Fugly Redefined

Generally I'm a nice person. No, really. There are those whom I make fun of constantly for the comedic value (you know who you are), but I wouldn't actually mean all those nasty things I say. If anything, there's more to be said about me than what I could say about others.

But once in a while, you really bump into people that you wished that your diplomacy and social conscience never existed.

While out for drinks with some brokers tonight at the Sanderson Hotel, a group of girls passed by us a few times. Feeling the effects after a few really good cocktails, one of the brokers started chatting one of those girls up.

Normally I wouldn't be opposed to talking to people in general, regardless of how they look. Surely, there is more incentive if the girl is pretty, but it's not like I'm planning to pick up or anything. But these girls were... let's just say, I would need to drown myself in all the alcohol they've got at the bar first..

Ah well, it was fun talking to them anyway. It seemed they were there far longer than we have, and thus, much more hammered than we were. Drunk people are fun to talk to.

(aside: one of my colleagues was with me also at the drinks, and he said that one of those girls had a pug face.. every time he turned around to look at her, he uttered "Pug!" under his breath.. )

Quick Review of Trip to HK

Now that I have screwed up my sleeping schedule, I'm going to force myself to sleep in about half hour so that I can wake up properly for work. For now, I'm going to quickly update on the rest of my trip in HK:

Had lunch with my grandparents (on my mom's side) on Monday, it was good to see them again. I missed them last time I was in HK because they were away on vacation.

Dinner with Arthur and his girlfriend, had a good catching up session with him about work and life in general. Ah I miss the old times when we were both in Toronto.

Drinks at Lan Kwai near closing time. Didn't know that people in HK were also this friendly after a few drinks. Felt weird because I normally don't see so many Chinese drinking (and having fun!)

Took my cousins for a day out - I still remember babysitting them when they were little, and now they talk back to me and everything. I'm *definitely* much older now...

Helped Winnie built a new computer at home, and set up her router, all within one night's time (oh and I went out for dinner in the middle of it for three hours)

Tomorrow is another day...

Back.. Now with additional burden..

Finally made it back from the airport. Glad that I decided to take an extra day of rest before work commences again tomorrow, for now I must sleep. Goodnight all.

Mid-Autumn Festival

One of the fortunate things about coming back to HK at this time is to enjoy the mid-autumn festival with my family. (which I haven't in almost 13 years) Tonight we had a huge family dinner, like ones during Chinese new years. As usual, I brought along a bottle of red wine to share with my family. Had a good chat with my uncles and cousin, and saw my newest baby cousin. She was sooooo cute! I held her for a little while, and then realised that I am way too clumsy to be handling a new-born child. I think it'll be a little while before I even CONSIDER having my own.. I think my kid will not born stupid, but become stupid after I drop him/her a few times. Hahaha..

I seriously miss home-cooked meals. I also miss having family around. Perhaps I am getting older and realising that family/friends are playing a more important part in my life...

Glad to be back

It's only the second day back, and I've already been shopping in two computer centres and karaoked for four hours. I must say that being away from karoake for so long does deteriorate my singing slightly! Oh how I missed the convenience of transportation and how stores open past 6pm in HK. I can actually do something after dinner, instead of going straight home because nothing is open.

Had dinner with Winnie's friends in the Soho area.. mmm.. finally, some good Chinese food to fill the void. Then I made my 1.5hr trek home - the only problem with living near so far from the central..

Landed and Plugged In

Look how quickly I can find internet and post this.. it's 12:46am right now, and I just got home from having dinner with Winnie and her mom. Although this is no broadband, dial-up serves me just as well for posting in my blog and responding to e-mail.

The flight itself was rather uneventful. In fact, flying has become such a normal part of my life now that it is no longer exciting. Sometimes, it feels like being on a bus for a long period of time, except you don't really get a view outside and you get served food. I slept through most of the movies and in-flight entertainment, as uncomfortable as the seats were.

I should make good use of these two weeks in HK though, because I was lucky to get some time off from work. Doesn't look like I'll be off on vacation any time soon after this.

Off to HK

See y'all later people.. off to HK for 1.5 weeks. Hopefully will find internet access to post here.

Oh who am I kidding? HK is like the most covered city with internet connection points. Wi-fi access all over the place, and free internet at coffee shops. My biggest concern should be finding the time to blog, given my busy schedule when I'm there.

Delayed Labour Day

At least it felt like what I would have done on Labour Day... if I even had one this year. Today I went to a friend's BBQ/Hot Pot party outside of central London, and sat around drinking BEvERages/wine/champagne. It was really fun to get out of the city once in a while, and we were outside with the sun.. okay, there was no sun. This is England for ya!

Oooh I ate too much tonight. Should really go easy on the BBQ next time!

Flame War Over Sandwich

Read this on the news today... very, very funny. This is to teach you a lesson that while flame wars are bad, it's worse when the company retains your e-mail... and worst when it's forwarded around the world...

The power of e-mail forwards. I think this is the new medium for blackmailing..

Article with actual e-mail

Article with picture

Biscester Village

I didn't even know the concept of "outlet mall shopping" existed in England until today. Given that I figured out there were two shopping malls in the near vicinity, I automatically assumed that outlet malls just did not have its market here. Oh how wrong I was. Ladies and gents, here is proof:

Doesn't it look just like the outlet malls in Canada/US? I was surprised myself. One of Winnie's friends were visiting, and so I was dragged along to carry all their shopping. (Ahem, I also went around carrying Lisa and Lorene's shopping last summer while we were in London. I'm just a nice guy like that.)

Naturally, keeping up with the idea of "outlet mall", it was situated somewhere in between Oxford and London. We first took a bus to Oxford, then took a shuttle bus to Biscester, and then walked about 10 minutes to find this place. It wasn't very big at all - nothing like the size I was used to. Although I'm sure I could spend hours here.. or more like, the girls can spend days here. I must say that the selection is quite good here, with all the major names that you would expect.

Now only if I had a car here, then I could come here more often... hehehe...

Summer's Out

I just came back from the "End of Summer" drinks with my department at work, and it dawned on me that the summer is now over. I remember that I had some pretty grand plans for the summer, thinking that even if I couldn't get any days off, I could still work the weekends and go to all these European cities.

What I ended up doing was lounge around in London, not venturing out, even within England! Quite disappointing, really. I was really hoping for a fulfilling summer, but I ended up being a lazy snake, wasting my weekends away. Not to mention about blogging... this is a disgrace, how I've reduced this to a weekly update. This summer laziness can't go on like this!