Phone numbers

It just occurred to me that I've lost the ability to remember phone numbers. I've also forgotten the vast number of numbers I once committed to memory.

Fortunately, I can still remember my family's home number. My family has been using the same number since before I was born. I can also remember my best friends' phone numbers, at least my best friends in high school, but we're talking about just 4 numbers here. And of these 4 friends, only 1 (an ex-girlfriend) is still living in Vancouver, but at least the others' parents still use these numbers.



Whose number is this? Oh... damn you, Tommy Tutone!



Of all of the phone numbers I've had in the last few years (I've had around 10), I can only remember one: my mobile phone (or "cell", as we call them in North America) number in Beijing. I can't remember the mobile phone numbers I had in Taipei and Vancouver or the land line I had in Beijing. I can't remember any of my office numbers either. In fact, I haven't even memorized my current office number, but perhaps that's because I'm never there. Well, at least I can remember my current home and mobile phone numbers.

In Hong Kong, there are people I call regularly, but mobile phone rates here are so cheap - I get 2000 anytime minutes a month for $95 HKD, less than $15 CAD - that I usually just call them with my mobile phone. And the person I talk to (or perhaps talkED to) most often lives in the same building as me, so I just have to dial her 4-digit extension number.

Perhaps I no longer bother to memorize telephone numbers because I rely on the phone directory in my phone. I can connect to any of my friends and relatives by looking up their names, which is a simple matter of pushing a couple of buttons - no memorization necessary. In high school, I committed my best friends' phone numbers to memory because I had to dial their numbers every time I called them, which I did quite often; bear in mind that this was before the age of instant messaging. We eventually began to own mobile phones, but the rates back then were not cheap, so we usually used land lines. I suppose we could have used speed dial, but 1. they were my family's phones, not my own, 2. I was too lazy to program numbers into speed dial, and 3. I committed numbers to memory rather quickly.

Unfortunately, because I no longer have to dial phone numbers, I no longer memorize numbers. I also have the nasty habit of ONLY programming peoples' numbers into my phones and not writing my numbers down anywhere else. If I lose my phone, I will lose all contact with the outside world! If I lose all of my numbers, the only people I can contact are my parents, an ex-girlfriend in Vancouver, the parents of my 3 best friends in high school, and my own mobile phone number in Beijing!

Maybe I should write down my phone numbers somewhere...

Such nice weather, for a change

The weather has been incredibly nice in the last couple of weeks, with the exception of a couple of very hot and muggy days. I'm surprised that it's been so cool after experiencing some rather unseasonably warm days in January and February. I really don't know how long this wonderful weather will last, but I'll savour every bit of it while it does.

The weather I've been enjoying here lately reminds me of the sort of weather I enjoyed in Vancouver. April and September are my favourite months in Vancouver. It's just perfect during these months - not too hot, not too cold, and not too wet. When out in the sun, one feels quite warm, but never hot. It can be quite cool in the shade, and while shorts and a t-shirt will suffice in the afternoon, you'd need to wear a light jacket and long pants in the evenings. And though it rains in Vancouver year-round, there is significantly less rain in April and September than in the more dreary days of late autumn, winter, and early spring.

September is nice because we finally get some relief from the summer heat (bear in mind that while Vancouver's summers are not considered hot, air conditioning is not very common in Vancouver). July and August can get quite hot, perhaps hotter and hotter every year (thanks, global warming), yet the difference in temperature between early September and late September is quite dramatic. It can still be quite warm in the afternoon, but as evening approaches, the air becomes crisp, perfect weather for strolling. In the morning, the dew on the grass becomes heavier and heavier, and is still many weeks away from becoming frost. And in the final days of September, the first of the falling autumn leaves appear on the ground.

April is nice because we finally get some relief from the chilly, windy, and wet Vancouver winter. It can still be a bit windy, but I've always liked the wind in Vancouver, which is not only much cleaner than the wind elsewhere, but which sometimes carries the sweet smell of flowers or the distinctive scent of needles of coniferous trees. It's still a bit wet in April, but only half as wet as the winter (though still twice as wet as the summer). It's still a bit too cold to sunbathe on the beach, but it's definitely warm enough to go hiking, to stroll on a beach, and to dine al fresco. As I grow older, I've come to appreciate the beauty of the flowers that blossom in the spring.. well, except for the hay fever all that pollen causes.

While I suffer in the humid, sub-tropical climate in Hong Kong and Taipei and the dry, dusty, and sub-toxic air in Beijing, I long for the "clean" and mild weather of Vancouver. Yet, as I have been reminded in the last couple of weeks, there are still some perfect days I can still enjoy here.

Sleep problems re-emerging

I overslept today. I suspect it's because I slept with the air conditioning on for the first time in more than four months. I've been sleeping a bit later than usual in the last couple of weeks, and am in danger of falling back into my old patterns.

I want to be very careful with my sleep habits. I consider sleep, or getting a sufficient amount of sleep during "normal" sleeping hours, to be a fundamental first step in putting my life back together. After battling a sleep disorder and terrible sleep patterns for an entire year, I finally got myself back on track in December and January with a breakthrough sleep therapy I pioneered myself. Let's just say that it involves manipulation of time zones. Well, $500 CAD and 8 time zones later, I began to sleep at 2:00am rather than 8:00am, and I woke up at 9:00am rather than 2:00pm.

Most of you will never know the extent to which I have destroyed myself in the past year. My recovery has been taking much longer than everyone had anticipated or expected. I'm not even sure if the worst is behind me yet. In any case, I still consider proper sleep to be an important first step. If I sleep normal hours, I can eat regularly; if not, I can only eat one proper meal at the canteens and will be forced to survive on 7-11 meals or junk food for my other "meals". If I sleep and eat well, I can probably concentrate better, and therefore produce better work. When I produce work I can be proud of, I'll feel better about myself, and will perhaps like myself again. And when I like myself again, perhaps others will like me too.

Ham sandwiches

Last weekend, I organized a party for the residents in my dorm. Perhaps I was a bit optimistic when I ordered food for 75. I'd say that around 50 people came and went throughout the evening. Anyway, among the dishes I ordered was cold cuts. What a disaster! The pan-fried dumplings, cheesecake, and sushi were very popular choices, but the guests barely touched the spinach and feta cheese pastries and cold cuts.

Needless to say, I have a lot of leftovers on my hands. Two pounds of sliced ham! And what can I do with sliced ham? Make ham sandwiches, of course.

It just occurred to me that I haven't eaten sandwiches regularly in years. Believe it or not, I brought a ham sandwich to school every day from kindergarten to the final year of my Masters degree. By my calculation, that's 18.5 years of schooling. In other words, I've probably eaten more than 3500 ham sandwiches in my life. I'm sure I brought tuna sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches sometimes too, but for the most part, most of the sandwiches I consumed were ham sandwiches. And believe it or not, I'm not sick of ham sandwiches.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that my mom usually made lunch for me. I remember making lunch for myself during my high school years, but for some reason, my mom started making lunch for me again during university. I actually enjoyed making my lunch the night before school. It was simple enough to spread mayo or salad dressing on sliced bread, to slap on a couple of slices of ham, and maybe sliced sweet pickles too (better than dill). Sometimes, when my mom couldn't control herself and bought tomatoes in bulk volumes, she coerced me to add sliced tomato to my sandwich. I hated this, not only because tomato makes bread very soggy, but because raw tomato seems to make the inside of my stomach itchy. I always fell asleep in class after eating raw tomato. I sometimes added lettuce, but my mom usually bought iceberg lettuce, which really isn't appropriate for making sandwiches - it's too thick and too watery, and it's difficult to find flat leaves. Romaine is probably best. And when ham wasn't cheap or when we were low on ham, I sometimes added a slice of processed cheese to my sandwich. Sliced processed cheese is annoying because it's too salty and too small to fit sliced bread, making the centre of my sandwiches too salty and the crust flavourless.

As much as I like sandwiches, I rarely order them at restaurants. Why should I pay $10 for something I can easily make myself? But as I grew older, I've learned of sandwiches I've never eaten before. The "Reuben", for one, is a kick-ass sandwich I probably wouldn't make on my own. Not only are corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and rye bread not widely available, but it's also troublesome to pan-fry the sauerkraut. Hmm.. to come to think of it, it's probably not that hard to make a Reuben., and that stuff really isn't hard to find.

Anyway, I've almost finished eating my two pounds of sliced ham. I'll be sure to savour the last bite of my last ham sandwich.