The Winds of Change
The movie Groundhog Day and my life are so remarkably similar that I’ve genuinely begun to consider the possibility that I may actually be Bill Murray. Every day I wake up at 06:03 AM. I spend ten minutes in the shower, seven of which are spent trying to adjust it to the right temperature and three of which are spent either in freezing cold or scalding hot water. Quick check of the email, get dressed, brush teeth, put on makeup, head out the door. Have the same conver — yes, putting on makeup was a joke. Have the same conversation with Lam the security guard:
Lam: ‘Wai… hello!!’
Lam: ‘Nei ho ma?’
Me: ‘Alright mate.. ho ho!!’
Me: ‘Nei ho ma?’
Lam: ‘Ho ho!’
Me: ‘Bye, bye!’
Lam: ‘Bye bye!’
Leave the hall of residence, switch on ipod, bump into the fairly elderly people practising tai chi. Tai chi with swordsrent a car bulgaria. Walk to Festival Walk (how fitting), head down to the MTR station, get on the same train at 07:03, on the same carriage with the same beautiful ‘MTR girl’ who has evidently memorised my schedule. That she is and always was on the train before me is beside the point. I arrive at work at 07:28, read my email, do IPE & LIFFEF testing orders, confirm colour of the day, ask the desk for breakfast orders and get ‘sup bui chaan jup’, ‘sei gor door si’ and ‘look lung siu mai’ from the basement. In the lift on the way up I make the same joke every morning as members of staff look at the amount food falling out my arms, ‘yeah…’ ‘I’m hungry today’. Talk to Trowbridge, re-run SOD… it’s all become so strikingly similar to the experience of Bill Murray that every time I receive a phone call at work, I imagine it’s in response to a cry of “WHO you gonna’ call?!”. I even have a friend I speak to every day at HSBC called Rita, who you’ll remember is the name of the female lead in Groundhog Day.
However in recently weeks things have begun to change. And though change and variety are said to be ‘the spice of life’, I’ve actually found them to be bit of an inconvenience to be honest. Cuz bustin’ made me feel good…
June 12th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
“Leave the hall of residence, switch on ipod, bump into the fairly elderly people practicing tai chi. Tai chi with swords.”
Dude! That sounds AWESOME!!!
“Wednesday was the Champions League final.”
Ah, yeah, I only saw the penalties of that! Poor J.T., he looked absolutely heart broken after he slipped! Tough break, dude! Penalties are never a good way to loose a game!
“Thankfully Alan, a former work colleague of Joe, a friend of ours both and more importantly a Cantonese speaker arrived just in time to somehow negotiate us away from the taxi driver before the police arrived however at the price of $200 HKD.”
Hmmm…according to a random converter I found on google that’s about £13…mate, sounds like a barging for a broken window! = P
It sounds like life has been pretty hectic for you over these past few weeks! I wish I could say otherwise but it’s been pretty much the same for everyone over here too! With exam season came the usual hours sitting at a desk, digging through old notes which, at the time, I never expected to have to read again! But now that’s all over and finally everyone’s free to generally chill out and be as lazy as we students apparently are meant to be!
Exams, however, come at a cost! That cost, in my case, was one iPod. = ( Absolute disaster, mate! In the usual anal way examination invigilators have, for each exam I had to take off my coat and place it under my chair, lest I had the abridge version of “Quantum Physics, For Dummies” taped into the lining. Unfortunately for me, I fell victim to what I’m sure was their plan all along and -after a particularly hard exam, which would have been much easier if they’d have let me look at the notes I had taped in my coat now useless beneath my chair- I left my coat under that same chair in the exam hall. Thankfully, some good Samaritan (That’s a Jesus reference, you probably wouldn’t understand. = P ) did the right thing and handed my coat into Campus Watch. Obviously, however, such a good deed should not go unrewarded and what better reward than for them to help themselves to my iPod, sitting happily in one of the coat pockets? Dicks!
Anyways, in light of Stevie assuring me that the iPhone should be out in Hong Kong by the time we get there I’m hoping I’ll be able to pick myself one up on the cheap out there! On the other hand, Stevie also tells me that you probably wont just be able to walk into a shop and buy just an iPhone, as you currently can, because the phone shop would most likely want me to get a contract with them as well…most uncool! What do you reckon? Will there be places still were I can just get an iPhone, minus the commitment of a long term relationship? If so, about how much do you think one would cost?
I tell you, buddy, I can’t wait to get out to HK and see you! For the entire exam season HK has been the carrot leading me to keep revising! Inspired by one of Joe’s earlier posts and many a horror story told to me by Jade I’ve decided that I want to try some Durian while we’re over there, I think we’re going over in Durian season, right?
If Hong Kong has been my own release during the exams, others have found different ways to release the exam stresses! For instance, our good friend Timmy has finally been able to shake off the slightly psychotic Heli for a new bird called Emily. Tim assures me she is not in the least bit psychotic but I’m reserving my judgment until we get an official psychiatric evaluation. Even so, she seems like a nice enough lass, they met at a house party Tim and I found ourselves at, towards the end of last term and things seem to be going pretty soundly for them, which everyone agrees is most cool in light of his rather unfortunate past record (see, Heli).
In other news, as well as a new girlfriend, Tim seems to have developed a gambling problem. In what he assured me was a “sure thing” he recklessly placed a £5 bet on the outcome of the first four matches of one of the Euro2008 groups. Fortunately for him, it was a sure thing and he very smugly collected his £60 from the betting shop the other day!! XD
Other than that, JJ is currently looking for some form of job and I think the Peelster/Hobster are waiting for their results before they make a move in any particular direction but all three should still be here to see you again next year! = ) I think the Peelster is just as excited as you are to let you in on the secret of the magic circle…I just hope you can be trusted with the secret, you know what they say about great power…
Well, I think that’s about all I have to say really! I hope work continues to be fun for your last few weeks there, I know Stevie is at least as excited about heading to HK as I am…well, actually, I think he’s mostly excited about sharing a room with me but whatever!
Until next time, dude!
Si
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