day 2 in exciting HK!

But it wasn't really an exciting day though. I fell sick on day 1; got a sorethroat and a slight fever, so that sucks great time. The chinese university of hk is built on a hill, or maybe its a mountain; the slopes are extremely steep, and if you think NTU or NUS is bad, try imagining NUS on Bukit Timah Hill. Well, no. It is worse than even that. Try imagining NUS on Mount Everest, and you will begin to see the picture.

Bendict took me around the university for sightseeing in the morning, and I almost died from exhaustion from all the ups and downs, or maybe it is because I am sick. But I sure know that I will be having much bigger calves muscles by the time I'm back home in Singapore.

Unfortunately they didn't have any philosophers there who specialize in the areas I am in, like Metaphysics or Philosophy of Mind. There are a lot of chinese philosophers though (duh!).

After breakfast at one of the cafeteria in the uni, where the food is only so-so, and where they have an unhealthy obsession with cabbage (which I can't for my life see how anyone could actually like eating), Bendict took me to the "chinatown" of HK--MongKok. We walked from MongKok to Victoria Harbor, just soaking in the sights along the way without actually shopping, or even window shopping. (If you want photos, go to my facebook. ) Since I was running a fever, and the sun is so damn hot, I didn't really enjoy the walk. The Victoria River is big though; Singapore river looks like a joke compared to it. But I suppose the River will look like a joke comparing to some other bigger rivers as well.

Then I crashed Bendict's modules, where Loy's teacher is teaching. It is on Ethics, really ethics and not metaethics, so that's really new to me. They were talking about the seven sins like anger, jealousy etc. I didn't even know people teach that in Philosophy. hahaa.

After that it was dinner at the same cafeteria, where I had the "Four Treasure Rice", which is just a fancy name for chicken rice with roast meat and salted egg. They have it in Bishan too, but of course the items are really different. The salted egg is nice though, and for the first time in my entire life, I saw why people actually eat salted egg. Those in singapore just can't make the mark. The chicken tasted very different from singapore's steamed chicken too--much more tastier and tender.

After that, we adjourned back to the hostel, cancelling the plans to go Causeway Bay cos I was feeling a bit sick and tired. Played games and went online to chat for the rest of the night. zzzz

Day 1 in Hong Kong

Eh nothing much. I just took a jetstar flight from Singapore to HK at 3.40pm, arrived at HK at around 7 plus, and it was already completely dark there, depriving me of the bird’s eye view of the island.

Oooohh actually there is something. Someone accused me of stealing his ipod when we landed at HK airport. That guy was sitting like one seat away from me in the plane, and there’s no one sitting between us. He wasn’t trying to be friendly at all; when i had to squeeze pass him go use the toilet, I apologized to him but he didn’t even acknowledge it.

Then when we landed, and after collecting my baggage, he came up to me and asked me if I had seen his ipod. I thought he was just asking me if I had seen him leaving it somewhere, so I said no. I suggested that he go back to the plane and check, but he said he just did. So I just made sympathetic noises and said that was unfortunate.

I thought that was it, but he still didn’t go, and instead just keep telling me how important his ipod is to him, for the information he stored on it etc. Then he apologised, saying he wasn’t suspecting me. Then he said, “Well, no. I AM suspecting you.” Now what can one say to that? So I just said I understand, but I didn’t take his ipod.

Yet he went on, and keep asking, “You really didn’t have it?” I supposed I was a little pissed off, so I just started walking away while saying, “No I don’t.” I could have offered to let him check my bag I guess, but nah… Why should I? I don’t even see how at any point of time I was physically close enough for me to actually take his ipod without him noticing.

Bendict was there at the airport to pick me up. He’s my extremely accomodating host for the trip, and even has a Octopus card ready for me to use when I got there! We had dinner at one of the cafeteria in a shopping center, which I dunno the name of. I ate some fried rice with chicken strips and unlike singaporean fried rice, where you are really eating the rice, HK fried rice is so choke-full of other ingredients, that the rice is more like a side dish. Expensive though, cos its the normal fare but already costing me 6SGD. Pity I didn’t think to take any pictures of it at that time.

Then I followed Bendict to his hostel in Chinese University of Hong Kong. It was pretty late after dinner, and I was tired after the 3hrs flight, where I had absolutely nothing to do since I didn’t bring my laptop battery, and didn’t bring any philosophy books with me to read, so I went to sleep quite early. Note to self: next time, bring something.

Clouds

Clouds
they are pretty little things,
like wisps of icings on a clear blue cake.
scattered around,
seemingly randomly
In that odd complex mathematical shapes
reminiscent of the Mandelbrot set.
Clouds are nice to watch,
especially from atop.
But I wish we didn't have to fly through them;
they make the plane rock
alarmingly so.

Smells

Ah, the sweetness of life,

a pungent whiff;

the heady aroma.

Another day at home.

Love

An error theory about love.

Lifestyle

Now, what have I been up to lately? Well, nothing much actually. Or if you look at it another way, quite a lot in fact.

For starters, I'm still going for karate regularly. Twice a week roughly.

Then I'm still going for gym regularly too. Also twice a week.

Got classes twice a week at campus. Officially, I don't need to attend any more classes, but these two classes are actually quite relevant to my research, so I'm sitting in.

Started my driving lessons too, finally. The driving test is on 29th Dec. I've been going for driving lessons twice a week too!

Going for physiotherapy for my back problem every fortnight.

Trying to read Parfit's Reasons and Persons, and Kripke's Naming and Necessity at the same time. The latter is rather short, though I'm still taking some time to finish it. The former is for one of the classes I mentioned above, and it seems to have good potential for finding a thesis topic for myself. I might want to re-read Dainton's article as well.

With all these going on, I'm surprised I even have time to game. But I do. In fact, I game 2-5hrs each day. I really don't have much time for anything else though. Life is pretty much wake up, do any of the above mentioned things for the whole day, then sleep. I've always wondered, people are known to comment on other people's lives as being "no life." I wonder now if my lifestyle is one that is extremely happening, or extremely "no life"?