The second career
1) Every so often in my nearly 5 (5!) years in Hong Kong, I go through a swing in friend relationships here. Some go, some come, and others just change. I think I'm going through one of those again, as people who were part of a bigger group are pairing off in smaller groups, and one is leaving. A lot of it is couples pairing up in smaller groups, but it still is sorting itself out. Part of this is the reason I have not gone out a ton the past few months, I think; I've been more content to sit at home and chill out than I used to. Part of that, too, I assume is from just getting older and not having the tolerance the next morning for hangovers. Edumcation, they say.
But I did want to change things up this weekend; I realize I have been in kind of a funk the past few months, which, oh, also coincides with changes at work. But I can do the same old, every day, and then get in a funk, or try some new stuff. So I decided to head over to Macau for a night and enter a poker tournament.
Yes, a tournament. Pay $1,000 HK to enter (or pay $220 in a qualifying tournament earlier) and see what happens. Well, I finished 4th of 22, which earned me about a 300% return on my original investment for three hours of my time. Not enough to quit my day job for (the tourney is only once a week), but enough to pleasantly surprise me. Too bad I was not 2nd; that would have gotten me enough for a new Ipad, plus all my expenses for the trip over there.
But I don't expect to do this good ever again. It's like the time I was a senior in college, and my dad took my to a dog track; he gave me $50 to start, showed me how to bet the first four races, after which i had $120. I ended up the afternoon with $450, and in my three times gambling after that, I lost a little bit of money on every try.
2) Since the last blog post, I went from thinking about starting a bar to signing a preliminary lease for one to backing out to paying a big penalty for doing so to just trying to concentrate on building up our beer business in its current form.
The lesson here: if you ever want to start a business, do a real hard assessment of the numbers, and not a general one, before signing anything.
Oh, and no man is a business island to himself. Remember that.
3) New businesses on my street: Across the street, a bakery/cafe is to open. Probably will be the same squishy bread I get everywhere, but hey, it is something new, so woot! On the downside, the crappy vietnamese place down the street is expanding. Which is weird, because I never see people ordering crappy food from their existing place. (Hong Kong is strangely lacking for good Vietnamese restaurants; all of them are usually geared for local palates, which does not like spices or flavor contrasts like the Vietnamese do.)
4) While I have never been to the Philippines, I am attending a wedding in San Diego next month, and the bride's family is from said country. And for the wedding feast, they are ordering a lechon, which is one of the country's national dishes, an entire roast pig. Proof once again why America rocks.
5) I was talking with a friend, and I realized I have really seen a lot of what I wanted to see while in Asia. This is not me saying I am leaving now, but the only stuff I really have left on my list is central Vietnam, maybe a little of Laos and southern Japan. If I had to leave soon, I would be happy that I got to see all the stuff I wanted to in Asia, plus a little more.
6) That said, the pleasant surprises of traveling here were Myanmar and Bali and the islands near Bali. In fact, I want to hit Bali again next year; words cannot express how relaxing that area is. (It helps Bali, being Hindu and not Muslim, digs the swine, too.)
7) I think maybe part of the reason for me being in a funk is that I always have the curtains closed now to keep the beer in my apartment from going bad. It's amazing how not having a lot of light in your apartment can funk you up.
8) In February, I will have lived as long here in my current apartment as I did on north Clark street in Chicago. Hard to believe that.
But I did want to change things up this weekend; I realize I have been in kind of a funk the past few months, which, oh, also coincides with changes at work. But I can do the same old, every day, and then get in a funk, or try some new stuff. So I decided to head over to Macau for a night and enter a poker tournament.
Yes, a tournament. Pay $1,000 HK to enter (or pay $220 in a qualifying tournament earlier) and see what happens. Well, I finished 4th of 22, which earned me about a 300% return on my original investment for three hours of my time. Not enough to quit my day job for (the tourney is only once a week), but enough to pleasantly surprise me. Too bad I was not 2nd; that would have gotten me enough for a new Ipad, plus all my expenses for the trip over there.
But I don't expect to do this good ever again. It's like the time I was a senior in college, and my dad took my to a dog track; he gave me $50 to start, showed me how to bet the first four races, after which i had $120. I ended up the afternoon with $450, and in my three times gambling after that, I lost a little bit of money on every try.
2) Since the last blog post, I went from thinking about starting a bar to signing a preliminary lease for one to backing out to paying a big penalty for doing so to just trying to concentrate on building up our beer business in its current form.
The lesson here: if you ever want to start a business, do a real hard assessment of the numbers, and not a general one, before signing anything.
Oh, and no man is a business island to himself. Remember that.
3) New businesses on my street: Across the street, a bakery/cafe is to open. Probably will be the same squishy bread I get everywhere, but hey, it is something new, so woot! On the downside, the crappy vietnamese place down the street is expanding. Which is weird, because I never see people ordering crappy food from their existing place. (Hong Kong is strangely lacking for good Vietnamese restaurants; all of them are usually geared for local palates, which does not like spices or flavor contrasts like the Vietnamese do.)
4) While I have never been to the Philippines, I am attending a wedding in San Diego next month, and the bride's family is from said country. And for the wedding feast, they are ordering a lechon, which is one of the country's national dishes, an entire roast pig. Proof once again why America rocks.
5) I was talking with a friend, and I realized I have really seen a lot of what I wanted to see while in Asia. This is not me saying I am leaving now, but the only stuff I really have left on my list is central Vietnam, maybe a little of Laos and southern Japan. If I had to leave soon, I would be happy that I got to see all the stuff I wanted to in Asia, plus a little more.
6) That said, the pleasant surprises of traveling here were Myanmar and Bali and the islands near Bali. In fact, I want to hit Bali again next year; words cannot express how relaxing that area is. (It helps Bali, being Hindu and not Muslim, digs the swine, too.)
7) I think maybe part of the reason for me being in a funk is that I always have the curtains closed now to keep the beer in my apartment from going bad. It's amazing how not having a lot of light in your apartment can funk you up.
8) In February, I will have lived as long here in my current apartment as I did on north Clark street in Chicago. Hard to believe that.
posted by throm at 11:08 PM
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