Wednesday/ stop-over at Incheon airport

(It’s actually early Thursday in the hotel in Dameisha).  The pictures are all from the flight to Incheon airport in Seoul, and at the airport itself.  Good news from North Korea is the announcement that the NK government has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities.

My traditional Korean 'bibimbap' meal - before the rice, red pepper sauce and sesame oil have been added.
Our circumspect approach to Incheon airport around North Korean territory.
'Welcome to Korea' arrival sign as we were stepping off the plane and into the airport.
Doll with traditional Korean dress in an airport restaurant's display window.
Wednesday's weather in Korea. I love weather maps.
I'm heading downstairs to gate 45 for the departure to Hong Kong.
A Dunkin' Donuts. W 1,000 is about US 90c. (Americano is 'American coffee' : an espresso shot with hot water added).
About to board the 747 that took us to Hong Kong.

Tuesday/ at Sea-Tac airport

I made it through security and now I’m waiting for my flight to Seoul.  It looks like our flying machine is an Airbus A330-300.  It’s 11 hrs to Incheon airport and then 4 hrs to Hong Kong for a late Wednesday night arrival. So the rest of my Tuesday is about to disappear in thin air and  I will have to catch the outcome of the Michigan Republican primary election on the other side!

Monday/ packing up

Location of Incheon International Airport on reclaimed land joining Yeongjong and Yongyu Islands. Source: Wikipedia.

I’m packing my bags for one more trip on Asiana Airlines to Hong Kong via South Korea’s Incheon airport (outside Seoul).  Incheon airport was constructed over water about 1-3 meters (3 to 10 feet) deep.  These types of airports are inevitably subject to some subsistence.  Incheon’s is expected to be about 2.5 cm (1 inch) over the next 20 years.  Hong Kong’s airport appears to be the best-engineered marine platform in the world and had hardly budged since 1998.  Then there is Japan’s Kansai airport built over the sea 5 km off Osaka at a depth of 17-18 meters (56 to 59 feet). The world’s longest 2-tiered bridge connects it to the city nearby.  It sinks 2 to 4 cm in any given year, so in 20 years’ time, it may sink 40 to 80 cm (16 to 33 inches).  Yikes! .. however, the soil engineers from Osaka University are confident it will not sink completely into the ocean.

Sunday/ The Artist has it

So what’s (really) old in film is new again with the 2011 silent French romantic comedy drama film The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, that took the Best Film award at this year’s Oscars.  (The film already has a Golden Globe award and a French César Award).   I read on-line that 80% of silent movies were destroyed when modern sound film (the ‘talkies’) started to take over in 1929.

Jean Dujardin as George Valentin won Best Actor. Here with co-star Uggie* as Jack (the dog) in the 2012 Best Film Academy Award winner 'The Artist'. *Uggie is a trained Jack Russel terrier, born in 2002. He is already famous for his roles in Mr. Fix It and Water for Elephants.

Saturday/ 2012 Lunar New Year ‘forever’ stamps

The 2012 Lunar New Year stamp issued by the US Postal Service.

I got some 2012 Lunar New Year stamps for my collection.  The US Postal Service issued them as ‘forever’ stamps. Forever means there is no explicit price on (so the price can go up forever?). First Class postage might soon go from 45c to 50c .. so in theory, investors can make 11% overnight by buying a ton of stamps at 45c before the price goes up.  (A little difficult to quickly dispose of the little paper investments).

On Thursday the USPS announced that it plans to shut 223 of its 461 mail-processing plants by February 2013. Maybe I should have mailed that property tax check after all ! The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011.

A sheet of the stamps. The designer is artist Kim Mak.

 

 

 

Friday/ King County property taxes

I braved the steady rain yesterday to go downtown and pay my property taxes. (I’m not putting a check for several thousand dollars in the mail!). The offices on 500 Fourth Ave have a diamond pattern on the exterior.  And where does my money go? Only 17 cents on the dollar go to the county, and 50 cents to schools. Where in the country would property taxes be the highest? Westchester county in New York State.  On this side of the country on the west coast it is Marin County in the San Francisco Bay area.   The artwork is from a construction site close by. That must be an Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear) with the American buffaloes (bison), but the curly clouds and background images are definitely Asian.

King County Administration building on 500 Fourth Ave, downtown Seattle.
Artwork from across the street at a construction site
Breakdown of how King County property tax money is spent
Westchester county in New York state has the country's highest property taxes.

Thursday/ some ‘panda burger’ for you?

The Singha beer is from the Jamjuree  restaurant where my friends and I had some wonderful Thai food Thu night.  The the ‘panda burgers’ are from Wednesday night’s Jay Leno Show. The prankster offered the product to people on the street (supposedly from a small area in China where it was legal to hunt them!). The first two passers-by just said ‘Sure! I’ll take a bite‘ and ‘Pretty good!’ . Finally a young woman said ‘Are these really panda burgers?’. But she was a sport and tasted the burger as well. Aww. Leave the panda bears alone.  See how cute they are on the card from the World Wildlife Fund?

From the Jay Leno show on Wed night. The woman asks 'Are those really panda burgers?'
The World Wildlife Fund uses the panda bear on its logo .. and this panda bear card from them have a 2012 pocket calendar on the back.

 

Wednesday/ sleeping in Seattle

TIME (1981) by Electric Light Orchestra

The Electric Light Orchestra sings that a cure’s been found for good old rocket lag (in 2095) in their song ‘Here is the News’.  But hey – it’s only 2012. So travelers jetting across the world and I still have to make do with sleep remedies that are no silver bullet. Melatonin does not work for me – at least not the recommended 5 mg.  I now use prescription zolpidem (generic ‘Ambien’) which is definitely effective to putting one to sleep, but for no more than 4 hours. I take it only for two or three nights, get up when I can no longer sleep, and then take a 2 hour nap later in those first few days.  After that my body is up to its own devices to get fully adjusted! And how does the stuff work, anyway? Well, it’s a short-acting hypnotic that inhibits neurotransmission – brain activity – by binding at the same site as the brain’s natural inhibitor called GABA.

Zolpidem, as made by Israeli drug manufacturer TEVA

The stuff works quickly : in 15 mins! So not long before you start to drag and  g  o   t o   s  l   e   e  e  p ..

I thought this picture below of a neuron was very cool (picture from Wikipedia’s entry for ‘neuron’). A neuron is an electrically excitable nerve cell that transmits signals. The connections between nerve cells are called synapses.

Diagram of a typical myelinated vertebrate motoneuron from Wikipedia's entry for 'neuron'.

 

 

Tuesday/ Greece’s bailout

President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi
Italian prime minister Mario Monti
Standard & Poor's recent ratings of the debt of European nations. Source : Wikipedia, search for 'European sovereign debt crisis'

Greece’s latest bailout has been approved by the European Union members : some €123bn. (Japan’s NHK TV put President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, and Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, in the outfits of the classic Nintendo video game Super Mario brothers*).  The target is to reduce Greece’s debt to 120% of GDP by 2020. (Yikes).  Count among the skeptics Germany, the Netherlands and Finland – given that derailments in Greece’s adherence to austerity measures have happened several times now.

So Greece’s finances are in terrible shape, but the whole of Eastern Europe, and the I’s : Italy, Ireland and Iceland, have have debt ratings of ‘speculative’ according to Standard & Poor’s.

*Pop quiz : what is Mario’s younger brother’s name? Answer – Luigi.

 

As a footnote, public debt in the USA at the end of 2011 was some $15 trillion, close to 100% of GDP.  The Congressional Budget Office is worried about it, and during June 2011, called for  ‘large and rapid policy changes to put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course’.

Presidents’ Day

The third Monday of February is celebrated in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States.  (Yes, the official name for Presidents’ Day is Washington’s Birthday .. and his actual birth date was February 22, 1732). The Republican party’s candidates were out campaigning and I havesay most reasonable people will be taken aback by some arguments being made. Rick Santorum actually compares President Obama to Adolf Hitler, saying that Americans at that time waited 18 months before acting against Hitler thinking ‘he’s not that bad’. And this is a guy now leading/ on a par with Mitt Romney among Republicans in Michigan for the state’s upcoming Feb 28 Republican primary.  Romney’s father George was chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, and the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.

Sunday/ the trip’s little acquisitions

And here they are : this past trip’s purchases that I brought back.

Porcelain plate from Shenzhen department store. It cost all of ¥25 (US$4).
Crocodile chases snake chases rat ! .. from Muji store at Hong Kong airport.
And .. the crocodile ate the snake that ate the rat.
Commemorative proof coin set from Hong Kong's 1997 hand-over to China. This is the five-dollar coin - a rounded version of the Chinese character Shou, meaning longevity.
These are the He He brothers, the two saints of Harmony, born of different fathers and after discord of seven generations concluded that co-operation was more profitable and conducive to happiness. (Almost a paralell with The Bible's Cain and Able?).
And this is a unicorn of sorts, the fabled Qi Lin, a creature of good omen.
The Puma T-shirt with an 'airport flight status' display panel. Heaven knows I see enough of those in airports - but I couldn't resist the shirt.
And this piece of baumkuchen layer cake (also from the Muji store at Hong Kong airport) tastes like banana. When I bought it, I thought its description referred to its shape.

 

Saturday/ in Seattle

It’s still Saturday but I’m in Seattle and thrilled to be home. Check out the pictures and their captions from the trip out of Hong Kong with a stop-over in Seoul.

The first ever plane to flew in Hong Kong back in 1910 was this replica of the Farman in Terminal 1 which is called 'Spirit of Sha Tin'.
I always stop at the Japanese store Muji, and I got some 'Japanese Lolly with Plum' candy this time.
Little Korean candies handed out on the flight. That's a walnut, and the others are pastries with a crisp sugary coat.
This cartoon from the Financial Times of London, of Chinese Vice President Xi Linping, wrapping up his visit in the USA this week.
This 747 bird was right next to our gate. We actually took an Airbus Airbus A330-300 out from Seoul to Seattle.
Stepping on board. The gate agent's English name was Zac Efron (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? .. Zac Efron is an American actor and a recent teen-girl heart-throb). )
Our flight path took us over Tokyo. We had a tail wind of 100 mph most of the way!

 

Saturday/ on the way to the airport

I am about to go downstairs to check out and hop on the shuttle that takes passengers to the airport a stone’s throw away. The South China Morning Post reports on an on-going story of a local Shenzhen company that is sueing Apple over the iPad trademark.  So far a Hong Kong court has ruled in Apple’s favor and a mainland court against them.  I suppose in the worst case Apple can call its pad an ‘iTab’ and continue selling it in China.  It is not known how many iPads have been sold in China so far. Another report tells of Kim Jong-il’s eldest son that was kicked out of a Macau hotel after running up a bill of US$15,000. 

Friday/ at the Sky City

The week went by in a flash, and I am on the way home to Seattle.  I sent a last urgent e-mail when everyone was boarding the bus for Dameisha.  From there we had a van take us through the border.  Right now I am in the Marriott Sky City hotel by Hong Kong airport for my flight out in the morning. The first three pictures are from Shenzhen and the two bridge pictures from Hong Kong on the way to Lantau island where the airport is.

Billboard with dragons on the way to Shenzhen. I don't know what it says !
Shenzhen freeway on the way to the border. All the red New Year's lanterns have by now been taken down from the lamp posts.
Another billboard in Shenzhen.
This is the first of the two bridges that make up the Lantau Link to the island with the airport, Ting Kau Bridge. It is a 1177-metre long cable-stayed bridge.
.. then the road goes onto the Tsing Ma Bridge. It is the world's seventh-longest span suspension bridge, with a deck for traffic and another for rail. The bridge has a main span of 1,377 metres (4,518 ft) and a height of 206 metres (676 ft).

 

Wednesday/ winter cheer

On Wednesday night we had a beer and a burger/ a British fish-and-chips at the Sheraton Dameisha to bid a colleague good-bye that is leaving the project. (The project is nearing its completion for all of us anyway). The LED decorations are still in place outside the hotel, and add some cheer to the winter nights. The Water Sky Hotel across the street has a new white sign. Very nice, but I miss the old yellow neon tube one that it used to have. At least the warm red one for the Meisha hotel close by, is still in place!

A white LED sign replaced the old yellow neon sign on the Water Sky Hotel.
The Dameisha Sheraton at night.
I like the Tsing Tao beer bottle label. Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. is one of the oldest beer producers in China, founded in 1903.
The Meisha Hotel still has its red neon sign.

Tuesday/ it’s no Party without a red Solo cup

I will leave it to my savvy readers to identify the Party leaders on this very red iPhone cover from one of my colleagues here at work.

But what’s with the red cups?  Well. Those are red Solo cups. Around since the seventies, and manufactured in the state of Illinois, the plastic cup has since arrived as a pop culture icon in the USA. It is the informal beer, wine or soda pop goblet of parties everywhere. The cup’s merits are even praised in a (somewhat silly) song released last year by country singer Toby Keith. Warning : semi-explicit lyrics ahead !

Red Solo Cup from Toby Keith’s 2011 ‘Clancy’s Tavern’ album (songwriters: Beavers, Jim / Warren, Brett/ Warren, Brad/ Beavers, Brett)
Now a red Solo cup is the best receptacle / For barbeques, tailgates, fairs and festivals / And you, sir, do not have a pair of testicles / If you prefer drinking from glass / A red Solo cup is cheap and disposable / In 14 years they are decomposable / And unlike my home they are not foreclosable / Freddie Mac can kiss my a— 

 

Monday/ Garfield speaks Mandarin

I only know Garfield* the cat from newspaper cartoon strips even though I’m sure there is a lot to be seen of him on the Cartoon Network in the USA.   Here on the hotel’s TV channel he speaks Mandarin, but his antics are easy to follow.   He is his old self with regards to laziness and eating obsessively! The name of the pooch is Odie.  That’s him with ears and tongue flapping while leaning out the car window.

*created by Jim Davis and published since 1978. Garfield is named after Jim’s grandfather.

Sunday/ just marry!

‘Just Marry’ says the English on the hood of this Porsche wagon parked in front of the hotel where we stay. Even though Chinese weddings have been influenced by the way it is done in the West, some key differences remain.  The couple registers the wedding first, and then one or more wedding banquets (xǐ-jǐu 喜酒 or ‘joyful wine’) will follow – and those are far more important than the actual wedding itself. The bride and groom also have their pictures taken days or weeks before their wedding day with glamor shots from historic sites and picturesque spots.

The Year of the Dragon is an auspicious year for marriage in China, and so the number of marriages in 2012 is expected to be up 10% or more compared with recent years.

Saturday/ Boris Becker on tennis rules

If you were king for a day in your sport, what big change would you make? asked CNN in a segment today of four sports champions. Tennis (Boris Becker*): Abolish deuce-advantage scoring – to make matches shorter.  Golf (Gary Player) : Push back the tee by 50 yards for professionals – to accommodate newer club and golf ball technology. Athletics (Sergei Bubka) : Use radio transmitters to report time differences between runners. Soccer : Use goal-line technology – to indicate if a goal was scored or not.

*On 7 July 1985, Becker became the first unseeded player and the first German to win the Wimbledon singles title, defeating Kevin Curren in four sets.  At the time he was the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion at 17.  Four years later in 1989 Michael Chang would win the French Open at an even younger 17 years of age.

Friday/ gringos at the Tequila Coyote Cantina

'Appetizers' translates to 开胃菜 kāi wèi cài .. literally 'open + stomach + food' !

Friday night found nine gringos (foreigners) upstairs at the Tequila Coyote Cantina., a Mexican restaurant in the Futian district in Shenzhen.  There was even a page with Tex-Mex items on the menu.  After some translation difficulty for our request for a pitcher* of margarita cocktail mix, the restaurant improvised and brought the good stuff out in a Carlsberg beer pitcher.
*the Chinese word for pitcher is ping

This picture was on the wall : the main square of Mexico City’s historic center. That is a really large flag !

 

Sign for Moutai next to the restaurant. Moutai is top-of-the-shelf Chinese baijiu (liquor), produced in the town of Maotai (茅台镇), Guizhou province, Southwest China.
Lots of bumper stickers on this car. This is on the way in to the city of Shenzhen from Dameisha.
Night scene outside the restaurant as we waited for a taxi to take us back to Dameisha. This is in the central Futian district in Shenzhen.