It's that time of the year again........

It's that time of the year again, time to perform my ritual yearly review.

What a weird year 2006 has been, indeed it has. A lot of downs, a couple of ups. Blood is shed, fear and dread of the unknown. The passing away of a beloved cat and of course, the Great China shift. Let's begin :

January - Settled into life back home after London, feel VERY london sick. I think this London sickness will never pass me.

February - I think the first few months back in Singapore is really affecting me. Day in and out, life is miserable. And then I got my cat! So now there's Tash and endless episodes of Naruto!

March -  I was offered a job in London, but I turned it down at the very last minute. The REAL reason? Cannot tell :)

April and May - Were nothing but a miserable smelt of Siglap, Edmund, Alvin and the pondering of why I am giving up so much over something that cannot be.

June - Met Hyuna and HyunJin over bouts of drama in Yishun. The first six months back in Singapore was horrible. It is enough to have me decided permanently that I will never want to return here to live ever again.

July - The big China Shift. For the next X number of months, Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be my new playground, life is turning for the better and for the first time in many months, I felt really happy and without a care for the rest of the world.

August - Took up an online TEFL course and applied for a place in the University of London. Built an entire marketing plan based on technological usage for company.

September - Guangzhou romping, Hong Kong walking and lots of exploring. It takes a little bit of effort to get used to life in Canton, it's not your average city and the people are not exactly the most well-mannered.

October - Incheon calling! After a 3 month break we see Hyun Jin and Lizzie again. It feels great. Korea's great. I believe this is the city I will want to move to after I'm done with China.

November - I'm starting feel a little at home in Guangzhou. Lots of visits to Hong Kong and Hong Kong's becoming my little escape zone from the China madhouse. With lots of help from Ming of course!

December - Back to Singapore for a -very- short holiday. Seeing the stuff that she left behind and how everyone is back home makes me miserable all over again. The only thing that made me happy is seeing old friends and having a good drink with them. And then of course there's Shanghai! Met up with Hyuna and HyunJin again and it felt absolutely smashing! Language may be a barrier for now, but give us some time and it will not be.

And in areas of personal development, here's what I did :

- improved my chinese both in character recognition and speech building
- started my intensive study of Korean
- came up with very very wild ideas for business and marketing, I mean, check this out: an Electronic Sales kit and a platform that allows you to sell remotely, the building of a trademark and lots of co-ordination for an IPO.
- Read tons. Everything from humour by author-cooks, journalists and ex-presidents to catch up on current affairs.
- BOUGHT A MACINTOSH!
- I have this idea to be a freelance marketing-executive, I want to see how well this will take off.

In my next post, I will plan out what I want to do for the next 12 months and then compare it when December '07 comes along and I want to see what I have achieved or lost.

Christmas Wishes!

A jet propelled flying reindeer

Magical disappearing cats

Technicolour candy canes

A packet of purple liquid stones

A penguin squirrel cross breed

Chocolate flavoured rocks

My very own invisible cloak

Geese that lay golden eggs

A beanstalk!

Walking, talking, wish granting chairs

A churn that churns salt and fish

Peace for the whole planet

Funny.

Found on a packet of "Maidi Confiture Biscuits"

- 100% abundant in nutrition
- It tastes crisp and delicious.
- Many kinds of nutritions are contained.
- Leisure & comfortable food
- Packaging materials include recycled fibres (?!)

Classic.

what i like about singapore

bedok. east coast park. the esplanade. palawan beach. the esplanade. nasi lemak. chatty taxi drivers. architecture. cleanliness. golden village. makan parade. singlish. hokkien. central expressway. class 95. drinkable tapwater. english street signs. pasir ris. the hyatt. mee siam. airconditioning. spicy food. chai chee secondary. bak kut teh. stray cats. and you.

Hong Kong drops GST while Singapore increases it

Both small countries, both economies similar. One drops GST, one plans to increase it. It doesn't matter if Hong Kong doesn't have a military, it doesn't mean that their national spending is any lower. It just doesn't make sense that a country as small as Singapore needs to increase their taxes once every couple of years.

Support free speech! STOP READING SINGAPOREAN MEDIA!

From the BBC :

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Hong Kong drops sales tax plans
The Hong Kong government has dropped plans to introduce a new sales tax in the face of public opposition.
It had hoped that a goods and sales tax (GST) would bring in an extra $3.8bn (£1.9bn) in revenues to boost the city's public services budget.

Hong Kong currently has one of the world's lowest tax regimes, with a 16% personal rate and 17.5% for businesses.

Critics said a new sales tax would hit lower income groups disproportionately and could also hurt tourism.

Budget deficits

The government had held a nine-month consultation on the planned tax reform.

It has said that the territory needs to boost its sources of public revenues in order to cope with the welfare burden of an ageing population and any potential economic downturns.

The city ran up large deficits in the late 1990s after the Asian financial crisis.

"Although the public understands that GST can broaden our tax base, it is clear from the views collected that we have not been able to convince the majority to accept GST as the main option to address the tax base problem," said Financial Secretary Henry Tang.

At the moment only 35% of Hong Kong wage earners pay income tax, and the government has previously suggested that it could look at reducing personal allowances to get more people into the tax net.

updates to date

Yeah! A package came in this afternoon and it's my Hong Kong Frequent Visitor's card! Finally a loyalty card for hong kong! heheeh....goodbye to mile-long queues at the airport, hello priority pass! Next thing to get is a hong kong ID...

So what's new this month? IPO launches, salty/oily cookhouse food, barbequed oysters, big ideas and a trip to shanghai.

I'm now on a mission : pass the HSK, the chinese equivelant of the TOEFL test. Must to be sharpening up my Chinese

An expensive punishment

I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.
I will not be late for flights or other cross border transport.