it's been quite different without bb. it's probably not noticeable on the face of it, but that's the truth.

booked facial this afternoon, and may be get a "Yik She" novel this afternoon? tomorrow will visit sis with mum and her siblings and their respective families. then probably dim sum lunch.

feel very down . thinking of sis quite often. miss her immensely. had never not seen her for so long. it hurts when i know it'll be longer before i'll see her again. been acting a bit strangely in the office this week - looking very happy, joked a lot and laughted a lot. humourous. it's been like that for me. when there's a change in me, my defence system will put me on that mode. odd it seems, as it's directly opposite to how I feel, but that's been how it is for as long as I can remember.

when I was at the convent school in uk, people used to say and think that i'm difficult to understand and catch. I thought the formula is pretty simple, but just that they did not get it! not that I consciously try to hide anything. i just did. automatically.

been to a home cooking place that serves Japs. food is ok. with some specialites. it's convenient - directly opposite to the back of Sogo. service was good. price about $200 per head - sashmi, california roll, eel tempura, lamb, salad with crab roe, etc. when bb's back, will bring her there. see what she thinks. at least as an alternative to the restaurant near mm's, and if bb is happy, that will at least be an alternative, that is more convenient - it'd been the middle between bb's and mine's.

wonder what bb is doing now ... mm is thinking of picking up golf. wonder if bb would join too. that'll be great incentive for mm, and something else they can share together ...

so mm's skin looks particularly awful, and recently been particularly impatient. but nice bb has not taken it personally, or perhaps bb hasn't noticed??! in any event, bb has been really, really nice to mm, so bb deserves a big kiss - *smack*!

mm's boss came to speak to her about half an hour ago. he told mm that there's be a meeting with another client - so new case for mm - yeah! he also told mm that he will be away from this Friday afternoon, returning on Sunday. what he has just done then is that he had just thrown mm's idea to fly to meet bb in Singapore this weekend out of the window!

mm is hoping to escape next weekend, if not, the weekend after next.

and mm is missing bb already - bb departed this afternoon, returning 2 weeks later.

feel really good recently. feeling loved. by whom? many people lah. cannot list them all, and would like to think the list is not exhaustive!

it's also been fairly smooth recently. particular victory worth mentioning is the shareholders dispute with foreign client. met them this afternoon. they said they are happy just to get out because they fear that the potential liability is many times more! now they get to pocket an 8-digit figure - not bad, right? would like to think that's the result of recent victories in court proceedings which put a lot of pressure on the other side. as they lost, they obviously have to pay our costs too. client is very pleased and was laughing about that. the other side were difficult with the whole thing including price of course. client said today that there was no resistance from the other side when they met yesterday!

whilst still feeling great and glorified (?), must thank bb who has given tremendous support to mm throughout. *smack*

- bb doesn't seem to have surfed on the net or wrote anything at this website in the last few days. it's already hard to imagine bb not surfing for a day, and imagine a few days ... ?! what's up??

but no worries. mm will ask when they meet *tonight*!

mm will be able to see bb tomorrow - yeah!

meant to write it up yesterday but wish to go home overcame desire to log onto here.

yeah, had a weird dream the evening before - dreamt of baffoon (sp) and tom in london! in connection with sf's client. woke up in the middle of the night - not surprisingly - who in their wildest dream could have dreamt of them??! can't remember anything else except them, but that's daunting enough!

finished reading draft Case yesterday. ok, not as good as the last one. tried calling sf to discuss my opinion but he's never there, or on the phone. didn't leave a message as these days, don't have confidence. tried to call client too, but she too is always engaged in meetings. they have a hearing re administration. not sure how it went. hope it's ok. may be that's why they were having meetings after meetings.

heard from ex-secretary that snake has took away the case from olive. that part of the case is now handled by a guy who is a year ahead of me (I think), who used to head their vietnam office but was called back recently as that office is making losses! snake has also involved another guy but he's even more junior than olive! one wonders what he has in mind ...

sf mentioned possibility of moving to another one earlier this month - yes, again. he rejected the idea outright when mm mentioned it. since then, he'd mentioned it a few times - as though the idea came from him! at the end of the day, it's probably another incident of a lot of talks but no action. :P

mm's secretary has access to mm's inbox in office. mm noticed that she might be reviewing mm's personal emails, especially exchanges with bb. so mm reminded her yesterday, in a nice way, that she should not review mm's personal mails. she said she did not.

mm has to come to office this Sunday for a meeting with client coming from Japan, followed by dinner. Would they go Japanese??

mm is still wearing necklace. thought bb might want to know.

And only 2 more days! :)

It's my first entry in the year of Rooster. We had a good holiday - didn't do much. stayed home and enjoyed each other's company. guess we are starting to appreciate what the gui los have been doing for ages - do nothing in a beach. I even say to bb that may be in due course, we could have those beach holidays and won't feel bored with it, provided that bb brings laptop and mm brings korean drama and a dvd machine!

yes, that's what we've done for most of the holiday. But it's great. very relaxing. there were points of time when I thought may be we should go out, but then I thought not. bb must be tired. sometimes it hurts me thinking about it - bb has to fly so much lately, and must be exhausted. it's a physical and mental strain. sigh. so I thought we'd better stay in.

we went out too. went to mm's brother's place to visit and have dinner. on saturday, bb lunched with her family, whilst mm had dinner with her family. and as bb said, on the first day of year of rooster, we went out to get sushi, sashimi etc. a good mix lah.

during the holiday, mm finished another korean drama - winter sonata. ok. not as good as mm expected.

bb left yesterday, for another business trip. but saturday, mm got a pressie for Valentine - a pair of necklace, and the pendants were two pieces of jigsaw puzzles - one on each necklace. :) they were packed in the same box - naturally you'd had thought - but bb complained that there's only one box! bbmm had a great laugh. may be bb said it deliberately to make mm laughed - how thoughtful ??!!

mm also got an sms from bb today - yeah!

Only half a day has gone, and a lot had happened. mm's secretary is on holiday, so there's a substitute. she's *useless.* and mm meant it. she's the first person mm had used such word and I don't feel sorry for using it on her at all. An example of it is that yesterday, mm asked her to call IDD service to find out the time difference between Tokyo and Hong Kong. That should not take long. after a while when mm didn't hear from her, mm revert and asked if there's any news. you would never have guessed what she said to mm. With her left hand on the handset of the phone, and right hand on the mouse, she said to mm she didn't know where to call and was searching for the information on the internet. by the time it's taking her, she obviously was no good at surfing (unlike bb!) mm was furious, then mm did it herself.

this morning was even better. she could not do the simpliest standard letter to send documents to the other parties. and she could not even following up and make sure all enclosures are there before a letter was sent. you would have guessed what happened - yes, mm has now done another letter to the other parties to enclose the documents which have been omitted. I want to kill that woman! mm was lucky as she received help from her boss's secretary. she's by far better. and the trainee is useless too. there's standard Practice Directions on how to prepare bundle of documents for hearings in Court, but he didn't know. the way he interacted was as though he didn't even know such Practice Directions existed! and he's been in this department for 6 months already! What to do????!

mm was hoping that she could escape earlier today, but that may be unrealistic given the standard of quality and intelligence of those around her. yes, mm knew that.

The weekend just passed had been relaxing. pretty tired on saturday as I went to bed late Friday night, watching korean drama. went to work, attended another lesson with sis and then had a haircut. I got to haircut place at around 4pm, and it was pretty empty. I was worried that it may be crowded. lucky!

went home after haircut. took 2x, but the journey took a very long time. I reckon it must have taken about an hour from causeway bay to home, when usually takes about 15 minutes? traffic jam. i guess close to cny.

finished a korean drama sat night. slept in sunday morning, got up around 11am. I was a little surprise. I thought I would only open my eyes after 1pm as I've been very busy for the last 2 weeks. ate a lot of food - finished the soup I cooked on Sat night, and the dishes mum's maid brought to me last week. have to finish them as bb's back soon and there won't be time to have them. :P

l resisted the temptation of starting another korean drama until late afternoon, say about 4pm?? went to bed around 3am this morning. oops. what's new?! this one is ok, not a lot of crying and tears and in some parts, quite sweet. got another few discs to finish. can't wait to get home.

but I'm meeting with librarian tonight. we borrowed some books for sf under her name. it's now overdue and we have to bring back those books and renew them. must go with her as her library card has a photo. being mc, I arranged for three very think and old law books to be picked up from sf's chamber, then tonight, I'll have to bring them to HKU to renew them as sf still wants them. I'll probably drop them back in my office before going to dinner with librarian. then will have to arrange for it to be delivered to sf's chamber to his use afterwards. the thing about this firm is that all deliveries are chargeable, so I'll probably be the ond making the delivery. re dinner with librarian, my treat I guess, because of the trouble we have caused her. sometimes I ask myself - what am I doing all these for? making time, paying for overdue and dinner, and no one seem to appreciate them?! the truth is client doesn't even know about all these. nevermind. as the bible says, we should love one another as we love ourselves. If doing these things would help her to get out of trouble, that's not bad.

sf called on sat. wow! It's usually to say "how are you" as opening. but when I say that to sf, he said "don't ask." his tone was irritated. I was surprised! so from now on I'm not supposed to ask how he's doing??! then he told me about snake's stupid idea of making an application to the cfa. he also told me that he's thinking of moving the case after february, now that the handwriting side of the case has counsel. I have been telling him that since Oct before and after I handed in notice to leave my last job. he told me his relationship with snake these days are not good. and that snake went on holiday last week nevertheless in light of the current turbulence. he said the logical firm to go to is bnm. what can I say?? then he mentioned his brother doing handwriting. he said he didn't understand why people thinks marilyn is indispensable. i told him given the criminal side of things, they should look for a new team. in any event, it's only fair to client if a new team is brought in as the existing team had failed her twice. this is her *last* chance. I told him I read in articles that ccb has new evidence re handwriting, but I forgot to tell him it's also been said that ccb also has new evidence on ink.

I was hoping that he's suggest to involve me in cfa, but not. nevermind. if it comes, it comes but I just feel a little ... hmm, what's the right word??

then sf called yesterday to ask a specific question - he asked if I remember the dates of certain hearings. I gave him what I remember and we hanged up. then I went to the internet and dug out the information for him and called him back. he asked where did I get that information. I said from the internet as the relevant judgments were published. I hope he's impressed - that I'm smart, quick and that it'll be a bad decision not to involve me. admittedly, after sf called on saturday, the idea that I might be involved in the case jointly with bnm came across briefly. I should not care so much. why am I so desperately wanting to do the case? I want to work with sf again. I want to feel important and indispensable. yeah, it's pride, eagle and big-headed. Also, I guess at the back of my mind I know if I'm involved, my future in this firm would be secured. I seem to have hidden agenda - like snake and any other bnm guys. I seem to have changed!

why last weekend? because bb's back tomorrow : )

these days have been long days. came in early, left office late, and work weekends. it's getting laborious. but when I get things done the way I want, I'm happy. especially when I have had time to think about what I'm doing, and be able to do it right. again, it's pride. i'm an aries.

although bb's abroad, bb sents me emails. sometimes I think those emails should be posted here too, or they will get lost. there are very sweet moments that really worth recording, although some are administrative/routine stuff. here's our exchange today:

bb: I'm supposed to have dinner with Sandra and UBS folks tonight but they haven't come back with time or location. I know someone left a voicemail on Christina's phone, but how am I supposed to retrieve it? Anyway I don't mind if we're not going, I'm eating far too much and want a quiet night in. Besides, Amazing Race tonight at 10pm!

If you had a chance to read the weblog, I came across this short story writing competition to be held over 24 hours. Converting to HK time, it means Sunday 10 April all day. You have to sign up for the competition and max is 500 participants. Already 50% full.

But I was thinking, may be that's the week we want to go away, so how??? What does mm think?

mm: we planned to go away the week of our birthday. in that case, the last day will be Sunday 10th. we can stay home if you wish, but if you have to go to work tomorrow, how are going to stay up all night to write your story?

I'm easy either way, so long bb's happy. I need to raise holiday issue with Joe soon, as I heard he plans to go away for Easter. I guess we should be ok, as our birthdays are on the week following.

bb, mm attended a hearing this morning - we won! joe's very happy, so is client. but sf apparently not. he's still in his cave, trying to recover. i feel better as i've been so busy and had no time to think about it. but bottom of my heard wants her and sf well. what can I do??

bb: I was thinking of not entering but if they publicise the topic on their website, I can do that one weekend that mm is at work. Kinda like just for myself (and mm).

I think that's the week we do want to go away, should be ok cos it's after Easter. Probably it'll just be a week, right? We can save up the days for later in the year, ok?

Yay for mm winning, all mm's hard work is well rewarded! Nothing much you can do about sf and client, it's a pretty difficult time for her, but don't push too much, there's probably a lot more going on than he can tell you and you shouldn't take it personally that he doesn't tell you. You really must try to distant yourself more from this case, at least on a personal emotional level. I know it's difficult, and it's bb being cold hearted, but it's affecting you, and bb doesn't want that.

And bb knows exactly what mm has in mind. yeah, mm has sms sf once or twice. it's probably on the day before sf said "just give me a few days. I'm very very depressed and feel useless."

bb always give good advice.