Last night, we had an all-nighter Mahjong as this was Shu fen’s last weekend with us. Of course, we paid the price for it this morning with horribly tousled hair and an equally nasty headache. But it was worth it, considering that this may be the last time we’ll get to do this…ever.

Qianyu and I have started packing our luggage and the apartment. Seems like this studio room sure can hide loads of stuff in this small area, we’re having great difficulty just gathering everything to put in. OMG, how am I going to squeeze everything in to my itsy bitsy teeny weeny (sorry listening to that song) luggage! I put in my blanket and my pillow and its full! Shucks. Really need to rely on my uncle and Aunty and my cousin who’s coming to Hong Kong to bring back for me.

I can’t believe how much stuff I can accumulate in just 3.5 months here. And I still have to worry about the weight limit and the number and size of my hand-carry. Oh gee, this is bad, I have my laptop, countless pairs of shoes, infinite amount of clothes, books, jackets and blazers, my pillow and my fluffy blanket left to pack in. How the hell did my clothes alone take up the ENTIRE luggage space?!?!?! Here's pics on the messy cupboard and the packing process...

The weight limit is 20 KG per luggage, I’ve already exceeded that weight when I first came to Hong Kong and I only managed to pack everything in with the help of Alex and Lynette… Both aren’t here to help me now! Freak, why am I so useless when it comes to packing? I just throw everything in and pray hard that I can close it after im done. So, this is what it looks like after i've packed in most of my stuff...

Sigh… But im so glad to be finally at this last stage of my internship/ And packing everything in just makes it seem so much nearer…13 more days!

The alarm rings at 7.45a.m each morning. Usually Qy and I would laze around until 8 before getting out asses off the bed and start preparing to go to work. We'll leave the house hopefully around 8.30a.m to reach work at 9... This is of course, the ideal situation.

Truth is, things hardly go the way we want them too and we end up being 5 to 10 mins late for work almost every morning. And we always blame that stupid, annoying little button called "snooze". Somehow, yesterday AND today, we ended up waking up at 8.25a.m! After some cursing and alot of scrambling, we reach our office at 9.20a.m.

Like why the hell is there a snooze button in the first place? Its only designed to urge lazy wakers to press it. It serves no purpose to the very function of an "ALARM" its like a bloodily easily accessible escape route... And people like me, who refuse to press the annoying button would press the "stop alarm" button which explains why Qy and i wake up at 8.25a.m for the past two mornings... :( Sigh...

Dun understand why we end up sleeping so late or why is it we cant wake up. Maybe its the fact that we wake up countless of times in the night cause of the rain and how unbearably cold it gets even though our aircon is turned to "low" or maybe we're just too entertained in the nighttime with msn and skype. Still, we usually are able to get 8 solid hours of sleep.... hmm... puzzling.

On another note, I've received news that Im moving house on the 1st and 2nd september to Tanjong Katong. Wah seh, damn far lar. Was initially quite upset that i would be moving away from everything familiar but oh well, what can i do right? Still, seems kinda strange that this decision was made while i was abroad and havent had a chance to see the house :(Hmm.. still thats kinda exciting in its own way... Hey, calling all men and women to help me move house on those days! If you're on my msn list, i'm directing this to you. Heh heh...

Seriously cant wait to go home man. FFASSSSTTTERRRRRRR....

Heh heh...

Due to my inability to withstand typing without a functional "o", and after raising my complaint to the technician fellow only to be told that i have to JAM the "o" harder, I was left to my own devices to figure out how to continue working on my report (and blog) from now till the time i leave.

Yesterday, after receiving my pay (woo hoo, its finally here!), i ecstatically turned to blogger with the full intention of exclaiming for joy which subsequently turned out to be the biggest wrestle between the keyboad and yours truly. I left the office with no blogs published and a deflated ego of having the keyboard win yet another round.

This morning, determined to spread the news of my financial status to those who eagerly wish to know back home, I formulated a brilliant plan that’s worthy of any strategy in Sun Tze’s “Art of war”: swapping.

Indeed, I have set my eye on a similar computer’s keyboard for a very long time and I believe this simple art of switching would serve my purpose very well. At 9.20a.m, I snuck into the room and deftly substitute the keyboard with mine and promptly slipped back to my cubicle. By 9.22a.m, I am enjoying my century egg with shredded pork porridge (a good breakfast can now be afforded) and perusing and tagging as many blogs as possible. Muahaha.

Who cares if the keyboard I took belongs to the office’s central conference room? Who cares if it controls the operations and video equipment in that room. Who cares if the central conference room has glass as walls and everyone could see me going and removing the keyboard?

The key here is confidence. Look as if its perfectly normal to go in there with a keyboard and switching the room’s one with yours. In psychology, we learn about something called groupthink. We also learn about something called herd mentality, and we learn more importantly about something called the bystander effect. The more people there are noticing a strange event, the more likely no one would do anything. Theory proven at 9.21a.m.

Monday Start of week 14

This is long… Three more weeks and I’ll be back home. Three more weeks and I wont have to experience waking up at 7.45a.m in the morning to rush to work. It’ll just be waking up at 7.3oa.m to rush to school. By the way, I got my bids well, the second best alternative at least. Had to sacrifice one psych module that I really wanted with something called cultural psychology… I hate going for classes I did not intentionally bid for, but guess I just have to psych myself up for this one (hur hur psyched for psych)… oh well, I’ll test all classes out in the first week of school… If everything looks fine… you’re looking at someone who has a three-day week! Woo hoo!

Its sometimes just so puzzling isn’t it? When summer comes, people wanna go back to school, when school starts, people look forward to holidays… we’re just all a bunch of eternally unsatisfied people. =)

My pay hasn’t arrived yet, I’m just so numb to all these. But I’ve also gotten quite nonchalant about the office staff… I guess its true, when workers do not see their “reward” for their “effort” motivation level goes down and here we have the classic beginnings of counterproductive work behaviors. Somehow, this just makes me wanna go into rebellious mode ya know? like.... saying “fuck” really loudly in the office or leaving the office on the dot. Lately, I’ve been bringing my camera with me to the office every day with the intention of capturing a shot of the much-awaited pay check there and then. Hmm, I’ll even use flash…

And I dont really know what Pills Jiang left me when he came to HK. I was previously having constipation problems and after taking them… yea, no more toilet problems but its making me eat much much more… Like I now have proper 3 full course meals… Sucks la… I was hoping to lose weight here…haha, what am I complaining about right? Everyone but me is happy for my change in diet…

Same thing in the office… There’s not much to do still but guess I’m numb to that too. I’ll just fill up my time blogging or updating my budget in HK (Gastronomical amount really). Just think, 19 more days till I come home… then one week of freedom, and school starts…

Better book me now if ya wanna meet up during my freedom week… =)

I am frustrated. Annoyed and completely vexed.

1. My stupid office keyboard’s “O” isn’t working and its taking me twice as long just to type this sentence. I shall try to avoid saying words with “o”.

2. I am utterly home sick. I miss everything, my family, Jiang, friends, familiarity. I hate waking up each day realizing I am entirely redundant during the day and there’s nil things awaiting me at the end/ evening. I accrue my “HK-irk” 2 my internship feelings. Can u understand?

3. My annual paper is taking 4ever, I can’t seem 2 direct my mind 2 this matter 4 an extended time. I am always distracted. At what? I can’t tell either…

4. I surf thru the internet 4 vids and pics 2 take up my time but these use up a small percentage, can pple please suggest things/ websites I can use 2 use up my time here?

5. Subtracting each day and week as it passes isn’t really the best idea. It makes the time seems extended than it really is and just serves 2 exhibit and highlight my lengthy wait.

6. I feel like I have increase my weight cause I’m eating twice as much as usual. Naturally, girls cant help but feel irritated at that which is why I’m feeling perturbed and watching my diet 2night.

7. My stupid pay isn’t here yet which just serves 2 illustrate the extremely inefficient and fucking dreadful system they have here. Abysmal really… And the bad part is, the summer sales are finally here and there’s nil chance 4 me 2 buy anything if I have nill cash right? What a great internship experience. Pfft.

8. I have sleeping difficulties and I tend 2 wake up after sleeping 4 awhile and then drift back 2 sleep again. When the time arrives 4 me 2 get up, its difficult and getting increasingly difficult as each day passes. I hate it. Argh, kill me…

9. Jiang’s currently playing Lan games, argh that starts with a D and ends with an A. Why are all men like that? I haven’t met a guy that is averse 2 paying such stuff. But its all right I think, He hasn’t anything 2 see 2 and is just preparing 4 entrance 2 university, its all right 4 him 2 relax and indulge in what he wants b4 campus life begins yar?

10. Finally, I can head back. Utterly dull and dreary here, cant believe I need 2 repeat this everyday! Argh.. Ah well, typing this entire thing and refraining the urge 2 type any “o” has been unexpectedly fun. U guys must try it 2! Im quite amazed at myself 4 writing this much actually. Yea. Seeya peeps in 22 days time.

All right, so im into Blog meme's now... bite me.

Wikipedia Blog Meme Game

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. List three events that happened on your birthday.
4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
5. Post it or comment it to me.

My Birthday: 2nd december

Event 1:
1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned as the first Emperor of France in a thousand years.

Event 2:
1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.

Event 3:
1988 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.

Birthday 1:
1939 - Harry Reid, American politician

Birthday 2:
1968 - Lucy Liu, American actress

Death:
1957 - Harrison Ford, American actor (b. 1884)

The extent of how bored i am... i know i know... stil cant deny its interesting right... and cant wait to go try it out on wikipedia for your own birthday right? Haha.. here's the link, go ahead.

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Even though i keep telling myself that i need to start concentrating at work and start putting the final pieces of the company's annual report together... somehow, im just so distracted where the internet is concerned.

Yes, to those of you who keep wondering what the hell am i doing exactly in Hong kong, dont worry, i have not poured a single cup of coffee nor run lunchtime errands. I am working for HK university of Science and Technology and i'm part of the team that monitors programs launch for post graduates. Their office is right in the downtown area and for the first month, i was doing lots f ad hoc work like filing and database update... After familiarizing myself with the ground work, i went on to do research compilation and curriculum comparison. After that, my boss decided to make me responsible for the Annual Report of the company... which i have dont about 70%... deadline's in August so i shouldnt have any problem completing it.

And thats exaclty whats making me so lethargic at work.., knowing that it can be finished in a week or so, i just wanna take my time and laze around it. I mean... even if i finish it by this week, it just leaves me with nothing to do for the remaining three...

Yes... I'll be back in less than 4 weeks time... 26 more days baby! Absolutely cant wait, yesterday i dreamt that i was rolling the luggage trolley out of changi airport and sliding into the car on the way back to serangoon... Sigh...Really hope time passes by FASTER

But plenty of stuff to keep me occupied for this week... Fang's here and she stayed over at my place on sat! Haha yea.. so nice to see her around, really miss my clique man and yes... Soh and Nik too haha... So nice to have her around to just listen to me whine about my days in hong kong and boys (ok 1 boy in particular)... =P Love you Fang and thanks for the biscuits!

And well, i guess i cant always be thinking of the downside of life all the time... like cant keep occupying my thoughts with, "why's Hong Kong like that, why am i not home yet yada yada yada..." There are plenty of stuff to be happy about too i suppose...

1. Going for Yoga regularly is cool and Ben said i lost weight!! wheee...
2. Shopping at the summer sale
3. Ron ron is coming to visit me on the 9th
4. And ooh.. just realized that thunker's back!!!!!!!! Yeaaa!!! Miss that Big dude!!!!! (Stacey rocks her head right and left 4 times ultra fast)

Saturday 15th July

Its my long work week =(

Apparently, there was some screw up with the pay thing and it looks like I’m only going to receive my monthly pay at the end of July. Wtf right? And it also looks like due to some calculation error, I have to sacrifice one of my day-offs and work an extra day… wth right?

I feel like I’m the one compensating for the incompetence of the company. Another lesson learnt about the F***ed up corporate world. Someone always takes the shit, leaving the corporation coming out spick and span. KNN.

Haha but even though there hasn’t been much stuff to do... my cousin Tracy has just entertained me with her project on rivers. She needs to come up with a poem on rivers and this is what her group did…

river river
shiny as silver
the fishes hid for cover
when a helicopter
began to hover
over the river
suddenly a pain pierced my liver
then it was forever
and ever

hahahahahahahahaha … this was so easy to continue so I decided to offer some assistance…

ontop of the river
i see a beaver
holding on to a TV antennae
sitting on a thrown away banner
Why are people getting stupider?
Not knwing how to recycle?
Now all thats left of the river
is giving all of us a fever
bye bye river...
forever and ever..

OMG haha… and of course throwing in the last verse for comic relief…

river river
goes into our sewer
together with our bowel
and become NEWater!!!!

Oh gee, what a way to fill up the time at work. Haha… anyone wanna continue the poem? Hee hee

30 more days to 12th Aug... I'm going home in a month's time. =)

Happy? of course i am... I'm going back to my home, to my friends, to good food, to clean fresh
air.

I can't say i'll miss hong kong but i can say that this is an experience that i wouldn't want to forget. I've learnt alot from this stint, i really have. Not only in terms of self-development, but about how academic businesses work, about networking, about communication, about compromise, about learning how sometimes, you need to take a step back and shut up to be able to comprehend things better and sometimes, all you need to do is just open your mouth and ask what the hell needs to be done.

Alot of things happened here. With my friends here, within work, at play. Small little stuff like rental, the cleaner, laundry, shopping and eating all contribute to the minute things you pick up about life in Hong kong that you dont really notice until you catch yourself doing it and then realize that you're beginning to fit in with the locals.

Our faces (or our horrendous cantonese skills) can now be recognized by people in the places we frequently visit. Like the yoga place, or the restaurant opposite our block, or the people who opens the lift doors for us every morning, or the small "zhar chan ting" owners and the laundry person too. I wonder where in Singapore can i actually get that kind of "attention".

I'm pretty sure that if there werent so many factors attracting or pulling me to come home, i would want to stay in Hong Kong longer, at least travel around or work more. Perhaps at least ATTEMPT to improve my cantonese skills... that being said.. the draw of home is just to strong compared to the lure of personal freedom here...

I am... ready to go home.

(Oh yes, another thing that made me realised that i have "changed"... today, i woke up still feeling groggy and then... bloody moth appeared in front of me. I hate THINGS that can fly (except planes ok)... I mean, i was all prepared to just start jumping and screaming and hiding 10 meters away from the disgusting pest. But, my room was too small to accomodate that 10 meters and i was forced to kill it. Yeah. I dunno if killing it had warranted another moth to show its presence but i killed that one too. And while i was brushing my teeth, i saw a spider and i promptly killed it too. Of course, i still had the goosebumps and still had the "ewwwwww" face but im pretty proud of the fact that i can defend my home... Besides, it was the first time i've seen an insect in my house... must be the cleaner... she left the window open.... argh. So yes, it looks like i can kill insects now... and i wont run away from them if they show up in my field of vision... cant say the same things for cats though... )

For those who dont really know, i took up yoga classes during the first month when i was here. Went for a month and took a 3 week break since Jiang and my folks were coming... And started going back for them since last friday...

The yoga classes i go to are called Hot yoga. They put u in a heated room that goes up to 40 degrees celsius and then you do a series of poses and postures and by then end of the 1 hr lesson, you will definitely be drenched with sweat. Its like... Exercise and sauna... cool, i really like it. I used to think that Yoga was "lame" and they just do weird postures and stretching and it doesnt work at all... gee, how ironic that im so pro-yoga now...

To those of you out there who scoffs at the idea of stretching as a form of exercise, i dare you to try out the triangle pose (trikonasana) and hold it for a good 3 minutes. It helps the back muscles, the legs, the hands and yes... the kidneys...

Well, yesterday i went for another type of Hot yoga class called Hot flow. Its on every Sunday and its 1.5 hours... its a miz between power yoga and hot yoga. Its more advance and there's just non-stop changing of postures. No breaks, no time for you to cool down, its just continuous and it really tests your endurance...

"Lying on your back, Put your legs up 90 degrees for 10 seconds, then lower it to 45 degrees for another 10 seconds, then continue by putting them up at 90 degrees for another 10 seconds then immediately lower them 45 degrees to another 10 seconds... dont put your legs down on the mat, put them up again at 90 degrees...." Never seen my tummy shake that much from these abs workout...

I came out panting and wheezing, great workout and now my entire body is just filled with aches... especially the shoulders and the back and my thighs...

Yea..., i like...

My folks came over to visit me. I had loads of good food... my mum just refused to let me shrivel back to my comfortable lifestyle of instant cup noodles and egg tarts. Guess i should be thankful for that... I have never ate so much in my entire time in Hong Kong! Dim sum, seafood dinner, jap dinner, pasta, room service, desserts...

Of course there was that time of relaxation just hanging out at the spa and the manicure and pedicure... it was definitely a time to indulge... in myself... and food too of course.

We crossed the border to zhu hai, nothing much there really unless you're a big fanatic on cheap clothings with bargains and unlimited stalls of similar clothings all packed with shoes, bags in typical hong kong fashion... It really was an almost exact replica of MBK in Bangkok...

So my folks are leaving tonight and i'll be heading down to the airport to send them off. Wont be seeing them for a month and not sure if i have left them with the impression that i do or do not need to be worried about. Oh well.. there's nothing i can do... Just starting my countdown till the time i come home (which by the way i have pushed forward to the 12th Aug instead of the 15th Aug)... the timer now reads 38 more days... only slightly over a month and i'll be sipping on my yeo's chrysanthemum tea enjoying my spread of Oyster omellete, hokkien mee, dry noodles, sambal stingray and sambal kang kong at the oh-so-famous Serangoon Gardens Chomp Chomp market at 10.00p.m on a monday night. All are welcome to join me. =D

My folks have really pampered me this time, i cant seem to get back to my lifestyle of minimal food for breakfast and lunch and minimal dinner too... Its hardly lunch time and my stomach is growling already and i already fed it Banana nut crunch (courtesy of my mum yet again) this morning... Guess this aint a bad thing either... For lunch, im going to have the sumptious meal of one sandwich, the cheapest thing i can find around town and the only thing i'll be eating for the next few weeks unless the bloody company hurries up and gives me my pay.

Sorry if i keep harping on food.. its just.. well some people live to eat and some people eat to live... i believe I (as with many of my contacts like my entire family and some specific friends) fall under the former category. Besides... what else can u expect from someone who is currently experiencing a growling stomach and who has been deprived of home food for so darn long.

On another note, Qianyu's birthday is coming up this saturday and if it isnt pathetic enough that we arent paid to have enough money to celebrate a proper birthday with her, we have to cancel our china trip because of the lack of "funds". So its been pushed backward to the end of July where hopefully, we'll receive our pay then. (Or else...)

For now, all this roommate can do is to treat her to a much-awaited trip to the beauty parlor. And figuring that she might get lonely being in there by herself, i found that a good and sufficient reason (excuse) to join her too... =) Of course... mine isnt going to be paid by me... i hope... anyone wanna volunteer to treat me? heh... cant believe im publicly begging for treats... which highlights the close-to-desperate financial situation im facing... any more desperate and i'll be posting my account number here for hopes of charitable transfer....