Incoherent recollection of my visit in Auckland

Auckland was so familiar. More familiar than I thought it would be. There were times when I got up, I had the thought that I could pretend it was the same date in June, but in 2005, and just live on like that because I left Auckland around the same date last year.

It was nice meeting my friends in NZ. Although some of the friends don't want to talk about what they are doing. It seems like my friends in NZ think there's nothing much happening and are bored and depressed. Whereas friends in Asia are irritated and angry. OK, I'm being cynical. People are not so miserable in general... I think....

Also it's great to be with my family. Well, it's a family thing, so I don't go on to say much here.

It's a pity the weather was cold and it rainy. I couldn't really go out much to see the meadows and beaches. Except it was sunny last Saturday and I had a short view from Takapuna beach.

Too bad I was staying for such a short time that I didn't manage to meet everybody. There were still some people I'd like to meet. People I met at various stages... CompSci, Engineering, high school...

Myself is partially responsible for the short length of the stay. I might be able to get a few extra days when I applied my leave with my boss if I was firmer on my ground. However, even if I did. That would still be 3 or 4 days only. Our annual leaves are simply short here...

Before I flew to NZ, my NZ friends asked me what I was going to do. I was too busy deal with my work and life in Taiwan and didn't have much time to think about that. In the end, I came up with this list:
Eat, Chat, Hug.

Eat... I ate Korean, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish(kebab). I missed Malaysian and Indian. Ate mum's food and dessert. I drank L&P on the last night. Some western food and roast meat would be nice.

Chat... with many friends. Got to hear the interesting things they do.
My software master is working at a company that does “auto-sorting”, which is funny because my company's work of “searching” is occasionally related to auto-sorting. However, his company doesn't sort data. It sorts fruits! :P
My master also gave a lot of intriguing thoughts on software development and career development. I bow to you, master.

The gathering with 2 CompSci classmates was just like the gathering we had 1 year ago before I left. They suspected that I've never left NZ because I wore the same clothes and had the same hairstyle like what I did in NZ. Hehehe. Well, they looked the same too.
As for their studies... one keeps busy studying European languages for her new degree. The other keeps playing computer games as usual. :P Oh, congratulations for becoming a PR :)

A friend has started taking computer network courses that interest him. Hm, an interesting and original choice. Wish you the best. Just don't come to Taipei and become a software engineer. As I said, that's unoriginal :P

Another former classmate just quit his job as a system engineer just before I met him. He's likely to do a software development work next. Because it's similar to my situation, it will be interesting for me to see his next career move. Congratulations for quitting!

Yes, I congratulate people for both starting and ending something. Well, most of the time.
Also, people who keep doing what they want to do, should be congratulated too.

Like Tessie. Keep doing what you do. Congratulations for having done what you've done.

Those who are “doing nothing”... Those who are just starting. Take a some time to think about what to do next. Don't rush and jump into whatever the first thing comes to your face. And take some time to do things you've put off when you were too busy working or studying... ... ... No, I don't mean playing PSP non-stop !
Those who have “done nothing” for quite a while... You've had plenty of time to think through things. Still no clear answer, huh? Maybe it's time to try out things and see how you feel about them. Maybe they would inspire some new thoughts.
I feel like putting this quote here: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

(insider jokes follow...)
A friend who got into his master programme on a “first come first serve” basis is expected to be “first in first out”. Congratulations.

A friend who didn't come to meet me... was possibly “waiting for the rainy season to come”, and was unaware that it had been raining a lot in Auckland already.

Hugs... Well, this part, I didn't do well. I wasn't proactive enough to ask everybody to hug. I guess I was still shy and forgetful at times. I forgot to bring my camera on many occasions too.
A highlight though, was that I got a hug from a cute girl. That made my day. ^^
By the way, I didn't hug Hari in Auckland. I missed it again when he's in Taipei... doh~

I didn't play any board game with friends this time. Which I thought I would. Oh well, people were working or studying. It was the exam period.
I just remember another thing I forgot to do while I was in NZ. I didn't watch SpongeBob!

OK, end of writing now... because it has already taken me too long to write. I still have a lot of feelings about this visit, but I'll let them float on my mind for now instead of putting down even more words.

Hugs

I watched the TV programme "文茜的世界周報" a week ago or two. There were some interesting and surprising things. E.g. The economic growth of Singapore is 9%, and they have some interesting developments that will attract tourists.

But a small part of the programme got more of my attention. It's about two Chinese brothers travelling around the world, hugging passer-bys, and organize group hug events.
The news can be found here:
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/060429/43/330cc.html
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/060502/4/339r0.html

It reminds that I haven't been hugged for a long time!
A hugging enthusiast once told me that a person needs 7 hugs every day.
I'm very deprived nowadays. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I've become dumber.

The only hug I've got recently was the BIIIIIIIG HUG online message from the hugging enthusiast. That's far from the real thing, though. sigh.

人生像一本書

在朋友的 blog 上看到了這一段話:
------
德國作家，尚保羅說過很耐人尋味的話：
「人生猶如一本書。愚蠢的人將它草草翻過，聰明的人卻會將它細細閱讀。為什麼呢？因為聰明的人知道，只能讀一次。」
------

我唸了一次，心中有些感觸，卻無法明白說出來，或許這句話的確耐人尋味。
我多唸了幾次，終於，心中的感觸清楚地浮現，那就是：

如果只能讀一遍的話，那就不像一本書啦！難道這個作家想不到更好的比喻了嗎？

End Of Summer Holiday

My mum and sister flew back to New Zealand on Wednesday. It marked the end of the "summer holiday" for me.

So many overseas people have come during the past three months during their summer holiday. It affected me. It was such a busy time. Many people looked for me when I was the busiest, like the week before Chinese New Year. Some people just came and went that I only met them once or even none. When I do meet with them, it's a time for me to know what they're doing and reflect on what I'm doing.

Have got some thoughts. Have realized some things I'm not content with. Now I should seek improvement.


OK, I'm just trying to remember who came and went during the past few months... so the following stuffs should be boring...

It started with Hari and Jack. They came in... late November? Jack had two improptu visits to Taipei and then he escaped to the summer school. How come people who don't like to study keep going back to school?

Hari arranged a dinner with high school classmate Michael Ng. Nice.
Hari arranged a dinner with high school classmate and his uni classmate Brian. Nice. Got to hear how different it is to work in a financial area in a traditional industry.

Get phone calls and missed calls from Hari during my work hours. Had quite a few long phone calls.

Sister came. Starts shopping.

Mary arrived in Taiwan and shoves the task of organizing the New Years Eve to me. She just wants to eat 炸榴槤.

I made many phone calls to people and each want to meet at a different time and place. Some even changed the plan an an hour before meeting time.

Then later many others came before the New Year. I met 4 former computer science classmates on New Year's eve and the day before, including Rae from USA. But why was she so quiet?
Also met other NZ friends Mary and Peter, and the busy high-tech Claire on the New Year's eve. Weird New Year's Eve with friends who rarely meet, in a place that was so crowded.

My phone bill for December skyrocketed.

Sister went on a trip around Taiwan with overseas Taiwanese. Interestingly she went on the one with people mainly from South America. Turned out to be very interesting for her.

Met Ami and Jest on the day Mary left. Yes Mary got 炸榴槤 during her visit.
Those people with jobs stayed for shorter period, Mary, Andy, my mum.

The chance encounter with Jenny when I was going to go to the office on Saturday! What a surprise. I thought she'd be in Sydney or Kaohsiung, and yet I met her near my workplace. That day I went out with Jenny and Anderson and didn't go to work.
Doctor students... They study, and they do want to stay in school.

Sister finished her trip. Resumed shopping. Well, actually she didn't stop outside Taipei.

During this period, I also bumped into former Engineering classmates Brian and Paul on the street. And bumped it Frank and Computer Science classmate Paul at the airport on the day my mum arrived at Taipei.
Brian had worked in Taipei for 2 years and had just returned to New Zealand to study the computer science diploma which I studied after I finished engineering. Reverse order of what I did, interesting.

Spent quite some time with my family when my mum was here. Went to the science museum, the garden in Shilin, Danshui, and a few crowded places here and there, rented quite a few DVD to watch.

The people I missed when they were in Taiwan... Joanna, Andy, and Joseph!
Joanna stuck with Syndey and Kaohsiung. She was in Taiwan for months and I hadn't met her.
Andy rarely comes to Taiwan. He's working now. He went south with Felix to meet Joanna and Ted in Kaohsiung, but didn't meet with me in Taipei @@
Joseph, oh well, Beijing and Miaoli. The brighter side is we're closer in distance. I might see you sometime. Your 5-1 holiday maybe?

Met with Jenny and Anderson again in Shilin before they flew back to Sydney the next day.
Hari had some desperate times and some inspiring times. Met him. He flew out.
My sister and mum flew out, wtih lots of luggage.

End of summer holiday.