Programmer.

Suddenly the programmer in me is getting a bit rekindled. Not as if I want to go into a full-blown programming job now or in the near future, but I feel like learning something along that line so that I can, well, enrich myself. Two of the latest things that I really want to learn is to learn to build a Facebook application, and to learn to read the Google Calendar API.

I want to learn to build a Facebook application because I think it’s going to be fun. I mean, chances are I’ll probably never be able to build something ultra sophisicated, but I think I should do well to come up with some nice little gadgety that makes people want to play with it.

As for the Google Calendar API… let’s just say I really like using the Google Calendar and I think it would be great if I could write something to complement my use of it. I guess the Christmas period would be a good time to really start learning on them. And should I be able to come up with any little tools or gadgets on my own, I’ll put them up to let everyone download and try playing around with it!

Weekend’s beckoning – that can’t be a bad thing!

Work.

Back to work today and it was a really busy day for me. I had almost one whole day of meetings and at one stage I was really exhausted, but somehow I think I’ve managed to master the skills of staying awake even when I’m anything but.

Today was a relatively cold day. It took quite a bit of time for me to get used to the coldness in the morning, especially when it was 32 degrees and 14 here this morning. The difference was huge and to say that I had a slightly difficult time adjusting would be an understatement. But then again, I’m a winter animal.

Need to do some more household chores before going to sleep. My supervisor suggested that I should do something to my house to make it more cosy. Now that’s a thought.

Returning to Hong Kong.

I was just informed by my colleague that they will smash my head if I don’t return to office tomorrow. That leaves me with no choice but to fly back later.

Anyway the past few days here in Singapore were great, as I managed to meet quite a few friends here and there. It’s wonderful to see that they are all doing well, enjoying their lives and basically not have to worry about too much. And on a personal level, I’m delighted that they took the time off to meet me, and I must say that I enjoyed the past few days tremendously.

The last few times when I was leaving Hong Kong for Singapore I had that huge sense of emptiness (or in Singapore terms, siansation). But amazingly, this sense of siansation is setting in today when I know I’m heading back to Hong Kong. I guess it’s not so much about having to miss my friends here in Singapore (though to an extent that is true), but more has got to do with knowing that I have to return to Hong Kong and start my routine again. The other few times when I was returning from Hong Kong to Singapore, I was heading back to Singapore for school, so it was something similar, heading back to the routine life. So that probably explains a bit of my siansation.

Whatever it is, I’ll see everyone soon. The next time I am returning to Singapore could be Chinese New Year, but if I’m not returning around that period, then it could well be July – so before I see everyone again, please take care, ya?

Hot.

There are some points in time when I wonder why they don’t put the whole of Singapore under one huge gigantic bowl with aircon in it. I just can’t re-adjust back to the heat of this place!

Anyway yesterday’s dinner with the Diablo people was a great one, and as I said yesterday, it’s quite amazing to see how things have changed for the whole lot of us. And I think it’s also quite amazing to see how the lot of us are still so good friends after these 5 years. Spurred by some sort of nostalgia, I decided to search around to see if I have any photos of us when we first got to know one another 5 years ago, and this is what I found – apparently taken at our freshmen orientation camp:

And then 5 years down the road, this is how we look like now:

How times have flown by. Haha.

Day 2 in Singapore.

Day 2 in Singapore and I already am looking forward to returning to Hong Kong. It’s not as if Singapore is bad or my friends have all forgotten about me, but it’s just too hot!

I met Neng Giin in the afternoon for lunch and with him being one of my best mates, we had a very good chat and I thoroughly enjoyed the company. Then Cheryl came and joined us, and it was nice to have her around too. At least it didn’t look so weird with just the 2 of us guys!

Then I moved over to Clarke Quay to meet my Diablo friends – in case you didn’t know Diablo are my orientation friends back in 2002 – and it was nice to see them. Roland and Juana are married already, so we had a great time calling them Mr and Mrs Tan! It’s quite amazing to think that 5 years ago when we were in university, we were talking about things like which modules to take, whether to go for Honours, etc, and 5 years down the road we are talking about getting married and having kids. How times have changed and how we have grown.

Getting tired now, and I probably would want to go and get some sleep before heading out tomorrow for another day of meeting friends. It certainly doesn’t feel like a holiday for me!

Singapore.

Hey hey hey! I’m back in Singapore!

I touched down this afternoon at about 4, and the flight was probably one of my worst ever experience on a Cathay Pacific flight. It’s not as if the food was bad or the service was lousy, but because I was (kinda) seated with a kid who couldn’t stop crying throughout the entire journey. The parents did not seem to even know why the kid is crying… I mean, when you see the kid holding her ears towards the end of the trip obviously that’s going to mean that her ears are hurting because of the air pressure, right? Then at no point in the trip were the parents even attempting to keep the kid from crying. There wasn’t any hush-hush, there wasn’t any disciplining, no nothing. At its worst, the flight almost couldn’t take off because the kid simply refused to be seated and wear a seatbelt, and the stewardess were informing the flight captain… the plane was on the taxi way for almost 10 minutes… I could well have been delayed because of a crying kid – now that’s a new thing.

Anyway I would be in Singapore until next Tuesday evening, so if you are keen to meet for lunch/dinner/breakfast/supper, please give me a call or drop me a email or an MSN message. And yes, I think I can’t stand the heat here!

10 Things I Miss About Singapore.

After being here for almost a year, I think it’s about right for me just to think about what the things that I really miss are. I mean, this is not the first time that I’m away from Singapore for so long, but this is really the first time that I am away from Singapore and I don’t know when I’m going to return. So I guess it’s only fair for me to start writing about what I miss the most about Singapore now.

10 – The dumplings (as in those nonya ba-zhang)
I like those ba-zhangs because they are available all year round! And yes, they do taste great and even though they are wrapped using nylon strings, they still taste good.

9 – Subway
I don’t mean Subway as in the MRT, but Subway the sandwich maker. Subway seems to be everywhere in Singapore (though the 2 of my most visited stores are the Jurong Point branch and the NUS branch), and I like a good sandwich anytime. It’s not fun when apparently there’s only 1 Subway store in Hong Kong, and it’s worse when it’s in Wan Chai and nowhere near where I live or work!

8 – NUS
I didn’t think I’d ever say that, but actually yes, I do miss NUS. I miss NUS for the big space, I miss NUS for the people, I miss NUS for the peace. If you think NUS is a messy place, wait till you come to see the universities in Hong Kong.

7 – Peace
Relative to the previous point, I miss Singapore’s peace. Peace as in the relative quieter environment, if you know what I mean. I don’t see that many irritating politicians trying to mess up the place like they do in Hong Kong. It’s not as if I like PAP, but I don’t like it when some idiots out there want to mess up the place in the name of democracy.

6 – Zouk and Mambo Jambo
Let’s just say that Mambo is the thing that accompanied my so-called darkest time in NUS. I have no qualms in talking about it now since it’s so long ago already – it was the period when I lost the girl I was really in love with at that time to another guy which ended up didn’t treasure her. Of course, Mambo used to be an numbing agent for a while, but for one reason or another I enjoyed going there so much that it became a part of me, almost a must-do thing every Wednesday. I guess I’ll always have a piece of Mambo within me, even though it’s been a hell of a long time since I was last there.

5 – Big House
Let’s be honest, houses in Singapore are big. Even HDB flats are big. In Hong Kong, I think I’m currently living in a place that’s about three times smaller than my flat in Jurong West. Not fun.

4 – Cheaper Things
Things in Singapore are generally cheaper. Bus rides, MRT rides, food, etc… I remember I didn’t have to top up my EZ-Link card in July when I was back for about 10 days. In Hong Kong, 10 days is about all I can manage every time I put in $200 in my Octopus Card.

3 – Old Chang Kee
I miss the curry puffs, and they don’t franchise it in Hong Kong. I know you have tons of different other types of snacks and finger food in Hong Kong like your fishballs and all that, but I like my Old Chang Kee.

2 – My Mum & Dad
I know it’s not a nice thing for me to leave my parents in Hong Kong while I seek to work here in Hong Kong. But hey, they supported me so I think it’s only right to miss them. OK what am I talking about?

1 – My Lot of Friends
I spent the best 4 years of my life in NUS, and the friends I made there are always the ones that I’ll treasure the most and indeed miss the most. It’s amazing to think that people I got to know when I was a freshmen are still very close to one another – and we’ve already got a married couple within them (Congrats Roland & Juana… remember to send me your wedding dinner invitation! I’ll make sure I’ll fly back for that meal)! Of course there are a few people who will drop off from my list of friends here and there, but generally most are really for keeps and I really miss the lot of them, especially I’m facing those relatively boring nights here in Hong Kong. It’s not as if I don’t have friends in Hong Kong, but I think those I made in Singapore are the ones that I can really open myself to.

Of course there will always be things that I don’t miss about Singapore, but let me think about them later. I need to do my laundry now.

Academic Week.

Yesterday evening’s class was as boring as ever. Nothing new to learn, nothing interesting to discover, basically, another waste of 3 hours. The only highlight in an otherwise highly forgettable evening was chatting with some of my classmates about the iPhone SDK. Not that I knew too much about that, but at least now I know something. It’s easy to lose touch with the IT world whenever you are not doing an IT job, you know…

Attended the opening ceremony for one of the student organization’s academy week yesterday, and I think it was a very interesting experience. The whole idea about academic weeks is actually really simple – choose a theme, have a couple of speakers to talk about some interesting stuffs about the theme, have a bit of exhibition showcasing some special topics on the theme, and that’s it! If you want the academic week to be more value adding then just make a bit more effort. Some organizations plan for about half a year for their academic weeks, so I think it can be done.

I even have my own name tag for being an invited guest!

And as an invited guest, I get to keep a souvenir as well! The best thing about this little thing is that it’s hand-made by the students, so I think it’s worth much more than a cold paper weight or something like that.

I wonder why we don’t do that kind of things when I was back in university.

SU Banquet & District Council Elections.

I really should have split this into 2 different posts, but I think you might miss the one that I would post earlier, so I’ve merged these 2 into one, such that you will read all of them.

Anyway the BU Student Union (SU) held its annual dinner last Friday and it was a very interesting and happy event. The food was decent, the programmes were fun, and the best thing of all is that I finally get to experience for myself how a good student union banquet is like. Sometimes I wonder if it’s things like these within the university campus that would attract the people, rather than some posh balls at fancy hotels. Of course you can say students in Singapore and Hong Kong are different, but would it be more attractive if things like this are seen more on campus rather than off it?

The view of the SU Banquet from my building. It’s actually quite a sight.

The opening of the SU Banquet, which included the university president, the vice-presidents and the director of student affairs (aka my boss)… it’s quite an interesting thought that the university president would be having dinner together with students under the moonlight, but that’s how my university president is like.

The dish of the day – Poon Choi! Basically it’s a lot of different ingredients being mixed into one big pot and everyone shares this big pot. You may think that this pot is not exactly big, but trust me, there’re a lot of good stuffs in it!

This pic would show you how crowded the podium was that evening. I think there must have been 600 to 700 people attending the banquet. According to the SU president, the tickets were sold out in a few days – the response was that good.

And throw in a celebrity performer the whole banquet is about just perfect! Featured here is the local act at17. People who are familiar with the Hong Kong music scene should have no problem identifying them.

And then it was the District Council elections yesterday. As it was the first time that I am eligible to cast a vote in my whole life, I was understandably excited about the whole affair. It was actually quite amazing to think that despite spending so much time in Singapore and was eligible to vote in 2 elections, the first time for me to cast a vote is actually in Hong Kong. Something must be wrong with the system in Singapore.

In any case, the voting process was quite smooth and simple – it is supposed to be anyway. I casted my vote for the candidate that I support, and the whole process was less than 5 minutes. Deep inside I really hoped that the guy I chose would win, but it wasn’t to be. He lost out by slightly less than 200 votes in the end, and my district fell to the hands of the Democratic Party. It doesn’t feel good – I wonder if that would signal the start of a tough 4 years ahead under this district councillor. The last district councillor (who was part of the HK Pan-Democratic Alliance or whatever they like to call themselves) was a sham and I don’t think I saw him at all since I came back to Hong Kong last December. And given that this new councillor also belong to that group, I think I have every reason to be pessimistic. What’s more, this new guy had grudges against my estate management committee in the past, and that’s more reason to be pessimistic.

Maybe I should consider moving out of this district as soon as possible.

Thursday.

Sometimes I think the worst day of the week after Monday is actually Thursday. The kind of feeling that weekend is nearly there but not exactly there yet is really not very nice. In fact, if you ask me how I would classify each day, this would probably be how it looks like:

Monday – Bad. Nobody likes the start of a new week anyway…

Tueday – OK. I’ve endured the worst part of the week already…

Wednesday – Nice. It’s halfway through the ordeal…

Thursday – Doh. The weekend is nearly here but still not here yet…

Friday – Yeah. Last day to survive for the week…

Saturday – Woot! Liberation!

Sunday – Hmm. Nice to get a day of rest but it’s back to work tomorrow.

Enjoy the remaining of the week.