Laundry Disater

I am really not very good in doing other people's laundry (since all my clothes are already colour and size stablised). Peggy's mother's trousers have shrank into Peggy's size. Not only that, the left is 2 inch shorter than the right.

River Crabs

The famous River Crabs. They are considered the delicacy in late Autum. This is the time when the crabs grow fat to get ready for the long winter. Their meats tastes very light and sweet, goes very well with the mixture of rice vinegar, shredded young ginger, little suger and soy sauce. You have to eat a pair, male and female.

_______________________________________________

Peg is making me shark fin soup and I have to go shop for the chicken for the soup base. The requirement is the organic farm chicken, less than 3 jin (1.5 kg). So I went to the chicken stall with a lot cages. I stood and observed, couldn't find any ready-killed chicken. I asked the stall keeper if you have any dead chicken.

"No, no, all of our chickens are nice and fresh and healthy" Replied the keeper in nervous voice.

I really didn't want a chicken to die because of me but had no other choice. But the chicken soup is really delicious.

ShangHai Peg

The second morning after arrived in ShangHai. Before putting on the foundation and mascara.

______________________________________________

I flew to ShangHai last Friday and have been very surprised by how similar ShangHai is to Taipei. Although this is not my first time here, I guess the contrast was more impressive after living in Beijing for more than 6 months. I remember when visiting ShangHai 2 years ago, I was so annoyed by the constant blaring of honk. Amazingly, I am now considering ShangHai streets are so peaceful and quiet.

The taxi drivers are more civilised (some of them even dress in suits and wears white gloves), the interior of taxis are generally clean and ordorless. I was told that taxis are heavily regulated. If you express any doubt whether the driver has taken you to a longer route, one yuan will be returned to you without argument. Your complaint to higher authority might make them lose their taxi license.

The city itself is more cosmopolitan and modern. Oh well, more shopping places to go. But people generally pay more attention to their appearance. The foods taste more delicate, with less salt and grease. The difference between north and south is dramatic.

I have read an article explaining the mentality difference between north and south. There is one quite interesting example. By law, taking a passenger in bycicle is forbidden. However, parents need to send their kids to school with this type of cheap and convenient transportation. In Beijing, parents carry their young with the bikes and policemen would choose to neglect the illegal act. In ShangHai, the city has passed a law to allow carrying a passenger, but the rider has to push the bike when crossing intersections.

Scaming southerners are everywhere in the world.

10 hours of sleep

Not feeling too well after coming back from KL. I guess the drasic change of temperature doesn't do me too good. Plus, the central heating didn't start until last night. My allergy/cold-like syndrom was getting bad, the violent sneezings woke me up almost every night.

The heating finally came and I guess my body has got used to the flu virus. I finally had a good night sleep, from 8pm to 6am. Wow... I can really sleep.

Crooked Taxi Driver

I cannot help but think all Texi drivers are somewhat crooked, perhaps we should exclude those in Japan or Britan. I have got a lot more unpleasant experience taking taxi after moving back to Asia, maybe, by large number theory, I am bound to meet with the nasty lots.
I think all texi drivers are trying very hard to make extra buck or two, which makes them, ur..., very aggressive. I read that the KL texi should run by meter, so I filtered those without meters. Finally I got on one texi with meter, but was told the meter is broken while departing the cab. I had to pay whatever comes up in the driver's random guess. Some drivers would purposely take you on a grand detour, the upside of it is that you can have a tour... but with someone you don't really know and fear what he might do to squeez out more money out of your pocket.
I am especially nasty to those taxi drivers without licenses and try to recruit customers from the street. Maybe they are just earning a living, but for some strange reason, they all look like criminals. In Beijing, at every train station, those dress in filthy clothes and flip-flops, not very well shaved, haircut at least 3 month overdue, would approach you saying "want a ride?". That scares the hell out of me without fail. I usually just walk away pretending not hearing anything at all.
This morning, while I am trying to leave for the airport, I had to take a taxi to the airport express train station. I would have taken the public transportation if they operate before 6. Anyhow, I walked out of the hotel where a line of taxis were waiting.. wait a minute, not in the destinated taxi waiting area but the road side. I wasn't very sure so I ask the porter, who indicated those taxis are ok (guess he has to live peacefully with thosenon-licensed drivers). Anyhow, I got on one cab, which charge me 3 times out of the normal rate since there is no meter. I just got off the cab and shout to the porter "they don't run by meter".
While waiting for my official cab, the negotiation continued. I insisted my official rate and amazingly, they wouldn't give up. My official cab finally came. To the KL Sentral, fine. During the ride, I was so worried again for no obvious reason. Does he understand me? Does he show me around the city again? Thankfully we arrived in the central station fairly quickly and the \fair was surprisingly low. I was so happy that I have made the right choice and then he turned to me saying this is the night rate, I have to pay double of the meter price because it is before 6am. Of course, no receipt.

Understanding English

I was woken up by a phone call around midnight. Not expecting to receive any calls, I quickly picked up the phone and threw back the receiver because I don't feel like to explain. Several theories were turning inside my head, who could that be? I made the conclusion it must be a wrong number.

But I couldn't fall back sleep, so I switched on the TV and found that it is playing Alfie. The movie is so lousy. A limo driver can afford Gucci suits, Prada shoes and a spacious housing in west village? The director's main mission is to show off the prettiness of Ju Law (and every one around him). Apart from the amazing courtship skills Alfie demonstrated, the movie has accomplished nothing.

However, I find it very hard to understand the dialog while watching the movie with Malay subtitles.

Malaysia is Happy?

I had the impression that Malaysian people are all very happy. They seem carefree in a way. I guess the language has a lot to do with this impression. The very surprising thing to learn is that the people from the three different major ethnic groups speak English with the same ancent. The short, impatient tone with only simple words (if the sentence can be done with kids language, no one seems to bother to put it in a formal and more adult-like). Things seem to be decided rather quickly comparing to other counties I have worked.

The local newspaper writes with a similar dynamics. Some of them reads like the example essays from high school. For example, there was an article about animation, it starts as "what makes a good animation? The good story line or the excellent technology?" Oh la la... That should be the sentence in my blog!

The Chinese in KL speak Cantonese or Mandarine in similar fashion, sentences are short and simple, with the funny upward tone at the end. I think among all other oversea Chinese, those in southern east asia have the broadest exposure to languages. They can speak at least 3 Chinese local dialets (Fukjian, Cantonese, ChaoCheow) , Malay and English. Some of them even knows bunjabi (spelling?)

The bank of Islam only hires Malay people obviously because I cannot see any Indians or Chinese. That was confirmed by the project manager, WeiVoon. This is a shocking discrimination if happening in US or UK. WeiVoon told me in very low voice that how unfairly Chinese have been treated. Or, rather, how the locals are being favored by government policies. Well, people like WeiVoon with Chinese origin (the 3rd generation), have to work extra hard to get to where she is now.

But as a middle class, you have a house, steady job and enough saving to afford a oversea holidays, whatelse would you ask more of?

Aquarium

Spending my 31st birthday in the hotel room, trying hard to imagine where the camera shot is going to have me inside the picture.

____________________________________________

It seems every male visitor in KL is having a good time. On the streets near the hotel, there are aways girls standing around, waiting to be picked up. You just need to be careful because sometimes those are lady boys (they can be identified by deep voice and masculine facial figure, however, they are extremely beautiful and slender). Quite a few westerners hold those small Malay women under their arms, almost like little girls carrying dolls. Where is the fun for female visitors? I have been thinking, what if man prostitutes are available and the act of picking up men from street become as acceptable as picking up women, would it become a business? I read an article once (maybe from Jim Roger's capitalist's venture), some European women go to Africa so to have some actions, and their bring condoms from their own countries.

I went to the KL aquarium this afternoon, fishes swimming is very theraputic. I cannot help but thinking most of them are already mental. They don't need to go around for food, confined in a small space, what are they thinking? Of course you cannot read fish's emotion from their face, but I cannot help thinking if they would express their ecstatics by swimming faster, roaming up and down from one end of the tank to another.

Or when they are really really bored, would they just stand still, you have to look very hard to see the movement of their fins. There is a type of Amazon fish, with a duck-like mouth, called paddle fish. They have not evolved for 500 million years. They swim with their mouth open, blindly sieving everything comes in their way. Could they spit out the food they don't like? There is also a very interesting English word I learnt today, those who study fish is called "ichthycologiest". I guess Manjit is going smile if he reads my blog.

On many streets in KL, there are so many different types of fruit trees. Coconuts, mangos and some local fruits I cannot name (but eaten). They are persistently growing inspite of ugly human intervention. Very deterministic.

I am staying in a very lousy hotel that has no internet service in guest rooms. It is all because the gynaecology convention is taking place in KL. There should be increasing number of young western men doing the pub claw at night, would they be interested in girls at all?

Touch Chinese Women

I would say woman rights in China is uncomparable among all other Asia countries. A lot of mportant government positions are taken by female, as I have described before, women in China are really tough.

When the sociaty doesn't require women to be womanly, you don't think it is important to have anner. You can see women shaking legs when sitting, spitting on the street, taking newspapers o the toilet so to tell everyone you are about to shit, walking like a man although dressing up. All these are really puzzling yet interesting.

As women and men behave alike, the line between hudsband and wife role in a Chinese household become also fussy. I only seeing it as an outsider, however, I had a chance to listen to what Chinese men think of those Taiwanese or Hong Kong wives quitting jobs and staying home after marriages.

He highly resented such behaviors and thought there is nothing wrong with a stronghead wife. His reason is so she can carry half of the household on her shoulder, which make his life much aslier. A very refreshing point of view...

The Rudest Air Hostess I have ever met

On my way to KL, I have to take the domestic chinese southern airline to GuangZhou for a ayover. There I've seen the rudest air stuardess. She is tall and slander, very pretty, however, good looking she is, she is impatient, without respect to the passengers and her own profession.

As I was boarding theflight, the carbin was very crowded and there is barely no room in the verhead compartment. I managed to squeeze in my hand carry while she stood over watching nd making the annoyed sounds like "tz, tz, tz". Such as she cannotbelieve I am bringing such a ig carry on to inconenient her peace. She speaks with thick old Beijing ancent, which blurs all words under the bottom of the mid part of a tongue. In short, she behaves like a adolescent boy please note, not a woman at all, I cannot see any womanly manner in her, which is very nteresting because she is very beautiful).

While distributing the meal, her tone of asking customers which meals were harsh and quizzical. I saw her throwing the meal tray back to the drawer when a fellow passenger asked for the lternative, and murmured "You demanded the alternative only now", the mumbling voice is ade loud so that every one can hear.

I am only curious how people can bear this type of treatment? Or is it because the customers are sometimes harsh so that the service has to be correspondingly bad?

In a restaurant, you can see people shouting at the waitrons for water or manu. There are no execuse me" or "please" or "thank you" (only in very rare condition do those words appear in onversations with strangers). Some mainlanders are really being looked at in Hong Kong airport restaurant when they do the same trick to the wait staff.

Is it true that Chinese is uncivilised to strangers yet too friendly to accquintances? Perhaps in he west, people are keeping rather the same distance to everyone, near or far. However, Chinese has drawn the very clear line between people known and unknown.

Chinese Medicine

I have always wanted to share some of my findings about Chinese medicine, however, this topic is too big and too complex. I can hardly imagine how I can explain this in one blogging article, should try my best though.

The root of Chinese medicine is really the balance of Ying and Yang. The two has their operating turf yet need to cooperate to metabolise (the Chinese medicine term is to vaporise, of course, not caused by high temperature in this context). The five elements -water, fire, metal, wood, soil are associated with kidney, liver, lung, stomach, heart. However, in the context of Chinese medicine, lung is not strictly only the organ, for example. It includes the skin and hair, which means everything involves in desposing waste. The system definition is not as clear cut as western medicine study. On top of the main five, there are another 6 containers, which are in the supporting roles. If the main fives are the kings, these 6 are the knights.

The five elements helps out one the other and surpress one the other and the same time. When sickness strikes, it is largely caused by one of the five elements gets too aggresive. The cure is to activate the element that's supposed to supress it and slow down the element that's supposed to breed it. Yet remember those 5 elements are also interwinded, if you keep thinking down how you can achieve the effect by controlling its breeding element and supressing element, you are going to fall into a frantic cycle!

Very neat, some of the example shows that constipation is linked to your lung. And how the doctor cured the labour complication by feeding the women the soup of a type of plants, whose fruits drop easily when mature.