KL

I've been thinking more and more about the concept of cousins. The idea that the person closest to you (at least from a genetic sense) is your siblings, your brothers or sisters. So when these siblings have kids, the concept of genetic overlap exists. Maybe obvious, but has been something I've been thinking about more and more. In my head, siblings want to have their kids, continue being part of their siblings kids (ie. cousins) but in reality this may not always happen due to circumstance. More so than when friends, want their kids to be friends with the parents kids. 

On that note, I have cousins that I am close with, and cousins that I am not so close with. I don't think it's a result of any conscious decision, but it is due to circumstance and interactions. So one of my cousins, that I'm not close with is getting married. It makes me wonder if it's ever possible to move from 'not so close' to 'close', but again unless those circumstances change, I'm not sure?

In any case, they are still my cousin. Decided to head to Petaling Jaya for the wedding. Lots of fun, seeing relatives, and so many faces from times when I was kid. I forgot how good Malaysian food is.

Middle Age

I'm probably one of the older folk out of the group of friends here in Hong Kong. Having seen forty years pass by, of which more than a quarter having spent here in Hong Kong - translating to some long friendships here as well as some important milestone birthdays. So with 2024 rolling in we start to see more of the friend hit 40 years old. One such friend decided to head to Sepang, Malaysia to drive Formula Renaults around the old F1 International circuit. The driving experience is organised by Malaysia's only ex-F1 driver, which involved two days of track days, a mammoth amount of time on the simulators, go karts and finally in the formula Renaults. It was genuinely terrified being in these cars, and despite feeling like I was Tom Cruise in Top Gun, the reality of it all was probably more akin to Driving Miss Daisy.

Racing cars is a lot different to driving a car. Pushing the car to the fullest. At the completion of the first few laps I spun out. One of the kids came over and said "You can go a lot faster". What an exhilarating experience!

Wedding

 Frank and Anisa 2022

Malaysian food

 

Linda and Adam: The wedding

Each step taken causes every tendon and muscle in my lower body to scream. The trauma that my body is experiencing from the past few days hike is exceptional. The fact that my agenda for the next few days is to sit by the pool and sleep is not surprisingly the only thing within my current capabilities.

It feels like everybody is getting married, there's been a shift in the attendance demographic. There used to be a time when weddings would be the gathering of friends; single friends. There has been a shift, it's couples, families, kids. Another amazing wedding. Familiar faces, high temperatures and great times.

Mount Kinabalu

"It's not easy, but if you're relatively fit and healthy - you'll be fine" is what everybody said of Mount Kinabalu. How difficult would it be? I decided that I would climb the stairs from the platform of Quarry Bay to the entrance; that would be my preparation. I, like most of my friends had drastically underestimated the climb, it wasn't so much the ascent but the descent which would prove to be the most challenging.

Mount Kinabalu is a 7 stage climb, it's not so much of a climb but more of a hike. There were moments of hands on knees, hands on hips, hands on the ground but for the most part it was like being on a stair master for two days. Our biggest fear at the start was not so much the physical challenge but Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or altitude sickness. Our sherpa was a middle aged lady, with rosy cheeks and a portly, low centre of gravity. She would be our guide up and down the mountain and had made a living escorting tourists up and down the mountain twice a week. Her stout appearance gave us encouragement as we set off in mid morning.

The first few stages were relatively straight forward, we were passing groups with relative ease and making quick work of the provisions of muesli bars and snacks. It was around stage 6 where things got a little challenging, the goal was to reach base camp before sunset otherwise the park would be closed. We arrived at base camp ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the temperature had dropped significantly and we were starting to feel cramps and niggles, a good night's sleep was critical. Unfortunately our dorm had no showers, and the the dorm that did have showers had no hot water. We cleaned up as best as we could and socialised with the other tourists (so. many. tourists) and no surprises here we were the group late to Ferrata training! The afternoon was spent chilling and mentally preparing ourselves for the morning start.

Nobody slept, the dorm creaked and of the person who slept, his snoring kept everybody else awake. We rose at 2 am, to some warm coffee and some biscuits. The point of the overnight stay was to start the day early to reach the summit before sunrise. It was bloody cold, we made it to the top and the view was breath taking. Our afternoon was spent ferrating around the mountain, a lot of fun and a challenging to the motor skills.

What people failed to mention was the challenge of coming down the mountain. The jagged, uneven steps were like jolts to the joints.. Each step like a test of the shock absorbing ability of the body. Still, our sherpa pushed on and as quickly as we scaled the mountain we had made it down. Our legs like jelly, our faces covered in sweat and rain. We had made it off the mountain, but only just. It's times like this you question your own fitness levels particularly living in Hong Kong.

Next stop Shangri La. I looked at our group, there was visible signs of stress and physical exhaustion. I turned to my friend and asked "Why would you climb this mountain twice?".

Escape to KL

Q4 signifies many things, another year older, another year ending and of course the liquidation of excess annual leave. The rules stipulate, no more than five days annual leave can be carried over to the following year without "exceptional approval" (exceptional approval, means offering a legitimate reason and for the application to be approved by the Head of Human Resources) meaning I have 6 days that will be forfeited unless consumed between now and January. With no strategy in mind; I have haphazardly taken off a slew of random Mondays and Fridays.

I have managed to convince myself that spending 2000 HKD on a flight is still less than what I would spend on a night out in Hong Kong. Delusional, or not, I sneak off to Malaysia for a weekend in Kuala Lumpur to attend a seminar based on Option Trading held by the group Wealth Mentors. The promise of turning "$10K to $2M" appears "to good to be true" or an "outlier case" and the program's high cost would suggest that a majority the organiser's wealth is generated by the greed of the unsuspecting. In any case, the strategies taught are simple and fill the audience with hope and expectation, with enthusiasm fuelled by greed and easy money. The days are long and demanding and  I am skeptical, only time will tell.

The rest of my trip was as expected. Obscene amounts of food, quality family time and TED Talks. Currently Reading: "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion".

yoganow: Impermanent

Impermanent.

Currently reading: "Tropical Madness" 

Malaysia: The Wedding

Year of the Horse

The 2014 Chinese New Year date happens to fall on the weekend. This moon cycle behaviour has a lot of local residents upset that their regular five day public holiday has been reduced to 'only' four days. Despite this, Chinese New Year remains one of the most profitable periods for airlines and hotels with customers force to pay inflated rates just to make the most of the public holiday schedule.

The average cost of flight from HK to KL booked 6 weeks in advance of the departure date is priced at approximately 2,000 HKD. I paid, nearly double that with a budget airline. In actual fact, the cost to fly from Sydney to KL during that same period with the same carrier is cheaper than flying from HK to KL. Despite the inflated price, I was looking forward to catching up with family and getting away for Hong Kong. It was also my first trip since being off crutches and very excited to test out the ankle abroad.

The best part was that I got to see my parents and close relatives in Kuala Lumpur, it had been a while since I had seen them all together! I constantly harp on about the magnitude of our family festive gatherings. The two major calendar events for our family are Christmas and Chinese New Year and it has been a while since I've attended either. The sheer volume of food and consumption is quite shameful and both events can be best described as 'excessive' and 'gluttonous'.

If I could describe a typical day it would read as follows. Wake up. Breakfast. Read, chat. Sleep. Lunch. Read, chat. Sleep. Dinner. Read, chat. Supper (optional). Sleep. Trip highlights include: Eating, garish tattoos, food poisoning, mee rebus, resuscitated creme caramel and Nasi Lemak.

Currently reading: "Switch" by Dan and Chip Heath.

Malaysian Islands

The end is in sight. The contract has been signed, the background checks are taking place and my visa is being processed. All that remains is for me to enjoy the last few moments of unemployment. It's been a love, hate relationship over the last six months. Relief, guilt and anxiety the most recent of emotions that overwhelm me; it has been a love/hate relationship. I look back at the list of achievements over the last six months. Dabbling in cooking, ukulele, Cantonese and yoga, but nothing concrete and nothing that I can take away. It's always the case, you expect this much, you demand that much and you might achieve more, or less. With my remaining time, I decided to check off something on my bucket list. Open Water Diving Qualification. So that's what I did, I went diving.

With a bias and the longing to be in Malaysia it was decided that the islands of the Perhentian and Redang would be an appropriate location to submerge into the underwater adventure. Our dive instructor was Jon from the Perhentian Quiver Diving team (Thoroughly recommend these guys for any Open Water Training or even for a cold drink). We stayed at Senja Bay, which wasn't exactly what we expected (Think, piss weak air conditioning, mosquitoes and frogs inside the room). After meeting other Kecil Island patrons, this appeared to be the standard in terms of mid-range accommodation. 

Back to the diving! It was a good mix of theory, closed water and open water sessions. Each morning started with a breakfast buffet, morning theory, the occasional roti, mid-morning confined water skills, lunch by the beach, afternoon theory and an open water dive. Evenings were a relaxing combination of BBQ seafood, the 8:00 pm movie, light banter before lights out by 12. After 3.5 days we were qualified to dive down to 18 metres, Beginner's PADI Open Water.

Given that the last 6 weeks in Hong Kong had been gray, wet and humid the weather gods had treated us well in the Perhentian. In fact, it had been nothing short of spectacular, blue skies with wisps of cloud drapped over a moderately temperate island. As expected, out time here flew by and after starting the advanced module we were soon on a 50 minute speed boat racing towards our next destination, the Redang Islands. Here we dived, ate relaxed, and explored. That, in a nutshell is what about all we did! 

We arrived back in Kuala Lumpur one week later feeling like a blob of golden goo. Tanned from the gentle sun and relaxed from the lack of worries. Our final night was spent gorging ourselves on Malaysian delicacies and street cuisine all while the Malaysian public awaited the election. I'm too old to be working ...