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Scription Chronodex Weekly Planner Jan - Jun 2024 Released

Without further ado, here's the Chronodex Jan - Jun 2024 you've been waiting for.

For post-COVID Hong Kong, 2023 was kind of difficult. 2024 has proved to be a lot more challenging, even though it hasn't happened yet. We all know of the unfortunate chain of events happening between countries inside out; there are just courage and tenacities we must get hold of.

I hope you find peace and serenity, from self-instrospection and prayers. Love you all who appreciate the finer things in life.

Chronodex Weekly Planner Jul-Dec 2019 Released

Here it is the Chronodex Weekly Planner for July to December 2019!

Download: Chronodex Weekly Planner Jul-Dec 2019

As usual, it is a free visual scheduler for personal use.  Whenever you post something about it, please do hashtag #chronodex and give credit.  I've been using it for >7 years and I hope you find it very useful too.  Don't hesitate to join the Chronodex Facebook page and share your experience.

Wondering how to print it out properly?  Check this visual guide for printing.

Back in time a bit, when the Little Printer was still available, I had great fun with it since there were a lot of contents I could subscribe to.  It was a pity the service was discontinued and the product is no longer produced.  I did created a daily Chronodex subscription with check list and space to write gratitude note for the service, well it is history now.  Thanks to a group of enthusiasts who are into IOT, with a few coding and collaborative efforts the basic service is now back online for owners who still have the cute little cube, I'm so happy about it and have been printing text and images out for fun, thanks to the folks at Nord Projects.

A lot has happened in Hong Kong lately, so I'm trying to speed things up to catch up with lost time.  I'm heading Tokyo for business in a day, hope we can come up with something amazing soon.  In the mean time, if you are planning for a trip to Hong Kong and you are a fan of Traveler's Notebook and Manual Factory, please do reserve your time for 28th July!

Follow my instagram for latest updates: @patrickng

Recruit: Assistant Buyer - Stationery Department

Oh gee its been months since I updated Scription.  Other than writing short posts on my Instagram feed I could hardly find time to write anything at all.  We are terribly under manpower, two Assistant Buyer head counts yet to be fulfilled, so my poor Hong Kong team has been under a lot of pressure for close to a year now and I couldn't help much.  If you know of any perfect candidates for our Assistant Buyer position, please ask them to contact us as soon as possible, check out the recruitment details here.

Yup I blame work, and particularly work related to opening a new store in China, what a waste of precious times you don't want to hear.  Anyway, there are two major renovations going on in Hong Kong stores (Times Square and Harbour City stores), the Traveler's Notebook Star Edition campaign is very well received (which I hope to share in upcoming blog posts), I'm anxiously waiting for the date when we get together with TN fans on a ferry ride (8th June).  I miss merchandising, way too much projects going on I hardly touched or picked products.  Phew!

In the mean time, a giant rubber duck created by Dutch artist Florentijin Hofman came to Hong Kong and it's been a sensation.  Huge crowd gathering to take photos and at the same time, every newspaper stand started to sell rubber ducks hahaha.  We've setup a promotion with B-duck in our stores too and they are selling like hotcakes.

Welcome to Hong Kong - Our Nice and Culture Rich City

There's been much talk in the media and social networks about rich mainland Chinese coming to Hong Kong to spend millions in luxury shopping and how their etiquettes ruin everyday life of Hong Kong people, a kind of culture clash.  Fumed by emotions against the increasingly severe income disparity and developer hegemony, our society has become pretty restless.

Demonstrations after demonstrations is one way to deal with hegemony and poor government policies, it has to be done, but we can do better in other small ways too.  Let's not forget that those rich Chinese are just a small portion of the entire Chinese population whom God knows where they get their money from, let them waste their money on luxury goods, there are a lot of young people who genuinely want to explore our nice city and culture, including people from other countries too.

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

A few weeks ago I spent a little time taking a young couple from Shanghai to see our nice and culture rich city.  It was a short day's tour but it was great fun sharing stories of our streets, I wish the government had ambassador programs to teach us how to do it properly (but I guess there is no point waiting).

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

If you haven't eaten our famous street snacks like fish ball, you haven't been to Hong Kong.  It can be fun to watch my tourist friend ordering snacks to fish ball ladies :) I wish they can put up a more welcoming face to foreigners though.

(photo: Canon F1 85mm, UXi200)

A stroll in the Upper Lascar Row near Hollywood Road gives you a glimpse of antique business in the old days (my Dad roamed around this area a lot!) and you can get some pretty nice reproduction (or genuine?) goods like watches, communist badges/books, old vinyl records and posters, etc.

(photo: Leica CL, AGFA400)

In some areas, newer galleries and cafes sit right beside temples and old buildings, very romantic to write your travel journal while absorbing the contrasting atmosphere.  If modern cafe is not your cup of tea, go Mido Cafe to experience Hong Kong's afternoon tea culture (Time: Hong Kong 10 Things to Do).  The place is close by to Temple street, an interesting flea market often crowded late in the evening, if you are lucky you may be able to have your fortune told in a small fee.  There is also another flea market just a few stations away called Apliu Street, suitable for geeks and audiophiles, often very crowded in the afternoon around 4pm.  The Audio Space tube amplifier show room, made famous by the movie Infernal Affairs (American adaptation The Departed, well I suggest you watch our Hong Kong original, it is way better), is right on Apliu Street!

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

Passionate about analogue photography?  You must visit FilMe where you can find hundreds of 135/120/Polaroid/Fuji/etc film brands, you will love the atmosphere there.  Interest to get an old but refurbished Polaroid SX-70?  Well the technicians at :Mint: do hell of a great job fixing these treasures, the shop is a distributor of Impossible Project films and they designed and made their own SX-70 battery operated flash!

(photo: Voigtlander 35mm, UXi200)

If you are coming to Hong Kong and like what I'm recommending, message me and I'll see if you are worth to give out a google map for places to go, perhaps we can have tea together if you are lucky :)

A to Z, Action to Zen

Desktop down, tube clock failed, Dad in hospital, Mom suffers from fatigue, couldn't update blog the way I used to, but it gives me a great space to contemplate.

To me, a rewarding life is never about balance and compliance (you achieve nothing), neither being an extremist too (you isolate yourself and achieve nothing too) IMHO, it is about switching modes at your own pace, examine and find a path worth living for, one path.

When you do radial thinking too much, you see big pictures but you are too much into a Zen mode you feel no motivation to act (think of top management guys).  When you do too much GTD/taks/goal/achievement and stuffs like that, you miss the point (think of those working hard day in and day out at the bottom).  What's out there that's worth living for?  One thing, just one thing, you stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.  What's that one thing you may ask. "That's what you have to figure it out".

Ok enough of the City Slicker thing.  What I'm saying is that, make sure you have time to think free, make sure you can be determined to act free.

Happy New Year to All Scription Friends!

Thank you Scription readers!  For coming here once in a while and leave your comments.  I feel thankful for the abundance of my life, to be able to share and build friendships based on things and ideas we treasure.  I am privileged to have great colleagues and bosses with me every single day at work to tackle challenges.  Wish you good luck and health in all aspects of your lives.

(photo: Chandelier x Christmas Tree x Cake, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Harbour City, Hong Kong)