Motivation

...to learn Cantonese, after my cabbie last night was hopelessly lost. I actually KNEW how to get home (for a change) but only in English. DOH! He did not speak English or Mandarin, and so we wandered around the maze of one way streets that is HK Island. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and told him to let me out (not much English needed for THAT) and I walked the rest of the way home (only 10 min.)

So unless I want to remain permanently quarantined in the expat ghettos of HK, I will need to polish my Cantonese, as there are not enough Mandarin speakers out there to keep me safe from my own idiocy.


There's also motivation to finish this last competitor profile report today (ARGH) which is why I'm up at 4am local time, using the crappy company laptop.


I'll say one thing about my technological travails this month: it's tought me more patience with the 'puters. Instead of yelling, I simply wait for the damn little hourglass to finish twirling (or whatever). Well, I could either accept it or have my head explode. I choose option (b): non-exploding head.

Kind of like how I have simply accepted that it's not a question of whether, bu WHEN, I will get lost while going to meet someone somewhere that is not my apt or either office building that our department is housed in. Just double the amount of travel time for local residents and that might do it for me.


Speaking of glitzy (or non) office towers, the photo above is our flagship (?) building in Hong Kong when it's all lit up at night. Neat, eh?


So yes, I have about 24 hours left (!) in my trip here, after I switched my original departure date to Saturday instead of Friday. Somehow the idea of having a 7pm business meeting and then having to get ready for a 7am departure to the airport was causing me just a WEE freakin' bit of stress. So thanks to the magic of business class tickets, I switched the date without a penalty.


And no, I am no clearer about my job offer / relocation package here. Had a meeting with local HR this morning (finally) after which I realized that I was no closer to an answer: I wanted to know the info on certain subsidies before I accepted, and they were holding off on calculating the exact figures until I accepted. You see the problem, yes? It's a good thing I'm picking up the zen thing, or my head really would make like a Bill Plympton 'toon and go BOOM!