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December 25, 2004
Happy Christmas!
dave
06:11 PM
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Happy Christmas to all! (Please subsitute appropriate festival if Christmas isn't something you celebrate.)
May 06, 2004
New ID Card
dave
09:09 PM
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Yesterday, I went to Immigration Department to sort out a new ID card. I was able to book an appointment over the internet, although it wasn't very busy. I can remember when getting an ID card was a half day's work. Yesterday, I was in there for about 90 mins, so it was just a long lunch break. Mind you, working a few minutes walk from Immigration Tower is a big help!
The drill is the same as normal: turn up with your form and supporting documentation, get your picture taken, your fingerprints recorded and every thing put on record. There's then a short interview with an Immigration Officer just to make sure that they haven't given an ID card to Osama Bin Laden or George Bush or some other undesirables.
These days, everything is digital, so you have a good few tries to get a decent photograph and you don't have inky fingerprints for a while.
In my case, the supporting documentation was my letter of Right of Abode, so I guess the whole process was very streamlined. Sometimes, if you have an employment visa, your company can cock up the supporting documentation with a bad sponsoring letter.
Now I've got my little docket - basically a paper copy of my new ID card, and an appointment to pick up the real deal in two weeks. It'll be interesting to see the differences between a conditional and permanent ID card.
May 04, 2004
Residency
dave
01:18 PM
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in March 1997, I came out to Hong Kong for a three month contract. Today I got my Right of Abode in Hong Kong, which includes Permanent Resident Status. Now I have to book an appointment to get my new ID Card.
November 20, 2003
Norwalk Virus
dave
12:51 AM
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I was just watching the news tonight when they revealed that there was a case of Norwalk Virus (gastroenteritis) at Quarry Bay ESF School. Now this school is where the 2003 Hong Kong Folk Festival was held the weekend before last.
Which I attended.
After which I was a sick as a dog for two days.
With... Gastroenteritis.
So, am I a victim of poor hygiene at this school, or am I the source?
Answers on a postcard please...
October 11, 2003
Strange Rumours
dave
02:20 AM
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A friend of mine rang me today with a worried sounding voice. "Are you still in Hong Kong, or is this call costing me a fortune?"
Me: "Yep, I'm still here. I'm going down to Carnegies in about two hours after work if you want to make sure of that fact. Why on earth would you think I'm not in Hong Kong?"
Him: "well, people have told me you've left..."
Strange stuff indeed. There seems to be a lot of gossip around at the moment.
September 23, 2003
Fish
dave
11:23 PM
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We went up to Tung Choi street again this afternoon to get some more fish - all the ones we have are very small, and the tank was looking very empty. We also got some rocks and driftwood to provide things for the fish to hide behind.
It's not always easy for me to know what's in the tank, as all the fish sold in bags labelled in Chinese, and the Chinese name may not correspond very well to the English name. However, with the aid of AquariumFish.net, here are some of what we have:
- Neon Tetras
- Guppies (We have lots of different types of guppies.)
- Dragon Fish (Asian Arowana) - Very small as yet, these guys are surface swimmers and hover up at the top.
There's a bunch of other, very generic looking fish, which like to shoal together. They look like very small tuna! There's also another shoal of light pink with black mark fish, who always point the same way.
August 27, 2003
Stereo 3D!
dave
07:15 PM
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I finally found some proper stereo glasses as you can see in the photo on the right. I've been looking for ages without success. I've been scouring the stationery shops for coloured film, without success. Its just something you can't get here. Anyway, I was in Swinton Books, Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, today, and I noticed a large pile of Spy Kids books with... you guessed it, 3D glasses! They're even Red/Cyan as against the more usual Red/Blue. apparently the colours are better with Red/Cyan.
I briefly though about the shuttered type of glasses, but I have two LCD monitors with 60Hz refresh rates, so I get very flickery stereo if that rate were halved. Also, they cost a heck of a lot more than the Red/Cyan ones.
August 18, 2003
Phone Problems
dave
05:40 PM
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If you've been trying to ring my mobile phone in the last two days, it hasn't been working. I changed providers a few weeks ago, and the date when I should have swapped the new SIM card for the old one was yesterday. I only noticed this afternoon. The number is the same.
I'm now with Orange Hong Kong.
November 25, 2002
Happy Birthday to Me!
dave
12:00 AM
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It's my birthday!. Harpi Biffday to me!
August 21, 2001
More Dreams
dave
12:00 AM
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There's another strange dream in the dreams page.
October 20, 2000
Dreams
dave
12:00 AM
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Another strange dream. I'm going to try and make this a reasonably regular thing, which probably means I should try to get more sleep!.
September 05, 2000
Dreams
dave
12:00 AM
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I had some strange dreams last night.
May 16, 2000
Wedding page done
dave
12:00 AM
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OK, finally updated the text on my wedding page. Pictures to come when I get around to it
March 29, 2000
I do!
dave
12:00 AM
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I got married last week. Last Friday, to be precise. There'll be more details on my wedding page whenever I have time to write it up.
March 18, 2000
stag night
dave
12:00 AM
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Had my stag night last night. Made some more minor changes to the site. Must really learn DHTML to make updating this mess easier
August 09, 1999
Another Brief Update
dave
12:00 AM
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Well, I'm still here. I'm starting a new contract tomorrow with a large consultancy firm doing more transport planning.
June 04, 1999
Shock! Horror! Dave updates his website!
dave
12:00 AM
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After meaning to update this for ages since the half hearted attempt back in January 1999, I've finally got some spare time while something is churning away in the background. My Copious Free Time has been in short supply over the last four months, as I've been working like a madman as an independent consultant.
Some brief news for people who want to know what's happening:
- I'm still in Hong Kong, still at the same address and phone number, for those who know it.
- I'm still working in Transport Planning, although I'm trying to get into technology consulting as well.
- I seem to be more of a bass player than a guitarist these day, and I've been playing bass with Dr. Sved for a few months now. Catch us most Friday nights at The Flying Pig, Lockhart Road, Wanchai. Related to this, I've got a new bass: a five string Ibanez Ergodyne. Only had it a week or so, and just getting used to that bottom B, but feels good so far.
- I'm migrating towards Linux at home. My home box now runs dual boot Win98 and the Red Hat 6.0 distribution of Linux. My laptop chugs away on RH 5.2, although I'm thinking of putting BeOS on it, just for a laugh. Maybe I'll try FreeBSD...
- I've got my own company! O'Brien Consulting or OBC. Officially I'm a technology consultant, which is a sufficiently broad title for me to lump Transport Planning, Web design and programming all together. The OBC web page is dependent on my Copious Free Time, of course, and there's precious little of that around at the moment. (Anyone wondering why I capitalise Copious Free Time, could have a look at the Jargon File which is a dictionary of hacker slang and culture.)