Cantopop

2010-02-13T18:36:00.001+08:00

Sat through 90 minutes of "the frog and the princess" today.

There was this kid 9 years old or so I'd think, and his little sister, who were two rows away from us. Stupid kid laughed out REALLY loud at fucking nothing all the time. REALLY forced kind of laugh or so it sounded to my ears. And his little sis started to fucking copy his stoopid laugh as well. I wanted to walk over to punch him in the face. His mom, oh yeah, his mum, was sitting one row in front of him. As well. It's a stoopid disney film which should never have reached the cinemas (mind you it was full house today), and even though there were some marginally laugh out loud funny bits, the kid was not laughing at any of those moments.

So, as I was raging and stuffing pop corn into my gob, I fantasized about how I'd walk up to the kid and his mom and give them a good talking to. Maybe pour coke over their heads. Yet on the other hand, I thought maybe he has some kind of condition that might've somehow explain this curiously annoying craziness.

And so my mind drifted as described above, whilst on the big screen, humans turned into frogs, frogs into humans, et cetera.

2010-02-12T00:05:00.001+08:00

There's active mould on my walls. And ceiling.

2009-05-24T17:30:00.002+08:00

Was in mainland China last week for our annual programme retreat. Stayed at quite a nice hotel complete with puny private beach.

Always bizarre and predictable but not entirely unpleasant, this annual 'get together' is basically an entire day's worth of meetings which could have taken place in any old crappy room with big table and thirty chairs. Yet, when under the guise of 'retreat', results in an out of town experience that only the clinically insane would agree is not a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

I said not entirely unpleasant, because people are trapped and therefore forced to socialize with one another. With the aid of copious amounts of overpriced plonk, it is actually one of the few occasions where you get to see the other side of people whom I normally imagine to be boring freaks. One guy kept quoting from "that famous book" called "Seven habits of highly effective people". A bunch of females kept daring one another to go up the stage to sing. When there was actually a band ALREADY doing the singing. At the top right corner of the dark Italian restaurant, an M Phil student was getting her much needed meeting with her supervisor (aka "the dodger"). And yes, her thesis is due in a month.

And this morning I taught Sunday School for the first time. I was told that my voice was too loud. Bloody right it was.

Dear God, why are other people's children always such useless brats?

2009-05-19T11:18:00.002+08:00

It's that time of the year again, end of term, except that I'll be teaching summer school so June will be busy if not busier.

Went to students' graduation dinner last night and this is my second time after 11 years of working in this place. Last time it was held at a hotel, and this time in Asia-Expo or whatever that big hanger place is called next to the airport. Bit of a surreal experience. Not so much because of the size of the place, but the various 'ceremonies' and 'rituals' that took place before we were finally fed.

First off, the MCs, there were six. All girlos. All dressed up in shiny nylon and satin and lace and flowers in their hair, shoes too tight with heels too high. I couldn't take my eyes off one of them because the neckline of her blue velvet dress leads down to her belly button (okay me exaggerating a bit - maybe down to the point where the lowest ribs are). And she had created for herself an impressive cleavage to boot, seemingly with no help from conventional bras. What the hell? We had esteemed members of society amongst us. Legco and Exco members, Head of this or that commission, lawyers, vice-chancellors, and me! Do we really need to see that much boob?

The next surreal event was when everyone was asked to stand up whilst our esteemed guests enter the hall. Music was played, red carpet rolled out, someone holding a big flag leading the entrance. I had my arms folded across my chest and my back facing the entrance. I was wearing jeans. The blisters on my pinky toe were hurting. Trying hard to suppress the urge to fart.

Spot the difference!

2009-04-07T19:16:00.004+08:00

[Style guru Gok Wan vs Democratic Party legislator Cheng Kar Foo 鄭家富]

2009-04-01T22:28:00.002+08:00

My father is in his early seventies and recently has had to undergo some major dental work. He has never been slim. As far as memory serves me, he has always carried around a pot belly with him. But in the last couple of months he had lost a whole load of weight because the dental work has seriously affected his ability to eat normally. My aunt said he'd wanted to come visit and see the kids a month ago, but she advised him against it cos she was afriad he might frighten the kids.

His face now looks sunken, body shrivelled, his whole person has somehow been disfigured. I now see a fragile, vulnerable old man.

Which is what I will look like one day. If I get to live that long, that is.

When my mum was sick with cancer, living out her final days in a hospital bed some quarter of a century ago, she didn't want us kids to see her, either. She thought she would scare us.

Now, honestly, it is not so much how my mum and dad look like that could scare me. It is the thought that they thought they would scare me, that I find scary.

2009-03-31T10:08:00.003+08:00

Life begins at forty. Well, yes. If you think of "life" as labouring to reproduce the system. Yes, it kinda sucks. I suppose I've had it good for the past twelve years, where my job primarily consists of teaching, writing, doing research. Now I spend two hours ploughing through my email and another hour through my in-tray, yet another on the phone, none of which are teaching or research related. On average I spend six hours per week in meetings where I sit and listen to da-man-wida-head talk. Yet another hour or so every day planning more meetings.

So, life begins.

***

I have this irrational fear that I might be drinking too much. It is irrational, because I know I don't drink too much at all. Okay that depends on who I'm comparing myself with. I'd say I don't drink any more than I did twenty years ago (haha), and my husband constantly reassures me that I have to be nuts to think that I drink too much. Anyhow, I am concerned about the size and texture of my one and only darling liver, so for the past couple of years - God, has it really been that long? - I've been trying to not drink very night.

And I have been methodical about it. I kept a journal. Over the past 100 weeks, I only managed 2 weeks where I drank 5-6 instead of 7 nights a week.

On Sunday, I spent the whole afternoon cooking and drank a whole bottle of Syrah in the process. WhenI woke up Monday morning, I felt so very guilty, thinking that I have mistreated my poor darling liver once again! I'm such a bastard. So last night I administered punishment to myself by drinking nothing but green tea and went for a run as well.

Strangely enough, this morning I didn't feel any better. In fact, I felt worse than I normally do.

2009-03-16T23:14:00.001+08:00

A problem faced by many a dual-earner family in Hong Kong is childcare. We have had two helpers since our first child, who is now ten and a half, and our younger child is nearly eight. Our current helper has worked for us for coming up to six years, and turned fifty last year. And I’ve had enough. There comes a time when having that one more body in the apartment just gets all a bit too much. I just can't live with no helper no more.

2009-03-03T15:01:00.001+08:00

Promotion granted! Yipee!!

A friggin nightmare

2009-02-24T21:15:00.003+08:00

I dreamt that I was in Iraq, sharing a house with a bunch of Rhodes scholars. They were acting like skinny bitches in America's Next Top Model cycle 7, bitching about who should get the bed by the window and who's left the frying pan in the sink caked in egg white omelete three days old. And knowing all this while I could be bombed to smithereens any minute.

2009-02-20T15:44:00.002+08:00

I am the supervisor of an M Phil student who has extended his period of study twice. He's supposed to finally hand in his thesis today. Half an hour ago, our dept clerk called to relay an urgent message from registry, saying that he hasn't handed in anything yet.

I said "It's still early, he will probably hand it in at 4:59pm".

"Are you sure? Shall we call him just to make sure he hasn't forgotten?"

"He knows he is handing it in today - it should be no problem."

"Okay then, but I think I will give him a call, just to make sure he hasn't forgotten."

Now, saying all this, of course I don't know for sure about ANYTHING really. And judging from his past antics, I won't be falling off my chair with surprise if he doesn't hand in anything at all and then proceed to send me a five page rambling email about why he is in this sorry mess.

2009-02-04T16:51:00.002+08:00

Still no news about my promotion! What's taking them so freaking long? Meanwhile, check out these geezers!

2009-01-20T12:51:00.002+08:00

Haven't really sat down to take stock but like many people, my investments have shrunk in value by at least 50%. Which is not so bad, compared to many others, I guess. But still, I don't feel so good when those monthly statements come in and the numbers start to sink in. So I decided not to look at them anymore.

At work, a major personnel change was announced, but I already knew about it was going to happen before X'mas, so it didn't come as much of a surprise. Unfortunately, the successor to the one who has chosen to depart is a certified nightmare. I brace for hard times ahead.

Still no news about my promotion application, which is a bit unusual since they normally get those letters out before Chinese New Year holidays. We are going to Shanghai this weekend so my fingers are crossed for some good news before we leave.

So, lately, life's been a bit of a yawn in general.

Yawny yawn yawn yawn yawn.

Well at least I get to play some tennis later today! And I will go buy a lottery ticket tonight. The jackpot is 55 million. That should cheer me up, no?

2008-12-17T14:08:00.002+08:00

Yes, it was a prolapsed uterus indeed. If you are curious as to what a prolapsed uterus is, google it by all means but I would strongly advise you against searching for images of it.

I was this story on a new NOW TV channel called the Hong Kong Channel last Sunday, which markets itself as a "local" channel, with locally produced programmes etc. Only, er, that it is not! The show with this prolapsed uterus story, was a Japanese show dubbed in Cantonese. In fact only about 50% of programmes on the said Hong Kong channel are Hong Kong made.

Anyhow, this show was called "Real Life Medical Horror Stories". Catchy, no?

The woman's chronic constipation went hand in hand with a lot of sustained periods straining, which pushed the uterus downwards and stretches the pelvic floor muscles. The uterus continued to be pushed downwards, so that it pressed against the bladder, hence the incontinence. Eventually the pelvic floor muscles got so stretched that when relaxed (i.e. in a hot bath), the uterus pops out of her body. When she could no longer urinate because the uterus was so tightly pressured against her bladder, she passed out. Medical technology saved the day, and surgery fixed her.

The amusing part was at the end of the show, when after this narrative about this poor woman and her uterus, a bunch of Japanese celebrities (all women) were taught how to do pelvic floor exercises. They were told to "tighten your anus!" "now tighten your vagina as if you are trying to stop weeing after you have started!" "now count to five!" "now relax all your muscles down there!" At which point one of the young pretty celebs said "Oh, that was frightening, I imagined everything falling out when I relaxed!" and then covered her mouth with her beautifully manicured fingers and laughed apologetically.

Most interesting thing, however, is that the show was hosted by "Beat" Takeshi Kitano!

House

2008-12-15T23:08:00.005+08:00

This story is about a spritley, slightly chubby, fully made-up menopausal Japanese woman who lived a seemingly perfectly happy life. Apart from the problem of her being chronically constipated, that is. Since her twenties she has been straining on the bog for hours several times a week, so much so that it has become part of life instead of something to bother the doctors about.

One day this otherwise perfectly normal and happy grandmother inadvertently wet her pants whilst standing up from a sitting position. This embarrassing episode shocked her but also shamed her so much that she tried to block it out. Then it started happening more and more often - she could no longer hold complete control over her bladder and this started to put her off going out. She who used to enjoy eating out with friends, trying out all the new restuarants etc., now found herself making excuses to stay in.

One night, when she was having a relaxing hot bath, she suddenly felt something sliding out of her vagina - something the size of a fuckin' pingpong ball! That something was definitly still attached to her innards, not like an alien foetus or a giant blob of congealed menstrual blood or some such.

She didn't bother to bend forwards to have a good look. Instead, fear and embarrassment compelled her to push the damn thing back into her vagina with her fingers, and proceeded to pretend nothing ever happened.

The situation got worse. Not only was she still constipated as fuck, she continued to lose control over her bladder, and she developed a new condition of not being able to wee a single drop even though her bladder was so full it was about to burst.

So, predictably, it all came to a showdown when her whole family was there singing her happy birthday, cake and candles and lovely grandchildren and everything, when she was in so much pain from not being able to poo and wee that she passed out and ended up in hospital.

Can you guess what the hell was wrong with her?

2008-12-13T21:48:00.002+08:00

Been overwhelmed with meetings the past two weeks, and I have been trying to figure out a way of doing my own stuff whilst attending meetings. Be productive and make the best use of my time, you see. All this endless committee meeting stuff is all kinda new to me. Last week I spent four days out of five at meetings, and I had loads of ideas for Dilbert type strips. So I started jotting them down diligently.

That is all very well but what I really should do, is to bring my notebook with me, get into the meeting room early so as to put my butt down on a strategically advantageous position, so that the chairman and secretary will not be able to see my screen. Then I will work on my writing and update my blog and so on, you see. The thing is, however, if I am the only person doing it, it will look awfully suspicious.

But then again, maybe not. Maybe I'll start a trend that everyone will thank me for. Ha!

2008-12-07T14:59:00.003+08:00

Came home last night after a very long day to find my husband and kids laughing their asses off, watching Weird Al Yankovic. And I said to my kids wouldn't it be nice if they'd grow up like him, bringing joy to the world and that!

2008-12-04T23:49:00.003+08:00

I know at least four people, whom I have to socialize with regularly, who have this annoying habit, or should I say compulsion? of ... how should I put it.... of being insane?

I'm exaggerating mildly. What they do is, when you are having a conversation with them, they don't seem to have the capacity to listen to what you are saying, of making what THEY are saying intelligible to you, and they seem to have very little control over their apparent insanity (e.g. laughing uncontrollably, raising their voices unnecessarily, speaking too quickly or uttering utterly inapproriate things). To me, it seems they are constantly on the verge of completely losing it.

Kinda hard to explain really. I wish my eyes were video cameras and could record what it's like from my perspective, upload it here, for you all to see. Sadly, technology is not quite up to speed, as usual.

2008-12-03T21:22:00.000+08:00

Here's a classic!

2008-12-03T19:44:00.004+08:00

Oh deary me! I've been a closet Take That fan for longer than I think! Best put this on my X'mas wish list like RIGHT NOW!!!

2008-12-02T19:55:00.000+08:00

We bought a whole load of used books from the Cathedral’s annual Michaelmas Fair back in November, one of which a particularly tattered copy of Mark Haddon’s “A Spot of Bother”. I quite liked his other one, the one about the autistic boy sleuth, called The Incident of the dog in the Nighttime. But this one, however, Is Very Seriously Dreary. How much contemporary fiction out there right now is about mid life crisis, family, life, death and all that, which includes a wedding as the centerpiece and features one gay sibling? The writing is okay but it’s the thought of having to go through another two hundred pages with nothing much happening that makes me say well at least it only cost me ten bucks! If I want to read the inconsequential and idiosyncratic thoughts of middle aged folk on life, sex and death, I already have my own endless supply of the stuff. And from the 500 or so other paperbacks I need to donate to the Michaelmas Fair next year. I hate having to read through a book just in case something exciting happens right at the end. But that never bloody happens, does it. I “discovered” this writer called Louise Welsh last year, really liked one of her books and then proceeded to read another one and half way through I realize this is shite and nothing is going to happen so what should I do? Chuck it or hang in there? I guess, if it starts to feel like work, then why should I be reading this instead of Durkheim or Bataille?

That’s why I like writers like Palaniuk, Bukowski or even Murakami, who writes about stuff that is quite unlikely to happen to me anytime ever.

So, books. Yeah. They can certainly be worse than TV. Speaking of books. You know the OUP does this “A Very short Introduction to …” series? I quite like some of them, I think I bought the ones on Theology, Augustine, Sexuality, and my husband bought the one on Modern Linguistics. It's quite well done and if I have unlimited funds I'd quite like to get the whole series.

So, today I was in the Shen of Zhen, with a couple of me lady friends, and I have to admit this was only my second time ever to this glorious city (on which the feet of the Deng Xiao of Ping set some thirty or so moumnetal years ago)! Last time I was there, I did not even see daylight (yes, was in the LuoWu shopping center the whole four hours). So this time it was interesting, we took the train, got to one of the larger bookstores (book cities, they are called), as I wanted to get some Putonghua/Pinyin flashcards for my children. And there they were, these OUP “A Very Short Introduction to….” Series, BILINGUAL, for 18 RMB each. EIGHTEEN!!!!! That would be about HK$20 or less, which is just not right. There was no mention of OUP anywhere on these books, so, hmmm does that mean these are completely legit? Probably not. And so I bought every one they have on the shelves – Renaissance Art, Feminism, 18th Century Britain, History of Time….

And then, country bumpkin that we were, we went to Dongmen and bought a whole bunch of DVDs – they were 6 RMB each. Slighty more than a skewer of curried fishballs. I bought Futurama the Movie: Bender’s Game, Tropic Thunder, Burn after Reading, Shrek the Halls, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Spongebob Squarepants the movie, and a couple of sets for my kids to give to their dad for X’mas. Speaking of which, Spongebob is one kids’ show I approve of. It’s got me stamp on it. Yesssireee. So these were all 6 RMB each. And I bought three CDs, a Best of Johnny Cash double CD (10 RMB), a Guerrero’s Late Night Tales (9 RMB) and one of Land Lang (note – he is most definitely a National Treasure but NOT a giant panda, contrary to what the name may suggest) playing some Chopin concerto (9 RMB).

I know every Hongkonger in Hong Kong KNOWS and HAVE KNOWN for the past ten years that things over the border are cheap but still, I still can’t get over it. Of course it’s all wrong, but then hey I did pay $99 for a Singhbad DVD in HMV and it stopped working half the way through. And the 1st season of Scrubs, that we paid $499 for – which doesn’t work with the component lines. Who’s getting screwed here?

And then we had lunch at Little Fat Sheep. It’s about half the price of what you’d pay in HK and we absolutely stuffed our faces. But man did I feel dopey afterwards. I had to lie down and nap for two hours after I got home. I’m convinced it’s the MSG or whatever it is that they put in the soup there. My body was telling me, man, that was NOT RIGHT! Whatever you put in me, it’s gonna take some work flushing out. If you would excuse me. Me got work to do. Kinda thang.

So I had a two hour nap, after which I still felt doped out.

Then I had half a dozen slices of brownies and a half litre of diet coke and I felt a bit better. Then I did a bit of Wii Fit (yes I bought one, last week), ate more brownies and drank half a bottle of wine. And I am feeling a bit better.

2008-11-26T19:18:00.002+08:00

We are going to Hokkaido for 5 days at the end of December. On a packaged tour! The last time I joined a package tour, as a tourist, was when I was fourteen years old. FOURTEEN! Now I am forty. Coincidence or what? That was also a trip to Japan.

Anyhow, don't ask what prompted it, temporary insanity is a possibility.

I guess I had a half-baked idea to go to Korea this X'mas, stay at a ski resort. But of course, I soon found out that HEY! Whaddaya know! I don't speak Korean and not many Koreans speak English or Chinese. Could be a bit of a problem if you are trying to negotiate a ski instructor or rent appropriate equipment. More importantly, my husband is the only one in our little family who can ski. I had a go at it some twenty years ago, in Canada. Can't say I love it or anything even close. I remember experiencing a lot of fear and my toes were numb the whole time. So why bother?

We haven't been away for X'mas for a while, I suppose, and it would be nice for the kids to do something different. Yeah, right. Like, join a packaged tour and get bused around and freeze their asses off.

I didn't do any research or anything about this packaged tour - my friend booked it for her family (they also haven't been on a packaged tour for fifteen years at least) and I reckon, worst comes to worst, I will still have a friendly face to share my complaints. And likewise she will have me. And our kids would have one another. And our husbands can talk to one another.

Well, that is the plan anyway, if my husband manages to get my son a new passport in time. How does a passport vanish into thin air? Strange, innit. All our passports are kept in a drawer, and only his one has disappeared. The control freak in me is panicking - you can probably tell. I fear that my husband will not get this done. I fear that he must have made a mistake about the new passport only taking 7 days to be ready. I fear that we will have to cancel the whole trip and not get our money back or even worse, leave our youngest son alone in the hands of our domestic helper whilst we go on this trip. Please tell me everything will be okay. Okay okay okay okay okay.

Change of subject : I have written a story, based on some conditions set my my husband. Well actually, him and my two sons wrote one as well, based on the same conditions. It's kind of a competition we have going on. See who can write the best one. I will post it in my other blog tomorrow. Let me know what you think!

Strictly for fans only!

2008-11-20T15:57:00.001+08:00

2008-11-15T00:40:00.002+08:00

Been thinking hard about my finances for a while now, specifically how to cut expenses. A surprisingly large proportion of my month income goes to insurance payments, of which a big chunk goes to payments for my dad. Not sure how I'll keep managing as my housing allowance runs out in a couple of years' time. Ach well, a challenge, is what it is.

I reckon I could cut expenses quite a bit by:

1. And not driving to work unless I really have to. Like, if it's an 8:30am class or if it's pissing down buckets.

2. Eating out once an month instead of twice a week.

3. Eating more veg and less meat.

These are the easy cut-backs.

The difficult ones are:

1. Taking books out of the library instead of buying them. Or maybe buying second hand only. Ditto with DVDs.

2. Use margarine instead of butter in baking, use Dairy Milk instead of Green & Black chocolates.

3. Stop taking health supplements.

4. Get rid of our domestic helper.

2008-11-14T15:51:00.000+08:00

This from B&S website:

****
Hi gang

I’m moving house tomorrow, and I resorted to get rid of all my cassettes. What does one do with cassettes? No one wants them.. or do they?

I have a filled a suitcase full of C-90s, some, obsessively typed Peel sessions tapes from the late 80s, some bought, most, tapes of favourite albums. I’ve also put in there a favourite book, a favourite film, and an ‘Amelie’ style cigar box of random stuff..

To win the suitcase, and have it sent to you, I want you to answer a question. If Belle and Sebastian were to open a Mexican Restaurant, what would it be called? Prize to the best suggestion, and if we get some good ones, we’ll find some other prizes…

The first person to guess the name that Marisa, my wife, came up with will automatically get the suitcase, but as that’s a bit unlikely, let your imagination go. You may have three guesses each.. to www.belleandsebastian.com/contact.php

(And if there’s anyone out there who feels they have the talent and stamina to run such an establishment, get in touch the same way. We’re talking about a real little Mission style cantina here..)

Stuart

****

2008-11-13T16:31:00.004+08:00

Last week we went to a friend's home for dinner. They live in an old apartment block (old in Hong Kong means more than 30 years old) which has all the advantages of high ceiling, spacious layout, large rooms and good value for your money.

So we were eating and chatting round the dinner table, and the kids started playing after they'd finished their food. The girls started playing with hula hoops, the boys ran around a bit, the adults laughed. Twenty minutes into this generally fun-filled social interaction, the door bell rang. It was the downstairs neighbour.

He complained that we were too loud. My friend's husband dealt with him, and said look mate, it's only half past nine. These are kids. Kids jump around.

The neighbour said, I've complained to the management office many times. I wouldn't have come up here myself if you had stopped this racket.

What racket? We have friends over for dinner. We closed all the windows. It's half past nine.

The neighbour said, This shouldn't happen! (meaning there shouldn't be any noise, I guess)

And on that note, the husband said, then I have nothing to say to you, and shut the door.

Fifteen minutes later, door bell rang again. This time it was the police.

Long discussion for another half hour. The police had been downstairs, listening for noise. They said they heard kids jumping. Wife said, I want to complain about that man coming up here and harassing MY family! We in the background muttered, should charge neighbour for wasting police time! Police looked resigned, police remained polite. Police left. I looked at the watch. It was quarter past ten.

2008-11-10T21:19:00.003+08:00

I have not done any running since the ladies lads and lassies race in September, and it is doubtful whether that actually counted as a run as such. I'm not really much of a runner. I love running but I get distracted easily and I have this imaginary quota system in my head whereby doing exercise/sport A on day 1 means my quota for the day is filled and so I shouldn't do exercise/sport B on the same day.

It is not just all about effort and tiredness etc. but more importantly time. If I've got 2 hours of tennis scheduled for the day I think twice about doing anything else. Often after tennis I feel like a run but that would mean another hour away from my kids and the TV.

So tonight I went for a run, finally, and it was nice cos the temperature has dropped a bit and the air was clean (yeah, 20% of factories in the guangdong area folded in recent months).

And I am reminded of the reason I love running. I look my best after a run. I look 20 years younger, I feel 20 years younger; no amount of make up or plastic surgery or face serums could deliver that.

I am really in the mood to bitch about my boss. I'm starting to resent him. For the second time in recent weeks, he indirectly criticized my work without having read it. Basically, he said what I do is advocacy not sociology. And what is it that I said which qualified him to make such a comment? I said I am writing about Hong Kong women's conflation of sexual harassment, indecent assault and sexual violence.

That is it. He didn't ask me what exactly I am interested in, what angle I am taking. So, when you write about genocide and the holocaust that is not advocacy? Are you not advocating that genocide is bad and should be stopped??

And the more I get to know him, the more I know about his pet hates:

- Political correctness
- Liberals and everything on the Left side of the right (he is right)
- Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, particularly if they want to get married and God forbid, have children.
- Sociologists who state the obvious.
- Sociologists who who are not Weberians.

Now that I've got this down in writing, I feel better. I realize I don't hate him as much as I'd imagined, really. He is just one stuck up middle aged guy with a young family to support and a big chip on his shoulder.

But hey, who is to say I am not turning into just that if not worse?

2008-11-03T10:18:00.003+08:00

Had dinner last night with a bunch of friends from when I was an undergraduate. More precisely, we all majored in sociology and all did at least an M Phil in sociology as well. It's amazing how little they have changed. They still look much the same as they did 20 years ago and are still doing much the same things as they were doing 20 years ago. Some still living with their parents! Only myself and one other person have gotten married and produced kids, and only two of us have faculty positions at universities.

I guess a lot more people from our cohort must be doing a lot better in the conventional sense. Majoring in sociology back in those days (when you could have chosen easily to do business or economics - these were all in the same faculty and there were no quotas) was definitely a statement. We despised those who did business studies, sneered at idiots who lunged after graduate trainee jobs in banks and listed companies or applied for AO positions.

I wonder what they will be doing in 10 years' time. They'll all be at least 50 by then.

2008-10-27T22:34:00.002+08:00

Not sure what the stats are in other places but in recent years there seem to be a person or two dying whilst hiking or running every couple of months. Yesterday a 16 year old boy died on a 4 hour hike. This really reinforced many non-exercise types that these activities could kill you.

We're going hiking tomorrow.

Oh, really? Be careful.

Oh, it's nothing, the paths are all paved, there is no danger really.

No! Haven't you heard? A 16 year old died! You are 40!

And of course, the infamous SC marathon in Hong Kong, every year tons of people get sick and in one year someone died before they could finish.

This is of course the same as my very conservative boss, who is big on the traditional family and with a gendered division of labour. I was mildly taken aback by that look of terror on his face when he uttered the words "artificial insemination? same sex couples having children? kids growing up WITHOUT A FATHER????"

He asked me if my perspective on gender conflicts with my theological beliefs. I still find it hard to believe that he ACTUALLY asked me this question. I am tempted to give him a copy of Godless Morality by Richard Holloway, but I fear that the radicalness of it all might give him a heart attack.

Anyway, so my point is, people will always see reality in a way that suits their already existing beliefs. Myself included, of course.

2008-10-17T21:40:00.004+08:00

Am having some people over for lunch tomorrow and so have been preoccupied with what to cook. I am a bit of a foodie, if you don't know that already. I like reading recipe books and watching cookery shows. Not indiscrimimnantly, though. I do have my pet hates when it comes to celeb chefs. Nigella Lawson. And that Aussie Martin something or other. He does this show where he supposedly walks into a supermarket and approaches random shoppers (invariably female and attractive) and offers to cook them dinner. "For fuckssakesssss gimme a fuckin break" I mutter to myself whenever this show is on.

Well you know Nigella Lawson, she is supposedly the domestic goddess of the 21st century. For me she just might as well be a lap dancer. A lap dancer who wears cashmere cardigans with pearls as she licks her fingers and bats her lashes.

I do like most TV cooks though, even the ones whom most people seem to hate. Ainsley what's his name, Delia, Jamie, Rhodes, Floyd, the River Cottage double barrelled guy, even good old Martin Yan. It's all good to me. Recently I quite like this Hester Blumenthal person. He takes an - ahem - "scientific" approach to cooking and in recent years he started wearing the kind of eyeglasses that I always associate with Danes and Finns and Germans. And of course it helps that he looks as if he is related to Ray Mears, the wilderness bushcraft guy, whom I think my husband adores. (Hey, anyone that my husband adores can't be that bad, you know?)

And so, to wrap it up, here's what I've got so far for tomorrow:

1. curried mince pork and onion tart
2. ricotta and tomato tart
3. braised beef shank in cloves, star aniese and xiaoqing wine
4. tuna and chick pea patties with sweet chilli dip
5. spicy basamati rice with chickpeas and raisins
6. thinly sliced pork belly in garlic, chillie and sesame oil dip
7. lemon and chillie squid and prawns with coriander and peppers on a bed of fresh peas
8. Augergines, broccoli and oyster mushrooms (yes, this is the token veg dish)
9. Orange chocolate mousse
10. Banana cream pie

2008-10-17T09:22:00.003+08:00

Haven't been feeling terribly enthusiastic about my teaching lately. One course I teach this term is a new course and assessment does not include a final exam. I guess I should have known that for a class this big, not having a final exam will, for many students, translate into "no need to go to class". If it is a small class then they will feel more visible and hence will feel more obliged to show up.

Anyhow, it's half term already, nearly there, nearly there.

Have been trying to pull together this paper I am writing on indecent assault and sexual harassment. How appropriate it is that I should receive an obscene phone call last week! Haven't had one of these in quite a while. Interesting that this was displayed as a long distance call.

Hello?

....~~~P..p...ppp...pier....eeerre?

Yes, this is Pierre.

p....pp....pierre?

Yes, who is this?

[heavy duty panting follows]

I hang up the phone. Thinking, what the hell was that? Do I know any frail old man overseas who would call me at my office? Or a man overseas who would call me at my office using a very bad line?

Five seconds later phone rang again. Same guy.

Hello?

[Very heavy panting]

Pierre.... pierre..eh....huh....e....e....

Who is this?

Oh... pierre......ehhh....e.......hmmmmm...

I hang up the phone and left it off the hook for ten minutes.

2008-09-24T23:30:00.002+08:00

Was reading an article today, something about English language in Hong Kong education. It was published in 2003 and in a footnote was a pointer to a 'forthcoming' article. So I looked for it, found it, and was pretty shocked to find that for the whole 40 pages of this second article (published 2007), 22 pages of it was identical to the first one. The second half was slightly different but the concluding 5 pages was again identical to the 2003 one.

Pardon me for asking this naive question as if I am a new kid on the block - but is this even allowed?

2008-09-23T20:53:00.000+08:00

When I was in junior secondary school, I asked my mom, mom, what should I study in university? She said, whatever you like! I said, how about interior design? She said, how about business administration? I said, why? She said, administration suits girls, you sit down in an office, in the air-con, no need to go from one place to another. I said, okay. I like that.

Bit of a ludicrous conversation, as it is obvious that she had no idea what business administration actually is, and considering that at the time she probably had no idea how on earth she could afford sending her kids to university, even less of an idea how the hell they are going to get accepted by one in the first place. She never lived to see me get into uni, and at the time business administration was the LEAST thing I wanted to study. I thought it is for fools. Unlike sociology, obviously.

Now, at this stage of my so-called career, recent events have prompted me to think that I might do well in administration. I do like the sitting around in front of my computer bit. Okay university administration is not exactly the same as business administration but not far off either. I am quite efficient, I am organized, but I don’t know if I can motivate people. Well you don’t need to go to business school to learn how to motivate people to do things for you do you? You just need to (convince people that you) have some carrots and a few sticks at your disposal and you are not afraid to use them.

So, that’s where I’m at. Yes, not much less ludicrous than the conversation that started this post, I know, but there you go.

2008-09-16T17:14:00.002+08:00

Had lunch today with someone who wants my advice on maternity leave in this place. There wasn't much I could say, really, as the only useful advice I could offer is "good luck".

When I went on maternity leave the first time, as my due date was in the middle of a term, there wasn't much point for me to get back to teaching after 10 weeks of statutory leave, so my dept head at the time let me take the whole term off. When I returned the following term, I had to make up for all the hours I did not the previous term. My second child was born in the summer so there was no issue of any extra leave at all.

She was planning to take no-pay leave for one year. Is that sensible? In my opinion no - because you would be expected to use that leave to produce research output. By deliverables they don't mean no babies, luv!

Now, why did she come to me for advice? Apparently I am the only academic staff here who had the experience of taking maternity leave in recent years. All other female academic staff are either single, childless, or their kids are already in university.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to make a point, just stating the facts. I guess coming from a North American background she was expecting more.

One interesting thing she mentioned, was that when she told HR she wanted to opt for the "top up" plan for maternity benefits, HR told her she cannot do this as she is not married!! It was after a whole lot of wrangling that they finally agreed that it is possible to have a baby legally without getting married first. God bless the human race! Amen!

2008-09-11T13:38:00.002+08:00

New additions to the home over the past couple of weeks include 42 inch flat screen, HD top box, iPod nano, three book cases, two seating units, and an indoor bike trainer.

I am coming to terms with the fact that I suffer from a mild case of control freakiness. As continuous self-improvement is my motto, I am determined to do whatever it takes to alleviate my condition.

The rearranging of furniture and the need to de-clutter necessitated by the arrival of new items revealed how ridiculously dusty the rooms were. This let me briefly to lament the incompetence of our domestic helper and my inability to manage her plus a list of my various other character defects.

On a brighter note, the indoor bike trainer thing on has made B visibly happy. It is a small contraption that you attach your bike onto, afterwhich you can use it like a spinning bike. I had a go couple of days ago and it works pretty good, apart from all the faffing required to put it up the first time. I am inspired by B's seemingly rapid weight loss and increase in fitness level to use it regularly.

Been watching The Tudors a bit, highly addictive and some very good acting, but I hate having constantly to think "wait a minute... did that really happen? Why isn't Henry fat and ugly? Why did the French speak such good English?" and then proceed to compulsively google the life of Henry VIII or sneak into my son's room to fetch his copy of Dead Famous - Henry VIII. The costumes are super fab, though. Some really amazing fabrics they use there.

2008-09-04T10:21:00.001+08:00

Cheered me up, that.

Sometimes expiration is not all bad.

2008-08-22T22:05:00.003+08:00

And so it is Typhoon no. 9 but where I am feels strangely calm for what it should be. Not a drop of wind till late afternoon, hours after T8 was hoisted. It’s not just the weather that has kept this household nice and calm and civilized todat. Our TV (Sony Trinitron, a housewarming present, God Bless) finally caved in last night. Eight years it’s served us, and we’ve been waiting for it to die a natural death despite very much wanting to get a plasma or LCD.

Anyhow, this Typhoon with no TV goes as follows.

Breakfast, read in bed, short with O in the park, showered, read cookbooks, magazines… then embarked on the mammoth task of clearing out the kids’ toys. Thankfully I was able to be ruthless, and chucked out masses of toys that the kids never ever touched anymore. What’s been kept fall under three categories: Lego, bionicles, ultraman-type figures, marbles, cars, educational games, swords, guns and shields, and, er, stuffed animals. Which is not too bad, at least I can categorize them and bag them accordingly.

After that, I was rightfully knackered, and slept for two hours.

Woke up to the smell of dinner. Fried pollack fillets, bitter gourd with scrambled eggs, and leftover mackerel fillets and miscellaneous veggies. Rice.

Read the Scampie as I ate, shit as ever (the scampie, that is), drank wine, read some more, drank some more…..

The kids read, played with their toy soldiers and cardboard castles, chatted with the grown-ups in a civilized manner, consumed cheese and grape juice…

The iPod which I use in the car died yesterday, also. It’s a second generation one. Actually, a replacement of the first one I bought, which died about three days before the end of the warranty period and Apple gave me a new one in return. It's served me well.

Bit of a scare

2008-08-18T23:23:00.004+08:00

Bit of a scare coming back from Heathrow. As our hand luggage go through security, J's bag was held back and staff began to congregate around the x-ray viewer. They started looking at our direction and pointing at the screen they were looking at. After a few minutes, one of them asked whose bag this was. I pointed at J, still having no idea whatsoever as to what might be going on.

The man walked up to J and looked into his eyes and said: 'This is your bag?' and J nodded. He then said 'You packed this yourself?' J nodded some more. Then the man turned to me 'Is there anything in there that shouldn't be there?' I shrugged my shoulders.

They made me open the bag, compartment by compartment, and took everything out one by one, checking them with a hand held detector of some sort.

Books, playing cards, more books, pens, paper, sweets, toy catapult, spud gun. SPUD GUN!!!!!!

We got a very stern telling off. The man in charge said if it wasn't a child who identified himself as the owner of the bag, they would have called the police and took us in for questioning rightaway. It is our responsibility as parents to make sure da da dah da dud dah dah... etc. So we were both like, oh, so sorry so sorry so sorry, dah dha dhda hdaahhddd.... etc.

They took the spud gun, of course, but also the catapult! Which I thought was totally uncalled for.

mama oh mama

2008-07-12T00:57:00.000+08:00

Went to J's room to check on him in the morning and found him singing to himself, very gently,staring at the ceiling, a song that went like this:

mama oh mama I fell from the sky
mama oh mama you caught me from five miles
mama oh mama I grew up so fast
mama oh mama look how big I am

2008-07-02T19:10:00.002+08:00

Had an meething with the postgrad under my supervision, the one whose middle name is procrastinator.

He is pretty hopeless really. Self-indulgent, over-confident, refuses to seek help, talks around in circles, procrastinates no end...

I gave him a good talking to, and he was in tears a couple of times throughout the ordeal (yes, I'm pretty sure that's how he'd classify it). At one point I had to sit down with him like I was tutoring an eight-year-old and work out his problems with him.

Anyhow, he is supposed to hand something in before the midnight clock strikes. Let's see.

On a lighter note, had a succesfully if very hot and sweaty shopping session in the Mong of Kok with J. We went to Tung Choi Street aka women's market to buy a polyester suit. Three piece, with shirt and red bow tie at $268. I didn't bother to haggle on that one as I just wanted to get out of the heat and the pollution and the crowds. We also bought a pair of knock off converse high tops for him, and a pack of GENUINE BICYCLE CARDS - rider back blue. FOR TWENTY DOLLARS ONLY!!!!! And I have been buying them over the internet and having them shipped over from the States at let's just say a much higher price.

Anyhouse, there we go!

2008-06-25T12:37:00.002+08:00

Have three more weeks to work on my paper on indecent assault before going off to England. Had meetings every day of the week last week, was hoping this week on will see greater productivity. Yesterday had a meeting in the morning and then in the afternoon I went to have lunch with the ladies and then spent the afternoon shopping for T-shirts.

In the evening I spent a good two hours with the boys, taking turns reading out loud Guy Browning's Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade. It's quite a riot and best read out loud. Guy Browning writes a column in the Guardian and this is a collection of all his pieces. We all laughed like stoned hyenas watching a particularly riotous episode of The Young Ones or Scrubs.

Typhoon no. 8 this morning, so we're all at home except for Lisa, who had to go help a friend get ready to fly home tonight. Whilst the boys played Risk and B worked at the computer, I did a long overdue stock take of all my shoes.

I have many pairs of flip flops and 3+ inch high heels but very little in between. Only managed to throw out three pairs - all still 90% new. It's telling that two are white and one is metallic green. No wonder I don't wear them much.

Will make some pasta tonight. Made some last Sunday when my familia came over but they were bit too thick. I don't have a pasta machine so I do it with a rolling pin only, based on snippets of what I remembered from an episode from a Jamie Oliver show where he was in Italy competing with mammamias making fresh pasta. Mine were not quite soft enough, either. My brother said I should let them rest longer (recipe says 20 mins. - he said an hour). So we'll see.

2008-06-18T22:49:00.002+08:00

Went to a "symposium" today, organized using public funds. The purpose was mainly to brainwash people like me. I was shocked. Yes SHOCKED to see a full house. I spotted quite a few from my organization (whom I avoided) and bumped into a couple others I from other organizations. We are talking hundreds of people, academics and senior administrators in universities, spending a whole saturday sitting on their arses listening to some dribble about "learning outcomes", from four white haired white guys. I thought Ian Saunders made some good points though, a tat pretentious with more name dropping than was necessary (all that reference to Borges and Bakhtin and Charles Taylor - I wonder what all those engineers in the audience must have been thinking) but what he said was most relevant to the humanities and social sciences.

No one was exactly forced to go, but I'm sure most people felt compelled to go. I overheard one white haired tall guy said to two short haired short guys: "Let me say this on record - I came here voluntarily" and then all three bursted out laughing as if that was the most hilarious thing ever said.

I took off during the lunch break and headed off to CWB to pick up some stuff, hesitated about whether I should go back for the afternoon session. It was pissing down with rain by then and I had the good sense to not have brought an umbrella with me. So I did what I had to do, which was to head home. Hah!

2008-06-11T23:48:00.002+08:00

Only been in my new capacity as deputy tool for two weeks and I think I am already deep in Dilbertdo.m And like everyone else who recognizes that they are deep in the land of the Dil, I suddenly find myself much more efficient and much less stupid than everyone else. Anyhow, I'm more amused and intrigued than anything else. I mean, how do organizations get things done? With so much mediocrity and passivity and reluctance to change, it is no wonder so little gets done.

I am also reluctant to change, as I have refused to have my new title added to my name card and to my door. I'm not in denial, more like, I'm strangely embarrassed by this new responsibility. It really is strange. Everyone congratulates me, but we all know this is not quite the same as congratulations you won the lottery.

On a happier note, J ran with me out to the last bridge for the second time. It's about 5 or 6K in all, which is not bad going. He was visibly stronger the first time we did this because tonight he kept flopping his arms and head and saying he's hungry.

And we went to see Narnia: Prince Caspian over the weekend. Very impressed! Towards the somewhat happy ending, a Miley Cyrus type Disney voice sang a ballet type song, at which point I asked O if he enjoyed the film, and he said (loudly) "This is a great film if not for this terrible song which kinda spoiled it!"

2008-06-03T21:11:00.002+08:00

I hope the weather wouldn't be as shitty tomorrow as it was today. Have to sit in a ferry for an hour to get to Macau.

At least this time round meetings are only scheduled for 5 hours instead of the normal 8.

As an academic meetings don't take up the majority of my time but lately I have been finding myself spending more and more time sitting at meetings. And I am still amazed at how some people could just talk and talk and talk for hours and talk over one another and not hear what other people have just said loud and clear even if they were just sitting two feet away from them. It is amazing. How these supposedly accomplished intelligent definitely middle aged and above people, get to be like this. Like how I imagine my dad would be like in five years' time (he is definitely getting there) - senile.

How do people get like that? Why can't they make meetings short and sweet and behave like the cultured and civlized adults that they are supposed to be? Why can't they hear one another, and why can't they get to the bloody point when they speak? why why why?

This is particularly severe in the case of meeting chairpersons. ALL the ones I've seen (apart from our Dear Leader), have an embarrassing tendency to ramble on and on.

Now that I am in this new position and may have to chair meetings every now and then, God, please give me strength, don't let me go down that road. Please give me the strength, the faith and the determination to keep all meetings under 1.5 hours. thank you thank you amen amen.

2008-06-02T15:13:00.002+08:00

O has been elected by his class to go to a kids' "environmental conference" in Northern New Territories tomorrow. I have to get him to Kowloon for 8am to get on the school coach. I will ask our domestic helper to take him there by train - I really cannot be bothered to drive him to Kowloon, find a place to park, wait around, then trek all the way back to my office.

So, yeah, he was ELECTED! Not sure how to interpret this state of affairs. Either this is a real stink bomb and the kids all picked someone they really detest, or they really think O is the best person for the job. Well yes, he does care about the environment, but kids today grow up caring about the environment, don't they? Anyhow, it'd be nice for him to get out of the classroom for a day and be a part of something special.

He spoke to his aunt last night, who is a specialist on EU environmental law. I over heard him ask,

"So, auntie E, can you tell me the job nature of an environmental warrior?"

"Would you say that your job has a significant impact on the protection of the environment?"

"On a scale of 1 - 10, how interesting is your job compare to what other kinds of warriors do?"

Turns out I misheard "lawyer" as "warrior". Ha!

2008-05-28T23:01:00.004+08:00

The reward points on one of my credit cards are about to expire in a few days so I tried to convert them into airmiles today.

I used to do this by filling in a form and then faxing it off. But the bank neither sent me a form nor a catalogue this year the tight bastards. As I have forgotten my internet banking username and password for this account and it takes 5 days to get that sorted out, I called the hotline.

Hotline means listening to a machine and pressing numbers on your phone. After trying to get through the said system for twenty minutes, I thought to myself, am I fucking stupid or what? How come I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do? The voice says "now, please key in your asiamiles code, then press #". So I keyed in my asiamiles no. FIVE times. Kept saying I entered the wrong code. What the fuck?

I was lucky. I got through to a real person after waiting for only 10 minutes. Person said asiamiles "code" means the code for the category of asiamiles redemption I am after, not my asiamiles membership number. Oh. Of course of course. Me so stupid. Thank you so very much. Sorry for bothering you. Thank you thank you.

Okay, so I keyed that in. Then out spilled very useful information about how ordinary cards can only redeem in units of 500 miles and gold and platinum cards can only redeem in units of 1000 miles. It instructs me to press ONE for the former and TWO for the latter. As I have a gold card, I pressed TWO. Then the machine tells me I've chosen to redeem 1000 miles, gave me a reference number, thanked me, and asked me to hang up.

What on earth?????????????????????????

I wanted to redeem 58,000 miles, not one bloody thousand!!!!!!

So I waited again for a real person to explain to me what the hell was going on. Waited for 15 minutes. A human picked up eventually and asked me to leave a number so they will call me back. I said, I don't want to leave a number. I just want better instructions on how to redeem my airmiles. Sorry ma'me, I understand. You want instructions on how to redeem rewards. Our colleagues will call you back. Thank you for using our services good bye.

No one ever called me back, and I knew this would happen for I detected disdain in the human's voice when I revealed to her what it was I wanted help with. So maybe I'm not so stupid afterall. Or am I?

I still haven't gotten over this, this being accepting that you will get regularly treated like an imbecile even if you clearly are not one. It drives me mildly angry, but more annoyingly, it occupies my thoughts and interferes with my normal daily functionings. Press ONE for 500 miles redemption, TWO for 1000 miles redemption.... so how do I get to make a 58,000 mile redemption???? What the hell should I press???? what what how how how??????

Okay so I got it sorted out in the end (turns out for EACH 500 miles you press ONE, so for 58,000 miles you press 116! Guess how long it took me to work that baby out). Okay okay. But what's in store for me in 10, 20, 30 years' time? When I am old and confused and has cataract and am deaf in one ear and has to wear a nappy? How the hell will I be able to function in this "society"?

2008-05-26T11:26:00.003+08:00

My biggest accomplishment this past weekend was delivering some classic disciplinary actions to my kids. Can't say I am proud of my behaviour but I learned some important lessons.

I was lazing about in my room when I heard some low level squabbling. Not unusual and which I duly ignored. The squabbling continued and after a while came a few loud thumping sounds - they were the sound or one human being thumping another with malicious intent. Screaming and shouting followed.

Turns out that O was being thumped on the back by J. When I reached the crime scene, O has curled himself up into a ball, lying on his bed, J was still thumping him with all the power he could muster.

They were fighting over whether an electric fan was pulled too close or turned up too high. Of course.

I was really upset. J is a great kid but he can be a real turd sometimes. O, being the older one, gets bashed pretty regularly and lmost never fights back (J used to try to strangle him on a regular basis - red finger marks on neck and everything). So, anyhow, I gave them both a real high voltage 30-minute lecture but J wore his signature defiant look the whole time. He just couldn't accept that he was wrong.

What would super nanny or Rabbi Shumuley do? Naughty chair? Role play? I really wanted to give him a good beating and see how he likes getting thumped. But of course, this is not the thing to be done. Must not deliver corporal punishment when angry. So I waited till I have cooled down somewhat, and used my calmest possible indoor voice:

I am going to smack you now.

Smack me? (defiant voice)

Yes. I will slap you in the face. On the count of three.

Slap me?? (quivering voice)

Yes. I want you to remember that you cannot hit my son. I want you to know that you did a very bad thing. And this has to change.

Please don't slap me.... (howling)

Ready? On the count of three.

Please don't slap me!!!!!

Ready?

er....okay...

ONE

TWO

THREE

and I slapped him on his left cheek.

The poor boy let it all out and cried and cried and cried. I felt terrible, of course, but I also felt that it needed to be done. It was only after the slapping that he apologised with any real conviction. And guess what? I got reprimanded by O of all people.

Oh com'on, there is no need to slap him like that, mummy.

Was there any need for him to thump you that hard?

But he is only seven!

Listen, this is your fault too, why do you let him hit you like that? Do you like getting thumped?

No.

So why did you let him? Explanation? Are you mental?

No.

Did you tell him to stop?

No.

Do you think it is good that he hits people?

No.

So DON"T let him hit you again! Tell him to STOP! Hold his wrists! Grab a pillow! Defend yourself you idiot!

...Okay (barely audible voice)

After the slap, J howled and howled for about fifteen minutes. After he had calmed down, he said to me

Maybe I should just go.

Go where?

I don't know. Alaska, maybe.

Alaska?

Yes.

How are you going to get to Alaska?

I don't know.

Why do you want to go to Alaska?

If I go away, then maybe there wouldn't be so much trouble in this family (he started weeping while I nearly bursted out laughing. Bless him)

But I will be devastated if you leave - we will all miss you so much! We love you!

I can come back to visit.

How often?

Um... maybe, once a year or something like that.

Once a year???? Is that all???

But I don't know what to do. I don't know how to be good. (more tears)

Of course you do - you just have to tell yourself to stop doing things which are not good.

I should just go away to a very far away land.

You can go away when you become an adult, but not now. If the cops find out I let you roam the streets they will put me in prison.

Oh... sorry I forgot about that.

That's alright.

Okay, I won't go then.

Good.

Can I have a can of coke?

No.

Apple juice with water?

Yes you can.

After that, I made O write "I will never let my brother hit me again" 50 times, and J had to write "I will never hit my brother again" 100 times.

The surprising thing is, they didn't seem to mind it. J, in particular, seemed to be grateful for such a tangible way through which he can redeem himself.

2008-05-20T15:06:00.003+08:00

Spent pretty much the whole of yesterday listening to postgrad student presentations. During the lunch break the head pulled me to one side and said we needed to talk about the M Phil under my supervision. He wants us and the co-supervisor to sit down for a proper meeting.

Apparently co-sup told head he is very concerned that the student won't be able to pass given the current deadline for submission. I don't agree but I didn't tell him. I think the student needs a good kick up the rear but basically his work is okay. I think co-sup's pride might have been dented by the fact that student has only approached him twice during his two-year of study. When I asked the student about this, he said that the co-sup 'scares him', this evasive behaviour is interpreted by the one on the receiving end as 'over-confident' and 'disrespectful'.

******

Had planned to sleep in today and maybe go for a longer run, but was woken at quarter past nine. School nurse said son's been vomitting and dashing to the bogs every five minutes so I best pick him up. Sounded prettey serious but when I saw him, he seemd quite chirpy.

Anyhow, took him home, had two pints of weak tea, then fell asleep reading. Had a few weird dreams. In one, I went to a school to return the stuff of a local actor turned district councilor, who died a couple of days ago. I got a bit lost and a shrivelled up old guy was stalking me and I was trying to lose him.

When I woke up it was half past one in the afternoon. Still raining pretty heavy, and all thoughts of running had left me.

2008-05-16T23:35:00.002+08:00

My new love is the Kooks. Love is a gross exaggeration, actually, since I only like about half of the songs on both their albums, still, they've got energy, they're honest, they're technically competent, they wear sheep fleece lined jackets and skinny black jeans, they're ugly. And that's pretty alright for me.

Whilst procrastinating, came across this gig that the Zutons did couple of days ago in some dude's backyard:

Do watch all 4 episodes of it if you are a fan. Of Abi Harding's, in particular. I'm not though. This is not to say that I don't think she is pretty flipping cool.

I'm feeling pretty smashed right now. I've turned into a genuine lightweight when it comes to lager. Two pints and I'm nearly there. Top it up with half a bottle of red wine and I'm a goner.

In case you are wondering, oh yes. Hell yes! I am kind of celebrating. Sent off the revision for an article today. Yeeeaaaaiiippeeeeeee!

....and yet so sad (these four words in very small print). sad thus is my life as an academic who is doing it for not much more than a living.

76% of people will sign anything that says "keep healthier products on shelves"

2008-05-07T23:29:00.004+08:00

The Hong Kong Retail Management Association has been campaigning in the past few weeks to get consumers on their side regarding the government's new proposed legislation on mandatory nutrition labelling on pre-packaged food sold in Hong Kong.

You might have seen this in a PnS near you. A well dressed young-ish woman standing at the exit, under a sign that says "ACT NOW - HELP KEEP 15,000 HEALTHIER PRODUCTS ON SHELVES". Next to her is a small table with various boxes of imported biscuits, cereal, drinks, what not. As you go pass she will ask you to sign a petition to protest against the govt's new scheme.

Now, why would a mandatory nutrition labelling scheme, which is obviously intended to promote healthy eating, keep "healthier products" off shelves?

The HKRMA leaflet reads "products that make nutrition claims, such as those that are labelled 'transfat-free', 'contains omega-3', '25% less fat', 'low sodium', and 'cholesterol-free'" will need to re-label, by specifying what exactly it is about their nutritional values that justify those claims. The HKRMA thinks this requirement is unreasonable, since "all of these products already have extensive nutrition labelling that complies with the labelling laws of the country of origin", and as HK is only a small part of the market for these products, it does not make sense for the producers or importers to go through the tests required by the new HK laws or do the re-labelling.

I didn't sign the petition. But apparently 120,000 consumers did.

and why not?

2008-05-07T22:12:00.004+08:00

This via laowai:

Put your iPod (or iRiver) on shuffle (unless it is an early version iPod, one that doesn't have shuffle) and press next for each question. Write down the song that's playing as an answer.

1)How would you describe yourself?
Dumb – Nirvana (I swear I am not making this up)

2) What do you like in a guy/girl?
Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72#1 – Frederic Chopin (...good answer)

3) What is your motto?
A roller skating Jam Named “Saturdays” – De la Soul (....okay....)

4) What do your friends think of you?
Radio – Teenage Fanclub (this is open to interpretation obviously)

5) What do you think about often?
Never Destroy Us – The Dears (Good Lord! My ipod can read my mind, whatever next)

6) What do your parents think of you?
Sympathetic Noose – Black Rebel Motocycle (!!)

7) What do you think of your best friend?
Kiss Factory – Miss Kittin (dear best friend, this is not true)

8) What do you think of the person you like?
A Pict Song – Billy Bragg (...)

9) What do you want to be when you grow up?
You Don’t love me – The Kooks (chronologically I more than grown up now and so you can say I am well over that needy stage)

10) What do you think when you see the person you like?
Melody 7 – Asian Dub Foundation (another good answer)

11) What song will they play at your wedding?
Changing Places – Emperor’s New Clothes (wow!!!]

12) What will they play at your funeral?
Death on the Stairs – the Libertines (spooky! is that how I'll go?)

13) What is your hobby/interest?
There will never be Another you – Chet Baker (my hobby/interest is to state the bleeding obvious, obviously)

14) What is your biggest fear?
The Scientist – Coldplay (very true - it should be your biggest fear also)

15) What is your biggest secret?
Brandenburg Concerto no. 4 in G major - JS Bach (suitably cryptic)

16) What do you think of your friends?
Bicycle Race – Queen (true)

17) What is your theme song?
Take your carriage clock and shove it – Belle & Sebastian (yay! at last! a B&S!)

18) What do you think of your family?
Better things – Massive Attack (hahahaha!.....nice one)

19) What is your best friend's theme song?
We don’t go to God’s house anymore – Chumbawamba (also true)

20) What is your mood right now?
Judy and the dream of horses – Belle & Sebastian (true)

21) If your heart could talk what would it say?
One by One – Billy Bragg and Wilco (it's a lovely song)

22) What do your co-workers think of you?
Out of routine – Idlewild (you don't say)

23) What does your future look like?
Who the Fuck? - PJ Harvey (hahahahah!... now, having read my answers, how can you not try it out for yourself?)

2008-05-05T22:59:00.003+08:00

Had lunch with main tool last week and he said that my "appointment" (i.e. associate tool) is supposed to start in May. Yes, that was five days ago. But there was no appointment letter no nothing, and already I had to assume my responsibilities and went to a meeting today in this new capacity. Only that I didn't go as associate tool, even though I was doing the job of associate tool, if you see what I mean.

Anyhouse, a bunch of other tools at the meeting, as usual, and most of them I recognize from other meethings. There was one woman whom I swear I had never seen her before. An elderly lady in a lavender coloured pant suit with a golden brooch on her lapel.

After the meeting, I had to go sit through my postgrad student's presentation. It was atrocious. I couldn't help but said something I shouldn't have said in front of everybody. Feelings of regret came as soon as I opened my gob but it was already too late. I had showed everyone in the room that I thought he was shit.

Still, my bad behaviour did not stop me from giving him a bit of a bollocking afterwards. He said he didn't sleep the night before for fear that he will not wake up in time this morning. So, the lack of sleep obviously made his brain mushy and he couldn't think straight. What kind of a lame ass excuse is this? I said to him. How old are you? Twelve?

At one point I thought he was going to cry - I can't really tell, he is one of those people who has a fixed grin on his face all the time, so it's hard to gauge if he is happy or sad or angry. Still, I didn't much like it the last time I made a student cry so I immediately changed tone and tried to be all positive as if everything is tra-la-la all of a sudden.

"It's now time to take stock, re-group, gather your strength and move forward!"
"You got nine chapters to write, if you write each one in three days, you will meet the deadline no sweat!"
"I have total faith in your abilities!" etc.

At the end of the day as I walked towards the carpark, lavender pantsuit lady spotted me from across the plaza and called out my name. She came over and started chatting to me as if we'd been friends forever. I had no clue who she is or what her name is or what she knew about me apart from my name but I played along as if I had all that information. This is the kind of thing you watch on Seinfeld or read about in other people's blogs but when it happens to you, it's not funny, at all just very frightening.

2008-05-01T22:13:00.002+08:00

My 9 year old son has been obsessed with card tricks for the past few months. He's getting pretty good at it, after endless hours on utoobe watching videos of card tricks tutorials and a certain david blaine. He's also become a bit of a playing cards connoisseur; even HK$28 Ramblers cards are not good enough now. He wants the best kind - the kind that 'all the magicians use' - Bicycle cards. We can't find them anywhere in Hong Kong (not that we've looked particularly hard, Commercial Press and the no name stationary store in the nearby housing estate shopping center was as far as we'd ventured ). So we ordered them from the States for him.

The first two decks were Christmas presents, and once he's handled these, he's addicted. And these are incredibly beautiful objects to look at and to hold in your hands. The details are impeccable and the quality of the cards are way superior to your run of the mill cards.

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I ordered another four decks - two for each boy - two of the are supposedly limited editions of an older design which used to fetch for hundreds of US dollars on eBay.

But then for reasons I cannot properly recall, he pissed us off real bad one evening and we decided that he's not going to get the cards unless his overall performance improves.

We've been lecturing him, long and winding, one parent after the other, for YEARS now, over the kind of things that parents nag their 9 year old child about. In hindsight, those countless hours of bombardment must have forced him to tune us out completely. And who could blame him?

Anyhow, the cards arrived a couple of days ago. At first we hid them, then it became apparent that they were somewhere in our bedroom. Then he started:

Please, can I just have a look? I just want to see that they are here.

You just have to believe me, they are certainly here. It's just that you will see them only when you get your act together.

But I can't think about anything else! It's driving me crazy! Those cards are all I can think about!

What difference does it make that you see them now? I won't let you open them or keep them in your room anyway.

Oh please, seeing them with my eyes will give me a sense of security. Please, I PROMISE I won't ask to open them or to keep them in my room.

.......

Pleeeeeeeeeease..... I won't be able to sleep, I don't think I could eat either....

.....alright then. Wait here.

And so, like a complete and utter fool, I showed him the cards. He did as promised, looked at them, gleamed, recited the 200 word description of the decks as seen on the company's website, rambled on for another few minutes or so, then said 'okay, thank you. I will go away and you can put them away now.' Good Good.

Five hours later, 1 am, me downing the last of the wine. He emerged from his room, eyes red and looking miserable.

What's up? Need some water?

No... I think I'm depressed.

Depressed? Why's that?

The thought of the cards being in your room and not being able to play with them... It is driving me insane.

Insane? Not depressed? Make your mind up please.

I think I will never be able to see them, I will never be able to do the things you want me to do so that I can have them.

(By now he has entered a mild sobbing state)

Why would you think that?

Because... because... I can't remember what it is that you want me to do.....

But, HONESTLY, we talked about this for hours! Over days! Weeks! Months! How can you not remember!?

I am too depressed to think.

Surely something must have registered? Remember? Showing initiative? Your eye thing? Your duvet on the floor? Acknowledging people who speak to you?

I don't think I can ever do any of those things!!!I am going to die before ever seeing those cards! I'm going to throw myself out of the window!!! Wuwuwuwuwuwuwu~~~~~

He's positively howling by this point.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, being a parent does require incredible self-restraint. It forces you to become a nicer person. Really.

2008-04-30T18:41:00.002+08:00

And so I sent off the manuscript to the publisher today yay yay! Ahead of schedule also, by, like, five hours. Was working till half two last night and up at eight this morning, so I went home for a nap.

Been getting really confused by the various clocks and watches I've got and woke up dazed and confused. Well, we used to have several (about 4 or 5 I think) of these Ikea cheapo plastic alarm clocks, at $29 a piece. They worked really well until a while ago when one by one slowly but surely, they start to not work anymore. In one of them, the minute hand has refused to move forward, or only do so very erratically. So that's out of the window. Another one started showing times of different time zones and I thought it was spooked and threw it out. Then my son told me he's been turning the dial at the back 'for fun'. Of course! And then the one that I had next to my bed, the freaking second hand started going BACKWARDS! Now that is truly spooky, I had to toss it in the bin.

I also have another clock we put in the living room above the telly; got that for $9.90 from PnS a few months ago. I can't tell if it is working properly as no one has ever bothered to see if the times on our various computers, phones, fax machines, microwave oven, etc. are properly synchronized.

I have three watches and they all have different times. Okay. My fault I know, but two of them are digital watches and I HATE figuring out how to change the times on those buggers.

And then there is this cool looking little alarm clock which I bought last week. It's pretty cheap, $59 - bought it is a newly opened store in a little alley way near the pub. For the first few days, I swear it was going slower than it should. So I adjusted it. Then I woke up one morning and the time on it says 7am - an ungodly hour - so of course I went back to bed. Three minutes later I heard my watch go beep beep beep - so I looked at it, it's 8am! Now why the hell would this brand new clock go back by a full hour????? spooked??? I was. A little.

So reset it again. And after eight hours it seems to be going FASTER than all the other time pieces in my ownership and it's driving me nuts. Guess time is not on my side and I should just chuck them all out once and for all.

2008-04-29T13:49:00.002+08:00

There's no denying the man's a genius.

man i LOVE this tune!!!!!!!!

2008-04-23T00:56:00.000+08:00

c'mon pop kids get up and dance!

2008-04-23T00:18:00.003+08:00

My dept head sat me down in his office the other day and broke me the great news that the powers that be have decided to offer me the glory of having my ass placed in a newly created administrative post.

He went through all the motions to convince me this is great. Well, it is, in that he will support my application for promotion and substantiation and there will be a lighter teaching load. It's good, he said, to do something new, to take on new responsibilities, and to be acknowledged by 'everyone' as the best candidate for this job. I should be pleased and should accept it, basically.

Now of course things never quite actually resemble the manner in which they are presented to you, especially when you are being cornered in your boss's office.

Of course, everything he said is true (if you qualify 'everyone' being three people in our dept), as he has already said he would support my application for promotion two months ago. I will be in a position of shitloads of extra work and in return I will get a token cash subsidy, a bit less teaching, and animosity from everyone in my dept apart from the three whom he considers as 'everyone' .

I can't say no, but I am afraid to say yes, as I haven't quite figured out the full extent of the conspiracy, yet.

2008-04-22T16:51:00.003+08:00

Ｈｏｗ　ｄｏ　ｙｏｕ　ｔｅｌｌ　ｉｆ　ａ　ｄｒｉｅｄ　ｆｉｇ　ｉｓ　ｍｏｕｌｄｙ　ｏｒ　ｎｏｔ？　

ｎｏｔ　ｑｕｉｔｅ　ｒｉｇｈｔ

2008-04-18T13:43:00.003+08:00

There is a big ugly spot on the right side of my forehead. On top of that, I sprained a muscle in my right foot playing tennis on Monday, then sprained a muscle in my right forearm playing on Wednesday, and after yesterday's two hours of play the pain in my right shoulder is creeping back.

It is annoying, to say the least.

People! Write your own bloody essays! Buy your own bloody datasets!

2008-04-11T15:20:00.004+08:00

There are lots of emails I never reply to, such as this below:

Hi! I am a student of communication studies at xxx in xxx. I am writing an essay for my course xxxx and I have read about your work and know you are an expert. Can you help me? I would like to interview you on the following questions:

1. Why do young people like to buy brand name goods?
2. Is it a kind of status symbol?
3. How is this phenomenon related to our society?
4. Is this a capitalist phenomenon?
5. Is this a youth problem?
6. Will young people waste a lot of money or get addicted?

Thanks a million! I look forward to your prompt reply. You can call me 6xxxxxxx or email.

And here's another one:

Dear esteemed professor xxxx,

I am a student at xxx and am doing a course on xxx. I come across your writing and am keen to seek your expert advice. I am writing a paper on xxx which is highly relevant to your work. Can you please answer the following questions? You can send it to me as a MS Word file (preferred).

1. How many foreign domestic workers are there in Hong Kong?
2. Why are there so many of them?
3. What are the problems they face when working in Hong Kong?
4. What are the characteristics of their employers?
5. What are the problems faced by the employers of these workers?
6. Do you think these workers are taking away jobs from local women?
7. Do they cause other problems to our society?
8. What do you think about the future of this problem? Will it go away?
9. What other issues can you think of are related to the above questions?

Thank you very much for your time, sorry for causing you trouble. I look forward to your answers. Have a good weekend!

And then there is this below, which I actually made an exception and replied to. Only because I think it is the instructor who is the idiot, not the student:

Dear Professor xxx,

My name is xxx and I am a final year student at xxx university doing a course in xxx. As part of our course assessment we are required to replicate the statistical work in a published journal article. I came across your paper xxxx xxxxx xxx and am very impressed with the methods you use. Can you please kindly send me your original data set so that I can replicate your work? Thank you very much.

I replied as follows:

Dear xxx,

Thank you for your interest in my paper. The data sets I used for the paper you mentioned were purchased from the Census and Statistics department, which cost a total of $xx,xxx dollars. I had to sign an undertaking which specifies that the data is used for academic research only and is not to be duplicated or shared with other parties. Please contact the C&S Dept if you wish to purchase your own set.

Please tell your course instructor that you can find a list of freely available datasets at this website, which also lists the research published using these sets http://www.xxxxxxx.xxx

photos from qingdao

2008-04-05T11:35:00.013+08:00

This is mounted at the entrance of our hotel (well not exactly a hotel as it is only opened to guests invited by the government), very old skool, I'm surprised they haven't taken it down:

Beach on a cold wet day:

View from revolving restaurant:

Old qingdao beer advert - very avant garde:

Funky looking Laoshan:

Laotze - dude who founded taoism, was supposed to have done a david copperfield and passed through this wall:

Sailing regatta and windsurfing events of the 2008 olympics will take place in qingdao, and they've got some flashy wind-powered lights ready for the world to see:

For some reason Godzilla, along with other bandai toys, is featured in the bugs museum inside the qingdao agricultural university:

2008-04-04T23:31:00.004+08:00

Had quite a nice walk today from Tai Tam up to Mt Butler and then back down to the reservoir, about 3 hours in all. It was very nice the whole way up until we got down to the reservoir, where there were many jolly 'hikers' blasting their radios, talking too loudly to one another and laughing much too loudly for my liking. I black faced quite a bit when encountered such likes but managed to not pick up a rock to throw at them. Yes I am a terrible person. God help me.

And O stepped on some dog turd. He couldn't stop talking about it whilst we were sitting waiting for the other two.

Stopped by at Festival Walk to buy some new running shoes for the younger one. Really should stay well away from malls at weekends/public holidays. Managed to leave just before it all got too much for me.

And why the hell is this in the news?

Based on a study by the Chinese University, Hong Kong's new born male babies have small winkies by international standards (30mm). On top of the charts are babies from Saudi Arabia and East India (?) (both at 36 mm), followed by 'whites' (?) (34mm) and Canadian born Chinese (31mm). Are you the proud parent of a newborn baby boy? How do you react to such 'statistics'?

Now, why the hell are they measuring the length of newborn babies' penises in the first place?

Doing stupid, is not good

2008-04-02T12:03:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I went to Causeway Bay to pick up some stuff then met up with T and P for a coffee. After that I was supposed to meet M for a drink but had some time to kill before that so I decided I'll go and give blood before downing a few pints. I reckoned I could get better value out of the booze as the alcohol would be less diluted in my body, given I'd have less blood! Hah! Which was, as you probably know, a stupid idea.

Well, I didn't seem to think so at the time. But I should have.

I had an insanely early lunch (11:30am) yesterday. This was because a repairman had come to check out the microwave in our pantry, which was reportedly making weird noises. He said he needed to test it using real food and was asked if they could use my lunch which needed reheating anyway. (Why did they need to test it with real food? I don't know. Surely you can turn on a microwave but not microwave anything? )

Anyhow, after lunch I didn'have anything to eat until I got to the pub which was around 7pm, and shared 2 packets of Doritos with M over our drinks. I still had some sense in me and had only 2 bottled Heinies with one tea in between. I still have to drive home later, you see. M and I parted our ways around half nine. I had to take the train back to Kowloon to pick up my car.

I made a bit of a dash towards the train at Admiralty, and almost immediately after the doors closed I felt dizzy and had to crouch down on the floor. I stayed there for a short while before someone offered me a seat. I kept my head between my knees but that didn't seem to help. I tried to get out at TST as I thought I might barf but as I stood up I realized I had to crouch down again (unsurprisingly, my seat was immediately occupied by another butt the second mine left). Someone asked me if I was okay and I told him/her (I couldn't really see this person's face) I was fine just needed to be still.

I must have looked pretty awful as another kind soul offered me his/her seat and someone else started rubbing tiger balm vigorously under my nose and on my temples. I had a vague idea I had to get up and change trains at some point though I was feeling increasingly unwell. As I stood up, I realized I couldn't see anything and I said out loud: "I can't see anything!" Miraculously, at this point two strong arms grabbed me and dragged me out of the train. This was a station attendant and she was helping me sit down. Apparently someone had the good sense to press the buzzer for help. Which I badly needed, as I couldn't walk and was shaking and sweating quite a lot. I was muttering to the attendant: "sorry I am inconveniencing all these people" (as I realized by now that the train had stopped on the platform whilst waiting for them to come get me) and she replied in a matronly manner: "Hey! Don't say that! You are unwell ma! We are here to serve the people!"

And so I was wheelchaired to a small room with a bed and a sink and was looked after by the staff. They asked me what was wrong and I said this must have been caused by me making a mad dash for the train after drinking beer with no food in my stomach after giving 450 cc of blood.

Whilst sitting it out I realized I was extremely hungry. As I started to feel better after God knows how long, I told the staff I felt okay to go. He took my details and escorted me to the platform for my train. I moved slowly and a little unsteadily, but otherwise felt fine by now. Bought myself a massive sandwich at Taste just as it was about to close, went back to my car, sat there, quietly scoffing as much of it as I could, before driving home very, very cautiously - slow lane the whole time.

2008-04-01T11:13:00.003+08:00

Speaking as someone with only elementary school level PTH, it is a pain to type Chinese using pinyin.

The deal is, you need to know exactly what a character sounds like in PTH in order to be able to type it out with pinyin.

This is obviously a bit of a problem with me as I don't even bloody well know what most characters are supposed to sound like! So my strategy is to use the good old trial-and-error method. If "que" is not it then try "ce" or "xe" or "zhe" or "che"!

Still, about 400 characters share the same pinyin of "zhe", so even when you get the pinyin right you still need to scroll through line after line of characters to find the one you want. I found this website which is mighty useful for my purposes but still it is a laborious process.

I am pleased that I managed to send off 4/5s of my promised three chapters to the publisher yesterday afternoon. And now I shall need to think about the other three.

Never bite off more than you can swallow

2008-03-30T09:07:00.002+08:00

Ewe!

2008-03-28T15:29:00.003+08:00

looks like I'm not the only one who think this a great song to run to!

And whilst we are at it ... a classic tune with a peanutty twist:

sorry blog for neglecting you

2008-03-27T15:25:00.004+08:00

And so I've been back from my trips to taipei and qingdao for four days now. Since returning I've been busy working on my book thing as I have a deadline approaching. Yes, a pretty horrific thought which has been hanging over my head the whole time I was away. But miraculously, I seem to be managing okay!

Finished one chapter out of the three that I need to submit by next monday, so a bit of full throttle action would probably allow me to crank out the rest by Monday afternoon fingers crossed.

So, Taipei was pretty much how I remembered it from when I was last there ten years ago. Pretty dumpy in the main city areas, pretty polluted, and everywhere you turn there seems to be a tyre shop. My hotel room has to be the WORST I ever laid foot on. It had no windows, smelt bad, and there were crumbs on the carpet, every single fucking day! Thank the Lord for protecting me throughout as I did sense the possibility of evil spirits lurking about. Thank you thank you.

We were received by both parties' election campaign teams and visited their headquarters. The KMT election headquarter looked dead and stale and there was hardly any action going on. The DPP's, in contrast, was like some kind of freshman frat party - except that no one there seemed to be under the age of 50. It was all song and dance and chanting and fist waving, with plenty of fluffy toys and caps and key rings and gold coins for sale. They had some pretty cool T-shirts on sale though, which I kinda wanted to buy, but then thought better of it. I don't want to get thrown in jail for whatever for wearing a shirt that says "support Taiwan join UN!" or "Say No to Beijing Olympics!"

We joined the DPP's march on the Sunday before election day, and it was pretty interesting. They built a huge wooden horse which was smoking the whole way. It was supposed to mock MaYingJeou's proposition to strengthen economic ties with the mainland as a Trojan Horse. That Horse was not small and it was only when we got a closer look towards the end of the march that we saw it was being physically PUSHED around by a bunch of poor sods. Fancy that.

Will post pics of said trip tomorrow. Meanwhile, must get back to my cranking.

2008-03-14T23:08:00.002+08:00

So I bought a new notebook for my husband and a digital video camera for my older son and a new Wii game for the younger son, today.

I am off to taipei tomorrow for five days. I am missing them even before I am gone. The me buying them all this stuff is, I guess, some lame way of this sentiment menifesting itself. I hope they will remember that I love them, and will be missing them, and will be thinking of them, the whole time that I am gone, whilst they're all having fun with these new toys.

2008-03-13T11:01:00.003+08:00

Finally sent off my paper yesterday, 10 days later than I had hoped to. These self-imposed deadlines are a bit inane but sometimes I need that kind of drama to kick my butt into action.

Speaking of action, the gov't decided last night, at around ten, that all primary schools, kindergartens and special needs schools will be shut for two weeks, due public health and public sentiments concerns. Now, that is pretty dramatic also, no? Why can't they sort this out earlier and make that decision say in the afternoon? It's not like this flu outbreak started just yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday ...

Yesterday there was a seminar at my dept and the speaker was someone I kinda knew from what must have been at least 15 years ago. I don't think he remembered me though. Fifteen years ago a professor at my university (I was a student then) was trying to put together a book on HK culture and so he got a bunch of people together to sit down and talk about their respective research and what they could offer to the project. The meeting was on a Saturday morning. I stumbled into the room, half an hour late, stinking of whisky and cigarettes, still wearing my clothes from the night before. My 'presentation', if one can call it that, was a load of gibberish and I felt nauseous the whole time. The professor, along the lines of Paula Abdul in American Idol, politely suggested some changes which I gratefully accepted. I promised to hand in a draft a couple of months later. But ten minutes after the meeting I had decided I couldn't really be bothered with all that work involved and emailed the prof. and lied: please count me out as I got so many other things on my plate etc.

Anyhow, the speaker at our dept yesterday was also present at that meeting, at the time he was studying Cantonese swear words, at topic that was obviously 100 times more interesting than my dreary old load of crap on class and cultural capital and symbolic boundaries..etc.. yawn. I think I made the right decision.

The talk yesterday was on the academic debates on race during Nazi Germany. It was quite interesting and the main point he was trying to make was that those debates were on-going for at least ten years, and the 'science' behind "the Jewish question" changed from racial anthropology (rasse) to genetics to the concept of people (volk) to something neither here nor there.

Many interesting questions can be raised, for me the most obvious one is the nature of the scientific/academic community in a totalitarian state. Next would be that age old dichotomy of essentialism vs constructionism. A final banal, yet intriguing observation is the fact that said speaker seems to have lost all his hair since I last saw him!

2008-03-07T23:32:00.002+08:00

My teaching for this term is officially over YAY!

Didn't manage to cover all the topics I wanted to do though, had to give hooliganism a miss even though I'd made them read an article on the subject.

Bumped into colleague in the pantrry asking me about this committee he now sits, of which I was a member last year. He asked pretty reasonable stuff like "I was told I'm supposed to call a meeting, what was your first meeting about?" and "When did you have to do X and Y?" And all I had to offer him was a blank face. I tried to come up with a half intelligible answer but on hearing myself speak, I immediately realised I had confused this committee with another one. He nodded politely, as I rambled on.

Anyhow, another colleauge came to the rescue when he reminded me we're supposed to be playing tennis this afternoon. I told him sorry, I am down with a bad cold (which is true) and he looked at me in disbelieve, to which I quickly added "I nearly had to cancel my class today!" which was also true.

Took J and myself to our GP today as I was having doubts about the instructions given by the doctors at the hospital regarding the use of the inhaler. And also, I was feeling pretty shitty this morning.

When J was discharged, the doctors gave these instructions to my husband - continue with the inhaler, two sprays, every four hours, for five days. MUST not stop before five days. MUST continue the treatment. This is VERY important.

But J's breathing seems okay to me and he was very active so I asked around and people told me there is no need to continue the ventolin if he is breathing okay. So, into the doctor's office today, and he said

Wah! D doctors, yau mo gau chor ar, of course no need la! this is only needed when he has problems breathing! Breath duck dor mo yick ga!

Well, who do you trust? Like many people I choose to believe expert opinion that is closest to my own beliefs.

2008-03-04T22:37:00.002+08:00

Someone I used to teach jumped to her death a few days ago.

Have been thinking about her since learning of the news. She was hearing impaired, and had learned to lip-read very well. Her speech was also impaired, but not hard to understand. She used to sit right at the front in my class, was always keen to speak up. But I've never seen her eating or chatting or walking with anyone else. One of my colleagues was 'scared' of her. He said she's been waiting for him in the cafeteria and slipping notes under his door (poetry) and came knocking on his door late at night. So he stopped having breakfast at the cafeteria, and started locking his office door at night. He seemed to be suggesting, at the time, that she had a crush on him (which I find somewhat hard to believe, frankly). I think she was just lonely.

The newspapers published her suicide note, and it is truly heart wrenching stuff.

2008-03-03T20:56:00.003+08:00

Went for a walk with husband and kids yesterday, up the peak via old peak road, po shan road and hatton road. Swung by pinewood battery and roamed around - a couple of families having a barbecue but apart from that surprisningly deserted. Along the way we had been picking up litter - we had two 'mechanical claws' about the length of a walking stick, which we picked up in Jusco and seemed to be designed for this purpose. As usual, plenty of empty and not so empty plastic bottles, empty and not so empty packets of tissue paper, bits of candy wrappers lying in some cases just inches away from bins. We had two carrier bags that had to be emptied three times during our walk.

Had a very late lunch in the Cafe Deco which was as reliable as I had remembered it. Walked back down to Garden Road after that. All in all we walked for about 2.5 hours and when we got home J crashed out on the sofa straightaway. He woke after about 2 hours and said he felt unwell, which I ignored, thinking he was just being dramatic about his tiredness.

Sent him off to bed after some low level comforting. An hour later he came out, sobbing, saying he couldn't breathe. Normally I would just give him some panadol and pack him off to bed but last night when I put my hand on his chest I scared myself when I felt a noticeable protusion on his chest. It was as if his sternum has been stretched out by his lungs, which was obviously struggling. B said "right, hospital!" straightaway and off we went.

I am very impressed with the public hospital - we went to the Alice Ho Nethersole Hospital - we arrived around 11:30. A nurse saw us about 15 mins. later, and immediately J was put on oxygen as the O2 level in his blood was low. A doctor saw him within another 15 mintues, said he needed a chest x-ray, and needed to be admitted after that. He said J would need to stay at least 2-3 days. It took about 30 mins to get the x-ray done. And within another hour of that we were in the paediatrics ward, seen by nurse and doctor, and led to his bed, strapped onto monitors.

Everyone we encountered throughout the whole process was polite, pleasant (I could see them smiling even behind their surgical masks), professional, and efficient.

B stayed the night at the hospital or what was left of it, and I took over this morning at 7. Throughout today J was regularly seen by nurses, all of whome were incredibly nice. He was seen by two different doctors, morning, noon, mid-afternoon, and late afternoon - each time giving clear explanations of what they thought was going on. It's a borderline asthmatic attack - something he's never had before - only God knows what triggered it but I am partial towards blaming the pollution - it was bad yesterday and even worse today.

There were four kids in the ward including J. Two women from Red Cross came by and played games with all the kids (apart from one who was severely disabled) and helped them with their homework (yes, apparently the kids still do their homework whilst hospitalised - I ended up helping one girl with her seven items of homework which her grandma dropped off TODAY after the Red Cross people left). One of them sat down for a full hour with one of the kids making a bunny out of a flannel, all the while seeming to be thoroughly enjoying it! As J wasn't interested in the games they offered nor had any homework, they let him choose some books from a pile and chit chatted. Later on a chaplain swung by, chit chatted, and dropped off some leaflets.

(If club med runs hospitals this is what it will probably look like - even the food wasn't half bad and the prices are 'all inclusive'!)

B took over at 6pm it's now time for me to get my arse off this seat and take the nightshift. J's off the oxygen now, hopefully can be discharged tomorrow.

2008-02-29T11:15:00.002+08:00

Just spent 90 minutes going through a whole bunch of postgraduate applications. A tedious task. Am supposed to rank them. It is hard. You really need to see the applicants in person. Any one with half a brain can put string a research proposal together but whether they actually know anything about what they are writing is another matter.

This weeks seems to be passing by faster than normal. Been trying to think of my accomplishments this week. Let's see.

1. Ran a staff-student 4x100 relay race our dept came second which is not bad!
2. More work done on the paper and should be able to send it off on Monday.
3. Signed book contract with the publisher on wednesday, set myself some pretty tight deadlines - half of the manuscript delivered by end of March, the rest of it a month later. As I'll be gone for a month in the summer we reckon having everything finalized before me setting off would be for the best.
4. Bought a ridiculous dress in H&M for $149.

2008-02-25T22:26:00.003+08:00

Had a meeting Sat night about the equal opportunities education kit. It seems that most of those in the know think that Hong Kong's high school teachers are a useless bunch. Hey, so what's new. Was supposed to meet B afterwards; we were supposed to meet sometime after eight (my meeting finished at eight) but when he finished his run and finally called, it was half past nine. I was pissed off and knackered and did not think I could hang around wasting another forty minutes for him to get over to Tsimsi and so I headed home with an empty stomach.

I was really fuming on the ride home. But amazingly, by the time I got home, said fumes seemed to have been quite thoroughly digested! Hey waddayaknow! I can thoroughly surprise myself sometimes!

Pulled a neck muscle yesterday. Man, does it hurt. I couldn't turn my head to look at people who spoke to me. I could only move my eyes without moving my head. Plenty of creepy sideways glances from me that's for sure. B was not around yesterday so it was me trying to kick the kids into some kind action. I had to take them out but the drizzling rain made outdoorsey activities unattractive. So it's off to the science museum!

It's a good place to take the kids. Cheap(er than ocean park) and cheerful and in my experience never too crowded.

After that we went home, played a bit of Wii and then it was me with my head buried in work.

Work work work.

Been working on that Chinese book these past few days and I am meeting the publisher to sign the contract on Wednesday. Am supposed to send them some sample writing before the meeting. Which I have, but only in handwritten form, on scraps of paper here and there. And so I've been diligently trying to type them out in a more presentable form. Meanwhile I have a paper that is gagging to be closed. I reckon I need another full day to finish it off. I am hoping to send that off, and have another one half done before my trip to Taiwan next month.

Yes, I will be going to Taiwan to "observe" the presidential election campaign. After that I will go to Tsingtao for three days. I hope a visit to the brewery will be in order. If it is even in Tsingtao, that is.

What is more knackering than hiking up Tai Mo Shan?

2008-02-20T00:02:00.003+08:00

Sat down for a meeting at 10 this morning. I had expected this to last no more than two hours as it had seemed pretty straightforward on paper. An appeal case of a staff who has been terminated. All documents show that she was grossly incompetent and had not improved despite poor appraisal comments and warnings.

2:20 and it was still going strong. I had to leave as I have a class from 2:30 - 4:30. Meeting resumed at 5pm. Finally finished at 7:20.

Now. What a waste of time. MY time, specifically. And the time spent on preparing all the documents, time that will need to be spent writing up the minutes. And the final report.

The meeting ended upholding the original decision to fire this person.

Bureaucracies. Procedures. Taxpayers' money. My time. My money, and so on.

2008-02-18T00:10:00.002+08:00

How easy it is to sit around a table with a bunch of people, eat crisps, drink wine and scoff chocolate truffles for three hours.

Then have a cup of tea and whuaaaheaaye! Let's move straight on to dinner: caesar salad, avocado, prawn and mango salad, bbq ribs, roast beef, two pasta dishes, baked cod in cream sauce, fried rice, and sausages (dis for da kids). Plus cheesecake, chocolate pudd and fruit plate. Plus more wine and sake and ice wine from da Canadia.

It is no wonder that I feel sick now - drinking another half a bottle of wine since returning home doesn't seem to help much. Just yet. Maybe I should persevere. Maybe I will get better without having to throw up first. (So help me, Lord)

Anyhow, cause for the feasting is known as housewarming. My friend lives with her family in DB. They moved house just last week. Most of their stuff are still in boxes but a mutual old time friend happens to be in town right now so the party was moved forward to accommodate her.

Now, really, property prices are going apeshit, especially for houses. My friend has been looking for a place to move since November. Their requirements are simple -a house 2000+ sq ft.

For two months there was absolutely NOTHING available. As their lease was fast running out they lowered their specs - okay duplexes will do. Still. Nothing.

So when this place pops up, only the husband went to have a look as my friend was at work then - a 2,500 sq ft house, 2-levels with a small garden (no roof). Asking price nearly 100K. The husband was frantic on the phone "OK I'm here now, let's rent it". My friend went "what?" He went "yes, let's rent it. There's nothing else. Absolutely nothing. If we don't rent this we won't have anywhere to live".

When everyone around the table were asking why don't they buy a place instead of paying ridiculous rents! I think the response was a very rational one:
1. Putting down 30+% deposit means tying down a good few million dollars
2. Renting can be put down as company expenses (husband has his own business)
3. The market is peaking like mad and is sure to head for a fall if not 2008 then probably 2009

The place is okay - but 100K??????? DB????? This is nucking futs.

2008-02-14T00:53:00.005+08:00

The other day I returned to the office. A letter from HR was on my desk. I opened it. It says my application for a performance related increment has been approved and I am given a 2 point increment on the salary scale.

Yipee!!!! Waaaayhaaaay!

After 30 seconds of euphoria, I looked at the figures in the letter again. Wait. Hang on. This can't be right.

I looked up the salary scale on the HR webpage. The figures printed on my letter does not map up to any point on the scale at all. In fact, my newly approved salary is over and above what I should get at my current rank.

What the fuck? Was I given a promotion without even asking for one?*

So I called HR.

The usual "oh... yes yes... I know I know. I'll check. I'll call you back thank you."

30 minutes later, another HRdroid called and said "yes yes. My colleague said you called. Yes yes I understand. I will check. I will call you back."

2 hours later. Another call from yet ANOTHER HRdroid to explain why my salary does not match up to ANY point on the salary scale because my initial contract started in January instead of mid-August like everyone else. Then in 2003 there was an attempt to bring my whatever up to line with everyone else, and so something or other was done and apparently I signed a form to say okay I agree.

Anyhow, what they were trying to say was that it is legit that my salary does not match up to any particular point in the scale. There is actually a formula for calculating my salary which they explained to me and I wrote it down. But I won't bore you with that.

So I said, now, how about this two point increment I've been given? Isn't that above my current rank?

"....eh....."

"Hello?"

"....eh..... we'll call you back. Thank you."

Another hour passed.

"Oh, hello? Sorry...it was a mistake. The panel gave you a two point increment but that is above you current rank. The most you can get is a 1 point increment. Sorry sorry sorry."

"wait.... HR did have a member of staff present at the panel meeting, right?"

"yes.... heheh... yes, that was me."

"Well, shouldn't you have noticed and told them that I was not eligible for a two-point increment?"

"well... yes... heheh.. sorry sorry."

"Well, what is my REAL increment then?"

"eh..... let me check... that would be .. er... one third of what was printed on the letter we sent you.. Heheh... Sorry."

"Heh" fucking "Heh". That's their response to this fucking fiasco. Heh fucking heh.
In fucking deed.

* I did TRY to apply for a promotion along with my salary increment. Only that my dept head said I wouldn't get neither of them so I shouldn't be bothered. I insisted that I should get a salary increment, and finally he agreed. Now I couldn't help thinking, if he had supported me with my application for a promotion, I would have probably gotten it anyway since the panel had granted me more than what I asked for, they must have thought I was superbombastic!? Ach... well....

2008-02-14T00:46:00.002+08:00

Now what would be GREAT absolutley fan fuckin tastic, is if "Killer" ("Kira") would keep uploading them celebrity sex tapes/photos for the rest of the year of the rat. One or two every day or two would be nice. Doesn't matter if they are "real" or "photoshopped" or not "real" celebrities or just lookalikes (or are they really lookalikes? hmmmm). And I do hope the media would keep talking about them incessantly.

That would be great. I would be so happy if this could carry on for even the next three months let alone the rest of the year.

This would do more to the Hong Kong population's moral education sex education media education than any conscious attempt at "educating" the public and our "young people".

Yawn.

2008-02-06T00:56:00.000+08:00

There are two computer labs on my floor for students' use. Today as I walked past I saw a huge fat furry blob on top of a cardboard box in one of these labs. I went in to investigate. In the room was me, the fat blob, and a student who was just switching the computer on.

The blob was a cat. A grossly overweight filthy fat cat.

I asked the student

"Did you bring it in here?"

I must have used my parent in disciplinary mode voice cos she was taken aback and said, trembling:

"....eh... no... it was already here when I came.... came in..."

She might have been trembling from the cold cos the "heat" button on the central heating control panel is only for show, I think. Cos there was no fucking heat in that room that's for sure.

I went over to the cat, and said to it very sternly "get OUT!"

No response. It opened one eye briefly, then closed it again.

Then I whacked my hand hard on the surface it was resting.

Nothing.

Then I whacked it several times, HARD, with my bag (which contains a hardback book about three inches thick".

Not a flipping fing.

It Will Not Be Moved.

And so I proceeded to do what any responsible employee would do. I called facilities mangement department and alerted them to the situation:

"Hello? Yes. This is Pierre. There is a fat cat in one of the computer labs on my floor."

"A fat cat? Fat Cat, you mean?"

"??????huh? I baking powder??"

"Is the cat, Fat Cat?"

"It is a fat cat, that's for sure.... please send someone to get rid of it cos I don't want it pissing anywhere near my office nor rumaging through the bin in the pantry. It's bad enough having student stealing our distilled water you know (note 1)."

"okokoko...rightaway..."

Two hours later, I re-emerged from my room to go for a pee, and so passed the computer lab again.

And the fat cat was still there in the exact same bloody spot! I couldn't believe it! By now the room was full of students. They all seemed oblivious to the filthy overweight blob.

I called facilities management again. They said they DID send someone to physically remove the creature. But it must have gotten back again!

"Well Fat Cat has been around and it knows how to take the lifts."

"WHAT???"

"Yes. heheheh... anyway we will send someone to remove it again. But it is cold out there, you know, no wonder it wants to stay in."

"But it's not warm in the lab either!"

"Well, it's warmer than outside."

Not really in the mood to start a whole new argument about why there is no heating in the whole fucking building when there is clearly a "HEAT" button on every air-conditioning panel, I let it go.

"....okay okay... I guess..."

2008-02-03T00:42:00.000+08:00

I am probably hitting the peak of parenthood right now. Kids are lovely, entertaining, smart, great company, well behaved (80% of the time), and incredibly kind and loving (to me, not to one another).

It is great. There is nothing like it.

I wonder if this thought ever crossed my parents' minds, when I was a kid. The answer is probably a yes. And that is scary.

Well maybe not. I certainly didn't adore neither of my parents the way my kids seem to adore me now.

I really should give my dad a call tomorrow. See how he's doing in this awful cold weather.

2008-02-03T00:29:00.000+08:00

Shot a 23 minute video of O doing his magic tricks today. This video camera, I bought 4 years ago. I have never used it to stream videos onto the computer. So today, I had to try and get it working and so on, as O wanted to make DVDs of his performance and send them to various people

Only that the disc for installing the driver is not supported by Vista. Nor Mac. Thank goodness, I thought, I haven't yet thrown out my old samsung notebook which still runs on Windows XP!

So I installed the damn thng, and did everything as I was supposed to.

But nothing.

The computer doesn't recognize my DC.

No

I restarted

I reinstalled

Not a fucking thing

My kids, both fully aware of how I was about to go batshit and start throwing stuff out of the window, gracefully calmed me down:

"it's okay, we can transfer that onto a video tape, right? that's what we used to do. Grandma has a video recorder, she can watch it."

"yeah mummy, that's fine, I think it would look better on a video tape than on youtube. really!"

Bless their cotton socks. Puts me to shame, really.

Sadly, I yawn

2008-01-31T16:40:00.000+08:00

Are you, like me, one of the few mortals in greater China who hasn't seen Cecilia Cheung's vagina? Gillian Chung's right nipple? Edison Chen's family jewels (not in full view because they were) in Bobo Chan's mouth?

This is a sad state of affairs, obviously.

Sad because that artists' association with cantopop granddddaddy Alan Tam as spokesperson, spoke about this. Well, kind of. He mumbled something about how "sad" Hong Kong people are. Yeah. I bet he didn't want to see the pictures. I bet, even without seeing them (unlikely), he found them disgusting yet titillating. Sad because as the spokseperson (I think he is the president of the said association), he didn't say anything that is worth anyone's time! Sad because he came across as a half literate old fool who dyes his hair blond who has absolutely no perspective on the whole thing or anything for that matter.

It is sad that the police have already used so many man-hours into "investigating" this crap. It is sad that posting and distributing "obscence" material on the internet is a crime in Hong Kong. Sadder still that this is the kind of crime that people love to read. Not Li Kwok Po's (alleged) crimes!

2008-01-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

Really like my new dining table! So big and chunky!

Only downside is that this one actually looks and feels like it may last a lifetime. A scary thought when applied to Ikea furniture.

However, one of the orange plastic chairs has a small but very visible scratch, and a couple of black smears which wouldn't go away with the wipe of a damp cloth. At first I thought, nah, what the hell, it's gonna get scratched sooner or later anyways so I'm not going to bother my ass to do anything about it. But on second thought, and third thought, and fourth, I think I should call the shop and ask them to send over a new one. No reason why I should accept a knackered one when I paid the price for a brand new one, right?

Made some good progress with one of my papers today, but got quite sidetracked reading up on recent debates about "the discipline". Which is fascinating and a load of shite at the same time. Apparently, a bunch of sociologists have been bitching about how the discipline is being variously "contaminated", "diluted", "bastardized", "hybridized". Bit like some folks' reaction to opening the door to immigrants. I find it fascinating that some people, not just any people but otherwise rather intelligent and articulate and well respected scholars, take this crap so seriously.

But I do agree that most academic sociology articles you read in peer-reviewed journals are not very good. 90% are uninspiring, formulaic, and over-worked. The most important problem is, and I am not excluding myself from this criticims here, the lack of theory. The fabulous little book, "The Sociological Imagination" by C Wright Mills, written half a century ago, still, in my view, sums it all up about why sociology should be an interesting, relevant, engaging and challenging piece of action. But the quantitative turn and the cultural turn and the poststructuralist turn etc have really led younger scholars (not sure if I can include myself in this category) to forget about the big picture, about what it is that makes sociology exciting in the first place.

The most exciting sociology you find these days are written by journalists who probably did sociology as an undergraduate, but aren't so dumb as to do a PhD.

2008-01-27T22:43:00.001+08:00

Forgot to mention in my last post I also bought Matisyahu's "Live at Stubbs" recently - which I really should be listening to more than I have so far. When I played it for the first time, my eyes welled up more than once which surprised me.

I said I should be listening to it more, not because I think his music is so moving that I want to be moved by music I bought with money. I have been so taken by Nicole Atkins's fab voice and catchy tunes that I have really only listened to Matis thrice. Sorry, Matt.

*****************

And speaking of things music like, I picked up Chuck Klosterman's "IV" the other day, and have really enjoyed reading it so far. As someone who has never bought a copy of Esquire nor Spin, I am pleasantly surprised to read the piece on Metallica, which is a bit of a revelation. I picked up the book in the Wanchai' branch of Joint Publishing. Really not the kind of place where you'd expect to find this kind of book but there you go.

*****************

Been pretty busy last week. Did a whole load of reading and paper writing related mundane stuff. Also did three gender sensitivity training sessions. They all went pretty well, and I like the cheques I get at the end of each.

Went to Ikea and bought a new dining table and five plastic chairs. There is nothing particularly wrong with the ones we've got now. They are also from Ikea. But you see, the whole idea about buying stuff from Ikea is that they are so goddam cheap you feel almost compelled to change them every two three years. You feel like, fuckin' hell! this company makes furniture so fucking cheap and look so damn good, you wanna keep handing them your money just to keep them in business. A token of appreciation, like. I'd hug Ikea if it was a person. Or a pet. That's the least I can do.

Most of the furniture we have are from Ikea, apart from the custom made stuff. But what I like most about Ikea are its restaurant and the food it sells. The Dill flavoured crisps are fabulously addictive (the 50% fat ones are REALLY much crunchier than the full fat ones); the blueberry jam tastes good and is MUCH cheaper than what you can get in the supermarches; the ground coffee - again much cheaper and of decent quality. My favourite, though, are these chocolate sandwiched cookies - they are SO crunchy and SO tasty and more importantly, so much fucking cheaper than anything you would get in the supermarkets and city supers. Not to mention the meatballs, the string candies, the shrimp spread in a tube. All fab. All cheap.

******************

Yesterday, I went to a marketing research place. As a toyota seven-seater owner. My brother's friend's friend works in this company, and they were looking for focus group subjects. He asked me if I would go as they were desperate - so I said yes. I mean, hell yes! I was genuinely interested in an experience like this, as a sociologist.

Anyhowse, it all started and ended pretty much how I'd expected. I got pretty distracted by the moderator, whose sweaty patch under his arms got bigger and bigger as time goes on.

After that we all get $400 each which I immediatly proceeded to blow on Aldrich Pale Ales and chicken wings.

All of it

2008-01-25T01:18:00.001+08:00

I've been playing at least three hours tennis each week lately and watching about 10 hours a week's worth of the Australian Open.

I am not playing any better than I was three months ago and that is frustrating. I blame it on my shoulder injury but I know and you know it is nothing but a pathetic excuse for the weak.

What I need to do, is to train a lot more. Not in the court but outside. Do more sprinting, weights, and practice my stance in front of a mirror. All that. ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! I need to hit that damn ball goddam it!

When in fact, I know and you know, I should be spending my time mulling over those four papers I have started and one of which I have vowed to send off by the end of this month. Me, at the age of 39.

Priorities priorities priorities.

Am reminded of this Nicole Atkins song on Neptune City, where she sings with her big big voice, to incredibly naff but strangely moving arrangement, about how she would go off with this guy for no reason other than him being "cool". And there you go. Just about sums it all up, pretty much all of it.

a reminder

2008-01-25T01:01:00.000+08:00

A good friend of mine, her mum was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer (already spread to the lymph glands). A running mate of my husbands, was diagnosed with stomach cancer (no idea what's going on as he has apparently cut off contact with many of his friends and has since separated with the mother of his daughter and left town). A friend's brother-in-law, was diagnosed with lung cancer (stage 4, already spread to bones).

Both my parents had cancer.

My mum died from it when I was fourteen, and my dad had it when I was in my late twenties. He was a stage 3, but after surgery, and in my view miraculously, he has made a full recovery. However, he now lives in fear. Fear of dying, even though he is not sick by any means.

I had a long chat with my friend yesterday. Her feelings and reactions towards her mum's illness, I can fully understand, for I was in not very dissimilar state myself, twice.

Speaking of twice, the best man at my wedding, is getting married again. And he is asking my husband, who was best man at his first wedding, to be the best man for the second time.

Here's some music I've been listening to these days

2008-01-25T00:56:00.000+08:00

Mr Hudson and the Library - A Tale of Two Cities

Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus!

The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Nicole Atkins - Neptune City

This last one, is a bit of a stunner, to put it mildly:

2008-01-22T00:11:00.000+08:00

When we first came back to HK in early 1997, we got our home phone land line from the then HK telecom. At the time we didn't really think about it, and just took whatever number they gave us. A few weeks after we started using the line, phone calls started arriving from debt collectors, looking for a Tsang Wah Fat and a Chiu Fung Yee. We kept telling them no such persons lived here, they kept interrogating us, as if we were hiding something, and we kept repeating ourselves no, no such persons live here. They would ask, is this xxxx street xxxx building? and we would say no, this isn't. But they kept calling. One time I got really pissed off and told them, not entirely politely, NO SUCH PERSONS LIVE HERE. In return, we got harrassed by streams of phone calls where guys would hurl obscenities each time we pick up the phone. Needless to say, it was pretty unpleasant.

After a while, the calls would die down but then a few months later, they would come again, from what we assume to be a different debt collector, after the same persons.

I can't remember why we didn't call the police, or maybe we did, honestly I can't really remember as it was so damn long ago. After the debt collectors stopped calling for a while, and we thought finally this is all over, they finally go the idea that hey, these are different people using this number now! Then we started getting phone calls from the cops! They were also interrogating us, they were also looking for those two people.

I think the last time we had someone calling for these two people was about three years ago.

Now, we have been living in this apartment now for seven years, and we are STILL getting speeding tickets for the previous owners sent to this bloody address. I must have returned at least TEN letters from the traffic police for this guy, but hey! they still kept coming!

I guess the fines will finally catch up with him when he goes to renew his license.

"Stay in school, kids! Don't end up being an umpire!"

2008-01-20T14:40:00.000+08:00

2008-01-09T14:25:00.000+08:00

Today I'm "working from home", doing basically the same stuff as I would be doing if I had trekked out to the office. This primarily to save on petrol. Last week I went to fill up my one-notch-before-completely-empty tank and it cost over $72x even after the discount! I couldn't quite believe it. I normally go to the petrol station every 7 to 10 days or so. My last visit prior to this, with the red "EMPTY!" light on, cost me $73x or so. Now with still a notch to go and it was already
$72x? What the hell? I couldn't quite believe it.

So I said to the attendant, obviously upset: "?????? ??????? huh? huh??"
She just smiled and said "Oh, dadadadadadadada....dadadadadad! Hehheh!"

She must have thought me a complete imbecile as petrol prices have gone up more than a month ago, she told me with a massive grin. I couldn't really be bothered to check when exactly did prices go up and when exactly I last had my car filled up and how much it had cost then, exactly.

It is not about rationality, facts and reality. What really mattered was that I felt I was robbed!

As a result, I am not postponing my next trip to the petrol station as much as I can, but not using the car, by not going to the office. So in that regard, it is all pretty rational.

2008-01-07T17:11:00.000+08:00

The two Christmas presents sent to the U of K in nothing but cheap giftwrap, have miraculously arrived unscathed, albeit three weeks late. Plopped into Royal Mail bags, apparently gift tags STILL ON! Praise the Lord!

Meanwhile, with the festivities behind us, I am back to the office and working on my output. Spent most of today searching and saving and printing out articles. I've got a four inch thick pile of papers to go through. It's not as dreadful as it sounds. In fact all the stuff I read so far is interesting and well written, which is really unusual! I have also discovered a journal which has the quickest turnover rate I've even seen - so quick that I almost couldn't believe my eyes - from submission to publication only 5 months!!!!! Well you guessed it, it is an online journal but surprisingly, has a very good reputation and the articles published (the recent ones I've read anyway) are all very good.

I have three training sessions lined up for tomorrow and next week. The one that is to take place tomorrow is only 1.5 hours long but it is for the Customs and Excise Department, which would be interesting as it is a large class (50 cadets I was told), and the theme is "diversity" and not gender as such. The brief is, as usual, uselessly vague. As it is only for 1.5 hours I didn't feel justified to spend a huge amonut of time preparing for it. Will see how it goes.

2008-01-03T23:36:00.000+08:00

Seem to have consumed vast amounts of wine over the past two weeks. A dozen and a half bottles of wine have been polished off under this roof, plus whisky and beer and endless cups of tea. An 18 lb turkey, 16 oz rib eye steaks, one leg of lamb, one free range chicken and what must have been a ton of roast potatoes. Oh. And the mandatory token salad which no one touches!

Not surprisingly, my system did not cope too well with all this gorging and lack of exercise, and things are only only slowly regaining normalcy, you know, as "the system" goes.

****************

What do you all think of the HDTV thing? I am still puzzling over this, as there really is shite all to watch on tv here in HK. Does watching Dolce Vita in high definition makes you less want to hang yourself? Would it make costume dramas on Pearl more "realistic"? What is even more intriging is that on the local news last night there was a report on how you can watch HDTV on your computer whilst you are sitting in a Park in Shek Kip Mei!! It is truely fascinating. As in why would anyone want to do that UNLESS THEY ARE TRUELY FRIGGIN INSANE kinda fascinating.

2007-12-20T23:35:00.001+08:00

Speaking of things Godly, last weekend I went to a friend's baptism. It was very moving. I can't say that her church is the kind I'd like to have anything to do with, though; nd I was scratching me heeid wondering why on earth would she, having known her for 20+ years, go to this particular church.

I haven't had a chance to ask her that day cos she was too busy being eurphoric, but my guess would be, well, again, knowing her, it is because thnat church is only a 5 minute walk from where she lives.

Which is a good enough reason, no?

Now, considering I live in the New Territories and attend a church in Central! Okay so I don't go as often as I'd like to, given it is at least a 35 minute drive even on a Sunday morning, and to make it for the the sung Eucharist at nine, we'd have to drag our collective arses out of bed by 8am latest etc.

What I'm saying it, I can understand why she would join a church which is not as liberal as she is, but is literally close to home.

Which reminds me of this book I am reading now, called A Year of Living Biblically by a certain A.J. Jacobs.

Now, this guy writes for Esquire magazine. His last book is about his "journey" through reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. He is basically a nerd who tries to write like Bill Bryson.

Anyhow, I find this book incredibly moving and is packful of insights about faith, in general. I don't recommend you read it though, if you don't anything about the bible, esp. the Old Testament. But if you do, and you are Jewish or Christian or borderline agnostic, or a sociologist interested in religion, you might find it not an entirely bad read. You might even laugh out loud every now and then, like I did.

AT LONG LAST ! ! !

2007-12-20T23:16:00.000+08:00

My efforts at evangelizing the good news of Belle & Sebastian have FINALLY paid off!

One saved soul - by the name of Pete, the guy whom I stayed with for one night when I was in NYC last March. I was there to see B&S, of course. He was pretty bewildered at the time, as in why the hell would a mother of two trek all half way across the world to see a Scottish band that no one's even heard of?

Well at the time I said I would send him a disc and then all shall be revealed.

I kept my promise and burned him a "best of", and spent $60 on a posh CD case plus celtic themed gold stickers. Somehow he never received it. So I thought, oh well, perhaps it was never meant to be.

Then, somehow, one way or the other, Pete remained intrigued enough to actually go out and BUY B&S's latest CD, The Life Pursuit, and recently conveyed to my husband on google talk that he is now, apparently, ADDICTED to B&S!!!!!!!!!!!

HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!

So yesterday I burned him another "best of", minus what he has already got on The Life Pursuit.

Okay and here is a boy covering Is it Wicked not to Care:

indeed.....

2007-12-18T17:28:00.000+08:00

2007-12-16T00:18:00.000+08:00

My son approached me with this proposition:

"Hey, imagine you are a pair of underpants."

"Huh?"

"Imagine you are a pair of underpants. LIVE underpants."

"LIVE?"

"Yes, you are a pair of underpants and you are ALIVE."

"......hmm.... and ... why would I want to do that?"

"You are a pair of live underpants."

"...okay... are you trying to hypnotise me again?"

"And NOW, you give yourself a wedgie."

".....eh....excuse me....you want me to give myself a wedgie? Me being live underpants?"

"YES! And now you are entangled in your own crack and you can't get out. You are suffocating."

"You know that suffocating basically means dying, right?"

"YES!"

"So, I'm dying?"

"YES! And also NO! Because you are a pair of underpants! Hahahahaahaa!!! Geddit????"

And on that note, he walked off.

Stevie rocks!

2007-12-15T00:13:00.000+08:00

Explosive!

2007-12-12T11:30:00.000+08:00

Having had so much teaching last term, these past few days have been a blissful contrast, where productive work has been accomplished at home in a quiet and relaxed environment (well at least until, 15:15 when the kids get home from school).

Apart from marking a whole load of assignments (I am surprised at how much progress some of them have made), I also managed to finish fleshing out the table of contents of my about to be written book, all typed in pinyin ladies and gentlemen! I hope you are all very proud of me. Also managed to get up The Hill on a fantastically warm, dry, sunny day. It must have been at least 10 months since I last dragged my arse up there. I have almost forgotten how stunning the views are and how lucky we are to live near it.

Now a quick change of subject to an interesting little story.

Yesterday I went to the kitchen to retrieve some tiger prawns I bought a while ago. These are rather large ones, a good nine inches each I'd say. Anyhowse, as I took the bag out I found that there were only eight left, even though I had bought ten. So I asked our helper "have you cooked some of these?" she replied, after a pause, "yes, I cooked one". "Just one? There should be ten, now there are only eight" I asked, puzzled. "Yes just one, ma'm, I cooked it on..... last Saturday".

So at this point I thought either she was lying or I had cooked one myself without remembering it, or the person who sold them to me has ripped me off without me knowing it....or did the missing prawn manage to escape in a frozen state? but how could that be? etc... I was too busy questioning my own sanity and so left it at that.

I pottered around a bit and as I emerged from my room, she held up a piece of paper in front of her face, on which was written, "sorry ma'am I was lying I ate two of the prawns please forgive me".

!!!!!!!!!

I said "it's okay, I don't mind that you eat them, I just wondered where they have gone"

By now she was in tears and she reached out her arms, she wanted to hug me so I gave her a hug. Now she was sobbing.

I was somewhat lost for words and all I could say was "it's okay, it took great courage to tell the truth! .... so, were they nice?"

She replied, still sobbing, "I'm so sorry... that's why I'm so sorry, yes they are very tasty... I ate two even before you tasted them!"

Now to be honest, I am not very Christ-like and of course I was pissed off that she ate them without telling me. Especially after how she did that inexplicable thing with my two x'mas presents which btw still haven't arrived (see previous post). I don't think she had any intention to tell me she ate them until I asked her. Now these prawns are not that expensive as my friend got them for me from her brother who is a wholesaler, but the point is, I only had 10! What if I was going to cook them for when my family visits only to find that there weren't enough to go round? Not the end of the world obviously but hardly ideal.

I cannot fanthom what the hell was going on in her head. My only explanation would be that her mind was really somewhere else.

The important lesson is that I am glad I did not explode when she lied to my face. I didn't explode when she told me what she did with the presents, either. There is some consolation in realising that I am capable of not exploding. I dare say there is some hope for me yet. Amen.

2007-12-07T23:07:00.000+08:00

I've been spending a fair bit of time on neopets, where my kids have pets there. What you do is, you play games and earn points, and you use the points to buy stuff for your pets. I usually do the word games. Typically you'd need to spell words using letters from a grid, or make up as many words as possible from a pool of ten or so letters.

The frustrating thing about these games is that there is a huge range of words which do not "count". Swear words like fxxk and shxt being banned, I think is reasonable. Okay, even banning "porn", "sex" and "boobs" is just about acceptable.

But banning "hell", "poop", "pot", "gun" and "dung"? That is just NO FAIR!

2007-12-06T00:20:00.000+08:00

On Sunday night I wrapped two presents, very nicely, complete with ribbon and bobble and gift tag and all. Then I asked our helper Monday morning to go to the post office, buy two padded envelops, and post them for me.

So on Monday night, we were just chit chatting in the kitchen when she did a quick change of subject and said Oh, by the way, the cost for those two parcels was 3x each. So I said, oh really? That's pretty cheap! She said Yes, the change is on the table, ma'm. Then she said

It was very strange at the post office, I asked the man to give me the envelops, then he said no need, just send it like this is okay.

I went WHAT???

Yes ma'm, I insisted, I pointed to the padded envelops, and said, I want those, but he said no, it's okay to send them just like this!

...... (me speechless)

So the man, it was an old man, he even stuck the address on by himself (I had written the addresses on post-its) with sticky tape, and he said it's okay!

But... but.... but no one sends presents like that! It is not going to survive! The wrapping paper is very flimsy! It's only from Ikea!

Yes ma'm, I know... but he said it's okay! I stuck the stamps on....

But.... But... (I think I have raised my voice quite a bit by now) but... what about the bobble? what about the gift tag??? what did you do with them??? NO ONE SENDS A PRESENT THROUGH THE POST WITHOUT PUTTING IT IN ANOTHER ENVELOP FIRST!!!!! NO ONE DOES THAT!

(I think by then, I was starting to scare her. I must have looked pretty hysterical)

Yes ma'm... the tag was just there.... Me: DANGLING??? Yes ma'm.... I THINK I'M GOING TO FAINT!!!!! I'm sorry about this ma'm. I should have called you first.

IT'S GOING TO BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! IT WON'T SURVIVE THE JOURNEY!

......

So, dear readers, what the fuck did you think happened??? I have not got a fucking clue. Was the postie insane or what? Was our helper insane? Was I insane?