Trapped in a Lift, had a terrible back pain and a swallon left eye

The sausage shop uses this device to chop up sausages into pieces, no cutting board, no knife, very efficient!
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I was trapped inside a lift first time in my life yesterday, the lift stopped abruptly when coming down from floor 12 to 11. Lights were on, but no buttons are responding. I started to remember the poor woman who was killed in the elevator accident in London, she was coming out of the lift innocently and the cable broke, I guess she was torn into 2 pieces. I shut the ishuffle, waiting, pondering what I should do to get help. A minute after, the life started moving again...

I came back from work feeling the strain in my back, not paying much attention but the pain got worse and worse during the night. I laid flat on the bed, but cannot move too much, every moment of my body instigate a new wave of pain from my neck to the upper back. Pain is a very strange thing, it actually stops you from moving because your brain instructs you not to afflict the pain although you do have the energy and ability to move.

Waking up with sore back, I walked to the bathroom, checking to see if my double eyelid has come back (they mysteriously disappeared a couple days ago). Oh My God, my left eyelid was swallon as if someone has given me a good punch. I even feel that I cannot see clearly from my left eye. I considered my options, should I wear glasses to cover up the swallon eye or should I use heavy make-up and wearing contacts as usual? I picked the later option, using a lot of eye liner trying to draw the balance eye size on both left and right... Couple hours later, the black colour all came down to my lower eyelid.

The FengShui in the apartment must be weired for me.

Do you need to have a stove to cook?

My fabulous apartment is brand new, all the appliance, kitchen wares were straight out of the package wrap, happy I was, only to realise the stove has no gas supply. I guess no one really tried to test the stove after the renovation was done. I was left with a beautiful 4-burner stove but cannot do anything with it.

The response from the management is to move me to another room, however, that room was facing west and a ugly construction site. I pleaded that I want to stay in my own flat but if they can let me use the other flat for cooking... Deal. I am in possession of 2 keys to our service apartment. The first night, I was so excited to try the new stove in the flat a floor above me, moving around in the hall way with my frying pans, oil, cardiments didn't feel too odd at all. After a couple tries when the excitement wore out, I started to wonder the if I can do something with the only powered cooking device in the flat.

Armed with 3 difference size baking pans (with lids), I started to experiment. Cooking rice is easy, the trick is to soak the rice overnight beforehand, using 450C super heat to cook for 10 minutes then let to simmer for another 10 minutes, perfect rice. Frying thin sliced pork with bamboo shoots is not difficult, either. With high heat to braise the finely chopped garlic for 5 minutes, then take the baking pan out, add in the marinated pork, stir well, stick the pan in for another 8 minutes with medien heat, take the pan out, adding the bamboo shoot slices for another 5 mins, Viola! I have a dish.

I even cooked the traditional Cantoese long-time stew soup in the oven, no problem at all. I am challenging the pasta cooking tonight, so far so good. The pasta was cooked al Dante in high heat for 10 minutes, quickly rinsing under cold water to let to chill, dry and store in fridge for tomorrow. The meat sauce was cook in similar fashion... I guess I can start to write a cook book with oven.

Super Workout Saturday

The apartment I live in the quiet outskirt neighborhood in Amsterdam. Surrounded by greens and parks. Spacious and quiet, ah, very relaxing. I like my apartment in central amsterdam as well but it was so cramped with personalities and charateristics. Nevertheless, I had to be constantly waried about traffic, people, bicycles, etc.

I spent the morning cooking myself a nice breakfast, read a bit and then went to the local community swimming pool in the light rain. It is very interesting that the changing area is co-ed, many young parents with children. 25 meter pool, I started to do my routine 32 labs with break every 8. Using the nose clip carefully, not suffuring too much after the allergy afterwards. It is also a delight to use the steam and sunna facility after returning to my apartment building... I feel spoiled.

In late afternoon, I biked to central Amsterdam (1 hour one way), hoping to get some good soy sauce and seasame oil from the Chinese shop. I didn't realise I had exhausted my muscle until returning home around 8pm, and dropped dead when my head hit the pillow. I slept for solid 11 hours, well, I guess my stamina is not as it was used to be.

Spent 2 weeks in Tokyo

Do you see anything in these fancy railings? Look carefully. Redlight district, Amsterdam
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I had 2 week working remotely for the Amsterdam bank in Tokyo. It is very nice to sort out all my mails and utility bills. Raining season, but not so hot yet. I still managed to bike to work in our office in Kojimachi. I have had a haircut the very next day I landed, going to the hair salon introduced by a friend, managed to use my broken Japanese to communicate, even chatted with the staff. The hair style is very short (I feel like a high school student again), the only problem is that I have to come back to the same hairdresser in 2 months. Ha ha ha ha. Every foreigner in Tokyo should have a set of Pimsleur's Japanese learning lessons.

One afternoon slightly after 5pm, the fire alarm sounded in our office and I was thinking, hey, not again, the fire drill is just kicking off in the very bad time. Wait a minute, it turned out there was indeed a fire in our building, everyone needed to evacuate from the building via the staircase. Unfortunately our office is in the 10th floor and I was wearing 3 inch heels. Anyhow, I limped down stairs and found that there were lines of firetrunks along our street, Shinjuku dori, both sides!! Fire marshals and firemen running around in full gears (hey, these firemen are not as sexy as those in TV!). I cannot even yet see any smoke or any signs of fire. But people gathering around our building, it is almost festival-like, very hard to leave and go home. Anyways, nothing is burned and no one is hurt, I biked home out of borden (no alcohol, no party).

I met with Mai, we went to the top floor pub in Park Hyatt, where the movie "Lost in Translation" was filmed. She is so well-connected in hotel business, they waved off the cover charge and sent us some free chocolates. We drank and talked, I biked home from Shinjuku slightly past midnight The streets of Tokyo are deserted, so tranquil and peaceful. I paddled as fast as I can, enjoyed the light cold breeze.

Trip to Brussel and Colonge (5)

The cathedral in Colonge is really the grandest, tallest Gothic style building I have ever seen so far.
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Heading south, we found a big road dotted with subway stations. Great, there must be maps. We stopped the car, and checked out the map right outside the subway station. Good, we are in the right track (we probably regret about a thousand times why we didn't spend 20 euro to get the GPS when picking up the car). As we got closer to the city center, the streets got busier. We still cannot find the cross street where our hotel is. I asked Cathy to stop the car such that I can go check the detailed map in a subway station. We found a parking spot, crossing the street and study the map.

What a strange coincident, the very street is the extension of our hotel street. we were literally 2 minute walk away from it. We burst out laughing, cannot believe our good luck (finally). Colonge is strangely a party town. Saturday evening, everyone on the streets are partying or about to go to a party. We walked to the old town, had beer near the river, spent the lazy evening away (finally we don't need to be on the road anymore).

We took our leisure time slowly drove back to Amsterdam, it was raining quiet hard. However, when we returned to Amsterdam, the sky brightened up and sun light scattered around the bridges and canals. The air is fresh, flowers lazily decorated the building, the park, and the outdoor patio. Amsterdam is this beautiful and tranquil. We spent 2 days driving around Brussel and Germany only to learn how to appreciate the city we are living in.

Trip to Brussel and Colonge (4)

Drink


Drink more



Last drink, I promise...
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We woke up in the cheapo Formula One hotel the next day, my brain doesn't function if not getting 7 solid hour of sleep, therefore, I only woke up 11am, considering we had finally lied down only 5am, that's not too bad. I woke up energetic, wanting to have some good coffee. We went back to Brudge.

Cute little town, pebble stone streets (I know how much rollerbladers hate those but it is nice to walk on, as long as you are not wearing heels) and a charming square. Very commercial, very business-like for tourists. One thing to note is the efficiency, while we parked our car and started to walk around the town, there is a big street fair, food stalls, grocery, produces, even a gardening center line along the streets all the way from the central station. When we finished lunch and went back to fetch our car, everything'd gone. Wow, amazing, as if the fair is just a dream. The streets are cleaned, no gabbage lying around.

We tried not to repeat the bad experience last night (hey, when you travel, only those misfortune, back luck linger long in your memory. Effectively, we have created enough memories for ourselves to complain in the future), we set off to Colonge right after lunch.

The drive is very uneventful, the signs are too clear in Germany. We had no problem finding our way to Colonge although we have no local map (we have one huge map given by the car rental company). Oh well, getting into the city center is again the most challenging task. We spent around 30 minutes driving, stopped by the gas station asking for direction but still lost our way in a little town north of Colonge center. We stopped again deparately to ask for the direction back to Colonge, getting the rough direction, we just drove blindly.

Encounter with the Law Enforcement

My bicycle in Amsterdam
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A couple months ago, in a train station, I was stopped by a policeman. Of course I had no idea what he is talking about, later my friend caught up with me and translated the policeman's request. "Um, miss, there are a lot of people in this station today, beware of pickpockets" Seeing me with no response, he turned to my friend and asked him if I am a foreigner. After the confirmation, he asked me "Do you have the foreigner registration card?" Of course, I have got it in my wallet. This was actually a bit disturbing to my friend, because the policeman just singled me out from hundreds of other passengers, asking for my I.D.. I don't particularly looked foreign but...

I came back to Tokyo and joined the Sunday rollerblading. As we came to our first stop near Tokyo station, I saw a couple of friends who I haven't met for almost half a year. Excited, we were screaming and pushing around a bit, then the security guard came to me and asked me to take off my rollerblades. I was like, um, "Is it just me? Why not others?" The guard showed a distasteful face and replied me in English "All". Fine, I duly took my blades off, and the guard disappeared (I guess he figured he cannot get the whole group to obey his order, better walked away before losing more face). Well, there were 30 other skaters around, he picked me to show his authority.

Trip to Brussel and Colonge (3)

This is what the hotel looks like from the main street, the adverb said "You cannot miss it", "Very easy to spot". I think I really want to check their brain's interior.


The very interesting church in Berlin. Berlin was heavily bombed during World War II, the church was re-built and some modern artist built this hall right next to the tower. Very futuristic, this was made in the 60s.


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We managed to find Zee Brudge, it is already 3am in the morning. However, our hotel is no where in sight. It is supposingly easy to see from the highway but we are just not seeing it. The address doesn't really help because it is labeled as "Transporation Zone" which is the big cargo loading area, lots of storage warehouse around. Never mentioned the weeds as tall as a human beings. This place looks like one of the final scenes where the good cop is going to confront the gangsters in the movies. We automatically thought we were looking in the wrong place, and drove away.

We drove around the town, Zee Brudge. Of course, nothign is open and we don't know where to ask for help. Desparate, tired and really need to pee, we drove back to Brudge, at least it is a bigger town, we might be able to get some help or use the internet. As we came back to town, my weak nerves broke. I said to Cathy I have no energy to keep searching, let's check in to the regular hotel, pay the 100 euro and get some rest, it is 4am in the morning... Cathy gave up as well, we walked into the iBIS to check in. Almost embarrassingly, we explained to the front desk our bad luck in reaching to our reserved hotel and pleaded if we can use the bath room.

The front desk personnel is much helpful. He explained we were not too far away from our hotel. He helped us printing out the map, carefully explained the directions (too much details, both of us were getting a bit annoyed). We thanked him, almost want to kiss him. We drove to Zee Brudge the 5th time that night, and checked into our hotel. The hotel is really in the transporation zone, right behind the huge storage house, the sign was buried in the unruly vegetation. I am wondering how other people can find this....

Trip to Brussel and Colonge (2)

We love our small Daihatsu...
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We quickly decided to leave Brussel, the ring road is too confusing, we were heading west and supposing to make the connection to a highway heading toward Brudge, somehow after a slight curve we are heading south. We still cannot figure out how we missed the intersection until today.

We drove north, trying to get to Antwarpen, at least we are leaving the mysterious Brussel ring road. Both of us were already tired, exhausted, thirsty and could very well use the bathroom. It is close to 2 pm in the morning, to our dismay, there seemed no gas station open past midnight, no convenient store (I miss Japan...), no even 24 hour running dinner on the road side (later I found out that Belgium is the most communist country in the western Europe, the unions are very powerful, the working/opening hours are strictly controlled).

I am starting to think for the worse, if we don't get to our hotel on time, if we don't have the room because of the late check in, if... We might have to spend the night in the car. I thought that we should stop such that I can take a piss on the road side. I still cannot quite work out what to do with the water situation (I am really thirsty, damn, why can you be thirsty and needing to pee at the same time, so ironic).

We finally managed to get to Brudge without a map, but the hotel we made reservation is actually in Zee Brudge, which is 14 km away from Brudge. Brudge is another nightmarish place to drive, because there is again a ring road. The medieval city is surrounded by the river and ring road, and from any angle, any direction, they look ALL THE SAME.

Trip to Brussel and Colonge (1)

I was freezing to death in Berlin. The weather varies, rain came suddenly from time to time, leaving us no time to figure out what to do and how to keep warm. All my gears were all too thin...
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Without too much preparation, Cathy and I set off to Belgium, thinking we might figure out the way to Brussel. Getting a car to drive is very interesting feeling, I mean, at least I haven't been sitting in a private car for long time (VIVA public transportation!, Viva bicycle!). The drive was pleasant, weather was nice, and the road signs are pretty clear. We had not problem getting to Brussel at all, we thought.

However, we under-estimated the difficulty of getting into Brussel city center. Without a city map, we drove around and around, trying to find the direction to zentrum (centre/center/centrum). We finally found the central square. After parking the car, getting into the streets filled with mussels and frites restauarants, it had already turned 9pm. We picked a restaurant, ate the overcooked mussles and very expensive wine (I suspect they'd rather overcook the shellfish to make dead all gems and bacteria. Taste? Who cares, most tourists only come to Brussel once in their life time). However, the busy areas near the Cathedral and square are pretty nice to look at. Let's not worry too much about the food, we will find our hotel tonight, maybe I will buy some fruits and snacks along the way.

After the meal, we are ready to hit the road, 11pm that was. We had a couple of maps, all not very detailed. We need to figure out how to get to Brudge in 2 hours. However, we were first trapped in the city, although we duly followed the sign to ring road, we spent almost 45 minutes to get to the motorway. We thought that's the end of our nightmare, oh well, the show just started. First of all, we were driving to the wrong direction heading toward Paris (many thanks to me, I mis-read the map). When turning back to north, we were trapped in the most terrible traffic jam I have ever experienced in years. Our car moves like snail for almost 1 hour, it is already 1am in the morning and we were still at Brussel ring road!