Moving on...

It's the end of another fiscal year in my company. This past year has been quite a roller coaster ride for all of us. At the beginning of the year, everything seemed so rosy, there was the Beijing Olympics to look forward to, the stock market was strong, the property market was hot and the job market was vibrant. Then after September, everything started to go down, down, down. Business for our company went down drastically particularly in January and for the 1st time in years, the management decided to retrench staff. Most of the sales staff have been either cut or transferred to our Shenzhen branch. What's left here in Hong Kong are the minimum sales force plus the supporting departmental staff such as Accounting, IT and Logistics. While the staff in Shenzhen has a new office that is better equipped, the office here in Hong Kong looks like ruins...

I have worked for this company for exactly 7 years and moving into the 8th year. It has not been exactly smooth-sailing for me but at least my job is secured even though I still do not know if I have a chance to get posted back to Singapore. Honestly, I have worked in Hong Kong longer than I have in Singapore, so I am not exactly looking forward to moving back to Singapore anymore. I just miss not having my mum and my kids with me all the time. Moving the family over has been in my plans for the past 2 weeks but I am having some worries that I will be subjecting them to unnecessary stress. Furthermore, the polluted air in Hong Kong will be bad for D's health...*sigh*

Moving the family over!

I had a phone conversation with my mum today and she finally agreed to come over to Hong Kong to stay with me! After being separated between Hong Kong and Singapore for almost 4 years and knowing that I will probably not be able to go back to Singapore for at least 3 more years, my mum has finally succumbed to my request of moving the whole family over. The plan is for D to come over to start his P6 with the Singapore International School here this coming end-August. Mum will sell or rent her house out in Singapore and move over early next year. We will leave N to decide what she wants to do, to come over too or to stay put in Singapore until she finishes her secondary school. We won't force her.

Hubby has been selected for an interview with HKUST next Saturday and I am really getting hopeful that he will be admitted to the MBA program. Then we will stay in Hong Kong for at least the next 3 years. We will even be entitled to a permanent residency by then! It's really funny how things have turned out like this...we didn't have this in our plans last year. We were still quite hopeful to go back home to Singapore, hubby take a full-time MBA while I work in the Singapore branch office. But sometimes it's just not up to us, is it? We can plan all we can but when things don't work out as planned then we have to have contingency plans. The best option for us now is to have the family over. And with mum agreeing today, life in Hong Kong will be quite different! We are really looking forward to it!

To be or not to be?

You can paint on him for free...will you do it?

Came upon this guy on the main street of Mongkok many weeks ago but had forgotten about him until I did some housekeeping on my handphone today. I had taken a photo of him with my handphone when I spotted him. He was there at the street where it's closed to cars at night and was asking passerbys to paint on him. He even provided the paint and will not move an inch when you are drawing on him. He will even shake your hand and thank you after that. Many people were watching him and some really went up to paint on him. I thought that was quite interesting. I am not sure what was his purpose or motive but I guess he might have been training for something. Maybe he was a student at a performance art school or something and that was a training for him to get rid of stage fright or shyness? Or he was trying to get enlightened from this experience?

What would you think about such an act? It wasn't a street performance asking for money, he was just there to let you paint on him. His t-shirt, jeans, arms and face were all covered with paint from the passerbys who did bother to paint on him. A T-shirt shaped banner behind him had this "To be or not to be? That's the question." So what did it mean? I will be interested to know... To me, I think it means not to take life so seriously, just enjoy every waking hour and be happy and try to bring joy to everybody around you.

On a clear day...

View from my living room window on a clear day.

It was a clear day yesterday when I was doing my Marketing Management exams, so I took a photo with my BB. It is rare for Hong Kong to have a clear day like this and I could see all the way to The Peak from my living room window. It was a nice and cool day. It would have been nicer if I could go drving in an open-top car or something but I had the exams... *sigh*

The exams was not too bad, it was a clear day and I had a clear mind. I was asked to do a marketing plan for a diamond mining company amist the economic crisis now. It was interesting reading up about the diamond mining business, conflict diamonds issues and also about the 4Cs of diamonds. I spent about 13 hours on the plan and I am expecting myself to get a good grade for it. :)

Anyway, yesterday's exams marked the end of the 3rd subject for me in this quest for a MBA. I have 15 more subjects to go... I am hoping that I can finish 9 subjects by the end of the year. Hubby has applied to HKUST finally after considering for more than a year. It will be a part-time MBA and the lessons will be held at the Clear Water Bay campus on Saturdays from 9am till 6pm. So when he starts in September, he will officially have no Saturdays for 2 years. I think it's a worthy sacrifice for the best MBA program in Asia Pacific, so I am praying hard that he gets admitted.

Is it a good time to go for a MBA? Is a MBA degree a worthy investment?

Quit work?

I was out having dinner last night with an old college classmate who is working for a big MNC phone company in a senior position. In her work, she has to travel globally quite a lot and has tele-conferences with people from different time zones which often deprive her from sleep. After 12 years with the company and climbing to her level, she declared that she is really tired and thinking of retirement. With the economic crisis now, her company is offering voluntary retrenchment packages to all non-critical personnel. She's aiming to take that package but desperately needs to convince her boss that she's not critical. She claimed that she's really tired from working so hard for 16 years after graduation which is the same amount of time that I have been working.

So, am I tired from work? I am not sure. Comparing myself to her, my work is not that demanding and I am definitely not deprived of sleep because of work, not since at least 4 and a half years ago. In fact, my work is so non-demanding that I can actually do my online MBA during office hours, so I really have nothing to complain about. But of course, comparing to her, I am not getting that kind of pay package for that kind of work stress and responsibilities. She brought up an interesting point about the different work ethics of the westerners and Asians. She has staff from Europe and the US when on vacation leaves, will totally be non-contactable but her Asian, especially Singaporean staff will always make sure that they are contactable and are always willing to give up more of their private lives for the sake of work. And the most infuriatingly unfair thing is that the Europeans and the Americans are usually paid much higher salaries. So why do the Asians have to work so much harder? Are we by nature workaholics or is it just simply due to way that we are being brought up? Or is it because we are just being scared of losing our jobs? Is this our competitive edge?

My sister-in-law has quit her job to spend more time with her 3 children and her husband has been retrenched a few months ago. I am not sure how they can afford to do that but I am quite envious of them. To be able to quit one's job to spend time with the children is a far-fetched luxury for me. I am afraid to lose my job, I have 2 children and a mum to take care of. I am grateful that I am still having a well-paying job now when the whole world is in crisis and I definitely hope that the economy will recover soon. I am not feeling guilty that I do not have time for my children because of my work, I know that our lives will be even worse if I do not have work and for that, I am grateful to my company for keeping me employed. For those of you out there thinking about how you hated your work, think about how lucky you are that you have work instead. And for those of you who are able to quit work and still put food on the table for your family, you are the most lucky ones.

Like it or not, I'm here to stay...

It's set, I will be in Hong Kong for another 1 year at least and I guess I might as well plan to stay until I am eligible for permanent residency in Hong Kong. The Managing Director was here this week to check on the new Shenzhen office and he spoke to me briefly about my expiring contract in Hong Kong. He told me that he would like me to stay and hinted to me that it will also be better for me to stay in Hong Kong as the logistics center in Singapore will probably be closing down or downsizing...In this kind of economic climate, what else can I choose? I should be really grateful that I am able to keep my position and that the MD is happy to have me here.

So, what is the perks for being a permanent resident in Hong Kong? Hmm... All I know is that I will not need to have an employment visa to work here and that I will be eligible for a senior allowance of HK$1,000 per month when I reach 65 or something. Other than that? I really don't know yet...

Teenage pregnancy is the trend now?!

There was a hype again going on in the online forum in Hong Kong about a 14 year old blogging about her pregnancy and posting her pregnant photo on her blog. I was trying to find the blog but obviously, it must have been deleted or something. When you have a 14 year old daughter, it is really worrying to read this kind of news going around....

And not so long ago, a 13 year old boy from UK became the world's youngest father! The news became coverpage news and had many people around the world including me thinking if the world has gone crazy. Why the hell did the newspaper even have to publish this kind of news? I am sure some younsters out there will be thinking that they want to win that boy to be the next youngest father or something. The media is creating this teenage pregnancy problem into a kind of trend like fashion...

I think it all started when Japan produced this drama about this junior high school girl who got pregnant with her boyfriend's child. "14-sai no Haha" which literally mean "14-year-old mother" showed how this young girl struggled with the fact of her pregnacy and then decided to keep her baby and even raise the child by herself. I think it was a true-story made into drama with all the usual dramatic elements added in to capture audiences. Many viewers were touched by the courage of the young girl and her maternal love for her child....

Now, we have this 14 year old pregnant girl in Hong Kong openly expressing her feelings about her pregnancy on her blog. *sigh*

"Pasar Malam" Hong Kong style

We have stayed in Tai Kok Tsui area for 4 years and every year around the 1st week of March, there will be this carnival organised by a little temple in the neighbourhood. We happened to pass by last Sunday after a tim sum lunch with the old man and decided to take a walk through it. It's much like the "Pasar Malam" of Singapore with lots of goodies stalls and live performances. The only problem was, the goodies did not appeal to us... :(

Tai Kok Tsui Temple Carnival

"Wish upon the Dragon?"

I found this "Wish upon the Dragon" gimmick rather interesting though. Some ladies were selling the wishing cards and customers will write their wishes on the cards and paste them on the dragon's body which was at least 20 feet long for a certain fee. I think the money collected will be donated to some charity organisations. It's quite interesting for passerbys like us to read the wishes. Some children wished for good exams results, some wished for peace, some wished for safety, ...the list went on and on. Most of the wishing cards were pasted near to the dragon's head and not at the tail. Guess why? ;)

Hello Kitty Vehicles

Was talking to my colleagues over lunch today about getting a Hello Kitty scooter or car. Then I googled these picture from the Internet. They are so cool! I think I may really get a Smart car or a Mini and decorate it like the one on the right... *smile*

Actually, I like the scooter better but the problem is I do not know how to ride a scooter and I think my hubby is never going to let me learn. Oh well...

Closure

It's been a very intense week for me since last Thursday. First, it was a meeting with 2 staff from a company that my company had bought over on Thursday morning. They will be officially laid off by the end of March and my department is going to take over their jobs. Can you imagine the awkwardness in the meeting room? Then we have an office removal scheduled on Friday and Saturday in Shenzhen.

The meeting with the 2 staff went fairly well, they have already been told about the layoff and their responsibilities in assisting us for a successful transition. I am not expecting much trouble but my MD is concern about their stock status. He is determined not to takeover any dead stock but wants them to write off from their books before the transfer.

The office removal in Shenzhen went rather smoothly until Saturday when one female Admin Asst. Manager went hysterical and started to scold one of my staff over a very small issue. The worst thing was, when I tried to step in to stop her, another female Admin Manager joined in and started arguing their case by shouting louder and diverting my point with more nonsense in Chinese. Then when their Japanese male boss stepped in, they started crying as if we were the ones bullying them. I was absolutely stunned by the hysteria and could not react very well. I am not good at fights, not especially in Chinese and I am definitely not used to tears in the office. It was all too unprofessional to me.

It was really upsetting to my whole department who are largely from Hong Kong and who are not used to the mainland Chinese way of working. I myself was also upset about the whole incident for a few days. The Japanese boss apologised to me for the incident and told me that the 2 female are feeling remorseful for what they have done. I am not so sure if it's true but have decided to close the case. I need to concentrate on more important things in my life like my final assignment for the Marketing Management subject that I am studying and also to prepare for the final exams next week. So this post is offical closure... *smile*