Off to Bejing tomorrow, around 9-ish. (The trip is like Vancouver -> Beijing -> Xi’an -> Hong Kong -> Vancouver. Leave on Nov 9, back on Dec 2) Still haven’t finished packing, deciding how much wears I should be bringing, probably don’t need a lot as I’m pretty sure I’ll be stocking up some in Hong Kong (as usual). I’m going to stay at Wendy’s place in Beijing so that saves a lot of money… still going to have to book accomodations at Xi’an though, and will be staying at parent’s house in Hong Kong of course. I’m looking forward to see the “Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses” so much, always wanted to see it in real. Going to be exciting, will have lots of fun, take lots of pictures, buy lots of pointless stuff, and maybe get drunk!

Here is the itinerary for Xi’an (in Chinese though):
11 Nov train at 21:24 from Beijing to Xi’an arrived at 9am on 12 Nov
12 Nov ??????????????????????????
13 Nov ???????????????
14 Nov ??????????
15 Nov ?????? flight leaving at 6pm from Xi’an to Beijing

Just got Parallels Desktop for Mac. Played around with it for a bit, I thought it was really cool. I can run Windows XP at nearly native speed within Mac OSX, in a Window! When I resized the window, the display resolution in XP adapted to it instantly, I thought this was really amazing. Also, desktop can be shared between OSX and XP seamlessly, so I could basically download a game for the Mac from XP, put it on the XP desktop, and look for it under the OSX desktop! Since Parallels Desktop is a “virtual machine”, I could even set up any amount of RAM, hard disk space….etc for the virtual machine, and XP will think that it is running under that system. Wow I never thought it is ever possible to build cool stuff like this… I don’t need a PC now… Mac rules (I’ve also tried Bootcamp, it’s a similar product but you need to restart your Mac in order to boot into Windows XP, which realy sucked)

Since I’ll be leaving for Beijing (China) and Hong Kong coming Friday, went out for some last minute shopping today. Damn, ended up spending over $500 in total… it was too hard or impossible to restraint myself from getting all these cool things that I like. Went to this Chinese bookstore “SUP” at Aberdeen Centre (the name sounds really cool IMO) to get a couple books so I have something to waste time on when I travel, like this Korean language learning kit with textbook/CD, and a book about European Mythology which I think will be interesting to read (total $99). Also got a crossover bag pack ($220), a spare battery for my Macbook ($159), and an inflatable pillow for use on the plane ($6). I was going to get this nice Jacket in Richmond Centre but I thought I was too broke to do so Anyway I’m now broker than ever, guess I really have to take on a couple more web design projects to balance it off!

Korie sent me these vids….these hamsters are just too cute! Korie, show these vids to your hamster and see if he’s willing to learn!

Got some fresh, huge sea scallops from Benny. They are called “U10″ which is uncommonly huge in size and hard to get (U10 means 8-10 scallops per pound). I cooked them in salted butter, as soon as the butter was melted I spread on a little salt and sugar, and some fresh grounded pepper. Cooked one side for about 90 seconds, flipped, and cooked the other side for another 90. The middle part of it was still a little rare, looks opaque, which was perfectly tender. Dressed with some dry parsley and tobasco (merely to give it some color), here comes the ultra delicious pan fried sea scallop!

While everyone else was having fun out with their fireworks, we chose to celebrate this special day at the comfort of my house. Benny and Janet came over around 10pm for some late night fun. Janet prepared some really surprisingly tasty ahi tuna salad. If I heard it right it’s got raw ahi tuna, avocado, chopped jalapeno / pepper / green onion, some unknown really spicy sauce (?!?!), and vinegar. She said the tuna is supposed to be “cooked” in the sauce mixture and it was overcooked when she got here, but in fact Benny and I thought it was really delicious. It was too tasty I was busy eating didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it

We played some Wii after, played this “Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz” game which was really fun. I think I played the game once or twice but apparently Janet had played it many times from seeing how pro she was in the game. Benny and I were okay, myself being the weakest of all I guess..

After some appies (gravlax salmon, naan bread with red curry sauce) and some drinks (Cranberry Martini, China White, Pinot Gris wine), we watched Silent Hill (2006) with lights switched off…8-O pretty darn scary IMO with these gross zombies wobbling around… haha… too bad my laptop froze up around 2/3 of the movie