A-bike.......

A-Bicycle..........

Did you think that I have made a spelling mistake?? Silly you, ofcourse not.......

A-Bike is not a common noun, but rather a proper noun......more correctly, it's the name of a brand of bikes "Made in China"....

Yeah, we still have that decade old image burned into our collective conscience of tens of thousands Chinese riding on their bicycles to move places, go to work, is still ingrained into our collective memory, but that is something of the past now...........while bicycles are still around, they have already been replaced by cars............in fact the screaming, yellow, horde of Chinese have surpassed the US of A last year, 2009, regarding the number of automobiles purchased.........15 million fourwheelers of them, big and small.....and with a 1.3 billion population coming to age and really entering into the 21st century as we know it, the car manufacturers are already positively wriggling their hands........

So is the bicycle a thing of the past then? Ofcourse not, a cycle still has its uses in today's society, either as convenient transportation to beat nasty traffic jams, zero-carbon exhuming which gets a big thumbs-up from green eco-warriors, or as a recreational tool, burning calories either in urban or outdoors dwellings.........

The A-bike then, whilst we (that is Jess, my bro and me) were window shopping for the latest fashion crazes, flashiest gadgets in a huge shopping mall in Shenzen, China......we spotted this particular bike......A-Bike that is.....

What attracted us to this particular bike is the fact that it is foldable, thus compact, barely 6kgs (approx.13 pounds) so easy to carry around and stow away in the boot of the car or even backpack..... the frame is made of non-corrosive aluminium, comes equipped with disc brakes back and front, .......we were totally smitten by it......

Asking price? 850 Renminbi/bicycle (85 euro's/125 USD/4 20 RM....take your pick:p).......sounds fair enough to us, but we have been forewarned that we needed to drive a hard bargain.....as it is the custom to do so here in the Land of Confucius.....

Our initial thinking was to buy 1 unit first, test it out ourselves, and if the bike was good enough we would purchase an additional unit, one for our family to bring back home and one for my bro to carry back to his household........

But after a quick internal meeting, we decided to drop our plan and purchase 2 units on the spot.......

And thus began our bargaining tale............

Renminbi 850........I let Jess do the bargaining as I admit, I'm a bit too soft regarding the art of bargaining........she managed to bargain a few hundred Renminbi of the price, down to RMB 650....which in my eyes was not a bad bargain, admittedly, it ain't 50% discount, but heck, people have to earn a buck and furthermore, the sales lady was seriously pregnant, she has a kid to feed in the upcoming future..................until my bro, MW, stepped in.........

The handyman that he is, he fully tested the unit, assembling and de-assembling it, asking technical questions and with that satisfied, took it for a short ride in the shopping mall, much to the bemusement of passers-by.......

My bro gave his stamp of approval and the vendors must have thought......."BINGO, dzing, dzing....." (hearing the cash register ringing).......

But bro being bro......(FYI : he is very, very straightforward and rather thinks in terms of black and white)..........pushed for a bottom price......RMB 1,000.........the vendors looked puzzled at him and they thought that my bro offered to give them RMB 1,000 per unit(100 euro/140 USD/490 RM.........which sounded crazy in our minds...........(didn't he hear my wife bargaining it down to RMB650/unit earlier on??)

My bro made himself more clear and then said..........."RMB 1,000 for 2 units!!!!!"

There was a dead silence for a moment or two between the 2 parties, and then reality set in.........

"Nonooo, we cannot do that, this is too cheap......!!" the husband/wife vendor party cried....

"RMB 1,000..........take it or leave it.......I don't want to discuss it anyfurther.....if you drag my time I just leave....."

"Sir, sir, listen to us first..." the vendors pleading with my bro

But like a whirlwind my bro went off........walking forcefully towards the exit of the mall.......

The pregnant sales lady scurried towards my bro, asking him to return and telling him that they were willing to give him a discount........(Jess and me were more like silent witnessess at this time)....

Bro stopped in his tracks and returned to the stall....

"We offer you RMB 1,200 for 2 units, that's our best price"........

"Are you playing with me or what?!? I said RMB 1,000 and that's final.........goodbye"....and off my bro went...........

Now the husband intervened, pleading him not to go, almost physically stopping him.....3rd round of negotiations then.........RMB 1,000 it is then, for 2 bicycles....colours to be chosen by us, packaging, either in original boxed or in a supplied backpack.....

Wow......Jess and me were still amazed for hours afterwards......and I thought that my wife always drives a hard bargain, but my bro proves to be much, much more better at it.....(have to keep that in the back of my mind then)

Folded and neatly stowed away in the luggage, the 2 bikes have finally made their way across to their respective destinations (Belgium & Malaysia) and we thoroughly enjoy riding on it in our neighbourhood, drawing many questions from curious passers-by.........

One drawback is that the wheels are solid, not air-filled, which can be dangerous when riding on rough ground as the wheels tend to stop turning abruptly.....we are already looking out for air-filled wheels to replace the current wheels, but other than that, we're quite satisfied with it.............end of story then?

Ermmmm, no......my bro diligently did some internet checking back home and he informed us that the bikes themselves were a copy-cat........A what? yups, Chineses entrepreneurs have reared their ugly heads again, without any morality stealing/copying other peeps hard labour at designing/creating it and putting a cheaper lookalike model on the market..............i

Don't wag your finger at us though, I still have to meet the first person who hasn't committed the sin of buying pirated goods yet, and anyway, we were not aware of this minor 'detail'...

We readily admit that it is quite a good copy though :p

Trappist......beer.....or milk?

Remember the posting I made last year about the Rubens pate? An Ozzie firm using the brand name of "Rubens", a Belgian renaissance painter, to market its products, in this case a pate....

If not, click on below link to read it or refresh your memory....

http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/09/painting-and-meat-paste.html

Well, well....well......seems it's not only the Ozzie firm who has gone down the road of using iconic names for branding......

Few weeks ago, my dearest asked me to fetch some milk for the kiddo at the nearest 7-11 and I duly obeyed, just snapping up the first carton that I had laid my eyes upon....without any afterthought....

But when morning came, whilst serving our daughter a bowl of cereals with milk, my eyes went wide open once I gazed over at the carton of milk....

Trappist?........Trappist?!?!?

Hey,hey,...hey........isn't 'Trappist' a name originating from my region where I grew up, the low lying countries of Belgium and Holland??!??........

For your info, a "Trappist" is a beer!!!........brewed by Trappist monks, Belgium and Netherlands, within their monastery.....an age-old endeavour, known as an exquisite brew amongst beer connaiseurs...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trappist_beer

So how does it wind up as the name of a dairy firm in Hong Kong, the Far East then?!?!? The comparison between the two is really far and apart..........one is a monk beer(I suppose that God approves this alcoholic indulgence :p), ......one is the name of a milk company.

My best guess is that a while back the founder of the dairy firm visited Belgium/Holland for resourcing/study purposes during the set-up of his company and drank a bit too much "Trappist" whilst under the tutelage of his Belgian/Dutch masters......

Then he became so 'high' and addicted on the beer and thus being seriously intoxicated decided on the spot that his milk products in Hong Kong should bear the name of "Trappist".........honouring the beer itself.

Is this theory of mine plausible enough?!? Could be....I'd rather stick to my version of the story then admitting that the dude simply stole the 'name' for his own entrepreneurial activities......that gets me wound up even more!!!!!!!

'Cos in the end I cannot imagine monks (be they buddhist rather than christian monks) concocting milk for the Hong Kong populace.........that would be so out-of-this world!!!!

Man United experience in Macau

Manchester United.........

The club that football freaks (soccer that is)....either worship, adore....or loathe....

Fact is that ManU has been tremendously successfull since the end of last century and relentlessly continue to stomp their mark on the game of football as we know it today,......ruthlessly efficient, setting benchmarks for other teams to equal........

Having nurtured and brought forward many world class players like Cantona, Beckham, Christiano Ronaldo, Keane, just to name a few......it is no surprise that the club has garnered such a tremendous worldwide following,......proof of which are the full capacity crowd they attract at their home and away games and on their yearly overseas tour stints.......

Read my last year's posting regarding their stop here in Kuala Lumpur......

http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-devils-in-town.html

In the corridors of the Venetian, Macau was an outlet that caught our eyes......."Manchester United Experience"/cum fan shop......

Let me first state for the record that my family and me included are definitely NOT Manchester United fans......quite the opposite.......but a free entrance ticket was provided with our hotel booking, and heck.......since it was "gratuit"......let's pay it a visit and see for ourselves what it is about........

Must admit, hats off,........one gets immersed in the MU's culture, some interactive titbits for the lesser mortals like us, and once being through this MU experience at their Theatre of Dreams.......we were more inclined to part with our hardearned cash in their overprized fan shop........definitely not, in their (MU) dreams that is.........

Smart way of doing business though, exploiting and expanding their presence in the regions of the Far East........thumbs up to the MU marketing buffoons

A new year, a new beginning......

2010

The page has finally been turned upon 2009........forever referring it to the history books....a time of reflection......

Recap of 2009 then..........

We count our blessings that we have been spared of any major mishap past year, the economic meltdown which caused such a lot of misery to countless people all over the world, losing their jobs, wiping out entire savings, homes repossessed, skyrocketing unpaid health care bills.....with no end in sight......

For most of humanity, 2009 is a year to forget.......and us? Still lucky to do what we love doing, and earning a buck on top of it......healthwise, we're still feeling fine, save for the occassional midlife health ailments like an increased cholesterol.....and our nearest beloved ones are still alive and kicking......what more can we ask for?

Ofcourse, at the turn of each and every year, each of us has a wishing list, of which some come true.....and sadly, most remain just that....wishes......reality check!!!! :p

But fact remains, wishing every being on earth a happy New Year, ......ofcourse there will be ups and downs........, but hopefully may the 'ups' outweigh the 'downs'..........

And for the people who don't friggin' care 'bout this 'day'......don't worry, you're not alone.......but don't tell me you don't have any well wishes for your beloved ones or the rest of human kind :p

Well wishes from our family to everybody, and may your wishes/expectations come true this year (but keep it reasonable and within your means, capiche?!)

Salute 2010