Daily // June 2010
Weekend; Kevin's birthday
June 30, 2010
This past weekend I met with Amy and visited the 冰室 Starbucks concept store. It's smaller than I imagined, and also more crowded than I expected. Seriously, there were so many people taking photographs there with their dslrs. There was even girls posing while their bfs snapped away. Indeed, it's more of a tourist attraction than a place to enjoy coffee. After that we shopped in Harbor City before having dinner in TST.
On Sunday, I went to my aunt's baptism. It's a memorable event, despite the rainy weather.
Then on Monday (a beautiful sunny day), after work, I met up with Martin, Thomas (who came later), Michael and of course Kevin for dinner. It was a very meaningful occasion as it's the first time after so many years that we reunited, and even more meaningful it being the eve of Kevin's birthday. After dinner, we went to a nearby cafe and chatted. It's strange to see how everyone's grown up and ready for new stages of our lives. I asked myself, "what will we be like in 10 years?" No matter what we shape into, I know you guys will always be there. Happy birthday, Kevin.
Slowness; Kevin
June 24, 2010
So today, I finally re-u-ed with Kevin, accompanied by Martin. The three of us had dinner at 鼎泰豐 in CWB. We wanted to try Bang Bang Pan Pan (okay, more like I wanted), but decided it's more suitable for lunch. The 鼎泰豐 is quite nice, and many different servers came to pour us tea - so many times that we asked them to stop. After dinner, we walked around Times Square before parting.
Why the title "slowness"? Am I advertising Kay's album? No; over dinner, Kevin said that I've become slower. "In what aspect?" I said. "The overall feel. Can you follow our conversation?" Unbelievable. I never considered myself slow.. In fact, sometimes I think I'm too fast. But I guess all things are relative.
Wimbledon is on. Isner just won the longest match in tennis history - with a 5th set victory at 70-68 totaling over 10 hrs. Woah. I wanna watch the rematch.. but that would probably take too long?
i-square
June 23, 2010
So this evening I visited i-square for the first time. I didn't really know where I was when I walked into the mall as I came directly from mtr and didn't even see the streets outside. Thus, I was quite shocked to see that it's located opposite to Holiday Inn, meaning it's where Grand Hyatt was previously located. I still remember having dinner with my three best friends at a restuarant in GH before I left for high school in the states. Old memories..
Returning to the present, I met up with Amy and Sunny for dinner (which is why we met at i-square) @ 錦井. The food was decent. We also had some dessert @ 滿記. It's really nice to see them and chat all kinds of topic, including gossip. And of course, we interrogated Sunny about you-know-what. After we finished, it was almost 11, so when I got back home, it was almost midnight. Hmm. Time to sleep!
1st day, partial re-u
June 22, 2010
First day at work was rather pleasant. After some brief paperwork, I immediately had something to do - as Amy said, it's much better to have something to do than pretend to be doing something. I'm placed in M&A, and right now we're working on a pitchbook for a client. Fun..
On Monday night, I met up with Martin and Thomas at Tai Koo City. We had a nice dinner at miso coolll. It's really great to see them after such a long time, and Martin is animated as always.
I'm very terse today. Why? Because I'm quite tired.. Perhaps it's time to recharge.
Recalibration
June 18, 2010
I haven't done much these past two days besides eating with family, but I feel quite tired at the end of the day.
In HK
June 16, 2010
Time is now 5am. Clearly, jetlag is taking the best of me.
So I arrived yesterday evening after a rather uneventful flight. The inflight program in Cathay has greatly improved, and I managed to watch a few movies (Alice in Wonderland, It's Complicated, Valentine's Day) + a few other shows. However, the seats were really uncomfortable to me this time.. The tilting mechanism feels very fake since the chair does not really tilt backwards (it's fixed), but the cushion slides down to mimic the tilt. Baggage claim also took longer than I remembered. But, what the hell. I've arrived.
I feel that I should write something about the two weeks of holiday after graduation and before I flew to HK. As you may know, I have moved to another apartment with my new roommate Edwin. Who's Edwin, you ask. To me, this is one of those tricks life play on people. I've known Edwin long long time ago. We went to summer school in UK together when we were young/younger. He's also from LSC, and I simply never expected to see him at Hopkins. It's strange to meet an old friend in a completely different setting. It's like he's suddenly been thrown into my world. It's like two parallel lines suddenly converging. Wait, no, that's not possible.
After a whole day of moving on June 1st (much thanks to Lihan, Poyu, and Angela), it took me a while to unpack and organize everything. I really like my new area. It's big and I have the freedom to arrange things different from how I would if I were living in a room. Sometimes I question my decision and wonder if I have the willpower to take more AMS classes, but the new apartment, my new space and my roommate bring new light in my perception of Hopkins, which just might keep me trucking on. I promise to show pictures of the apartment in the future. Here are some pix of the apartment:
Other things I did during these two weeks besides unpacking and organizing include multiple trips to Ikea and Rockville and Comlumbia. I was very hesistent to drive, but after driving, I wonder where the fear came from. Perhaps it's been built up in the past few years since other people drove me around. Many things are just like this in life - we can always do more than what we limit ourselves to do.
I realized that the frequency of me blogging has dwindled down to almost once every few weeks. (I've become very rusty, too.) Sorry, readers - I have been lazy. Even Kevin, who is about 15 times busier than me, updates every day. I truly admire his perseverence. Oh, Kevin, this is also the first time in many years that I will actually be in HK for your birthday. Good riddance!
I have an exciting summer ahead of me. Let's see what happens.