Korean Boys are Hawt!

If anything, the funeral of the ex-president today has the military and police cadets out by the droves. We all know that Korean boys have compulsory military service.

And if we work on the misconception that all Korean boys are as hot as their on-screen counterparts, then today is the ultimate opportunity to check them all out in uniform.

Ahhhhhhhh.....

Death by...

Yay! I am leaving in twelve hours! :)

My boss gave me a stack of heavy duty face masks today. You know the ones that filter about 99.9% of airborne stuff? Yea, those. And alcohol hand wash and gloves. Just in case I happen to sit on the same plane as someone with Swine flu. I think I would attract more attention with my precautionary measures than someone who does have the virus and refuses to comply with cross-infection measures. If anything, Cantoland has made me more cautious. I no longer think wearing a face mask all day long is a nuisance; while gloves and handwashing are routine and full disposable gowns are regular wear. But then, I work in a healthcare system that has survived SARS.

North Korea has decided to test some missiles this week, to the dismay of the global community. They are also threatening to attack the South. I may get to see a tank or two and get caught up in the foray. I should get my alternative travel plans ready. I know that if planes don't want to fly in Korean airspace, I can take a ferry to China and fly back to Cantoland from there. Or I could blow up my little dingy and berth back in ShenZhen river. :)

I doubt travel insurance covers Swine flu or nuclear war. I either come back in one piece, or in a seven day quarantine or not make it back at all.

Closet Detox

I figured I have way too much stuff. I really should get rid of half my stuff.

Any takers? :)

If anyone is interested. I shall go through my closet and dig out shoes I have not worn, clothes I hardly wear, mini skirts I have no guts to flaunt... My accesories I would have to do another day as there is just too much!

I am off to Seoul is less than 36 hours and I am absolutely bouncing with excitement! :) This year shall be a great year.

This is the year Stella goes bankrupt while discovering what she really wants in life.

Beauty Vs Brains

The gods of hospitals have showered their er.. grace on us poor souls in the clinic. They have decided to grant us a tiny 150-square-feet office. And being the absolutely easy-to-please people that we are, we are ecstatic. So we have moved in people! The boss has moved all the crap out of the clinic leaving me a lovely clean space to roll about. :) Well, maybe not roll about, since there is hardly enough space to squeeze past the clinical treatment chair and wheelchair in case of a fire. And I get to pick my own filing cabinets. I want a pink one! :) And a red lamp! :) So what if it doesn't match the cream clinical decor.

I got a little perk-me-up from the chief executive of one of the hospitals in the post the other day. One of my patients had written a heartfelt thank you letter for our service. And so he popped in a little note in appreciation for the effort made. I am quite addicted to collect those 'gold stars', like people collect blue and yellow slips in KTJ. I am kiasu.

We have a symposium on Friday and I was 'volunteered' to help out. While every other medical professional gets proper jobs like timekeeping, registration, audio visual etc, my official job description is to 'look pretty' and 'ring a bell'. -_-

I didn't think my life would one day come down to this. Since when have my (non-existent) beauty outclassed my brains?-_-

Boredom Kills, Frustration Stubs Toes

I realised that I enjoy kicking things when I am frustrated. This is not a very good habit as I would end up with a sore toe and lowered IQ. You know how the big toe is the brain in Chinese reflexology. So I try to kick soft objects such as someone else or a ball of paper as a compromise. Then again, there is only so much abuse the person sitting near you can take. They don't make men like they used to *sigh*.

So I have decided I don't want to have a sore toe or to scuff my pretty shoes. I shall get a potato gun to shoot people with. There were some pretty cool spud guns available online and DIY, but then they wouldn't fit my handbag.

I just need a nice mini potato pistol so that I can carry it around in my Club Monaco clutch along with a little bit of carbo.

Yay, weekend... I'm heading to the Motherland tomorrow. They have snow slopes in the Tropics. This I have to see!

Mass Fatality Plan

They send us random emails en masse in this country. The emails make my day because hardly anyone emails me. They can range from 'do not gamble or drink alcohol during work hours' to 'the most memorable thing that happened in 2008 was Mr X retiring'. These people have a very weird sense of humour. No wait, they were serious.

We got one today about the Mass Fatality Plan. Now, unless you live in isolation with no means of communication, everyone has heard about Influenza A that's spreading like wildfire around the world. And you would have probably heard about how Cantoland went OTT to lock everyone up. We survived SARS; there was a valid reason why. We isolated infected people to prevent disease spread and scrubbed everything raw.

So this week, there is a new case of a local who came back from the US with it. And just because this is one of their own, they have decided that he was more important than the foreigner who incidentally, was also an imported case, and have declared a state of emergency. Thus we got an email on mass fatality in case of community outbreak. Initially, I thought they were going to lock up the hospitals and anyone who happened to be inside and throw away the key. Then hidden overhead vents will gas us and they will put us into a mass grave they just happened to have conveniently disguised as the swimming pool. Or they may throw our bodies into the construction site of the new wing of the hospital like the indigenous tribes of Borneo used to do to christen their long houses.

My department has our contingency plans ready. We will close all non-essential services. I hope that I will finally have time to read those magazines research papers.

Tai Tai my Foot.

The Lobby @ The Peninsula.

When you visit Cantoland, Lonely Planet tells you to take high tea at the Lobby of the Peninsula Hotel. This is a practice from colonial days when the rich ladies of leisure sat about and sipped English tea in fine bone china cups and nibbled at dainty sandwiches while gossipping and comparing the size of their diamonds.

And just because Lonely Planet said so, the queue at the Peninsula was an hour long. They do not take reservations and all guests must queue up, or pay some one else to queue. They don't even take a number and call you back when there is space. Snobs.

Yours truly queued patiently, while playing games on her phone and checking out the cute waiters . The lawyer and her friends joined in, and we were all dressed like aspiring tai tais complete with dangly jewellery, clutch and high heeled shoes and silk dresses. I had just woken up and had a cream puff for breakfast, while the others had a bun each. So when we ordered, we ordered a portion for each of us. We made small talk while I checked out the china and the silver. I have better at home.

When it arrived, we looked at each other and said: " that's it?" Then proceeded to woof everything down, and complain we needed more food. No one else seemed to be complaining about the miniscule portions. Idiots.

Tell me, how do grown women survive on so little? This is FOUR portions!

We had a pot of tea each to our individual preference. In Cantoland, they have a great fondness of tea, and when your teapot is empty, you lift the lid and the staff will refill your pot. We didn't know what to do with our empty teapots. We had been commenting on why the girl who ordered Chinese tea, had a taller teapot. We also commented on the gradual lightening of her tea in her teacup and further debated on how best to draw attention our empty teapots. Suggestions ranged from lifting the teapot lid a la Chinese restaurants to hailing the waiter in Mandarin a la Mainland tourist/Singlish a la your friendly neighbour.

The tea service by Tiffany & Co.

Then one of the girls burst out laughing. And wouldn't stop for five minutes. And then very soberly told us that she had been drinking 'tea' from the hot water pot to refill our teapots. We looked into her teacup to see clear water with 2 tea leaves floating about.

The peninsula has never seen such failures in womankind. I guess I am just not cut for the tai tai lifestyle *sigh*. Or I should eat more train harder.

Bun Bun Baby...

Towers of Buns filled with bean/lotus/glutinous rice/sesame paste.

The May Day weekend saw Cantoland celebrating Bun Festival in Cheung Chau. Not that Bun Fest is in anyway related to May Day, but that the Saturday happened to be Buddha's birthday= Bun Festival. Isn't is great to have a bun festival on your birthday? When I'm the queen, I am going to declare my birthday to be custard bun festival too! :)

I have been recuperating from my horrible cold and have found myself fit to enjoy the festival. I am the podiatrist here, so no one should question my judgement. So Friday night saw the bankers partying it up, and yours truly amongst them. It also saw Cantoland's first case of Swine Flu also known as Influenza A (type H1N1) and the lockdown of the hotel with 300 innocent people within it. We had dinner at the American Restaurant with was a bare 2 minutes walk from ground zero. There were cops everywhere! Bankers are paranoid people and refused to walk through the area for fear of cross-infection. I figured that the guy would have infected everyone around the area prior to being admitted anyway, and may even have sat in the very seat in the very restaurant we were having dinner at, and partied at the very clubs we went that night.

Saturday, bright and early, we went to Cheung Chau for the festival. For those newly addicted to my sporadic writings, bun festival occurs once a year. They have bun towers four storeys high, and people climb up a tower and grab as many buns as they can to win the competition. There are team events and individual events. The winner gets to take home a giant bun. No, I am only kidding. They get a trophy, though a giant bun would be better. They also put kids on sticks and parade them about town for kicks. If I ever have a kid, I would put him/her on a stick and join the parade too so that my kid won't feel left out.

The children are dressed in various characters. This year included AIG. It was probably for the children's safety they didn't dress them up as Lehman bankers!

The lawyer and her friends, the American and the medic student went along with me for the parades during the day. The pseudo-lawyer went for the competition at night. I am a lightweight and was unable to stay awake for such long hours in the heat. Next year, I am going to join the competition hah!

The queues were horrendous!

Peace Buns- thought to bring peace to the receiver.

Preparing the tower for the competition. Buns at the top are worth 9 points; bottom 1 point. Aim of the game is to get as many points are possible.

Buns are taken down to be distributed to the masses.

We went to the beach after. The beach was lovely! All nice soft sands, clean waters, and hot men in swimwear. Ah... Sight for tired eyes. :) Beer googles helped too.

Only in this country, would you get quirky festivals such as this. And they take it real serious too!