Changes All Around

A lot of water has flown under the bridges all over since I last posted anything. My work has gotten hectic, and with the markets all around the world showing signs of 2008 all over again, we are back to not-so-good times. 

I had been to Shenzhen last weekend, and really liked the place. We went to a couple of theme parks over the weekend - Windows of the World and Splendid China. Windows of the World has miniature replicas of most of the famous buildings around the world - Eiffel Tower, Tower of Pisa, White House, Buckingham Palace, Taj Mahal, etc. Its really a must visit for anyone visiting the place. Splendid China is on similar themes, and has miniature replicas of famous places in China. 

Almost whole of the year has passed, and we are waiting eagerly for the last four months of the year to pass. This hasn't been the most stable of years, with wife moving to HK, and trying to settling in a new place. However, things are finally settling down, and by the end of this year we would be moving to a new apartment as well. Weekends are fun in Hong Kong with indoor games, and sometimes trip to some beach or other place. Its relatively quieter here compared to all the drama happening in India currently. Being so away from there, so feel sort of cut off from the event, as well as its outcome. 

Busy June

Its been a hectic last few weeks for me - mostly its the new job. New job brings you new challenges, and you have to start things all over again. In my profession, I have to rebuild all my excel sheets, and data store from scratch, and it takes a long long time. Now after a few weeks, things have come close to stabilizing. 

Wife has finally moved to Hong Kong permanently, and she is still adjusting to the place. Its not a very inconvenient place to live in (in fact, just the opposite), but the very fact its very different than Mumbai will need some time for adjustment. The biggest issue here would be the language, and the food. Though she would have much lesser food issues than I had (being a vegetarian is not the best of things in Hong Kong). She has all the time in the world to herself now, and I just hope it doesn't get boring here. I haven't seen a bollywood movie in a long time now, and will try to watch something this weekend. 

There has been a dearth of weekend-activities recently, and hopefully we would be visiting plenty of places in the months to come. New Zealand and/or China is on the cards, and depending on the leave we can manage, will have a vacation soon. On a different topic, Sale season has just started here, and my credit card bill is about to explode soon. 

Why Facebook Is A Short At 50 Billion!

Remember that period of one month before joining the B-School? When you are just lazying around in your home and some kind senior sends an invite to your batch's yahoo or google or FB group (depending upon number of grey hairs on your scalp). And the flood of emails that flow following a few awkward introductions in the beginning. And people asking all sorts of doubts ranging from need of mosquito net, to quality of mess food. If you don't believe me, just check out your group history, and you would be laughing your ass off now connecting the mails to real persons and friends you know.

Facebook lagrely is quite similar in nature, and we are currently in the period of initial hyperactivity. There is a new platform, and people are keen to explore it, projecting their best and active side. However, as we get used to the socially networked world, this initial euphoria would die down. People would stop informing the whole world when they visit a dentist, and when they go out for jog. And when that happens, the time spent on FB would come down gradually. So valuing a company on the basis of this period of super normal growth may not be the smartest thing to do. Thats where you need to apply everything real you learnt after you actually joined the B-School.

Moving to HK

I am moving to Hong Kong (Finally and hopefully ;)) on 25th of May. As would happen with everybody who is moving or settling in a new place, I am a mixed bag of emotions right now . I am happy that i will be finally settling down and having a house to call of my own. Sad also because all my friends, family is here, I liked my job, had a good team to work with, but unfortunately i had to quit in-order to move to HK. A lot more anxious because now that i have quit my job i will have a lot of time on my hand so i really hope i make good use of it. I already have a to do list on my mind, hope i execute it, unless the scary monster of laziness decides to creep over (which unfortunately he always does).

For starters i want to hit the gym, i have been eating my way to glory just thinking that i will make it up in HK. Parents i have a way of stuffing their kids with food; so mine right now is "Kha le, wahan kahan milega yeh sab khaane" and where otherwise i don't really heed to my parents advise, this time i have jumped on it. So lets hope some burning of calories happen there.

I want to read a lot, novels i used to read here, i am actually looking forward to reading more work related stuff, so it hopefully helps me in my job search as well. So there is a job to search too..  

I really want to go out there and explore HK on my own, i am not really an adventurous kind, so i wont hop on to a random bus and just move around. But i really want to do something like that this time (i hope my husband will come to my rescue if i get lost somewhere; i can already see him nodding his head in a big NOWAYS). I want to just get up, move around, take good photographs (so there is photography to learn as well) and know in and out of HK.

I am not much of cook so i was hoping to catch up on that front as well. Not the normal food for survival but the chef , exotic food kind, so even if it gets spoiled i will have the recipe to blame for it! Plus there are lot of movies and serials to catch up, but i hope that will be the last resort to do away with my boredom.

The thing that i don't want to do is be logged on to facebook all the time playing games and uploading stupid links, i think that is the best way to waste your time and i really want to avoid that.

So i have the list ready and all i have to do is do it. I have been to Hong Kong and i really like that place, i hope it stays that way this time also!!

May & A New Beginning

Another couple of weeks have passed, and this time lots of things have changed. I finally joined my new company, and have completed my first week in office. Change is always nice, more so if it comes after an year or so of sub-standard work. I had joined my previous employer with great hopes, against the advice of most of my friends and colleagues (for which my reason was pretty simple - I wanted to learn from my own mistakes, and not from others). However, within a few months I had realized it wasn't a great decision. So, more than one and a half years later, I have corrected the mistake and moved on. A lot more wiser than before. 

Wife would be joining me in another couple of weeks time, and my place, which is nice with a great sea view (both from the living room as well as bed room), would fall small for 2 people. So, I would soon have to start looking for a new place. Its another 4 months till my lease expires, and unlike in Mumbai where all you have to do is give a month's notice, here the leases are valid for the full period. So, I can't move out of lease in the middle. The good part though is the brokerage - here you pay half a month's rent as compared with a full month's rent in Mumbai (which is still on the higher side compared with what I have heard about the rates in say London). The brokers though help you with quite a few things - gas connections, water connections, etc.

Another couple from our batch in B-school got married last week. So, that would make at least 6 couples which I can remember right now (and am sure there are a few more). 

On a side note, I learnt the use of tripods while taking pictures, and tried with taking a night snap of a bridge visible from my living room. This was the first time I actually got to experiment with different shutter speeds, and was quite impressed with the results and the possibilities. Hopefully would get a few nice snaps on the weekend, and post them here.