A peep
I’m alive, barely.
The week started on a horrific note on Sunday when I the nuclear bomb I had been unwittingly nurturing hit puberty. All this while I thought I was planting sweet potatoes, when in fact I had been feeding the said bomb with more and more fissile material.
The resulting boom killed the last of the giant pandas, and I’m now harbouring a deep sorrow and guilt. The pain, horror and guilt of knowing that I had harmed something so harmless and completely lovable felt like a vibrating, barbed stake plunged into my cranium and left to do its damage. It has made me nearly cry myself to sleep every night since.
Sorry pandas! ^^
On a more positive note, I’m now in Shanghai.
After the prolonged stint in frumpy Tianjin with its dust encrusted low-rise flats (decorated with a sprinkling of architecturally fugly high rise commercial buildings), the endless fields of skyscrapers in Shanghai was a welcoming sight. Along with the incessant honking of cars and endless masses of people everywhere, the food has been promising so far.
Today I had to stay late at the office so I dug around at the receptionist’s desk for somehome office-delivery menus. Ordered a pork belly rice and a wintermelon soup at 6 RMB each (equivalent to 3.11 MYR or 0.88 USD or 1.32 AUD or 1.30 SGD).
For 6 RMB, the rice was great. 2 large strips of pork, 3 small servings of vegetables and rice. The soup was equally brilliant: it came in a paper tub (it’s like a paper cup but with different dimensions and more robustly constructed, fitted with a plastic cover) and amounted to a significant volume. Remarkably, there was a fair bit of wintermelon and meaty chunks of pork ribs- they had actually throw in the good stuff till it’s reasonably full, then filled up the gaps with soup.
Oh talking about currencies, the value of the Australian Dollar fell terribly. From 3.00 MYR to the AUD, it took a plunge to ~2.3. I’m not amused – my only Visa card (and that’s merely a Visa Debit) was issued in Australia, and all Paypal transactions have been paid out using AUD. The plunge meant I would need to fork out more AUD for the same amount of Euros/ SGD/ USD. Bugger.
Best I find myself another credit card issued in another currency. The option would allow me to buy using the best available currency.
Trying to be an optimist, I suppose the good thing about seeing wild swings in the economy is to instil some sensibility in me. Just so I know not to rush into anything guns blazing and position unhedged.
Shit it’s already 2 am. Will finish up my work and leave the office. Toodles!
The week started on a horrific note on Sunday when I the nuclear bomb I had been unwittingly nurturing hit puberty. All this while I thought I was planting sweet potatoes, when in fact I had been feeding the said bomb with more and more fissile material.
The resulting boom killed the last of the giant pandas, and I’m now harbouring a deep sorrow and guilt. The pain, horror and guilt of knowing that I had harmed something so harmless and completely lovable felt like a vibrating, barbed stake plunged into my cranium and left to do its damage. It has made me nearly cry myself to sleep every night since.
Sorry pandas! ^^
On a more positive note, I’m now in Shanghai.
After the prolonged stint in frumpy Tianjin with its dust encrusted low-rise flats (decorated with a sprinkling of architecturally fugly high rise commercial buildings), the endless fields of skyscrapers in Shanghai was a welcoming sight. Along with the incessant honking of cars and endless masses of people everywhere, the food has been promising so far.
Today I had to stay late at the office so I dug around at the receptionist’s desk for some
For 6 RMB, the rice was great. 2 large strips of pork, 3 small servings of vegetables and rice. The soup was equally brilliant: it came in a paper tub (it’s like a paper cup but with different dimensions and more robustly constructed, fitted with a plastic cover) and amounted to a significant volume. Remarkably, there was a fair bit of wintermelon and meaty chunks of pork ribs- they had actually throw in the good stuff till it’s reasonably full, then filled up the gaps with soup.
Oh talking about currencies, the value of the Australian Dollar fell terribly. From 3.00 MYR to the AUD, it took a plunge to ~2.3. I’m not amused – my only Visa card (and that’s merely a Visa Debit) was issued in Australia, and all Paypal transactions have been paid out using AUD. The plunge meant I would need to fork out more AUD for the same amount of Euros/ SGD/ USD. Bugger.
Best I find myself another credit card issued in another currency. The option would allow me to buy using the best available currency.
Trying to be an optimist, I suppose the good thing about seeing wild swings in the economy is to instil some sensibility in me. Just so I know not to rush into anything guns blazing and position unhedged.
Shit it’s already 2 am. Will finish up my work and leave the office. Toodles!
posted by Tan Yee Wei at 11/01/2008 02:08:00 am
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