Hong Kong Apr 08 (1)- Work

The work trip to Hong Kong was a very educational one. Though the main purpose was to attend a housing conference for which our Minister was one of four keynote speakers, the delegation also toured various housing projects/ offices/ parks (respective stat board reps attended things relevant to our fields) Our various hosts from Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Housing Society were all very hospitable and friendly; and were very willing to share what they have done, esp on the issues of rental and elderly housing. Particularly for elderly housing, Hong Kong seems to be quite a few steps ahead of sg, esp in terms of facilities and range of support services for this growing group of individuals.

Since work work is confidential and sometimes boring to other ppl, I shall instead talk a little bit about other work-related but not subject-specific things I discovered:

1) Work trip for big shots and medium shots basically means you work throughout the day; even after day's outings are over and everyone can technically retire to their rooms. And so perhaps only with the exception of a tiny fry like me with no working laptop (phew...), rest of the laptop-equipped ppl on trip were probably clearing mails, typing notes of minutes blah blah way into wee hours of the night. And so while colleague was clearing emails on laptop, I was amusing myself with reports of Olympic torch snatchers on BBC/NHK..... (experiencing 50% guilt 50% relief)

2) Punctuality is a golden rule for work trips. Though I must say that I am a pretty punctual person, I've learnt that small fries always ought to appear like 15 min b4 stipulated meeting time; else you will most certainly end up being last persons to arrive even if you're on the dot. Hai... This aspect me and hy dun have much 形象 left, since for some unfortunate reasons we both arrived last twice... And the 2nd time our CEO even suaned us for being like 3 min late... OOPS.

3) Logistics sucks... Though I was a free-rider on this trip, I quite empathised with the logistic guy from MND who had to take care of every single detail from group check-in to helping with last min flight changes etc... It's a skill I dun think I can ever really master... :(

4) Networking lunches/dinners are not really my cup of tea. Well, actually I had the good luck of sitting beside some really cool individuals (like the quite high ranking kind who maybe deep down wonder why got such tiny fry at same table but yet tries to engage you and dun make you feel uncomfortable); there were also some eeky ones who just bochap you and concentrate on the impt ppl at table (ok lah, it's understandable). The socialising part aside, two good things that came out of these though were i) reminder and renewed motivation to be updated on current affairs & ii) Lotsa delicious Chinese food!

Lastly, some random work-related shots:

Unlike in Singapore, public rental housing blocks in Hong Kong typically have names instead of block numbers. Apparently, these huge characters plastered to the side of the blocks also serve as a resting point for little sparrow guests :)

The magnifiying reader machine that allows elderly to magnify tiny text in books. Quite cool right. Apparently, you can also change the text cum background to different colors too; cos according to demonstrator some elderly cannot detect certain colors too well...

Cameramen awaiting arrival of Chief Executive Donald Tsang at a cocktail reception to celebrate HKHS's 60th anniversary.

Cute choir kids performing at the above ceremony. The lil boy on the top right looks so demure but shuai4 hor... :P