Visit to Beijing (Scenic Pics)

Forbidden City - It's a very huge compound, with majestic buildings have impressed us with its designs and sculptures. A few sections were closed due to renovation but still, one is simply awed by the unbelievable constructions. A great piece of art done by our fore-fathers of yesteryear!





















This is the nine-dragon wall (jiu long hua bi) at Beihai Park. Heard this is one of the 3 originals left in China. Well, he is the happiest since he has been wanting to visit this. There are many replicates around China though, one of which we found at the new airport terminal in Beijing.




















Another piece of art in China. The Great Wall of China at the Beijing Badaling stretch. The slope got steeper at certain points, the stairs were irregular and uneven. Climbing up to the peak is by no means feat. We were panting along the way, took little rests here and there. But we managed it. The view was terrific and the cooling breeze blowing past you. This was my second climb up the Great Wall. I look forward to a third time, if I am still as energetic.





















Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olmpics. They are (from left): Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying, Ni Ni. In Chinese, they make up the word Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni (Beijing Welcomes You). They looked so cuddly. Felt like hugging them. (heehee...I did manage to hug one from another outlet where the mascots were not wrapped up)





















This pic was taken at the Temple of the Sun Park (Tian Tan Gong Yuan). Just a straight walk, about 10 to 15 minutes from where we stayed at Jian Guo Men Wai. Always made to point to visit the park each time I was in Beijing. Near where my aunt is staying. The park is big and every morning you can see lots of people, young and old, working out - all styles of qigong (not that I could recognise any one style), dancing, sword and the younger generation working out over a game of badminton. It's a lively park for a Monday morning.

31 May 2008 (10.20am)

Visit to Beijing (Food First)

I was in Beijing for 5 days mid-May with daddy, hubby, aunts and cousin. A nice climate to visit - cooling. A nice escape from the humid, warm and sweaty weather in Singapore. Weather and food are among my top loves in Beijing.

One of our first dishes upon our arrival. Prawns - steamed vs fried. I forgot to try the steamed ones but the fried ones were marvellous. Could swallow the whole prawn with the shells.

The wasabi cabbage that almost choked me to suffocation! *sweat*

How can a Beijing trip be complete without tasting its famous Peking Duck?! Guess you know how roasted duck skin and duck meat looks like so I don't have to waste space for that. Here are the filling those goes into those popiah skin with the duck meat. And know what? I was told that the duck skin is supposed to be eating with the white sugar. Actually quite a nice combi. I tried dipping the skin into the sugar and mmm...nice! But the other restaurants where we tried the peking duck, there wasn't any sugar. So I guess different places eat it differently.

Homemade dumplings (jiaozi) by Xiaoli, my cousin's wife. Accompanied by other cold dishes such as cucumber salad, tomoto salad, etc.

Another homemade zha jiang mian by Xiaoqi, another cousin's wife who prepared this early in the morning at 5am for our dinner that night.

There are just too many nice, simple and cheap food which I had truly enjoyed. Too many to have everything posted in here. So, just a few for appetizers. :)

Coming up next....some scenic pics.

30 May 2008 (10.33pm)

Always in my heart

Mao Mao Passes On

My very first hammie, my very first home pet has left us this morning. It wasn't something unexpected as we had seen Mao Mao grew old, grew weak, less reluctant to be handled for the past few months. He could hardly climbed the stairs so I removed it. He stumbled as he walked. His fur dropped. He became thin. But all in all, he was and still is a dear to us. He had waited for us to return from Beijing before leaving us.

I woke up at 7 plus am this morning and wanted to take a look at Mao Mao. He was in his usual sleeping position but on closer inspection, I noticed he wasn't breathing and his body has become stiff. He could have passed on early in the morning.

I had brought Mao Mao home on 24 Sep 2006 when he was 5 months old (he was a Winter White Sapphire Dwarf Hamster). So based on this, he should have been 2 years 1 month now. He had brought joy and fun into our home for a good 1 year 8 months. We played with him, stroked him, dad made Mao Mao slept in his palm, joined us in our reunion dinner, etc. We had a great 1 plus year with our dearie.

I am going to miss him lots.

Mao Mao went in peace. That's the position he was in when I realised he was gone. Looked like sleeping yah? He still looked so adorable.

We wrapped Mao Mao, placed him in a little box with his favourite sunflower seeds and other treats. Wanted to give him more but that would make burying more tedious.

We decided to bury him downstairs, at dad's place so that we can still be with him. And we know he is with us.

That's the little spot we had given him, hoping he can have a peaceful place where he can rest in peace.

Mao Mao's resting place. A place where we can see him every day. He will be in my heart.

Rest in peace, Mao Mao. I hope we had given you joy and happiness all this time, if you have emotions. I hope we had made your life a happy one, if you can feel it. Hope you can find more happiness in your afterlife.

I will miss you, Mao Mao. Thank you for bringing joy to us. We enjoyed having you with us.

Afterword: I think Mao Mao's passing is due to old age plus wet tail. :(

24 May 2008 (9.41am)

Statistics You Can't Trust

I have borrowed this book, Statistics You Can't Trust by Steve Campbell, PhD and found this chapter quite similar to our daily encounters and would like to extract part of it here. The chapter title is Jumping To Conclusions.

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"Once we suspect that a phenomenon exists, we generally have little trouble explaining why it exists and what it means. ... To live, it seems, is to explain, to justify, and to find coherence among diverse outcomes, characteristics, and causes. - Thomas Gilovich"

Sometimes we humans make mistakes not because we are deficient at something but because we are too good at something. The "something" to which I refer is our inclination to find order in things and to explain observed phenomena. When order exists and when explanations are actually attainable, this trait can bring enormous benefits.

On the other hand, when order is absent and the concept of "explanation" meaningless, chances are we will still find order and construct plausible explanations anyway. It seems to be the human thing to do. Moreover, once order - real or imaginary- has been found, we have little trouble coming up with reasonable explanations for its existence. For example, in the following series, would you expect a plus sign or a minus sign to occur next?

- - - - + + - - - -

Some people would say minus is next because fully 80 percent of the observed signs are minus; thus, any new observation has a .8 probability of being minus. Such people would have a plausible justification for their choice. Others would say that plus is next because the series begins with four minuses, changes to two pluses, and then returns to four minuses; thus a pair of pluses is to be expected next. These people too would have a plausible justification for their choice. The choices in this case are exact opposites, but both rest on sensible-sounding foundations. Perhaps there are people who could find within this set of pluses and minuses still different clues about the nature of the next sign. If so, their explanations might also impress us as plausible.

In view of my introductory paragraph, you might have had the good sense to say, "I can't determine what sign is next because I suspect that this is a random series." If that is the way you called it, you are right. I flipped a coin ten times and called a head "plus" and a tail "minus." The above series reveals nothing more than the observed sequence of heads and tails. (If you suspect my coin of being biased, you might be interested to know that the next ten flips yielded + - + - + + + + - -, a result with a slight preponderance of pluses.)

Notice: Those guessing that plus would be next were correct, though for no good reason, and are probably right now congratulating themselves on their cleverness. If you hadn't been in on the joke, do you think you would have searched for some kind of ordering system in these random data? I would bet on it. At any rate, doing so seems to be a very strong human inclination.

Now this chapter isn't about analyzing random events, or anything of the kind. However, one of its purposes is to alert you to our tendency to overexplain, to come up with explanations no matter what, and the tendency for journalists, politicians, lawyers, and others to do the same. My aim is to encourage you to be a little slower - and insist that others be a little slower - to impose explanations on phenomena which might either defy explanation or be explainable, but not necessarily by the first cause-and-effect theory that pops into your mind. Unlike gunfighting in the Old West, being a little slow on the draw is not necessarily a bad thing for one facing off with statistical evidence.

Let us return briefly to two examples from Chapter 7. Do you recall the one about how sharks tend to attack more men than women? It is difficult to chastise too harshly the journalist who guessed that there is something about the chemistry of men that attracts sharks and something about the chemistry of women that repels them. Nevertheless, wouldn't it have made better sense to first determine whether men have greater exposure to this particular risk? And why attribute superior physiological advantages to boys because collectively they have fewer injuries than girls in ballet classes? Off-the-cut explanations are a dime of dozen. Be extremely wary of them. -END

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Aren't these too familiar scenarios to you as they are to me? We always spend lots of time trying to explain something, which is not wrong, but how many times do we really realise that the explanation, at the end of the day, doesn't mean too much? Sometimes, we may not even know what is the real answer.

Nevertheless, these happen everywhere - at home, at work, as you walk, when you read the newspapers, listen to news on TV, etc...If you would be a little more observant.

Worse still, people argue and fight over their own set of explanations, that their explanation makes more sense over the other. They end up being unhappy.

At work, we are questioned by bosses, peers, etc on why this and that happens and we are 'cornered' into trying to find some sort of explanations to get our way through. How do you think they will react if we simply tell them, "well, comrade, things happen and I don't have an explanation!" Won't they freak out or give you a BIG D on your next performance review?!

Sometimes, I also wonder why I waste time trying to guess or argue on matters like why is there a traffic jam today (and most of the times, I don't see any accidents or breakdown), where did I catch my flu from, why did someone get diarrhoea and not the other when both had the same meal?

Well, perhaps that adds some colours to our boring life and provide topics of interest in the kopi-tiam talk. Isn't not so?

10 May 2008 (10.00am)

Joke of the Day - University of Man

I came across this from the website http://www.hitched.co.uk/speeches/jokes and wish to share with you. Hope you have a great day. TGIF!

A new two year degree is being offered at LIFE UNIVERSITY that many of you should be interested in: BECOMING A REAL MAN. That's right, in just six terms you, too, can be a real man, as well as earn a degree. Please take a moment to look over the program outline.

FIRST YEAR (autumn schedule)

MEN101 Combating Stupidity
MEN102 You, Too, Can Do Housework
MEN103 PMS - Learn When To Keep Your Mouth Shut
MEN104 We Do Not Want Sleazy Underthings For Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc

FIRST YEAR (winter schedule)

MEN110 Wonderful Laundry Techniques
MEN111 Understanding The Female Response to Getting In At 4am
MEN112 Parenting: It Doesn't End With Conception
EAT100 Get A Life, Learn To Cook
ECON001A What's Hers Is Hers

FIRST YEAR (spring schedule)

MEN120 How NOT To Act Like An Asshole When You Are Wrong
MEN121 Understanding Your Incompetence
MEN122 YOU, The Weaker Sex
MEN123 Reasons To Give Flowers
ECON001B What's Yours is Half Hers (Must Pass ECON001A)

SECOND YEAR (autumn schedule)

SEX101 You Can Fall Asleep Without It
SEX102 Morning Dilemma: If It's Awake, Take A Shower
MEN201 How To Stay Awake After Sex
MEN202 How To Put The Toilet Seat Down
ELECTIVE (See Electives Below)

SECOND YEAR (winter schedule)

MEN210 The Remote Control: Overcoming Your Dependency
MEN211 How Not To Act Younger Than Your Children
MEN212 You, Too, Can Be A Designated Driver
MEN213 Honest - You Don't Look Like Tom Cruise - Especially Naked
MEN230A Her Birthdays and Anniversaries Are Important (1)

SECOND YEAR (spring schedule)

MEN220 Omitting @&*%$#* From Your Vocabulary (Pass/Fail Only)
MEN221 Fluffing The Blanket After Farting Is Not Necessary
MEN222 Real Men Ask For Directions
MEN223 Thirty Minutes of Begging Is NOT Considered Foreplay
MEN230B Her Birthdays And Anniversaries Are Important (2)

Course Electives

EAT101 Cooking With Quiche
EAT102 Utilization of Eating Utensils
EAT103 Burping And Belching Discreetly
MEN231 Mother-In-Law
MEN232 Appear To Be Listening
MEN233 Just Say, Yes Dear
ECON001C Cheaper To Keep Her (Must Pass ECON001B)


9 May 2008 (1.45pm)

Just bought a new game

I have just bought a new computer game. I can't recall the name off-hand, but it's a game for managing restaurants. How to be a great restaurateur.

The game requires the player to manage recipes, prices, customer complaints, restaurant decos, staff, etc. The chef will also enter competitions will may increase his reputation and thus bring more business and opportunities to the restaurant(s). You start off with a restaurant but you will probably acquire more as you progresses.

It's a strategy game so good for the mind.

Really fun to play with, except when you see the complaints which you can't do anything! :)

5 May 2008 (10.40am)