eco facility painting

this is the second community project i did with Ark Eden, the first one being International Costal Cleanup Day.

this time we helped to restore the walls of two dilapidated buildings they've recently acquired.we had to paint the walls with eco friendly paint after scrubbing them clean.i really like Ark Eden for their eco conservation efforts. simple acts like scraping that last bit of the paint that were on the paint brushes onto the walls...so that "the more paint there is on the wall means the less paint flowing into the rivers when we wash the paint brushes"...

really made me feel that they are truly dedicated to saving the environment and it's amazing i get the chance to do all these good deeds through BB.

"this" team

team dinner once more! i love hanging out with "this" team...had thai food for dinner at SOHO and the plan was to head back to the angmoh boss' place for more drinks after.popped a champagne...more drinks, great time, great apartment.the awesome boss - i suspect my hk relocation experience was artificially enhanced because of her?!! hmm....whatever it is - enjoy while it last!!

a self congratulatory note

woohoo! i made my first... AND second sale today! i sold to two different companies! haha sounds like a self congratulatory note i know!

it's crazy (and so lucky) i managed to sell like two in a week given how expensive we are. so glad that the deal was finally sealed when i received the signed contracts today. :)

anyways hopefully this will pave my way to a successful sales career here in HK? heh.

public nuisance

the HKers seriously need to move on. they're still protesting against the Lehman Bro. mini bond incident which happened in like...freaking 2008??? these people are simply public nuisance! all the tax payers' money are wasted on the the deployment of the police force to maintain security at these protests!!!.... and why am i so agitated??? that's because LIMPEI IS ALSO A HK TAXPAYER NOW! kaoz.

lamma island with the surprise visitors

it's always nice to have friends :)

summer party 10

my first summer party in HK - the verdict: Singapore's better!!! i guess nothing beats chillin' out on tanjung beach with a coconut with malibu in your hand. :)

the weather was perfect though - not too hot not too cold and not raining. (that's my angmoh boss dancing in this picture)

how bad can it be when it's...

on the way to spa + massage in Shen Zhen... Singapore passport 是好的!...visa free entry for many countries!

忙里偷闲

been craving for the dark chocolate orange ice cream for the longest time...finally gave in to temptations when i was walking back from IFC after a client's meeting...i'm happy :)

shek O...shag Oh...

but at the end.. it was all worthwhile... when we finally found the run down shop selling the best tau huay with brown sugar :)

autumn liao...

one thing i realised i should be doing is to check the weather forecast. the HK people all seemed to know how the weather's going to be like the next day, the next three days and even next week.

having lived in Singapore all my life didn't help too much in cultivating the habit of paying attention to the weather changes. too many times i find myself wearing a really thick jacket thinking that it was going to be a cold day but ended up sweating buckets... then under-dressed when the weather finally turned really cold! boo.. :(

international coastal cleanup day

i love the sun, i love the sea, i love to volunteer and i LOVE TO CLEAN!!! so i was one of the first to sign up when the company was looking for people to volunteer in this coastal cleanup event.

early saturday morning rise and shine - we took a boat ride out to soko island where we dolphin watched for a bit...i wasn't expecting to see any dolphins at all really, but we spotted one - good job HK!we had to hike a distance before reaching the actual beach which we were supposed to clean. somehow the short hike reminded me of my mt kinabalu stint last year!the view from the top of the cliff presented a different side of HK.my group picked up like 300 plastic bottles, 100 glass bottles and lots of miscellaneous stuff from the beach. i wonder how all these rubbish got there seriously, the amount of rubbish there was insane. people should really stop thinking that whatever they throw into the sea will miraculously disappear!it was a beautiful day, the boat ride was awesome and lunch was good! can't believe we did all these for free, all thanks to BB!this must be one of the best days i ever had in HK!!!

小房子

我那小房子，最近成了朋友们的小小避风港了
有的是为了逃避，有的只是想要找个地方歇口气

希望我那不奢华但却很轻松自在的小房子
能让你们找到一丝的平静

虽然我希望我小小房子能够迎来更多快乐分子
但我苦恼的朋友们， 如有需要我还是无任欢迎!

singlish came... and left

and so the BB Singapore gang came...

they were here for a week on business trip and oh my... the entire week was filled with so much fun, food, laughter, singlish and very, very lame jokes. it was seriously the best week i ever had in HK since i moved in august...and so the Singapore gang left... :(

the five matchsticks

B and i finally bought the watch we wanted...and of course i had to update our conversation to:

me: ben... do you know what does "B" mean??
ben: again???
me: it means... "Ben, BOUGHT Biao!!".. congratulations!
ben: HAHAHAHAHAHAwhen LL saw my watch she said: "wow you got job, got rolex, got cat... once you get a man.. your life is tamade complete!"

hahaha - so random and so irrelevant but so amusing... :)

exit B

so for many many nights, me and B went on a mission to look for watches cos both of us had wanted to buy a new watch! we both have been a very "positive" influence to each other - urging each other to part with thousands of dollars for a watch.

coincidentally, all the watch shops are located at exit B of all the MTR stations we went to. hence this conversation:

me: ben... do you know what does "B" mean?
ben: what?
me: "B" means "Biao3"! (表, watch)
ben: hurr??!

me: ben.. ben... do you know what does "B" mean??
ben: what??
me: "B" means..."Buy Biao"!!
ben: what the!!

me: ben.. ben.. ben!!
ben: WHATTT
me: do you know what does "B" mean???
ben: ...
me: it means.. "Ben Buys Biao"!!!!
ben: WALAUEHHHHHH...

don't you think i'm very creative?!! thank you very much. haha.

the snake has left the rabbit hole

i never thought i would live long enough to witness this day. haha. it's so true that what comes around, goes around. it always pay to be a good person because your reputation will definitely catch up with you one day.

hopefully things will just get better from now on and that all my honest, hardworking friends in Singapore BB get what they truly deserve - Respect.

and for those who left us:
"the snake has left the rabbit hole... all rabbits who sought asylum somewhere else may return now"

HAHA.

"A" for "Aeffort"

my mood has improved by about 500 folds ever since my samsung LCD TV and DVD player arrived! - that's the first thing i switch on when i get home and the last thing i switch off before i sleep.

i actually carried my TV and a STANDING fan allll the way from Singapore to HK instead of fedex-ing it over. took airport express then changed to cab before finally reaching my apartment in k.town. i should totally be given an "A" for "Aeffort". as i was checking in at the SQ counter in the Singapore airport; the guy asked: "so what's inside these boxes?" .. i reluctantly said: "LCD TV, electric fan and some other home appliances". he must have thought that my domestic worker employment here in Singapore had ceased and i was to return home with my proud collection of foreign imported electronic products for my family and friends back in one of the villages in the Philippines.

somehow throughout this entire relocation i felt more like a foreign migrant worker than an expat....

having said that, i felt so blessed when i had E and L waiting for me at the taxi stand in the chilly STRONG winds of the HK autumn weather - they helped carry my TV, standing fan and "other home appliances" up to my apartment. E quickly fixed up all the wires and before i knew it, we were in time to catch the special TV segment in remembrance of MM LKY's wife on channelnewsasia.

i am a FX specialeee

so... the angmoh boss sent me to Singapore on a mission to learn about FX spot trading, currency pairs, carry trades, forwards, futures, swaps and options for 9 hrs a day.. 5 days a week... zzZzZz.......and i'm supposed to become a "BB FX specialist" after this. wahaha!

suurrrprise!!!

i felt so bad that i actually pulled an "imel" when i let the cat out of the bag about jy's surprise birthday dinner. i was trying my best to make up for it and i guess i eventually did?

although jy knew that the purpose of dinner that night was to celebrate her birthday (all thanks to me for letting this slip), what she didn't know was that we had balloons, birthday banners, cakes and wine all set up at my hotel room with a fantastic view overlooking the Esplanade. more importantly... a couple of her besties were patiently hiding in the room waiting for her grand arrival.we feasted on cakes, drank so much wine.. and even had dy and cy sing "live" for us in the room. allll these... on a Monday night! i hope it was a memorable night for her as it was for me. :)

formula 1 singapore night race

i'm soo lucky to receive free F1 tickets courtesy of R. nevermind that i was not the first person he asked :p it was perfect timing - had to be back in Singapore for a week on business trip and managed to fit F1 in the schedule - how convenient right!they don't call this the survival kit for nothing! you definitely need ear plugs if you don't wish to lose your sense of hearing the next day! the noise coming out from those power packed engines are thunderous!the mum, the dad, the sis and the bro in law have all watched F1 before except me! so i'm glad i did it this time round heh...

mid autumn festival

i was going round inviting various Singaporeans working in BB HK to my place for steamboat dinner on mid autumn festival night. it was five of us including myself and i was hoping that i'm not being overly ambitious considering the fact that my living room here in HK is 3/4 the size of my bedroom back home.

i had 2 days to prepare for the dinner and the preparations started with... buying a table. yup, i didn't even have a table! haha. i'm glad we successfully had our first steamboat dinner that night... on the table :)
fyi: the tv you see at the background belongs to my Singaporean neighbour. haha, that's how "unfurnished" the house is!!

friday liao!

finally the end of the week! i've been waiting for friday since... monday. haha. anyways today's hottest news in BB must be THIS.haha there you go, free advertisement for us!! i must say it's an amazing replica of our product.

have a good weekend people! :)

feel the L.O.V.E

i'm supposed to be in Angkor Wat this weekend with JY, S and D. tickets and accomodation all booked, but unfortunately i had to forfeit the trip because of my HK relocation. so my three cute friends drew a waterproof PQ and like "brought me along" for the trip!S calls me "princess" at work hence the tiara...haha. they even gave me a camera to take photos! SUPER TOUCHED!!! i feel the L.O.V.EBB FRIENDS FOREVER!!!

friday

went to PETRUS for team dinner tonight. bill came up to over 7,000 HKD for just 6 of us and my ang moh boss said "wow reasonable"... i think she's still in London mode haha. good for us!after being ill treated for so long in that stupid MSN department... i'm making sure i enjoy every single privilege i'm entitled to as BB sales! WORK HARD PLAY HARDER!

happy first month anniversary!

been EXACTLY one month since i worked in HK now - i started work here on a very auspicious day: 9th august national day. hmm.. to be honest i only started enjoying work after my new boss came from London. i'm sooo glad i got her as my boss. she's so nice that i naturally want to do things for her you know what i mean?

i hope the relationship maintains this way and of course i hope the feeling is mutual - ie: she thinks i'm nice too and likes me as well haha, i think that's MORE important.

anyways work has been busy-busy. so much work to do when you cover major accounts i realise. well i'm glad i have a good team, it makes working so much easier. although i still miss my friends from BB singapore alot, the working style we have there is so much more fun compared to here...

anyways first team drinking session cum dinner tomorrow and i'm looking forward to it already!

started moving some stuff into my new place in k.town today... won't start living in this apartment until i lose my service apartment next week cos as you can see the house is like EMPTY! lots of furniture shopping needed!well something i didn't expect today was to bump into my HK TVB idol filming a show just opposite my apartment in k.town!! woah she was sooo pretty... and of course i didn't have the guts to ask for a photograph :( haha.. quite disappointed with myself lor...

iI'll huff, and puff, and blow your house down..

i have been in HK for almost a month now - technically 23 months more to go. (2 year contract with BB). many people have been asking me if i have been enjoying myself here in HK... frankly speaking, the answer is - No.. well at least not YET??

for a start - i been sick most of my time in HK. been to the hospital once and the GP twice. battling all the repiratory problems... i think i can literally huff and puff and blow a house down!

i attribute my ill health to the very, very poor air quality here in HK. if the HK air pollution index is a security which i can invest in, i probably would have made a 500% return by now.

all i'm looking forward to is to quickly move into my own place - making sure it's a clean and green environment in my own little space so that i find some peace and tranquility. start cooking my own meals and eating healthily!!

7 signals too little..

in HK if we reach typhoon 8 or called T8 then people generally do not need to turn up for work! but alamak.. today only T1 - which is irritating cos 1) it's raining cats and dogs and yet 2) still have to come to work. SIANZ!the damn T8 better come at the right day and time (ie: any WORKday and anytime BEFORE work starts) haha.