neih hou ah, pahng yauh!

I am still alive, just that my dear neighbour (whom I haven never seen) seems to have moved his modem further away and I can't borrow that "force field" to get full air port bars :(

I am sitting back at my cosy Kowloon home, grinning like an idiot.
Thank you for the video, dear caregroup, including the very nice footage of Meridien food.
and of course, Thank you "3 angels" [quoted from Shuz] who flew all the way here to see me rant on and on and on.

Happy Birthday LAYS! from Hope Church on Vimeo.

I am sorry I am such a bad person to surprise, because I spoil my own surprises and stress you all to no end with my countless questions HAHA I hate my stoned expression when someone does something so sweet for me, like taking off days and appearing in Hong Kong 1596 miles away to see me. =')

Thank you dear Gwen, Yiyou and Puay!

They can't stay very long because they are ahem, working adults, but it was a short trip well spent! They flew in on Friday the 9th, and spent the day at Causeway Bay before meeting Lays-with-her-soul-sucked-dry at Langham @ Mongkok. We went around the mall, I reallyyy like that mall actually.

They got me Gardenia bread! And it is such a comfort to have :D
Had dinner at 大家樂 and we are indeed very 樂-ed,
then I dashed back to the office, and stare at the spinning beach ball of death and that horrible glaring Pantone 1795C till 830am, got home in a half dead state and headed out for brekkie at Kwai Fong.



We found ourselves at a rather atas 茶餐廳 and gobbled down all the food.
HK people have such nice heavy breakfasts.

They received such warm welcome at Hope HK,
and I had a (rather) surprise birthday cum farewell celeb from them =')

Then, then, then, we headed to Modern Toilet, which is basically this whole cafe themed around the place where we excrete all this food we intake.



Sat on toilet bowls and ate from mini toilet bowls



slurpeeee





Awesome shit this is HAHA

Hobbled about MongKok for more shopping, before resting wearied legs and eating awesome desserts from 許留山! I took close ups so you can see hehehehe







Spent the night at their friendly hotel with them



and made yiyou squeeze into a tiny bed with xiao gwen i'm so sorry i flop around so very much and we had HTHT, and it was all good...



but morning had to come



see vintage funky wallpaper



and after somemore shopping they left via the airport express.

=')
I know I have been so very blessed and so many people have trotted about HK streets with me,
and this bunch came specially for that.
But every time someone leaves they leave that empty feeling in me,
it's just a very strange feeling, like someone comes, makes you so fulfilled and happy and all of a sudden you can't ring them anymore. If you have lived abroad maybe you'll know that feeling I can't describe in words.

But really,
Thank you
you three
so very much!

This is what happens when you don't have a scanner back home.
The bullet this month didn't turn out like I want it to I think, may it still bless hearts.

It's a pretty mid-autumn day, and all the shops are close,
and I am in the office :(

There have been many fires to put out in our office lately,
of course not literal fires, but problems.
Which explains why I am in on a PH!

I think Y-Comm (who is soon going to not be called y-comm ;)) trained me in this.
And I always tell my boss, nah, we'll get by,
with this confidence I can't justify.
(Feels tempted to justfy the whole paragraph)
And forget they are dealing with a lot of money.

Ahh.

These three lovely misses whom Lays misses so very much were together working on such a fun project but they took time off and gave me a call among millipedes and made my night so sweet,
listened to me go on and on and on.
Thank you, can't wait to see you guys,
and let's go to K before it disappears!

And yes, update soon,
I am not contactable by phone at the moment.

Sometimes it gets really tough taking care of yourself.

Hello World
My phone (with my Stitch in a burger) decided on its own accord that it likes Macau more than me, and has settled somewhere there.

Yes, I lost my phone.
For the first time in my life.
On my first trip to Macau too.

I cannot be reached on my HK number anymore, so don't sms/call that number anymore
If you have the spare cash, you can spam threatening messages, maybe it will come back.
Let me know if you want my new number :)

Updates soon.
Love, Lays

When you have a nice Fri night- Sun night, you wonder why there isn't this day called the Monday's Eve, when you rest from all the fun and wearied legs from Sunday, and gear up for a Monday. Then you call home and realise everyone has Hari Raya and stinky Monday off. First time in my life I really want to celebrate Hari Raya!




It's been a rather exciting weekend, not that I have many left anyway.
I have no time to blog about it in detail (yet), just want to pen down some thoughts from the talk I had with Creamo :)

I was going on and on about the time when I served in Pastoral, and I actually listed out fond memories that I have kinda shoved at the back of my head- all the funny meetings Kar & Tracie and I had, planning about caregroup gatherings each week, The caregroup at J8 where there was a food hunt and we ended up dancing to "Walk, walk, walk, walk in the light...!" at a playground nearby, Pouring water into plastic containers at KFC for an analogy while shepherding JieLing, Talking on the phone for really long with SeePeng & Rach till very late one night, The V-day caregroup where we threw heart shaped soap thingies everywhere and had some wing decor, The longgg sharing with Zion core at Cartel table that changed everything, Emu's singing lessons for me (okay, this one not very fond memory, but necessary HAHA), All the ABS-es (I am embarrassed to say what it stands for), Planning for Facade and seeing Rachel Fong and Quek as a stage couple HAW HAW HAW, Having Prajitna as my guitarist one DMM morning and him with his NEW strumming method, seeing PS Shirls clapping and telling us about applause from heaven after Passion, and the list just keeps going on and on and on.

And On.

It makes me grateful, and it makes me realise I want to keep remembering all these.
And make new memories with you, Y-Comm, adding on to what we already have...
and I wonder if you remember them, Mr Moses.

HOHOHO, today dear Christine decided to leave and soar elsewhere..!



'cause it can get very stressful here, HAHA.
(Oh she is French-Korean, cool right)



We had a little 外賣 (oui mai) treat,
ah I will miss good chinese 外賣!
That weird yellow noodles (at the very end) is 星洲炒麵, aka Singaporean style noodles which we do not apparently have in SG, hahaha.





LOL Tanguy (pronounced tan-gee) is so funny.
He told me to *&^! school and just work.

4.5 more weeks till my last day :)
Yours too, classmates.

The people whose expertise is to communicate messages often suck at communicating among themselves.
Dim gai?!

(no, no I am not talking about Y!Comm)

These weeks, my eyes are really opened to
T H E CREATIVE INDUSTRY,
you know the one we all have such idealistic and different perceptions on (previously).
When you are a student, it's all very surreal, whatever forms in your head about your possible future path ahead.
When you are an intern... it feels very surreal too. And you go, "Shit, is this it?, I'm spending so much time trying to do this..?"

Studio OFFICE
I said all my life that I don't want to be an OL (office lady) and work 9 to 5 routine boring job at the desk. Guess what? Designers are pretty much OLs too, just that we work 10 to 8, on good days 10 to 6ish and still sit at the desk behind a monitor whole day, just that we don't look at excel sheets or .ppt much, we look at the legendary Adobe programmes, which non-designers think are some powerful tools. They are no doubt, but this power ah, is given to everyone... need to keep finding new ways to be powerful with them.
Thus, OL in plain tee.

I guess when you own your studio it's different, loads of moving about, meeting new clients and all, that's more exciting :D

INTEGRITY.
If you know me, you will know I like to fight. HAHA.
I like to fight for what I think is right.

Lately...it's a struggle situation.
Sometimes the ideas put before me are not impressive.
But fighting = more work = less/no sleep.
Lately, I don't fight.

MY COLLEAGUES DON'T EAT
I haven't seen them gone out and eat like you know, a normal meal.
So amazing ah.
I do ah, at least to grab food.
They eat they eat!
Recently I saw them buying food.
So they only don't eat when it's crazy busy.

I think it also then becomes a choice to be a normal designer or the one that tries harder.
It is very easy doing what you know how to do for a job, say to use like polaroids and putting images in them, or like silhouettes, or you know, those things we all see before. It is effortless and done quickly. Meaningless too I guess.
I'm trying to fight this, and trying to be creative and do something new when the deadlines are completely in your face.

SEE



Oh yes tadaaa, I was watching this the other day,
nostalgic right, when I realise this familiar flash banner at the right and oh my, it's the one I animated a few days ago (I didn't design it ah). HAHA, interesting feeling.
I have very brave bosses that decided to lemme layout the final artwork for billboards.
The freaking big ones... we all have problems blowing up stuff and making it not pixelate in school...this one is like..........so big, I will pray more. HAHA. Have been printing them out on A3 and sticking all over our glass doors...to think they will really be so huge is.. hmm..can't imagine yet. Let's hope it works out and I don't get sacked (again. HAHA)
I feel very blessed, I will still be around to see it up there..! :D

MARKETING
Sad to say, I have been thriving in such an environment, where marketing/business is top priority. Art works (what an irony they call them that) or design is only there to support the big idea, the whole marketing campaign that is created to drive sales. That's design.
And following them on client meetings and whatnot makes me grow more cynical by the day.
You can come out with such a wonderful sincere campaign, but your dear client can still not believe in it, make you do all this funny retouching that goes against the campaign idea. And that's when I stand in awe at the Boss' charismatic clever arguments with the clients. Sometimes we win, sometimes they do.

SUB-DENOMINATIONS hahahaha
At one of those client meetings, a lady from a prestigious up-there Ad firm came and pass me her namecard, I sat there dumbfounded and took it HAHAHA so much for PcomD! My bosses smiled, stood up, shook hands and do all that formalities.
And I know why I like smaller firms. HAHA.
Up-there firm came in business wear with ties and heels, my boss was wearing a pink sweater with sneakers. So within this little industry, there's diverse cultures.

Haha, I'm sorry if you think what i am writing is crap,
I just want to journal down my first thoughts, and laugh about them when I have sank deep into this industry, or laugh about them when I have decided this is not what I want to do after all.
I hope not the latter.
I have been working 12 hours lately, but... I still like it. YIKES.

Today was a fruitful Sunday because I didn't sleep in!
Woke up for Adults service since I missed youth's. Met Kat and Alisa, two Singaporean girls in the adult service who have been in HK for like seven, and four years.. and other sisters for breakfast. Ahhh jelly sunny side up + ham + toast = win. Swallowed it down so no pict.

My mind was cloudy because I haven't been sleeping much, and it takes me super lot of concentration to make out Cantonese but anyhow, the altar call sight was really really touching. I saw cute old grannies hobbling in front, and people in wheelchairs, really need to give them so much more time than the youths who bounce there instantly. And that warms my heart- to know people who have been through so much, humbling themselves and realising at the end of it all, (I mean, if you are 70 or 80, whatever regrets will most likely have to remain regrets) God is still the answer. And I thank God I know him now.

Then I went to Stanley myself! :D
It is "a peninsula on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island" (thanks wiki). I took a bus from Central and passed by Repulse Bay (a rich people estate with waterfront houses), felt psychological imbalance due to the wealth standing tall and straight on the waterfront before me, fell asleep and reached Stanley..!



Today was one of those days that photos just don't turn out good,
but I had a lot of fun myself, haha.



This is the Murray House.



I wonder if there's any P.I spying on them or what, I can sell him my photo HAHAHA.
It was the officers' HQ at Murray barracks and now houses atas food places, like this one.



I went to the Maritime Museum, and it's wonderful that 11 museums around the world are all having this Farewell to Sails exhibition. Saw all the HK early boat models, the detailing is sooo impressive, that I had to break rules to snap a few picts, but I got caught la.. too many people snapping.



Here's one of them, there's intricate stitches on all the mini sails.

Stanley is like away from the city area, but still in every bit commercialised. How "villagised" can a place with starbucks and Macs be..?



That's a little local cafe below that huge Macs Ad. Completely owned.

I headed to walk around Stanley Village.



Ahhhh what a charming florist place, it's just like on uneven concrete steps but so lovely! I love how they display the seed packs that they sell.



Kind man feeding the little birds.



Hairstyling, kampong style, so cute.



The owner of a antique shop, reminds me of those they have atop dempsey back in SG?



He just packs them in a freaky sort of way.

Stanley market basically has loads of Chinese "antiques", it's amusing to me because westerners will find them so oriental, I saw a couple buying a little ornament of those Chinese lady with an umbrella. They always find charm in our Chinese looking things. haha.. These antiques are however, produced in bulk in recent years I believe.. There's a lot of shops selling kids' clothes though, no idea why. Being the sexist aunt I am, I bought dress and yellow shoes for my little niece! Girls are so much more fun to dress up :D



This is handpainted, looks so fun to do!
I love the complete freedom that have with the exterior of their houses!



Random parrot in its little hut



Wanted to show the mountain and the wonderful landscape, but since they were still in my frame.. everyone was running away since the winds were howling but they still sat there...calmly.



Anyway it's not my camera's blurry, the horizon was, the air's bad.



my plans to catch dusk was gone instantaneously with the storm.
But the sky was still dyed a pale pink.



It's quite cool ah, like the rain comes down and the wind is so strong it blows the droplets on the floor and they look like they are dancing and creating their own tides on the tar floor. Yes, I was looking at raindrops while waiting for the bus tor rescue us back home.

Got home early but uhm, going online straight = won't do anything. haha.

Yesterday was campaign production day two, I was falling asleep the moment we get on the bus from location to location.
But I went to so many wonderful places.



Shek O



ZY, pink and birds!



Clearwater beach



A club we kinda got chased out of



No idea where this is HAHA

Not a place but it's a



Porsche




Rich people can afford expensive art, haha.
Boss' collection.

The bosses ask if I want to come back and do full time when I graduate. I smiled and said I don't like Hong Kong all that much. And they say, "what do you know about HK", and now I agree. These 3 consecutive days of going to all these places and seeing all the nice islands and waters HK offers, tucked away away from their 买东西吃东西 image... makes me think ah, this is not a bad place to be, especially if I have a house with a balcony like this.



Yes Xin & Klan, they have turquoise waters!

*



My eyes are so heavy.
Have a wonderful week, everyone..!
Five more weeks, dears.

HAHA, this is a post that will reveal my past life of being a fangirl.
Let's see, I picked up his first album in AMK's Jubilee's Popular, but I am still faithfully supporting local talents that prove they are worth the support!

He has used his life story and his artiste status to bring people to God too :)



I thought that this is freaking amazing because I mean everyone knows, he is not very good looking, but I thought he looked great in this mv! HAHAHA.

anyway the point of posting this is because this



makes me smile so so so much.
='D
HAHAHA.

enjoy!

Today I went on a real photoshoot,
think changing in cars with curtains, running about from location A to B, C and D, a photographer whose time is probably worth a hundred times more $$$ than mine, huge mood boards, water tank and fake rain, loads of curious stares, and aching muscles.

I can only post ambiguous photo of grass, until the campaign is launched officially. But I think it will look awesome :) I was just in charge of shooting behind the scenes with my tiny Ricoh, but thank God for this chance, it is an eye opener. It means missing service tomorrow which makes me sad. I haven't seen my cg here for a week ):

Creamo is really sweet though, I came home to this:



It's almost like family members having to communicate using notes due to clashing working hours, I hope it won't happen to me next time.
Thank you girl, it is apt.

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
-Isaiah 40:29"

I have also finally concluded,
this is a line of work that you simply cannot be driven by monetary returns or even fame,
that drive or motivation needs to come from a passion that has rooted itself in you somewhere, if not sustaining is such a painful thing. I really don't see my passion being all so aflame like theirs.

And I also finally know why,
"IT'S A WRAP!"
sounds so very sweet.

Good night, I need to wake at six,
the same time as the sun here wakes, it's one hour more hardworking that SG's.