Gardening - and a whole bunch of reflections thereafter

I am in Germany again. Head office again. This is the Seehasen weekend again.
Rather than going to Ravensburg again, or Ulm, again, I decided to volunteer to help my colleague clean up his garden. His place is walking distance from the hotel. I thought, ok, gardening, that cant be so bad on a summer day.

But...the weather was crappy on a summer day yesterday. It was drizzling and cold, and my nose was still running.

Anyway, here is the friendly looking guy. Behind him is the garden in its original state. He said he wants to pull out all plants sans a few because the garden is a jungle. From me novice eyes, it looks perfectly fine.

Anyway he wants to do it he go ahead to do it. Since its a man's job to use spade and all, my task was to do all those children's work, viz, push the wheelbarrow, pick up the bulbs, pick up the grass, throw the things out from wheelbarrow into the trailer, water the plants, use the fork to flatten the soil. He said, if I dont want to do I dont have to do it. So, thats ok.

Here is the same patch after all plants have been pulled out. The other 2 big trees were later transplanted to somewhere else. So you see all those holes and soil. The soil looks dry now, but when I was on it, it was muddy.

At the end of work, the trailer is full of plants from the garden. When the pulling work was completed, I agreed that the garden was a jungle. Plants were too close together, plants not of the same type all grew together, the roots were all stuck, all sorts of strange roots and bulbs get uncovered.



Here is the big white flower tree before the transplant.

And for the following the colleague's brother in law took them back to transplant in his own garden.
Nice flower tree close up.

He gave me a pair of shoes, as I was wearing my new NB All terrain when I was at his place. Good thing... .

I finished work around 1pm, he finished around 2pm, as it was raining by 1pm; and being true germans they have to clean up EVERYTHING before they can call it a day. Thinking back I was pushing the wheelbarrow to the trailer maybe like 10 times yesterday morning, lifting those plants from the barrow to the trailer (ok some were really heavy) and tossing out the soil from the barrow across the road. Occassionally I take the water from the rain water can. Mostly, I was standing around. This morning, my shoulders ache like hell. I am really sore now. Gosh.......

Since most of the time I was standing around, I was thinking, these are work that I did when I was a kid when we used to stay in those landed houses. I have not done these for a long time (20 years to be more precise). I think now I understand the meaning of city dwellers. City dwellers, gardening is limited to potted plants, like the row of 5 plants on my corridor, how difficult can it be. If the roots get too big, toss them out. If I have a house in city, will I do all these? Nay, I will pay for someone else to do it. In the end, you lost the skills, and forget how to use a cangkul, use a spade (the big one I mean), use a fork, and even, how to transplant a plant, how to dig the path around the roots. Through progress, we actually do lose some basic skills.

我的妈呀！ Oh my god...

一月到德国

二月在‘冷冻库’

三月留在新加坡

四月游底特利

五月到芝加歌和波士顿

六月爬万里长城

January in Germany

February in ice box 

March stays at home

April tour Detroit 

May to Chicago and Boston

June climbed the Great wall of china 

My other roots

I didnt ask godpa if he minded if his picture appears in my blog. But i am blogging it anyway. 

Godpa is here enroute from his annual trip to Hainan. So he called me yesterday asking to go for dinner at 545pm. I already had an appointment with my sisters, plus there was a family day in the morning, and my cold was getting worse. So I promised I will meet him for tea this afternoon at 4pm. 

After much changing of plans (TB to Serangoon Gdns, Esplanade to Sentosa to Flyer to Casino to Flyer), we ended up at the Flyer and I took him to a deserted bar for coffee. It was deserted, and I wonder how these business survives. Regardless, it was quiet, he talked a lot and had pannacotta with coffee.  In my drug induced state, I forgot my camera, so I took pictures using my phone camera. 

Today he brought up eating dinner on a boat cruising down Singapore river again. Each time I meet him he wants to eat dinner on a boat at Singapore River. I thought, I will do it, sans the dinner. So. We took the Singapore River Cruise at 6pm. Isnt this a good photo. 

There is also a photo of him with the flyer in the background. 

When we first arrived at Fullerton Hotel, he said that was the place I brought him there for dinner the last time. I said no, the dinner place was some where else. Later the boat passed by Clarke Quay I told him that was the place we went for dinner. He agreed and said "有十年咯." Yes. Thats right. At least 10 years. 10 years ago, it was for that same dinner on the boat request that we went to Clarke Quay. Went to ask a boat that has restaurant, the restaurant said they do not sail the boat. So I changed the venue and we ate Thai. Interestingly, he remembered everything. The food, the location, and that we sat outside. I never thought he would remember them. 

After cruise I took him home and he wanted to eat at Tiong Bahru market. I joined him to eat teo chew porridge whilst he had fish head noodle. I feel very scared looking at him eating the fish head, manouvering those bones.  

干爸，I wish you many more 10 years to come. 

The purple finger

My Indonesian staff came in to work later than normal today. I asked him why and saw that his pinkie was purple. I thought he has hurt himself and had to go to clinic thus late. 
I thought that is the iodine (you know, 蓝药水) and was about to chide him for not-bandaging-his -wound-properly-later-get-infected-and-walk-around-with-this-purple-finger-thinking-he-hero-is-it type routine, until he said he was late because he went to vote. The purple is the marker for indicating that the person has voted, and not allowed to vote again. He said the ink will stay for 7 days. I asked, why 7 days, not like polling is going to be opened for so long right? 

Today, if you walk around the street and see somebody with a purple finger, you can almost guarantee that the person is an Indonesian, and has done his duty as a citizen :) 

Birthday Week Makan

I have been on a week's vacation from 27-June to 05-July. It was a planned vacation for my birthday week. Initially I had wanted to go to Banyan tree to treat myself. Subsequently the thought of me alone in a resort with noone to talk to did not entice me very much, so I decided to just stay in Singapore, at home. 

The week passed by very quickly. I worked on Monday and Wednesday nights, for some calls that I should not procrastinate or forever-held-my-peace. Otherwise, by Tuesday I was getting very much into this vacation thing and dreaded doing the calls on Wednesday night. 

Looking back here were some stuff I ate during the week... 

My strawberry shortcake for Birthday from Canele ...without the candles this one. 
On Tuesday Sister J treated me to a lunch at Kuriya at Shaw Centre. This is the sashimi for one person. Bliss. Of course we shared the sashimi... 

The weekend before Jen said she wanted to eat Hi tea. There were no photoes for the hi tea. But 2 hours after hi tea she wanted to eat sharks fin. I was so full, but I went with her anyway, and opted out the rice. Here is my sharks fin soup with spinach. 
And this is hers with XO sauce and rice.
She wiped out the whole thing. The sharks fin place is at a small eatery at 2nd floor Lucky plaza. I did not have dinner that night. 

Friday I invited 2 of my ex-project managers to breakfast at Canele. I had a scrambled egg with mushroom, and top it with sour cherry tart. Yum... 

Last night I was invited to a dinner at El Lido at Sentosa. The food was great, the view was fantastic and price very reasonable. Because we had outdoor seating, so I could not take any pictures of my food. 

Today Sister P bought 6 cream puffs from Beard Papa. The cream taste lingered on in my mouth after that. 

Other days I ate pretty normal stuff. Some times duck rice, mee-tai-mak soup, mos burger, cheese and tomato sandwich etc. Basically, I have to start losing weight after these 2 weeks (starting from Beijing) of happy dining. 

Republic Run

On 28 June, I went to the first race of my life. Running race as in. 5km.

I did it in the same time  that I usually do, 40min, and was not the last  in the race :)

After this, I am thinking of running for a longer distance race. Will train for it!  

Blogger seems to have problems for me to upload photoes....so now I cannot write a post without a picture. 

:0(

Birthday 36

 

The cake is from Canele. It is a little too small for 10 candles. 

Beijing 10 - Last Notes

The trip to Beijing has been interesting. It is a different flavor from the places I have been made to travel in the last 3 years.  The place is quite a place full of contradictions. 

For example, 

....in the train stations, there are no escalators, plenty of steps. However, throughout all the stations, they have the walking guide for the blinds. So they are not handicapped friendly but they are blind friendly. 

....in the train stations, we noticed that the underground train stations are usually 4 floors deep. Unlike in Singapore usually it is 2 floors deep underground. 

....it seemed to be easy to survive there, at least food is cheap. 5 yuan get you a bowl of noodle the size if I eat it I will be full for the rest of the day. Transport is cheap, 2 yuan gets you around the whole train system, 60c for bus ride to anywhere in BJ city, taxi never exceed 10 yuan. Yet, flocks of people are leaving this land. 

....in the city centre we saw lots of old folks sitting around chatting. I asked the taxi driver where these old people lived, as the city is heavily urbanized and there seems to be condos only. The taxi driver said that the government owned those landed houses in city centre and would like the old folks to continue staying there. Admist all the urbanization, the old folks bring sanity, albeit just a glimpse of it, and I think provided you listen to it. 

....Whilst the world is freaking out over the spread of globalization urbanization and deforestation, the chinese folks proudly told me that, less than 10 years ago, the same plot of land where I stood at where  the industrial park is, were all farmland. They said that the development is so fast that now the mountains are visible. I cringed when I hear that. 

....I asked where the taxi driver stays, he said around where the industrial park is. He said 买房子了嘛 (translate, I bought a house) with a tone of non chalance and a certain pride. Later we discovered that no one ever owns land there, all land belongs to the government. 

....The taxi passed by a bus stop, people queue orderly to get into the bus. Yet on the airplane, a flock of chinese nationals removed their luggages from the overhead compartment and blocked my way totally before the plane door open and I was the one who sat on the aisle seat. 

....The representative from the vendor reads tremendously. I can say he is learned, alternatively,  nerdy. He talks about his general knowledge tremendously too ranging from chinese history from 500B.C. to how many nuclear/missile/naval base the chinese government has around China. However, he could not spell the word 'Invoice'.  

....With all the socialist background, capitalism is rampant, and they are not shy about it. I read about it in publications but it still sends question marks through my head when I see it. 

I guess that is also part of the reason why I dislike this place. Perhaps not the place so much, but more the contradiction on the philosophy of this place, from the smallest to the largest. 

Beijing 9 - Food III

这是在白家大院的一道冷菜。是花凉拌。 有菊花康乃薰大葱 etc。很好吃。 看似容易， 我想在家还是不要试好， 不知道杀虫剂成份。。。
苦瓜。。很美'后'。。
麻辣火锅－有很多味精

Beijing 8 - Great Wall of China

Work ended on time. We planned it that it end of time ;-)
We also planned that we go and see Great Wall of China, as the hotel was only 30minutes drive away from it.

We took the cable car up and walked a little bit. The slopes are steep, and the surface not flat. It is made of those old rocks and slabs all differing sizes and height.
I admit, I never liked China (so much that even my colleague asked me why). But when I am here standing on this 2000 year old rock and looking at this snaking wall in front of me, I have to say this is a beautiful piece of work. So it did take generations before it gets to 万里. Me and my colleague, we give our respect to 秦始皇 who thought of making something like this, and thanks to all the emperors after that who continue building it. 
Because of where we got off, we walked the down slope section. Even downhill it was not easy as the slopes were steep, the steps uneven, all differing heights. You would think that this crazy nation would make this place touristy. Well, the capitalist of it all ended at the foot of the hill fortunately. When you are up here, besides thousands of other people with you, really, is you, the rock, and the harsh weather. For me on that day, it was 37 degress heat, the blaring sun, and the glare.  I could not help but felt touched by it all and remembered 20years ago when my dad first climbed this wall, the children all got a jumper (of differing wacky colors) with the imprint of 我登上了长城。 
This is the slogan for 2008 Olympics..their One World One Dream. 

Beijing 7 - 白家大院

On Monday night the vendor hosted a dinner for us at a place close to city centre, pass yuan ming yuan, pass yi he yuan, at a place called 白家大院.
It is an old residence of that Beijing Medical Hall. The company restored it and made it into a restaurant. Restaurant's name really is called  您吉祥 . Everywhere you go in this establishment, one of these costumed ladies will half kneel and wish you 您吉祥   . A bit strange.  
 The place is nicely dressed. Imperial yellow everywhere. Cannot but noticed the irony of it all. 
The chopsticks, the spoons, the tablecloth all screamed opulence, and all scream 资本主义。 
Dragons with 5 claws, the napkins have dragons with 5 claws. The cups are all yellow, the chairs are tastefully gold. The dishes are definately the kind from the court. The waitress are pretty, services immaculate. 
As this was a business dinner, the host asked one of the waitress (宫女 ) to explain the history of the place in English. Naturally some kind of flirting went along with it. The way these ladies handled it, 嘴巴灵利，怪不得男人会对中国女人心动。 也怪不得有人说新加坡的前二十都比不过中国一个路边的。

Beijing 6 - Shopping

Beijing 5 - Food II

说是酸奶，喝起来像 Yogurt 。没有冷冻， 当然酸啦！一瓶两元，瓶子要还。
新似冰糖胡芦。。什么嘛，也不是果子串有一层硬了的糖。
烤 Starfish。不知道Starfish 会有肉给人吃。还有蝉， 和其他虫类。
烤蝎子， 海马。一支一元。没有试。。 

Beijing 4 - Food I

皮很厚的小笼包。。像小包多些。
羊肉串－一支五元。外面卖一支一元。刚开始吃还可以，冷了就很臭，羊骚味都出来。我没有吃完。
凉拌豆腐。去羊骚味吃这比较有效。
炒刀削面。那番茄有些旧所以有点 yuck 不然是好吃。

Beijing 3 - Tiananmen Square

We arrived at the hotel around 4. We set off again at 5pm and took a train ride to Tiannanmen Square. Boy the train ride was long, it took us an hour, changed 3 interchanges, 1 taxi ride before we get to anywhere decent. 

We alighted at Tiannamen Sq West exit. It was not very surprising to me. Sparse, people squatting at the side, hot, lots of cartoonish looking cars. One of my colleagues who went is very well versed in Chinese history. He watches plenty of period dramas.  I think he can beat my dad in the number of serials he watches. 

Regardless, we found the underpass and crossed towards Forbidden city. As we had not much time, we decided to forgo the square. 

This is a side of the wall for Forbidden city... For someone like me who is half bucket on chinese history, walking past these walls are quite surreal. The brain cannot but think of the thousands and centuries of people who walked past these walls too, and how old these walls are. 
Here is me with the famous photo.  I was imagining the ancient emperor standing above where the photo is and addressing the people. My colleague said 袁世凯 stood there. Then he said, or was it 孙中山? 
Around here I hushed to my colleague and asked where did 46 occured. Both of us hushed and discussed, and concluded that we were standing at where history were made ~phwah~ When I was there I then understood why did they stage it at the square. Its all government bodies around here. 

As it was already 6:30, we were not allowed into the Imperial museum. There were hoardes of people at the square. We went off to eat and passed by this maybe-man-made-maybe-real park behind the palace. 

Beijing 2 - Hotel

 The work place is at somewhere at 4th ring road (四环). The vendor placed us at a hotel at 5th ring road called Loong Palace (龙城丽宫). The journey to hotel was not easy as it is not at somewhere central. When we arrived, it was huge. The hotel ran out of rooms at our category so according to the front desk they upgraded us at no extra charge. 

So here are snapshots of the room. It really is large. The living and bedroom are separated and there is a door that you can shut the bedroom out. WOW! The room also overlooks the giant fountain downstairs. We were all so awed by the size of our rooms. It is even larger than my unit here in Singapore..

Beijing 1 - Start

Just back from Beijing on a work trip. The work bit went on time and we happened to have some time to go site seeing.

It is a 3 days trip and it is the first time in years (4 to be more precise) that I fly less than 12hours to anywhere for work, first time in years that I am working in the same time zone as home, first time in years that I have a work commitment that requires less than 3 working days.

p/s Great Wall of China behind me

Boston - 12 Last note

I made way to the airport, did the usual drift. Checked in drink coffee wait for plane. 

The plane delayed for a while, as the incoming flight was delayed. So we boarded late... I sms my colleague in Detroit. After some time, the pilot announced. Sorry folks, we will be delayed for a while because they found a dent on the aircraft body. So, the technician in Boston has to take a photo of the recess on the body to send to the engineer in Minneapolis to evaluate and decide if we could fly. That was 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Who is still working at 5pm you ask me... I was like having ants in pants..After 1 hour being wedged in economy class seat, hot and bothered, finally the pilot said he has gotten the ok from the engineer in Minneapolis (I am sure the dent was there before they even get here) and we were good to fly, after they fill out paperwork which will take another 30minutes.  Oh charming.... 

Regardless, I eventually made it safe back to Detroit by 8pm. My colleague picked me up, I had a quick shower, and we went for beer at our usual bar after that. Hee ha!~

* *  * * * 

Post trip, looking back, thinking back.... This is the first 'vacation' that I had whereby I did not enjoy fully and harbored the thought of cutting the vacation short. Via this experience, I know that cold <> good vacation and emphasized hungry = bad mood. This is also the first time i included driving in my holiday, just to see how it feels, and to try driving alone for a longer distance.  

A few years ago when I went to NY and subsequently went back to Detroit, I was relieved to be back in the sparse land deserted town and comfy cars. This time the same again. Familiarity really does breed contend. 

I enjoyed tremendously the time in Harvard, I only wished that my initial planned travel buddy had not bailed out on me. Then again, if I had a buddy, I would not have come to Boston, the things I see would be very different. Then again, if I had not travelled alone, I would not have heard my brain think so loud and clear this time. With the nice environment in Harvard, once again, the perennial question I had for myself came again, if I had really applied myself in studies in work and in life, could I have actually made it into this kind of institution.

Trips are usually time of reflection, ever more so on solo trips. I have been doing unproportionately more solo trips than duo or trio or group. For sure the situation should be improved. But each time I come back from trips, the reflections or awakening that I collected from the trip sends me a buzz. Perhaps they are no big deal, but they give me the high like I have discovered this little gem that noone has. Maybe so, for the gem has been uncovered by me myself and I, in my own little world in my self in my own solo universe. 

* * * * 

Post post note on 16/June: I noticed that I took a lot less time to write the posts for the happier sections of the trips. The initial portion in Boston downtown was slow going and I dreaded remembering it. I resumed and continued the story about Boston for I thought I should give the trip its due respect and did not notice the dread until when I have finished writing about the entire trip.

Boston - 11 Harvard Museum

With a good night rest, and full breakfast, I set off onto Harvard Square again.


I have wanted to join a student guided tour, but missed the time. 

So I went to Harvard museum. Harvard museum is Natural History Museum, meaning, they have dinosaurs bones! Since I could not go to New York to look at the mother of all natural history museum, this will have to make do. 

deng deng deng~






The Harvard museum and Peabody museum are linked. One ticket gets you into both. Peabody is about art and artefacts. 

I have to say something about Peabody. In Peabody they have galleries dedicated to artefacts to people from Pacific, Indians and other ethnic groups. I went into the gallery for Pacific. It holds all these things collected from Borneo, Sumatra, the Pacific island, from late 1800 to 1920. During those times, the university had trips/ expeditions going to these places to collect artefacts (and my imagination gone wild again at that time). If they have collected or robbed or purchased or beg those items I do not know. But the collection and preservation was amazing. They have baskets, textile, weave, daggers, nooks, tools,  that I have never seen before, and I come from Borneo. Ok so I am not one of the tribes people, but I am pretty darn sure, even if I go to a museum in this region, there is no way I can find a piece similar. I spent a long time in the Pacific gallery almost gawking at the objects. I later went to the Indian gallery (American Red Indians) and felt very sad very quickly. Then my phone rang full blown in that sad gallery, it was a colleague calling to ask what time I should be picked up in Detroit later on. 

... almost time to go home.... 

I later went to the glass flower gallery, with a whole gallery of glass flower made by a german family in Dresden. The glass flowers were made so that the students 'could study the plant all year round'. The glass banana looked like banana, ditto the banana flower and other tropical plants. 

After that I bought some postcards, wrote them, mailed them, went to a bar called Tory's Bar for lunch. I keep wondering, why Tory. The Tory government? Never bothered to ask... I walked back to the Inn, took my luggage and started the way to airport. 

Boston - 10 Mary Prentiss Inn Breakfast

The thing about Bed and Breakfast inn, besides the bed, of course is the breakfast.

I had 2 options to choose from: full pancake or continental. Of course I chose full..
This is the table setting: 
And my blueberry pancake with fresh blueberry and pancake mix that I doubt it comes from a mix. 
Breakfast accompanied by resident cat, named Kitty, aged 18 calendar years. 
The coffee was decent, the breakfast was great. Having a cat to stroke was great. 

There were more researchers and academics at breakfast. One talked too much, another just wanted to avoid the talker, and another who looked a little bit distress. I could not help but start having strange thoughts going through my head again... 

Why is that person distress? Maybe she has to submit a paper?

How many papers have each one of them written? 

Why is the lecturer from Yale doing here? 

Is the talker a better academic than the quiet one? 

Why is the quiet one avoiding the talker? Does he have something to hide? Maybe they come from the same field? 

How would the wife of the talker handle such a talker? My god, cant he shut up. 

How does the cat live so long? 

Can my cat live that long? 

Is the guy bluffing? 18 years? cannot be. Maybe he is bluffing? 

..bla bla bla... 

Boston - 9 Mary Prentiss Inn

The drive back from Martha's Vineyard to Boston was not a fun one by the time I get to Boston downtown. It was difficult to drive as there were many people walking on the streets and jaywalking (nobody walks in Detroit so it was very easy there). Plus it was getting late I was getting hungry.

By the time I returned the car, it was almost 9pm. I went to the hotel, picked up my luggage and asked the fellow to get me a taxi. The bell suggested me to catch the subway instead .... ok lor so I did as it would cost 2 dollars versus ...a lot more. Of course with subway I have to suffer the plight of walking after a long day with noone to complain to.

The hotel is a bed and breakfast inn at Harvard. When I saw it on the map it was a distance away from the main subway station. When I was there, it was almost 10pm, I was hungry, there was nothing to eat except beer, I just wanted to go to bed, so I decided to find the hotel first then maybe get something to eat. The walk from the station was hell-of-a-long and I was lost because I was using the GPS on walking mode. It took me 30minutes on foot dragging the luggage before I finally reached destination. When I was almost at destination i decided to enter a lebanese shop to get something to eat, and they only have student food like big loaves of bread, can food, not so good looking stuff. I managed to get some potato salad, asked for directions (and the lady said they do not know my inn) and continued.

Soon I arrived, but the inn was closed because it was too late. After finding a way into the inn (they hide the keys under the mat), the walk and switch in hotel was definately worth it.

Here is why..
The window on this picture is the window for the room I stayed in. Room #1. 
The inside of my room, country style. 
With a nice comfy sofa and TV and free wireless internet and a chair to raise my leg and heater full blown (oh did I forget to blog previously that in the last hotel I actually had to ask for extra blanketS because they considered it to be spring and turn OFF all heating in the hotel) and nice warm shower and ok, so the wall paper and carpet looks hideous but the window was fancy and the flap could be hidden so well within the wall when opened oh gosh the interior design was so charming .... 
And my dream bed! Poster bed!

The mattress was firm and before I know it I konked out on this nice bed, warm and not shivering like the past 2 nights. 

Boston - 8 Shirley Street

This is at somewhere in Boston. I found this street by accident! 

Boston - 7 Martha's Vineyard

What do I see in this place, after driving for an hour, ferry for an hour, cycling for another hour?

Well, sea view and ocean view...seriously, what is the difference?
Strange signs ~> cows crossing 
Signs pointing to all over the world. Note that Singapore actually made it to the list. 

Houses. 

All sorts of houses. 
I like this yellow one

This one looks scary 
When riding through these estates and houses, I cannot but remember about the book about the Vanderbilt book that I read before. I think these ultra rich people has been coming to this island for their vacation since the longest time. I keep wondering, and here are some of the random thoughts .... 

How does it feel to live in a house like this in summer, as well as in winter? 

A wooden house facing the sea in winter. OMG!!! 

Ok so the rich will not be here in winter they will be in Florida. So are these houses left empty during the winter months? 

Who stays in this place in winter? So close to the sea. And this is not the south sea, this is the north sea.. 

What kind of paint do they use to make the color stay? Cannot be that they paint it every spring. 

How would this place look like with snow? 

When do people start working on the houses?

How old are these things? 

What do people keep in summer houses? 

... bla bla bla..... 

Boston - 6 Martha's Vineyard

I followed the bike shop owner's advice, cruise along the coast and arrived at Edgartown. That is the largest or most happening town in Martha's Vineyard. The town has quaint little shops selling stuff. 

I was hungry by then and went cycling looking for food. There aint much choices as it was nearly 3pm and most eating places were shut. I finally decided to give this 'Among the flowers' cafe a go. 

And had this really really yummy mix fruit waffles with cream on the side. 

I do not typically take waffles. But that day I just had this craving for it. The waffles looks good doesnt it. And I ate up all the cream. No need to be on the side. Hur hur hur. 

On the way out, a little girl, around 5, who looks like the daughter of the owner of the cafe, asked what did I have. I was a little stunned as travelling alone, I hardly speak to anyone. So I answered, mixed fruit waffle. 

Kid:  Oh thats my favourite too. Did you have it with cream?

Me: Yes

Kid: I like mine with cream all over the top. Did you have it the cream over the top? 

Me: (with a difficult look) No I have it on the side

Kid: It taste better when it is on the top

Me: (with a difficult look) Well, you see, when you grow to be as big as me, it is better to have it on the side. 

Kid's mom: (embarassed laugh) Thats right. 

With all the sugar from the waffle, I set off. :) 

Role Model ~

Some higher person (高人)  has asked me to read more into leadership and management, other managerial soft skills in general. The 高人 also suggested that I make a trip to Kinokuniya. After various activities for the last weekdays and weekend (take note I procrastinate only 1 weekend), I finally made it to the book store, and the leadership section. 

The leadership section is quite big. At least it occupied 2 shelves. While looking at the selection, I noticed that there are all sorts of books on leadership and most prominently there are role models. So, there is a wide selection, mostly males, dead or alive, viz, Winston Churchill, Lincoln, Donald Trump, some people I know, some I dont, but interesting, Jesus Christ also made it to the list. I observed that JC is on the bottomest shelf though. 

Finally I picked one, I find perhaps more relevant to me, and Sister P could read it too (since she is besotted about this character), albeit a little old and dead ... Queen Elizabeth I. 

p/s I noticed also that this is the first entry into the Book category in my blog. 

Boston - 5 Martha's Vineyard

 

Martha's Vineyard is the name of an island. I think yonks ago there was a vineyard. But in the 1900 onwards, it is a resort place for the rich. Till today, it is pretty much the same.  I drove from the hotel in Boston downtown for 40min or so to a ferry terminal, board the ferry for an hour or so to get here. Of course there is a cheaper option.  I could have caught the Peter Pan bus and board the same ferry. Regardless, driving on a vacation is something I wanted to try, and I did. 

When I arrived on the island, it was almost noon. I thought, bloody great! Now I have less time. Then I realized that the island bike shop has moved! :-o I was beginning to worry that this day would turn out to be like day 1 in Boston again.

Fortunately I located the relocated bike shop soon after. It would cost me 20 bucks to rent the bike for 4 hours. Not cheap, but I went with it anyway. I thought I could do that in say 3 hours as I wanted to get out of the island by 5pm. 

As usual. A tribute to the bike

And this photo was taken by mistake but I reckon it looks really cool!

 

A portrait of myself.

 

And I noticed that I tend to look happiest when I have a bike. 

 

Boston - 4

This is Beacon Hill. I did not stop but just took photoes from the trolley.   

 

I had another place to go. Quincy Market. There were good reports about it. When I arrived, I should have known. Its another classic American Shopping place. Just that it is in a old style building, 3 of them side by side. Drones of people. So I went to get my Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt and thats it. I must admit the service in Boston HRC is better than Chicago HRC. 

I offered to take a picture for a couple along the way as I was getting bored with the surroundings again. The guy offered to take a photo of me with Quincy Market as the background. 

 

It was really a sunny day, and windy. Here is the state flag with the American flag. I walked around a little bit more in the area, looking at state museums, getting the atmosphere, had another coffee ... and headed back because I wanted to do the other portion of Boston Commons and I did not really want to tire myself out. 

 

That day I went back to PFChang again at 5pm to make reservation for 1 at 7pm. After a day of walking I feel that I really deserve the noodles and not having to scavange for food. When I went down to PFChang at 7, there was no table for me, and it was crowded. Fortunately I got my table within 10min, and there was another old lady who was dining alone opposite me too. I ordered my egg soup, noodles, woof it down, had my mojito , observed the other family on the other table with children that I felt are from different marriages, felt really happy, and left the place in 1 hour. 

I went back to the room and searched for car and ferry options. For, I would be going to Martha's Vineyard the next day! 

Boston - 3 Harvard

On the 2nd day in Boston, Sunday, I went on a Trolley tour. The trolley stop is just outside the hotel, very convenient. Trolley is 35 bucks for a whole day ~ pretty expensive by my standard. The research the night before shows that the trolley stops by MIT.  The old guide said we can catch 2 train stops to Harvard.

In USA, they have shops selling T-shirts and things from universities all over the country. You can get a UCLA shirt in Michigan. When I was buying those shirts for my staff, I was tempted to buy a Harvard one for my dad (for they are so famous in Law school and all) but decided against it. I told myself, I am not smart enough to go into Harvard but if I want to buy a Harvard shirt I better be at Harvard when I buy it. 

So I did. When I arrived at Harvard, the train stop comes out at Harvard Square. Suddenly, there is this whiff of wind, and people, and things and air. And within 5 minutes, I have a big smile on my face. The air is different, you can feel there is a skip in people's step and there is a lightness in the whole place. 

This is Harvard Square... 

I had an amazing sandwich at the Cream Cafe. It is called smoked salmon w cream cheese and pesto. I had the sandwich under the sun, with a guitarist busking, a cheap coffee and lots of young people walking purposefully passed me. It was so good that I could sit there under the sun for more than an hour.


From faraway I saw this building. The architecture is something to look at. It looks like a church a hall... and I overheard a chinese student explaining to his relative / family that this is where the Harvard Alumni gather every year. The annual alumni event is a million dollar business. I can gather that. 
I walked closer to the building and began to see people walking in and out. I got curious and began to follow them. Could this be a lecture hall? 

Phwah! Its a canteen. Amazing. And this looks like Hogwarts from Harry Potter. I asked if I can eat there. The cashier after identifying that I am not a student, not a worker, has no Harvard pass asked me to leave. 

Ok lah.... So I did. Then I walked pass this garden where the statue of John Harvard is. I could not take a photo with JH because there was a person who was hogging in front of the statue taking the photo of his shoe. But I thought the greens of Harvard is what I think of this place, more than JH's shoe.

As I wandered around the campus, there is the bridge that separates the campus from Boston downtown. The river is also where the rowing club is, like what you see in the movies...It was almost midday and apparently the exam season so I did not see any row boats in action. However the inscription on the side of the bridge leading towards Boston caught my eye. 
This is the river. 

By the time i realized , I had already spent 2+ hours at the campus. I had to make a move or the trolley ticket would have gone to waste. There are many more sites to cover so I reluctantly get out of Harvard. That was almost 2pm then. 

Boston - 2

The last stop of walk for the day was Boston Common. By then I already decided that it was not such a good day, maybe the weather had some to do with it, maybe not, but whatever....

Despite the cloud, there were lots of people at Boston Common  and tulips were in full bloom. So here I took a photo with George Washington by myself. 

And wandered around to the lake


Boston commons was my last stop for the day. It was around 8pm and I was getting hungry. There was a PFChang at where the hotel is. That day after all the walking I felt like some comfort food, noodles. It was a Saturday night and the queue was 90minutes long. I thought, alright then, let me try this must-have-in-Boston called Legal SeaFood. 

By the time I searched for a proper place to eat around the hotel it was nearly 9pm. Legal Seafood had a place for one, and I managed to get seated immediately. The slogon for the place is 'If it is not fresh it aint legal'. Oh my god! The restaurant smelled of poo! I am not exaggerating it. The place where I sat smelled of dried poo. Being a seafood restaurant, it is common to get complaints of bad smell, but smelling of poo was a first for me. I ordered the mussels cooked in white sauce. Fortunately it was tasty. Just the reek in that eatery was a turn off.  Why did i sit in a poo-ey smelling restaurant? Well, it was late I was hungry I might as well eat and get back to the hotel plus this place was so hyped about. 

Happened that the table beside me was an Asian student with his elderly parents with mom ordering a seafood platter that is all fried, and dad eating lobster....on the table opposite me was a researcher couple eating lobster too. The eatery was dimly lighted. Somehow the whole mix of things did not go well with me once again. Ah! I had a Boston clam chowder too. So so....I left the eatery soon after, and went back to the hotel which was only 100m away. 

The hotel is Sheraton. Actually it should be a nice hotel, but it was old. You can smell that it is old. The whole setup is very traditional. There are full fledge door man bell captain people pressing the lift pianos big big vases of flowers ornate fittings lift with a ding that is old style long hotel alleys ... the works. It could be that I am so used to Courtyard Marriott whereby the whole hotel is very business needs oriented, suddenly a hotel with all these frills was uncomfortable for me.  I have to pay for internet. Being the cheapest hotel on the net in a central location, I have to pick this one. The room has very old looking door knobs, ancient looking wardrobe, taps that are gold. With all these extra people between the front door to your room, I mean the door man the bell the man pressing the lift, it also shows how much tips get going along the way. 

That night, I plugged into the internet and wondered, what kind of luck I got myself into to come to a place that I could dislike so much.  After some searching on the internet, it was around 11pm, I went to bed. In bed I turned on the TV. The first channel of the TV, was showing an English show, rebroadcast from BBC. The 2nd channel, was Boston local channel, and the people on TV speak with strong Irish accent. By then I just sank my face into the pillow, and wondered, what kind of place is this. 

Boston - 1

I planned for a vacation trip after the mega project. The initial plan was meant to be New York and a friend was supposed to join me. Ended up the friend bailed out on me, and with that I changed the destination from NY to Boston. I have been to New York before, and going there again would be more for the friend, and also to visit some important landmarks such as the Natural History Museum, Central Park etc. It turned out that the arrangement by the guy up there was a right one. No doubt I was disappointed that my friend could not join me, but when I was about to make the trip, H1N1 broke out full fledge in New York and many of my colleagues either rerouted their vacation plans or cancelled them altogether. Because my destination was Boston, Massachusset, there has been no citing of H1N1, plus the day before I made the trip, Singapore has also lowered the warning from orange to yellow, I proceeded with the plan. 

The price associated with hotels in Boston took me by surprise. I did not know then it is one of the more popular tourist spots,  like NY like Chicago. 

I left on a 10am flight from Detroit, 2 hours flight to Boston. With all the commute, catching the metro and walking, I arrived at hotel at 2pm. Because of the time, I could not do the day tours, so I decided to use the time to have a walkabout, do some research. 

The impression I got from the place is very old school, very British. For the first 30min I was looking for a place to eat and they did not have anything for me to eat until I walked for 500m. It was also an overcast day, plus being hungry... and the first place that offered food was a bagel place! Bagel, is breakfast food. That was 3pm in the afternoon. In addition, I already had a bagel in the morning. The place is Finagel-A-BAgel, the place with a conveyer belt rolling the bagel you ordered through a chain saw just to slice it to half. I shuddered each time the saw sliced the bagel. It was an overcast but windy day, so I had to struggle with my food because of the breeze. 80% of the people walking on the streets had a camera or a map, it is such a touristy town that I began to feel a little turned off. 

I thought maybe I was hungry. So after the meal I started my walkabout. It was a long walk, and that is usually how I spend my first day in any place. By the end of 3 hours of walking, I was contemplating changing my flight and catch a flight back to Detroit. 

Here is the impression....

Rows of houses with basement. These are shops. Inside the shops they are sparsely stocked. So it gives a pathetic feeling. It is unlike SoHo in NY, shops in SoHo are in buildings like that, and the merchandise in there had some gusto. These are the normal stuff like Victoria Secret, Ann Taylor dar di dar...  

This being the summer season, also graduation / exam / submission of papers...or maybe it is just Boston being what it is. Every other guy is a researcher, academic, professor, student, parents of student. It reminds me too much of my school days. Despite learning a lot and growing up tremendously during those 6 years in Perth, the vulnerability that I have during those days is something I do not wished to be reminded of, much less so during a vacation. So when I run into a group of Indian family taking photoes of the family, if you can tell from the pix here, the guy in suit is the one who made it big in Boston. Then there is the wife, the child, the mother, and the checkered guy should be the sibling of the man who brought the mother over to visit the guy in suit. Nothing wrong with the picture. Just that day, it pried too much into that vulnerability compartment. 
Actually that was not the first thing that irked me. In fact the first thing that irked me in Boston was this place. Some first church of science. Comeon! Christ vs Science? I reserve my opinions. You can read more about it here. 
It was a large compound with a fountain lookalike thing with no water. There was this HUGE dome and church. You could go in and have a tour. I stopped at the front door, contemplating doing a free guided tour and decided against it. The whole concept of this was too oxymoronic for me, and still is for me today.

The city, or downtown lacked the easiness of a normal American city. It did not have the vibe that I felt in NY or Chicago, although the price says so. If it is a sleepy and dead town like Detroit at least I know how to handle it. However, it was a little strange for me. Subsequently my friend said maybe I was getting too used to Detroit. I agreed so. With 2 hours I have just come from a place with the most number of unemployed per square mile, to a place with the most number of brainy people per square mile. The foundation of Detroit is blue collar, the foundation of Boston is academics. No matter how, I worked in this hard-yakka kind of company, it was also a reason why I found it difficult to adjust. 

Would you have?

Would you have known when a small gesture of yours would really make some one else's day?

A call a chat a SMS

An action so small, a ripple effect so great

Would you have know when you are indeed such an influential person?

A line a statement a comment

A word so small, an aftermath so great

If only if the effect of your action is known to you

Would you have missed making that call

Would you have ignored that chat

Would you have forgotten to send that sms

If only if you know you are such an influential person

Would you have said those words

Would you have made that comment

Would you have wasted god's gift to you by saying all the bad things about the people and things around you?

Cherry on an icing cupcake

Being the first week back after a long time away is never easy. The week will be spent getting over jetlag and catching up all the non-trip related tasks, the weekend will be for learning how to live in this country again. 

 

However nothing beats the week just passed. By today, I have to declare to the world that I hate the work I was doing. It was sooo bad that I have to announce my plight before I really put a knife to myself. At around 3pm it got worse.  Why you asked me. There have been 2 groups of visitors in town back to back starting from last monday, talking about various initiatives. By Thursday last week I was already getting depressed, literally. I noticed that the last time the same group of people came, it brought me into a downswing too. 

At 5pm I was asked into another meeting about some internal improvement. In that meeting, me amongst other people has to explain to a manager what Wikipedia is, how it is built, the mechanism of updating, and that Wiki is not hierarchical but a web like structure, who edits Wiki, who manages Wiki. We did offer to demo what wiki is, since it was such an easy thing, but the manager stopped us.  

Having to explain what Wiki is was like the cherry on an icing cup cake for me.  I do not think it could get much worse. 

Chicago - Part 5

This time in Chicago we stayed at this area called North Bridge. It is where the restaurants, pubs and city living area is.
On the 2nd day morning, the boys were all sleeping in. They said they were tired (drive 4 hours to come to Chicago and they were tired!!? They have real low energy level). So I went to Millenium park myself.

And take a picture at Cloud Gate.

On the original photo, before I reduce the resolution, you can find me in the photo above. This photo was taken from the bottom of the 'bean'.

The boys did not join me for this park walk. They went to a pink place for breakfast. A place with pink menu, pink table cloth, pink walls, pink waitress for breakfast, called Breakfast Club.

We drove back to Detroit at lunch time, for another dinner appointment at 7pm back at the apartment. Busy huh ;-)

Chicago - Part 4

Here are the photoes that I really like. I did not take them, they are all from Robby.

Chicago - Part 3

We went to Grand Lux Cafe for breakfast. Its an amazing place. Huge, ornate, good food, and jolly good service. First there is this nice alley...

With super looking ceiling and lights.

We were quickly shown to our table and the waiter service was superb (or maybe we have been in Detroit for so long we became mountain-turtle already). My little friends were joking around with the waiter about what are good, what are not. Eventually I ordered a 3 eggs + hashbrown and they all had their own farmers choice / seafood omelette / some other egg combination.

After the eggs, they want to eat more, so we ordered dessert. Robby said he was still hungry and must have something sweet, so he had this banana creme ~ something.

The cake is banana flavoured, the whipped cream is banana flavoured, the custard inside the cake is banana custard, and top it off with sliced banana.

And for the other 3 of us, we had this ball thing.....with 3 sauces. Superb.

It really was like the best meal we had since 6 weeks in America.

The bill was very affordable too. Only added up to 100+ USD for the 4 of us.

Chicago - Part 2

On the drive into Chicago, we saw lots of steel structures. Look at the picture below, it was taken from a highway. It is a very tall steel structure, and there is this small house lookalike steel house in the middle of the frame. Jolly interesting.

Sears Tower, where you can see far far away. Have to pay USD25 to get to the roof.

Chicago is mostly like this, in my impression. Tall buildings, glassy reflective surface. IT is a windy city, so the glass are thick.

There is this nice one, with wavy structure.

Chicago - Part 1

The decision to go to Chicago on a weekend was an impromptu one. So me, two of my staff and one of their friends, from another team, drove to Chicago. We decided that on a Tuesday of that week. Because I am the 'boss' so I told them that each one have a task. One for planning the route, one for planning what to do, one for booking hotel, another for figuring out how much money each to pay at the end.

In the end, the one with the easiest job was the booking the hotel.

On Saturday morning, we set off, in my car, the Murano and we drove 4 hours to Chicago. Various people told us various horror stories about driving in Chicago, tall buildings no GPS reception, GPS get lost, bad drivers, slow traffic, dar di dar. Fortunately our drive was an easy one. I did not have to drive at all, somehow the boys did all the driving :)

Of the 4 people that went, 1 lady (me) and 3 guys (all Indonesians). At one stage, I turned around, and saw these papparazzi at the back of the car.

This is Chicago. Tall big buildings.

I was responsible for figuring out what to do, so I packed them on a tour bus and we went on a bus tour for 2 hours on top deck. Circling all major sights in Chicago.

But prior to that, we had to walk to eat breakfast before sitting for that 2 hours. I thought, I should change my style and let the boys figure out how to walk (since they are guys and I dont want to be bossy even on weekend). Except that....my staff....got all of us lost....even using the map ......and a guy some more......So, here is a pix of me, taking over the map, asking him where were we, where did we want to go, turning the map around, and telling him that we were on the wrong way.

It really was not that cold, but this staff of mine likes that beanie hat. He thinks he looks really cool in that beanie. So he walks around everywhere on the weekend with that beanie.

Go Live Party - Feather Bowling

Before I talk about Chicago and Boston, let me talk about the event that we had on Go Live Party ~ Feather Bowling.

Feather Bowling is a game played with wooden balls shaped like wheels of cheese. The balls are rolled down a dirt or synthetic alley towards a feather sticking out of the dirt at the other end. The object of the game is to get the ball as close to the feather as possible. Teams take turns rolling 12 balls (6 for each team) and may knock their opponent's balls out of the way. The team with balls closest to the feather at the end of the round wins 1 point per ball. The game is over when one team scores 10 points.

The game has its origins in Belgium. Apparently, the cafe that we went to, is the only place we can play it in Michigan, Cafe Cadieux.

This is how the alley look like. The cafe has 2 lanes for bowling. The cheese lookalike call is shown in the front of this photo.

THE feather.

And here is a pix of me rolling and everyone else standing around. I happened to be in the first team playing, thus there were plenty of on-lookers.

There is 2 color team. Red or yellow. The ball is known for red or yellow team via the little dot that you can see here. In this pix, the yellow ball wins, as it is closest to the feather.

The scoring sheet is also very ornate. ...

Chicago and Boston

Sorry for long no update. I was in Chicago the weekend before before...

And Boston the weekend just passed....

Will update with details and thoughts later.

Flying home now, after being out for nearly 2 months.

Go Live Party 29-April-2009

After 18 months, the project finally gone live.
For that the client did a reasonable size celebration. We went for feather bowling, a boat cruise (this is almost given in our organization) and then dinner.

There are many photoes from the event but they cannot be publicized. Too many faces in them. However, there are some photoes that I really like from the event, and without revealing too many other faces, here is 2 of them.

This one was taken at feather bowling. Another colleaguecaught this. This was taken at the boat cruise. As always I was in my own world. I was chewing on the splash stick from starbucks coffee, which was specially brought in. The guy on the far right is my best buddy at work.

Bike Ride Saturday - Detroit - Belle Isle - Indian Village - Eastern Market

After that 5 miles, we reached almost Detroit Central. I was hungry (as always) and my bike buddy was thirsty (as always). If I did not eat at the time I would be angry (as always) and if he did not drink by then he would be irritable (as always). It was 3pm and he almost got into a car accident. I was thinking how I would be the damsel in real distress in the middle of Detroit downtown black area with a XXXX person a broken bike and how to explain to my company that this crazy fellar is now ........... I quickly wiped those inauspicious thoughts out of my head and continued.

We went to Eastern Market but the market was closing. We have to find a place to eat and drink. Coney Island - I am ok but he is not ok as there is no beer in Coney island . Farmers Restaurant - it looked really dodgy from the outside. We kind of got distracted by the market and went through the market on bike. I bought strawberries for a dollar, he 3 mangoes for 1 dollar. THREE mangoes for a dollar, what a price.

Anyway, as we headed to Coney Island, the option was not particularly appealing to me for it is hotdog in Coney Island, I saw smoke coming out from a crowd of people 500meters away. So we went there (against his advice as I was already very hungry by then). But, exploring city centre on bikes, my forte!

Thereafter, it was like the best thing that was discovered for the whole day. It was a black area, where there is pub, live music, people hanging around, dancing, singing, eating. Ok so the germans like this kind of thing, beer and live music. The food is more interesting to me.

Here is why.
There is this line of people queuing up. There were no whites on this line.

Queuing up for this bar-be-que food. This is a four way industrial size grill with wheels, real chimney, coal, fire wood, the works. There is this family business selling food. There is a lemonade stand, the girl in the family tended this stall. Expensive lemonade, 2 dollars for a big cup. I saw how much sugar ah-girl put inside a jar - tsk tsk tsk.

I later found out the food is soul food. Basically, bar-be-que meat with corn and BBQ sauce. It is not healthy, not appealing, but it is different. The meat here as follows are ON TOP of the meat that is already in the grill.

This is ribs

Chicken Breast.

There is no photo of the done food. It did not look appealing plus my hand was dirty from the sauces when I remembered having to take photoes. My bike buddy took the corn and some chicken, I had more chicken since I do not like eating corn on cob. 5 dollars for 5 ounces of chicken. It was messy eating. There were beer being sold on the streets (which usually is against the Michigan law to have beer bottles outside of restaurants or pubs) and bike buddy was happy. I get to eat something different, nevermind that it was not fine food, and I was happy too. We lingered on for a while, and rode back. It started to rain towards the end of the day and turned slightly chilly.

At the bike return, bike buddy got a call from a colleague that he was invited for having dinner with colleague and his wife in Ann Arbor. So we quickly packed up and left, as there was not a lot of time between 4pm and 8pm....and we both wanted to go home and napped. That was how I forgot about the photo taking at Indian Village.

Bike Ride Saturday - Detroit - Belle Isle - Indian Village - Eastern Market

It was 80F yesterday, which is around 24c. My colleague, somehow, found that there is bike rental in this car town Detroit. So we tried this cycling thing. It was 25USD for 4 hours per person. A little steep but we took it anyway.



The bike rental came with tour map, and we went to Belle Isle Island, which is only 2 miles away.

This is the bridge that connects Detroit downtown to Belle Isle. Thats the place where Penske has their Indy car race...whatever. It was a nice island, with strong wind, very strong wind....

Some where in the middle of the park there was a roundabout with fountain and white lions (very Italian and very mafia). Along the path towards the fountain there are cherry blossoms trees. The bloosoms was just starting.

Here is me, doing a self potrait. The blooms are not full as yet. IT is cooler here so it takes a few more days.

After the Belle Isle, which we took a longer way as compared to the plan, we went to Indian Village where the bike route took us through many old nicely kept houses that looks like the old rich and are being for sale right now. Because my bike buddy complained that we are stopping 'every 100m' so I did not take any photoes of Indian Village. I have planned for a car ride after the bike ride through the same area for the photoes, but we forgot as something else happened after the bike ride.

Regardless, Indian Village was a nice quiet ride, the place looked deserted. Later on we discovered that the Indian refers to the red indians.

The route after Indian Village was 5 miles of head wind, through some grubby downtown areas, towards Eastern market. That 5miles of grubby downtown area was interesting for 2 miles. Thereafter I just wish for it to end. It was one straight road, very boring, very windy, very dangerous because there are glass shards on the road, run down houses, convalensence homes, cemeteries, coney dog huts with wired windows, uneven roads, people sitting on the porch with a strange look.....the kind of things you see on TV. My bike buddy was very excited, for he said, we see the city for real. Okay, I know that, but that 5 miles of glass shards was not so funny for me.

I lost the sunglasses on that 5 miles also. The wind was so strong that it blew away. I did not notice it until I reached Eastern Market.

you just cannot take away the child inside me

Greenfield Village

Last Saturday was good weather day. After stipulating multiple destinations, we finally decided to go to Greenfield village. This is sort of a theme park, beside the Henry Ford museum. Its a place whereby Henry Ford collected houses and artefacts (big ones) from all over the world and place this in the park for the people to learn, browse and in modern day, play.

This is a car town. So the compass has a car instead of a normal chicken, like we see in Germany.

It is a park with old stuff and people dressing up, explaning about tools and artefacts....more like a place for kids really. We can have horse carriage rides, old car rides, etc. This is an omnibus.

And get driven in Model T. Model T is the first model that Henry Ford sells. He said, you can have the car in any color as long as it is in black. So there.

Here is some guy who paid 35USD to be able to make his own glass flower..

Besides the various mode of transport, there is a section called Parishes and Parlors whereby houses from all over the world are being brought together. Here is a house for the poor man.

We went to Noah Webster's house. The fellow who wrote the Webster Dictionary.

Places exhibiting artefacts, inventions and so forth. There is an area called Edison Works whereby items used by Thomas Edison are collected...Edison is from Ohio which is really nearby.

Here is a picture of the setup they have to show how electricity is generated to power light bulbs. various farm tools.

Chemical bottles, or lab setup for Edison


After some time, I got more attracted to a bunch of sheep gnawing on grass.

After 3 hours, I had enough of this park and wanted to get out. It was as bad as my finger got stuck under some hammer, like this :)


OK, a nice picture.

Phase B gone live Drinking Party

The project that I have been doing for a loooonnngggg time finally went live. It was not an easy journey but I am damn proud that I have completed it.

The project went live on 13-April. In the night, we have a go live drinking party, at my place till 1:30am on a Monday night. When this photo was taken it was only 9:30pm. I was turning on the notebook to educate boss, what facebook is.

This is the aftermath. There were no more beers left.

Hermital Lifestyle

Happy Easter.
Same time last year I was in Detroit too.

Same time last year it snowed crazily during Easter.

In the past i thought that the hermital lifestyle I choose when I am away from home was due to mobility (ie, the inability to drive and have a vehicle) and or the unforgiving weather. This round, I realized that the hermital lifestyle is inherent in me and I will choose that despite the ability to drive, have a vehicle or the weather condition.

This is what I am doing this Easter weekend. With 3 days continuous holiday, a car, a house to myself, glorious weather outside ...

p/s the 1000 places book is a gift from a colleague over here

More Bakerzin

It rained very heavily at 3pm, and there goes dinner plans at Ampang Yong Tau Fu or anywhere that requires some commute. 

After some time I decided Lets go to Bakerzin, since it is nearby and the ambience is quite nice. 

These are the food, I had asam prawn with rice and Sister P had seafood pasta. 

The color looks pale, but it was quite tasty. Sister P had penne arrabiata, which was yummy too. 

I will be away again, for 6-7 weeks this time. 

Lou Yusheng at March?

Yup, I did exactly that. The Myanmar group (for the tour I went with a bunch of SDU people 10 years ago) gathering was supposed to be during every CNY. However due to various reasons we could not make it during CNY this year. It was postponed to today. The menu for this gathering is always vegetarian. Year after year we do vegetarian. Some years I skipped. Comeon, I am a meat eater. This year, for some reason (although with much initial dread) I went. The restaurant is called 7 Sensations at 16 Madras Street at Little India. 

They still have yusheng on menu. Look how pretty the plate is. 

The yushen has mango, pineapple, orange peel, coriander, carrots, radish, sprouts and others. The fish is Japanese konyaku jelly. It was delicious. So was other items we have ordered from the menu. 

The ambience for the eatery was nice. We asked the owner, known as Auntie Annie. She said she had a Japanese interior designer. Uh huh. It was done with much taste. 

The conversation today was ok. I had to go at 9:30pm for there is cutover to do tonight and tomorrow. Just as well. Sometimes, good things are to be taken in small doses. 

Grrrrrrr and Curry Linguine

There was one particularly annoying thing about work, and that was the first thing I spoke about this morning, and also the last thing I spoke about in the evening at 7:15pm. 

I was supposed to go for a run today, but because of that annoying thing I could not do it. The matter got my blood pumping and I was very mad. Then I figured maybe I was hungry and was craving for Thai green curry. The only decent Thai green curry is very far away. AT 9pm, the best option I can have is to have this curry linguine at Bakerzin.
It tasted alright, but a tad too heavy for me. I did half a bowl and have enough calories to make me feel guilty for some time.

It has been a long time since I can remember that I conciously go to food for comfort.