escapades of the elusive kat

Had some time to kill today so figured I'd do a FF... after a long while

These questions were written by ange402ange420.

1. How far back can you trace your family tree?
I personally know up to my grandparents on both sides of my family. I've heard about both great-grandma on my mother's side (grandpa's mom and grandma's mom). On my father's side, I've heard talk about a few great grand something's but I don't know for sure.
I know my sister is playing around with some family tree heritage website so she's been actively receiving updates (such as finding obituaries about certain people)... while I do find that interesting, I'm not interested enough to actually go looking for the information.

2. What is the most interesting (or strange) thing you've heard about one of your relatives?
Mother's side, grandma's mom was an orphan or something along those lines.
Father's side, random tidbits about his cousins and about some that got sick in the head.

3. How do you feel about legacy names like John Henry Smith IV or naming children after other relatives?
Not really something my family does, at least, my direct family. My sis and I were given only 1 first name (given my Portuguese heritage, I thought I would have more "given names). I know 2 of my cousins (mom's side of the family) that have the same given name (albeit second or third name only) but I have no comment about whether it's proper or whatever.

4. Would you consider yourself and/or your family to be traditional?
I suppose both sides of my family are pretty traditional? Although, I have to ask, what is traditional? I wasn't strictly brought up in either culture and tradition... I was brought up in a third culture and tradition. Name-wise, I guess Mom kept the Portuguese thing of combing surnames? Officially I have both Mom's surname and Dad's surname, not hyphenated. I don't even understand that concept. I mean, if I want to I can drop Mom's part of the surname and be just Ms. Dad'sSurname, but on official documents I'm Ms. Mom'sSurnameDad'sSurname.
We don't celebrate any of the Portuguese holidays, neither the Austrian. Christmas is an "international" thing I suppose. Yeah, maybe in October (is it even in October?) we do the chestnut thing (Portuguese culture I think). Dad also likes to cook an Austrian menu on the national day (26 October)... we don't deal with Krampus.
Third culture? Yeah, we do the Chinese new year thing, we do the dumpling thing (dragon boat), we do the moon cake thing (mid-Autumn), but it's more doing it because everyone's doing it.

5. What is one tradition you have passed on to your children and/or plan to pass on to them?
Don't have kids of my own but I guess my Mom's instilled something in me and my Mom (she was a school principal) is coming out of me in a few ways LOL. The other day I had lunch with a friend, she brought another friend, and this friend brought her 2 kids. Really badly-behaved. At one point when the daughter thought she didn't have enough attention she yelled at her mother "Hey, lady, I'm talking to you!" Guess what, I got possessed by my Mom (she's very much alive ok LOL) and I scolded the kid "Is that how you talk to your Mom? This is not polite at all!" I don't think friend's friend appreciated my "scolding" the kid but hey, that was really poor behavior.

thefridayfive 

1. What scent is your shampoo?
I'm not sure of the current one. But before this one I used Body Shop's Ginger something and what other shampoo. I didn't think ginger would smell sweet, but there you go.

2. What’s something interesting that you’ve carried on your shoulders or back?
Sad memories here. Nutmeg the shoulder cat surely.

3. What’s your favorite dance step or move?
Don't exactly have them.

4. Who do you spend the most time with?
The dogs :-)
I used to have a colleague-friend that we'd spend a lot of time together, had many lunches together. Well, I got transferred to another department, and she continued to climb the corporate ladder. Now she's either too busy or deemed not appropriate to hang out with next-door department's EA too frequently or something. That and, we used to talk about dogs, and now that she's got a kid, I've never heard about her dog anymore. I know that's life and things happen. She had said she was worried with the kid she'd lose her sense of self (people getting in touch, gifting stuff, just because of the kid), which apparently turned out true. Whenever I get her stuff (souvenirs, etc) I try to get stuff that are not kid-related (admit, it's easier to get a kid-centric gift). But it still seems this friendship is not holding up. Life happens.

5. Is there anything in your daily life that you need to stand on tiptoe or get a stool to reach?
Ah, my stash of supplements are in the top cupboard that I have to stretch up to get. Then my spare skincare products are in the top-top shelf of the top cupboard, I definitely need a ladder to get my refills and stuff.

https://f.riday5.com | Late Night Dorm Talk

1. If you could dispense one condiment from each finger on your left hand without its ever running out (and without losing any normal use of your fingers), which condiments would they be?
I don't use much condiments to start with. I'm the usual salt, pepper, sugar.... okay garlic salt. And I have a finger to spare.

2. Which you is the realer you: real-world in-person you, or online you?
Well, online me is just me without a filter. Real me needs a filter of sorts because I have to "conform to the level of politeness". *rolls eyes*

3. Who’s a better actor: Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon?
I wouldn't know LOL

4. If you had to watch (and stay awake during) the same movie repeated for 24 hours, which movie would you choose and why?
I don't know. I usually leave the TV on for background noise and that's probably what's going to happen. The movie of choice will preferably be something tame. No dying dogs, no suffering dogs, no suffering people. Yes, even the Home Alone types. I mean it's funny yeah, but once it starts playing over and over I stop finding it funny and instead start imagining myself in their situation and say if they fall on something, I sort of imagine me falling on that something and then I imagine the pain and then I'm in pain and... yeah.
Still dunno what movie to play though.

5. Who are the five most visually recognizable people in the world?
Wow. I dunno. Well. I'll admit, I find Caucasians and Southern Chinese easier to recognize than Northern Chinese, Koreans, and Africans. In that old movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, except for the kid and the village elder, i'd say all the other adults? Wouldn't be able to recognize them individually. Well yeah if you put them altogether I would be able to say they are each a different person, but if I see them one by one in mixed sequence, you can show me the same guy 4 times and I wouldn't know.

thefridayfive 

1. When was the last time you had a proper checkup?
I did a proper full body check up in 2021 September, overall was ok but had some minor issue that had to be dealt with and finally everything settled just before 2022 arrived. I did that at the private hospital and costed an arm and a leg. I wanted to do another check up around the same time in 2022 but then I miscalculated - I wanted to do it at the government hospital to save some cash and... the waiting period was like for a good 6 months, so I had a shoddy "hello I'm Docter XXX and you want to do a check up? OK. Let me schedule you in for a full panel blood test that you have to wait another 5 months for!" so, I haven't had my 2022 check up yet. My blook draw is going to be sometime in August and then the proper consultation in September.

2. When did your car have a proper checkup or do you just take it in when something breaks?
My car just had its annual inspection 2 days ago. In Macau, new cars are exempt from inspection, but once the car reachers 7 years, it needs to go under mandatory annual inspection. My car is coming on 20 years. Nothing much really happens, we are careful drivers and hadn't needed much servicing from our mechanic.

3. Do you regularly get your heating/air conditioning checked?
Since in winter it's cold enough in winter to not need turning on the A/C, so when it's almost spring-summer-ish we would call the A/C cleaners to do a general cleaning and checking if there's enough gas or dry ice.

4. Are you more inclined to take better care of others than yourself?
I take very good care of the dogs - they go to the vet for the littlest of things. My circle of acquaintances are adults and working people so they should know how to take care of themselves. If anyone on my team are sick and they tell me they are sick, I usually let them go. For those that tend to abuse this system, I would low-key insist on a doctor's note. I mean, I don't demand it, but if their script to me is something like "I'm not feeling well and will go to the doctor today," they you can bet on it I'd ask for a doctor's note. Even just the hospital receipt will do.

5. Be honest, how are you feeling today?
Feeling pretty good. Nothing wrong with me today.

F.riday5.com | It's a good time for the great taste

1. What lies somewhere Beyond the Sea?
I don't quite understand this week's questions ^^;;
Beyond the sea here is Hong Kong... and China LOL

2. When and where did you last have a Splish Splash?
Oh, last time I went swimming was just before COVID hit. 2019 January for my birthday I went to Danang and swam in the pool a few times.

3. What do you do Early in the Morning?
Wake up and walk the Frenchi.

4. Who is your Dream Lover?
Don't really have one. Hm. LOL. Long long long ago, book character crush, would that work? LOL. Jupiter Jones from Three Investigators Mysteries.

5. What proves You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby?
Growing up, everyone told me was pretty, because of my "mixed ethnicity" leaning towards caucasian looks (as a baby kid). I have a nose that's very much coveted by the general Asian population, I guess. Everyone (Asian) here loves my impossibly tall and pointy nose. For me it makes it really difficult to find a pair of Japanese glasses that fit well.

thefridayfive 

1. Can you diagram a sentence?
It's something I'd really like to be able to do easily. How would presentations be so much more concise if I could infograph data. Sadly, I just don't have the creative capability to do that easily and quickly. I know we should not have wordy slides, and I'd like to be able to diagram or infograph them, but for the life of me, I couldn't. Sad.

2. What word do you always spell wrong, no matter what?
Definetly "alot". I know it's "a lot". But I just keep typing it as "alot". For your reading pleasure lol.

3. What word always looks like it's spelled wrong to you but isn’t?
I grew up learning British English, but the world seems to be intent on using American, so a lot of those color/colour, neighbor/neighbour, and the like would stump me for a second or two. I also have a particular anxiety when I have to use the word "mold/mould" and would fret about which is the "container thing" and which is the "fungus"

4. Do you have any little memory games when it comes to similar words, like principle and principal?
Probably had more of that stuff before... now if I'm on the fence about a word usage I'll just google it.

5. Was grammar something you enjoyed or detested in school?
English grammar was always straightforward, so I enjoyed it.
Japanese grammar was also easy enough. At least the everyday level. (I still know nothing of the keigo-level Japanese). Just remember a set of sentence structure and verb endings for the tense you want to use and that's it. During my internship in Portugal, my cousin's Japanese teacher (that was doing a language exchange; she learned and practiced Portuguese from my aunt, and then taught and practiced Japanese with my cousin) commented that I knew a lot of sentence structures and verb endings. I only kept having to check the dictionary for the actual verb.
Portuguese was always flakey, but since I mainly only speak with family so there was never a need for complicated grammar. But, I do notice that I also know some complicated grammar without actually knowing that that's some grammar. Stuff like we'd never managed to learn at school but somehow I'm able to say it (probably from listening to the elders speaking amongst themselves) and then they ask "How do you know how to use it that way?"
I'm not even going to attempt explaining German grammar. I'll just bulldoze through a sentence and cross my fingers and hope the other party understands me.
Cantonese? LOL. The ongoing joke is there's no real grammar in Chinese. It's fun.

F.riday5.com | Euphemisms for romance repurposed for food

1. What do you eat when you need something hot and heavy?
There's a Japanese restaurant nearby my office, they have a spicy miso udon that, despite my not being really able to hold spicy food, I would order that in winters when it's cold.

2. When did you last go to bed with something edible?
Never. I brush my teeth after my shower at night, and after teeth brushing, it's no more food.

3. What’s an enjoyable meal that requires you to get busy?
It's not that I do not like seafood (lobster, crabs, shrimps, the like), it's just that I don't really like getting my hands dirty, especially if I'm eating out. If I'm at home then fine, I'll eat all that. But when I'm out, I don't like to get my hands dirty.

4. With which dining establishment do you think you could go steady, at least until the end of the year?
Does the company coffee shop count? Ever since I got duty meals in my benefits plan, so say.... some 5 years or so ago, I've been eating at the same place.... and will probably continue. I do once in a while go to another restaurant and sometimes decide to order takeout from outside places (but not covered by my benefits plan).

5. With which snack would you like to have a summer fling?
Well, with the parents going on holiday, so nobody lording over the dinner menu, I'm going to execute my plan of veggie dinners or no-carb dinners. I like carbs. I love carbs, but I've been meaning to cut carbs from dinner, but then Dad would make stuff like Spatzle or pasta or sinfully good mashed potatoes, and Mom would make really good fried rice........ so yeah. I can get my carbs in breakfast and lunch, and always have a bit of it during lunch (stuff tends to come with fries). Will try that out.

thefridayfive 

1. How many meetings do you have this week? Let's count classes as meetings.
This week I had an extra meeting. There's a regular meeting on Monday, but I don't have to do much, just to make sure the Zoom gadgets are working. Tuesday was an extra meeting that was like an intro to a potential service provider for something. That was a little embarrassing as the other party got wind from my surname that I'm of "some German-speaking country" and so I just said "yeah, Dad from Austria" and they went on to say that they're actually from Austria as well, from Vienna. I didn't really want to go down that route as I'm very very very cold in intro meetings, but the other party seemed enthusiastic, so I just quipped the province (province? State?) my Dad is from and made the meeting move on. On every other Wednesday I have a big scale meeting and this week just so happened to be meeting week. So, work related meetings there were 3.

Counting classes as meetings then I had 2 classes, Tuesday and Thursday, of ceramics.

2. How many of those meetings are in-person (as opposed to online or by telephone)?
The Tuesday meeting was online. The Monday and Wednesday meetings have a Zoom option but I usually prefer to be IN the conference room where there are the most people, because I can hear things better. The classes are definitely in-person.

3. Is anything actually accompliished during the meetings you attend?
Let's be real. LOL. I'm not answering that hahaha.

4. Do you enjoy the meetings you attend?
These meetings usually don't really involve me, but I like to know about what's going on in the company, so I do enjoy them; even when people are just dragging stuff out.

5. Do you do anything special to keep yourself entertained during long, boring meetings?
I sort of have the freedom to look at my phone and stuff if needed because I'm constantly working to arrange stuff for the boss, so yeah, sometimes if a meeting drags on, I'll look at my phone. But when it's a Zoom meeting and the camera is on me, I would be the most attentive person ever, even if my brain is elsewhere. Like the Tuesday meeting, the other party had 2 attendees. The speaker spoke, I listened, and the other person was like moving around so much, drinking water, moving her computer, and this and that. I know they don't have to pay much attention, but, I don't know, for the sake of the zoom meeting, just pretend to sit still maybe?

Friday5.com | Do you feel a draift?

1. Where do you frequently go for a breath of fresh air?
I just go out and walk. Which is why I hog the Frenchie. He likes to go out, so I figured I might as well just walk him as well. Granted, him being a Frenchie, I can never walk really far with him. But walkies with the Frenchie is like a respite from the crazies.

2. In what way are you running against the wind?
I have absolutely no idea. I kind of think, despite this being a teeny tiny city and also "part of China", but we are actually afforded a lot of liberties here. There's really nothing to "run against".

3. What item on your to-do list this weekend do you expect to be a breeze?
I plan to just lounge around, provided I get the dog walks and my exercise time minimums together. I know it's not absolutely accurate, but I do depend on my Apple Watch to ensure I get all the minimums covered (the activity ring).

4. What would you like to have completed by the end of August?
The parents are going on their holidays in June and July, so by the end of August? I suppose, survive unscathed? But it's nothing new anyway. Although I know that even if I establish some kind of new routine while the parents are away, once they come back it's all going down the drain, I will still try to do that.

5. What recent events in your life are worthiest of trumpeting?
I can't really say. Life is stable, life is going well, nothing in particular for extra fanfare, so I guess it's still good.

I’ve been slack in updating, sorry! Here’s a backdate entry for last week’s Fives.

thefridayfive 

1.Besides work, what takes up the biggest portion of your day?
The dogs, I suppose. I schedule my life around the dogs. I usually avoid making overnight trips because the dogs need their dog walks. And dinners and drinks with friends too. If we ever do go out at night, I make sure I don't get home too late because I know I have to wake up early the next day for the morning dog walk too.

2. If you could do anything as a career, what would it be?
No-consequence type of dream job right? I don't know. Columnist? Author? Standup? My jokes are probably of the Dad-joke cold-ish category so I wouldn't be successful LOL, but this is a hypothetical question, so I have hypothetical answers.

3. Do you feel too much emphasis is placed on having a career?
Yes. People talk about dreaming of this, dreaming of that. And as kids too, we get asked "what do you want to be?" I never had a proper concrete answer. Yeah at one point in time I wanted to work in the air travel industry, I was told since I spoke 3 languages fluently and could manage a 4th, I'd be hot commodity in Airports. Would I have liked to have a career as an illustrator? Sure, I liked to doodle and draw when I was younger. Was I ever good enough for anything? I knew for a fact that I was not. Never came around to that. My career history was really a series of coincidences.

4. If you have a college/university degree, are you working in your field?
Nope and never did. I did have a stint in a travel agency in Lisbon (I have a Bachelor of Tourism Business Management) for my summer internship one year, the working culture was very different, but also wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

5. What would be the most boring job to have and why?
My first "proper" job ever was a data entry part time staff for an up and coming hotel-casino-resort. You know when you are in a restaurant, and after you place an order, they print out a paper from the POS (Point of Sales) machine with your order? Like if you order a "Steak with Fries" the paper shows an item like "St w/fries" thingamajig? My first job was to enter thousands of entries for this type of thing. The group that was hired was never briefed with what to do, there were 5 of us. So the others were just typing in the info from the age typed-from-a-typewriter stack of sheets with words; I was the only one who read through the whole line of "Frozen Sea Bass" and then referred to the samples provided and entered as "F FZN S BASS" (Fish, frozen sea bass).

What do you get if you do the job well? You get more work. I had to re-enter all the wrong entries from the other 4 *rolls eyes* I was young and green back then and didn't understand this fact of life.


F.riday5.com

Interesting that both sets of questions are somehow about the same-ish topic!

1. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to begin college?
Assuming College = University (or equivalent) in for this: It doesn't really matter what you study, maybe except for the science degrees I guess. That I know of, all my friends, most of them aren't really working in the field that they studied, except for: a friend that studied nutrition (science) and is now working as a food safety supervisor or something. A few scientists that obviously studied whatever sciences. Alright, the designers studied graphic design. But other than that, say, non of my classmates form the Tourism Business Management major are working in the tourism business.

2. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to enter the workforce?
I'll probably sound a bit old school here. It's the attitude that matters. You can learn from the job and gain experience, but you need a good attitude. I've been lucky all my life, so maybe I don't have the insight for really bad managers and poor management, but as long as I was willing to learn and try to do something, the superiors were happy enough.

3. What advice do you have for a high school grad who doesn’t know what’s next?
I don't really know. My life wasn't exactly planned out, but I never had the time to "wonder what's next." When I was in high school, my Sis was in Uni doing poorly. She went for graphic design, which was something I also wanted to do, but she did it so poorly, the school actually advised her not to pursue her Bachelors degree after she scrapped by for her Higher Diploma (Universities here are usually 3 years for higher diploma "Bacchelerato"  and then the final year for the Bachelor "Licenciatura"). All through the while my Mom was complaining about the expensive materials (had to buy painting materials, had to buy a Single-lense reflect camera, had to develop black and white photos, which were really expensive back then.... and now...). And then, she had the audacity to decide to go to Austria (real reason was to "run away from Mom") and I was left to deal with Mom. Trying to avoid her "it's so expensive!" Complaints, I decided to forego Graphic Design. My High School had only the 5th Form (Grade 11?), and if I went to any other University, I would be required to complete the 6th Form (Grade 12?) elsewhere and also take a year of "pre-U" (pre-University), so, I took the jump and only applied to the Tourism School that said "as long as you graduated from High School, we'd take you." Amongst my circle of friends, I was one of those that got a job the soonest, because of that.

4. What advice do you have for a high school grad whose high school years were disappointing?
Depends on which aspect of it was disappointing. If it was about your social life, friends and stuff, well, suck it up, go to Uni, you're bound to see new people there anyway. Might get better, might get worse, but you're aiming for an education here, right?
And if it were because you don't like the academia, then that's fine too, then find a field you like to work in, and focus on the skills development of those.

5. What do you remember about your own graduation from high school?
High school, right? This is a funny one. So I was on the graduating year of 1999-2000 (school year was September through June/July). The "graduation trips" are usually held over Christmas. Which is ironic. How would you know in December if you were graduating in June? Now. Because of the Y2K scare back then, our school principal disallowed our graduation trip to be anywhere that you had to take a plane to. Because, Y2K. *rolls eyes*. So we had the most boring trip to some nearby province in China, probably Shenzhen or somewhere not far, because we were only allowed to go somewhere reachable by bus. Understand this, back then, China was not yet developed and advanced, or at least, Southern China wasn't yet, so it felt like we got a super downgrade for our graduation trip (the years before went to Japan, Korea, etc).

That was also the first year that I helped Dad with his Christmas cookies. Our form teacher was a nun, Sister Mary-Keely (I think she was English), and I remember taking out a box of Gingerbread deers and she was happy to take one. Maybe because back then, proper German/European Gingerbread cookies were non-existent in that part of the world. Yeah on the bus there was a discussion of whether I'd turn out to be a baker or patissiere later in life. Of course that didn't happen LOL. I'm just a hobby baker.

thefridayfive 

1. What is a Rite of Passage for you in the Spring?
Usually, on the "28th day of the 12th month" (lunar calendar), which usually is around 2 or 3 days before the Chinese New Year, it's the day to clean up like Spring Cleaning. So it's been Spring for me for a while :-)

2. If you could be guaranteed success, what would you grow this summer?
Maybe a fruit tree.

3. Do you have any famous gardens near to where you live or grew up?
Gardens? Famous? In town? Nah. Well maybe like the Camões Garden, but there's no greenhouse, there's no myriads of different species...

4. Do you think gardening is good for your mental wellbeing?
Yeah, could be.

5. Have you gone organic, or do you use chemical fertilizers?
Coming to think of that, I usually just change out the soil and don't really fertilize my pot plants.

Friday5.com

1. What are your sunglasses like?
Hm... I have a pair of regular round glasses that have shade clip-ons to fit over them. I also have a pair glasses in the shape of cat-ears that I've changed out the lens to ones that would turn dark when in the sun.

2. What is your wallet like?
I have an actual wallet, that's more like a purse, I guess. Long wallet, Burberry, dark brown. But it's pretty heavy and I've changed out to a smaller lightweight, more a card-wallet than a money wallet. I have a bit of money folded and slipped in one of the card slots, and that's it.

3. What are your everyday shoes like?
Sneakers that need a good wash LOL.

4. What is your umbrella like?
I have a purple long umbrella that used to have that sliding cover that you can pull up and keep the umbrella from dripping. But the screw-in plastic part that holds it fell off, so it's just a regular umbrella. I also have a very light, very small black umbrella that is a carry on. It's so light you won't notice it, but of course if winds are stronger or rain heavier then it's no use.

5. What are your everyday drinking vessels like?
I had a 1L drinking bottle but now I've changed it out to a some 745ML ceramic tumbler. The ceramic interior keeps the temperature constant.

Before I continue: after I sent an email to the accounts query thing on LJ, they simply gave me another year of paid memberhsip for free. I know last year they just extended paid status to those who had a paid subscription, but I think now they only do it if you contact them. FYI.

F.riday5.com

1. What’s your best karaoke song? If you have never participated in karaoke, what would you sing first if you were forced to?
Karaoke is not really my thing, but if and when I go Karaoke I just do any of those 90's anime songs. Sailor Moon's Moonlight Densetsu, Evangelion's Cruel Angel Thesis (or whatever the name) are a couple of the favorites. The one and most favorite though? LOL this is such an easy song to sing.



2. How extensive is your ramen experience?
By no means a connoisseur but I don't think anything would surprise me either.

3. What are your five most-used emojis? If you aren’t an emoji-user, which emojis do you see in mainstream communication the most?
For laughter: the 2 LOLs 😂 🤣,
Depending if I want to say "oops I know I shouldn't but I'm talking about it or seeing it":  the see/speak/hear no evil Monkeys 🙈 🙉 🙊(there's 3 of them but I'll consider this group as 1 depending on the context)
For "huh, whatever" and "I don't care": the lady shrug 🤷‍♀️
For OK: the lady with arms raised forming an O  🙆‍♀️ or the usual OK sign 👌
And of course, for anger 🤬 🤯

4. How do you feel about sudoku puzzles?
They're fine, I guess. I like playing them. I don't like it when the puzzle was wrong in the first place though.

5. When did you last consume soy sauce or tofu?
Erm... I'm in Asia, practically China.... soy sauce or tofu, almost every day!

thefridayfive 

1. Will you be doing anything special for St. Patrick’s Day or is it just another day for you?
Another one of those "I know about it but it's just another day for me" type of deal.

2. What is your ancestry and do you do anything special to celebrate it?
Well, admittedly I don't know much beyond my Dad being Austrian and his family in Austria and I faintly remember hearing a story where Opa (grandpa) and Oma (grandma) were from 2 different villages (forgot the names of the villages) that was separated by a train track and that they met in the middle of the train track and that's how they got together, or something like that. I think the "meeting in the middle of the train track" was just for cinematic value though, but anyway, I can't ask to clarify now. I think it was one of my Onkels (one of those that spoke English) that told me that.

If I don't know much beyond my Dad being Austrian, then I know even less about Mom's side of the family, despite living with them in the same town. I know Avô (grandpa) is actually Portuguese (but not sure if born in Macau or Portugal) and that he was (I think) somewhat of a racist (looked down on the Chinese, didn't even allow us to speak Chinese at home with him), and Avó (grandma) was mixed, or we think she's mixed because either her mom or her grandma was apparently an orphan and didn't know of her ancestry or something like that. I'm not going to ask Mom about that because she hates talking about the past. Ancestry studies also isn't a thing over here, so I'll just leave it at that.

Oh, we don't do anything much in terms of celebrations. We do have an Austrian menu for dinner on 26 October that consists of either leberknödelsuppe or griessknockerlsuppe (liver dumpling or semolina dumpling soup), wiener schnitzel, and apfelstrudel. Nothing much of the Portuguese.... I guess we still follow the family's Christmas celebrations on Christmas Day (as opposed to Christmas Eve seemingly everywhere else).

3. If you found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, how much of it would you spend on play and how much would you tuck away for another rainy day?
Not so much "play" but more like, maybe get my own apartment and the rest in savings and investment.

4. Have you ever traveled to the home of your ancestors, providing you don’t already live there?
As a kid, we used to go to Austria and Portugal every 3 years (Mom had a government job so had paid holidays for the family every 3 years) and I used to hate it. In Portugal we were always just stuck in that apartment in a residential neighbourhood outside of Lisbon. In Austria we were always stuck in that little village that nobody spoke English and there was nothing to do. It wasn't even one of those idyllic mountain places.

However, I have also made trips with friends to visit Austria and Portugal, and we travelled around the country and that was mighty fun. I also visited family both times (my cousin on my Mom's side of the family is also based in Macau, but apparently at the time that I went to Portugal with my friends, she also went to Portugal with her family, so we met up for an afternoon and dinner LOL, being that my friends also knew her already). Oh, as of now, I don't have family (that I know of) that is residing in Portugal. They are all in Macau.

For my trip in Austria I visited my Onkel that had a disability and couldn't walk, so he was like always calling us on Skype. I spent a whole afternoon with him practically talking turkey*** and my cousin that actually lives in the same town with this Onkel (not her Dad) said "oh, I wouldn't have the patience to talk with him all afternoon." Well. In truth, it was a wasted afternoon, but hey, I don't get to see him often, he's also lonely because none of his brothers in town visit him, my Dad talks to him on Skype. And a couple years after my visit, he passed away. I was glad to have visited him anyway.

*** Apparently the meaning of "talk turkey" has changed. My understanding of "talk turkey" is to converse in different languages so one doesn't understand the other. But I just checked it now and apparently it means talking business...? Anyway, in Cantonese there is a pretty succinct saying, 雞同鴨講 "chicken conversing with duck" in case anyone is interested in knowing LOL

5. Have there been any surprises in your family tree?
I guess the, not surprise, but anomaly in the family tree is my family exactly. The Austrians in general back in the day, are pretty conservative and don't like to explore the world and would just stick to their village or whatnot. Seems it was only my Dad that ventured out. So his family is where the anomaly is? I still remember every time when we visited and brought them food or confectionary, Opa and Oma would receive them with thanks, but never eat them (they don't like to try new stuff). I have a faint memory of them bringing out a cake rather proudly from our last visit (i.e. 3 years ago) and Mom just told them to throw it out.

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1. Which of your actions of this past week would you care to undo?
Let me think. None really.

2. When did you last physically erase something?
I'm planning to clean up the sides of my white sneakers a bit later, so I suppose, later this afternoon?

3. When have you been glad about canceled plans?
Haha, just last week the teacher for our ceramics class asked to reschedule for that day. I wouldn't have minded if I had to go to the class, but it being rescheduled was also a nice feeling LOL.

4. When you’re on your way out the door but have to turn around and come back for something, what’s usually the reason?
It's usually my glasses. My eye sight is pretty good. My short-sighted values are actually very low, 50 or so only, but it's my astigmatism (100 on one eye and 150 on the other) that gives me issues. So when it's day time, when I don't have my glasses, I don't really notice I have no glasses. But come nighttime when it's dark and there's lights, or when I'm sitting in front of a computer, then I notice I have no glasses on. There were many times that I was on my way to work and half way there I notice I don't have my glasses (usually at the traffic lights)... it's come to a point where I put a spare pair of glasses in the office LOL.

But I think it's time I go get a new prescription as it feels like even my current glasses are sometimes not helping much.

5. What do you do when you really want to remember to do something later today or tomorrow?
Reminders on my phone.