Just another (Christmas) Tuesday

No holidays here, and no family here too.

Throughout the weedays last week, I was in and out of the office doing RuiAn stuff. They had a party on the friday, I had to setup the videos and photo slideshows and was also invited to it. I hung around, had some drinks and snacks. and went home after 10pm. Played SSBU till late.

Saturday, I spent all day at home and played a lot of SSBU till late.
Sunday, went to church and almost no one is around, had lunch with keith and jenny. Before heading home, I went to an area nearby my place and looked around, spotted quite a few western restaurant, including spanish, french and german. Might eat there when i get the chance.

Farewell party

After the retreat (8th/9th), I returned to work as usual, once in a while updating what is need for the upcoming company annual dinner and also preparing Christmas songs chords for this friday's Christmas/farewell party. On top of that, I was given a bunch of farewell videos from ex-cellgroup members and I was to compiled them into a single video. On wednesday, I went to the hotel where the annual dinner would be held to do some site measurements. I wanted to start on the farewell video that evening after work, but procrastination got the better of me. I finally worked on it when it already got so late, but the very least I've lined up all the videos and went to bed. I continued editing the video at work the next day, and suddenly simple ideas came to me while editing. I finished around dinner time, played a few round of games, then rendering the video before going to bed.

On Friday, I went down to Ruian around 11am, and finished in about an hour, I had lunch in the area then headed home to relax until the party.

At the party, we had Singaporean food, saw people I haven't seen in a while, had carolling and the farewell bits. I went home a little later and called a cab home.

The long awaited Saturday was here, but it somehow still felt like crap despite me finally having a free day to myself. I got out of bed really late, and played some video games, I didn't eat anything and there was no water in the house... Evening came, I headed out to my colleague's wedding dinner. Nothing much happen, I pretty much secluded myself from the rest of my colleague who was there even though we all sat on the same table, and just ate the food. The dinner ended around 8.30pm and so I headed home.

Woke up early on Sunday morning to go to church to serve in media, sermon was about suffering. Was invited to go lunch at an expensive place for final farewell and even though initially decided to go, but somehow I felt like I was warned so many times about how expensive it was thatI turned it down in the end. I had lunch inside the hotel instead before heading home. Spent the rest of the day pretty much playing monster hunter.

A December retreat

4th~7th (Tue~Fri)
A kind of a big prep week, in the office I was tasked to do 3 things for the upcoming annual dinner, make an opening video, a ppt, and a poster. I managed to find free psd file for the poster, and just changed the title and text. PPT was mostly prepared by my colleague already, i just had to change some text and add a few pages. The opening video was the most tedious, I have almost no motivation to do it, but I went online and download a free trailer music, from there I just add photos of the events of this year and added simple effects (zooms and pans).
Outside of work, I also had to prepare worship for the retreat on the weekend, it was kind of last minute and that worried me a bit, but my team of musicians managed to send me their song picks and it went well. Friday night, I started preparing the slides for everyone and chords for myself and also last minute packing, I finished a little later than expected.
Saturday morning, I woke up around 6am, and headed out to the meeting point. Everyone was on time and we departed around 7:30am. It took about 2hrs to reach our destination at ChongMing Island.
Retreat recap (8th/9th):
During retreat, we went through the book of Joshua. It was quite a packed schedule, the moment we arrived, we checked in and headed to the meeting room for our first session. Then Afternoon came, we had lunch and departed to a nearby park. We walked, enjoyed the scenery and each others' company and took photos. We returned back about 3 hours later and session 2 started. Followed by dinner, session 3 and 4. We had a nice hour of sharing before we finished around 10pm.
Sunday morning, we got up around 7.30am for breakfast and had our closing session, before finishing up with a bible game and white elephant gift game. We had lunch at noon, and departed back to shanghai at 1pm and reached at 3:30pm. We had our short goodbyes and I headed home.

Home again and back

26th (Mo) - Went for BSF
27th~28th (Tu/We) - Just normal days at work, helped out with upcoming NioDay event a little.  Played Mario Odyssey and MHW after work.
29th (Th) - After work, went for CG retreat comittee meeting, but just 3 of us. Good curry dinner. Went home afterwards and did some last minute packing. I seemed to have failed to sleep early everytime, sleeping only 6~7 hours instead of 8+hours
30th (Fr) - Brought luggage to work, during lunch I cycled to the bank to withdraw some cash then went home for lunch and picked up my toiletries which I forgot. After work, I went to the airport and departed at 9pm+ homeward. Mom picked me up at 2am.
Dec 1st (Sa) - Followed mom to salon, she had her hair done while I had a minor haircut. We went to Nagisa restaurant for lunch and to celebrate my mom's birthday. After that, my mom and I went shopping a bit. Then we went home. There was still some time, so I got changed quickly and went for my cousin's wedding solemnization. When it was over, I went home for a short break before heading out for the wedding dinner. After the dinner, we hung out at Waterfront for a while before heading home.
Dec 2nd (Su) - Had breakfast with mom, went to church after that. After church, went to rimba to play some Pokemon Go, had lunch nearby then went to edmond's house to play some MTG. After MTG we went to have dinner at BK, then went to pick Nigel up from riverson. Afterwards we all just hung out at my house a bit.
Dec 3rd (Mo) - Went for breakfast with Aaron, then lunch with Ivan and Thomas. Relaxed in the later afternoon and spent time with my mom and sis. Went to Little Italy for dinner with family. Then Yamcha with edmond before I return home to get ready to return to Shanghai.

Thnksgvng

I didn't spend my free time at the venue wisely...
22nd (Thu) was showday. I just coop up at the back as I always do. After the show ended late at night I was sort of forced to stay overnight at the venue waiting for my colleagues to set up the main area after the 1st night show, it took them all night. I found a couch somewhere and tried to sleep till morning (23rd, Fri). I did my part, stuck around until 1pm and went home to shower and relax.
24th (Sat), I arrive 10am and cooped up at the back until evening and headed for thanksgiving dinner, I stopped by a supermarket to buy apple juice. Had Thanksgiving dinner then went home.
25th (Sun), Served media at church, Had lunch at nearby bagel shop, went home to play monster hunter.
26th (Mon), Back to office as usual, trying to sort things out. Time to do some reflection and get ready to return home this weekend.

work work november

From 11th (Sun), it was a 6-day work week.

12th(mon), 13th(tue) Had to work overtime, missed out on BSF and boardgame night. Just waiting around while clients look at LED floor+wall.

16th(fri) - Cellgroup at Jenny's place, Joe's Pizza isn't that good imo.

French jewelry event work:

17th(sat) - Had pancake brunch with a friend, rested and play MHW in the afternoon until work starts at 9pm. I finished around 2~3am.

18th(sun) - Woke up 12:30pm, missed out on ICS 10th anniversary, relaxed until had to go to work by 5pm. Finished around 12am. Played until 4am.

19th(mon) - Work gets earlier for some reason, work starts at 3pm. Finished around 12am.

20th (tue) - Work starts at 9am, at this point I'm just on standby only all day. Finished around 10am

21st (wed) - Work starts at 10am, a little more sleep is always good. Finished around 12am.

Early Nov, no brakes

29/10 - 4/11 on the Monday I finally returned to BSF and had a great meal. On Tuesday I decided to attend a meetup to play board games, I got to meet some new people but the board game was a bit draggy, the burrito was amazing though. Wednesday had CG retreat committee. Thursday, finally a break, and Friday had CG as usual. (Wow, day time is just work so nothing noteworthy at all).
Saturday was suppose to be a work day, but I took a day-off and went for kids church practise, had lunch and generally relax at home afterwards. Sunday came, I passed a guitar to a new friend to practise and served at kids church, I should get into drums one day. We had lunch at Moka Bros and then I headed home.

5/11 onwards,
This Monday was suppose to be a holiday because of the Import Expo, but instead I had to go to Beijing for a Italian jewelry event. As expected, security was high around the expo center, took slightly longer to reach the railway station. I departed in the mid afternoon and caught up on Deltarune on the train. I arrived without trouble, headed to the hotel, explored the surrounding area, had dinner and went to bed as work hasn't started.
Tuesday to Thursday is setting up the video and lots and lots of waiting and some rehearsal. Show began Thursday night.
Friday, woke up, had good omellete and headed back to Shanghai. Arrived back later in the afternoon, put luggage back home, prepare some ppt slides and headed to CG. Spent almost all of Saturday playing Mario Odyssey and some MHW. Sunday was a work day, sad, in the evening went for retreat committee meeting.

end of Dis

RuiAn work ended on a Sunday and I returned to office come Monday until Thursday, working on Roewe show for next week. On Friday I was scheduled to go to Suzhou, so I stayed home during the day and departed in the evening.

Suzhou event (19th-26th):

As expected, after I arrived I didn't had anything to do for at least 2 days, instead I was given the task to get a bunch of laptops and OS updated and ready. After that, for the next 4-5 days my work started, but only at night. I slept early in the morning and had free time during the afternoon until night. In my free time I checked out surrounding area, played Majora Mask 3DS and generally killing time on the internet.

On show day (26th), I needn't stick around for the show, after I finished my part in the morning, I immediately ask my company to book a ticket back to Shanghai in the early afternoon and checked out as soon as I could. I returned Shanghai and relaxed the rest of the afternoon, playing some Spider-man before I headed out to CG in the evening. During CG we did a skit. After CG, I went home and slept for about 11hrs and 30mins.

Sat: Woke up almost noon, immediately got ready and headed out to Shanghai Comic Convention, it was all right, not very big but a lot of cool figures to look at. I finished around 3pm and had some free time, so I decided to go to the Miku Expo happening that day instead of Sunday. I arrived and bought a ticket, spent time looking around and participate in the mini event, chat up with other fans and met the American running the fan website. 7:30pm came and the concert began, it finished at 9:30pm and I went straight home after.

Sun: Woke up early to serve for today's service. After that was left behind and I had to travel to the lunch place myself. Had lunch, had coffee afterwards, then I went home. At home, caught up with some anime and played MWH.

Mission failed again, is there a next time?

Change is tough.

Since the last blog, there was a few days of work before I flew back to KK again. I was given quite a bit of work to do.

Then I flew back to KK again on Sept 29th. To summarize my trip, I tried plenty of burgers, spent a lot of time with popo, brother had the mattresses specially cleaned, went to see choir with Ivan, played some switch games, some pokemon go here and there, and terrible dates. Went to see the dentist (no problems!), hung out with aaron and his wife, cooked tikka masala at home. I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary.

On the 9th, I returned Shanghai and things pick up too soon imo. Immediately, it was fashion week in XTD, a short runway show I was occupied with for 2 days, followed by RuiAn work which was too simple and had me coming over during the weekend.

Mission fail, we'll get 'em next time

17th (mon) - back to work as usual, with travelling back home in my mind, at night I attended BSF, my first class on the 2nd week of the new topic/series.

18th-19th - I thought I might be occupied in prepation after work, but nothing's really changed really.

20th - after work, I packed my stuff for the next day.

21st - I headed to the office first, helped out my colleagues, had lunch. At 2pm, I headed home on a bike and bus. I spent a few minutes at home, then took my things and headed out to the airport. I made it on the airport bus on time, there was a bit of traffic and I learnt that my flight had been delayed. I reach the airport, print my boarding pass and went through custom without trouble. I had BK and sat around the terminal watching anime waiting for my flight. I got on the plan after a 2hr+ delay. Flight was okay, and I arrived home late.

22nd (Sat) - It was pokemon community day. In the morning I spent some time with my grandma. Around 9.30am I went out with friend for big breakfast, got a simcard then we went to the park to catch Chikoritas. We spent about 3 hours there, walking around and meeting other pokemon trainers, after that we went for a quick lunch nearby. After lunch, we raided a Mewtwo and I went home. I relaxed a bit and prepared to go for a Lions anniversary dinner. It went on long and I met a new friend. After that I went home to change and hung out summore with friend at Upperstar.

23rd (Sun) - I took my siblings and grandma out for dimsum breakfast, then I went to church. After church, had lunch at Pusas, played some overcooked2. Went to Suria afterwards, bought a new game, hung out there for a while. Then I sent my friends back and went home. At home, my cousins came over, I talked with them and we played cards with my grandma. My fmaily and I then went to Lido for dinner, then I went to watch The Predator with brother and some friends.

24th (Mon) - Today was suppose to be my last chance... but the time I was given felt limited. I really just took my time relaxing today. There was oily dough so I had that for breakfast. Then I just hung around the house and made preparation, I think I was scared to confront my grandma. Lunch time came around, I had lunch at home with my grandma, after that I just spent time talking with her. Then my mum came home and we took her for dialysis. I got to learn more about the current situation. After that we went home, I spent time on my mom's laptop, clearing away stuff and found some old files. My sis came home and we went to pick up grandma, stop by home again then we went to T.aru for dinner, was good. After dinner we went home, I prepared my things and went to the airport to return to Shanghai. There was no delay.

25th (Tue) I arrived on time, took a cab home, slept a couple of hours then went to work. I can't believe I reverted to my old lifestyle so quickly, when I'm trying to make a change...

A final prep

13th/14th (th/fri) - Back to working in the office as usual. Decided to stop playing games for a while, but ended up being distracted online all the time anyways. Had CG on friday, sudden change of venue last minute back to How’s place instead of Jenny's. Had new interns that came to our CG.

15th (sa) - Had breakfast then headed out before noon for kids worship practise. After that I went home and binge on HxH

16th (su) - Woke up 3.30am, imsonia, was awake until I head out to church at 7:15am. Served in kids worship today and helped out a little with serve-fest. Met a few new people. Went to CRC for lunch afterwards, then I headed home, continued binge watch HxH. I should stop watching HxH for a while...

Going back home this friday. From today until then, I need to focus on my preparation.

To Wuhan, Dalian and back

5th (We) - Packed in the morning for this afternoon's speed rail from Shanghai to Wuhan (Under Armour event), had lunch with my colleague before departing. I'd hope to play some Overcook with her, but she was working the whole time on the train. We got front row seats, but something stank a little, and the seat recliner was broken. We arrived in the evening, checked in the hotel then went to look at the venue which was a basketball stadium. After that, we walked around a lot looking for a place to have dinner.

6th/7th - Woke up, had breakfast, headed over to the stadium in the afternoon, carried some equipment, arranged the videos here and there. Finished by early evening, and had quite a lot of free time. On the 6th evening, I cycled around the area to look for decent food, ended up eating at McD. 7th evening, we had japanese food nearby.

8th (Sa) - Was suppose to be similar to the previous days, but I got called up to go to Dalian (Mary Kay event) because they needed help with the projection alignment. After lunch, we went to the stadium, at that time they confirmed that I gotta go Dalian so they booked me a 5pm flight to go to Dalian. I went back to the hotel, rest a little, packed up and took a taxi to the airport. I arrived Dalian near 8pm, took a taxi to the venue, and began work after settling down a little bit. I redid the 3D model of the stage, and spent all night aligning the projection and somewhat finished around 5am.

9th (Su) - Went to hotel and slept around 6am. Woke up around 12pm, was told they are rehearsing and my work will start at night. After resting for a bit, I went out for lunch and took my time familiarising myself with the surrounding area. Went back to hotel, rested a while then went out exploring some more. I hung out for a bit at a nearby park, enjoyed the cooler temperature, then I discovered a skating rink close by. I went back to the hotel when it got dark. 10:30pm came, and I went to work to touch up and tweak some settings to make the projection better, involved readjusting and correcting alignment and fixing the overlap. Finished around 3am, went back to hotel and slept.

10th (Mo) - Work doesn't start until night. In the early afternoon, I had lunch at a fake cafe Man Cat, terrible ham and cheese sandwich. After lunch I went ice skating for about an hour and a half. Went back to hotel after. Suddenly, at 3pm I was called to go to the venue. I arrived at the venue, but turns out I didn't need to be there yet, not sure why they called me to go... I discussed about booking my return flight before heading back to the hotel on my own taking public transport. I spent the rest of the time in the hotel, went for dinner and back, before going to the venue around 10.30pm. At the venue, I continued to fix the overlap as well as straightening the alignment at the center. I finished around 2am.

11th (Tu) - Time for free time. I'm only still in Dalian today bc today was the first day of the show and I was told to stick around if they wanted to change anything after the first day. I headed out and had coffee and waffles for lunch. I pondered on what to do with all the free time I had till 10pm, I wanted to go to the zoo, but it was going to close around 5pm, and it'll take an hour to get there... I went to Xinghai Square instead to hang out. I found out they had an ocean park nearby so I walked there. I bought tickets to see some artic animals, and a little walk-through exhibition. After I was done, I walked back to Xinghai Square along the coast and just admire the scenery. I headed back by 6pm, had a simple dinner before returning to the hotel. Turns out there was no change needed, so I went to bed.

12th (We) - I returned Shanghai today, regretted booking with Spring Airlines since I wasn't even paying. Reached home around 4pm and was rather tired.

During my spare time travelling or in the hotel, I caught up with weekly anime and a lot of HxH. Just finished the Greed Island arc over the week. Played Undertale, VA-11 Hall-A, and Rhythm Heaven Megamix.

Aug -> Sept

This week feels strangely long, it was pretty good. I forgot to blog ytd, but it felt like it's been a while since my last post.

Last week, I remember the weekdays not being any different from usual. Perhaps the week really began on..
Thursday, There was a Nespresso event happening on Friday really far away, north of The Bund. A simple short event, work consisted of setting up 4 projections on a screen with a large hole in the middle. Lunch today was really good, at some "farmer" restaurant. After the files were lined up and ready to go, there's was a short rundown before we could go. It wasn't too late, I went home with enough time to prepare for slides for cellgroup worship.
Friday, headed out at 7am, played Tomba (not as fun) on the way. Had decent breakfast on site, and rehearsed until show time which started at 2pm and ended after 4pm. With some time in my hand, I headed down to West Nanjing, had dinner, then headed to Jenny's place early for cell group.
Saturday, I relaxed at home, had lunch, then headed out to play tennis at a court I booked, it wasn't very big and it was on the roof. It was cloudy and the air was rather polluted. Halfway, it rained a little bit, but we could still play after a short break. After that, I went over to Henry's place to shower, we ended up watching Antman, had dinner afterwards, then I headed home.
Sunday, I served in media today, sermon was about sticking to your local church, supporting the pastor and not divide the church. Lunch was at a nearby japanese restaurant, it wasn't very good. After that, some of us went to watch Mission Impossible 6. After the movie, I went home.

A change in season to come

The second month of summer is coming to an end, and I very much look forward to the coming autumn.

Mon/Tue - Work in office as usual. Tuesday was a holiday in Malaysia. Play MonHun till late

Wed - Took my time waking up, because work starts late this day and so I headed to work at an event at 2:30pm for an Award Show. Went home by 2am/3am.

Thu - Work starts 12pm, I needed to head out by 10:30am, despite less sleep, I got out of bed with some extra time, so I went to Starbucks got some breakfast and coffee. Worked till 12am, reached home and was in bed by 2am.

Fri - Work starts at 9am, so even less sleep for me as I had to leave by 7:30am. Had breakfast onsite. Good thing I had PSV and wifi to keep me entertained during standby. Show went well with minor issues. Took home a free bottle of Bailey, yay. Show finished before 9pm, and I left at 9:30pm. Went for a taco and a beer before I head home.

Sat - Relax day, played some monhun, then connection got bad, so I watch anime, caught up on a lot of HxH. Went to Carrefour in the evening to buy stuff.

Sun - Church, had lunch with YP at Benjia. Went home a while, went to Starbucks and office to do some work, finished by 9pm, had dinner with colleague, went home and watched more HxH.

Easy sunny days and rain

It's no longer as hot and being under the sun feels good instead of scorching. It rain pretty heavy on Friday and a little bit on Sunday.

Just like last week and the week before, I can't remember the weekdays. With most my weekdays ever unchanging (go to office, come home, do nothing really) it's hardly worth remembering.
I just know I failed every night to sleep on time and ended up not sleeping enough and waking to alarm feeling like crap. I just have unspent energy so i'm not tired by bed time, since I don't exercise or anything. The game I played a lot this week was Monster Hunter: World.

Friday, I went to XTD again, manage to get up early to eat at Mr. Pancake before work. One of the projector light bulb is busted, didn't take long to replace it though. I finished before lunch time, so I thought I might as well head back to the office. I took the metro, and by the time I reached my stop, it was raining very heavily, in the end, I just went home and made last minute preparations for cell group.
Evening, went to cell group early, it was MingYang's last cell group and farewell. Had beef rendang.

Saturday, spent the whole day playing MonHun.

Sunday, went to church, had lunch at QianQiu, it was also the last day for MingYang before he heads to Sweden the next day. There was a beer festival that weekend and I wanted to go, but nobody was going so I didn't go in the end. Went home instead and played more MonHun.

Bored as heck

Mon to Wed, what even is this, same old same old, the days passed with nothing to do and it's really driving me nuts how bored I am at work, no one seems to be in the office as well.

Thursday, suddenly more people were in the office (wonder where they all were) and I've been given adequate work to do, I didn't have to wait around idly for hours today. Also, I'm concern about grandma...

Friday, didn't have to go office today (yay). Went to XTD for check up on projections. We finished fast and I got to go home early and chill for awhile until cell group. I manage to somehow scrounge up an idea for a member's farewell (with help) and those who attended this night signed the farewell card. Stayed a little longer than usual.

Saturday, bored the whole day, played some Nekopara and God of War challenges. Manage to clean my kitchen a little bit (I should really call the landlord to fix the fridge). Bought the new Monster Hunter: World, but only played it at night when my friends came online, we played till quite late.

Sunday, despite sleeping late, I managed to wake up fine for church, today's sermon was about the peace of God, the key point for me is about men in the bible that chose to ran away from God and find their own solution to their sins instead of turning towards to God (Adam hid naked, David's lust problem, Jonah ran, Peter's denial vs Judas betrayal).

(I notice my blog mostly cover my weekends, because nothing frikin' happens on the weekdays, how long until I fix this problem, hmm)

Half of summer

The past weekdays, did nothing in the day, played God of War after work, mostly just that.
Friday cell group, leader is away, had fried meehoon and we watched a movie about Paul and the prosecution of christians in Rome.
Saturday, was suppose to go out or something, but ended up just doing my usual saturday shtick, played God of War until evening, headed out for dinner, bought nice footwear for the summer, checked out a photo studio but couldn't find what i wanted for someone's farewell. Bought Thumper, game is a bit too hard and hard on the eyes.
Sunday, served in media, our cell group is highlighted this week. We went to a restaurant called 1965 for singaporean food. After lunch, hung out with Gracie for a bit, she's helping me out doing the farewell for our cell member. Bought shirt and short pants. Went home and finished God of War. Played a bit of Starbound and Thumper, then went to bed.
Monday, work, nothing again, came home, finished bits of God of War side quests, played Starbound.

Super uber bored week. No work whatsoever. I wish I had some work to do or short events to work on. I somehow just got through the whole day in the office doing almost nothing. Gotta find a goal to work towards to. What then shall I do? My desires are out of line, I need some spiritual help to realign my life.

July is almost over

The theme for the past week for me have been 'Keeping My Thoughts in Check'. A lot of in life is controlled by our thoughts, I can be overthinking things, making terrible assumptions or making up what-ifs. They don't do any good and cause unnecessary worry, depression and general negative feelings. It also causes me to fall into temptation.

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things."

Friday, no CG but suppose to have dinner in some spanish restaurant, was really full so we went to a japanese restaurant next door. Just 4 of us though. Played a lot of God of War until very late.
Saturday, got out of bed a little late, but generally just enjoyed my day watching anime, and playing God of War. It started raining like crazy in the later afternoon, my area flooded a little, but I still had to go out for company dinner. At the dinner, I tried laying low, it worked and I didn't have to interact much with my drunk colleagues, except right at the end when one of them turned his focus on me, I entertained him anyway. I mostly just kept my boss's kid company, he's a nice kid.
On Sunday, went to church, after church had lunch at QianQiu, nothing out of the ordinary. After lunch, I went home and continue playing more GoW.
Monday(ytd) was Monday as usual.

Summer's gotten much warmer

Seems like I've been randomly spending money without really realising it, I've already depleted my withdrawal for this month. Some notes of where my money went:
My cousin from Melbourne visited me on Tuesday, I decided to treat him to dinner.
I bought a drawing tablet, God of War(just arrived ytd), that Muji shirt, and probably ate pricy food...

It was another slow week, I finished my games, so I didn't had much to do in my free time. Occasionally played Starbound, or just surf the web.
Friday was CG as usual, had chicken dinner. But Saturday was particularly awful, I really had nothing to do, I fired up some old steam games, but I was already done with them and it brought nothing new. I finally played AkibaStrip which had been in my backlog for quite some time, but it wasn't a fun game... I'm not sure how i made it through the day, out of the extreme boredom I spontaneously bought a ticket to see Skyscraper in a nearby cinema around dinner time.
Sunday was all right though, after church, I suggested we go to Global Harbour for lunch, after lunch we spent time at the arcade, which was a lot of fun.
Monday came and I finally got the motivation to book accommodation for my upcoming Sapporo trip. I also checked out the map and familiarised myself a little with the public transport.

It was a real rough week, I kept putting off things I needed to do and I just didn't want to do anything at all, all the free time also made me think too much and made myself sad. I struggled a lot with temptation this week too. I live in the house of the Lord now, a King has made a home for me in His castle.

A cool summer so far

This week, work continues in the office, no events yet. Being in the office makes the day feels long, so I have to change how I feel and I need to adapt better.
To summarise my work in the office this week, there were mainly 3 things I did: Preparing a PPT of our company staff's CV for coming events; Drawing resolution diagrams for ChongQing event; And fooling around with AutoCAD exercises.
In my free time after work, it's the usual, I caught up on some new seasonal anime, and played mostly A Hat in Time and Starbound. I've also finally finished Trails in the Sky SC.
Friday we had CG at Helen's place.
Saturday, had a relaxing day, started my day nice and slow. After a while, I got back to playing Hat in Time until dinner time. Went out for dinner for a change, stopped by the ATM, ate at Ajisen, then bought a few things at Carrefour. Had art inspiration during dinner. When I got home, I started drawing King Evan as Punished Snake, I felt that the two games operate in very similar ways.
Served on Sunday Church this week. Had an amazing lunch at Mocha Bros. Bought a shirt at Muji.

I also just bought a drawing tablet for the lulz. Hope it's good.

Forgetting again

Last week, was well...

Work as a whole was slow this week, there wasn't really much to do from Mon to Thu, I only remembered I compiled photos of recent events and sometimes draw plans of out warehouse. On Fri, outta nowhere I was told had to come earlier than usual because clients were coming over and I'm needed for standby. Our company was demonstrating different types of LED screens, seems they didn't test all the videos, some of them were not the right format and didn't play.

On Sat, there was a seminar at the church office, I arrived a little late. It was about being Unshaken, and the seminar center around the story of Joseph and his brothers, from the book of Genesis.

I spent a lot of my free time playing Ni No Kuni 2, I've just finished it but left out some endgame side quests which were a bit too demanding for items only obtainable by dungeon crawling very very deep inside.

Even after God delivered the Israelites from their enemies, they still forgot God.
Seems like I forgot my own advice in the last post. (I've forgotten many important things in life as well.) I spent too much time staring at screens. I have to be careful I don't regret anything before the year ends.

2018, 1-out-of-2

The second half of the year has now begun.

Over the past week was the MWCS that happened over...
27th (We) - The first day of the event, a bit of hiccup at the beginning, but nothing serious. I didn't had much to do but standby during the whole event, so I spent time walking around the exhibition, the nearby mall, occasionally listen in to their talks, and played a lot of Trails in the Sky.
28th (Th) - Same as the day before, but that evening, I went to Henry's place to do CG core meeting (forgot to bring my PSV).
29th(fr) - Last day, I discovered they had wifi the whole time... so I spent my free time catching up on WWE. That evening was combined CG, seems like we weren't allowed to do regular CG things, so we just had buffet and games.

Long awaited weekend...
30th (Sa) - I somehow agreed to go to the AmCham Independence Day celebration with some CG members... It was raining the whole time I was there, the food was disappointing, it was pretty expensive too. Regret. Got to relax the rest of the day at home. Burnt out!
Jul 1st (Su) - Church as usual, but I was late... South East Asian lunch (delish), and just played Ni No Kuni 2 the rest of the day.

Thoughts: After a super busy June, I should spend this week collecting my thoughts and realign myself to focus on what's important. I have to careful about wasting too much time on the screen too. I've got some serious cleaning to do first...

Super late blogging pt.2

4 days trip to KL over Raya/ Dragon Boat Festival...

June 15 (Fr) - I arrived KL in the wee hours, took the skybus to 1U and met up with Ray, we then watch Jurassic World 2. It was, okay. We went back to his place to put my stuff down and met with Ed to have dinner, and yamcha at Uptown.
June 16 (Sa) - We went swimming in the compound in the morning. We did grocery shopping after. Apparently it was Pokemon Go community day, as we passed by Uptown, a lot of people were playing Pokemon Go. For dinner, we went to eat Bakuteh (delish). In the evening, Ray had his freelance work, so I was just chilling in his home. We watched anime or played games in between. I also cleaned their oven.
June 17 (Su) - Woke up late morning, we spent the day in Sunway Pyramid. Lunch was filling and very cheesy, we even had cheese drink after. We walked all over the mall that day. After we went back, we all just chilled for a bit. For dinner, I cooked for everyone.
June 18 (Mo) - In the morning, we sent of Roselle to work, there was no traffic that day, so we had time to have breakfast. We went back, played games until lunch time, we had A&W, and continued to waste the day away until it was time to go to 1U, where I took the skybus back to the airport, and flew back to Shanghai overnight.

June 19 (Tu) - I was a zombie, arrived at Shanghai 5am, and took the subway home, and went to work as usual.
June 20-22(Fr) - Nothing much, just preparation for the MWCS in Pudong.
June 23(Sa) - had to go to XTD to fix projection... there goes half my Saturday.
June 24(su) - went to church early to serve in media. Went straight to Pudong after church for work
Until today, I've been working on MWCS, sifting through videos and arranging them.

Super late blogging pt.1

Last post was June 8?? It didn't felt THAT long... however, I'll just recap as usual.

Working in Pudong...
June 9 (Sa) - I took too long to blog, I think I've already forgotten what I did this day... all I know is..
June 10 (Su) - ...that I skipped church this Sunday, it didn't felt good, felt like I should have gone. Instead I stuck at home, took my time waking up and played games all day I believe.
June 11(Mo) - I believe this is the first work day for the CES event in Pudong. I arrived after lunch and remembered it was particularly hot that day. I spent a lot of time waiting, as the projectors were not ready to be adjusted yet.
June 12 (Tu) - I think I spent the whole day in Pudong, a lot of it spent waiting as the team rehearse over and over. It didn't take me long to finish my part, but I had to wait for everyone else
June 13 (We) - This was suppose to be the final day of me working on CES. It was also the first day of the 3 day event. After making sure the projector was all good to go. I went all the way home to relax for about 2 hours and travelled back to Pudong again for more tweaking (the crew were going to readjust the lighting or something on the truss, so the projectors will be affected). Seems they'll take a while, I was told I could adjust it tomorrow morning instead.
June 14 (Th) - I woke early to go to Pudong, adjusted the projectors' alignment within 10mins, and went back home, wow. Before I headed home, a quick stop to Starbucks and some bakery. I remember it being rather relaxing that day. For dinner, I treated myself to a nice western meal, pork ribs and draft beer. I went to the airport that night. Everything just went smoothly.

Late Blogging

I've been slacking off on my weekly blog, best I get right to it. I'm gonna try a new format to simplify my post and just note the key things that happened in that past week(s).

Since the 22nd of May,
25th (Fri) - CG that evening marks the 1st time it being held at Jenny's place, we'll be having CG here for a while during Kushay's absence. Had Tacobell for dinner but for some reason it doesn't feel so special or memorable any more.
26th (Sat) - In my sad mood, I'd completely forgotten about a tennis game I was suppose to go to. I had hoped it will rain that day so I didn't have to go. I felt quite bad.
27th (Sun) - Serve as video director in church, despite haven't done so in a while, I still remembered everything. After church, I went to core group meeting.
29th (Tue) - A good break from the office, had work in XTD this day instead. Was very simple work and I enjoyed it. After I set up the media files for the event, I spent the rest of the hours playing my PSV until the event was over.
1st June (Fri) - No CG today, we had social night. It was all right, I was not impressed with Joe's pizza though, especially since we ordered such basic toppings like hawaiian and pepperoni. We mostly played Gracie's WiiU, being the only gamer I pretty much dominated everyone lol.
2nd (Sat) - After getting out of bed in the later morning, I didn't had much time for myself, had to go for worship practise for kids church at 1pm. The practise itself wasn't very long, I decided to have lunch nearby (a disappointing roast chicken breast) then head home for the rest of the day.
3rd (Sun) - Served in kids church today and attended service as usual. After church there was a short briefing regarding TEC event next week. I suppose the sandwich which was provided was my lunch. After that, a few of us went to RafflesCity to hang out, had coffee and waffle, then we watched Solo Star Wars movie, which was okay but nothing notable.
6th (Wed) - I got to go to XTD for work again, any work outside the office is always refreshing.

Looking at the above, it kinda sucks nothing really happens on work day, it's too mundane, and I don't care enough the stuff that's going on at the office. During the past weeks, most of my work involve drawing and updating plans for upcoming events in Shanghai. Currently, they are CES and GSMA.

Games played:
Trails of the Sky SC, Ni No Kuni 2, Rayman Legends, Heroes of the Storm

Back to the Usual

May 12/13 (sat/sun) A long tiring weekend, since returning from Changsha I hadn't had time to relax. That Saturday, I headed out in the later morning to catch Avenger: Infinity War. Had lunch afterwards and headed down to church office for kids church worship practise. After that, I joined the worship leader's Filipino cell group that evening and returned home rather late.
On Sunday, I served for the kids church, had lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant with my cell group. After lunch I hung out at Kushay's house and had fun playing the piano before the appointed tennis exercise. Played some tennis, after that I went to see Henry for dinner before coming home, and it had gotten quite late by then.

The following work days, it was back to the regular daily life but with a longing for a day to myself.
Tuesday(15th) night I had BSF, the rest of the weekday evening, I just stayed at home not doing very much. On Friday(18th), we had a farewell for the interns at cellgroup. I turned down watching Avenger happening on Saturday. I spent the Saturday(19th) all day at home. Didn't do much, watch some videos, played some Bloodborne and Life is Strange, also played Borderlands 2. On Sunday(20th), went to church as usual, had lunch at BenJia, went home late afternoon and played HOTS and more B2.

Thoughts: I can see again how my 2017 went by. I continue to live day to day without a goal to strive toward to. I'm just staying alive but not living. I long to leave China, I'm sick of living here, once in a while I saddened by crippling loneliness, no colleagues or peers to hang out with after work, no friends to play or hang out with. Not long now, I just need to bear with it a little longer, my Visa in the process of renewal, but I plan to leave early next year. I just need to learn to make the best out of my life here, I wish I could find a good solution though, I seem to always find myself ending up escaping reality, wasting my time again on the internet, games and tv shows. I feel like I can never find a friend like the ones I have back home.

11th May 2018

I returned from the long trip in Beijing on the 24th April. Slowly trying to readjust to normal life. I caught the movie Isle of Dogs the following weekend. Not long after my return, I left for Changsha for work from May 4th-8th. There was a mall opening there and the event consist of a few performance and a toast to the opening. Unfortunately, on the day of the show, the event had to be canceled for safety concerns as the place was too crowded. Our crew stick around till late until the mall was mostly empty, and the clients took a few photos before we closed up.

Back to back work

It has been a long 2 weeks of April, 4 events back to back leaving me without much time to relax or do my own recreation.

Event 1+2 (10th-13th)
The first event, tmall or vogue, was a small part. 4 projections on 2 long screen. It was only for the opening of the show. It plays a strings effect graphic on loop, before the screen gets hoist upwards. After the opening, I needn't stay for the rest of the show, so I headed straight to the next event.
2nd event was about lifestyle, fashion or something. I had to arrange videos on eight oddly shaped screens for projection. My part on this was really short, but most of it is just looping for hours, and I can't do anything else or go anywhere. It ended late and I had little time to pack and sleep as I had to catch the train the next day at 8am to Beijing.

Event 3 (14th-18th)
Chanel event called Coco Crush in Wang Fu Jing, I was free for the first 2 days when I arrived. I used this time to catch a movie and went to BICF on Sunday and caught up with a good friend.
Not really a show for me, I arranged videos for a long curved screen, and 36 window LEDs. I was there the whole day during the working period. Spent the whole day in the AV room, video looped from morning till late night. Rather grueling.

Event 4 (19th-23rd)
Volkswagen conference. Free for the first 2 days as well, but didn't do much in this free time. 798 in beijing is really expensive, boring, and food is no good. Didn't take long for me to prepare my part of the show. A lot of it is spent waiting or rehearsing.

It was a long and grueling 2 weeks. I hate it that these events start so early and ends very late, leaving me with only 4-6 hours of sleep. I look forward to going back to my daily life and some rest as I return to Shanghai.

Trekking and back

I recently went to an outdoor trekking/camping activity over the ChingMing holiday. I had a sufficiently good time, although I don't really like how slow/scared I am on path that's not straight. I rappelled down into a cave, and trek a lot. Camping was a tent inside a giant tent because of the rain on the first day, but it remained there throughout the next few days. Camping in the spring can be particularly cold at night, I should consider how to keep warm at night and procure an air mattress for the next camping trip if I ever choose to go (the hard ground is difficult to sleep on even with multiple mats). Will definitely consider a much colder adventure, would love to see snow.

Not long after I returned from trekking, work picked up on the following Tuesday, I had to do a simple projection map on a long wall for Vogue/Tmall, following that is a TopLife/JingDong event where I arrange 8 projection on oddly curved shape hanging objects. It's been tough because these things took all day and almost all night, I miss having time in the morning.

Tomorrow at 8am, I'll be heading to Beijing for 2 events, will be there for around 10-11 days. I wish I had more time today so I can at least try to change my ticket time. 8 am is a little too early for me, I'm not looking forward to be in the carriage for 5 hours.

March - end

It was one of the most eventful week I’ve had so far.

It was a little tiring, as I’m currently serving in church and cell group back to back. I served in media on the 18th, helped out at Family Day the following Saturday (24th) and serve for the first time in kids church as keyboardist (25th).

Coming Friday (30th), I’m serving for worship for Good Friday at cell group and have also agreed to help out for Easter(1st Apr). The following Thursday (5th Apr) will be ChingMing where I’ve signed up to go trekking/camping during this holiday period.

At work, I’ve been mildly occupied with work for GSMA & Chanel, updating LED plans on AutoCAD and modelling 3D models. I’m currently downtown preparing for a BMW event happening the 30th.

The LEDs are not ready yet so I spent the time in the nearby mall looking around and browsing outdoor waterproof jackets for the coming trekking activity.

Halfway down March

Work hasn't required me to go on location yet, I only did work at in the office. This week was drawing a large LED ball on top of a box structure, and drawing LED plans for Chanel. It's a bit worrying that the Chanel event is happening over ChingMing break. If I'm required to attend to the event, I will miss out on outdoor activity and camping...

I got to meet up with my CG leader today, I arrived a little early and he arrived late, so I decided to have craft beer before meeting him. I only had 15mins to spare, but there's not much else to do while waiting. The beer tasted way better than the one I had at burger night one week ago.

We had burger... This is the 3rd time already since last week, I better watch myself.

This week I learned that I need to find a goal, a purpose, something to work/strive towards to. Else my life here in Shanghai be unchanging, meaningless and boring.

The year officially begins..

With January and Chinese new year behind me, the most uneventful rest of the year is all that's left until the next new year (or golden week). This is the time I fear the most as being the most unmemorable, unproductive, or uneventful. I can feel the warmth of spring approaching, a sign for the coming unbearable summer. I'm gonna miss winter.

It's been more than a week since I've returned, I expected work will get busy, but not for me I guess. There wasn't too much for me to do, but it wasn't painfully boring either. I worked up some courage to ask people out for dinner on an open weekday evening, but looks like the plan changed to today's dinner at a burger restaurant, that's fine, I'll get to catch up with some people I haven't seen in a while.

Friday's cellgroup was good, but I can somewhat feel like it's going to be a repeat of last year if I don't do anything about it. I want to go beyond being a cellgroup member with everyone. Instead of just meeting them once or twice a week, I seek for real, legit friendship. Can I really be friends with people with widely different interest and lifestyle to me? I'm going to try, but if that doesn't change, I seriously need to consider relocating, having good friends to journey with trumps over almost everything else in my life. It seriously sucks that I cannot make funny reference without anyone understanding. It's just one example, but I need a connection...

Even though I want to make this year different, it doesn't change the fact that my job is still unpredictable. This stops me from being able to book a vacation in advance, as job events might show up anytime. The most time I'll get is a month notice. By then, flights and accommodations are either fully booked or really expensive, but should I let this stop me from doing so though? I should seek some consultation...

Oh, I've been watching Laid Back Camp, camping looks really fun, it's been awhile since I last did it, I'm consider buying some camping gear...
I should go camping...

Through Chinese New Year,

I spent 11 days back home. Felt long, and also a lot of my friends have their own lives to live. Holidays for Malaysia is shorter as well compared to China, so by the 3rd/4th day of cny, most people have gone back to their lives. I'm considering only spending a few days home for the next cny and should probably travel elsewhere for the long break.

At least during this break I got to cook, exercise some, learn some drawing, and had some fun with the Nintendo Switch.

Here's hoping my life in China will be much different this year.

The weeks before C.N.Y.

In the first 2 weeks of February, is it the snow festival in Sapporo which I regretfully was unable to go.

It was slow week in the office as many people left early. Nothing much went on, I went home during lunch just because it was too boring. Read some manga to pass the time too.

Flight back was smooth, but I had one of the most awkward situation ever in the airport when I try to meet up with someone who happened to be flying that night. She had a traveling buddy, so I felt like I was mostly just in the way.

The end of January

I feel some life has returned to be after being able to attend cell group after a long while. Life can be hard without good social interaction.
For this week, I was assigned a very tedious task of making a slideshow for my office. In the end, it was almost for nothing as the songs I picked wasn't used at all, and I pretty much had my colleagues go through the photos again, because the ones I had picked was no good, and we finished it before the annual dinner.
Currently, there's no work or event for me in the foreseeable future, perhaps I will have a chance to catch up on my own self improvement and take it easy in the office.

February is fast approaching and it is still wonderfully and painfully cold. It won't be long before Chinese New Year begins.

3 Weeks of January

Rung in the new year at home. Work immediately got busy. I had to prepare floor plans and backdrop designs for a certain bank and their conference, it ran in 5 different cities within a single week.
Following that, my colleague assigned me to keep photo and video records of some makeup brand conference.
After that, my job involved working at a French jewelry dinner conference, and I had the chance to work with some French guys. They were really cool to work with.
Nothing happened out of the ordinary, I still had adequate amount of sleep and everything just went well. Work kept me away from cell group and church for a bit, so my need for some human social interaction is high. I miss yamcha.

2018 Now, 2017 Gone

As 2018 begins, before I know it, it's already near the end of January. I thought I'd like to start blogging again to keep record of the events that happened around me.

As 2017 passed, I find myself unable to recall how the year went. What happened that year? It felt like a blur, as though time just fast forwarded from the last time I celebrate the previous New Year. I suppose the things that happened in 2017 weren't exciting nor worth remembering. #adultlife? Most of it were probably work related.. And I spent a huge amount of my free time wasting away on the internet, looking at memes, watched YouTube, played a couple of games here and there and watched anime. I also don't have a good social life despite being here, in Shanghai, for almost 3 years now.
In my Christian walk, I struggle the same struggle today yesterday, wondering when am I going to grow, hopefully this year will be different.

Trying to recap last year, my best friend got married and I went to his wedding. I came back home for about a week during Golden Week. That was sept/oct, November just went by and December came. Didn't really do much for Christmas either. I can't recall much of anything else, I thought it quite troubling..

Side note: I'm re-using this old blog because it's easier than making a new one. Will be updating some obsolete information since the last blog post was in 2013. This also means past post is made by younger Jeremy and may be cringeworthy to read. And it is certainly is much easier to blog now with the smartphone app.