Plover Cove

Coffee?

We are staying at this new hotel in Hong Kong. It's called East. Located in one of the biggest city residential community in HK in TaiKou Shing. It just opened last week. We got a good rate. Good location from the MRT station and a view. What more do we want? We do a matter fact. A little bit bigger room would be nice. Very small and compact for 2. Not much place to put our luggage. And no place to sit to put on shoes without stepping on the nice plush carpet around the bed.

And here's a bit of fun, take a look at the picture:


The coffee cup in the room was too small to hold the coffee from the brewer. Ha! Just a small detail there.

The hotel has a roof top bar called Sugar. Have not gone to it yet. The dinner restaurant apparently is being run by Laris, the same chef that iron-wife took me to in Shanghai to sample.

There is a promotion going on for HKD 998 per night plus taxes until sometime in April this year. Anyone heading this way should check it out. Because after that, like any HK hotel the price will go up by double to start.

shared

Scary thought huh? These are all the people that are currently
connected to the Wi-Fi network at East hotel where we are staying.
Remember, the number one rule is never set your computer to "Shared".
And these people are not too computer savy. And of course, business
espionage happens in hotels. See how many people actually putting
their real names as the computer names. Scary...

One more rant!

And I am heading out to have a Sake or a Gin Martini to calm myself down!

I was checking in online at CX (C@th@y P@cific). The company must have hired some poor programmers. The first screen, yes I understood. But the second screen, no indication these fields are mandatory and I have to re-enter them. Then on the 3rd screen after I have checked in, am I missing something? The date range is way passed and that's a different flight! A simple IF ((condition) AND (condition)) will suffice to get this displayed properly.

Me got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Wow... lots of rantings for today. Come to think of it, I was sleeping on the floor last night. Maybe that explains it. Or I just hate seeing stupid things happen when there is no need for.

stupid !nd!@n Consulate

Jacked up Visa application by 3 times, and charged a surcharge of 19.95 for Visa service centre; then they f^&%^%&&)(nnky taped over my HK e-Channel speed pass bar code with the Visa application bar code! And when I take it off, my HK e-Channel bar code ink came out with it! Now, how much should I charge the Indian Visa Application Centre for being idiot?

Also, I need to a photo ID to identify myself as "myself" for my own passport pickup. Then the slip is stamped and given back to me; why give me back a slip that I no longer need since I have my visa and your computer server has recorded the pickup by myself with my own ID?

Must be from the same group as the Tr@nsport C@n@d@ who decided on the actual ticket at the left luggage in YVR.

same plane

Wow. What is the odd flying in the same plane as one did from last week and sitting in the same seat and still seeing the same garbage stuffed by the emergency handle? Should not be that good right? But it sure did for me this morning! Same plane as I took from YVR to YQR last Thursday afternoon. Now we know how the plane is "cleaned" after each leg of the journey. Not much. Yes, it was CRJ from Jazz.

silly

Gone mad with idiots making policies. I cannot check my bags into YVR left luggage because I need to provide some form of travel document aka a plane ticket! I cannot use the computer just sitting on the desk to log in to Cathay to show them my reservation! For security reason. Stupid! Does this guy who has come up with this policy been flying lately? E-ticket. No need to print anything! The airline has the records; just provide a name and the way it goes! I was wondering why the storage was so empty. I ended up hauling my two suitcases downtown in a cap! Good thing I have the key to my friend's condo!

A good link for all to view; maybe this is the reason why of all the stupid policy: click here

MiPhone

Pretty blatant here. This advert was posted from a major Chinese
website which is listed in HK. A clone of iPhone. Not even hiding
the fact. Beware of getting your mainland partner to do batch
productions. You just never know. This phone has the same specs as
the "real" Macoy.

cheap lunch

We went to Aberdeen in Richmond for lunch with dad yesterday. This
Chinese restaurant in Radisson at #3 Rd just across from Aberdeen
offered excellent quality and price. We couldn't believe it when we
saw the promotion: order soya sauce chicken w/ rice before noon is CAD
2.50. Otherwise, CAD 6.50. The chicken dish was not small! It was a
whole dish similar to the size in Four Seas at Regina. Wow... Other
than this dish, we ordered bitter melon stir-fried, Chinese broccoli,
a tofu skin dish as well as this wonderful dish of steam rice noodle
which consisted of pea shoots wrapped in layers of tofu skin and then
wrapped with rice noodle. Wow. The cost, CAD 33.00. We had over 5
dishes in all. Stuff to the bone. Had to walked around # 3 Rd around
the block. 3 hours later we went home. 45 minutes to eat. more than
2 hours to walk off our veggie meal.

4 times

The new fare to ride into downtown from YVR today. Was at 2.75 now
8.75. And www.canadaline.ca is done; what's with that? Somehow, it
doesn't give me good feeling how this line is being thought out.

mac

man, I have to start counting how many people and how many macs I have recommended and tell people to buy. Starting with myself, three in 2006, one in 2007, took a break in 2008, two in 2009 (me and my dad), then another one just tonight.

Compared to PC/Windows 7, all those cheap hardware and low end totally useless Windows 7 Home Edition, forget about it.

I rather pay what people say is an "Apple tax" to get the name. But I rather pay for better quality. And if someone wants to have a good quality PC, the cost is comparable to a Mac anyway.

Tonight, I saw the 27" iMac. Wow. Wonder how far back one has to sit in order to see the screen properly without getting dizzy. It was just that amazing!

So go out there and get some Mac! Ha! O yeah, did I mention you can split the Mac into Windows XP Service Pack 2 if you have an old disk lying around? You can use the same key providing it is over 180 days old. After 3 years of PC, need an upgrade. That will be the way to do it.

gvie back

Remember earlier last month I reported that someone in Shanghai bought the most expensive residential property at close to 1 Billion RMB? Well, this week this same piece of proper is back on the market quietly. Guess, the guy cannot afford it or the real estate developer bought it himself trying to flip it but couldn't. Nonetheless, that billion dollar property is only 700 sq meters!!! Stupid is all I can say.

online banking

The meaning of "Online Banking" is to allow customers from a bank to do any transaction from anywhere around the world at whatever time. Well, not so according to HSBC. I tried doing some banking this afternoon in Canada. An error message displayed after I put thru all the information required. "Transfer can be done from Monday to Friday .... Saturday ... Except Typhoon #8 and Black Signal". I was so livid that I forgot doing a screen shot of that message. So what? I cannot do online banking because no one is shuffling paper in the back of the computer? Ridiculous!!!!

Sculpin

How many more extincted living things do the Ch!ne$e want to eat? Here's an example. Sculpin fish with four guills. Can't find in the wild. It is selling for about RMB4,000 per liang. One liang is about 50g.

This type of fish can be found in the sub-urb of SongJiang, about an hour and then some from Shanghai.

how much is enough

According to a new Chinese gov't study, the last 30 years there were
over 4,000 high level officials left the country with an average of
about 100Million RMB. Most left for the US, Canada and Australia.
Others, might head to Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America with
final destinations to US and Canada. If the Western Countries are so
due diligent to ensure NO $ laundry, how the heck can these Chinese
officials got to receive so much $ in US or Canadian bank accounts.

Over the years, most corrupted Chinese officials send their children
first to obtain landed immigrant status with bags of cash; then over
time, "export" more cash to them in preparation for themselves to
leave the country at moments notice. There is monitoring and
restrictions of sending $ abroad from mainland Chin@. However, with
"cash payment" everything is possible.

Wonder how many of the 3Trillions are out there somewhere and not IN
country.

Green Spot

Not that I am declaring I have green spots on my body; it's a 100% vegetarian cafe shop in Regina downtown. I am shock. And it is good. Here's the website: http://www.greenspotcafe.ca/.

To my surprise, the owner is from Macau! Yes, from Macau! I took dad into the shop yesterday from the break of the bone chilling wind. Dad instantly recognized the owner. They started chatting and rekindled the "connection". Apparently they knew each other way back during the Summer Farmer's Market in Regina.

This cafe when it opened long ago while I was still living in Regina, I avoided. Too smoky from the grease. But hey, now it's cleaner and fresher. Above all, nice coffee rather than the run of the mill Starbucks.

New payment for parking

at the YQR airport. Totally stupid. Now we are having the same
automatic payment booths and "gated" parking area complete with
raising arms at the entrance and exit. Well, why do we need a change
to this such system? Cost? What is the payback time? And we are in
bloody Saskatchewan! -50C and the arms will raise? Do you think
people will remember to look at the payment booths before heading
out? There was no sign to remind airport visitors to pay before
leaving. And in Winter with all those thick jackets, "where did I put
my ticket that I need to facilitate my payment?" Why not just keep
the meters? Specially the meters were newly installed about 12 months
ago? Cost? Hello? Today I was stuck behind two cars who had
difficulty at the exits. One couldn't get his credit card passed
thru, the other woman didn't know where to pay for the ticket! The
meters too did not require human collecting a parking fee. What,
someone worry about losing revenue from unpaid parking? From a
whopping flight arrivals per day that I could count with my fingers.

Me, I had problem paying at the payment booth inside the airport. The
machines did not like my old bills! And the coin slot on the payment
machine was not next to the paper bill slot. It was way above my eye
level. I think the machine was designed by a giant with average
height of 6' 2". Totally not user-friendly. O... I did not see a
payment booth that is wheel-chair height friendly! Unless, of course
I was visually handicapped.

This seemed to be inline with when I was in charge of a highly visible
web portal back at the old job. I got a call from this high
management person from the airport and told me to change the colour
because he didn't like it. And he sounded very intelligent too.

book

Just finished a very captivating book. I never thought I would enjoy it or even bother with it. If I were to have energy to read anything other than IT technical, biz, tax or news, I would read very light hearted brainless novel like the Clive Cussler's or the Bourne series. Since iron-wife gave me the book to read, I better read it before being beaten up. Just kidding.

The book, Mao's Last Dancer, was very enjoyable. It was a memoir of Chinese defected Ballet dancer now living in Australia with his family. The story and timeline revealed the hardship during the C0Mm!e Revolution, the determination of survival to be the best and the heart-breaking family separation from the defection. I could not put this book down after I started reading on the flight from YQR to MSP 3 days ago. Last night, I finished the entire book.

This is the related website: http://www.licunxin.com/

2010

Yes, it's a decade in the year 2000 now. What's happening over this last decade? Green House gas increased, pollution rampant, U$ is getting "stupider" by the minute and more in debt, China's getting to a real estate bubble going strong, air travel in North America is worse than Shanghai public transport. Man, this can't get better, can't it?

After two years in Asia, coming back this way makes me feel things are standing still. And I always thought China was stupid but at least the country is moving forward even though the one-party policy sometimes (mostly) favours a selected group. At least everything for a visitor feels welcome. Efficient. No line-ups. After 40 years of lining up for rationing, the least favourite activity for Chinese is line-up. Supermarket, fast check-out. Immigration, fast pass-thru. Custom, bring them in. Here in North America, everything seems so backward now! Man! Supermarket, you do your own check-out with computer software that is so confusing to use. Hey, you want my money, you work at it! Not the other way around. Why there is a row of check-out counters and only two are working yet the entire store has staff standing around stocking? Immigration, (O we welcome you), my a$$. The recording is so warming but the attitudes stinks. That reminded me of the old commie style attitude. I have a 44-page passport. Why the hell are you guys stamping page 13 and then page 31? Now, when you want to check my passport for entries, you are going to f*%%^king make me wait for your past stupidity. In HK, the Immigration actually tries to line up the stamp to save pages and stamp the pages according to page number sequence. Actually I do that myself now with the speed pass with the e-Channel.

Airline check-in. Who thought of those self check counters and then the staff yelling with strong lungs for the next passenger with luggage tags. That's not efficiency; that's total chaos. And it does not save time, it wastes time! If any normal with half a brain passenger without morning coffee can spot this problem the first time, what does it tell us about the airline management? Service improvement, I think not. On the way across with AC from Shanghai to Vancouver, I actually refuse the little bag that contains tooth brush, tooth paste and socks. The bag is NOT a good design. It's a waste. Someone from some artsy fartsy design studio sold this dumb design to AC to make it more pleasing; it's not. We have to roll out the bag into three little velcro strips containing all our in-flight personal items. Half the stuff I don't use. I can't reuse the bag afterward. It's a throwaway. Now if an airline wants to save $, this is not the design. I actually brought my own personal items onboard to save some garbage. Do I get a discount from AC now? NO. It probably wants to charge more.

Looks to me 2010 in NA is more ranting for me. Wonder sometimes how this world functions. But I guess I know how from my Prairie work years. Smart people in places within an organization steering. Dumb people on top.