Tick tock.

Who would have thought that being unemployed required full time attention. It has been a busy last few weeks. My interim time fillers of Yoga, Gym and Cantonese Lessons has been put on halt. I find it hard to catch my breath and despite not having a daily routine I find myself constantly busy. I have been helping my previous employee setup a Hong Kong client and in between part time work have been studying and attending interviews.

The weather here hasn't been so obliging. 'Amber Rain' warnings and high humidity makes wearing a suit uncomfortable and guarantees perspiration immediately leaving any air-conditioned area. That being said, I haven't been completely deprived of spare time and have finally started watching The Wire - I'll be in Baltimore if anybody needs me!

Macao or Macau?

Hanoi

This post has been sitting in the drafts folder for over a month which explains the inactivity of my Blog. It had been over 5 years since I was last in Vietnam - it was one of the more enjoyable sections of my 3 months around Asia. The details of this trip would be a little different. For one it would be significantly shorter, a weekend as opposed to an entire month. Secondly, the locale would be different. North Vietnam, Hanoi as opposed to Saigon.

Flying out on the Friday night we stayed two nights at the Hanoi Sofitel Metropole an exquisitely fashioned hotel with a French Colonial flavour. Food wise, I found Hanoi a little disappointing, especially compared to the delicacies of Saigon, Da Lat and Nha Trang. (Although, this was probably more a case of not knowing where to eat). Night life was good without being outstanding and we were overwhelmed by the multicultural representation at the local haunts: Press Club, The Red Room, Tay Ho Hotel and Phuc Tan.

Sour note, experienced dramas with (temporary) missing peoples and aggressive Taxi Drivers, other than that, an excellent trip where we managed to check out the following:

Snake Village - served King Cobra blood and meat.

Hoa Lo Prison aka The Hanoi Hilton.

Sofitel Metropole

Unfortunately missed out on the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum as well as Halong Bay - I might just have to go back!

Cheapest One Michelin Star Restaurant

With so much spare time and so many regular visitors it was time to check out Tim Ho Wan, the cheapest Michelin Star Restaurant in the world!

Dim Sum was delectable. Pork Buns divine. 1 hour 10 min wait debatable.

Laptop dramas

"You've had that laptop for ages! Get a new one!"

It's true. I have had this laptop for ages - Since 2004 in fact. Not to say that it's bricked and complete useless, it's just I haven't been bothered to load up a new Operating System. Actually, I was bothered, so bothered in fact that I requested that the external optical drive be delivered from Sydney all the way to Hong Kong. This consequently put a friend through an Airport Security nightmare only seen in glorified Hollywood movies, but that's her story, not mine (Thanks again Jen).

So back to my laptop, 12" LCD, 1.2 GHz Intel Centrino, 1 GB of RAM, 60 GB HD and Wireless 802.1b. Hardware prowess that would have made any geek from 2004 cream their pants. Unfortunately, as per Moore's Law these specs no longer command the attention of computing enthusiasts, in fact I'm pretty sure your kitchen fridge has more computing power than my old Dell X300. The point is, it serves me well and despite the frailties of the Operating System the laptop still lives on.


Whenever I encounter any issues, be it, Virus, Malware or sluggishness I simply format my PC, whack a fresh copy of Windows XP and Bob's yer uncle. Since 2004 I would say I have probably formatted this laptop anywhere between 20 to 30 times. Unfortunately this time around I decided to move over to Ubuntu and accidentally put the image on my backup/media partition instead of the 7 year old dedicated OS partition!

What this means is that I've lost all my media since 2004! Media dating back to my University days! Britney Spears' first hit album! Underground freestyle videos! My post-University trip around Asia! My 3 years in Europe! All those photos! Everything! Gone*! I'll be the first to admit that I was completely in a state of shock when I figured out what I had done. That being said, I've used recovery software before, so for the time being I'm just letting it sit until I have the resources to (hopefully) recover the last 7 years of my life.

It's a bizarre feeling reduced access to the Internet, I feel so naked. My "smartphone", currently on a Hong Kong Pre-paid plan has no data and my Laptop doesn't function so not being consistently connected to the internet 24/7 is a completely foreign experience. It's as if I'm back in some prehistoric period, some period, like the year 2004...

What do you do when you're free?

The main differences between moving to London and moving to Hong Kong is that there's less expectations; both internally and externally. Externally there appears to be less concern from friends back home, not to say this is a bad thing. In fact the constant harp of "Have you found a job?" and "What have you been doing in your free time?" frequent my facebook and email account far less since making the move to Asia. It's not that they don't care, I suppose they know I've experienced it all before so it will ultimately work out in the end. Honestly, I prefer it that way.

Internally I feel less pressured to find a job, not to say that I'm not looking but if I were to look back at this period when I was in London. I remember entertaining the idea of working at a pub or KFC. This time 'round I know what to expect and am quietly confident. It doesn't hurt that I'm staying with two of my closest mates who have been nothing short of accommodating and encouraging.

With the job market slow I've become used to the unemployed routine. Unemployed routine? We know what you do in your spare time I hear you say? However, this routine is slightly different to the domesticated London Routine - I've made a conscious effort to make the most of Hong Kong away from the career. I mean, I might as well make the most of being overseas.

Yoga, at PURE Fitness

Studying, at the City Hall Library

Cantonese Lessons, at Wanchai

Eating, so much

Traveling, when I can ...

End Point

I distinctly remember leaving Sydney with the mandate to try Hong Kong out until the beginning of May. By 'try' I had intentions to see if Asia required somebody with my skill-set. This seemed like a reasonable plan, and if after 6 weeks there was zero interest in my resume I told myself (and others) that I would attend the wedding and simply return to Australia and resume life in Sydney. I secretly knew that this wasn't really an option.

So, now it is May and I've not much to report. The market has been extremely slow. A far cry from my first few weeks in London where interviews were constant and consistent! I think this contrast is part of the reason why I still remain here, determined to set myself up in Hong Kong. To this date I have had zero interviews with companies and I'm starting to feel like I've outstayed my friend's couch. As strange as that sounds I find the lack of interviews re-assuring. The general feedback I've received from recruiters is that my resume will definitely provoke interest and that I just need to exercise a little patience as the market was "unusually" slow right. So enough about my situation and back to the main post topic, the wedding.

It has been over 5 years since I was last in Taipei and it still remains one of my favourite Asian Destinations. Friendly people, excellent food and an overall great vibe - not a lot has changed. Despite being here before I was secretly excited to spend the weekend in Taiwan. Firstly it would be the first family gathering since my Grandma's funeral and I couldn't wait to see Aunts, Uncles and immediate family from Australia. Secondly, the two getting married (my cousin and his fiancee) helped me a lot while I was in London and I owe them so much for the way my London Experience panned out.

The wedding itself was traditional, intimate and a lovely ceremony. I was, by default the best man, by tradition, the definition, an unmarried male from representing the Groom's side. Wonderful time, excellent food and a renewed vigor to get back to Hong Kong to set myself up!