Mid-Term Break... Ending Soon...

This week has been quite a good week of rest and relaxation. We didn't go anywhere out of HK; D went to work each day while I basically enjoyed my stay at home. It's the 1-week school holiday that I have been waiting for, and it's been just great doing absolutely nothing...

Well actually, not nothing... I did do the following things:

1. Pack our bookshelf

2. Sort my 2 shelves of clothes and trash some to make space for new ones ;p

3. Played my new PSP game: Lumines (bought 2nd hand)

4. Set the Math Semestral Exam Paper (finished Section C: Story Problems, and still

doing Section B)

5. Completed 2 weeks' of Mental Sums powerpoint slides and did my Lesson Plans

6. Completed the PADI Advanced Diving Lesson

7. Watched Lost #201, #202, #203 (not that TV show, but this one is somewhat like

the Amazing Race)

8. Woke up each day not earlier than 12 noon ;p

I like this life so far, but reality beckons as Monday approaches... it's back to school again.

Today, we invited D's colleagues (the ones we usually hang out wif) and spouses over for dinner, which meant I had to cook to feed 7 people including D and I.

Menu included:

1. Bak Kut Teh

2. Stir-fry green lettuce

3. Teriyaki Chicken with mixed greens and mushrooms

4. Thai-Style Salmon

5. Eoki Mushroom Rolled Beef

6. Tiramisu

I love to cook... it's the cleaning up that I really dislike. However D had been quite a great help. At the moment, D is seated before me and dozing off on his Moby Dick, a beanbag "chair" that we bought from G.O.D. (Goods Of Desire, similar concept to S'pore's Barang Barang). I got myself a Moby Dee, slightly smaller than Moby Dick, but good enuf to slouch before the TV or to do my work.

Talking about work, I was supposed to continue with setitng the darn Math Exam paper. I reckon it will wait till tomorrow.

What If Your Notebook Embarrasses You?

Here's a funny clip that could happen to anyone when using the notebook in public.

Realise that the offending notebook is not the usual microsoft-compatible type... wondering if there was a hidden agenda when this clip was filmed.

Diving In Sai Kung Waters

Here are some fotos of us doing our Basic Open Water Course about 2 weeks ago... we had already completed the course and right now, D & I are currently doing both the Advanced course and the Enriched Air Specialty course... more on that later on. Some underwater shots... lots of corals and anemones, small fish and curious but agressive clownfish, menacing sea urchins with long ugly black spines. Visibility on those 2 weekends was still bearable, although the visibility on the first weekend was quite bad. Nonetheless, we could still see stuff. Incidentally, we dived yesterday as part of our Advanced course, and the visibility was the worst so far. Hopefully, it will be clearer tomorrow. I am the one with the cyan mask and D is the other person next to me (we are the ones with the yellow LiveStrong wristbands). I wasn't that confident to take out my regulator just to smile for the camera... Can u see the "fear" in my eyes ?!? Actually it was quite ok, I had a problem initially getting my buoyancy right, but have gotten better the last 4 to 5 dives. So far, we had bought our own masks (Cressi for me and Tusa for D), snorkels (Cressi & Tusa), booties (Scubapro), fins (Tusa), gloves (Scubapro & Bare) and dive watches (Suunto). We are looking at buying our wetsuits (GUL) later in the year when we are back in S'pore. Regs and BCDs probably later, if we dive often enough which will make economical & hygenic sense to have our own rather than rent. D & I did the basic course with a few friends, and it was a good way to catch some rays, enjoy the other side of HK and get to know one another better. Ah Yun (the bald guy doing the peace sign ) in the picture below is the Divemaster who assisted our instructor Ah Mun... he is quite a funny character and made us all laugh most of the times. The fotos were all taken by him, pretty good actually given the lousy visibility.

Religious Cap & Lanyard For Your Shuffle?

Came across this while surfing today... click on the picture to visit the website to place your orders. I especially like the idea, and found the name of this new accessory to be very creative. Incidentally, the verse found on the website isn't from the bible (there isn't a 2 Jobs).

"To Infinity, and beyond"

I like this quote from Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear. The other one that I like to use when speaking to my pupils is "With great power comes great responsibility" (Spiderman's Uncle Ben). And how about "Resistance is futile" from Star Trek... nice quote to use when I feel like being the tyrant.

Back to Buzz's quote, I had been doing some self-reflection past few weeks and the one thing that kept coming back to my mind is that I am really enjoying myself here in HK with D. The people that I have known and still hang out with; the loads of activities that both of us have been doing these past few months; the nice freedom I am having now being away from my parents (who are overly cautious about things); our own space in our little 640 sq. ft. apartment. It's hard to figure out which I like most, it's the sum of everything I suppose. And thank God that He has been bringing all these into our lives, enriching us physically, mentally and spirtually too.

We have finally completed our PADI Open Water Diver course just 2 days back. It had taken quite a while, mainly 'cos the lessons had to be arranged to suit one of our coursemates' busy schedule.

Diving in the waters around Sai Kung is of couse not like waters in Palau or even Tioman. Visibility isn't very good, coral reefs aren't that colourful, mainly small fish, but it's still a good place to learn and being assaulted by agressive Clownfish (remember Nemo).

Finally, we are done with it, and will be doing our Advanced course in another 2 weeks. And in Nov, D and I are hoping to do the Lead Climbing Course with the Sports Climbing Association Hong Kong (SCAHK). Hopefully we will be accepted as the public courses conducted by SCAHK are quite popular as they are cheaper than those conducted by YMCA.

I reckon I am striving to do so much because too much time was wasted thinking about doing diving, climbing or anything, and ultimately, nothing was done. Besides, I want to complete as much as possible before D and I try for a kid in Dec. This will be the ultimate adventure I will be attempting... So many things to do, but so little time.

Unusual Names

What's in a name? Whether it has been given by well-meaning parents and relatives or decided by the individual later in life, names are important or perhaps downright hilarious.

I am glad my auntie stopped my dad from naming me "Lim Bee Hoon" (in Hokkien which sounds the same as vermicelli). I am not going to be called some noodles for the rest of my life... whew.

D and I have come across some interesting names here in HK and China. I know it's bad to laugh at those names, but frankly, I am thinking, "What are these people thinking of?"

Yeah, uniqueness and being different are two things every individual strives for, but having the following names definitely took some courage or maybe just ignorance.

Still, I wouldn't want to be associated with someone who has a weird, negative or silly image. Maybe having a totally different name, something really different will be most sensible.

The question is, should we conform to what the general public thinks are proper names. I mean, what are proper names - David, John, Peter, Mary, Jane?!? Boring siah, every other person has that name. Who determines that traditional names are proper names anyway, unless one just simply wants to play safe.

Here's a list of interesting names we have been introduced to:

1. Gun

2. Rambo (Indivduals 1 and 2 should meet)

3. Superman (really, no joke)

4. Winter

5. Windy

6. Burns (maybe from the famous poet, Robert Burns)

7. Keats (another famous poet, John Keats)

8. Sphere

9. Strong

(Latest in this colour)

This list will be updated... can't think of any others right now.

D and I have decided on the names to call our kids, when we do have them (in case, friends are reading this, we aren't having any yet...), I like the names Tyler, Aidan and Jamie, the first two are for boys and the third one for a girl. D thinks maybe we should name our kids: "Boy" (for boy) and "Girl" (for girls). Duh!!!!

And should we have a dog and a cat, D reckons it will be most funny to name the dog "Cat", and the cat "Dog".

A conversation of the following will be resulted:

Friend: "So, what do you call your dog?"

D: "Cat"

Friend: "No, I mean, your dog?"

D: "Cat"

Friend: "Uh, no, not your cat, I mean your dog."

And so the saga continues...

Sigh, I am married to a clown...

Office Pets

Remember last week I wrote about D who went to his office to clean up his company's fish tank... well, I was at his office later that evening as he had to do some work too. So there I was, bored as usual, played my PSP and took pics around his office, particularly the aquarium. Yup, this is the name of D's company. It's quite a small office, totally male-dominated (about 10 men of different nationalities) except for the auntie who drops by daily to clean the place. I haven't seen the fish tank in a while, and heard about the horrendous killings that were carried out by the infamous mini-lobster which these guys bought. The latest tragedy occurred when two small turtles-lookalikes (dunno the name in English, but its shell is not hard, is quite small, and have flippers like those wild sea-turtles) were mauled by the mini-lobster. It's quite a small aquarium, and since I am not a fan of fish unless it's cooked, I really can't tell one fish from another... to me, they are just fish. Anyway, there is a yellow puffer which spends its time bobbing up and down the side of the tank, looking at its reflection; a yellow fish which keeps bugging and snapping at the Bottom-Feeder; a crab, two fish which I think are Discus; that infamous mini-lobster which is actually an Australian Blue Yabby and some shrimps which are originally food for the fish but are now in hiding and surviving. Some pics of the aquarium: The Oz Blue Yabby: Incidentally, there are quite a no. of Ozzie Blue Yabby recipes on the Net. Hmmm.... D regularly gives me the Discovery/National Geographic updates on the well-being and the predator/prey situation in this fish tank. But really, should there be so much killing in a fresh-water fish tank?