Friday Five 21-February

1. Would you rather have the unpredictability of live theatre or the predictability of a movie?
Erm... probably live theatre, though it if turns out to be boring I can't just "switch it off" like when watching a home movie. I guess it depends on the situation.

2. Do you prefer the symphony and/or opera to a live band or the other way around?
I'm not too keen on operas, so it's either the symphony or a live band. I guess it depends. On a normal day, I like the symphony, however, if it's a band that I really like or I know their songs, then I'd choose the band. I can count the number of bands I've seen live, LOL and that' Suede and The Cranberries. (And some singers, but singers are not bands)

3. When you go to a museum, where do you head first?
I usually follow the route. If there is no linear route and it's a free roam museum, I usually prefer to see the old stuff rather than the contemporary stuff.

4. Would you prefer a pub crawl or a sampling of beer or wine in one restaurant?
I was never a pub crawl person, even in my younger days. Alcohol just isn't my thing, but given the choice, it'd be sampling in one restaurant.

5. When you visit a new place, what is the first thing you like to visit – something recommended by a travel agency/travel book or something recommended by a friend?
Well, I think it's not so simple as whether it's a recommendation by a travel agency/book or a friend, there's also accessibility and time convenience. I'd take all these suggestions, do some research on how to get their by different means of transport, see where I'm going to be staying (hotel or whatever), then just see the overall accessibility and group things together by area or whether they are on the way to somewhere.

My friend once said "this is the first time you are here but why does it seem like you already know the way?" Well, I've sort of memorized or orientated myself well with the map. It's like I've been on holiday twice. Once during the research and studying google map and street view, and second when I'm physically there hahaha.

Workaholic me

erm.... so a bunch of my Taobao orders came in... one of them was some desk organizer trays and stuff. It's also fun because you have to put it together yourself; I sometimes fancy myself a pre-amateur hobby carpenter, or something like that (that's why when the mood strikes i like to put a puzzle or a Lego together).

This Taobao order was also made in January before the Chinese New Year, so this took quite A LONG TIME to arrive. But at least it finally made it.

So anyway, I knew that to put this together, if I did it on a regular work day, there will definitely be people walking around and commenting "oh are you working on this? Oh this is cool" and all that and whatnot. So, it being Saturday, I went into the office! And put them together! I also got a pencil holder thing... now I feel like getting a bunch of pens because now I have a lot of space for pens LOL.

I used to have a lot of crap paper on the ends of my desk but I've sorted them out (finally), filed what I needed and shredded the rest. And then in one of this paper "drawers" I've sorted all my blank forms, so no more looking through a stack of papers for a form.

Then I ordered a quick lunch and worked a little bit more on a piece of translation then finally remembered to save it somewhere on the cloud so that I can access it from home. Yes, this was the other, slightly more convincing reason, for me to go back to the office today. I had wanted to work on that file from home yesterday but forgot to upload it, and then since I got that Taobao order arrival, so I decided to go back to the office today, despite it being Saturday.

Now, on the company plan to ask people to clear out their paid time off balance, I've now come up with an arrangement to take a few Friday offs for the next few weeks until end of April. (And then 1 May is a public holiday), then my schedule goes back to normal. Since I know I'll shrivel and die if I take an extended leave (I have almost 30 leave days on my balance), I decided to get long weekends instead. Coz anyway, even if I do take an extended leave, I know I'll still be working from home, let's be absolutely frank. Anyway, after that, I'll revert to working again 5-day weeks and accumulate some leave days again until September, since we have plans to go to Moscow and St Petersburg. Although it's all shakey at the moment (Russia having closed borders to China/people coming from Chinese territories) but hopefully by September this coronavirus situation will have sorted itself out.

Anyway, on the way back home, I thought I could treat myself to a Starbucks new thing. I don't even remember what the name is, but it must have been something about cherry blossom for it to be pink. Wasn't bad. I thought it would be super sweet, but it wasn't. Though it made me quite full and then I HAD to take a nap just now LOL. Now I'm good. I shall continue to work on that document I mentioned.