Today is the 2nd day after getting back home, having serious hay fever since I disembarked at the Beijing Airport. It was terrible that the symptoms broke out so quickly at the airport and I was sneezing and my nose was watering crazily, and it was an hour before my next 10-hour flight to Vancouver - someone on the plane is going to be really pissed off. Needless to say, I had a terrible 10-hour flight (luckily I stole loads of toilet paper from the washroom before boarding), couldn’t sleep at all. The girl next to me was probably scared seeing the toilet paper that I kept in my hands and at one point, I had to plug both of my nostrils with the paper to stop my nose from dripping. Still feeling bad right now, sneezing like crazy. Oh well.

The trip was very satisfying. I got to go to Tung Ping Chau (remote island off Hong Kong) with mom to see some really exotic landscape (mainly rocks along the shore). $260 HKD includes accomodation, 3 meals, and roundtrip ferry! Went to the Hong Kong Wetland Park to check out some birds and some gardens. Got to go to the renovated Ocean Park with Wendy to see one of the world’s biggest water tanks in the aquarium. But the highlight had to be the 6-day trip to JiangJiaJie in China - it was so packed with activities that I actually felt overwhelmed. I broke my lens again first day of the trip, lol. The front element came off again, but luckily I was able to borrow some tape from a Chinese restaurant and got it fixed temporarily. I broke the UV filter the last day of the trip though, my back pack fell off the bed to the floor, and the glass broke! That’s another $20..

I had quite a few “first times” during the past 3 weeks..First time

• Seeing a dead motorcyclist along the road (I was in a tour bus) and his wife was facing down crying, realizing from deep within my heart how fragile lives can be. Hope his wife will be okay.
• Seeing in person one of the best panorama views in China - floating gardens at the YuanJiaJie Scenic Area, where they took the scenery and used in Avatar.
• Witnessing the worst Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan. I was having lunch with Vincent in Hong Kong when I saw the news that showed how the 20m tall tsunami consumed the lands in Sendai/Japan. I had a true sense of terror, further confirming that the world is indeed going to end.
• Truly worried about Wendy’s safety (in terms of her getting injured) as the day she landed in Tokyo was the day the earthquake struck. Thank god she wasn’t in Sendai! I wish I was there.
• Realizing that eating Gwei Ling Go (Tortoise Jelly) can cure the peeling skin around my nose! I took 10+ of them when I was in Hong Kong my nose had never looked so good! I got to look for getting them here in Van.
• Getting ripped by a drug store in China. Paid 1800RMB for 3 boxes of drugs recommended by this guy that knows Qi Gong. He said that my liver is weak and has toxins and the Qi Gong that he applied to me (really felt it!) plus the drug will cure me in a month. Actually I don’t know if the drugs is going to work, will see.

Getting back to work tomorrow…argh.

Just got home from the JiuZhaiGou 6-day trip, in Hong Kong now. The trip was pretty nice, saw some crazy views from top of Mt. Emei, some really clear water at JiuZhaiGou, and checked out some shows during the nights with quite a few really talented performers. I got sick 4 days into the trip since it was super cold, I think I caught a cold on day 1 but it didn’t develop until day 4. Luckily, thanks to this cold meds I bought at the JiuZhaiGou airport, the cold magically disappeared.

Bought two really good books from the airports in China. Books were really cheap, like $2-3 Canadian could get you a full colored, 300 pages book, couldn’t resist not to get some. One of them is kinda like world geography, talks about all the cities and countries around the world, with their flags and info and stuff. The other one shows the prettiest places around the world.

Some shit happened during the trip though. I lost the eye cup for my Olympus camera, and the lens cover for my 12-60mm lens. Not really sure where I lost them, probably due to the fact that it was so crowded in China and somehow these parts came loose when people around bumped into me. I was able to buy a new eye cup at the Olympus service centre in MongKok (Hong Kong) for $190HKD, and a no-brand 72mm lens cover for $30HKD. Sucks.

Today I came across some stores that sell kitchen/bathroom hardware, so I checked out some nice faucets and ended up getting this really nice one, for $1888HKD. I already got one from Ikea but it was kinda too short, I’ll return it and install this new one when I get home.

Today is the day for the traditional Lunar Chinese New Year. Since they don’t appreciate Chinese New Year as much as actually turning it into an official holiday here in Canada, it was a regular work day for me (pretty envy that the folks in China are all having a 1-week vacation). Anyway, I got a chance to have dinner with Alice and Matthew last night. Had a bunch of traditional Chinese food for New Years like dried oyster/mushroom, BBQ duck….etc. It was pretty tasty and I got to see the folks counting down for the New Year at Aberdeen Centre (a Chinese mall) on TV.

Today after work I went to visit Wendy’s family, I brought over some Ferrero Rocher, got some red pocket (=D) and was invited to go up to have a drink. Chatted about some random stuff like the economy crisis (that I really don’t care about), their newly installed floorings and decorations…etc.

Also I finished watching another Japanese drama called “Monster Parent”. It was pretty interesting and I will do a review soon.

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!

I just sold my Fujifilm F50fd digital camera that I got from Ebay like 3 weeks ago…lol. Sold it to a guy on Craigslist for $350, not bad at all~ Reason selling it was to invest in this Canon G9 camera, much higher end than the F50fd even though both are 12 megapixels (here is a review, here is another one with sample images.) The F50fd was overall a great camera, slim, handsome looking, powerful… but the image quality was worse than expected so not too long after getting it I was already in search of a replacement 8O. After couple dozen hours of research, I ended up picking up the top-of-the-line Canon G9, which is a 12 megapixel with a 6X optical zoom and an image stablizer. Turned out to be one of my best decision made this year, the image quality is stunning. Great color, accurate focus, good low light performance (ISO 400 with not much noise), and solid steel sturdy body. Macro performance is amazing too, I was placing the lens as close as 0.5 cm from an object and it was able to focus with ease! Movie taking quality was great compared to the Fujifilm F50fd - color was accurate and I was able to zoom in/out during recording.

I’m looking forward to utilize my new camera to its max during my next vacation to China in the coming month!