Monday, February 23, 2009

Week 8: Winter Came Back

Monday
Dumplings for dinner. Regina's out sick. 4shared said they have a work-around for the Great Firewall of China (4shared-china...).
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Tuesday
It snowed. Re-installed my firewall. Episode 13 of Hanadan Kr.
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Wednesday
Still snowing. The police is looking Hazel's brother (not kidding). Episode 14 of Hanadan. Hazel's late for work - had to ask Regina to wake her up.
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Thursday
Took a cab with Liza - our driver tried to pick-up more passengers at North train station (parang jip!). Still snowing. Pestered Hazel into coming with me to BeiHai Park then changed my mind three hours later (ang lamig sa labas eh!).
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Friday
Stopped snowing. Scary 23 km/hr winds. Edited PDR review. Pork afritada.
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Saturday
Wore my orange Zara. Bullied Hazel into feeding me and Liza breakfast (hehe). Cancelled breakfast plans, Hazel and Lyndale are still sleeping. Kiss & Bake with Liza. Fixed Tin's laptop.
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Sunday
Lunch at Babela's again. Bought a mask. Exchange rate of CNY to Peso is at 7.xx again.
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Friday, February 20, 2009

I 'm a geek?

Just watched last week's episode of Bones (this week's episode is not in youku yet), Fisher said that he even watches Fringe (apart from all the angst and drama in his life), thus making him a geek. I love Fringe! If that makes me a geek, then so be it!

There's no Fringe episodes til April 7th according to some posts... sad. I guess I can always watch Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Firefly again. (",)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tian Lan Tian (天兰天)

I have discovered another place to shop for cheap clothes here in Beijing. It's quite far from the city centre but clothes are at bargain prices. The prices are a little lower than at the shopping place in front of the zoo.

The three-story building is at the north corner of the Lizeqiao Long Distance Bus station, north-east of the Lize Bridge.

After shopping, you can buy a really heavy meal at the restaurant(?) at the other end of the station (didn't get the name) for 10 kuai (one meat dish, 2 vegetable dish and 2 cups of rice). If your speak Chinese is like I do (meaning you don't), you can just go to the counter and point what you like, there's this lady who'll take your order.

To get there:
Subway Line 2 to Xizhimen (Exit D). Walk south towards the bus stop (Xizhimen Nan). Take bus number 604 and get off at Lize Qiao Dong then walk west towards until you see the long distance bus station. Lize Qiao Bus station is also the terminal station of the double-deck #2 bus that travels around the second-ring road.

By Taxi: Tell the driver to take you to Lize Qiao Chang Tu Ke Yun Zhan (丽泽桥长途客运站).

Snow in Spring

Snow came late this year. I just had my down jackets cleaned last week so I can put it in storage, then it started snowing yesterday.

Spring Festival has come and gone, flowers are starting to bloom, I even bought a pair of shorts. I guess winter changed its mind and decided to stay...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Week 7: Planning Stages

Monday
Starbucks with the girls. Grocery shopping. Bought planner. Ribs for dinner. Called home. Kei's thesis defense (which she passed, she said she'll be graduating this March. Congratulations!). Went to work looking like a panda because I haven't slept.
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Tuesday
15 minutes late for work.
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Wednesday
Cooked spaghetti. Two new episodes of HanaDan Kr. Got the remote control of my aircon unit working. Trip to Datong again?
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Thursday
It rained. Did my laundry. Just realized it is "Friday the 13th" this Friday.
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Friday
Planning a trip to Luoyang to see the LongMen Grottoes. Bought strawberries. Cooked adobo.
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Saturday
WangFuJing with Liza. Finally got the watch I've been planning to buy since 2006. Ate at Thai Lotus restaurant and laughed our way through lunch (took home the remaining yellow curry). Rearranged my room (for the nth time). Set-up Outlook on my laptop.
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Sunday
TianLanTian with Liza and Hazel. 10 kuai really heavy meal near the bus station. Yellow shorts. Small Wonder marathon. Started planning Cambodia and Egypt trip with Mel. Canned sisig for dinner.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Week 6: The Beginning

Haven't done this since high school but it seemed like a good idea this morning. Will be doing this weekly so I'll remember how I wasted(?) my week.


Monday
went grocery shopping with the girls.
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Tuesday
can't remember what I did.
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Wednesday
Ricky brought the girls' phones from GuangZhou. (Please call Kristine!)
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Thursday
Joy City ( Xidan) with Regina. Got a kikay pouch for my phone. Ate at Babela's kitchen again (will be posting some pics). Bought Lock&Lock for Liza.
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Friday
Chocolate muffins from WeiDuoMei. Yummy!
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Saturday
ZhongGuanCun with Liza. Bought 512 MB SDRAM for a laptop upgrade.
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Sunday
National Arts Museum of China. Walked home from the Museum. Bought a wallet, a pair of jeans and a jacket along the way. Jelly slippers for our bathroom. On the way to being broke.

National Art Museum of China

National Art Museum of China. Reg and I went last Sunday because one of the exhibits - The Artistic Handicrafts Grand Exhibition will be ending tomorrow. I wanted to go to this museum ever since I realized this was a museum but the girls (Liza and Hazel) can't be bothered to come unless there's food in the picture (like in a menu (",) ).



There were two exhibitions that day. The China Artistic Grand Exhibition and the Rosy Clouds in the Sky Exhibition.




The painting below is my favorite. I still can't read Chinese so I don't know who painted it but isn't it amazing? It's my current wallpaper, ' think there's a rule against that?




I always pass by this place on my way to work. Always wondered what I'll see inside. Now I know...

DIRECTIONS:
BUS: The No. 103 tram stops directly in front of the museum. The name of the bus stop is Meishuguan (美术馆).

CAB: Tell the driver to take you to Meishuguan (美术馆).

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Butterfly Lovers

I found a copy of the Wu Chun's Butterfly Lovers that has English subtitles at last. I bought it from the video store near the Natinal Art Museum (MeiShuGuan) for 15 kuai. The copy includes scenes from the making of the movie. Not bad for 15 kuai.

It's a Romeo and Juliet plot with a lot of martial arts and sword play. Spoilers below.



Yanzhi (Charlene) dressed as a boy to be able to enter the martial arts (?) school where Shan (Wu Chun) is a senior student. Shan finds out Yanzhi is a girl and falls in love with her. Yanzhi's parents had arranged a marriage with her and a childhood friend who is a government official and has helped her family a lot. She takes a pill which makes her appear dead for three days. The herbalist who gave her the pill died before telling Shan that's she won't really be dead. Shan dies because of the fight to get Yanzhi's body. Yanzhi let herself be buries alive with Shan. The last scene is Yanzhi and Shan meeting in the afterlife.



I fell in love with Wu Chun all over again! Great fight scenes. The ending where Charlene's character let herself be buried alive beside Wu Chun is quite creepy though.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Liza's Dream Phone

After the long wait - here's Liza's dream phone fresh from Guangzhou. Samsung F-488. Pretty cool touch screen, 5 megapixel camera... lots of great stuff. Only we can't figure out how to activate the WLAN function which the phone is supposed to have.

5 megapixel camera

cool touch screen (the Mandarin Orange is mine..)

leather cover included

@ Toast Box

Milo dinosaur?

Sunday, February 1, 2009

2009 Wish List

Nokia N96


HP Touchsmart tx2