Here's an explaination of the word POSH

Just finished visited Chooi; he had explained the origin of the word "POSH". It stands for "Port Out Starboard Home". Back in the old days people used boats to travel not jets. So in order to have people waving goodbyes to you, you pay "extra" for the Port side to wave; you are being seen. Then get the starboard side coming home so people can see you coming home - your porter, your maid, whoever else. Of course, you pay "extra" as well. There you go. That's what the word "POSH" means.

What a 11-hour made

Am here in Vancouver, Canada, North America now. That's after a 10 hours and 20 minutes flight. We were 30 minutes early due to the jetstream. Cool. Within 11 hours, I have heard 2 languages (Chinese and English); but within the Chinese language, I have heard both Cantonese and Mandarin. And I have to speak in both side of the Pacific Ocean.

The flight over was non-eventful. AC has upgraded its Biz class seats in the 767. The seats are now the slightly angled narrow seats that turn into flat beds and have personal entertainment systems. After the seat is turned into a bed; it is for people under 5' 5'. Table tray, you need to seat up in order to get the table "eject" out of the slot; if not, nice try getting it out; hit the gym doing finger gripping exercises. The TV screen is bigger; but it uses the touch screen system. I think AC is trying to have people into flat abs. It's TOUCH SCREEN! And it is tilted away from you! So you need to keep stretching up in order to make your selection. The remote, more for games then anything else. The attendant call buttons are on the remote too; but you need a less than 20/20 vision and a light to see it. The reading light, ummm.... doesn't really work well; I need to use the overhead light. Someone in the decision process cheaped out and didn't put a finer details into new seat. This reminded me of "primitive" Chinese imitation of North American products. Now, the reverse...

Before taking off, went to the lounge; man, it was packed; small, not enough room for the Chinese capacity. AC shared the lounge with ANA, the All Nippon airline. And that was the First Class lounge not the Business Class lounge. I bailed after an hour.

Zzzz..... O no, need a nap now....

A cold shower and a bad coffee this morning...

After working out the first time at the Marriott, I was looking for a hot shower; umm... Someone forgot turning on the hot water? It was luke warm! I practically had a cold shower; very refreshing! Consider the outside temperature was about 3C. O yeah, I was refreshed. Good thing for hi-tech training gear; I felt warm - later. Ha ha. Then...

Yuck. Just had a coffee from Starbucks next to the JW Marriott. I thought I would have a little treat after a "cold" shower. Wrong. The coffee was not brewed fresh; I noticed after I paid for my coffee that it was poured from a large square portable container on the floor. Not the one being brewed. The coffee was terrible. I felt sick half way home drinking it. There went RMB$20 down the drain. Literally. AGHHH.

Good start for my day! Cold shower and bad coffee; wonder if I should venture out and get some breakfast? NOT. Better stay home! At least I am consistent in cooking oatmeal.

Try it, cold shower in a cold morning. It builds character! Very refreshing. At least I have to work faster to warm up my body! Hee hee...

A Voith visit

Site visit for us as Audrey will be teaching a class for the next four days. We caught a taxi just in front of our apartment. O no, the guy's licence was in the 290,000 range; this meant, he was quite new. We, (my wife again) explained where to go and showed him the map; he looked and moved. Outch.... The ride too about 45 minutes and I believed my wife was getting car sick by the minute; this guy was a racing driver want-to-be. But he didn't know how to brake or how to shift. There were times I was ready telling him to pull over so I could drive and showed him how to shift! And how to brake. We needed not doing a Regina Winter braking technique. Nor, did we really need to change lane with a lateral force that could break the centrifugal force. Nor did we really need to practice the rock and roll concert head movement; well he did all at no charge extra. The last one was a good skip after he passed the last right turn. So, he backed up in the middle of the road. We safely arrived at Voith. When I looked back while getting to the building, the driver slammed on reverse and drove off, only for a few meters; then he jumped off and relieved himself. Maybe that was the reason why the rally driving want-to-be happened. Who knew what was in the driver's mind. Then 10 minutes later, the guard at the gate called us while we were having a meeting. The taxi driver drove back to deliver something we left in his car; scratching our heads we went to see; well, my wife's gloves; we wanted to land on our feet on solid ground that we completely forgot checking before leaving the car. But nice the driver came back smiling and delivering the gloves; if we were to complain his driving, we might not see them again. We were alive and arrived safely at Voith.

On the way back, we had a totally different taxi driver; his licence number began in 7000 range; so he had been driving for over 20 some odd years; what a different. We were almost falling asleep with the car gently rocking back and forth moving forward. Boring. Hee hee... But I preferred this boring way.

Getting my Tissot fixed

The other day, I noticed my watch was out of whack; the date and time were not sync up and my digital clock read out was four hours off the analog. What to do. Good thing there is a place in Shanghai fixing all brand name watches. It was just across the street from Best Buy! Yes, there is a Best Buy in Shanghai. Anyway, we arrived at the watch repair place. Took a number. Waited. 10 minuteslater our number was up, explained the problem (of course, not ME!), I have a wife for that ;-) Then 15 minutes later, all better; no cost. Done. If I were to do the same in Regina, I most likely have to leave it for a month!!! Just like my Tag about five years ago! Took over a month to look at a simple problem. I think fixing my watch was faster than trying to get there in taxi!

Getting my picture taken

In order to get a gym membership card at the Marriott, I need to provide a "mug shot". And it does not have the North American passport requirement of NOT smiling, No glasses, Neutral look requirements. As a matter fact, smiling is encouraged! So we went to this wedding picture taking place about 50 paces to the left of our apartment. I paid RMB$40.00; it gives me 5 small ones and 4 2" ones. Coloured! And the funny thing was, there were so many employees. One greeted us, one collected our money. The one originally greeted us took us to the back to take my "mug shot". The "other" office. We walked from the front of the store, went over to the backdoor, passed the "long" (a space between two buildings) then to the office where two people had been diligently waiting for customers. Two people assisted taking my "mug shot". They even provided evaluations as to which ones they liked. Of course, the one they picked also had to be approved by my wife. Approved. 5 minutes of waiting; got all the pictures; and they count them out for you so that you did not get cheated. Wonder how many customers they had today. Two people waiting in the back office in another building. Nothing is that straight forward in Shanghai. In total, getting mine done had passed over 4 sets of hand. Guess labour is cheap. But the cost of leaving is not really if you want to spend. We were discussing to pay RMB$25,000 for a gym membership and there was this bagger lying on his belly on a mattress bundled up asking for money; and he was eating some sort of bun from a plastic bag.

SuperElite has its privledges

Well with all those times flying AC last year, this year I have it easy with the SuperElite status. To upgrade, I just punched in my upgrade voucher serial number on the web; if there is seat available, I don't have to wait until the flight is closed before getting a Biz class seat; the computer just assigned one for me right away. I got good seats both ways. Will have time getting work done on the flight. Yipeee..... And with the 767 configuration, I am sitting by myself on one side of the plane.

A new vegetable: Longdou - 龙豆

This is a vegetable I have not seen before but quite common here. It's a bean. But quite crunchy. Not like a meshy type feel. To eat: wash, remove both ends, chop up the rest in small bits and stir fries with garlic and soy sauce. 5 minutes. Quite nutritious.

This is a closed up view of the cooked version.

This is a kinda fuzzy view of what the bean looks before cooking.

Looking for a gym to join

So, my lovely wife has decided to do a triathlon this year. To be specific, this April in Hainan Island (aka Chinese Hawaii). It's going to be at the city of Haiku. The race course is about 172KM. This coincides with the need of a gym we need to use on a regular basis; currently, we only pay for a Personal Trainer at the Hilton. Not cost effective and we cannot workout during his days off. We have been talking about joining a gym for over 3 months now. The gym that we used to join, Audrey's membership expires. Even though it is just across the street, the equipment were broken and old. Not being well kept. No point of paying money to line someone's pocket. And no swimming pool - part of the triathlon event. We targeted numerous hotels around our neighbourhood, being on Nanjing Road West, all the major hotels are withing walking distance; we targeted only four - Hilton, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott. Others we had discounted like Le Meridien, too far; JC Mandarin, been there when mom and dad were visiting last Feb. Not enough equipment.

OK, the screening process. Hilton. We discounted it as it does not have a proper swimming pool. That was the big draw bag. A 12-meter pool would not do the trick for swimming practice. Too bad. Ritz. Really crowded with people. Equipment were jammed closely together. Weight lifting machines were old and not well equipped. Swimming pool was noisy with too many kids splashing without supervision. Staff wasn't too keen or interested in helping. Four Seasons. Really disappointed with this hotel. As we walked into the lobby. It was smoky! Cigarette smoke permeated everywhere! Even though the lobby coffee shop was on the other side away from the lifts, bad! Then the gym, all running stuff; four or five weight lifting machines; Not even a universal weight station! The swimming pool was nice and calming. 20 meters by 6 meters. Staff was so nice. The cost was outrageous! RMB$24,000 per person; no couple membership! What this membership will get you are: free laundry of your gym wear, personalized bathrobe and slippers, 10% off at the spa and salon and here is the kicker: On your birthday, the hotel picks up the tab for a group of six having dinner buffet at the coffee shop; and a free night in a suite for two. Umm... I could do without the laundry as I do it myself as soon as I get home; I don't use the bathrobe as I just jump in and out of the shower; it's not a 1/2 day experience for me when I workout. And the group of six, I can do better somewhere else. O yeah, the gym was stuffy. Not enough air ventilation it seemed. So, decision was easy. It will be the JW Marriott at the Tomorrow Square. The cost, RMB$25,000 for two people. We get to park our bikes downstairs for free. The swimming pool is nice and long, the gym is well ventilated and stocked well with equipment. We can even bring our own Personal Trainer in and won't being charged for the extra person. Reason, this person only give advise and use the facility. Good reasoning I say. BTW, all the potential candidates are 24-hours ones. Except the change rooms are from 6am to 11pm.

Thought about local clubs too; they are really crowded and far away; also, considering the potential closing overnight without notice; this is something you have to consider when looking in China. Also, the bathroom and shower facilities. Most of them are of "Chinese" version. I have enough foul smells, broken shower head, smelly old "laundried" towels and dirty wet floors. Who knows, when we buy an apartment, a gym and swimming pool maybe included. I have an eye on this: http://www.crystalpavilion.com.cn. It is just around the corner from our apartment.

Marriott, here we come. Or, let the pain begins to train for the triathlon.

Cybermart purchase

Audrey's client needs her to purchase two Sony DVD camcorders. So, I went hunting at the famous Cybermart; it was a 20-minute walk from our apartment.

This place sells everything under the sun in multi-stories. Desktops, Laptops, digital cameras, cellphones, memory cards, you name it; this place has it. The ground floor has better ventilation; so fresher air. The second story, yikes! Chain smoke heaven. My eyes started watering and burning as I did a circular sweep of the second floor. I quickly decended to the ground floor.

Found the shop selling the specific Sony DVD camcorder. The lady was stunned when I said I needed two. Immediately, she asked if I were to pay cash. Of course! Then I asked her for a FaiPiao (official tax receipt). No problem. She was so helpful. Even gave me a sony camcorder bag; probably a knockoff from somewhere. That didn't matter. Funny thing was I will have to go there again tomorrow to get the second Camcorder. Funny way how things work there. There, the amount you see is the amount that you should pay less for. No tax.

Intresting online AC booking

It's amazing... Two days ago, I could not get a seat in the economy from Shanghai to Vancouver; AC forced or rather "enticed" me to get a Biz tix (13 odd seats). Today, those 13 odd Biz seats disappeared from the site but tonnes of economy seats available, almost the entire back of the 777! Go figure! After I booked my econo seat, I was able to use my voucher to request upgrade. Umm... Wonder what kind of scam it is running; I know there are lots of people traveling back and forth; but overnight, 13 Biz seats were sold? Not that I am aware there is a huge Chinese delegation going to Vancouver for a "conference".

Chinese Valentines Day.

Today, the 15th day after the start of the Year of the Rat is the Chinese Valentines Day. Also, the last day you can light firecrackers and fireworks in Shanghai; needless to say, there are lots of bangs in the city. This is the time to be in Shanghai to partake in the festivity; Chinese New Year day too, of course. This evening while we walked, we saw people lighting firecrackers everywhere. On the street in front of stores, over residential balconies, construction sites.

We had authentic Indian food tonight for supper. Quite nice. Have to get my self prep for the upcoming India trip at the end of March.

Regina AC Mapleleaf Lounge

Wow, the Lounge has made it to the travel advisories section of the AC website; the lounge is being renovated from Feb 1 to Feb 21. That's good; as I saw mouse traps in numerous occasions and dirty dishes and cups.... Worn out carpet and not so working TV set. Wonder what it looks like....

I probably won't see it after Feb 2009, I won't qualify for the AC Elite or SuperElite status anymore; no need to fly that much into Canada I guess.

Sunny Shanghai

Either we have adjusted to the cold humid weather or we have finally adjusted to the weather. It seems warmer. The sun is out and shining thru the windows of our apartment. No need for heaters! Yuppie.... Since Sunday, not much going on except with lots of gym time and Chinese lesson time. Starting to get ourselves back to the "routine". Yes, cooking with a wok! It's awesome. Natural gas and wok. I can cook fast; but food preparation wise, still takes time.

My two weeks of staying in Shanghai is up. Am heading across the Pacific Ocean again. This time should be in Regina on Feb 27. Thanks to the Air Canada schedule, I arrive at 12:30pm in Vancouver; but will not get to Regina until 11:15pm!!!! A 12-hour journey that I could have taken a flight back to Shanghai; go figure! Probably will stay until March 8 leaving for Vancouver on March 9. Then stay in Vancouver for 3 days or so. Need to apply for my Indian travel visa. O yeah, will need to get a new passport; used up all my pages.... We'll see if I can get one expedited and have one done in Regina.

Tomorrow, go see if we can bump the Internet speed up from China Telecom.

The B'day celebration

What do you expect from us today? Well, getting worked on by the Personal Trainer to start. Very stiffed and sored. Then Audrey took me to Laris (aka Three on the Bund). It was quite an interesting restaurant. Great view looking over the HuangPo river at the Bund. Every table had a view. And good thing the pillar just large enough blocking that ugly looking futuristic tower that so "famous" for Shanghai. This restaurant has a chocolate factory. We saw staff making chocolate live over a wide window. Ate lots of the chocolate! It was great! But make sure you WALK there and WALK back to wherever. Food was good! Or rather the chocolate. The veal was a bit tougher than I anticipated. Wonder where I could get a nice piece of juicy tender beef in Shanghai. Considering Laris is one of the top restaurants, I expected a bit more in terms of the quality of the meat. Menu was very imaginative. Egg Florentine with Truffle Hollandaise sauce. Risotto with nice creamy Mascarpone cheese and fresh vegetables. Fresh oysters from France. Price was quite expensive though. This little venture costed RMB$870; no service charge; so tipping was required. It came close to RMB$1,000. And that was 24 meals from the nice Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant we often visit (Funny though, since we arrived back from Maui, we haven't visited it once yet.).

O yeah, after this lunch she scheduled me in to a Chinese herbal steam, massage and cupping. WE WALKED THERE! 45 minutes of it! Since we had load of chocolate - free samples (5 pieces) from the restaurant as well as the chocolate mud cake & ice cream. Talk about chocolate loading. Anyway, I digressed. So this Chinese herbal steam and massage and cupping thingy. The steaming was suppose to loosen your joints and make your body absorbed the medicinal purpose of the herb thru your skill into your body; me, I believed I had sweat out the not so nice Japanese imitation cheese cake, a bottle of French wine, a glass of Chinese made sparkling / ice wine, and copious amount of butter in the dishes all from last night's meal; Audrey's friend made supper. The steaming was good; after 20 minutes of that, I believe I sweat everything out! Then, the massage. All my sore spots were hit; then the cupping; it was suppose to use the cups, based on the vacuum principle, put on your back to draw out "bad" blood to the surface. Well, with my soreness from working out; there were lots. All I heard was semi-gasping from the lady working on me. I felt great right now. Contrary to previous times that I was too tired to do anything. Must be the chocolate high.

As for tonight, we are eating in; am making a pot of simple chinese soup. Got to check on it now.

Renovation street

YiShan Road in Shanghai is known to be a favourite hangout for all those who will do renovations. It has shops lined up on both side of the street from tiles, toilets, door handles, sinks to pipes; you name it and the street offers. We were there because our toilet seat was broken. Being a "clone" of American Standard equipment, we were having a hard time looking for a replacement unit. We headed there as a last ditch effort looking for one. We did! But about 100 times or so more than originally budgeted. You see, when we did a station stop in Tokyo's Narita airport, the Japanese had this funky idea of being neat and detailed. So, the toilet seat was NOT a normal one; it has gadgets spraying either which way and drying with a touch of a button or two. And it is heated! So, the Queen had this idea in her head ;-) And she found a similar one in one of the shops located in YiShan Road. We got one. To be delivered and installed next week. Funny thing, we did not pay the listed priced. It was discounted from the listed and we didn't asked for it. 25% off!!!!! And that was the top one with a dryer! When we paid, we did not pay to the shop; we headed to the cashier on the second floor; one lady collected and the other stamped and handwrote out a Fapiao (official tax receipt) for the purchase. Talk about full employment.

One thing led to another

Well, Audrey has been looking for a small mirror hanging in the hallway so we can use. After going to department stores, Home Depot and home depot want to be store as well as the well known YiShan Lu (renovation galore street), we found one. It started out going for brunch at Mesa, a Western owned restaurant (we knew the owners). We stepped in and saw the owner sitting with other friends of ours. We talked. With her Interior Design background, she quickly pointed out a back alley shop about a 3-minute walk from the restaurant. Well, we found it. It was in the back alley alright. 10 minutes later and RMB$20.00 we got the mirror with our spec. The guy cut the mirror to our dimension. Audrey has been looking for a mirror with the wanted size for a long time. If we weren't decided taking a detour to eat at Mesa, we would not have bumped into the owner, and got the direction to the place to get our mirror. You see, Mesa was totally the opposite direction to the CyberMart I wanted to go. About 20 minutes in the opposite direction.

All better, for now

After spending lots of time diagnosing my Internet access problem, I got a new wireless router this afternoon. Well, it seemed to work so far; who knows; there was a ADSL outage while we were away for the morning; maybe, it was all fixed; but mysteriously, some normal sites that have been blocked came back to live. Like www.aircanada.com for one. www.pcworld.com as another. And the last and most important, this blog's entry screen!

Also found out that my lovely wife only subscribed to 512K ADSL package. Will get a higher package for faster speed.

Freaking frustrated....

Who said the technology in China is really advanced? Maybe a year ago when I was checking the Internet connections. Of late, actually since last Fall, service has been really bad. I have to jump thru hoops in order to get to my Internet destinations. If that's the way, there is no way you can have an International business community thriving. I am currently has snail speed - meaning, slower than the Canadian gov't processing your documents. I think I have about equal par to the dial-up speed of 54K modem. And the Chinese routers going out to the world are randomly blocking sites, like my own test site with only one line of text - "testing". Anything to the North America seems to have problem with exception of NY Times and WSJ. PCworld was blocked. Air Canada website is blocked. Greater Asia is still ok. Some are superfast in rendering. I am typing this up by jumping around the world. Last night, when I tried pulling up this article on Tor from the Lifehacker.com site, it refreshed briefly and then blanked. The content was screened and then blocked. This really make things frustrating to work.

If I am not updating the blog as frequently as it should be, that's the reason why. Trying to get out.

Coming in physically to Shanghai is getting easier! But getting out on the Internet, well, that's a different story entirely.

Tough as nail...

Went out for lunch yesterday at this Neo-type Western food joint called Element Fresh. The place on Nanjing Road West in Portman has just been totally renovated. Nice. Now smokers sit upstairs away from the non-smokers.

So, I ordered a steak sandwich. Didn't know why but had a craving for a nice piece of juicy steak. Wrong expectation! First bite, I almost had my veneers off my front teeth! The knife could not cut thru the piece of meat. I had to eat it by the layer. Then the second piece of meat was the same! I tried chewing it. Wrong choice. Thought I had grinded off my front veneers. I could hear a very horrible sound as I bit down! Good thing nothing had been damaged. I was saved! Phew... Obviously, I left the other half of my sandwich.

Have to give this restaurant credit for coffee. It's strong and twice better than the Starbucks. The breakfast menu is good. But for dinner menu, just need to be careful what you order. Stay off beef I guess.

Blocked again...

The Internet has been brutally slow the last few days. Very unstable. Wondering if our wireless router is on the dying leg. Or the service has been that bad. Guess one way finding this out is to get a replacement wireless router. My Gmail is faster now; but my blog site is blocked! Good thing I have Tor installed on my XP emulation on my Mac. After playing around, I am now have unrestricted access to my thing. Mind you, this Tor only works with Firefox. That's ok.

What a bargain

Just before mid-night, before we went to bed, our lights went out. One of the old fuse was blown. Who knew. Good thing the breakers connecting to our heaters were ok. We called the 24-hour maintenance guy/electrician. He came within 10 minutes. Located the breaker, put a patch of the fuse in, plugged in the breaker. And let there be light! The charge: RMB$5.00. Or less than US$1.00. He didn't have change, so it costed us RMB$10.00. Total time from arrival to fixing, less than 10 minutes. And service with a smile.

Triple Brrr from Shanghai

Arrived Shanghai in the afternoon. That's the first for us as we always arrive in the evening. Good thing. It was "relatively" warmer than night time. Relative, yes. I had four layers of clothes on yesterday afternoon while walking around. Wrong base layer. Have to remind Bick; that base layer took away my body heat! I was freezing to death despite two layers of Paul and Shark. I had to change out and add one more additional layer on in order to keep myself warm! I felt like an astronaut doing a space walk! Even though with the -50C I have had experienced during my 25 some odd years in Saskatchewan, this bone chilling cold in Shanghai is the worst. This is probably because the inside and outside temperature are the same! Last night, I had to warming the bedsheets before going to bed. Threw some hot water bottles in. The sheets were ice cold. We probably could use the bed keeping vegetable fresh.

There is no estimate as to when the weather will get warm. Stay tune.

NorthWest

Wow, who would have thought! The International route service was far better than its North American route, at least from my experience anyway. The food was superb; beat AC's Business First by lots; no comparison. At least I didn't have someone passing food in front of your face rudely. The Japanese Dinner box was to die for. You got to sample a wide variety of Japanese food - tuna sushimi, Japanese appetizers, all non-grease... Not like the rich and heavy Western type food as alternatives.

Our flights were like clockwork; but unfortunately, our Tokyo to HKG flight developed engine problem as we were pulling off the gate. The starter shaft was sheered. With Japanese efficiency, the problem was properly diagnosed and faulty part replaced. We were two hours behind schedule arriving Hong Kong, after mid-night. Good thing I had organized an airport pickup with the hotel - Four Seasons. The greeter met us right at the gate as we deplaned. Put us on a mini golf cart with plush seatings. We went straight to the immigration; good thing again! There were only 3 people working there for a 747 full of people. We zipped thru it. Beat the rush. Luggages came out in record time!!!! We were handed from the greeter to the Four Seasons staff. The car was waiting and we were loaded up. By 130am, we were at the hotel. A quick signature, we were up in our room. Again efficiency. Everything liked clock work. In the room, there were a bowl of fruit and strawberries for us. Nice touch. A bottle of Champagne too. ;-) The fruit was good. Alcohol, we stayed away....

Road to Hana

615am. We were on the road from Wailea to Hana. The trip took us back to the airport direction on the NE side then turn right on Hana Hwy along the coast. We stopped at Charley's for b'fast. It was good. Menu choices were different from your normal Western b'fast selections. Egg benedic with canjun pork, black bean burritos that could feed 3 people, to name a feel. After gotten everyone well fed, the trip officially began.

Twin Falls. Too muddy walking into the location; plus with all the rain, the water was just mud flow more than anything else. Later on the trip, we talked to this local lady selling coconut candies; she did not go into the water since the 70's. Too dangerous with the current and the water was full of bacterias. Seeing enough water falls around the world, I wasn't too thrill seeing another one anyway. After a short stay and witness this tourist did a flip on the muddy walkway, we continued our Road to Hana....

The road began to narrow and winding after Twin Falls. Narrow was right. Some places, you need to take your turn with the incoming traffic. There was black sand beach, lookouts, bamboo forest to see along the way. But again, u get really desensitized after seeing the same around the world. There were so much rain before we visited the area (one week of solid rain), land slide was common. We had to stop once for the work crew to clear a falling tree across the road. On the way back, we saw more signs of recent slides. Hana itself was not spectacular at all. Just a town. Apparently it was severely damaged during a recent tsunami in the 70's. The water falls along the way, all muddy. Too much water.

On the way back we had Thai food for lunch. Some young girl cooked it in front of us with a wok! Who would have thought? Getting authentic Thai food in Hana.

We bought some coconut candies - roasted with different flavours. Nice. Plus you want to support the locals.

Done the deed

It has been a while since I wrote - for obvious reason. Yes, I am officially upgraded from Single to Married. The Maui trip was a whirlwind one. Since arriving on Maui on Jan 28, I did not have time walking slowly on the beach or taking a dip in either the pool or the sea. So close yet so far away. I was glad seeing all those friends who made the journey down to Maui. It was fantastic seeing all of them again.

Wedding day came and gone quickly. The day was a blurt but memorable. The estate was good to provide a private function; but the wedding planner should have notified us about the problem with grass there!

A friend of ours have posted pictures and videos for us to see. Take a look at them.

The place we stay on Wailea was ok. I wasn't particular care about the condo we stayed in. It was tired, old, not being kept up. However, some other condos on the premise that other friends stayed in were exceptional. Remember, the place was Palms on Wailea. The condos to avoid based on experienced - 1505 (who cares about the view when most of the toilet and lights didn't work. Old and tired tile bathrooms. Yuck! Another one is 1803. Nice number if you are superstitious. Condos to consider: 1806, 803, 1501. Better yet, go check out the condo before taking it.

Beach access from Wailea was good. You can pretty much get access at every block.

Upgrading my status

In less then six hours, I will be upgraded from single to married. Wow.... This week has been busy running errands, receiving guests, socializing with guests. Looking forward to have a nice relaxing afternoon tomorrow by the pool. Or at the least enjoying the sun and the island. I can now drive to the Safeway, the airport or the South Kihei Road with my eyes closed. I drive more aggressive than most tourists. ;-) Have to be a local but my vehicle is a giveaway. Ford Edge. This vehicle type is everywhere w/ tourist.

Went to the Marriott Luau with everyone last night; could not ask for a more perfect night outdoor; sunset, calm, warmth, food, performance and weather. A perfect island night. Let see if this holds tonight.

Golfed at the Wailea Blue Course. Course was nice but mandatory carting. GPS. Driving range was a series of nets with rubber mats. The Nike rental clubs were OK to use. Not bad. I could still swing. Putting... well... Greens.... toward the mountain, very slow, toward the sea, fast. The slope rating was a 6.4 or so. You paid for the view there. One side, the ocean with occasional whales popping up. Tee box, one of them, aimed at the mountain with with a rainbow. Nice.... You could not ask for anything more.

Got to run and get ready for the day. Busy........