The Canine Version

D & I were working out our Jap curry dinner at Causeway Bay when we came across a pet shop round the corner. Couldn't resist putting my 7610 into good use and found the pups really cute. Here are some photos. Sleepy Golden Retriever pups: I like this pose best... he's a cute dude... Stately Siberian Husky (older pup): There were 2 other younger huskies which were huddled together and sleeping while we were there. Couldn't get a shot of them though. I think these are Poms pups: These pups were just playing their hearts out, tearing at their pink towel. (Must remember to ask my dog-expert friend if these are really poms.)

New Toy & Freebies

I am now a proud owner of the Nokia 7610 since 14th Feb, the phone which had caught my eyes when it first appeared in the advertisments. I had been thinking about the type of mobile phone I should buy as I have given my 3210 to my mum back in S'pore. The 6260 was a close contender but I decided the clam-phone is just too big for me. D and I went to shop for the phone in the evening on V-day, a few hours after we landed inHK. Well, it isn't my V-day pressie... D and I do not celebrate it since we believe that it is over-rated and commercialised, moreover everyday should in fact be a V-day. Anyway, I really needed a phone and although pay day will only be at the end of Feb, D was nice enough to loan me the money. The shopping was great fun, especially since we were given lots of freebies. The phone is about S$40 cheaper here in HK and warranty is local (we had checked out the phone in S'pore, thinking I should just get it in S'pore but decided against it when I was informed that the Nokia warranty isn't worldwide). The funny thing was that everytime the salesman came back to us, he would put down another freebie on the table for me. D was totally taken aback by this, we never had so much fun shopping. Here's a list of our freebies, not original Nokia products: (The basic Nokia set includes a travel charger, USB Data Cable, Nokia PC-Suite, earpiece, a phone pouch, 64mb RS-MMC and of course, the phone) 1. A desktop charger 2. Additional battery 3. Additional Earpiece 4. 128 RS-MMC 5. Bluetooth Earpiece 6. A SD/MMC/RS-MMC USB Card Reader 7. PVC Phone Pouch 8. Anime Phone Stand and Wrist Strap See Pic below - taken by my 7610. D is now comtemplating purchasing his Canon 20D from HK instead, with the hope that he will get the freebies too.

Eve of the Eve of V-Day

Here at Harry's Esplanade with the Gypsy Kings blasting around me. We just had dinner with a friend at the "No Sighboard Restaurant", one that serves the usual Chinese cuisine. Funny the name, 'cos it's in effect a sighboard afterall. We are just about to finish our last drop of Wolf Blass and waiting for our friend to return to Harry's.

It's been quite a long day, we had to run a number of errands. Our "new" stock of books, 2-in-one coffee powder and coffee maker have been dropped off at the post-office to be delivered to HK. Books in HK are more expensive and the selection is not as good as those back home in S'pore. We sure miss Borders, Kinokuniya and most importantly the National Library.

We had completed our visitings for this Chinese New Year and met up with friends and relatives. It will be another 6-9 months before we return home; perhaps I will be back earlier in July for my brother's convocation, provided he graduates.

Tomorrow morning, I will be going to church to be with my Sound Crew mates again. And come Monday, Valentine's Day, we will be taking the 11am flight back to HK. It's been quite a rush of a trip, but has been a good one so far.

Back Home - 3rd Day & Tired Out ?!?!

This is my 2nd attempt in writing my blog; the first was at around 3pm, Pacific Coffee @ Citylink and when I clicked "Publish Post", the next screen was the dreaded "Can't Find Server" error message. I had actually completed the darn entry but alas, it was not meant to be. Coincidentally, I was unable to access my Gmail a/c either. I woke up early at 9am today, not out of my own free will, but was awakened by my mobile's sms ringtone. An ex-colleague wanted to know if I was keen to visit our ex-workplace together and lunch after that. We did the latter instead as I intend to visit school tomorrow. It will be a short schoolday for pupils and teachers because tomorrow's the eve of the Chinese New Year, and a concert has been planned for this occasion. I just hope that I will be able to wake up at 0630 and be there by 0800. I have been having problems waking up in the morning, and according to D, there were a couple of occasions when I was close to "murdering" the alarm clocks that woke me up. My sore throat is getting better; I have been drowning myself in lots of water and took my trusted Dorithricin (the best lozenges that work wonders) every 3-4 hours for the last 3 days. I realised how pathetic my body takes to changes in the temperature. When I arrived in HK a month back, I couldn't take the cold but has gotten used to it; and now that I am back in the tropics, I can't stand the heat. I have been getting the itch and hoping that my body will not give way to red hot rashes. D and I had dinner with my grandmother and relatives today, reunion dinner of sorts except it is a day earlier. Wonder why. Nonetheless, we will have another one tomorrow. This time round, it will be at my parents' place, and a simple birthday celebration for my dad.

Back Home

"I don't want to go home," this pre-schooler told me as I was managing his class in the auditorium during the Chinese New Year concert yesterday. "I like school." Together with his classmates, they had just performed an item for the concert and it was a blast to see how these 5-year-olds threw energetic punches and powerful kicks on stage all on their own. It was amazing because they were so chatty and active prior to the performance and had a little problem getting them to settle down. Maybe it is my ever-growing maternal instinct as I told D of these adorable kids, how cute they were on stage and off; their innocence and eloquence. I was extremely impressed with another pre-schooler, who told me after receiving her 2 chocolates that she would not eat them but share with the rest of her family. She had the widest dimpled smile and I saw innocence and pure kindness. Told D that I so wanted to take her home with me. Gee, hope our children will be like that and that we will be good parents. I am back in S'pore for the Chinese New Year for about a week and it's good to be back home, although I realise that I miss the cold weather in HK. It is just so hot and I think I may be breaking out in rashes soon. For the rest of the week, D and I will be catching up with friends and food that we don't normally have in HK. I am enjoying myself so far, particularly finding it amusing that I had just started work for a week but will be having a 2-week Chinese New Year break before returning to work again. No complaints here, but this is just excellent indeed. Sure hope that I will be able to get into the rhythm of work after all these breaks.

Last nite, I joined D's colleagues for a pre-Chinese New Year dinner at a classy Korean Barbeque restaurant called Gu Gu Jang. Food was great, especially the beef stew and we drank 3 bottles of extremely good Aussie wine (think it was Shiraz), paid by D's company. I had to control my wine intake to about 3 glasses as I did not want to struggle to wake up the next morning for school.

All the respective spouses were invited for this dinner, and there were 4 wives there including me. I got to know them much better during this dinner and I must say, it was good to hear about their work. We are all in different lines but meaningful ones. One is a cartographer at WildAid and she is really passionate with what she does; another is a geriatric occupational therapist.

I truly enjoy meeting up and listening to people as they do open up my eyes to things that I would otherwise not know in my own limited circle. Sometimes we are so caught up with ourselves and become so self-centred thinking that we are all there is in this world. We become so used to looking at things from our point of view and forget that there are countless possibilities and each view can be just as good as the other, if not better than even ours. Even in this technological age where we can be connected to anyone and anywhere at the same time with the touch of a button, we can still be isolated from one another. It can be such a paradox. And it takes one dinner with people I just got to know to remind me that I am part of this community of people.