It's not about work, it's about life

There's something about HK, ever since I've been back my career had been a much bigger subject in my life. Maybe it's what the most exciting city of the east does to you, or maybe it how being freelance changes you.
 A week ago, i was asked if I would like to do a course to be PT instructor and that got me thinking about ditching design again. I won't go into the details again, the short story is. I ended up asking myself and my friends on facebook should I:

A) Get real and live a proper life, ditch this unstable, long hours freelance design and get a proper 9 to 5

B) Stick to freelance, be my own boss and try my hands in the world of sports and fitness by being a fitness instructor

A very surprising number of people suggested B) and after much thought I too had decided to give this Personal Trainer business a go. My arguement for doing so was much like the reason why I first thought about coming back to HK - I'm young and i don't want to have regrets, if worst comes to worst, i would have wasted the course fee for something I enjoy.  To be honest, i never really thought of myself as normal, i know to some degree no one think they are normal and we certainly unique in our own ways, but I rather like the fact that I'm not sticking to the rules society is setting me AND not to mention the fact I've always been an awkward child and a bit of a freak (which I'm actually kinda proud of)

So why all the fuss about what to do? well, I knew very early on I wanted to be sucessful, now that could be the chinese family in a foreign country thing. I've always knew I need to do something with mylife, so in a way work is not purely about what to get food on the table. it's also about what i'll make out of myself. A side from being an awkward weirdo who likes a bit of pain (too much information?) I also have very little patientces and I hate the fact that i could be wasting time developing myself in one way or another by doing something that might be mean anything. Sound kinda silly knowing how much time and money i've spent on Martial Arts, Gymnastics and Parkour right? Maybe it's because keeping active is something I simply cannot live without. The days after training from the night before had always been the most productive days, my body would ache but not itching for me to move away from the computer and my mind would feel much sharper and fresh. I guess what i'm trying to say is, this is something I know I love and I'm willing to waste my much valued time and money for it. It might be a mistake but i'm still gonna walk this way without regreds.

Another thing that's been saddens me is how there's so many people i know with a lot of heart and soul yet they don't seem to get the opportunity they deserve. Life it's not really fair is it? There's so many people out there who work so damn hard to provide so little for their family yet. Society is so fucked up. there's people out there who can earn 10 times more then someone who work twice the hours. It's so sad work seem to rule our lives. Anyway I'm getting tired and I think i'm rambling...

Work work work

Following my last post about work going well, my girlfriend today asked me "Aren't you going a bit over the top with this work thing"?  It turns out I work around 60 - 70 hours a week, there's at least 2 days a week where I work from when I wake up to when i go to sleep... is that a bit too much?

I'm working this hard because I really want to be able to buy an apartment by end of this year. I've wanted to have my own proper place for a few years now, I've moved 9 times in the last 8 years and I hope the next place I live in would be nice place. I'm working so many hours must mean I'm saving up pretty nicely right? wrong!!! I don't know how the fuck I do it, but through out March, I earned less then if I work at McDonald? Since I left UK, I'm now working 60% more hours yet earning 25% what i used to!

Pretty clever I managed to get into this mess right? That's the thing about freelancing, right now I have several projects on the go and until they are finished I won't get paid, most of the time the money ain't too bad but I seem to be hitting a new low at the moment. Hence working harder to finish them off. I admit I can be a bit of a workaholic? that's why whenever I'm home i can't seem to switch off and I just work and work but recently it's getting a bit too much for me. I need to get out of the house a bit more.  it's getting pretty depressing when I look forward to going to th doctors just so i can leave the house. I am so bored right now, someone get me a drink!

I was looking for some old photos to use for a project and as i went through my computer I came across so many fond memories of how life used to be like when I had spare time,  Life in London seem such a long time ago. I wonder if I would get that lifestyle back again in HK.

Work going well... too well?

I didn't know if this could be possible, but work seem to be going to well lately, there's more jobs to take on then I have time. Already pushing something like 64 hours work week (it's not as bad as it sounds, I got used to it, never been one for TV or computer games anyway)

The problem is, i never intended to do freelance for this long, I always thought I'd do this for a few months then get me self a proper job, so I could learn more, have some colleagues and generally live life in HK. it's starting to look as if there's no need to get a proper job, I've fairly sure I can support myself with my current workload, most likely better pay then a full time job. I also enjoy the flexible work hours, sleeping til 10 everyday can't be a bad thing. The arguement is that I don't necessarily feel I know enough about the field yet. My ultimate goal is to have my own creative agency and with so much work it's looking as if I'm going toward the right direction, but never really worked inside a creative agency there's only so much i know about the working of one... seems like to dive into it head first is a bit risky, but some of these projects are just too good to pass on. can't say no to the guys I train Parkour with, nor can I say no to a DJ friend/mentor to design a site for a good cause and the latest one is to design for a tattoo artist I admire for a long time.  You see my predicament? there's also 3 other website I had already said Yes to taking on too.....

What should I do? keep on freelancing til I run out of work? or learn to say NO to clients no matter how interesting the project could be?????

I can see what you're doing!

For the first time since I was 9 years old, I could actually see what the hair dresser was doing when I'm getting a haircut - and I still didn't like it...haha

Yes I could have worn contact lens before, but I always had fear of hair going into my eye while getting the haircut and I just didn't fancy that idea. so I would just tell the hair dresser roughly what I'm after and trust his/her skills

Ever since I've been back in HK I might have had around half a dozen hair cuts and each time by a different hair dresser. Now I'm a creature of habit, i like my routines to a certain level and with chores like getting a hair cut I like to stick to the one I get on remotely with that doesn't turn my hair out to be a complete disaster, unfortunately I'm still struggling to find one I like. Not a big deal I'll just keep on looking, but it's also about settling into HK

I can't say I actually enjoy the experience of going to the hair dresser, you sit there like a lemon for 30mins plus waiting for someone to go around your head trying to make me look like everyone else on the street. First of all, sitting there for 30mins is a challenge enough, I had actually fallen asleep while getting a haircut before and the hair dresser didn't like my head nodding away... then there's the whole 'Am I suppose to be chatting to you' I can never work out what the right thing to do is, should i strike up a conversion with them or should i just leave them alone in peace to do their thing? I also stuggle with washing the hair out of my head for days. Even after they rinse your hair out and I go back to shower again, i just can't seem to get rid off all those little pieces of hair and too often wake up the next day with tons of hair on my pillow.

By the way, bored of having hair that pokes into my eye and looking like everyone else, i had taken a step back in time and gone back to the spiky hair thing, i know it's old school and far from trendy but at least I can manage the heat better this way, so what i look stupid, i do that myself anyway

New Year Resolution

I'm not the type that normally make new year resolutions, the only one i ever tried to do was two years ago trying to not swear so much, but i kept on forgetting about it and soon forgot all together in matter of weeks.

But I'm really hoping I can stick to it this year, one of the reason behind this is I ate far too much during my UK trip and my skin reacting badly. I'm gonna try remove the following from my diet. Most of these are food that's considered "poisoning" in Chinese medicine.

• No Coffee / milk tea
  
• No Chocolates
• No Processed Meat
• No Alcohol
• No Shell Fish
• No Fizzy Drinks
• No Beef / Duck

My aim is to be completely rid of these things for 3 months and allow myself small doses of them after that. I actually started on 28th Dec 09 so it's been just over week, so far I'm coping ok but have been tempted by beef and chocolate on a daily bases. I am suppose to cut out eggs as well, but if i did there's not gonna be much left so I'm ignoring that :)

UK again and self reflection

A big part of me felt having only left UK 6 months ago to come back so soon was actually too early. I didn't feel like I miss everyone enough to come back yet, but since it was I just quit my job, being my Dad's Birthday plus my mate's wedding I had to come back.

It wasn't until I got back to UK did I realised exactly how much i missed  everyone and everything. The smile on my parents face, the banter I would have with my mates, the sound of the tube, the silly things I would do or say when I'm with certain friends. It was GREAT to see so many friends and family even if it was only a short time and hell of a rush. My mum hugged me for the first time since god knows when :) and the sensation of being able to walk around all these streets I once wandered alone with Pauline was rather pleasant. I even managed to pretend I know where I'm going most of the time. I tried my hardest to look at London as a tourist but after living there for so many years it was almost impossible.

When I was my friends it was almost like everything clicked and it felt great to be around them, I knew what I was giving up when I left UK but that joy of seeing them again is ALMOST worth leaving for so many months for.

During the days leading up to my trip back to the UK, I noticed I was looking at myself to see what had changed about me. As I know people would be asking me "How you been?" and "What are you doing these days?" I really wanted to be able to tell everyone I had already done this and achieved that, found a great job and now have a steady life in HK with tons of friends, but since I was still working for the same old company as a freelancer working from home, my life was rather limited to sitting at home and working through the day. The only thing that had changed was I now have a steady girlfriend Pauline who came with me to the "Fridge" that is UK and that I hadstarted doing parkour, it excites me and I'm dead proud of being a part of HKPA, I also know it'll excite some of my friends but to most of them I know would think "how old are you? why are you still jumping around and what's the point?" So in a way I really felt I had nothing to tell anyone apart from the fact that the weather for the first 4 months was rather unbearable, I really did not like that feeling. Deep inside I just wasn't willing to be the same person I was 6 months ago, maybe I was asking too much from myself, but i really wanted to proof to everyone that this had been a positive change for me that this is the right decision and it wasn't an as stupid move as some of them had thought.

Six months isn't a particularly long time compare to the various stages of my life - 5 years in high school, 3 years at Uni, 3 years in London...etc. Slightly disappointed how little everything had changed, never did I imagine I would have been freelancing for my old company for so long. I can't quit workout whether it's the job that stop me from doing more with myself, or if it's myself that couldn't let go of the security and stability of letting that job go... which ever it is, it doesn't matter now because that is finally over. Being at university was such a great experience the 3 years felt like it lasted only 1 year but this job felt like I've been doing it for 10 years!

Oh well at least now I have a plan for the next 6 months.  which goes a little something like this. Finish the 4 major projects I current have by mid of Feb and be working in a proper office at a design agency by end of Feb! Maybe when I finally have a full time job I would be able to meet my own expectation of life in HK and stop being so stressed :) not to forget the added bonus I would have proof of income and be able to get a credit card and even a mortgage!

No more

I've finally did it, after 4 years plus some months, I've finally quit my job! it's been a long process! waiting for this and that to happen! patience never been my best virtue so for me to last this long has been nothing short of a miracle! I stumbled across some old emails recently and it looks like I had planned to leave since working there for a year... maybe it was the security of it all that made it so hard to leave.

The idea of finally being rid of my time consuming is highly liberating. This video is highly worth watching for anyone wanting to work out of the box and remain creative instead of turning into just another drone The Power Of Taking Time Off by Stefan Sagmeister.  My original plan (which changed about 20 times so far) were to start look for work ASAP but after reading an article by Jason Cass which lead me to the video above, I think I'll take some time off before working full time again - December I'm going back to UK for 2 weeks visiting family and friends, after that I'm gonna work on my own portfolio website then through out jan There's at least 3 paid projects to keep me busy. Hopefully after all that i'll be as fresh as a daisy ready for the manic working world in HK :)

Here's to relaxing as a creative and unblocking my creativity - To FREEDOM

Loving it

It's been a while, i've been rather busy lately. Now the wearther is much more bearable I'm loving it!

I have a group of friends that i can train with now and really enjoy having a laugh with. My weekends are actually busy now. Even have a few BBQs lined up with some of mine and Pauline's friends :) Still haven't been to a beach in HK yet... have to do that soon, before the locals start finding it too cold.. wimps!

Even this working from home as a freelancer thing is working better because i can actually work comfortably and concetrate much better, still I'm still planning to chuck it in at the end of the month and hopefully have something new in 2010 after a 2 weeks trip to UK in Decemeber with Pauline, really looking forward to showing her what being REALLY cold means.

Can't believe time had gone so fast already! Been doing parkour for a few months and what a thrill it can be - there's been a few injuries here and there, bits of my palm ripped off and bruised knees but it's well worth it. It was strange to be helping out on the workshop for new members.  it's not working out as well for capoeira... not really feeling it to be honest and i might stop it for a while and concentrate on parkour....

Standing up and delivering punches

For once this has nothing to do with my love of of martial arts and apparent aggression which i still insist I'm not... 99% of the time. Im actually talking about stand up comedy

A few Saturdays ago i went to a stand up comedy class. Ive always knew the cleverest people are those that can make us happy and laugh. I loved the show, it was really good. At the end of the show, we were told about a class on stand up comedy, slightly intrigued i sat up a little, but thought "Nah that's not me i don't really wanna be in the spot light, sure like most i enjoyed the attention but on stage like that. No freaking way". But over the next few days that idea kept on creeping up in my mind.. Its only a class right? Its not like ill be on stage, just sit there and listen to the ins and outs of being funny. So i emailed the organiser and said i want in, in return i was given some homework, ten things i truely hate and ten faults my friends see in me. That pretty much meant i would have to speak up at some stage, a little nervous i got emailing and writing.

Fast forward a little and there i was sitting in class being asked if i want to give it a go. Knowing fully well i haven't wrote the best or most suitable stuff i forced myself to put my hand up. A few people went before me and i was thinking they're good, very good for beginners at least, am i gonna be their level with what i wrote... I've always been able to make my friends laugh, spotting perverted situations faster then most, how bad could i be? I found that out when i stood under those million watt bulbs feeling like i was standing on a tiny platform 10m above the ground, i read out what i had in mind from the shit loads of notes i've made and boy did i crash! I don't mean badly here and there either i meant from beginning to the end, not so much as a chuckle, the silence felt incredible painful, ironically one of the things i hate the most is noise! (Ring tones, people talking loud, construction sites 10m from my window) I knew i was doing badly about 90 seconds in... so I cut my loses and got off the stage with my ego the size of a penny.

We were warned there's nothing that would get us going for comedy but the real thing and getting on stage, I'm glad I got on that stage even though I sucked (Thank you for the class and opportunity Jami)... A very stubborn part of me is still thinking, no freaking way can i leave it like this... but the other 99.995% of me is thinking, don't you even think about doing that again. it was an interesting experience and I really would love to be better at this... maybe once I've settled in HK a bit more without working 13 hour days I would give this another go, at least now I know what a punch is. Meanwhile I'll keep on taking notes on what's going on around me and go to as many shows as I can despite the 2 hour journey to get there!

I'll post my "10 things I hate in life" & "10 faults my friends see in me" later when I get around to scanning it.

Anyone in HK should check out TakeOut Comedy they do shows both in Chinese and English!

Construction Site

Since I've moved back to HK working as a freelance designer, i've had the luxury of working my own hours, I can crawl out of bed whenever I like,even noon if i like.....but it all changed 2 weeks ago.

So what happened a fortnight ago? well the answer is power tools! the construction site that's less then 10 meters from my room window had started working on a lot of exterior work for that house. They start work around 8am most mornings, 5 days a week with only Sunday and Tuesdays off... The noise for a construction site as you can imagine can be rather loud but that i can deal with, if i blast my speaks on loud I can drowl them out.. but not when they started using power tools, digging parts of the wall and ground up! Just imagine it's 8am, you intending to sleep for at least 2 more hours! The dreadful sound of power tools suddenly fill your room to a shocking waking!


Fine, I admit it's just me not being more disciplined to be sleeping that late, so i try make peace with that working as a freelancer mean i work from home and working under these conditions are very difficult, every now and then the tremendous roar of a circular saw or deafening thunder of a power drill does wonders for ones concentration.

I am mighty annoyed about it all, but the truth is, I really am not mad at the workers. In fact I rather admire their hard work, I literally saw them add a tile at a time onto the wall, painstakingly remove all the old pipes using drills, hammers, chisels and brute strength. I personally already find the weather here unbearable while sitting of a 20" fan. How these 40 - 50 yr olds climb up the bamboo scaffolding like 10 year olds on a monkey frame for hours at a time, in blistering sun with temperature reaching 32C is beyond me!

I respect them so much for their professionalism and craftsmanship for their job. now i know they're only doing it as a job for the money, a case of if they stop, they stop getting paid, but it still require a shit lot of will power to motivate themselves not to just call it quits and live on benefits. I have to also admit i've been fascinated by how things are put together.

Saying that, i can only pray they finish their job SOON and that they do not move on to the next house... now that would really drive me crazy!

HKPA 飛躍道 Workshop

Steve, Louis you should be happy to hear, i finally had my first Parkour session, it's such a shame i never had a chance to train with you two, but my first experience was damn GOOOOD!

I ache all over today and man does it feel good! It's been more then a month since i last had a proper training session and the guys at Hong Kong Parkour Association does not mess about! I admit, my lack of training meant I'm not as strong as I was in London, but i didn't expect my legs to be shaking so badly from exhaustion at the end of the 2 hour session!

I've known about Parkour for quit a few years now and I have always been interested. I remember looking around a few years ago for a place to start Parkour but unfortunately that's when i fractured my right foot, taking me out of training for 9 months. Once i was fit enough to train i focused on TKD and gymnastics and didn't really have enough time and fully functioning limbs to try Parkour. Now I'm finally in HK, I'm so glad i can finally try this out for my self.

I've seen countless videos on Parkour over the years and I've certainly known about HKPA, I know what's it about and the kinda things they do but i never really looked into the believes behind it. Fung our main instructor on Saturday explained Parkour was more about improving oneself then to compete with others... to progress at your own rate and not get overly worked out on others progress, afterall we are all different with different strengths and weaknesses.

Another point they made was the sharing of knowledge, to help each other advance. When i left London, some of my good friends got me a really good book and it said:

Don't Covet your ideas
Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you

It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be by PAUL ARDEN

I was reading the book from a designer's perspective, so to see this being adapted in physical training was a nice surprise to me.... guess i have a lot to learn.

Can't wait for my next class! Need to get stronger!!!!

Yum

Anyone been to HK would know how good the food is here. There's so much to choose from and so convenient to just go out to grab a bite to eat. Within the last week, I've had Japanese, Italian, Chinese (old - Yum Cha and new - Cha Chan Ten style), stakehouse and Thai food! I have to admit, not all of them were brilliant, but the majority were very nice!



There's also all the lovely road side snack I used to have as a kiddie, Its hard to resist a 雞蛋仔 (wuffle like snack) when you can smell the gorgeous aroma!



Everyone reading this should know me well enough to know I tend to eat more or less non-stop throughout the day (and the sandwich i just had at 1am would re-enforce that), and since I live a good few miles from civilisation (I mark this by where I can get milk, bread and a flithy McD) It's just all too easy to eat out all the time, amazingly it's often much cheaper to eat out then to make your own food, which sounds pretty good until I start noticing my weight.... When i was in London I used to train up to 6 times a week, which is safe to say I burn a lot of calories justifying why i eat so much. Since I STILL don't have a bank account to join the gym with, I'm hardly exercising as much as before... with so much food, that makes a very bad combination. I've already noticed how weak and sluggish my body is :( The heat makes it hard to train much at home without the risk of drowning in my own sweat



Whenever I'm home, I do try to eat good, but eating good the way I did at UK is fairly difficult here. For a start it's hard to find the same food, I had to walk around 4 shops in 3 towns before I found a bag of cous cous! Then there's the slight problem of price "western" food are like 3 times the price here! little pot of rosemary - £3, red pepper £1.50 each! For the sake of my wallet and my jeans that might or might not be on a cargo ship right now, I really need to find how i can eat healthy with all the local food.

Jen: it took me 3 shops to find some tinned tomatoes at £1.2 a can for the chili I'm planning to try to make this weekend.

All suggestions on how i may healthy here are welcomed!