Category: General

The first picture is the hallway downstairs in my Dameisha apartment building.  (It looks warm but it’s still pretty cold outside).    I took the other picture from my balcony.   The searchlights are from a little waterfront collection of shops and eateries that have reopened.   In the foreground is a gigantic ghost apartment/ condo building : it has been completed for more than 6 months now but is still completely unoccupied.   Some real estate developer sure had a lot of money to spend for no return so far. 

rsv

It was cold*  here today, about 10 ^oC (50°F).

*A relative term!  positively balmy this time of year to Europeans or those in the northern states of the USA.  I simply go by the Hong Kong Observatory’s Temperature Scale below.   But my apartment does not have heating, so it does matter when the temperature drops to 50°F : I have to wear warm clothes inside.

Yes, yes – I know Seattle is late to the New Year’s party, but 2011 has now arrived here as well.    The picture is of tonight’s fireworks at the Space Needle but I have to confess: from the television in my living room.  It’s cold outside!

Wishing everyone good health and happiness in 2011.

Still very cold and sunny .. looks like the temperature last night dipped to 23° F  (-5° C) and will only reach 36° F (2° C) today.    SOO .. 2010 is bidding us good-bye!   Shall we make like the Japanese? : drink up at year-end parties known as bonen-kai – ‘forget-the-year’ gatherings : )

For me 2010 was The Year of The Tiger, learning so much about China and about the cultural differences between East and West.   I made 8 trips there, each three or four weeks long (with some weekend trips to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bangkok), and one trip to South Africa.    I did not learn nearly as much of spoken or written Mandarin as I wanted.   (But then one has to work for what one wants, right?).

With it being the year-end, let me quote something philosophical from an article in Bloomsberg Businessweek that profiles an Irish father-son real estate developer team, Paddy (father) and Simon (son).   During the real estate boom years they borrowed  €800 million (that’s almost 1 billion $US) from the now-infamous Anglo Irish Bank to buy hotels and build golf courses.   They are now €700 million in debt.   The reporter says Paddy now looks back and offers many philosophical asides, this one among them.  Ready? 

The illision in our lives is attachment.  Yesterday’s history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift – and that’s why we call it the present‘.

Well, I wanted to go check out the Microsoft Store in the Bellevue Square mall, and so I did.   Not a very good picture – I felt a little spare between all the geeks to take a picture of the store (They might think ‘What’s with this guy? Is he not used to anything?’ .. I need to ignore that of course, if I want good pictures).   But in the right corner they have a demonstration going of their new Kinect system for the Xbox.  The Kinect is a single sensor bar that contains two depth sensors, and a standard RGB camera.   It enables interactive video games with the Xbox.  Depth is a huge feature of the Kinect, and the cameras can track both your movement from side-to-side, as well as front-to-back and up and down, making the entire range of movements potentially game controls.   The Kinect also features a built-in microphone that allows voice-activated commands when applicable, and the vocal feature does pop up in games now and again.     The ‘game’ they demonstrated was a dance routine that the player needs to do, and then you get a score.   The system has been very successful, selling 2 million units in the USA so far.  (I think I read somewhere that the Xbox itself has not really made money for the company).

The rest of the store is nicely laid out with notebook computers from Dell, Sony and HP (of course loaded with Microsoft products and Windows 7), and mobile phones with the new Windows Phone 7 system on.

Like my new watch?  It’s a belated Christmas present to myself.  It’s a Seiko 4R15 Stainless Steel 200m Self Automatic Diver watch.  (No, I’m not going to dive to 200m with it).  It is very heavy, and it may be too big for my wrist (is it?) – well, doesn’t matter.  I love the 3 6 9 12 numbers on it that shines in the dark, and the black and silver.

I finally got all my ‘paperwork’ processed – the pile of mail, receipts from my trips and collectible little items such as stamps and currency notes.  The little ‘charm’ stamps were handed out in Hong Kong at the 7-11s when big purchases were made (big being relative : more than US$10).   The other two pictures are close-up inspections of my R200 (US$30) South African notes.  In May of this year all pre-2005 notes were recalled by the South African Reserve Bank due to concerns with counterfeit notes in circulation.  It’s actually a problem in China as well – and as we tell each other at work there : what to do if the ATM spits out fake notes?  1.  You have to recognize them as fake, 2. The bank is probably CLOSED and 3.  Better learn to say  这是从ATM假注 Eng. This is fake note from ATM : (

 

 

The blow-up Santa above is from a house here on 17th Ave.   We are generally NOT going overboard with Christmas decorations here in Seattle !    There is an interesting international study mentioned in the Economist’s year-end issue : happiness in life follows a U curve with the low-point at 46.  Mid-life crisis and all that.  After 46 a person’s happiness generally increase into old age.   So I guess that is why Santa is VERY HAPPY.   (A somewhat dainty jump he makes, is it not? – throwing away the Christmas cane! I’m just not sure why he is jumping over someone’s NOSE!)

 



It’s actually Tuesday morning, and I heard on the radio while driving today there was a full moon tonight (I couldn’t see it) which went through a total lunar eclipse, and all this during the winter solstice : the first time in 375 years that all three events coincide.

[From www.timeanddate.com] The December solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun.  On this date, all places above a latitude of 66.5 degrees north are now in darkness, while locations below a latitude of 66.5 degrees south receive 24 hours of daylight.

The sun is directly overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere during the December solstice. It also marks the longest day of the year in terms of daylight hours for those living south of the Tropic of Capricorn (hello everyone in South Africa, lucky devils! 🙂 . Those living or travelling south from the Antarctic Circle towards the South Pole will see the midnight sun during this time of the year.

On the contrary, for an observer in the northern hemisphere (that would be ME!), the December solstice marks the day of the year with the least hours of daylight for those living north of the Tropic of Cancer. Those living or traveling north of the Arctic Circle towards the North Pole will not be able to see the sun during this time of the year.

The first item is a pencil holder, a gift each of us got at last Thursday’s dinner.  It was nicely packed and sturdy and survived the journey here.   Not so the bone china tea cup made in Japan : ( .. I should have padded it much more since it’s very thin, as the broken pieces show.    Bone china is a type of porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin.   The English potter Josiah Spode is actually credited with the final successful formula, around 1789 to 1793.

The wind howled around the corners of the apartment building all last night, setting off car alarms (but there were no barking dogs, the way there is sometimes!).    Looking at Hong Kong observatory’s map, it’s a north wind which makes sense because it’s cold and the temperature here dropped to 7 º C (44 º F).   It has already snowed in Shanghai – early for this year, and since Beijing is further up north I’m sure they have had lots of snow already (not to mention many places in the USA!).    Our newest PwC colleague that joined the project is from Mongolia and at Tue’s team dinner he explained to us the difference between inner Mongolia and outer Mongolia.   Ready?  Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region inside China, and outer Mongolia is today its own country Mongolia, just to the north of inner Mongolia. 

The blue LED light Christmas tree and Santa with a teddy bear is from the lobby of the King Key Palace hotel where I had dinner Thu night.   The three of us at dinner agreed that the Christmas music played in the restaurant felt odd.   On the topic of blue some of us (not me!) had to have cold showers this morning due to broken water heaters in the apartments .. brr.   It’s got to be one of modern life’s indispensible luxuries : the warm shower. 

 

Like I said before, it’s interesting to me to see what international brands are doing to increase their local appeal.  This banner for Coca-cola (that I found here in Dameisha) points to a website called QQ.com with all kinds of links to comic book characters, web sites offering goodies for sale, or caricatures of (American) presidents, pop stars and actors. 

This print ad is posted in the elevator in my apartment (mentos is a minty candy).    So what is going on?   Is the girl so ecstatically happy because of the cake with the 21 on that is presented to her?  Well, no.    I enlisted the help of my colleague here at work :  turns out the translation of the Chinese text actually reads ‘How mentos do you want to be?/ How mentos do you want your breath to be?  So now we can reverse engineer what happened.   She presented the guy with the cake with the 21 on.   He blew out the candles with his minty mentos breath – and that blew her away.    There you have it!

It was a beautiful day outside .. low humidity and mild temperatures.    The pictures are from my (fourth, I think) visit to the Outside China Town East theme park here in Dameisha.    The first picture shows the entrance; the second is of a billboard showing that a ‘snowy’ Christmas 2010 has arrived in the park as well.   However, there’s little evidence of that inside : a snowflake decoration here and there, and a layer of ‘snow’ on some roof tops is about it !    I don’t know the guy on stilts or the young woman posing with him.   The next picture shows Dameisha in the distance.    The last picture shows the latest real estate project which has been completed :  the Ocean Crown.    Buyer beware!

Friday and I decided to stay put in Dameisha because I need to get the last of the jet lag out of my system and I have to do a few hours of work tomorrow.   I’m not a workaholic! but we are going to leave the China team behind here between Christmas and New Year’s Day to continue in our absence – and they need to have good instructions and data in the test system.   Tonight a few of us went to the Sheraton hotel here for a beef burger and a beer.   The lobby was decorated with Christmas paraphernalia – that’s a ginger bread ‘house’ with ‘snow’ on the roof.      The WATERSKY OTEL is across the street from the Sheraton.  I liked the golden neon sign at the entrance.

It has been a very long time since I saw an Afrikaans movie in a theater, and tonight I did : Liefling the Movie.  It is an Afrikaans musical with English subtitles, and on track to become a blockbuster South African movie.  Think Mamma Mia! the ABBA musical – it’s about the same.    The picture below shows the romantic leads.  The movie was made on a tiny tiny budget by American standards : R 5 million (US $800,000).

The original song Liefling was recorded in 1972 by Gé Korsten (album cover below).

Below are the opening lyrics of the song.   Overly simplistic and dramatic, one could say – but consider this :

[Source : Wikipedia] In the 2002 Currie Cup final against the Golden Lions, a South African Rugby Union player Derick Hougaard broke Naas Botha’s 15 year record for points scored in a Currie Cup final of 24 by scoring 26.  This feat at the start of his career and his excellent goal kicking success ratio during the following years earned him the accolade  Liefling van Loftus (Eng. ‘Sweetheart of Loftus Versfeld Stadium’)  in Pretoria.   Each time Hougaard scored points for the Bulls at Loftus, the chorus of this song was played in the stadium.

Which reminds me of Simon and Garfunkel singing Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo woo woo) in the song Mrs Robinson (1968).

Liefling 1972 (Kunze, Maffay, Toerien)
Jy weet dat ek nie sonder jou kan bestaan nie  You know that without you I cannot exist
Jy week dat jy ook nie alleen kan bestaan nie  You know that you too cannot exist on your own
Dit weet jy goed  You know that well

Koor Chorus
Liefling kan ons nie maar vergeet en vergewe?   Sweetheart could we not forgive and forget?
Liefling ek kan nie sonder jou verder lewe   Sweetheart I cannot carry on without you
Dit weet jy goed You know that well

[Source : Wikipedia] Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest.    While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.   It is sometimes casually referred to as Turkey Day.
In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October, which is Columbus Day in the United States.    In the United States, it falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed.   Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is some evidence for an earlier harvest celebration by Spanish explorers in Florida during 1565. There was also a celebration two years before Plymouth (in 1619) in Virginia. There was a Thanksgiving of sorts in Newfoundland, modern-day Canada in 1578 but it was to celebrate a homecoming instead of the harvest.   Thanksgiving Day is also celebrated in Leiden, in the The Netherlands.    A different holiday which uses the same name is celebrated at a similar time of year in the island of Grenada.  There is no Thanksgiving Day or equivalent thereof in South Africa.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone !

I traveled back to Johannesburg tonight for more work before I can finally take some time off.   It was a beautiful clear day in Cape Town with temperatures crossing 30 °C (upper 80s °F).  The view of the colorful airplane tails was taken while we were waiting for the pushback at Capetown airport.   Flymango.com or ‘Fly the Mango’ is a low cost airline.   The other picture is the courtyard of the boutique hotel I am staying in, the Quatermain.   I’m pretty sure it’s a reference to Allan Quatermain  – the protagonist  of H. Rider Haggard’s 1885 novel King Solomon’s Mines and its various prequels and sequels.   The character Quatermain is an English-born professional big game hunter and occasional trader in southern Africa.   He supports colonial efforts to spread civilization in the Dark Continent, and he also favors native Africans’ having a say in their affairs.

I found the  DVD starring Richard Chaimberlain and Sharon Stone .. and word is that Sam Worthington (Avatar) is attached to a sci-fi interpretation of the legendary Allan Quatermain character.