What a long absence - some miscellaneous thoughts

It has been 3 months since I last posted anything here.
I was extremely busy in August because of projects at work, and then extremely busy with my study in September and October.
Can you imagine that after taking 3 weeks of holiday in the two months of Sep and Oct, I only barely finished my 3 assignments for the one MBA subject?
Gee, that was tough.
Work is now much more quiet. I could fall back to my normal web-surfing-whole-day state. It's good for a change, but definitely not a good sign if it is always like this.
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I think I really need a holiday away from Hong Kong.

I have not been flying out of Hong Kong since March 2004. This is the longest yet since I got on this Project Management job. Normally I need to fly out once a year at least, so it's a bit hard to adapt to the fact that I am staying in Hong Kong for such a long period. I feel sort of itchy; a strong urge to get out of town for a few days. But flying out alone is a very lonely thing. It's even worse than watching a movie alone. I cannot explain the loneliness. I always envy other people who won't feel it.
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I had been spending heaps recently. I had been extremely tight financially this year due to a consortium of reasons, e.g. paying for my MBA studies, paying for Mum's hospital and surgery expenses, paying for a live-in maid to take care of Mum, plus my various savings plans. But I found that I could only behave (spend the bare minimum just for maintaining my exsitence) for a certain period of time. I need to spend on "luxuries" (not essential to my existence) once in a while to keep myself sane and balanced.

This is bad, because frankly speaking I do NOT have an absolute need for those things; I just like having them. These are things like my new iPod Nano, which I bought myself as a birthday gift, and my new sets of gold jewelry. (Note that I used setS. That means I bought more than 1 set. Sigh...) On the one hand, I need to do this to release the pressure that was built up by the highly varying workload, but on the other hand, I hate myself for spending on "luxurious" goods which could turn into some people's keeping for probably several years.

But I guess if God gave me the money to spend, I could just spend within the limits. It's true that it might be due to some personality weakness that you may call "sinful nature", that I like to spend money like this, but I guess if God doesn't mind that much, why should I? He does allow me the spare money. Probably He knows that I need this to keep myself sane??

Well, there's no point arguing with myself like this. I shall know when I see Him up there.
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I know that I live a life that seems to have little trouble, but within this quite stable, and regarded as well off living by some brothers and sisters, I do have my problems and worries. It's true for everyone I guess. Some may be quite poor in terms of money, but rich in terms of their gratitude towards what they have. Some may be filthy rich and yet uncontended. I guess if God grant me this way of life, I should just be grateful and enjoy every second of it, giving thanks to Him for what I have and don't have.

Thank you Lord, my Father in Heaven.