Thursday, April 27, 2006

To Rain or Not to Rain?

Expecting to Rain.Not too Stuffy.27C

It's said to rain for a few days already but I haven't seen a drop of rain, and I've been carrying an umbrella (two on the way home this evening) like an idiot. So when is it going to rain?! Not that I'm pleading it to rain, but to make HKO's credibility looks like it's >0, it really should start raining.

Oh, and apparently Rain (Korean hottest hip-hop singer/superstar) was beaten by Ang Lee to be Time's online poll for the Asian People of the Year. Or so I read. Yeah!

Today's not a bad day, considering the day before's mishaps. We got the tix to Frankfurt (Yay!) at the new lower price (so my travel agent was diligent enough to report to me immediately when a new price was launched). I got my work done - even though I managed to close the file without saving it at 5.25pm. So, in 90 minutes I have to dig through my brain to restore the work that I have been working on for the whole afternoon. Well, I managed. I suppose, that means, I wasn't much productive this afternoon.

And can you believe it, Da Vinci code the movie is finally out (on May 19). Just watched the trailer. Even though I don't agree with the choice of actor for Robert Langdon (I thought it's going to be someone like Matthew McConnaughey), the trailer gave a full rebuttal of displaying an action packed, glamourous (at least in the museum and the castle) and thrilling movie. Best of all, Paul Bettany is playing the bad guy (I couldn't imagine who would be the right person when I was reading the novel - that was before any movie plan was released...)!! He's really great - I still could picture him now in A Beautiful Mind. Can't wait.

(picture from www.movies.com)

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

not a good day

This is actually a late post for yesterday.

urgh.. totally not a good day. First, I was dozing off in the morning constantly, trying very hard to fight off the drooppiness every minute. I didn't even realize he came to use the Bloomberg terminal. So he might have seen me "fishing".

Then it was a mediocre day, with low productivity. Well, at least I got one simple macro done (at first I thought it'll be very hard to write, but it turned out otherwise). After that, I started to work on another one, which I'm not sure if the whole process will improve the original at all. One good thing of the day is that I at least got to the gym and exercised for 30 minutes. Not bad.

The follow up check with my travel agent was not the least encouraging. The flight that I really wanted to get is still full and the other one is almost full (4 seats left as of yesterday). And the ticket is actually more expensive than what other people has told me. So it's a dilemma of giving the business to my travel agent (as my mum constantly said that she has very heavy financial burdens) or saving our own $$. It's a tough choice. So today I'll have to challenge her to lower the price. How nice I'd be.

Well, when I thought that they day was going to end smoothly..... the most embarrassing thing happened. I forgot to zip up and went to the pantry to fill up my mug. Was anyone at the pantry? OH YES. One fund man and the whole group of sales (his whole team - why the hell would you be having market commentary/direction meeting at 5.30pm?!). I didn't realize until I returned to my seat - no wonder the fund man was shotting me this weird look. I'm praying (still) that nobody saw it. urgh... it's an unbearable thought.

The day ended (um... before I got home actually) with a wasteful doctor appointment. I wanted to have a thorough eye check to make sure that my retina is not falling or tearing, so I went to my GP to get a referral letter. While my colleague has already advised me I should said "my eyes are painful" instead, I have inadvertently leaked out that I wanted to have a preventive check up. Urgh... that means no coverage from insurance at all (i.e. extra payment to the GP and the same for the SP). urgh urgh urgh. Fine. Money is nothing. Honesty is everything. I'll commend myself for being an honest and righteous person.

Hopefully the rant and babble will cast away the bad luck from yesterday and reveal a much better day today. will see.....

Monday, April 24, 2006

我見到側田!!

天陰有雨.24C.

今天公司是是非日.雞毛蒜皮的事情發生了一大堆.散步是我就當了錄音機給我媽說了一遍.得出的結論是:少說話,多做事.還是這句至理名言!

說得是非多,心情也會變壞的.幸好散完步後在回家路上碰到剛從日本料理店吃完飯的Justin!! Justin今天身穿白色polo tee,帽子當然不缺了.一步出門口就和他的朋友討論著停在料理店門前的一輛白色mini cooper (車牌CC924) ,跟他十分相配! :P 他一邊說一邊眨眼睛,好像小孩子一樣.不過就是矮了一點,比我高不了多少... 我媽還說他幾靚仔呀!這算是今天的甜點了!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

夏天已在輕輕地敲著門

天朗氣清.微風.26C

夏天真的已經靜悄悄的來了.看!傍晚6.45的天空還是亮的呢.似乎在嘲笑我,你今天怎麼這麼早就下班呢.

晚上去散步,因馬場有夜馬,所以得繞著馬場外圈走.一路走著,聞到陣陣幽幽清新花香.一直在找到底是甚麼花在發放著這初夏的氣味.走過花架時,花香更濃,一仰頭,乍見那一縷縷的金絲著在吞吐著那芳香.初夏良夜如此,只嫌路上的車有點嘈.

還未準備好,夏天就來了.身上的肥膏得往哪處藏?

Friday, April 14, 2006

What Does Your Birthday Mean?

Cloudy.23C

Just taken a quiz about my birthday...
You have a Type A personality so big it makes other Type A's shrink away in shame. You never shy away from adversity - and you love to tackle impossible problems. Failure is not an option for you, and more than a few people are put off by your ego. You tend to be controlling, and you hate leaving anything up to chance.
Your strength: Your bold approach to life
Your weakness: You don't accept help
Your power color: Bronze
Your power symbol: Pyramid
Your power month: October
Oh yeah? Failure is not an option for you?! OH gosh... I think I've failed enough times that I'm not qualified to have my birthday.... what should I do???
Btw, Happy Birthday, Mum!!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

About the Toilets

Cloudy.Possible Rain.23C (dropped from a whopping 29C yesterday!)

I'm finally done with The Devils, and so I can start concentrating on what I should for the next couple of months. Easter holiday starts tomorrow (hurray!) and that serves my purpose very well - I can either waste it totally or max it out to, um yes, study for my upcoming ever-haunting exam.

I'm not going to write a book report on The Devils because my view is not important and there really isn't much to say. All I want is to see the trailer!!! Imagine all the glamourous clothes and the "I'm so fat" girls. All is comedy material. Let's see how the director makes it remarkable.

Oh yeah, I'm going to write all about the toilets in my office. Well, not exactly about the physical equipment, but rather about the place/venue/space/vacuum. It's soooooooooooo interesting that I should devote a whole entry to it. I should continue writing tomorrow because I want to sleep now! :P

Friday, April 07, 2006

Trailer! Trailer!

Cloudy(Again!).Breezy.22C

We have strived past the movie world into the trailer world. It just seems to me that a 1-minute trailer is able to tell you the story and lures me into the theatre to find out the details. Maybe it only works for the curious people like me. But often times, you will still be unable to resist the temptation to find out yourself how good the movie is, regardless of what and how many negative things you have heard about it.

That said, ever since I've seen the photo of Anne Hathaway (why is she not blonde?) posed against Meryl Streep for The Devil Wears Prada, I kept placing their faces in mind when I read the novel. I'm half way through the book now and I despearately need the trailer to supply me with more images and vignettes to finish off the book. (I have actually skim-read the ending, which is something that I highly suppress myself from doing usually. So it tells how "interesting" the book is right now...) Honestly speaking, the book is all movie material: glamourous setting, gorgeous costumes (all brand names!!), beautiful babes (both gender!) and all sorts of unfortunate events (i.e. orders from the unreasonable boss). But the flow of the book is just not smooth enough. It's in Manhattan so it should also have this sense of urgency, which keeps the whole thing going and makes it difficult for the reader to stop. But no... Unfortunately, there were too much moaning and groaning which drags the pace, and yeah, it's funny at the beginning, but not anymore after you read the same for the next 20 pages or so. And for goodness' sake, this is not a saga or literature masterpiece, I'd be very grateful if the chapters can be cut down half to around 25 pages or so.

And that's why I really want to see the trailer. It'll work both ways: to see the movie is to judge how much better it will be than the book itself, and then I can just give up the book altogether. And if the trailer is not good then I'll just forget the whole thing about the movie and the book. [note: I'm trying to find an excuse to stop reading the book. :P] I guess sometimes word of the mouth is really not a good way to pick up a book. Rule of Four was one instance, this is another. Oh well... Anyway, the movie poster is SUPER. To all those suffering from the Boss from Hell:

I'm trying to sleep before 11pm

Apr 6, 2006: Cloudy.22C.But still feeling sticky.

I've set a goal for myself today at work: get out of the office before 7pm and send out the 5 easier reports. Well, of course, as one of my ex-colleagues said, goals were set to be broken. I managed to leave the office building at 7.10, but only got 2 out of the 5 reports done. But I was feeling so sleepy throughout the day!! I could barely stop myself from yawning. I reckoned it wouldn't do me any good to stay on (not even a minute longer), and so home I went.

I have been constantly told by my therapists that I have to sleep before 11pm to let my kidneys rest and detox. It's just difficult. Take tonight as an example. I had nothing much to do, but to check my credit card statement (making sure that I didn't buy too much stuff!!), and emails, and then I should go to bed. But somehow I managed to drag until now (23:42)! I guess I can't complain when I feel that my kidneys are rather swollen and aching, since I have given up a chance for them to rest. My therapists said that I'm edematous because my kidneys are not functioning well to get the fluids to leave my body, and that they are practically soaked in fluids. >_<~~~

I will try to sleep before 11pm.

[oh great. Server's down. I'll have to post this with tomorrow's date then.. Whatever.]

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Crying baby & Droopy Sheep

Stuffy.Cloudy.And it's BLOODY 27C

How is it possible that at the mere beginning of April, which is supposed to be the nurturing spring, that we have already climbed to a high of 29C?! I can only proclaim that the world has gone mad! (At least the climate has, if not everything/one else in the world!)

****
I'm useless when it comes to watching movies. I mean I can cry during almost every movie that I watch. Here are a bunch of movies that I've watched lately (mostly were watched on the planes) :
Casablanca (finally!!) - nope (!)
Brokeback Mountain - teary but didn't cry
2 Become 1 (天生一對) - cried a little
Before Twenty, Before Too Old (b420) - didn't cry but was quite touched
Mrs. Henderson Presents - cried a little
Where the Truth Lies - nope (i think I yawned a bit)
Inside Man - nope (don't think there's any touching moment...)
Aeon Flux - nope (because it's pretty crappy)
The Family Stone - cried a little when Meredith handed out the portrait of a pregnant Sybil out to everyone as Christmas present
Elizabethtown - cried a little
North Country - cried a little
Well, I suppose if I didn't cry (unless it's a comedy) it means that the movie (1) is not intended to make me cry, (2) is crappy, or (3) I simply have no interest in it (but then usually i don't watch movies that I'm not interested). Brokeback and Casablanca were somehow the exceptions because they are supposed to be the tear bombers.
Brokeback Mountain is, admittedly, a very beautiful movie, but it's not something that touches me. If the element of homosexuality were stripped away and replaced by hetereosexuality, would it make the story as compelling and controversial? I think not. I doubt if anyone would actually pay a good HK$70 to watch this sort of old tale, let alone shedding a few tears for them. What Ennis and Jack did was a true and simple illustration of infidelity. But what moved a lot of people or stirred up the heat is that they were both men. And, they were born in a very conservative time/area. That means it's not really the "what" and the "who" that were the touching elements in the movie, but the "when" and the "where". As for the "how", I'm sure the couple in any other odd movie would go through a similar track.
As for Casablanca, I have truly no idea that I didn't find it the least bit appealing. The acting were stiff. The story was plain (it's supposed to be touching!). The editing was rough. I suppose I just don't appreciate classical movie as much as I have expected. I remember watching Gone With the Wind and falling asleep in the middle, and so we (Helen and I) had to watched it in 2 parts because we simply could not follow the story any longer. But I remember that watching the Audrey Hepburn movies were fun. I should start watching the VCDs of her movies which I've bought from HMV a while ago!
****
I didn't buy much from this trip to Auckland as there was nothing much to buy. But at the airport, this funny little toy has caught my eye - a droopie sheep. It's just a cute looking, sleeping sheep, presented in a form of soft toy, and stuffed with a battery and a switch (hidden in one of its rear hoof). When you pressed the hoof (i.e. pressed the button), the droopy sheep will start to snore. Well, snoring isn't cute most of the time (try to sneak a look at your Dad when he's sleeping & snoring), but this sheep defines a new image of snoring. It's just as cute as a baby!! What's more, it doesn't only snore, but it inhales and exhales (i.e. the body of the toy expands and contracts to mimick the look of breathing)! Since I have grown into a habit of collecting sheep (only cute ones) collectibles, the droopie sheep of course has immediately made its way to my collection. I've taken a 30 sec clip of the whole snoring routine, but the file is too big to post it here, so here's a picture of the lovely sheep instead:
lala~ sweet dreams!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Me Back!

Occasionally Rainy.23C

Just want to say that I'm back and I'm dead tired. Watched all watchable movies on the plane, and only read a few pages of Prada devil [*guilty*]. Still gotta blow dry my hair but photos from Auckland's fine weather are here:

A city grows, just like a person, and even though the places are still where they were (which is only what it seems because in reality it's not - the grounds move, landscape changes, etc etc), it's not quite the same as when I was being part of it. So much for nostalgia.