Weekend Plans

Cycling - canceled due to rain
Climbing - shortened due to need to catch 2 movies in a row (that computer in the rockgym has a lot of downloaded movies!)
Eating - well, this one I didn't cut back on.... I must say that I was disappointed with Carnegie's brunch which I hear good things about.  My standards are high :) 

I want to ride my bicycle!

I went cycling last weekend again, finally!  My poor little red foldie, it mostly sits lonely, forlorn in my basement :)

Woke up literally crack of dawn, cycled along near empty streets to get to the riverside bike path with Vinny.  I clocked 40km that day at a nice leisurely pace.  Along the way, got a good meal(s), had peking duck for dinner... ok, it was a good weekend!

Hot hot hot...

Last week was beautiful, 25-26degrees in the day, and a cool 21-22 in the evenings.

This week, we got Singapore-like temperatures, up to 30degrees most of the day, dropping perhaps to 26 in the evenings.

Because my apartment has lots of windows (which I love it for), it also retains heat from the green-house effect all day. So even when I turn in for bed, it still registers a 29degrees indoors. Hot!

It's been AC on to cool down the apartment before bed. HOT!

Met service forecasts cooler skies next week, back to 20degrees night, slightly higher day. I hope they are accurate!

One of my favourite TV programs/favourite scene

One of my favourite scenes from Mer & De's love relationship.

I like mountains, but what if the mountains are creepy?

I love the fact that Taiwan is very mountainous.  Right behind our building, there's a little mountain called Elephant mountain that is part of a mountain range that extends all the way to the end of Taipei city.

Last Monday, I finished work early, left at 5pm, took a 30min walk up and down Elephant mountain, taking in the spectacular views of the sunset over the city. 

Last night a colleague told me not to go up there anymore.  He said that the last time he went up there, 2 months ago, he found the top crawling with cops - someone had committed suicide up there.  He did mention it to me at that time but he reminded me again not to go up, especially after noon.  Some Chinese superstition.  So I asked casually where do they hang themselves : that big tree on the top, where there are 2 little huts.  That's usually where I sit for a few seconds to catch my breath before heading back down.

So how?  Do I stop doing that?  Or trust in Jesus to protect me?  Hmm....

Shrek 3

I'm looking forward to Shrek 3...

I love Pinnochio in the last Shrek movie, absolutely tore me up.

Weight...

During the last week in Houston, I was jetlagged and can't sleep beyond 4am. Between 4am and my pickup at 7am, it's 3 whole hours. I'd comfortably be able to gym, shower, clear emails before breakfast.

After 5 consecutive mornings of gym, sleeping 4 hours a night, and not eating well (boss kept choosing crappy American Chinese restaurants, bleh!), you'd expect some weight loss right?

Er.. nope. Dang...

Demise of a platform

In all the years I've been in HP, this is the first time I had a platform killed.

To be honest after the rollercoaster ride we've been on for Akashi, I really had no feelings about this.

And staying true to the way I DO feel about HP of late, the rumour mills have it earlier and more accurate than a lot of work, directly working on the project itself.
http://i.engadget.com/2010/04/30/hp-slate-killed-rumor-mill-says-yes/

I found out 2 days AFTER management made this decision.

After 10 years in HP, it is really sad to see a company I loved and respected reduced to this.

5 nights in Houston

Didn't get to go shopping at all this trip - being carless is quite a big handicap in Houston. But then again, not driving also means no stress of driving at high speeds or listening to the GPS tell you to go down the wrong path... ack!

After 5 nights of waking up at 4am, I am quite glad to go home tonight. I surprise myself at the ability to live on so little sleep... I know I used to in the past, but in the last couple of years since moving to Taiwan, I've pretty much was able to get 7-8hrs every night.

And so I hit the gym every morning, and after 5 days in a row, have gotten quite strong, or so I think. Then again I've not climbed in 2 weeks - the litmus test will be next week after I'm back. And in the meantime, my climb kakis have gone to Putra again and from the pictures, looks like a blast. I miss them...

The eagle has landed...

For the longest time my miles were accrued on Singapore Airlines. This is my first flight on EVA. My Taiwanese colleagues swear by EVA, and after flying it to LA, I must say, SIA still rules. Objectively of cos, disregard my bias of being Singaporean. Service is comparable - Taiwanese hospitality is great, but really SIA have the entire system down to a pat. And I had to ask for a toothbrush, SIA gives out cool amenities kits on long haul flights default.

However, on SIA flights into US, with the code-share with Air India, I typically never have good experiences. Not about racism, it's just I never had a good experience. Now EVA's flight into LA originates from Vietnam. I had this little old couple sit next to me, who speaks zero English. The EVA stewardesses kept asking them, coffee/tea? chicken or the fish? They'll just point at me - don't ask me why... (now I never developed the knack to sleep on flights, I usually watch endless movies with my headphones never out of my ears) so, elderly Vietnamese couple points at me, Taiwanese stewardess looks at me, I usually look at everyone with a 'huh?' look?

Eventually, nice stewardess gives up and dishes out whatever...

Later on in the game, I realized they liked coffee. But they speak absolutely zero English, so even when holding a pot of coffee and the stewardess goes, 'coffee?', they don't get it. But they'll hold out their coffee cups after meals, seemingly hoping for something. I eventually ordered 2 cups of coffee for them, and they seemed very pleased with this gesture. After I offered to fill in their US immigration embarkation forms - this took a long time for me to make them understand that I WANTED to help them fill in their forms, they kept wanting to squeeze out of their seats to go to the stewardesses who by this time, are quite tired of playing charades with them. And it's not even obvious what they wanted anymore. I filled their forms and they took it out to the stewardesses... Why? Who knows...

But as I was walking off the plane, the Vietnamese lady pounded me on my back 3 times - I take it as a affectionate gesture even though it was pretty violent. Either that, or she was just saying sorry for sitting on my bag strap, I had to yank it out of her butts. Oh well... I'll take Vietnamese over India anytime.

Now I am in my Houston hotel room, it's Sunday morning but I can't go to mass or to the gym or to the mall - I am trapped since I'm carless. Sigh...