When He Screws Up So Much, It's Not Meant to Be

When it comes to dating, I believe in signs. No astrology kind of signs, I am referring to the little things that happen whether good or bad. Recently I went on a few dates with a guy and there were all sorts of bad signs, I don't think it's meant to be.

Bad Sign #1: Drunk Dialing me the night before my early conference call
This guy drunk dialed me not just once, but twice! He practically kept talking and talking and refused to hang up.

Bad Sign #2: Not only did he drunk dial me, he complained that I didn't like him enough
Ppppppppleeease, we went on three dates - three dates - and he already dared complain I wasn't making time for him, I wasn't too keen on him. I never even said I liked him! Now before you think I am being harsh on an innocent guy, this guy is in his 40's and has slept with a lot of women. I wouldn't expect him to be an innocent virgin.
He even said: I normally lose interest in girl after 3 dates and I start running in the other direction before the third date, so the fact that I still want to see you it means I really like you.
Um, thanks for making me feel special, but just because you haven't run yet doesn't mean youbare justbas "special" to me, not yet at least!

Bad sign #3: Trying to brag about me like I'm his prize in front of friends
He got very upset when I failed to make it to two gatherings he had with close friends. Hello, we went on three dates only. I have no idea how he planned on introducing me, or what he planned on introducing me as. "Hey, this is the girl I plan to sleep with! Hot huh?!" "Hey, this is the girl I lasted 3 dates with! Surprise!"
He made me feel like he was more eager to prove to his married friends that he might not die sad and lonely after all, than actually feel proud of me.

Bad sign #4: When drunk, he cut me off while I was making a point
Very bad sign. He cut me off multiple signs when I was explaining myself, and he refused to believe I was telling the truth how I felt.

Bad sign #5: Laughing about and kept discussing my age when I told him how old I was
That was bad. He somehow thought I was a few years younger and when I told him I was 35, he kept telling me how surprised he was, and there was many "wows" in the next 10 mins until I insisted we talked about something else.

Bad sign #6: My dog kept barking when he was around
He tried, I think he really tried to bond with my dog even though he had no experience with dogs. From the way he stared right into my dogs eyes, very very seriously, I am convinced he had downloaded an episode of Dog Whisperer before visiting my place, and tried to use his energy to tame my dog. Didn't work. My dog kept barking when we were kissing and that really didn't help. LOL.

Bad sign #7: "I am not a spiritual person."
Thanks for telling me that you don't think about things much. I do. And I like to chat about things I think about.

Bad sign #8: No common music favorites
We listen to completely different music, the only few songs common on our playlists may only be a few pop songs playing in clubs lately.

Bad sign #9: Showed up at yoga late - missing the class - as he partied too hard the night before till 5am
I really made an effort to go to that class together. I ended up going alone.

Bad sign #10: Bad memory probably from drinking too much
He keeps forgetting the things he said, and tells me the same stories like 3 times in a week.....

Need I say more? Well, good thing is, he is probably upset that things aren't progressing smoothly, so he's backing off. I hope I don't have to yell again, to him or any guy "I'm sorry, but we aren't exactly dating and three dates don't make me your girlfriend! I'm just having fun, ok? Take it easy!"

Homer Simpson Tummy

I do not necessarily need a very handsome man as a date, but I absolutely cannot deal with a man with Homer Simpson belly.  [Puke]

I may not have the perfect body myself, but I refuse to be touched by any guy with a belly like that!  Just last Saturday, someone from my sports team took off his shirt at the bar and his big belly was a shocking eyesore!  Not only did he look gross to me, while I was sitting and talking to someone, he walked over half-drunk and started twisting his body dancing in front of me, rubbing his penis against my knee!  Ewwww  is that super gross or what? 

Corporate Life Taught Me.....

To bite my tongue when my boss and senior management is making very stupid but determined decisions.  The operative word being: determined. 

If they are determined, let them be.  I will stay true to myself by not praising the decision.  Yet I will also protect myself (and my source of income) by not trying to change what I cannot change. 

Indeed, there are some things I can change in a corporate environment - and there are plenty more things I can't.  And if I try too hard to change the things I can't change, I not only waste my time and effort, hurt my own morale, but also make enemies in the process.  No win situation.

Sorry to disappoint.  There is very little justice in work life. 

I hate 小氣鬼

Ten minutes ago, I put my foot down and blocked a former friend/ occasional suitor/ former fling from my Whatsapp, MSN, and am considering removing him from my facebook list altogether.

Some of my close friends have already heard a lot about this guy: how he didn't pursue me for months after we met and then bitched about me hooking up with other guys, how he offended me by calling me Hongkie and refusing to apologize even after I explained to him the meaning, how we agreed to make plans for a Saturday night and the day before he said he invited some friends and asked if I'd like to join.....  All these happened a while ago and we hadn't really been in touch lately.

Last weekend, I suddenly got some random messages from this guy on Whatsapp, and I replied with "huh?" as I was completely clueless.  He replied with, "nothing."  This repeated three times in a row within 20 minutes.  So I ignored his messages assuming he was being weird or he might have sent me messages by mistake.

Just now, he sent me some random message, and we exchanged some silly, meaningless messages.... when I mentioned the lack of a handsome guy emoticon on iPhone, he sent me a picture of a man.  The man in the picture looked like he was in his late 30's, serious, mature, face a little chubby, skin a bit rough, banker/ businessman looking...  I spoke my mind and said,"who is that?  He looks very scary."  He replied,"Sexy.  Your English is going downhill."  I replied,"who is he?  He really scares me."  He said,"that's me!"  I said,"no way!  The face doesn't look like you.  The skin condition doesn't look like you.  Those glasses aren't even yours!"  He said,"it's me!"  (Okay I have to admit that I was stupid and still didn't believe it was him and I did say,"What?!!!  No way!!  What happened?  That doesn't look like you at all!"  (I guess "what happened" did it.)  Suddenly he said,"okay I'm going to bed.  Good night."  I replied,"what?!  That's so rude of you!"  He then said I was mean to make fun of him.  I tried to explain, but without luck, and finally told him not to ever message me again.

Jesus Christ!  I really had no friggin clue that was him!  I did re-open that picture 4 times for a close look, and I was damn sure that wasn't him!  Last time I saw him was a few months ago and he still looked exactly the same as he had always looked - young, cheeky, quite good-looking, and with rather nice skin.  How would I know he became fat and bloated and old in just 2 months?!  I immediately went on facebook to check his latest pictures - and indeed in his last three pictures he looked 8 years older and 1.5 times his normal size.

Regardless, I've put up with a lot of his spoiled brat shit for a long time.  I decided that was it!  I had to cut him off and not let him upset me anymore.  As much as I occasionally had fun times with him, he really is too weird and spoiled and immature for me, even as a friend.  I am so sick of immature guys who have no clue how to treat a girl nicely and with respect.

Let me start my year afresh!

A Tribute to the Best Pick-Up Artists

If I were a guy, I would aspire to be an ultra smooth pickup artist.

Being a female, I never cease to be impressed by advanced pickup skills and technique.  I think it is indeed an art!

The best pickup artists need to possess certain qualities: Decisiveness, Focus, Efficiency, Confidence, Small Ego, Eloquence, Spontaneity, Outstanding Observation, Friendly & Harmless Impression, Persistence.  Let me cite a real example:

Today my female friend and I were walking quite fast along Staunton Street.  Suddenly, a friendly voice came from behind me,"you don't feel cold wearing that in this weather?  I'm wearing a sweater!"  I turned around and saw this middle aged Australian man walking behind me at the same pace as me, and I replied with a laugh,"yeah it is indeed a real pain figuring out how to dress for this temperature! Wool seems too hot, T-shirt seems too thin....."  The man kept walking with us, as if we had been walking together as friends all along, and started talking about the weather and his sweater.  When he noticed I wasn't responsive to that, he asked,"so what plans have you girls got for the day?"  We pretended we didn't hear him and kept walking.   He then changed the topic,"have you heard of Detour at the Victoria Prison?  I wonder if it's worth checking out.  I used to work at the Central Police Station but never got around to checking out the prison itself."  At that time my friend and I have already turned left to walk down to Hollywood Road, and I replied (while still walking),"oh it's wonderful, you really should check it out.  You actually should walk back up to enter from Old Bailey Street instead of walking down in our direction.  You'll get to see some interesting exhibits and check out the prison cells."  Noticing that he got our attention when he mentioned Detour, he mentioned once again,"I used to work in the Police Station around the corner but never checked out the prison....."  Still walking, we ignored him and he finally gave up.  He was actually really smooth, but too bad he was old, ugly and fat.  If he had been cute, we might have considered going to the tour with him.

So, what was so great about his pick-up skills?
Decisiveness - Often times you only have a few seconds to decide whether or not to pursue a girl when the opportunity arises, whether in the street, in the elevator, at the pedestrian crossing.....  If you can't make up your mind, you wasted the opportunity.
Focus & Efficiency - Once you decide to pursue, you need to stay focused, with the ultimate objective of picking up the girl.  You need to get her attention, earn her trust, and get her number/ get her to join you for a drink, etc.  In the process, you need to be extremely efficient as you don't have all day to pick her up.  So you are competing with time.  You need to find the hot button as quickly as possible.
Confidence and Small Ego - Put down your ego - to get a girl's attention you cannot be arrogant or shy.  You won't see her again, so nothing to be embarrassed about.  You've got nothing to lose.  Give it all you got!
Spontaneity - Often times, golden pick-up opportunities arise out of the blue.  Depending on the situation, you improvise and ride on the occasion.
Eloquence - The best pick-up lines are non-scripted ones.  You've got to work with the situation and say the right things to get her attention.  It needs to be something relevant.  Like the above example, he talked about my interesting choice of outfit for that weather, and asked about Detour at Victoria Prison - something artsy, cultural and hence high hit rate.
Outstanding Observation - You need to observe the behaviour of the target and talk about something as relevant as possible to her in order to warm her up and generate interest to respond.
Friendly & Harmless Impression - Girls are taught at a young age not to talk to strangers, especially men.  So to get us to talk to you, you certainly need to appear harmless and friendly.  You cannot look like criminal, a rapist, a crook.  You also need to have the ability to get near to the girl's comfortable physical distance without startling her.  You then work on gaining her trust.
Persistence - You may not get her attention with the first shot.  But you must not give up so hastily.  Persist!  Keep trying with the amount of time you got until you have a good chance of closing the deal.

I have high respect for those who are good at this art, as it is indeed quite appealing to me a guy's assertiveness and confidence to do this sort of thing.  I am a traditional female - I love being pursued and admired.  I think I have fallen for some of the most advanced pick-up technique many times - of course very selectively - and have been in relationships with those "artists" afterwards!  I suppose it's exactly because most guys I meet in social events, who expressed their interest in me to mutual friends - are afraid to pursue me, and it really turns me off they have such little self-confidence, hence I particularly am impressed by those who dare to just walk up to me and pick me up!


Salute to the world's best pick-up artists!  We need more guys like you!

煩女人!

哎呀, 好煩! 我真係好怕煩嘅女人! 咿咿哦哦!  又話出o黎,又話唔出,又話早, 又話晏! 好煩!!!! 咁煩嘅女人點搵男友?! 
Please, 做人話一就一, 二就二! 諗三諗四, 又想睇下有無better alternatives先決定, 當我係妾士咩?!  做朋友做到o禁, 都幾心淡!

Friend Turned Financial Planner - Scary!

Oh my god, it freaks me out when friends turn into financial planners, insurance agents, etc. and start chasing you in impersonal ways in order to find business.  I can fully understand they need to make a living and they are taught certain aggressive ways to find business.  Yet, having known them as friends before, it seems so bizarre when they treat you like a customer.

Just now, on facebook, a friend whom I haven't talked to in a while, sent me an instant message:  Have you thought about where you want to be in 5 years?

I freaked out and closed facebook.

Last time I talked to this person was on the phone - and he wanted to sell some business solutions.  Even though I stated that I wasn't the person to decide on these admin decisions, he relentlessly probed in other ways to try and obtain other contacts from me, the way sales training courses teach you.  I don't know what they teach in these companies - that everyone they know is a business opportunity and should be leveraged fully?

I find it sad because he is to me a friend, and I'd like him to think of me as a friend.  He is normally a very nice person.  He used to comment on my facebook.  Now we have zero interaction except sales calls/ messages.

Generation Y in the workplace

Generation Y, or Post 80's generation, is often a topic my friends and I (who belong to Generation X) passionately, head-shakingly discuss. 

I am not a sociologist, or anthropologist, so I won't even bother justifying my explanation of their unique behavior in the workplace.  Just want to share some funny discussions here for a laugh!

My friends and I are largely people managers/ team leaders, and people we work with largely belong to Generation Y.  We often find them lack of direction and purpose in life and career, quite egocentric, not very willing to conform to established formalities, like to feel that they are individualistic but without clear individual edge, very easily distracted/ short attention span, think it is uncool to take things too seriously (think it is cool to appear laid back), take everything including opportunities for granted, lack of perseverance, lack of motivation to progress and shine, over-reliant on technology, lack of confidence in human interaction (face-to-face communication, phone communication).....and the list goes on.

When talking to a colleague some staff evaluation of supervisors (360 degrees evaluation), my colleague told me one of her sub-ordinates had the nerve to write, as area for improvement for her:  _______ is not considerate, when she leaves the office she turns off the aircon for her work section.  Another sub-ordinate wrote: __________ needs to hire more proficient manager.  I don't think my manager is good enough.  I laughed out loud when I read her message!  Come on, kids, be a bit professional!  Don't write such juvenile comments!

When having dinner with some ex-colleagues, we discussed why Generation Y don't seem to learn from their mistakes.  If you watch over their shoulders, they call you nagging and not giving them freedom.  If you give them freedom, they abuse it by either not taking prompt actions as necessary, or they make big decisions - often times without thorough thinking and consideration of longer term consequences - without informing you.  Then someone raised a funny point:

When we were their age, after being scolded by our bosses or making a big mistake at work, during the time we traveled to and from office each day, we would reflect on what we had done wrong, why our bosses had scolded us.  Nowadays, Generation Y spend their traveling time finger swiping on their iPhones, iPod touch, playing games.  There are all these distractions for them to forget they had been scolded by their bosses!  That's why they don't learn!

So true! Ha ha!!

Managing and trying to motivate Generation Y can be a university course on its own.  I really hope these kids will miraculously grow up overnight and feel "cool" about being mature and professional.  At the same time there needs to be more updated people management trainings targeted to management of Generation Y as they clearly need to be motivated and managed differently.

Staying Single Does Not Mean I Screwed Up My Life

No one has the right to judge that a woman is screwing up her life by being single over 30.  

This is in response to my earlier posting, "And She Lived Ordinarily Ever After", and my friend's comment.  The more I think about my ex's comment, the more furious I get.  It was not even pity that he expressed, it was disapproval of my snobbish behaviour, stuck-up mentality, and concern for my miserable self-inflicted consequences.

I may be selective, but I am not snobbish.  All these years, I have given different guys a chance, even the most unlikely ones.  I have dated men of such different personalities and styles, no one can say that I am not open-minded.  I have even dated some whose personalities I actually despise now.  (Watch out for my upcoming posting on "Mutant Men".)

I may be single, I may be alone, but I am not miserable and I don't feel lonely.  I am living a content life, with a few great friends, and plenty others who care about me.  I travel, I work, I cook, I eat, I play, I laugh..... 

Plenty other women out there share my experience, and they too should not be judged.  If we had forced ourselves to stay in dead-end relationships, just so we would be married today and with kids, THAT would have truly screwed up our lives.  Nobody knows how people will change in the future, and how relationships will develop.  At least at the time, the relationship was not working out, or the date was truly horrible, we accepted the sad reality and coped with the change.

So, Mr. Ex, I do not envy your life, or your wife.  I once regretted dumping you 8 years ago, and in hindsight, I made the right decision.  I want a husband who supports me through my pregnancy and the different stages of raising a child, not someone who goes out with buddies to play golf or poker while I try to manage the newborn.  I want a husband who is not as shallow, thinking a woman should just randomly find someone to marry.

Story from a Weirdo Magnet: Mr. Neighbor's SMS

I read this from my friend's facebook status message, and I laughed out loud.  So with my friend, J's, permission I am sharing her story here.

J is a hot, outgoing, active, single girl living in LA (with her dog Guinness).  Yesterday she received an sms from her neighbor - a married man with a child:

‎"friend of mine is organizing a "trade a massage party" in the afternoon of one the weekend days either this weekend or next. Are u interested? Guests are welcome to bring massage oils, clean towels, healthy foods and drinks, a little win...e or beer; dress code is anything sexy u want to wear to laungerie to nothing at all for the more daring spirits (I'm going to suggest that they change dress code to "wear ur towel only"). Ur suggestions r welcome. Idea is for those that just want to de-stress and relax to feel welcome and just trade massage n respected in a totally comfortable environment and those that want be more daring can be as daring as they want. Those that want to bring their hot date have to trade or share their date. Pushy guys will be kindly asked to leave so that nobody has to feel uncomfortable. Let me know if this sounds like something u want to try. It sounded like a ton of fun to me (I'm always begging for massage at home) and I was asked to pass along the invitation to anyone I thought was cool."

Poor J, she was completely grossed out by this freak who was obviously trying to cheat on his wife, inviting her to join an "as daring as you want" kind of swingers party, and replied saying it was not her cup of tea.  Mr. Neighbor, unaffected, had the nerves to shamelessly reply:

"That makes two of us, but I guess I'm more intrigued by it than you! If I end up going and it turns out to be fun I'll tell u about it. Enjoy the afternoon! U got me curious: what is ur cup of tea? I've always been intrigued by you - I think you are one of the most interesting worthwhile persons I know."

 How screwed up is that?!  To top it off, I told a male friend about it, and he didn't think it was a big deal.

"I don't see anything's wrong with it.  If she's not up for it, that's fine."

"Um, you are missing the point - the man is trying to cheat on his wife!"

 "Well, yeah sort of, but if she's not up for it, she just needs to be clear about it."

Sigh..... Please, where are the decent men out there?

Paradise or Hell? Hotel Reviews

I recently wrote a hotel review on a resort I stayed at in Koh Samui.  In the review, I already stated that I was disappointed with the resort not because it was the worst resort ever, but that it was disappointing relative to the value one could get for the same price in other resorts in Koh Samui.  To name a few of the complaints I had:
Shower head was not working properly - weak water pressure (on the first day), sudden change of water temperature (extremely hot) every 20 seconds or so;
Poor staff attitude - No greeting of guests in hallways, no smiles, saying "no" to all requests or questions without giving alternative solutions or suggestions;
Poor housekeeping quality - Toilet bowl was stained with a brown "ring" of stain.  Housekeeping supervisor checked and told the customer relations manager that the toilet bowl looked very clean (even with the stain).  Open bottle of shampoo by the bathtub remains there, still without lid cover, after 5 days.
Noise - Each morning I could hear a few airplanes fly by.  At night, I heard repetitive noise similar to that of a laundry dryer.
Handling of complaints - Despite complaints of the room, I was not offered a change of room. 
Room quality - Design was fine, decoration was fine.  Speed-dial keys (to concierge/ room service/ reception, etc) not working.  Very humid room, the bedsheets and quit cover felt damp.  My lightweight cotton beach dress remained wet/damp for 36 hours after washing.

Then I received a message from an unknown Tripadvisor member, who wrote:

I travel extensively around the world and this in my opinion has to be one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in.
The hotel staff were fantastic, friendly and very efficient. The staff to us could not be any more helpful in every respect.They were happy and willing to help in any way.
I can only think that if they were rude to you, they were just responding to your attitude.
Our room 5211, was clean, quiet and extremely nice.
The food in this hotel was amazing. We enjoyed every meal we had.
The beach pool was full of people enjoying themselves. If you dont have a life, think you should get one.
If you think this hotel was bad, I suggest you stay at some others and relise that what you think is bad is not as bad as you think.
To write a review of a fantastic hotel such as Amari shows you really have no idea.

I was speechless after reading his message. I didn't think of the resort as hell, but certainly it was not fantastic!  I had read a few other reviews by American / European travelers and they called the place "dreamlike", "dream come true", "paradise".  While there were also some negative reviews similar to mine, saying it's an "okay" resort, "nothing spectacular", "average".  Most of my complaints were hard facts - things not working properly, lack of greetings, etc. - not subjective opinions.  Understandably, if someone has never stayed in a proper Thai resort before, or is a first-time traveler to Thailand, the measuring stick could be very different.

Ignorance is bliss indeed.

Don't Steal My Food

I absolutely hate it when a guy "steals" my food.  I grew up with my family always making sure if I had enough food to eat, offering me more than my share.  Kevin (last boyfriend) also always made sure I ate enough, and often gave me his food even (though I usually couldn't finish and gave him my food to finish).

So recently I met a male friend who had meals with me a few times, and each time not only did he not offer me the last piece of food left in the shared dish, he even ate more than his share without asking.  (By the way, I only just realized this was a very "Chinese" specific issue because in Chinese meals we share dishes.)  Each time eating with him, I felt like it was a race to fight for my share of food, otherwise in no time he would have eaten 80% of the dish already!  I'm not exaggerating.  I am not a huge eater, and I usually can't finish even my share, but it should be my right to decide whether I wanted to offer my share to others!

Am I too cheap?  Or do some people not understand social etiquette??

Meet " Little Lamb" & "Sex.mp3"

Meet Little Lamb when he was 1. My business associate in Casablanca proudly told me over lunch how he could slaughter a lamb during the yearly Big Feast. Out of respect for local culture, I asked a lot of questions, and he excitedly explained in great detail how each family would buy at least one lamb 3 days before the feast, feed it, then slaughter it, skin it, drain the blood for a day etc before cooking it. He meant to send me before and "after" (skinned) picture, but the latter became "sex.mp3"!

He wanted to bluetooth to me two pictures of Little Lamb his family slaughtered during the feast. One file showed the cute little lamb, the other one was named Sex.mp3 which I couldn't open and was prob sent to me by accident. Was tough to pretend nothing happened and keep a straight face....!!

 

Hypocracy - Nice Customers Finish Last

Companies don't care about their customers, especially nice customers.

The more understanding and patient you are, the worse service you get.  This is especially true with complaints.

Being in the consumer research business, I know about consumer rights and how businesses prioritize which customers they service first.  Being a client servicing professional, I also know which are the hot buttons clients push to make us give them what they want.

As a consumer and customer of various products and services, depending on the product/ service defect level and my schedule, I sometimes do fight for my rights - and when I do I am quite good at it.  Don't get me wrong, I do not enjoy the process at all.  I'd much rather have a functioning product/ service or a simple, straightforward, friendly resolution to defects.  Unfortunately, the commercial world does take advantage of nice and friendly customers.

Take my HSBC travel insurance as an example.  When Kevin and I went to Italy last September/ October, our luggage went missing for more than a day and the air carrier never called us to update on status of our luggage retrieval nor delivered the luggage to us.  We spent almost HKD 2000 in total making calls and taking trains to and from airport to get our luggage back.  When I was back in Hong Kong and made a phone call to HSBC travel insurance, the staff told me that their policy did not specifically cover any losses incurred due to lost luggage except purchases of replacement clothing and necessities up to a certain amount.  However, she told me sometimes they would make exceptions, but I would need to put that in writing and convince them why they should approve the claims.  So in November I wrote a letter to HSBC and filed for claims.  The next few months, apart from sending us a few copies of the same letter, asking us for receipt of the dress I bought, there was no mention of the other claims.  They never called us.  Only sent us those computer generated letters.

The past few days I was very sick with stomach flu, so I stayed home to rest.  With the idle time I rarely had, I finally picked up the phone and called HSBC.  The "boy" on the line sounded very junior, as he was stuttering a lot, and always quoted "the policy".  The whole time I was very patient, until he quoted "the policy" for the fourth time, I said to him,"Listen, Mr Cheung.  HSBC claims to be the world's local bank, but its travel insurance policy shows that it has absolutely no understanding of local markets, or even what traveling is all about.  The policy assumes the whole world functions like Hong Kong - when you lose your luggage, CX will proactively call you every few hours to update you the status and deliver your luggage right to your door even late at night.  This does not happen in every city, as much as we'd like it to.  Travel insurance is meant to cover one's accidental losses during a trip, and not all sorts of losses can be pre-written otherwise your policy would be as thick as a bible.  So don't tell me what your "policy" says.  I am asking you, Mr Cheung, to escalate this to your supervisor, so that he/she can kindly consider my exceptional case.  I understand it is not written in the policy, and that was the exact reason why I wrote the letter to explain.  Now if HSBC decides it cannot accept exceptions, I am in the media industry, and I will certainly make sure I will voice my suggestions to HSBC publicly, so that your company may consider my suggestion someday."

Today they called me back, first quoting policy again, then said they could make an exception and compensate 50% of our claims.

Another example:  magazine subscription.  Back in December, I ordered an Inside Lacrosse Faceoff Yearbook and annual subscription for Kevin as part of bday and xmas presents.  We never received them.  I emailed customer service, and the lady called Pamela blamed it on snowstorm twice, remoteness of the shipping office in Baltimore, etc.  Till mid-February, after Kevin moved out, I still didn't see the package.  I emailed Pamela again, asked them to deliver to Kevin's work address instead to facilitate delivery, and requested for a confirmation.  She never wrote back.

Finally, two days ago, I decided to go to Inside Lacrosse website and look for other contact emails.  Fortunately, they listed out all their department heads' emails... Business Manager, Sales Director, Marketing Director, etc.  So I forwarded my last email to all these three contacts, copying Pamela:

Dear all,

Apologies for copying you all, I am sure some of you are not responsible for subscriptions.  In case there's a more appropriate contact to settle this issue, please kindly re-direct this email to him/her copying me. 

My last email to the company was Feb 17, and I have not heard from anyone from the magazine regarding my missing (1) annual subscription (2) Faceoff purchase which were ordered and paid in full in Dec 2010.  Those were meant to be Christmas and Birthday presents.  I hope someone from your company can take this seriously, as both purchases have been paid in full but I have not received any of my orders at all.  I do not wish to sue the company for fraud, if we could settle this promptly and peacefully.  Please understand I have been extremely patient and understanding in the past few months.

As per my email below, despite months of delay, I was fine with re-delivery of my purchases - providing the delivery was to be made promptly and a confirmation was to be sent to me so I would be informed of the shipment to my friend's address (I provided a new company address to facilitate your delivery).  However, neither Pamela nor the shipping manager nor anyone else in the company responded to me.

I am requesting for someone to look into this and help me resolve this ASAP.  If I do not hear from anyone by Mar 10, 2010, I will consider taking legal actions.

I hope to hear from the company by then.

Thanks in advance.  Again, apologies to those of you whom I mistakenly copied on this email.

Best regards,
__________________

Guess what?  The Business Manager wrote back within a few hours, explained he had never been made aware of my case, and promised he'd make the shipment immediately.

So you see?  Nice people always finish last.

Now I should find a way to complain about my 6-month defective laptop.

So glad it was not a date!

Last night some friends arranged a night out to watch horse racing in Happy Valley. It was pretty fun and exciting. It was not as crowded and overwhelming as I had been told (likely because it was not some special race), but was interesting nonetheless!

I went with a couple and their friend whom I had met once or twice before, a very friendly person. It was a night out checking out the horse racing scene in Hong Kong, NOT a date. I am not a gambler and have always been scared of gamblers and their obsession.

The couple were not gamblers either but their friend turned out to be one. It was a really strange experience for me as the guy seemed a bit grumpy the whole night losing money. In the last race, when he was hoping to at least break even, as the horses approached the finishing line, he started shouting behind me "Go Number Ten! Number Ten in Second! Come on!" His shout sounded more like anger and anxiety than excitement.

It was strange, seeing a different side of an otherwise friendly person, who took the races so seriously.

It was still a fun night out with my friends and it was absolutely sweet of them to arrange it so I could get out of the house and do something different. I just thought I was very lucky it was not a date, because otherwise it would have been the worst date of my life!

Good for a Laugh: Random Thoughts from People 20-35 Years Old

A friend forwarded the following "joke" to my email at work one day. I normally deleted this kind of emails, but I was bored and read this one, and had to cover my mouth and stop myself from bursting out laughing. I could totally relate to many of the "random thoughts" below, as highlighted. Enjoy!


Random thoughts from people 20-35 years old

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.

- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realised that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

- I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realise I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. holler homeboi

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies".

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories.

- Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning that just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem .

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 25 km/h? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for paedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

- I wonder if cops ever get p***ed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- The other night I ordered take away and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic cutlery. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

This is Not an Icecream/ Gelato Sandwich

XTC in Hong Kong launched its gelato sandwich which I wrongly assumed to be like the North American icecream sandwich I grew up having at least one per day.

I was wrong.  Those XTC people clearly never had a proper icecream sandwich.

The gelato was so watery, the whole sandwich collapsed the moment I bit into the biscuit.  Then, it started dripping gelato water everywhere.  The whole thing just melted.

So disappointing.  I should just buy normal icecream sandwiches instead.  Like these I used to eat:

IF I can find them in Hong Kong.

A Weirdo Borrowed My Books

During Chinese New Year I invited a few close friends to my home to have festive foods.  Somehow a not so close friend which lived around the neighborhood also came by.

This not so close friend has always been known to be weird.   I tend to forget negative things about people very easily (unless they keep doing them to remind me) so yesterday I thought perhaps this person wasn't that bad afterall.  Well, he is.  Read on.

So at my Chinese New Year "party", this person walked around my flat checking out my pictures, notes on the fridge (very inappropriate) and my collection of books and dvds.  He ended up borrowing 2 books. I told him I hadn't had time to finish them yet but they were supposed to be good books.

Yesterday this person told me he had been enjoying the books very much, AND, he had been making notes on the pages, marking some sentences with highlighter and underlining.  What the hell?  Isn't it basic social etiquette NOT to do that?  He actually thought it was funny to do that.  I was speechless.  Last night I decided to send him a message and remind him not to mess with my other book, The Art of Travel, as it was supposed to be a good book and I would want to enjoy it without someone else's notes.

Guess the mystery sender

Finally, today I had a good laugh.  Without getting too much into details, Friday I received a "care package" at work, with a note:

if you really want to know :-)

I might tell you next week ;-)

No signature no nothing.

I have been worried all weekend who could've sent it because I really have not met any men in the past 2 years or reunited with anyone recently.  All I could think of was potential freaks at work, like my stalker from 8 years ago, or some young kid from another department young enough to be my baby brother, or the security guard.....  I even considered the possibility of some close friends sending me the package just to cheer me up, but I have already met up with my close friends during the holiday and they would have told me already. 

I just pray that whoever it was, it wouldn't cause me embarrassment to explain to him/her:
"Sorry I am not attracted to women"
"Sorry but I don't want to be your elder sister"
"Sorry but I told you 8 years ago you freaked me out, and you still do"
"Sorry but my company doesn't allow me to date someone from security.  Conflict of interest, you see..."

Shit, I just realized it could easily be the bagel guy.... OMG!  OMG!  Shit, that would explain a lot...

I'm feeling very sick now... and I pray it's not him cos that would mean I would have to stop ordering breakfast everyday and starve from now on.

F*ck.

Lucky Money 橫財

I never had much "lucky money" before in my life, overall I was never a super lucky person.  Today was a breakthrough - I learned that I got $12000 to $18000 from my company for NOT flying business class to those remote countries like Austria, Argentina, Morocco!  My department secretary said,"it's not easy money though, you earned it by sacrificing your health!"  Indeed it was "hard labour" money.  I flew some 15 hours to Vienna; 30 hours to Argentina; 17 hours back to Hong Kong from Morocco!  That was a total of 11 flights in 3 weeks. 


Talking about lucky money, on my flight back to Hong Kong I was sitting next to this Mainland Chinese guy who had been working in Brazil for 1 year.  He told me that he and his (Chinese) colleagues were guaranteed 10000 dollars by their company (I am not sure if he was referring to RMB or Reais.  If the latter, it is equivalent to some 40000 HKD!) each time they got mugged in Brazil.  10000 bucks!!  He said they were always very cooperative when they got robbed.  No wonder!