aftermath

This was not a show.  It did happened last night in Shanghai.  Just across the street from us.  Some contracted workers accidentally punctured a natural gas line just in front of JIA, a very posh 5-star hotel.  Now, the hotel will be closed indefinitely pending renovation.  

The fire was 5-stories high.  Took over an hour to put out.  

Pics were taken from a China online news website.  I have included the link for a complete story - in Chinese ;-)

http://sh.sina.com.cn/news/s/2011-09-23/0809196220.html

yummy

Snack time! We had fish balls, all sorts of veggies, cow organs, sausages, fish balls, tofu, squid, tofu, you name it.  All in this little stall.  

This type of food can be had for a snack, a dinner or just a dish if you take it home.  

The idea was drawn from some other Asian country I believed years ago.  Then it took on a life of its own.

With all the food why are people still so slim?   Well, you have to walk to around to find these places.  Cars? You just stuck in traffic.  

O yeah, found an authentic Vietnamese noodle house in Macau yesterday.  Man, it was good.  Nothing like the Vietnamese restaurants from Regina.  The owner here did everything just like in Vietnam.  The soup broth was authentic.  You can see a layer of good old oily substance from real ingredients.  Then the subs.  We have to pre-order it a day in advance as he made it just like in Vietnam with the French tradition.  Just a little hole in the wall.  One long bench for sitting - skinny people, about 8.  Mostly take outs.  And good thing was, only 3 minutes walk from our APT here in Macau or 5 minutes walk during rush hour traffic by "food". 

good book

Back to Commie land's "highspeed" access to WWW. So I turned to reading. Might as well as it will come in handy in the next few months or longer. Cancer is a funny thing. The book:

The Needs of the Dying, the 10th Edition by David Kessler.

Service

As I spent more time here in Macau and Hong Kong, the retail sector's service quality was just plain "LOW". The retail sector is totally catered to mainland Chinese - sucking their money while it last.

I was at HKG's IFC, a major Shopping and office complex connecting the Four Seasons Hotel and Hong Kong Station for the airport. I walked into Victoriox. Saw a nice linen travel shirt that I was looking for and wanted to try it on. Guess what the salesperson told me. "You have to put it over your shirt.". I said "What? My shirt is bigger than the one I want to try. How can I put it OVER?". The salesperson was taken aback didn't know what to say for 5 seconds. Dumbfounded. He then said "sorry we have no facility for you to try it on". Well, he had just lost a sale. There was no accommodation to clients. I would have thought of at least one solution, such as: "How about a deposit with your credit card? We apology for the shortcoming. There is a men's bathroom across the corridor that you can try it on. I'll watch your bags for you. If it doesn't fit, I can immediately cancel your deposit afterward."

Another incident. In M@c@u i was buying ginger flavored ice-cream for dad to east his Chemo. I walked into the ice-cream shop and said what I wanted. The staff looked into the freezer and said, "no ginger flavored; how about other kinds?". Ah... There was a whole tub in the display freezer of Ginger flavored Galeto. What did you mean? I kept asking if I can just buy in the display freezer, she said no. Cannot. She "actually" asked me how I could carry home? I said "what?". "You put it into your carry-away tub and take it home". Finally she said "we don't have carry-away tub". Soooo that was the problem. Ah, now I understood your purpose, concern and your circumstance. Dealing with locals and Chinese here in Macau and Hong Kong just make you scream - STUPID!!!!!!!!! So no carry-away tub, only cones. Well, you know what I would do next time? I will bring my own styroform tub w/ dry ice. Order 10 cones and just dump the ice-cream into my tub.

Same problem w/ another ice-cream shop. I believe in Macau, everyone wants to work in the casino for much higher monthly wage. Min 5000 MOP to start. Why bother working as a shop staff and get paid 2200 or so.

I believe people here are getting stupid by the seconds with the brain only pointing toward consumerism of LV, Prada, etc... The casino biz here had created a lot of jobs and revenue for the local gov't. These in turn had slotted people into a one-track mind of a future oblivion.

crowded

I took some pics on high grounds - some from 31st floor in Grand Lisboa Hotel and some from Macau Tower. Can someone really tell where China (Zhuhai) began? The answer: very hard to tell if you were not from Macau.

In all the centre of it was our apartment in the first pic.

The second pic just north of the water was Zhuhai; that was the beginning of China.

3rd pic, that was looking back at Macau from the Macau Tower.

4th pic was the second island composing the Macau area. Also, it was the home of the Sin City, Vegas-style strip aka Cotai Strip.

5th pic, a view overlooking Macau and Zhuhai from Macau Tower.

flying money

This was taking inside the men's washroom next to the French restaurant at Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau. As I was washing my hands, I just saw flying paper. Turned out were 1000HKD dollar bills flying around. Really. Only in Macau.