On the day when I finished my last exam, Clarisse took me to Swenson's for a tiny celebration dinner for my graduation from academic life.
Oh, and I just got my results. Quite sianz cos still no A, best is still a B+. Yeah, I managed to graduate but still a little sianz cos I thought I was gonna get my first 'A' results this sem. Well we live and learn.
Fantastic Shrimp & Fruits Salad w/ Mango Yoghurt dressing!
The not-so-fantastic Clamp Chowder Soup
And the oh-so-delicious Chocolate Fondue set!Somehow, I recalled takin pix of the main courses, but couldn't find them in my hp pix *shrugs*
Malibu on da rox!
My fave drink when working late. It helps me get in momentum along with some music. Was introduced by my brother 4 years back. Coconut rum. It's got this classy style about it.
Pix from the Philosophers' Zoo Trip!
This guy tried to snatch my iPhone. lol.Tech-Savvy Macaque!!
Leopard walkin off.
Mr. Giraffe.
Inuka.
Ms. LlamaTook some pix to showcase a certain pretty cool capability of Macs.
Loading 82 images in PhotoshopAnd tesselated using Expose, which shows streaming thumbnails of every open window. After finding out that Mac OS 10.4 Tiger (launched in April 2005) had this function for a few years already, I realised how true the rumour is - that Windows consistently rips off apple's innovations.
Like Msoft says, NO, gadgets and widgets are not the same thing, even though they both run small movable useful applications, they are completely different things. Same for Transparency and Aero, totally different things. Aero is the entire transparent feel, different from transparency.
OK, enough flaming windows. Without them consistently screwing up, I wouldn't even have a business. So, I hereby express my deep appreciation for Msoft's library of problems that puts that of Alexandria's to shame.
Anyway, the function I wanted to show, is something I found by sheer coincidence:
Here you've got Fenris' desktop.Press Ctrl + Alt + Apple + 8, and you get:
Voila!Pretty cool eh? Wondering what just happened?
A color scheme change you might guess?
Nope, it's an instant colour inversion.
The Expose of all the same photos in inverted colour.Cool but useless? Nope, it's very useful for saving power when typing notes in school. The details to that are quite technical, so I'll spare you guys the agony. ^^
Pix from last thursday, just prior to our gold class movie @vivo. We had lunch at Marche, and surprisingly it was Clarisse's first time in Marche.
The Rosti!Served w/ smoked salmon. Rosti is something one shouldn't miss when visiting marche.
Skewered Deep Fried Tiger Prawns.Extremely fresh, but cos it's breaded and deep fried, very oily. Clarisse took most of it as she can afford the oil.
Chicken & Mushroom Tortilla!Great stuff(-ing) ^^
Finish off w/ a glass of Vanilla Milk Shake, and a Dessert Crepe w/ tiramisu ice cream, and strawberries and nuts and what not. Indulgence!
Cows at the exit.
Notice of the cows' sickness!
And a pretty rushed pic before our movie.Post Proper: The Road Home
Woke up on the second day of the HK trip (Tuesday) at 8am and set off w/ Clarisse to Central where her office was - and I was on my way to a destination 7 hours away.
A couple of hours' MRT to Shenzhen, followed by a 4+hour bus ride. And took some photos along the bus ride, besides sleeping, waking, studying, watching anime on my iphone, etc.
And I eventually arrived at my destination at around 3+pm, and there was some mist in the air.
At the foot of my destination, Clarisse's parents' flat in Chaoyang City, Guangdong Province. As you can see, pretty humble place (about the size of a 5-room flat). Father-in-law put off buying a villa for the sake of his children's education.As usual, had some good chat, good tea, good wine and good seafood (home-cooked!). Me being me, did the same thing as when I went the last time - try to repair whatever I could find that needed it.
Next morning, went for a hike on the nearby hill, Monkey's Hill. About the height of Bukit Timah at around 300m above sea. Was pretty good practice for my Volcano Trek (coming this Saturday).
Walked on paved tracks, so it's not too tough (volcano has mud tracks). This time it was a lot easier than it was the last time I was there in July 06, partially because of the mist - when you can't see how high you are off the ground, you have no idea how far you went thus it seems easier.
But this could make it more dangerous, just like people die of exhaustion walking in the desert without even anticipating it. The lack of reference confuses your mind's ability to tell you when to start feeling tired I guess.
That's Father in-law.He never leaves the house in any clothes other than collared long sleeve shirt and pants and leather shoes, probably out of habit.
Me at the peak of Monkey's Hill.
The In-laws.
He:Was from a family of 9 generations of farmers, so he was in a favourable position during the cultural revolution. Graduated with degree from military college, joined PLA, retired as a Camp Commander and a Vietnam War Veteran. As such, got a good post in China Telecom as head of a town hq.
Retired last year at the age of 55, with a consulting post (drawing the same income as just before retirement o_O||) and became a house-husband, appearing in office once or twice a month. Daily routine: marketing, cooking lunch, drinking tea with friends/relatives, cook dinner, mahjong, sleep.
She:
Was the youngest from a family of 10 siblings, every single one of whom is a degree holder. Had strong love for numbers (see where Clarisse got her influence?) and loved her accounting work. Stopped work after having kids to be a home-maker. After Father-in-law retired (last year), she was more than happy to return to her fave accounting work.
And so, spent another day helping some REALLY distant relatives find their long-lost even more distant relatives in Paris, by using my very half-bucket-water French. And after a dinner at a posh local restaurant (Tung Lok quality food at Fish & Co prices) and a good night's sleep, I was on my way back to join Clarisse in HK on the morning of Day 4.
And because so many people have found it unbelievable, yes, I did in fact visit my in-laws alone, while Clarisse was having course in HK. I was visiting them on her behalf actually, but of course also partly for the sake of Father-in-law's good wine ^^
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