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23 October 2013

Motel Communal Hairdryer

I was in Haerbin last week and I was put up in this cheapo motel.

It was an RMB 137 (SGD 27.40) a night room with a free packet of milk (redeemable if you are their member in the evenings).

It was a crappy hotel with an even crappier breakfast. I must be masochistic to keep wanting to try eating these QQland hotel breakfasts.

Note: "try eating".

So anyway, I decided to walk a floor down back to my room, instead of taking the elevator when I spotted this in the stairwell.

A hairdryer complete with a vanity shelf and mirror!

Then it occurred to me there isn't a hairdryer in my room (not that I use one anyway).

It appears to me that the entire floor shares the hairdryer neatly tucked into the stairwell.

It was a WTF moment for me.

 
- Voxeros

22 October 2013

Shanghai International Fireworks Festival 2013


I am going through this procrastination funk, resulting in this entry 3 weeks over due.

Kartikasaurus came to Da Hu with her parents during the National Holidays and we decided to check out the Shanghai International Fireworks Festival.

The event was held over several days with each representative country showcasing their fireworks awesomeness.

That evening where we attended featured Australia followed by Mexico. It was closed to two hours of non-stop fireworks.

Nice.

Initially, we got the standing tickets but our dear girl left them in the hotel when we headed out. There was no way to head back and get them but I was lucky to have the good fortune of having a friend scoring us seated tickets out of the magic top hat.

It was a good decision to switch to the seat area was man..... there were MANY MANY MANY people!!!

On hindsight, we should have headed to the park early as we had a lot of trouble getting to our seats with the standing-ticket peeps flooding the back area, virtually sealing every seated-ticket spectator in.

Oh well, we did managed to get to our seats eventually but we had to watch a large part of the Australia display while tunneling through the harrowing crowd.

It was really nice to watch the fireworks display out in the open park and did I mentioned that the weather was awesome?

Still, it got a bit tiring as there is only so many variations of explosions one can create in the sky.

I was armed with my pathetic iPhone as my camera and my strategy for taking fast moving pictures in insufficient lighting as to take a shitload of them. You can be sure that if you take 3,252,627 pictures, you can be assured that a handful of them would be deemed acceptable and not blurry.

*shrugs*

--> Click Here To Set The Rest Of The Photo Set
- Voxeros

04 October 2013

Champion Breakfast Uncle



I have a soft spot for heart hotel breakfasts but when it comes to QQland, it has always been one pathetic disappointment after another.

The offering at the buffet table has always been a sad story.

As some of you know, I have recently checked into a hotel in Da Hu for an extended stay until my roommate's family heads back to the US at the end of the month.

So this morning, out of curiosity, I decided to head down to the cafe and check out the breakfast for the first time.

No surprises as I was yet again, sorely disappointed.

The highlight of the breakfast earlier in the morning however, was this champion uncle seated next to me in full pyjama garb.

We know of Aunties plying the wet markets in their PJs, but this uncle here wins first prize.

Anyway, I am not heading back for breakfast ever again unless I am locked in due to storm, hail and/or avalanche.

- Voxeros

03 October 2013

Lazy Morning Ritual


I love the weekends and holidays.

Not so much for the fact that I don't have to work but more of the fact that I get to sleep in. Otherwise, on a normal work day, it's a 5:30am wake up call for me.

Sleeping in means getting up whenever you like or when your bladder can't hold it in anymore. Haha.

One of my usual rituals on a lazy Sunday morning is a good old fashion wet shave.

Granted the electric shaver does a faster job, which I save for weekdays, I still prefer to keep things old skool when it comes to this time-honoured rite of passage of manhood.

The electric shaver does a closer shave since you are not allowed to shave against the grain, lest you risk ingrown stubble. Still, the combination feel of warm water, shaving cream and 3,762 Gillette blades trumps an electric shave anywhere, any time.

Another big advantage of a wet shave is the ability to get rid of the "peach fuzz", that the electric shaver can't handle, which has a tendency to trap a lot of dirt. So with a cleaner face, less problem especially when it comes to acne.

So there. Done with the shaving.

I am going back to bed.

Good morning.


- Voxeros

01 October 2013

Tendon Pull


I went to Hong Kong the other day and ended up with a bandaged foot.

I pulled my tendon.

I didn't know how I even got it in the first place but the flare up the next evening caused me lots of grief throughout the night that I had no choice but to visit the doctor the following morning.

Initially, I thought I got the gout which sent shivers down my spine.

No. More. Beer? Nooooooooo.........

The doctor took all but 2 minutes to refer me to the TCM section of the clinic. Another two minutes with the sinseh and it was determined that I pulled a tendon at top of my foot.

Not. Gout.

Phew.

A slap of the kor yoke (herbal medicinal plaster), bandage and 3 days of medicine (alcohol abstinence!) and I was sent on my way out of the clinic.

3 days without beer. Yes. I can live with that. Yes. My life is not over. Yet.

With that diagnosis, I began to trace the events that day and tried to pinpoint where I sustained that pull.

I left for Hong Kong late that day (I usually set off at 6am to avoid the massive crowd at the immigration checkpoints) as I had to clear a meeting first in the morning. So by the time I got to Hong Kong, it was lunch time already.

My usual modus operandi is to get out early, run my errands and get back across the Ch1nese border before 5pm to avoid the massive traffic jam en-route back. So what normally is a 10-hour leisurely stroll became a 4-hour forced march marathon.

One of the thing about going to Hong Kong is the huge shopping list that I get when friends would ask me to help bring back across the border due to the awesome cheap prices as well as the weaker currency in Hong Kong.

My list for the day runs from iPads to iPhones to a shitload of cosmetics ranging from Dior to Lancome to Estee Lauder..

I was done with all the shopping at about 3pm when I crossed (ok, ok... jaywalked) across Haiphong Road. It was a tiny single lane one-way street which I thought would be easy to get across.

As I was crossing the street, this maniac goods van appeared out of nowhere and in my moment of instinctive response, my reflexes fired up every neurons in my legs as I surged to the other side. With my backpack fully loaded with shopping.

I think it was that the explosive lunge forward that did the damage.

I went back without feeling anything amiss. The top of the foot, the next morning, was a little sore as if there was some kind of bruising, I shrugged if off thinking it was just the shoe tied a tad to tightly throughout the entire day before.

It wasn't until that evening when the inflammation shifted into gear and owwwwww...... what a night of agony!

Fast forward, after three applications of kor yoke and 3 days of medication, I am fine again and able to wear shoes (the swelling finally subsided).

In fact, I am planning to resume my regular running in a couple of days' time.

I finished my last dose of medication last night and so I am heading out this evening.

I am going to get my beer.
- Voxeros