Month: February 2011

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Tuesday

The US team kept working through the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) holiday and so off to work we went today.  Tomorrow everyone will be back in full force, though.    The first picture is of the Dameisha street corner seen from my apartment building.   The rabbit is from the electronic advertisement bill board in the elevator lobby and the tree with the red envelopes is from the lobby of the Pattaya Hotel next door.    Traditionally employers give their workers a little bonus in an envelope during this time.   So hanging the envelopes on trees indicates expectations of money and good fortune for the new year.

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Monday night/ 9.56pm in Dameisha

The first picture is from the Cathay Pacific automatic flight tracker, and shows us making a bee-line for Hong Kong with Shanghai to the north and Kaohsiung (Taiwan) and Baguio (The Philippines) to the south.    Next up is the familiar-by -now border crossing into mainland China flashing by while we are in the mini-van taking us in by road.    And hey! the Google Latitude mapping application on my iPhone works even here and shows exactly where I am right now : in Dameisha/ Shenzhen (Dameisha is in the far eastern outskirts of Shenzhen).   Neat!

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Sunday/ in San Francisco

I had to get up at 4.30 am to make it to San Francisco on a 7.30 am Alaska Air flight.   Then they make you go through security again on the way to the international terminal (grr) – shown in the picture below.   The international terminal is 10 years old this year.

The now-defunct Trans World Airlines plane is from a display case here, as is the picture from a brochure.   Those were the days .. I’m sure there was no security check point to speak of.   And is that a bicycle I see stowed in the overhead space? Good heavens!

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Saturday/ packing and The Packers

Yes, it’s time for trip #10 to Hong Kong and mainland China.   I applied for a Global Entry pass (costs $100) .. US Customs does a background check before approving it.   Then upon arrival back in the USA at 20 ports of entry so far (Seattle is one of them), the traveler can bypass the passport check points and just have the Global Entry machine scan the card.

Meanwhile the reports say that Google received 75,000 applications for the 6,000 jobs the company plans to add this year.   Should I apply?  (I think I should).

And with the Superbowl coming up on Sunday, the Jay Leno Show is predicting that the winner will be the Greenbay Packers.   A Jack Russel terrier (very fond of biting balloons, are they all like that?) was let loose among an equal number of black (Pittsburgh Steelers) and yellow (Greenbay Packers) balloons.   The last one to pop was a yellow one!

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Friday/ around Capitol Hill

These pictures were all taken with my iPhone.     I’m still learning how to use it.  Today I discovered the zoom function is activated by brushing one’s finger across the bottom of the preview picture !  And my fat finger is in the way in the photo of Caffe Vita Coffeehouse’s neon sign.   (I had dinner earlier in the week next door at the gastropub* restaurant Quinn).    Neon signs and night scenes are tricky and the lighting has to be adjusted manually, something the phone camera cannot do.   But I had better luck with the Pilsner Urquell beer sign.   The two apartment buildings are on Denny Way.  I stayed for two years in the newer yellow and tan one when I first came to Seattle in 2000.     The Twice Sold Tales bookstore is just up the block from there.   And then on Broadway – as always when walking by – I checked on the progress of the construction of the Capitol Hill light rail train station.   There is a yellow-clad human figure on the left in the middle of the picture.

*term used in a review; I guess it means fancy pub food : )

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Happy Year of the Rabbit !

The Year of the Rabbit is officially here (its first day is Thu 3 Feb, 2011).    I culled the rabbit pictures from my visits to Shenzhen and Hong Kong in January, and it makes me wonder if I will find any in Seattle’s International District.    I will run out there tomorrow and report back.

People born in the year of the rabbit – 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 – are said  make ideal diplomats or politicians.   A rabbit person has grace, culture and beautiful manners.   Although rabbit people get on well with everyone, at heart they are basically reserved creatures, and are only really happy when they are engrossed in some sort of scholarly or intellectual activity.   There you have it.

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Wednesday/ snowww in Chicago

A friend from Chicago sent me these pictures.   As the wind blows, the snow ‘drifts’ up against walls, roofs and cars the way sand would in a sand storm.   The first picture of the black car was taken around 9 am, and the second one later in the afternoon.   There were reports of some drivers that got caught in the snow storm and trapped in their cars until 4 am Wed morning.    It’s a good thing Chicago has great public transport, because many many cars on the side streets are not going to move any time soon !

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Tuesday/ sunny but no snow in Seattle

The view from my front window upstairs early this morning : lots of sunshine but frost on the ground.    After some early snow in November we have been spared any more.  Today there is a massive snow-and-ice storm system moving over Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri (St Louis) and Illinois (Chicago) .. up to 20 inches expected in Chicago!   Of course Egypt is an even bigger story.   Friday when the religious services for the end of the week start is now seen by some as the big test for what the outcome of the protests will be.

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Monday/ tea from Hong Kong

I tried the tea this morning from the Ying Kee Tea House in Hong Kong but it just doesn’t taste the way I expected it to.  Much earthier and some other flavors my untrained palate cannot identify.   I followed the instructions of putting tea in the pot, pour boiling water over it, swill it quickly and immediately pour off the water (it washes the tea leaves); then refill the pot and let it steep for 3 minutes.    So .. I will try it again a few times and see if I get used to it.