the long plane ride to japan was somewhat less painful than expected. i was sandwiched between two middle-age japanese women who nodded (half-bowed) a lot and was extremely apologetic but didn't say much else during the thirteen-hour flight. i pretty much spent 10 of those hours staring at the 7-inch lcd display in front of me: starting with the english movies, then the japanese movies, then a korean movie. i watched each movie twice and the english movies in both english and japanese dub. The airplane meals were surprisingly tasty, and the flight attendents were nice and were able to walk up and down the aisle without rubbing their hips on the seats on both side, unlike the ones on most north american airlines.

the plane finally touched down at Narita airport in japan. i had five hours to kill so i roamed around the airport looking for a tv that had the world cup football on. luckily, i found one and i sat in front of the 60-inch tv for a good hour before i took off again. this time i was looking for something to drink. to see if the legend is true, i checked three different vending machines to see if any of them sold beer, but didn't find any. the convenience store, however, had cans of beer readily available in the fridge. i bought a bottle of coke. they take american dollars but will only give back change in japanese yen. by around 5pm i was getting hungry, i sat down at a japanese fast food joint and ordered a meal with pork.

then, i finally arrived in HK. maggy was with me the first day. then i spent a night at my aunt's with my mom who was leaving for canada on the next day. for the past week, i spent most of the time shopping, working at the computer, meeting people and trying out different types of food. i love the fact that no matter where i go there's always a variety of snack stands (with hot food cooked on the spot) nearby.

still trying to finish that knowledge transfer document for HoC. the cat (Mimi) has been helping me out, but she uses spacebar to indent and uses 8.3 filename format, which i don't like. (:

while sipping an iced chai latte on a second-floor Starbucks i snapped this picture of me and the street below.
.e  08:03  4 comments [ leave comments ]

didn't get any sleep last night. i stayed up backing up files, configuring my mom's computer to use my tv tuner remote and packing until the very last second before we load the last luggage onto the car.

the ottawa airport security wasn't quite sure how to make out of what i had in the bag, so they checked and scanned and checked again, touching every single electronic equipment i had on me, like a curious child in a crystal store. not even a moment later after they let me pass, the flight crew announced last call for boarding the flight to chicago.

i'm in chicago now. waiting for the 10:50 flight. mcdonald's here is just as greasy as it is back home, and served with an attitude. .e  10:37  6 comments [ leave comments ]

wish i had the chance to say farewell, goodbye
to reminisce the time that's gone by

to talk to you about my life's plan
or just to talk you once more into buying me candies at the snack stand

to tell you how I enjoyed the way you burnt the oatmeal a bit so it becomes chewy
and that i knew you always picked the coconut rice pudding for yourself coz you knew i liked the caramel one better

to thank you for the qualities you passed down to your daughter
for i could never ask for a better mother

wish you could see me walking down the aisle with your granddaughter-in-law
and your great grandchildren who will certainly try to talk you into buying them candies at the corner store

i love you, i will not forget you .e  23:40  0 comments [ leave comments ]

how would you spell "ooRSH-prah-kah"?

watching the national spelling bee competition, honestly, is more exciting than watching the NHL finals. those words are tough! watching them spelling each lettre for the seemingly impossible word is like seeing gretzky going around 10 defensemen one-by-one by himself and scoring a goal.

btw, it's spelled u-r-s-p-r-a-c-h-e. .e  22:00  0 comments [ leave comments ]