Hong Kong + Shenzhen, China 2026

 My first and only boys trip this year.

Flew with Jinglong and Wenda to HK/SZ for a 5D4N boys trip.

We started day one flying into HK. Upon touchdown we were ferried to SZ’s Mission Hills Resort where we would stay for the next three nights. Went in SZ CBD to visit Coco Park, basically the Vivocity of SZ, had a delicious seafood dinner, then a roast goose supper, followed by a beer watching Manchester United lost 0-2 to Chelsea. Finally went back to our hotel to retire early due to super early tee off next morning.

Day two, Jinglong and I headed to Dongguan side of Mission Hills to play one of the toughest courses in all of Asia, the infamous Norman Course in Mission Hills. Yes, it was hard but thankfully I had a nice caddy helping me ease up my game. I managed to hit a 108 which was great considering this being my first golf game of this year. It was funny because in the afternoon we were supposed to go off for dinner in SZ city again but I fell asleep in my room and Jinglong and Wenda had to call hotel emergency services to unhinge my room door thinking I was in an emergency but was actually to wake me up lol. In the evening we had a chill massage and another roast goose dinner in town.

Day three, Jinglong and I headed to Shenzhen side (we were staying here) to play the Els Course.This was a tough course, made even tougher by the fact that they had to pair us into four balls. We were paired with two older men who were quite good. So I sucked under pressure at the start. Towards the end I did recover my form and ended up scoring a 106. Again the afternoon we three went to another part of Shenzhen CBD to explore the high technology of the city. Had a delicious crab roe noodle dinner and then walked around the city. Did a very weird and dangerous ear digging which I do not recommend. Then had a leg massage, then beers before heading back to our hotel around midnight.

It is day four and time to check out. We travelled back to HK, staying at the Marriott Bonvoy group’s Parklane Hotel. It was a little old buy quite luxurious. Then David and I brought Jinglong to eat all our favourite HK foods in the Central and Sheung Wan area. We ended up drinking at LKF and partying late into the night.

Day five, it was the end of our trip. We had a breakfast, then Jinglong and I headed to the airport after bidding farewell to Wenda who would stay on awaiting his wife’s arrival.

A great and relaxing trip with fun brotherly bonding all round!

O-levels Are Almost Over

 Tomorrow is the boy’s final O-level paper.

Biology Paper 1.

The boy has worked so hard, I really hope he does well to get into a good JC because he really deserves it.

Then again, whatever will be, will be.

Bless him.

Manchester United 4 Aston Villa 4

 What a weird game.

Firstly we did NOT win, meaning we are still in the relegation zone.

With that out of the way, the rest of the game was quite interesting.

We basically came back twice.

Down 0-2 in the opening FOUR minutes, we came back with two goals to tie it, then in the second half we were down another two goals at 2-4 again! Then in the 90th minute our subs Zirkzee and Dorgu score in the 92’ and 96’ to make it 4-4.

What a finish!

Again, still in the relegation zone after 10 games. Sigh.

GGMU!

HYROX Full Sim

 Completed the HYROX full simulation with my gym yesterday.

Together with the wifey, we completed in the mixed doubles timing of 1hr 50mins!

We were super happy with the result.

Our stations were slower but we just kept running - basically the strategy was to keep jogging at a slow pace, particularly in the back half of one kilometer runs, when we were absolutely drained.

This gives us a lot of confidence going into the actual event!

My best stations are probably the sled push, sled pull and farmers carry.

My worst stations are clearly the burpees and 20kg lunges.

Let’s goooooo!

Manchester United 0 Bournemouth 3

 This is the end for Michael Carrick unfortunately.

It’s the same old story for our last five managers.

Such a predictable story.

Take over and have a great run, then fall off the wayside after a season of less.

Mourinho, OGS, ETH, Amorim, and now Carrick.

So sad.

I loved Carrick as a player and still like him as a manager.

But alas, his tactics seem weird or they’re not working out for him this season. Wonder what happened?

GGMU

Haze Is Bad

 The Indonesian haze is soooo bad.

That the moment. We had a three day respite, we were suddenly so appreciative of the outdoors again.

Hopefully is ends soon because we can live so unhealthily here in Singapore with the winds blowing northwards from Kalimantan and Sumatra.

HYROX Update

 Training is going well.

We are really looking forward to the race in end November.

My weakest areas now are the Burpees and the 20kg Lunges stations.

Both stations are in the middle of the race so they are VERY taxing.

Maybe I need to step up my training.

The knees are hurting but it’ll all be worth it.

Token2049 2026

 This was my first Token2049 event in Singapore where we bought early bird tickets at USD399 for both days.

It’s just a massive crypto event and by massive I mean MASSIVE! Basically the whole of MBS Convention Centre all levels kinda massive.

Few things stood out for me.

Crypto and blockchain are slowly but surely making its way into the mainstream. There is no stopping it.

There is TradFi (Traditional Finance) where I’m from. And DeFi (Decentralized Finance), where the new world begins.

On the first day we went from office in office attire and all through the day we could tell that there were people specifically avoiding TradFi. So the next day we dressed in T-shirt and jeans and immediately we got into more conversations!

Tokenization of securities and other assets will become a thing sooner than people think.

Else crypto right now is very murky and we do not know what’s funding all of this but there’s really too much money floating around in this lesser known system and a lot of it is surely illicit and non-compliant.

But here we are.

Crazy F1 Week

 What a crazy work week it has been for me.

5th Oct Monday - High profile client event. Drank with clients and colleagues.

6th Oct Tuesday - Drinks with CPH colleagues.

7th Oct Wednesday - Token2049 @ MBS. Drinks while networking.

8th Oct Thursday - Token2049 @ MBS. Drinks while networking.

9th Oct Friday - F1 Day 1 Practice. Took a breather, one beer with colleagues then dinner with family.

10th Oct Saturday- F1 Day 2 Qualifying. Further breather, no alcohol.

11th Oct Sunday - F1 Day 3 Race Night. Trackside VIP event. Certainly will drink while we watch the race.

Shag.

Evolution Of Steps

 Looking at my iCloud data on daily steps taken.

It’s quite interesting that I’ve got more than 10 years of data now.

Mind you this tracker is just based on how much time I hold my phone while walking as a daily average.

2015 - 5,011 steps

2016 - 5,450 steps

2017 - 7,028 steps

2018 - 6,719 steps

2019 - 7,528 steps

2020 - 4,915 steps 

2021 - 4,809 steps

2022 - 5,923 steps

2023 - 6,863 steps

2024 - 7,773 steps

2025 - 8,387 steps

2026 - 9,013 steps (so far)

Wow, things have picked up not just since Covid but even surpassing pre Covid period.

Here’s to a healthier lifestyle!