Long Day X to a Lovely Stay: Monday’s Gray!

hello again from China!

had to climb over the firewall

so might as well blog about today

 

started today early

slept at 2, woke up at 6

and were down exploring

had some street breakfast

 

then it was a long way

checked out by 9 something

caught an express bus to the train station

managed to buy ticket

departing in 1 hour

 

that’s fine for us

but to be warned that

it was a “seatless” seat

from the billboard

looked like tickets for the day

have all been sold off

 

i was trying to console myself that

that’s quite ok as

it’s seatless as in

there’s no proper sofa seat with number

but with some stools next to the windows

 

to our horror

no there’s none

and for 2 and a half hours

we were sitting on the floor

and blocking the gates

in other words whenever

the train approached a station

we had to get up to allow other

passengers to exit or enter

 

this is a long haul train from

Shenzhen to Nanjin

so it’s kinda understandable

why the tickets are in high demand

 

our counterparts on the right door

whenever the train approached a station

we were “competing” against each other

hoping that the door will open on the other side

 

by the way isn’t that really cool

 

so we got to Putian by 2 PM

and took a 45 minute bus to the jetty

thank goodness it was a short 10 minute wait

and a 15 minute ferry ride to land on the island

 

the hotel management was kind enough

to drop me an email that

they provide pick-up service

from the jetty once we land

 

but too bad i didn’t make use of it

as i wasn’t even sure

what time will I be landing

 

so we paid 30 RMB

to take a electric car ride

which landed us in the middle of

an attraction and

we had to figure our own way

walking into the village

 

it was that kind of comfort of

coming home after a long day

lovely, really lovely

 

thought that was the end of

a long tiring day

but it wasn’t

 

got an email from client

for a minor task

and i just wanna get it done quick

 

look i have a modem

and working LAN cable in the room

but still the particular website

i was trying to access didn’t work

not blocked but the connection was really bad

 

so i had to go on roaming again

to find that the signal was kinda weak

being “stranded” on an island

 

got my client to send me an

offline copy to work on

but it was locked for some reasons

with quite a lot of complicated macros

 

thank goodness

the signal on my phone got better

when i moved to the window

and manually selected 3G network

instead of LTE/3G

 

but it actually took me almost 2 hours

to get these 200 words done

and got emails from 2 client

about invoicing issues

 

the same goes to our journey here

it took us two days to land here

in fact have visited

nothing in particular yet

 

but thank goodness

a really awesome room cured it all

and there’s a new

Wangkai’s series at 9PM

<When a Snail Falls in Love>

 

i read and finished the novel

simply because i can’t wait for it

after the series was announced

 

7 minutes to 9 PM

let’s hope that’s all for today

what a long day

Deadline Rushing X Then Blogging: From China, Happy Halloween :p

touched down safely in the afternoon

40 minutes ahead of schedule

 

before coming

was figuring out on how to access

Google, Gmail, FB, IG, Youtube

and some solutions suggested were

VPN, email forwarding

and portable Wi-fi device

 

was thinking about portable Wi-Fi

but missed the chance

because i didn’t book in time

 

despite being a well-planned trip

and booked the other 3

in 3 different cities for the next 7 days

 

i actually didn’t book

accommodation for tonight

thinking to go free and easy

and you probably can’t go wrong

being in the middle of a city

 

this is the first time

that we walked into hotel

without pre-booking and research

and not too bad for RMB 100

 

had early dinner and walked in the market

 

and i had a 6k word deadline to meet

there came the problem

the Wi-Fi wasn’t working

 

it’s the same in the lobby

and the receptionists were being frank

saying that it’s quite unstable

at the same time there was call

from guest room complaining

about the same issue

 

having issue with Wi-Fi

has always following me

from Seoul to Osaka

and today!

 

well so I turned on roaming

and that solved everything

 

while i was working

got Gmail app notification

wait you mean the Big Brother

had actually unblocked Gmail for good?

 

not really

the ultimate solution

forget about VPN and

Wi-Fi device (with limited data quota)

 

roam unlimited for 36 MYR a day

and at the same time

gaining access to all the blocked site

killing many birds with one stone, isn’t that

 

Thank you, my saviour!

p.s. this is not a sponsored post

不睡 X 沒醉：週末工作不是罪！

忙蠻忙！

從早上八點-下午六點

是除了吃早餐，全程都在工作那種

 

最痛苦的事

莫過於不能開任何音樂

翻譯訪問就是這樣

雖然也是戴著耳機

而且還是100%音量呢

 

本來晚上想去走走

後來想想東西還有一堆

浴室繼續再加班

 

到凌晨12點的時候

其實有點睡意了

還是決定吃個泡麵、喝杯可可

繼續撐了下來

 

工作還有一堆也

明早11點的飛機

乾脆不睡好了

不然等下也是得早起

東西也還沒收拾好

 

這兩個禮拜

追完《必娶》& 《小資女孩》後

每天都在重播《兜圈》

 

因為《兜圈》，我看《必娶》

因為《必娶》，我重播《兜圈》

到底還要兜多少圈呀

 

還是把MV下一下

要過上一周沒有

YouTube、IG、FB、Google

的日子確實還是會不習慣呀

 

畢竟距離上一次

也是一年前的事了

 

糾結了一下下

要不要買個 WiFi 蛋翻牆

但是有了 WiFi

脫離不了上述那些

就自然不能好好看沿途風景了

 

後來下午到網站看

太晚啦 3天前預訂呢

好吧 沒有就沒有嘛

 

老實說吧

工作的這種累

是值得的 是有成就感的

我非常珍惜這樣的日子

 

兜圈 / 林宥嘉

Final Quarter X Getting Smoother: Fight! October

25th Oct

i guess it’s best to

compile the monthly wrap-up now

instead of procrastinating on and on

and i will be away for one week

starting on 30th

 

for the past few months

the keyword “trough”

has been appearing over and over

 

the dark cloud remained to linger

during the first half of October

and seriously it got me kinda worried

 

not even hitting the minimum salary

when half of the month was over

 

and thank goodness it started to pick up

towards the second half

it’s kinda true that

bad/good things will come together

 

it feels good to be back on track

juggling a few deadlines at once

 

however in the middle of the hectic week

something unfortunate happened

lost a quotation of 500 USD

despite having offered

the best rate ever

 

and the next minute

the client was sending mass email

scouting for better deal

and i was in the mailing list too

 

that kind of insecurity

is beyond description

when the next minute

you’re being fired

 

despite being able to secure

other projects from that particular firm

the chance of securing large volume of

open-ended responses from the Chinese Market

is probably getting much slimmer

 

okay let’s move on

anyway speaking of China

got my very first payment

denoted in RMB

 

it’s an urgent task for a

university course mate in Shanghai

she was most probably

busy preparing for her wedding

 

oh dear, the pre-wedding shoot

done at Saipan was really amazing

 

so she got me to help out with

translating some slides

for an international school education fair

and everything from

quotation, delivery, payment

was done via WeChat

 

hey!

welcome to the

era of mobile payment

 

that’s all for now

and besides chasing deadlines

 

have finished 15 episodes of

75 minute series within a week

and about to finish another

series of 25 episodes

bravo!!

 

work + series

is seriously the best way to

get yourself out of relationshit

 

---

26th Oct

progress of the day by 8:30PM

and the night is still young

Tree Hut X Wooden Watch: Slowness that Hurts

I ordered this pair of watches

almost 2 months back

during mid August

 

making use of their

anniversary promo at

30% off and free shipping

 

but unfortunately

they said i will have to pay

USD 10k for the shipping

 

so i got them delivered

to my besties in Singapore

and in the process

it took some time too

 

so when it reached me

almost two months later

i have got another two new watches

in the middle, totally unexpected

and best of all

i have broken up with my ex bf

 

so it doesn’t make sense

to buy a pair of couple watch anymore

 

still..

they are looking not bad

 

except the facts that

i no longer need them in a pair and

i have other new watches to

spend time with

 

thank goodness i didn’t go for

personalized engraving

幸福 X 兜了一個圈：《必娶女人》

如果真要我把

自己看過的偶像劇列出

或許真的還沒超過10部

 

這次會看《必娶女人》

可以說 完全有點意外

最初當然是

去年通過那首林宥嘉的

片尾曲《兜圈》

 

其實也還好

也沒有這麼想看的衝動

直到上星期《金鐘》以後

突然重新提起興趣

 

或許很多的是必需平衡一下

突然決定不談戀愛的心情

 

雖然這樣

我還是相信愛情是美好的

只是。。。我無福消受而已

 

看看偶像劇打發打發時間

就正好填補了這個空缺

 

因為偶像劇裡面

即便經歷了很多很困難的事情

最後還是會有完美結局 不是嗎

 

我是星期一開始看的

今天剛好滿一周

想起來 真的

 

想當年 腦娘可以用

一個週末看完《蘭陵王》

現在 精力大不如前了

又或者其實我根本

不想這麼快結束

 

我想追完劇總結三點如下：

（1） 釜山好像不錯，我不介意列入清單

（2）iPhone真的很好用，好嗎

（3）邱澤笑起來真好看

 

老實說

我以前好像都沒有看過他的戲

印象裡就是那種花美男

要拿照片給我看 我也可能辨認不出

 

怎麼有男人會笑起來這麼好看

《您快樂，所以我快樂》的那種feel

Go Pink X Then Army Green: A Bit Untallied

lost two minor yet essential items

during the previous trip

during the return flight

 

my water bottle

i think it had drifted far backwards

as it had happened before

to our drinking water

 

but it doesn’t matter as

i am planning to replace it anyway

the problem is to

replace it with the same design

 

the second item being

my toiletry bag

due to exceeding amount of

hand carried bags from my

fellow shoppers

 

i was forced to

check in my backpack

so i took out my toiletry bag

as my sister needed the

contact lens case and solution in there

and place it in some other bag

which doesn’t belong to us two

 

so after changing it

she didn’t actually return it to me

or the person she took it from

thinking that she did return to me

 

nothing valuable in there

just some travel size bottles

of skin care and tooth products

 

thank goodness that

my new pair of spectacles

is not in there

 

sometimes i do put it

in the toiletry bag too

 

so the shopping trip of the week

is mainly concentrated to

getting replacements

 

and i am lucky enough to

find the same design

at the same outlet but different branch

 

i really dislike the

new design with the super huge logo

 

it’s funny how

i can get water bottle at

half the price of any volume

but still i have been

sticking to Nike

 

and i don’t know why is it so

the whole mall is filled with special promotion

in collaboration with my telco provider

which i am in the middle of

thinking to ditch

 

so i got two pairs of shorts for my pa

and a pair of Duramo Slide in shocking pink

 

i know it’s always on  50% off

yet always out of stock on the official site

so i decided to just get it in store

 

shocking pink doesn’t really surprise myself

as my previous pair is a pair of neon pink

which had served me well

for the past two years

 

wanted to re-order from Mysale

but the sale was closed before i did

and Ipanema doesn’t look and

feel as good these days

so i decided to just go for Duramo

instead of flip flops

 

---

on another occasion

was out with my mom

she wanted to buy this long skirt

 

not my kind of thing

but it was kinda cheap

and i don’t mind getting one

for a change

 

and i grabbed along this tank top

which reads Happy Friday

to go along with the skirt

 

and i ended up buying both

plus the one for my mom

Cross Province X with Serious Planning: Next Stop✈Canton/Fujian

a couple days after i have

landed back home from Osaka

it’s about time to

plan for our first/last/only

mainland trip of the year

 

randomly checking AirAsia

and was forced to

download the app

as i can’t even find the icon

to skip this ad

 

so i did but

the promo code didn’t work

so i got my friend to download

and she did and it worked fine

 

so i re-downloaded

and finalized two destinations

Hangzhou / Shantou

 

we have been to

Hangzhou during spring 2014

a day trip from Shanghai

and would definitely like to go again

 

but it seems that late autumn

is not really an ideal season

 

being 100% tropics

it would be safer to head south instead

 

have been to Shantou / Chaozhou

last autumn via Shenzhen

and soon after we were back

they launched this direct flight

to Shantou / Chaozhou

 

we are therefore planning to

land at this airport as

our transit to other cities via

the high speed rail network

 

so i did the booking on Sunday night

being the first time

i booked via the app

as i have been sticking to desktop

 

so basically it didn’t take long

Saturday – first check

Sunday – tickets booked

Tuesday – visa application

 

and for the next few days

we had some serious discussion

on our itinerary as

we booked

with the aim to cross province

yet with no destination in mind

 

Day 1

transport / city planning

 

Day 2

added details in terms of

time and distance estimation

 

Day 3

tentative plan

 

i think my dad has been

getting a bit too ambitious

for wanting to cover

so many cities

 

it’s almost like

one night per city

and he even wanted to add

our hometown into the

already packed itinerary

 

in the mean time

i have been scouting for hotels

so that once the plan is in shape

i can book them all immediately

 

anyway it’s a short count down

3 weeks down the road

Travel Hack X for Maths Dummy: Quick Currency Conversion

being a Maths dummy

i am not sure if

it’s a good idea to write this

 

but i found that this standard method

works for me for the past

few travel and online shopping

 

or maybe i shouldn’t have written as all

as everyone except me

has known this a long time ago

 

which involves

A: Base currency, any

B: Foreign Currency, any

C: A fixed multiplier

 

Google for the basic conversion of

1 (foreign currency) into your (base currency)

then you will get a (fixed multiplier)

 

any amount in (foreign currency) X (fixed multiplier)

= equivalent value in (base currency)

 

Eg:

1 GBP into MYR

the multiplier is 5.16 (as of 10/8/16)

 

take any value in GBP

and multiple it by 5.16

to get the equivalent value in MYR

 

1 Yen into USD

the multiplier is  0.0097 (as of 10/8/16)

 

take any value in Yen

and multiple it by 0.0097

to get the equivalent value in MYR

 

1 RMB into SGD

the multiplier is 0.21

 

take any value in RMB

and multiple it by 0.21

to get the equivalent value in SGD

aSOS X Damage Done!: Two Pairs, Max!

have been constantly checking

sneakers from ASOS and End.clothing

and tonight i found myself

suddenly landing at ASOS

thanks to this post by New Holiday

a travel magazine based in HK

 

so i clicked in

wanting to check if Gel Lyte is on sale

and damn!!

 

i found so many pairs of

white kicks at huge discount

and some with my size available

 

top three pairs which get me thinking

as you can see

i have placed Air Max in cart, already!

 

Air Max

• yet to own one for 3.26 next year
• and it’s all white
• and it’s 50% off

 

Le Coq

• yet to own one
• Arthur Ashe is a tennis legend
• it’s their version of Stan Smith, i guess
• unique woven design

 

Lacoste

• comfort wear
• my pair of slip on is almost worn out
• but not really that tempting as
• i can get it at local department store

 

some other pairs

which have been eliminated

due to size availability etc

but i guess these are good buys too

 

as the stock will be reserved for 1 hour

i got panic as

my Air Max has been removed

thank goodness managed to re-secure

 

as i was checking Arthur Ashe

my size is no longer available

except for the pair in my cart

 

so i got serious

and went to do a final size check

before i proceed to check out

 

in the mean time

the pair of Arthur Ashe

has been automatically cleared

from my cart after 1 hour

and it’s no longer available

it better be real

 

so i did a quick check

and found the same pair

under men (i.e. unisex) category

which is like 10 GBP cheaper

 

damage done!!

spending 80 GBP overnight

which is equivalent to USD 106

but pretty good buy, isn’t it

Earning Down X Spending Up: Imbalanced September

The fact that September has recorded

the lowest sales figure ever

since 2016 came no surprise

 

that is after borrowing

a pending 300+ invoice

completed on 31 Aug

since we were expecting

some amendment to come

 

and it is kinda pressurizing

as i was leaving for a trip on 23rd

assuming that that would be

the closing date for the month

it felt kinda stressed up

 

as the date got closer and

the sales figure never seemed to hit

but eventually it did

right before i left

feeling slightly at ease

 

during the trip

didn’t really work hard

until the very last night

which is a good thing as

i was exhausted from the

day and night shopping

and our internet was kinda poor

 

i was standing on the street

12 / 2 AM utilizing public free Wi-Fi

to download / upload my 600 kb file

 

another reason

why it was kinda pressurizing is

spending was shockingly a lot

over the month as

 

my parents were celebrating their birthdays

and i got my dad a huge present

which is equivalent to

my one month income

and a proper handbag for my mom

 

then i got myself a new pair of specs

which is like the most expensive ever

as an investment

 

and other minor spending such as

getting an air purifier for the family

a birthday gift for my 10 year old niece

a farewell gift for my 20 year old nephew

leaving for studies at Warsaw

 

then of course i need

another sum of money

in preparation for the trip

 

as i browsed through my spending

(excluding travel, shopping)

it is shockingly building up

exceeding the figure i made in a year

as a junior executive back then

 

and the fact that another

failed relationship is brewing

kinda alert me to

earn more and save up for

a stand-alone retirement plan

all by myself

 

still

i shall always remind myself

of how lucky i am

being able to

make a living from

what i enjoy doing at

where i enjoy working

Mid-of-Trough X Making Re-Attempts: Augwardness

A summary post on August

written on 1st October

nothing but procrastination

 

as it was previously mentioned

in the post for July

written 1.5 months ago

Figure Can’t Lie X Yet Perfectly Fine: Crawling Through July

 

I am going through a

severe economic downturn

since July

 

things picked up a little

since August as

I made new attempts on

tough (response) coding

and video transcription

which turned out to be

not too bad after all

 

and kinda savaged

my sales figure for Aug and Sept too

 

it was so bad that

at the very moment

when i wanted to

open my monthly sales sheet

to take a look at the figure

to realize that

 

i have not entered the sales figures for

July, Aug, Sept

that would be 1 quarter

isn’t it?

okay will be back in 5 mins

 

sorry for the interruption

here I am

and during end of Aug

got a pretty huge volume

20k+ words consisting of

 

a 40-page investment guide

a 15-page association summary

 

yet half way through

the bigger documents was called off

but thank goodness

with full payment for the work done

 

weekends are basically

not really hectic

so that i can afford

 

two weekends of staycations

one in town and another in Singapore

catching up with friend and (ex) bf