Beijing Life

It’s been almost a week since Christmas. I hoped for a white Christmas but that didn’t happen but as I woke up this morning and looked out of the window, Beijing has turned into a winter wonderland. The snowflakes were small but they fell for almost the whole day.

This is the view from my apartment’s window.

After I had my breakfast, I wore several layers of clothes, put on my gloves and earpads and took Pony out with me.

Since snow is quite uncommon in Beijing, it can cause chaos for some people. For instance, a bus collided with another bus in front probably because the driver drove too close and didn’t have time to stop in time.

The roads are slippery so driving fast is a no-no.

Anyway, Pony seemed to enjoy the snow as it’s her first time ever to see it. She ran into a pile of snow just because she thought it’s fun.

She even took a photo with a snowman.

Due to widespread building constructions, the streets in Beijing are quite dusty and full of dirt. So whenever there is rain or snow, the roads will become muddy.

But the pedestrian walkways are wide and has ample space so you don’t have to walk on the muds.

Apparently, there is also a "Chinese" version of a snowman.

This looks like going to be my final blog for 2006. Happy new year everyone and have a great year 2007! Xin nian kuai le!

My 4th Generation 20GB iPod was purchased more than 1.5 years ago from a Malaysian who worked in Beijing. It was well taken care of and when I bought the iPod it was almost brand new. However, just a few weeks ago, my iPod got sick. It wouldn’t start at all and kept showing the Apple logo and then switched itself off again.

I tried everything suggested in Apple’s website - restored and updated it with the latest software. It would work for a while but then the songs would skip during playback. Most online forums mentioned that this is caused by a failing hard disk drive. I searched on Google if there’s an "alternative" way to fix this - and yes there is - replacing the hard drive.

I found a blog on how to do this. So I dismantled mine today. I didn’t have the right tool so it took me quite a while to do it. The warranty has ended so I don’t think I would lose anything by trying this.

Everything looked compact and simple inside. Can you imagine how much does Apple make from this!

As you can see in the photo, the hard disk is relatively small compared to hard disk drives in laptop and desktop computers. It’s even smaller than MyKad!

This is a 1.8" hard drive produced only by Toshiba. Hitachi has a similar drive with same capacity but it won’t fit into this iPod. Now I just have to find the correct hard drive. I’m thinking of upgrading it to 30GB.

My iPod can be described as someone in an ICU now. I hope I can get the replacement soon…

In another 10 days’ time, I’ll be 1 year old. If that is translated into human years, I’ll be 15 years old. It’s been 9 months since I moved into this house. I spend most of my time at home when he’s away from early morning to late afternoon. It’s boring but I don’t seem to be bothered by this anymore. He just have to make sure that I have enough water and food plus a decent toy to play with!

On most mornings, I’m usually awaken by a loud noise which I guess must be the alarm clock. He will then take me out and let me do my "business." Since it’s been really cold outside recently, we don’t spend a lot of time outside like we used to. I sure miss when it’s warm and sunny. If I’m lucky, I would get to meet some of my friends. My good friend’s name is Hali. I think he’s around my age. When we meet, we always play and it never fails to make me happy.

I’m always asked to sit first and wait before going through a door or even before I’m allowed to take my meal. I’ve been doing this since I came to this house but I think I like it if there is a routine for me. I like my time to be more predictable.

I just got my ID recently. In Beijing, it’s important to have an ID otherwise we will be caught by the police and placed somewhere else which I think is not a friendly place.

Did I mention to you that I’m an English Cocker Spaniel? I can’t remember where I was born but I grew up in a pet shop not so far from my current home. My master visited me a few times in the shop before he actually took me back to his home.

There are so much more I would like to tell you about myself but I will save them for next time. Oh by the way, I’m a puppy girl and my name is Pony. 

Ta…

No… I’m not going to blog something about love today. It’s actually an abbreviation for Launching of Office, Vista and Exchange. Today, I had the opportunity to participate in the official launch of these 3 latest Microsoft products in Beijing.

The event looked really grand and I can feel that so much money was spent for this special event. Some of the important guests were Kevin Turner; the Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, Andrew Grant the Managing Director of Greater China for McKinsey and Co and Mr. Chen something from Lenovo.

It was interesting to see how they demonstrated the new Microsoft Vista along with the Microsoft Office 2007 in a crowd of probably 600-700 people. Of course, when you do a demonstration, you will usually only show the best of what you have. Vista looked absolutely stunning, but I do hope it won’t become another XP. There are tons of new features built into this system and it works really great alongside Office 2007.

The icing on top from this event was me winning a Dopod C720 Mobile phone. This phone is yet to be launched in China since it’s still currently being tested by mobile service providers.

How did I win it? Well, when Andrew Grant was giving his speech about collaboration, he took out a Dopod phone and asked the audience how many companies and agencies collaborated to produce that phone. Whoever can give the exact answer would win the phone. I guessed there were 103 (after I heard around 10 guesses from the crowd) and I won.

It’s been sometime since I won something… today, I should say, is just my lucky day.

I’m counting down the hours… By this time tomorrow I’ll be at the Beijing Capital International Airport (Bei Jing Shou Du Guo Ji Ji Chang). It hasn’t been that long but the last time I went home was last November. Grace will travel with me again for the second time. She just loves it there. She’s even more excited now because we’ll be visiting more places. Of course, we wouldn’t miss KL and the beautiful Sabah. Other places in our itinerary are Penang, Genting, Tawau and the one I’m truly excited about the most - Mataking Island which is located 45 minutes boat ride away from Semporna.

I always love to go to the sea everytime I’m back in Malaysia. This is for the fact that Beijing is an inland city and I don’t get the chance to see it at all. The nearest coastal town is Beidaihe (北戴河) which is about 280km from Beijing. Even then, according to Grace - the place simply "filthy." But that was many years ago. I haven’t actually been there myself, it might have improved by now.

What’s the plan in Malaysia? Well, mostly sightseeing, meeting up old friends especially Daniel Yap who is now working and residing in Penang and having a gastronomical affair - in other words, eating Malaysia’s glorious and simply irresistable food. I expect to gain more weight this time but oh what the heck!

We’ll be in Malaysia for 24 days to be exact. It seems long but our schedule is already tight. If you’re at the places mentioned above, please let me know as perhaps we can meet up for a meal or something. I’ve already made arrangements to meet up with Cikgu Lee in Tawau en route from KK to Semporna.

Well guys, all my bags are packed I’m ready to go… Zai jian!

Just outside my window I can see the skies are lit up by fireworks. It’s that time of the year again, when approximately 1.26 billion Chinese people will be celebrating their biggest event of the year, the Chinese New Year or also known as the Spring Festival.

The festive fever begun as soon as Christmas was over. Markets and stores were packed with people stocking up food, drinks and decorative items for the festival.

Firecrackers - which were invented by the Chinese in 200 B.C. during the Han Dynasty, are sold in almost every nook and corner of the city. Although it is OK to burn fireworks, but it is illegal to light them in the city. Authorities only allow people to burn them in suburban areas.

In the next few days there will be a grand fair to be held not so far from the city centre. "Miao Hui" or the temple fair is where people from all walks of life gather to celebrate the Spring Festival. I have not been to this fair before but I was told there will be plenty of things to see and eat.

It is only a few hours before the Chinese ushers in the year of the dog, so bye bye rooster and hello doggie… or in a more Malaysian way - Gong Gong Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Started my Sunday by going to the mass at the British Embassy together with my sisters, nephews and nieces. Followed by a lunch at Grandma’s Kitchen at the embassy area of Ritan. There were so many police around the area because of what happened the previous day. A large group of Chinese students were protesting and threw rocks in front of the Japanese embassy. This outrage was believed to have caused by the Japanese who approved a textbook containing a bias history report during the Japanese invasion into China.

Then took my girlfriend Grace to Oriental Plaza in Wangfujing to shop. Not so many choices so we went to Anzhen at the north 3rd ring road. Went home afterwards.

I’m currently using the bandwidth to download Futurama and Season 2 of Arrested Development with Bit Torrent. Not very quick but it does the job. Bit Torrent is an alternative to other P2P software like Kaaza and Napster. A whole season of Futurama is about 2GB with around 175MB per episode. At 8KB/s download speed, it will take about 3-4 days for the download to complete.

Oopps… it’s 11 gotta call it a day. Hope it won’t be a manic Monday tomorrow.

Finally! It’s so great to know that Friendster now comes with a blog feature…

I can even post photos too.

Anyway, I hope I can find the time to blog more.