No more bouncing back

The dull ache from yesterday has subsided, and it’s now between 0 to 1 on the pain scale. It’s still there, albeit virtually gone, but I decided to finally go and see a doctor anyway, the first time I’ll have visited a doctor since moving to HK.

We asked friends here for recommendations, and so I made my way to Central to go and see one of their recommendations. When I got there, I find out that she is on leave! 😩 Whaaat?!? She returns on Tuesday, but her first (and only!) available appointment is on Friday next week! So I decided to book myself in. If she’s that booked out, then she must be good. Well, hopefully 😆 Even if this weird dull ache subsides before then, it’d still be good to get a general check-up anyway, given that we’re getting older now and things are just generally deteriorating 😔

Speaking of check-ups, one of our friends here had to go and have heart surgery! 😱 Did I tell you about this? That was very concerning. The surgery was a few weeks ago now and everything went well, but still, the fact that he even had to go and have this surgery was rather worrying. We’re entering that stage in our lives when we can’t just bounce back like we used to when we were kids 😔 So I really want to get into the habit of getting regular check-ups done: medical, dental, and also my eyes -optometric?! Why yes, that’s the adjective! I just looked it up 👍 Something to add to my list… ✅

I then met N for dinner afterwards. He had a 2-for-1 voucher at a pretty casual restaurant near his office, so we decided to redeem it today. Not bad! The restaurant was pretty quiet when we got there, which was nice. No issues with social distancing 👍 It was a nice way to end the evening 😊

Last day of our extra-long weekend (Easter day 5!)

I finished our extra-long weekend just chillaxing at home for most of the day. I was still really tired from all the walking that we did the last few days, so I just took it easy for most of today. I watched a lot of YouTube videos 😂 and then took a nap in the afternoon because I was still really tired.

And then in the evening, we went to a friend’s place for dinner. We hadn’t seen them since we first moved to HK over two years ago now 😱 So it was nice to see them again today.

It was a nice, relaxing way to end our extra- long Easter weekend ☺️ The Ching Ming festival, which is the tomb sweeping festival, was apparently yesterday. And because it coincided with Easter Monday, which is also a public holiday here, we got today off to make up for the ‘double’ public holiday yesterday 😆 Not bad. Not bad at all.

My second missed day

I missed writing in here yesterday. I think that was the second time I missed writing in here ever since I started this blog. That’s pretty damn impressive!

The reason I missed it this time was the same reason I missed it the first time: I was sick 🤮 The first time it was the flu; last night, it was motion sickness. We had a crazy cab driver on our way back from a friend’s place yesterday, and his rickety old cab didn’t help make the trip any smoother 😒 And coupled with my headache, it didn’t make for a fun trip whatsoever. I was actually counting the seconds to distract me from the possibility of throwing up in the cab, “one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand…” 🤣 I think I got to around 300, so roughly five minutes! I don’t know how accurate my counting was, though, given how sick I was feeling. It was quite quick though, so it wouldn’t have been that far off that. He was driving like a complete maniac too, remember!

And luckily he was, because as soon as we entered our apartment building, I knew I was going to throw up. I managed to make it into the apartment and to the toilet, so all good on that front, at least 😂

So yeah, that was why I didn’t manage to write in here last night! I actually woke up a few times in the middle of the night and contemplated writing in here, but I wasn’t fully awake to do so, unfortunately.

But I’m all good today. Not that I did much, though. I did manage to go for a bit of a walk along the promenade by Victoria Harbour. They’re starting to open more and more of the promenade, and so we walked to another recently opened area in Wan Chai today. I can’t wait until they fully open up the area. It’s going to be such a nice place to hang out 😊

A lottery

I ran a few errands today, including getting my Octopus card all set up with automatic top-up. A few weeks ago, I lost my old Octopus card, if you remember all the stress associated with that 😒 Now I have finally got it all sorted: I got the balance on my old Octopus card transferred to my new card, and I also got the automatic top-up set up on the new card – woohoo! It’s now all done 👍 I really should just set it up on my phone like N has, so I don’t have to worry about carrying one extra item – and therefore worry about having one extra item to lose!

One of our friends here just went and had his annual check-up. Apparently the doctors have recommended that he go for an angioplasty! 😱 He’s not even that old, I think he’s in his mid-40s, so I don’t understand how the doctors can recommend surgery straight away. What about changing his diet first and seeing if that will improve the situation?? What about lifestyle changes? Medication? Surely there are other things he can do before surgery?! Obviously I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know his medical situation, but unless his heart is in really bad shape, then I can’t understand why surgery is what they’re recommending already. Maybe his heart really is in bad shape? Hmmm… Anyway, he is still relatively young, so even if he does go for the surgery, he should come out OK 🤞

It’s news like this that jolts me back to reality, that life can be a real b!tch and 💩 happens to good people, and not always to the bad ones; that children can die from incurable diseases; that you can lead a mega-healthy lifestyle and still be struck with some disease; that you can be diagnosed with something with NO family history – and that you can escape something even if everyone else in your family had it. It’s such a lottery sometimes. Which is another reason why I try and enjoy my life as much as I can, because who knows what the universe has in store for you tomorrow 🤷‍♀️

On the hunt for a few apps

We went to one of N’s workmate’s places for lunch today. A few others came over as well, and they all played mahjong. I don’t really know how to play. My knowledge of mahjong is just as good as my knowledge of poker – ie very little! 😆 So I just watched on the sidelines, asking questions and trying to figure out the rules of the game. I want to learn how to play both, but mahjong requires a whole kit: the tiles and all the other bits and bobs, as well as an actual table. I wonder if there’s an app where I can just learn to play on my phone, and I don’t have to actually bet any real money (yet?? 😜). And same with poker. I’ll be trying out a few different apps tonight! 😊

And then I watched the men’s singles final at the Australian Open. It was too quick a match, unfortunately, but it was still great to watch. It’s not as easy as just turning on the TV and having it on free-to-air TV like in Sydney, so at least I didn’t put my life on hold for two weeks just to watch tennis 😆 So I only watched the odd game this year. But at least I could still watch it at home here in HK without having to go find a sports bar that’s playing it on one of their TVs 👍

But my one and only project for this weekend never happened: my closet was not touched 😔 Maybe next weekend.

Sloth Day | Chinese New Year long weekend day 4

I was a bit of a sloth today: I stayed in my pyjamas all day and barely moved off the couch 🤣 I figured I was entitled to one lazy day over this long weekend 😊

I did finish another video, though, another one just for family and friends. So I wasn’t a complete sloth! 😂

We watched Jumanji 2 this afternoon, which now made much more sense after we watched Jumanji 1 yesterday 😂 It was actually quite good! I liked the small tweaks that they added to the second movie, it made it that little bit more interesting for both the actors and for the audience.

So that was some light-hearted entertainment this weekend. Maybe we should watch a more serious movie next weekend… I might go through the Academy Award winners and nominees for some ideas 😊

Valentine’s Day | Chinese New Year long weekend – day 3

I edited a video this morning, a video that was just for me 😊 It was nice to just be able to make a video for myself and not have to worry about other people. I could use whatever music I wanted with no copyright concerns; and I could add whatever shots I wanted and colour grade however way I want. Yep, I have definitely made videography my new hobby 😱

After I finished editing my video, we went and grabbed lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant, and then walked around Central for a little bit before we headed over to farewell drinks in the area. One of N’s workmates / friends is heading back to Oz on Wednesday. We didn’t realise that he would be heading back so soon, but apparently flights are mega scarce these days, and if he didn’t get on this Wednesday flight, then he may have to wait until the end of March for the next one. WTH?!? Before 🦠, you had your choice in what flight you wanted on whichever day. Now, the choice is what month?!? That is insane! Sighhh… So yeah, I guess you just take whatever flight you can these days 😔

I also rang my mum today, and got into an argument with her. Sighhh… I felt bad that I got into this stupid row with her, but sheez, you can only hear the same “problems” over and over again before something just gives. It’s the same with N’s mum. And I say “problems” because I don’t even see them as problems! They just seem to like to make mountains out of molehills. OK, maybe not ‘like’, per se, but maybe they’ve just worried all their lives and now they don’t know how to stop worrying. Or maybe it’s just a different generation, I don’t know. Or maybe we just have different personalities. Whatever it is, it is just so annoying! I just don’t want to hear the same things over and over again. If you can’t control something, then why worry about it?!? Sure, there could be tons of things that could happen tomorrow, but what’s the point of worrying now when nothing has actually happened?? And if you can, then why don’t you do something about it rather than complain?? I just don’t understand them. Hence my frustration 😧

And then in the evening, we decided to watch Jumanji. We were actually going to watch Jumanji 2, but we realised that we couldn’t remember anything that happened in Jumanji 1, so we decided to watch that instead 😂 All we remembered were the four main characters and that the movie was quite funny, and that was it! I’m glad we did watch it because it was actually quite good. And now we’ve refreshed our memories, so we can go into Jumanji 2 feeling more comfortable about the characters’ back stories 😊

Oh and no, we didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day. I did see a few bouquets around today, which were really nice 💐 But nowadays, I’d much rather spend the money on more tech gear on my new hobby anyway 😆 The nice lunch was good enough for us 🥰

A welcome change

I took N to the Great Food Hall today, and he was just as impressed as I was 😆 Now that he knows what they have, I think we’ll be picking up some future dinners from there! 😆

We bought some cakes and wines from there and brought them over to our friends’ place. We just hung out there for the evening, met a few new people, played some Fibbage and poker, and generally just had a fun evening.

The good day today was a welcome change to the crap week that I had this week.

💩 and compassion

I have come to the conclusion that everyone is either going through something in their life or they have gone through something. No one goes through life unscathed, if you will. Everyone’s 💩 looks different, and people also deal with 💩 in different ways. Some people have more 💩 than others, while others have more serious 💩 to deal with. But the point is, no one has NO 💩. And you don’t know what 💩 is in another person’s life unless they tell you.

Here are a few 💩 things that I have just come up with:

• Dealing with a terminal illness, either their own or someone in their family
• Dealing with loneliness
• Dealing with alcoholism
• Dealing with poverty
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insecure about their looks and/or intelligence
• Cannot sleep
• Dealing with a terrible marriage / partnership
• About to lose their job
• About to lose their house
• Losing a loved one
• Have a job that they don’t like
• Dealing with abuse
• Feeling neglected
• Feeling like they don’t belong
• No meaning in their life
• Living paycheck to paycheck
• Living on an uncertain income
• Not having enough money to eat
• Not able to keep up with the Joneses
• Not able to have children
• Having too many children
• Having an annoying neighbour
• Not having any friends
• Having parents who don’t love them
• Struggling at school or uni
• Dealing with a sick family member
• Learning difficulties
• Raising a difficult child

And I’m sure there are a bajillion other ones you can add to that!

And then people deal with their 💩 in different ways:

• Drinking
• Drugs
• Sex
• Withdrawing from social activities
• Putting up a front to hide their true self from the world
• Making fun of others, so the attention is drawn away from them
• Lashing out at others
• Constantly trying to prove their worth to others
• Putting down other people
• Avoidance of their issues, burying their head in the proverbial sand
• Talking with others
• Anger
• Crying
• Self harming

And I’m sure you can probably add a few more to that second list too.

So I’m trying to be much more compassionate now. Because you just never know what 💩 someone is currently dealing with and just how bad the situation is right now for them.

Expensive

We went to Din Tai Fung at Causeway Bay for a late lunch today. We haven’t been here in aaages. I love this place. It’s a bit expensive, but the quality never changes. The food is always the same each and every time I go. The consistency astounds me every time. If I showed you a photo of the food that I ordered today alongside the food that I ordered 6 months ago (and chances are, I probably ordered the exact same dishes 😆) I can almost guarantee that the photos would look pretty much identical. The dishes might be in different spots on the table, but the food would look exactly the same. In fact, I might just try and do that right now… 😂

Look at their consistency! 😱

We actually ordered the same five dishes today, we just didn’t take a photo of the other two dishes that came out later. Danggg. Otherwise I would’ve been able to show you all five dishes. But you can see how the other three dishes pretty much look exactly the same. Sooo good 👍

We then decided to stop by the DJI store nearby. I’ve mentioned how I’m a tad obsessed with tech these days. Well DJI makes some pretty awesome tech toys 😊 I could easily spend thousands in this store. I would LOVE to go back to their flagship store in Shenzhen, just across the harbour in mainland China. Going to their flagship store in their hometown would just be the best 😊 But since we can’t travel anywhere right now, I just have to make do with their store here in HK, which is pretty awesome too 😊

And then we also quickly stopped by the Apple store to check out the new iPhone 12. Sighhh… Why is this new interest of mine so dang expensive?? 😒 I guess most hobbies are. Whyyy?? 🤷‍♂️ I’m going to list out all the tech toys that I would want, should I magically get a windfall and all of a sudden see A$100K in my bank account. One can dream… 💭 hehehe…