F-O-B

a friend sent me this link the other day.  i am a cross between a fob and a fobulous:

i am..

a fob because i haven't seen this link till now, and because i add a "s" to all nouns

"many fishes in the sea"

"there a lots of shrimps on the plate"

at least i don't pronounce fried rice as "fly rye"

a  yap because i keep complaining about being in banking but am too risk averse to quit

fobulous because i have super html skilz (but that could also classify me as a geek)

what are you?

grandma v sick. hope she gets better soon

schlaf ist gut

how much sleep do you need?  i need 8 hours to be
productive.  honest.  7 hours, i can still manage, dip
below 6 and i start feeling very sorry for myself.  maybe it's all
psychological?  they say that as you grow older you need less and
less sleep, but i'm still clocking 8 hours every day (week nights) and
12 hours on weekends.  being able to sleep that much... a blessing
or a curse?

so i was tossing and turning in bed the other night,
imagining shapeless creatures lurking outside my bedroom door (don't
ask - have very active imagination), when i realized that i haven't
slept alone in an apartment in 2 years.  i'm always either at
p's, my apartment with my cats, or at home with my parents. 
man, have i completely lost my independent streak?  it's so
comforting to have familiar, living creature(s) near by
though.  i like sleeping with my face buried in hobbes's fur, or
snuggling right up to p.  you? how do you like to fall asleep?

* * * * *

my cat has a shoe fetish...

was in BKK the other weekend and was left to explore the city on my own.  i refused to take the cab and took the train every where, revisitng all my favourite spots in the city and some new ones (all malls, mind you .  as i was standing on the train platform waiting to board, i realized how different i travel now than i used to: 

then: purchased a euro zone train ticket with a general idea of countries i wanted to visit and went from there. flew Hungarian Airways to save $ (would NOT however recommend the experience). lived off french bread and water.  sat on the ground waiting for buses/trains to come

now: book everything in advance. fly business class. car pick up from airport to resort.   first class concierge service at my beck and call.  throw dirty looks at grunge looking kids sitting on the ground in public 

honestly, i don't think i prefer one form of traveling over the other... it's really nice to be pampered, but as i was standing on the train platform in BKK holding a map upside down figuring which way to go i felt... liberated.  strange word to use perhaps, but it was very refreshing not to know exactly what's coming. to be pushed out of my comfort zone.  sometimes

* * * * * *

on the train platform in BKK, waiting for the train... from another trip long ago

i am such a nerd

have been having fun the whole morning animating my latest presentation.  ugh.  need a new hobby

* * * * * * *

played hockey over the weekend (my first game this year!).  twas a beautiful match... we beat the other team by a margin (1-nil), and now i can barely walk.  aching all over like an old woman.  must stretch next time

Call me

Pet peeve of the day... when people said they'd call and they don't.  ESPECIALLY customer service reps.  Hello?  that's your job.  don't make me have to call you again if you said you'd revert with answers coz you were TOO INCOMPETENT TO DEAL WITH MY QUERY IN THE FIRST PLACE.  call me back.  i hate having to yell

Happy new year!

Sorry i've been MIA.  i'll start posting regularly soon.  and astroanne - you're the best... didn't look at your email till now (yeah i know i'm terrrrible).  but hey, where's my birthday present from last August?

everyone, have yourself a "fat" year (so fob).  oink

gotta give it to you ...

the 6th WTO convention's being held in HK right now.  and for the week preceeding its commencement, all people talked about were "the crazy Korean farmers"

"4,000 korean farmers are chartering a flight to HK just to protest!"

"D'ya hear, that at the last WTO, 2 korean farmers killed themselves by swallowing a whole can of pesticides?  and one crazy f**k performed harikiri on himself!"

no, you were not wanted.  we were scared of you, scared that you'd turn the city upside down with your fanaticism.  it certainly didn't help that we were told to expect massive traffic delays from roads being closed off, certain areas being sealed, patrols by the riot police...

but as i watched the news yesterday, all of this changed

yeah you're crazy alright.  hundreds of you tried, for 2 hours non-stop, to break through the police barricade to the convention center.  you rammed yourselves against the police barricade, snatched shields away from the police, pushed, pulled, shoved and screamed. you even threw yourselves into the HK harbor (although had you known how polluted it is, would you still have done so?)

but at the end of the 2 hours, you orderly returned the shields to the police, cleaned up the trash and mess created by the scuffle, and cleared out of the site

gotta give it to you... i was really really impressed by your discipline.  and that has made me empathize with your cause and the way you chose to express it a lot more.  no more complaints from me for having you guys around.  just please don't do anything too radical for the rest of your stay here

escape from reality


lies are such a great way to escape from reality.  i'm normally a
really bad liar (i turn beet red at every single mistruth I tell) but when i'm in
"the zone" i can really get carried away

like the other day, when i caught a cab from my apartment to the office

Cabbie (slightly disgruntled at the short ride which definitely won't
make the meter jump) "So do you normally take the cab to the
office?  You live so close, you can walk."

Now I could totally come clean and just confess that I was too lazy to walk,  but for some reason this came out

Me "Oh no, I can't walk.  The air is too polluted.  You see, I have asthma."

Viola! I instantly got the cabbie all sympathetic. "Oh you poor girl! That's teeeeeerible."

mildly amused by his reaction, and curious as to where this could
take me, I proceeded to weave a pretty elaborate lie from that one
line.  Oh no,
I didn't have it as a kid, it developed in recent years.  Yeah,
probably because of the deteriorating air condition... Asthma is
quite common these days isn't it?  Lots of people are catching
it.  Oh really?  Does swimming
help?  No, I don't get attacks that often, I carry an inhaler
around with me, plus I sleep with the humidifier on at night.. it really helps!!!  Philips makes really good ones...... 15
minutes of pure bullshit and I didn't even bat an eyelid.  I was
so caught up in it that I even gave an obligatory cough and smiled
apologetically (see? told you I'm fragile!) as I climbed out of the cab

fun fun fun

********************************
my cable box broke and i am w/o TV and it's driving me insane. i
finally had
to yell at PCCW to get some attention from their customer
service.  that's after 7 phone calls without anything being
solved, mind you. i hate losing my cool.  why is yelling the only
way
to get your way in this town?
********************************
i rough-handled hobbes for fun and he scratched a big arc on my arm
with his nail as he meowed a massive protest.  i am staring at the
scatch now... small spots of red are slowly appearing from underneath
the skin to fill up the open wound. the space between the dots
are connecting to form a thin red line down my arm. 
bloody
cat.  god knows where his nails have been

********************************
gah!  PCCW is out of my type of decoder box.  no TV tonight

my cats play catch. how cool is that??

have i gotten humorless with age?

finally got out of work at 9 today, ordered takeout from tsuiwah, which is on the way home (normally 5 mins walk from the office)

headed to langkwaifong (where the restaurant is, and unfortunately for me tonight - main party area in HK) to pick up my food, only to discover midway that the police had roped off the entire street because of halloween and everyone had to make a huge detour around the block to get there

really considered just forgetting about tsuiwah and grabbing something else instead, but my damn conscience stood in the way

and so i made me way with the crowd of demons, the undead, japanese school girls, a few skeletons and angels, at snail's pace to langkwaifong

see, 1, even 2 years ago, at the sight of this colorful crowd i'd go "fun! party party" and immerse myself in the party spirit.  maybe even forget about eating and dive into the crowd. but tonight i was grouchy and concentrated on elbowing my way through the sea of people, silently screaming obscenities.  i might even have stepped on one or two dwarfs on purpose

grrhhhhh why have i become such a party pooper??

********************************************
POTD (you get 2!)
i took this photo while having lunch in hawaii thinking, how cute! bird and flower!  oh closer look tho, this bird looks kinda dirty.  dirty, but contemplative


i much prefer dolphins.. look at that baby fly (click to see larger version)