Year.

I’ve been a Christian for a little more than a year. Time sure flies, doesn’t it (I guess this phrase is getting so cliche-ish)?

Looking back on this one year, I believe God has arranged a lot of things for me. In church, I’ve got a great bunch of brothers and sisters who are always there for me, praying for me and helping me with my spiritual growth. Out of church, God has blessed me in my previous job, gave me a new one, and continued to bless me in this current one (even though I’m still struggling). Actually He didn’t really just looked after me for the past year – He’s been here all along – but to be able to get to know Him and feel His grace is something really special.

Of course, I’m nowhere near a good Christian yet. I still make mistakes all the time, and I don’t think I’m that faithful yet. But I’m sure with Him leading the way, I should be in very good hands. And without a doubt, I have my brothers and sisters with me who would continue to pray for me, I would be blessed. Amen.

Mood.

Yesterday’s visit to Shenzhen was good, though it was bad for my throat as I started the day with a sore throat and ended up the day losing my voice. I was basically talking for the whole day, giving presentations and such, and definitely it wasn’t a good way to nurse a sore throat.

I actually wasn’t in the best of moods since last night, but I guess God has a way in giving comfort to people who need it. After the church service, I had lunch with my colleague who came to the same service. The two of us had a very good chat about the plight that we face in our work – seemed that we do encounter similar problems at our work. And suddenly, I spotted my predecessor at work, i.e. the officer who sat in my seat before me. The three of us had a short chat and from what she said, I could see some hope in my job, and for someone who has been struggling hard for the past couple of months, I think that was great comfort. I hope I got the answer to the question that I have been asking Him for these couple of weeks.

Anyway I have been hiccuping non-stop today, and I really don’t appreciate that, especially I already have lost my voice so badly.

Long time no see.

It’s been a long time since I last updated my little journal again – so much for listing updating my journal more frequently as a new year resolution. Haha.

Anyway for the past two weeks I have been going to church almost every night for lessons and gatherings, which explains why I didn’t really have the time nor energy to write anything here (excuses, I hear you say). But most importantly I think the more such lessons and gatherings I go to, I discovered that I really know very little about His way. I guess there’s much equiping that I need to ne doing.

Anyway I’m on my way to bring a team of people to Shenzhen for a visit. To be honest this visit was demanding more than I expected, as the host kind of have a very different culture from us, so it turns out that I have to prepare more than I thought necessary, and that was a burden to me.

Hope everything will be smooth. God please lead the way.

Humid.

If you have seen the picture I posted ip on FB yesterday, you would have known how humid it was yesterday. But if you have seen the picture today, you’ll be even more surprised. The kind of humidity today was absolutely amazing, and I really don’t enjoy weather like this, not so much because everywhere feels wet, but most importantly the clothes that I hung out simply wouldn’t dry up!

Went back to work today after a good weekend, and to be honest while Mondays are never nice, it was decent for me. I had a good day of work barring some minor errors here and there. I hope things continue to stay that way at least for a while to come.

Easter holidays are coming in 2 weeks’ time, I am so looking forward to it. Anyway I’m beginning to read the book by Robert Schuller – "Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do", which was lent to me by my brother at church. I guess he knows (or perhaps God knows that I need encouragements like that). From the 60-odd pages I managed to read today, the book is good and it does give me some encouragements. Now I hope I could live a life full of confidence and full of passion. I think I’m lacking in both of them.

It was the White Valentine’s Day yesterday, but I didn’t give any chocolates to anyone. I wish I had the chance to do that, but I don’t think couriering a box of chocolate to Singapore is that smart a thing to do. Perhaps I’ll wait till she comes Hong Kong.

Singapore.

No, I’m not in Singapore – I think the next time I put Singapore as the subject of today’s journal nobody would ever believe I’m back there even though I might actually be.

Ever since returning to Hong Kong, I always have the tendency to think about returning to Singaore when things aren’t turning out alright for me. It’s almost like Singapore is a hiding place for me, a place for me to escape to when things get too tough for me to handle. I am no escapist, but I just wonder sometimes just what I have to do to get through this place. And when you know that there is a place for you to fall back onto, naturally you’ll start thinking about the possibility of that happening.

Luckily this time round I’m not thinking so much about going back yet, even though my best friends are there (and also that special someone whom she herself has no idea that she is the one because I’ve never conjured up enough guts to tell her for fear of being rejected), my mum is there, I’ve got a bigger house there, etc. I guess I still haven’t done that big thing in Hong Kong for me to make a triumphant return back yet. To be honest, I really want to do something that I would be proud of here first before I consider about making a return.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, be it in work, in my life partner, etc. But I know it is in His hands, and for that I can have hope and peace.

Cold.

The temperature took a dive today – it was 9 degrees when I woke up, and apparently it’s going to be 8 tomorrow. This weather is definitely getting me on my nerves, especially when it was 28 degrees last week!

I heard that the Universal Studios in Singapore is going to open in the middle of this month, but looking at how things are like, I don’t think I could make a trip back to Singapore in time for it to open. But I guess since it isn’t going to go away, I’m going to wait on it. I just hope that the whoever that I really want to go to USS with would not decide to go with someone else. But if she does, I guess there really isn’t too much I could do about it. Come to think about it, sometimes that’s the bad thing about being in Hong Kong – but I’m not complaining.

I have been playing around with a HTC Hero which was given to me by PCCW for free because I extended my contract. I didn’t have to make any prepayment, and I thought that sounded like a decent deal. Whatever it is, I’m still testing the capabilities of the phone, but so far besides the Bluetooth it feels pretty good. If I could fix the connection problems with my Bluetooth earphone that would be just about perfect.

Can’t wait for the weekend – I want to see the kids at Children’s Worship!

Toothache.

I woke up in the middle of my sleep last night holding my left cheek because of an acute pain in my teeth. I didn’t know what was happening, but the pain was so intense that I couldn’t really get back to sleep after that.

So I went to look for a dental clinic in the morning, and one precious lesson that I learned was that an acute toothache is so much harder to bear than other acute illness such as appendicities because while you can get yourself treated at a medical clinic or a hospital pretty easily, finding a dentist who could tend to you immediately is so much more difficult! The first 4 dentists I visited were all fully booked and they didn’t have any slot available until late in the afternoon, and it was only when I found my fifth one that I managed to get attended to. That dentist wasn’t good though – he did a check of about 2 minutes and determined that there was nothing wrong with me. So off I went, $50 poorer and all I got was a pack of panadol. He said that I was being too tensed in life and I need to relax a little, which included my gum and the muscle inside my mouth.

The pain did not go away even after the panadol, so I went to see another dentist after lunch with my colleagues. That dentist was amazed that he was the second dentist I visited in a day, and he was even more amazed that the first one who saw me didn’t even do an x-ray on my teeth. He did that, and discovered that I actually had a bit of tooth decay right at the back which was the cause of the pain. So he put in some fillings for me, and the pain seemed to have eased off quite significantly. But I guess I probably was one of the worst patients he’s ever got, because I think I got quite an earful from him for not "cooperating" enough – well this was my first visit to the dentist’s for more than 3 years, and the last time I got somethign drastic done to my teeth, I was under anaesthetic!

Anyway the plan to go to Seoul has to be put off because there simply isn’t any flights available. But I’m still going somewhere. To find out where I’m heading to, watch this space!

Oh by the way can I brush my teeth when I’ve just got that tooth filling? (Of course I mean that particular tooth that had fillings done on!)

Seoul.

Now the situation for the trip to Seoul is very delicately poised: we’ve gotten the hotel completely sorted out as we maanged to book an additional night of accommodation at the same hotel, but now the air ticket is still pretty sticky. I’ve made a reservation with Ctrip, a Chinese online travel agency, for 2 tickets from Shenzhen (yes you read me right) to Seoul. The tickets aren’t confirmed yet, and apparently they will be ready in 24 hours’ time. If that works, then it’ll be great. If not, I also don’t know what to do.

Anyway recently I’ve attended a couple of talks on enneagram at VTC, and apparently I’m a Type 7 – "The Enthusiast". And this is what the Enneagram Institute has to say about Type Sevens:

"Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over-extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness.

At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain."

I think that’s quite true about me. People who know me well will probably agree that I fit the characteristics of a Type 7. So I guess that explains why I can never sit still!

Stadium.

Thanks everyone for the concern about my back. It didn’t hurt that badly today, and I hope to keep it that way.

Anyway I was at the Hong Kong Stadium for the match between Hong Kong and Yemen. The match wasn’t the best of matches (well, to be absolutely honest, matches involving Hong Kong are usually not very pretty, for the Hong Kong fans at least), but I thought that lads did alright. Besides the point that they couldn’t get a goal, I thought the players were fine. I guess when you are talking about a group of players who did not receive proper football education since young, to ask them to play 110%, string perfect passes, beat opposition defenders and scoring goals from anywhere inside the penalty box were surely too much a tall order. I saw the Hong Kong lads play with much gusto and confidence. They tried to string passees together, do some build-ups, and I think that wasn’t too bad – for me that was definitely worth a pass.

I realized today that I could actually sell my World Cup tickets – yes I bought them – and right now I’m seriously contemplating not going South Africa for the World Cup because it’s crazy to fork out $20,000 to get there and stay there for a few days. If I manage to sell those tickets away, I could probably have a nice little holiday somewhere else. If you are interested in any of the three matches below, drop me a note and I can see how I could transfer those tickets to you (apparently it has to be done via FIFA):

– Opening match: South Africa vs Mexico
– Holland vs Denmark
– Brazil vs North Korea

I’ve got two tickets to each match, by the way.

Sis told me that a check with the travel agencies revealed that the entire Hong Kong will be in Seoul for the Easter holidays as air tickets and hotel packages are almost full – what’s with you Hong Kong people?! Can’t you lot go somewhere else instead? Leave Seoul alone, OK?!

Pain.

I’ve been having a very bad backache for these two days. The pain is at my lower back and while it’s not those kind of sharp pain, it feels like something straining over there. Not too sure why that is so, hopefully a few days of good rest can do some good.

We are already into the third month of the year and I have to say the past couple of months have really zoomed past. It seemed almost like yesterday that we were celebrating a new decade, and now we are already looking forward to Easter, which is about a month away!

For Easter, I actually have plans to go to Korea with my sister. She’s been wanting to go to Korea for quite a while now, and ever since I suddenly went there last September, she’s been raring to go there. For me, I actually quite like Korea. First of all it’s cheaper than Japan, so even when I was in Seoul, the place feels like Hong Kong in terms of spending. And given that it’s pretty similar to Japan in terms of how the place is developed, it really isn’t too hard trying to survive there. The only down point is perhaps communication. Getting around on my own is fine, as a lot of the train maps or signposts have English words which I could read. But once I get stuck, things become difficult. Very few people in Korea speak English, so it certainly doesn’t hurt to know a few Korean phrases and frequently used words when you are there!

Right now for the trip to Korea, we are fretting over the air tickets – we’ve got the hotel secured already – and because it’s the holiday season, it definitely isn’t easy to get tickets. We’ll be asking around tomorrow, hopefully we can get them. It will be great to go there are see the sakuras!