The Champion Crickets

The most interesting piece of exhibition at the Macau Museum is the Champion Crickets section. Three cricket champions from the 60's, well-preserved in glass jars, are on display to all visitors. What would those crickets be thinking when they were fighting for their lives to reach the championship? To end up in a jar at a museum?

Macau Traffic Police and Severe Tropical Storm Fengshen

Severe tropical storm Fengshen, formed June 16 and dissipated June 26, 2008, left severe damage in the Philippines and China, resulting in at least 664 deaths and leaving over 1,000 people missing. On the day it hit Macau, the streets were all empty under heavey rain and severe thunderstorm warning. Just when I thought everyone would be hiding in the comfort of their homes, I spotted a lone traffic police at the traffic conjunction near my home. I usually get 3 or 4 parking tickets every year and would curse the traffic police on every occasion. But when I saw this lone traffic police dutifully performing his duties under severe thunderstorm and heavy rain, I completely changed my attitude toward them as a group. Everyone has its values, and every job has its virtues. Sometimes we just have to look beyond the surface and discover the true essence of everything.

Tequila Sunrise

I went to a karaoke / bar and didn't get home until 5 a.m. in the morning. After brushing my teeth in total darkness, I saw a glimpse of golden light came in from the windows. I looked out from the windows and saw the sun rising slowing from the sea. Maybe I was already half drunk and the alcohol affected my usually cynical mind. But at the moment, I thought it was the most beautiful scene in the world.

The Mandarin Cheese Cake by the Cake Shop at Mandarin Oriental Macau

I bought a Mandarin Cheese Cake from the Cake Shop situated on the 2nd floor of Mandarin Oriental Macau. I tried one slice of the cake at a friend's birthday party a while ago. That was a very nice experience. But it's the first time I buy the whole cake myself. Oh man, it tastes delicious! I planned to eat only 1 slice of the cake but ended up finished half of it within 5 minutes. What a memorable afternoon.

By the way, the sales girl at the Cake Shop is very pretty and always carry a sexy smile. Her voice is also very sweet. That makes the cake even more tasteful.

Scary Morning: Wake-up Call from the Firemen

It was 8 o'clock in the morning and I was still sleeping when I heard the sound of sirens. I jumped out of bed and looked down from my window and found the street full of firetrucks and firemen. I woke up everybody at home and rushed them downstairs as fast as I could. By the time we rushed 10 floors of stairs to the lobby in pajamas, the firemen were climbing back to the trucks and driving away. I asked one of them what's going on here. "Oh, we went to the wrong building," the fireman calmly replied.

What a memorable way to wake up your morning.

Ikea Swedish Cafe

I used to think Ikea only sells furniture. Then I accidentally found out that there was a cafe inside Ikea store located at Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. I ordered a Scandinavian salmon, a plate of meatballs, a shrimp salad, spaghetti, two pies, a bottle of orange juice and a cup of softdrink for less than 100 Hong Kong dollars. It's not gourmet dinner. But it's definitely the best food I ever had for 100 Hong Kong dollars. The cafe was cleverly located on the 5th floor of the furniture, and you have to pass through a narrow one-way corridor all the way from the 3rd just to get here. And on the way you're forced to observe all the on-sale signs from various types of furniture and decorations under the Ikea brand. It reminded me of the cheap but delicious buffet offered at Las Vegas casinos and free drinks and snacks handed out at Macau casinos. I was among only a handful of people passed through the check-out counters empty handed, and the vast majority of peopled ended up buying something from the store. So in the end the store is still able to make a decent profit. I just hope that more companies can learn the success stories from Ikea, so I can have more places to go for delicious food at affordable prices.

Yue Minjun's Contemporary Terracotta Warriors Sculpture on Display in Hong Kong

Thirteen pieces of sculpture called Contemporary Terracotta Warriors from Chinese artist Yue Minjun were on exhibit at Open Piazza, Times Square in Hong Kong from May 27 to June 15, 2008. The admission time was from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm. I was there at 9:50 pm on Sunday, June 15, 2008 and got the chance to observe Yue Minjun's work in person for the very first time.

I had read a few comments by art critics before observing his work in such close range. One of them was trying to link the the fisk-rising statues to the protesting students with the Tienanmen Square incident in June 4, 1989. While another sees the thirteen statues representing 1.3 billion people hiding their true feelings underneath the hysterical laugh. But I saw none of that.

What I saw here was a cleverly orchestrated display by a contemporary artist, or businessman, who definitely knows how to grab public attention and increase value for his work. Yue's work had been auctioned for tens of millions and probably is the richest living Chinese artist. When I looked at 13 pieces of almost identical sculpture, I felt they were the products from a plastic toy factory in Dongguan. My emotions were not linked to anything, expect for the fact that the art exhibition is probably going to boost the image of this Wharf shopping mall - probably one of the most expensive property in Hong Kong. Over-prices contemporary Chinese art surrounded by bad-tasted jewelries and ridiculously-priced luxury brands being sold in a sky crapper built with money made from Hong Kong's economic bubble in the 90's.

These contemporary terracotta warriors will probably sold for millions of dollars after the exhibition. But I noticed that I was the only one observing them during the last 10 minutes of their exhibition. Most people just rushed in and out of the shopping mall with their bags, without taking a brief glance of the sculptures. I felt Yue's sculptures, the shoppers, the building all slowly turned into bubbles. And in the end, all the bubbles were gone and nothing was left except for the dirt and the sky.

Coffee with Goldfish on Rua Formosa

I passed by Rua Formosa the other day and found a large tank of goldfish at the entrance of a coffee shop. The seats right in front of the fishes were empty. Since I had no better things to do, I thought maybe I would have a cup of coffee with the fishes. So I walked inside and ordered a cup of coffee and sat for over three hours. For the entire afternoon, I just sat there, watching the fishes swimming back and forth, and imagine myself having a meaningful conversation with the fishes. Gees, that was a nice way to kill an afternoon on a lazy weekend.

Life and Death

I parked my car just outside the University of Macau campus yesterday. When I looked back, I saw a red car buried by huge pieces of rock and mud. The landslide was probably caused by heavy rain of the past few days. The car was totally wrecked. I walked pass the police line and peeked inside the car. There was no blood stain in the car and the door was not damaged. There was a note on the windshield urging the owner to contact the nearest public security office. So it's safe to assume that nobody was hurt in the incident.

Suddenly I realized I parked my car at the exact spot two days earlier. What would happen if that was my car instead of the red car that was damaged by the rocks? What would happen if I was in the car? At that moment I felt I was closer to death than ever before.

Worse still, other horrible moments of my life flashed back to me. The terrible moment of a flight I took from Bangalore to Mumbai 10 years ago came back to me right before my eyes. The Air India flight encountered a surprise air turbulence and dropped over a thousand feet in just a few seconds. The cabinet was serving lunch. I was already scared to death by the centrifugal force, The food and drink being splashed everywhere inside the cabinet, a few people banging their heads against the ceiling, and the scream by a couple hysterical ladies made me feel like being in the sinking Titanic and the whole plane would crash into pieces within five seconds. Although the plane landed safely in the land, I still have flash backs of that trip from time to time.

I still fly regularly. But I just can't forget that terrible moment occured 10 years ago. Air turbulence or buried car such as this one triggered another flashback. I hope one day I can truly overcome all the bad memories I had 10 years ago and won't be scared by another air turbulence and buried car.

Flying High with Air Macau Privileges Frequent Flyer Loyalty Program

In June of 2007, I went into a local branch of Bank of China in Macau and applied for a Bank of China - Air Macau co-branded MasterCard Platinum Card. Since I already flew with Air Macau a few times earlier that year and already had an Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card with me, I figure I could easily spend some money with my new credit card and would soon be eligible to accumulate enough points for free flights.

So I carefully entered my existing Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card number into the credit card application form. I received my new credit card within two weeks.

Another two weeks had passed and I though I had accumulated enough points to top up my previous flights in exchange for free flights. But I was surprised to find out that instead of transferring credit card spending points to my existing Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card, they issued me a new number and credited the points I spent on my credit card into my new Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty account.

So I called their hot-line and asked them to amend the situation. Then the staff politely told me to write them an email and promised me that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible. A month passed and nothing happened to my account. So I called again, wrote another email and waited another month. Still nothing happened. Then it became a monthly ritual for me - something I have to do every month in order to reinforce my presence on this planet - pay the mortgage, electricity bills, credit card payments, and call Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty program. Every month I would call the Air Macau customer service hotline, write them an email and then logged online only to find out nothing had happened to my account.

Maybe the process for handling such as case is too complicated. Maybe the staff handling my case thought I was just another insignificant little guy with only a few segments in his account. Maybe somebody within Air Macau thought it would be a waste of time to serve someone with enough miles to exchange for only one flight segment, and chances are little guys like that would never complaint and they could easily got away with their laziness. Maybe I was simply forgotten, again and again by various staff within Air Macau.

Today I looked at the calender and was about to repeat the ritual again. I suddenly realized that it was the anniversary of the story of my insignificant missing miles with Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty program. I just had a huge dumplings for breakfast and somehow I felt like doing something drastic to kick-start the day. So I searched for an annual report of Air Macau from the Internet and re-sent my email to all board of directors and senior managers. That was 8:00 a.m. in the morning.

By 11:00 a.m., I received an email from the public relations department of Air Macau, saying that my two Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty accounts had been merged and everything had resolved.

By 3:00 p.m., I received another phone call asked me if I had read the email the sent me. The only thing I had said to the person calling me was, "you should have called a year earlier."

Driving Under Severe Thunderstorm and Flooding at Estrada de Cacilhas in Macau

Heavy Security at Nam Kwong Building

I was going to drop off an envelop at one of the offices in Nam Kwong Building on Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues. It's very early in the morning and the usual working crowd had not yet arrived. The gate was closed and there was a huge sign outside saying, "No trespassing! You'll be prosecuted!" Pretty scary stuff. I knocked. Nobody answered. So I pushed the steel door open and saw the security guard snoring on his chair - right next to another sign saying, "All visitors must be receive clearance from the security before entering the building, or we will call the police!" I thought about waking him up and told him that I wanted to to get his permission to enter the building, but the more humane side of me gained control of my mind and my body. So I quietly sneaked into the elevator and dropped my document, took the elevator downstairs and left the place quietly. By the time I walked out of seemingly secure steel gate, the guard was still snoring in his finest dreams. So I took out my diary, pulled out a piece of paper and wrote "thank you" on it and left it on his table. In this way, we both got what we wanted - I got to drop off my document without any hassle and he got to continue to sleep on his chair. I wish I could sleep like him on my job.

China: Portrait of a Country by 76 Chinese Photographers

I always had very nice feelings towards German art publisher Taschen. It turned out some of the finest collection of conventional art, while provided opportunities for emerging experimental artists to showcase their talents. I also felt connected to the owner, Benedikt Taschen, who turned a comic store ran by a teenager 25 years ago into a brand name in the publishing world.

The latest work by Taschen, China: Portrait of a Country by 76 Chinese Photographers, is "a visual journey across the country and an exploration of its people and history since 1949." As someone grew up during the cultural revolution period in mainland China, I was emotionally attached to many of the photos and was particularly touched by the photos of ordinary citizens captured during extraordinary times, such as the great leap forward, cultural revolution, the death of Mao Zedong, and the economic reform. It's not just fine photos, it's a witness of a great moment in history. I haven't bought a photo collection in a long time, but I spent no time taking this one to the cashier. And I'm very proud to be able to have this book in my bookshelf.

Atashin'chi

I've been watching the anime series Atashin'chi on DVD over the weekend. Atashin'chi, short for atashi no uchi, literally means my home or my family, is plotted around the daily lives of the Tachibana family. At first I didn't quite understand why this series, which looked like a series of rough drafts of ugly characters, would end up with over 200 episodes being produced since 2002 and the series is still going strong at television stations across Asia. But after watching over 20 episodes over the weekend, I could clearly see why. The seemingly dysfunctional family really resemble with the daily lives of originally people. I watched their joy and their quarrels and compared it with similar incidents happened in my life – fighting over an ice-cream bar with your sister, buying useless stuff from 100-yen shops, quarrelling over bathroom in the morning, and many other ordinary things occurred daily at ordinary families. I’m not sure if the series was produced for young children, but I was having a really good time watching it. Highly recommended if you're interested in some ordinary family fun.

Procession of Our Lady of Fátima in Macau

One of the few local celebrations I had not witnessed in person was the Our Lady of Fátima Procession held on May 13 of every year. I happened to walk pass Sao Domingos Church in the afternoon of May 13 and finally got the chance to witness this unique Macau tradition. I was told that the event is held every year to commemorate a miraculous visitation to three shepherds in Portugal in 1917. Spectators, tourists and followers alike, crowed Sao Domingos Church and the routes led to the Cathedral and Penha Church. The statue of Our Lady of Fátima was dressed in white and carried by devotees also dressed in white.

Right after the mass and before the procession began, a lady walked pass me just outside Sao Domingos Church and handed me a card with Our Lady of Fátima on one side and a nice prayer printed on the other side. I said thank you and she said, "May you be blessed by Our Lady of Fátima."

Although I am neither a Catholic nor a Christian, I still got very nice impressions of the way they celebrated their faith and showed others what their faith is all about. the Our Lady of Fátima Procession is one of the lesser known event, but it is definitely one of the more important ones.

Maxim's Ice Dumpling

When Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC - 278 BC) committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he found out that the ancient state of Chu had lost a vital battle. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu's body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and carved dragon head on the boat's prow.

Since then, Chinese people eat bamboo-wrapped steamed rice dumplings called zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats in memory of Qu Yuan's death.

But that was then, and this is now. Such stories could be easily found in Chinese history textbooks. And I had probably heard about it 1,000 times before. We even have a public holiday for this and people racing dragon boats all over the lakes and rivers. Since my mind had automatically connected the whole idea of rice dumplings and dragon boat racing with myths happened 2,000 years ago and traditions, I was surprised to find some people had made an interesting twist to this.

Maxim's Caterers Limited of Hong Kong had produced this strange-looking ice dumpling. Each giant triangle plastic box contains three flavors: Maxim's Mango Ice Dumpling, Maxim's Green Tea and Red Bean Ice Dumpling and Maxim's Sesame Ice Dumpling. It had to be kept in refrigerator at 1 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius.

When I finally opened this ice dumpling, my mind was more confused than ever before. A bakery chain in Hong Kong using a classic French name and selling what appeared to be traditional Chinese food but tasted like contemporary Japanese ice-cream. If that's the definition of fusion food, then it's just too confusing for me.

I opened the ice dumpling. And it's very similar to ice-cream. I looked at the label, for the Maxim's Green Tea and Red Bean Ice Dumpling, it's made of water, modified starch, white bean paste (contains milk and milk products), red bean, sugar, maltose, green tea paste, flavor and flavoring. And I looked at the ingredients of another box of Japanese ice-cream, they are almost identical. What don't they just sell ice-cream and tell the customer that they are buying Japanese-style ice-cream? Why do those marketing gurus have to make things more complicated than necessary? The news just said that there are more people with mental illness than ever before. It has to be. We are make the work more complicated than ever before. But is it necessary?

If Qu Yan is alive today and gets to see what people had done with his favor dumplings - turning his favor food into green tea and red bean ice-cream, he would probably throw himself back into the river and commit suicide again.