I'm a Lifer!

Came across this test on my friend's blog, and took the test, cos I had "nothing better to do" at work. Well, not really, but it's just that I needed to do something silly to get my brain off the endless musical rehearsals. D-day this Friday evening.

To you, a job is what pays the bills. You put in your hours, follow the rules, and then go home. Occasionally, you consider quitting, but then you think of how bad the job market is and you reconsider. Whatever happiness you get, you get from your life outside the workplace. Relationships, family, hobbies, and outside creative pursuits are what really matter to you. You're probably taking this test at work because you don't have anything better to do.

Talent: 38% Lifer: 51% Mandarin: 44%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

The Bibliochaise

According to its website (http://www.nobodyandco.it/), the Bibliochaise is "an armchair library for those who like to be immersed in deep reading. It contains 5 linear metres of books" and it can be easily assembled & dismantled.

What does "5 linear metres of books" mean?

Still, I think it is quite a cool piece of furniture, except that I would wish for it to have a higher backrest (to rest my head mah) and for the seat to be longer, so that it is like a recliner.

Actually the other piece of really cool furniture is the Librerie Bookcases (go see it on the website). If I have my own place, I will get the carpenter to make one, especially the one with the Pop theme.

Blessed Easter

D and I watched "The Passion" on Good Friday, and tears fell when Jesus bore the scourging, insults, physical pain of bearing the heavy cross and the deep inner pain of being despised by his own people. I felt the pain of his mother, Mary, who had to see her son suffer and die willingly in obedience to God's will and to the mission entrusted upon his shoulders. D was teary watching it, while I was simply letting it all flow out. I remembered telling God, "I don't deserve it, but thank you for doing what You did." The Passion was a graphic depiction of what was stated in the Bible, but I reckoned it could have been worse on that day. The empty tomb signifies new life, a new beginning, which I must remember to take it seriously at all times. Given all the hype created by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code or any other theories about Jesus, it can be most confusing for everyone, even Christians who aren't strong in their faith.

But one thing for sure,

And I am grateful for that 'cos this means Jesus' mission is completed; death is defeated; our sins are forgiven; we are saved and we need to take this life more seriously than before.

"Do One Thing A Day That Scares You"

Just fighting off my sleepiness before leaving home for diving in the waters around Sai Kung. I am not that keen to dive actually cos the waters must be darn frigid today. But D wants to go, and being his buddy, I have to brave the cold and go with him. Suddenly this weekend, the cold front from the north has descended upon us, and over just one day, the temperatures plunged from a hot and humid maximum of 29 degrees C to the current 17 degrees C. The wind chill effect obviously drives the temperatures southwards. Drats, I have washed and kept all our winter wear.

Originally we were supposed to go for a 2 days 1 night liveaboard to Pedro Branca (some 85 km away from HK), but the current is at 4 knots, which definitely brings back memories of our rough seas condition at the King Cruiser Wreck (Phi Phi Diving Trip). Due to the strong currents, the trip has been cancelled.

UPDATES FROM THE DIVE:

This is me prepping up for the 1st dive. Beneath that cool exterior is a really cold person who is having major shivers. We were on Diving Adventure's newest boat which has liveaboard facilities.

While we were waiting for the boat at the pier and being buffeted by the strong wind which gave me the shivers as I dug deeper into my hoodie pockets, I asked myself "Why the hell am I diving in this crappy and dreary weather?" And this line "Do one thing a day that scares you!" kept popping into my mind to answer my question. A adventure kayaker had said it on the A1 channel (A1 or Adventure One is a cable channel that we subscribed to here in HK, apparently this channel is not shown on Starhub). And the other obvious reason is the man whom I am accompanying.

To keep myself warm in the waters, I wore my NeilPrdye 0.5mm Rashguard beneath the Gul 3mm full wetsuit, gloves, boots and my new-purchased Ralf Tech 5mm hood. I borrowed another shorty to wear over my Gul and the result is a very clumsy-looking seal. However this seal was quite warm and moving about gracefully in the waters.

By the way, the Ralf Tech hood really kept my head warm. Very pleased to have bought it.

Later I found out from my dive watch that the water temperature was a balmy 20 degrees C compared to the 17 degrees C at the surface.

We were diving near Basalt Island which is about an hour ride from Sai Kung Pier. There isn't much to see actually except for lots of orange anemones and its inhabitants, the clownfish; some schools of small fish neutrally buoyant in the current.

Nonetheless, it's in this sort of places that you need to look beneath the rocks and that's where I saw my first octopus. Well, actually, D spotted it first and beckoned me to look beneath some rocks. The first thing I saw were 2 shrimps, but my eyes spotted a big dark round thing staring back at me deep inside the hole. And soon, I made out the familiar purple mass and white suckers underneath. Wow, that is cool... D and I observed this octopus for awhile, and it stayed in the safety of its sanctuary.

On our 2nd dive, it was almost the same scene, although I saw my first sea snake zipping away and D released some fish and a crab from an abandoned fishing trap before being tangled by the rope. I had to "rescue" D in the end.

What else am I afraid of, I have been thinking about this for awhile. Some are really obvious (death & terminal illness to me or family), to the silly (bungee-jump, sky-dive, major air turbulence on the plane, stuck in a lift with a huge flying cockroach) to the unforseen (being framed, stove exploding in my face, falling while lead-climbing).

I can be incredibly paranoid at times and I do think about the worst-case scenarios and role-playing the various possiblities and solutions in my mind. It's like there are so many things I am afraid of, but I think through them, whenever and wherever, so as to be somewhat prepared for the worst.

To have some kind of an action plan is better than none.

Anniversaries & Rehearsals

Two anniversaries this April. One came and went, whilst the other is coming up at the end of the month.

1st April, 11 years ago, was our first date together. D and I had watched the movie "The Professional" at GV Tiong Bahru Plaza (can't remember the name of the french actor, but he is in Steve Martin's Pink Panther) and had dinner at MacDonald's that Saturday night. We had a long chat that night, and I had my first awkward motorcycle ride back home. D had to put on the helmet for me 'cos I didn't quite know how to secure the straps and it felt odd to be on the bike cos I didn't know where to place my hands. Obviously it was too early to be putting my arms around D's waist so they decided to hold D's shoulders. It took another few more dates during the weekends: waiting for D and his bike a few bus-stops away from my block ('cos my dad would have given me hell if he knew I was on a bike during the initial months); getting home before the unearthly curfew of 10.30pm, before we decided to take this relationship to another level.

This year, D and I didn't really do much to "celebrate" this anniversary. Actually, we don't really celebrate, not even our wedding anniversary (which is coming up on the 8th Jun). We had our shore dive at Deep Water Bay that morning, and dragon boat training in the evening on that day. I guess, we have been doing so many things together all these years, that it doesn't make any difference to plan something special just to spend time together in order to celebrate this anniversary. Or maybe we have grown lazy, like old couples. I would like to think that it's 'cos we have been having such fun together that we need not create any excitement so as to spice things up. Sometimes, nothing planned can be more spontaneous.

The next anniversary is related to my work. School is going into its major "rehearsals" mode for the coming 15th Anniversary. Yeah, it's just 15 years old (which I reckon is still an achievement) and the school is staging a major musical to commemorate the event. It's a major production because every pupil will have a part to play in the 1 hr musical, lead, main or chorus parts. I can't say I am enjoying every bit of the rehearsals, but it's necessary for the production to be smooth-going. In fact, it is more tiring taking care of my Scene 1 pupils during the rehearsals than teaching.

On Monday, we had our first complete rehearsal at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC) and it was, to me, a nightmare to take the kids to the stage and back to their holding room. There was the human traffic jam to tackle since the stairway is narrow and packed with incoming and outgoing pupils from different scenes. The long waiting time and cramped holding room didn't quite make it fun either. More not-so-fun-bits-during-the-rehearsals: Staying back after school, hustling the kids to their positions, keeping them quiet, constantly thinking about how to complete my syllabus due to all these loss of curriculum time.

Can't wait for the month of May.