my latest hk trip

it was a short hk trip. didn't want to stay in sgp for the lunar new year. and this trip was not much different from previous year. managed to catch a movie (journey to the west: the demonds strike back), visited the chi lin nunnery, did a short hike, visited the che gong temple, went to a new sauna, etc... nothing much. but wait... i supposed there were quite a interesting things this time round.

firstly, i had wanted to do the dragon's back trail, but apart from checking where to board the bus, i didn't plan nor research further. in the end, i dropped off at the wrong bus stop, followed the wrong crowd, and walked the wrong direction and... hahaha... you got it - i didn't get to do the dragon's back trail. anyway, it was a nice walk. ended the walk by taking the bus to the shek o village and had my lunch there. doing things in such an unplanned fashion is just totally not me, but i have come to embraced it and just enjoy the process and the experience. perhaps this is the good thing about traveling alone - no pressure to adhere to any plan.

secondly, i turned on my grindr and quite a few people messaged me, asking to meet up. i turned them all down, except one. this guy seemed pretty interesting for the fact that he started off by telling me how bored he was and that if i were new to hk, he'd be happy to bring me around. he had some time before his appointment with his friends. and i thought why not since i personally didn't know too many places too. and so i met up with him. learned that he had just graduated from uni and had just started work. interestingly, he introduced himself as "politically active" when we met and throughout the evening, apart from hk politics, he also shared with me his thoughts about how discriminatory the singaporean government had been and etc. while it was interesting to note his passion about politics, i also felt his views were a tat too naive, uninformed and emotional. i ended up trying to impress upon him the need to engage and understand the context of how and why policies were developed and the importance of seeing how policies were applied in context rather than just attacking governments based on emotional grounds. as for his views on singapore, i ended up giving him a history lesson, and explaining to him how historical developments shaped singapore's politics and policy developments today. heavy topic for a holiday but yeah... 

thirdly, the sauna i used to visit had closed and i wanted to check out the new place. i wanted to see what the new place was like and to decide if it was a place i'd visit again in future. it took me a while to find it. it was located in one very discreet corner of tsim shah tsui and it was a very very small sauna. nothing much to it. i ended up watching porn in one of the room and fell asleep as i watched.  i left the place after less than an hour. don't think i'll visit it again. haha...

last but not least, i visited the che gong temple. would not have known of this temple if the guy (the one that spoke to me about politics) didn't share it with me. he suggested i visit it as it was a must-go place for tourists. it was indeed an interesting temple, one that is dedicated to military general of a bygone dynasty and now revered as a go-to god for good health. the temple was very old and had gone through a few expansions and renovations. despite that, it was very crowded. i was surprised to see so many youngsters at the temple, very contrasting and very different from singapore. over here, the people that still frequent taoist temples are generally a lot older as most of the younger people are either buddhist or christians. 

so yeah... it was a short trip, but certainly a good one. 

year of the rooster

today is the first day of the rooster year, or some call it the year of the cock. thus, you can imagine the many jokes that are already flooding the social media... lol! for me, i'm now seated in the holding room awaiting to board my flight. have decided to head to hong kong for this weekend. managed to get an ex-colleague to book a staff ticket for me and thus avoided paying the super crazy price for this festive season. i didn't want to stay in country as i wanted to avoid the celebrations. also, am supposed to observe a 3-year mourning period and thus am not supposed to celebrate the new year. so...

preparing for cny?

this is the last weekend before the lunar new year, that will fall on this coming saturday. and i saw many hurrying to get their last minute shopping and preparations done. i do understand the sense of urgency and the desire to want to get everything done, and done well. after all, its the biggest chinese festival for chinese around the world, and it is no different for us chinese singaporeans.

but for me, i will not be celebrating the festival. am observing my 3-year obligatory mourning following the demise of my mum in 2015. nonetheless, i do go through the process of doing my housecleaning and for this year, i've decided to replace my quilt, and bed protector. i will not be doing any visitations too. so it will likely be a simple lazy lunar new year for me. i think i'll probably fly to hong kong again.

heh...

grindr, jack'd, hornet, blued...

yup, you kinda get the idea... all the apps to make friends within the gay circle. well, i refused to call it "gay app" for the simple reason that there is nothing gay about the app. they are simply apps used by people to connect with people, predominantly from the gay circle (although not exclusively). but this post is not about the apps. rather, it is about "boredom". on weekends, i am always alone and during such times, i tend to get bored and feel lonely. it is during such times that these apps become a convenient escape. i started downloading these apps out of curiosity, curious about who near me are gay. but interesting i get people both outside and within the app asking - you are attached, why are you using this app? hmmmm... wtf, attached cannot use this app? the thing about communicating with people over such apps are that people more often than not assume you are there for sex. of cos, to be fair, i think many are but i also do believe that there are those few who are simply curious or just bored. people should learn to be less judgmental. no?

anyway, i started with jack'd, then grindr, and then more over time. so there's hornet, blued (which is very popular in china), planet romeo, scruff, and so on. but i have kinda gotten to a routine of checking only grindr these days. and on weekends, grindr became my next best friend. frankly, i look forward to weekends as it meant i can have my break from work. but at the same time, i also dread weekends cos i always end up being alone and feeling lonely. perhaps i can call myself a weekend-widow or weekend-widower or something along that line. my usual routine when i wake up on a weekend would be - click grindr, check who's around (curious), reply the occasional messages that come in, watch porn, and then chat over grindr further, watch more porn, jerk off, and then grindr again... yeah, you kinda get the flavour of my routine. heh... over the weekend, i had a few interesting connections. let me name 3 here. 

first, there was one who initiated the chat by mentioning about how interesting my photo was and asked how i got it done. this person was a 40-something social escort (or "mb" - money boy) from the states and i suspected he was trying to pick me. nonetheless, i simply told him the app to download and wished him a good stay in singapore. think he got the message and simply thanked me and stopped contacting me after that. the second person was a "photoless" profile who was very direct. his message simply stated "fun?". i read his profile and it stated "discreet, will not share photo even if asked, just a simple yes or no". i simply replied no, wished him well and send him along the way. we cannot get any more direct than this right? last but not least, i have another person who came across as a very nice person. we connected well and continued our chat through the day. guess he was just as bored as me. we connected well and continued chatting through the weekend. glad i've made a new friend.

the weekend is coming to an end. time to psych myself to start a new week. 

god bless the world

i still cringe big time, thinking of what's gonna happen in the states in a very short while. 

for the first time in my life, i see someone assuming office amidst lots of boycotts, and protests - not just in his own country, but around the world. personally, it is very hard for me to respect him as a person, especially after learning about all the negative things about him. and with recent reports by the intelligence community, i have every reason to believe his presidency lacks credibility. as a non-citizen, it is perhaps none of my business, but then again, his leadership and his influence will impact millions, both in his country and in the international arena. and for that, i feel uneasy.

as for the out-going, despite all the horrible comments i read (the lack of civility reflects badly on the commenters themselves), i personally i think he had done a wonderful job within the constraints he faced, much much better than many previous presidents. and as the first african-american to have assumed the highest position in the country, he had done his country (and not just his race) proud. i feel sad to see him leave. and i felt so very sad to read those comments that suggest very deep divide in the society. but i do understand that politics divide people and brings the worst out of them. but there is perhaps nothing we can do now except to pray.

god bless america. and god bless the whole wide world.

arrival

thought-provoking, inward-looking, intense, heavy, strong performance - those were some adjectives i could put for this show although admittedly i acknowledged that i almost fell asleep halfway through as it was a tat too dry for me.

but yeah, it was a good show.

intense start to 2017

the year started with me embarking on a new career.

and it had been 2 superbly intense weeks! last week (my first week) was a short week but i was busy throughout almost the whole week trying to get to know my team, my boss, people around me, setting up my stuff, the work, the culture, the company... it didn't help that my "buddy" was next to non-existent as she had her numerous pre-occupations with her own work. i ended up having to navigate the system myself, which was another challenge by itself. as expected, not all processes were as watertight or ideal as one might have wanted (as in all companies i had experienced) and i ended up having to contend with issues like - no information to aid me as i navigate the new company, internal processes that couldn't be completed as my personal data had not been keyed into the system, etc. for a while, i wondered if this was deliberate so as to force newbies to navigate the system myself as part of my induction! but i thought the week ended relatively ok.

this week was jam packed with many meetings. i had to work till pass 8.30pm almost everyday! it was indeed a case of making decisions, and learning at the same time. you see, it is budgeting period and everyone had been busy discussing and charting out plans for next year (that starts in apr). and to get a realistic plan worked out, everyone was in a flurry to review what had been done, what else needed to be done, etc. and to ensure organisational alignment, there were quite a few cross-department meetings to co-ordinate the different tasks. in addition, to get a sense of the scope of new projects, there was a lot of meetings with vendors, other stakeholders, etc. on one particular day, i had 6 meetings back-to-back! so... yup, intense is probably an understatement. the flip side to all these was that i really didn't have much time to get to know my subordinates, peers and my key stakeholders.

well, i am beginning to feel the pressure but i guess getting to know people will take time. after all, i am only into the second week with the company. most importantly, i was happy doing it. despite the intensity, things were focused. everyone else was equally busy and all had the same desire to work towards one common goal. added to that, because the office is located in town, i had to change my daily routines. as of today, i acknowledge that i have not gotten used to this routine. it is wrecking havoc for me. i have yet to find a balance between exercising and work. will need some time to experiment with different routines and to slowly get use to one that i am comfortable with. 

let's hope things continue well for me.

:-)

blog title - moments

i decided to give this blog a little make over by changing the overall look. added to that, i also changed the title. so now, it is called "moments".

chose this word as it reflect the moments that i capture in this blog. and to depict the journey that i continue in life, i thought it is useful to use a sub-text that says "... of my journey to happiness". such a sub-text allowed me to continue to keep true to my intent of having this concept of "happiness" when i started this blog. so... yeah. let me continue to share important moments of my life with you in this blog. and hopefully, these collection of moments will also allow me the opportunity to learn and to grow.

:-)

passengers

i have always enjoyed shows about space and this show didn't disappoint.

i do think human race will come to a time where things as depicted in the show becomes real - where people are put to sleep, just to be woken up sometime in the future. and that during this time, humans can travel to places we can only imagine now. interesting.

我变了我没变

the thing about new years is that it makes me reflective. lots of thoughts went through my head today and i felt the need to look for a safe haven. in the end, i decided to pay a visit to the columbarium to pay respects to my parents. i had the radio switched on and this song came on as i was driving home. it was a song that i enjoyed tremendously but had not give a second thought to it often a times. i decided to google it after listening to it and capture it here. the lyrics resonate with me. and ooo, the singer 杨宗纬 is cute, isn't he? enjoy!

作词/ 作曲：小柯

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一天宛如一年

一年宛如一天

任时光流转

我还是我

一遍用了千遍

千遍只为一遍

当回忆久远

初心始现

我做了那么多改变

只是为了我心中不变

默默地深爱着你

无论相见不相见

我做了那么多改变

只是为了我心中不变

我多想你看见

repeat once from *

我做了那么多改变

只是为了我心中不变

默默地深爱着你

无论相见不相见

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我做了那么多改变

只是为了我心中不变

我多想你看见

repeat once from #