Overtexture

Rebecca and I took our summer trip at the beginning of August. This time was Malaysia. It was a pending tour, since last time we wanted to take it but was cancelled! (so that time we went to the Philippines!)

We followed Wing On - this time is my fourth time! (previously: Korea-Philippines-Egypt). The tour was quite much what we expected, tight schedules, long bus trips and many places to visit. The schedule was like as follows:

 

1st day - Early flight with Cathay Pacific - At the Avillion Village Resort at Dickson Port in Negeri Sembilan (south Selangor where Kuala Lumpur is). Rustically designed along the theme of a traditional Malay Fishing Village. We spent the whole day there, the swimming pool was fun and they have a small zoo and a beach. The dinner arranged by the tour agent was not too good (too oily)! luckily  the breakfast at the resort had enough variety for us to choose.

 

2nd day - Malacca (Melaka) at the Historic central district where there is still remains of the heritage left by the Dutch and Portuguese during colonial times. The weather was the best that day :) - Genting Highlands Resort is at thetop of the hill ,51km northeast KL. We saw there a magic show from Las Vegas! quite impressive!

 

3rd day - The Batu Caves: an ancient Hindu Shrine. There are more than 200 steps before arriving into the sacred cave in the middle of the mountain.

Bread with curry chicken, chicken cooked in curry with a covering of bread. Found in the town of Kampar. Very delicious! :P

Kuala Lumpur - Government House and buildings, History Museum, Aquaria (many sharks around! but still HK's Ocean Park is much fun :P) - Petronas Tower: The second tallest building in the world . Local Chinese food dinner near Bintang Walk, Kuala Lumpur's upscale and trendy business and entertainment hub. Legend Hotel.

 

4th day - The Menara tower - The Sunway Lagoon WaterPark, it has the world longest suspension bridge! The hanging platform is made of wood but as you get next to the middle, it becomes a transparent metal grid that creates a terrible vertigo to anyone who looks down!!!!!! Ritz Carlton Hotel (great hotel and the best offered in the tour!)

 

5th day - Chocolate with Durian!!!! delicious! hhmmm!!!!!! - Lunch by tour agent: too cheap and not good! - Putrajaya: the cyber administrative new town for Malaysia, quite modern and muslim - Return with Cathay Pacific - Mayhem at HK's Airport after typhoon!

 

A day before we returned there was a strong windy typhoon around HK, and the airport closed one day! So in the day we returned, the whole airport was full of delayed airplanes and passengers. We had to wait to be able to land in HK, get a bus to the airport since we taxed far from the gates and airport building and receive our luggages! We managed to get home around 2:00am, but we were supposed to get back to HK at 11:00pm (almost 2 hours delay)!

 

Coldplay is coming to Hk! They will be performing in the Asia World arena, date 13 July 2006 at 8:00pm! (thanks to Karen Chung for the reminder! :P)

 

Just to warm up here I broadcast: DON'T PANIC from http://www.alwaysontherun.net/coldplay.htm

Don't Panic

Bones, sinking like stones,
All that we fought for,
Homes, places we've grown,
All of us are done for.

And we live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world,

Bones, sinking like stones,
All that we fought for,
And homes, places we've grown,
All of us are done for.

And we live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world.

Here we go, here we go

And we live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world.

 Oh, all that I know,
There's nothing here to run from,
'Cause yeah everybody here's got somebody to lean on.

Wow! It's been ages since I don't write something here! Life in HK has become too much of a rush lately and mainly because of the workload from the office. I just wonder if it worth it and whether it should be time to move away from my office (almost 2.5 years... much long for HK standards!). Well, i've manage to reappear here to drop a couple of lines...

 

So how is life lately? Well, it's time to move since our rental contract is almost over and prices has gone quite high lately in the whole real estate market! We have done our homework and after a long process (almost 3 weeks) we found a place that suited well in terms of price and space requirement. On Saturday and Sunday, we already had the place cleaned and already started moving the scattered stuff: from electrical appliances to bags of clothes that even I didn't know I still had! hahahaha... I suppose that if I lost half of my wardrobe, I wouldn't notice it! hahaha... Unluckily this time of the year is not the best one to move since it's rainy in Hong Kong until the Tuen Ng Festival (the "dumpling" dragon boat festival). So i gotta make a mental note to remember to move around March NEXT TIME, still cool and fresh , not rainy and steamy as it is this time of the year... 

 

The new place is not bad - Everwin Building, even though it is not as new as the one we used to live and is located close to King's road (noisy and polluted main road of North Point). The area is much more generous (2 rooms) and it even has view of the Victoria Harbour! (very unlikely being 3 blocks away from the waterfront). So let's hope that the good vibrations and fungshui may affect us positvely at least as a psichological effect.  (so next time we move, we move to our own place)

 

 

Around my friends and coworkers are in the mood of changes, my panamenian friend William seems to break free from his long time trading company very much for good and Tony is already in search of better oppotunities. Ken managed to get into the Chinese University and is the next missing piece in my office (I wonder if they will manage to find new stuff soon since we are already overloaded with tons of work and different projects to deal per person!).

 

Well, I suppose I must stay in focus and handle the short term plans first, so let's move and see how we go during June!

If only the heart was right

we could give so much more

But alas, the heart is often empty.

It is often cold and unwelcoming.

It is often hard and unyielding.

It is often weighed down with worry.

It is often sad and lonely.

It is often in darkness.

It is often wounded.

And it is sometimes broken.

We have to heal the wounds of the heart

in order to  be able to love.

Lord touch our hearts and heal them,

so that we may be able to bear the fruits of love.

Amen

How To Avoid The Flu

Eat right!
Make sure you get your daily
dose of fruits and veggies.
Take your vitamins and bump up
your vitamin C.

Get plenty of exercise because
exercise helps build your immune system.
Walk for at least an hour a day,
go for a swim,
take the stairs instead of the
elevator, etc.
Wash your hands often.
If you can't wash them,
keep a bottle of antibacterial stuff around.

Get lots of fresh air.Open doors & windows whenever possible.

Try to eliminate as much stress from your life as you can.

Get plenty of rest.

OR

Take the doctor's approach!
Think about it...

When you go for a shot,
what do they do first?
They Clean your arm with alcohol...
Why?

Because Alcohol KILLS GERMS.

So.......
I walk to the liquor store. (exercise)
I put lime in my Corona...(fruit)
 Celery in my Bloody Mary  (veggies)
Drink outdoors on the bar patio..(fresh air)
Tell jokes, laugh....(eliminate stress)
Then pass out.  (rest)
The way I see it...

If you keep your alcohol levels up, flu germs  can't get you!

My grandmother always said,
"A shot in the glass is better than one in the ass!"
Live Well - Laugh Often - Love Much
Have a fab day....

Wow! February passed in a blink! Well, so many things has happened, my friends from Malaysia came to HK to enjoy their vacations, Valentine's at TST, Munich (the movie), CNY's dinner with the company and the visit of a Peruvian Navy ship to HK!

 

By the end of Febraury a Navy Ship from Peru passed by HK. They came for diplomatic and military relationships with China after many years, they went to Shanghai first, and coming back they stopped by HK. We went for a cocktail reception. It was a very nice evening, the cadets and captain received everyone in uniform , and then we were directed to the exhibition hall downstairs and we had cocktails drinks (algarrobina, pisco sour and Inca Kola!). Rebecca liked "Inca Kola" that is like Schwepes Cream Soda ( i is also yellow). We had a toast of welcoming after the consul words and then there was a performance of "Marinera" (The dance of the sea: because the movement of the dancers and winding skirt of the lady resembles the movement of the saves of the sea). After that, we had a mini-buffet and party with orchestra and nice music to dance the whole night.

 

Yesterday it was the oscars night! Now that it has passed, I just noticed that the only winner of an oscar I've seen, is King Kong and Narnia! hahaha.... We saw Munich last month (that was nominated too) but it didn't win anything. Reading in the net, the oscar's host Jon Stewart joked on what may come for jews, since it seems that it may become a trilogy after the Schindler's list and Munich. In think this movie was too crude on the way it showedthe reality of this world of hatred, pride and sadness. At the end the taste is like having a world without hope and that the whole process is just never ending and a vicious circle.

 

For animated movie, we saw "Howl's moving castle" (from Studio Ghibili - Hayao Miyasaki) but it didn't win too. I liked this one, but it seems that the topic of war and romance, is becoming a common topic for their style, like in "City in the Sky" or "Valley of the winds".

 

Now, in HK they are many movies being shown for the Oscars season, so there are many options such as: Pride and Prejudice, Capote and Brokeback mountain. The latter is being quite well promoted here in the media (radio and TV) specially because of Ang Lee, that has become the pride of chinese people, after winning the oscar for acievement in directing. He has become a hero, with lots of interviews of people around him like relatives in Taiwan, I suppose later we will have reports from his primary school, secondary schools, etc... hahaha! it's just the rush of the moment for the media here...