I did not know that

there is such a big basement "mall" at the Singapore's Terminal 3. Every time we arrived at Terminal 3, we just exit out at Arrivals and gone. Today I did have a chance to walk around the entire Terminal 3 (wherever I was allowed).

I checked in the Crown Plaza at Terminal 3; setup my "base of operation" before the 1:30am flight back to Shanghai. I walked around and around. Then I noticed a sign pointing down and down deeper below the ground level. Wow. SGD 4.50 for a Hainan Chicken Rice. Nothing was more than SGD 6.00. And there was even a supermarket called Fair Price. Packed. The Departure Level of Terminal 3 looked so deserted compared to this basement level. People came here just to walk around! And students occupied tables to do group assignments and studies. Go figure! Who would have known this place is a popular hangout for Singaporeans!

I had this SGD 4.50 for lunch. Then had the urge to have something sweet. A piece of cake and a Cappuccino had cost me SGD 11.50. Haha, I could have two set lunches for that price.

At this basement level, all sorts of South East Asian food and dessert. Massage, spa, candy stores and always those so healthy cake shops and donuts shops.

Interesting.

Shelf design

We are in need of shelf space for all the documents and books. Mostly Iron-wife's. Me, PDF on my computers or maybe a Kindle ;-)

Here's a design I drew up based on an architect's proposed design. The desks we already have. Just the shelves. They are modular, total of 7 modules.

I didn't draw the design by hand. I have used Google's Sketch-up; it's free. And actually with this program I had dismissed someone's else design.

Take a look at the design from the rendition.

Seafood buffet

Not that often I could have a seafood buffet with vegetarian eating iron-wife. ;-) So tonight, I checked out the hotel's seafood buffet. I had an eye on that since we first stayed at this hotel more than a year ago. Fresh oysters, lobsters, scallops, shrimps, sushi galore, eels, you named it; they were all there! And on top of that, this buffet came with a main course of your choosing. Pork, Lamb, Cod fish, and two others I didn't care much about.

I tried to have this meal with a dry Gin Martini. Alcohol always went well with raw seafood. The waitress came back to confirm and wanted to save me money. "Sir, the Martini is 48 (SGD), may I suggest maybe some wine at Happy Hours price?". What? SGD 48 for a dry Martini? That's CAD 37 and then some change. No, I thought not. So I had red wine instead. This seafood buffet was only CAD 32.50.

I had enough of sushi (salmon, tuna and white fish) and then oysters followed by a black pepper sauce White Cod w/ baked potatoes. With my 79Kg weight, I am sure I have added about 1Kg of fish.

All I could say, nice seafood buffet. Incidentally, I am staying at the M Hotel in Singapore right now. Tipsy w/ Red Wine. Just can't hold my liquor anymore. ;-)

Nanjing

Just got back from a weekend trip to Nanjing. Take a look at the report by clicking here.

Pollution

Yuck.... My throat is kinda raw, noise hair stuck with black stuff, face maybe clogged with CO2 particles. What more can I say? Take a look. I was waiting for iron-wife to finish her teaching so I took these pictures from a 7th floor office. The first picture is the map in relation to the pictures. The lower left corner where marked as "1" and "2"; that was my vantage point taking the pictures. Bear in mind, all pictures taken were less than 2 KM away. "A", "b" and "c" are the direction of the pictures being taken.

Direction where "A' was pretty much is a landmark for the most highend shops on Nanjing Road. That area and where my apartment is, on average is about RMB 40,000/sq meter cost. Does it sounds like you pay for what you get? Pay for crap air is more like it.

Choking....

The air here is so bad the last couple days.... Makes my "walk about" have a new meaning. "Lungs fill with crap". Constructions, exhaust fumes, crap blowing in from outlining factories. All those nice particles are being brought in by the weather system. Have not seen blue sky. Just hayish gray. Yesterday we were walking and my iron-wife asked what's that in the air. Right. Smog.

Now Shanghai has moved ahead of HK in the most expansive city to live, I wonder what other "honor lists" it will be on. Just hope the Western Media is not going to give Shanghai the "smog news" treatment as when Beijing was hosting the Olympics.

Moving? Hmmm... Rental is quite high. Artificially controlled by the stimulus pac. Same with the real estate. People are buying because they believe stock market is losing steam and risky. Real estate, not. So piling cash into apartments. Dropping in price, nope. But where the heck do people get all these money from? By my calculation, if we follow every single rules and taxes paid as well as the annual salary and cost of living adjustment, there is no bloody way! The only way I am thinking "buying" is possible are: (1) local bank loans - bad debts to the hill, (2) cash from families and relatives, RMB 20,000 here and RMB 20,000 there...., (3) virtual cash from some numbers in thin air and was accepted, (4) really don't know. Throw out the traditional logical analysis. You just can't.

Another day

still blocked with all those websites used to be able to get including this one.

Various news:

1) Travel plan starting next weekend: Nanjing, Singapore (Jakarta for iron-wife), Beijing (overnight flight back to Singapore then same day turn around to Beijing), Mumbai then US. I think there is a trip to Jakarta again in July and then Vietnam in August.

2) Flying ants everywhere. June time. Wet, humid and hot.

3) Another high position official bite the dust. Implicated in the same ever widening circle of corruption originated from GOME's CEO. Now, a real major vacuum in Guangdong province.

4) There was a People's Congress representative store over 40million RMB over 4 year period. he wasn't arrested or prosecuted because of his status. Now, he's gone; no one knows where.

5) Our Steelcase "Please" chairs finally arrived today! Yeah!!!!