invisiblecompany

An article in kitchn about cheese and onion sarnie led to another one about ploughman’s lunch. According to the people at AT, a ploughman’s consists of:

• Branston pickle
• a few pieces of your choice of English cheeses; Cotswold, Huntsman, Stilton, Shropshire Blue, English Cheddar, etc.
• a hunk of crusty bread
• a pint of good English ale
• (optional) cold cuts or pâté
• (optional) apples
• (optional) hard boiled eggs or pickled eggs

I would normally not eat the pickled onions and no, the apple isn’t optional.

And now I have a craving for branston, even though I didn’t usually have it even in London. Sigh. It’s available in the US from amazon and other online british food places. What I find interesting is the “other customers also bought” bit which shows: HP sauce, marmite, golden syrup, piccalilli and ribena. Double, triple, quadrupole sigh. Major homesickness about to hit in 3, 2, 1….

p.s. Brits — did the packaging on the branston change? it’s different from before.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78pl1FUXfA

Perfect timing, Jeff Bridges wins this year’s Oscar, and the first trailer for Tron Legacy comes out.

I was the absolute right age for the original Tron. I loved, loved, loved it. Who didn’t? Even almost 30 years later, it doesn’t look its age. There was something magical about the film that’s hard to describe.

Man, December seems soooooo far away.

Numerically it’s less than last year’s but everybody’s is down. Mine’s not as much reduced comparatively so I’m okay about it.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoDCiTsS7dU

If/when I become published I want to design my own covers. I won’t be able to paint or draw them since I’m an awful painter, but I can photoshop and I have definite ideas about what visual elements I want in my book covers.

I have a long way to go and much to learn though. This time lapse video from Lauren Panepinto, the creative director of orbit books shows the amount of skill needed, condensing 6 hours of work into 2 minutes. There’s even a brief interview about her approach. My awe of designers just went into orbit (pun intended).

Comments at bb rightly pointed out how effective this was as a marketing tool for the book. I must admit I am not bought into video trailers for books but based on this particular video, I can see myself checking out the book (due out Sept 2010 and is part of a series). Of course it helps that it’s steampunk and has vampires in it.

I got my niece hooked on doodlejump and now it’s reached 3 million in sales. It’s very addictive.

26 things for feb 2010:

1. structure
2. follow
3. covet
4. triple
5. hands
6. eye
7. fancy
8. time
9. rainbow
10. sadness
11. stack
12. line up
13. wheels
14. an insect
15. into the air
16. direction
17. new
18. half
19. set up
20. 10 mins away
21. in my mailbox
22. sometimes
23. bottle
24. behind the scenes
25. corner
26. a door

In the middle of all the holiday eating, meeting with people, shopping stuff, I decided to do this month’s 26things in HK and completing another 101.1001 task, which is to use a colour theme. It wasn’t hard to decide on red. Click on each pic for brief notes. Link to full set: here

6.26km 41.38min 6.39min/km

The sun was out today, about time I went for a run. It has been a while. My legs felt heavy and sore, so the time is only average. Time to start training.

Standchart results are in. As expected my time was 1:14:59. Within my class I came in 132/243. Overall for the 10k challenge I was 3914/5144. The winner of my class completed in 38.37, very impressive. Like I said, time to start training. I’m now confirmed for the rock and roll half in August.

Mixed in with the thousands of articles in my greader is news that google has bought picnik. Heh, this feels like writely 2.0, yet another hidden gem that’s been snapped up by the google monster. I hope they keep what’s good about picnik, how easy it is to use, how convenient. It’s no match for full blown photoshop (although it may be a photoshop.com competitor, I don’t know I don’t use ps.com), for quick edits I prefer it.

We had a visitor from the london office this week, and my nice colleagues took her out for chicago style deep dish pizza. I tagged along to Lou Malnati’s, which according to some people, has the best deep dish pizza in town.

The pizza itself was pretty good. We had two: the Lou’s which is spinach, mushroom and sliced tomato; and the sausage. Personally I prefer the vegetarian one, the sausagemeat was a whole layer spread on the crust which was too much for me. Man, the slices were thick and the crust as crunchy as expected.

What I can say is that the pizza is the best thing at the place, possibly the only good thing. Service was mediocre, on the slow side. Initially they placed us in a desolate upstairs area when downstairs wasn’t even full. We had to ask to be moved downstairs to better surroundings. The pinot noir we ordered with the pizza wasn’t bad. Compared with Giordano’s I probably prefer the latter.

I spent most of today with a parade of people in and out of my office. If they are to be believed, I was missed at work. That’s so nice of them to say so. I’m jetlagged so just able to function. Easing back to routine slowly.

I took today off, it wasn’t practical to get home so late and go straight to work the next day. Supermarket, vacuum, make lunch for the rest of the week, the day went by really quickly.

Links to pics for the trip: shunde | hong kong general | eating out start here

Long day today, because of the flight. Parents booked the taxi to take us to the airport, I was at the lounge for about 1 hour. Now that I’m “only” at gold level I don’t get upgraded, but I absolutely cannot complain. Food was good, watched The Blindside and lots of Deadliest Catch. Up in the Air was also on, and I guess we could have not gone to see it, cos mm is also on a plane today, to London. Nah, it was worth it to go with her.

Layover at LAX was 2 hours. I was worried. You never know what’s gonna happen at US airports, they’re the epitome of what airports should not be — unpredictable, crowded, disorganised, bad. I was one of the first off the plane, immigration was fast, but my luggage got mixed in with the regular luggage. X-ray check was painless, so I got lucky. Was able to check my suitcases right outside the exit, and then something surprised me — 2 staff members were on hand to ask where I was going and to help direct me to my next terminal. Wow. Well impressed.

The American terminal is just around the corner from the international, 2mins walk, no big deal. Security was decent, and I got into the first class lounge for some odd reason. Much needed 45mins rest, and to have some food.

Flight to ORD was full. Long walk to taxi stand. Home at 10.30pm. Door to door, over 21hrs. The snow that I had to drive through 3 weeks ago is still here, looks like they kept it cold for me.

I set the alarm for 4.15am but I was up before then. Excitement. I didn’t wake mm up, got all my running gear and was out of the door at around 4.40am.

It’s marathon day. Okay, I’m only on the 10k challenge, may be next year I’ll do the half. It was dark when I started, I stupidly signed up for the first race at 5.15am. In hindsight, it turned out to be a good decision. 91% humidity made for terrible running conditions. I had my camera with me, so I took my time. I’d wanted to try to break 1hr, and in those conditions I didn’t even try. I think my time was around 1:15, it doesn’t matter.

The later races were still going on when I got back to mm’s. Because of the traffic, she didn’t make it to mass, and we stole an hour or so more together time. I tried hard not to cry when we said goodbye. We’ve spent a lot of time in different countries throughout our relationship, it’s nothing new. I just don’t know what to do with our future.

Met parents, sis and niece for lunch. While parents went off to do their own things, I went ice skating with sis and niece. I was pretty out of practice, there were too many kids, I was done after half an hour. Tired from the running anyway.

I really didn’t want to go out for dinner, so home food it was. Thanks, Mum.

Time is running out to spend with mm. Originally wanted to meet for lunch, but she was tired so I said let’s meet in the afternoon. A few more hours lost. We’ll have time, some other time.

Saw Up in the Air. Although I’ll never get millions of miles like the George Clooney character, there were a few similarities especially when I was travelling so much a few years ago, not least that I recognise that all admiral’s club lounges look the same. There was some serious product placement in that film — AA and Hilton and Hertz stand out. mm said she never wants me to become like that, I know she always worried whenever I travel.

Dinner at our usual korean place. We didn’t even need to discuss — korean for lunch and dinner were 2 different places, and it was automatic.

She showed me a couple of iphone games she’s been playing, and we eventually fell asleep at 1am.

 

Lunch at city hall with ubs people. Then an afternoon of errands. Long overdue haircut, massage, last minute shopping.

Dinner with SC and AK. Jap food, naturally. Highlight was fresh sashimi from the fish, then the bones were made into soup. Nice.

I was at work all afternoon. Joined them for lunch, then showed a few of them a demo of the new system. Talked with R for over an hour. Didn’t leave till 7.30pm. Lots to think about.

 

The eating continues. I’ve been over my calorie goal, and no exercising, for more than 2 weeks. But, I’m on holiday, right?

Went with parents to the café marco for lunch buffet. Seniors get a discount so there were quite a few there taking advantage. It was well worth even the full price. Everything was so well done — salad, seafood, sashimi, 3 hot dish stations, extensive desserts, chocolate fountain, movenpick ice cream. Amazing.

After all the gorging, Mum and I spent our energy hunting for a wii. Went to the golden arcade, but the ones on offer there were too “fixed” — she couldn’t use regular disks, had to download into a flashdrive — I didn’t know where to do that. So we went back to 188 and got the proper version for a higher price. I got a couple of games myself too — lego star wars and sports resort.

Dinner with sis and my niece at tokio joe. I was stuffed from lunch but couldn’t pass up more fresh delicious japanese food.

 

Went to the office after lunch. Talked for a bit with my colleagues but mainly it was spending time with mm. She was busy but was able to get away early so we can go to dinner. I had a couple of hours to spare, it was perfect to photograph the wan chai area. There are still old buildings and temples there, not sure how much longer they will be around. I’ve always always wanted to photograph the blue building, it’s kind of a mecca for photographers.

 

For dinner, mm took me to a Japanese grill place. We had warm sake and the usual grilled food — ox tongue, fish, chicken wings. Our favourite turned out to be riceball skewers, the rice was grilled to perfection. Yum.

I had a legitimate excuse to stay with her tonight — I need to use her wifi to upload pictures. There’s no wireless at home, I couldn’t connect via ethernet, and Sis’ network was so screwed up by her network engineer friend that I couldn’t find a single connection. So, it’s over to mm’s place. One click and the airport was on. Of course that’s because she has my airport express and I set it all up myself. Heehee.

Went up to Sis’ place for lunch. She had an errand to run up to the Peak so I went with her — wow it’s so touristy. My niece wanted to play lego star wars with me, she’s soooo good. Kept telling me to “relax” and “I’ll take care of it”. I think I’ll need to buy that game too.



For dinner, went with parents all the way to the other side of town, to tai po, for clay pot rice. It’s just a small chachantang, but the variety was impressive and the food was good.

Sometimes it’s good to stay home. Mum and I went to a noodle place famous for its pork liver noodles. And that’s what they sold almost exclusively. I worked out that the profit margins are huge, no wonder there’s like 3 branches on the same stretch of the street. We went to the electronics street and got small stuff like manually charging torches, it’s cute.

Another bbmm day. We had lunch at a “modern” chachantang (although they’ve been in business for decades) then aimlessly walked around. Eventually ended up where the marathon expo was happening and I picked up my kit a day early. Went for foot massage at the usual place then went back to our respective homes.

Times Square CNY decoration is a giant vase and ball, very red but pretty nice. We took advantage of mm still on holiday to meet up there to check out glasses. I had my eyes tested. Sigh, slight presbyopia (old age eyes) has begun to set in, but not serious enough yet. The optometrist says I can survive as is for another year or so.

When we have no plans, we tend to want to go on a bus ride, so we took the #968 and ended up in yuen long. Had dessert, bought some snacks, walked the length of the main street and took the bus back out. No plan is a great plan.

We were travelling with our bags today. Lunch at the Dragon’s restaurant where we had dim sum on the first day. There were a lot of people, so mm got us a private room — had to order a la carte, and a bit more expensive. Still good value.

More snack shopping — biscuits, sponge cake and all sorts. Bus was on time and today it was more a hassle, had to get off and on the bus twice for customs cos they weren’t in the same building.

Quick dinner of hainanese chicken rice and I was glad to be home.

 

Today’s itinerary can be summed up by these 2 pots. Lunch was at a local restaurant that specialised in “chicken and pork stomach” pot. There was a long wait for it, may be they had to cook the chicken? It arrived with the chicken in the soup, a bit like sukiyaki. It was again, fresh and delicious.

The second pot is fish congee. The fish was swimming fresh, the flesh went into the congee and the bones was steamed. A theme to the food here is everything fresh.

In between? We went to Walmart and bbmm went for foot massage. Weather is very very cold.

I can’t remember the last time I was in the mainland. Shanghai may be? That was over 6 years ago. Sounds just about right.

Basically, mm bought a flat and spent a lot of effort decorating it. So we went there, and my parents came along too. It was pretty straightforward to go — a 45min coach journey to the border, get our bags, go through 2 sets of immigration, get back on the coach for the remainder 2-3hr trip. Her place is nice, in her style.

We had a dim sum lunch, then visited the Qing Hui gardens right in the city centre. It’s not very big, surrounded by buildings and streets but once inside, there’s surprisingly a lot hidden. Turn a corner and there’s something new, another pond, another doorway leading to another exhibit. Pics: whole set

Dinner was the most scrumptious lamb hot pot ever. We had lamb, blood, skin, and all sorts of interesting parts, all in a hot pot. Plus rice cooked in coconut that was perfect. I didn’t charge my S90, so no pictures. Sigh.

Went to the supermarket nearby, got some snacks and sweets and milk and stuff. Got parents home, then we went for massage. It was late when we finished, and cold outside, after a quick (and not hot enough) shower there wasn’t much to do except crawl into bed.

Lunch with mm’s family at the usual restaurant, with the usual food. Always so predictable. I didn’t have a lot of time last week to shop for the kids (I knew about the lunch late) so I made do with Jewel chicago shopping bags. heehee.

Met up with Mum to go shopping for one of the main items on my shopping list, the drool-worthy canon s90. It’s not that much cheaper, I bought it anyway. I’m bummed that the mbp doesn’t have connectivity, so I wasn’t in a hurry to try it out by going crazy with taking pictures. First impressions:

• sharp looking, fast shutter, clear screen
• familiar P, TV, AV settings
• low light, f2
• good zoom
• lots more function than the common point-and-shoot
• I keep missing the zoom, hitting the notch underneath the wheel instead
• didn’t come with a case

Flight arrived early at 6.45am, I was one of the first off and was out through Immigration quicker than the bags. My duffel came out first (as in the first off the belt) but the suitcase only came with the non-priority bags, brrrr. Got on the train, called home, off the train straight to the taxi and I was home by something like 7.30am. It’s cold. No heating. Took a while to unpack all the food I’d brought back. Showered and got online. Very frustrated that I can’t seem to connect my mbp to the modem, Mum doesn’t have wifi. So now I’m stuck with the 2004 PC that runs like a run/walk marathoner at mile 22. Sigh.

The good thing was, I had steamed fish for lunch and everything my parents cooked was great. It is nice to see them.

Went out in the afternoon to meet up with mm. It is valentine’s day after all. She was tired and asleep. What else could I do but join her? I was jetlagged too. Eventually we pulled ourselves up, cos otherwise we’d sleep through the night. She took me to a conveyor belt sushi place that was very yummy. The plan was to walk around but my energy level was fading so I called it a day.

I basically lost today on the plane. It’s usual when I fly west over the international date line. I slept for about 4 hrs, had a nice dinner, watched lots of TV. I wasn’t expecting it, but no I didn’t get bumped. Can’t complain. Who gets to go on vacation on C-class?

I’m at SFO. The pic was taken at ORD. The flight was fine, only 4-ish hours. There was a delay of 30mins, so I stayed in the Admiral’s Club a little longer, but when I got to the gate they’d already started boarding and was at Group 3, drat. It was interesting and annoying to see all these people with their wheelies, trying to cram into the tight overhead spaces. Not many gamers of the system this time. Full flight, but I was comfortable, read a book, ate a choc chip cookie I got from training yesterday.

The walk from the domestic to the international terminal at SFO was quite far, but I got my new boarding pass very quickly once I found the counter. The stupidest part was at security. Which yo-yo had the bright idea that priority = first, business and families with children? Families with children do not know how to get through security quickly so who suffers? The same people who know, have paid for, and expect to get through security quickly. ARGH!!!!

So this is why I’m kinda in a rush here. I wolfed down a cup noodle, and just managed to check all my mafia and vampire wars stuff. Boarding to HKG soon.

Three days of workday training complete. Lots of information to absorb. Very hands-on training. I was forever playing with the training system and doing exercises a step ahead. Heehee. The most important takeaways:

• unlearn everything about past systems
• challenge status quo and ingrained bias
• keep it simple
• everything is an object, there is no backend setup database
• tenants
• it all comes down to clear planning and knowing how to configure
• supervisory org rules
• use the search bar