Nature-ish photos

I took these 2 photos with a typical digital camera.. really do like them quite a lot... they were taken in Kinmen, Taiwan...

Weather should be a factor in driving consumption

Just came back from lunch at the shopping centre near the office... walked in to find that all the stores are full-blown into the fall season fashion... boots, turtlenecks, sweaters... probably even winter-resistant make-up if there's even such a thing... must be a good excuse/reason to go shopping...

"Autumn is coming.. I need to get new clothes cos summer clothes just don't work"
"Winter is coming.. that cardigan back home isn't warm enough.. need a new one!"

(or other aspects of the weather) "Look at that rain! need boots to survive walking around in that"

(or on the other hand) "Typhoon! can't go shopping outside!" (and hence the birth of online shopping... did you know that the one of the most purchased items online is actually clothes? who says we need to try them on?)

I suppose that's the down-side of sunny Singapore, though I am very sure the weather isn't stopping people from going out to buy more stuff...

But all in all, I never really had a thing for shopping.. and I don't like the cold weather either... 

After a long absence...

After a long absence from the blogging scene, I have resolved to get back to writing...

I do too little of it (in English anyway) these days, and seeing as I'm surrounded by lots of English notices and signages with grammatical errors, spelling errors and basically usage of the wrong terms, I figured I better get back to it, just so it doesn't deteriorate... (on a side-note, I am sure that if a company can win the job from the city government to revamp and review all public notices on their Chinese-to-English translations, that company will be super rich)

Anyway, am looking forward to writing more from now own, be it random thoughts, book reviews or updates on some travel...

Taipei City at night

Taipei city at night is actually really quite pretty...

On habits...

habits are interesting... I remember taking a while to get used to traditional chinese when I first arrived in Taipei, since I've been learning simplified chinese all my life in Singapore... even my office computer was in English, since it was the interface I was used to...

but now, after almost 1.5 years of immersing in traditional chinese, I now find myself being so used to it that I can no longer distinctively differentiate between traditional and simplified... it's now just chinese words that I can understand, and it takes a while and a bit of conscious effort for me to tell the characters apart...

also, I have been using the company laptop (of which the OS and Microsoft Office are in traditional chinese) for about 6 months now... and during this period, I have rarely been using my own laptop (which is in English)... but about a week back when I moved to Shanghai, I started using my own laptop again (cos I left the other one in the office) and suddenly I found myself "surprised" at everything being in English... it was an interesting feeling...
and now, I'm actually just bringing the office laptop back home to use... (partly also because my own laptop is getting old and slower)

but it's just interesting how these habits become habits without us really realizing it...

Interesting Story...

Once upon a time, there was a young mouse. The mouse had been told since young by its parents that if it hears the sound of a cat mewing, it should hide to be safe. So of course, the young mouse strongly lived by this teaching.

One day, while out of its hole, the young mouse suddenly heard a cat mewing. It quickly ran back to its hold and hid for a while. After some time, the cat sounds disappeared and the mouse felt safe. Not too long after, the young mouse heard the sound of a dog barking.

Finally assured that it was safe, the young mouse left its hole... and was promptly caught by a cat...

Feeling extremely cheated, the young mouse asked the cat "I was so sure I heard a dog just now!"

The cat promptly replied "In these times, everyone needs to learn a second language to survive"

The End

Relocating from Taipei to Shanghai

After must uncertainty of dates, I am now confirmed to be moving from Taipei to Shanghai on 6/29. There's been a lot of packing and last minute stuffs (like hair cut, dentist maybe etc etc) these days and yeah in some sense it was quite rushed... I was planning on moving on 7/10 but some stuff came up so the date was shifted forward...

I'm actually working for the same company (Atelligent Global Consulting), just based in a different country.. our China office only started running last year late August and I consider myself lucky to be offered the chance to be so involved in the starting up and running of such a young office.. lots of new stuff to learn, new things to try out in a new market and environment... don't foresee it will be easy but like I say.. I'm still young enough to take these chances...

I will still be back in Taipei, maybe about once every 2 months, depending on the visa duration they give me... only until the whole registration and work permit application is over that I will be able to stay long term in China (these processes take sooo long in China)... so anyway, simply said Taipei will not be that easily rid of me for some time...

In any case, my current Taipei number will not work in China (no roaming on my pre-paid) so if you wanna reach me, just email / MSN / Facebook me (yes I have my means of getting on FB in China)... Thank you all for all the support, help, care and everything in Taiwan these past 1.5 years (nearly)... since my departure is super soon, there wasn't time to organize a get-together, but I definitely hope to see you all when I am back.. or just let me know if you happen to be in Shanghai...

Thanks again, and next updates will be from Shanghai!

Cheers!

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It's been a while

Yes it's been a looong while since my last post... I guess I was too caught up in things to take a pause and update this space...

Now that I am on pause (am in Singapore now for Chinese New Year vacation), I'm not too sure how to phrase my thoughts...

for one... it's amazing that 1 year of working and living in Taiwan has come to an end... in a nutshell, I really have enjoyed the time there... it started off with a lot of new things, new people, new exposure, new way of life... and suddenly new has turned into habit, where being back in Singapore now has made that all the more apparent...

something about being back (and meeting up with old friends) has gotten me thinking... how easy it is to "start afresh" abroad to the extent that there one ends up not thinking much about the worlds one existed in before... the process of reconnecting with old friends these 2 weeks have reminded me that I belong(ed) to so many different worlds across the past 24/25 years and that my path has crossed with so many different people, many of which unfortunately I don't keep in contact anymore...

is it a sub(un)consciously move to protect oneself from being home-sick? or is it just a mechanism for living fully in the present?
Does living abroad build independence and strength of character? or does it simply train one to become emotionally detached to protect from loneliness?

random and interesting questions...