It’s just started raining again. It’s also pretty dark out for 2 in the afternoon and it may be 18 degrees but I’m feeling cold. Maybe it’s just the letdown after a fabulous week in Macau but right now I feel as if I can’t be arsed to do much of anything. Come to think of it, the only time I got out of the house this weekend was Saturday morning when I met someone over at Sunshine City (ha!) in Ma On Shan who bought one of my old camera bags. The only “real” meal that I had was on Sunday, when my gf cooked a great lunch with some of the truly wonderful pork chops I’d picked up at Shek Kee Frozen Meat Co. in Sai Kung – she always does her sauces in an impromptu fashion and can be hard pressed to remember later what she tossed in the pan, but along with the Sauce of Unknown Origins were green beans, yellow pepper, carrots, red onion – great color and taste combination.
Among the movies we watched, there was the tremendously entertaining Zombieland. Yeah, if you’ve got a weak stomach for gory special effects, it does get a little gruesome in the first half hour, but overall it’s a nice take on an overworked genre. Maybe I’m telling you too much here but Bill Murray’s in it and his appearance is more than worth the price of admission (or a DVD).
My gf seems to really enjoy classic Hollywood musicals – not sure she even realizes how much she digs the genre but I put on one of these and it’s practically guaranteed that she will not lose interest or fall asleep. Yesterday afternoon we watched The Music Man. On some levels it’s incredibly hokey and creaky and plays out like a much older film. But there are still a lot of joys to be found in this film, from the amazing costume design to an expert supporting cast that includes Buddy Hackett, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold and dozens of other faces you will at least recognize even if you don’t know the names. And of course there’s Robert Preston. (And Shirley Jones, too, I suppose.) And little Ron Howard with hair and a fake lisp. Most of all, Meredith Wilson’s melodies are insanely catchy and his lyrics are kind of clever at times. Let’s not forget that even the Beatles covered a song from this film.
The rest of my time this weekend was spent “in” Lightroom and, as previously noted, I’ve uploaded new galleries to Flickr, one for last Friday’s Fallen Angel shoot at PASM and one from our Macau trip. There will be more to come. Looking back at photos from 6 to 9 months ago, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned in the past few months – both in terms of shooting and also in using Lightroom, though a big part of the improvement also comes from spending the bucks on the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens, expensive as hell but well worth the money. I’m so in love with the results that it gives me that I find that I have no desire to go out with my Panasonic GF-1 anymore and I’m thinking about selling it off. If and when I do get another job, one of the first things I plan to do to celebrate is to get the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens, a huge and expensive beast.
Speaking of getting a job, with Chinese New Year just a week away, things have hit the doldrums. I’m sending out CVs, making follow-up phone calls (perhaps not as many as I should) and while I’ve managed to generate some interest, I don’t think I’m being egotistical when I say that I don’t think I’m getting the level of interest or the quality of offers that I believe I deserve. It could be that the kind of job I’m looking for doesn’t exist in Hong Kong at the moment – or it doesn’t exist for someone my age or for someone who is not multi-lingual.
If you take a look at my profile on LinkedIn, you’ll see that I’ve received recommendations from the co-inventor of the DVD as well as an SVP, an EVP, a VP, a Managing Director and 3 Directors and some of my former staff from my previous job. I think that stands as darned good evidence of my skills and accomplishments. So excuse me if I’m feeling a little frustrated at the moment.
Sorry, don’t mean to whine. Probably need to drag myself out of the house tonight and have a couple of drinks somewhere.
