Sunday, May 27, 2012

So many changes in the past year...

Haven't written for a while. I think mostly because my life has been consumed by work, which has become more and more frustrating. All my "big brothers" who were in my team when I started have officially left. It so sad... I can't help but think how happy it was just a year ago with all three of them around.

I attended the HKIE Geotech division's annual seminar last Friday. Last year, I went the three guys in my team and we had a lot of fun. This year, I went there alone. I mean, I met up with Arup people at the thing but it wasn't the same. I feel like our group had people who liked to ask questions, discuss ideas, and not accept things at face value. Last year, we had a lot of discussions amongst ourselves during the seminar and I feel like I get more out of seminars this way. I do feel that I gained a lot in terms of technical knowledge this past year though. I used to feel like I couldn't get much out of seminars because the topics presented were either too specific or too general. Now I feel like I have enough background to read the papers, listen to the talk, and zone in on the useful stuff.

I went to another full day seminar on Saturday. This one was free so I felt like I had to take advantage of it. Both seminars were about tunneling and the use of underground space. The Saturday one was very non-technical, aimed at planners and architects. Of course, there were no planners in the room. I think most people in attendance was hoping for some technical stuff.

I met a friend of a friend today (Sunday) who had just arrived for work. She's working in finance and is looking for a place on the Island to live. We talked about possibly rooming together and went with an agent she had contacted to look at some places. The places we visited were all in the Mid-Levels. That neighborhood is really expensive. What you get for that price is just not worth it. We did see several places in her price range. And since her budget seems fairly big (compared to mine), I think she can find something decent in that area or nearby. It would be extremely convenient for me to live on the Island if I ever do go to CPS for site supervision. But I'm not sure if and when that will happen. One of the apartments we looked at had an amazing view of the site! The big windows look out onto the site and you can see the entire lower courtyard. I was very impressed. I probably should have taken pictures because I don't think you can actually find a better view of the site from a public space!

So I've successfully ignored everything at work for the past 3 days. That was a decent break especially since I've been going into the office non-stop for like 3 weeks (I can't even remember). I was super tired by the time last Thursday rolled around. I even slept in more than usual Thursday morning because I had the excuse that I had to bring something to a government office in the morning before going to work. But I woke up super tired and was really unproductive the entire day.

I've found that my least efficient time of the day is after lunch to around 5 or 6pm. I think I already knew this during grad school and therefore, had scheduled most of my classes or other active things during that time. Otherwise, I would just nap through that time. Work is not that flexible unfortunately. But I think I might switch my weekend work strategies though. I used to wake up late, eat lunch, go into the office, fight off sleep for a few hours, and then head to the gym at night. I might switch the office and gym times around next time I'm at work on the weekends. Not that I'm planning to work on the weekends a lot but just in case it's necessary....

1 comment:

yalu said...

hmm.. are you sure you didn't sleep through class?!