Tired

Friday is the day that I tend to spend editing my YouTube video for the week. And because I’m still editing on my phone, the whole process is still sooo painfulll… 😣 I really want to move to the editing software on my computer, but I need to learn how to use the damn thing first, and I haven’t had any time to do that yet. I was hoping to spend some time playing with it tonight after I finished editing my latest video, but that took wayyy longer than I expected, so of course now I’m just too tired to do anything 😔

N was out at drinks tonight at Central, so at least he was busy with other people, and not waiting around for me to finish my damn video!

Apparently Central was pretty busy tonight. You’d think there was no pandemic situation right now, based on how people are behaving. We’ve gotten a fresh new batch of cases in recent days, people coming back from overseas as well as local transmission cases 😔 So I’m starting to get antsy again… We’ve never gone into lockdown here in HK, and I’m grateful for that, but I don’t want things to deteriorate to a point where the government sees no choice but to finally impose one on the city 😔

In low power mode

I had one of those days where I just felt blah. I didn’t feel motivated to do anything, all I wanted was to just sit there and not do anything. Because I felt so blah, I dubbed today a ‘low power mode’ day, which meant I wasn’t going to do anything that required too much energy. My main goal today was to conserve.

But despite this, I still managed to write the script for my next YouTube video; I called my mum; I reviewed some Chinese and I had my Chinese lesson. That’s more than I expected to get through today! 👍

We sometimes usually have some pretty serious discussions during my Chinese lessons. We’ve talked about the HK protests, media bias, coronavirus. It’s pretty impressive that I can talk about these things in Chinese, even if Im communicating at a 7-year old level! 😂 I try not to use any English at all unless I just can’t find any way to express myself in Chinese. For example, if I don’t know the Chinese word for banana, I will describe it as a long, yellow fruit, and then she will tell me the Chinese word for it 😂 This is okay up to a point. When you want to start talking about abstract things: influence, threat, perspective etc, it starts getting harder to express yourself in alternative ways. And this is when I revert to English. And I learn new Chinese words 😊

And once I get through such a conversation, I always feel so motivated to continue to improve, to be able to express myself as an 8-year old, a 10-year old, and then hopefully a teenager 😊 But at the moment, I still feel like I’m in primary school 🤣

Finances and a possible tech bag 😱

I organised some of our finances today, woohoo! I can’t seem to get on top of our finances, so any little bit that I do moves us in the right direction 👍

We are still behind on our taxes, though. I really need to get that sorted ASAP. The only problem with that is that there is no incentive! We don’t get a tax refund. There is nothing to look forward to, apart from the satisfaction of knowing that you’re up-to-date with your taxes. And woop-de-doo to that 😂

I went to the Wan Chai Computer Centre again today 😂 I am now looking for my tech bag. Wth, man. Who would’ve thought that I’d ever be looking for a tech bag?!? 🤣 It’s so interesting how I have changed over the years! I am thinking of this bag:

This is the 6L version, and look how huge it already looks on me! 🤣 I am so smalll! There is no way I could go any bigger than this. Anything bigger and I could probably fit into the bag itself 🤣 The product reviews that I have seen talk about how you can wear them as a bum bag. Hahaha, not on me!

The 6L replaces the 5L in this range, and this store that I went to actually had both. I actually preferred the 5L, despite its slightly smaller size. And now that it’s the old version, maybe I can get it for slightly cheaper… But it is smaller… Hmmm… I don’t know, I have to think about it some more…

Turning into a techie!

It was raining quite heavily this morning, so I didn’t think I would be able to go out for a walk to test out my new camera today. But apparently the rain didn’t really want to stick around: about an hour later, the sun was out again and it never went away ☀️👍

I decided to go for a walk around the ferry piers at Central as well as Harbourfront, as there are quite a lot of photo opportunities around there. I took a ton of videos, of course, but not sure yet if I’ll turn them into a vlog or if they will just feature as pretty backgrounds in my next video.

I went at a really good time actually, in the late afternoon, and I stuck around until sundown, so I could also see how the camera would cope in low light conditions. It’s not the best, but still pretty good for a compact camera.

What I did realise, though, is that my regular handbag does not handle all the extra little things that I need to carry with me now if I want to be vlogging outside with my new nifty little setup. So when I got back home, I started looking at some product reviews of camera bags on YouTube. OMG I am turning into a techie! 🤪😱 This is insane! So now I need to think about what I want in a camera bag.

As a female, I would actually want a camera bag that doubles as a handbag. Does that even exist?? Is there enough of a market for such a bag?? One possible solution is that I just buy a bigger camera bag, and put all my other stuff in the other spaces in that bigger bag. Would that work? Any other women out there that have the same problem??

My new camera! 📷

I finally bought a new camera! It’s my first proper camera since the 2000s and I’m sooo excited! 😁 I wanted to use it today, but I needed to charge the battery, so I just had to make do with the camera on my phone 😆 I want to try it out tomorrow, but I don’t have any plans, so not sure where I’ll go…

We also walked from Causeway Bay to Wan Chai to go to the Wan Chai Computer Centre, which is about a 1km walk. This is a pretty decent walk, but this was after walking around Causeway Bay for around two hours already, so needless to say, I was pretty knackered by the time I got home. My feet are still throbbing now 🦶 And remember that it’s summer, so the heat was also draining me. Maybe I need to drink more water too, that might help.

I want to read the manual for my phone, but I don’t know if I have the energy to even do that!

But despite my tiredness, I’m still very excited! I can’t wait to try out my new camera 😁

Things didn’t go my way today

It was one of those days that really tested my patience.

Firstly, I remembered yesterday that my library books were due. But I remembered after midnight, so there was no way I could renew them online and I knew I had no choice but to go and return them today.

But when I got to the library, I found out that they have changed the opening times for some reason. They now only open from 1pm! Not sure what prompted this change. I can only assume it has something to do with the pandemic, as almost everything revolves around that these days 😒

And then when I went to go and edit my next YouTube video, I discover that there is a mismatch between my audio and video files. The audio was actually great, but I don’t know if I didn’t hit the record button or if I deleted the file, but the corresponding video file wasn’t there! O.M.G. So the final video ended up being around four minutes long, when it probably should’ve been closer to double that length. Sighhh… 😒 But I am learning one additional skill from all this video making: the ability to adapt and create the best thing that you can with what you have. Being creatively resourceful 🤣

But now I want that new Sony ZV-1 vlogging camera even more badly now!! 😩 I’m going to do some research online now to see if anyone has any good deals, and then we can go shopping tomorrow 😁

And then N came home early today with suspected food poisoning 😔 He slept for most of the afternoon, and luckily felt better when he finally woke up. At least he got it out of his system really quickly.

So not the best day, unfortunately 😔

Things not working together

I went to bed at around 2am last night, so I was fully expecting to be getting up really late, especially since we have another public holiday today 😌

But no, my body had a different idea. And so did Kitty 🙄 She was hungry at around 6:45am and she let me know it 😒 I decided to get up and feed her, and then go back to sleep straight afterwards. But this time, my mind had a different idea. It wanted to wake up and do things. WTH, man. C’mon, mind and body. Just work together for me, will ya?!? 😩

So I watched a few YouTube videos on different cameras that may suit my needs. As I’ve mentioned before, my top priorities are portability, convenience and ease of use. Not just as a camera but also for vlogging. I want something that’s good enough to do both because I just want to carry one thing. I don’t need the fanciest gadget out there or the sharpest photos. I just need something that will do a pretty good job.

So after watching a bajillion videos on YouTube, I narrowed it down to two Sony point-and-shoot cameras: the ZV-1 or the RX100 VII. As N pointed out, the video capabilities is what I’m really focussed on, and that’s exactly what the ZV-1 does: it is primarily for vlogging. Taking photos is secondary, although its camera is still pretty good for a point and shoot. I’m going to watch a few more videos on the ZV-1, but I think I’ve pretty much made up my mind.

So we went to Causeway Bay (CWB) today to go to the Sony store there to check these cameras out. Unfortunately, though, we discovered that the protesters were also over in CWB today 😔 So the police had cordoned off the main road going through the area, clearly trying to drive people out of the area and discouraging people from loitering around.

And the Sony store is on this main road. Needless to say, they had already closed by the time we managed to get there. I was terribly disappointed as I really wanted to see their cameras today 😔

We decided not to check out the Wan Chai Computer Centre, as it too sits on the main road that the police have cordoned off, so they have probably shut their doors for the rest of the day too 😔

I was so looking forward to checking out my potential new camera, but I guess I just have to wait until the weekend. Hopefully the protesters don’t target CWB again on the weekend, and we can safely head over to the Sony store and hopefully, maybe, buy a camera 🤞

I should’ve researched where the protests were going to be today. I should’ve anticipated it, at least, given the significance of the date and the introduction of the new security law. And that it’s a public holiday today. Sighhh… I was too busy doing my research on cameras! 📸 😂

Morning lark vs night owl

I got up at ridiculous o’clock today, sometime before 7am. I am not a morning person, so this is mega early for me. I messaged a friend in Sydney about the stupid time that I got up – and she wasn’t even up herself yet! And they’re two hours ahead! 🤣

So by about 10am, I was ready for lunch! Being a morning person is sooo good! You get so much stuff done ✅

I went over to TST to check out a Snoopy exhibition, which I thought was ending today. But then when I got there, it seemed like they’ve extended it for another five days. But I’m glad I went today anyway. It was pretty cool 😊

Woodstock on Snoopy sleeping on a cloud 😊

N had drinks tonight – and if you’re wondering why they had drinks on a Tuesday night, it’s because we have another public holiday in HK tomorrow 😊 Bring on all these public holidays! 👍

And it’s now almost 1:30am, and I’m still up 🙄 No chance of getting up early tomorrow again, then. This is what I’m constantly fighting if I want to become a morning person: the night owl within me! 😒

Vlogs

I couldn’t have asked for a more productive day today. I have no idea where all the productivity came from, but I ain’t complaining! 😆 And it’s a Monday, so I’m even happier! 👍

Oh I don’t think I told you: the birthday girl liked the video that I put together for her of her birthday brunch last Saturday! I forgot to add the date and place somewhere in the video, though, that was a bit disappointing. But it was the first ever video I’d ever put together for someone else, so I’m just happy that I got to even do that 😊

I should definitely try and do more vlogs while we’re living here in HK. They’re so much fun to do ☺️ Plus they’ll be a really good way to remember our time here. And like SG, we don’t know how long we’ll have the privilege of living here, so I’m going to try and make the most of it 😆

So maybe I can start tomorrow 😊

Expat life and expat friends in HK

I used the HK Taxi app for the first time ever today. I must’ve registered my details on the app ages ago when I was first told about the app, because it had me down as “English only” in one of the fields 😂 That’s handy. It took ages for a taxi to accept my booking, though, so not sure if it was because I had “English only”, or if they were all just genuinely busy. It was a Saturday, after all.

Apparently you can also pay by credit card on the app, which is very handy because almost all taxis here only accept cash. But that too may cut down the number of drivers who’d accept your booking, as they all seem to like being paid in cash. For tax purposes and all… 😉 I rarely catch cabs anyway, so I’m happy to just pay cash for the odd time that I need to jump in one.

We went to a friend’s birthday brunch today (and the whole reason for the cab), and I filmed some background stuff to add to a future YouTube video. But everyone saw me filming, including the birthday girl, so I feel like I should try and cobble something together for her with the random shots that I took today at the restaurant. I hope I have enough footage to make it worthwhile…! 🤞 Not that I’m a filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s not like she’s expecting anything grand (or even good 🤣). But I think it’s the thought that counts 😊 So I’ll see what I can put together tomorrow. Hopefully it’s decent enough to give to her as a birthday gift of sorts!

We then went to a bar at Central for a few drinks as a few of the people at the brunch wanted to watch the AFL game (Essendon vs Carlton). I’m not really into AFL, it’s my least favourite football code (sorry, my Melburnian friends!). They had rugby league playing on another TV, but it was farther away, but I could still make out the two teams playing. I still know the different teams’ colours after all these years 😊

But as I might have mentioned in an earlier post, my favourite football code is rugby union. And at brunch, we happened to sit next to a guy who referees rugby union games around Asia! 😱 How cool is that?!? He was actually pleasantly surprised that I knew the positions in the game. Frankly, so am I 🤣