Kinect movin' da House

Kinect movin' da House,

Couch potato's beware, there is no more excuse of not having time to exercise, to flex one's muscles....

'Cos thanks to the IT wizards from Redmond, Washington (Micro****).....they have brought us the Kinect,...

At first we were a bit apprehensive about this new toy, yes.....we do have a game console at home, but that's only brought out during the school holidays to keep the ever restless kids at peace.....

But heck, playing games indoors, in front of a TV and one is able to do some exercise on top of that?  Time to find out ourselves....

In no time, our dragon girl was jumping up and down, and soon afterwards practically the whole family, including our housemaid + Jess and me....were frantically hopping up and down, left and right.....

Does it beat the real stuff out there?  Ofcourse not, but you have to try it out for yourself to determine how much fun this kind of activity really is......and for someone who plays or more rather...plods along the football field practically every week, I can assure you that the calories burnt whilst playing this Kinect are not to be underestimated...................I guarantee you will break a sweat.

Only the future will tell us what kind of other Kinect activities are in store for us  (games at this junction of time are still of a kinda infantile content)....

Bring it on, Kinect Connecting Everybody......:)

 

Handmade Sweets

Handmade Sweets,

Where does one normally buy candies in order to satisfy their sweet tooth?

In the shop ofcourse, tons and tons of 'branded' candies lying on the shelves, ready to be picked, paid and eaten by us....

So, it was surprising to stumble upon this little stall at a fair, where a loving couple were selling ............. handmade sweets.

Needless to say that it attracted the attention of our little dragon girl, ....the sweet tooth that she is.....but have to admit that it looked quite fascinating......the hardened, coloured syrup moulded into different shapes and patterns.......flowers, animals and etcetera....

Not only Laetitia, but even our housemaid, Rebecca, were mesmerized by these particular sweets......bless them both.....

So what to do?  One pair of begging doggy eyes I can stand firm against, but two pair of them??   I surrender........and abracadabra.....open my wallet.

Handmade sweets........I give in......but that doesn't mean that all sweets are game for her from now onwards.....no way Laetitia, in your dreams!!!

Wallmart or Uncle Sam in China

Wallmart or Uncle Sam in China,

For those who are still in doubt, after Ronald McDonald has set up shop in China less than 2 decades ago, it's the turn of the hypermarket retailers, and spearheading them is Wallmart itself. 

Establishing itself in every nook and corner of Chinese society, providing the masses with cheap produce......

Where were the days that one had to visit several stores in order to complete their shopping list of the day, ..... China is modernizing itself very fast indeed, small towns blooming into gigantic cities in just a span of decade or two.....

So much the better for us ofcourse. We as consumers, don't say no to these ultra convenient stores.  And judging at the pictures taken at the store, we were in quite a jolly mood.....

Just missing, are the brass band and cheerleaders.....but who knows...Never say Never :p



3 Banana's, 1 Indon, 1 little gal

3 Banana's, 1 Indon, 1 little gal,

Take 3 Chinese expats who can't read or write Chinese (hence the name "Banana's"....outside Asian, inside Western), an Indonesian lady who is ofcourse also oblivious to the Chinese lingo and one little gal who is educated in a Chinese school.

Put them in a chinese resto, with a chinese menu.....

The 3 guys and the Indon lady scratching their heads ofcourse............and all of them turning their heads to Laetitia.......

"Laetitia, can you please translate what's on the menu?.....please....."

Our girl, who was given this enormous task, looked at us incredulously.....4 adults asking her for help.......

She halfheartedly translated some, and got a bit annoyed when some of us asked her to repeat what she had said......mind you, the menu was THAT extensive.....

You should have looked at the face of the waiter who took our order....I'm still not sure whether he was having a laugh with us, adults,  or not, 'cos his face remained stoic.....or did I discern a twinge on the side of his mouth ?!?!

Our food was duly served by this waiter, who was still not showing any sign of emotions,....who cares....our stomachs needed attention.

For once, I have to confess that I mightily appreciated the fact that our girl helped us out..........forever in debt, my girl, daddy didn't end up famished that day :)

THANK YOU from the depth of my heart

Ladies and their nails

Ladies and their fingers....

Why are ladies fascinated with  getting their nails done (be it fingers or toes)?

Clean fingers and nails, I can get that.....first of all it's hygienic and secondly it's

much more pleasing to the eye. It get on my nerves if I see somebody with dirt beneath their fingernails (did you hear that, Laetitia!!!)

Anyway, that ladies are willing to sit down for a while, letting somebody cut their nails, polishing it, and voila......they are as happy as a peacock high on testosterone, or rather oestrogen.

Whilst the older ladies of the troup were getting their nails done, our little dragon girl sat there beside them, more focused on her Nintendo DS, ......

Phew.....was I glad that she was not into this nail polishing activity....she's still a child after all, there will be plenty of time of cutting and polishing nails when she eventually grows up one day........

Thus I went my merry way, doing what guys would do whilst the ladies are busy with their thing, checking out dude's interests, like latest electronic fads......

So, ....great was my surprise when I came back home later that eve, and our little girl, proudly showed her fingers to me......

Laetitia finally gave in to temptation and has joined the "Manicure Gang".....

There goes childhood innocence.....

Rabbit massacre

Rabbit massacre,

Let's continue to talk about Rabbits.......

We kill in order to survive, to eat....since that the majority of humanity is still carnivorous by nature, I do assume that most of you agree with this statement.

But killing for one's pleasure......alas, sad to admit that only we humans are the only species on our blue planet of ours who are capable of doing this.  I don't see any other living beings killing another just for the sake of it.

Below video has been doing the rounds on the net past few months, and I'm quite certain that quite a few of you have already seen it........disgusted by the senseless killing of a poor creature.....

Makes one think what ethics, morals these ladies live by......as I don't see any justification for their crude actions.

I pity the ignorant dudes who eventually marry these ladies, 'cause they might get squashed themselves.........literally.



Rabbit on a plate,

As you well know by now, 2011 is according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar the Year of the Rabbit.

Knowing that the Chinese practically eat anything that moves, crawls.......it doesn't come as a surprise that our furry friends are not exactly exempted from being devoured, just because it is the Year of the Rabbit.

And before anyone accuses me of being biased, ...I hold up my arms high in the air....for a fact, my Belgian compatriots do enjoy a nice plate of bunny meat too....tried it decades ago, and I wasn't that amused back then.

So, I shouldn't have been surprised then, when I saw these caged creatures, ready to be slaughtered on the spot, and cooked in front of anyone who savoured a delicious bunny hindleg, or why not some snake, duck, toads.....

I do realize that what we might consider "kosher", other people might find it disgusting, and vice versa....

But I do really wish that our furry friends are exempted from winding up in the cooking pots..........because after all, this is their year.....

Saving them from being cooked? Wishful thinking.........

I'd better advise the rabbits to multiply themselves to keep up their numbers, I'm quite certain they have more chances to survive as a species this way.

A short nap

A short nap,

What we practically never do back home, is take a nap......due to being so tied up with everyday's chores.....barely having a small time window to relax during daytime....

So I do wonder why the ladies of the house, when we are on holiday, ...and mind you...being on holiday, we are supposedly free from 'stress'....they take every single opportunity when they are in transit....to take a nap....

Are sightseeing and shopping considered to be that exhaustive?

It definitely looks that way.....pictures don't tell lies.......bless them....

Catching  up on some much needed sleep, 'cause back home they wont' have the chance.

Sweet dreams ladies

Wishing Tree, Lam Tsuen Village

The first tree

the second tree

Wishing tree,

Or I should rather say wishing trees...as there are two...

Located near the "Tin Hau" temple in Lam Tsuen village, the trees are popular with the locals and tourists alike.......that's what the tourist brochures say.......

So we made an effort of stopping by this time and see for ourselves what all the fuzz is about.

The custom here is that people write their wishes on a piece of paper, tie it around an orange and throw them onto the branches of those trees.  Bit of a curious act....but heck, tradition is tradition.

After passing through the imposing main gate, we were looking at the first tree....it was fenced off, prohibiting people from actually touching or even approaching the tree closely as apparently a few years ago, a few branches gave way and injured some poor chaps who happened to be standing there at wrong time and wrong place (was it due to old age? due to vandalism? or did God upstairs wanted to punish a non-believer......who knows)

Nothing much to look at, and certainly prohibited to throw any 'wishes' onto that tree anymore......

Scratch one tree........

So where's the second tree then?

We made our way through the park and eventually came upon the second tree....standing in full glory, unfenced, in the center of a totally concrete open space......

It beats me why a tree should stand amidst concrete.....in my mindset, a tree is associated with a green environment. (think grass, flowers, etcetera)

It looked okay though, bit smallish compared with the first tree we saw............from a distance.........the closer we approached....the more odd the tree became....

You're now thinking ....."odd?!?!?"

Yups, on closer inspection.....the tree ain't what a tree is supposed to be like.....it has all the branches, ...check.....it has a proper trunk....check...., it has leaves......check......

it has all the wrapped wishing paper tied with oranges.....check.......

But can somebody now explain to us, why the tree is made out of PLASTIC ?!?!?!

Yes, you are reading my words correctly.....this second wishing tree is made out of plastic........so my next question is...."what happened to the original second tree??"

Look at below vid to see for yourself whether this tree is for real.....

Attracting crowds of people who want to uphold a tradition, ...fine by me...., but I'd say definitely NoNo to this kind of ..........(fill in the blanks yourself).

We came, we saw, we knocked, heard a hollow sound and we went.....a disillusion richer.....

Just hope that the wishes on the tree are not as 'hollow' as the tree itself