Oh, it hurts all over...

Wow...it has been a REALLY REALLY long time since I posted in this thing...even I am surprised myself. But I do have good reasons. Basically the past week has been swamped with wall-to-wall print orders, but also helping the new interns get settled in.

And on top of all that, I'm heading to Vienna, Austria, in nearly 3 hours from now. Trying to plan and organize the trip, plus ontop of work, and little personal projects on the side, it's been INSANELY CRAZY. I know that's redundant, but there's just no other way I can explain it.

Anyway, the following is a post that's just been sitting in my blog drafts for nearly and eternity...so hopefully it'll tide you over until I get back from Vienna. And you can bet your pants that I'll have photos-galore from that trip. Until the next post!


AUGUST 18th, 2005

Yesterday, was the big shopping day...that is, at least for the week...and actually, possibly for the rest of the year...

Anyway, I made my way up to "Carrefour" up near the airport. For those of you who have never ventured up there, it's a very big supermarket. In fact, it's more than a supermarket. For those of you venturing from North America, and possibly some parts of the UK and Korea, it bears a very close resemblance to establishments such as Costco, Price Club, Sam's Club, etc.

Then back to Dragon Pearl, where...I pretty much set myself up with enough food for the next year. If you haven't guessed it already, I bought a 25kg bag of jasmine rice.



The staple food that my little Chinese body has been craving for the last 2 months.

And as soon as I stepped out of the store with this thing, I already knew that it was a potential mistake. First off, this thing is freakin' huge and heavy. I actually had to hoist this thing onto my shoulders like back in the day. On top of that, I almost got leveled by a tramline, the 13 Line to be exact, as I wasn't able to look over my left shoulder on account of the ricebag. Not only that, but I had to lug this thing back across town to the apartment, and my body's paying for it today.

Btw, on a special note, as a couple of you have asked, you can find Dragon Pearl along the No.5 Bus line. If you're going towards Cornavin, just get off at "Coutance", it'll be across the street from the bus-stop, holed up in the corner by some cafe and a whole bunch of parked bikes.

Anyway, good luck...

Today in the News...

Ok, I don't ever do this, so it's gotta be something good...so yeah, I gotta post this link up...

I mean, C'MONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN...honestly...how many stupid names can you have.

Prince went to "The Artist"...



...and then finally came to his senses and went back to "Prince".

Well...let's see...who's next...Puff Daddy.

Or better yet, P Diddy.



We all know him as Biggie's partner in crime, Mase's mentor, J. Lo's ex, the guy who helped to shape ebonics by turning the word "strength" into "stremph" (*see lyrics to "I'll Be Missing You).

Yes...Mr. P Diddy is once again changing his name. And not back to the way it once was. I'll let you guys read the BBC article and you guys can be the judge as to whether or not his reason for changing his name (again), is for real.

2 Weeks of Fête

So just this past weekend, a few things happened. First off, "Fêtes de Genève" finally came to an end. Even though the Swiss National Holiday was two Mondays ago, since then it's been the Geneva Festival and it finally concluded this weekend. Wow, 2 weeks of celebration. Perhaps this is something that should take place back at home.

And before I get into the rest of this post, just quickly mention something from last week. After a night of drinking, and thinking that all is well because it was Friday (even though I later realized that it was actually Thursday, and that I still have to work the next day) I found this to be kinda cool. While walking home with my friend, Sayuri, we stumbled across this courtyard by the waterfront, where there are all these bricks that have been painted in flourescent/glow-in-the-dark paint.



And each brick has some sort of inscription on it in a different language...I think. Anyway, I just thought that it was quite a beautiful sight.

Anyway, aside from the celebrations, last week, I set out on a search to find one of the rare and inexpensive Asian food stores that I had heard were scattered in the various nooks across the city. And lo and behold, jackpot! I found one. Welcome to Dragon Pearl! Although it's a Vietnamese shop, they've got everything from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese foods.

But the sole reason that I mention this place is because while I was there, I found my beloved rambutans! What is rambutan? See for yourself...



Yes, it looks odd. Perhaps even disgusting to some. But it's delicious. Just crack open the shell or peel, and out pops pure delight! Apparently, the name "Rambutan" is derived from the Malayan word "Rambut" which means "hair". For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

And seeing as how I missed out on the trip to Malaysia to revisit all my nephews, cousins, uncles, etc that I haven't seen in 17 years, and to resample all the delicious Chinese food that my body has gone without for the last 2 months, I decided to shell out the 6 Fr for a pack of 16. Expensive I know, but I needed to get my fix.

But this weekend was great, party at Chris and Jedrzej's new apartment on Friday, where things got out of hand to the point where the neighbours were threatening to call the cops on us.



The following pics are of the Polish drinking song we learned from Lucas? but sounds like Lucash? (apologies, if I butchered the name) which also probably contributed to the angry neighbours.



I wish I could say that I had taken more pictures. But I didn't. And primarily because I also wished that I had recharged the battery in my camera. That and the fact that after the drinking song there was already quite a bit of al-kee-hall in my body...so yeah...oh those Polish!

And finally Saturday...for the big fireworks finale. Amist a lovely evening snack of cheese, bread, olives, chips, cookies, beer and wine, we watched possibly the best fireworks display in the world.



Seriously, I mean it when I say it. The Fêtes de Genève fireworks is one of the biggest and most well known in the world. People flock from all over the world to watch the 50-minute pyrotechnics display.



These pictures don't even do it justice, and in fact, I'm a bit ashamed to put these pics up as an indication of what the show is like. But just take my word for it, if you can haul your ass up to Geneva during the month of August, be sure to stay for the Fêtes de Genève.

Gruyere...where the cheese is from...

Here we are again...another late and delayed photo update...but at least I'm finally caught up with all my day trips! Well...sort of...cuz I just remembered now that I have yet to post my pictures from my trip to Annesy. ANYWAY...let's begin, shall we...?

So my trip to Gruyere was way back...like 2 weeks ago. Back when Winkie and Bernice were still visiting. So anyway, the plan that weekend was to head off to Gruyere in search of castles and cheese, as Gruyere is most famous for their delicious cheese.

Here is our fearless leader. James Hill. Pointing us in the wrong direction, because I asked him to.


We begin our trek up the steep hill to the castle.


And boy does it get steep!


Yeah...you get the idea.


Right off the bat, we headed straight for lunch. And it was deeeeeee-lish.



Fondue. The first of many fondue meals (I hope).



Topped off with dessert, which I can't remember what it's called. But it had real cream, raspberries, and the most incredible meringues that you will have ever tasted...that is...if you were there.

Anyway, we continued to explore the rest of the "castle-country" and as we made our way closer to the castle, what did we happen to find, just nesting in the centre of the village was the H.R. Giger Museum!! Who is H.R. Giger you ask? He just so happens to be the artist who created all the conceptual art for the blockbuster film franchise "ALIEN"!! Incredible...who would've thought that in all the cities of the world that the museum dedicated to this man's amazing art would be in the tiny town of Gruyere?!? And they really decked out the entire building. Even adding an H.R. Giger Bar, decorated in the famous Alien style! So to all you geeks, nerds, and poindexters out there, drool and get jealous! See the pics for yourself!



More pics of the surrounding castle area...quite stunning...




After that little bit of excitement we headed back down the hill to make our merry little way to the Cheese Factory! Unfortunately, as it was a Saturday, the factory was closed thus no workers making cheese, and no tour guides to give us the grand tour of the factory.



But as a consulation, we at least got to take pictures of a portion of their cheese storage, so it wasn't a complete loss. =) Can you say "Wheels O'Cheese"?

So there we were, ready to get back onto the saddle and continue our trek from Gruyere to another little town called, Friborg. And lemme tell ya, this place is beautiful! Absolutely gorgeous! Even though we didn't walk very far, the sight of this town is incredible. Everything was just so at peace. Extremely relaxing just to do a walking tour around the city. Pretty much the rest of the time we spent there was just enjoying drinks on a mountain side cafe. It was pure bliss.



Some notable pics that I especially enjoyed.



Aside of that, there really wasn't anything notable that happened. The day was near perfect. On the way back home we stopped off at Lausanne, grabbed some incredible tasting pizza, to cap off that incredible weekend.