Musings of a (Formerly) Displaced Chinese RooBoy

Flew up to Seattle last Friday night to visit Somnath and Yan. Seattle's a beautiful city - windy and cold, but it has a relaxing vibe to it. It rained as soon as I drove out of the airport so at least the city's reputation was maintained. Took the ferry (as seen from The Ring ) to Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula. It was snowing up there and the scenery was beautiful. The crab we had for dinner was SWEET! We paid homage at Bruce Lee's grave, went up the Space Needle, had coffee at the original Starbucks store and hung out @ Pike Place market. The market had some interesting food - definitely worth checking out.

Forgot to post these pics from the trip of January. The truck speaks for itself... The pic of Dinh Van store is from Rue de la Paix - along a stretch of designer stores directly opposite the Park Hyatt Vendome. Congee - get Van to start a business with Dinh!

Over the weekend, Australia unbeliverably lost the deciding match of the 1-day series vs S. Africa after batting first and setting a world record for runs scored. In reply, S. Africa brutalized the Aussie bowlers (Mick Lewis setting a new world record for runs conceded, about 113) to win. Like I said, our bowling is paper-thin and the prospects are bleak when Warney and Pigeon retire.

My buddies from the Sacramento project are leaving the firm...Vivek got accepted into graduate school in India and Yan will be splitting town to finalize his wedding arrangements in June. Good luck fellas!

The Australian squad for the tour of South Africa was announced yesterday and Brad Hodge was LEFT OUT with an average of 50+ and after scoring a double century 2 tests ago. I've always suspected the ACB to be pro-NSW and anti-VIC (how many frickin' players from NSW have been on the Aussie squad?!?) and this simply reinforce my believe. What a joke.

TV ad for the new Air Jordan XXI started screening 2 weeks ago. I must say it's real classy. Instead of rehashing the same Jordan highlight footages, the ad has a bunch of kids reenacting classic Jordan moments, from his free throw line slam, '89 playoff game winner over Cavs and Craig Ehlo, '91 Finals hand switching layup to '98 Finals wrong footing Bryan Russell to hit the championship winning shot. Check it out here: http://www.jumpman23.com

Spent the weekend in San Diego. Woke up early on Saturday in order to get on the whale watching tour. $20 per person and 3 hours later...no friggin' whale! Not even a seal lion or dolphin! We got raincheck vouchers to go back within 12 months to do it again for free. Those sneaky operators charged the next group as well, knowing there's nothing to see. They're banking on tourists not returning within the 12 months. Anyways we went to Gaslamp District for dinner. GasLamp is a happening place...reminds me of Chapel St back home...only hipper with better looking chicks.

So the Aussies won the 3rd and final ODI at the Gabba to win the annual triangular series. Not very impressive because they were on the brink of losing game 2 before Punter and "Dreadlocks" Symonds launched the rescue mission. Aussies are old with no depth in the bowling department. They have some serious soul searching to do to get ready for next year's Ashes series and the World Cup.

Finally finished The Da Vinci Code last week. Interesting book and its probed me to do the geeky thing and google search on a bunch of related topics. Has the church been covering up Christian secrets? Was Da Vinci a genius and the head of a secret brotherhood society? Who cares!!! Can't wait for the movie to come out, starring Tom "Oscar" Hanks.

Came back from Europe 2 weekends ago and was sent straight to San Diego the following Monday. Argh! At least SD is a happening town and there are heaps of Starwood (including Westin and W!) and Hyatt hotels - time to hotel-hop and rebuild my points!

We only had 1 day in Florence. In retrospect we didn't need the 3rd night in Venice. Florence was too rushed. The hotel we stayed at was family-run - the staff were very helpful and friendly. Ask me if you want to know the hotel name. Went to the Uffizi and Academia Galleries and saw Michelangelo's David and other masterpieces by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Botticelli (where was my favourite turtle, Donatello?!?). Michelangelo was involved with more than arts - he studied anatomy (by dissecting the deceased) and helped plan the city's defences. I thought he just ordered pizza take-outs! The Church was impressive from the outside, but I was surprised to find it barren inside. The guide explained that Florence used to be a republic and despised the aristocatic lifestyle where the citizens are sent to war. They said, FOCK THAT, we don't need war if we have money! We'll make our city the center of all trade routes. Around the time of the church's constructio...

For Venice, I reserved the Westin Europa and Regina in San Marcos. After landing at the airport, the cabbie took us to the main train station and told us that San Marcos is only accessible by water. So it took about 1.5 hours to eventually get to the hotel. The hotel was hard to find - we expected it to be big and brightly lit, but it was actually tucked away in a little alley. No cars are allowed in central Venice - the only transaportation are via water (gondola, water taxi or water bus) or alleyways. Venice gets kinda quiet at night. Daytime is full of tourists. Good thing about Venice (and Italy in general) is that most people speak English, so I didn't have to rely on what little I remember of Italian language from high school! We finally got to sample authentic Italian pasta and pizza. Wendy and I have been debating whether the Aussie or Yankee versions of Italian food was more authentic, so Italy was to place to settle it. We found that marina pasta does NOT have seafood, so...

Went to Madrid (3 days) and Barcelona (2 days). Most locals don't speak English so communication was a bit problematic. Used free nights at Park Hyatt Madrid - the staff were ok but not very friendly. Food wasn't cheap in Madrid. Tapas cost 15 euro each. We hung out at Puerta del Sol - a popular destination for tourists (shopping) and pickpockets. We got the concierge to book a flamingo show. The men don't do squat - they sit on their fat arses, sing and clap. An exception to that was a special performance by a male dancer, but he had the most goofy expressions that I burst out laughing! Barcelona was definitely a more happening city. Take a stroll along the shops along Las Ramblas and you will end up at the Mediterrean Sea. The Olympic Stadium from '92 is very run down, but admission was free :) BTW, we also found out that there really was a king named Aragorn (of LOTR fame).

Landed at Charles de Gaulle airport and was disappointed at the airport's age. Had to disembarked onto the tarmac, then a bus transported us to the terminal. Immigration was a breeze - there was no "Entry into France" stamp in the passport and nobody manned the quarantine section. My aunt picked us up and shock #1 was the tiny parking spaces and parking lots. Cars were parallel-parked within inches within each other, and alot of cars bump into each other when pulling into/out of parallel spaces. Shock #2 was that in central Paris, many roads don't have lane dividers - which gets even more confusing in multi-lanes, big-ass roundabouts like the ones at Arc de Triomphe (9 lanes). Wendy and I stayed at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome using my free nights (thank you CADDIS!). Later we found out the rack rate was US$550 per night! This hotel was voted among the top 20 European hotels in Conde Nast. I'll definitely keep this hotel in mind next time I have to burn some free ...

Just got back from a snowboarding trip in Snow Valley and 3 nights in Sin City & Grand Canyon with Uncle Gabriel's family. Snow conditions were slushy (that shouldn't surprise anyone as Snow Valley is in SoCal) which made snowboarding crap. Snow accumulated on the snowboard basically melted between getting on and off the ski lifts. Vegas - not much to tell. Wendy and I got 1/2 price tickets to La Femme at MGM Grand. We stayed @ MGM Grand for 3 nights courtesy of Uncle Gabriel getting a good rate. Grand Canyon - spectacular view although we only went to the West Rim (home of the Hualapai Indian tribe) rather than South Rim. South Rim supposedly has better views but its 6 hours drive from Vegas, compared to 3 hours between West Rim and Vegas. Constance and Holman would have been bored shitless if we drove to South Rim.

Broke my personal record of hotel stays/travel this year, courtesy of my first out-of-town project. I'll see if the record can be broken next year. Work: 135 Leisure: 17 TOTAL = 152 Our accommodation in Europe will pretty much come out from hotel points/promos. I also flew so many times (roundtrip each week) to get a free 1-year companion pass on SouthWest for Wendy. Who said working out-of-town is a bad thing? :)

Let's see...plans for the 2005/2006 holidays season are: Christmas: More snowboarding (at Big Bear) and sinning (Vegas) January: Paris, Spain and Italy. Checklist: Snowboard clothing [check] Lonely Planet Europe [check] European language phrase books [check] Learning to speak French, Italian and Spainish [ongoing]

Myself and Vivek Man-cherry volunteered for the Junior Achievement program and today we showed up at at Rocklin Elementary school to teach a class of 40 3rd graders about city planning and construction. The kids were very enthusiastic and loved having visitors. They were smart and asked some intelligent questions. The classroom had TWO computers in the back - we didn't have those luxuries back in our days. Definitely worth doing again next year.

After spending 20+ years in the southern hemisphere where "White Christmas" means getting a tan at a beach, this year was really a white (early) Christmas as we headed to Tahoe with a bunch of my colleagues for a weekend of snowboarding to celebrate project roll-off. Wendy flew up to Sacramento before we took the 1.5 hr drive to Tahoe. Ski resorts are way bigger compared to the ones back home. Anyhow, we took snowboarding lessons on Day 1 at Sierra-at-Tahoe and became "self manageable". Day 2 was at Heavenly, with much better scenery including a view of Lake Tahoe. Thanks to Yan for finding the Amex discounts and providing private lessons.

What's a more appropriate place to spend your time during Thanksgiving than "Sin City" itself! Yup, Wendy and I went to Vegas during the Thanksgiving long weekend, staying at the Hyatt Las Vegas resort 20 minutes from the Strip. Sin City was crawling with people who have nothing better to do on Thanksgiving than frivilous fun and stuffing themselves silly with the infamous Vegas buffet. We went to see shows by David Copperfield on day 1 and Blue Man Group on day 2. Let me say that both shows are worth seeing, especially Copperfield where the audience are seated very close to the stage. BMG is hard to describe, but it was definitely a visual and audio experience.

Went to S.F. 2 weeks ago, mainly to see The Rock. I'm a movie buff and like to visit sites where movies were filmed. Surprisingly, there is no "lower lighthouse" on Alcatraz as portrayed in the Cage/Connery flick from the 90s. It was explained that having 2 lighthouses on a single island makes no sense! The Rock wasn't much to see. It's infamous for criminals like Al Capone and "the birdman". The prison cells resembled the movie scenes, but we didn't get to see the shower facility where the marines (from the movie) and me (from the xbox game) were ambushed. That section in the game took us 3 hours to get through!

Woohoo! The Socceroos will be going to the World Cup after beating Uruguay last night. Its been 8 years since I went to the World Cup Qualifier vs. Iran at the MCG, when the aussies blew a 2-0 half-time lead to miss qualification. So much for Uruguay's trash-talking before Game 2!

One advantage of working in a small town like Sacramento is the lack of decent hotels, so visiting NBA teams only have 2 choices - Hyatt or Sheraton. I bumped into some Pistons and Nuggets players this week...they are frickin' tall when you stand next to them in the elevator haha. I heard that Sheraton is preferred by the ballers over Hyatt because Sheraton has California King beds. Still, I'd imagine they have to sleep diagonally with the legs left hanging over the bed. I also saw the Governator himself this week in the Hyatt lobby as I was waiting in line to check-in.

Drove down from Ahnuld's place of defeat (he lost 4 propositions this week) back home in O.C. last night. Actually it was a little more than that...we stayed overnight in Sticksville aka Bakersville. Those of you who watched "The Running Man" will remember it as the place where Ahnuld refused to shoot civilians from the chopper and was subsequently framed and jailed. The "Butcher of Bakersville" haha. The drive was boring, and being at night time it was too cold to go topless in the convertible. Gotta drive back up tomorrow...should have flown instead!