• Home |
• Photo Album |
• My Style |
• Links |
• About

You are currently at: Home

Spring update - 22:24 BST April 09, 2009

I have been back in England for several weeks now. Nothing much has happened every now and then, such is the life I am having at the moment. I did meet up with some of my university mates recently, so it was not all bad at all. I went job hunting meanwhile as well, with mixed results.

Seeing I am pretty much free now, I suppose I could do something about the website. Finally, is action going to be taken? I guess so, but there are a few challenges standing in the way. Challenges are part of the creation of this website. I often take great satisfaction from solving challenges, especially massive ones. Needless to say, there will be times where we have our "hair tearing" moments.

What else is there to say... weather? I do not think so, there is nothing great to say about British weather (I think every one pretty much agrees with me on this one), I have not missed it the slightest. Interestingly enough, I never found Hong Kong to be that hot at all, I think I was probably lucky enough to be at the right spots at the right time.

My definition of hot weather would be something like Malaysia, where I remembered having to endure one night at 27 degrees Celcius. I did sweat indeed. Of course some of you might have experience hotter weather, but I think that is pretty hot.

I never thought my waffle actually added some content there. I think being articulate is vital in life. For that reason, I tend to express my thoughts in writing here. One of my purposes of starting off this website is to have an archive which I can look back later in life. It is also a means for me to improve my writing skills, because it is by no means perfect. I am sure there have been mistakes in my previous entries in terms of grammar and use of tense and such.

That is why I keep writing, to not just make a note of events that have passed, but also to improve my writing.
Comments(0)

---

Hello 2009, it has been a quarter of a year. - 13:18 GMT March 04, 2009

I can hardly believe it, it has been over three months since I last updated. To cut it short, I have been in Asia all the while. I started flying off to Hong Kong on the end of November (pretty much a few days after my last post). Therefore I never had much chance to update this site, but I am going to do it now, trying my best to give a succinct account of what has been going on over the past three months.

Where do I begin... yes, Hong Kong. It is a nice place indeed, with tall skyscrapers dominating the skyline of the main island of the country. It makes a good viewing from the Peak, especially at night, when it is lit up. I have been at the countryside of Hong Kong, I prefer it over the main island, namely due to the peacefulness of the surroundings, as well as the lack of pollution compared to the city, where haze is pretty much a common sight. The landscape of Hong Kong consists of mostly hills, which explains the presence of plenty of high rise buildings. Flats and apartments are virtually omnipresent within the country.

In terms of culture, Hong Kong is pretty much what I expected to be as pretty much everything here is Chinese. It has to be said however, there are hints of Western influence within the city, such as the race course which I attended. Not a surprise given it was a former British colony after all. The environment at the race course is rather exciting, where people, mainly foreigners, go there to place their bets and show their support on the horses they put their money on. The food is good, I have been sampling some of the local delicacies, and I have to say, I am quite impressed. Not to mention it is pretty cheap too (compared to the UK of course). For those who are planning to go to Hong Kong and want to try the food, I suggest heading for the coffee shops, they serve good food for a low price. The only downside to that approach is, of course, you need to know Cantonese to order the good stuff!

Last but not least, the transport system here is well structured. So far, all the trains I have been on to have been on time (hint hint, Southeastern Trains). Buses are good too, but I have to say, try taking a midnight mini bus, you will be in for a ride. They travel at such a speed which you could never imagine as a foreigner. I suppose locals are used to it, but I certainly was not. Swerving past the hilly roads of Hong Kong at a ridiculous speed, they sure arrive the destination in rather quick time.

The only downside I have to say so far would be the new year fireworks. I went to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch them and it was a bit of a let down. The fireworks were okay, as it was lit across the skyline of Hong Kong island, but it was over too soon. I was surprised by the length of the fireworks display. Not that I blame anything, credit crunch might as well been a good reason behind it.

Did I mention I was in Asia? I sure did, because Hong Kong was not the only destination I have been to. Needless to say, the other country I have been to was... yes, you got it right, Malaysia. It has been eight years since I last went back to celebrate Chinese New Year, so it goes without saying I certainly missed out a lot. However, this year, the ocassion has been not quite as lively as it used to be. This was to be expected however, given that my grandparents are no longer around, hence it was a bit quiet as I went back to their village. My grandparents' empty house pretty much sums it up all. My aunts and uncles were pretty much split across the country celebrating with the other families because of that. This was the first time I have ever witnessed this. But nevertheless, most of the family did meet up, albeit a brief moment. It just goes to show as time flows, things change. And what a change it has been, not that it was a surprise given that it has been eight years, which is 1/3 of my life currently.

Meeting old friends was really good. Chinese New Year was a good time to go back because most of my friends were back in the island of Penang to celebrate it, hence I had a good chance to meet with a lot of old timers. There was one of them whom I have not seen for eight years, and a couple of others whom I did not see for years as well. It was good to have finally caught up with them. I remembered one of the mini reunion with my friends, starting from 10pm, and it finished at 3am. Throughout the five hours, we did nothing but just chatting all the way through. It was quite a rare ocassion to have some of my primary school mates sitting down together on the same table. I am not even sure when will this occur again in the future. Reality strikes, as we never had much chance to meet up so regularly due to commitments to work or studies and such.

One of the main reasons why I flew out there was due to me not being able to land a job, and opportunities (decent ones) were pretty much far and few in between. Besides, I could do with a bit of a break after a rather hectic 2008. My advice to fellow graduates is not to be totally dependent on certain recruitment agencies when finding a job, it is often best if you try applying direct by yourself to a company which have graduate schemes. This is because some recruiters are devious, where they only utilise your personal details for their own benefits and do not really care about your welfare. I know this because I have been on the receiving end before, hence the warning.

All right, time to sign off now. Succinct enough? Sure is, given three months of absence. Not to worry, I will never let this site die just like that. Even one of my old friends asked me "Do you still maintain your blog?" when I was in Penang. So there you go, your answer is there Mr. Lam.

Now, I really, really need to do something about this site, such as unlocking the shoutbox (Probably going to happen only from the second half of this year)...
Comments(0)

---

Finally, some update? - 13:13 GMT November 28, 2008

Before I begin, it has to be said that it was indeed nearly half a year I have not updated this site. It goes without saying I was busy over the months, and more importantly, I had nothing to say too since it was mainly filled with nothing but work.

A bit of old news, my school principal back home is retiring, and thus I would like to wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Reading a news article about his retirement reminded me of my school days back home. Those were the days, things are much different now.

For what it is worth, I have not got much to say, I have been job hunting for a bit, not much success it has to be said. To be honest, I have been anticipating it, so not much surprises there. The tough market conditions did not really contribute to matters either.

Having said that, if you are reading this my friends back home, I salute you, and I should be seeing some of you in a few months time. I will also try to fix this site up (some obvious problems need fixing) when I have the time to do so. I may bring in some improvements meanwhile too. About time this site receives the proper attention and treatment it deserves.
Comments(0)

---

Three months... - 16:29 BST June 24, 2008

Three months since I last wrote something here. Not to worry, April and May were pretty much eventless as I spent majority of my time going through loads of reading and stuff. Essentially I had my exams back then, and all of my time were occupied staying inside my own room really.

Now, I am a bit free, but that does not mean I can go away for holidays(contrary to a friend of mine who actually can afford to do so...) because of project. Once again, I have to come up with something by the end. It goes without saying that the stakes are much higher this time round.

Right then, it felt as if I almost abandoned this space. Well, I have been really busy.

Before I go, let me share some spam mail I just received earlier today. Yeah, I know that millions get spammed every day, but I just felt amused with this one, even though it looked common:

Mr.Peter Wong (westsea@windermere.com)

acknowledge An Iraqi named Haider Hanoon,a business man made a numbered fixed deposit of(346,736,899.68 TWD) for 18 calendar months, this is valued to Fourty Four million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch.

Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war, four years ago (2003).he dead with his entire family leaving no next of kin behind, 50/50 for both of us if interested indicate by sending the below.

PERSONAL DETAILS IF INTERESTED FOR MORE DETAILS.
1.YOUR NAME 2.YOUR RESIDENT ADDRESS 3.YOUR OCCUPATION 4.YOUR PHONE NUMBER 5.DATE OF BIRTH 6.COUNTRY OF RESIDENT

Your response with the requested information should be sent to reach me at my personal email address below: peterwonghk7@gmail.com

Yours Truly,
Sir. peter wong.

Awesome stuff. As if people will believe it.
Comments(0)

---

Strange car, or was it just me? - 00:00 GMT March 16, 2008

I am guessing more of the latter. And oh, I cannot believe this, three posts in the space of three days. Hat-trick I guess. Hmm, what was I about to say again? Ah yes, about my car, it kind of acted up today for some reason. I think it is just me suspecting too much, because common sense dictates that cold weather = engine takes some time to start.

Anyway, the story was that today my mum wanted to go to shopping, and seeing that I am the only legal driver in the family available at the time of writing, it was pretty obvious as to who was going to get onto the wheel. Given the past experiences, I had no hesitations on being the main driver anymore.

I was slightly taken aback when I tried to turn the ignition on. The engine simply struggled to roar into life. When I just turned the ignition for a short while, the engine just will not start up. Only when I turned the key for a slightly longer period of time will the engine breathe into life. Vroom.

So I went for a drive. After the shopping, I hopped back into the driver's seat, and yeah, you guessed it again, the engine struggled once more. I guess it has not been warmed up enough since the car is not used as often as it was nowadays. I have revision, and besides there are not much places I can go with a car for now anyway...

Another weird thing was when I stopped on a slope, I pulled the handbrake up, which was the natural thing to do really. So, with the handbrake up, I thought "Hey since I am in first gear, might as well put the clutch up to the bite". And so I did, but the car stalled at the very moment it got up to the bite. Yeah, people will say, "Well you were on a slope you idiot, that was why it stalled", and they are correct. However, let me tell you guys something, I had the same situation a few weeks ago, on a slope, but on second gear, from standstill, and the car moved. The slope was slightly less steep but that was besides the point. Then again, I had my foot on the accelerator when it was on second gear, unlike this incident, where I did not do so. That probably explains it.

I think it is just one of those days when I try to be clever and think too much. Experienced drivers will just laugh at this now when they read this. Besides, the car is almost a decade old, which makes it all less surprising. Time to get over it I guess.
Comments(0)

---