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| Update and some thoughtsI've been going to the doctor and dentist very often these few weeks. Wisdom tooth extraction, follow up visit, cavity filling, pulled hamstring, physical therapy. The health insurance company must think I have major issues from the multiple claims I've been filing. Fortunately, everything is getting better, albeit gradually. Especially my left lower jaw, which is still hurting a bit from the wisdom tooth extraction from almost three weeks ago. There is no inflammation/swollenness that can be seen from the outside, and the dentist says the wound is healing nicely. It is probably the bone inside that is healing very slowly, I hope there is nothing wrong with it! Maybe it's just because of my old age, I don't remember it taking this long to heal when I had my other three wisdom teeth pulled out in my early twenties. Sigh. I was supposed to go to Thailand for work next week but the trip has been cancelled due to the recent political unrest. Kind of a bummer because I was looking forward to this trip. Now I have to plan the meetings in Hong Kong instead in one week's time, fun. Speaking of work, I mentioned earlier that I may be out of a job soon. Well, so far I have been very disappointed in how the company is handling this whole thing. I'll elaborate more when I can put my thoughts down more clearly rather than risk sounding spiteful. Which I think I am. | | |
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| Not very happy... at workThere are some coming changes with my job, our company has announced that our department will be discontinued in several months time. I seem to always get into these situations, during the internet bubble burst, I was with two companies consecutively that closed down in the end. Perhaps I have really bad luck?!  I am not too worried about the next steps though, as I don’t think it will be difficult for me to find similar opportunities. Part of me actually wants this to end sooner so that I can take a long(er) vacation before deciding on the next steps. Plus I have not been able to build good rapport with the coworkers here so I am not really enjoying the work environment. It’s been almost a year now that I’ve worked in this office, and I haven’t been able to become part of the clique. (It’s pretty clique-y in this office) Sure, I have lunch with them on most days but I guess I just don’t relate to many of the things they talk about, partly due to the difference in our jobs, I am not clued in on most of their daily grinds, and partly due to the difference in culture. So, I find myself usually being the quiet one at lunch. I am not a talkative person to begin with, combined with unfamiliar subjects, I become almost a complete listener. Some time ago, I decided not to follow the daily lunch routine with the same group of people, and have more lunches alone which I find more enjoyable at times. Perhaps I am being misunderstood as stand-offish because of my absence in the lunch routine, now when I join them for lunch, I find that one coworker in particular has begun to ignore me. She was actually the one who I had a working relationship with since I was in NY, so she was the one whom I was closer to when I first came here. I did ask if I am being too sensitive because she is the type of person whose demeanor can be seen as abrupt and cold at times but can actually be very friendly. But after multiple encounters, I am getting the intuitive feeling that there is something wrong. I am pretty clueless on why she is being this way, and I have tried to strike up conversations when I see her at lunch, but she either ignores me or replies curtly and then proceeds to joke around and have conversations with other people at the table. Perhaps she thinks I am a really boring person? That I don’t have anything in common with her? Who knows? This is the first time I’ve encountered someone like this at work, I’ve always been able to have friendly relationships with people I work with, and so it bothers me. I don’t want to talk to her about this, however. I am not good at confrontations, and I am pretty sure what her response will be. I just need to remind myself that there is nothing wrong with me, that there are still others who appreciate me. Right?  | | |
| Furniture LoveI risk souding silly to be so in love with furniture, but here's my story.
I am a fan of mid-century modern furniture, anything from designer pieces to no name Danish modern furniture. There is something about their clean lines and sculptural profiles that I really like. I love some of the classic pieces from designers like Charles & Ray Eames, Arne Jacobson, Eero Saarinen and Harry Bertoia, but the cost of any one of their pieces is enough to feed a family of four in HK for a month. As much as I like them, I am not ready to plunk down $500 for a chair. Plus I don't think Johnny is very fond of that idea either. So I have been drooling over magazine photos and home decor blogs whenever I spot these lovely pieces.
I know there is a market out there for vintage mid-century furniture, in flea markets, on eBay, Craigslist, etc., but being in Hong Kong really limits my options to purchase from these sources. There are no such flea markets in Hong Kong, and buying from eBay or Craigslist and paying for the hefty shipping cost to Hong Kong pretty much defeats the original intent of finding a good deal.
There is one place where I browse almost daily in hopes of finding something special. It's a classifed section of a website for HK expats. With the transient nature of expats, there are always new postings of people putting up their furniture for sale because they are moving out of HK, or the new apartment they are moving to just cannot fit the queen-sized bed they bought only a year ago. The problem with most expats' furniture though, is that they are mostly the cheap-y stuff from Ikea (ourselves included) or local furniture shops.
So, imagine my delight when I found a posting for two cool looking rattan chairs for a mere HKD80. The chairs are not by any designers but their unique shapes reminded me of the mid-century modern designs. I finally went to pick these up today and guess what? The lady who keeps these chairs in storage had a few more pieces of goodies! In her little storage space I spotted a Danish mid-century wood cabinet and an Eames plastic chair that I've been drooling over. I wasn't ready to get the cabinet right away but I wasn't leaving without that chair. She wasn't planning to sell the chair but sold it to me in the end. I paid HKD230 for the three chairs, that's less than USD30! The same Eames chair would cost over USD300 new! Yay!
Now I just have to find room for that cabinet in our new (smaller) apartment. 
 
Charly's quite enamored of the Eames chair, too.
These rattan chairs are surprisingly comfortable. The lady bought them in Japan.
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