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

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

Champion Breakfast Uncle

JayWalk Booked my hotel room when I return to Da Hu at the end of the month. Sweet talked the sales manager - #j6fb0r via kwout

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

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

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

Lotus Mall In Da Hu

I was on the bus when I passed by this building. It's a shopping centre called The Lotus Mall.

I guess they were trying to be artsy fancy by having a mosaic of repeated "LOTUS".

All I saw was "SLUT US SLUT US SLUT US SLUT US SLUT US SLUT US SLUT US".

Oh dear me. My eyes are failing.

- Voxeros

Moon Cake Vouchers In Da Hu

Mid Autumn Festival is just round the corner and that would marked the end of the hot summer.

Summer this year in Da Hu is especially bad with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius. The worst in 140 years.

So anyway, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, the gifting of moon cakes is an age-old Chinese tradition.

I remember receiving so many moon cakes back in the day that I just need to order half my required order and I would have enough to give a moon cake each to my 400-odd staff.

This is my first year in Da Hu and I noticed something different from other parts of QQland.

Over here there is a practice of gifting moon cake vouchers instead of the actual boxes of them.

The original idea is that you are supposed to go to the stipulated hotel/restaurant/shop to redeem the moon cakes with the voucher.

Hence, a efficient way, logistics-wise, to distribute moon cakes. More so when you have a lot of deliveries to make.

The twist here however, is that you take this voucher and go to your nearest moon cake voucher tout (located at all major subway stations) and redeem it for cash (at a discounted price, of course).

I was rather taken aback. It is like people here don't eat moon cakes any more. They just change it back to cash.

I felt sickened in the stomach when I first learned this.

Welcome to Da Hu where everything is all about the money.

- Voxeros

Toys Of The Wrist - Part 3 of 2

I didn't plan this third entry when I did the earlier two "Toys Of The Wrist" entries but my watch (above) died a couple of days ago.

I bought this watch back in 2000 when I started dealing with clients in the US. I needed a watch to keep track of my west coast clients. My job required me to be in constant communication with them and as such I need to know when they are awake and when they are not.

Signs of trouble started a month ago when the batteries died. It got me by surprise considering I just changed them back in November last year, when I was in the Capital. The batteries didn't even last a year? That can't be right!?

Initially, I thought I got fitted with bad batteries from the unscrupulous watch shop as it is pretty common for a foreigner to get cheated by the locals (well, not ALL of them, but quite a few). I remembered paying a lot of money to change the batteries back then (didn't have a choice).

So a month later, my watch stopped again.

Then it dawned on me that it is the watch going wonky and not the batteries after all.

As it was a cheap watch which I bought at Great World City for a mere SGD 110.00, it wasn't worth the time, money nor effort to repair the 13-year old watch.

So thank you for the 13 years of faithful service, my dear Citizen watch.

*chucks into rubbish bin*

I look forward to my Hot Watch, due to arrive around Christmas this year, if it shows up at all.

• JayWalk Online (19 Aug 2013) - Toys Of The Wrist - Part 1 of 2
  
• JayWalk Online (20 Aug 2013) - Toys Of The Wrist - Part 2 of 2

- Voxeros

The Bitter Stickgirl II

After the earlier post, I decided to pester her again for a photo of her in the Awesome tank top.

She finally relented and got off her ass to take this grainy (no fish prawn also good lah!) picture.

Yeah. Even at XS size, it was a tad too big for her as the shoulder strap kept falling to the side.

If it was any consolation, she combed her hair this time.

And yes. A beautiful smile. As always.

Again to plug Bitter Stickgirl's webshop. --> Click Here.

- Voxeros

The Bitter Stickgirl

I have been following The Bitter Stickgirl since day 1 when she was still at Blogspot. 

I loved the simplicity of her drawings and yet despite that, they still tell you the full story.

It was a sad day when Stickgal (or Stickgirl) decided to fall off the grid back in 2009 but I am really glad that she has decided to make a comeback a few years later and the subsequent move to Facebook.

Now newer and better, she has also published a book and launched a series of tank tops which I thought were awesome! (No pun intended)

I love it so much that I ordered one for my daughter and throw in the book for good measure.

It was a surprise mail package for Faith.

When I was a kid, I love receiving mail. Even when it was from Reader's Digest saying that I have the golden key and a final step away from winning that one million dollar sweepstake.

I love mail and I cannot lie. When I was a kid, that is.

So naturally, she was delighted to receive the package (she gets that from my side of the genes) and was absolutely in love with the book as there was a personalised autograph from Stickgirl herself.

Thank you Stickgirl! That was a real nice gesture! Appreciate it!

So anyway, I kinda promised that I will get a photo of Faith wearing the tank top, which by the way, was a tad too big for the 11-year old despite getting the XS size for her. Fret not, knowing how fast kids grow up these days (something in the water?), she'd probably fit in nicely by next year.

But I digress.

The package arrived two weeks ago and I only posted this entry only because I was waiting for the photo of her wearing the tank top to complete this entry.

I am still waiting.

This girl sibeh gao too....... (she gets that from wife side of the genes).

So anyway, for those who are interested to check out the awesome tank tops and book --> Click Here.

- Voxeros