Author: Willem

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Thursday/ check those choppers

So .. what was I up to Thursday?  Had my hair cut, had my ‘chompers checked’ (well, cleaned and checked) at the dentist, with the next one already scheduled for September.  The hygienist that was assigned to me talked non-stop, and of course I just say hmm and hm-mm.  She volunteered to clean the Seattle Zoo’s gorilla’s teeth as well but said several other volunteers were already lining up !    I also bought up two new short-sleeve shirts for work, trying to make sure they are dressy enough.   I’m not used to wearing short sleeves for work, but it’s going to become uncomfortably hot and humid in Daya Bay very soon.

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Wednesday

Three of us went to see Alice in Wonderland .. the epic 3D fantasy adventure from Walt Disney Pictures (director Tim Burton) and with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  The picture was snapped in the theater by my friend Bryan  : ).   We all thought the 3D effects were underwhelming, though.  The movie had its moments, and some good underlying messages, but I for one didn’t quite expect Alice to turn into a Joan of Arc like character battling a fierce creature towards the end.

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Tuesday in Seattle

So how about modeling a nice Puma shirt I got in Hong Kong? (only US$20). Like it?  I have always liked the jumping puma logo.  The best part is the clothing labels that come with it ..  ‘Designed and constructed for the fit and comfort of the Asian body .. evidently I have an extra-large Asian body !

And then the little advisements on the red label :  Love Your Neighbor/ Eat More Greens/ Cheer Up It Might Never Happen/ Wash This When Dirty  : )

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Monday

Two things from my kitchen counter top this morning to brighten up the cold Monday .. General Mills’s latest Cheerios flavor is chocolate, with real cocoa.  Hmm, so there is such a thing as imitation cocoa? and how much is ‘real cocoa’ and how much brown food-coloring?  It tastes so good that it makes me feel guilty, though.  I should eat oatmeal or Pronutro instead !

The other picture is of one of three cuts of silk fabric I bought in Hong Kong (now making its way to Stellenbosch, South Africa).

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Sunday

Saw this on the sidewalk on the way to Starbucks to get some coffee this morning.. hmm !

So I don’t have to go to China to get sum (some) dim sum, see?  Chinese translation and all.  And yes, they say ‘eat me’ and they are delicious, the little dim sums! : )

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Friday late

The rhododendron in front of my house is in full bloom .. the only color that I have in my small front yard at this point.   I will have to do something to it, but of course not being home a lot makes it complicated (sigh).   Bed-time for me, I got a fair amount of sleep last night and I hope to do even better tonight.

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Thursday afternoon 6pm in Seattle

Below is the Boeing 747-400 bird that brought us across the Pacific sitting patiently on the tarmac.  (Notice the phalanx of apartment buildings in the background?)  The flight and connection in San Francisco went fine; I made it in around 2pm to my house.  It was a beautiful day in Seattle, sunny with some clouds, 60° F (16 °C) and the trees on my street are full of spring blossoms.   I see construction has started in earnest on the light rail station here on Capitol Hill (where I live).  The newspaper says Starbucks is stuck in the crossfire for allowing guns in its stores. I am not sure if this was a change in the previous policy, or how the controversy came about.  (Gun ownership by citizens is illegal in all of China.)  I will have to catch up with the local and national news here !  And catch up with my sleep.

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Thursday morning

I am going downstairs for a nice breakfast and then the hotel shuttle will take me to Hong Kong airport.   I snapped this picture looking back from the van that brought us here from work yesterday.  It’s one of the two suspension bridges that runs across Victoria Bay and connects Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

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Wednesday/ all packed up

Below is another ‘spot the translation faux pas‘ picture, of a paper shopping bag on the counter at the dry-cleaners last night when I dropped off some shirts and pants.    Those of us that go home are all packed up for our trip back to the States already, since we’re going to stay overnight at the Hong Kong airport hotel.   Always, always check the Big Three : passport, wallet and Blackberry.   Then almost as important there’s the cell phone charger, computer, charger, medicine, iPod and Bose head phones !  (Yes, I know – I have too many gadgets).

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Tuesday

These pictures from a car parked here at work ..  the Chinese bumper sticker equivalent of ‘back off!’.    My colleagues tell me the second picture (same car) is more rude than the first one, roughly translating into ‘I was a bad boy at school so watch out for me!’.   To look up these characters on my translator is a mini-project : I have to scribe it the right way with the stylus, and some of them are just impossible to get right.

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Monday/ countdown to Thursday

Monday is over and only Tuesday and Wednesday stands between me and Thursday.   I’m going home on Thursday! I can’t wait!

This picture was taken in the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Hong Kong on Saturday night.   An Indian restaurant, a kitchen house ware store, 24 hr internet cafe and .. hel-lo!  Van der Merwe’s Camera and Video Shop!  South African flag on the sign and above the sign, see it?  Background note to non-South Africans :  Van der Merwe jokes make fun of Afrikaners , Van der Merwe being a stereotypical Dutch name.

Is this joke too risqué?  Too late, here it is.   The doctor wanted to go hunting, he calls his assistant Koos van der Merwe and tells him ‘Yes Koos, I am going hunting tomorrow, we don’t want to close the clinic, and I ask you to take care of our patients’. ‘Yes, doctor …’ answers Koos.
The doctor goes hunting and returns the next day and asks:’So Koos, how was your day?’
Koos tells him he took care of 3 patients:
The first one had a headache so I gave him TYLENOL.
‘Great Koos, and the second one?’ asks the doctor.
‘The second one had an upset stomach and I gave him MAALOX, doctor’ says Koos.
‘Yislaaaaaaaik Koos you’re good at this and what about the third one?’  asks the doctor.
‘Man! I was waiting for more patients and suddenly the door opens and a woman enters hot and bothered, she undresses herself, and lies on the table and shouts: HELP ME! For 5 years I have not seen a man!’
And what did you do Koos?!’ asks the doctor.
Koos : ‘Why – I put some eye drops in her eyes!’

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Another weekend in Hong Kong

I need a t-shirt that says ‘I love Hong Kong’, because I really do !

Here is a rundown of the pictures :

Bowl-shaped viewing deck of the Peak Tram BUT there was only FOG to view (co-workers Vic and Karl with me); we had a good laugh about that!  The view has been like this for two weeks, said a guide, so that made us feel better.   The Bank of China building in the Central district on Hong Kong Island is spectacular up close.   Orchids on Flower Market street in Kowloon, they go for  US$10 for a flower pot with the plant spectacularly in full bloom (I saw South African proteas for sale as well).   Birds in cages in the bird market right next to it.   A mind-boggling array of street vendors selling brand names, off-brand names, wanna-be brand names in t-shirts, toys, gadgets, underwear, housewares, electronics, you name it, it’s there.  The t-shirt with the kitten character Marie from the Disney classic Aristocats flanked by Thomas and Friends and others.   Goldfish in plastic bags outside an aquarium store.   The high-end stores have stunning neon-lit displays of sea anemones, sea cucumbers, star fish and even coral for sale that matches the best scenes I have seen anywhere!  A park off Nathan road in Kowloon where retired men played Chinese checkers and mahjong.

Then we walked south on Nathan road,  and Karl bought some pearl arm bracelets;  I bought more gold (yes, another one, somebody – stop me! .. it was a very small item, though).   Then we were accosted like the tourist guides all warn, by the tailors that solicit business on the street.  What an interesting experience to go into the tailor shop – a long story, but I ended up ordering three custom-tailored shirts which were delivered at the hotel and run all of $40 each.  They fit very nicely.

Further south is Salisbury Road on the Kowloon waterfront with Hong Kong designer Vivienne Tam’s store 1881 about to open (the heart-shaped flower display in the picture); a store at that plaza sells Vacheron Constantin watches – which I have never heard of – and a stunning gold and diamonds watch with a dragon design was on display.  I had the nerve to ask the salesperson the price.  It goes for a cool HK$ 546,000 (US$70,000).    The next stop at the Chinese Center for Arts and Culture is the one and only place any visitor to Hong Kong must go to.    Pictures are forbidden, but I took the one shown of a carving, maybe it’s a block of jade,  I don’t know.   Some of the antique carvings in bone and ivory there make the word exquisite fall completely short as a description of it.

Next we got on the Star Ferry to cross Victoria Bay back to Hong Kong Island (skyline from the ferry).   The tall building is Two International Finance Center, the tallest building in Hong Kong.    The next picture shows two of my favorite night scenes : a tram and a building outlined in neon.  And as far as I can tell the O’Fama group is a local band.

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Friday! / fog

This morning a blanket of fog enveloped the whole area; it is amazing how warm and stuffy it got from just one week ago when we were sitting here in the office building shivering from the cold.    The marble floors and door thresholds – and even windows – in the building ‘sweat’ – all the moisture condensing on it.    It’s bad to have slippery marble floors, so the office management had to put non-slip mats in the lobbies and hallways.   Yesterday a few of us walked up to the reservoir close to the office building here where we work.

But hey! it’s Friday and I have a weekend in Hong Kong to look forward to.  The Marriott Courtyard hotel room waiting for me there will be a get away and a little lap of luxury, and I am going to snooze in that king-size bed with the six pillows.

A little reservoir on the hillside, near the Daya Bay nuclear power plant complex. The character behind me translates  to .. water, of course!   水 shui = water  / river /  liquid  / beverage /  additional charges  or  income  / (of clothes) classifier  for  number  of  washes.
The offices where I work are in the gray & black office building on the left. The Daya Bay nuclear power station is visible in the distance behind it.

 

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Thursday/ all-hands meeting

Directions at one of the T-junctions on the way to the office in our shuttle bus. We go left here, to Da Peng village.

Thursday – so, mercifully, the week is drawing to a close.    We have an all- hands meeting this afternoon which is a break for me: I get to just sit and listen, and not stand up front, trying to control a raucous discussion with a room full of 20 people.

I’m going to Hong Kong with three colleagues from work, so we will see how that works out. I suspect my way of exploring the city is very different from theirs.  I will join them for a big dinner at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, but it’s good to explore the offerings from local restaurants, or just eat in the hotel where they also offer a good variety of Asian cuisine. Also, I tend to steer clear of the big touristy places, and just walk around on my own. I work with great people, but I already spent 12 hours every day this week with you. On the weekends, I need some ‘me’ time :).

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Wednesday/ 加 满 fill up with premium

Two pictures from around the apartment complex here in Dameisha.

A beautiful dog outside the little grocery store here at the complex. It looks like a samoyed. The breed takes its name from the Samoyedic peoples of Siberia. These nomadic reindeer herders bred the fluffy white dogs to help with herding. [From Wikipedia]
Gasoline tank gap on a car here. (Little typo there with ‘premium’). The two Chinese characters below the 97 says 加 满  ‘Fill up with premium’.  
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Tuesday/ more work sessions

Another day of work session facilitating for me – half of it in Chinese with me waiting patiently for the Daya Bay team animatedly discuss some design issue before them.  Then I get a translation from the team lead or my Chinese colleagues, and depending on my answer back they settle down or debate it a little further : ).

It’s tough for me, and tough for them : some are seeing SAP for the first time – in English – and they are not familiar with the terms or the processes.   It is packaged software, offering some setup choices, but not total freedom to redesign it. So sometimes I really have to shrug and say:  ‘We just cannot change it in such a fundamental way. That’s not the way the Germans designed it’.

Back at the apartments after a long day. The view from the shuttle bus. The sign says 小心行人 xiǎo xīn xíng rén which translates to ‘be careful for pedestrians‘ (watch out for pedestrians).
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Monday/ Outside China Town

It was a long Monday at work – Mondays always seem long! but at least I can post these pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Outside China Town (OCT) theme park.   Disneyland or Six Flags it is not – but there is a spectacular and steep aerial tramway up the mountainside to provide panoramic views of Dameisha, the beach and the bay down below.

The parking lot for OCT theme park. We see the tower with the wrap-around screen every night from the Yanba Expressway when we came in from work with the shuttle bus.
The entrance: a nod to the Year of the Tiger, and the first of five or six escalators that takes one up the mountainside.
A misty pond on the way up to the space shuttle display on one of the levels.
Trinkets and refreshments are for sale everywhere, of course.
Here’s the Starbucks, with a food vendor in the foreground. If the Starbucks was a little easier to get to, and not inside OCT, I would have visited it every day.
The water spray is kicked up by a jet ski, and we did not stay long enough to see what other entertainment was offered in this show.
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Here’s the aerial tramway, taking us to the top of the mountain ridge. Those pylons are really tall! That’s Dameisha beach on the right and Mirs Bay in the distance.
The arrival point at the top of the tramway. The little tramway cars take only 6 people, at most.
Posing for the obligatory photograph at the overlook. This is looking more or less west, with the coastline continuing on towards Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Here’s the skywalk with its glass floor. Yikes. With these things, one has to trust that the civil engineers had double checked their design calculations, and that the builders had followed all the specifications without cutting corners.
Looking down at a new ride that is under construction, on the edge of the cliff. I’m too old for these kinds of heart-stopping experiences, so it’s a no for me, thank you very much.
Another Chinese only menu to decipher. The pictures are super helpful for the helpless (us), of course. The green section has the cold drinks (such as snow top coffee and iced tea) and hot drinks (black tea, green tea, milk tea, classic coffee).
Here is the view from the top, with some main areas and buildings of interest. Dameisha is really ‘big’ Meisha (‘da’ is big) and Xiaomeisha is ‘little’ Meisha (‘xiao’ means small or little).
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Sunday/ breakfast at the Sheraton

Shumai is a traditional Chinese dumpling  served in dim sum*; it’s essentially a pork and mushroom dumpling. It’s steamed in a wooden basket like the one on my plate.
*Dim sum is the collective name for a southern Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea.

A few of us treated ourselves to a buffet breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel close by – expensive by Dameisha meal standards – but still very affordable at $20.

I just had some scrambled egg, toast and some shumai. (Gobbled up the first one of the two little dumplings in my bowl before I took the picture).

We went to the Dameisha beach afterwards. Some people were out on the beach, but it’s only slowly warming up.  Highs today reached only 60 ºF (15 ºC), with the sun is struggling to come out.    We may go to a resort close by where we live this afternoon with a cable car that runs up the mountains with a panoramic view.

Angels and a sparse crowd on the main beach in Dameisha. It’s hard to see where the sea meets the sky in the hazy distance. The Sheraton hotel is close by and has its own stretch of sand just for its guests.

 

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Saturday night/ rough translation

Here’s the cute translation into English, from the back of the coconut coffee bag. (Would have posted it yesterday, but had to wait until I got home so that I could take a high-resolution picture). Note the creative breaks in the words T-his (wow) and su-mmer, and – the taste will be better when it is hot drink in winter.  Gotcha!  :).

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Saturday/ coffee, with coconut

Saturday morning and hey! we saw the sun shine this morning on the way in to work with the bus. We got a little reprieve and left the apartments at 7 am instead of at 6.30 am.

The local Daya Bay team is mostly back on site – they were out all week, but work today and tomorrow.  One of them brought in coconut-flavored instant coffee for us (picture of bag that contains packets).    The US team has the day off tomorrow, thankfully.  A really busy schedule of system design workshops start on Monday.   I am facilitating the discussions for my team. We spent this week getting the all our ducks in a row, and I think we are ready.   I am sure we will find out !