Living. Fairytale

常常懷念去年去日本的時候，是最快樂的回憶之一，每一刻都很開心。每天吃早餐都想點什麼蛋，儲起漂亮的奶瓶子。晚上期待着酒店房裏為我們預備的生果。有一次滿懷希望的去開桌上兩個蘋果，怎料原來是兩個很甜的日本梨來的!出乎意料之外!
我喜歡輕井駅和自由x丘，夕陽的陽光下，在寧靜的街道上行走。還意外地遇到一間Studio Ghibli 店和Wachifield 店。

我喜歡在拉麵上加雙陪「青」，喜歡看魚生師傅片TORO!喜歡陪你吃蟹，那裏的大蟹標誌很大，還有人彈古箏。我們在六本木碰上大雨，我還看到黑雲湧來;在半島酒店的頂層吃晚餐，精心設計的幻燈感覺在北歐看極光。
在Yokohama吃午餐等了很久，外面太陽很猛，我們很喜歡雪糕店的人唱的歌，但我更喜歡之後吃飯時聽你說話。
我們說要再到台場玩ufo機，那裏高手比較少，你不斷的「夾」到很多東西呢，我把夾到的東西放在酒店地上拍照，Hedgy也來參與。
走過墳場與貓店後，我們也遇上大雨，躲在小路中，民居的車房下避雨，我最喜歡大雨，從屋簷像小瀑布的流到路上。
真希望可以快點見到你。

爆開的眼樹

北京的眼樹上的眼是因為樹枝生出來時，導致樹的表皮爆開，留下眼的形狀，樹枝被砍後，眼的瞳孔露出來。這是一個很local的爆裂，且是橫向的。
可是近日釣魚台國賓館外一段長達（十五分鐘車程）的路旁的眼樹卻出現直向爆裂，即由上至下的爆開，有的更整層表皮掉下來，眼的位置留出黃色及紅色的樹汁，情況嚇人，值得關注

今天記者路經此段，竟堵了三十分鐘車，兩旁不斷有警車經過，懷疑前面有乘客乍見眼樹後暈倒。

'Liberal'-Chinese-lover?

"A guy friend of mine has been in a stable relationship for a few years, but there's another girl who really liked him. People all adviced her not to do anything when he already has a stable girlfriend. But she thought if he loves her so much, than he won't be shook but her seduction. So later on, the guy did started getting really close with this girl, he decided to maintain both relationships.
A few days earlier, he posted a very long article on the internal-web of their uni (equivalent to facebook) - apologizing for what he did wrong. What made him changed all of a sudden - on her original girlfriend's fourth abortion, she realized that she couldn't get pregnant anymore. He felt sorry, and promised to marry her once they graduate"

Relationship-wise, I wonder if we are fossils.
Last night, I had another great cultural lesson on modern Chinese relationships. Many of those people involved in the stories are not fictional, not internet stories, not MK kids, but real friends of my friend, in one of the top universities in China.

"Another girl from a reowned school from Hong Kong, now studying University here, really liked a homosexual guy, she liked him so much that she made him drunk deliberately so he would have sex with her, and hoping that it could turn in a relationship. But the guy was too drunk and didn't know what happened the night before, so nothing happened following the event. Knowing that she couldn't win his heart, she thought having him physically is good enough."

Match-making is very common among my friends and C's friends here in the universities. It's alright to ditch a friend if a potential guy dates you for dinner, and it might happen like monthly or weekly.

There are internal websites, where people post their own pictures, searching for girl/boyfriends. One of C's pretty friend posted her pic, and got more than 1000 replies, INCLUDING a young professor. But that girl just got accepted by Harvard grad school, the professor suggested that he could apply to be a visiting lecturer there.

When Deborah was here, she pointed out how people are so CRAZY about getting married here in China, but it's not only in China, also in Hong Kong, people have very elaborate celebration for their weddings. Here, the biggest shops in shopping malls are those like "I DO"

PDA (Public Demonstration of Affection) is also serious, The other day i was on a bus- on the second floor, there were three couples, among them, two pairs were hugging very tightly, with the girl lying on the guys' legs throughout the bus ride, the remaining pair had the girl sitting on the guy's lap even there were SO MANY empty seats.....

According to both Miranda and my observation in our architecture firms in Shanghai and Beijing, almost all guys are married, and all young pretty girls ranging from e.g. 20 - 40 are single! How amazing. The girl next to me, looks like... 26? but she's actually 32, she's very eager to get a boyfriend, mostly cuz it's a norm, she's dating randomly, doesn't really like her boyfriend. But she felt scared cuz everyone in her University class are married - some even divorced already! hark.

Yes naturally, people all around the world seems to do things like this, we might be surprised because they are Chinese, I wonder... how are Chinese perceived, and how are they actually like?

Living in Art

Today I have found a close-to-perfect cafe, under nice sunlight, and stayed for a whole afternoon on the second floor on comfy chairs. With my drawing board, listening to stuff on laptop, soft pencils.. Cecilia even came visit me in the afternoon ! :)
Went to 北京美術用品街 yesterday, I love being surrounded by art tools and also books, I remember I really loved the smell of the art equipments room when I was back in St. Stephen's. Miss my seaside studio, creating art is such a therapeutic activity. 

Hatsune 隱泉

I am starving, but I guess I deserve it, I have less than RMB500 now, and had spent a few hundred on lunch today

Finally get around to trying some high-end jap food on the East side of Beijing today! Hatsune was repeatedly elected as the best Japanese food in town.

 

I must say that it's too good, the atmosphere is great, no door signs - look as if it's not opened yet from outside, after the stone door, it's an electrical water door, beyond are comfy sofas, abundant natural daylight, and fish installation in the double ceiling height space. 

I ordered a Hotate sushi and another dish withs hotate in, but later on the waitress said that the hotate is not fresh today, I told her that i really want it, but she said it's 真的不行.

So I had to change them to something else! Wishing for a surprise, and surprise surprise, it's really a surprise!!!!

ohohohohohohhohohohohohoh IT'S too good...................................

In search of a perfect cafe

You know how much time we spend in cafes. And of course in some periods of time in Edinburgh "when you can't find me in my room, I must be in a cafe"
But a good cafe is so difficult to find.
Ideally it should be above the street level, so you don't get people and cars roaming in front of you, and also allows more natural sunlight in.
E.g. Pacific Coffee Stanley and Starbucks Happy Valley
If not, it should be isolated from the streetE.g. Pacific Coffee Repulse Bay
They should also have a lot of comfy seats and is spacious. Mysteriously there are some that doesn't fit all the above criteria, but still won my heart,
E.g. Sift in Graham Street - probably because of it's unique atmosphere, the so squished steep street filled with old building and of course it's amazing food.
AND Aries!
It should also be quiet enough, of course, it's often difficult to get that, so one should always visit a cafe early in the morning, and avoid the time when school kids get off school (if it's near a school)
There are also some other with nice memory like Starbucks in Hysan Road, the old Starbucks of LKF...

In Beijing, I still haven't found one cafe that I always want to revisit.Sculpting in Time in Fragrant Hills is quite close, as it has good food, friendly waitress who know me already, free wireless, sunlight, and open view, and cats, but the sofa is not very comfortable, and as noon approaches, it gets crowded and you see disturbing scenes of people forcing cats to be near them!
The cafes I have tried in 798 either has good food but boring view, or no view and bad food.Nanluoguxiang's cafes are nice, especially if you watch from outside, but they have no sofa, and there will always be people admiring you (actually the cafe windows) in an arms length.Sanlitun is good for lunch and dinner, so those are not really cafes.The bookworm cafe is pretty but doesn't have nice seats.
Another problem is that they are all in a bit of a distance. Beijing is too big.

Of course there are also those cafes in shopping malls, which has no windows, those are not going to be considered.
et cetera....

I will continue to search for good cafes, some that I want to visit:
Cave Cafe 洞房咖啡 - 798 looks really nice, wanna go!! But far
Pacific Coffee - There are pacific coffees in Beijing, but no photos, i dun wanna travel half the city and be disappointed
Sugar Bar looks pretty but chairs dun look good
90% of the cafes in Beijing has wireless, but don't have good chairs, and no view, or are in crowded places, or have limited view because Hutongs have narrow roads. (ohhhh.....) But I still love Beijing, especially when I eventually find my favourite cafe here.


(Cafes I have visited so far in Beijing:
Nanluoguxiang: Guoke, NGLX, Sandglass
798: Art Cafe, The High Place, THe living experience place
Zhongguancun area: Starbucks, JC Cafe, Mima, Sculpting in Time
Sanlitun: that french cafe, Elements.... dun remember)

Picture was taken in a cafe in Denmark

S.A.T.C

"Later that day, I got to thinking about relationships"
Famous Carrie Bradshaw line from SATC
Men and women are naturally so different, so incompatible. Men always make mistakes in women's eyes, without knowing, then the women complains, without pointing out exactly what it is so problematic in the men. The men comforts, the women felt loved, problems unresolved, women complains again, men gets annoyed, then all of a sudden, it's no longer the men's fault (which sourced the problem from the beginning) it all became her fault - of being demanding, difficult to satisfy, inconsiderate. Mistakes continues, complains continues, problems unresolved, hatred increases. Relationships are difficult to comprehend.