Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Shanghai, Day 4 - Part 4 (Evening Entertainment)

Prelude of the evening activity - the Gala Night.
By dawn, we donned our traditional Chinese attire and headed to the restaurant.
It was rainy and cold...was shivering as I walked along the streets to the entrance...luckily i did not wear cheongsam...that would be crazy.
The organizer has booked the entire venue...hence they decorated the dining hall as to bring back the Ol' Shanghai atmosphere, and that includes some ads posters.
yea, these were pasted all over the place on every pillars!
the famous ones are ciggie & liquor ads,
vintage advertisement which now serves as decorative posters.
even a poster of the famous Chinese classical songstress is being put up! Yea, this lady sung the Nights of Shanghai (夜上海)
There were some performances too, such as balancing acts.
and Chinese instrumental music.
with the a troupe of pretty girls clad in body-fitting cheongsam...
nice eh?
There were paintings...at a discounted price!
let the master paint  your name...if u dun have a Chinese name, just spell it out in Alphabetical and he will paint them in alphabet.
and this other master draws cartoon-ed portrait.
he can amazingly turn ur face into some comical expression face!
another master did the paper cutting of  the face shape...sideview shape only.
these are among the talented artist which were invited into the event to provide us with discounted price on their artwork.
UpNext: the food

Monday, October 13, 2014

Covert Affairs

Have been watching Covert Affairs (US TV series) for quite some time and am still being hooked on it, mainly bcoz i enjoy those CIA kinda story. 
Somehow, i'm fascinated with the 'interesting' but dangerous life of a CIA agent. Interesting as in the character gets to be assigned a secret task and gets to travel around places for her undercover or messenger tasks.
Well, a 'series' as it is, this Annie (main character) is often that lucky coz everytime she manages to escape the dangers or some kinda hero came to her rescue. 
Talking about investigator, I recently got to deal with one. Getting abit thrilled coz one of the complaint that i filed (on behalf of the company) against an established French firm did reached the World Bank acknowledgement in Washington.
The World Bank's does have a dedicated body to investigate any allegations of fraud and corruption in their projects, known as INT. Glad that somebody is now attending the case and that my effort in filling the complaint did not go to waste.          

Friday, October 10, 2014

Funny Animal Play Dead

Here's some amusing scenes of animal playing dead. Super-cute and funny...

i'd nominate the hamster and parrot for the Oscar!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Shanghai, Day 4 - Part 3 (The Bund)

What fascinated me about this city is not about the sophisticated skyscraper...
Well, the charm of the Ol' Shanghai lies at....
THE BUND
When i first saw the itinerary, i noticed that the Bund wasn't included...hence i slip-in my own program...that is to stroll along The Bund.
after all, this is what Shanghai is famous for...the colonial buildings!
since kid, i was fascinated with Art Deco architectures, especially those Gothic ones...hence a visit to The Bund is a MUST!
The whole stretch along this row of building is full of uniquely designed architectures which now houses some of the international banks, government offices, and boutique hotels.
it's sort of heritage and these buildings have definitely stand the test of time and still stood strong despite many bombings by the Japanese during 2nd World War. Well, of course some restoration has been carried out after then...and the façade still remain original as it was.
i was mesmerized by the huge grand entrance at some of the buildings.
the heavy doors and textured walls and ceiling.
like it so MUCH
back to the streets...the blossoming flowers reminds me of spring...
this place is well-guarded by police.
more colourful flowers around the pavement.
Below: The Agricultural Bank of China. ABC ranks 3rd in Forbes’ 11th annual Global 2000 ranking of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world. Fuiyohh....dun play play!
magnificent window arch.
well, i actually went in to one of the bank hoping to bump into some rich merchant...and first time seeing an ol' fashioned bank with high fenced counters...unfortunately no photo taking allowed in the bank.
alrite, enuff of the building exterior...i stopped by The Peninsula hotel to have an evening tea....a pee..
am a cheapo...i 'tumpang' using their washroom...
the washroom was well attended by an "attendant" dressed in French-maid-uniform...kinda cute!
well, in case u wanna have some evening tea...here's the place!
i wish to, but was running outta time as my 2-hour freedom wasn't enuff...and i gotta run back to the assembling point...which is a few miles from here.
i wish i could hop onto this bus to bring me back to Nanjing road...haih...lazy to walk....

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

After Holiday Blues....

This is how I feel today....and the comin' days of the week :-(
I only have a brain with limited processing speed, and yet everything is urgent...wth!
subordinate on leave, boss is abroad...
left me alone to run the operation...wth! wth! wth!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Shanghai, Day 4 - Part 2 (Lunch & Nanjing Road)

Around noon, we reached our 'makan place' for lunch...true enuff, this was another sumptuous meal (just like any other meals we had)...by now, i got used to our usual "10-dishes meal"...Here it goes:

Dish 1: Pork skin (aka "zhu pei") in gravy. Not a fan of "zhu pei", hence i took only a piece.
Dish 2: Fried fish nugget...i like this coz the fish nugget were pure fish meat without mixing in flour or preservatives...
The saucer next to it contains salt with pepper to dip the fish nugget (which i tink is not necessary coz the fish itself is already flavorful)
Dish 3: Lala...
as usual, u'l expect the lala's torn off from the shell...I just gotta find 'em hidden somewhere outta shells.
Dish 4: Tong-Po pork is back!!! Like this to the MAX!
Dish 5: Prawns...eh why the skin not peeled?
Lazy to eat coz lazy to do peeling. SKIP!
Dish 6: can't remember...some sort of soup with meat dumplings in it (i guess)..I wonder what was those white cubes...*forgetful liao
Dish 7: familiar dish again...yea, steamed fish! fresh fish but too much tiny bones...
Dish 8: Slice pork in dark sauce...Flavorful & nice to go with rice!
Dish 9: Fried glass noodles...not bad though.
Dish 10: kelp soup...plain & so-so ler....
there goes my 'luxurious' lunch...which was not really that luxurious if compared to the previous days...
after lunch, we went back to Nanjing Road for some shopping...finally we were able to spend some time at this shopping district despite being staying here for the past few days!
Nanjing Road comprises of East & West. A large section of the East road is designed for pedestrian only...
Some buildings around the vicinity are still preserved well...at least the façade is still looking good!
the group were dispersed for the next 2 hours to do some shoppings before returning for the next activity -- BODY MASSAGE!
and this was our final chance for shopping hence we were told to spend our time "wisely"!
but being an un-wise me...i did not follow the advise and ventured out of Nanjing Road to....
somewhere
Shopping can be done anytime back in KL, but that particular "somewhere" shouldn't be missed out!
yea...that "place" will be disclosed in my next post!

Mr. Chen

Who is Mr.Chen? Apparently this Mr.Chen is a popular Chinese fast-food outlet in Panama. The menu ranges from chow mein, chow fun, chop suey...