My dad just forwarded an e-mail talking about the boom in jobs in the green sector. That’s great but, umm, where are they?! I would love a job in some sort of environmental firm, especially if it’s a consultancy. But alas, the focus seems to mostly be on energy and more technical stuff, so maybe I really should look into starting up my own little thing. Unfortunately, I would really need a partner who has the scientific background or some sort of environmental degree. I’ve joked with Panda that I will start up a business with his brother, but hey, I’m totally up for that if it’s possible. However, I haven’t even met the guy, so that’s really just a fantasy. More realistically, I’ll be looking for a temp job to start giving me an income, then continuing my search for something a little more permanent as I try to build up a career.
One of my three darling kitties.
Today I looked into cat sitting jobs and considered applying to a pet services company. It’s not exactly my ticket to a high-profile job, but it certainly is my passion. I have a strong affinity for animals in general and felines in particular. What’s better than spending my days with them? I’d get a chance to move around the area, visit a bunch of cats, and occasionally stay over at people’s houses to watch the fellows. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal, but of course then comes the question: where’s the future in that? Even if I did run my own little business for that, I see it more as a side gig or something for retirement. It’s certainly not the type of job I’d like to make a career out of, but more of one I’d like to maintain long-term as a hobby. Short-term however, it’d be a great job to have as I try to find something with a bit more growth.
What I really want to get into is eco-consultancy, but where do I find such opportunities? I’ve searched online for quite awhile and came up with Sustainability Works in Santa Monica, which is a non-profit that helps local companies change their ways to become more eco-friendly. However, their focus is quite narrow and I’d like a company that services the greater Los Angeles area, so I’d get a chance to deal with people from a variety of cities in the area. It’s surprisingly hard to find a job that apparently is popping up left and right. Just gotta love how articles only talk about a trend without any sound evidence, with solid examples of companies hiring or something.
Tour themes were always a fun thing to plan.
I’m tempted to fall back on some old jobs just to earn some money (hopefully they’ve still got space for me!) in the time being. Sad how lack of money is such a motivator. 🙁 For the moment, I’m really interested in a job at UCLA. I remember seeing a friend leading some donors or other important people around campus for a tour and it seems that’s the closest I’ll get to being a tour guide for UCLA after graduation. Everything else is student-led, so I’m out of luck in my dreams of being a fabulous tour guide (unless I attend graduate school?). Well, we’ll see, I’ve been browsing the listings and there are some interesting ones!
What a fabulous experience at Sentosa! I touched so many creatures I can’t even count them anymore. From butterflies to sting rays and even a dolphin, it was an absolutely thrilling time for me. Though I enjoyed the views from the Tiger Tower and Merlion, what stood out the most was the time I spent at the Butterfly Garden and Insect Kingdom, Dolphin Lagoon, and Underwater World.
The Dolphin Lagoon provided good entertainment as the pink dolphins there showed off their speed, balance, and accuracy. They even showed off for us before the show and posed for pictures. They are still adolescents, so only their bellies have started to turn pink, which was interesting to see. After the show, we were allowed to pose for a picture with one of the dolphins for a small fee, so I happily lined up for my turn. My dolphin’s name was Splash and loved the ladies, but swam away when the only guy entered the water! He was good for me though and struck the best pose. 🙂
Continuing on, there was a pool entirely of rays that would whisk by and occasionally stop to say hello and see if you had food. It made me want to have a pet sting ray – they’re better than dogs! I spent a lot of time there, petting their soft bodies as they went by and marveled at the opportunity. There was a display showing sharks at their stages of development with live examples! Then it was case after case of bizarre and brilliant species, like jellyfish, cuttlefish, seahorses, crabs, and sharks. There were these “angels” that flapped their wings and cuttlefish that changed skin patterns in the blink of an eye. Some leafy-looking sea horses floated around near the seaweed they resembled and some giant crabs scuttled slowly across the sand.
That’s what I thought, anyway. Then I saw pictures and it was undeniable; these things are PINK. Like little girl playing hopscotch and blowing Bubble Yum gum pink. Like pink rose pink. Like how flamingos are neon pink, they are baby pink. Nothing like the “pink” tint of human skin or other such wannabes. So, I was really excited to go out to see some of these creatures for myself. I almost couldn’t get on a tour, but we managed to book me for a tour before I was due to leave (though I had to delay my intended departure time by a few hours).
When we were first heading out, we were right around the area where the planes were coming in for landing at the airport. Distracted, I took pictures and videos of them as they roared overhead and came down for a smooth landing. By the time one plane landed, another was appearing from the clouds, making its descent. One by one the planes took turns coming in, like clockwork, as others left going in the other direction. I marveled at how many people and how much cargo I had just seen arriving in Hong Kong. It was the first time I’d ever spent some time watching the operations of an airport and it was pretty cool.
At one point when we were further out, I was sitting in front, staring down at the water when a little fish jumped out and quickly got overrun by the boat. I continued staring down and soon more came, jumping just ahead of the boat, then falling off to the sides to avoid being hit. Excited, I started to film and snap away, trying to get a good shot of these little flying fish. Maybe it was just my imagination, but they looked a lot like mini dolphins. I spent a long time observing them and noticed that when they are in groups, they all jump at more or less the same time in some sort of coordinated effort. They also really seemed to like jumping in front of the boat in the rushing water, but once they went off to the side, they seemed to resume swimming more. I guess they’re looking for the adrenaline rush!
I so wanted to hop in the water, toxins and all, and go join them. I wondered if they’d come closer to explore if I had some body parts dangling in the water. Still, it was so rewarding to finally find them, after so many hours of searching. I had even begun to entertain the idea of how I could go on another trip (they offer a free retry if you don’t see any on your trip) – perhaps I could get an IOU that wouldn’t expire, so I could use it years down the line, or whenever I return. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about that in the end and we ended the trip on a happy note.
It was a nice overcast day for the most part, which kept things cool. Thankfully, the rain stayed away though and allowed us to enjoy a very nice time at the park. Apparently a lot of people are blood donors because the place was packed! From the bus that took us from Boon Lay to the park to the line to get in, we could tell it was going to be a crowded place. It was still great fun though, as we made our way from penguins to flamingos to macaws to hawks to ostriches, and so much more! There was even this beastly creature that was huge and rather ugly, with remnants of a dino-like crown protruding from his head. Along the way, we came across a pelican feeding, where we were told about the seven types of pelicans in existence, and then got to see an entertaining bird show with all kinds of fun tricks.
At the end of our trip, we took the tram for one more spin around the park and headed out to meet up with some of Mizu’s friends. We stopped by the gift shop hoping to find a cute penguin pen to bring back to Starfish, but they didn’t have any. 🙁 We also came across this free pearl offer (where they would extract it in front of you), but it was only for real ticketholders. 🙁 I was so sad because I really wanted one so I could bring something back to Chatty to thank her. Oh well. We then squeezed back onto the bus to take us to the MRT and took a nice long ride to Ang Mo Kio to wait for Mizu’s buddies. Typea’s been using my iPod touch to play Tap Tap Revenge (it’s like DDR but with your fingers on the touchscreen), which Mizu also enjoys, so we played a few rounds challenging each other as we sipped on some drinks.
