One Green Bottle... Sitting on the Wall...

This weekend has taken a long time coming. I was tired out by Thursday and decided I would crash out for the weekend and hibernate in my 70% goose down duvet. Bliss!

The ophthalmologist leaving for Oxford on Wednesday. This leave moi all alone here in rural Cantoland. How depressing huh? *sniff* I shall not wallow in self-misery *sniff* and get out and take life by the horns.. *yea right.. flops back into the duvet*

While I was pondering the eccentricities of this tiny nation, I have made up my mind to start a ne project on my blog *eyes gleaming*. I shall need to find hapless volunteers for my entertainment pleasures and also for the entertainment of my loyal blog readers *Lamby sit up*.

So, more news on that front when I have trapped my victims! :) Oh by the way.. It's National Day tomorrow. On a normal Aberdeen Expat National Day celebration, we tend to go for a picnic/barbeque and sing the national anthem while waving the flag to passer bys. The women then to choose more discreet and isolated locations while the men would prefer crowded areas when the choice is left to them. This year, I shall be celebrating it in another country with myself. And maybe some Indonesian Satay. Pathetic huh? The food I can come up with...

Shoes are a Girl's Best Friend

I was out at the weekend, showing my podiatry student the lie of Cantoland's extensive shopping malls. It is so much better than those of UK and Malaysia. To say that you will get shopping fatigue is no joke. The student I was showing around is a known compulsive shopper. In fact, we both agreed we need to go for SA (Shopaholics Anonymous) sessions for therapy. However, as her suitcase was already overweight on the way here, there was no way she was able to bring all the goodies back. So I shopped on her behalf.

We were looking at the choices of footwear available to the discerning woman. I have to say, the choices are beyond the imagination. You would think they would have exhausted the designs but no, the boutiques were showcasing so many shoes that were unique and quirky. How am I ever going to be able to top them? Those who know me, would know I have a large number of shoes not suitable for general consumption. But I am a podiatrist, I know what I am getting myself into... =)

So to see more fantastically different shoes and even being able to have them made to measure to your exact specifications in three days for such little money was brilliant. I love my new leather pumps that is patterned broadsheet! Thank goodness I live so far away from shoe shops. I have to find innovative ways to store them. I went off to Ikea to find a solution to my storage problems and found some cute baskets in which I can stick my shoes. Way better than boring shoe racks and lighter to bring back too!

The joys of shopping! My mother think I should find something better to fill my time otherwise I would just work and shop. Hmm...

Typhoon Nuri

I found out on Wednesday that a typhoon was heading towards Hong Kong. I was just a little skeptical , I mean, it was calm though hot. No winds, no currents. However, my patients on Thursday told me that this was the "calm before the storm" (this saying exist in Chinese too! Chicken and egg?). The air was heavier, the winds non-existent, the birds and the crickets fleeing, and the old women with arthritic joints complaining of pain and 'wind' in their bones. That was how they predicted a typhoon in the old days. Nowadays, they have fancy smancy devices at the Hong Kong Observatory that would give you detailed weather reports.

The signal was One until Thursday evening. As I have described previously, you get signal one, three, then eight is when you don't go to work and it works up to nine with a maximum of ten. The finals for the equeastrian events were on Thursday night and thus I suspected they were reluctant to reschedule the event for another day therefore the late raise in signal until later in the evening.

This morning I woke up to calm skies and sunshine. I was thinking how ironic if the typhoon didn't happen and Cantoland would be in an uproar to discover they had to go to work today. =)

It was typhoon signal Eight. I called them bluff and figured they just wanted to keep people happy or face a backlash of unhappy skivers. So I went back to sleep until later in the morning. By the time I decided to wake up it had started raining. So being the ever curious trill-seeker that I am, I brought my student podiatrist out to Causeway Bay for Dim Sum and shopping. The shops were all shut but there were still loads of people wandering about. Your average tourist was looking all lost and wondering what all the fuss was about. It was, afterall, no worse than the average Scottish day or so my student podiatrist put it. They upped the Signal to Nine which was exciting though looked like an overkill. The overhead speakers were going into overdrive telling people not to go outside as Typhoon Nuri was going directly for Hong Kong. The winds started howling a little louder and we started looking up to check if things were going to fall on our heads. So after wandering about aimlessly at Causeway Bay, Shatin and City One we decided to rent DVDs and head back to hide out. By this time it was getting pretty dangerous to stay outside. The non-essential services had been closed and airports, the stock exchange, shops, buses and ferries were all shut down. The MTR was running at 15 minute intervals instead of their usual 2 minute intervals.

As I looked out my bedroom window, it is kinda unnerving to see the cranes swaying in the gale force winds. The fire truck and ambulances lights flashing intermittently and the trees bent in all directions with howling winds billowing. I just hope that it will subside tomorrow as I have a ballet to go to and a pretty dress to wear. One can always live in hope. Typhoons are only fun when it's a weekday.

The Happy List

My sister sends me spam all the time. Yesterday she sent me one about lists. Now, Miss Lamby is the Queen of making lists. She makes lists for everything with a column for checking at the end. :) She is more organised that I am, and I am 23!

Anyways, this time round, the email was a story about this teacher who asked her students to list one thing that was special about everyone in their class. The teacher then compiled them into individual lists for all her students. The story goes that everyone was pleasantly touched by the various descriptions that their friends had for them, and years later still kept those treasured lists.

I want to start my own Happy List. If I could invite everyone who reads this blog to leave me one word or term that tells me how much I mean to you it would be great. I know this is very kiasu and thick-faced. But I am depressed now and I need a little pick-me-up. =P I promise I will write them down and pin it up on my wall so that I can remind myself what I mean to other people and then I won't feel so blue anymore. Pretty please? :)

I will write one back for you too!:) Thank you!

Blues

The girls have left me all alone in Cantoland with no one to play with, no one to talk to, no one to lean on and cry about all the injustice in the world and no one to eat Hui Lau Shan with. =(

I had a brilliant time while it lasted. However, the distance just makes the seperation all the more painful and the knowledge that we can't just hop onto a train/bus to crash and do girly things is too depressing to think about. *think happy thoughts*

I hate feeling low. I hate the sense that I am unable to do something worthwhile with myself. I hate not being able to be there for the people I care about. However, the greatest discomfort is feeling that maybe, you are just not good enough? Confidence is a fragile thing.

Olympic Season

The Olympic opening ceremony was amazing. Ra and I had dinner and watched it from the comfort of the local cha chan teng. China put up an amazing show and has truly arrived. We went for our daily dose of Hui Lau Shan dessert and had a massage to ease the kinks in the shoulders.

Nits is arriving tomorrow! :) We have a fantastic weekend planned up and are going for the Olympic dressage on sunday. It shall be fabulous to have the girls around with us. The only one missing is sweet Lai Ye * hint hint* but we will eat an extra mango pudding for her.

Go Purple!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am sad. I don't want to go back to work. But I have a suitcase of instant noodles to finish and my girls are coming to visit me in less than 24 hours! :) So that makes my trip back all the more bearable. I will miss the family who are having a party in rural Sarawak without me, my friends who are here from all over and the fifth sibling. It is very tempting to bring the fifth sibling back to Hong Kong but I will be disowned by my family forever and my cat Mango will die a slow and painful death.

I went to the Curve yesterday on a 'me and my dad' trip. If things go as planned, I may come back here on a ad hoc basis. We shall wait and see. On one hand, if they do go along with it, I will be back here for good *AArghhh*. On the other, ad hoc work that is well paid is hard to say no to especially when country hopping coperate work is involved. For the time being, HK is my life.

We went out with some friends from Aberdeen. Four days from now, we would have been back in Malaysia for one year. Its been a while huh? Time flies when you're busy having fun. Now I have aunties with 35 year old nephews wanting to be matchmade. It is scary to think that as I age, my wrinkles will be more pronounced and my skin will sag.

I don't want to grow old!