三星

Was talking with a friend about Michelin three-star restaurant, and looks like the food served in Ledoyen is seductive. I wish some day I can try it out! Ha, my friend suggested that I can start a "Ball核史三星" and review the restaurants here. Well, in part that's a good idea. I need to try out more and learn from others :-)

But first comes first, I need to learn enough French. Starting next week it will be a totally different life style--classes start from 8 AM Monday to Friday, with a total of 35 class hours per week--10 hours more than what the program requires, since I am also taking Italian, French, and Wine Appreciation. I'm also thinking of taking Food Styling, which is a 5-day course that just fits in to a week-long school holiday in the middle of October. However the course costs like $1600! I'm still thinking if I should do it. Food Styling is a profession in itself, which basically "stage" the food for good product photography. (On the other hand though, we toss a lot of food nowadays just because they don't look like what it's shown on the glamorous magazines). I think it could be useful to me in terms of marketing and presentation. I'll probably talk to the instructors when my class starts next week and see what they have to advice.

Tried out this restaurant called Cora, a chain store selling only breakfast and lunch, that is located very close to my place. It has extermely long lines during weekends and is pretty packed during weekdays too. I wondered why it's so popular so this morning dad and I went there:



The food is OK... but it's definitely not worth the money :-) Who doesn't know how to cut the fruits and put them on two cinnamon buns??

***

I'm almost done with my photo album! It's much involved than I thought!

I'm going to print it using http://www.blurb.com that has a very good price ($22 for 80 pages 8X10" library quality binding). You can also set a price and sell it on their website and make a profit!

***

The Ebay thingy is finally settled. After all there was a lot of emotions involved, and I did have misinformation on the listing.

Looks like the letter I wrote to the shipping company is kicking the butt of those agents... finally they called me the first time to ask for more infomation a couple days ago. I'm still waiting the conclusion though.

***

Will start working on a Toronto restaurant list and see if I can get a job next year... it's always best to learn from the industry.

據理力爭！

Wrote a letter to the shipping company. There is no way I will pay for the storage (which is like $100 per day, and it will likely be over $1000) since it's totally not my fault. Thanks for proof reading my letters, sisters!

Also sent a letter to that Ebay buyer... it's totally fine to complain about a fact, but calling me a liar, playing games, and insulting my religion is very very offensive... is this how you would write a letter of complaint professionally? Can you not accept the fact that business do make mistakes sometimes?

YT, thanks for reminding me all these points!

一波未平、一波又起

Things are just not going so well recently. First of all I need to call up Atlas my moving company every three hours to check in their status--they're supposed to contact both the Seattle agent and Toronto agent to figure out who is going to pay the storage fee. However because of the time difference it's difficult to get things settled sooner than I thought. Besides, it's very annoying calling them up over and over while I get more or less the same answer. The bottom line: I am not going to pay for the storage.

And then this buyer from Ebay is just... sigh... OK she bought a lounge chair from me and in the listing I stated it's made in Scandinavian, but back then I totally forgot it's made in Italy. Besides, the "Made in Italy" words are covered by the bottom frame:



How would I have known that?? To my best (limited) knowledge it has Scandinavian design so that's what I put down.

And then this buyer all of a sudden sent a message saying that I'm a liar, "playing games", etc etc... I mean, what?! What's the big deal whether it's made in Italy or in Scandinavian?? Shouldn't Italian antique furniture has comparable quality?! She couldn't even provide proof on why the Italian made furniture has much less value.

OK, fine, I did do something wrong where I didn't go through my listing again thoroughly... and didn't "apologize" for what I've done wrong until she asked for it. I wasn't too polite to her too who had a mindset thinking I set up all these.... and then she said she said she's very disappointed especially reading my BLOG and knowing that I'm a Christian!

Sigh...

重新去生活

Came back to Toronto for just a short week, but it feels like a long time already. I guess I'm still adjusting my life here. Last night was kind of horrible, since I was woke up by some street kids at 3am.... Well, it wouldn't be too surprising since I'm living in the middle of a big city, but think about it... my condo is on the 28th floor, and all the windows were closed! When I woke up and looked towards Spadina and Front the traffic was jammed like it was a normal morning rush hour. I went back to sleep within 3 seconds, even though the lights of moving cars made my room like a disco or something.

Oh well, I'm sure I will get used to it soon. And it needs to be very soon.

There is one thing that I can't stand though--my neighbour smokes all the time with the door opened. I'm pretty sure the security knows about it... but if he keeps on doing that, I am going to quietly tape a large piece of paper around the door rim haaa. Another option is, which is more preferred, to give them an envelope and put in some nicotine patches to help him quit smoking :-)

I guess my another point is... why do I always have some difficult neighbours? Back in Seattle, the guy living close to me always allow their dog to poo on my lawn and I had to do a lot of things before I finally reported to the city...

The shipment thing is kind of a hectic too--the boxes arrived on Tuesday but they're sill being kept in the storage now. I have repeated the details over and over again to my family (ha!) so let's skip it now. Hopefully I'll get it nailed down tomorrow.

I'm also busying with my secret project, which is one of a few things I enjoy doing now :-)

Oh, I went to a Mandarin speaking worship today. It's kind of boring...

(and thanks for listening to my ramble :)

你的上帝有告訴你這樣做嗎？

To my surprise, you've asked this question that no one has asked before.

I'm glad you asked!

And, ha, yeah, as you said, what I asked was "很經典的台詞"...

Some thoughts are floating around my head. Need some time to organize them :-)

(to be continued)

追趕陽春

Just learned from a friend:

陽春麵.... 就是沒有加任何配料，很簡單的意思.

Ha, looks like my life in Toronto is going to be very 陽春. How so? the bed I am going to sleep on consists of 6 legs from Ikea ($5/each), and a large piece of wood from Homedepot.

Oh well, I guess I'm having too much 蝦子雲吞 in Seattle :-)

(looks like my statement needs to be changed to: 我的理想, 就是無止境的追趕陽春。)

了不起的您!

I am surprised what you can do with your legs! Thanks for teaching me to be thankful to what I have (and don't whine about what I don't have)....

May be my mentality towards the December trip should change--not that I'm going there to "help", but to get myself challenged.

At least I dare not catch the crabs even with my hands!

It is, after all, not how much I can do, but how much I am willing to do...

Man in white

Not officially but almost... broke... after getting part of the books, uniforms, knife sets, smallwares, etc I have almost spent all the cash I brought with me. Can you believe it? A simple pant costs almost $50 Canadian! I bet I can get the same thing in Hong Kong for that amount of HK dollar...

Good though I met an ex-student unexpectedly and she brought me to a place that had all the knife sets and smallwares marked down 20% comparing to the school AND an extra 10% off for students! I'm glad I always bump into angels when I'm all alone :)

And here's a silly picture I took for myself... and they say that we have to clean, press, and wear the same uniform for every class we attend!! What a different life I am going to get... oh well, I'm glad that it doesn't look too bad :)



And here's the tools/knives I am going to bring to the kitchen:



See the knives with yellow handle? They're the cheapy version of J.A. Henckels... not the best kind of knife, but I was told that they're widely used in restaurant kitchens.

OK, one less thing to worry about. And now, I have to think what I can do with my 78"x78" living space :_)

賊王賊后

My friend sent a link to me saying that there is a 美女巷 and 賊仔街!

Macau is so interesting!

Other funny names are:

有趣的澳門街名：

明珠台 [Pérola, Pátio da]

得勝街 [Vitória, Rua da]

幸運圍 [Sorte, Beco da]

連理街 [Bem Casados, Rua dos]

情人街 [Amores, Azinhaga dos]

道德巷 [Virtudes, Travessa das]

偶像圍 [Estátua, Pátio da]

美女巷 [Lindas, Travessa das]

日頭街 [Sol, Rua do]

跛腳梯 [Coxo, Escada do]

肥胖圍 [Gordo, Pátio do]

鈕里 [Botão, Beco do]

暗圍 [Dissimulação, Pátio da]

內裡圍 [Escondidas, Pátio das]

入便街 [Interior, Rua do]

幻覺圍 [Ilusão, Pátio da]

群隊街 [Rebanho, Rua do]

倒裝一圍 [Malva, Beco da]

家辣堂街 [Santa Clara, Rua de]

俾利喇巷 [Francisco Xavier Pereira, Travessa de]

慕拉士前地 [Venceslau de Morais, Praceta de]

飛能便度街 [Fernão Mendes Pinto, Rua]



以動物作街名：

鳩里 [Rolas, Beco das]

雞街 [Capão, Rua do]

山雞巷 [Faisão, Travessa do]

水雞巷 [Galinholas, Travessa das]

水鴨街 [Gaivotas, Rua das]

鵝里 [Ganso, Beco do]

鵪鶉巷 [Codorniz, Travessa da]

雀里 [Pássaros, Beco dos]

魚鱗巷 [Escama, Travessa da]

魚鰓巷 [Guelra, Travessa da]

草蜢巷 [Gafanhoto, Travessa do]

蟻圍 [Formiga, Beco da]

蟒里 [Dragão, Beco do]

豬里 [Porco, Beco do]

兔巷 [Lebre, Travessa do]

老虎巷 [Lou Fu, Travessa]



與香港街名相同：

興華街 [Cavaleiros, Rua dos]

青洲街 [Conselheiro Borja, Rua do]

蓮花街 [Lótus, Rua dos]

戲院里 [Teatro, Beco do]

上海街 [Xangai, Rua da]

廈門街 [Xiamen, Rua de]

桂林街 [Kwai Lam, Rua de]

汕頭街 [San Tau, Rua de]

紅棉路 [Bombaxes, Rua dos]

This page has more detailed information.

Back to Toronto!

Settling down now... Sassy was fixing her eyes on me while I was doing last minute packing this morning. I guess she knows something's going wrong with her future... Hopefully she'll be OK!

Things went very smooth for the trip. I thought the Canada customs will have to search my luggages since the officer asked a lot of questions. But it turned out to be no hassel at all.

Toronto is so different from Seattle... especially the view from where I live now. I guess I'll miss being surrounded by trees for a while...

思念是一種病。保重。別迷失。

What should I write on the last entry before leaving for Toronto? This same question popped up in my mind over and over again this past week while I was packing, shooting, having swell times with friends, and crossing the I-90 bridge on foot all alone the other day.

A lot came across my mind, and a lot of them have you in it.

Thank you all for enriching my short stay in Seattle!

Willis, from your smile the other day I met you at Apple Bees, I know you found what you've been looking for. I'm proud of you :-) And thanks for your rides and your continuous help of finishing the alcohol in the fridge!

Jonathan, thank you so much for organizing all these events for me. I wish your radio show will continue to become one of the hottest show in Vancouver! Remember what you've promised in the Noodles House :-)

Leon and KK, you don't talk much but whenever you have something to say, it's so genuine and sincere. Thanks for tonight's advice. It's hard to accept but I know that's what I need to be careful of. But trust me. And pray for me. And thank you so much for the drawing!! You almost made me cried...

Crystal and Alfred, please do let me know how you did it! I will soon send you a laundry list of questions :)

Jacky Ho, I can't believe that we had been lunch buddies for over three years--where all the restaurants we used to eat at were all either closed or changed ownership! But despite all the changes, I'm glad we can still be good friends. Thanks for all your tips about traveling!!

Peggy, Ha! you know the phrase engraved on the knife almost made me cry... it marks the end of a life stage that means a lot to me. Thanks for picking it! And of course, thanks for all the digital goodies :-)

Doug, go for it! Seize your chances!

Derrick, designer's lamps are well worth it :-)

David, it's been nice having a housemate like you! I can't forget it when you were cleaning the lawn without being asked!

Jeff Chow, thanks for being my prayer warrior!

CL and Jessy, thanks for taking care of my house! Next time when I visit you guys, hopefully Akiko will forget who I am and stop avoiding me....

Eva Chau, good luck with whatever you're going after!

Jacky Chow, thanks for the idea of engraving names on the knife. I love it!

Amy, hope you'd enjoy the turntable... my dearest turntable. Next time when I'm Seattle I have to try it again!

Jackie, sorry I didn't know that you really want that same turntable :( You know me, I'm impatient.

LuLu, next time we've got to have a home cook meal!

Raymond and Bonnie! Thanks so much for taking the pictures and video, and hosting the party! Looking back the pictures I look silly but was fun!

Chak and Joanna, you always make me laugh when I see you guys hitting each other :)

Rick, thanks for taking care of my tax return!! Hopefully I'll not be probed again this year :p

Yuk, hope things will turn out to be good eventually. Put your trust in Him!

Arion, don't give up! I'm sure you can do what you want to do.

Jim Chan!! Keep on shooting! You inspired me a lot! Looking forward to your new postings. And yeah, will keep what you shared in prayers.

Yu-shan, thanks for visiting from time to time :-) I'm so glad you're converted. Love rules! Tell me how she did it... I may need your help...

Richard Chan! I can't help but... congrats!!! Thanks for all the advices along the way!

Danny, thanks for your call on my first Sunday in Seattle, thanks for being my angel!

There are a lot of others I have to say thanks... your bravery fighting with cancer and keeping your faith in god; your continuity of serving Him as a short term mission warrior; your unfailing trust in Him through your single life; your clear vision and perseverance; your sermons and the heart of following His tiny little voices; your unconditional love to your fellowship kids; your advices that I should take an extended trips to Europe and experience the solo traveling; thanks for the books you carefully selected for me to help me advance as a software engineer, and thanks for fortune telling using my name :)

I know... the list will never end. There aren't many 7 years in my life, and I'm glad I met you all. It was difficult to recognize my dream and it will be more difficult to turn it into reality. But form your encouragement I shall find strength.

I will think of you.



Last but not least, I thank God for putting me here in Seattle. You opened my eyes, your blessings and provisions through all these years, and you helped me to find myself!

***

Am I lost?

OK

詞/曲:張震嶽

生命之中 有多少經歷
還值得細細回憶
尤其是感情那些刻骨銘心的回憶
好多年 都不曾忘記
我們都在尋找真愛
花錢也不能買
但是你問我 什麼是愛
它沒有正確答案
只能憑感覺 在人海裡 尋找所謂的愛
有人隨便玩玩
有人拼了老命在玩
有人一輩子 沒有伴
過著 東奔西跑的日子
來到不熟悉的城市特別容易孤寂
想著 揮之不去的問題
尤其面對自己總是沒有頭緒
感情 和個人的平衡點常常失去重心
放手上 風一吹就會掉下去
有時 卻想放棄
搖搖欲墜其實最自私 是自己

「研究所等級的幼稚園」

That's the level I'm at :-)

「回顧西雅圖」

Haaa... assigned to do a 「回顧西雅圖」攝影集 :-) I'll see what I can do!

All done!

It doesn't seem to be a huge clean up from the pictures, but believe it or not, the final results took me hours!

Looking back at the picture titled "Confused", I just can't believe how different my life stages were: trained in the field of electrical engineering, worked as a software engineer, and now pursuing my vocation in life--

Food engineering :-)

Midnight crisis

Packed all the way till 6am this morning!!! Almost 24 hours non-stop getting 51 boxes shipped away!

Very tired now... will need to clean up the house (the entire house!) soon this afternoon for tomorrow's rental walk-through. I will see how much I can do, coz right now, nothing is more important than catching some sleep.

I guess I was actually too relaxed yesterday's afternoon... here's the last picture I scanned in Seattle :-)

Last day... packing...

The shipping company will come tomorrow at 8am! I'm running out of time packing now. I have no idea but even though I spent days there are still many things unpacked.

The most time consuming part? Digging up letters, pictures, and stuffs and indulge myself in the past :-)

The good old days.

ㄐㄑㄒ 破釜沉舟

Got it almost right today :-)

辣（ㄌ）妹（ㄇ）
饅（ㄇ）頭（ㄊ）
泥（ㄌ）巴（ㄅ）
恐（ㄎ）怖（ㄅ）
拉（ㄌ）麵（ㄇ）
報（ㄅ）答（ㄉ）
徬（ㄆ）徨（ㄏ）

After one more chance from teacher I have corrected this: 泥（ㄋ）

For today's learning:

ㄐ→（很難用英文音標解釋）(機 雞 家 假 講 降 將軍 叫 交 金)
ㄑ→英文音標 CH (去 氣 奇 搶 巧 橋 求 親 切 妾 慶 強 茄 取)
ㄒ→英文音標 S (相 下 小 謝 兄 學 薰 旋 序 許 系 洗 西 想)

***

The shipment is so expensive. It's like $1/pound, and they estimated that I have 2500 pounds! I guess it's better just to get the stuffs in Canada.

***

Who wants all of my computing related books? (They are now claimed...)

I have been living with some of these books for almost a decade, some even slept with in the office (well, during the gloomy afternoons under the dizzy office lights ). I'm so glad they found better users, and I can't feel more relieved seeing them going away!

ㄍㄎㄏ and Passed!

So my teacher gave me a quiz and I got a pass!!

Here's my answers:

鬧（ㄌ） 討（ㄊ） 呆（?）包（ㄅ）房（ㄈ）葡（ㄆ） 萄（ㄊ）龍（ㄋ）頭（ㄊ）冷（ㄋ）漠（ㄇ）

一題十分... and I got 60!!

Here's the correct answers:

鬧（ㄋ）
呆（ㄉ）
龍（ㄌ）
冷（ㄌ）

As for today's (only three today since 這三個一群):

ㄍㄎㄏ
ㄍ→英文音標 G (搞　乾　歌　葛　估　剛)
ㄎ→英文音標 K (靠　哭　可　苦　扣　坑　康)
ㄏ→英文音標 H (海　好　哈　黑　呴　猴　行　和　河)

Heee.. hopefully I'll do it better during the test tomorrow!

ㄉㄊㄋㄌ

Continued to learned Mandarin today, but I still couldn't pronounce my last name (黃 ㄏㄨㄤˊ) correctly! Hopefully I will be able to speak fluently before my China and Taiwan trips that are almost five months away.

What I learned today:

ㄉㄊㄋㄌ
ㄉ→英文音標 D (到 刀 大 登)
ㄊ→英文音標 T (他 兔 禿 頭)
ㄋ→英文音標 N (奶 拿 嫩 捏)
ㄌ→英文音標 L (拉 辣 爛 浪)

From here you can get the pronunciation.

ㄅㄆㄇㄈ

The good thing about traveling to me is that it always motivates me to learn the language of the country I am visiting. And this time I'll need to brush up my Mandarin, and possibly 台語 as well :) Big thanks to my friend who introduced me to the following websites that teaches me the correct pronunciation of the 注音符號:

http://www.mdnkids.com/BoPoMo/

http://olddoc.tmu.edu.tw/chiaushin/Tai-BPM-s/Taiphonet-s.htm (台語 only)

The four syllables I learned today are:

ㄅㄆㄇㄈ
ㄅ→英文音標 B
ㄆ→英文音標 P
ㄇ→英文音標 M
ㄈ→英文音標 F

My friend is so funny and said "你一天學四個就好，我們這個幼稚園主要是讓小朋友快樂吃點心"

My tears dropped as I was laughing my head off....

溫柔體驗

Have been listening to this song throughout the night..



玉置's killing voice is so soothing..

集體(吹水)回憶

Andrew came back from Calgary en route to CA and then leaving for Hong Kong going back to work. A few of us who are also leaving Seattle in the near future gathered and had hot pot on this not so hot summer day. We had a swell time, singing a few good oldies at the end...

And I'm glad that the person who purchased the record player didn't come pick it up last night, so that I can play Leslie's version of 《似水流年》 one last time:

望著海一片 滿懷倦　無淚也無言
望著天一片 只感到 情懷亂
我的心又似小木船
遠景不見　但仍向著前

誰在命裡主牢我　每天掙扎　人海裡面
心中感嘆　似水流年
不可以留住昨天

＊留下只有思念　一串串永遠纏
浩瀚煙波裡我懷念　懷念往年
外貌早改變　處境都變　情懷未變

Good luck to us all!

****

Thanks Peggy for getting more information on Macau:

禮記雪糕
地址:荷蘭園大馬路12號至12A
電話:28375781

莫義記大菜糕
地址:氹仔官也街9A

瑪嘉烈蛋撻店
地址:賈伯樂提督街41A
電話:28527791

沙利文餐廳
地址:南灣大馬路512號
電話:28881881


Some information about Macau can be found here.

世界變大了...

I'm planning a quick Taiwan trip right after the Rainbow Service Trip... will cross the year of 2008 over there! I'm getting excited now. Finally I can try out various good food in Taiwan!! Too bad I will only stay there for two days :( Will get started planning anyways!

***

Did some research on the good restaurants in Macau. Here's the information I gathered so far:

九如坊吃葡國菜
‧電話：(853)331-818
‧地址：板樟堂巷3號地下（本島）
‧營業時間：12:00-23:00（周一公休）
‧推薦美食：海鮮焗馬介休82元、焗釀海鮮龍利94元、芥末烤羊鞍88元、焗鴨飯98元

六記粥麵　
電話：853-559627
沙梨頭仁慕巷1號D地下　(29號碼頭對面)
Have you tried 錦滷雲吞 before? I miss it so much!!

誠昌飯店
地址:澳門乙仔官也街28-30號(在大利來記咖啡室附近)
電話:825323;827589
營業時間:中午12:00-晚上12:00
水蟹粥

大利來記豬扒包
澳門氹仔巴波沙前地18號
TEL:827150
限量豬扒包下午三點準時新鮮出爐!!

義順牛奶有限公司
TEL:573-638
澳門議事亭前地7號
營業時間：11:00~23:00
雙皮燉奶!!


我流晒口水喇!!

***

I guess I look like any ethnic group but Chinese--a lady came in today trying to buy the bullet planter asked me if I am a Yugoslavian?! The other day a boy came in and take my bedframe away asked if I was from Cambodia/Vietnam?!

And this is the most rediculous... I got an invitation asking me to join the Indian club on Flickr....

Sigh....

That said, although the lady has wrong eyes on my birth place, she KNOWS the stuff I have in my house.... we chatted a lot.. bascially walked through every single item and talk about the stories behind the items. Too bad she wasn't able to get any discount from me :-) She even wanted to get my vintage DANSK candlesticks for free!

Of course I didn't fall into this "trap"... I'm happy though knowing that my stuffs are going to the right hands who will take good care of them. It's sad, but I can't bring anything with me to the grave anyway... this day of parting with my collection will come sooner or later :P