Visit to the Birdsnest and Water Cube

Water Cube

Birdsnest

Was in Beijing last week for business. It has been 5 years since I last visited Beijing and I am quite impressed with the air quality of Beijing now. I don't know but the 2 days that I was there, the weather was great and the sky was blue. I didn't feel air pollution like I used to remember Beijing for 5 years ago. I used to hear from taxi drivers that residents of Beijing hardly get to see blue sky...This time, I saw blue skies for consecutively 2 days! Look at the photos!

On the day of departure, I managed to steal a couple of hours to visit the Olympics ground where the famous Olympics sports stadium "Birdsnest" and the swimming complex "Water Cube" are situated. The "Birdsnest" was really quite majestic and the walls of "Water Cube" really did looked like many bubbles stuck together! Really cute.

Anything is Possible

Li-Ning is a famous sports wear brand in China own by famous Olympics Gold Medalist, Li-Ning. Li-Ning was also one of the official sports wear sponsor for the Beijing Olympics. This photo was taken at Wangfujing, Beijing and the shop was right opposite Nike and Adidas.

Nike says "Nothing is Impossible".
Adidas says "Impossible is Nothing".

And Li-Ning says "Anything is Possible"! That's Chinese creativity for you~ :D

1 down and 17 more to go...

Sorry for not blogging for so long, folks. I have been really really busy with my studies these days. I have just completed my 1st subject on Organisational Behaviour and had my final exams over the weekend. *Phew*

It was an open-book exams, fully online and I have exactly 24 hours after downloading the exams question to submit online. I really love studying like this, I woke up around 11am on Saturday, made myself some nice hazelnut latte, log-in to U21Global campus and started to download my exams paper. It was very relaxing, definitely much better than having to go to a venue for the exams. The best thing about it was, I didn't have to worry about getting to the venue on time, no worry if the place will be overly air-conditioned like most indoor places in Hong Kong and I didn't even have to worry about having to do my make-up and hair! I was still in my pajama when I started to work on my paper. :D

It was quite a long paper, I had to give a proposal as an organisational change management consultant to this imaginary large IT firm based in New York who have just acquired an Indian IT firm and was facing many challenges both internally and with the workers union in the US. I was expected to give the CEO a coherent change management plan to help him solve all the problems that his firm was facing and get the firm back on track for revenue growth. Open-book as it was, the paper was not easy. I was expected to submit a proposal within 24 hours with standards comparable to a team assignment with long deadline. I worked through the day, stopping only for meals, shower and I worked through the night. By the time I completed my proposal, it was 18 hours later! Yes, I worked til I saw day-light at 6am the next morning...

Hubby was sweet, he stayed up the whole time just in case I needed help from him with the PC, made me coffee late in the night and ocassionally gave me kisses for "mental support". He also helped me find the perfect coverpage for the proposal from Office 2007 templates.

TGIF~

Thank God It's Friday! This week has passed kind of fast as Wednesday was a public holiday. It was China's National Day and Hong Kong being part of China now gets to celebrate with a day off. Hubby and I went on a tour organised by the management of our condominium. We went on a boat trip for white dolphin-watching around the waters of Hong Kong and also to catch the National Day fireworks at Victoria Harbour. Going on a boat trip is never a thing for me as I get sea-sick very easily. But since it will be our last year in Hong Kong, so I thought I should just brave the trip and hopefully make it a memorable one for us. With the help of 3 sea-sick pills, I didn't get sick at all! :D

One major disappointment of the trip was that there was no sighting of any white dolphins...we sighted some "flying" little fishes though. There must be thousands of them swimming in groups and they would jump out of the water for a few times consecutively. It was quite a funny sight but other than that, it was just endless hours on the boat which had no comfortable seats. All the seats were either plastic or wooden and I developed so much body aches sitting and sleeping on them. The sea-sick pills made me really sleepy...*yawn*

Dinner was at a really rustic fishermen village in Tung Chung. The food was just so-so and the place reminds me of some old kampongs in Malaysia. Not too bad, at least I didn't get sick from eating the food there. After dinner was another 2 hours' boat ride to Victoria Harbour for the National Day fireworks display. I had expected to be blown away but then again, I was disappointed. It wasn't as exhilarating as I had hope it would be. For a moment I was wondering if I had lost it, lost the feelings that I used to have for fireworks... I remember myself weeping with emotions everytime I watch the National Day fireworks back home in Singapore...Hubby reconfirmed that the fireworks display back home was much, much, MUCH FANTASTIC! :D

*Phew~*

I have just completed my 1st draft of the team assignment on Managerial Economics and posted up for my team-mates to comment. I am the last one to contribute so I was actually quite anxious. I was even thinking about the assignment in my sleep last night! I am a little relieved now...*phew~*

The rash all over my body has more or less subsided but I am experiencing very dry skin now. Some of the areas where the spots have subsided are starting to peel a little. I think I may be moulting...will my skin be baby-smooth after that? I certainly hope so! :D

The stock market is still in chaos but I don't really care. I don't buy stocks, not anymore. I have lost like about SGD200K during the 90s and I have since refrained from trading stocks. I have no luck to make fast money, it's my life, I have to work for my money and I consider myself lucky that I have enough to live comfortably.

A typhoon is approaching Hong Kong again and we are expecting that the Observatory will put up a Tropical Storm Warning Signal 8 tonight. Many colleagues are hoping that the signal will be up tomorrow morning instead so that we don't have to come to work though. For me, as long as I have internet connections, I don't really mind where I am, at work or at home. These days, I am practically studying online like that of a full-time student. I am either reading my textbooks or online course materials or reading my classmates' posts and responding to them. I am actually kind of addicted to this kind of online learning. I log on everyday! It takes quite a lot of discipline of course since there's no real classroom to attend. There are times I wish that I don't have to study but the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment after I submit my assignments is really overwhelming!

*The sweet after the bitter really tastes SWEETER!*

Update ~ Rash all over....

It was a roller-coaster ride at the stock market literally yesterday. The shape of the graph was a "V" indicating great recovery after a terrible fall. I wonder what is it going to be like today?

A friend of mine who is married to a British and living in UK just updated me that her hubby had survived a major restructuring in his company and got to keep his job, but he had to do the honorable head-chopping for his department instead. *Sigh* It's all gloomy everywhere and the weather today is just not helping...it is raining heavily outside now...

I have developed a rash all over my body since 2 weeks ago and after 2 consultations with different doctors, I just found out from the last doctor that it is Pityriasis Rosea. The cause of it is not known but according to some sites, it usually happens to children or young adults during Spring or Autumn seasons. It's really puzzling for me as I am not a young adult and it is not even Autumn yet in Hong Kong. The doctor told me that it must be something in the air and lucky for me, the rash is not itchy and it's not contagious. Best of all, it usually won't break out on the face although I have many on my neck area. The bad news is, it will take up to 12 weeks to heal completely and there is no treatment for it. At the meantime, I can't go swimming as I really look like a leper and I doubt the guards will let me into the pool... By the time this rash subside, it will really be Autumn in Hong Kong and the pool will be closed until Summer next year.

Update ~ 2 weeks...

Sorry for not blogging for like 2 weeks...it's been a rather tough 2 weeks for me because hubby was in depression due to some issues at work. The worst thing about it was I couldn't help him and whatever I said to him seemed to have made things even worst for him. I am so glad when he announced that he is officially out of his depression last night. *Phew*

On top of that, I was having some hard time myself with my studies. Managerial Economics is killing me with all the mathematical equations...I wish I hadn't thrown away my A Maths as soon as I had finished my O levels exams...I am not the Maths person, I had always hated Maths and I had intentionally "throw away" whatever I had studied for my exams to make myself feel better. Do you know that you can really "throw away" bad memories? I often do that to make myself feel better, it's a technique for getting out of depression. Just intentionally forget things that aren't making you happy and make an effort to keep only good memories.

Oh yah, I have made a new friend with an old schoolmate of mine. M found me via Facebook and sent me a message requesting to add me as a friend. Honestly, I have absolutely no recollection of her even though I went through her profile and looked really hard at all her posted photos. Maybe she has changed quite a lot as I am sure she was never this "big" when she was still in school with me. She was really friendly, sending messages and looping in common friends we both know. She's living in New York now with her husband and 2 children. I guess when one gets far away from home, one just find the needs to get connected with friends back home. I am relating to that, so I responded to her equally. Then she came over to Hong Kong with her husband and we met up. She brought me to this members only restaurant "China Club" which hubby and I would never have know existed. It was kind of like a place from the famous book "Joy Luck Club" with very nostalgic furniture and atmosphere. There was this singer in cheongsam singing some Chinese oldies on stage with a live band. And they gave us "fortune cookies" after our meal. *Cool~!*

Do note that the Chinese restaurants here in Asia do not give out fortune cookies after your meals.