formulae: hop + e

Holidays in Hong Kong > Day 2 / Thursday, December 14, 2006

Tuesday
Today I woke up rather late at 10:30, when we were meant to leave the house -.-" and they came early so we ended up being half an hour late. We went to the new building in Mong Kok, the Lancaster Tower, for breakfast, but everything was too expensive, so Aunty Wendy took us to Yum-Cha. It was a bit of a disappointment because it wansn't the type with people pushing trolleys around, but there aren't too many of those anymore. There was a discount if we ordered before noon, so Aunty ordered all these random dishes. Chris couldn't eat much; he doesn't eat pork because of religious reasons, won't eat any seafood, and won't try anything he hasn't had before, which limited his meal to one dish, and tea. What's the point of going to foreign countries to live off MacDonald's and KFC?

Because we took so long at breakfast, we cut out a chunk of shopping time, not to mention afterwards when we were looking for the street market of Temple Street. We found the street but not the markets. Haha, when I found the right way to go, I dramatically pointed my hand in the direction - - - and whacked some old guy in the head while I was at it too X_X So embarrassing!!! I apologised and ran away. But we somehow ended up in a different suburb because all the suburbs are all close together, so instead of wandering aimlessly around, we took the MTR back, and went to the Ladies Street markets instead, which is basically the same anyway.

They were so excited to get started. Chris and Maiki bought so much stuff, while Olivia and I didn't buy so much. I felt a bit noobish because I hadn't done any haggling for a year (my honour is worth $7 TW ^^""") but as I said before (have I?) it felt good to be back. Olivia and Maiki's 'thing' is the Monokuro Boo pigs, and I pointed out almost every single merchandise, so much that they sort of got over it...oops :P Maiki was still wanting the huge seal toy he saw in Mannings yesterday but he couldn't find any today. He's the type where he'll want something, but not want to buy it, but the more he looks at it, the more he'll want to buy it, and probably end up buying it anyway. On the other hand, Chris is a very decisive shopper, he wants something, snap, he'll buy it immediately, if he doesn't want it, snap, move on. I'm the type that if I want something, I don't want to buy it, but if I'm not holding it, I'll keep on wanting it, and if I'm holding it, the less I want to buy it. I bought a huuuuuuuge zippo, which I'll somehow engrave and give to my dad as a present. Also Death Note stickers, and a big panda sticker for Eric.

After the long Ladies Street everyone was tired and hungry, and Chris and Maiki had a big handful of bags. I wanted to take them to a HK style cafe restaurant, but we ended up going to Pizza Hut, and it was completely awesome!!! All four of us ended up getting the spaghetti bolognaise meals. Liv and I kept on jinxing (saying the same things at the same time) each other while ordering, I think we freaked out the waiter XD Olivia finished all her soup first and got full quickly, so I ate half her spaghetti for her, and when we went downstairs, I was already getting hungry XD

Maiki was still looking for a DS so we looked at a lot of electronics shops. In one of the buildings we went into, I met Judy! She was working in a jewelry stores I was looking at. It was good to see her again, she was very different from a few years before, prettier now. One of the first things he said to me was that I was much fatter than before T_T Haha...oh well, too lazy to diet ^^ And then...somehow I was conned into buying a $300HKD ring (about $50AUS) X_X As Olivia says, it is now a symbol of how easily I can be guilt-tripped *sigh*. But at least I have the promise from her that I get a necklace from her for my birthday. Silver King jewelry is really kool V(^_^)V

Afterwards we went to another building wherethere were a lot of cute toys and hardcore clothing. I really missed the busy-ness of Hong Kong, where every turn is filled with all these pretty/shiny/distracting/interesting gadgets. Olivia found this really kool store called Dracula that sold lolita cosplay costumes *drool* if only if only... In the next building we went to, Maiki gave up on his DS because it was too expensive for him, and Chris bought a while load of games. I bought the whole set of Death Note manga!! AHHHHH!!!!!! So happy ^________________^ Olivia was so funny, every time Maiki looked at a girl, even in a passing glance, she would whack him. It was just the funniest thing to see when he said "hey, boots" then Olivia would swing a huge plastic bag filled with her shopping and whack him in the stomach. Chris had trouble with his Traveller's card, when he looked at his account balance it read $8 O_O But he did manage to withdraw about $8000HKD so... On the street someone rang me and told me I had dropped my passport!! I freaked out since my mum had somehow misplaced mine at home. Turns out it was Judy pulling a prank. More trouble at home, Dad was looking at my identification card to China and it had expired. Good thing we found out early rather than too late.

Reading back, I've been complaining a lot about Chris (this is copied from my hand-written diary, and I've made some changes from paper to computer). Funnily enough, Maiki and I get along really well, some aspects of us are really similar, and we can have a lot of fun together. Have you ever felt an urge to do something completely out of line, and sometimes downright dangerous for no reason at all? Not to show off or anything, just to feel what it would be like to do it? I'm not suicidal (no, really, I'm not), but sometimes when I'm leaning over the edge of a balcony, I look down and wonder if I would be able to jump down and land properly, or what would be my emotions and feelings of the air rushing pass me. Or when I'm sitting in the car with the window down as I'm looking at the ground speeding beneath me, I suddenly get this urge to jump out the window and see if I'm invincible. But I'm also realistic, I fear the consequences, it's like I want to test my mortality, to what extent do I exist?

But every time, I step away from the balcony, I close the window, I'm too burdened to die yet. Do you fear dying or death? What do you think lies after life? In Christianity, it's either heaven or hell of some sort; in Buddhism, the wheel of life turns into another life, and such in other religions. For Agnostics and Aetheists, what lies after life? Eternal sleep, haunting of places on earth, an alternate universe, becoming a spirit that watches over the people that still live, torture to pay for the sins you've committed?

The point of going through all that was the stranges urges I get. Things such as, suddenly go "meow" randomly, or want to hug, bite, kiss, pat, scratch, scream, etc. With Maiki, I've felt the urge to hug (to feel his jacket), bite (to see him jump), kiss (to see what the shape of my lip gloss would be like on his cheek). The brackets are the excuses for these urges, because there are no reasons for these unreasonable wants. I feel no romantic feeling towards him, I just want to feel. (If Olivia ever reads this I'll probably have my face scratched out X_X)

Probably for the same reason for this love/hate relationship I have with so many people, one of them Chris. I hate closed minds, and cannot tolerate stupidity in others, that is why I'm always pushing for perfection. In a way, the harsher I am on something, it means the more I like it, because if I didn't care about it, I wouldn't care about what it was like. To describe Chris in seven words would be: lots of heart and not much thought. I am told I am logical, practical and realistic to the point of cold-hearted, and he is pretty much the opposite, "Do what your heart tells you". He is very passionate, and sometimes I can share that, and sometimes I can't, and my need to be alone confuses and frustrates him and his need for constant reassurance and demonstration of our 'love'.

We're still childrean, I don't know what he's thinking, but I don't know what I'm living for yet, or what I want from this relationship (or any) yet. If i already know all this, wouldn't everything be so boring?I can take as much time as I want of my personal journey to wherever, but if affects my time spent with him, but it's so hard not to be selfish, it's human nature. As much as I cannot tolerate selfishness in others, I'm aware of my own selfishness. But he seems to bring it all out of me, and in some way, it's because I love him that I let him see this side of me.

I say he's better with someone else, but then again I don't think I'm ready to let him go yet. I act a little differently around him, and I think he doesn't like the more boyish and independent side of me. As a couple, we're both giving, but we don't like to take. I really hate it when he puts me in front of everything else, because it's like he's creating his life around me, and I have to compensate for everything he'll be missing out on, and that I have to do the same for him. I can do what I want, when I want, with who I want, that's why I think he should act the same. He's a little offended when he threatens to do things with/look at other girls that he knows Maiki would earn a smack from Olivia, but I just shrug and say "sure, do whatever, I don't care". It's not that I completely don't care, but it doesn't affect us?

~K~

Hopped! 4:24 AM

Holidays in Hong Kong > Day 1 / Sunday, December 10, 2006

Monday
I woke up to the annoying polyphonic of YMCA, closed it and then went back to sleep z_Z. Olivia had to go to Wan Chai today to get her HKID card done, so we had to wake up early. It feels good to be back in Hong Kong, and to move slowly at my own pace, watching all those busy Hongkies rush past me. Everything works faster in Hong Kong; trains go faster, even escalators go faster. After dropping Olivia off at the Immigration Tower, I went to Lok Fu to wait for the two boys. At the station I found a manga store with all of Death Note and the rest of Hunter X Hunter @_@

Because Olivia wasn't with us, we went to smaller shopping centres first, Tai Koo. Chris wanted to get his phone first thing but I didn't want to take them to the street markets yet. During the walk around Tai Koo, I started getting a really bad stomachache, until I gave up and went home to take medicine, to find we had a box of Panadol but no Panadol inside, so I just sat and watched television. Sitting in a ball really does help. My dad came home to get something and got me some medicine, also showing me there was Panadol in the medicine cupboard, I was just blind ^^". The three of us spent the next few hours playing Nintendo DS and Neopets. Maiki is a maths freak (Albie, he beat your times on maths o.o) But I beat him on High and Low ^__^.

After an intense nagging session I agreed to take them to Mong Kok tomorrow, and we would go to the electronics street right now. On the MTR the three of us played Paper, Scissor, Rock and thumbwars all the way to Mong Kok - yes we were really bored. We picked up Olivia along the way, she had been shopping ahead of time at Mong Kok with her parents and they had bought a whole load of stuff.

At Aplieu Street, Chris immediately began his search for the cheapest price on his phone, and soon I was getting extremely bored. Chris bought his phone at 8:30, when we should have nearly finished dinner, and we couldn't find a DS for Maiki. We went to Festival Walk for dinner (KFC). They found a gaming shop that sold DSs, and said they would go back and get it after eating, but it was closed by the time they got back. Aunty Wendy took them back home and Olivia and I took the MTR home. On the way, we went high for no reason and started making up stupid games and talking/laughing really loudly. The people around us seemed embarrassed but we were having too much fun to care. At first we were playing Paper, Scissor, Rock, and then we played this game where one person had to slap the back of the other persons hand, and the other person had to try not get hit, a reflex game. Then we upgraded the game to waving our hands madly around... AND it was 11:15 by the time we got home, good thing my dad doesn't worry as much as my mum.

~K~

Hopped! 1:09 PM

Holidays in Hong Kong / Saturday, December 09, 2006

Holidays had just started and already I'm off to Hong Kong with Chris, Olivia and Maiki. It's meant to be a relaxing holiday but these few days have been so hectic from all the shopping, I'm so tired...

Saturday 02/12/2006
Chris gave me my Christmas/birthday/New Years present, a watch. It's a very nice watch, a very pretty one, but personally, truthfully, I don't really like it. (Just really wanted to say it somewhere, at least I can be truthful somewhere.) Although it's a digital watch, it's hard to read because the numbers are made of dots, and the buttons are hard to use. He got the word 'aishiteru' engraved on the top which is really sweet, but apart from for matching clothes, I seriously wouldn't want to wear it.

This really makes me wonder if he knows me well enough to choose something I don't like. Maybe it's because I act differently around him, but this doesn't really boost my confidence factor -.- Now I wonder what he was actually feeling when I gave him my birthday present to him. Is this all our relationship is based on? Good intentions?

It's made out of leather, and it's frickin huge it gets in the way and sticks to my skin uncomfortably when it's hot. Not to mention it's white, and knowing me, it will get dirty so easily. At first he wouldn't give it to me until the last day of his stay in Hong Kong, so I kept on guessing. I got Liv to guess too, but after a while she gave up and called him, but promised him she wouldn't tell me. After a day or so I gave up guessing. All heart and no thought. It's a very nice watch, but not a watch for me. All I really wanted as a present from him was a soft toy :(

Sunday 03/12/2006
Aftera threat from my mum that if I didn't clean my room before the holidays she would so it for me (in other words chuck everything on the floor in the bin), so I finally cleaned (most of) my room since probably the beginning of the year. The last night in my room for the year was spoilt by a mosquito biting me on the arm in the night, so I moved downstairs to sleep. Mum insisted on taking my phone sim to the random friend staying in our house, so I didn't have an alarm clock, and instead of waking at 6:30, I woke at 7:30 when I was actually meant to leave the house. For some reason, my sister and I always argue with our mum on the morning any of us are due for a plane flight, and this morning was no exception. And I ended up getting my whole phone taken away and was late to the airport. Ironically, the two people who thought would have the most problems had the least, and the two people who thought would have the least problems had the most.

Maiki arrived first because his mum thought it would take them an hour and a half to reach the airport, when in actual fact it was only twenty minutes, so he got there about an hour early. Chris arrived next, then me, then Olivia. She was going to be on time, but on the highway, she realised she had forgotten her phone, so her brother had to go back home, grab her phone and back to the airport. We lined up and checked in. I went on a shopping spree last year so I didn't want to buy too much this year; my luggage was 15kg, Chris' was 9kg, Liv's was 8kg and Maiki's was 7kg (geez did they just have an empty suitcase?!) Haha when we had to scan our luggage through, Maiki and I were told to take off our belts O_O because it was metal while going through the metal-scanner. Everyone was pretty excited but I wasn't that enthused, particularly because of my late night.

Because we had checked in fairly late we didn't get all our seats together. Liv, Maiki and Chris had consecutive seats and I was two rows behind them, so Chris swapped the seat with the person next to me. I slept for the first 20 minutes, sprawled out on the table (like in English classes), ate, watched some movies, played some games, played some more games, slept a bit more, watched Love at First Note, ate, watched Pirates of the Caribean 2, missing the last minute of the movie, and that was the whole plane trip. Just as the plane was landing, a little boy near me threw up, poor kid, he was nearly there.

We had an hour and a half in Taipei airport to waste, so we wandered around the few shops there since there weren't enough time to go out of the airport. Found some funny magnets and that was about it. Waited a bit in the transfer lounge and onto the next plane already! Again, I got a seat away from the other three, but it was a good thing it was me. The flight was only an hour and a half long so I didn't want Chris to move, even though I had two empty seats next to me. To me, it felt really good sitting by myself. Maybe it's the brief sense of freedom and independence, because in Australia I had all these people (mainly mum mother and sister) nagging at me, and in Hong Kong I would have to baby-sit three people all older than me. School ending was really quite relieving. Upon getting my tests back (I didn't do too badly this term) I looked at the things I wrote, and I know if i was made to resit the exam for one reason or another, I would not have been able to make a serious effort, I was just so relaxed for the end of grade 11.

Haha...he came after all. Just when I was relaxing his head popped up beside me. Sometimes I feel so bad that I'm his girlfriend because I can be so moody. One moment I'm all tackle-hug and one moment later I'm like DON'T TOUCH ME!!! I can say it's my OCD, but I don't know. My moods change really quickly for no apparent reason, and it sort of freaks him out. Hell it freaks me out too. Like I'll be laughing and then suddenly frown and bite him really hard. I know he's very tolerant and patient to my mood swings and whimsical wants, but when he wnts something and I don't feel like it, I just don't respond or brush him off. It's like he can do better, have better?

Well anyway, back to the airport, my mum lost my Hong Kong Identification cardso I had to line up with everyone else with my passport. Met my dad for the first time in a year. To me, he had changed a lot. Everyone around me constantly changes, but I could always count on that when I go back to Hong Kong, my dad and my house would stay generally the same. My house is the same, but my dad isn't. Probably the years taking it's toll on him. Funny, my dad is an alcoholic, my mum a chain smoker, my sister...is just annoying, and they wonder how I turned out to be such a fucked-up kid. Another lesson to verify that "nothing lasts forever". At least his personality is more or less the same.

He drove Chris and Maiki up to my relative's place, dropped them off, and then we went home. Watched some television and then went to sleep, end of day one.

~K~

Hopped! 2:14 AM