San San's diary (Nov, 2003)

Just click on any of the following underlined dates and you can get to know what's going on with me that day.

Nov 1, 2003 (Sat)

Hong Kong people

I remember I once read an article in which the writer said Hong Kong people generally had a sense of insecurity about their life, which was shown in their (sometimes blind) pursuit of something together. This week people in HK turned their attention from the much-criticized Hong Kong Harbour Fest, which originally aimed at promoting HK but turned out to evoke the public's anger by splashing out a great sum of hard-earned money of Hong Kong, to the China's first man in space, Yang Liwei. I was surprised at the people's reaction to his visit to HK as people like to be enthusiastic about something or someone together suddenly. Every period of time there must be something that attracts their attention.  It's said that all the news and TV programmes were about his visit and I could imagine how dull it could be watching the programmes about the same topic time and again...

Nov 3, 2003 (Mon)

Managing our projects, managing our life

Attended a two-hour course on 'project management' offered by the university's Research and Career Management this morning. It was about how to manage our research study. It was useful because not only the experienced teacher, who had worked in the industry for many years before working in his present job at the Career Services Centre, gave us an informative lecture, but also the group discussion group helped us to think about what our plan for study should be like.  Basically the plan for a research student, whatever the department/faculty he/she is from, is more or less the same - literature review (reading), planning, practical work (e.g. data collection), analysis, writing up and viva, and each stage is intertwined with each other and sometimes in parallel. The qualities of a good supervisor were also discussed and I found my group was describing my supervisor - helpful, approachable and giving constructive feedback.

I think our life is like a study or a research project; each stage of our life is like a project and we got to learn to manage it, to make it a successful one; and in different stages, we have different kinds of projects and we learn something different, meet different people, get different challenges, big or small, and learn to overcome difficulties that we may encounter in each 'project'.

Nov 5, 2003 (Wed)

Managing our projects, managing our life

Had a meeting with my supervisor this morning.  Still felt a bit anxious about my study, though I did have a more concrete idea of what I'm going to do next, because I know there'll be loads of work ahead of me to do, which is however also a motivation for me to keep studying.

Still got lost at the very beginning of the presentation by my classmate.  (sighing...) Am I a student in the Linguistics department?

Got to read the messages posted by Chris' fans about the recent rumour of Chris' feud with Hacken Lee. Really felt touched by what his fans did for him.  He's really a lucky guy to get loved by so many fans.  I think he knows that...

Nov 6, 2003 (Thur)

Time management

Got a busy morning today. Made some photocopies first at the department before heading for the supermarket for my weekly shopping. I spent less time in the supermarket these days indeed. Usually only for an hour. Perhaps because I think there's no point looking around without buying anything. Just picked up anything according to my shopping list. Then rushed back home as I wanted to go to the city centre for buying some other things. But there was only less than an hour left before I'd have my class on 'time management'. Should I stay at home and wait until 1p.m. or just go as planned? Things are not always going our way and when you have made your plan, you may not be able to get it carried out as you expect. Anyway, I went to the city centre in the end, thinking it could be a good exercise anyway, even if I just bought one thing only. And finally I did buy one thing only and walked as fast as I could back to the university. I asked myself if I should give up the class and do my shopping in the city centre instead but in the end, I still thought I could make it to the class...

What an irony that I was 10 minutes late for the 1.5-hour course on 'time management'. Maybe I got poor time management in the eyes of the teacher. But I did think I got poor time management at the end of the class. At that moment, I realized that doing a PhD study is not just about getting an academic qualification. In fact I'll have learnt much more than I first thought, if I can make it. Everything is about management - manage your time, manage your life, manage your money, manage your pressure, manage your ups and downs... I wish I could have managed my life as a PhD student earlier!  And I can fully understand why it'd be more difficult to do a PhD study in HK - every sort of distractions and 'time stealers' (e.g. email, internet, tv, friends' meetings) would make it difficult for us to concentrate on our study.

Suddenly I felt interested in management. The advanced technology, the widespread use of the Internet, the increased mobility between people all make the need for management greater.  

And I also got to know what a professional was like in the UK - all those three teachers of the courses that I took in the last two weeks were professional, experienced, smart, though with different styles.

Nov 7, 2003 (Fri)

Poor time management

Very unproductive.  Tried not to give myself an access the Internet (no email or message checking).  It worked and I think it may be a good idea to prohibit myself from accessing the Internet so often, which did distract me. 

I tried to do what was said in the course ‘Time Management’ by listing all the things that I wanted to do.  I hope I can manage my time better.  I don’t feel good about having done nothing but surfing the net all the time.   

I still had a feeling it was a Sunday when I woke up this morning.  Is it because for me once I do my shopping on Thursday the weekend begins?  Especially because I won’t go out until Monday.  So, maybe for me it doesn’t make much difference whether it’s Friday or Sunday.

Nov 8, 2003 (Sat)

Hi, mom & dad, 'long time no talk'!

Still struggling to manage my time.  Once I got my lunch and started checking email and surfing the net, the same old problem arose again.  Seemed out of control.  Can’t be like that any more or I don’t think I’ll have any progress in my study.

Called mom in the afternoon after lunch.  It was awkward to talk to her again after a long while (2 weeks).  Nothing special was said to her and she seemed to have nothing to say to me either.  When she knew that it might be more expensive for me to make a phone call to her, she couldn’t wait to end the conversation but I didn’t want the call to be so short.  I think mom did get bored with her life as she didn’t sound energetic.  Or maybe simply because she just woke up from her nap on the sofa as she used to do?  Don’t know.  Talked for a while with dad and he sounded okay.  But again, there wasn’t much to talk about between us and he kept asking me the same kind of questions: isn’t it cold here?  Did and can I watch football games on TV?  Maybe I should make a phone call every week and try to find something to talk to them. 

Got a chance to talk with two of my flatmates at lunchtime when we were preparing our own lunch.  They were interested to see what I was cooking and how I did it.  We talked about our plan for X’mas holiday. Both of them were planning to travel then.  Me?  Probably would dream of travelling only!

Nov 9, 2003 (Sun)

Preparation for presentation

I've found it’s not easy to summarize and present a dissertation in one to two hours – I have to be selective in the materials I’ll present.  I was preparing a handout for my presentation today and I found that I got a lot of information in my dissertation and it was impossible for me to give every detail in my presentation.  So I tried to select all that I thought useful but think I have to focus on one part and may only briefly talk about the others.  It took me much more time to make a handout than I first thought.  Felt sort of stuck. 

Made a schedule for myself to stick to, so as to get myself more organized with clear goals to achieve.  I hope I can stick to it.  I experienced that I always didn’t stick to what I had planned. But I gotta be more determined or I’m afraid I can’t go further in my study.

Nov 10, 2003 (Mon)

Choice for a birthday card

This was the first day I led my daily life according to my timetable.  It seemed to worked well.  Did a few things today. One of them was buying a birthday card. It wasn't easy to find a suitable one. I first went to the tourist information centre in the city centre, hoping to find any interesting card or postcard. I did find a few but didn't buy them. Then I spent a lot of time searching in different shops but some cards were either a bit expensive or inappropriate, talking about things like alcohol (the British culture??) or sex, which they think is humour!  Finally I bought one in the post office when I went there for stamps.

Having checked email and sent messages to friends, in the evening, I tried to concentrate on my reading and read a bit.  Felt good about that.  But later I fell asleep...

Nov 11, 2003 (Tue)

Studying or travelling at Christmas?

The more I read about past studies related to my study, the more I feel how inadequate the analysis done in my MA dissertation is.  My feeling that it is a rubbish still can't go away since the day I handed it in!  But I was getting more interested in the structure of an utterance when I transcribed an interview.

Really felt good about my performance these two days (haha!) since I had made myself the timetable, although I could have done better (e.g. spent even less time on the Internet).

I attended the departmental seminar this afternoon.  The presentation was about a marked bilingualism model in relation to the language shift and language maintenance of minority languages in Africa.  It was okay, and I found no difficulty understanding the speaker though there was an accent in his English (why??).  But it seemed to me what he said was something common sense and I didn’t find it surprising.   

It was getting much colder in HK these few days.  Here the weather was chillier this afternoon when I was on my way to the university.  Is the winter coming?

Wish I could be like a friend of mine who is enjoying different sorts of experience in Australia without having to commit to anything or having any responsibility.  Of course I’ll have learnt a lot from my study, which lots of people wish they could have, but the pressure of making it is not something that can be easy to handle.

Got a chance to talk with my friends on icq.  One of them invited me to her home in the US this Christmas.  But it's more likely that I'll spend my Christmas trying to be a good student at home, although I'm quite interested in paying a visit to the US, which I have never been to before.  I hope I can visit her but I myself even don’t know when I’ll return to HK within these three years.

Nov 12, 2003 (Wed)

Missed 'smelly tofu'

One of my classmates did her presentation this afternoon.  It was good, though at the beginning I was lost when some Chinese terms in Buddhism were introduced. There were more people discussing this time.  Perhaps because of the controversies about some examples given in the presentation. But I was getting worried about my presentation after seeing my classmate had done a great job in her presentation.  But anyway it was good to get some insights from her presentation.

Looking forward to my weekly food shopping tomorrow.  It seems my weekend will start from tomorrow, which is the feeling I’ve got every Wednesday evening.  Feel relieved after the presentation meeting.

Had a long chat with a friend of mine this late evening.  Nothing important indeed.  Just talked about some tasty local Hong Kong snack such as 'smelly tofu’.  Felt headache when going to bed at 3a.m.  I better try not to stay up so late next time.

Did my shopping today at Asda again.  Trying to wait for my favourite cheese baguette but in the end, I couldn't get it. There were quite a lot of people when I was doing shopping there then.  Perhaps because it was lunchtime? And also because people started preparing for their X’mas by buying different sorts of food for the X’mas dinner or parties?  Some foodstuff was obviously out of stock on the shelves.  Maybe I need to buy some more next time in case people will compete for the foodstuff later.

Glad to see the cheese sauce that I had been looking for on the shelf today.  This tells me something about life: unexpectedness often happens in our life; when we take something for granted and expect it to happen, it may not happen.  But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Maybe something good will be coming?  You never know.  And gotta be flexible.  What could I do if I can’t get what I want? (e.g. cheese baguette) So get to the supermarket earlier next time!

Nov 14, 2003 (Fri)

Time management

Felt good about having chatted with two of my best friends today.  It's the day that I spoke most Cantonese in the week! 

Perhaps because I stayed up late these days, I couldn’t help falling asleep in the daytime when I was trying to do my reading (on the bed…).  So basically my reading still had not much progress! 

I found my cooking pan had been used by someone!! Who’s this ‘someone’?  I was wondering if it was a girl that lived next to me.  She was not my flatmate but was related to the flatmate who lives next to me.  The pan was still on the cooking pot and awaited someone to give it ‘a shower’.  I couldn’t help its poor look and later washed it and then hid it somewhere in the cupboard so that the suspect wouldn’t be able to commit her crime again!!

It was quite windy and rainy today, typical of UK weather…

Nov 15, 2003 (Sat)

Generation gap

Called mom this afternoon.  But again we had nothing to say to each other. I don’t know why. Is it because my life’s so dull that I had nothing special to say to her? But I sensed some dullness and lack of energy in her voice. Maybe because she had just woke up before picking up my call?!   

Another dull day during which I spent my time sleeping, eating, reading, surfing the net…

Nov 17, 2003 (Mon)

Be a good student?!

Felt fresh and efficient again!

I revised my timetable in the early morning after reflecting on how well I’ve done for the past week and listing the problems that I’ve got and any progress that I have had when carrying out my timetable.  It did work well.  I worked a bit and read some notes and articles until late in the evening when I tried to check my email.  But I found my computer was not connected, as it said the cable was ‘unplugged’!?  I found it strange and called one of my flatmates about that and went into her room for a chat.  It was found that we all couldn’t access the Internet and the problem was unlikely to be sorted out tonight!! (So, that's good, eh? I could go to bed early tonight!! :P) 

I was still worried about my presentation. But my flatmate tried to encourage me, saying it was just more than 10 people in a room watching me doing my presentation.  Yeah, she’s right.  It is not a big group of people and it’s not a formal presentation.  So, what should I be afraid of?! 

Tried cooking ‘tuna cheese with rice’ this afternoon as one of my friends did.  Tasty.  A friend of mine mentioned BBQ pork in her email. At that moment, I really wish I could eat BBQ pork!! It's too expensive here. I recalled the funny pics of my eldest brother enjoying a BBQ pork bun in a Chinese restaurant the other day... I think simple ingredients does not necessarily mean the meal will be dull, tasteless.  I think I like simple food. Or, maybe I just haven’t tried those kinds of ‘difficult-to-make’ or ‘difficult-to-get’ food?!  Simple is the best?!

It kept raining all day long. I had just told a friend that it seldom rained here... but my flatmate and I both thought the weather was not so cold, even when the temperature was 10 degree Celsius only. Perhaps because we had got used to it?

Nov 18, 2003 (Tue)

No Internet access

The cleaners gave us some new magazines as a reward for our efforts to keep the flat clean on Tuesday morning.  I left a note on the table of the kitchen suggesting that we all share the magazines together and put the magazines back to the kitchen when each one of us has finished reading one of the magazines.  But this is not the end of the story.

When I went back to our flat in the afternoon, I found our kitchen had been decorated and there was a Christmas tree (of course not the true one) of a medium size (of about half our height) in the kitchen!! My flatmate said the cleaners had come to our flat and did the decoration, saying we were the only flat in the residence who could get such good treatment, for the reason that we helped keep the flat clean!!  I really couldn’t believe that, coz first, by my standard, I don’t think our flat is very clean; it’s ‘okay’; second, I couldn’t believe that compared with other flats, we were considered the cleanest! Are other flats really so terrible?!

As I couldn’t access the Internet in my room, I didn’t check my email (just spent a very short time at the university checking the email) but on the other hand it was good that I could turn my attention to my work and study, although from time to time I did feel bored and lay on the bed for a rest for a while.

Met my former postgrad tutor in the department and he asked me where my dog was.  At first I didn’t know what he was asking about. Then I found that he was referring to my jumper.  Is it a kind of British humour?  Don’t know.

Sometimes I do have doubts about my memory as today when I was going to meet my flatmate at a bank, I mistook it for another bank and went to the wrong place. Fortunately we two met each other and started our trip to the city centre. We went to lots of shops and I got to find out that my flatmate was an expert in the manufacturing of clothes and she knew a lot of materials since she used to work in a company in China which exported clothes abroad. I asked her about some clothes sold at shops; she said some were not made of good materials but they were quite expensive.

I was very tired after going back home. Don’t know. I guess it was due to the fact that I lacked exercises.  But the trip was a good exercise for me anyway. 

Still couldn't access the Internet in my room...

Nov 19, 2003 (Wed)

Disappointment at myself

Finally the connection to the Internet was resumed in our student hall.  This temporary disconnection to the Internet didn't cause me much annoyance but inconvenience.  Maybe it's time for me to take a rest. I felt good about not having access to the Internet. At least I could concentrate on my reading.

Got an inspiring, though short, meeting with my supervisor this morning. Felt relieved after seeing him but at the same time I knew I'd have a lot to do for my study...

My classmate presented his topic as others did in previous meetings. But was special about today's meeting was the fact that our supervisor asked me and my Taiwanese classmate to take an initiative to ask questions during a presentation. He said this could help motivate the others to do the same. I don't know why we were singled out but I don't really feel much upset about this coz while my supervisor may be disappointed at our silence during a presentation, I also feel I have let myself and my supervisor down by not being more active in the meetings.

I had a short meeting with my classmates. They're nice.

There was a free slice of cheesecake for each one in my flat.  At first we were thinking the cheesecakes were given by the cleaners but later we found out that it was one of our flatmates who just had her birthday and wanted to share her happiness with us.

Nov 20, 2003 (Thur)

Shopping = not working

Nothing special.  Just went to the supermarket for weekly shopping and got cheese baguette, tortellini and stir fry for this week's meals. Didn't feel like doing anything after shopping, which is common for me...

Nov 21, 2003 (Fri)

Freezing weather => thinking too much?!

The weather was freezing today. I didn't go out indeed but when I went to the laundry, which required me to walk across some buildings, I could feel the cold breeze and smoke-like air came out of my mouth when I breathed out.

From time to time I'd think how good it'd be if I spent the money on travelling instead of studying. Perhaps that's normal among students like me who have to do a research on his/her own for three years?! I don't know.  But if I take a broader point of view, I know what I'll have gained is far more than what I gain through travelling (of course studying and travelling are two different things). But how easy it is for us to be so narrow-minded...

Nov 22, 2003 (Sat)

Simple is the best!

Tried cooking the tortellini today. It was tasty, especially after I put the cheese sauce on top of it. In fact as long as there's cheese in the meal, the meal will be tasty for me, who's a cheese lover. I also found to find happiness in daily life is not difficult. Just simple food can satisfy us.  It doesn't necessarily have to be something expensive or complicated. What's important is it's tasty. Perhaps that's the same case with life - simple life can bring happiness too.

Nov 23, 2003 (Sun)

Internet = distance or closer together?

Internet can shorten the distance between people and countries - here I can listen to a radio programme by Ngai Chun on the Internet. It's no different from listening to it in HK. His show was funny. On the other hand, internet may not necessarily shorten the distance. I don't know why I didn't feel like replying to icq messages. Probably because I was tired of everything (ups and downs...).

A best friend of mine is going to take her wedding photos tomorrow. She'll be getting married and holding her wedding banquet in October next year. I wish I could attend her wedding then.

Nov 24, 2003 (Mon)

What's good customer services?

I went to the HSBC this morning, in order to sort out the interest incurred on my credit card. The guy looked indifferent and said a cheque payment took a few days to be credited into my account, which explained why my repayment was considered late even though I deposited my cheque a day before the due date for my credit card repayment. His answer was within my expectation but I still didn't want to leave it as it stood.  The staff didn't show he was trying to help and so I wrote an email to the HSBC. Later a reply was sent to me and I was requested to send some personal information to them for further investigation.

I don't talk with my flatmates a lot. We have a few words when we meet in the kitchen. I'm particularly close to one of my flatmates as we keep in touch by chatting in the kitchen and sending each other email. On the other hand, I haven't talked to one of my flatmates since I moved in. We did meet in the flat but we didn't say anything to each other. Did I look so cool that she didn't feel like talking to me? (but I also think she looked disinterested in talking to me...)

Tried cooking the stir-fry. The taste was okay, but I still prefer tortellini in cheese sauce. After all, I'm a cheese lover.

Nov 25, 2003 (Tue)

Stuck in the preparation for presentation

Only one week to go before my presentation. Still struggling with the preparation. Found it difficult to select and organize the examples, which will be an important part of my presentation as they can be used to initiate a discussion. Felt a bit stuck...

Nov 26, 2003 (Wed)

Poor services

This Wednesday was as eventful as usual.

I went to the hall reception to try to get my telephone repaired because I had almost broken the cable of the telephone carelessly last night. But it was said that no new telephone was available. I wanted to ask them to inform me when new telephones were available but the lady there seemed to be impatient and she repeated what she said word by word, slowly and loudly. To be honest, I think she was arrogant, though she may not mean to be. I looked like an idiot who didn't know English!! Some people here are not polite. I don't know whether they are like that when facing everyone or overseas students only.

I didn't ask questions in the presentation by another classmate of mine today, after our supervisor had asked us to do so last week. Don't know whether I was too sensitive or not. I think my supervisor seemed to be expecting me to raise a question when he looked in my direction.

I found that my telephone had been keeping having a long sound while I was out. A flatmate of mine thought it was a fire alarm and went downstairs but found no one there, of course. The telephone could still work after I had tried to do something on it. Hope it'd survive as long as possible.

I got a reply from a Customer Relations Officer from the HSBC who said the interest incurred on my credit card would be withdrawn, as a gesture of goodwill. I felt satisfied and happy. That's what a customer services is about - at least he showed us he did try to help me sort out the matter (and now get the interest withdrawn! Hehe)...

Nov 27, 2003 (Thur)

Overloaded fridges

I did some photocopies at the department in the morning.  I am always afraid that some people will be waiting while I’m doing my photocopies.  That’s why I usually try to finish my copies as soon as possible and to get to that photocopier room as early as possible, thinking that no one will make photocopies so early in the morning.

The fridges in our kitchen were very full these days.  I tried it very hard to get my stuff into the fridges.  It seems some of my flatmates put as many things as possible into the fridge, even though some of the things, to my knowledge, can be stored in a cool place instead of the fridge (such as cans and fruit).

I was happy to find a website where I could use jyut ping to translate my data from Cantonese into English and I found it very convenient and useful; as a result I worked until very late in the evening.

Nov 28, 2003 (Fri)

Still struggling...

Still struggling with the preparation for my presentation. Presentation does take a lot of time to prepare, especially for the first one that I have since I started my study here.  I stayed up so late last night while waking up so early that I couldn’t help taking a nap in the afternoon. I met a flatmate in the kitchen, knowing that she had just submitted her last essay before the exams and that she had taken a trip to a shopping centre. I wish my presentation could be over soon so that I could enjoy my shopping...

Another weekend is coming and another month is coming to its end… what have I done this week and this month as a whole?

Nov 29, 2003 (Sat)

'Mou Liu'?

I tried cooking the tagliatelle with three varieties that I had bought from a supermarket.  It was sooooooooooo tasty!! But it was really simple to cook it.  Again, I took a picture of it and just sent the pics to my friends tonight. I don’t know if it shows how bored I was (‘mou liu’ in Cantonese) but I think it’s fun to take a picture of the things in my daily life and then add some of my own words to it.

I had a nice chat with one of my good friends here very late tonight.  I was told that I could download films and tv dramas from a website.  How great it is!! Then I can watch those films like ‘Infernal Affairs II’.  But I'm afraid I have to squeeze time from my timetable for that.

Nov 30, 2003 (Sun)

Sunday should be used for a rest

I was still struggling with the handout for my presentation and I still haven’t finished it so far.  But interestingly I don’t feel much nervous nor worried about it at the moment.  After all, life will go on whatever happens during my presentation, right? 

In fact I was a bit distracted during the day by various things.  I can only see a mess on my desk and lots of pieces of papers are everywhere.  I don’t know where to start, to be honest.  It seems there’re tons of things to do ahead of me, for my work, my study and personal stuff.

I seem to have spoken a lot of Cantonese this weekend.  One call after another kept calling in. After lunch mom called me. I also had a chat with dad, who sounded cheerful.  There wasn’t that awkward feeling like the one I had last time. 

I got some encouraging, good comments on the pics of my meals today.  

This page  was last updated on Saturday, 06 December 2003.

Copyright© 2000 - 2003 - Sandy Lo has the "property rights" of this homepage. All rights reserved.