On Leave: Thursday and Friday

Ah! Heaven! Sleeping-in is usually a weekend luxury. After a sleep-in Thursday (spent the day shopping with Lee Kiang at the"local" factory outlet mall), sleep-in Friday felt a lot like Saturday. So much so that I was really surprised at the usual 5pm traffic. I repeat: Ah! Heaven! After the Saturday/Sunday weekend, I shudder to think what the Monday blues would be like. Well, at least I like most of my work! ^_^ Everyone have a great weekend!

Car Trouble

The brake warning light on the instrument panel came on. I felt it was strange since they gave me new brake pads when I bought the car. It turned out that the master cylinder, which supplies the pressure for power braking, was leaking!. If it wasn't fixed, one day I'll step on the brake pedal and the brakes won't have enough pressure to engage! Luckily caught it early! The repair, which consisted of replacing the master cylinder, cost about four hundred US dollars. Sim tiah! (Sorry. Reverted to dialect to express strong emotion ;-) ) They had to double the labor charge because the brilliant designers put the master cylinder right between the engine and the firewall (the metal between the engine compartment and main cabin). It was one of the most troublesome things to fix. Even the expert car tinkerers in the lab won't do it themselves if they can help it.

Future Car's Go-Juice

MSN Auto has a good article on the various options, current and future, for fuels that make your car go.

Got Photo?

Why is it that one is expected to take photographs of the places that one visits on vacations? I'd rather look at the scenery, people watch or just rest my legs from all the walking. Of course, there are exceptions: like the interesting row of clocks above this shop's entrance. Attention grabbing, no? I walked past this place on our way to the Apple Store in New York City. A magnificent spiral staircase, with solid translucent glass steps, leads to this large (relative to other stores) space underground...

Which also leads me to my other, and most compelling point about not taking photos: the places most people visit have already been photographed to death by previous tourists. Flickr, Google images, even YouTube. Do a search for the place you just visited and you're likely to come across whole albums of photos taken by highly skilled shutterbugs for your viewing pleasure. Or perhaps the owners of the places have already put their own high quality pictures online. Like the Apple Store, for publicity. So unless you're venturing into the darkest heart of Africa or the deepest ocean trenches, leave the camera at home and lighten your load. Enjoy the scenery. ps: No, I didn't bring a camera on this trip. My photos were taken ad-hoc with the dinky little camera in my phone. If I actually do venture into the depths of Africa, where there is no signal anyway, I _might_ bring a camera. :-)

Flushing, New York (Part 2)

I'm back in Ann Arbor today. End of vacation :-(. In addition to the foods listed in the previous post, I'd like to add: char kuay teow (with cockles), fish head curry, tea tarek (sp?), seafood porridge, hainan chicken rice and guo tie dumplings. Wow shiok! This ought to last me for a while. Flushing is a good place. (burp.. sorry :-) ) I forgot to mention that we were vacationing with our friends Andrew and Tze Hui. We went on a drive through the various "sections" of Manhattan island. East Village, Soho, Little India, a bit of Chinatown (the Manhattan one, Flushing Chinatown is in Queens), Upper West Side, Central Park (small little road through the middle) and past the huge hole where the World Trade Center used to be. Back to work.

Flushing, New York

Greetings from New York! Actually, the city Jamaica in the state of New York. I'm staying in a hotel near the airport. It's cheaper than staying in Manhattan, which is expensive like crazy. Also, a stadium in Flushing is hosting the US Open, so hotels there are either totally full or charging super-high rates. sigh. The title is deliberate, there is actually a city called Flushing in New York state. Change the comma and the meaning changes totally :-). My favorite part of New York is undoubtably the Chinatown in Flushing. Food, food and more food! Bubble tea, satay, roti canai (prata), nasi lemak, laksa, beef rendang, Hokkien mee (black, Malaysian style), popiah, kang kong (see, got vege!), belacan, egg tarts, char siew pastry.... I'd say that 80% of the food that one can find in Singapore, can be find in there. Of course, some of it doesn't really taste the same since it must fit American taste-buds. But who cares! There's still lots more to eat! Jia Nin and I will fly back on Tuesday. I'll see about blogging more from here.