YouTube is Addictive

Watching TV is never on my list of activities during weekends, but once you start on YouTube, you can not go back. This is really annoying, there are just so many interesting short films you can browse. I am recently getting into this Taiwanese talking show. I always feel guilty that I spend time watching this useless show, a group of middle age talking about different topics. It is quite an interesting way to get to know the general sentiment, whats-in and metality in ever-changing Taipei. Other than this talking show, I am addicting to BBC series on nature narrated by David Attenborough... I am sure I will find another stuff getting me hocked soon.

Moving image with sounds is definitely a easier way to get information, I have not been reading properly after 2 weeks since my YouTube addition starts.

La Brasserie in Imperial Hotel

I had bought this dress in Amsterdam last year, finally got the chance to wear it. Sadly I was the only one who dressed up that night. People are really lazy sometimes.
_________________________________

Imperial hotel is one of the oldest in Tokyo, in which the royal family used to have functions. Unfortunately, the foods were not as impressive as the fame.

X'Mas Run in Tokyo

Starting from Tokyo station.

Going on the street to scare little kids.

Reindeer drinking coffee...

Ending in Roponggi, finishing the late X'mas lunch by 5pm, real bar party started!

Really Busy

Still running on the street... The Sunday City Run is really like a social event, no sweat at all for the 12K route.
________________________________

The past few weeks made me re-define the adjective, "busy". I am moving between 2 or 3 sites, one of the location, Fuchu, is 1 and half hour away (4 different type of transportation) to get to from Tokyo. I will spend a couple hours in Shinkawa client site in the morning and jump on my bike rushing to another client's office in Yaesu (15 minute bike away, faster than train or bus). If I am going to Fuchu, I will be working until the last train, normally gettting home around midnight if I don't manage to miss any train.

It was averagely 5 hours sleep at the beginning of the insane commute, I had to wake up like 5:30am such that I can do the run, got back before 6:30, drink my coffee and read news, rushing out by 8am. Returning home around midnight, I only got to recover the missing sleep hours during the weekend. The break of the crazy hours came because the project needs the time to figure out the hardware purchase, and I was drawn to another project.

The other project started in mid summer, the client site is really close to my place, 5 minutes bike to the site. The project is related to a totally new field to me, equity derivatives. Absolutely interesting and challenging. I spent the 2 happy (and hard) months in Tokyo then the nightmare started when my other resting project came back to life.

I am literally torn between 3 sites/projects (one client has 2 separate workstreams). Exhausion came both physically and mentally. The good news is that one of the projects is now delayed to phase 2 since both my company and the client realise the gravity of lacking of resources. It is amazing how hard it is to find people to help out. I phone interviewed a couple of resources and hung up with shaking head. I guess I have to live like this for a while...

Onsen Nearby

I found this nice little onsen (hot spring) place in Tsukishima near where I live. After a long jog, it is rather nice to take a hot bath in the open bath house, the water is hot, women in the onsen are working so hard to wash their hair and body. The temperature is actually rather alarmingly hot (46C), I can barely stay for 1 minute, need to take a break and spash myself with bucket of cold water. I looked like a cooked shrimp when coming out of the huge bathtub.

I think taking a bath outside of your house is a great experience. The process is as following: walk to the senton (錢湯), wash up, soak in hottub, listen to woemen greeting each other, dry up, relax after the short period of dizziness after hotbath, put on lotion, walk home, enjoy the breeze of the night. Everything is essential part of onsen visit, hard to leave out any one of those.

The local onsen I went to was discovered by accident. I always like Tsukishima area, it is rather old community, not as trendy as Ebisu or Meguro (young Japanese are proud of having those addresses). Somehow these shitamachi (下町)　preserves the sort of the old Japan, without much of the western influence, not quite refined in a way but very intersting. Tsukishima () is famous for the monjayaki, which I never like. But I like the automosphere, love to walk around the busy street looking at crowds roaming around for the best monjayaki restaurant in mid Summer nights. In the midst of heat and noisy, oh my god, there is an onsen house. I made a mental note that I will come here one day.

The funny thing about Japanese senton place is that you walk in and pay the fee to the old lady sitting on high up in at the divider between girls and boy's sector. Today it was a old man sitting there, oh my god, what is happening? Is it because there are only old women and kids coming to the girls sector therefore it doesn't matter? What if some 30 something come into the hotbath house?

I didn't want to back out (hey, leaving the bath house after paying is more strange, isn't it). I deliberately found a locker where I can knee down to strip, pretending I don't notice anything walking bravely toward the bath area all naked. As I soaked in the water, I cannot help but thinking if the old man is peeping through the steamed grass door. I guess I was thinking too much, as I left the bath house (again, hiding myself behind the waist high locker block to get dress), he was laughing hard on the TV show.

I don't like Roponggi

Rogponggi has the name of party town, meat market. In fact, it is the only area in Tokyo, when you are in it, you don't feel like you are in Japan. You would probably feel that you are in the sleezy dodgy corner of New York, San Francisco or London, but with a lot of hot Japanese chicks. English is heard everywhere, the Nigerians are working very hard for their club to drag men into their pubs, they alleged it is filled with beautiful ladies (hey, I am not being a racist, it is just quite a few time these African men talk to me when I was half drunk trying to find my way home, we chatted a bit, 9 out of 10 they are from Nigeria).

Beautiful ladies are another story, it seems like it is a meat market for men, on the surface. It is also a meat market for woman to hunt for one night stand. But men are too sturbbon to believe they are actually being hunted by those looking innocent and cute Japanese ladies. Let's let them continue believing that.

One of my consultant friends said that anything can happen in Roponggi, I do believe him. That's the charm for them. However, I never like this area. Clubing and dancing is not really listed in my dictionary of fun definition (jogging and working out maybe, ha). The drink they serve is not premium type of alcohol, most people are just there to get a quick buzz. The music is so loud that you have to text message your friend sitting next to you so that two of you can communicate (no wonder everyone is reading his/her mobile phone). This is actually very stressful, where is the fun? I want to sit in a cozy nice bar with good Jazz music and premium single malt. That's not in Roponggi.

Being Fair and Square

After being Japan for a while, you sort of getting used to the way Japanese think. They prefer to be fair. A bottled water sells for 90 yen in the city, but sells for 400 yen in the top of Mount Fuji. People understand the difficulty and trouble to get goods transport to the top of Mount Fuji, deal. Raman is about 800 yen mark, anything costs less probably does not taste as good as 800 yen ones (of course, there are exceptions, but rarely). You rarely are in the situation feeling that you are being cheated, I guess it is because in Tokyo, the population is 13 millions (Taipei 6 million and Hong Kong 6 million), you have to be really really lucky to cheat and survive on the same time. There are so many other alternatives in terms of food and drinks. If you are not running your business in the honourable way, chances are you are going to be put out of business fairly soon.

Dealing with Japanese in every day life, you can also feel this "fair and squre" principle in every aspect. They would never want you to buy them a free beer, although you offer. They would somehow remember it and pay you back with something else later on. I think this is to release themselves from the burden of owing anyone anything.

The only exception is probably the telecom industry, so many political and legacy reasons, I think it is hard to break.

Coming back to Hong Kong (3)

Rollerblading on the street? Not possible in Hong Kong.
____________________________________

The only thing I am not used to is the crampiness of the living space. There are people, cars, skype scrapers everywhere. This is a place that you find no room to breath. Comparing to Hong Kong, Tokyo is much more relax. Even in the Wall street equivalent area in Tokyo, there are spacious corridors, pedestrain walk, and open space. There are more parks and trees. You only have air pollution in Hong Kong. And also, bicycling is not allowed on the street.

I cannot go out running during my whole stay, I can only run in the tiny gym in the hotel, which is also suffocating.

Nevertheless, this is an amazing island, such a small space with so much energy. But living in Hong Kong would really be a challenge.

Coming back to Hong Kong (2)

I made a mistake by using the shampoo provided by the hotel, my hair looked dry like straws sticking out. I really wonder if those shampoo were meant to be used as detergent. When I stopped by the shops during lunch break to look for the solution, the sales woman look at me and comments you really need to use some good shampoo. I know, that's why I am here.

I worked in IFC, which is the most prestigious location in Central. Most people around are dressed in the designer suits, I think it is probably time for me to get some shopping done... Oh well, I guess I will be soon forgetting about it as soon as I see foods. However, my feelings about Hong Kong is that it is more international than Tokyo. After all, English used to be the official language and I guess, expats are feeling more at home.

I walked around the hotel area. In the mid summer nights, there are a lot of ghost people (that's how Hong Kong people address westerners, Chinese are real human and those with golden hair and tall nose bridge are ghost) hanging around in the pub with open windows to the street, sticky, humid and hot winds blew around, not really cooling anything. Only this shows you the true Hong Kong, a small island in the sub tropical weather. If there hasn't been so much business activities in this financial hub, this could very well be another Puket island.

My Cantonese is really rustic, but enough to order food and get my way around. I think Hong Kong people are now more used to Chinese not speaking perfect Cantonese due to a large influx of Mainland Chinese immigrants. 20 years back, I used to be so concious speaking Mandarin in public when visiting Hong Kong. Mandarin speaking is usually associated with low class or poverty. Things are so different now, Mainlanders are the rich ones going spending spree while Cantonese are the stingy ones.

IOP

With my running regime, I am eating like there is no tomorrow. Yakiniku, yummy.
_______________________________

Getting my health check results, I was told there might be a chance that my optic discs are enlarged. This could be caused by intraocular pressure. A further examination is recommended. I went on internet searching everything I can to understand what this means, oh my god, IOP and enlarged optic disc are the possible cause of glaucoma.

I made appointment with English speaking ophthalmologist, but damn it, all of the English speaking doctors are not available until next week (is there a optic medical conference in some tropical island or something?). I can do nothing but wait. All kind of horrific thoughts came to me, what if the nerves are really going through some irreversible damage, what if I am really going to go blind slowly, what if there is no cure? Should I quit my job and spend the rest of my eyesight surfing? Or I should stay put making as much money as possible for I can see nothing? Would I have enough money to support myself if I am going to be disable?

Work pressure is not getting lighter, I was still working like crazy (amazingly if I am focusing on work, I don't remember the stress about my eyes). Only on my way home from work, I got really stressed about the whole business.

2 weeks later I finally got to see the eye doctor. First of all, my IOP is normal. Secondly, my optic disc ratio is larger than average, but the thickness of the nerves appear normal. I probably was born with the larger than normal discs. Though I will need to have regular eye check up because I am seriously nearsighted.

Reaching out for the stars

Um, I was super hungry that I ate everything before the picture was taken... Running is not very good sometimes.

_________________________________________

Michillin star restaurant in Hong Kong, Caprice. The lunch set is very reasonable, and this is my first experience with star restaurant.

I ordered the fish consomme with Rouille Custard and Melba Toast, Braised Beef Cheek with Vegetable Tagliatelle, Charlotte Potatoes and Red Wine Sauce, finished off with Raspberry Éclair with Tropical Vanilla, Dark Chocolate and Wild Berry Sorbet. I have read so much about consomme, how the broth is carefully prepared, filtered so to be clear as water and full of body. Um, it really tasted like soup with a lot of MSG, I guess French kitchen has nothing of that sort, man, I am drinking a very good bow of soup. The temperature is surprisingly Chinese, I hate lurk warm soup like most western style ones normally are. Many thanks to the jog in the morning, I had 3 pieces of bread that are freshly out of oven, spreaded loads of butter over them, um, I love bread.

The beef cheek is a bit disappointing, I guess it should be fattier, it is lacking the "wow" factor. The texture or something? I think I am more excited with the beef noodle in Din Tai Feng. But it is eatable, fine.

The real climax is the desert. The Eclair is pretty light and elegant. The espresso is just about right to finish off the sweets.

Coming back to Hong Kong (1)

Going through the Hong Kong immigration is an very nice thing to do. All I have to do is to swipe the ID card and let the machine scan my thumb, the gate opens within 10 seconds.

I am staying in the used-to-be famous hotel in Wan-Chai, before the landfill was built in Victoria harbour, I guess this hotel is really right next to the seashore. Right now, it has the red-light district in the back and the huge government building blocking the view of everything. But when I told my mom where I was staying, she was like "Wow". I guess the hotel was pretty cool back when my mom was young.

I had a dinner plan with Uncle Thomas the night, since Chinese food needs to be consumed by a large group of people (dishes are meant to be shared, the quantity cannot be small because heat has to be retained), uncle Lam's family were also joining our feast. I have not met with Uncle Lam's daughters after leaving Toronto, that's almost good 10 years.

Seafood restaurants in Hong Kong have all the living sea creatures in the watertank, we have to pick them and discuss what is the best way to cook them with the chef. The sea snails are done in the sichuan style, the fish will be steamed to just-cook state with thin sliced ginger and scallion. Same treatment for the crabs, they are just cut in half and steamed. The razor claim were also steamed with fermented soy beans. If a Cantonese chef dares to overcook the seafood, he or she would be condamned to death. I have never tasted crab meat so freshly sweet and texture is so tender. I think that's the highlight of the whole meal.

Scary Airport

Returning from the exhausted hike over the weekend (I was so tired that I kept dozing off in our car ride. The traffic is not particularly good (um, the section around Sagakimoko is always, forever, eternal congested, 10K is normally taking about 1 hour to go through. This painful 10K is still 50K away from Shinjuku).

I finally made to home by 11pm, seriously exhausted, but I have to pack for the Hong Kong trip tomorrow. My brain was really not functioning very well, and I was pondering whether I should take a big back pack or 40 liter roller. For a 1 week trip, the big suitcase is really an overkill. I had to put my laptop bag into the suitcase to fill up the space, so that I only need to carry a handbag, which is not too bad.

While I was on the bus, I started to think about the horrile possiblity that someone might steal the computer (hey, who tells you to pack the valuable in check-in luggage?). I hasitly pull the laptop bag out before throwing my suitcase into the check-in weight scale.

Everything was uneventful until my laptop bag was stopped by the security guard, they are very polite asking if they can search through it and X-ray it again. I was curious but nothing alerted me yet until the security fished out the cutter from my pencil bag. Oh well, I kept a small cutter, which is handy to use in the office. Ok, I started to apologize. The security guy asked if he can run the bag through the X-ray again, sure, no problem, why should I be worried.

My spin chilled when he fished out my special edition swiss army knife, which is a gift from my uncle for my love of outdoor activity. Man, I was too tired that I didn't think much when throwing the army knife into my laptop bag and the bandage (that's used to tape my toes, for some reason, my toes screeze each other while I jog). My face turned ghost white because he was checking my boarding time. Shit, I would be interogated by the police and they are calculating if I am a real terrorist worth spending the time and money to make me miss my flight.

The policeman came, asking me why I brought the knife. I told him I need that to cut my nail and this is really an accident that I completely forgot about it is in my carry-on. (I remember a story of a young kid who was jokingly saying to the security that he has a bomb in his carry-on... he was arrested for that). I tried my best to look innocent, thankfully they let me go after noting down my name and passport number, I was at the gate just couple minutes after the boarding time.

Climb Every Mountain

Feeling really tired after the whole week of work and stress, I left the client site around 9pm. Although the new project is so close to my home, I cannot really relax because we are heading out to the mountain in 3 hours time.

Yes, it is another crazy hike. We left Tokyo by 1am in the morning and planed to hit the mountain trail by 5am to avoid the heat. I was really tired, that I crashed in the backseat the moment the car door slamed close. I cannot even be bothered to talk to Henry, the 7 year old boy, it turned out that both of us were sleeping like babies during the whole trip.



This hike is actually more interesting than Mount Fuji, we went through many different vegetation, from bamboo forest to needle leave pine, then to rocks. For the last 30 minutes, we even had to do a bit of rock climbing. The elevation is high enough (2500 m) that we were somehow away from the humidity and heat of Japanese summer for the whole ride.



This is what the last 30 minute hike looks like. Going up is a lot easier comparing to coming down...



Um, after the picture was taken, Yoshio, Tomomi and Yukiko and I all found a place to sit then dozing off... We were really too tired. If you come by to the mountain top, you would see us laying around on the volcanic rocky slabs in various position, sleeping and snoring. Man, how some people can function without proper hours of sleep is still beyond me. I am just half dead if not getting 8 hours of sleep every day.

After the hike, our whole body was reeking and sweaty, Yoshio has made the best planning, we are heading to the natural hotspring!

The onsen (hotspring) bath house is very intersting. It is obviously built by an amateur builder with cheap wood panels, not new at all. The owner has very interesting view of decoration, the western greeky statue about 40 cm high is pieced together with the Chinese style lucky lion in our outdoor bathtub. It is not too odd, I think the strange combination works just fine with the not-so-professional building style. And the best thing is, it is clean and the natural hotspring is so relaxing.

You can mix in the fresh cold water to the overheated bath, the cold water is also flown in from the nearby stream coiling down from the mountain. It looks and feels so pure and cool, um, I drank some of the untreated water, it is too tempting.



We ate soba after the onsen, um, very hungry.

Happy Tomo-day

The food in CARB is actually very nice. A great restaurant discovered!

Tokyo Grilling

Going to the milk tea shop after our city run. The owner is not going to make any money, he gives out free cookies whenever pretty girls stopping by for a cup of ice tea.
_______________________________

We are crazy bunch rollerblading under the heat. The city run is too relaxing, definitely not true workout (it is more like a social event). I need to wake up early to jog before the run...

Ocean Day (4)

Getting home to wash away all the dirt and sand, I was told we need to go to a friend's house that very evening in order to make the 3K swimming competition at 9am in Tateyama since there is no train available to move us from Tokyo to the beach early enough. I was bloody tired (I really need my 8 hour sleep a day to function properly). I packed my bag getting ready to go Tokyo station then my friend called again that he's found a train leaving Tokyo @5am would be able to move us to Tateyama by 8am.

Happily unpacking my bag, I set 2 alarms and fell deeply into my long awaited, much needed sleep. Waking up at 4am, getting on the train by 5am, we are ready to rock.

The Hojuo beach is actually very nice, the sky is blue and clear, as soon as we arrived, we were tugged into the registration desk. They drawed the registration number on my both arms with markers and we were asked to wear the transponder on the ankle for finishing time marking. The sun is strong and it was quite nice to jump into the cold water. All these 200 people are like pros, they paddled away like mad. The waves were so strong, it is so frustrating because no matter how hard I stroke, I felt that I am not moving forward at all. There are also fishes swimming 2 meters down, very distrating. They made the 3 floating buoys, distanced 500m from each other. It is so easy to get disoriented after the 2nd buoy, you are far away from the shore and especially very far behind from those pros, I am completely alone! I paddled in the wrong direction for a while, then the lifeguard (on surf board) had to came by and told me to swim in the right direction.

50minutes later, I finally finished the race, thankfully I didn't get picked up by the boat (if not able to complete the course within 1 hour). I won the last place in my age group! Um, the beer tasted very good afterward. I think this is the toughest weekend I ever had for a long while.

Ocean Day (3)

Coming out of the water, very tired but needed to run through the finish line such that the transponder on my ankle can register the time.
_________________________________

Walking uphill is really not that difficult, but I am short of breath from time to time (no matter how hard I breath, I felt that I am not getting any air), feeling dizzy also. The high elevation of course is a factor but I believe my problem is more related to lack of sleep. I dozed off whenever we stopped, and felt much better after napping for 10 minutes (I was so tired that I sat down, holding my bag then passed out... Not even remember to eat the onigiri in my hand). The easiest path is actually paved by soft sand and pabbles, it is very hard to walk, that dissipated a lot of energy. To fight off the dizziness and short of breath, I walked slowly and breathed deeply. Terribly boring and hard.

Finally getting to the top of the mountain, where a bottle of water causes400 yen from the vending machine (we are still puzzled how the huge machine was put on the top). Japanese people are trying to keep Mount Fuji clean and eco, there is no modern establishment above 5th station. All the supply should be carried by human force. I guess we should not complain about the price.

We hurried down the hill after 15 minute break at the top, inspired by the thought of nicely cold Magareta. While others carefully select their foothold on the sandy path, 3 of us ran like crazy. I actually quite enjoyed the downhill run, it feels like skiing downhill. The soft ground works like snow, I carried the downward momentum, running pass people and leaved behind the sand dust. Ha ha ha... 2 hours later we are back to the 5th station. Yoshio thinks that is the record breaking speed (he hiked mount Fuji just a week ago, crazy guy came to the mountain again with us a week later).

4 hours later, we were sitting at the nice little Mexican pub drinking Magareta, and I am pondering about how I am going to move myself to Tateyama for my open water swimming tomorrow.

Ocean Day (2)

Not sure what I was doing, I must be trying to cheer up my colleagues by doing some silly things.
_____________________________

It was 30K away from the base station. The good thing is that our cab can go pass the queue for the parking lot, we set off the hike just slightly pass 4:30am. Sleeping 8 hours a day is vital to me, lacking of sleep is really the hardest bit of the whole hike. I was dozing off in every break we took. The high attitute is also difficult. The air is thin, I felt that, no matter how hard I breathed, I am not getting enough oxygen. After starting my running regime, I have not felt short of breath as much as this hike. I even felt dizzy and felt like to puke at some point. Man, I should have stayed home and slept... I was even thinking about quiting a number of times. But I guess I wanted to see how far I can go and before I know, I got through it alright.

The hike is actually very boring, it is like climbing stairs non-stop. All you need to do is keep walking, and walking up. The sun is high, the only good thing is the temperature is like 20C at such a elevation.

During the break, we ate and enjoyed the scenaries of Lakes Kawaguchiko and Yamanakako. We can even see a bit of the Tokyo bay, cities around the bay, perhaps Tokyo and Yokohama. Um, of course, Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in East Japan.

Ocean Day (1)

This must be somewhere after 6th station...
_______________________________

It was really an accident that I had mount Fuji hike and open water swimming compeition in the same weekend. This long weekend is the ocean day, 海の日, in Japan (this day must have something to do with sushi). I was a bit worried beforehand thinking I might not be able to get through this long weekend. The plan is to leave Tokyo on Sunday morning just past midnight, go straight to the 5th base station of Mount Fuji and start the hike before 3am. The traffic was surprisingly light at 1am from Tokyo, it took us less than 2 hours to Mount Fuji. However, the queue to get to the parking lot at 5th base station is like 3 to 4 hours long. We were all very disappointed and almost wanted to give up (actually, I was secretly happy about giving up, at least I can go back home and have a good night sleep), we saw a taxi driving pass by.

My colleague quickly formulated the solution, we parked our car in some parking lot then call the taxi. We stopped by a 7-11 to stock up the food and water. At the same time, I thought, it might be not easy to find any available taxi at 3am in the mountain area. Regardless, we got the local taxi company's phone number from the nice 7-11 clerk and the only Japanese colleague ordered the cab over the phone.

As we were unpacking and packing the hiking gear outside of the convenient store, a Taxi driving by. I went jumping up and down, waving like mad and the taxi stopped. Using my broken Japanese to let the cabbie know that we need to go to the 5th station, um, while I was struggling, my Japanese colleague came to my rescue. Soon afterward, We were on the way to start our hike!

MSN with My Dad

劍臣 says:
你哥叫我出去伯爵山莊下吃客家菜晚飯‧兩小孩皮到他夫婦無法吃飯、又打破碗、又撒一地、一個指東一個指西‧就和你們两小時一樣難搞
Joey says:
很忙啊
有吃白切雞嗎?
我也好想吃啊
今天晚上熬夜看冠軍爭霸戰嗎
劍臣 says:
哈哈哈！養兒育女世代傳都一樣、由他小孩煩回他、
有吃到白切鷄‧梅干扣肉‧山下金龍市場每天中午＋二點左右鷄肉攤位有折價白切鷄每盒一百賣五＋曾叔評價讚和萬華名店無差
Joey says:
好吃極了,等我回台北買來下酒吧
劍臣 says:
我先睡‧二點閙鐘响才起來看西班牙奪冠，我信章魚哥、拜湃

Um, my dad said that he is going to take a nap first, and wake up to see the world cup (he set the alarm). The most amusing bit is that he said he truely believe the octopus that Spain is going to win the champion.

What is your hobby

Tokyo is officially getting into summer, I went for a 5K jog then dashed straight to our Sunday morning 12K rollerblading.
_____________________________

Going to the sushi store in Tsukiji with Irene and her sister, in the shop, everyone (from the sushi chief to the wait staff) has to wear a nametag showing his/her name and hobby. One of the waitress has her hobby labeled as "Saving Money (儲金)".

Japanese Sword Fighting (2)

I begged Taro to let me participate their sword fighting training session on Sunday. In fact, he is very keen in getting people to join the club as young Japanese generation is slowly losing interest in this tradition. The problem is ... um.. quite embarrassing for the weak-nerve young Japanese kids, the problem is the SMELL! The protection gears cannot be washed, you can only wipe them or put them under the sun to control the smelly bacteria from growing too fast. The heavy-duty outfit cannot be machine washed, either. The traditional dye is not made of the best perfumy substance, it gives out irritable odor.

As for me, I don't care too much about it (sport is supposed to filled with sweat and danger), besides, I think the smell is not as bad as in underground subway station in New York City in the middle of July. What I don't quite like is the rigidness of order, ranking, manner, and respect. Sword fighting is not a sport for fun, it is rather a spiritual training to get yourself tougher (the idea is suprisingly fitting so well into Japanese culture). Thinking about the Chinese style of martial art, it is comparatively less formal, um, what do I know, all my knowledge of Chinese martial art are from the KungFu movies.

Nevertheless, it is an very interesting experience, you get to hit people (gear-protected) as hard as you can and yell as loud as you can at the same time. The only problem is that you are not allow to run, you have to slide across the wooden floor with grace.

Japanese Sword Fighting (1)

Hanging out in a nice little pub in Shibuya with my colleagues. The basement restaurant specializing everything skewered. In Japanese crusine, skewers are so important to accompany drinking activities. Everything can be skewered, including minced chicken, entrails, chicken skin, scallops, veggies, or any combinations of the above. They can be grilled(chicken skewer - Yakitori), panfried (tepanyaki) or deep fried (Kushiage). The best of all is that they serve my favorite sake, otokoyama (man mountain) from Hokaido. It is clear and crispy. Not much annoying after taste, oh man, I miss it very much.

We started drinking and eating late (worked until 10pm on Friday evening... This Japanese project is really vaxing). I rode my bike over to Shibuya and it took me a while to find the little pub. My manager was so surprised that I have no idea of the famous department store Shibuya 109's whereabout, he had to gave up his nicely cold beer, came up to the street level and looked for me.

Anyhow, the food and drink were both good, we left the restaurant around 3am. Everyone was half drunk and wanted to ride my bicycle on the still-busy Shibuya street. Taro, my Japanese colleague, is the Japanese traditional sword fight master, who has practiced the art for more than 25 years. He insisted to show me the trick(I guess he wanted to lift up the rear wheel and keep balance with the front for a while). He fell over while breaking abruptly. With the rigid sword fight training, he cling on to the handle bars when he was flat on the floor.

A rope

In ancient China, the emperor sometimes sent a piece of yellow fabric to people, that mean, go kill yourself by hanging your neck with this piece of nice silk. I sometimes wonder why people at that time would submit to this absolute powerful and never thought about running away. I think the reason is that it would be an easier way to die without too much pain. Otherwise the emperor has the power to throw you into the boiling oil or slice you into thousand pieces (one of the most cruel punishment, the executor would be guilty if the person die before he finished cutting a thousand pieces of meat off). Cruelty is the way to mind-control the crowd, I guess.

Cliente

I actually watched this film (French Gigolo) last year on the plane (very much like to explore non-hollywood films from countries other than USA), a coincident that it was still available on my way back to Tokyo from Taipei, I watched it again. Judith is a level-headed, charming and independent 50 something. She treats herself with young men once every so often by paying for the service. I have no issue of paying for sex, um... in my opinion, paying for sex is worse than no sex (cross my fingers, hope I will not think differently later on). Judith fell for the innocent Patrick, who really is not pro in this game. I am quite delighted by the openness about the sexual desire of women in their fifty (Judith's sister is an interesting contrast). The story was told in a very smooth way. You can feel the struggle of Judith's rational and lusty selves. Patrick can never be her real partner (background, social status, moneyness, age difference, level of sophistication, etc.), she tries to prolong the pleasure as much as she can. Of course, I think she enjoyed it because she really likes him.

About Patrick... I am not too sure. At certain level, he did like her, but he like her even more given the possibility he can escape the financial pressure (he did it to pay for his wife's beauty salon mortage)

I happened to stumble upon another Chinese writer's work with similar storyline. But this was written from the guy's perspective. At the beginning it looks as if the lady's made a great effort to liberate herself, but it turned out that she is the experienced buyer. The guy was badly hurt. Man, I wish the author could read what she wrote at the beginning before letting the story runs its course.

Icelandic Volcano

Just to record the long journey and trauma last month when making my way from London to Amsterdam. Spending the week in London for some training, I had to go out almost every night after work to catch up with some friends. My manager in the Netherlands bank also threw me a going-away party on that very Saturday, everything was going according to plan until the volcano exploded.

Knowing my flight was likely to be cancelled, my manager sent me text message and email urged me to find the alternative to get myself back to European continet, I think he even mentioned swimming across the channel. Since air travel is impossible, the 2 possible ways are through the overnight ferry or by Europe star. Partying again on Friday night, I completely missed out the chance to move my body to Harwick, where to board the ferry before 11pm on Friday night. I woke up on Saturday morning with headache due to dehydration, thinking I should at least try to book a Europe star ticket to either Paris or Brussel.

Luckily I was able to find a seat to Brussel leaving around quarter to 11, I hastily packed up, get the car, running to Kingscross station. I thought it would be easy to get the fast train ticket once I am in Brusse without further research. Getting into the train, I felt much better, hey, not bad, Brussell is only 2 hour train ride away from Amsterdam.

When arriving in Brussel, I realised I had made a big mistake. The ticket service counter was packed with nervous and anxious travellers. There is no way to get anything without getting into the line. I had no internet access, no way of finding out what other options are but wait. I waited for 3 hours to get on the slowest, snail-like intercity train around 5pm, crawling across all the cities, big or small. I arrived in Amsterdam just quarter to 9pm, just on time for the party.

Getting Big?

Returning from my brief vacation in Taipei, I was only disappointed that both Grace and my mom commented that I look bigger than before. The daily jog has made me feel very comfortable about eating whatever I feel like to eat, at any time. What I don't realise is that my body has managed to come back to the status quo that all my appetite has turned into the calories I burned during my run effectively and it has successfully got me to what I was before. I can run without shocking my body too much (no more join or muscle pain even if running for hours).

They said to me before I left for the airport, "hope you are not any bigger next time we see you".

The Sculptress

First read of Minette Walters' work. The obese and ugly inmate might be in the prison for the crime she didn't commit. The writer vowed to get to the bottom of the mystery, and met the love of her life after a painful divoice (handsome and depressed ex-cop is attractive?). The seemingly innocent girl (hard to use this word to describe her, because she makes people fear her because of her size and ungliness) really killed her angel-like sister and mother? The author is trying to depict her as the super intellengent manipulative freak, who controlled the rythm of every meeting the innocent writer had with her.

The story has all the Hollywood movie elements, I am surprised it is not on the big screen yet. Easy read and quite entertaining (who would think the father's lover also sleep with the daughter?) But what makes me think more if why Minette spent such a long time to describe the unpleasantness of Olivia. That can easily build up the agreement among readers, oh yeah, the ugly obese girl is of course behaving the way she described.

Suppose pretty face people have less chance of dealing with the negative emotion caused by the being disliked or bullied?

La Saombra Del Viento - the shadow of the wind

The story telling technique is pretty good. But what attracts me is not the mystery of the writer Julian Carax but the small side line of the main character, Daniel Sempere's friend Fermin. He is almost like the clown in the whole story, being sheltered by Daniel and his father as a homeless, his history slowly unfolded. He was arrested and tortured during the Spanish civil war, yet no one really knew what he did to annoy the authority (though you didn't do much, but in that environment, everything can be used against you in the court of, um..., totalitarism). Though he still wet his pants when hearing the head police office name (that was his tormentor in the prison time), he is actually the most loveable character in the whole story. Not sure why I wasn't quite attracted to the young, pure and innocent Danienl, the puppy love between him and the blind girl was pretty interesting, and his later relationship with his best friend's sister was also quite intense. But somehow I feel that he is lacking something more powerful in his character, being very young of course if one of the reason.

Fermin is not the most wealthy nor intellegent, he is very certain about what type of woman he wants. After he met his godness, he still flirts with women of all ages (I guess he cannot change that, he was born with it), but his mind is set. He thinks love is about stepping out of your comfort zone, challenging the unknown. His godness gave him the reason to become a better human being more than yesterday, he wants to be good because of the thought of she is going to be so proud of him. Interesting character.

Taiwanese wife in Nagoya

Emily's new born, 4 weeks old. Seeing the baby only made me realise how much maternal instinct I have, that is... none.
__________________________

Comparing to the supressed, reserve, conservative and meticulous neat Japanese, Taiwanese are sometimes understood as overly-friendly, easy-to-content and lacking of forethought and thoroughness.

Hanging out with Irene (my best friend married to a Japanese guy), I was always cracking up about the funny stories inspired by the culture shock. One time she was trying to make the Korean rice powder pancake, chichimi, from the package. The instruction saying that she should pour some flour into the mixture but there was none in the kitchen. She fiddled around the carboard and found the pancake mix. She thought, oh well, that is also flour so she poured in the pancake flour into the bowl. No one told her that the pancake mix has got the vanilla flavour and sugar mixed in, the result was revolting (please imagine pouring the soy sauce over your strawberry cake). She was so embarrassed, trying to stop her husband having the second helpings (I think he was eating it out of duty).

Over the golden week holidays, Irene went to the Pachinko Parlor with her husband. While her husband walked away looking for other machines, she was sitting in front of the machine by herself. The credit is running low but she had no other kind of entertainment but to continue her game. She pulled out the 5000 yen bill, and blindly stuff the money into the slot within her eyesight. In the noisy and smoke-filled space, she found out that her money was not crediting her game. It turned out that she had just funded the machine (and the guy) sitting to her right.

What's for Valentine's Day Present?

My cousin, Jen, has a very sweet boy friend. On Valentine's day, he gave her a hand-made (he made it himself) padding for her butts because she was falling a lot on the snowboarding trip a couple weeks ago.

"Chi" flow

I was trying to feed the Doreamon some California red wine, and Harun came to rescue the poor animal.
_____________________________

Coming back to Taipei for a brief 4 days to check on my parents in the Japanese golden week holidays, I went to the fixing bone (Chinese version of chiropratic) place to experience the bone fixing in Taipei with Irene.

Waiting in the lounge, I was the only one getting mosquito bites in the whole clinic (mosquitos love me for some reason). Fixing bone is very fun, the so-called doctor knows kung-fu, and he can feel what's wrong with your spine, the common problem is the crooked spine and so on. He will then push and turn and fold your body to make it straight again, too sad that I have no problen at atll (maybe the problem is in my head). He really folds your body like folding a piece of paper, you heard the sounds coming out from your joins everywhere. It is a very interesting experience...

One of the treatment is to put the vacuumed cups over your back to help the "chi" flow through better at the end. My back looks like a pepperoni pizza. The vaccuumed cups sucked out the flesh into the cups (it looks like I have 4 breasts on my back, ha ha ha ha), so the brusie is like big dark circles.

I think I have very high pain threshhold (falling 4 times over the bike on the snowy winter night last December causes bruises over my knees but not much pain though). Hearing the bond cracking sounds every where from the spine and joins, it hurt like hell that I almost wanted to ask the master if I can have something to bite into so to prevent myself from screaming like a little girl, ha ha ha.

After the fixing, we were told to drink a lot of water and warned about the possible muscle ache and join pain. However, I am feeling nothing of that sort. Perhaps I really do not need the bone fixing at all.

ひょうてん (Freezing Point)

Fresh Hamachi sashimi in London, I cannot believe this is happening...
___________________________

ひょうてん (freezing point) is the novel of a female Japanese writer, 三浦綾子. As a part-time novelist and housewife, her work had won the highest honor in literature in Japan in 1964. I got the book from Old Ho, he got them over the special sales. Strangely this book was getting popular again because a couple of the website I frequent mentioned this book at the same time. The story reveals the subtle, supressed side of Japanese culture. I highly recommend it for anyone who would like to understand Japanese society.

The story started with a prestigeous doctor's family. The beautiful wife was tempted by a handsome young physician, who works for her husband. There was not real betray and cheating occurring but the innocent daughter of the doctor went out walking along the river by herself while the mother was meeting the young physician. The tragedy unfolded when the little girl went missing and found dead the next day. She was killed by a mentally ill man, wondering around the neighborhood. Devastated, the doctor got suspicious about the secret meeting between his wife and his colleague, he pieced things together and got to his own conclusion that his wife is unfaithful to him. Furious and sad, he decided to avenge his wife by adopting the murdurer's daughter after the mentally ill man committed suicide in the prison cell. The orphan was sent by one of his best schoolmates, who is running the orphanage and was pursuing his beautiful wife before the doctor won the battle.

As story developed, we came to realise that everyone has something to hide, something against the other(s). But no one dare to break the ice shaking the seemingly ok equilibrium. Everyone is trying to preserve the small piece of the dignity he/she thinks he/she deserves and no one yell at each other to bring things out. It is really unthinkable in my world, I cannot bear the thought just to keep these emotions hidden for these many years, perhaps people in the cold north (background as in Hokkaido)behaves very differently from the hot/humid/violent south.

Another question is infidelity. Though the beautiful wife never had any thing physical with the young doctor, she has drifted away from her regularity, she was tempted, she was preparing for an affair, is it considered a more serious crime than actually having it?

Sporting Week with Huen's Family (3)

The next day, Sandy and I set out to the sea in the east coast. The weather turned cold and it started to rain, we were not too sure about jumping into the water but decided to check out the condition regardless. As soon as we got out of the 12k long tunnel, the sky got brightened and there was no rain at all. Putting on the wetsuit, Sandy started to teach me skimboarding. The short and light board is thrown on to the shallow water (sometimes the sand), and you have to catch the board from behind and keep your balance. The goal is to ride the small waves breaking near the shore. Though the distance is very short, but this takes a lot of skills to balance.

The quite seaside had nobody else but 2 of us. It was a bit windy but we didn't feel the chill once getting on exercising. The board can slide very fast and falling over the board was... painful because the direct contact of the sand. Time had flown so quickly, and before we realised we were very hungry, it was already noon.

We finished our skimboarding by soaking ourselves in the communal bath nearby. The natural hotspring eased the sore knees and legs. But I still can get sand out of my ears 3 days after.

Sporting Week with Huen's Family (2)

The next day I met up with Sandy for another workout session, although my back and arms were sore from the swing (not really good sign, meaning I am using my arm to drive the club). We planned to run for 5K then go swimming. Sandy didn't jog before, but her stamina is pretty good, we kept running and running. XiaoHo and Old Ho also joined us, but they are not serious runners. XiaoHo was in high spirit, I am pondering maybe we should train him to run as well.

The weather in Taipei was humid and warm, we ran for about 3K and decided to go for a walk with the crowd. Grace was already 1-finger dilated, still walking around with us. I was really worried if the baby would drop as she walked around. We checked out the ice skating ring, I am again thinking maybe we should train XiaoHo to do some speed skating... Maybe he will let Auntie Joey tag along to his skating practice when I get old.

Sandy and I went straight to the swimming pool, the first couple of labs were not really fun. Perhaps we have tired our leg muscles too much. But it got better and better. We finished our labs and went straight to the beer house. Maybe we should include biking so to make our workout the mini iron man next time.

Sporting Week with Huen's Family (1)

I went to visit Auntie Feng in Taichung one Friday when I was in Taiwan, since she is departing to Malaysia the next day, we won't have chance to meet before I fly out to Tokyo and she return to Taiwan. I like to obsorb the positive energy from her, that's almost becoming addictive to hang out with her and listen to her life philosophy (such as be very nice to yourself, if you don't, nobody else would). She came pick me up from the bullet train station, thank god for the train service, it takes less than an hour from Taipei to Taichung. She didn't really have a Taiwanese driver's license but she drove around anyways (during Chinese New Year, she, uncle Thomas and Sandy drove all the way to Tainan for foods, of course, none of them have valid drivers license. They were stopped by police officer, checking drunking driving. Miraculously they went through alright). After lunch, we went straight to the driving range, where she kept brainwashing me how cool golfing is. I tried different iron clubs, trying hard to recall the little knowledge I had with the swing. Golf swing is very counter-intuitive motion, the more you want to kill it, the worse the outcome. I wasn't doing too badly, meanwhile, Auntie Feng was so excited talking about her coming tournament, the instructor, even a potential family trip to Hawaii just for golfing.

Grand Project and the Pigeon

I was working with my mom on a project since last Summer. The project is to move my dad into a separate apartment. It just seems impossible for my parents to live together at all, since my father is not decisive enough to change anything, my mom took the initiatives and vowed to make her life better.

My mother is a woman with determination. Her plans is rational and reasonable (I don’t remember when her plans weren’t that way since I was a kid). We got another flat in the same apartment complex, closed the deal at first week of 2010. Renovation was done the following week, it is ready to move in. At the same time, my mom rented another flat to move in. The side line of the grand project is to renovate our current flat. We cleaned out the flat for this super make over. Too sad that my vacation is not long enough to see to the move, I am much grateful that they have settled into their apartments alright and my dad will be invited for family dinners every weekend.

I wasn’t too sure about my dad’s life after the separation, really need to make sure things are ok with my own eyes. I flew back in early March to check on them. It turns out that he is pretty cool with the arrangement despite the fact that he wasn’t too happy of it originally (losing face perhaps). He is taking care of himself ok and he is extremely busy with friends gathering and so on. I barely had a chance to dine with him during my stay.

He's now having more freedom to let the pigeon walking around the house. Rumor says that he lets the pigeon live inside the closet, but he was laughingly explained to me that he just tried to hide the bird when XiaoHo and Old Ho (nick name of XiaoHo's dad) visited him for Chinese New Year. Pretty cool, I was bursting out laughing, oh yeah, that is really quite funny, as long as the same joking action is not done by my husband (sometimes I think my mom is lacking a bit of sense of humor, oh well, no one is perfect).

He was even telling me how he walked the dog together with the pigeon with a lot of pride (I figure he thought that's quite innovative and should be complimented). He took the bird into his pocket and took Ilang down for a walk from his 22nd floor flat.

The way my dad walk the dog is that he rides the motorcycle and Ilang sits in the footrest in front (Ilang hops on and off when the motorbike stops. But he is really too old to see clearly, sometimes he gets into the wrong motorcycle). The bird was standing in front of the steering panel that time, occasionally flying around but always came back. I laughed again, it is indeed quite funny. Who would think a pigeon from god-knows-where has become my dad's friend and keeps him accompany?

Run, Run, Joey, Run!

I started my jog really by accident. The service apartment I live in Amstelveen has a gym on the ground floor, figuring it is not so good to stay in my flat, surfing the web and drinking, I decided to take advantage of the gym. I hated jogging because I cannot seem to handle the breathing well, panting all the way through (sometimes I feel my lungs are about to burst) is not my idea of fun. In addition, it is hard to find the right timing to do it. Before the meal you feel hungry, after the meal your stomach hurts.

I started to use the climbing machine in the gym, I can control the rhythm alright and get the cardio exercise done (heart beat can go to 184 per minute). The daily routine is very addictive until one day both of the climbing machines were out of order. I had no choice but to run on the treadmill, well, in fact, it wasn’t too bad at all. I found that I can breathe alright even if running at 10k/h for half an hour. After a couple of weeks on treadmills, I challenge the outdoor run.

Running on the treadmill is very different from running outdoor. I prefer the outdoor run, you feel the wind, see the scenary, knod to your fellow runners, calculate your next footing, it is a lot more fun than being a hamster. Once getting over the wall (the discomfort associated to running), my legs are just like a well-oiled machine, I kept thinking I can just run like this for another hour or so. Made the big mistake last weekend, I ran for too long and got really really hungry all of sudden. As if the power has shut down, it took me long time to make my way back to the apartment.

During the jog, you experience all kinds of pain and discomfort, leg muscles, ankles, and short of breath. However, the fun is positively correlated to the pain. I ran for 6 or 7 K this morning, now thinking about the pleasure, I guess I will go for another run tomorrow morning.

Disaster (Small)

I am generally not a clumsy person, unless I pretend to be Sometimes I am giving people an image that I am too strong head, opinionate and sharp, my silly idea to soften this image by pretending clumsy. Oh well, it worked better when I was in my 20s. Nowadays, no matter what I do, people fear me.

But recently I have caused quite a few damage to my hands. One time I was playing pool with Jean-Louis, who is obviously not very experienced with pool, as I enjoyed the victory by giving a powerful direct shot, my right hand ran into the pool table rim. A piece of skin was flipped and blood ran. This took a while to heal, meanwhile, I can only shower and shampoo with my left hand while holding my right hand up high.

I love avocado, I always remove the seed by striking the knife into the seed (in the half open avocado), make sure the tip is secured, then twist the knife together with the seed. This way, we can get the perfect second half. I must be very unlucky that day, the knife skid from the slippery surface of the seed, and ran directly into my pawn that was holding the fruit.

Disaster (Midium)

It doesn't seem to be the best month to me. A number of small incidents occurred. Not as deadly as losing my beloved laptop (tears), but annoying enough.

My bicycle was not behaving to its best in this month, first of all, the fender in the back had broken into 2 pieces (I have really no foggist how this could happen), the bike is still rideable, but I had to be careful not to push my bike backward when getting out of the parking space and the noise is really irritating.

One night, I was on my way happily biking to the best steak house in the city to meet with my colleagues. Despite the light rain, my spirit was high because the steak is really really yummy (the restaurant carries foods that are solid honest and never pretentious). One of the bungee cord in the back fell and got tangled into the back wheel gears, no matter how hard I tried, I cannot pull it out. A man came to my rescue, but this is obviously hard to solve without proper tool. He ran home and returned with a pair of scissors, we cut off the portion of the cord that was visible, the bike seemed ok to ride. I thank him from the bottom of my heart (I hate to miss the steak), bid him farewell and continued my journey. Strangely, the back tire was flat after the incident. Driven by the steak dinner, I rode on, thinking there should be a way to find an air pump in the steak house.

Difficult ride it was, it was worthwhile. To my disappointment, the steak house staff had no air pump. Our team finished the dinner and they all walked me to pick up my bike. As I calculated my options since it is virtually impossible to ride another 30 minutes with this condition. My colleague, Bill, found there was a air pump strapped to the back of the bicycle just right next to mine. We borrowed the pump, quickly fixed my tire. Thank god I can ride back home with it again. A small luck after the disaster.

P.S. My bike started to behave strangely after that night, when the back wheel spins, it touches the frame at one point. I suspected the ride on flat tire has bent the wheel.

P.S.2 Duck tapes fix everything, I taped the broken fender, good as new!

Disaster (Large)

I spent the whole Feburary in Amsterdam, just flew back to Tokyo on the 26th. The winter in Amsterdam is very unpredictable, the temperature dropped below freezing point, snow came at any minute. Freezing rain followed, sometimes fogs was so thick that you cannot see the building across the street.

I managed to bike to and fro work, but spent most of my time after work in the gym in my apartment. There is not point going out, IT IS FREEZING COLD everywhere you go. As my assignment comes to an end, my colleagues were all eager to grap the last chance to party with me (strange that they want to drink with this ill-tempered and not-really-socialable me, I guess that's because I bake cookies for them from time to time). Just before the Friday I am flying out, I agreed to go drinking with my team in a college bar nearby our office.

We played fool's ball (it is quite funny to see a couple of 2-meter guys tweaking the small machinary and got emotional when losing), pool and, of course, drinking the lethal Belgium beer, Le Chauffeur. As I made my way to the door, my manager called me and stuff me another glass of Westmaller. Ok, fine, I can have another drink. After that, I insisted to go, I wobbled to my bike, strapped my laptop in the back of the bike with the bungee cord as I alwasy did for the past 10 months and started my journey home.

Not until I got home then I realised that my computer was not where it is supposed to be. My spine was chilled, how could this happened? How am I going to live without a computer? How about all those personal data, bank information, stock shares records? Never mentions the work-related files, I have got a number of banks' customization , risk management system design documentation. I was nearly at the edge of breaking down, as a consultant, you are dead if you don't have your computer with you.

Cannot think too much, I turned around and traced the route I came from, hoping that we can trust Dutch people's integrity if the computer bag had fallen over my bike on my way home. I biked up and down the route for almost half an hour to no avail. I finally gave up and got back home, pulling out a sheet and writing down steps of damage control. It took me a couple of hours to really calm down, after all, it is as if I have lost my life for the past 2 and half years (not really like I have had life but ...). It is when you start to kick yourself really hard thinking what kind of idiot you are not backing up your hard drive on weekly basis.

Luckily I flew back to Tokyo in that vary weekend, I can have a spare laptop to use. Later I was informed that there were a couple of losing cell phones and laptops in the pub that night, I suspect the criminal must have followed me outside to my bike and pulled the computer bag (which just slipping through the elastic cord very easily) while I was riding away. Now I understand why Dutch people never strap anything in the back of bicycle except a case of beer.

Working with Flour

The whole idea of making bread came from a reading, the crusty, stringy-yet-soft interior, chewy bread looked so easy to make in the youtube link, which was demonstrated by a famous baker in NYC. Never mind the temperature of fermentation, all you need to do is pour the ingredients into a bowl, wait for 12 hours, throw the mixture into a cast-iron pot for 30 minutes, viola, you have the crusty bread just like those in the shop.

I did my best to find the yeast in Albert Heijn, though not knowing a word of Dutch, I figured these little package sitting underneath the bakery ingredient section must be yeast. Hastily going home, I cannot wait to start my experiment. The commercial yeast did activate very quickly, I put the bowl filled with the mixture of yeast, flour and water next to my laptop, the heat coming out of the vent should encourage the little bateria to work harder. A couple hours later, you can see the dough start to grow, and the smell of fermenting goods come about (oh well, it smells like the over-ripen fruits). I went to bed with the worry thinking it is going to over grow but, hey, we should trust the recipe.

The resulting bread didn't look like those in the film, it actually tastes like the Chinese-style bun, 饅頭, more than a real bread. Because the crust is not really brown but the interior is pretty soft and tasty. I should really have the cast-iron pot and the commercial baking oven to make it work?

After the bread experiment, I am having a lot of fun of the remaining flour (why flour is done in the way you always have some left is beyound me). I tried the pancake, pasta, Chinese-style noodles and cookies. Except cookies, I had to consume all my results (cookies are for the victims in the office). I guess this is the problem if you have too much free time over weekend.

Party Saturday

Hanging out with colleagues in the city, I biked 45 minutes into Amsterdam, meeting them in the restaurant right next to Dam square. The weather was freezing cold, rain has turned into wet snow, hitting my face. Everything is worthwhile, I told myself, if I can have the nice DimSum foods for brunch. The restaurant was crowded since we only arrived slightly before 1pm. DimSum brunch should be consumed leisurely on weekends, it was filled with hungry people. We finally sat down and had our foods, I cannot be bothered explain what the food is made of, if you don't eat them, I will.

Freezing rain continued, after the lunch, we started our bar claw. We first went to a small liquor shop right next to Dam square, it was the landmark of Amsterdam history. The city used to be the port of favored liquor of Europe continent. We then moved to another cute little pub, Goullene, downed another pint of Belguim beer. We then went to the microbrewry pub, featured a lot of locally brewed Dutch beer. The amazing thing is the bartender still remembers me and he even remembers what I had last time.

Continuing our alcohol drinking journey, we went to one colleauge's flat to get the dinner done and more wine. Around 10ish, we set out to attack the pub around the corner of Jordaan, meeting some other friends. It was snowing very hard by now, but I insisted to go back to Amstelveen by bike. I thought it would be awfully cool to bike alone in the snowy quiet night. I realised I was making a terrible mistake after the first fall on snow.

The snow on the bicycle path were somewhat fresh, but there were some other bicycle tracks making the snow lumpy. The wheels sometimes got trapped into those tracks, slightly losing control, and my instinct told me to slow down, pressing the break resulted in the unavoidable skid (since the tires were locked). I fell with the bicycle, left shoulder landed. Amazingly, it wasn't too painful, quickly picking up the bike, I can only think that I am lucky that no one was behind me to run me over. The snow continued falling, it was freezing cold and my toursers were wet.

The same epidsos repeated itself a couple of time, I finally got home after 1 hour or so. Half drunk and bruised knees, I slept very well.

Panties Exchanged For...

Flying back to Amsterdam, I was looking around for the good sake and soju that could impress my colleagues (they have bought me a couple of very high end single malt scotch), just to show my gratitue. Packing the 2 glass bottles in my suitcase, my mind was occupied by the combination of outfits I can go with the limited amount of clothes.

Not until I was on the bus to the airport, I realised that I had no underwears except those that's on me. I arrived on Wednesday night, there is no way I can get to the shops to get anything until the weekends.

I washed and iron dried them every morning until the Saturday. It worked out pretty ok. Perhaps we don't really need any extra undies at all?

Folding Bike

Hello kitty is eaten by a panda! Help!
______________________________

During my vacation in Taipei, the best thing is to find a folding bicycle. It is light enough (7 or 8 kg) to carry on your shoulders to get into public transportation. Also fast enough, max speed is around 25 km/h if paddling in casual pace with highest gear.

I rode the folding bike to my dentist, bank, post office, market, museum, juice jar, bookstores, etc. Every morning when I leave home, going down hill is pretty fun (max speed can be 55 km/h), but going home is pretty demanding. Regardless, it is very nice to exercise and sweat. I think winter in Taipei is the best season to get some workout outdoor wise.

The only problem with the folding bike is that it is impossible to lock, I have to carry it with me all the time even if going to a bathroom.

One day I went to the bookstore with the folding bike on my shoulder (folded, packed in the carrying bag). I walked straight to the customer service desk, and asked if I can leave my bike here. The young lady replied "But we are not allowed to watch your bicycle as our company policy alleged..." I felt that anger has changed my facial expression and I said "what if this is a baggage?" pointing to the bag on my shoulder. "In that case, it is ok" said the young lady.

Becoming Dutch

Returning back to Amsterdam after my long vacation in Taipei, sadly my facebook and blogspot login pages are turned into Dutch, more sadly, I can pretty much understand it (the very basic things such as login, logoff, yes, no, and email address, etc). I am still trying to figure out how to make these pages speak English. I guess I only need to learn how to speak over the mobile phone while riding a bicycle to become a more complete one.

Speaking of which, Dutch people are very open-minded, they do not mind dealing with different cultures, such as working with foreigners, enjoying food/drinks coming from other countries. However, they are indeed very private (perhaps that's just being very European). I think Dutch is pretty confident of they way of living, thus, they do not mind seeing or dealing with other cultures. Be very careful, they are not really trying to imitating others , they are only dealing with different values.

Having a very straightforward attitute toward life and everything (for example, you can pretty much do whatever you want to do as long as 1. you can make money 2. you are not bothering others), Dutch people can pretty much handle any culture shock. Think about it, not many cultural differences would conflitct with the Dutch principles.

Dutch though have different understanding of language, they tend to read the face value of sentence. If an English man said to you "I almost agree", what he meant to say is that he does not agree at all. But to a Dutch man, that means "Ah, he has agreed". More translation in the following link, pretty amusing.
http://www.joppeluiten.nl/anglo-dutch%20translation%20guide.htm

I have similar experience when dealing with Dutch people in the bank, I normally end my emails with "please advice" to be polite. However, one of my colleague wrote back "What do you want me to advice, you know everything".