SURPRISE!

Your Annual Leave has been approved: 25th December 2015 - 3rd January 2016.

Decisions, decisions. Do I, (A). Go to Phuket with people I hang out with in Hong Kong on a weekly basis, or; (B). Return to Sydney for my first Christmas in Sydney in eight years?

It's a no-brainer. I go to Phuket and stomp out the year with a flurry of Redbull Vodkas and Pad thais! That's what 19 year old Derek would have said. 33 year old Derek on the other hand locks in option B. No need to call a friend. No need to ask the audience.

I depart Hong Kong on Christmas Eve. The airport is not surprisingly busy, people are shuffling through security with purpose and spending a little longer in the the Duty Free outlets. The airport radiates warm fuzzies. I arrive in Sydney, bleary eyed, managed minimal sleep. It doesn't matter! It's Christmas! I'm in Sydney!

My sister, my conspirator, takes me home. "Hello! Merry Christmas!". No answer. Where is everybody? I dump my luggage and walk through to the kitchen. Mom and Dad are lounging in their PJs (actually, they're hiding). "Hey! What are you doing back?" "I was just saying, why does he sound like Derek?". Not exactly the reaction I was going for, but I'll take it. It's good to see them!

I sometimes dread going home, it's not because I don't want to go home. It's more I know that I'll be in the firing line for a certain set of questioning. "What's been happening?", "Where are you working?", "Are you dating somebody now?", "When are you coming home?". There's times I don't feel like I have an adequate enough answer for those meaty questions. Speaking of meaty, I sure did miss home cooked food. Merry Christmas!

"And this christmas will be a very special christmas for me" - This Christmas, Donny Hathway

Santa Claus is coming to town: Santacon 2015

There is always an excitement in the air around December. It could be attributed to the long year finally coming to an end, or the slightly cooler weather, but there is no mistaking the festive season and the buzz that Christmas generates. Wreaths and tinsel adorn retailer shop fronts while classical and remixed renditions of Christmas carols blend in with the car horns and chatter of the Hong Kong cacophony.

It's 11:45 on a Saturday morning and two men walk through Soho, Hong Kong. Young children stare, confused. Parents stare, disgusted. Locals stare, bemused. The two men are dressed in red faux velvet with white fur trimmings with matching hats both carrying cans of open beer. Both dressed as Santa Claus and despite the absurdity of the scene are on course to meet another hundred or so people similarly dressed. It's that time of the year again, Santacon.

What started in San Francisco has quickly become a global sensation (or nuisance, depending who you are). The Hong Kong leg, just so happens to be organised by two friends, Americans, no less. An annual pub crawl where participants dress up as Santa Claus. The typical route has seen an army of red and white move to various bars around Hong Kong. 2015  was a change in direction and the removal of the TST leg has not been popular with all participants. 

Regardless, the end point is always the same. Traffic on Lockhart Road has been blocked by a sea of red and white spilling out into the Wan Chai evening.

The BD Birthday: Taipei

I've slept 11 hours for two consecutive nights since returning from this Taipei trip. Feeling tired is an understatement.

Currently reading "Four Hour Work Week" - Time Ferriss

Production Freeze

It has been quite a frustrating year in terms of career. I can't help but feel as if my career has stalled. My desire to change jobs has consumed me. "At least you have a job" they say. I parse back through my CV examining the different companies and roles that I've performed and wonder where did it all go wrong. Are my expectations to high?

I want to blame the redundancy, but that's just me making excuses. The optimism of finding a new job is a internal struggle, replete with highs and lows. No reply from recruiter. Discouraging moments of soul searching and constant questioning of self worth. No news, is it good news? Hope.

Why do we place so much emphasis on salary and title? Hong Kong is such a driven environment. It perpetuates the drive and ambition and creates a perceived future that we think we want. The people I hang around are the creme dela creme; boasting education from the most elite schools in the world. Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, MIT, names that overshadow The University of Sydney.

These are the people that have come to Hong Kong for their careers, over achievers, scholarships at Ivy League schools, Managing Directors by the age of 30, owners of start ups, salaries up to a million USD a year. It's hard to ignore career success, I want to. I am, in my own right, successful. Just not, that kind of successful. Ultimately, this is the pedigree of people are competing with you for that position. It feels like an unfair advantage, like a Division 1, Championship Team versus a Premier League heavyweight. Is this what my parents meant by "Study hard so you can get a good job"?

Thankfully it's the quieter time of the year - Everything is out of my hands and I'm enjoying the down time. Maybe this is why people like the Christmas period? This is why I like it. It's time to reset and refocus.

"Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want" - Naval Ravikant

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".

There's no 'E' in this Whisky

Despite spending time living in Europe, there are still regions that remain unvisited on my travel bucket list. The non-exhaustive list includes: Santorini and the Greek Islands, Normandy and Northern France, Cinque Terre and the Italian Coastline and the Whisky Regions of Scotland. Unfortunately these destinations more often than not took the backseat to the twenty-something life experiences that Europe has to offer (think Pamplona Bull Run and Ibiza). I confidently reasoned these destinations could be appreciated irrespective of age and would be experienced at a later stage in my life.

Recently there has been an the explosion of award winning whiskies from both Taiwan and Japan making Asia now a reputable player in the the world of Whiskies. It was decided that Japan, home of Suntory and Nikka would be a fun side trip to experience an Asia based Whisky tour. We managed to get cheap flights from Hong Kong to Osaka for 1200 HKD. Unfortunately, the main distillery in that region also happened to be closed during this time of the year for annual maintenance. Not to be discouraged we managed to visit a handful of local Whisky bars and even managed to find some non-export priced age whisky!

The trip, my first foray into the world of Air BNB found four grown men sharing a one bedroom apartment in the Naniwa-Ku district just outside of Namba. The days involved eating. Lots of it. A typical conversation that would take place went along the lines of "If we have [dinner/lunch] in 4 hours, we can most likely have another meal in 2 hours time, take a nap and then go out to eat again". I repeat. Non-stop eating. Most of the time was spent in Osaka, with one day out in the Bamboo forest of Asashiyama, Kyoto.

 Asashiyama, Bamboo Grove

 CoCo Ichibanya, Katsu Curry

 Koyoshi Sushi

 Matsuzakagyu Yakiniku M

 Otsuka Steakhouse

The farewell continues: Taipei

Back to back weekends - this weekend, Taipei. One night.

Memorable tidbit #1
First time I've selected a "special meal" on a flight. I went for the "Low Fat" option. Surprisingly not too bad.

Memorable tidbit #2
Scheduled departure: 16:40, expected arrival in Hong Kong: 18:25. Actual departure: 21:00, arrival back in Hong Kong 23:30. Typhoon decided to batter Hong Kong, forcing the airport to temporarily shutdown and for the plane to be stuck in multiple holding zones.