It has been a month of whirlwind traveling - the past four weeks have found me in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, and Tokyo. When I was not commuting to and from airports, I have been busy celebrating my birthday, showing visitors around, attending weddings, going to yoga classes, spending quality time with family and the boyfriend, and exploring different cities.
Oh, and trying to get my act together at work.
Work has been a topic I try to avoid thinking about lately. Two months in my new role and I still haven't gotten a hang of it. Which is a little unnerving, to put it mildly. In fact I think I might even be having some kind of confidence crisis, only that I have been too distracted by all the traveling and other plans to even feel or think about it. But now that we're almost one-third into October, and that my travel schedule has quieted down considerably, I guess it's about time for me to focus on work again, and to regain the balance that I've lost since a few months ago.
But before that, let me share some highlights from the past four weeks:
Beijing
This was my 5th visit to Beijing. The first time I set foot in Beijing was 1997, when I was on some offical school tour to celebrate the first National Day of the "motherland" after the handover of HK. And the last time I was there was two years ago, when I was lucky enough to have a few tickets to the Olympics Games. While Beijing is way too vast for me to claim to know after just a few trips, it's definitely not a new city to me, which is why I don't have the urge to go to any of the touristic places anymore. So, my trip this time was filled with chilling, strolling, eating ducks, catching up with old friend, and meeting new friends. Oh, and I even made it to a Vogue fashion event one night (which was in fact disappointingly lame, but still worth a mention just for the word "Vogue").
Birthday
It's my 3-0 birthday!!!! For a while I had been debating whether I should just spend the day quietly or go all the way and have a big party. I ended up doing something in the middle, and it was a lovely, lovely birthday. The special day started with a morning yoga session with Master Kapil (to celebrate a new me who is totally zen, ha-ha), followed by yummy dim sum with family. SB flew over from Singapore to spend the day with me! We spent the afternoon with my family and the little ones, before we had to get ready for dinner (I took some nice shots of SB playing aeroplanes with Austin, btw). Dinner was at Cafe Gray, inside the posh Upper House in Admiralty. My friends Lindsey and Marc were visiting from Seoul that weekend, so they joined SB and I for dinner. Cafe Gray has a spectacular view, and even though the food didn't quite meet our expectations (and the price tags), it was the company that I enjoyed the most.
The night was topped up by drinks at the Pawn with my friends. To be honest, before that night, I was really worried that no one would show up - after all, I've been away from HK for so long and knowing that I'm not very good at staying in touch, I was afraid that no one would care about my birthday. Plus, I know that most of my friends, who're now married and all settled, do not really go out that often anymore. In fact, I had discussed with SB so many times about the possibility of no one coming, and we even had some contingency plan ready (which may or may not involve ordering a bottle of Dom Perignon :p). So I was really, really glad that night when I saw the familiar faces of many of my old friends - it meant a lot that they were there, the group of people that I grew up with, the friends who know me through all these years and speak my language and have seen me in big big glasses and mushroom hairstyle. It really meant a lot to me.
The night didn't end with me being "hammered" (I got so drunk on my 28th birthday that apparently the only thing I could say then was 'I'm so hammered'), but it ended with me feeling loved. I was so lucky to be surrounded by people who loved and cared about me, on the day I turned 30. Like I said, it's a lovely, lovely day.
Tokyo
I was a bit reluctant to take a week off when I was still relatively new in my role, but this was a special trip that I just had to make. My very good friend Josephine is getting married! What's more, she and her fiance Martin are having their destination wedding at Karuizawa, a place that brings back lots of fond memories of Josephine and me. Josephine is my Japan travel buddy - we've made so many fun trips together, with uncountable crazy adventures (e.g. getting a ride from a strange Japanese man in the middle of the night at a deserted train station, anyone?). I'm so happy that she and Martin are finally getting married, and that they have chosen such a beautiful place to do it!
SB and I were very excited about going to Tokyo together - we've been talking about it since the early days when we were dating, and he knows how much I love shopping in Japan. Although there is nothing like traveling in Japan with Josephine, SB and I still had a great trip. I have toned down the shopping by quite a bit - not just because SB was there (oops), but also because of the stronger than ever Japanese yen. So instead of hitting the shops, we just strolled around different parts of the city, and I had the pleasure to get out of the usual places and explore new parts of the town. We even had some really novel experience, like trying chicken sashimi (which is very courageous of us, but that thing is surprisingly tasty)!
After spending 3 days in Tokyo, we went to Karuizawa for the wedding. Karuizawa is serene and beautiful, especially during this time of the year, when the leaves just start turning yellow and red. A perfect place to say 'I do'! The night before the wedding, Josephine and I went to the hotspring together, just like old times. Before this trip, we have been to Karuizawa together twice - the first time when I was having real turmoils both in the work and relationship departments, and the second time before I was about to embark on my MBA journey in France. We've seen each other in all the ups and downs in the past eight years, and now, we're back in Karuizawa together for the third time, for her special day. As I saw her walk down the aisle in the gorgeous gown, I couldn't help but wonder: will we ever travel together again, just the two of us? You know, a 100% girl's trip, shopping 'til we drop, enjoying each other's naked company in hotsprings, heading for crazy adventures at peach farms and train stations and shady hotels... just like old times.
I hope we will.
And until that happens, I'll savor those great stories that we have had together, like I'm doing now.
