Nineteen Forty Nine

ninETEEn FOrTyninE

My favourite restaurant in Beijing city............
the food is good, with lots of choices and the food presentation second to none,
environment is superb and truly unique in its own style!Jimmie, the cricket taking a break and some sun tanning outside;
otherwise he will be entertaining the diners in the fine dining restaurant.
Jimmie sings non-stop until someone comes near, he can somehow
sense the presence of human.... all will suddenly be quiet.
The Noodle Bar.... where you are served the best ramen
with a choice of pork ribs or beef condimentsDisplay of attractive, love-to-own and expensive art sculptures for sales around the premises

Dine & Wine

After 2 and a half years, finally the mystery woman was introduced to "Charlie"s angels.......:} in a restaurant called 1949 that serves Beijing Duck.... crispy, roasted, crunchy duck skin... yum yum....

The Chef carving the perfectly roasted duck.....

Duck skin served on white duck plate

condiments to go with the duck skin.... oh that little duck is not for eating, its a chopsticks stand

Diane and Marcella

Vina and Diane
(all natural shots.... no posing allowed)

This is the best and the fun part. The duck sauce requires some dressing. First you spoon the mustard and ginger paste on to the sauce in circular motion. Then you swirl your sauce plate in circular movement until a beautiful pattern comes on......you might not do very well on the 1st time.... just like me

Then you spoon the crispy fried shallots in the middle!

See what I meant? This one was done by the expert! Vina......

Oh, I forgot to take pictures of the best part of the meal, the desserts; they were so delicious that we can't wait to take picture before we dig in.....sweet rice balls with different flavour of ice cream inside and the best mini egg tarts I ever tasted... the tarts even have frosted decoration on it and its piping hot.....

Finally, while we dine and wine, we were being entertained by Jimmy, the cricket. He sang all the way through our meals until when we asked and the waitress brought him in his cage to introduce him, then he stopped singing (shy, we think)......special!!!

Beijing Skyline

Pictures taken on a clear sunny day .... the sun is setting over the Beijing skyline. The odd looking structure is the CCTV building just completed about a year ago?...

The CCTV Tower

The building is not on fire; though one beside the CCTV tower (the one on the right) was burnt down recently due to some fire crackers; the building was a brand new hotel supposed to open the day after the fire..... it is now a big eyesore!

The burnt building .... brownish in colour

These 2 pictures taken on a clear morning....

The Best Eulogy

"Love the imperfections" ~~ This is one very good advice for a lasting marriage life. Instead of finding your other half's idiosyncrazies annoying, try looking at them with a different set of eyes or better still see them with your heart. Watch this youtube and you will understand what I am trying to say.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9ocubowMs&feature=player_embedded

Cry if you must but learn from it..... there is no perfect person in this world, admit it you are not perfect yourself so try not to be so picky.... life is too short!!

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

"All Quiet on the Western Front" today simply means "for lack of action".

It has become part of English language commonly used by babyboomers for lack of action in the modern days. This slang is adapted from the German Army war term; translated by author, Arthur Wesley Wheen in 1930.

However, while in a conversation with my son, a dotcom kid in his twenties who was not aware of such term gives me a feeling that we are not passing on such terms and knowledge to our kids thus causing THE generation gap.

I do appreciate the advance in technology but still feel strongly that we should retain some of the good English used by the babyboomers........anyone dare to defer?

Revelation of Truth - Faiths

One of the pillars of life I strongly advocate to is "faith"! Then I read in Louis Fischer's "The Life of Mahatma Gandhi" and this particular paragraph highlighted itself to my full attention of which I wish to share:-

All faiths constitute a revelation of Truth, but all are imperfect, and liable to error. Reverence for other faiths need not blind us to their faults. We must be keenly alive to the defects of our own faith also, yet not leave it on that account, but try to overcome those defects. Looking at all religions with an equal eye, we would not only not hesitate, but would think it our duty to blend into our faith every acceptable feature of other faiths.

Louis Fischer further mentioned that this paragraph is a portrait of the Gandhi mind; he was the conservative who would not change his religion, the reformer who tried to alter it, and the tolerant believer who regarded all faiths as aspects of the divine. He was loyal yet critical, partisan yet open-minded, devout yet not doctrinaire, inside yet outside, attached yet detached, Hindu yet Christian, yet Moslem, yet Jew.

How interesting.... this character of our past.... The Mahatma Gandhi!

I Wish You Enough

A friend forwarded me this email about "I Wish You Enough" which is very meaningful. I want to remember the meaning of "I Wish You Enough" greeting so I am pening it here to write it on rock as well to share with whoever stumble on my blog and like what it is

The gist of the story is that someone overhead a mother and daughter bidding each other farewell and as the mother felt that it is a last time for her to bide farewell to her daughter, it was really a sad event. Both mother and daughter bid each other "I wish You Enough". And the meaning of this wish is.....

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how grey the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye.

It is too much to say all these when you say goodbye to someone and it is so logical to cut it short yet it meant so much..... For those who reads this .... "I wish you enough!"