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Friday Five 26-November-2021 #2
Saturday, 27 November 2021 16:17These questions are from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
thefridayfive
1) Who is your favorite relative?
I thought we shouldn't play favourites? LOL. But I don't know. I know my maternal cousins more because they are all in Macau, and I don't know my paternal cousins because... well, they are over there in Austria. Cousin N probably is a favourite, he is super helpful with the family, and he is good fun with us kids too (10 year difference). I also have a somewhat special connection with Cousin C because she's the oldest and I'm the youngest in this generation, and we have a 12-year age gap. She got shipped off to Portugal when I was very small, so mostly I only knew of her but didn't really know her, until recently (after finishing high school, university, and having a job and a life in Portugal but got laid off) when she had to come back to Macau, because prospects just wasn't optimal in Portugal. We seem to have clicked rather well. We're still not close-close but we kind of have an understanding of wanting our own independence and freedoms.
2) What's the farthest you've traveled for a family gathering?
Well, a couple years back, I did purposefully make a trip to Austria to see my Uncle because we knew he was getting on. But there was no one specific gathering. I spent 3 days in the "village" that he lived in. I did go into town for shopping during the day, but I visited him every day in those 3 days. My Cousin M had commented "Gee, how can you spend so much time with him?" Weeeeeelllll. That was the reason I went for a visit. And while he didn't speak English, and I knew shit of German, it was basically 3 days of each other not knowing what the other was saying (and mighty boring, might I add), but, I reiterate, that was the reason I visited. And the poor guy, from my cousin's comment, you can imagine none of my other cousins in Austria visited him with any regularity.
3) Will you/when will you put up decorations for December holidays?
Oh, we don't have big "festivities" about putting up the yard and all that, basically because, we have no yard LOL. But the tree usually comes up... if we are feeling festive, the the second week of December. If we are busy that year, then most likely only on 20th or 22nd December because 20th December is a public holiday (Macau SAR establishment day) and 22nd December is also a public holiday (Winter Solstice). And then 6th January would be putting away the Christmas deco days because it's the day of the three kings or whatnot.
4) What were you thankful for this week?
I'm thankful to be able to get the third booster shot with minimal fuss. I took the mRNA (BioNTech) for my third shot because I think this way I get better coverage (I dunno the science behind it) (for the first 2 shots, I took the China either SinoVac or SinoPharm, dunno which it is we have in Macau... I think SinoVac). I'm not having any adverse reaction to the mRNA like what everyone says. The only thing I have is this tremendous pain on the injection site, like, it's bloody awful, like I did too much lifting the other day. But nothing about not feeling well, needing to sleep, or whatnot.
* then again, I'd have to be dead for me to admit that I'm not well. I can have a fractured leg, and I'd think "but it doesn't affect me using my brains, so I can still work" and then I still go work. That happened when I had my surgery. Doctor gave me 2 weeks off. I was back to work, on reduced time, by the 5th day. It was just too boring to sit around at home.
5) What is your hometown known for?
Technically, the concept of "hometown" is foreign to me because I've never left. Anyway, the easiest answer is, Macau is best known for its Casinos. So much so, one of the Bond movies was shot at the Royal Palace ("the floating casino"), Johnny English 2 (I think) had a scene or 2 here, one of the newer Bond movies was said to have a location in Macau (but it was not), and recently one of the Marvel movies Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings blah blah blah had scenes in Macau. Although, I read it's all CGI. You know why? Because there is a no-foreigners policy in Macau since the COVID pandemic. Well, technically, it's not a band on foreigners, it's just you need to either have some connection to Macau (already have a resident permit, is the spouse/family member of someone with a resident permit, and some other eligibility which I forget). "Foreign workers" who only have a working permit cannot leave, because if they leave, they cannot come back (a working permit is not a resident permit). Getting back on Casinos, the Sands Macau (from the parent company Las Vegas Sands) was able to break even their property in merely around 8 months of operations in Macau. Think about it. 8 months. Breakeven. It's a far cry now, nobody will be able to achieve that anymore, and to make myself feel even older than I am, I have to say "those were the days!"
thefridayfive1) Who is your favorite relative?
I thought we shouldn't play favourites? LOL. But I don't know. I know my maternal cousins more because they are all in Macau, and I don't know my paternal cousins because... well, they are over there in Austria. Cousin N probably is a favourite, he is super helpful with the family, and he is good fun with us kids too (10 year difference). I also have a somewhat special connection with Cousin C because she's the oldest and I'm the youngest in this generation, and we have a 12-year age gap. She got shipped off to Portugal when I was very small, so mostly I only knew of her but didn't really know her, until recently (after finishing high school, university, and having a job and a life in Portugal but got laid off) when she had to come back to Macau, because prospects just wasn't optimal in Portugal. We seem to have clicked rather well. We're still not close-close but we kind of have an understanding of wanting our own independence and freedoms.
2) What's the farthest you've traveled for a family gathering?
Well, a couple years back, I did purposefully make a trip to Austria to see my Uncle because we knew he was getting on. But there was no one specific gathering. I spent 3 days in the "village" that he lived in. I did go into town for shopping during the day, but I visited him every day in those 3 days. My Cousin M had commented "Gee, how can you spend so much time with him?" Weeeeeelllll. That was the reason I went for a visit. And while he didn't speak English, and I knew shit of German, it was basically 3 days of each other not knowing what the other was saying (and mighty boring, might I add), but, I reiterate, that was the reason I visited. And the poor guy, from my cousin's comment, you can imagine none of my other cousins in Austria visited him with any regularity.
3) Will you/when will you put up decorations for December holidays?
Oh, we don't have big "festivities" about putting up the yard and all that, basically because, we have no yard LOL. But the tree usually comes up... if we are feeling festive, the the second week of December. If we are busy that year, then most likely only on 20th or 22nd December because 20th December is a public holiday (Macau SAR establishment day) and 22nd December is also a public holiday (Winter Solstice). And then 6th January would be putting away the Christmas deco days because it's the day of the three kings or whatnot.
4) What were you thankful for this week?
I'm thankful to be able to get the third booster shot with minimal fuss. I took the mRNA (BioNTech) for my third shot because I think this way I get better coverage (I dunno the science behind it) (for the first 2 shots, I took the China either SinoVac or SinoPharm, dunno which it is we have in Macau... I think SinoVac). I'm not having any adverse reaction to the mRNA like what everyone says. The only thing I have is this tremendous pain on the injection site, like, it's bloody awful, like I did too much lifting the other day. But nothing about not feeling well, needing to sleep, or whatnot.
* then again, I'd have to be dead for me to admit that I'm not well. I can have a fractured leg, and I'd think "but it doesn't affect me using my brains, so I can still work" and then I still go work. That happened when I had my surgery. Doctor gave me 2 weeks off. I was back to work, on reduced time, by the 5th day. It was just too boring to sit around at home.
5) What is your hometown known for?
Technically, the concept of "hometown" is foreign to me because I've never left. Anyway, the easiest answer is, Macau is best known for its Casinos. So much so, one of the Bond movies was shot at the Royal Palace ("the floating casino"), Johnny English 2 (I think) had a scene or 2 here, one of the newer Bond movies was said to have a location in Macau (but it was not), and recently one of the Marvel movies Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings blah blah blah had scenes in Macau. Although, I read it's all CGI. You know why? Because there is a no-foreigners policy in Macau since the COVID pandemic. Well, technically, it's not a band on foreigners, it's just you need to either have some connection to Macau (already have a resident permit, is the spouse/family member of someone with a resident permit, and some other eligibility which I forget). "Foreign workers" who only have a working permit cannot leave, because if they leave, they cannot come back (a working permit is not a resident permit). Getting back on Casinos, the Sands Macau (from the parent company Las Vegas Sands) was able to break even their property in merely around 8 months of operations in Macau. Think about it. 8 months. Breakeven. It's a far cry now, nobody will be able to achieve that anymore, and to make myself feel even older than I am, I have to say "those were the days!"
