Sydney

MBL. Mandatory Block Leave. 10 days where an employee is forced to be out of the office and removed from operations. The idea being that the employee is forced to take a break, and from a risk management and compliance perspective, removes any single point of failure from operations. It's been a while since I've been "forced" to take 10 days of annual leave from work. Sydney would be the destination. Christmas and end of year would be the occasion. 

Jam, jam, jam. Quite a busy time of the year. Catching up with people, health check ups, errands. Blessed with an amazing summer, although there were some stinkers (read 40 degrees).

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.

Bangkok

A weekend of many: Loy Krathong, crypto conferences, jeh o chula

 

Best of Hong Kong

 Nice little stretch of not traveling - it's good to be in one place, especially as the weather starts to become cooler.

Sydney

It's her 40th. I'm dating a middle aged woman.

Last Singapore trip of the year

The anticipation for long weekends never, ever gets old. October also happens to be a great month for days off with National day and Chung Yeung Festival. Cheung Yeung festival happens to fall on Friday which means, an extra day in Singapore. Well, really just an extra meal in Singapore, I decide to take the morning flight into Singapore that gets me in around 4 pm. Having an extra meal in Singapore is small minor but makes a huge difference. The weekend was pretty relaxed, which is nice when traveling. The theme of the weekend was Apam Balik, or Min Kiang Kueh, or Ban chan Keuh.

Dinner and cards with Albs in New Bahru. Saturday we caught up with my cousin, had some hawker food and tried some Bryani and a Studio Ghibli evening with pizza and left over Pavlova. There was a covid scare (yes, this is still a thing).  Sunday, New Bahru market for breakfast, ice bath and sauna, some Vietnamese for lunch and off to the Airport.

The weekends go by so fast. I'm losing track of these Singapore trips. Which I guess is a good thing?

Weird to think that this is the last Singapore trip for 2024. Currently reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

The meaning of life

42 - Gosh time is rocketing by. Let me pause for a quick reflection. It's almost the answer to the trite question of "How's it going?". Things are going well. 

Work and career feel good, there are obvious pain points with work, but no job is perfect and lately I've managed to really take control of my time and managing work a little better. I can't help but feel what the next step is? 

As for Hong Kong, I'm enjoying this phase of Hong Kong, it has almost everything that I need. Going out less, still socialising, catching up with people, drinking less, doing much more exercise, really trying to eat better, sleep better. I've settled into North Point, and have a great routine going. Can't help but wonder if I'm coming to the end of my Hong Kong chapter. More on that later.

Relationship. Things with the shorter long-distance are doing well. I've lost count of the number of times I've been to Singapore this year, but the trips there are easy, not tiring and have really enjoyed that being my, second, maybe third home. At some point in time need to see how to get over to Singapore.

Sydney, would like to get back more, lots of stuff happening back home I wish I were there for. Loved ones growing older. Feel like I'm missing out, need to try to get back a little more. Although I am excited to be back in a few weeks.

Some of the highlights of the recent birthday. Egg tart from the intern (not for my birthday, but happened to be on my Birthday). Some Magic cards from a friend. Some Minties from relatives and a Pavlova from the lady. Low key dinner topped off with Birthday messages from friends. My kind of Birthday.

Everything in real time

There used to be a saying in Hong Kong which went along the lines of "Everything in real time". It was a saying popularised by Rob, which referred often to last-minute, impromptu trips around Asia. Legend has it that Rob once did 14 trips to Taipei in a single calendar year, most of them decided "in real time", ie. On a Friday afternoon during work, deciding that he would rather not spend the weekend in Hong Kong would proceed to the airport, sometimes without an advance purchase of a flight or a hotel. With passport in hand and "figure it out". Rob left Hong Kong in 2015, and with it the saying of "everything in real time". 

Fast forward September 2024, and Rob happens to be back in Hong Kong for business. It's on the Tuesday and I get a message "Taipei this weekend?" - four days notice, not quite real time, but definitely on a whim. After much deliberation, I managed to find a couple of cheap flights on points and a reasonable rate for a Taipei hotel for one evening.

Not quite the same gusto of yesteryear, but 24 hours in Taipei was really good. Plus a special guest.

Vietnam

Couple of threads coming out of this trip.

Firstly, sister is part of the bridal party. This translates to compulsory attendance, which meant her family (one 5 month old and one 32 month old) and two grand parents were making the trip out to Nha Trang, Vietnam. The journey requires one overnight flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, followed by a connecting to Cam Ranh International Airport and a 1 hour car ride from Cam Ranh to Nha Trang. What could go wrong? 

Well, let's start with the strong winds which caused the flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur to be canceled. Wednesday 28th August, two grand parents, two parents, two kids, waiting at the gate only to be told that the flight was canceled and that they had to move back through immigration to return home just after midnight on the Thursday morning. After countless hours of waiting on the Malaysia Airlines customer service hotline trying to find the next available flight, they head back to the airport on Thursday, this time to catch a 14:00 flight from Sydney to KL. Success! Or rather, partial success. The interconnecting flight from KL to Cam Ranh is not a daily flight, and due to the Vietnam Visa, entry into Vietnam has to be via Cam Ranh. Deciding against forking out for the express visas and another indirect flight via Ho Chi Minh City, they spend two nights in KL and decide to catch the Saturday direct flight to Cam Ranh. Instead of arriving into Nha Trang on the Thursday afternoon, they finally arrive on the Saturday afternoon. Everybody looks tired upon arrival.

Secondly, my VietJet experience. The thing that VietJet has going for it is the cost of a fare and the flight timings. As far as timing after work, no other airline offers the flexibility (by no other, I mean, Cathay). That's where the accolades really end. Every single VietJet flight I've been on has been delayed, but I can't be mad, because as the old adage goes "You get what you pay for" and with the budget airlines there's always consistent factors of affordability, delays. So I can accept the delays, however this time around as I was flying out I got a message from a friend wanting to catch up. I told him that I was heading out to Ho Chi Minh, so would have to catch up in a week's time. He promptly replied with:

"Be careful with carry on luggage. Lots of pr**ks stealing stuff on board. Cases on CX from/to Vietnam. Stolen watches and cash"

You can probably guess how this thread ends. Heeding this advice, I tuck my red packet (read, wedding gift) into a separate pocket of my carry on with full intention to have the bag under the seat in front of it. However, a 90 minute delayed flight and instead of remembering to put my carry on down in the seat in front of me, I put it overhead. Long story-short. Don't notice anything unusual until the next morning in the hotel and I notice that my wallet is missing some cards (a bank card and a credit card). My heart sinks, I check my luggage, the red packet is still there, but the cash is missing! Thinking back there's two instances where they would have gone through my luggage. 1) we're on the tarmac for an hour, I remember somebody going up into the overhead before take off. 2) I go to the restroom, and the toilets are both taken so i'm waiting out back. In any case, this incident really set the trip off on the wrong step. Not because I was robbed, but because I was warned.

Ok, finally the most important thread. The wedding. It erases all of the above. It was nice seeing everybody. Family. Friends. Wholesome fun. Really, really good. Coming back from this trip, I'm just so full of love.