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back at the office for another week long grind. actually minus one day since i'm leaving for shanghai saturday morning. i'm sort of dreading the visit because i know it will be a relentless weekend of running around doing things and i already feel stretched out thin as it is. as of today, with the condition i'm currently in, i can't imagine it'll be a good time. but maybe all that will change once i get out of this sick haze i've been under for more than a week now. i have to rest up during this week, going to bed as early as possible, to try to recuperate for the weekend.

those RMB$88 new sheets i got - as ugly as they may be - sleep pretty nice.

drinking the chinese medicine cough syrup: acute bronchitis syrup: Herba Houttuyniae cordata Thumb, Fagopyrum cymosum, Illicis purpureae Hassk, Herba Ephedrae, Radix Asteris, Radix Peucedani, Fructus auranti, Radix Glycyrrhizae and adjuvants, Sucrose, Benzoic acid, Potassium sorbate

tonight, go home, hit the supermarket for some supplies, rice porridge some dinner, add some new cabbage to my kimchi jar, and hopefully be able to call it an early night. if i can be in bed by 10:00 i will be so happy.

today i finally told mr.lee of my vacation plans. "why you need so many vacations!" he replied with an incredulous laugh. our department is already understaffed as it is. unbeknownst to me, yuwei already took her vacation, supposedly left on saturday. 2 week medical leave was her reason, but if i was a betting man, it's probably everything else but health related. our boss is a pushover, he can't say no to her. he can't say no to me either, but only because he technically doesn't have any admin authority over me since i am an employee of the chinese consortium. that's why when loren used to work here, he'd take a day or two off and never bothered to tell our boss. herbert is also going on vacation for 3 weeks in march, and so is mr.lee. no one from our department will be here in march. i do feel guilty, but i don't have very much leeway. my parents are only here for 3 weeks, that i'm only taking a week off to take them around is already not that much time.

waiting for my jd.com package to arrive. this store is amazing. order from their website and the item gets delivered the next day for free (over RMB$25 qualifies, which is only like US$4). this is only because of china's huge population, there's an army of people willing to work as deliverers. i don't even need a credit card (which, surprisingly, are hard to come by here in china). when my things arrive, i just swipe my bank debit card and the transaction is complete, safe and sound. when the delivery person gets here, he will give me a call on my phone. or, if i'm worried, i can call him, because i also have his contact information, from his name to phone number to his QQ number (like, in case i want to make him my QQ buddy or something).

i've been sick for so long now, i find it hard to remember a time when i wasn't ill, the forever cold. so besides the cold, and the lower back pain, i now have yet another thing wrong with me: i noticed this morning a nodule in my ear, so now it looks like i have an ear ache as well. it's external (not inside the canal) so it's not bad, but something else to take care of.

i felt a little depressed today. the cold was preventing me from being my normal upbeat self, and i've discovered the quality of friends here in china to be quite lacking. not once did anyone ask me, "hey, are you okay?" even if they noticed, they probably wouldn't say anything, it's just not in their nature to extend a hand of sympathy, to be empathetic. everyone just keeps to themselves. there's no one here to talk to about these problems, so i just keep everything bottled up, with the occasional outbreak of unhappiness. i didn't speak to xianglian at all today. we saw each other once in the pantry, and it looked liked she was going to say something to me, but then she left. doesn't anyone care that i'm barely hanging on? days like today makes it easy for me to return to boston. that's the thing that always makes me feel better, fantasizing about returning home. one day it's going to happen.

package arrived, light drizzle outside, maybe even some snow flurries

close to the end of the day, mr.ma came by my desk and told me that a new wison employee was coming to join our department, a woman. this is great news, because after herbert and i broke the news of our respective vacation plans, our department was starting to look a little thin. we found a spot for this new person to sit, right next to mr.lee.

to-do list:

  • larger waste basket
  • plastic folders
  • tailor
  • tape
  • moisturizer
  • ass pillow
  • daikon radish
  • cabbage
  • toilet paper
  • some meat to go with my porridge

i caught the medium bus, first went to the tailor, followed by the supermarket, before finally coming home. i put in some new cabbage and daikon radish in my paocai jar and made myself some rice porridge for dinner. tomorrow night: dico's 2-for-1 night, so i can probably buy enough chicken for myself that should last me for tuesday and wednesday.

the onda v975 look like a white ipad on first glance. even when i turned it on, it took me a few seconds to realize i was starring at the android OS. it was a quad-core CPU operating at just 1.0ghz, but seems plenty snappy enough for normal use, like surfing the web, checking e-mail, or watching videos. the most eye-popping thing on it is the retina display, which the OS doesn't seem to take advantage of. but when i previewed the 4K sample video, it was like HD to another level, resolution so clear it almost seemed 3D. not bad for something that costs less than S$150.