Groundhog Day

Hmm... Where to start? Five months since the last post. Have I been busy? Yes I have been. I started at the new place (where I started as a trainee more than 10 years ago and left 10 years ago), caught more remy at home, ate more food than I should have, got my braces... And the absence is due to.... A combination of lost and laziness

I started working at the new place with a very positive attitude. I like most of the people (c'mon, you can't make me like everyone!) but slowly, I feel like it's groundhog day again. I deal with dodos who have similar problems in slightly different wrappers. Some of them have quite an attitude. Some vocabularies that I tried hard to lose creep back into my head and came flowing out of my mouth in some most inappropriate (politically) moment. I wake up in the morning and mechanically change and drive to the office. I am all exhausted at the end of the day after 14 to 15 hours at work. On the weekend, when I get a moment with the Changster, I don't know what I did the week before.

This is getting a little scary. Am I too jaded or something is wrong with my brain?

Ferrari Vs Station Wagon

Went to Changster's kindie orientation yesterday with Grandpa. We picked that kindie because it's in the boonies and so we don't need to wake up at 5:30 am every morning to send the Changster to her school bus to make it to school for 7:30am start. Whilst there is no guaranteed placement, being a Category 1 kindie candidate means Changster has a pretty high chance to make it the primary school of the same group. Also, we though people living in our boonies should be pretty diversed and we don't need to face the investment banking type....

How wrong we have been on the last point!

We parked our standard football mum car and the first thing I saw, or more accurately the first thing that BLINDED me was a white Ferrari. I was like who drives that in our boonies? Lots of cars, some pretty nice ones but most of the cars I have seen are station wagon or SUV. A Ferrari?

All along, I want Changster to hang out with kids from different background so that she can be see the world as it is. I do not know the owner of the white Ferrari and I have been telling myself not to stereotype people but going to school orientation, shouldn't the parents drive a not so flashy car? I assume that they went because their kid is attending that school in September and a Ferrari doesn't really have the third seat so there should be a "family" car.... Call me strange, call me stupid, but driving a Ferrari to kindie orientation is like driving a convertible with the top off on snow day!

The orientation lasted for about an hour and I could feel the shape of the seat of the kiddie chair indented on my butt towards the end of the session (we sat on the front row and the projector screen was about four feet away from my nose). Someone asked if being in the boonies kindie guarantees entrance to the boonies primary school (in the same group) and the principal said no and for any category 2 kids (can speak Cantonese and can survive in the local school system in terms of language skill), the chance of school interview is next to nothing. I secretly hope that the question was asked by the Ferrari owner......

Road Rage

I've been driving around in Daddy's car since I got my license. The mechanical bit isn't difficult. Being able to respond to the crazy drivers on the road in HK is the tough part which I think requires special agent level driving skills to handle. And I mean the 007 played by Sean Connery when everything was under control and cool, not the clumsy one by Daniel Craig (even though I think he's not bad to look at)

Why do people hate signalling when they switch lane and why do they think they are driving a Smartfortwo when in fact their big arse cars can actually scratch mine when there's obviously no space for them to switch into my lane? I drive at around the speed limit and can follow the car ahead of me. Just because I have the probational "P" stuck on the window doesn't mean I do not know my rights or can be bullied. There are so many Stig wannabe on the street and they totally lack safe driving skill makes me wonder what is the standard of the driving test in Hong Kong.

Have I been angry when I am on the road? Not really. I have the entire family in the car and some of them sleep whenever I drive. I can't afford to get angry and chase after those crazy drivers. Plus, I am not breaking the law, they can only honk at me at best and I kinda enjoy annoying them. It's just not easy to drive in HK. Road rage? Their problem. Kekeke

Liberation!

It's been another long absence but this time it's not due to pain! I finally managed to leave the zoo for good and has been on holiday. The few things that I learnt / noticed through out the last three years in the zoo:

- Don't trust people with shifty eyes. Chances are they are really shifty in characters

- People who put on a big smile in front of you right after they stroll around the zoo screaming their heads off on the mobile? RUN! They want something and they probably want more than what you can offer

- If I am buying drinks on my own account, it means I want to drink with people I am friend with. No invitation means I don't consider them friends. The cost for me, they badmouth and spread untrue story. What puzzles me is it's not like we will enjoy each other's company at a drinks. Why do they want the freaking invite?

- The lack of decency is not something extraordinary in the zoo. In fact, it's the norm and don't get upset if you cannot find decency in some people.

- If you happen to be in a zoo, just being good at what you do won't get you far. You need to know how to entertain the people who matter. That includes drinking till 4am with people you cannot care less

What am I doing now? I am enjoying my time off to complete all the little projects I have in mind but got no time to execute in the past. I am attending a Korean course to get my certificate in Korean, I am finally cleaning up the storage room since we moved almost two years ago. Refiled all my bank, pension fund statement. Got my HK driver's license. Eating well and meeting friends. Life is great at the moment and I am quite happy to know that I will be back to work in mid July before I driver everyone at home crazy!