May.

Today’s last day of the month, and how time flies – 10 more days and I’ll be on the plane heading to Osaka!

As far as heading out of Hong Kong for trips is concerned, I am actually looking at maybe 3 more trips this year – 2 to Singapore for wedding dinners (be thankful, Shumin and Juana), one to Taiwan. The trip to Taiwan will be for – you know it – Mayday’s concert in the Taipei Dome. I hope that my trip to Taiwan this year would be longer than all my previous trips, as those I made last year were usually just 3 days long, and I really hope to be able to stay in Taiwan longer than I used to. After all, I’ve only been to a few places and there are many other places that I’ve yet to explore. The southern most I’ve been to was Taichung, and it isn’t even past the mid-section of Taiwan! I could actually have gone to Kaoshiung this year, but with the Mayday concert in Kaoshiung scheduled in early August, when I’m usually quite busy at work, that idea has to be shelved and I think I could only go for the one at Taipei.

For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been to Taiwan 5 times, and I’ve spent time in Taipei in all of these trips. To an extent that some of my Taipei friends don’t even know places in Taipei that I do! But of course, the places I know of are all the tourist places, so it perhaps really isn’t that amazing that they are not aware of such places. And I’m sure there are tonnes of other places that I’m not aware of and I probably need some Taiwanese friends to bring me around too.

There’s some serious thinking and considerations that I need to be doing regarding many different aspects of my life, and I hope God can show me the way. I’m sure He will.

Summer?

We are all probably aware that the climate has changed to become quite crazy recently, but I really did not expect to see this kind of temperature in late May:

The recent downpour is definitely making its point on the temperature, though I don’t really mind that it’s 20 degrees now rather than the usual 30.

Have a great weekend.

Rain.

It’s been raining non-stop out there since lsat Saturday, which actually isn’t too bad a thing for me because it makes it slightly cooler. I must thank God because He knew that I will melt under the sun, so He decided to keep me refrigerated with the downpour and the resulting cooling weather.

The large activities that my office has been doing have been concluded and I must thank God for allowing them to take place successfully. It’s His Grace, no two ways about it. Looking back, I won’t say I’ve contributed much to these events because of one reason or another, and for that I actually do feel embarassed. Compared to my other colleagues I don’t think I could ever say I’m a good employee, and I guess I’m always on a learning process.

Lately I think my views towards things, especially towards work, have been quite clouded by emotion, which I know is not a good thing. I get upset about things easily nowadays and I really don’t know why I am behaving that way. Maybe I am an emotional person right from the start, so I get easily distrubed about things, especially those that don’t happen the way I hope for. I do agree that I’m not someone who’s very high on EQ, and I display my emotions too easily sometimes – but that is me. I don’t like it when I have to pretend to like something or accept something when in actual fact I do not. But the truth is that in the reality, it isn’t quite the norm for people to display their emotions easily, which for me is a bit difficult to handle. Also, the funny thing now for me is that I get quite excited if given a chance to do ministry work with other brothers and sisters at church, but I just can’t seem to be able to translate that excitement towards my work in office. Perhaps I should see that my work in office is also a form of ministry, and that is something that I probably need to learn.

So help me God.

Project.

Today was the day of my project group’s final year project presentation and I must thank God for allowing everything to flow very smoothly. To be very honest, I am very grateful to my teammates for all the work that they have done, which makes my contribution pale in comparison.

Thank you Simone.
Thank you Agnes.
Thank you Dophin.

Right now as long as our evaluators think that our project isn’t really that bad, I should be able to finish my Masters degree at City University. I hope everything will turn out to be fine, and I really look forward to the graduation ceremony in November!

Hong Kong.

I’m back from Shanghai. 9 days of lessons, visits and discussions later, I could look back to this time away from Hong Kong as perhaps one of the highlights in an otherwise highly forgettable 2009. I got to know many new people, had new perspectives in things, did some really good self-reflection and serious thinking. All in all, I think it has been a great visit, and I shall remain eternally grateful for the people who made this trip possible.

I was at Mong Kok with the group of Hong Kong Manchester United fans to witness United winning the league title for the 18th time – and we can now proclaim loudly that no other team has ever won the league title more than Manchester United. The match itself wasn’t the greatest, but what was more important was that one point required to win the title. Rafa Benitez can shoot his mouth off as he liked, but that isn’t going to hide the fact that the league trophy is heading (again) to the trophy room at Old Trafford rather than Anfield. On hindsight, I’d take it gladly if Liverpool were to stuff us 4-1 at Old Trafford every season if we were going to win the league title.

Now for the Champions League.

Shanghai.

I’m not there yet.

(Because if I am I won’t be able to access my little journal from LiveJournal, let alone updating it. I hope I could get to access the Internet somewhere when I’m in Shanghai so I could at least update it via FB – that is if they haven’t banned it yet too)

In fact I’m sitting in my office right now, having just done minding some of the things that I’d do well to get sorted out before flying off. I’m sure there will be other things that would crop up along the way during my days away, but I’ve heard that the place that I’m doing the course in Shanghai has got (minimal) Internet access, so I could at least check my emails there, which will be good.

Anyway as mentioned, I’m heading to Shanghai for a 8-day residential course, and I just hope that this course will bring me new perspectives towards my work. The schedule of the course is kind of packed, and from what I can see the most I could do is perhaps just to give my friends in Shanghai a call, as time probably won’t allow me to meet them. Oh well, they could always come to Hong Kong.

If there’s access to the Internet and I could update something on FB then I’ll try to keep everyone updated of what’s going on, but if I can’t, then I’ll see everyone back in Hong Kong on 15th May. In the meanwhile, take care and God bless. My brothers and sisters in Christ, please also have me in your prayers during this period while I’m away.

Politics.

I used to be very interested in politics – I even did a course of Introductory Politics back in my undergraduate days. In the past I’ve also made entries in my little journal on political topics. There was even a stage of my life that I considered joining a political party. However, I find that my interest towards politics is dwindling, and I have come to a stage that I have so much dislike for politics that I don’t want to have anything to do with me. I hate politics, and I hate it more when simple things in life become political. I just hate it.

I realize life is so much happier when I could just devote myself to God, and not get influenced by these politics that happen around this world. Some people say that as long as there are people, there will be politics. I wouldn’t disagree with that, but I can choose to be involved or not. I used to enjoy reading political commentaries, but not any more. So to those politicians who try to overwhelm me with your theories and theologies (not to mention those commentaries in which you seem to know more about Christianity than our reverends and pastors), go read Matthew 23:27-28, and then please kindly shut up and disappear in front of me.