Nest at Night

Just back from watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony at a colleague's house. Pizza and Wings - including a flavour I've never had before ... tuna pizza. My takeaway? Tuna's meant to be on sandwiches.

On the way there, we saw throngs of people lining the streets, waving flags, waiting to watch the fireworks. Lots of energy, lots of anticipation. When the cabbie dropped us he said "You might have problems getting a cab back until the end of the Opening Ceremony - a lot of us are going to be home watching it on TV."

At Bob's place, it was really cool to watch my colleagues get all excited when they saw atheletes they've met or helped out at our iLounges - internet lounges - at the Athelete's Village. One of my colleagues video skyped his wife and daughter in Raleigh to say good-morning, which was really cool. I saw Leander Paes, the tennis player, march in with the India team. I had met him at the Torch Relay in India where he was carrying the Torch for Lenovo.

The best part of the night: watching the final Torchbearer, Li Ning, run suspended in the air to light the cauldron, holding the torch my colleagues had designed.

Tied for the best part - Amy had gone to the grocery store to get some more drinks in the middle of the evening. Came back, and handed me a jar of peanut butter. I'd offhandedly mentioned at breakfast I was bummed that there was no peanut butter in our breakfast cafe. So...wow! Thanks Amy!! Appreciate this!!

It's the little things that are big - especially when we're away from home for a month.

Beijing Duck

First day at the Olympic Green today. Media are beginning to trickle in. At the Oympic Green early this morning, saw a couple of runners and cyclists. Four more days to opening and already things are buzzing.

In the meantime, Beijing is a long long way from when I first came here a decade ago. The only similarity is that the streets are still really, really wide. Although not as wide as I remember, since it's now streaming with cars.

Friday night after work went to Bookworm Cafe at San Li Tun - Russian 20somethings at the table in front of me; a mixed group to my right; two Japanese girls with cosmopolitan American accents; three older Brit guys at the next table. And lots and lots of used books. No Shepard's Pie though. Was expecting Brit food. Had a fried goat cheese salad called Einstein, and my colleague had a Cervantes. For a moment I wasn't sure if I wasn't in Ropponggi Hills.

Last night we went to Li Qun Kao Ya at 11 Zhengyi Lu near the Qian Men Dong Da Lu. In a hutong, kinda rustic, value for money. Still prefer Da Dou and Made in China, but Liqun's a lot easier to get a reservation in, and it's really homey - no attitude. It looked like the Chinese diners came during the early shift and after that it was all Lao Wai.

At the subterranean mall under the hotel, a gym that wasn't open when I visited (so I ended up running outside), a supermarket with an emptying bin of White Rabbit candy and ... DURIAN! Also got my Singaporean Khong Guan raisin biscuits and the wrong type of oatmeal that said Quaker but tasted like jook/ congee. The last time I was in a Chinese supermarket was in...White Plains New York!

Bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in oh...8 or so years at the corner of a San Li Tun crossstreet. Heard this Singapore accents, turned around, and there he was.

Geographical divisions mean less and less. The only Borders I'm quite familiar with is the bookstore. Come to think of it - I hung out at Borders in Mt Kisco in NY, and now I hang out at Borders at Wheelock Place and in Parkway in Singapore. The only difference is I never have to wear at winter coat at the one in Singapore.

Beijing 08!

Arrived in Beijing today. Already the q's were already quite short at immigration. But I went into the even shorter q - for people working on the Olympics.

Saw the Lenovo "Powering the Biggest Idea in the World" ad and the image of the IdeaPad U110 staring out at me the minute I got off the plane. It felt like I went straight from the plane into the office. Which was kinda cool. (I wish I had shot the image of the Olympic Torch on the left, unfortunately, it wasn't me)

Even cooler cuz I had seen/ heard my colleagues working on the new campaign at inception.

Saw the Singapore Olympic Sailing team right after going through immigration. Wished them well, wished them good luck. They looked so fresh and excited. Way cool.

Got my bags the minute I got to the baggage carousel. Pleasantly surprised. As efficient as Changi Airport...well almost.

In the cab on the way to the hotel the radio DJs were talking about the Olympics. Big, big buzz. Lotsa energy.

Fish and Water in Aveiro, Portugal

Arrival of luggage meant end of cranky spell. What a difference having my own stuff around me makes. Had no more excuse to go to Zara, which was fine by me.

Coolest moments:

• Ordering food not really knowing what we were going to get. Faves: Octopus, cod, and uh... that one kidney dish in Porto.
• Drinking Port in the Douro Valley.
  
• Free wireless and Weekend FT in Coimbra hotel.
• Simple but really great breakfasts in Coimbra and Porto - esp the fresh fruits.
• Our new friends from Brazil on the same tour us us to the Duoro.
• Catching up with Hedy and having a really simple holiday.
  
• Time away to think.
  
• Finally, FINALLY getting my luggage.

Santa Finally Brought my Luggage!!


I'm now in Coimbra, Portugal, where it's kinda rainy and everything's shut down for Xmas ... well, ALMOST everything. Fortunately this one restaurant was open for lunch and Hedy and I had the best cod ever.

It was simply done...a huge honkin' piece of fish, battered and then surrounded by a light broth, with boiled potatoes all around it. It tastes better than it sounds. Lots.

In Lisbon we went to a little restaurant called Fidalgo in Bairro Alto. I had a dish called Black Pork and Hedy had Rabbit in Red Wine. And some really good fries. Earlier that day we'd gone to a little restaurant in Alfama where no one spoke English, so we basically pointed at drawings on the menu. Hedy went to the kitchen with the owner and she came back saying "I ordered Octopus and some fish. I don't know what fish it was but it had two eyes and a tail and it looked fine to me." (Rough translation from Cantonese. My Cantonese has been steadily regressing since I left New York.)

Tasted fine too. Octopus with boiled potatoes and cabbage; fried fish with fries and salad. And little old ladies at the next table wondering where these two Chinese girls came from.

Went to Xmas mass this morning. In Portuguese. Then walked around this old university town. It's now 8pm - hardly anything's open still, I swear. There's a Spanish girl surfing the web next to me and an Aussie kid just asked for paper at the reception. It's for his art homework.

And Santa had a special delivery. After four days in Portugal, my luggage finally arrived. In the meantime, THANK GOODNESS for Zara and H&M.

Floating on the Mekong
Two days floating on the Mekong...no Blackberry access, no cell signal, no phones whatsoever - just a vast expanse of green hills ("on your right is Thailand, on your left is Laos"), very fast-moving brown water and outcrops of rocks. And every few kilometers a village on stilts on the hills.

It was a really weird feeling to get used to. My friends came to visit me from NY and we decided to go to Luang Prabang in Laos. And not the fast, direct way by plane. Nope - we decided to go to the Thai/ Lao border in Chiang Rai and take a slow boat down - going South, and then East.

http://www.asian-oasis.com/Luang.html

At first I felt really restless. Two days on the boat? What was I thinking when I booked it? (Overnight in one of the Luang Say hotels - but still, no phone signal whatsoever) I was really looking forward to getting back on land - going to Luang Prabang, a National Heritage Site where there'd actually be things to DO. But as I got used to it - sittin' on the chaise longue or a chair on the boat, talking to the other, very cool, very interesting passengers, the wind blowing in our faces, and all that open space around us ... that turned out to be the best part of the trip.

At Luang Prabang we alternated between visiting temples (14th century), and visiting rural villages.. Our itinerary included visiting a waterfall in the countryside - lush green vegetation punctuated by brilliant red flowers, and crystal clear, blue/green water. Hard to reconcile the quiet tranquility of the place with the violence and turmoil of the seventies there, and the extreme poverty there today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1154621.stm

Back in Singapore now... last night. Ian McKellen and Royal Shakespeare Company performed King Lear to a full house at the Esplanade. The scene in which the Earl of Gloucester's eyes are violently gouged out brings a collective gasp from the audience. My first thought - thank goodness we're not living in the 1500s.

But later, I was thinking...who am I kidding - sixteenth century...twentieth century...greed and lust for power are still very much part of our make-up. We haven't gotten any wiser, merely more technologically advanced.

Moving Right Along...



Three days in Raleigh, NC; two days in NY; one in Singapore, and then three in Seoul.

The two days in NY were my first two vacation days of the year. Didn't see as many galleries and museums as I would have liked to. Mostly I went from one part of Manhattan to another meeting my friends.

Saw McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano play at Blue Note last Friday. (WOW. Yeah, Blue Note is ridiculously expensive but they bring in some really cool stuff.) And on Saturday Terry, Bim, Mark and I went to MOMA for the Richard Serra exhibit. These are HUGE metal sculptures that you look at from the inside, outside, from around. Serra's work was some of the first that I saw when I'd first moved to NY in 2001. At that time it was an exhibition in Chelsea and we could actually touch them. His sculptures are so richly textured you just want to. But at the MOMA, the guards will come and lecture you because it really can damage the metal.

After that we had lunch at The Modern. Great service, great decor, great food - just the right portions. Had this great cocktail with rose petals called Coming Up Roses (it sounded so sissy I was thinking...how strong could it actually be!) But took three sips and had to give it to one of the guys. The room was turning clockwise. Bim's foie gras was excellent, Terry's duck was great, my oysters/ caviar was great. The pannacotta was kinda icky and runny. But man- everything else! Even the loos. Really good way to cap off a morning of art.

Also made it to the ICP. http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.1196903/k.692/Current_Exhibitions.htm

Saw a Stephen Shore exhibit called Biographical Landscape. Landscapes are not usually my "thing". But Shore's bare, stark images of American towns and cities, shot b/t '69 and '79, felt like frozen slivers of an era. It was almost impossible not to pause at the large format images - mostly absent of people - and think about the invisible lives behind them: an empty highway, a despondent looking car next to a kerb. Totally worth a visit.