Taking a break from work

Need a break from all this non stop powerpoints, excel sheets, videos...thinking back i ask myself why i chose to leave the easy life...or comparatively easy. 4 emails a day, 12 hour working week, adhoc simple projects...i came to the conclusion that my appetite for life is relatively quite big.

Working on a Saturday doesn't make me feel dull but instead it spurs me to work even harder to achieve balance in my life. Sometimes the quiet home (minus my dog) can be a place to harvest great ideas. We tend to plough through the day in the office and come back exhausted and the only place we really call home is our bed (or to others the couch). This has been my life for the past 1 week. However, it was peppered with a yoga session, 2 jog sessions, a girlfriend embracing dinner, a family dinner, a birthday party, massage, some (window) shopping....well, pretty balanced I must say. Glad to say that I am enjoying the solitude of begin alone at home.

Time to get back to prettifying things.

For Ah Fat's viewing pleasure

Hello Jaycee! This picture is taken for you to show how happy Noni is with her presents!

Surprising positivity

This morning after my run, I was greeted with "good morning" by the cleaner at the void deck. He was asking another cleaner to bring him soap and a rag. Then he turned around and say "How to work when they lock up the soap?" and he explained he was trying to clean something because of a complaint and was upset because he felt that he was not provided the resources in a timely manner. Inside my heart, I was like "woah! someone is really passionate about his work"

Then the final sentence came: "We must fulfil our duty to clean because that is our job. It is not the Gar-ment who pay us but the residents"

I was like double woah! Finally my taxes go to someone worthy of receiving it. And it brought a smile to my face on a Monday....

My 3 days Peking Itineary

Things I did in Beijing in case you might want to know. Can also use as itineary in future

1) Peking Duck: My cousin who is staying in Beijing tells me DaDong, Liqun all over-rated and very expensive. He bought me to京尊烤鸭店 at 光华路. Unfortunately he does not have the number. You can check with hotel. We had a HUGE meal and only cost us SG$80 for 4 pax. We had the lamb chops (super), duck (super), fish (also very super), Zha-Jiang Mian, Dumplings, Veg…

2) On the way to Xiu-Shui (Silk Market) from Traders Hotel (we walked…15 mins) there is a noodle shop called (膜) might be the wrong word高牛肉面 – Red signboard. Lamb Skewers + the Noodles is SEDAP. 5 mins walk from Traders. Ask hotel how to walk. They will give very good directions.

3) If you want to go to Great Wall, DO NOT got to BADALING section…its filled with domestic tourist and you will find too many people trying to jostle with you for picture space. I went to MuTianYu section which is a very nice part of the Great Wall..Go early. I left hotel at 8am takes about 1.5 hours to get there. When I left about 1230, there were many tourist buses already. Plan this for a weekday. To book a taxi, the rate according to my cousin should not be more than 250RMB. I paid 500RMB for a car, a little more luxurious.

4) To go up the Great Wall at MuTianYu, there are 2 options. One is the Ski Lift, the other is the Cable Car. I think the Ski Lift is more fun and more challenging hike…Cable Car just bring you up to highest point…so really defeat purpose of visiting the wall. If you take the Ski Lift, you have a choice of take a slide down…they make u sit on a small kart that zooms down a aluminum slide…quite fun I see…but I took the ski lift down lar cos I wanted to enjoy more of the scenary.

5) I went to Summer Palace….honestly I did not like it…because it was supposedly burnt to the ground and rebuilt…restorations are very poor. But if you have a spare day, you can spend it walking through it and ignore the sad way how they painted the beams etc..…they have very nice magnolias trees there. BUT I warn you, it is HUGE! So you need at least half day or ¾ day to fully explore. Warning: Swarming with tourist…even on a Monday.

6) Temple of Heaven (TianTan) – I liked this better. And definitely nicer for picture taking and I think has more significance in Chinese history.

7) Go watch the lowering of the state flag at Tiananmen Sq. This happens at a different time each day as it is supposed to set with the sun. Check with hotel the timings.

8) Shop in the local markets. Silk Market is good…Jia Yi (opposite KunLun Hotel) is good for fashion clothes..but the shops here charge more expensive here. To give you an eg: White top I saw at Jiayi opening price is 900plus…I never bother to bargain. I went to Putian in Fujian and the EXACT same top is going for 89RMB! Imagine the markup…so bargain bargain bargain….DO NOT bother to go HongQiao Market…nonsense…unless you go after you visit Temple of Heaven because just opposite it. But seriously go to Silk…much better

9) We were in Wangfujing and bumped into a shop selling bao…its called狗不狸包子 be prepared to jostle with the MAD china crowd…But this shop has a lot of history. Its located behind Oriental Plaza off a small lane at the front of Wangfujing. You can walk from the Mao Zhi Dong portrait in front of Tiananmen Sq to Wangfujing and gawk at the SUPER LUXE hotels! Takes about 25 mins walk or 1 subway station…recommend walking!

10) At the end of WangFuJing, there is a huge KAPPA store. Turn left, you will see DongMenHua night food market. Well, for a tourist, this is really fun…just walk and see all the weirddddddd looking food…got scorpions, bugs etc and got the usual BingTangHuLu….

11) Okie…here are the things I missed since I only had 3 days: Forbidden City and the Mao Mausoleum where his body is kept which I would have gone to. Must go to Houhai (BackLake) area. This is where the HuTongs (the old Beijing way of living in their houses) is best preserved. My cousin say like Boat Quay…which means I think you can drink there. =). You can do the touristy stuff like hire a rickshaw to bring you around. Bargain again.