Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Clerks and Chicken Parm
Last night I had to explain what the word cheesy meant to a guy at work. It's definitely a more difficult word to define than I would have thought before I tried.
Anyway, I'm not hear to talk about cheesy things accept maybe the chicken parmigiana referenced in the title.
Today... I had a 9:30 to 4:30 meeting cancelled. (Nothing good can come from a 7 hour long meeting. Nothing. That many human beings cramped into a small room together for that long a period of time with no alcohol can only amount to trouble). But it was only cancelled after getting to the location and being told half an hour later. Fair enough. But this sets the tone for the entire day.
A group of us went out to lunch today to a vegetarian place actually. I only know what half of what I ate was, but it was all vegetarian and some of it was styled like meat. It was all pretty tasty, though. As we're heading back and the folks from the main office have broken off, we start getting notified that we can't go back to the office. There was apparently a big fire in the building our office is in, and a lot of the building was filled with smoke. So myself and the group of friends I went to lunch with walked around the pet stores checking out all the kittens, puppies, turtles, lizards, rabbits, etc. After maybe an hour we decided to do tea and pastry to kill some time. Then we headed to a mall nearby to putz around. Mind you we keep getting updates about the smoke and how we can't get back to the office... finally between 3:30 and 4 they've opened the building and we can go back. Yay.
The building still had smokey smell to it but mostly in the elevator/lobby areas. Our office was fine.
So now I have to try to refocus and finish the calcs I was trying to work on this morning between my cancelled meeting and lunch. Meanwhile everyone's talking about the smoke and the fire and the secretary is telling everyone that they're free to go home if they don't feel well from the smoke.
While I'm doing this, I get asked, even though it's 5 on a Friday, if I could be available to travel to Dublin for meetings on Monday/Tuesday. I have a site visit here in Hong Kong that I don't want to go to, but I've already arranged on Tuesday, but I'm being told that if we can pull off the travel, I should go to Ireland and blow off the site visit. Now it's inching closer to 6, I want to call it a week and get out, I have no ability to focus on the calculation in front of me, and we're trying to see if we want to throw everything together last minute for me to go on on this trip.
The verdict, after a call to Tokyo to talk to the PM and then a call our team leader's mobile, who was out of the office on a personal matter, was to scrap attending the meeting live and just live with teleconference. It was all just talk. The chaos subsided I settle down to finally finish my calculation before I leave the office.
After all the excitement I settle on not going out anywhere and just making my way home. I stop at the grocery store and pick up the necessary ingredients to make myself a nice chicken parm hero. I've earned it and there's not really anywhere out here that's going to make one as good as I can make one for myself. So I settle down, with my delicious sandwich, in front of Clerks, a movie that will bring me home to the shore, and at the same time remind me of the guys back in Colorado with whom a well timed Kevin Smith reference rarely goes unappreciated.
The reason I'm writing all this is to get to a moment I had at one point in a movie I've seen countless times. I was sitting here, thinking, as I had in the past, that I didn't understand Dante. Why was he doing all this? Why was he jeopardizing a good thing? But then I realized, I've been Dante. I know exactly what goes through Dante's mind. And it's kind of shocking because every previous time I've watched this and even the first half of this time, I'm sitting there shaking my head wanting to smack Dante. It was a bit of an eye opener.
Well here's to the start of what's sure to be an interesting weekend.
Cheers!
Anyway, I'm not hear to talk about cheesy things accept maybe the chicken parmigiana referenced in the title.
Today... I had a 9:30 to 4:30 meeting cancelled. (Nothing good can come from a 7 hour long meeting. Nothing. That many human beings cramped into a small room together for that long a period of time with no alcohol can only amount to trouble). But it was only cancelled after getting to the location and being told half an hour later. Fair enough. But this sets the tone for the entire day.
A group of us went out to lunch today to a vegetarian place actually. I only know what half of what I ate was, but it was all vegetarian and some of it was styled like meat. It was all pretty tasty, though. As we're heading back and the folks from the main office have broken off, we start getting notified that we can't go back to the office. There was apparently a big fire in the building our office is in, and a lot of the building was filled with smoke. So myself and the group of friends I went to lunch with walked around the pet stores checking out all the kittens, puppies, turtles, lizards, rabbits, etc. After maybe an hour we decided to do tea and pastry to kill some time. Then we headed to a mall nearby to putz around. Mind you we keep getting updates about the smoke and how we can't get back to the office... finally between 3:30 and 4 they've opened the building and we can go back. Yay.
The building still had smokey smell to it but mostly in the elevator/lobby areas. Our office was fine.
So now I have to try to refocus and finish the calcs I was trying to work on this morning between my cancelled meeting and lunch. Meanwhile everyone's talking about the smoke and the fire and the secretary is telling everyone that they're free to go home if they don't feel well from the smoke.
While I'm doing this, I get asked, even though it's 5 on a Friday, if I could be available to travel to Dublin for meetings on Monday/Tuesday. I have a site visit here in Hong Kong that I don't want to go to, but I've already arranged on Tuesday, but I'm being told that if we can pull off the travel, I should go to Ireland and blow off the site visit. Now it's inching closer to 6, I want to call it a week and get out, I have no ability to focus on the calculation in front of me, and we're trying to see if we want to throw everything together last minute for me to go on on this trip.
The verdict, after a call to Tokyo to talk to the PM and then a call our team leader's mobile, who was out of the office on a personal matter, was to scrap attending the meeting live and just live with teleconference. It was all just talk. The chaos subsided I settle down to finally finish my calculation before I leave the office.
After all the excitement I settle on not going out anywhere and just making my way home. I stop at the grocery store and pick up the necessary ingredients to make myself a nice chicken parm hero. I've earned it and there's not really anywhere out here that's going to make one as good as I can make one for myself. So I settle down, with my delicious sandwich, in front of Clerks, a movie that will bring me home to the shore, and at the same time remind me of the guys back in Colorado with whom a well timed Kevin Smith reference rarely goes unappreciated.
The reason I'm writing all this is to get to a moment I had at one point in a movie I've seen countless times. I was sitting here, thinking, as I had in the past, that I didn't understand Dante. Why was he doing all this? Why was he jeopardizing a good thing? But then I realized, I've been Dante. I know exactly what goes through Dante's mind. And it's kind of shocking because every previous time I've watched this and even the first half of this time, I'm sitting there shaking my head wanting to smack Dante. It was a bit of an eye opener.
Well here's to the start of what's sure to be an interesting weekend.
Cheers!
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Ceci n'est pas une blog post
I haven't written anything in a while because I've had nothing to say. Or too much. Or too much and nothing at the same time but to the wrong people. I can't put my reasoning into words but I had some crazy reasoning.
Canada was perfect. I felt completely at home for the first time in a long time. They say home is where the heart is... to my travel companion in the great white north: you're awesome and I miss you and those dinners were amazing!
I was in Manila briefly. It happened. I'm still laughing. Thanks, Jade.
When I first wrote this I wrote a bunch of stuff that was sort of on my mind but it was very boring mind dump kind of stuff. I deleted it, don't worry you weren't missing anything. But I will say is that writing anything as late in the night as I did will lead to some pointless rambling. Not drunk talk, more... the kind of things you feel are really necessary to write about at 1:30 in the morning... and then you get up and do normal life stuff for a while and your real brain gets back on the job. It's like the minute or so in basketball when mostly bench guys are on the court and the team lags a little while the starters rest. Then the minute the coach puts a few of the starters back in the game the team picks right up again. Last night, the bench brain squad was on the metaphorical mental court, while the starting brain was sipping Gatorade and getting the cheerleader's phone number. But this morning the starting brain was back in the game and order has been restored.
A few weeks ago, I went out with a bunch of locals from work for the first time. These guys and girls are good people, but it seems like if I'm out on a Friday it's always with expats. But that night was fun. I had some great food with them (I love eating with locals because they just order a bunch of stuff and I don't have to think about to order.) But the event of the night was a bar/pool hall that also has set ups for you to play your favorite old college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. I haven't played either since I was in college. It was mostly locals and a small group of expats that work on the airport project with everyone. It was great to be out having fun with the local guys, socializing with them, cracking jokes. I had a blast and I hope I can get out with them again soon.
While I was out yesterday, getting some half decent pizza and exploring some more western areas of the city, I stopped off for Brooklyn Lager and to read an English language newspaper I picked up. Bon Jovi and Springsteen came on the sound system in succession. It's like some greater force was trying to let a Jersey boy know that he was welcome, that home was just one "Born to Run" mp3 away.
I think I did well today. Good conversation with my folks, went to yoga, then got sushi and went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art for a while. That's a pretty passable in Sunday in my book.
I want to throw some congrats out to my multiple friends who got engaged recently, now if you guys would kindly coordinate your weddings to make MY travel easier ;-)
Kidding.
Sort of.
Closing thoughts: A friend at work (originally from Long Island) says that she talks more like a New Yorker when she's around me. I guess I'm a good frickin' influence on people.
Cheers and happy Presidents Day to all of my Presidential American friends.
Canada was perfect. I felt completely at home for the first time in a long time. They say home is where the heart is... to my travel companion in the great white north: you're awesome and I miss you and those dinners were amazing!
I was in Manila briefly. It happened. I'm still laughing. Thanks, Jade.
When I first wrote this I wrote a bunch of stuff that was sort of on my mind but it was very boring mind dump kind of stuff. I deleted it, don't worry you weren't missing anything. But I will say is that writing anything as late in the night as I did will lead to some pointless rambling. Not drunk talk, more... the kind of things you feel are really necessary to write about at 1:30 in the morning... and then you get up and do normal life stuff for a while and your real brain gets back on the job. It's like the minute or so in basketball when mostly bench guys are on the court and the team lags a little while the starters rest. Then the minute the coach puts a few of the starters back in the game the team picks right up again. Last night, the bench brain squad was on the metaphorical mental court, while the starting brain was sipping Gatorade and getting the cheerleader's phone number. But this morning the starting brain was back in the game and order has been restored.
A few weeks ago, I went out with a bunch of locals from work for the first time. These guys and girls are good people, but it seems like if I'm out on a Friday it's always with expats. But that night was fun. I had some great food with them (I love eating with locals because they just order a bunch of stuff and I don't have to think about to order.) But the event of the night was a bar/pool hall that also has set ups for you to play your favorite old college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. I haven't played either since I was in college. It was mostly locals and a small group of expats that work on the airport project with everyone. It was great to be out having fun with the local guys, socializing with them, cracking jokes. I had a blast and I hope I can get out with them again soon.
While I was out yesterday, getting some half decent pizza and exploring some more western areas of the city, I stopped off for Brooklyn Lager and to read an English language newspaper I picked up. Bon Jovi and Springsteen came on the sound system in succession. It's like some greater force was trying to let a Jersey boy know that he was welcome, that home was just one "Born to Run" mp3 away.
I think I did well today. Good conversation with my folks, went to yoga, then got sushi and went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art for a while. That's a pretty passable in Sunday in my book.
I want to throw some congrats out to my multiple friends who got engaged recently, now if you guys would kindly coordinate your weddings to make MY travel easier ;-)
Kidding.
Sort of.
Closing thoughts: A friend at work (originally from Long Island) says that she talks more like a New Yorker when she's around me. I guess I'm a good frickin' influence on people.
Cheers and happy Presidents Day to all of my Presidential American friends.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Long overdue holiday+ blog
So I've been busy at work, not too stressed, but definitely busy. And I've had a lot do organizing my life and the holidays were their own thing.
Anyway this year there was no Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye cinematic excellence in my Christmas. But there was one of my oldest and dearest friends, another kid the from dangerous back streets of Little Silver, Mr. Jeff Dalton. And we kept ourselves busy exploring the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. We found some bars, found some GREAT food, and definitely shared a few laughs. Thanks for coming, Jeff!
Here I am at the Po Lin Monastery in the Pakistani hat that Jeff got for me:
So we got a late start on the day and we got there and wanted to see the Buddha and the Monestary so we're not stopping for food just powering through to see everything. Now I wanted to sit down at one of the nice restaurants in the village but there's a line 90 mins long to get the gondola back to civilization and the only place still open to sell food is like a gyro fast food guy. So we go to town on gyros and fries and then wait in the cool mountain air on this line forever just to get the gondola back.
And here's Jeff with the bull who was wandering around the village on our way back. Because you know how often do you see a bull loose in the street, when you're in a major wold city...
I mentioned finding some great food, we hit up an Italian deli for Christmas Eve foods, we found a great Dim Sum place that I was sure wouldn't have an English menu but surprised with that and great Dim Sum. All in all it was a great holiday weekend.
Before I leave Christmas I want to send another shout out to the gang from New York/Boston/Long Island/Jersey who put together that great care package, it made my holiday. You guys mean the world to me.
I missed the New Years fireworks. I was feeling under the weather and took the opportunity to rest. Since it worked, and I managed to hit it strong during the week, I'm glad I did. It's funny though, because I've had some really great New Year's celebrations, with some great friends, or family. But in the end there's something about New Years... it's all build up and 12:00 always manages to fail to live up to the hype. Usually the party would have been just fine if we ignored the clock and just partied and let the calendar flip as it will. But that's not what New Year's Eve is about. Oh well.
So the holidays are over and I've got big travel plans for the end of the month. The centerpiece of my Lunar New Year travel is my awesome ski trip in Western Canada with someone I've missed terribly. Can't wait to see you! I'm so excited to hit the slopes and then settle into the condo at night. I love ski trippin'!
Then as a little bonus I'll be meeting a friend from New York in the Philippines for one day. I don't know what to expect but it'll certainly be an interesting weekend after what's sure to be a fun filled week.
At work, I'm working my tail off and we just moved offices. The whole process took the chaos up a notch but I seem to have survived with only minor bruising to my humanity.
Since I last blogged my Jets managed to flush away their season in typical grand fashion and I'm glad I didn't buy an NFL playoff package right about now. But the Devils are holding on their own and should make the playoffs and the Yankees just finally did something to improve themselves a bit. So the sports world back home isn't all bad news.
I found "Mexican food" last night with a friend of mine. This isn't Mexican food. It's Americanized Mexican-ish food. It's not to say the food was bad, it was alright food, I'd go back there, but it was really the kind of place I expect to find passing for Mexican food near the Canada-US boarder in Vermont.
Lastly I have few funny pictures:
"Ho Kung Fu"
I suppose self defense is important in that line of work...
What makes this funny is that this restaurant is at the airport. It implies that you should get on your flight and then ask "the Captain" about how to follow up on the take away roast goose. Of course I was informed that the Chinese word implies someone at the restaurant but I'm going to go with the literal English translation and see where that gets me next time I want roast goose on a flight out of Hong Kong.
I'll be back after my travels.
Cheers!!
Anyway this year there was no Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye cinematic excellence in my Christmas. But there was one of my oldest and dearest friends, another kid the from dangerous back streets of Little Silver, Mr. Jeff Dalton. And we kept ourselves busy exploring the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. We found some bars, found some GREAT food, and definitely shared a few laughs. Thanks for coming, Jeff!
Here I am at the Po Lin Monastery in the Pakistani hat that Jeff got for me:
So we got a late start on the day and we got there and wanted to see the Buddha and the Monestary so we're not stopping for food just powering through to see everything. Now I wanted to sit down at one of the nice restaurants in the village but there's a line 90 mins long to get the gondola back to civilization and the only place still open to sell food is like a gyro fast food guy. So we go to town on gyros and fries and then wait in the cool mountain air on this line forever just to get the gondola back.
And here's Jeff with the bull who was wandering around the village on our way back. Because you know how often do you see a bull loose in the street, when you're in a major wold city...
I mentioned finding some great food, we hit up an Italian deli for Christmas Eve foods, we found a great Dim Sum place that I was sure wouldn't have an English menu but surprised with that and great Dim Sum. All in all it was a great holiday weekend.
Before I leave Christmas I want to send another shout out to the gang from New York/Boston/Long Island/Jersey who put together that great care package, it made my holiday. You guys mean the world to me.
I missed the New Years fireworks. I was feeling under the weather and took the opportunity to rest. Since it worked, and I managed to hit it strong during the week, I'm glad I did. It's funny though, because I've had some really great New Year's celebrations, with some great friends, or family. But in the end there's something about New Years... it's all build up and 12:00 always manages to fail to live up to the hype. Usually the party would have been just fine if we ignored the clock and just partied and let the calendar flip as it will. But that's not what New Year's Eve is about. Oh well.
So the holidays are over and I've got big travel plans for the end of the month. The centerpiece of my Lunar New Year travel is my awesome ski trip in Western Canada with someone I've missed terribly. Can't wait to see you! I'm so excited to hit the slopes and then settle into the condo at night. I love ski trippin'!
Then as a little bonus I'll be meeting a friend from New York in the Philippines for one day. I don't know what to expect but it'll certainly be an interesting weekend after what's sure to be a fun filled week.
At work, I'm working my tail off and we just moved offices. The whole process took the chaos up a notch but I seem to have survived with only minor bruising to my humanity.
Since I last blogged my Jets managed to flush away their season in typical grand fashion and I'm glad I didn't buy an NFL playoff package right about now. But the Devils are holding on their own and should make the playoffs and the Yankees just finally did something to improve themselves a bit. So the sports world back home isn't all bad news.
I found "Mexican food" last night with a friend of mine. This isn't Mexican food. It's Americanized Mexican-ish food. It's not to say the food was bad, it was alright food, I'd go back there, but it was really the kind of place I expect to find passing for Mexican food near the Canada-US boarder in Vermont.
Lastly I have few funny pictures:
"Ho Kung Fu"
I suppose self defense is important in that line of work...
What makes this funny is that this restaurant is at the airport. It implies that you should get on your flight and then ask "the Captain" about how to follow up on the take away roast goose. Of course I was informed that the Chinese word implies someone at the restaurant but I'm going to go with the literal English translation and see where that gets me next time I want roast goose on a flight out of Hong Kong.
I'll be back after my travels.
Cheers!!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Don't expect me to cry, don't expect me to lie, don't expect me to die for thee
So I'm writing again. It's Monday, I just blogged yesterday, what could I possibly have to talk about?
Dinner.
My landlord invited me over for dinner with her family. It was her and her husband and their son and of course the domestic helper they have.
The food was delicious. Cantonese style food. We had three dishes: a sweet and sour pork dish with peppers and pineapples and other veggies, some kind of a chicken dish with carrots and potatoes, and then scallops with I think snap peas and more carrots and mushrooms. It was all delicious. We had a soup after that and then the chocolate mousse cake that I brought (always supplying the healthy food!).
They were so polite. And they started teaching me how to say a few things in Cantonese. It was a really nice gesture and I greatly appreciated it.
We had a nice conversation about Hong Kong, the culture, they asked a lot about my and my family and America. I just... I feel very lucky. I really like them and that makes my living situation so much more... comfortable.
[The Australian news show just used the word "spifflicated".]
Thursday is apparently the winter solstice which is an important holiday here where most people leave work early to be with family. Our group is all going out to a big lunch all afternoon. (I've got too much work to do to afford the time off, but if everyone's going...)
And of course to tie back into the title of this post:
Cheers all!
Dinner.
My landlord invited me over for dinner with her family. It was her and her husband and their son and of course the domestic helper they have.
The food was delicious. Cantonese style food. We had three dishes: a sweet and sour pork dish with peppers and pineapples and other veggies, some kind of a chicken dish with carrots and potatoes, and then scallops with I think snap peas and more carrots and mushrooms. It was all delicious. We had a soup after that and then the chocolate mousse cake that I brought (always supplying the healthy food!).
They were so polite. And they started teaching me how to say a few things in Cantonese. It was a really nice gesture and I greatly appreciated it.
We had a nice conversation about Hong Kong, the culture, they asked a lot about my and my family and America. I just... I feel very lucky. I really like them and that makes my living situation so much more... comfortable.
[The Australian news show just used the word "spifflicated".]
Thursday is apparently the winter solstice which is an important holiday here where most people leave work early to be with family. Our group is all going out to a big lunch all afternoon. (I've got too much work to do to afford the time off, but if everyone's going...)
And of course to tie back into the title of this post:
Cheers all!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
An afternoon beverage...
I got my Christmas packages sent out today, I'm a little skeptical about the process of writing the contents on the box for customs and how that kind of ruins Christmas... Don't customs officers love Jesus?
But none the less I sent things as fast as I could, I think. The guy wouldn't really commit to anything, more of a suggestion. And it wasn't all that expensive. The shipping didn't cost more than the items. Nice.
So feeling good about being done with that hassle (and let me tell you hauling boxes full of gifts on the MTR, through TST, to the ATM to get cash, and finally to the post office was exhausting) I thought I'd reward myself with lunch and a pint at a pub.
A pub with Stars of David on their Christmas decorations.
Now I'm finishing my lunch and enjoying the second half of my Guinness when a gentlemen walks in and sits down who happens to wearing a Devils cap. There are like 20 of us Devils world wide and most of them live IN NEW JERSEY. Meeting one in Hong Kong seems impossible. But there I am having a conversation with another New Yorker about American sports and specifically our New York area teams. Nuts.
To add to the chain of coincidences, while I'm talking to this guy, an architect that I'm working with on one of my projects walks in with his girlfriend/wife.
In the span that I was there, I met a guy who lives in Hells Kitchen who's also an engineer and a Devils fan and ran into one of the countable number of people I know in Hong Kong... Was there some mystical significance to that place? Was I supposed to be there on a metaphysical level? The world may never know.
In other news the apartment is a lot more apartment-y with a couch and pretty much all of my furniture. I know how exciting my furniture news is for you guys.
Right now I'm looking forward to seeing my old friend Mr. Jeff Dalton for Christmas. We'll probably head out to the western district and see what kind of trouble we can dig up.
Oh and my landlord invited me over for dinner this coming week. Her and her husband have been nothing but nice and helpful about the whole process. So I'm looking forward to it.
That's all, what's up in your world people? I love hearing from my friends and family, so please throw me a line.
Merry Christmas everyone and I'll catch you on the flip side.
But none the less I sent things as fast as I could, I think. The guy wouldn't really commit to anything, more of a suggestion. And it wasn't all that expensive. The shipping didn't cost more than the items. Nice.
So feeling good about being done with that hassle (and let me tell you hauling boxes full of gifts on the MTR, through TST, to the ATM to get cash, and finally to the post office was exhausting) I thought I'd reward myself with lunch and a pint at a pub.
A pub with Stars of David on their Christmas decorations.Now I'm finishing my lunch and enjoying the second half of my Guinness when a gentlemen walks in and sits down who happens to wearing a Devils cap. There are like 20 of us Devils world wide and most of them live IN NEW JERSEY. Meeting one in Hong Kong seems impossible. But there I am having a conversation with another New Yorker about American sports and specifically our New York area teams. Nuts.
To add to the chain of coincidences, while I'm talking to this guy, an architect that I'm working with on one of my projects walks in with his girlfriend/wife.
In the span that I was there, I met a guy who lives in Hells Kitchen who's also an engineer and a Devils fan and ran into one of the countable number of people I know in Hong Kong... Was there some mystical significance to that place? Was I supposed to be there on a metaphysical level? The world may never know.
In other news the apartment is a lot more apartment-y with a couch and pretty much all of my furniture. I know how exciting my furniture news is for you guys.
Right now I'm looking forward to seeing my old friend Mr. Jeff Dalton for Christmas. We'll probably head out to the western district and see what kind of trouble we can dig up.
Oh and my landlord invited me over for dinner this coming week. Her and her husband have been nothing but nice and helpful about the whole process. So I'm looking forward to it.
That's all, what's up in your world people? I love hearing from my friends and family, so please throw me a line.
Merry Christmas everyone and I'll catch you on the flip side.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
We're going back to the blog...
Hey friends!
First off, I obviously took a while to blog again. A couple of reasons for that:
A) I've been busy. The act of moving into and furnishing an apartment is really really time consuming. (Plus side: I'm in an apartment and when my couch shows up this week, I'll actually be able to sit down and relax in my own apartment). Also work's been draining, it's been taking so much out of me that it's hard to find the energy to write about anything.
B) Work isn't the only thing that draining. Culture shock and settling in can also take a bit of an emotional toll. It hasn't been an easy adjustment and it wasn't a couple of weeks that I wanted to blog about for everyone to see. But I'm sure anyone who's done anything like this knows what I've been going through. You miss the little things that make home, home. And the little annoyances in your new location just grate on you until you can barely stand it. But you wait and you hold tough and you realize that it's all going to be alright. (A good night out drinking with another New Yorker who can talk baseball can really be a mental reboot. Good to see you Greg!)
C) Most of my expendable mental energy has gone into making sense of my other situation. I spent a lot time in self reflection and making sure I felt alright or if I didn't, why. It really was monopolizing my thoughts (and rightfully so) but again it was nothing to blog about. Despite Facebook and Twitter and all the others, deep personal introspection has no place in the digital public square.
I have no intention of complaining about any of the above, I just wanted to give some reasons for why I've been so quiet.
The big event of note was the Arup Annual Dinner. This is like a holiday party in that it's around Christmas and with everyone from the office. Those are about the only ways however. First and most notably, there is a theme. 2011: Circus Circus. So during cocktail hour* there were clowns and magicians. If your company didn't have anyone on a unicycle at the holiday party, you missed out. But the performers weren't the most noteworthy aspect of the theme. That would be the fact that those attending are welcome to dress in costume. So it's a formal thing (I wore a suit) but you can also wear a costume, there were employees dressed as clowns, monkeys, ring leaders, etc. This isn't just tolerated, there's a costume contest built into the entertainment. (More on the entertainment later). So they're giving out Long Service Awards to people who've been with the company a while and surrounded by well dressed coworkers, there's a guy in a circus monkey costume accepting his award. Now if you don't have a crazy costume but still want to accessorize they had a table with clown wigs, giant glasses, sequin bowties, etc. The Directors were encouraged to don a little gay apparel. I had never seen anything like this.
And the entertainment. They had two emcees (going over everything in two languages) they had Vegas style show girls with the outfits and the feathers, they had professional singers who apparently were old celebrities around here. A number of the locals went nuts!! (One singer sang a medley of James Bond themes...) Of course there was a live band to go with them, too. They had a professional hula hoop girl come do some amazing things! It was a spectacle. And the production value. A huge stage with a professional set. Four giant screens with pro quality video cameras filming so everyone could see from anywhere in the banquet hall. It was stunning!
And breaking up the courses of dinner were silly games. Music Bingo, create the longest chain of balloons, etc etc.
You might ask yourself, "what's the catch? That's got to be expensive." And the catch is booze. There was beer, and wine with dinner. But that's it. No real bar like at an old fashioned party at home. But I suppose you can't have it all.
So other than that, I'm finding more things to make myself comfortable here. Discovering places in the western districts that are pretty neat. There's an Italian Delicatessen that I found that I will probably go back to on regular basis. Prosciutto and Mozzarella!
What else, what else? I have a television but I'm only getting the base set of channels right now which doesn't have a wide range of English language stations. I find myself watching literally anything on the Australia Network. I might buy a BBC package and a sports package (ESPN would be so nice) but I'm going to hold off a bit on that.
I do miss all of you guys and anyone who finds themselves on Skype at an hour when I'm awake here, my skype handle is christopherpsimon.
Also download either whatsapp (+85293002381) or textplus (cpsimon), for your Androids/iPhones and we can text for free.
I'd love to hear from you guys.
Sorry I don't have pics. But I'll get some up when I have a couch and I've sorted things a little more.
Cheers!
*Cocktail hour was cheap beer, orange juice, and coca cola. No real cocktails to speak of. But it was an hour...
First off, I obviously took a while to blog again. A couple of reasons for that:
A) I've been busy. The act of moving into and furnishing an apartment is really really time consuming. (Plus side: I'm in an apartment and when my couch shows up this week, I'll actually be able to sit down and relax in my own apartment). Also work's been draining, it's been taking so much out of me that it's hard to find the energy to write about anything.
B) Work isn't the only thing that draining. Culture shock and settling in can also take a bit of an emotional toll. It hasn't been an easy adjustment and it wasn't a couple of weeks that I wanted to blog about for everyone to see. But I'm sure anyone who's done anything like this knows what I've been going through. You miss the little things that make home, home. And the little annoyances in your new location just grate on you until you can barely stand it. But you wait and you hold tough and you realize that it's all going to be alright. (A good night out drinking with another New Yorker who can talk baseball can really be a mental reboot. Good to see you Greg!)
C) Most of my expendable mental energy has gone into making sense of my other situation. I spent a lot time in self reflection and making sure I felt alright or if I didn't, why. It really was monopolizing my thoughts (and rightfully so) but again it was nothing to blog about. Despite Facebook and Twitter and all the others, deep personal introspection has no place in the digital public square.
I have no intention of complaining about any of the above, I just wanted to give some reasons for why I've been so quiet.
The big event of note was the Arup Annual Dinner. This is like a holiday party in that it's around Christmas and with everyone from the office. Those are about the only ways however. First and most notably, there is a theme. 2011: Circus Circus. So during cocktail hour* there were clowns and magicians. If your company didn't have anyone on a unicycle at the holiday party, you missed out. But the performers weren't the most noteworthy aspect of the theme. That would be the fact that those attending are welcome to dress in costume. So it's a formal thing (I wore a suit) but you can also wear a costume, there were employees dressed as clowns, monkeys, ring leaders, etc. This isn't just tolerated, there's a costume contest built into the entertainment. (More on the entertainment later). So they're giving out Long Service Awards to people who've been with the company a while and surrounded by well dressed coworkers, there's a guy in a circus monkey costume accepting his award. Now if you don't have a crazy costume but still want to accessorize they had a table with clown wigs, giant glasses, sequin bowties, etc. The Directors were encouraged to don a little gay apparel. I had never seen anything like this.
And the entertainment. They had two emcees (going over everything in two languages) they had Vegas style show girls with the outfits and the feathers, they had professional singers who apparently were old celebrities around here. A number of the locals went nuts!! (One singer sang a medley of James Bond themes...) Of course there was a live band to go with them, too. They had a professional hula hoop girl come do some amazing things! It was a spectacle. And the production value. A huge stage with a professional set. Four giant screens with pro quality video cameras filming so everyone could see from anywhere in the banquet hall. It was stunning!
And breaking up the courses of dinner were silly games. Music Bingo, create the longest chain of balloons, etc etc.
You might ask yourself, "what's the catch? That's got to be expensive." And the catch is booze. There was beer, and wine with dinner. But that's it. No real bar like at an old fashioned party at home. But I suppose you can't have it all.
So other than that, I'm finding more things to make myself comfortable here. Discovering places in the western districts that are pretty neat. There's an Italian Delicatessen that I found that I will probably go back to on regular basis. Prosciutto and Mozzarella!
What else, what else? I have a television but I'm only getting the base set of channels right now which doesn't have a wide range of English language stations. I find myself watching literally anything on the Australia Network. I might buy a BBC package and a sports package (ESPN would be so nice) but I'm going to hold off a bit on that.
I do miss all of you guys and anyone who finds themselves on Skype at an hour when I'm awake here, my skype handle is christopherpsimon.
Also download either whatsapp (+85293002381) or textplus (cpsimon), for your Androids/iPhones and we can text for free.
I'd love to hear from you guys.
Sorry I don't have pics. But I'll get some up when I have a couch and I've sorted things a little more.
Cheers!
*Cocktail hour was cheap beer, orange juice, and coca cola. No real cocktails to speak of. But it was an hour...
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