Fertility Clinic

There is a fertility clinic in my building. Every day I see men, women, couple and family coming in and out the lift to the third floor. It's hard for me not to wonder the stories behind every individual. Some might come for sperm donation, some hoping to have a baby, some get what they wish for and some don't.

Today, I walked out the lift and saw a couple embracing each other. As I passed by, I saw sad tear on the face of the woman. The sense was emotional and reminded me of the episode of "Brothers and Sisters" where Kitty wanted to have baby but every month she got his hope up and every month she got disappointed.

As I walked out the door, I wish one day that couple will get what they wish for.

Yes, I am angry! :@

You left without a word! You just went and had fun with the boys without telling me where you were going. You expected that when you come back I would be still there waiting for you?!

Don't take me as granted!! :@ I might not be there and I might be gone to have my own fun too, with or without you! :@ :@

Tramping at Cape Reinga and around

Tramping in Cape Reinga was a luxury after the great walk in Lake Whakarimoana last year. This time, we didn't have to carry all our backpack as we were doing "car camping"!! :D

At beginning, I was hesitant on taking the trip as 4 day tramping out of my hard earning long weekend seemed a bit too much. However, I was glad that we went in the end. Being close to nature and enjoying the Northland scenery totally rocked!

This was the 3rd time I visited Northland. The first time was in 1996 when I had just arrived New Zealand for less than a week. I joined a camp with YMCA with some trouble kids. Second time was about 10 years ago going on a car trip with family. This time, I went with the tramping club and the experience was as fresh as I had never been there. I was thrilled with the breathtaking scenery and felt so lucky that I lived in a country where has this kind of beauty!!

Day 1:

• Waiting: We waited for an hour for this couple who showed up late without any excuse. Let's not use that against them! However, during the entering trip, they didn't try to engage with the group and every now and then, they just wondered off and disappeared. It really didn't bother me as I was quite happy to just relax and steal the "behind schedule time" to enjoy the holiday mood, except I felt sorry for the organiser as he planned this trip so hard. He was always calm, but I could feel his frustration and responsibility to not "wasting" time.
• Tokatoka Peak: Anyway, eventually we left Auckland CBD (after 1 hour waiting) and eventually we got out the Auckland (after 2 hours sitting in the traffic - due to road over capacity and an motorcycle accident in Wellsford). We convoyed at Matahoke finally to make sure everyone survived the tunnel and the traffic. Then, we went for the first hike - Tokatoka Peak. The short walk up to the summit almost killed me. I was lightheadedd and felt nauseous. However, After enough rest, I was fine. The view was magnificent!
• Waipoua Forest: It's the place where I can remember from the previous trips to Northland. Big Kauri Trees and nice walking pavement
• Raetea Forrest: Because of the delay in the morning, it was dark when we caught the ferry from Rawene across Hokianga Harbour to Kohukohu. Driving in the dark wasn't easy and it's not helpful that none of the signs from department of conservation were retro-reflective, so it took us a while back and forwards to find our camping site! Putting up a tent in the dark wasn't hard. Putting up a tent which was borrowed from a friend made it a bit challenging. However, putting up a tent which only had the outmost fly and no inner tent was... INTERESTINGLY IMPOSSIBLE!! Result: An almost 200 cm human being managed to squeeze into a tiny SINGLE tent with another person!! :o :o :o

Day 2:

• What is this?: In the morning, we got to see where we were camping. It was a nice place considering it was a free camping site, especially it came with a divine toilet!! As we were packing everything back into the car, I found something.
  

"What is THIS?"
" Err?? Where did you find it? :o"
"In the car!"
Yes, we found our "missing" inner tent"!! :x :x :x

• Pandora Beach: On the way to Pandora Beach, our driver as usual liked to stop at place spontaneously. This time, we stopped at this little cute place called Pukenui. The water was so blue like an sapphire . We then conveyed with the other car after the Harbour View Road which had no harbour view and a coffee break. The 3-4 hours hike to the beach wasn't too difficult and the beach itself was really peaceful. We had lunch there and as usual, I allowed myself to have my love affair with the ocean. On the way back, I got to hang out with other girls who had the same walking pace and we had good chats :D. I found out that our car was much more fun than the other - more laughing, more noise and of course more eating!
• Cape Reinga Lighthouse: After putting up our tents in Tapotupotu camping site, we went to the lighthouse. It was very annoyingly modern at the entry. First there was a fancy toilet outside (but I was told it was 100 times worse than our long drop campsite toilets as they were over-flowed). Then there was an arched gate where played music. The path was all new and well signed with significant Maori stories and information. The lighthouse was still as remarkable as I could remember 10 years ago. We saw sunset there and that was a magic moment for me. I love sunset and I love ocean. To have two of my favourite affairs at this spiritual location was a unique moment.
• Tapotupotu: After sunset, we came back to our campsite and cooked dinner. The stars were really clear here and we had a free lesson on astronomy before we went to sleep in a double tent which could fit two persons nicely.
  

Day 3:

• Tapopupotu: We explored the surrounding area while we were waiting for others to get ready.
  
• Te Werahi Loop Hiking: It was a 4-5 hours hike which went from Te Werahi Gate, through swap to Werahi Beach, sand dunes to Cape Maria van Dieman, colourful sand to Twilight Beach and desert-like return. It was quite tough on me as walking on sand dune took a lot of energy. Also, the sun was really burning and I run out the water before we came back to the car. However, the landscape was varied and made it an interesting hike
• Te Paki Stream: After pumping half litre of water into my body, we were on our way to Te Paki Stream. It has the stream on one side and sand dunes on the other sides. Boys went up the sand dunes while we girls relaxing putting our foots into the warm soft sand. It was so much fun leaping off the dunes and landing into soft warm sand 2 meter below :D
• Rarawa Beach: We run out the time to see the sunset in 90 mile beach, so here was the substitute - Rarawa Beach. It has the finest and whitest beach I have ever seen.
• Maitai Bay: It was dark when I arrived. However, our tenting skill had improved by then

Day 4:

• Maitai Bay: Sunrise was magnificent!!
• Karikari Beach: By then I was starting feeling ABB (Another Bloody Beach). However, I loved every beach we went during this trip
• Coca Cola Lake. The colour of the lake is like flat coke. It tasted like Assam Tea though.
• Mangonui: We passed three lovely bays on the way to Mangonui where we had Fish & Chip for lunch. As it was the last day of the trip as well as the long weekend, some people wanted to go back to Auckland earlier, so there we said goodbye to the other car and drove separately home
  
• Rainbow Falls: Our car decided not to go to Whangaroa for St Pauls Rock. However, as we drove close to it, the temptation was high for the boys in the car. We sneakily went for a detour and check out the Whangaroa harbour. It was a lovely harbour, but in the end the sense came to us and we left. However, we caught up the other car at Rainbow Falls as they were leaving.
• Hundertwasser Toilet: Our last visit before going back to reality was the famous toilet in Kawakawa. Hundertwasser was a famous Austrian architect who lived in NZ for a while. I remember in 2003, I went to his museum in Vienna and found his design stunning!!

Remuera Market Day

Good! Fun! Busy! :) :)

My first gingerbread men decoration were awesome! :D :D :D

Tired! Exhausted!

Problem Kid

I was told that I asked too many questions and that slowed down people's work! I tried to be calm, but I really think it's a lot of bullshit :@ and it sounded more like other peoples' issues rather than mine. However, I thank her for telling me about it even she was just passing some individual's concern.

Really, if it was an ingenuous advice, the person should have no worry but tell me in person. If it was really higher management's concern, they could have let me know rather than passing the message through my colleague. If it was from some narrow minded people who were afraid that I would be stealing their knowledge/specially, then I don't give a FIG! :@ :@ :@

What am I going to do differently? I will still be poking my nose around and try to learn as much as I could. I will make sure I am polite and be considerate when I chat with others and be aware of the timing and the length of the chat. Apart from that, I am not taking it as my problem!

Thank you for being there and holding me when I need you!

Loop Cutting

I felt I was hit by a truck this morning when I woke up. Last night, I went to see loop cutting until midnight and my brain wasn't working at all for the whole day.

I think highly of those night shift contractors now. It is really a tough job and is not for everyone.

哭笑不得！

My brother came home with a $600 cheque from those Tax Refund boots in the malls. That was after they took $200 off him as successful fee. I thought that was still a pretty great deal!! Simple and easy!

Thus, I thought I would be smarter and get Personal Tax Summary myself from the Tax department so I can get the full amount without those Tax Refund boots taking those administration fee.

WRONG! 大錯特錯！！！
They found out I OWED IRD money!!!! :( :( :(
Now I had to pay :(

A domestic day

He came with me to visit her because I was too apprehensive to go by myself. However, I was very surprised to see that she recovered not only physically but also mentally well. I was inspired by her courage/faith and admire her being so optimistic after such big trauma.

I am really happy for her and glad that I went to see her after being putting it off for a year.

爸爸看到柿子是：哇！
媽媽看到葱油餅是：天啊！

Inconceivable

The receptionist came to my boss and asked both of our names to be shorten because she couldn't fit them in the business card. My manager decided to change his from 4 to 3 words and altered "Leader" to "Manager". I had 6 words (the longest in the Alliance) which I never managed to remember 95% of the time and now 他大筆一揮， I am Traffic Optimisation Manager!! :o :o :o

Who do I manage? The hardest person - Me :p

莫名其妙，陰錯陽差，就升官了！！偷笑偷笑！！暗爽暗爽 :D :D
不過我名片不太敢拿出去，怕會被人吐口水吐死！！
Inexplicable!! Inconceivable!! I was promoted!!
However, I still don't dare to give out my business card, because I am afraid that they are going to spit on me....:p

The consequence of firing an Asian Engineer

As the economic is getting worse, I decided to do something about it to secure my job. Thus, I sent this link to my office with a subject of "The consequence of firing an Asian Engineer"

My section manager replied with
"I considered myself be warned"

Traffic Jam

----- Text message------
"Traffic is so BAD! Big carpark in motorway! Not moving! Can you ask your sister to do her job and fix it?"

"Maybe I should ask her to stop doing her job"

Morrisville 101

It was nice to see where he grown up and listened to all the childhood stories he had. I know that there is an infinite gap of his life I wasn't involved and I will never be able to know it all. However, being there and seeing him talking about his strong memory related to the place with strong emotion made this one day visit very special.

I wish one day he could see mine. I know it would mean so much to me.

Valentine

"Wow...yours is so long!"
"WHAT???"

"The rose!!!!"
"Oh...Of course! of course!"

有心機的女人

I am feeling threaten and suspicious of her intention. It sounded too much like an excuse to spend time with him alone when really, it was MY idea to give her the ride home rather than his.

Jealousy! Jealousy! Jealousy!

Oi!! 手給我放乾淨點喔！！！！
這女人，心機好重喔！
居然跟我玩陰的！
我要小心一點，看好屬於我的東西！

What's wrong this time?!

When you don't talk to me, I worried. I am afraid that it's all going to happen like last time and I will get hurt again. I have fell once and I can't image to go through that again.

I have been so fragile because you haven't given me enough faith/commitment that you will stay around. I don't know what to do so please excuse me for giving up doing anything in order to simply protect myself.

My PC is in ICU

My PC is in a coma :( My bro has tried to CPR it, but without any success so far. Is it time to let go and give up hope?

Should I plug the tube and call it?

Spectacular Summer

Summer is great! The day is long and people are more energetic or maybe it is just me :p

I have been back from my holiday for 1 week now and I certainly enjoy Auckland summer. The first weekend after I came back to work was a long weekend and Chinese New Year. I caught up with old colleagues for a lovely dinner and saw a spectacular firework at viaduct on Friday. Then, on Saturday, I continued my big mission of uploading photos using dial-up speed. Oh the good old day! In the afternoon, we eventually got out of the house, went to the beach and visited friends. I bounced idea with them and received many good advices on my career. Then we went for a nice bush walk in Wairewa until the sun went down - 9pm!

The last day of the Rat, I was "trapped voluntarily" into going for a morning bush run :o. Then, the rest of day was the Chinese New Year Even Dinner preparation and eating and more eating. My stomach was so full that I was very satisfied in the end of the evening :)

"Wow! There is going to be some firework!" I said excitedly when I saw there was a Light and Fire Show on the programme

"Oh yeah?" He pretended it was a dull idea "What do you think it's going to be like?" He asked uninterestedly

"Errr....like you?"
"Oh! You mean it's going to be SPECTACULAR?"

Taiwan 2009

It's so nice to be home and rested finally after travelling for 2 weeks. Even though it's a short visit, I did enjoy catching up with all the gossip and caught up with family and friends.

I also had my special birthday in Taiwan. It was truly a special day with lots of love and best wishes. I started my day at midnight with a lovely birthday card which I had been carrying since I left New Zealand. Then I went to sleep. When I woke up and turned on my Facebook, I was surprised at the number of birthday messages all around the world :) My parents then took me out for lunch and I had an international phone call before my beauty nap. My birthday cake was really yummy too. All those nice gestures from family and friends made my day.

Thanks everyone who made my special day more meaningful for being in my life.

Bangkok, Ayuthaya

I wasn't as impressed as Myanmar with Bangkok. The humanity made me tired easily. However, the shopping was so good that I almost run out money. In fact, I did :p and I had to exchange some of my back up money so that I had enough money to take the taxi from the hotel to the airport. By the time I arrived the airport, I only had 100 Baht (5 NZD, 3 USD or 100 NTD) left in my wallet :o

Shopping results:

• 1 hat
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• 1 belt
• 1 skirt
• 2 bags
• 3 pairs of shoes :o
  
• 7 T-shirts/tops; and
• some more souvenirs

After shopping for 2 days with the gang, they all left Bangkok and I was back to travel alone. It took me a while to get used to it. I felt lonely and was frustrated when I couldn't gain help easily from the locals. There were less people speaking English in Bangkok than in Myanmar, surprisingly and I didn't 'pick up' other travellers for companion.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the day I went visiting Wat Phra Kaew and the Palace was the New Year Day. Wat Phra was free but the palace was closed due to people lining up to sign the book to wish the king for a long life. I strolled among the old Bangkok and Chinatown without realising it was getting dark. By the time I felt like dinner, I had no energy, so I grabbed a tuk-tuk and it became my best story in Bangkok. Most people heard about those dodgy tuk-tuk drivers and their gem shop scams, but they (tuk-tuk drivers) obviously weren't aware of "Anita" Scam which I got a tuk-tuk drive from Chinatown to Wat Pho for 7 Baht!!!

The next day I went to Ayuthaya and biked around this ancient city. The sun was hot and every temple charging higher entry fee from foreigners! I have to admit that I sneaked into few because it was getting ridiculous and expansive to pay every single temples :p I didn't have lunch until 4 o'clock in the afternoon when I was absolutely exhausted. Even though the sunset was magnificent and I felt so guilty that I didn't make it to the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) for the beauty, I just had enough for the day. Home and bed was all I wanted and needed.

My last day in Bangkok was visiting the Weekend Market where had like 130, 000 stalls. I only stayed for the morning as there were just way too many people to bare for me! Then, I visited the Jim Thompson's house.

Maybe it's Bangkok or maybe it's Thailand, but I was amazed on a number of old white man with Thai girl. Is it because of the language? I have to admit that every time I heard Thai people talking, 我骨頭都酥了 (my bones were all went soft) . I was also surprised to see a number of PDA (public display of affection) and lady boys. I am still confused about how this lady boys phenomenon can be so acceptable in a what I see a conservative culture - being in Asia and Buddhism country.

Myamnar - Lake Inle, Mandalay, Yangon, Bagan

I was worry that after getting so comfortable in life in the last few years, I would have felt backpacking too scungy. However, as the plane landed in Yangon International Airport, I got this familiar adrenaline rush and I knew immediately that backpacking is still in my blood!! :D

The trip has been a beautiful experience. The people here really touched me and every now and then there would be something that touched me so much that I had tear in my eyes. I really like the people and it is not just because they always called me pretty :p but also they were so sincere and honest. They might be poor in material wealth, but they are so rich in their pure good hearted kindness.

My soft spot toward Myanmar people went through 3 stages though. First stage, I just loved that they have no harming intention towards others but purely friendliness.

• There was no electricity at night at some places, but I felt safe walking in the dark alley in a foreign village alone as a single female traveller with stranger men sitting next to an open fire on the side street, with reddish chewing tobacco in their mouths and saying "Hi" to me (I had to admit, it took me a day or two to realise that they had no bad intention to me. All they wanted was just to say Hi and made me feel welcome).
  
• People gave me a free ride and got me a cheap taxi.
  
• Random locals/kids just loved to come up to me, talked to me in English and made sure I was okay.
  
• 5 o'clock in the morning, a local horse cart man walked with me to the temple to make sure I wouldn't get lost.
  

Stories like those above really touched me and made me feel so grateful for their kindness. They were poor and they worked hard to earn their living, but they love smiling and singing and most importantly they haven't gone bitter with all the hardship in life. They might not have a lot, but they are so rich in having a simple happy life and having the virtual to be kind.

However, my second stage towards Myanmar wasn't so pleasant. I went bitter after I felt that I couldn't trust people's story and price. I turned hard hearted after a bargaining exercise in Lake Inle. A set of transitional cloth started with 22 USD and I started my bargaining with 5 USD. In the end, the woman agreed to sell me for 10 USD as I walked away from the shop. It really killed me to turn down the deal. I felt awful, but at the same time I lost the trust in people. I hate dishonesty, so having them had such flexible price made me feel really irritated. In Mandalay, young kids were so eager for tourist money. They swarmed towards us with souvenir or wanting to be my guide and hoping in return for some tips. I did give tip for their incredible tourist knowledge, but I refused to buy anything. I could have bought some from one kid and helped one with some lucky money, but I couldn't have helped them all.

They all spoke English well and can also speak simple Spanish, German, French, Italian, Chinese and so on. It seemed that it's all from the same textbook as their questions were all standalised

"How are you?" "My name is ..." "What's your name?" "Nice to meet you" "How old are you?" "Where are you from?" "Do you have any brother or sisters?"

However, they also came up with similar inconsistent stories such as having no mother or no father to gain my sympathy. It really broke my heart to see those kids struggling with life and they had to learn and lie to earn money. I was quite hard hearted even it broke my heart every time when I had to refuse those eager kids with innocent smile. I didn't buy anything from anyone in the first 7 days except an donation to a school. A young man started a school teaching village kids English and Computing for free. I was touched by his ambition and passion, so I made a donation. I couldn't help all the children by buying their necklaces, but I believe education will help them more.

I was glad that I ended my trip in Myanmar with the third stage. I realised that no matter how much I dislike the money eager attitude from some of the people, everyone I came across were still sincere. Venders and kids were disappointed when I didn't buy or didn't gave a bigger tip, but they wouldn't turn bitter or angry at me. They were still friendly and sincere. They changed my mind and touched my heart again. I remember a teenager boy said to me, "Next time when you come, I'll show you the one thousand Buddha and my school. Also, I'll buy you an longi (traditional skirt) as a gift". That was after I refused to give him more tip for showing me around for 3 hours. (His friend got 5USD when I only gave him 3USD).

I did buy some sand painting and necklaces in the last 2 days. Yes, I could be gutted and thought I could have got it for cheaper. It's true that I might cut the price lower to 7USD or even 5USD. However, it's only few dollars less for me, but for them 3 or 5 USD meant much more. Really, those 3-5 USD is nothing for me, but for them it's life! Once I let it go, I was once again in love with the Myanmar people.

Thank you for those who I came across, looked after me and made my trip in Myanmar so memorable :)