There's something about these two images that stirs memories from childhood. Maggi 2 minute noodles reminds me of the sleep overs I would have with my cousins in Castle Hill. Breakfast/lunch would be instance noodles and a cup of mile. We rarely ate the Maggi brand at home. Even the taste reminds me of childhood.
I've lost track of how many times I've been back to Sydney in recent years. If I were to guess, probably around 8-10 times last year? Somebody fact check me. The trips admittedly have become a little bit easier with cost, as I've been fortunate enough to have more deposable income with work and career, however it has become more difficult from a physical perspective. I'm not sure if it's age, but the tailbone does not like sleeping on those upright seats, and my sleep quality has definitely deteriorated. It's a small price to pay given how much I enjoy going back home to Sydney.
One thing that I have been thinking about lately is the pick ups and drops off to and from the airport. It's quite a small thing, but there's always been somebody waiting for me, or willing to drop me off for my flight out. Pick up from the International Airport Express passenger pick-up area. Drop off at Gate G for the late night flight out.
Most often that not dad gets stuck with this chore, duty, obligation. It's a small passage of time where we catch up, on what's been happening. The pick-up is pretty scripted. It's always a conversation about the flight, and whether it was busy and how long I'm in town for. I think it's always usually a pretty full flight, and usually for a couple a days. Sometimes, there's a question about work.
The drop offs are a little less scripted. Talking about whatever is on our mind. Cars. Relatives. Health. Travel. Life. The drop offs remind me of being dropped off when I was a kid, whether it be being dropped off at school (where at times I would ask to be dropped off down the road in primary school). Or, being dropped off at a friend's place in high school. Or at the station for work. Or now, being dropped off at the airport to go back home.
I appreciate these little moments.
I have been really excited for this trip back. Sure Christmas was good, but there was a lot of rushing around but there was a lot of activities and events as well as work. 9 days of doing nothing in Sydney. Well, not nothing. We do a good job of filling time and did I fill it. Celebratory Chinese New Year dinner with the other side of the family in Roselands, with this side of the family dinner in Earlwood. Lots of catch ups, visited the new Laundromat, cleaned all the duvets, then waited 3 hours for them to dry, and finally saw a nice rainbow. Gung Hei Fatt Choy!
The thing about getting old is that you learn something new all the time. One moment everything is business as usual. The next, things aren't operating in exactly the same way. It's a constant audit. What's changed? What's no longer working?
My new thing is, that I've noticed my circadian rhythm has become extremely sensitive to any perturbations. I don't know if it's because over the last few years my schedule is pretty robust. Go to bed somewhere between 22:00-23:00, wake up somewhere between 05:30-7:00. Any shift to this schedule and my body clock goes haywire. I've had it a few times, where either I've stayed up too late. I.e. gone to bed at 3 am or 4 am and despite being extremely tired, what results is a handful of days of insomnia where I just can't get to sleep. Or more commonly, moving across timezones due to travel resulting in jet lag.
The return flight from Johannesburg to Hong Kong, we woke up at 3:30 am, in Cape Town, caught the 6:00 am flight to Johannesburg. Slept most of that two hour flight, woke up in OR Tambo International airport at 8:00, collected luggage and sat at gate waiting for 11:00 am flight back to Hong Kong, only to barely sleep on the flight and arrive in Hong Kong at 6:00, the following day. My body was confused, minimal sleep over the last 24 hours, and I had arrived back the following day. What ensued was 3 days of jet lag and insomnia.
The insomnia was compounded by a few things, including a newly discovered tooth problem. Another tooth problem, you say? Well yes, this time, it wasn't the same tooth, but the molar directly opposite the tooth I had just had Root Canal Treatment (RCT) on.
Mortality strikes you in many ways, this time in the form of a second RCT in the space of a month. I don't know if it's the cost, or the knowing that your teeth have failed which bothers me more. For future reference, the cost of a root canal is approximately 8,000 HKD, or 1K USD. The silver lining is, I now spend more time on dental hygiene and teeth that I had previously.
There may be a point in time when people look back at the "blind box" culture and try to pin point its origin story. I'm not somebody unfamiliar with this concept, having been deep in collectibles. Basketball cards, football cards, Magic cards. However as of writing, the blind box has become ever-present in society.
Up until opening this tin, the information was asymmetric. Now it's not. It's a blue!
Very exciting to have visitors in town! It's been more than ten years since my mom and auntie visited the shores of Hong Kong. I think dad has been here a little more recently, but even then, that would have been when I was still living in Soho, which would have been at least eight years ago. The lead up to the visit was a little stressful as this was the first time taking advantage of my sister's family perks at work which meant, stand by tickets and continuously hawking the load of seats on each of the flight. That combined with the fact that this airline only has one flight per day meant that they did not know if they were going to fly up until the last moment. Weeks out, this flight had looked the most likely with availability, however as the day drew closer seat allocations slowly filled up. On the day of the flight, all seats had been sold, yet they decided to head to the airport and try their luck. Call it luck, but there were two no-shows. Success. Hong Kong here they come!
Unfortunately, we were short at work so couldn't take time off, but did manage to see them after work and on the weekend. This, in my opinion is the best time of the year to visit Hong Kong. Although upon arrival they were greeted with fairly chilly conditions, however the city warmed up after the six days. Lots of activities showing them all my favourite spots. Picked them up from the airport, and checked into the hotel, they weren't so hungry and watched me eat some Vietnamese food in Pacific Place. They had arrived with lots of goodies, lentils, faba beans, fruit and snacks. Day two, exploring TST, although admittedly, Hong Kong isn't terribly exciting if you're just walking around. You kind of need to know where to go. I met them after work in Jordan and we strolled Temple Street and the ladies market and ended up at Hing Kee for clay hotpot rice. One thing they would soon learn is that, all popular places in Hong Kong will have a queue.
Friday they went up to the Peak and met them after work at Kam's for goose dinner. "Too tough!" haha, followed by dessert. Saturday we met in Causeway Bay after my (half) hair cut, grabbed an egg tart from Bakehouse and walked through Victoria Park to Sister Wah for beef brisket noodles, followed by a post meal walk to the Eastern Corridor promenade for some harbour views before catching a tram to North Point. Walked down to Sau Kei Wan, caught sunset and took a boat to Lei Yue Mun for seafood dinner. Sunday, dim sum in Central, walk through Hong Kong park, afternoon tea at the Conrad and then dinner at Above and Beyond, walk along the Avenue of the Stars and Star Ferry back to Hong Kong island. Monday they explored Causeway Bay before heading off back to Sydney. Please visit more!
The period between a positive pregnancy test and the end of the first trimester is an interesting phase. There's the initial excitement. It's an excitement that is a little subdued, given the circumstances there's a strange countdown, that happens every day, drawing closer to the end of the first trimester. Each pang, bleed, discomfort experienced by the mother is heightened emotion. As the first trimester draws to an end there's a slight bump, but still the gray area between "has she put on weight?" or "is she pregnant?" but this is also where the probability of a viable child and when people start to announce.
It's happening. Pea-sized, strawberry sized, lime-sized. No turning back now.
I'm at the gym, do my quick stretch, hamstring sweeps, external rotation hip pulls, pogo jumps, hip circles. Small towel, water bottle, set the treadmill to speed 9, or 6:40 min/km and we're off. I trot along under fluorescent lights, sound-less Bloomberg TV on the screen. My heart rate is at 120 beats per minute. My cadence is 165 steps per minute. It should sound like a metronome. I'm hoping to keep both these metrics stable for the next 30 minutes. That is the goal of this session. The Easy Run. Zone 2, aerobic, or "with oxygen". I have mitocondria production and running efficiency at the forefront of my mind. That's why I'm doing this.
"Running is so boring" or "Running on a treadmill is even worse" - I used to think this way. It's all about reframing. Why are you running? Is it for "exercise"? For me, I've take to treadmill running as I can control the environment. rain, hail (we don't really get hail in Hong Kong) or Shine (we get plenty of shine). It's a fixed environment - 6:40 km/min. It's base building.
I'm also under the idea - do uncomfortable things, building resilience, find a way to meditate on those uncomfortable things. Then the magic happens, they become less boring, they become easier, they become enjoyable.
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.
When I tell people I've moved to North Point, the look on their faces is a combination of confusiong and pity. "Why are you moving further away?". Moving in and out of Happy Valley to North Point is not easy, not sure if it's more a function of Happy Valley or more a function of North Point.
I've now been through enough jobs to have an idea of what makes a "good first day" or a "bad first day". All in all, there's no such thing as a bad first day, maybe there's memorable first days, but there's often so little expected of new joiners, as it's all internal process that dictates the first day. Despite this, I don't really have much memory of previous "first days". I want to say it's usually a mix of excitement and nerves. One job I remember not having a PC on the first day, another job I remember going out for lunch with the team.
This time around, I thought I would make of a concerted effort to break down the day. 10th of July 2023. 9 am in the foyer to meet with HR, only to find out that my onboarding application has not been entirely completed. We surmise it's probably a result of the licensing and the change in start date. As a result, there's some confusion around PC access and phone access. Initially we're told that the system profile has not been created, and will take 3-5 days before I can access my PC. Long story, cut short, I manage to access my workstation and email by mid morning. Initial observations, my email address is weird and my keyboard feels slow, will need to investigate this.
Overall, the day is a mix of excitement and nerves, starting a new job, the commitment surrounding this and the attitude that is associated with being the 'new guy'. It feels odd walking the isles not knowing anybody. Trying to figure out the water dispenser or the coffee machine. Catching the stray look of somebody who realises that they've never seen you before. Then there's the nerves of performance/job expectations. Somebody who has been brought it to do a job, a new job, and also nerves around performance after almost 10 weeks of inactivity. The brain feels slow and gooey.
It's a different environment here, the office is larger. It's probably one of the busiest floors that I've worked on, there's a lot of faces, some that I will probably never interact with. It's a weird feeling being back in the huge corporate machine. I meet all the people on the team, some are familiar from the interview process. I find myself trying to access all the relevant systems, reaching out to all the key stakeholders. I tell myself not to get too carried away here, there's plenty of time to get set up. I just need to enjoy the first couple of days. It's been a good first day, looking forward to the rest of the week. I leave just after 6 pm, the floor is still busy.
The handling of my notice period has been fairly smooth (touch wood). I asked for a midweek, last day, giving myself 2 days back in the office with my boss after his Europe trip and the Hong Kong public holiday; he obliged. All things considered, this has worked out fairly well, worked two weeks in the office, and spent two weeks in Sydney, leaving me with 2 months. It would have been nice to have a continuous block, but I can't complain. Majority of the handover has been complete, I've checked out and have not actively been picking up work, but am still engaged with any incoming questions directed at me.
The last couple of days have been nice, plenty of warm wishes and thank yous. I unexpectedly received touching email from the boss and a farewell card and whisky from the office. At 4:30 pm, I complete the rounds of farewells and leave to applause. I leave 28 Hennessy for the last time.
The 2022 compensation has hit the bank account. For some, it's a sizeable amount, for others' less so, for me, I'm grateful for it, but feel it could higher (which camp does that leave me in?). Everybody pretends to be unhappy with their number, even if it's adequate, you can never let off that you're happy. It's a strange song and dance that people play during this time of the year. It is the perceived lack of appreciation, or not feeling valued. It's tough managing employees, but the final nail in the coffin is the reduction in force (RIF) for my team members. It makes the decision, and the conversation a lot easier.
After a great weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, I'm back in Hong Kong. It's the weekend of Hong Kong Sevens and Creamfields. I opt out of both, this is the weekend I planned to hand in my resignation and notice. I'm nervous, but not as nervous as previous times.
I call my boss on the Sunday, no answer. I leave a message, it's very obvious: "Yo, how's the weekend, got a sec for a chat?". He will later admit that when he saw this message he knew what was coming. There's disappointment, perhaps this is something that needs to be displayed, there's the "is there anything we can do?" conversation. It wraps up, it feels easier than previous resignations. Now the final challenge, negotiation of my gardening leave. My start date is 10th July, my goal is to maximise time off between now and then without burning any bridges.
She's back in town, it's nice having her in Hong Kong, even nicer that she can provide HR guidance during this time, maybe that's why it has been easier.
It's a strange feeling, having signed a new contract. Waiting to resign, but still pretending to be engaged with work. My heart is half involved, but also already disconnected. I need to act as if i'm 100% engaged, while I wait for my bonus. It's such a dirty word, compensation time, bonus time, waiting for a number that sums up our worth. Still I need to be involved with strategy, be apart of the interview process for new candidates, motivate the team and try to fend of business travel. It wasn't a clear cut decision, but it has been made.
Really enjoying the time in Hong Kong. It feels like a Friday, one long Friday, that anticipation before the weekend.
959 days, the world's longest mask mandate ends tomorrow. There is a collective sigh of relief. I would expect majority of the population to continue to wear masks, the elderly, those who have a 10 year supply, or those who just want to keep their faces warm until Springtime. It's a weird feeling, the last semblance of what was one of the most impactful events to my generation. It's surreal, but also, finally.
After all that, I've received an offer - not exactly what I'm after - but still negotiating. There's obvious sacrifices, but lots of opportunity, I guess these decisions aren't always clear up. The negotiation continues. It comes down to the push/pull. What's pushing me away, what's pulling me towards.
