Shangri-la Again

Click here to see more photos. Should have taken pictures in front of the elevator. Just did not want to do this stupid thing in front of the elegant lady..

Shangri-la, Hong Kong

Shangrila hotel ran a promotion few months ago. If you stay 4 nights, you get one night free at any of their hotels. My coworker got 4 days, and used one day at their Hong Kong hotel.

Very very beautiful and artistic hotel. very well decorated everywhere. The painting shown in the picture is not a regular painting. The range you can see here is from 40th floor to around 50th floor, and there is another 10 floors beyone the range of the picture. This is amazing.

The room is very nice too. They even provide TV in the bathroom, so you can watch TV while you take a bath. Very very nice.

Hotspring

The original plan was to go to hot spring yesterday evening after I met with MM. But I forgot to bring my coat, so by the time we left the coffee shop, I felt cold, and it was only 4pm. I was not so sure of taking a hot spring, and came out with just a T shirt, all pores wide open when the temperature could go down to 20 degrees, so I called D to cancel it.

Because D had things to do, so I planned to go myself today, but D sent me IM saying that he could make it, so we scheduled to meet at 2 first.

As I was approaching YuanShan station, my cell phone buzzed. Battery is dead. OMG. I hate it when this happens and I am going to meet someone. Bummer. This is one of the cons when you integrate all functions into a cell phone, and I listened to musci too much this weekend. This is time to separate cell phone function and mp3 player. I was told iPod Touch is pretty good and provides even internet capability. Now comes my excuses..

Anyway, I got there at 2 sharp, waited for 30 minutes, but D did not show up. Bummer. And I have no way to call him and he has no way to contact me either. I decided to leave after 30 minutes, which seems to be a proper time for me.

Hotspring was nice. Public tub, but Only 90NT. Water was very hot. I could only take it for 10 minutes at a time, and felt completely drowsy after the second round. Wish I could be as open as other people there who just lay down completely naked on the bench, so I just sat on the bench, rested, and drank a lot of water.

Wanted to take some picture of the hotspring house. But cell phone battery was dead. Now it is time to seriously think about separating the functions, instead of having one that can do everything. Otherwise once the battery is dead, I can do nothing. I was told Sony T200 has nice feature to capture smiles, and it was very beautiful red model to choose. Now comes my excuses..

Reunion

Had a reunion with the girls from Chinese teaching class. We went for hot pot. Nice place. We were the first table, and the place stayed quiet for quiet a while. Later MM told me that this hotpot restaurant had been there forever. Food was fresh. They play old old songs from my previous generation, instead of the 'in' hip hop. I like that.

After lunch, we wanted some coffee. Starbucks was too busy, so we decided it is not gonna get our business. We went to Kafka by the sea. My first time there. Coffee was good. Mugs were interesting. Not very busy that afternoon, very casual, not as much chitchat background noise as Starbucks. I was told they even provide free wifi connection. Now I am picturing how happy I shall be if I can play with MY iPod Touch in this coffee shop..

It was so nice to get together again, and get the update from everyone. I also learned that all 3 girls are reading this blog... Come on, girls, don't hide. Sign your name in the comments!

Flying Broom!!!

I've got the bloom. Now I look like studying in Hogwarts, and more likely in Slytherin. :-)

Albus Dumbledore

So both Dumbledore and Gandalf are gay. One is gay in the book, the other is gay in the real life. Great wizards.

Everyone likes comments. We always feel great when someone say something nice to us. But what if these comments bring back bad memory? What if the memory could be as bad as defeat (aka kill) someone you love? I think Dumbledore is a true tragedy in his love story.

We all know there are murderes out there. Some kill because they are depressed, victims of domestic violence. Some kill to revenge because partners cheat on them. Some, of course, for insurance. We all understand, but also believe law will do its justice. But Dumbledore saved the wizard world from dark magic. He is a hero. He faces the compliments and praises from all over, but I wonder if each compliment reminds him of the sweet and bitter memory of the life he spent with his love and how he decided to defeat him. We all move on after things happen, but you've got to admit that he/she always lives in some part of your memory. It is bad enough to have to go through rebound alone, and will surely be a lot worse for Dumbledore if people talk about his victory and triumph all the times. I really feel sorry for him.

Lumos. That's the only magic word I remember from the all the stories. That's why I am not great. *sigh*. Expellarisum... anyway, whatever.

Artistic Room Service

This is the cable I used to connect my cell phone and the computer. Since I can use this cable to charge the phone battery, I prefer to take it with me on business travel instead of the bulky adaptor.

That morning I charged the battery and left it on the desk before I left the hotel room, and when I came back and saw this cable bundled this way, I was totally amazed. It looks so artistic to me. If I have to do it my self, I probably will fold the cable in half, and then another half after another one, and use a rubber to wrap them. I'll never imagine anyone can do better than this. Need to give the maid an A++.

Picture Together

Niece has this whole week off, and was very determined to come to Taipei to see her new cousin, so mom and her were here for the weekend. This picture is to mark the historic moment of the two women when they meet at the first time..

Their Name is "Parents" Part 8

I think this will be the last episode of "their name is parents" series, as I cannot find anything more exhilarating than a DV, and an expensive one, about 1500USD. It is HDTV ready, and come with, if I remember correctly, 5 or 6 million pixels of digital camera. Touch screen display makes it so easy to browse the video in the DV.

I was so excited to try it, and thought it is cool to finally try the video function in my iMac, like editing the videos, and then burning it to DVD and then sending my mom a copy, and later found that Apple computer does not take the MTS file format that DV records. Bummer. After a short google, it is such a hassle to find a way to work around. I just have to give up for now. Can't believe my Sony Ericsson cell phone, aka Mistress, works so happily with my iMac, but another Sony product does not. I need to give Sony a second thought now.

Cool Dog

October 10th is our last national holiday for 2007. October 10, 1911 is the day when people started a revolution and overturned Ching Dynasty. Anyway, too much history. We had fireworks in Taipei. MM and I were going, but we got there too early, so decided to visit the Apple shop, and played with iPod Touch.

On the way over, we saw a crowd of people flashing their camera. I had to find out what was going on. Oh man. they were taking picture of this dog, wearing a viking helmit and cool sun glasses. We looked around, but did not see sign for promotion or anything, so the guess is, the dog was there, people liked it, and started to take picture. This sweet pie was born to be a model, holding the position for a long long time. We could see him trembling like he was so tried from sitting still like this. Such a sweet little thing.

The certificate was delivered last Friday, but no one was home, so I had to pick it up myself at the post office. Long wait to get it. The class ended in late August, and I have just received the certificate in October. Still happy though. That was happy memory.

After Typhoon

The wind and rain died down dramatically today. I believe rain stopped at one point even. Anyway, I had a very bad headache. The brain is thirst for some caffeine, so I just had to go out to get some coffee. Love that Starbucks on weekends close to home. That area is very commercial, so on weekends it is awfully quiet. I've been to a few busy Starbucks on weekends, and normally am asked "have you secured a seat" before am asked "what can I get for you". But this one, quite different. I could take my time reading the newspaper, sipping my coffee, and still have time to daydream. Very pleasant.

Went to Eslite bookstore to look around. Tried to find some magazines, but there were all sold out. Bought one book on travel in Thailand. It is not like usual travel book which shows you all the fun places in Bangkok, and then copies some SPA centers and hotels from either their brochures or their website. No no. Not this one. This one is like a blog. The writer takes pictures and tells you a nice story of what she sees and what she thinks. She not only spent time on Bangkok and Chiang Mai, but also gives a good introduction of Suhkothai and Ayuthaya, which is what I need for my next trip.

There are certainly some leftover from the typhoon on the street. The street shown here is very close to my bus stop. It is quite a large tree, but still surrender to the strong wind.

Best Lunch for Typhoon Day

The wind is so strong. We were so lazy. Did not really want to cook for lunch, so decided to order pizza. Called Domino to see if they still delivered. Hm, it depends on where we live, and we live closer enough to their store. :-) The wind got a lot stronger after I called, and I felt so sorry for the person who had to deliver the pizza, who turned out to be a girl.

Lunch was wonderful. Love Domino. Whole lot better than Pizza Hut.

Typhoon Krosa Is Approaching.

Strong typhoon Krosa is approaching Taiwan at slow speed, so weather forecast says that we'll be affected the whole weekend. It is Friday evening now, and I can feel occasional strong wind and rain hitting my window panes already. Quite scary to think it is just the beginning. Saturday night to Sunday morning is when Krosa will land in Taiwan and hit her really hard. Mountains in northern Taiwan are expected to have rainfall of 30 inches to 40 inches. Krosa should have come one earlier, so we can have a long weekend again. *sigh*

24000

It looks like a painting, but is actually a jigsaw puzzle, featuring 24000 pieces. For a person who does not have the patience to finish 300, I can't imagine someone can finish a jigsaw puzzle this large. The initial guess is, the company made the whole thing, cut into pieces, and then never bother to take it apart. The jigsaw puzzle is in Dream Mall.

Lenovo T61

After having worked for the company for 3.5 years, finally came my compuater upgrade! There was nothing wrong with the old one, but with the new requirement of network security and new software, the model was getting old and the system response can be painfully slow sometimes. This new laptop has a Core 2 Duo 2.0G CPU and 2G of ram. It also has built-in fingerprint recognition and webcam. Built-in 11g WiFi is definitely a plus in the office environment when I sit in the meeting room, and need wireless access to some critical files. Widescreen makese it easier to use Outlook, as I can fit in more columns in the screen without having to resort to scroll bar to see the whole thing. 5 pounds is not light weight to carry it around, but I can deal with it. The overall rating is, love it.

Big Tummy

Kids are so cute. When they smile at you, you think you have the whole world. They are innocent, and straightforward, but also becausee of that, they may appear cruel.

Last Sunday, cousins wanted to go to Dream Mall in Kaohsiung and asked if we were interested to go together. Sure, why not. I did not have anything planned for Sunday anyway. So 2 cousins, mom, niece, and I went together.

Mom, niece and I sat on the back seat. Niece always has a fancy for my chubby cheeks, and double chins, as the way she put it. This time, on the way to Kaohsiung, since we did not have much to do anyway during this 1.5 hour trip, she started to fancy for my tummy, and moved her hands around it like polishing a crystal ball, muttering big tummy, big tummy, you have a big tummy.

I know I am speedying all thte way to becoming fat, and becoming a chubby bear (or pig) seems to be right on the horizon. But I also always imagine I was still the skinny boy I used to be, and niece's comment just highlights the huge gap between my dream and the reality.

But when this sweet devil smiles at me, how can I not love her?

PS: See the 31 flavors in the picture? We had to stop there for some dessert in the afternoon. We put it in the todo list right after we saw it. Such a treat.

Dream Lights

This picture was also taken in Dream Mall. We were just window shopping on second floor, and these lights got our attention. They opened a series of openings on the floor, and installed the lights at the same height of the visitors' eyes on the second floor. So from the first floor, these are just lights hanging from the above, but from the second floor, these flights, at different heights, create a very interesting artistic effect. At first I thought they must have installed mirrors to create this dream like atomosphere, but no, it is simply because there are too many lights. Cousins and I were all so fascinated and have to take some pictures.

Apple Influence

I was surprised when I walked into this restroom. This is a public restroom in Dream Mall in Kaohsiung.

There are only 3 urinals, all shiny clean, with 2 beautiful green partitions covered with, again, shiny white covers. This restroom design is really a copycat of Apple's . The green is from iPod Nano, the wave-like texture reminds me of the sleeve you can buy and put on your iPod Nano. and the white cover with 4 round metals? Geez, I can't remember the model name, but it is from Apple too, maybe the first few models of iMac. That was a standalone machine, with few screws on the front cover. Other companies would not wait to hide the screws, but Apple used them as decoration to show off their outstanding industrial design. Still remember I stood at Fry's in front of those machines for their good design. Now, you can see it again in this beautiful restroom.

Glad that no one was there. It was early enough in the afternoon, so the mall was still quiet. It would be strange to be found taking pictures of the restroom, especially when my cell makes such big noise when the shutter clicks.