Day 7 – Monday, 6th September

Is it a burden to blog in the evening after work? It can be. But since I start early, I don’t there is much choice at the moment. Too groggy in the morning to even start typing, and that’s what happened to me on Monday morning. I woke up, ate breakfast, read a few webtoons, knitted 6 rows on the second fingerless glove, and then zonk… I fell asleep for 1.5 hours, or was it 2 hours?

Well breakfast looked better. The dumplings were cold, but the vermicelli noodles were nice.

I woke up just before lunch… that short nap after breakfast was refreshing. At least I would be able to concentrate before working.

Lunch today consisted of lukewarm chips, flat hamburgers (I was thinking Japanese style chunky burgers… oh well), sausage and the usual veggies and fruit. The meat was fine. I dipped into the slightly peppery sauce. The chips had to be eaten quickly, as they were getting colder by the minute… I beginning to hate plum cherry tomatoes… warm ones especially (coz they’re not sweet enough)…

After lunch, it was just constant work, there was no time to think about snacking. My remote access kept shutting itself down, but I think I have figured out how to stop it doing that! Fingers crossed!

I got a phone call from Reception asking about my stay, and asking about the room – cleaniness was ok apart from some parts in the bathroom. Food was adequate – just too much rice. And they asked about the mart that they have at the hotel – I said I used it once, but said there isn’t enough choice, and there was no HDMI adapter to use for the TV, so I bought one. If that was available on the mart, I would have so rented it or bought it!

Then dinner came early again after 5pm. Was I hungry? Not really… but the eel, omelette, and pork tasted so good with the rice! But cut out those cherry tomatoes people! It doesn’t go well with the meal!

After this, I continuously worked, showered before a meeting, and did my laundry, plus cleaned all the food trays… I figured if I just wash all the trays at the end of the day, it would be so much better… spent the last hour of work procastinating, but looking at emails at the same time… I have worked for 11-12 hours!

Work time recorded: 11.00 to 23.30 (HK time!) … that’s beyonf my working hours…

Day 8 – Tuesday, 7th September 2021

I woke up past the breakfast knocking. Woohoo! So I ate the cold breakfast again. Did around 10 rows of knitting, then fell asleep again…

Seemed to have slept for another 2 more hours, but when I woke up I realised I had 2 missed calls in regards to my HDMI adapter. 😦 It wasn’t going to be delivered today. I may have to cope without it if I don’t get it in the next few days… Oh well… It will just be harder to do my work without a second screen.

Lunch came on time… Aaah vermicelli noodles and pork. I wish it were crispy noodles instead. Oh well…

As I was waiting for my night shift to start, I watched a Korean variety show… can’t get enough of them sometimes. Plus had a Curry Cheese cup noodle…

Once I started work, an hour later my dinner came… hmmm I don’t much like this one. It’s 3-cup Taiwanese chicken. I skipped the onions this time. But the sauce was nice.

Having used up my bin bags, I requested more from house-keeping… they gave me a lot this time.

Restarted work again, but for the love of someone, it kept crashing, and crashing. I think too many people at my workplace are back at work, and are using the network system which makes the remote access a bit more slower I guess.

In the middle of me starting an audit , I recieved a call from HKTV Mall… apparently I out the wrong address in! Oh dear, no wonder…. Nevermind, my delivery is coming on Friday. Hopefully I will get at least one week to use a double screen. In the meantime, I chose to cheer myself up by creating a stationery pot as my pens kept rolling around, and it was difficult to always keep them in one spot on the desk. ^_^

Continously worked until after midnight… I’m hoping this will be the last late, late meeting I have during the rest of quarantine…

Day 9 – Wednesday, 8th September 2021

I don’t think I had enough sleep, but I woke up before the breakfast call. Woohoo! Maybe I’ve started getting into the HK time zone, or maybe not.

The breakfast was so-so. UK frozen ones beat this version of mini glutinous rice packages and siu mai anytime. Siu mai was a bit rubbery. The glutinous rice parcels lacked some oily essence that I’m used to…

Fell asleep for half-an-hour. Then work up again to do some work for 2 hours – in case my remote access started playing up again.

Lunch came. I got rid of all the tomatoes. They were practically raw. My parents would cook them until they’re a bit soft… Hmmmm… But the pork chop and sauce was good!

Tried to get back into work, but had a brain freeze… So I watched stuff on YouTube. Then came my Day 9 PCR test – I was prepared this time round. Didn’t drink or eat after lunch… Just waited for it… (I’m sure I looked very tired).

Finally work time. But dinner comes round so quickly during the week… Too early for me!

Then I had a sudden Teams meeting with an upset staff member… It went on for a bit… After the meeting, my remote access was all gone. Grrr. I could still log in, but the apps weren’t appearing. ¬_¬” Not a good start to a working day.

So I ended up drinking some expensive Twinings Pure Peppermint tea. I forgot to bring my own. It’s much cheaper in the UK.

Waited around for an hour for my remote access to return to normal… so in the meantime, I answered emails and watched some TVB shows.

Remote access came back after an hour. Then finished and completed work on time. Shut down everything, and went to sleep at midnight… MummyGeek warned me there was going to be a typhoon coming through into HK soon. I checked the weather forecast – possibly happening on Friday.

Day 10 – Thursday, 9th September 2021

I’m tired… I had slept for around 7 to 8 hours but still felt groggy. I ate cold breakfast again. I do like HK bread, it’s so soft and tasty. I combined the second half of the tuna sandwich with the hashbrown and bacon. Good stuff!

Then I went back to bed. I’m not sure how I managed to sleep another 2 to 3 hours but it happened, and I had another missed call on the HK number? Why? Who’s calling me? I’m sure my HKTV mall delivery was on Friday! Anyway, I replied to yesterday’s customer service email, in case they were expecting an answer from me… ¬_¬””

Time for lunch… The braised chicken and taro was a bit bland, so I added some chilli oil. I threw away the cherry tomatoes. It was bothersome to eat, and I’m sure it wouldn’t have gone well with this meal.

Afterwards, I did feel a bit peckish, I looked on FoodPanda, but decided to save my money for another time. In the end I had my remaining Coke Zero and a Cup Noodle. Stomach satisfied!

An hour later it was time to get to work.

Work, work, work for a few hours and even had a WhatsApp conversation with a colleague about some irritating email. Humph. Then dinner came. Had to show MummyGeek how my food was delivered, so I took a pic for her.

The cherry tomatoes goes well with sweet and sour sauce. I did eat them this time.

Rubbish and 9 days plus 1 extra food tray were left outside the door. So. Much. Plastic.

Then back to work I go. OMG. So many people to chase. So many emails. I was even asked to make a phone call to a “client”, but I outrightly said I was abroad and unable to do the call. Irritating… I think I lost a nerve up until the 11pm (HK time). I gave in to my tiredness, and said to another colleague that I will catch up with them in the morning. Anyone thinking about doing a workation should really think about the time zone they’re in and how it will affect their lifestyle. Don’t jump ship and do it just for the sake of saving some holiday time. But the one thing I was thankful was that my remote access didn’t break down this time… It was the ThreeHK Network that put me down. It went down for a period of time, so thankfully my other SIM Mobile Duck was there to rescue me at that point.

Note: Weather forecast predicted that the cyclone/typhoon was going to miss out HK. Thank goodness. Now off to bed!

Day 11 – Friday, 10th September 2021

11 more days to go!! Woohoo!! Already at the half-way point.

Had a hard time sleeping as I kept the aircon on which irritated my skin. So I woke up reading webtoons before I finally fell asleep again. I woke up after the breakfast knock, I brought the breakfast in, then went back to bed for another hour. I think my jet lag is almost over… As predicted it does take me around 9 to 10 days to recover.

Breakfast was so-so. Pastries were fine. Japanese sweet potatoes were kind of weird. They’re so small. I threw away the cherry tomatoes, I didn’t want that sour tomatoe taste in my mouth after eating sweet stuff.

I managed to stay awake, watched some YouTube videos (Kritter Klub, SBS TV and even a video from Uncle Roger), and continued to knit… was just waiting for that HKTV Mall delivery phone call… Lunch came instead. The noodles were a bit oily, but I enjoyed this lunch. If only noodles were an option for my everyday meal. Washington Red apples aren’t my favourite… Had a traumatic experience as a child when I took one bite and threw it in the bin, then got told off by my parents. Never again will I waste food like that unless the food was really bad…

Time for first meeting of the day, UK time at 9am. I was waiting for that call from HKTV Mall, instead I got a text and no call… Delivery came in the middle of the meeting. And that HDMI adapter wasn’t the right one! Grrrr. Giving up on the second screen problem I have. I’ve survived for this long without it.

Dinner came. Chicken wings and hamburger steaks underneath them. You know what I did with the cherry tomatoes? Yep that’s right. Thrown in the bin! My tastebuds know what is right and wrong. Everything else was fine!

I was contemplating on whether to have an alcholic drink in the middle of work… ¬_¬” I went for it. And started procastinating for the rest of the evening (I did start work early)…

Have a happy weekend peeps and geeks!

And don’t worry, I’m not at breaking point yet. It’s hot outside, so I’m fine sitting inside with the aircon on. Feel like I need to talk a lot, but I’m doing via this blog. ^_^ Just want the longest sleep ever!

End of Days 7 to 11