The First Day of the Year of Dragon

I slept through the first half of the first day of the year of dragon, when Google was busy updating its Doodles to reflect the Chinese new year.

Beijing has been very cold recently and setting fireworks last night turns out to be a lot of work. The celebration of the new year includes, as usual, a dinner at the mid-night, fireworks, CCTV’s new year eve Gala, and greetings to family members when the clock strikes at 12.

Around 1AM last night there was even greater firework show outside. Not too upset about missing the firework show though. Today we explore a new type of cuisine: the northwestern cuisine. 西贝莜面村, a restaurant chain specializing in the northwestern cuisine.

Hand-made yogurt and cold noodle salad.

The barley and sticky rice cake, with Hawthorne berry dipping sauce.

The stir fry cabbage.

The steamed hand-made buckwheat pasta with vegetable dipping sauce.

Fireworks at the New Year Eve

The eve of the year of dragon seems always more meaningful than other lunar years. I stocked up my fireworks one day earlier than before. Due to the safety concern, Beijing has significantly restricted the types of fireworks that can be purchased by its residents. In other words, the size and power of these fireworks are much smaller than before.

But it does not reduce the fun of setting them off before.

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The Eve of Chinese New Year

Today is the eve of the Chinese New Year. The year of Dragon.

For me, the eve of a lunar new year also means a routine/traditional itinerary: setting out the fireworks, watching the New Year Gala TV show, and enjoying the hand-made dumplings at the mid-night.

Beijing is back to its true and more importantly, normal, nature: a bit chilly, bright sunny day, clean street, and occasionally firecrackers here and there (fireworks are not allowed until 5:30PM today, but people always want to venture out for that forbidden fun).

The Grand Hyatt feels a lot empty as well. Last night the gym and the pool are nearly empty. The Red Moon, our favorite bar, are closed from January 22 through 25, so we went for a drink again last night.

The bar had at most three or four guests at the time, with a live band performing some new age songs with Chinese traditional music instruments. Peacefully calm and pleasant, just exactly what I was looking for.

This morning the street is even more deserted. Finally a time to breathe the fresh air and enjoy the view of this ancient and grand city.

Flims in January

I am not sure whether this has anything to do with ski resort. Whenever I am near a ski area, such as Denver, Boulder, Park City, and now Flims, Switzerland, within a couple of hours, my throat feels painfully dry, my face skin is peeling, and my lung feels stuffed. As if I am going to have a cold.

Oddly, this kind of condition never occurred when I was on the top of Mauna Kea. So there must be some tropical counter-agent in that type of mountains.

I do say Flims is really nice, and the snow is beautiful.

This afternoon, I was able to take a walk to see the famous Lag la Caumasee (reads almost like “come ‘n’ see”.) My Swiss colleagues told me the lake is known for its beautiful color because when snows melts, it brings the minerals in the mountains to the lake.

The front desk girl told me it was about 15 minutes walk by passing a small and thick forest. Later on, as it turned out, was indeed 15 minutes, for round trip. “You won’t get lost,” she promised, “because if you feel lost, you can just ask anyone.”

Of course. In a forest, in a place that hardly has long and straight streets. At some point I lost my way. There was an old lady with her dog near her car in a parking lot, so I decided to ask for direction. Sure enough, she does not speak English. Just wonder why I bothered to spend two years studying German in college and when I need it, I could barely remember anything.

So I pulled out my pocket map and pointed the lake’s name to her. It is also quite amazing just how with one speaking German, and the other speaking English, the body language and point around can help. Within 10 seconds I was back on the right track to the lake.

The sign pointing to the lack is easily spotted and to follow. Finally, behind me, and in front of the lake. The lake and the view are magnificent. Unfortunately, the color of the lake was hidden underneath the snow. Water fountains, scattered along the trail, still work!And build various ice sculptures. You definitely need this one in the winter here. Snow so heavy on the tree branches.The snow on the roof of these house looks like white cake icing.

The famous yellow Postauto passing by one of these houses.

The end of the skiing day for these skiers.

The ice over snow shows there has been quite some sunny days.

The yellow snow sandwich…

The old castle is now used for luxury apartments.The view from my window: on the shady side of the mountain.On the sunny side of the mountains.

Happy New Year!

The first day of 2012. Happy New Year!

Cannot believe this is 2012 already. The 365 days of 2011 feel just like yesterday.

What is the best way to spend on this day? Well, for me, on the air. So should I pat my shoulder for contributing to the U.S. air travel industry from day one?

Of course, it is so sad to leave Honolulu, where I did nothing but sun and fun. The bottom line is, I need another vacation for this vacation.

Cannot blame me. The last two months of 2011 have been a nightmare, and make this vacation so desperately needed. I have been rather surprised that I have not had zillions meltdowns.

Ex post, however, it makes this vacation so memorable and pleasant.

Even Google has a more pleasant Doodle this time.

Happy holidays and best wishes for a great 2012!

The Brilliant Poster of “The Flowers of War”

I cannot wait for the release of Zhang Yimou‘s new movie “The Flowers of War.” The film is based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing by Geling Yan, a famous writer. The film is set in the World War II time of 1937, in the city of Nanjing during the Nanjing Massacre, a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanjing (Nanking), the former capital of the Republic of China.

A couple of days ago, the 4th poster was released. Among all the movie posters, this is absolutely most stunning.

The first trailer of this movie has just become available at YouTube recently. Here is the link.

Evening Stroll along the River

Beautiful.

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Love Les Nereides

Look what I found deep down in this narrow alley of Paris. The concept store of Les Nereides. Nothing fancy or pricy, but the design is so creative, and so lovely. Nereides are the goddess of the sea based on Greek mythology.

The first one is from the theme of Little Red Ridding Hood. Mr. Wolf in black, in contrast with the red ridding hood on the right.

The second one is this year’s new collection, the ballet dancer. I love the details of this necklace. Even the end of the chain is made of red ballet shoe. The figurine comes in white, blue, pink, and red. True to most Asians, I just cannot resist anything red.

The third one is another set of collection. Various versions of bikes (including the electronic bikes that are unique in France): pink, black, blue, and yellow. The Parisian girl thought for a while: “Well, you should choose the yellow bike, because it is an ordinary bike, not electronic bikes, which is easier to explain to people.” I have to say it is always amusing as how people view fashion or justify fashion.

The last piece: A rabbit robs a bank.

It can also be worn together.Or even as chain rings on finger.

KLM Lounge’s Wireless Code

First time ever once I arrived at Amsterdam, I found out my connecting flight was cancelled.

While waiting at the KLM Transfer Desk, I stopped an agent and asked: “Do you have any Sky Priority Line to process this?”

She looked at me as if I am from another planet: “No.”

That did not discourage me. “Can KLM Lounge process the re-booking then?”

She shook her head: “They cannot. The only way is for you to wait in line and someone will help you.”

I do not mind waiting in line, but I prefer to have passengers in front of me frequent travelers or professionals, so that no time wasted for both, but I know that is almost impossible.

“There is another Transfer Desk that has a shorter line. Transfer Desk 4″ After 5 minutes a KLM agent came out and shouted.

While the crowd was hesitating, I had to grab this.

Quickly zip through the hallway, and, here it is, Transfer Desk 4. No line. No waiting. We were immediately served.

When we got out, the line started forming behind us.

We were booked for the next flight by Air France. The reason for cancellation of our original KLM flight? “Fog”. Said the KLM agent.

These days one just has to take anything for the face value.

That leaves two hours in the KLM lounge.

I have to write about this one. Upon checking in, I asked the wireless access code. The LLM agent showed me the code: klm221111.

“It is klm plus today’s date.” She added.

And today’s date happens to be 22/11/2011.

It does not need someone of numerology to figure it out.

I laughed: “I see. That is easy!”

Stinky Monkey looked confused. Maybe that 9 hours of flight?

Then the agent, apparently in a chatty mode, noticed the same and nodded: “See, it is always the women who got the code right away. For guys, they always ask: can you write down the code for me please? They just cannot get it.”

I glanced at Stinky Monkey, who was still perplexed. Could not agree more.

The guy remained silent and smiling.

The Dutch lady smiled and commented more: “But he is smart of being quiet and understanding.”

Well, what can I say?

A Beautiful Fall Sunday

It is a beautiful Sunday. And I am still in my office. Why?

At least outside of my office window, everything is beautiful. Some pictures to cheer me up!

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