Trick or Treat! This year, I have definitely got the treat.

October 31st, Halloween. A Chinese I am, this pumpkin lantern festival doesn’t replace the traditional moon festival, nor it ever mean much to me. However, this year, this is the day that I got a big “treat”, from my boss… a paycheck! The first paycheck received working full-time. Yes, it brought me some sudden infatuation about my job. Well, I guess I am still in the so-called honeymoon period (for some, this is equivalent to the first two weeks of work, for others, the entire three-month probationary period). For me, I do not know how long it will last, yet.

When I got home, I couldn’t wait to get out the already dusty calculator (several months since I last touched it… during exams), punching madly to figure out when will my wishlist be fulfilled, and also mentally acquiring all the components and assembling my new awesome high-speed XPC computer with a dual-core proccessor and DVD+-RW dual layer and at least 1G RAM plus a 19″ LCD monitor (definitely still dreaming about), which I hopefully will have saved enough for by the end of next month.

Tomorrow, unfortunately, a big chunk of the budget will land in the hands of my landlord. It’s the beginning of a new month, November 2005.

一部曾經被禁的電影，卻又拿下柏林電影節的銀熊奬，引起了我極大的好奇，今天終放看了。看了，心情也變得很沉重。雖說不上一部很好的電影，國語我又不完全聽得懂，有一些情節更是大惑不解﹝文藝片大概都是這樣吧﹞；但是兩個主角的演出和卻很實實在在。我很喜歡那種草根又殘酷的現實的感覺。而最吸引我的，要說是片中前段的一段背景音樂 ﹝我想，應是笛子的聲音﹞，感覺很空虛無奈，强化了電影的主題。故事中的自行車一方面雖是主角很辛苦賺取的，但一方面我又在想，也不要為了它連性命差點陪上吧！到最後他揹著破爛的自行車一幕卻又令我很佩服他一直的堅持，又彷彿在暗示：這輛自行車最終會修好，叫人到絕境也不要放棄。

說到底，《十七歲的單車》還是值得一看的。

Spent the last three days, nine hours each day on MS Excel, analysing data on electricity consumption of stoves and fridges. And that pretty much summarize my first week (actually, only three days) of my first engineering job.

One month have flew by, and it still felt like a dream. Exactly one month ago, I was still worrying whether I would get a job, and if I should start packing to leave for good. And then over the last 30 days, I have interviewed, receive my offer, got a working permit, went back to South Africa to see families and friends, attending my sis’ birthday party, and flew back to Canada and started working for a few days already. I think I have recovered from my jet lag, but getting up at 6:45am is a radical change from my usual sleeping pattern (I used to get up at … 11am at the earliest during the last few months).

Somehow it all still feel like a dream… and even now I am working, I have not gotten used to wearing shirts and trousers (somehow remind me of high school) and I still feel like a school kid…, in fact, I suspected several glances and stares from other bus passengers when I put on my sport-style jacket with my shirts and trousers.

I wish I had a more mature look.