Happy Golden Pig

The Chinese lunar year begins February 18, 2007. It's year 4705 and the year of the golden pig. It's not easy being golden (not every pig is so lucky); it only comes around every 60 years. Cheers to all of us who are able to experience the golden pig. May everyone have a very prosperous new year!

Queen Mary 2

There was a big hoopla about Queen Mary 2, the largest ship ever to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge, yesterday. Thousands of people, lined along the waterfront, cheered and welcome her as she entered the San Francisco Bay.

This morning, as I was getting ready to start my day, I looked out the window and there she was: Queen Mary 2 docked at Pier 27. She was very pretty and HUGE. Everything seemed so tiny next to her.

I decided to check her out during lunch. I joined the crowd and walked down the piers. I thought it was a short walk but it took me almost 15 minutes to walk there.

Note to self: distance seemed a lot shorter from the 30th floor.

People, including me, were wooing and ahhing looking at her. Hard to image anything can be so big and float and move...

It was a short visit for Queen Mary 2 but she felt the love. It sailed for Hawaii tonight. There will be an empty spot on the pier when I look out the window tomorrow morning...

Hello New York!

First visit to New York ever - I got to be a New Yorker for a week. I got up, dressed and walked to work. I ate with the lunch crowd and rushed the streets with commuters in the evenings. The one difference was I ate out every night and I slept in the hotel.

I also played tourist after work. Most of my memory of New York was night scenes because it was dark by the time I started my little walking tour. In a way it was good because the lights at Time Square were more brilliant at night anyway. Chinatown was bigger than the SF Chinatown. So many jewelry stores. Where did all the gold come from? Mulberry, main street of Little Italy, was quiet the night I visited. Where was everybody? I didn't smell any food!!

People in New York do walk fast and most move in one direction. Must be careful when walking opposite of the flow. You will feel like a fish swimming upstream.

I went through the Grand Central Station everday. I learned quickly that it was the short cut from Point A to B. After going around in circles few times, I think I got my directions figured out for next time. Great place for people watchinng.

Happy Year 2007!

Here we are, third day into the new year. So far so good. What awaits us this year? Only time will tell.

The new year began damp and cold. A typical cold winter day and a great day for HOTPOT. It must have been a good idea because lots of our friends had hotpot dinner on New Year's Eve.

Mom and I decked the table with pretty plates, matching bowls, chopsticks, spoons, ladles, wine glasses, etc...It looked very festive. Halfway through, power went out. A big section of the neighborhood went pitch black. What timing! But, power or not, we were having our hotpot. At least no electricity required. Mom got spare cans of gas, and we had plenty of candles. It would have been cool if we got hats with top-mounting flashlight. We ended up with a lovely candlelight dinner - couldn't call it romantic because RK wasn't with me. It was quite fun as we fished food in semi-darkness and strained to see what we put in our mouths.

Lesson learned: improvise! It just might turn out much better than the original plan.

Happy New Year!

Ho-Ho-Ho

Work off at 2pm. I decided to go down to Union Square to do some people watching. It has been a while since I'm part of this excitment, or rather, hectic commercialism.

People are here and there... Everyone is busy shopping for Christmas gifts but I wonder how many of them will be back the day after Christmas to return the stuff they bought today...