So freaking hot....

It is so freaking hot in Hk right now. I've never actually visited Hk in summer (mind you.. its nearly the end of summer anyway). But it is still so @#%#$ HOT .... and SWEATY.. and STICKY ... just ...YUCK !

I think its best to stick to the overpriced end-of-year trips from now on.

Had a massive shopping day ... (again).. followed by drinks in Lan Kwai Fong (LFK). LFK is the famous place in Hk filled with bars and discos. The icon of nightlife in Hk. Well, for tourists it is anyway. The drinks there are seriously overpriced. But the atmosphere is great !

Tomorrow will be heading to Macau.. just hope i can wake up in-time to catch the Ferry !

1st day of shopping ...

We finally arrived last night after a 10 hour flight. Flight was ok.. the cabin crew kept on giggling throughout the whole trip. Have no idea why. But on the way home we went to get some congee and roast pigeons (typical supper combination in Hk). Normally, I hate the idea that I'm actually going to eat a pigeon. But these were seriously yummy.

This morning when we woke up we went straight out to Mongkok (Hk's famous shopping district) to meet up with my god brother. And when he said he'll make us 'shop till we drop'.. he kept his word. From 11am till 8pm non-stop. My legs were killing me. All the gym sessions with Pete didn't help at all. I was finally getting to the stage where I'll walk into any shoe shop and pretend to look around then sit down and try something on, just for the sake of being able to sit down for a couple of moments and to take my sneakers off.

At about 8 we called it quits and decided it was time to bring all our shopping home so we could nurse our sore feet.

I guess being in Australia all the time we depend too much on our cars. I use my car even to just go down the road to buy Maccas. I really should start to use my legs and walk around more in Sydney. My best buddy and me were both dead by the time we reached home.

I was already on the verge of chopping off my legs. They didn't feel like mine anymore...

One more day ... !

Tomorrow I'll be boarding the Virgin Atlantic flight to HK with my best buddy for 5 days of serious Eating & Shopping. (Whoooppee !)

I've been waiting for this day on my calendar for 3 months already..

Charmaine has already promised me she will take me eating around Macau.. And my god brother has already taken two days off work just to take us shopping around HK.

I think I'll just pack my Jeans, a T-Shirt and my undies.. :)

Only 14 hours and 25 minutes left to go now....

Today is Daffodil Day ..

"The Daffodil is the international symbol of hope for all people affected by cancer..."

I had nearly forgotten today is Daffodil Day. It was only when I was stepping out of the Wynyard Train Station that I saw the volunteers selling Daffodils Day merchandise, raising money for the Cancer Foundation.

I brought a bunch of Daffodils and sent a silent prayer for my youngest uncle who is back in Perth winning his battle against Cancer. Winning.. not even sure if that is the correct word to use anymore. My uncle spent nearly a year doing chemo and radiotheropy.

The last time I was back in Perth, I gave my uncle a hug before I left and it was then I realised how much weight he had really losed. I could easily feel his shoulder bone when I wrapped my arms around him. A man which at one stage of my life had told him he was getting 'fat' .. was now probably a third of what he previously weighed.

Gotta stop getting all teary now .. and get back to work. :(

iPod with Photo !!

Pete gave me a suprise pressie today.. :)

He went and brought me the Apple iPod - The 'music in colour' version.

When I got home I found a very big package under my blanket... the Apple iPod and matching JBL speakers.

The sneaky thing asked for my keys in the afternoon cause he said he was sick and not feeling well so he wanted to go to my place and rest. I really thought he was very very sick cause he even went to the doctors in the morning and they gave him two days off.

Obviously, if he can go to Harvey Normans and shop around for a iPod, then he couldn't of been very sick at all ! But then I didn't have the heart to give him a lecture.

Can't wait to get home so I can download all my mp3 into my iPod ! And I can store all my photos in there too... Sweet !

Housemates...

One of my housemates has gone back to Taiwan for a 3 week holiday. Which leaves her other half (my two housemates are a couple) free to do whatever he wants. Which isn't too bad. But she has always been the clean, neat (painstakingly neat) housemate. I can only image what the state of the apartment is going to be like in another week. Already, I have my washing (from the dryer - so it is clean) hogging up one side of the sofa bed in the living room. But my other housemate isn't alot better.. he has his laundry hogging up the other side of the sofa.

My other housemate has quite an impressive fighting fish collection. About two month ago he successfully bred a new batch of baby fighting fish. We currently have about 170 baby fighting fishes. Actually they aren't really 'baby' anymore. My housemate has been frantically trying to find enough containers to house all his precious fish separately. (Before they all fight each other to the DEATH !).

He already has one side of the living room dedicated to his fishes.

So far he has settled for the 375ml spring water bottles from Woolworths. So everyday he has been drinking natural spring water from Woolworths (probably the cheapest you can find). Wash and clean the bottles. Then cutting the top off them so that he can put one fighting fish into it. Thus separating that fish from the rest of the gang in the tank.

Its a painstaking task.

Feeding them is still going to be relatively easy.

I wonder how he is going to clean all the separate bottles and containers later on...

Summary for the week...

I have been so busy this week.. I actually can't remember everything that has happened. All I can remember is that alot of things went wrong. And I just spent most of my time 'putting out fires' in the IT department.

Here is a summary of my week..

• High priority helpdesk calls - 5
  (Not counting the numerous other calls in my queue)
• Server Blue-Screen-Of-Death - 2
  (one of which required a complete rebuild...*sob)
• DR Testing & Documentation (finally completed)
• New server installs - 3
  One of which never managed to get past the stupid Blue-Screen !!
• Gym Workout sessions - Zero
• Alcohol Intake - Zero
  (Been so busy I didn't even manage to go out for drinks!)

To make things worse.. I'm doing on-call support for this week.

I hate it when a new server Blue-Screens on me. I opened up the server, reseated the drives, controllers, cables, RAM and power connectors. Tried to do a OS repair but it would just Blue-Screen half way through the process. GRRrrrr.. Stupid Dell server... !

I guess the only highlight of my week is that I finally managed to successfully clone a 600GB LUN on an Open Oracle DB with my SAN .. So glad that it has worked !