A&W

It's definitely the season for weddings, and this time the destination of choice is Koh Samui. It has been almost ten years since I last traveled to this part of the world and other than the upgrade in accommodation, the island of Koh Samui still has all the charm from the last visit. Cheap street food, suit peddlers, massage stores and the constant Muay Thai advertising.

The weather threatened all weekend and despite being the wettest wedding that I've attended it did little to dampen the festivities. 

'Sometimes'

The bubble has burst - My impression of Hong Kong being filled with debaucherous marrow where true love only exists between the hours of midnight and 6 am has finally been repudiated. Sure, I know married couples in Hong Kong, but, like the yeti or big foot finding true love IN HONG KONG is something that I have not witnessed. Call it sardonic, but up until now I have been unconvinced. In any case, I've been invited to my first Hong Kong wedding! The disclaimer being that the couple are both from Australia, but the real flesh of the story is that they met in Levels (one of Hong Kong's most popular nightclubs).

Funnily enough, I met the bride out one night and have honestly only seen her between the hours of midnight and 6 am. To say that I was surprised (and honoured) to be invited to their special day would be an understatement. My biggest concern? Which table I would be seated on? I could count the number of people I knew on one hand so the real excitement would be whether I ended up on random "Chinese Uncles" table or "Random LKF dude" table. The answer, I would soon find out would be "Table 27". A table consisting of Alcoholic Anonymous members and the very epitome of wonton, reckless abandon; affectionately known to the bride as "the fun table".

Despite my initial apprehension it turns out there were quite a few familiar faces. On table 27 was Tinder Girl. The MC of the event was an old Engineering classmate from USYD. In attendance was my parent's friend's daughter from Sydney. Plus a slew of random Australians and LKF-denizens. The world is sometimes a very small place.

Still the man of the house

Dad has been in Hong Kong twice over the last month, I've missed him both times due to travel. Still is nice to see these hand written messages.

#emsandedwed

In terms of friendly and infectious, the couple of Emily and Edmond are definitely up there. Introduced to me separately in both Melbourne and Sydney this couple featured heavily in the London Chapter. If I were to have a crush on a couple it would be these two. Until you meet their friends, an army of gregarious, humour-inducing friends which makes you understand why these two people are always so full of energy and brimming with life. Received a nice little welcome bag from the bride and groom, containing the essentials (see below).

Such a relaxing trip, beach, pool, food. Excellent speeches at a lovely destination. Currently reading "The Narrow Road to the Deep North".

yoganow: Impermanent

Impermanent.

Currently reading: "Tropical Madness" 

Sydney

Lately, there has been a proclivity to blame things on senescence; old age and noticing things that just quite aren't how they used to be. The latest faculty deterioration, although not completely new is my inability to sleep on planes. There used to be a time when I would be able to catch the overnight flight to Sydney: watch a movie, have a meal, fall asleep, wake up, eat breakfast and touchdown. That in essence, would be my typical flight, throw in the odd crying baby and TV series but most flights would play out with sleep featuring quite heavily. The last few times back to Sydney, this has not been the case, despite the self-induced torpor I have found it quite challenging trying to incorporate sleep into the routine. Alas, I still manage to reach the final destination, Sydney.

Sydney has slowly become the anti-Hong Kong (at least in my eyes). It's everything Hong Kong isn't: Good air quality, fresh produce, family, mortgages and an utterly dire transport system. Purpose of this month's trip is for my cousin Jennifer's wedding and of course mom's birthday. I'm not sure where my license has disappeared but not being able to drive in Sydney is kind of like being a Chinese in China that can't speak Chinese; super frustrating.

My itinerary for the following nine days: Saturday, drinks at the Glenmore with London folk. Sunday, fish markets with the family. Monday, renew my license, dad arrives, family dinner. Tuesday, dinner with the USYD group. Wednesday, Tea Ceremony. Thursday, hang out with High school group. Friday, drinks with after-work-crowd. Saturday, Wedding. Sunday, grocery shopping, mom's Birthday dinner and depart.

So my observations are as follows: Sydney is lovely, I miss this place. The Sydney Property market is KER-RAZY! I love Coles Broadway. Fresh donuts are still the best. I feel so unhealthy. Get me back to Hong Kong.

Stealth Taipei

It's weird celebrating 30th birthdays - In my case, this weirdness derives from the fact that I'm older than thirty and I represent a demographic known as "the old guy" of this particular group. The upside is that I still look relatively young and can inveigle most into thinking that I'm still in my "late twenties" (not sure if that's any consolation).

The birthday boy, who also happens to be leaving Hong Kong after seven glorious years proposed a sub-24-hour trip over to Taipei to celebrate his big 3-0. The script plays out like most other Taipei trips. Dragon Air flight booked on points, Corporate rate at The W, table service at some bar, 5 am room service, flight back to Hong Kong and sleep. It's like we never left...

In other news, all bars should have shots of mouth wash.

Singapore

First opportunity to travel with my current work to Singapore of all places. Now as I sit going through the receipts accumulated over the 4 day trip, I wonder if it was actually necessary to be eating 6 times a day. The breakdown of my expenses are as follows: Taxi, breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, taxi, dinner, supper and so forth. Not too sure what the Finance department will say when they see my 11 pm order of Nasi Goreng and a Milo Dinosaur.

Actually, the purpose of the trip other than to justify the new campus was to promote the brand of the separate departments. Highlights include, Client Management winning the trade fair, me being selected to stage a 'question' for the APAC CEO and the campus buffet.

GRE

Suggesting that I was completely prepared would have been an under statement. Forgot my passport. Fail.

These shoes were made for walking

The uneven pavements and walkways of Hong Kong are infamous for the insidious deterioration of footwear. The fact that I find it very difficult to walk around Hong Kong, Soho in particular without accidentally clipping, skidding or scuffing my shoes is a testament to my lack of coordination or the lack of uniformity in Hong Kong surfaces. That coupled with the tremendous humidity and the constant carousing and it should come as no surprise that shoes of Hong Kong stand little to no chance of preservation. Well, at least my shoes stand little to no chance of preservation. 

Take for example my work shoes - Purchased in 2011, size 42, black leather regular work footwear, having weathered T8s, black rain days and LKF on tilt, look a lot older than three years old.

As I look at the  mouldy insoles, supination on the outer heels, terribly warped leather, broken laces and obviously glaring hole in the sole (which explains why my socks never survive puddles) it makes me wonder and what point in time I stopped caring? Not so much that I stopped caring, just that they're so damn comfortable, they feel like I'm wearing socks, so perfectly moulded to my feet, like little clouds. After much workplace ridicule I've decided to throw these shoes out. They say you can tell a lot by the shoes that a man wears. I suspect I've been telling people that I'm a homeless vagrant for a while now... 

King Kyall's Bucks

I still remember the first time I met the groom - it was his Birthday in East Village, London. I had hugged his now fiancée mistaking it for somebody else. That embarrassment aside he was a key figure in my London chapter where we traveled around Europe, hung out at his apartment, and just got up to a lot of mischief, particularly involving protein tubs and my basement. So it was fitting that his final trip as a bachelor would be celebrated in Bangkok.
 
The lack of detail is deliberate. I remember the food was nice. I haven't slept for 48 hours ...

Koh Samed

Two day, mid-week, long weekend in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy students have clashed with the Hong Kong Authorities with anti-Chinese sentiment continuing to bubble away. Major networks show the same sensationalised footage on repeat: the same tear gas canisters, the same umbrellas and the same students. I'm at Hong Kong airport sitting in the lounge waiting for a flight to Bangkok.

The trip began with a delayed flight; not tragic, definitely not ideal. Three insouciance travellers with no objective other than to hire a car, drive to an island and be back in Bangkok in three days time for a bachelor party. We, (well I) had arranged airport car hire with SIXT only to be told that there were no more GPS available, this was annoying to say the least particularly since we had specifically asked for a GPS. The attendant suggested we use a map, we suggested him to suggest something else. After much argument we conceded defeat and canceled the hire car and opted to hire a taxi to Dameon Saduak.

Armed with a hot pink Toyota we headed westward towards our hotel some 120 kilometres away. Not surprisingly our taxi driver got lost - After countless stops, calling people, asking random civilians/vagrants for directions we eventually turned on GPS (why didn't we do this earlier?) and guided him to our hotel, arriving just after 2:30 am. The taxi driver then asked for a tip, we laughed and shook our heads.

We woke 5 hours later to start our adventure. First stop, Dameon Saduak Floating Markets, the hotel had a private boat service into the market which worked out well given how tired  and apathetic we were towards dealing with tour guides and packages. By the time we had arrived at the markets majority of the vendors and tourists were already doing business. The markets were alive and despite the tag that this was the most "touristy" of the Thai floating markets we still managed to grab some food and pick up the odd souvenir.

Unbeknownst to us we agreed to pay a taxi driver 2800 THB to drive us to Banh Phe. Funnily enough, we slept most of the 3 hour journey only rousing during a traffic jam so it turned out to be a better option. After further haggling with the boat people we finally managed to arrange the public ferry to Koh Samet. Koh Samet could be best summed up with one word, chill. Eat, nap, beach, eat, and so forth. A final taxi ride and we were soon checking into our hotel in Bangkok.

Not again...

When you drop your phone and see the screen shattered for a second time, you ask yourself "is it the phone? Or is it me?".

Dropping your phone and seeing the screen splintered is akin to being fined for parking in the wrong place. Frustrating, avoidable, careless and a waste of money. I was walking out of work (on a weekend) and my hand accidentally caught my headphone cable, dislodging the phone from my hand as I was putting it into my pocket. Is this Karma for all those drunken texts and calls?

Five-Two

Never one to shy away from food trends and diet fads I have managed to incorporate the 5:2 diet into my lifestyle for three months. In short, this means that 2 days of the week the consumption of food is limited to water, green tea and a dose of Branched-Chained-Amino-Acids (BCAAs). The benefits, are still debatable (and lack credible scientific evidence) however the claims of improved mental focus, lowering IGF-1, weight lose, reduced risk of cancer, heart disease and the promise of longevity were enough to pique my curiosity.

So, how am I after 3 months? Weight lose, well, due to the calorie restrictions it's inevitable that there's a drop in body fat, I feel leaner and there's been noticeable impairment to work or exercise routines. Mental focus, well that's slightly hard to quantify. Things that I have noticed, I am more easily irritated, lack of calories on fast days is noticeable and the urge to lash out is more common. 

Impact on social life, "Can't do dinner, because I'm fasting" is some kind of social taboo, it's worse than saying "I'll come and just have a salad and water". This is by far the most difficult thing about the fast, the sharing of food and drinks is integral to Hong Kong and to remove 48 hours of potential interaction has left me somewhat of a whacky-diet-driven-recluse. On the topic of social interaction, my breath on fast days is ridiculously noisome, to the extent that I have to be more cautious when speaking to people on calorie deficit days. There is a noticeable drop on bodily temperature on fast days, I'm more susceptible to the cold and find myself complaining about how cold the office is.

So what are the positives? Reduced the time spent figuring out what to eat and how to plan my day, given my issue on indecisiveness this can save up to 10-15 minutes a day! The flip side is, breaking fast is a huge deal and I can easily spent 10-15 minutes planning the "five feeding days". After the initial stomach protests and hunger pangs it's easy to suppress and meditate on the hunger and you come to realise that the human body really doesn't need to be eating so frequently or in such volumes. Very keen to see my blood works after 6 months of fasting. Initially when I started, I used to have insane cravings on Fast days, I wanted to EAT EVERYTHING once I broke fast. The cravings have subsided. Stay tuned.

Currently Reading: "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

Full Circle

When one of the people whose living room you inhabited for 7 months comes to you and asks "Hey, do you mind if I stay on your couch for a while?". The answer is an unequivocal yes! Albert is back in Hong Kong after a long tenure overseas and he's intermittently staying in my living room. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to offer my couch to the people who took me in when I took the chance to live abroad. In London, I stayed in Paddington for a a few weeks on a friend's couch (Again, another Albert) and have managed to return the favour to him here in Hong Kong. Now, I've had the pleasure of taking in my Hong Kong host.

Funny how things come full circle, couldn't be happier: Take out, Australian Sports, Seinfeld, and drunken musings - Just like the old times!

Currently Reading: "The Fault In Our Stars" - Managed to start reading consistently again, stoked!

Splash!

Came home from Macao, having accidentally left my Kindle on the Ferry and with a pair of odd-sized thongs. I probably need to make some changes in my life.

July - Junk

The annual Fourth of July, Independence day junk. Takes us out to Clearwater bay for a day out in the sun, swimming, corousing, listening to Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and eating hamburgers.

Green fingers: Herbs

1 month old Basil (L) and Chilli (R). Trying to get some Cilantro seeds, but not sure if Hong Kong is the right climate.

Natural Infinity Pool

Another mid-week Public Holiday and despite the weather managed to check out Hong Kong's latest attraction, the Tai O Natural Infinity Pool.

Sing-a-ling

I have been working with local HR and a Fragomen consultant in order to extend my Hong Kong working Visa beyond the current expiry in August. The paperwork has been completed and is scheduled to be processed closer to the date. The extension is something I have been working with and it came as a surprise upon leaving Hong Kong through the E-Channel that the second gate did not open after submitting my thumbprint. The officer came by, looks at my Hong Kong ID, looks at his PDA, looks at me and mutters something in Cantonese, as by default I retort, "huh? sorry?".

"Your Visa has expired". 
"You must be mistaken, it's May and it says in my Passport that my Visa expires in August". 
"Follow me, come this way".

Drama. Long story short, Hong Kong Immigration has in it's database that my Visa had expired a few days ago, the story goes, because I had transferred my Visa to my new company (having been there for one year now) it had reset the duration and I was now allegedly working unauthorised. My protests fell on deaf ears, and the officer would not have a bar of my appeal. Despite the severely of this breach, the penalty was a reasonable ~130 HKD fine.

Again, Singapore was for another friend's 30th Birthday. We would stay with the Birthday Boy in Siglap and the nice thing about the trip was that two friends from Sydney would be making the journey over to Singapore for the weekend too. I'll spare you the details, of a Birthday weekend trip in Asia, in short it was: Fenix, Mink, Late night Buh Kuh Teh and becoming familiar with 'The Inbetweeners'.

The weekend was marred by a typical Singapore experience at the Marina Bay Sands restaurant, Mozzo. Most of the diners had traveled from different places, Singapore, Hong Kong and Singapore and transferring money in between party members would incur transfer fees and overhead, so we requested that we split the bill evenly between each person. Not capable of splitting a bill more than three-ways we had our credit cards thrown at us along with a contract stipulating that we had indeed broken the contract that we had agreed to by dining at the restaurant. The experience epitomised the Singaporean mentality and the culture bound and protected by rules and protocol. I had experienced this working with our Singaporean Office and despite the abrasiveness I convinced myself that I was not at all surprised in how it was handled. To the restaurant's credit, the manager came out and profusely apologised for the manner in which the staff acted and smoothed things over (we ended up paying on one card). Despite this, the weather was amazing and the food delectable; still haven't ruled out a short stint in Singapore.

Fatigued and tired I was once again pulled up by immigration on the way back into Hong Kong. Lining up for with the regular folk, in the regular non-HK-resident line. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm contacting HR and sorting this "expired Visa" situation out!

Currently Reading: "Flash Boys"

Thirty, too!

The problem, with not immediately blogging events is that, you forget details. I've been trying to catch up on the events of the year and admit that the 2014 Nudierun accounts aren't exactly "realtime". So, as I go through what looks like an endless list of "draft" post I can see for this entry titled "Shanghai" that the prompts I left myself are "Birthday weekend" and "lightning storms"; they do little to stimulate the writing.

So, here goes, from what I remember, this was the celebration of Lewis' Birthday in Shanghai. It has been over 10 years of knowing Lewis. In fact one of the first conversations I had with him was when we were in our early twenties. The conversation went something like this "Hi, I'm Lewis", "Hi, I'm Derek", "I'm twenty", I'm twenty-two", "Oh, me as well, I'm twenty too". We had a laugh and I would never forget the age gap. Fast forward now, and 5 days ago, Lewis had surprised everybody by proposing that his 30th Birthday be celebrated in Shanghai. On a last-minute whim we booked our flights and hotels and headed to Shanghai.

So, that's the first prompt. The Birthday Weekend. Second prompt. I had arranged to fly from Hong Kong to Shanghai at 9:15 pm, scheduled to arrive at 11:40 pm. The plan was to meet the first group of people who had flown in the night before as well as the 7:15 plane earlier than me. It just so happened, that the weather wasn't going to let that happen. An evening of severe lightning storms had  all incoming planes in holding zones and outgoing planes backed up and delayed for hours.

I boarded the Dragon Air flight at 9:00 pm and proceeded to sit on the tarmac for the next two and half hours. By the time I finally arrived at the Astoria, it was 3 am. The earlier flight had been also significantly delayed and those who had arrived the night earlier were obviously drunk from all the waiting and preparation. Thankfully, Hollywood provided a haven for those looking to revel past 3 am. We stayed out and eventually called it quits at 7 am. We were shocked as we left the venue, not by the early rising locals walking their dogs but by the clearly anachronistic group of people still lining up to get into the club. It was a long weekend.

"I'm thirty, too!" - Lewis

Malaysia: The Wedding

Silk Road

China Trip from Shenzhen, to Xi'an, Dunhaung, Turpan and Urumqi. It's been too long to recall everything. Off the top of my head: Three hour bus ride to Turpan, Sand mosquitoes, stranded in Dunhaung after a sandstorm canceled all flights.