction "Sea Jelly Spectacular", and of course to do some "walking" before it's getting hot! I have been doing quite good on my evening walk thing, except I didn't lost any pounds yet, and it is now become a habit, especially after a full meal.

On the bad side, I was stucked in the office for two afternoons, with my magnetic access card broken that I needed assistance from the security guards everytime going in and out of the lift lobby. To add on that, the bathroom on our floor is also out of service. We (it's "we" cause I was not the only one in the office!) needed to go downstair to use their bathroom.

Also, I am busy with the group project due on 26 April for my corporate communication course. We will meet again tomorrow evening and we have been working on it since the end of last month. The progress is good and I always try to contain myself not to overwhelm others during these meetings. But still, I spent a lot of time "amending" a member's contribution as she couldn't quite express herself using English (no problem when she's writing in Chinese). I have been thinking back and forth about if I should do that, but at the end I couldn't control myself so I did it and it used up quite a lot of my time.

So that's my Easter long weekend. I thought I could do some reading and knitting (I have an idea of knitting sweaters for babies I know that are under five as Christmas presents this year) over the long weekend but then I didn't do any. Too bad.

"Waterfront Park" @ Heng Fa Chuen

Here's where I have my evening walk. It's too cloudy that you can the "sea" on the left.

The 20-pound Mission (Impossible)

I watched a local indie band show couple of weeks ago. Among the audience, I saw quite a number of young, pretty and skinny girls with sleeveless tanks. I think, although I couldn’t be young and pretty, at least I should try to lose some weight for the summer. So, here’s my most important project during recent years – to lose 20 pounds for the upcoming summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget about the number. It’s only a slogan to show my commitment. But I really want to lose some weight to buy clothes more easily :)

So. My number one and most important challenge of this “20-pound Mission” is that – I practically can’t do any exercise due to my knee except swimming, which is something I don’t know how to do and I don’t like to do.

So. What I am going to do focus mostly on diet and “walking exercise”:

On the diet part,

* avoid any oily food, food with source, sweet, pops, junk food, etc. (That almost means I can only have sandwich, sandwich, and sandwich for lunch!)

* don’t eat so full each meal, especially dinner; eat as little as possible during dinner time

* eat more fruit and drink more water

* may be drinking more green tea, which is said to be “fat-burning and cancer-preventive”

On the exercise part,

* walk as much as possible (Walking is the other exercise my doctor recommends, but it only includes walking on “flat” surface. Going uphill, downhill, upstairs and downstairs will all hurt my knees), including

* to buy lunch at Pacific Place, so I can walk around the HK Park

* to walk around 30 minutes after supper along the “waterfront park” under my apartment

* last but not least, those leg strengthening exercise my doctor recommends

So. I had tried almost all of the above today. When I tried to do the 30-minute walk at the “waterfront park”, I saw a lot of my neighours doing after-supper exercise there too. I never know HK people are so healthy.

Let’s count how many days I can stay on this mission impossible.

But another thing I think I need to do first is to buy a reliable scales. The digital one Mom has is “funny”. According to it, in just one day, I already lost 2-kg! But last time, it said I was gaining 1-kg per day for a week, when I didn’t do anything special, or wear heavy clothes!!!!!

Sesame Street X Bossini

Can't wait till they are released next Monday!

I have wanted this Elmo t-shirt for a long time, but only find it through on-line shops that don't ship products out of America or ship them with expensive postage. I thought of asking the on-line shop to ship the tee to my cousin's address and then ask him/her to send it back to me. But then, the shipping is still too costly. Now, the tee will be available in Bossini starting next Monday with a number of other items too.

I am thinking to buy the whole set...may be two...one for wearing and one for collecting..haha...

Then, I find this place from the internet yesterday -- Sesame Place! I know that will be my favourite place, especially the new Elmo's World rides and the show Elmo's World Live!

Let's start saving up :(

Ah ya，痛到飛起

The red dots had come and gone, disappearing like they never had come. Unfortunately, my knee is feeling painful again.

It really hurts. I had a hard time when I was at grocery shopping tonight. I am actually feeling the pain for the last few days but I didn't pay very much attention as I thought it's only because of the change of weather -- it's really "wet" in HK during the past few days. But then I start walking not quite good, and getting worse and worse. I can't stand up right this afternoon again.

So sad. I put on the "ointment" the doctor gave me last time and hope it will get better soon. My doctor's appoinment is in August......

@ Jojo's Wedding Yesterday

That was Jojo and Daniel's wedding yesterday! Congratulation!

The heart-shaped cookies were made by the bride. I ate one pack and am still alive :)

Wall Painting at Prince of Wales Hospital

So finally I can upload the picture. This is the wall painting we did yesterday at the Prince of Wales Hospital. This is the part done by we five gals and the leaves at the left end, to the right of the stones were coloured by me :)

Well, when the other four were all fine arts graduates, all I could do was colouring.

The painting is located at the North Wing of the Hospital, along one of the busiest hallway. Other volunteers and the artist working out the original painting have been working on it for several weekends. We, in a group of five, had "coloured" all day from 10am to 5pm yesterday, and all we could finish was the leaves you see from the picture :)

That was the first day I participated in Arts in Hospital event, and it was quite an interesting experience. It's Sunday and the Hospital was not that "busy". Patients and families walked by and telling you how they were amused about your "good" work. Nurses and other hospital staff discussed and told you that they wanted a bird, a chicken and a duck (maybe because of the bird flu :) or may be some more flowers in the painting. A mom wheeled her son in a wheel chair to see us working to cheer him up... The painting was not yet done but you know what you are there for.

P.S. Below is the other end of the painting, done by other group of volunteers, one of them is a CUHK fine arts master!

Arts in Hospital

Today is the first time I joined the volunteer service of Arts in Hospital, and we finished a part of the wall painting at the Prince of Wales Hospital. I will upload some pictures later. There's something wrong with Blogger that I can't upload any pictures, and I am very tired now :(

HKCATS

Oh, I think I like this HKCATS, although cats for me are extremely disturbing:

HKCATS 於 2002 年 7 月 成 立 ， 03 年 8 月 得 到 香 港 特 別 行 政 區 政 府 批 准 成 為 慈 善 團 體 ， 宗 旨 是 為 貓 咪 謀 取 福 利 、 促 進 人 貓 之 間 和 諧 共 處 、 改 善 貓 兒 的 社 會 形 象 及 減 少 流 浪 貓 的 數 字 。 除 貓 兒 福 利 外 ， 我 們 更 透 過 與 小 動 物 接 觸 來 拉 近 人 與 人 之 間 的 距 離 ， 以 及 教 育 青 少 年 尊 重 和 保 護 生 命 的 意 識 。

(For those who can't read Chinese, the highlighted part said "HKCATS strive for the well-being of cats, promote harmony between human beings and cats, enhance public image of cats")

Rose, I got your T-shirt

I received the package when I was struggling with the credit card customer service, that had some problems verifying my signature to return me the extra credit, this afternoon.

So, thanks Rose. It arrives safely and shorter than two weeks :) Please tell your dad the Canada Post is very reliable :)

My "next desk" colleague suggested me to wear the Elmo-tee with a long-sleeve T-shirt underneath. I guess I will try it on this Saturday, on that, I plan to visit the Arts Museum after work :P

In addition to receiving the Elmo-tee, things also begin to get normal. The customer service woman finally, successfully verified my signature after I signed four times. My arms and legs are also getting better, especially the arms. If I got darker skin, maybe the dots are even less visble. This afternoon when we went to "drink Chinese tea" for lunch, the three of us could only order chicken and Chinese mushroom congee, tu-fu, vegetable and BBQ pork bun, cause two out of three of us needed to stay away from a variety of different foods!

For my cousins, yesterday morning we went "bai shan" of our great grand mother (my dad's grandma). We were supposed to meet at 7:30am (!) at Fan Ling Kowloon-Canton Railway station. This means we (i.e. Sara and me) needed to travel on MTR from HK Island East (home) all the way to the west of the Island, then across the harbour to get on the KCR and travelled all the way to Fan Ling (i.e. north-east of New Territories)!!!!! It should take us around an hour, much shorter than during "day" time as the trains were pratically empty in early morning of Sunday. But then, we came across a guy that for some reasons fell on the rail when we were in the middle of the way to Fan Ling and we got stuck on the train for half an hour! We all said we should stay in bed longer instead :(

We finally arrived the KCR station at 8am and then took a taxi. I haven't been to "bai shan" for quite a number of years, but I still could remember those pictures of elderly beside our great grandmother :)

We left at around 10am and arrived home at 12:30pm something. The first thing we did was to rush back to bed!

P.S. Suddently I think that maybe the irritation is due to the dry weather...you know, old people are more sensitive to the external environment. When I was young, I didn't even put on body lotion in Edmontion!

A miserable day

I haven't blogged for anything "interesting" for a long time, but I am going to tell you a series of bad lucks I had yesterday, all happened within eight hours.

In short, I lost my bank book yesterday. According to the teller, I had to close my old account and open a new one. I stood in the bank for an hour, and when the procedure was almost done, the bank book was found! [Things always happen like this.] I dropped it in the shopping mall of my housing estate on the way to the bank, and someone picked it up and returned it to the bank before I walked the same route twice to search for the bank book :(

And then, I tried to transfer some money to my mom. But well, the ATM machine told me I didn't have enough money! No enough money? I am always left penniless but I am not that poor to have less than a few thousands dollars. So I checked out the transaction for the past month, and I found that when I paid for my credit card balance, I paid one more zero...i.e., if it's only HK$1,000, I had paid HK$10,000!!!!! I called the credit card customer service centre and they promised to send me the extra amount in a bank draft in seven working days :(

So all this happened in late morning. When I left home again at around 2pm to watch a drama, I found that my right wrist had some red dots on it. I put off my jackets and saw that both of my arms were full of red dots...scary...

I spent two hours for the drama, went to the office to pick up some personal stuff I left behind and went to a hospital out-patient clinic. I waited for about 45 minutes (All day yesterday was about lining up and waited and wasted the whole day. Good that I always have a book with me.), and answered no to almost all questions the doctor asked about possible cause of irritation (no to new pet, no to new cleaning items, no to any known allergic, etc.). So. The doctor's conclusion was that it's either an irritation or sign before a big flu. He gave me nothing. No pills cause he couldn't confirm what it was yet; and no cream cause it was not even itching...

So. That's my day yesterday.

For the red dots, they seem to get better when my skin is not scratching with anything (e.g. clothes). My arms are much better cause I wear short-sleeves T-shirt at home. My legs are also a bit better as I wear loose pants but worst when I wore jeans this morning and yesterday. I will see how it goes and decide if I need to see a doctor again.

For my new bank account, still a lot to follow up...chaning all the autopay accounts (especially the salary part!), apply for a new "pay by phone service" account...etc.

:~

P.S. So I know now where my money goes -- the doctors and taxi drivers!

I was sick; and I recover now.

I caught a cold over the weekend, and slept for 16 hours straight from Saturday evening till Sunday noon. But since I am busy at work, I went to see the doctor first day I felt wrong and I am as strong as I always am now.

Lesson learnt -- go to see a doctor early, especially if you have medical insurance!

Jesus! May be I should stuck in the field when I was young!

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Mathematics 75% Engineering 75% Chemistry 58% Philosophy 58% Journalism 58% Art 58% Psychology 50% Dance 42% Sociology 42% English 42% Biology 33% Anthropology 33% Theater 33% Linguistics 25% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

Elmo B-day Cake :)

I have my eyes set on an Elmo cake this year ;>

But it's too big that I think we can't possibly finish it :(

Ida doesn't go to Lamma Island

Here's my friend's explannation on my explannation of not going to hiking in Lamma Island. Buddy Rita does know me really well.

You must learn Ida's physical and mental condition well.

1. She can't take ferry and she'll vomit like old lady. [Ida: Star Ferry is OK, although I don't like the speed. Going to Macau is killing me.]

2. She's super scared of those cute animals like cats and dogs. [Ida: The list also includes birds, rabbits, hamsters...pratically everything.]

3. She can't walk too far away although I also agree Lamma Island is a great short family hiking trial. Only 1 hour but I think Ida's knees will complain those uphill / downhill portion. [Ida: Doctors said no more going up/downhill/stair for me forever!]