elusivek | Entries tagged with musings

Can't let the bad things pull me down. A friend asked if I wanted to join a Yoga day event. I figured sure, even got to score a freebie yoga mat, which I was in the market for, because the bloody cat had scratched my TWO mats. Don't be fooled by the cute mug. It looks innocence but there is only mischief LOL.

I was expecting some standard yoga poses such as downward facing dog or warrior somethings, instead it was a very... anyhoo sequence LOL. I guess they either only did the event for PR exposure or there were many newbies? I know not. My friend then suggested I join the other event next week, held by another studio, probably no freebies but definitely with some more difficulty and substance than today's. Today's really just felt like a... money burner event. Is this some professional... tick (?)... I have? I'm just a "guest" but judging the event from a management angle.

The hospital Dad is at is atop a mountain, and one one side of the mountain is part of the local Grand Prix track, and the other side of the mountain is a more residential area. Lately due to a famous photo (National Geographic level famous I guess?) has brought NUMEROUS tourists to this street. Essentially it's the building of the Grand Lisboa, which is a very... modern out-of-the-world type building, and on two sides encased by slum-like buildings. Well today we went for lunch there and since my car was parked here, might as well shoot a hot photo.

Dad's doing better. It's father's day, so he got ice cream LOL. Doctor didn't specifically say no ice cream, and they serve him a thick milk-cream-porridge for tea anyway, so, should be something similar. Dad also asked for an eye mask because he's in a two-person room and his neighbour always has a light on.

Boss is out of town doing some other association stuff, so I told him, if he calls me I'd do work, but I'm going into work, I'm out of a car and although it drives, the exhaust sounds funny so I want to avoid driving it. Oh, my mechanic has quoted the price for repairs and the taxi has already paid off the amount. So the mechanic is only waiting for the parts to arrive. He's going to install a new pair of reverse proximity sensors, yay.

I can't imagine how it will be like in August... I am melting out here!

Stuff have just been happening over here and it just gets me more worried day by day.

Dad's basically pretty good now. I really think it was the hospital that fucked up his treatment previously. I don't know if I've written about it in details before or not, Under the cut, I've trimmed it really down so it's not too much of a TMI but enough to explain the situation:

( Read more... )

And so, I think it was the ward's fault the first time around. Of course they are not going to admit nor endorse my theory, but I'm convinced something similar to what I'm thinking is what happened and caused all that.

Today he was super talkative and chipper because they finally put him in a wheelchair so he was able to move around a bit.

This morning my godson Silvino had his Confirmation. Being his godmother, I had to go show up and do godmotherly stuff. Well, I don't know how many of you had known me since my high school years, but back then, I gave off a very religious air (despite I never was really religious, FWIW). I just happened to seem devout because, it was a catholic school, we had weekly catechism classes, then my Mom wanted me to get more exposed to Portuguese, so she put me in a separate catechism class held by the Parish. And then, because I was a rather quiet kid, the teachers and nuns thought I was a good kid and pushed for me to be the Vice Chairperson of the Religious Affairs Committee in the Student Union.

I tell you, I hated every moment of it. I especially hated the Portuguese catechism classes because there was a bully, and being the "new kid" and "suck at portuguese" I was the butt of many a joke there. Church kids are mean. There was once when the catechism teacher asked a question (something about how it's 3 in one or what other rot) and none of the kids could answer. The teacher asked me, and the mean kid was laughing and saying stuff like why ask the dumb kid. I got mad, looked at the teacher, and asked, "i know the answer but I can't say it in Portuguese, may I answer in English?" The parish priest of the time was sitting in as well, and he said sure. So. Guys. You know. Catholic school and regular weekly catechism with the nuns? That was just the elementary thing of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Bingo. Yeah. I'm not dumb, I just don't know the words in your language.

I really hated it when we had to write out by heart the prayers in Portuguese. Damn, I knew them all in English, why make me memorize more of the same thing in a different language?

So it's been probably 30 years since I've been properly religious (trust me when I got out of school I never touched anything Church related anymore) and today during Mass (Chinese mass at that, again, I don't know the prayers in Chinese), color me surprised when they were reciting the confession prayer (I forgot the actual name) that I was still able to recite that in English (I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned.....)

But I'm just doing all that for show. Yesterday the priest wanted a meeting with all the godparents? oh gods... all that preaching... I'm like, you want to preach, fine, just preach, don't... make so much small talk about not-it but fully intending for it.

And maybe I do have a thing for theatrics, because yesterday, that.... catechism teacher from my godson's catechism class was like, ad hoc asking "volunteers" to do work during mass. I knew my godson well enough that he doesn't do public speaking, so no scripture reading, no talking roles. They the lady asked for the offering people (take the basket around to collect offerings), and I told my godson "if you want to make a good impression. then volunteer for this. No need to talk, you'll be seen doing some work, and get bonus points for volunteering to do that". He wasn't totally eager for the idea, but I guess his mom understood the importance-not-importance of that and made him volunteer. Kid, it's for your own good. Trust me, I know the types of these people.

oh, and another thing, I don't get it. They say they "checked the ceremonies and confirmed there is no need for a candle in the ceremony for confirmation", and yet, they made the parents buy a personalised candle. WTF?

I think my Mom is at her breaking point. A couple days ago, I got home after work, and I had gone for a run too, and when I got back home, no one was home, Mom went again to visit Dad in the hospital, but... the stove was on. She managed to caramelize some vegetables (don't you need sugar for that?). And this morning, when I was moving my car away for her to drive her car to go visit Dad, she crashed her car over at a barrier thing that HAD ALWAYS BEEN THERE. She busted a wheel, and broke one water tank or another. I hope the water tank she broke was the water tank for the window wiper. Oh and a busted light. Called the mechanic, he's coming later to see if it's anything serious. I just hope it's not some... I don't know, coolent tank or whatnot or other critical part of the car.

I... need a cat nap... I'm drained.....

Nothing much really happened. Went in to work, got stuff sorted out, tried a restaurant or two.

I decided to unplug the fridge and let it defrost overnight with the doors open. It looks pretty dry already, but I'm going to prop the doors open, don't want any chance of getting moldy.

Not sure if it was a next door neighbour or a building management guy, but I got asked if we're keeping the unit. I just said we are.

Cleared the mailbox and there was still so much junk mail and authentic mail for the previous tenant (and probably previous-previous tenant too). Haven't they updated their correspondence addresses?

I also used google maps to look for a nearby post office and the way Singapore addresses are written is just stumping me. I'm finally getting to understand the formats by now, but I still haven't located a post office so fingers crossed there is one at the airport.

Dad seems to be doing better though now for no reason he's got an inflammed knee. I will surely be visiting tomorrow!

... or, I do like to meet people, but I'm not big on initiating or hosting stuff.

This "mostly foreigners group chat" that I'm in had this... plan about donig a karaoke night. Well, people had voted on a date, but the "real" planners couldn't do it on that day, and then asked me what to do. I was like... "I'm no party planner..." it's not that I don't want to do the work (I do that plenty of family), I just don't know where to start when it's with a group of strangers.

Don't know why in the end it came to me to call in regrets and to start checking out local karaoke places. I don't even go clubbing and karaoke-ing in town (I mostly go karaoke in Zhuhai). I've since posted some information of a basic karaoke place. I hope the usual singers will handle that again.

The week is finally over, and tomorrow starts a new pottery throwing class. So I'll have a good 8 weeks without doing my usual doggy and kitty planters. I figured I need to practice throwing pottery... so... that's what I'll be doing. I am so very tempted to stay in the afternoon to work on my doggies, but there's this new meeting for the shelter I volunteer at... and I also don't really want to attend because, people.

I don't know why I give off the energy and impression that people think "I will do stuff for them". Well, I do when asked, coz I'm a sucker that don't know how to say no, so I don't really want to go to these meetings. But I'm also curious because the president has said she's gonna call it quits and going back to her home country. If that's the case, what will happen to the shelter and the doggies?

That reminds me, back in... was it June? April? of last year, I came across a dog that was walking alone in the streets, getting in traffic, and all that. I called a few shelters and only one of them came to help. It wasn't the shelter I volunteer at because "they have no volunteers, can you handle it yourself?" wtf.

When the other shelter I called agreed to help, they sent the municipal kennel people (government shelter) to catch the dog. The president of the shelter that I volunteer at then asked me (sarcastically? condesendingly?) that that was irresponsible to call the kennel because they will kill the dog. Well. this other shelter actually took the dog after the 2-week quarantine placed, just before they killed the dog. I decided to sponsor for that dog. It's pretty old so they had to charge the geriatric dog fee (costs a pretty penny).

They sent me an update today, the dog looks HEAPS better. It's been neutered, got teeth scaled, showered and trimmed. I'm glad I called this other shelter instead of the shelter I volunteer at. People have asked why I keep volunteering there, and yes, I do think other shelters are doing a better job, but then I think I'm just doing this for the dogs. But then again, it's not like I'm the lifeline, so..... I am seriously considering resigning.

We got hit by a pretty cold front the last 2 weeks, so I dug out our age-old heating blankets that we can't use as heating blankets; the plastic's sort of turned a little hard so can't really use as "blanket". Intead I've put it under the mattress protector, and it works more like a bed warmer. Can't leave it on for long periods, because, fire harzard, but I do switch it one for 30 minutes when I'm in the room because the cats seem to like a warm bed.

Today it's a little warmer, but yesterday, it was pretty cold. I could withstand the cold pretty well but even so, I find, sitting on something warm is pretty comfy LOL. I finally understand our cat that likes to sit on the modem/router. Butt-warming is nice haha.

I've received a couple more travel requests/reasons for travel. Oh boy, what to plan, how to plan, woooo!

I'm busy as a bee and I should be doing my.... *drumrolls please* German Hausaufgaben! But I'm procrastinating because I don't know what's going on LOL. They said I knew enough German to not take the A1-1 class, so they put me in the A1-2 class. But, I just feel like, I don't know what's going on. They give me a reading comprehension, I can do it. They give me a composition, I don't know where to start. So, I'm procrastinating. Also, the lesson texts and explanations are all in German too. I thought I was there to learn German, not flipping off to Google Translate just for the instructions. I probably would finish this course and then not continue, whether I pass or not.

That and their planning was so bad. They pushed me to "sign up for the online course, it's flexible!" and so after I paid, then they told me there will be a 1-hour per week group session that the schedule will be discussed with the group. It came out to not so much a discussion, because the teacher was like "I can only do Thursday evenings as I have classes other days." Okay? "Lunch hour is an option too!" so I chose lunch, but then some coursemates missed class and the teacher was like "so it has to be night time. Thursday only then!" But hey, I have a class too. In the end, whichever times they set it, not everyone was able to do it. And someone had to drop out. Then they suggested, "you can still take the course and not attend the group sessions, but you won't get a certificate, is that ok?" Geez. Of course not. I'm not paying 500euros for a 9-week course and not get a certificate. Yup. Not continuing. Goethe Hong Kong is a big let down.

Decided I shouldn't waste my paid Netflix times so I picked up a series to watch. I managed to watch House, MD for up to middle of Season 3, but then it just got too.... ugh. I'm at the point of I hate all the characters because they just don't know House. But then of course he has morally questionable tactics as well. It's like I want to wrangle the other characters and ask them "so do you want to fix this or not? Then let him do his job." But yeah. Anyway, I once read somewhere the illnesses and stuff from House are all made up anyway.

Chinese New Year coming up. Three days public holiday plus two days weekend equals to a long five-day break. I didn't plan to go anywhere because these are high season to travel so everything's gonna be expensive. I got a book I started that I should finish, and also have two more books lined up, so I should get on to reading over the holidays.

I was also thinking about a short getaway trip but I didn't want to touch my Saturdays (ceramics), Thursdays and Fridays (Chinese class). But, so far my actual drive for holidaying hasn't ignited. Has my Austrian trip tired me out so much?

So, I don't know if this is a very... Portuguese/Latin(?) thing but I remember my mom being really big on saints. When I got my first car she forced me to put a charm she bought, of "São Cristovão" (St Christopher I guess), patron saint of cars and whatnot. Then when mom bought her new car (back then) she also make a whole episode of looking for a "São Cristovão" charm or something to put in her car.

The trip to Austria was just after I got my second car, and nobody mentioned anything about putting a charm in there. Anyway, while in Salzburg, I went into a... abbey bookshop? gift shop? something? And figured I might as well. get a St Christopher something there. Only, at the time I didn't know the English was St Christopher just yet. After a bit of internet searching I find him, and got this key chain.

What an adventure this keychain had.

After the holidays, when we got back, because my car was still in the work parking place, so I needed a ride to get to work. Then at the end of the day I got my car to go home. I forgot to put the keychain in my keys for a few days because my car's keys are those funny key-less remotes that didn't have a ring thing to loop it over. Anyway, it was also around this time I went to sort out my car park, and they had a set of remotes. Now their remotes had an extra ring, so I could put all those remotes together.

I still forgot to put this key chain in the bunch of keys. Then one day when I parked my car in the company building, I picked up a few random papers in my car that I wanted to throw out, and I saw this key chain, so I took it with me.

In the lift lobby, while waiting for the lift, I threw the paper into the bin. Then it was like those movies in slow-motion, the paper didn't even get into the bin and I was like "NOOOOOOOOOO"! Because I inadvertently threw out the key chain too LOL.

I was deranged and actually put my hand into the bin without gloves. That key chain is tiny, it was hard to get it. And WHAT ARE USED CONDOMS DOING IN THE PARKING LIFT LOBBY! WITH WET TISSUE PAPER!

No, I don't want to know, you don't have to answer anything pertaining to that.

God knows how much soap and disinfectant went to my hands and the keychain after that little episode.

I've sorted through my trip photos, so it's just a matter of me sitting down to write the post. But I've been deliberately off-line busy lately!

I figured it was time to make a fit about not having a dedicated car park. So after these 3 months or so of (slightly) exaggerated sighs of "I have to go down to put money in the parkometer" to "I can't find a car park in the area", and also 2 cases of "Dad promised to give me a ride but then he forgot about it", I now have a lease for a car park. Just by our place is an... the best way to describe it is, an empty plot of land. It used to be a catholic school and a Nun residence (the word for it escapes me this moment). Part of the land has been used to build a new apartment complex, but a huge chunk of it is still an empty piece of land. Someone has ownership of it, and they made a car park out of it. It also serves as a used car dealership, and some car detailing service. I knew that the covered parking was fully rented out already, but it's really just a tent or a tarp over an area.

I managed to snag one of the last open-air spots, and I'm happy about it because no more doing rounds around the area looking for a parkometer spot. Do you know how much time it saves? As for costs, if I park in the long-hour parkometer, that involves a 3km walking distance from home, so Dad or Sis would have to come get me or give me a ride there. Assuming I park every day there, I'd have around $1000 of parking expense. If I find a parkometer spot near home which are mid-hour spots, it's roughly $2000 if I park every day. Now with this leased space, it's $2500 per month, no need to worry about looking for parking, and it's near enough to home that i don't need someone to give me a ride to get the car. Also, weekends, I'm free to just leave the car there and go by bus. The weekends of the past months had been a pain to always be "babysitting" the car and thinking if I'm going out, will I have enough time to come back and feed the parkometer. No more such worries now.

I've since completed that scarf I was working on with the loom. It was fun. I've started another scarf project and this one will take a little longer as it's larger and I'm trying to see if a pattern works. It's a combination of knits and purls, so hopefully it does come out as I'm imagining it. These knitting projects are intended as a way for me to not go always online in the evening after dinner and dog walk. I want to bring down my screen time. So far it seems to be working well enough.

I'm also setting up my ceramics brand. I'm not going to make a business out of it, but I'd still like to build a brand for social media presence. I'm just waiting to get more pieces out then I'll publicize it. It's all for fun, who knows what might happen further in the future. My friend even commented that it's obvious that I'm improving as my pieces are using less clay (thinner, more refined) and the edges are getting more neat. Though, I haven't actually done any new pieces lately, just been glazing (putting colour) on my existing pieces. Still have some 8 pieces to go and after this batch, I've got a couple more doggies to work on. I'm also going to have to start making proper notes and logs on the pieces I'm working on. I suddenly realize I need proper information on the pieces for in case I want to touch up (use the same colour or not). It's a whole process.

Ugh... so it happened, my office has been relocated. I used to be able to walk to work! 15mins, 20mins max, walk from home to work! And walk back home! That, together with the morning dog walk, usually nets me my steps. Now my new "temporary" office is located at the end of the world (nah, I'm being typically a Macau-born person; anything more than 10 minutes away is "far") and I need to drive to work now.

Poor Dad, he used to love having my car to drive around, now I need the car to work, so he has no car now.

Anyway, this is a weird office because, it's not really an office. This was supposed to be some high-class VIP rooms for guests, but since it's not quite usable (not sure if because of business load, or construction licenses, or what), so what they've done is build up some temporary walls to make small offices. So I have a very weird L-shaped office, facing right in front of a defunct smoking room (LOL, because of licensing again, can't be used). My Boss has a HUGE bathroom, because originally part of the bathroom was to be a massage room so there's this weird big space before the actual toilet... and he has a shower too!

Wherever I move to, I will always have this Snoopy and Charlie Brown postcard and figure with me. On the back of the postcard shows a short story of Charlie Brown deciding he will never work so he has "More Time to Spend With His Dog." Well, Snoopy has other ideas. So. I guess this is some sort of motivational something for me that, no matter how tough work is, I'll just have to tough it out. Need money to feed the doggies (and kitties)!

One of the things I'm enjoying about this new location is the Canteen. Although I do have a lunch allowance to eat in-property, sometimes it's a bore to eat at such restaurants (big plate of what you order). The Staff Canteen has enough to keep me happy: Small salad bar, choice of 2 desserts and fruit, 6 choices for hot items, 2 soups and a noodles station I think. I'm pretty happy with getting myself a big bowl of salad, and a bit of whatever protein they have that day, some carbs, a soup and an apple. Yesterday they had Naan and Butter Chicken, so that was niiiiiicceeeee! My work station is also really big too.

One of the colleagues that moved offices together with me, LOL, yesterday, she was still "oh, this is nice. Just by my apartment building there is a bus stop, I take the bus and in 4 stops I arrive here!" So, she liked it, right?

Today she says "ah, it's not good. It was so hot this morning so I took off my jacket, and then I forgot it on the bus. This location is NO GOOD!"

Ugh.. I'm going to be two-faced here hahaha. Yeah, I had to sympathize but honestly, you should take care of your belongings? And just because you forgot about your jacket, it doesn't have any correlation with whether this new office location is good or not?

I received a text message this morning that reminded me of a topic I wanted to write about before, but forgot about when I did the wrap up of my trip.

The message I received this morning was from the ceramics workshop teacher/master. He said another division of the school group was looking for someone of an age (bit lower than my actual age) that can speak Portuguese and Chinese. I thanked him for considering me within that age range but that I'm mostly stage and camera shy and passed.

But that brought up another thing I noticed in the UK.

In many places, like museums and such, when getting entry tickets, I was asked numerous times if we were students, for the student discount. This brought up quite an interesting thought, IMHO.

So over here, the mentality is, up to high/secondary/form school, you are a student. University... maybe undergraduate courses. But once you have a Bachelor's degree, that's it. No more student status. I wonder if it's because of the mentality that "once you get a Bachelor's, you're supposed to be working and not a student." In other words, you're not young anymore (yeah harsh, I agree). I think the unspoken agreement is 26 years old is the limit of being a student. Again, I know there are students older than that. Heck, I'm 40 and if I decide to go get a Masters then I'm technically a student, but I'm talking about the.... what's the word... "unwritten and agreed upon rules"? Coming to think of it, any "dependent" benefits a person gets (parents' work benefits or government benefits to their kids) usually has a caveat that they are considered "dependent if still a student up to the age of 26." I wonder if it's because of that, that there is this kind of mentality over here.

At one place, I think at the Hastings Castle site, when asked if we were students, I sort of laughed and said "thanks for the vote of confidence, but we're way past that by now," referring to we are way past to be considered "students" or "young" now. I don't think the lady understood what I was laughing at, but seemed happy enough that I laughed at all, and said something else about it being a nice day and that we could go in up till 3.30pm again if we leave.

I think in the Western world, even if you're a Masters student, or even a PhD student, because you're technically a "student", so you would still get all those student discounts as long as you have a student's card? That would be unthinkable in this part of the world, as I know it. (Maybe times have changed and I don't realize it.)

Another cultural (cultural? Legal?) difference is.... Traffic rules!!! First off, in Macau, we follow the rules of Hong Kong (because, car imports come via Hong Kong), and Hong Kong follow the rules of the UK (coz, duh, past colonial territory), so, our steering wheels are on the right side of the car and we drive on the left side of the street.

Side note: forget about Macau being a past Portuguese colony and not following the Portuguese way of left steering wheels and driving on the right. Ease of importing cars is more important, I guess LOL. And besides, now with lifting the restrictions to China, there are many left-steering wheel cars in town with crazy Chinese drivers.

I thought, London would be more "civilized" in terms of traffic lights, but no, it's like.... it's worse than here! PEDESTRIANS!!!!! Pedestrians are lawless over there! Here, if it's a red light, everyone stops. Whoever jaywalks and crosses a pedestrian red light is usually considered "tourists from Mainland China" because, er, traffic regulations are just soft guidelines over there.

But then, when it comes to zebra crossings, it was very civilized in London. As long as a motorist sees a pedestrian nearby a zebra, they'll slow down, and once a pedestrian foot lands on the zebra, all cars stop and let you pass. Here? You have to be wary. A pedestrian is likely to be thought of being "bowling pins" in that if a motorist sees you they won't stop and expect you the pedestrian to get out of his way in time. That's the lawless part. Well in truth, cars will stop but only at the very last minute, like, they'd cross that first perpendicular line before a zebra? Yeah.

And then, back to my surprise about "lawless" London, is about the direction of cars parking. Say, if that is a two-way street, with parallel parking space on both sides of the street, it seems that in London you can park in any direction you want. See a spot on the opposite side of the street? Go for it. Park in the opposing direction of the side of the street you are on, it's fine. Here, it's not. If you are going to park in the opposite side of the street, make sure you make an ~~illegal or not~~ U-turn so that your car is facing the correct direction to the side you are going to parallel park. If you park in the opposite direction, even with the car being on park, you'll get a ticket for "going against the direction".

Finally sitting down to go through my inbox and such. I've missed SO MANY BIRTHDAYS! I'm so sorry for missing out on sending birthday wishes.

Still reminiscing the good parts of my vacation, and putting my thoughts together:
1. Not going on a "free walker" trip with this particular friend anymore. Only group tours.
2. Highly recommend this Wanderlog app and website. Even just using the free version, it was useful. I created my own account and a dud account (to say "friend") and, I put all my expenses in the app. Those that are just for me, was left at that. Those that were shared expense got marked to split evenly (I didn't try if a custom percentage would work, but since most things are 50/50 anyway) and by the end of the trip, I just clicked on debt summary and it calculated, accurately, what my friend owed me. I did a separate manual/excel expense list and came out to more or less the same figure. More or less because I was doing everything according to the bank issued statements with actual currency conversion rates to MOP, while the app calculated the standard conversion rate to HKD. And then calculating the app HKD rate to my MOP rate, it was still 1.03, which is practically the standard HKD to MOP rate used locally. So. It's accurate.
3. To those who considered me silly for continually complaining about the UK not accepting my cash, the GBP rate I had my cash was at a lower rate, than the bank credit card enforced rate. So, it actually came out more expensive to use the credit card rate than using just cash. *haaarrrrummmmmppphh!*
4. I gained a good whole 5kg on this trip. Ugh. We didn't really have 3 square meals every single day, and we walked so much. Whyyyyyyyyy. Anyway, I've trimmed back down 3kg. Work on the last 2!
5. The Lemon jam or marmelade I got from that church in Hastings is really good! I like that it isn't just sweet like commercial jams are.
6. So far what I miss the most is... the milk. We bought a carton of fresh milk every other day, because I drank a lot of that milk (maybe that's where my 5kg came from haha). So creamy! Not like the processed milk here....

I have an upcoming trip in June to Hong Kong. It was really just a concert that I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure how late the concert would last, and since the venue is somewhere where in my knowledge it's a bit out there so I wasn't sure about transport and such... so I decided I'd spend the night there instead of rushing back for the ferry back to Macau. After much struggling about rooms and where, I decided to just find a balance with getting a cheap private room with the comfort of a private toilet and bathroom. I really just need some place to sleep the night and maybe leave my overnight bag while I'm out.

I extended an invitation to my Sis to join me on the Monday after, since she wanted to go to that Jade Market I went to. She seems to be interested, but hasn't confirmed yet. We'll see, it's weeks away anyway.

And it's about time to work on the potential Italy trip in October/November! First thing: hunt for good flight deals.

I really didn't want to bombard everything on a Saturday, but I just wasn't in the right headspace over the week to write my usual self-deprecating sarcastic stuff. But since Sai Lup seemed to be doing better when I saw him yesterday, and I'm out doing my usual shelter finances at Starbucks, and did the Friday Fives, and now have quite a bit of time left, might as well do it now.

Finicky. Usually not me. Not me in the post either.

Passport visa

So, I went to get my China visa. I knew I would get some trouble over that. I've mentioned before I officially have 2 names because of my 2 nationalities and how the culture of these nationalities differ in the surnames.

Macau being previously a Portuguese Colony, so on my Macau ID Card, my surname follows the Portuguese way of stuffing both mom's and dad's surname. So my name is Susana dos Santos Schmidt *totally made up name, for illustration purposes*, where dos Santos comes from my mom's Portuguese surname and Schmidt comes from my dad's Austrian surname.

I have the same longass name on my Portuguese Passport. Portuguese Passports have to be renewed every 5 years.

On my Austrian Passport, my name is Susana Schmidt. Austrian Passports have to be renewed every 10 years.

So when applying for a China visa in Macau (I assume in Hong Kong too), if you are a permanent resident you can apply for a 3-year China visa, for the same price as a 6-month or 1-year visa. Or if you're just a tourist then you can apply for a 1-time visa to China. I've always preferred to use my Austrian Passport whenever possible because I can sign a shorter name and I can use it for longer. You know that rule about not being able to use your passport with less than 6 months validity?

In the past, when applying for the China visa, all i had to do was explain to the staff about the culture thing.

This time though, apparently, the Chinese Consul is a new guy, so they didn't know whtat he thought of that.

I'm like, I'm not hiding the fact that I have 2 nationalities from you (and I know China doesn't recognize dual nationalities, but I'm inclined to think it's more about THEIR people, so you can't have a Chinese Nationality and an American one), I'm just explaining to you why my name is slightly different.

They asked me many questions. But they asked me all the wrong questions LOL. The funniest yet:

- So which passport did you use to apply for your Macau citizenship?
- None? I was born in Macau. I had my Macau citizenship before I got any of these passports.

I was laughing so much in my head. Had they asked instead, "in your Macau ID, which nationality are you registered as?" then I'd gladly have replied the factual truth of "Portuguese" (that's why I have that Portuguese version name).

I told them to "just submit it to the consular office. If they do not approve it, then I just don't get to go to China, no biggie!" Seriously, I have no plans to go to China yet, it's just that if I have the visa on hand then IF I do go then I already have a visa on hand.

Anyway, in the end, my visa got approved.

Why I hate socializing with people

So, a couple of months back, someone I knew was in a car crash. Her car got rear-ended by a truck on the way to work. Since it was "on the way to work" so it's covered under the employment insurance. She even had a neck brace for a while. I know her because she works in that side project that my Boss has. As mentioned before, I do not work at that side project, though I do participate in some of the work things there. But, in terms of location of work, I have absolutely 0 relations with that place.

Oh, she's also on the ceramics workshop place where I'm doing my ceramics workshop, so sometimes we do see in passing.

Two nights ago, I saw her for the first time after the covid lockdown and all that. What is the normal greeting of any sensible person?

"Oh hey! Long time no see! How are you? Are you ok?"

Her response? "Why do you ask? What have you heard?"

I was confused. "You had your accident? I saw you in your neck brace? So I'm asking how you are? as a normal person would?"

Then she goes on and says she's heard a lot of rumours about her at her workplace. Yeah well. Some people would squeeze every last bit of that workers compensation insurance thing. You get a third of your salary (because you are recovering from a work-related injury), cannot be fired because of absentia, and all that. So her fellow colleagues had been complaining that they've got a lot of work to do, coz her work got piled up to them.

Well, if we go that deep into a personal viewpoint, I'm in the camp of "I go to work even when I'm sick, so if you are well enough to go play with ceramics, you're well enough to go to work." But I don't go around gossiping about her. In fact, I never once thought about her until she showed up. And her mild accusation of me being part of the gossip? Oh yeah that fired me up.

Then she comes back again and tells me "You don't have to tell anyone about seeing me here."

You know how mad I got? "You think I have the time to go to a work place that I DO NOT WORK AT and gossip with people? You don't have to worry a thing, if I gossip, I do not gossip behind people's back; I say it to their faces," that shut her right up. My bestie was surprised that I can get so.... mean? Rude? But she had it coming. Tell me you're not feeling guilty, coming back to tell me to "not mention to anyone I saw you here." You know what, I wouldn't have mentioned, but now that you have demanded I don't, now I would; coz I'm not gonna do as you say.

There was a third thing I wanted to write about, but now that I'm here and having written the two.... I can't recall what the third thing was, darn it....

London Trip

Oh yeah, the friend that's going to London with me, she's finally got her passport. And it's when she was checking out the flights that she found out that now Cathay has even cheaper tickets than the ones I got on BA. So I told her, she can go on the CX. It goes to London an hour earlier than mine, and goes back to HK like 2 or 3 hours later. So she can wait for me at Heathrow and then coming back she can leave a couple hours later. She's the scaredy cat type and wouldn't want to fly alone, but the choice is up to her.

True, I'm slightly gutted as I think the Cathay planes might be newer than the BA planes, Cathay seats are said to be a little spacier than BA, and it's a whole HKD$1000 cheaper. but I won't let that curb my enthusiasm.

Oh, now that Brexit is done, does that mean that I'll get an inbound chop in my passport? That's basically the only thing I could be salty about going to Europe with an EU passport, they just look at the passport and let us in, no chop, no stamp, no PROOF that I was there haha. Oh, and that reminds me! I thought my friend would have to queue a bit because of her MSAR passport and I can just go through so that means she wouldn't have to wait too long for me... but then because of Brexit so I'll be in the same queue then. Ooops. Sorry friend, you're gonna have to wait for me if you do take the Cathay.

It seems I've been quiet. I was never away! I've just been busy.

So now that the Boss has successfully gotten into one of the top tier global MBA courses, I'm starting to see a slight pattern. He really doesn't seem to have much work on the surface, from where I see. He's involved in a lot other companies, associations, and whatever, that I'm not privy to, so he could be busy with these other projects. But for the few projects that I'm directly involved in, I don't see much of it.

As I had, right in the beginning, cut the chase and told him point blank that, I would get him INTO an MBA course, but I'm NOT GOING TO DO any assignments and DEFINITELY NOT the thesis.

But, now I see I've got some extra time on hand. Yes. Why would anyone complain about being idle? But I'm idle, and I admit it.

Seeing him studying stuff for self development is making me feeling like doing that as well but I also do not feel like shelling out the cash for that. So I was at Coursera just browsing around looking for stuff to learn and I find 2 free courses that, if I later decide to enroll in the MBA program from that school, the scores from these 2 free courses would count towards the MBA program. And so, I find myself doing an online MBA thing from a University in Brazil. I much prefer things this way. I try out the course, if I like it then I'll think about paying for the whole thing.

Aaaaannnddd it's Monday. Long weekends are not long by the end of it, LOL.

Watched Dr. Strange 2 on Friday. Hm.......... erm........ hrrmmm..... It would probably be amazing if watched in 3D? But the storyline felt a bit.... lame-ish? The pictures were great though. The... those snippets at the end after credits.... Easter eggs? ... were okay.

That universe though (I mean, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, etc) just feels like it's being added on so it's just gonna expand and... there is no end.

But the trailers before the movie? I'm interested in watching... what's the name... Everything everywhere all at once? That one looks interesting. I already have a provisional date with my friend Jenny, for when it airs.

So.... the family iMac died. Took it to the Apple Store. The thing was like over 10+ years. It's slim, and not really heavy. But when you have to carry it and walk a long way, it gets heavy. Then Mom goes and tells Dad that I'm mad... when honestly, I wasn't. The thing was heavy and cutting into my palm, so I wanted to get to the Apple Store ASAP, but she kept saying she doesn't know why I'm mad... to a point that I actually hissed... No, I am not mad about anything, but if you continue to say that I'm mad when I'm not mad, then I will REALLY be mad. So the Support Genius Bar guy confirms it's a dead hunk of... machine, we went and bought a new one.

And because of the demise of this family iMac, I was worried that my external hard-drive, the one that I use to store all my photos (right from my old phones like the Nokia 5800 or Sony Ericsson K810i and old cameras), would also just inexplicably die, so for now, I sorted through my travel photos and my Flickr travel collection should have them covered. There's no captions though, as many of the photos, I've forgotten about the exact place taken and whatnot.

If you are interested, this is the travel collection.

I have to sort through the other old photos and see what I'd like to creep and archive them on Flickr as well, I suppose... with the pro account I do have unlimited photo uploads... I just don't want to over-upload and then they decide.... you need to pay more for that... the external hard disk shows that I have almost 350GB worth of photos *sweatdrop*

We've been having a week of rainy days and we had to look for an alternative location to walk the dogs. We ended up going "under the bridge" for some cover... there isn't much grass though, but it's still something.

The local 7-11 convenience store is doing some special with Peanuts (Snoopy) and one of its pouches caught my eye. But, it's a little convoluted. You need to spend an X amount of money at the 7-11, then collect stamps. Once you get the required amount of stamps, you get one of those bags or pouches - but you don't get to choose... it's random. A friend of mind shopped to redeem 3 of such bags... and 2 were repeated. I don't have that kind of patience to collect those stamps and then with baited breathe open the darned package to see which I got… I just went to Taobao and ordered the one I wanted… LOL

Okay, so yesterday I went for my first pottery throwing class. My experience wasn't the best though. So we had to knead the clay, and I seem to have gotten the hang of it rather immediately. Then, we were seated at those... erm... turnstile thingamajig? So the teacher was showing us that we have "pull it long, and then push it back flat" (the piece of clay on the turnstile), which is fine really. Except, as she pulled it long, the clay turned into a phallic shape and it looked like a d*ck, LOL. Then, she flattened it back. We were to try the techniques. I was seated on the "outside" row of those turnstiles, away from the "aisle", so when the teacher walked around, she never really walked by me. I suppose because I kneaded the clay pretty ok, and I managed to "center" the clay onto the turnstile, the teacher then sort of left me to my own device.... but then I didn't really know what to do... like how to shape it, how to make it a bowl shape. It was annoying. I even asked a few times, and only got insignificant comments like "you don't have to make it so big", so I made smaller cups.... in the end, everyone had big, large cups, while I had tiny ones. Geez. And because by the time the teacher deigned to spend some time on me, class was almost over, so it was more her making the cups and not me practicing on the technique. More next week. I might just end up making sake cups... this way I can give them away, haha!

I hardly write about fandoms I'm in, and I'm not about to start either... but!

I've been mentioning about binge-watching Netflix and all that? I have been focused and singular in my pursuit. Singular as in, Criminal Minds. I had always liked the show, and when it was being broadcasted on TV I would watch here and there an ep or so. But there was never continuity, as schedules changed, might have dinner appointments, and all that.

I've already forgotten when I started this binge on Netflix. All I know was, I was focused on finishing Criminal Minds. The first 2 seasons were good, I sort of remembered the cases (I think I attempted such a marathon in pre-Netflix times, but on bootleg streaming sites). By seasons 4-5 it started to get weird. Then seasons 6-8 again I had some faint recollection of episodes, I sort of knew the unsubs, but got the process of the episodes all wrong. So maybe my pre-Netflix time marathon was up to there too. The later seasons (around season 7) though, it wasn't really the "Criminal Minds" that I liked from the first seasons. Many times they just sort of randomly put parameters for the profile and then Penelope would just search up the computer and then voila, they got the guy(s). And my most recently finished season 9 was like, showing the perpetrator actions in parallel to the investigations? Not really liking it.

But anyway, I'm on the last 3 seasons, if the Netflix list is right... and then FINALLY I can say I have watched something from start to finish.

My next binge after Criminal Minds might be NCIS, but I guess I'm kind of fed up with crime-fighting shows. Other shows I used to like are Six Feet Under, Bones and The Mentalist. Before I started Criminal Minds, I did watch the first episode of Archive 81. Pretty good, I might follow that up. Or I'll just let Netflix show recommend me something.

I checked the times in Russia... the whole of R is already 11-March.

I'm still able to post out here.

So we're good?

jeune_fleur shared a tweet, which essentially says

“Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet

No later than March 11, all servers and domains must be transferred to the Russian zone. In addition, detailed data on the network infrastructure of the sites is being collected."

So, again, it's the accessibility that has me worried.

Also on the news I heard VISA, MasterCard, AMEX are all cutting or rejecting Russia, so I suppose the April payment won't go through.

I guess 19 years worth of entries was too much for Dreamwidth. Things are just not transferring over. I've backed stuff up on the Blogbooker thing though. Just did the Word version, might go and do the PDF version. It was like almost 3000 entries.

I'm still undecided on whether to Dreamwidth of Not to Dreamwidth. I'm https://elusivek.dreamwidth.org/ there though. Facing the whole setting up of the journal again feels daunting... makes me want to return to Wordpress. At least, the importing seems to be working on Wordpress! (Been running the import for almost 2 days straight and it seems something IS going through). If I make any decision I will update both here and DW and WP....... (argh, just figuring out image hosting and all that is going to be a pain)

恭喜發財！

Nowadays you will probably read Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Mandarin Chinese)

In Hong Kong you'd see Gung Hey Fat Choy! (English literation of Cantonese Chinese)

In Macau it's Gong Hei Fat Choi! (Portuguese literation of Cantonese Chinese)

So today, or technically yesterday (it's past midnight) was the last day of the lunar year. We got to get off work at 4pm. I went to the flower market 行花市, it's auspicious to do that just before the New Year. It's usually just stalls and stalls of flowers. The popular plant at this time would be orchids. I went for a lookaround.... I really wanted to buy one but I've already got 2 orchids at home, but they haven't flowered yet... So I suppose I have to be patient.

I don't know this couple, but I didn't want to stand in line and wait, there were... many people, it'd take a long time if I waited. It's the year of the tiger, so there's all these orange tiger dolls everywhere.

In recent years though, there's been a surge in stalls that sell crap LOL. Handheld wind.... what's them mini windmills called? I lost the word temporarily. A lot of tiger dolls.

Ah, the god of fortune 財神 was also hanging around LOL

In the end, I only bought this thing shaped like a fish. It's an incense that I put it above a heat source to let it disperse the aroma. There was a very cute tiger one, but I knew my incense burner was a narrow dish (my friend made this Totoro incense burner herself!) so I got the fish. I'm actually lucky it actually fits, as I wasn't sure it would fit.

On the way home, we pass by the Cathedral. Only here I suppose. I'm all for the melding of cultures, but I still think putting Chinese lanterns in a Church is wrong somewhat... but what do I know?

It will be my cousin's birthday in a couple days, and my sis had to get a present for her, so we went to this department store. Mom called and said she wanted some "sweets" (it's custom to have a Chinese New Year box filled with sweets), but she specifically only wanted the sweed candied coconut flakes. Well. There was no choice. Everything's empty LOL. I happened to spy on some vegan-friendly chocolate and a plant-based chocolate pretzel thingamajig (I don't believe in that kind of a packing it's pretzels inside).

Dinner we had some turnip cakes. I don't need chilli to go with my turnip cake, but I just happened to look at the jar at the dining table. It's been expired for over a year! The parents say it's always in the fridge so it's fine. Well. Indeed. They haven't needed the doctor's anyway.....

My African Violet is growing like crazy!

I seemingly have a lot of time, but then I am also, at the same time, so busy that I hardly have the time to just write! I constantly have to rush through my tasks then do a quick Wordless Wednesday or do a late Friday Five and the like! But I suppose it's good this way.

Teeth/Braces
They are OFF! Dentist says I'm done with the braces, that the "relationship" between my problem top and bottom molars have their relationship fixed (okay, so braces are like counseling, for teeth, LOL). I just need to use more my left side more for the normal grinding down of my teeth. Right now, the feeling is like when you get your cavities filled and the dentist didn't file the teeth enough, so you feel like you can't completely bite down? This is my constant feeling nowadays, though I noticed the last 2 days seemed better. And even though with my braces out, I supposedly can eat normal again, I'm pretty chuffed that I lost 7kg, so I'd like to keep my eating habits for now. Soup and a bit of bread for lunch. Though, last week was birthday week, so I've been eating a lot more. I don't want to weight in tomorrow LOL.

Birthday
I posted a photo of myself on Wednesday for the Wordless Wednesday... that happened to be my birthday proper, that's why I chose that photo. However, I had used a hair clay that's more for color than styling, and it's white. That photo was taken by the end of the day, so the color probably was a bit off. Here's me earlier in the day. Even if I have to say so myself, I think the distinguished look suits me!

And then, Dad was talking to one of his brothers that night on Skype (dunno which of them). As their conversation was in German, I wasn't paying much attention until I heard my Dad say: (paraphrased from memory, so ignore any grammatical errors!)
Dad: "Kati hat geburtstag" (it's Kat's birthday)
Onkel: "ah, macht Kati vierzig jahr?" (oh, is she turning forty?)
Dad: "Ja, vierzig jahr!" (Yes, forty!)
Me: "Vierzig? Was vierzig? Wie vierzig? Wenn vierzig?" (Forty? What forty? Why forty? When forty?")
Dad: "ahaha! Nicht vierzig?" (haha! Not forty?)

Yeah. For the record, I'm not 40. I don't mind being forty, I mind people being wrong.

My bestie got a kick out of this story, and had her sister make this cake for me: The original design on has the skating girl, but she added a running dog that looks suspiciously like Frenchie. And of course, the message plate. "Noch Nicht Vierzig" Not yet forty LOL LOL LOL. She can make fun of me, but we're the same year, I'm just older than her by 6 months. If I'm forty, she's forty too haha!

Running / Workouts
I've been so busy that I skipped a running session last Saturday. Then yesterday I suddenly had an empty morning, and the sky was really overcast, so decided to grab that chance and go out running... only for the sun to come out and making it unbearable. It's winter. I'm in a sleevless running top.

There's this gym place that I always liked the concept of (Life Project) but the Taipa gym was in the middle of nowhere, and the Macau gym was located in a place that has virtually no parking... however, I have newly found out that the Macau gym has been relocated to a place SUPER convenient for me, practically on the way between home and work. I'm so tempted to join that gym place now. With a premium membership I get credit for 50 group classes, and I can use the facilities all year. They are open from 6am to midnight, and so in my mind's planning, I can drop off my gym back on my way to work in the morning, if there are no classes that day, then I can go there over lunch and walk on the treadmill (I have this habit of walking after lunch, come summer it will be too hot to do so), if there are classes, then I can stop by after work for the class, shower, then get onwards home. Then weekend and/or rainy days I can go use the facilities (treadmill/ellipticals/machines).

I've been good and been doing some yoga and plank exercise every night, but will I have the willpower to actually dilligently go to the gym?

Any spare time that I have that I wanted to just lie in bed and read and chill, but.... the dogs and cat had other ideas... I've finally finished the book I started in November last year. Now i have to decide what to read next to start working on the reading challenge!

Random
Ah... today... I felt like it being Mickey Mouse day... so I had my Mickey Mouse Argyle cardigan, and a pair of Mickey Mouse earrings... but the T-shirt inside is a Totoro T-shirt LOL

After lunch today, I decided to go for a bit of window shopping and use the 20% discount coupon I got at a witchy/culty/gems/spiritual place. On the way there, I saw this old building and snapped a photo of it. Not usually the photographic subject of other people.

Shopping
I got three new tiny stones. I got a Spirit Quartz (far back, white-ish), an Azurite Malachite (middle, blue), and I just forgot the the name of the front one. My sis says it's a pink amethyst, but since the shop is near my workplace, I might just swing by tomorrow again and look. The big stones around (purple amethyst, white crystal, and pyrite in the far end) are stones I had before already. I think this more or less completes my stones display, maybe if I find a green garnet then I'll get it and officially close my stone corner. (Garnet is my birth stone, but I don't really like red stones, so I'm considering a green garnet)

Geez, the day is not going so well for me today.

So after my general check up in September, the report came out in October. I have a slight issue (a very simple matter) and the doctor had given me a course of medication, and just told me "you'll need to come back when you complete this course". She didn't say how long after, and I didn't think to ask that.

Anyway, course completed, and I decided to wait 2 days after to revisit the doctor. But. That's the funny thing with that hospital. You don't know which doctor you'd get. Heck, I wasn't even in the same department. The general check up was up in the "General Health Check up" department, but that department did not have the option for individual bookings, so I had to make a booking down in a dedicated department.

Anyway, so I left with quite some time to spare (half an hour) and proceeded on my way to the private hospital. The bus did not stop when I waved at the bus stop (the prick!) so I took another bus that didn't stop exactly at the hospital. I still had to walk a ways, but at least I didn't have to walk up a mountain then down the mountain to get to it.

Doctor checks my file, and says "too early for the re-consultation". She practically asked me to just return next month. Eyeroll. Well at least there was no consultation charge. (This private hospital is well known for being money-sucking). Walked back to the office, up and down the hill and all. I figured I needed the walk.

Then it was lunch. I was feeling pretty hungry, but I also wasn't able to eat properly again, because yesterday the dentist had changed the elastic band that i had to use, so my gums were sore again today. I ordered a shrimp bisque because it's usually served inside a bun... I figured the soup can soften a bit of the bread, so I can also eat a bit of soggy bread that way.

The thing is, I hate shrimp bisque, and any shrimp or lobster soup, the kind where you have to boil their heads and get the brain juice? I don't mind sucking the heads when I'm eating shrimps or prawns, but I have no idea why I hate it so much when it's in soup form. Anyway. All part of the planning. Besides, I've been having tomato soup for almost 2 weeks. I had to ask for something different.

And now I'm feeling so nauseous. It's not the shrimp bisque, I surmise, I think it's more I've stuffed myself too much, I've only been having soup for lunch, and today I had soup and bread, but I don't know.

I suppose I'll be calling it a day earlier today, will just go home and try to sleep it off.

So…. Following my last post of being petty, I’m also feeling pretty smug.

There hast no fury like that of a scorned woman LOL.

I’ve once detailed the story of how I flunked my MBA program. It was more I made a choice not to pursue it due to lots of BS.

Today I have my last laugh. Finally!

So some guy contacted me via my most hated subordinate, to invite my boss to be part of a judging panel for an event, but I was thinking, it’s good for my Boss’ exposure, so I accepted the referral and asked my Boss. He was interested in the whole thing too, so we said yes.

Then, I receive an email from this one person that I never wanted to deal with ever again, it was someone from that MBA school. He was the new rector when my situation went to hell back then. He also did not help with my situation. In fact, he made it worse by contacting me via Facebook (how more unprofessional can you be?) trying to coax me back to get back into the program, because they needed to up the successful graduation rate.

Meh. What a small world, I thought. But work is work, I have to put away my shame and embarrassment, and more important, my annoyance aside.

Fast forward a month, and it was obvious my Boss wouldn’t make it in time back into town, I replied them saying as much. It’s like they never received my missive, and they come back to me asking if my Boss confirms. So I reply again and say yes but he’s out town. The first coordinator had mentioned they will make an online stream option, so I ask if they will do it.

They say yes, so I wait. Event is then postponed a week. But no changes on their website. Then finally, I receive the official invitation…. 4 days before the event.

I’m quick to reply that… there’s no web streaming instructions, and since it’s a judging panel, what’s the rundown, abstracts of all the contestants, scorecard samples, scoring objectives, and the like.

Ex-rector replies they will send everything before Friday.

It’s now Friday 20:40, work day over, event is tomorrow at 9am, and still nothing. Absolutely nothing. I called the contact number they provided for 3 days, but no one ever answered. I sent an email this morning to remind them, and just before I closed for the day and weekend (Monday and Tuesday off!), I shot them another email, very diplomatic, politically neutral, polite, but basically dissing them that they are the ones who failed.

“I have yet to receive the briefing pack, and without the web streaming details at this time of the day, I’m afraid if [my Boss] encounters any technical issue tomorrow there is no on-site IT technician on [my Boss]’s side to provide assistance.”

It’s basically the same thing that led to my deciding to not pursue my MBA. This time though, I “attacked” them.

Ah. I feel smug.

Mini-not-quite-revenge is sweet.

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Agueda Umbrella
kat (DW: elusivek | LJ: notte0)
❤︎ loves dogs, dark chocolate, and books.
★ doesn’t exactly hate cats.
◆ hates white chocolate.
more?
I read books :-)

January 2026

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Page generated Tuesday, 6 January 2026 01:20

escapades of the elusive kat

taking on the world one day at a time

Entries tagged with musings

Life goes on

Some memories and a major worry

Last workday in Singapore

I'm really not a people person

Quick update

Komm Gut Heim

It’s coming!

Office Relocated

Cultural Differences

Catch up!

Finicky

Yes I've been quiet

And it’s Monday

Binge Binge Binge

It's Friday 11-March

Backup

Happy Chinese New Year! 恭喜發財！

Quick wrap up

What a day!

Smugness level 1000

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January 2026

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