nil desperandum

Back from the Dam

Just got back from the Dam. Had a lovely time thanks to my host Mark. Didn't get up to too much. Just had a bit of chips, saw some prostitutes and walked down the beach. Here are a few pics.

 

And Beijing was cool too

Beijing. Ahh...the motherland. So much expectations. Some were met and some were shattered. I was amazed by just how vast Beijing was. 4-5 lane motorways(or roads as they all seem the same) go on for miles and miles. Thankfully taxis are still reasonably cheap compared to the UK let's say. And the momuments and sites...they are humongous! Summer Palace would take a whole week to explore properly. The Forbidden City was massive. All in all it was quite awe inspiring from a distance. However, at lot of the sites have been let down by the poor restoration and preservation work. I was slightly upset by that.

Regardless, it was a real eye-openning and I desperately want to discover other parts of China.

Tokyo was cool

Hello. I'm finally back home in London after two weeks of travel. And Tokyo was fantastic. What struck me was the Japanese's amazing attention to detail. It was a real eye opener. I mean, just check this out:

This is what they have in Japanese loos to clean one's hands. The jet air streams comes from the side. As you move your hand up and down the water droplets gets dragged downwards. Additionally it has a UV light to kill all the germs. Clever huh?
Here's another example I saw when I visited the bank:

They have reading specs of varied strengths for their more mature customers. That's so carefully thought out!
These are less about innovation, and more about modification, adapation and just careful attention to detail. I suppose that explains why japanese cars are just a little bit better than other mass market cars?

oppotunistic blogging

hello. i:m blogging from tokyo. in the mac store to be precise.　tokyo is wicked - in ways that is different to beijing. shame im only staying for a few days. apologies for the lack of proper punctuation - havent quite worked out how to use the japanese keyboard properly. regardless mac store and free internet rocks!

National Day

China as we know it was founded 55 year ago by the Communist Party. And we like to blow things up to celebrate.

Why British Airway is not up to scratch...

Hello. This is my first entry from Hong Kong so Ni Hao. I flew from LHR to HK on British Airway and I was thoroughly disappointed by the service, inflight entertainment and little bits and pieces. And I think I'll focus on the little bits and pieces because I have photographic evidence.




So above was the muffin that I got with my breakfast. I'm not quite so sure why my muffin looks like a fairy cake. Which led me to ponder - what is the difference between a muffin mix and a fairy cake mix. I wish I could tell you. I searched on the internet and couldn't really spot the difference in terms of composition other than the added bits of berry. Though I think on principle a muffin should be puffier with more bits spilling over the side. This one has too little spilage so it can only qualify as a cupcake

My second rant concerns the item below that came in my complimentary toiletry bag.


Initially I thought BA was giving away pocketsize vibrators which later reveal to be a pocket toothbrush - surely the design of it could've made it a little bit more intuitive? Or do I just have a filthy mind?