Check this out:

http://ishi.blog2.fc2.com/blog-entry-165.html

Have a good 2006!

To all of you party people out there – have a blast of a party (and blog about it!)

What I am going to do tonight? Nada – and that is the way I like it.

As much I like Xmas, I can’t see the point of celebrate NYE. Just ignore me, being a party pooper. Go out and have a great time.

And all the Londoners – take care going home / to the party now when it is a tube strike.

Let’s make 2006 a good & fun year.

Best of 2005

Looking on our holiday photos from Shanghai and Tokyo, these are my favourites and they are all from Shanghai.

The drivers in Shanghai are bloody mad, every single one of them. This photo is taken on our way out to the F1 race track. I have never ever seen and never ever done this kind of the undertaking like this bus driver. He is also honking the horn to tell the other driver to piss off – he is on the hard shoulder.
If I ever would get so rich that I’d have my own driver, I would employ a Shanghai driver cos I wouldn’t be late. Ever.

This is my favourite building in Shanghai. I don’t know much about it but I find the shape stunning and sci-fi inspired.

The Jin Mao Tower with the Hyatt Hotel. We were planning to go to the bar on 87th floor but it was closed. We had to settle with the Cafe & Bar on the 54th floor :)
There I had one of the few nice meal during the Shanghai trip, Cripsy Chicken.

This is an example how different the buildings in Shanghai are. The sky scrapers in the west are dull compared to Shanghai sky scrapers.

The Oriental Pearl, the top Pearl is 350 meter above ground.

I want to go back to Tokyo – there is so much more to see of Tokyo and the rest of Japan. But architectural, Tokyo isn’t as interesting as Shanghai. Shanghai is just amazing and buzzing of energy.

Irony

Sometimes when you are walking along and when you least expected a moment of irony hit you. That happened to me today. After exiting the Hammersmith tube station and walking into the shopping centre, I saw this:

I actually laughed out loud. A place called “The Gypsy Shop” selling fake Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags.

Fantastic!

White gals

Thanks to bit torrent, I can catch all the interesting US shows, without any ads.

I like Donald Trumps’ The Apprentice (and the Martha Stewart version as well). One of the reasons is that it is interactive TV. I sit on the sofa telling the Apprentices where they do wrong. Sadly, they never listen to me but it won’t stop me.

DT’s version had it is finale (NOOOO I will not give the result away – it will probably take a few years, if ever, before it will reach the UK TV) a couple a weeks ago.

This show has made DT’s team famous, the dark haired Receptionist Robyn and the blonde Carolyn Kepcher, Chief Operating Office at the Trump organisation. I like Carolyn and unfortunately she did not have that much input in the finale.

1 minute 48 seconds in is one of the best moments of the entire show. Two while gals doing a ghetto-originated (well, to me anyway) handshake. I think this is great. It shows that all different influences are mixing and boundaries are slowly fading away.

Sorry for the bad quality of the pics. To screen grab something from WM and try to get it as a pic was very difficult. I had to improvise and took a photo of the screen, therefore not so good quality.

@ Work today

I was “volunteered” to go in to the office today. Somebody needed to bank any cheques (for you non-Brits out there, cheque is a very common method of payments here ………… yes I know). I live closest to the office, other live south of the river around Croydon area.

I had to book a half day holiday today even though it feels the whole day was ‘ruined’ by work …. Nah I am exaggerating. But I did a slash-and-dash, I came on just before noon and I was out of the office 12.25. I did skip going in to the Finance director office and say Hi. Just in case he was expecting my to stay to the end of the working day (17.00)

The summary of today was:

Cheque(s): 1

Amount: £790-odd

The colleagues that I meet looked really miserable – nobody wanted to be at work. Our temp receptionist (6 month contract) just looked so longing to me when I left. Poor girl – she is still there now while I am writing this blog post.

Why is that the temp receptionists are much more nicer then the permanent receptionist? I guess when you are at one place for long period of time, you get really fed up with all the idiots you have to deal with.

I am back!

In London, that is.

Oh Boy, I had a nice Christmas with my family and I ate a lot. And I mean a lot. This is the only time of the year I stuff myself (like a turkey *haha*). It was good to see my family again and they are coming to visit at the end of January.

But it also felt good to be back to my life in London. I feel recharged with energy and joy again. Now I have a few days ahead of with no plans and no things to do. I can stay up as long as I want *yay* and just mill around.

I am going to do some work on the flat as fell.

Here are some pics from my Christmas holidays.

No children in the family but still quite a lot of presents. We are like kids ...

The most important item on the Xmas table - the ham. BTW, we eat BEFORE the big TV event.

It might not look like much but afterward, I could roll home. But I was the driver so it was more comfortable way home.

Me ... no it is not my shoes ...

My aunt trying my beloved PSP with a Suduko (spelling??) game I got for Xmas. I really like my PSP, on the flight back to the UK, I was watching the end of the TV series Sleeper Cell. Just when the FBI agents found out where the attack is, the flight stewardess is tapping my sholder saying that I have to turn it off.

No snow on Christmas Eve but it came today on Boxing Day instead.



I asked for a meat fondue and that was my welcome dinner back home :)


This is veal steak we had on Christmas Day and it was lovely.


My family probably thinks that I am a bit bonkers (I didn't bother asking them) cos I kept taking photos of our dinners. This blogging thing is addictive and in the back of my mind I keep thinking "Oh - I can blog about this"

Aaaaahhhhh

I feel much better already. I had great meals yesterday and today, good night sleep and fun with my family.

Tomorrow (24th December) is the big day, all the Christmas presents are wrapped and I am looking forward to the Christmas food and all the presents.

I need a break

Today is my last day at work before the Christmas break. Tomorrow I will be with my family and eat the best homemade food :)

I need a break from work, from London, from the flat and from my boyfriend. I look forward to be with my family for a few days and be looked after a bit.

I need a break from work and the constant bullshitting and the negativity. We have moved office to the worse, smaller room, with fewer noise cancellation screens. My line manger sits in the office next door and keeps shouting to us when he needs something. And as per usual, he never start at the beginning of the topic, more start shouting where he could not go any further so when he starts shouting, I don’t have clue what he is on about.

I need a break from London and the commuting. I am fed up to have people so close to me on the tube. Also, most people can’t walk quickly enough and manage to take up more then their fair share of the pavement. For tourist, well they are on a different agenda but for people going to work – there is no excuse.

I need a break from the flat. My boyfriend and I bought our flat 3 years ago. We did a lot of DIY stuff etc but we didn’t finish it completely. There are still a few things needs to be done. Our bedroom ceiling light has not worked for 2.5 years. We got lovely wooden floor and underfloor heating but where the cables goings in to that main, well that is not covered up. We had to change our windows to double glazing in Jan05, and the walls next to the windows were scratched and needs to be repainted.
An extra plus with our flat is that we have a loft /mezzanine level in the living room. Nothing has been done at all there for 3 years and that part of the flat is a complete dump. Such a waste of space. I bet we are only going to sort these things out before we move out or sell the flat. So basically that would mean that we are doing these things for the next person living there and not for ourselves. If I had being living in the flat by myself, most of these things would have been done one way or the other. What is stopping me? Well, my boyfriends so opinionated and question everything, this just leads to that everything seems more complicated. Since I don’t like to arguing with him, I shun it. I have learnt to live with the state of the flat but it constantly bugs me.

I need a break from my boyfriend. We live a small space (56sqm) and I miss having my own space. He has some interesting stuff happening in his career and his boarder between work and non-work is undefined. This leads to me interrupting him when he is working at home in the evening and there is no way that I can know what he is doing on the computer. At the moment, the best I can do it just leave him to it and be by myself. He probably thinks that I am edgy and unreasonable. I feel that he is engrossed and self absorb in his own world.

I know after a few days with my family, I want to go back to London and my life here. That is what I need, to feel joy again.

Funny ...

I found this clip @ larissa’s blog

I guess I should warn you it has a few “On My God” moments but I found this funny.

I love the Xmas tree; part two

I have two topics on my mind that I was planning to blog about today, well at least one of the two. However, I drank a lot of Bollie yesterday and my brain simply refuses to deal with anything difficult today.

Soo, since the Xmas tree subject is a much more fun & lighter subject, that what you get. I love the Xmas tree and it smell so nice.

I bought this Hello Kitty Xmas tree in Tokyo (I cannot wait to go back to Japan and see more of the country AND to do some more shopping!!!). It was actually my dear boyfriend that found this one for me, with the condition that I couldn’t have it at home. That is fine, I have it at work, on to of my computer. The flashes are rapid and I do get hyper by it. The tunes are high pitched and my colleagues won’t let me have it on more then a few seconds.

This is our little Xmas tree at home. The Brits are funny some times and this is one of those occasions. The Xmas tree is in a pot with dirt - never ever seen that one in my life.

I have tried to un-tilt it but … it ain’t staying straight. I bought from a corner shop florist so I wouldn’t have to carry it far but the owner had one of her staff carry it to my front door. That is SERVICE!

Oxford Street, Xmas lights

Here are some pics from Oxford Street and the Christmas Lights, taken tonight. I think they are very nice this year. My mobile phone camera doesn’t do justice to the lights.

Word of the Day for Monday December 12, 2005

I like this word:

tmesis \TMEE-sis\, noun:
In grammar and rhetoric, the separation of the parts of a compound word, now generally done for humorous effect; for example, "what place soever" instead of "whatsoever place," or "abso-bloody-lutely."

If on the first, how heinous e'er it be,
To win thy after-love I pardon thee.
--Shakespeare, Richard II

His income-tax return, he remarked, was the "most rigged-up
marole" he'd ever seen.
--Frederic Packard

In two words, im possible.
--Samuel Goldwyn

To subscribe: Dictionary.com

Tthe emails seems to be sent out alphabetical order. A colleague whose name starts with B gets it early in the morning. Me, I got the above email 13/12/2005 02:22
The send time of the email was 08:00

The Decent

Damn, this was a really, really, really scary film.

Not so clever me started to watch the film on 22.00 on a Sunday evening. I am going to have serious trouble falling asleep after watching The Decent.

Falling asleep is difficult, Sunday evening is usually the worst time. And now I have this film to deal with.

But the film is really good & scary.

Big wigs Bloggers brawls; because of Bullshit

There was a gathering of the 400 odd heavyweight Bloggers in Paris. I find it rather amusing that this new online cutting edge niche still have to do the old fashion way of meeting up to have a chat. Of course it is about networking and making new contacts and meeting people face to face cannot be replaced of the new online world. Progress?

Nothing much seem to have happened except for the topic most of the bigwigs of bloggers are blogging about– a speaker and an audience member disagreed and the disagreement spilled out on to the floor. Obviously, every blogger who was there has an opinion and of course the rest of us that wasn’t there also have an opinion.

The speaker, Mena Trott (the president of the company who sponsored this conference & co-founder of the blooging tools), was advocating for a nice and civil blogging by everyone.

The Audience member, Ben Metcalfe, wrote in the IRC that “This is bullshit”

The IRC was displayed on the main screens at the front where the speaker was standing and she saw the comment. Then the fun could begin.

If nothing else, the irony is so beautiful perfect. Mena challage dotBen “Who is dotBen?” and the goes on calling him an asshole and later on uses the word fucking – during a speech of being civil in the interaction between bloggers.

Many others have written what happened and here is some links.

Ben Metcalfe

Mena Trott (her version "the heated Q&A")

Other people

To me – well it doesn’t matter what how humans are communicating; we still always manage to insult each other.

Personally, I rather have a bit of insulting and rudeness for the price of non-censorship. There is no other medium today that has this level of freedom of speech/information.

If Mena want to keep it nice, civil and non-liable, well read the damn broadsheets but then you also get censorship and hidden agendas.

What do you call this?

No idea? – I thought so. This is out ‘new & improved’ Christmas lights.

This year the council have, what I suspect, taken Political Correctness too far. Some bureaucrat somewhere has taken a decision, which in itself is rather amazing, that we cannot offend the minorities by having Christian inspired decorations at Christmas time. Despite the fact that Christmas is official recognised with TWO bank holidays (wow). I should have added this in my letter to the council but I forgot.

Actually, thinking back on last year’s Christmas lights … it was Santa, Xmas tree, a star, a candle – not very offensive at all.

Plus the nicer lights were on our side …

I think, in fact, that this bureaucrat is doing the minorities a major disservice. I don’t think there have been any complaints about the Christmas lights and now the majority is up and arms about this sell of out of the new Christmas lights.

I am not religious but this does annoy me immensely. For me, Christmas means spending good time with my family. Nothing religious on my part and for those who is religious, fine, they are celebrating the birth of Christ.

I feel it is important to let organisation know when you are displeased. Otherwise, they will get away with everything if the people just keep quiet. If you are not happy about something, write a letter and get it logged.

Here is a copy of the letter I sent to the council:

Tower Hamlet
Town Hall
Mulberry Place
5 Clove Crescent
London
E14 2BG

Date: 23 November 2005

Dear Sirs,

Christmas lights

I feel compelled to write to you regarding the horrible “Christmas lights” that have been put up this year on X Road and Y Road. These so called Christmas lights look cheap and have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas Spirit, I assume that you are aware that Christmas is being celebrated on the 25^th December. Previous years Christmas lights have been superb and I have always appreciated that fact the Borough has had really nice lights compared to other places in London.

This change, I suspect, is due to political correctness gone too far.

Kindly answer the following questions.

1. How many complaints have you received last year, or ever, for Christian style (old Christmas lights) lights?

2. What is the real reason that this change of Christmas lights?

3. Who took this decision? Kindly supply me with this/these people(s) contact details.

I look forward to receive your answer promptly

Yours sincerely

Lizze

I have received a reply and that will be in the next post.

What do YOU want for Chrismas?

Please tell me ...

Comment problem

I have problem with adding comments on my blog and other people’s blog. I keep getting the word to verify: smenita

And even though I type it in correctly both in IE and Firefox – I can’t add the comment.

I love the Xmas tree

There is tradition that I get to tag along with a family and chose their Xmas tree (I run the fastest). We go to the same Nursery first weekend in December = we went today

I so LOVE this tradition and I have so much fun. Hopefully, the family do to.

Here is some pics from today.

A new theme every year.


Xmas tree before

Our supervisor


Xmas tree after


Pink cabbage 'flower' that I bought today.

Rebranding; part 3

It has now come to light the directors are calling the office on their mobile phones to check that the calls are answered correctly.

To be continued ...

Rebranding; part 2

Right, I barely survived yesterday’s meeting (15.30 to 18.05, no brake) – it was dreadful. I couldn’t see anything of the plasma screen so blissfully, I missed most stuff.

Firstly, the chair was so uncomfortable that my bum still hurts.

Secondly, the bullshit level was so high that brain shut off. Seriously, I can only remember bits and pieces of 2 and half hours ordeal. I could not even remember things to be able to take the piss of it on my blog.

The things that filtered through were the insults. The company leader completely dismissed the non-sales staff on more then one occasion, and those were the only times we got mentioned.

But I would never ever work in sales; I am not suited for it. And if this all bullshit is any inclination what is going on in their profession, I would not be able to coupe.

People in the office this morning are seething over yesterday pep talk. Nobody seems to have bought it but is careful to say anything out loud. The main activity this morning has been the email sent by the directors, making sure that we do that we have been ordered to. The director mention in previous post, well that list was all his pet hates and the lasting impression of his is that he is a proper dickhead.

In our office, we have had a great session ripping the stuff apart.

I think most staff is now hoping that it will fizzle out.