Toasted

According to the Hong Kong Observatory: The weather is VERY (sibei) HOT - until there is a red hot warning sign.

Although it is indicated the temp is only 29deg C, it felt close to 50deg C. =faint=

One can easily get dehydrated in this weather and indeed there was a recent news report which noted that this construction worker was found unconscious at his work site - died of heat stroke.

The beads of sweat trinkling down my forehead, onto my neck and my spine and quickly finding their way through to my bum were endless.

I really wanted to jump into an ice pool. The heat was unbearable.

I feel...toasted.

'Yes Mum?'

Miss Poon's on her way back to the sunny island, carrying most of my buys from HK for me. I was worried that my luggage would be overweight with all the new items. THANKS Miss Ang AND Miss Poon for carrying my stuff home~~

Had a hearty breakfast this morning before Miss Poon left.

The owner of the cafe (and probably everyone else) thought that Miss Poon is going back to her home town (the philippines), bringing with her loads of things to distribute to her various family members.

It was HILARIOUS. I couldn't stop laughing.

and Miss Poon played along and called me 'Mum'. Hurhur.

I've sorta indicated to boss that I wouldn't mind visiting Manila... although he was slightly concerned about the safety issue... Mr Goh wasn't very keen to let me go too ("Tell boss that he cannot have you all the time, I need you too.").. but I thought it's a good chance for me to visit the place...

if any of you know any friends in manila (preferably conversant in english) and wouldn't mind spending 2-3 days doing street interviews, do let me know =) remuneration amount to be confirmed.

yawn. the cycle of sleeping for 2 hours each night is not doing my eyes and brain good.

Visitors come and go...

It's been a crazy work week, with impossible deadlines to meet and the ultimate rush to churn out a report which I personally felt was very weak.

yea, so i suffered under a different working style from the HK boss, but i survived (i guess).

It's been a week since Mr. Goh came and left. It feels surreal to see Mr. Goh and go eat and shop with him, as if we're enjoying another weekend in Singapore.

but when i sent him off at the airport, I bawled my eyes out. I thought i've got used to travelling and leaving people behind. I thought i had learnt to be independent enough to live on my own.

but that's not the case, apparently. I didn't think I could love Mr. Goh any further, but I already did. I wonder if i'd have the courage/determination/independence to nab any job which would require me to work long term overseas. -more of this thought later-

Now that the sweeties (yun and hwee) are here (again, the surreal feeling), the weekend's gonna be a blast again.

Spend 4+ hours in Mongkok new town and Argyle centre with yun this afternoon. We bought so many things that the plastic bags we were carrying gave us terrible looking marks -- as if we've been caned several times on our arms.

I haven't had such a great time shopping with yun. And on the bus ride home, we came to the conclusion that 'circumstances shape ideals'. I like the way how our conversations about people, things, led us to this conclusion. And i think it's a sensible one.

If I weren't in this circumstance, I probably would 'want' different things. more about this later.

It's great that the girls are here. We'll try to wake up in time for morning dim sum later.

baoz - aching arms, legs and eyes.

Pearl of the Orient - Hong Kong

Many comparisons between the two cities - Singapore and Hong Kong - were made previously; economically, socially, even the land/skyscape.. and now, we're gonna have a casino when macau's casinos made more bucks than those in las vegas combined.

A new colleague from Sydney joined us recently and will be relocated here for some time. She told me she loves Singapore and between the two cities, would prefer to stay here. She said it's the 'space' problem. Hong Kong appears to be too crowded for her.

And I get a taste of crowded Hong Kong everyday, from the moment I get off the bus, along the way to work..... and the nightmare of all nightmares, taking the MTR during peak hours. It's SO crowded, you feel like you're stuck in a billion people concert. Even the mrt crowd after national day can't be compared to this. Or perhaps it's the smaller MTR they have here...

I asked Coode (HK colleague Fion's brother) if Honkies is a derogatory term for HK people and he does not think so, though I think it's still better to stick with 'Hong Kong people'.

And Hong Kong people seem to have the misconception that Singaporeans can't speak Mandarin, or are Chinese people. A few I've spoken to were surprised that I'm a Chinese from Singapore, who can speak Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin and English. When I speak English (after failed attempts to communicate in Cantonese), they asked me if I'm a Hong Kong-er back from studies in Canada/Australia.

So, I've decided to not talk very much on the streets, and just blend in. Or gesticulate. Or just say, ZOU SAN (good morning), UM GOI (excuse me), DOR XHEH (thanks), ZOI KIN (bye) and GEI DOR QIN (how much). =)

Fion and Coode are such good hosts; they invited me to join them for dinner at their apartment tonight to have a taste of Hong Kong living.
And we watched HK serials back to back. :D Their place (at Tsing Yi - near airport) is a 15 min public light bus (or mini bus) ride from mine, BUT the mini bus took 30 min to come.

I think all the travelling (and the people travelling) made me feel very tired.

but I'm enjoying every moment of this.

Of unpacking and packing

It's been less than two weeks since I returned from Sydney.

and what a crazy two weeks indeed.

Had to finish up the project I did in Guangzhou and some other miscellaneous stuff.

Felt the super duper inertia to bring myself back to gym-ing, but I'm glad I did. =) Though my stamina is like shit now. Barely halfway through the class and I'm like swinging my lifeless limbs with however little energy I have left.

And I actually thought I heard him call my name - but Mr Goh said I must be so tired hallucinating... and the girls thought so too.. :( Oh well.

My luggage is still waiting at the corner of the room, waiting to be unpacked and packed.

I'm gonna live (or try to live) like a true blue HongKonger for the next one month. =))