Dance like no one's watching

I think this is likely to be my last post of 2024. Would have liked to post more regularly but these days (compared to 20 years ago), I don’t use the laptop for personal reasons much… and I really hate writing long posts on the hp.

Just concluded my last Korea trip of the year! Visited Korea an unbelievable 6 times this year.
March – visited with global head. (Work)
April – Busan holiday + Korea Open (Personal)
June – Korea Language Immersion Programme (Personal)
Early September – visit with colleague from London (Work)
Late September – Westival (Personal)
December – Roy Kim’s concert (Personal)

To be fair, the trip in Dec wasn’t exactly planned and in Sep, I told my colleagues that I wouldn’t be back till next year. What I didn’t expect was that Roy Kim would launch an international fan club, which I joined, and that allowed me to buy a ticket to his year-end concert through the fan club pre-sale. I really wanted to go for his concert in 2023 but didn’t manage to get a ticket – they were sold out in 3 min. (The Interpark website is amazing for ticket sales. Way better than Sistic or Ticketmaster but that’s another story on its own).

So while I was in Seoul last week, I was wondering how did my favourite holiday destination change from Hong Kong to Seoul? I asked myself what did I like about HK that has changed? These were the thoughts that popped into my head:

People – I used to like the vibe and culture in HK. The people had this hunger and drive about them and I loved the energy.
Music – I used to love Cantopop. Well, I still like it but my favourite artistes aren’t as active as before… Sammi Cheng, Miriam Yeung, Hacken Lee, Andy Hui (well, I don’t really like him anymore after his affair). The newer singers don’t inspire me at all.
Movies – It’s shocking how the blockbusters are still headlined by the same actors that I watched 20 years ago. While I enjoy seeing my favourites on screen still (Louis Koo, Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse)… it’s kind of sad that there’s no new blood that’s as big as these people?

I think if my salary allowed it 15-20 years ago, I would have visited HK 2-3 times a year as well. However, the circumstances didn’t allow it then and now HK just seems a little “lost” to me. I still have one thing on my bucket list though – I want to attend a Sammi Cheng concert in HK. Hopefully I’ll get to do this in 2025.

There are a lot of things I learnt this year and the one thing I want to work on (on myself) is to take time in doing things. A peer commented in my 360deg feedback that I tend to be anxious to get things done as efficiently and quickly as possible but taking a bit more time before responding to any issues would be better. I think that is good feedback so I’m forcing myself to slow down a little these days.

Ideally I would be able to post something once a week, if not at least once a month. But we’ll see. 🙂

Peace out and may the rest of 2024 bring peace and joy to all.

조금만 수정하면 더 자연스러워요:

“지난 2주 동안 한국에 있었어요. 왜냐하면 학원의 Cultural Immersion Program에 참여했어요. 매일 아침에 3시간 반 수업을 들었어요. 그리고 오후에 회사에 다녔어요. 너무 바빴지만 재미있었어요.”

아주 바쁜 시간을 보냈네요! 새로운 경험을 통해 많은 것을 배웠을 것 같아요.

At episode 19/24 of this K drama. Realised I like people who are considerate. Don’t think that’s a typical main trait people cite when asked about what sort of people they like? Well, that’s a main one for me. For sure.

사실 지난 주의 수업이 조금 이상했어요. 이유가 모르지만 선생님 ‘설날’의 발음 was [설날] instead of [설랄]. I think it was Joey who asked about it then 선생님 explained it’s [설랄]. 그런데 우리 같이 소리로 읽을때 선생님 still used [설날].
I’m fussy. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Tobias had a seizure on Thu night. Spent 4 hours at The Animal Doctors before he was seen by Dr Chandi.

To summarise the findings at the vet:

1. Left ear has bacterial infection (which is unusual cos bunnies usually turn/scrunch towards the side that’s hurting but Tobias was scrunched to the right)

2. His heart has sounds of murmur which wasn’t audible 2 weeks ago.

3. He’s borderline anaemic.

5. Blood works show there’s an ongoing infection. The blood was sent to test for EC too… We’ll know in 2 weeks.

6. X-ray showed his there’s more “white veins” at the lungs but dunno what’s the cause.

Tobias ate about all of his usual dinner last night so that’s good. His right hind leg remains weak but he’s no longer scrunched to the right.

Overall, I think there’s improvement for sure! I’m glad I chose not to ward him because he refused to eat while at the vet. I think he’s happier at home. (Vet suggested warding him cos his breathing was harder than usual)

I bought the Garmin Lily! Sort of an impulse buy… I was just looking at my Fitbit Versa 3 on my wrist over the past week and suddenly felt very very sick of the design. I’ve had it for the past 2 years… and the Versa 2 before it… which looks almost identical. I suddenly missed the more dressy looking watches I used to wear (before switching to smart watches) so I decided to look for a smart watch that looks more dressy. Haha.

It’s a slight downgrade feature-wise compared to the Fitbit Versa 3. There’s no payment ability and no microphone to use with Google Assistant. The preset responses to text are also fixed so no customised replies possible.

I didn’t realise until I got the Garmin Lily that while I can view notifications on the watch, I am unable to “open” the app on my phone from the watch. This is something that the Versa 3 could do and I do miss this function. The other strange thing is that alarms need to be created via the Garmin Connect app on the phone instead of directly on the watch (which was the case with the Versa 3).

These issues aside, I am largely satisfied with the Lily. Firstly, it is extremely light! And the small watch face is perfect for my wrist (I have unusally small wrists for an adult). The bluetooth connection with the phone works a lot better too. One annoying issue with the Fitbit was that if you move away from the phone and the bluetooth connection is lost, after it reconnects, the watch regularly spams you with old notifications that have been seen already. And these old notifications can even go back several days! Highly annoying!

The second bug with the Versa is that the Spotify control is spotty (pun intended). I tried using the Versa to control music (just basic start/stop) while teaching dance. However, quite often, when the Versa’s screen goes to standby mode, the connection with the Spotify app is lost and it refuses to reconnect.

The Lily automatically shows music controls when Spotify is playing on my phone and so far, no issues with it at all. 🙂 Quite happy with my purchase, really. I wished the other Garmin models were not so expensive (the Venu 2 Plus would be comparable feature-wise with the Versa 3 but it is like double the price!) That said, not exactly something I need to be concerned with since the other Garmin models are too large for me anyway. Hahahaha.

Pretty much an open secret now… Will the numbers challenge be harder or the person challenge be harder? I think the former. So hard to change something that your brain isn’t born to do. Waiting for announcement…

I know why all the viewers wanted them to be together. Because their love was so pure and so warm (do you notice how many hugs they had in the entire drama vs kisses?) And that’s why first loves often do not last. When you put the other person before yourself and want only the best for the other person, after a while, this type of love does not give you support anymore and people will choose themselves in the end. It’s not that love has to be selfish to last but I think it’s about finding a balance.

I can truly relate. But it’s also this sort of first love that will bring a smile when you look back at it. You would only wish the best for the person that you’ve parted ways with.