Rock for Roots and Shoots at Bridge 8

»Some days, I really like char si lang* music. Nothing less than 4 hours of standing at »4Live will do.





*＝吵死人，madly noisy

The Campari Project Update

Silent films and their live music

A delightful first time with live music accompanying silent films. This was the Blue Grassy Knoll at my favourite bar, playing their original compositions for Buster Keaton and a 1922 Chinese silent film, Labourer's Love. The best part for me was hearing the simulated sounds of shuffling mahjong tiles. Nice!

Wall Street analysis of a woman seeking $500k+ earning man

Update: This and other great Craigslist ads are discussed in a »recent NYT article.

A hilarious dose of »Tim Hartford-ish humor in a Craiglist post - courtesy of a friend:

Woman seeking $500k+ earning man - advice

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy. I’m not from New York. I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

- Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics - bars, restaurants, gyms

-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings

-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?

- Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?

- Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?

- How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults - I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.

Reply 1:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament. Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

»Read more...

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as “articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful” as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way. Classic “pump and dump.” I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

So there you have it. Beauty is a depreciating asset, good thing I don’t have much of that ;)


Reply 2:

Your also came across your posting with great interest. I am a 28 year old Wall Street trader who qualifies as an eligible suitor under your $500k/yr rule. In fact, I make over a million and can usher a woman into a comfortable, true middle class lifestyle (not like those 500k lower-middle class chumps who have to make do with the junior two-bedroom).

I am sympathetic to your goal in finding a rich man to marry. The milk needs to be sold by the expiration date. But since this is premium milk, why would you settle for less than premium prices? I would like to address some of the questions that were previously missed by the other gentleman and provide constructive advice on where to find your match.

I also do believe in the efficient market theory, and am surprised that $500k hasn’t found you yet. There are plenty of rich lawyers, investment bankers and hedgies to go around in this city. What gives? I think the problem might be that you have not been sufficiently focused in your search efforts.

The culprit, I believe, may be that you are also looking for qualities aside from money - such as looks, personality, and a sense of humor. However, men who have those qualities learn at an early age that they do not need money to attract quality women. As the saying goes, if you can get the milk for free, why pay up for the cow?

What you need to look for is someone who is long money, and short the other aspects. They are not easy to spot, since you are biologically wired to overlook and ignore them. However, the next time that you are at a expensive black tie event, and you are introduced to the short, bald, overweight man who fidgets nervously whilst making conversation with you, pay special attention to him.

Here’s an inspirational story for you. An acquaintance of mine who was also an classy and articulate woman as yourself was able to land that guy - who also happens to be one of the top ten guys at Google. This is the type of stuff that gold-digging moms read to their gold-digging daughters at bedtime. Perhaps you need to make a location change to Silicon Valley - miracles like these happen almost everyday in a land where you can randomly throw a rock and hit a rich nerd squarely in his Kim-jong Il glasses.

And as far as his deficiencies go, they turned out to be not so bad. With hundreds of millions in the bank, she’s been able to clean him up and give him a little sophistication. Think of it as a fixer-upper project with a massive budget (and yourself as a visionary real estate developer!). Although, I must warn you, it is a fine line you are flirting with - you must not overdo it lest he begins to attract younger women who are hotter than yourself. The trick is, you need build him up enough to be presentable, while simultaneously manipulate him into believing you are the best that he will ever do! That and having kids will be your insurance against your depreciation (or as I prefer to use the term, milk going sour).

I wish the best of luck on your sales project. As for me, I am also available for a short-term lease. However, for marriage I wouldn’t consider a woman unless she can bring beauty, brains and self-motivation to the table. I do not want to dilute my gene pool and end up raising a bunch of Paris Hiltons.

Yahoo vs Baidu

Fun ad of Yahoo taking a jibe at Baidu:



English: "If you can search only 100 degrees [Baidu literally means 100 degrees], you might as well search 360 degrees with Yahoo."

But Yahoo probably didn't realize the etymology of Baidu's name, which comes from »众里寻她千百度. So Baidu is not just 100 degrees, but (at least) 1000 degrees.

As my elementary teacher used to say, it's good to do homework.

The Pei connection

SUZHOU - Five years ago, during a break from tango class, Y had asked me what I would like from Paris. After a moment of thought, I said I wanted a postcard of the Louvre pyramids. At that time, I knew very little about I.M. Pei, only that he designed the Louvre pyramids (which invoked a greater desire in me to visit Paris than the Eiffel Tower*) as well as the Kennedy Museum that I was going to see a few days later in Boston. A photo I had taken at the Kennedy Museum later made it into the first issue of our grad student magazine, so that augured well for the start of a Pei connection.**


Rejuvenated from seeing the pyramids again last month, still so breathtaking even though it was my third time, I finally took the long-procrastinated trip to Pei's museum in Suzhou this weekend.

It was most brilliant use of gray I have ever seen. Single-handedly, it connects the antiquity of Suzhou and the modernity of Pei.

Next time I will pack a picnic and spend the day just looking at the gorgeous shadows.

______


____

*I had initially thought of posting a picture of the pyramids, so I poked around my photos for a street-level overview of them. I could not find a single one from all my trips to Paris. I must have concluded that it was much better to enjoy a private moment with the pyramids, than to have a menage-a-trois with hundreds of tourists.

**After coming back from Suzhou, I was delightfully surprised to know that Pei also did my favourite shopping mall and office of three years in Singapore - Raffles City. In fact, the connection can even be traced back further - it used to be my mum's office 20 years ago as well. I should have guessed from his motif of skylight, so classically and effectively used in both Raffles City and the Suzhou Museum.

Chinese are subtle creatures

It was an exhilarating evening. A well-loved Chinese colleague was moving on to our Beijing office, and everyone that mattered agreed to come to his farewell dinner. despite the short notice. I picked a steamboat place for greater interaction. It paid off - it is difficult to remain distant when everyone is tackling hairy crabs with bare hands and suckling prawn curry off their fingers.

The colleague was a true northerner. He toasted every single one of us with a full glass of beer each and then quietly paid the big bill on the pretext of going to the bathroom. More toasts should have happened for an occasion like this, but our predominantly southern team was generally an alcohol-intolerant one and a married-with-kids one at that. While I was a better-than-average drinker, the context was not appropriate for me - a woman - to make alcoholic advances, even extremely platonic ones, to a man. In any case, our team was already much more chatty and relaxed than any other team dinners I had ever been (which were ALWAYS with the big boss), so I should not grumble.

Slightly bolstered by inebriated exhilaration, a few of us decided to go for karaoke after dinner. I typically do not fancy karaoke since I sing like Miss Kermit, but I readily agreed since I enjoy the company of the other three colleagues and I have often heard that the well-loved colleague (WL colleague) sings incredibly well.

It was true. In general, Chinese are subtle creatures (perhaps not when doing business), so when they say the WL colleague sings incredibly well, he sings like Leslie Chung. The amazing thing is of course he is an extremely down-to-earth man. He is hardworking, quietly knowledgeable and produces good work. His wife and teenage son are in the north, so he has been hoping to go back for the past two years. The few times I have walked to the subway station with him and another colleague after work, I have always been amused by the northern idioms and anecdotes he cites.

I also re-discovered Chinese songs in the 3 hours we were singing. I was reminded once again of how much I enjoy them and why in spite of that, I never play Chinese songs at home: they are so subtly expressive that they strike you at the deepest.

I therefore reaffirmed a personal observation I have always harboured - the Chinese language is able to encapsulate much more in one single syllable compared to English. It is perfectly normal, actually even poetic, to sing in Chinese, "If you walk under the spring rain of Taipei | Hong Kong will also rain | The mood of the walls is getting mouldy waiting for you"*, but to sing about getting mouldy sounds quite strange and banal in English indeed.

After a particularly involved song (Anita Mui's 《女人花》) at the end of three hours, you could see that everyone was thinking about it. Everyone alluded to how it reflected Anita's life, but no one said anything about their own.

The Chinese poignancy hung in the air, but it was one that was not to be pierced.





* Karen Mok's 《双城故事》:"...当你走过下梅雨的台北|香港也会|就连墙壁也为你心情发霉..."

Site down at aSW

In place of a mundane "Site is down - check back later":


Russell's »"In Praise of Idleness" is a nice one.

From Venice to Paris

夏天和秋天

夏天说：“叶子转黄了。“

秋天却一直紧紧地抓住夏天的手，抓着她不放。

今天的巴黎是23度。

φ

巴黎铁塔下的红玫瑰望着夏天和秋天，等待着调谢。

浪漫

浪漫是一个人走在在塞纳河旁，
两个人相会在简陋的机场巴士上。

浪漫是男人睡眼惺忪在黑暗中找纸巾擦鼻涕，
女人也睡眼惺忪扭开清凉油，擦在他鼻下。

Singapore according to talljoanne

Since I have been getting quite a number of requests for talljoanne tips on Singapore, I thought I'll complie and organize a sticky post from the emails I've been sending. Should be perfect for those of you visiting Singapore for the first or second time! [Updated: Oct 2009]

Directory service for all restaurants mentioned here: http://www.hungrygowhere.com
Fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to get to places by public transport: http://gothere.sg

Walking, Seeing and Doing

»Night Safari. A great, nice out-of-the-city tropical experience. A must-do in my opinion.

Old shophouses of Chinatown / Tanjong Pagar. For the architecture. (Must lunch or dine at Blue Ginger restaurant - see below.)

Little India. Smell the spices and take in the colours.

»National Orchid Garden (the one inside the Botanic Gardens). Gaze at the amazing variety of orchids in this top-class garden. Don't miss the Misthouse. (Note: There is another one called the Mandai Orchid Garden, which is MUCH further but is supposed to be quite nice too.)

Singapore River. (See below section on Clarke Quay and the walk from Raffles Hotel.)

Drinking (combined with some exploring)

Clarke Quay in the evening:

• Dinner by the river... Tapas Tree, Hot Stones or Jumbo Seafood are good choices;
• Or a coffee... Sit outdoors at the »TCC cafe, log into our free public Wifi (»virtually everywhere in Singapore now), take a photo of yourself and post it on your blog.
• Or a drink outdoors... Cafe Iguana, or the bars at »The Cannery;

Singapore sling in Raffles Hotel. Walk towards the Esplanade - our durian-shape performing arts center by the bay. Then go through the underpass walk towards Victoria Memorial Hall. Salute our founder Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Cross the bridge to Fullerton Hotel and have another drink at the Post Bar inside. Think about how wonderful my little country is. If on a Friday, cross the bridge again back to Indochine restaurant by the river and have another drink while listening to live jazz sung open-air.

»Dempsey Road. Old army barracks just off Orchard Road now converted into bars, restaurants and antique furniture shops. Dine under the moon and canopy of huge tropical trees.

Feasting - The Best Part!

»Blue Ginger. Must try. Distinctive Peranakan cuisine (very Singapore / Malaysian, cannot find anywhere else). Go to the restaurant called Blue Ginger on Tanjong Pagar Road. I grew up in that area - in the middle of the city but still charmingly local. Ask the waiter to recommend the top dishes.

Kaya Toast. Kaya is a local jam made from coconut and eggs. Very Singaporean / Malaysia. Ask the hotel concierge to tell you where the nearest »Ya Kun Kaya Toast is.

Chilli crabs and BBQ sambal stingray. Try the »No-Signboard Seafood Restaurant near the Esplanade. You can stroll by the bay after dinner.

Roti prata and street food in general. An Indian slightly fluffy pancake, a delight to watch when it is being flipped in the air! Can be found at foodcourts or open-air food centres. Lau Pa Sat (subway station: Raffles Place) is an easy-to-find place for street food, especially satay. Acceptable quality, but DO NOT eat your chilli crabs here. Stick to Jumbo or No Signboard.

Shopping

Orchard Road is foolproof but I also like I.M. Pei-designed Raffles City (subway station: City Hall) for more interesting selection of shops and a great skylight. the great When you are in the Raffles City area, wander into Chijmes. An old convent converted to a pub/restaurant district.

For more local buys, Little India and Haji Lane are interesting.

In fact, our Singapore airport is also great for shopping after you go through the immigration! Don't arrive at the airport too late.

Dr X apologizes he does not have a ppt

This was the subject line I put down a few minutes ago in an email to a conference organizer.

I LOVE it. That singular, lone protest against how we are beaten to death 10 times over by powerpoints.

Dr X is my ex-boss and we are inviting him to speak a conference. He is quirky, maverick, and a bit mafia-like. (To be this when you are in your 50s and in a place like Singapore is nothing short of a miracle.)

But he is also super-smart, very unassuming and is probably the most sincere person (not to mention boss) that I have met.

Often, I wonder how an idealist like him navigates a world like this every day. And sometimes, I even wonder if it will one day kill him.

It seems to me that idealists need someone to help them transcribe between the two worlds. If so, I should like to apply to a classified ad like this:

NAVIGATORS Required
Helping idealists find space for thinking while wading through the day-to-day

• Believes in the merits of the Socratic method of inquiry
• Able to straddle between the ideal and mundane
• Can convert circuitous conversations into actionable points and powerpoint slides
• Experience preferred but not required

Bartering ruffled feathers for lilies

I love love love the smell of lilies.

The worrywart gene is a recessive one

An email to a German* friend I haven't spoken to recently boomeranged with this:

Dear friends,

I'd be away on live firing on:

Tuesday, 14th August 07

So i'd be uncontactable via email. Please sms or call me at +65 - xxxxxxxx if you need to get hold of me.

First thought of a worrywart: 14 August was a long time ago.

Counter-thought of an economist one split second later: Nay, the probability of him forgetting to turn off his out-of-office is higher.

The worrywart patted herself on the back for having come this far over the years. It's now official - the worrywart gene is a recessive one. Hallelujah!

Life is about living the probabilities.




*Alright, not really a German, but a Singaporean who went to Germany for 6 years. German enough!

The answer must lie in the attempt

On the theoretical impossibility of understanding someone:

If there's any kind of God, he wouldn't be in any one of us - not you, not me, but just in the space in between. If there's some magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something. Even if it's almost impossible to succeed, but who cares, the answer must be in the attempt.

On new art movements:

I value the ones who initiated the China contemporary art movement. Starting a break in style is always the most difficult and best part in art. And this style has become such a distinctive style now that it's what comes to mind when I think of china contemporary art. HK has none and yet some feel that they can look down on china.

Yes, categorical disdain can be quite annoying. I personally don't necessarily like that many of the art pieces at Moganshan Lu, but I always like going to see because I believe that the answer must lie in the attempt, and having the environment to cradle such an attempt.

On straying from the anointed path:

After all these years, I just tell myself I want to try doing photography and see what happens. If it doesn't work out then it doesn't work out and I go back to consulting.

Save Shanghai Heritage

To borrow the words of Twain -

We ought to be careful... for, once China is civilized, it can never be uncivilized again.

Further reading:
»094 Slaughterhouse Blues
»Artist colony scrapped in favor of luxury goods market

Days like these, you remember why you were in love

Shanghai has been impossibly beautiful for the past 10 days. Super blue and clear skies in the day, which turns an alluring prussian blue by twilight.

Days like these, you remember why you were in love.

This year, HRL seems a bit more loved...

(Last year, the 2-week-old lioness in Shanghai spent it hot and sweaty in Zhongshan Park Carrefour fighting alone with the crowd and cashier… The bar was set quite low...)

By the well-prepared

Happy birthday, you lions! (Provider of the picture below)

Hey Ms Lim,
Here's wishing you a happy birthday albeit somewhat in advance! Hope you have a great year ahead and enjoy your time in Shanghai!
Figured i'd drop a note in advance as I'm gonna be on the road most of next week and internet is expensive and patchy at best in Russia.
Enjoy your birthday! Hope you get great gorgeous gifts and get stupendously drunk at the wonderful birthday bash which i'm sure you're having :P

Dear Lioness,
The Aries and the Bull will be more than happy to join you in the savannah for your bday party!
And what a fantastic occasion to see a Lion ride a pink bike!!!

Your royal lioness ... would you like me to escort you to the palace tomorrow night after work??

btw I saw on ASW that ur b-day is today! So a big kiss today and a biger one tomorrow! A domani! (I think the clock on ASW is somehow jetlagged… It is tomorrow!)

By the midnight-oil burners

Happy birthday to you! Cheering with you for getting another year older and wiser. Wishing I am the No. 1 for the bthdy greeting

(Unfortunately, this beat the one above) Happy birthday… :)

Of course sleeping too, you are a young lion. Happy birthday super Joanne.

Happy birthday and many happy returns for the year!

By the just-in-time delivery folks

Happy Birthday!
I thought about you while i was sleeping .... i knew that your birthday was coming. What a sign, no?
So i hope that you will be granted what you wish for ....
But as some people wrote ... Be aware of what you wish for! :P
Diamonds cannot hurt for sure ... :)

Her Royal Lioness,
I wish you all the best in your Royal Bday... today, tomorrow and until your kingdom last...... translation: until winter (mosquitos will die... all of them!). But look it in the positive way, each year you will renew your army, and one of those they will learn not to bite you ....jejejeje. See you in the evening!.. (Context: See Frequently Asked Questions)

»Read more...

Thanks Royal Jo,
For whatever reason, the e-mail of yesterday did not arrive. But see you tonight!
Prince Charming

Dear Joanne,
my best wishes for your birthday!
Before I congratulate you personally tonight, I have two short questions…

Dearest HH aka HRL,
Happy 27th Birthday! Your plans tonight sounds fantabulous.. too bad I can't join in, Your Royal Lioness!
But, whenever HRL returns to her hometown of Lion City, her humble subject would love to take her out to the jungles (ok, maybe night safari...)
Have fun, miss yah lots and again, Happy Birthday!!!!

Good morning Madam
Happy Birthday to you!! Have a great day, at work and later pampering! See you tonight. Shengri Kuai Le!
(I took half a day off, read the Straits Times while eating bak kut teh, had a short siesta, cycled my spanking pink bike to the party venue, had a hair treatment... life's pleasures can be so simple - just with half a day off...)

By the Facebookers

• Yo, Jo. Happy Birthday!!!
• Happy Birthday!!!
• Happy birthday again… happy bday joanny!!
• Happy Birthday Jo =)
• Karen Yu is waiting to wish Joanne Happy Birthday :)
• Happy Birthday Joanne! How is life! Hope you're well!
• Thanks to facebook I learnt it’s your birthday. Happy birthday!

By the Better-Late-Than-Never

Happy belated Birthday Joanne!! or Happy Birthday! if it has not passed yet. P mentioned that you guys were celebrating your birthday last night - hope you guys had a wonderful time!

小猫咪，茉莉祝你生日快乐，昨天的晚餐吃得愉快吧

Dear Jo, I think my sms lag… Happy belated birthday… Got a present for ya… :)

Happy belated birthday and happy national day! How's dinner party?

FAQs about Her Royal Lioness

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT HER ROYAL LIONESS

My dear Inter-Continental Logistics Pricing Analyst,

Please find below some answers to your questions in italics.

----- Original Message ----
From: The Inter-Continental Logistics Pricing Analyst,
To: Her Royal Lioness
Sent: Monday, 30 July 2007 1:54:33
Subject: Re: Her Royal Lioness Celebrates!

Her Royal Lioness???.. please provide a brief answer on following questions:

1) Who is the Royal Lioness?
Please note that the correct title to be used is "Her Royal Lioness", not "the Royal Lioness". Your mere impertinence with this should already have exiled you from the party but Her Royal Lioness is thankfully a benevolent ruler. As for her identity, it is a noble mystery only to be revealed on the day of celebration.

2) Why Royal? is she Princess Crown? or, the Queen? or, the Mother Queen?
She is Princess Crown to Palace No. 1401 of Jing An International Plaza, where she commands over a few annoying mosquitoes which often refuse to do her bidding not to bite.

4) Is HRH related to the British Royal family? or, the Swedish Royal Family? or, the Spanish / Danish / etc, etc?
Note again that it is HRL, not HRH. (Again, the benevolence of HRL prevails over your impertinence…) She is therefore not related to any of those stuffy and passe European lineages. But according to her great-great-grandmother, she may have some savage Mayan blood in her tracing back to Mesoamerica, so do not ever, ever doubt her royalty. (Or doubt it at your own peril...)

5) Bday is on the same day as celebration party?
Of course! HRL cannot find any reason to do it on any other day. Can you?

Her Royal Lioness Celebrates

Dear 25++ guests of Her Royal Lioness,

Her Royal Lioness is pleased to confirm your attendance for the dinner party,
beginning with some nice aperitifs at 7.30 pm at the even nicer:

Urban Tribe
133 Fuxing Lu near Yongfu Lu

Mark your calendar and see you there,
HRL

Aperitifs happily sponsored by HRL; contributions of 100 RMB for the Moroccan dinner appreciated if possible.
Vegetarians or those with dietary restrictions, please let the palace know immediately.

Big thanks to those who bought HRL a spanking new pink Chinese bicycle
and kudos to Ms P for organizing the effort!
(It will be proudly ridden to the party venue and displayed.)

=======================================================

Ruffled feathers

A gorgeous long weekend in Guilin

A gorgeous long weekend in the Hotel of Modern Art in Guilin, courtesy of Ms P's and her family's incredible generosity. Most unforgettable was The Dinner - just our private table of five in an open field of 900 acres, with hills surrounding us in the horizon.

A 900-acre private dining room... C'est magnifique!

To my good-looking father: Happy Fathers' Day

My father's first time in Shanghai and both our first times on the river cruise. (He was very excited to see the Pearl Tower.)

I really think he ages very well, both appearance-wise and mentality-wise. He is exactly how I aspire to age - simply and graciously...

Happy Fathers' Day.

So what's been up?

Nudged by Ms T's laments about the uncared-for state of my blog, I finally decided that some re-planting and pruning of my blog was in order to usher the coming of real spring. (Shanghai has been *struggling* to get warm for the entire past month. My poor tropical mama was frozen stiff when she was here.) Half-drafted entries were finished and new ones were started to form the retrospective posts you see below.

It is not for lack of interest that the blog has been neglected. But as I have mentioned obliquely in a previous post before, when time is a highly limited commodity after the fulfillment of work, familial and biological (sleep) responsibilities, it is a constant battle choosing between absorption (experience) and reflection. Just when you think you will dedicate a particular night to writing up something for the blog, you have all sorts of distracting things coming up such as:

• A marathon cough which refuses to let you sleep properly for days on end. You try all sorts of cough mixtures and remedies, including moving to sleep on the living room cough so that you can be closer to a glass of warm water when the cough fit starts again in the middle of the night. (In the end, a poached pear folk remedy was the one that did it.)

OR

• The internet suddenly dying on you at 1 am when you are trying to finish the last of your emails. You check all the plugs and connections - nothing wrong. Then you pick up the phone and found no dial tone. The immediate reaction wld be to call up the phone company and scold them but of course, the phone is deader than dead. And no, China Telecoms - who owns THE cellphone line as well as THE landline - is soooo not going to profit putting me on hold on the cellphone when they messed up my other line...

OR

• You have been hearing about this concept of a private social network called A Small World where you can only join upon invitation from an existing member and worse, only a small percentage of the members have invitation rights. An invitation suddenly falls into your lap and you stay up late to explore the discussion threads in the site because there are some very interesting and cerebral things being said (e.g. the idea of hearing a painting.)

So there, I accept full responsibility that I have not managed to resist / have chosen to prioritize these distractions above my gardening duties. But I believe some of these distractions will one day flower into something for the blog, so stay very tuned...

Mama and Papa in Shanghai

An Italian birthday I shall have to match

2007 being his year of the golden pig, Mr M decided to throw a birthday celebration for all to remember.

After a dinner party at his very nice home (food was catered from an Italian restaurant, complete with a waiter on hand to serve wine) , the 20+ of us guests hopped into the 2 stretch limousines that the unbelievably generous Mr M had chartered to take us to our favourite Glamour Bar on the bund. Sipping champagne the entire way, it was a leisurely and rowdy ride in style through the busiest street of town...


This, we decided amidst boisterous chatter, was celebrity.

At Glamour, champagne (yes, more) and cake were waiting and the whole night was peppered with The Three Tenors (his goods friends) bursting into birthday songs spontaneously at least 20 times. And of course such a night could not just end at one location. A little past midnight, we left Glamour in style again in the limos for more inebriated dancing at Attica further down the bund...

This, I decided with absolute clarity at 1.30 am on a Thursday night (after 7 glasses at that), is a birthday I shall have to match. Preferably before but certainly no later than 36 years young!

落花有意

Postscript: A slightly eyebrow-raising Ms L asked me if the next line of 落花有意 is 流水无情。 Indeed it is, but thankfully for my heart, that was not the underlying intention - it was simply a small meditation on the petals of Moganshan :) But very nice to know that I can convey such subtle nuances in the future...

Considering a career change as a tour organizer

Dear Moganshan folks,

Continue to be good boys and girls by praying, but as of now, there is likely to be thunderstorms on Moganshan on Saturday PM, and the weather will turn quite cold indeed getting into Sunday.

2007年03月31日 24℃ /15℃

2007年04月01日 18℃ /7℃

(P.S. It is not just the mountain - everywhere, including Shanghai, is cold on Sunday and the cold will continue into next week.)

As such, please remember to bring an umbrella / raincoat, a warm jacket and a book. We may all be cuddling together reading over hot coffee or a glass of wine, looking over the misty mountain.... All very poetic! Card games and good story-telling skills welcome too.

To bring some good cheer to us on a rainy Saturday evening, I have taken the liberty to make a dinner reservation for us at the Moganshan Lodge. The dinner will be:

Boeuf Bourguignonne
Classic French beef stew, heavy on the red wine and garlic, and laced with thyme
Accompanied by newish potatoes, salad or greens

There is not really a choice of dishes, as the Lodge's philosophy is:

Produce is locally sourced or homemade (the bacon is cured by us from the excellent local pork), and we try to avoid waste so dinners for example are cooked to order. The idea is that you drop by during your stay, glance over the simple dinner menu and order in advance – preferably 24 hours(alternatively email “ahead” to info@moganshanlodge.com and we’ll send you the menu). We then buy in the ingredients from the local market and you all eat the same meal.

But if anyone of you does not take beef, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can inform the chef.

I would suggest that we make of the good morning weather to walk around Moganshan and then retreat back tot he Lodge when the weather threatens. Sleep in on Sunday morning, have breakfast served in bed if you wish, appreciate the smell of rain again and perhaps the weather will let up a bit for another stroll before we head back to Shanghai at around 5 pm...

Your friendly tour organizer,
Joanne

This is what we call the butterfly effect

Read on my favourite Spiegel Online today:

CHINA PREPARES FOR OLYMPICS
Drop in Executions Leads to Organ Shortage

With the Olympics in Beijing just 500 days away, China has begun cleaning up organ trafficking practices. Not only have exports been banned, but with fewer prisoner executions, a major source of organs has dried up. The result has been a kidney shortage -

In South Korea.

One more reason to love Glamour Bar

Glamour Bar is without a doubt my favourite bar in Shanghai - in part due to its gorgeous Bund location but mostly because of its never-dying atmosphere. (You know how some bars or clubs start going downhill after 12.30 am? At Glamour, it only keeps climbing up.) Oh, then there is that stylish M logo and irresistible postcards...

(Incidentally, I had met the designer of the M logo once through an acquaintance and we chatted over a few martinis (at Glamour of course). A young, humble and cool Chinese dude - what a great combination.)

I have now found one more reason to love Glamour - the »Shanghai Literary Festival.

Spanning two weeks and hosting three dozen authors from all over the world, the event was a welcome reprieve from the usual activities of checking out new bars / restaurants / exhibitions. Nursing a glass of wine on a Sunday afternoon, sitting back and listening to the Irish-accented readings by the authors, eyes occasionally darting to look out to the Bund, the event could not have been better done. I really liked observing how Glamour transforms from a glitzy late-night dancer into a subdued and refined lady of the afternoons / evenings...

Even better was the fact that Ms P and I got the tickets to the Amy Tan session at the last minute. She is a true storyteller - absolutely captivating and well-worth the 90-minute stand. From the moment she started her talk reading from the »CliffsNotes of Joy Luck Club ("I thought CliffsNotes were only for dead authors! So imagine my horror when I found myself appearing alongside with Shakespeare in the bookstore... I just had to buy it to see what it said about me."), all were smitten by her outstanding storytelling skills. Perhaps, it is only through weaving her signature humour with the formal (in the sense of structural) art of storytelling that she is able to publicly relate the chaotic childhood she has had.

My only lament was that I could not attend the session with Dai Sijie (author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) - it was in French :(


Postscript: Perhaps inspired by the Literary Festival, I went into a reading frenzy the weeks after and finished 3 books in 3 weekends. Tim Winton's »Minimum of Two, Marquez's »Of Love and Other Demons and Marina Lewycka's »A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. I highly recommend the last. It is so funny (Toshiba apples!) and irreverent ("You no-tit woman! what you doing here?") at the same time as it is so observant and poignant. Comedy and tragedy are often only a fine line apart, but very few authors have the finesse to straddle it well.

Little red doves across my Singapore sky

(Courtesy of wireless@SG, this blog post is able to go up from a cafe at Clarke Quay minutes after watching the Chinese New Year fireworks... The Shanghai Mui adores the geek-friendly Singapore.)

Fireworks never fail to elicit oohs and ahhs from me, and even more so when I am not expecting them. I had unknowingly picked TCC at Clarke Quay to meet up with Mr E and it was the perfect spot when the showers of golden willows and zig-zag burst of stars came on with gusto.

But most of all, I love the new variety of fireworks this year -

Like little red doves released across my Singapore sky....

Happy New Year!

My charming little country

It's nice to be back in Singapore. Very nice.

And not having to work makes it even nicer.

Having days and nights at my disposal for two weeks has allowed me to enjoy the charms of my little country more than I ever had in a long time. A full-house Rachmaninoff concert, the new St James Power Station, Oosh and Cafe del Mar, blue skies, juicy big Sri Lankan crabs, super-fresh sashimi, warm sun, delicate little macarons with coffee, workouts in a nice empty gym, wireless headphones in a dentist chair, potable water, honk-less traffic, Chinese dragon dance one night followed by Indonesian dance the next morning...

My charming little country is quite cool indeed.

(Even if it gets a tad hot sometimes!)

Hurtling towards cruelty

Office. I settled into my inbox and saw the nauseating headline on the CNN news: Executed man's head "just snapped off".

I hated the sensationalism of that headline. But yet I clicked to read the article, breakfast threatening to back up on the oesophagus as I read it. (I did stop short of clicking on the video.)

φ

Bar Rouge. I saw midgets dressed in red John Travolta costumes, hired to dance on bar tops. I hated the gaudy objectification of a minority. But I couldn't help but steal furtive glances at their small bodies.

φ

Shanghai Circus. The finale was »the amazing feat of 8 motorcyclists racing in a cage. As I watched them a second time, my heart thumped and prayed for them. Then, in appreciation of their boldness, I clapped as loudly as I can, even though I know I was abetting the race towards the bigger, the louder, the scarier, the more absurd, the more dangerous, the more grotesque.

φ

Magazine. I read this artist's comment in an »exhibition write-up:

I am interested not in the violence itself but in the spectators who watch from a distance. In traditional China it was common to watch public executions, which were lively events.* This tradition has been passed down and assumed modern forms, whether watching a brouhaha in the street or enjoying cop dramas such as Oriental 110 (东方110) and Court Record (庭审纪实). I feel a lot of people watch others suffering. It has become something of a hobby.
- Shi Qing

φ

All around, it is easy to find the Bataillian instinct of wanting to stare at the sun (even though you know you shouldn't). Chinese parents who contort their children on the streets, Thai shows where women stick all sorts of things into themselves, and perhaps, even artists that purport to explore the theme of violence without falling prey to it.

Nothing is enough for us anymore. We are all hurtling towards cruelty.


* But it is not just the Chinese. The French postcard set, Les Supplices Chinois (circa 1912), apparently contains a series of images of the lingchi (凌迟) which were widely circulated among westerners. Lingchi is death by slicing. Some say that the victim should not die before he suffered more than a thousand slices, or else the executioner himself would be put to death.

Hong Kong

只能用沸腾来形容

两次错过了去育音堂听 char si lang 音乐的机会，我决定这次就算自己一个人去都得去。

碰碰运气给上海的朋友发了电邮， 竟然有人问津。8点30分，三个女生开始打滴寻找重金属的足迹。

育音堂很隐秘，埋在深深的货舱区内，外面不挂招牌。路上问人，差点儿被骗到另一条不知名的小巷里。但到底不是特别难找。

我一向钟爱上海艺术与工业融合的成体，也出乎预料地喜欢这 char si lang 的音乐。

上海的地下演奏会，只能用沸腾来形容。

Our victory from 1968

3.30 am, Nanjing Lu
0 degrees, ears cold.
No warm wisp of breath in sight.

3.40 am, Xikang Lu
The women are out on the streets - solo.
Walking home,
Selling noodles,
Manning the convenience store.
Is that our victory from 1968?

3.45 am, Xinzha Lu
Sober from the cold,
Lucid from the walk.
The men are asleep
(even the security guard)
But the women are awake.

Right foot, wrong eye!

Played my first game of squash in Shanghai (and at 9 am at that for a sleepyhead like me) after arriving for 5 months. Starting the new year on the right foot, I thought to myself as I patted my imaginary shoulders.

Then this guy comes along to the squash court behind us, and in the tiny rest area between the two squash courts, starts changing out of his streetwear. For most people who wear their sports gear beneath their jackets and track pants, this is fine. But as I was picking up the ball and walking back to serve, I saw this guy strip to his bare skin at the top. (No, he was no hunk.)

Raise one eyebrow. Never mind, somebody's feeling hot, and maybe I missed the news that 2007 is the year of liberation.

A few more strokes and I missed the ball again. As I picked up the ball a second time, I saw this guy stripped to his briefs.

??

Wait a minute, is it now acceptable to treat a rest area like a men's room? Did I just sleep 2 decades away in the night? Sure, you have funky black briefs with sparkly silver stripes across, but seriously,we don't need to know that...

Starting the new year on the right foot, but certainly on a wrong eye...

Ciao 2006

Having decided not to pay the exorbitant 450 - 900 RMB (S$90-180) for entry into a bar, I decided to cook up a storm for people who were willing to brave it:

Soup of the Day
Piping-Hot Miso Soup

Chilled Amuse Bouches
Hmong Fish Sauce Noodles
Japanese Zaru Soba
Chinese Vermicelli with Sha Cha Sauce

Entrees
Out-of-the-Pot Spaghetti in Tomato and Mushroom Base
Singaporean Beef Rendang

Desserts
Lizzy's Amazing Fudge
Lizzy's Even More Amazing Ambrosia

Nibbles
Ross' Gorgeous Cheese, Olives and Breadstick Platter
Jose's Spanish Olives and Anchovies

Nightcap
Fireworks in the taxi on the way to the bund
A beautiful walk down the river for the buildings that kept their lights on for us
Topped off with gin and tonic when the lights went out...

The subsea dragon

We never think about subsea cables
Until we are left with only 1% internet access for 2 days and still counting.

We never think about Skype or phone card alternatives
Until it takes 8 tries to get 1 decent Paris-Shanghai phone call.
(And that is after abandoning Skype.)

We never think about Taiwan
(or Tibet or Myanmar or East Timor for that matter)
Until the subsea dragon lashes out in protest.

At the turn of the next corner: 上海弄堂

__

__

I love Shanghai at the turn of the corner

Most of the time, I like Shanghai.
(On a few occasions, I hate it.)
But some days, I really just fall in love with this city.
Days like this, when I stumble upon an exhibition,
in my favourite building on the Bund.
Art, vibrancy, Absolut Lomo.
Shanghai with a surprise at the turn of the corner -
That's my Shanghai.

This night of 20th December

This night of 20th December, the gazelle felt a little three-legged.

Returning to her savannah, a "Welcome back home!" greeted her in cheerful melancholy.

She staggered a little, finally able to stagger in the solitude of her own savannah after a whole day of striding. Out in the wild, striding was the only honourable way to walk, even if you are three-legged.

The gazelle staggered a few more steps towards the white haystack. But she forgot what she should have remembered before collapsing into it - the lingering scent of the lion in the haystack. (This gazelle has an incredible memory of smell. Smells for her are like the taste of madeleines for Proust.)

The scent that floated towards her was both comforting and debilitating at the same time. She could not even stagger anymore now. She burrowed her head into the softness of the haystack for a long time.

At long last, the gazelle got up and looked around. The savannah was lingering with the lion's presence. She decided to graze on some fresh grass. The nightingales decided to sang.

It was the lion's Bach in the solitude of the night.

Five degrees Celsius

Five degrees Celsius
Naked ears cold
Woollen neck warm.

Sunlight streaming through the leaves
Water dripping in the distance
I take each step,
Mindful
Mindful
Mindful.

The calf muscle awakes,
Yawns,
Then sets in motion:
Right –
Heel, arch, toes
Left –
Heel, arch, toes.

I stop in front of the cockroach
Shape barely discernible
Now a cold empty shell.
I close my eyes in prayer:
One day
We shall be Buddhas together.

The meditation bell chimes
The cold air reverberates
Three birds flutter through the sky.

One deep breath
Two gentle smiles.

Response to a taunt from Boris Vian via the mafia

« Le travail est probablement ce qu'il y a sur cette terre de plus bas et de plus ignoble. Il n'est pas possible de regarder un travailleur sans maudire ce qui a fait que cet homme travaille, alors qu'il pourrait nager, dormir dans l'herbe ou simplement lir »

Boris Vian
Mocking at me
Tired little Asian eyes
Too small now to be seen
Not reading L'Écume des Jours
Not hearing Duke Ellington
All because
Tomorrow starts 06:15.

French-cuff shirt fresh off the tailor
Pink on pink cuff links
Gray skirt, matching horsehair heels

They now seem
My sole raison d'etre
For work.

After fake eggs... now fake alcohol

So I thought fake eggs were already the most incredible thing in China... until I got really sick on Friday night from drinking at - check this out - the reputable Bar Rouge at Bund 18.

It was the first time I got so sick from drinking. I threw up big time on Friday, spent all of Saturday in bed head spinning and nauseous like anything, and basically couldn't think about eating anything till 9 pm. And even then, it was just flat bread and water.

A couple of people tried to diagnose my plight: "Ohh, mixing wine and hard liquor is not good", "maybe it was mixing vodka, bourbon etc together", or "you just drunk too much too fast"... But the point is this was not the first time I have had wine at dinner and cocktails further down the night. But it was definitely the sickest I have ever been from drinking. (And you folks know I hold my liquor quite well, so it can't be that.)

Revelation just now when I met Ms O for dinner (she was equally sick, but had been more sick before) - the alcohol was fake. (Read more »here or try googling for "fake / counterfeit alcohol china".) And no, it doesn't just happen at underground speakeasies in the 1920s. Even if the 80% of bars quoted by some is an exaggeration, the average is still probably about 50-70% - which includes perfectly reputable bars like Bar Rouge.

Welcome to China! (And keep me away from the alcohol for a while...)



Tip: A good remedy to feel better (I was so desperate that I asked my ayi for a folk remedy when she came over on Sat) is to drink vinegar. Sounds terrible, but balsamic vinegar doesn't taste so bad and you can dilute / add sugar to it if you want. It worked for me and looking it up on the internet, it is quite a popular remedy. About 30 - 50 ml of vinegar - spread it out a few times if you can't swallow it.

Tango on a misty bund

Lips tasting velvety gelato
Ears hearing animated Italian
Eyes seeing passionate tango
Heart, undulating.

What's been keeping me from my blog and yours

(A) Technical reason

So a few of you have been asking me - ehh, don't see you much on your / my blogs anymore. The reason is the Great Chinese Firewall. It has put a real dampener on my blogging since (a) I had to spend a few days googling for good, alternative (read: convoluted) solutions to blog around the firewall, and (b) I now have to implement these convoluted and limiting means every time I blog. Your blogs are also being kept track of through equally convoluted methods, but you won't be seeing any comments from me for a while, because the comment function requires logging into Blogger Beta and Blogger Beta is a denied site. The best thing is that the Blogger customer support is in denial that Blogger Beta can have a problem when classic Blogger is okay. I now feel penalized for having switched over to Beta... Sigh.

(B) Social reason


Okay, I concede - there is also a social reason. Having made a conscious decision recently to meet more people and get into the nightlife of Shanghai, the month of November has been filled up with social and arts events, which I am quite happy about. The only thing is that in between going out, cooking, sleeping and calling my mum, there isn't much time left for blogging...

The A&J Party

I have been toying with the idea of doing a block party for a while now to get to know the neighbours. It finally materialized yesterday and was a fabulous success. Some party stats:

Opening hour: 8 pm
Closing hour: 3 am
No. of represented households from this building: 12
No. of countries represented: 13 at last count
No. of empty wine bottles: 10++
No. of empty beer cans / bottles: *burp* Sorry, the beer-chuggers lost count ;)
Highest number of people in the room at a single point: Probably 30 (Thankfully, my fear of people having to sit on the toilet bowl / in the bathtub didn't materialize ;) But why was everyone crowded at the door?)
Proportion of neighbours to friends-of-neighbours: 65:35
Status of trash bin on the 14th floor by 3 am: VERY FULL

It had been a busy day being Ms Dalloway, making sure the laksa cooked properly and that there were enough flowers, candles, wine glasses, alcohol, nibbles... But very well worth the effort indeed.

This is a country without religion for 40 years

A few days ago, I read a NYT article about the adoption system in Guatemala being abused. I emailed the article to Y and asked aloud:

What does one do in a world where trust, charity and goodwill are abused? This is a very prevalent problem in China - you never know what is real and who is honest here - and I am trying very hard to find a robust rule of thumb to live by.

I had an oxymoronic thought the other day: communist China is probably the most capitalist country of all. Living here, you get the tingling vibes that as a people, as a culture, people are driven by only profit and self-interest. My cousin who has been doing business in China for the past 15 years, put it very pithily to me when he first visited me in Shanghai: "You must remember, this is a country without religion for 40 years. They do not believe in retribution."

That was the first time I have heard it being said that way. It is a simple, but a surprisingly powerful way to explain the phenomena. A more sophisticated, and possibly less controversial manner of saying it might be to put it in the context of game theory: they do not believe in repeated games. The sub-optimal equilibrium of the prisoner's dilemma has reared its ugly head: it is every man to his own.

In the world of no tomorrow, civic-mindedness, ethics and honour do not matter. Who cares if I cut someone's queue or swerves into someone's lane? Self-interest rules. Who cares if I am selling fake DVDs, fake teapots, fake eggs, fake milk powder... I have made all the money and I have no music to face. Who cares if I continuously prey on others' charity by begging on the roads with my baby? Sorry, you said honour meant what again?

The first case needs no rule of thumb; it just requires accustomization, maybe a dash of oblivion for company.

For the second, I have decided that outside of groceries, it is a matter of "pay what you would pay for, never mind real or fake". (For groceries, you just try to shop at the nicer Japanese* supermarkets, and keep your fingers crossed that the Japanese have not lost their native obsession with quality.) It is no use paying too high a price for things in China, unless you are really a conoisseur on "quality". They are so glib, so convincing, that PVC turns into leather and horse hair into cashmere. It is a depressing way to lead life, and a downward spiral - but there is no tomorrow right?

The last case is the one that gets me. I have consistently failed to find a robust response with respect to the phenomenon of begging. For now, I have decided that I will give to whoever I come across.** Partly because begging is not that prevalent in Shanghai (so I'm not innundated), partly because it is just 1 RMB (so my wallet is not dented). I figured that even if I am fleeced half the time, at least the other half of the time, I would have contributed to a warm bun for some hungry soul.

Yes, I know. I can hear the economists whispering in the background now: "But you forget that the world is a dynamic system and iterations come into play; You are feeding the begging phenomenon with your multiple 1 RMBs."

I know. I did not forget. I know my rule of thumb assumes a static system, but I can find no other conscionable way to live in as bipolar a place as Shanghai.

There, my first sobering entry on China. Life is not all glittering, not even in Shanghai.

--------------------------------
* I really love the French, but sorry, Carrefour is a mess here in my experience. Even Parkson from Malaysia is a much more pleasant shopping experience.
** Unless they are (a) outrightly healthy and really should not be begging, or (b) plying cars in the middle of the road (this is too much of an emotional blackmail - Shanghai roads are so merciless - and somehow I feel I cannot condone it).

Tongli

Day trip out to Tongli, a charming little water town 1.5 hours outside of Shanghai. Gorgeous weather, great company, plenty of laughter... It was worth waking at 8.30 am on a Sunday for.

Am now having only random access to Blogger thanks to what looks like another clamp-down on blogs... Will try to post more pictures once I figure out how to get around it.

The women are going places

The women are going places.

First there was me the Shanghai mui. Soon after, Ms T went over to Hong Kong, becoming the dim sum mui, and now Ms Y is in Tokyo, making her the temporary sakura-mui (temporary cos she is only there for two months).

Go ahead and say hello to my fellow muis!

P.S. So where are the men? :)

Bad tech luck

October is the month of bad tech luck.
(It is also the reason why I haven't had much of an online existence recently...)

First, poor Macbook (4 month old) started having the sudden infant death syndrome - it would suddenly flick itself off and would do it repeatedly. To prevent permanent death, I sent it in for maintenance just before I left for Singapore. It is quite timely too since I had been wanting to send it in to change the polycarbonate surface of the Macbook (the earlier batches used a material which discoloured too easily - perils of being an early adopter).

Now, if there is any silver lining to be seen about having to send your laptop in for maintenance, it is that the Mac customer support folks - both in Singapore and in China - are so polite and undefensive. They recognize a problem when it happens and don't just try to talk around the issue or shift blame. I would be hardpressed to name another manufacturer who would be willing to change the plastic surface of a product due to cosmetics reasons.

In any case, the sudden infant death syndrome has since been diagnosed as an immune over-reaction to the heat, so hopefully Macbook will get to come home soon once the replacement component is in stock.

In the meantime, I have been relying on the Dell laptop at work, which is such a clunky industrial piece of machine, but which works. I call it The Farmer (a la The Farmer in the Dell). I like Macbook very much, but have to concede that there are still those few things (China internet banking software and the wonderful Picasa and Mindful Clock programs) which depends on Windows and hence, The Farmer.

To Dell's credit, their newer lines of laptops are less farmerish now, due in part to their Mac-like glossy, elongated screens. The other parts of the hardware, I am not sure. The touchpad buttons were too soft for my liking when I tried Ms Q's, and I sure hope they updated their bluetooth connectivity. I spent an entire Saturday night trying to configure the bluetooth on The Farmer to work with my headset, only to find out after intensive googling that Windows SP2 does not support bluetooth headsets and manufacturers have to provide their own stack update. Dell duly did this by copying from the Toshiba stack, but which specifically didn't provide for the Latitude D610 - the exact model of The Farmer.

In short, I can't skype with a bluetooth headset on The Farmer, which made me miss Macbook even more.

But I thought, never mind, maybe I can still blog with The Farmer. I did manage to set up my wireless again after it was knocked out. But voila, exactly on this Sunday that I brought The Farmer home, the Chinese govt put out their censorship tentacles - the Blogger site was blocked.

Grr grr grr.

Someone tell me where I can buy a good-luck tech charm, will ya?

Coming a complete circle

每个人都会经过这个阶段，见到一座山，就想知道山后面是什么。我很想告诉他，可能翻过山后面，你会发现没什么特别。——《东邪西毒》

BUERJIN – 2 Oct 2006 - 7.20 pm. As our van traversed the unfolding miles of desert, it occurred to me just how similar the colour of two deserts during sunset can be. The shy pink that bleeds into the blue of the twilight sky, the terrain that so resembles the surface of the moon… Give me a photo of »Atacama and another of Xinjiang: I will be unable to differentiate.

KANAS LAKE – 4 Oct 2006 - 2.30 pm. I love the turquoise of Kanas Lake. I had exclaimed in delight when I first saw it. But the resemblance that Kanas bears to Yosemite and Switzerland made me harbour a thought, a fleeting thought as to whether I should have traveled for almost three days to see something resembling what I have already seen…

But such is man. Why do we trek long and far, to seek the known but unexperienced?

I decided that it is because it is there. And man must know*.

So no, certainly no regrets about the journey. Because without having made it, I would never have had the hindsight to think about regretting it.

But I cannot escape the thought that has been lurking in my mind– is this a sign that I have now come one big circle in my pursuits of the world? When the sights of a new place starts reminding you of another, is that a nostalgia for the past, or a foretelling of the future that you will feel more and more places alike and there is no need to clock more miles any longer?



* Where know = experience.

树命诚可贵，爱情价更高

Ms W 很爱老公，老公也很爱她。
在迷人的喀纳斯湖边，Ms W 请老公给她营造几许落叶的浪漫：



树命诚可贵，爱情价更高哩! :D

Xinjiang

2009年新疆暴乱后记：原来，和平友好是很脆弱的。

The blue of Kanas

Greetings to all after a long while :)
This is the most beautiful of Xinjiang for me - the blue of the Kanas Lake.

This has been a great trip - with great folks - 七剑!


Will be back with more posts of Xinjiang...

树上流星雨

今天本来心情灰灰的，回家途中经过北京路，发现树上竟然下起流星雨了！*

真的好漂亮，我就站在那儿，左手一包蔬菜鳗鱼牛奶右手一盒月饼，感叹了好几分钟。

心情也就这样晴朗起来了 ：）



*想必是要10－1国庆的缘故,所以得张灯结彩一番吧。

Men are like cabs

Yesterday, Ms T came up with an absolutely brilliant analogy:

Men are like cabs.

Hoards of them when you don't need, but never there when you are trying to look for one!

Basking in my red red room

So I took the plunge on Thursday - I painted my room scarlet!



Now I no longer feel like I have to buy my own apartment anymore. (Convincing my landlord was much easier than I thought too.)

Plus... Klimt looks simply, simply gorgeous on red.

百度

刚才看了一篇文章，才发现百度（中国第一号搜索网站) 的名字原来这么有典故。

百度一名取自辛弃疾的《青玉案》：

东风夜放花千树，更吹落、星如雨。
宝马雕车香满路，凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。
蛾儿雪柳黄金缕，笑语盈盈暗香去。
众里寻她千百度，蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处。

妙!

Assassins in Shanghai

A rainy day often provides fodder for imagination.

It has been raining for almost 3 days in Shanghai now, so you can imagine there is a lot of fodder floating about in my brain.

My latest idea is about drivers in Shanghai and it goes like this: their true identity is not really driver; they are really assassins on a killing mission, armed with a black list of targets. Going undercover as a driver in Shanghai is very appropriate since the social incentives are perfectly aligned for drivers to kill rather than hurt - apparently it cost less to compensate the victim's family if the victim died rather than if he were seriously injured. In fact, the difference is significant enough to one errant driver that he decided to roll over *a few times* someone he had accidentally knocked into but didn't die.

But back to the asssasins. Over the past 3 days, I realized, without the shadow of a doubt, that I must be one of their targets, perhaps even quite near to the top of the black list. How else to explain why cars speed towards me rather than slow down even though (a) it is raining; (b) it is a raining night; and (c) I am a lady in heels and a dress walking home on raining night? And what about the fact that there are so many cars on a rainy night accelerating from 0 to 60 kmh in 3 seconds AND collectively beating the red light? Surely surely surely, they must be hoping their brakes would lock and skid once I step off the kerb. Need more convincing? Here is the last straw: they would accelerate from 0 to 60 kmh in 3 seconds even when reversing - into me.

Something positive has come out from all these near-death encounters - I am feeling terribly important. I must be, since only important people get assassinated right? If I survive all this rain and attempts on my life, I shall endeavour to discover what propelled me to such fame...

Happy Think-Positive Day. (Kudos to »Ms M.)

9月1日的常德路上

难驯的千爪鱼
把三轮货车推下坑
自己却
懒洋洋地
躺
__在 _______车
____三___货___上。
______轮

汗水掺杂着铁锈，
在上海车道中央
驭兽不遂的
是你古铜色的身躯。

汽车苍蝇
狠毒至极挥之不去
萦绕在
你的躯体上。

视若无睹狼心狗肺
是你的同志；
力不从心却帮你驯兽的
是一头金发
和一只
颤抖的细手。

出了坑的千爪鱼千金
依旧刁蛮
你吃力地踩着三轮货车
一寸_____地蠕动着。
____一寸

静安国际广场的灯火已在闪烁
你的古铜色 －－－
却消失在
我背后的黑暗中。