Not so supercool

I got a damned infection in my ear and it hurts like crap. I've had it for a few days now. It frigging hurts. And I haven't really slept properly for the least few nights since sleeping involves placing your head on a pillow - head, to with the ears are connected, including the ear that hurts like crap. Crap, I tell you!

Now, I don't know why I was bestowed this grand gift of pain, but I sure ain't thankful for it.

Had to go to the doctors too to get some meds for this. The frigging visit cost me HKD 400 (including the meds)! It's not too bad, but it's still money I could've spent on something useful, like 16 BigMac meals. Well, he gave me some happy-pills and ear drops and it should be getting better withing a few days. Taking too damned long though.


I shit you not. Above are the actual pills I got. My antibiotics say "nice" and they are happy and yellow-gray. Super! Also got some painkillers but they just look like normal drugs.

Well, let's see how long it takes for them to really kick in. I wouldn't really like to visit doctors again if the pills don't do the trick. Not because of the money, not because of the trouble - but because I have to wait 3 more days before my medication ends. So, if they don't work - I'll have 3 more days of PAIN ahead of me.

Haha, can't imagine myself, a big man, making such a fuss about a thing like this.

Anyways, life goes on.

Supercool

Gloomy Wednesday.

It's a turn for the better, though, since we had a few days of Typhoon-comparable rains and wind. No typhoons here, however, just crappy weather. But it's better now, at least it's calm - albeit gray.

It's funny how you can feel cold, even if it's over 20 degrees out. While living in Finland, that seemed like a ridiculous thing to say.

A friend is coming by for one evening to Hong Kong from Guangzhou so I'm expecting moderate consumption of alcohol in a civilized manner within the safe perimeter of a drinking house. Since tomorrow is a working day, I expect things to go smoothly and without incident.

Nothing more to say today. Except that lately I've been less tired, less pissed-off, and less stressed. And that is a really awesome feeling after a few months of all three of those.

Life is sweet, life is super. If only it was brighter outside.

Lazydayz...

It's Friday and that means that weekend is just around the corner! Now, I don't take much pride to it but I've become extremely lazy during weekends. Seems I can't be arsed to do anything, really. Well, that is going to change now that I'm having a bit more energy.

See, laziness was direct result of being exhausted by work during week - so any time off I could have, I would really take easy. Well, now luckily things are back to a state that is within limits of acceptable and I can once again start adventuring around Hong Kong! Fun times ahead!

Anyways, weekend's are nice no matter what.

The thing is, living in a place like Hong Kong may sound really fancy to anyone who hasn't done anything similar. However, the basic routines of life are the same everywhere. Of course there are differences between locations but once you get used to one routine, it's the routine you know and follow. So, with routines this place has lost some of its initial charm.

During weekends the routines break a bit and there's time to live. It's really similar to any place, you know, in Finland weekend's are for special things also, whereas weekdays are for work/study. So, you can see my point.

To further the point, in a place like Hong Kong during weekend's it's easy to do a lot of things that refurbish that charm. No matter I've lived in Hong Kong over 2 years, I still find myself amazed by certain things time after time. And of course there are plenty of new things here I haven't even had a brief glimpse of.

That's actually one of the interesting things about Hong Kong, there's so many things packed in this small area that it never seems to cease amaze me. Within a few kilometers you can go from such extremes of wealth, lifestyle, anything.

So, Hong Kong still is kind of a cotton-candy-land for me. There's no denying it.

Actually, I would really enjoy a few weeks of well funded holiday just in Hong Kong - to have the chance to go around in more detail, to see places that take too much time to go to, or are otherwise something I can't - for one reason or another - see at this moment.

Well, let's see what I can come up with during this weekend. Don't have that much money to do anything, unfortunately... made some big investments that hopefully pay off later on. Let's see, let's see.

It's a splendid, sunny day outside with a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. I'm sitting in an office. I need an outdoor job.

phoínix

It's been a long time, way too long. But like Chuck Norris, this blog doesn't sleep - it waits.

It's been a hectic one month - or actually a few months. I hope that with the summer coming, things will ease up and there will be more time also for other stuff than just work and sleep. Of course I can't blame all on work but it's a definite factor. I've had a bit free time which I've been using to my best ability to either rest, or discover new things in Hong Kong. I must say, the latter has become less and less frequent with rest taking more of the spare time I have - but that's simply because after work I've just been unarseable to do anything.

With that said, let's get back to matters at hand.

As mentioned, summer is heading our way. While I just received word that in Valkeakoski it was -1 degrees Celsius this morning, in Hong Kong we're enjoying 27-30 degrees.

Here's a 7-day forecast from our friends at the Hong Kong Observatory:



So we won't be freezing too badly here, as the poor mucks in Finland. Of course, however, getting the warm weather means a world of pain for me. I'm very, very well adapt for cold weather and winter in Hong Kong was just awesome - but I am one of the least compatible of humans to hot weather. So, it's back to t-shirts and sweating like a Schwein for me. Fun times.

One definite bonus of summer in Hong Kong is the blue sky. Blue sky makes me happy. Blue sky is a sign of a nice day. Blue blue blue. Of course blue sky also means it much hotter because the sun is shining straight on us without the protective cloud/smog defense shield to guard us. But it looks mighty awesome. The thing is, during winter we don't have that many sunny days. The weather may be clear, but there is a shroud of clouds covering us most of the time.

But that's all there is to it at this point. No more jabbering about weather.

Within the last few months so many things have happened that it pains me to leave them out all together. Seems such a silly idea to start telling about events long-gone as if they were something new and amazing. So, how about some current events, eh?

Thank you Schweppes! I just found a bottle of grapefruit soda from a close-by 7eleven and it's delicious! Why so happy, you ask? Well, aside from Coke, Pepsi and some basic soda's like 7-up and such, it's really hard to find additional soda flavors here. Ask about all the funky green tea we have, sure, but a decent soda... *sigh*

Actually, a lot of Western foodstuff is hard to come by in Hong Kong. Surprisingly so, actually. I've started to like cooking again after a while of McDonald's and other crap. However, the age-old problem remains persistent; that is, the western foodstuff.

For example, try finding some cream other than whipped cream. Try finding some proper bread other than toast or Chinese crap buns. It can't be done. The list goes on and on but without a context I can't come up with a longer one just now. However, it seems every time I want to cook something western style, there are at least a few food items missing that force me to improvise to some extent. Of course it's fun to try new things - but sometimes I'd rather try the old things, and have that old-home feeling. Well, sucks.

I'm quickly becoming a master of fusion kitchen - balancing between east and the west.

Manbearpig

Half man, half bear, half pig. Well, not really. But UK scientists have managed to create Britain's first part-human, part-animal embryos - creating a human-cow hybrid. Of course it operates only on small cellular level, so we won't be having man-cows around any time soon. Interestingly enough, however, between the lines it was easy to read that this is not ground-breaking research but has actually been done by US and Chinese scientists before some time ago.

To me this was news. I didn't know we can do this already. Albeit, there are many things I didn't know we can do. Seems science has stepped way further beyond the threshold of fiction than I thought. Well, I suppose it'll lead to scientific discoveries and we'll all live a very, very long and happy lives thanks to it.

Unless man-cow kills us all!

So, 'will it blend?' is not really the question anymore. Now we should be asking'Should we blend it?' but that is a totally different question and I won't even go into the ethics behind genetics and all things involved. Those are questions too big for us small mortals. Let the immortals decide!

Lingua Franca

There are a few obvious good things the British brought to Hong Kong. One is the western sense into things (though can be argued) and the other is their language. Though the locals commonly use Cantonese for their own affairs, English is very common even among lower educated people (38% of people in Hong Kong, according to Wikipedia, apt speakers). Even those who can't really speak the language, usually learn what is necessary for their profession (taxi, restaurants, etc.)

Having so many english-capable people around of course makes life a lot easier here. I don't really need to worry about a thing, in terms of language barriers - and especially with Chi around, language hasn't been a problem for the last 10 months or so.

Of course, it makes it much more challenging to learn the de facto language of the locals: Cantonese.

I haven't given up my relentless quest to learn the language. But it's slow. It's so damned slow. I suppose I should go to a proper course and have a weekly schedule for learning. Can't be arsed though. But I'm still learning.

Not being forced to use the language daily is a problem. Almost in any country you would at least have to face the language more often. Of course I hear it all the time but since it's not directed towards me, it's easily ignored. And since I look like gweilo, the locals automatically switch into english when talking with me.

Sometimes after purchasing something or paying for a bill, I say "thank you" (something like "mgoy") in Cantonese, and even from that I receive surprised glances and even smiles, or giggle - as if I've done something totally remarkable! "HOLY CRAP! The gweilo speaks our language!"

Chi is a good teacher, I'm a crappy student. Yet, I'm making slow progress with each week.

I am learning small things all the time and with time they're bound to sum up to something. However, I don't expect myself to be at all capable of speaking Cantonese until a year or two from now. The progress is simply too slow for anything sooner.

I'm more aware of the tones and other finer things concerning the language but they still pose me a serious problem. It's not once or twice that I've repeated the same word (or so I thought) to Chi, and she saying I got it right half the time, other half was wrong. I just don't understand how the people can hear any difference in the tones --- I mean something that would be so significant as to be a totally different word.

It's all kung-fu-talk. Damn it all! One day I'll be the master of it!
And then I can be an actor in kung-fu movies and kick ass! That'll be cool! With great language-skills comes great responsibility.

Daily routines

Daily routines exist no more. The only routine I have is Chi getting off at 21:00 and coming to Tung Chung at around 22:00. Everything before that is a hassle. I really, really need to get some more routines to my life - this is very much draining on my mental well-being. The way things are, I'm usually so tired by weekend, that I don't go out at all. In fact, it's been a really long time since I properly went out with friends.

So, what's the cause of all this?
You guessed it. Work. Plenty of work.

It seems things are easing up now, and I hope to see some significant changes up ahead, but lately our office has been like Santa's workshop on December 23rd. I don't know what has happened to create this situation, but it's definitely there. I remember this time last year I was stressed out for NOT having enough work to do. Funny enough, back then I thought it's much worse that having too much, making a silly claim about how I'm being just a burden to the company and how it's not right others are busy and I'm not. Well, I was wrong. Being totally overwhelmed by work sucks more. Period.

So, anyways... Even my week is full of busy days at work, I will try to change my routines for the weekends. With my parents here, I realized how much more stuff I could do during my free time if I just got up early and went out. These days I've just been sleeping late and staying indoors.

Need to sleep more though too... Hmmh, it's a bit of a problem actually. Need to sleep more, but need to wake up early. And then, Chi gets off so late I kind of have to stay up late... and... I don't know. Need to come up with something.