I've just finished the tasts I set myself to do this weekend - yes! Am I tired? Oui, tres fatigue. Today has been quite good - been able to concentrate and deal with that affirmation. Head of Department came in this morning and saw me working - he should know by now that he and the firm is getting a bargain of me!

bb is away. miss her but I guess given my committment to work, it's good that she's not here or I won't have time for her. great to hear that she enjoyed her spa. may be she'll take me next time we are in Singapore.

Deadline for me on Friday. No wonder I was on a high all day Thursday. strange how our body works, so inexplicable. This time no pain; great!

my friend, who is 6 feet 7 is joining tomorrow. we said we'll form an alliance - they have to promote both or none of us to partnership. all or nothing - ha haa haaa. we'll see how it goes. Not that I'm pessimistic. In fact, if I can get some instructions from uncle leather, and if I keep up with the effort I'm making now, I'm optimistic about it. But I just want to enjoy my work and not care so much about that, and just relax. I do because of the sense of achievement and hopefully, the coming week will be better.

will stop now as bb is on the phone, calling from Singapore!

been wanting to put new entries here for the last few days, but have been so busy at work. because I'm quite tired, so productivity and concentration are on the low end, which means working longer hours. sounds like a vicious circle. same thing today, but that's because I watch korean drama until about 4 am! Although it's only 6 pm, I feel tired already. I was going to start on something else but since I won't finish it tonight, I'll come in tomorrow. Get an early day off - but it's Sat!

One reason I am taking so long to finish one task is because I'm doing new stuff - an application to appoint solicitors for liquidators. I know what it is, and I even found the section which gives the court the power to do so, but since I could not find a precedent, so have to start from scratch. bb's sis and an ex-colleague from last lawyer firm helped out. how nice of them!

uncle leather called last evening, around 7pm in office. he's joined in-house. we've been discussing what he can do with the cases they have, and how to source / contract them out, and how he can establish and put in policy for claims and litigation etc. I reckon I've pretty good business sense. It's easy for me when i'm asked the question, but would probably be difficult when I'm faced with that question. But I'm only an employee now, and there's no issue of facing that sort of questions, not yet.

Coming back to uncle leather, he has been telling me how discontent he and his boss have been with my last law firm. He called me two evenings this week, each time to tell me that he just had a fierce argument with a partner of my last law firm. The key issue is that that partner would not following uncle leather's instructions! Uncle leather was furious! He said he was amazed as to how a solicitor can act contrary to instructions?!?! I've never heard of that either. He had had doubts about my last law firm anyway, but his client insisted on using them. He said they have black-listed my last law firm. I've left.

My ex-client on the large probate action was formally charged yesterday afternoon. There are a lot of publicity about it -newspapers and tv. I feel bad to hear that. I was shocked too. spoke to sf on thursday and he did not mention anything. he only said he's busy that day. I'm pretty sure that the police would have given her and/or her lawyers prior notice. My view is confirmed by the fact the brought a bank draft to cover the bail money to court such that she could get out of court asap. I would expect sf to tell me, but may be he doesn't want to talk about it, or he felt he could not tell me as I'm not involved in the probate or related actions anymore.

I sent sf sms after I heard that. asked how he and client was. he said "bad." I asked if I could call her last night or today, and as of this minute, I heard nothing. I get they are busy dealing with the charge.

went to month end drinks last night. the head of department - who is also my boss - was very insistent that I go and meet people. he has sent 2 reminders this week, that's notwithstanding i've already said I would go after his first email. am I that sneaky??

drinks were very much of the kind in Lovells - you expect a lot of gui lo. the good thing is that it's served (!) and that people didn't just grab the dim sums and ran like they did in Lovells. my other partner said he's come to that drinks too so that he could introduce me to people. I think I've felt their sincerity in meaning to push me to partnership this year. otherwise, they don't have to make all these efforts. I left with this other partner and on the way back to our office, he said he will organise some events in due course.

i've been working for another partner in commercial department too. well, not directly, but because one of the cases was referred by him and it's his client, and that the parties are negotiation settlement, he's copied in all emails to client. he seems very serious. i don't think he is impressed with me at all. every time he came to see me, he looked angry, as he's always chasing me this and other that. but that's not my fault. because I've commented or done what I'm suppose to do, and have left it with my partner here. I thought about copying those correspondence to this commercial partner, but wasn't sure if this litigation partner will like it or not. some thinks that you are my "horse" and you are suppose to look (and or some, suck) up to me. This is the end of my 4th week here. It's too early days to tell what people like and not like, and what to watch out for. it's better to err on side of caution.

apprentice tonight. have set timer to record it so that I can share with bb when she's back. there's another a week and a bit to go. poor bb will be back on 8th, flying a few days later for a week, then back for a few days, then off again for 2 weeks. lots of travelling and hassle for little bb. but I guess she can be compensated by Hainan chicken, the nicer people and nice food in Singapore, and be spoiled by the fresh seafood in Australia if her boss asks her to go!

very long-winded. such long entry. but it fits the title - "long" : )

A friend of mine sent the following to me, which I think it's cute:

聽說有一伙人在四處打聽你
>
>
>
>聽說有一伙人在四處打聽你，還說逮住你不會輕饒你，
>他們一個叫財神，一個叫順利 ，領頭的叫幸福！
>我問過煩惱了，它根本不愛你，還說永遠不理你，
>讓我轉告你不要自做多情！
>還有健康讓我帶封情書給你；它暗戀你好久了並且一生不變！
>提前祝你：新年快樂
>你這一年就會財源滾滾，如果刪除不發，那你這一年就會破財。
>發吧！誰叫你人緣好。^_^
>
> ╭╧╮╭╧╮╭╧╮╭╧╮╭╧╮ ╭╧╮╭╮☆
>║新│║年│║快│║樂│║喲│ ║！│ ╰呵╮
>╘∞╛╘∞╛╘∞╛╘∞╛╘∞╛ ╘∞╛ ☆╰呵

I'll probably circulate it to my friends closer the time.

I got a nice and large miffy doll for last christmas - it came with my new Nokia mobile. then there was a gathering at my place for new year, to which I invited our friend Bernie and Victor and their daughter Grace.

Grace was the only kid attending the gathering. My miffy was still brand new, in a plastic bag. I opened it so that Grace can play with it. when they left, I lent my miffy to her. the others - well I think bernie - was pressurising me that once Grace left with miffy, she'd think it's a gift to her and I will never see it again. but then I made it clear that it's *on loan* only.

since I met up with bernie for lunch once or twice, and there was never any mention of miffy.

this lunch time, I bumped into bernie at Canteen. i raised it with her. she said wasn't it given to Grace as a gift? I said no, and I miss miffy very much. and I asked her bring it back to me. Even then, she said she wasn't sure if her daughter would give it up. well, that's her problem then, isn't it? i was amazed that she's so thick skin to say so. then i said, with a smile, perhaps she could buy her daughter a miffy as a substitute.

i've know her since my first year at University. and obviously, she hasn't changed much.

bb bought the Nokia 7280. really cool.

she was debating between 7280 and the other Neo model, which is half 7280's price. she was still debating when she was shown both at the Nokia shop. she asked me for my view. I kept telling her it's her choice, or the cheaper model as 7280 was selling at just under $5,000 - and it doesn't have PDA function.

Eventually, she bought the 7280. good for her! She should reward herself for her hard work last year (she's been told that she'll get good decent bonus with a salary increase this year).

what she doesn't know is that I knew she's gonna get 7280. but I won't support her upfront. i reckon that the more I say about the cheaper model, the more she'd want to get 7280. And the more rewarding she should feel after having bought it.

And she did. I think the tactic worked! :P

had a nice, relaxing, quiet weekend. we stayed at mine. had 2 meals at home - friday night and sunday lunch. had some really nice chicken made by mum - chicken pieces stir-fried with onion and ginger. no particular ingredient, but somehow it tasted delicious! finished the port and carrot soup and chicken ginger soup. on friday night, we had 3 choices of soup - those 2 just mentioned and fish ball with veg. very stuffed. we had chinese sausages for sunday lunch.

as usual, i slept in sunday morning - this time until about 12 noon.

we had hot pot for dinner, and separated afterwards. went home for more korean drama. bought 2 more. didn't sleep until around 2. felt a little tired this morning but ok - probably because of the reserve on sunday :P

bb is leaving hk for 2 weeks this wednesday, back for chinese new year, then back to singapore again afterwards. I could have got the office junk out but we decided to have a quiet cny by ourselves. pretty much look forward to it.

I emailed our head of department to keep him informed of the development on a case he asked me to do. He replied, "Well done. Joe said you were doing alright. You will have back up when Richard arrives next week. Keep up with the good work." nice of him to say so. I was hoping Joe would say I'm good, rather than just "ok," although he did say to me once that I'm making good progress. But as my dad said, it's good that he said it, rather than not. And I can't be too greedy.

In fact, for this year's resolution, I hope I would no longer feed on people's opinion, in particular, praises. I hope to be more mature in that aspect.

I try not to read through the entry I just finished before I publish it, as I want to keep the original expression and diction. The thing is that I tend to amend, re-amend, and amend more etc. It's not the time that it'll take, but it would lose its originality. It'd be too much like writing letters or drafting documents at work.

Here, it's suppose to be a free zone - freedom of expression and there's no worry or fear that you may get it wrong, and be sued for negligent!

by now, you should know what I do for living.

a new close friend of mine is librarian whom I met at my old firm. it's my new close friend because we only got closer since ... I think in the last 6 to 12 months. can't remember exactly. but I have known her since I join my old firm in March 2001. coincidentally, she joined around that time too, I think a few weeks after.

she's nice. given that I'm such picky person - although I'm very nice too - she must be really nice by general standard. but she's stupid, sometimes, I think. or too nice, depending on how you look at it. the most recent example is what she told me yesterday when we met up for lunch. she too joined a new firm this year. she said she's "in" tomorrow. she said she came in last saturday too as the other librarian - who is subordinate to her - said she had swapped a saturday with her. then I asked, "does that mean tomorrow it's your "off" week?" she went, "no. tomorrow is my proper "in" week, but as the other librarian swapped a saturday, because I have not joined, she had to go in last week too. she was doing me a favour." I went, "how could that be a "swap" if you have not even joined the firm?? how is that fair??" Only then librarian realised that she had been "conned." She agreed and said,"why is it always that you can see things through and I can't?" I said because I'm stingy and picky! I said seriously, because I'm an outsider so I was able to see it lah. But that I said to her: there's a difference between seen it through and take an issue on it, and seen it through but not take an issue on it as she would want to maintain a good relationship with her new colleagues. but I said to her that don't think of it as a concession from her colleague, but think of it as a "commercial decision" that she'd like to make peace with her new colleagues.

librarian told me she's not yet settled. I said me too. she said she's not particularly happy with new environment - it's a lot more "mah fan" than one imagines. and there's lack of communication between partners of the same department! she gave me one example: a partner hired someone to join the department. when that person arrived, or after the offer was accepted, (can't remember which), another partner jumped on it and complained that he wasn't informed and asked why the new hire?! sad, but that's what her new firm is renowed for. she said surprisingly, many people there have worked in that firm for a long time. I said because they pay well, and my guess is people stay for the money. afterall, it's just a job.

over lunch, librarian said she'll probably work a few more years then switch to something else. I asked what. she said not sure. then I said, "I'm disappointed. I thought you might say you'd like to marry me then I don't have to work." she went, " I was hoping the same from you!" Oh la lah!!

I should also mention that librarian said a lot of her colleagues do not have internet access in the office. that's unheard of! internet access is essential to fee earners, especially for purpose of doing research. she told me that that's why her department is so busy. they also have to do research and obtain information from internet, copy and paste, then send it as attachment to whoever asked for it. wow - long process, inefficient and what a waste of money$$

got a call from ww early this afternoon. he said he got promoted this morning - and this guy has only started this new job last Monday! Nothing is impossible.

Later this afternoon, I heard from an old friend from convent school. she's ex-deacons and joined in house too. she did insurance litigation at deacons so she said she didn't know much about my partners. she asked why did I change from JSM to here. I said why not?! by the sound of it, it seems to be a wrong move - well, only if she knows what my partners had said to me. I think my situation is different to hers at the time. I did not tell her.

but then, she told me that in terms of making budget, they are very strict here. if a fee earners' time is written off or marked down by certain percentage, the supervising partner would have to explain to the management. I said I'm new and at the moment, I'm not worried about that. In fact, I was never worried about that when I was with JSM as I always exceeded budget substantively. Indeed, I was the highest fee earner in 2002, 2003 or 2004. so I'm not worried.

well, I say that I'm not worried, but I am. I have done nothing today except reading in. I only did *some* chargeable work towards the end of the day. I guess it's probably too early for me to think of these things. I hope I can focus on work, and work only. and not get distracted or influenced by what others have said. I wish I can be like bb - firm and not get influenced easily. well, bb is quite unique afterall. : )

yesterday was a happy day - bb got good bonus and increment (although yet to be paid to her), we had dinner to celebrate and returned home together - yeah!

We went to this Jap restaurant close to my place. We ordered a set menu for 2, plus extra sashimi and grilled fish - how much fish did we kill and ate last night??! The set menu is only available Mon to Thursday or Friday. For $168, you get a whole twitching fish, uni handroll, deep fry tofu, potato salad, two eel fried rice and dessert. For $15 extra each, they would make "fish milk soup" with the fish bone. The fish milk soup has been my favourite ever since I had the first sip. I wasn't attracted to it as by its description, I thought they are going to add milk to the fish soup. After I've tried it, wow, it's really delicious! both of us like it very much.

bb had choya. only if I can have some too.

The meal was therefore a feast - it's what it should be - to celebrate bb's achievement - yeah! I know I have big appetite, but in the end we could not finish everything. bb made a wise move - she asked the waitress to pack the eel fried rice directly. :P

One of them became my lunch today, whilst the other will be my dinner tonight. I have also cooked carrots and port soup - well 2 days ago. so dinner tonight should be delicious and Korean - the Korean seems to have soup at the same time with their meal eg a mouthful of rice followed by a mouthful of soup.

I know I have been watching too much Korean drama lately.

Spoke to sf just now. have been thinking whether to call him, the reservation being to say what? since I'm not so busy today, so I called. The conversation went like this:

I asked how he was. He said he was fine.
He said how I'm doing and if I'm settling. I said so far so good. so long he's fine, I'm fine too.
I said I'll let him get back to work. Then he asked if I called just for that? I said yes, since I haven't heard from him for ages.
Then he explained that he was tied up with an urgent matter yesterday and today, and only came back to chambers about 15 mins ago. I said I'm happy he's working on something chargeable.
I said I'll let him go back to his work. then he spoke some rubbish which I don't even remember now. I think it's something like you busy? leaving late? etc
Then he said he'll call me back after he finished with what he has to do. I said fine.

Let me tell you, this is quite typical of our conversation - talk rubbish. he won't hang up if I suggested it but would pick up another rubbish subject or ask some rubbish question, some of which have been asked and answered in the same conversation. he would only hang up when he suggested to do so.

odd, I know. and weird, I know that too. what to do? he's sf - who bought me a mini ipod for Christmas 2004! That must have killed him, as the secretary from my old law firm (who knows him well) said he's very mean, which can be seen by the distinct feature on his face ie you can't see his nostrils when he's looking straight. but who wants to look at nostrils??! he treated me to many hot chocolates and 2 or 3 lunches, since I met him in 2001 on the NW case. no dinner yet. but he is kind and has a soft heart.

This is the first entry in 2005 - after I have deserted writing anything here. It's only 19th, so not too bad, right?!

Where shall I start? Well, I started new job with another local firm in HK on 3rd. so far so good. a lot of pressure, but I guess mostly I assume it myself. I have high standard mah. I take pride in what I do and my standard is that whatever gone through me must be of high quality. but then bb suffers as I don't have much time for her. Sometimes it's not physical time, it's the mental time. I mean we are together but my mind is elsewhere. From her point of view, she might think it's not new anymore as when I was dealing with NW's case with my old firm, sometimes I'd been "there but nobody was home" kind of status. but I've been benefiting from her generosity and understanding. of course, her cooking too. It's strange - when I'm at her place, I'm like those chauvistic pigs who do nothing but put their feet up when they got home. So, I'm going to her place more often these days - smart move, right? When she's at my place, I let her do the same, but sometimes she does the housework for me too eg boiling water to refill the cool water bottle, cook lunch when I'm still in bed on Sunday, etc. I'm very spoiled.