DEC 31 :: [live in bangkok] The only reason why I'm writing on New Year's Eve is coz I woke up this morning at 6! After two days of normal sleeping habits, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep this morning, ick. I hope I make it till midnight at least. Don't really feel tired though. Must be the lingering excitement (if you can call it that) from last night's "show".
Yes, "show" (quote, unquote). Hmm, how do I describe it without landing this website in the porn section of web filtering companies. Yes, there were two shows nightly (I think?). Yes, you had to pay for it (like $4 incl. drink), Yes, there was a stage and an audience. Yes, there was music. No, there wasn't much acting. No, there wasn't much dialogue either. And if you still haven't figured it out, the last clue is the name of the place: Boys Bangkok. I'm sure you get the idea now ;)
There were at least 30 boys that I could count. And all of them were for sale :o Seedy, trashy and so everything you've heard about Bangkok. Definitely an experience.
So let's back-track. Yesterday started innocently enough. I had a much smaller breakfast and then we went to the Grand Palace by boat but it was hotter than Valhalla outside so we took a quick stroll around the compounds and came back to the hotel for some R&R. Then we went to a place called Cabbages & Condoms for lunch. Profits from the restaurant go towards fighting AIDS. The reason for the name of the place is coz the founder believed that the only way to fight AIDS is to make condoms as easy to buy as vegetables, hence Cabbages & Condoms. The food was actually quite good and the price was dirt cheap ($15/pp).
Next we went to the Jim Thompson House which is a traditional Thai house built by the famous silk guy. Jim's from Delaware, fell in love with Bangkok, moved there, built a house, la la la, got lost in the mountains of Malaysia, end of story. Yawn. The silk is quite nice though.
We met up with Ben/Mike for dinner at Anna's Cafe in Silom and went straight (pun intended) to Soi 4 to hang out at the open-air "meat" market called Balcony ;) And it just got tawdrier from there.
No idea what's going on tonight yet. We're moving to the Peninsula which has a panoramic view of the Chao Phraya River and the entire city. The initial reason for the move is ease-of-viewing the fireworks over the river. But that looks like it's been cancelled. Maybe we'll just go out and get some champagne and party in the room? Or maybe we'll try to out-do our naughty adventures last night? Only one way to find out ;)
[125,000] It's almost numbing at this point but the death toll has reached 6-digits. The scenes and stories from the west coast of Sumatra are heart-breaking. Then there are the stories, new horrifying ones each day, from the Andaman/Nicobar islands. Sri Lanka. India. Phuket. Scarce drinking water. No food for two days. Stench of decomposing bodies in the tropical heat. Bloated floating bodies in the ocean. The human suffering caused by the tsunami disaster is too staggering to comprehend.
The tsunami waves were so large and so powerful that when they crashed onto the shores, they flattened entire towns and cities. Buildings were smashed to pieces and as the waters rose and raced inland, it killed thousands by drowning them or dragging them out to sea. What happens when the whole city is flattened and nothing is left to support the living? No hospitals, no police, no food, no gas, no electricity, no water, nothing. The force of the water is incomprehensibly strong from reading the news reports but the rising death toll says it all. How do you cope when dead bodies are littered on the streets and corpses are floating in the water? Even though the disaster area is regional, the entire globe is affected and very acutely in Phuket where 519 vacationing tourists are dead and more than 4,000 are still missing.
The mood is somber and very much in mourning throughout Asia.
"BANDA ACEH is a horrifying and sad place. Everywhere you turn in the heart of the city, there are corpses in the shops and homes that lay in ruins, on the muddy streets, in mangled cars, in the river and on the bridge."
"I arrived in this city three days after Sundays devastating earthquake and it looked like all hell had broken loose. Rows and rows of shops and houses were reduced to rubble; some structures remained standing but the insides were totally washed out and windows, doors and walls were broken and some parts had caved in."
"The force of the tsunami that followed the quake had also hurled motorboats from the river onto the road."
"They slammed into bridges, roads or building and lay in heaps."
"Bodies were strewn everywhere. In the badly hit areas, there were bodies every few metres or so. People walked about among the dead trying to identify their relatives and friends."
"The most horrifying scene I saw was at the Penayu Bridge by the Krueng Aceh River. There were rows of 30 or so bodies covered in plastic sheets, which had been laid out by the side to be removed and buried."
"The chilling part was when I looked at the river below. It was a sea of bodies of women, children, babies and men."
"The bodies in the river had drawn quite a bit of attention from passers-by. A girl in her 20s remarked sadly: Mungkin itu saudara kita (Those could be our relatives)."
DEC 30 :: [bangkok, baby] It's Day 2 of our adventures in Bangkok. Last night we partied moderately at Bangkok's gay Silom Soi 4 and 2. I had no idea bars/clubs here close at 1am so that was a shock to me! But that also meant we got a good night's rest and are ready to party again today! ;)
Lemme tell ya, the breakfast at the hotel is evil! The spread is huge and I gravitated towards the Thai dishes and promptly ate like 3 huge portions of noodles. I'm such a noodle slut. We shopped quite a bit yesterday; from buying clothes at department stores to browsing the night bazaar. We lounged a little at the pool which was packed. And we met up with some newfound friends for dinner before hanging out all night in Silom. Quite a fetch and low-key day. Oh and I managed to get a cosmo too! I love that Bangkok actually knows what cranberry juice is ;)
My first encounter with a tsunami victim was at the concierge desk where a German woman was on the phone with the airline trying to find the next available seat back to Frankfurt. There were lots of victims around the hotel, I'm sure, as the pool yesterday was packed with what-looked-like stranded tourists on cellphones frantically trying to contact as many people as possible and trying to get the next flight out.
I am completely stunned at this point at the scope of the tsunami disaster. 80,000+ dead. Thousands missing still in Phuket and most of them are foreigners. The horrifying stories are almost too wrenching to read. I am browsing CNN.com and watching the news and everytime I hear a new story or see a new picture, my jaw just drops. And then there's Indonesia - Sumatra was almost completely levelled by first the gigantic earthquake and then the monstrous tsunamis. It's just too awful to contemplate.
We are having as much fun as we think we are allowed to here in Bangkok. The atmosphere is pretty light around the city; business is as usual, the temples are packed with prayers for the victims, storm relief funds are all over the city, and new year's eve festivities have all been cancelled. Even if the scars of the tsunami are very subtle in this gigantic metropolis, it's hard not to get emotional every time you see a flag at half mast. The nation is in mourning. The world is in mourning. But we all have to move on, rebuild, and recover.
So, off we go to breakfast to gouge on more Thai food!
DEC 29 :: [city of angels] We are in Bangkok, City of Angels, and in the safety of our hotel room at the Four Seasons. There was some confusion about our connection in Narita but basically, we ended up having to change planes and even though the plane was 2 gates away, we had to walk a mile to go through security again before getting to our plane. They held the plane for all the BKK-bound passengers so that was nice on United's part. But that also meant that we departed an hour late and arrived an hour late. It was 12:30am when we arrived early this morning and BKK airport was a ZOO! We managed to clear immigration, collected our luggage, cleared customs and zoomed to our hotel all in under an hour. Our taxi driver was a speedy gonzalez - he got us to our hotel in 15 minutes! Anywho, here I am getting ready to go to bed which is gonna be tough since my body thinks it's 2pm!
I am continually stunned by the scope of the tsunami disaster. 51,000 and rising. 2,000 in Phuket/Phang Nga/Phi Phi; 700 of them tourists. The hotel we stayed at in Phuket earlier this year suffered minor damage but the rest of the island was not so lucky.
Apparently there are thousands of tsunami-hit tourists crowding the many hotels in Bangkok waiting to fly home. Bangkok is indeed a City of Angels and a sanctuary to many at this trying time. Now more than ever, this city needs its angels...
DEC 28 :: [somewhere over the pacific] We are about 1900mi from Tokyo having just passed the International Dateline (which means it's Dec 28th!), travelling at 500+ mph at a cruising altitude of 37000ft. We're somewhere over the Pacific off Kamchatka in Russia but that's just what the GPS map is telling me. Four more hours to go. Since it's about 2:15pm in Tokyo (12:15pm in Bangkok; isn't the GPS map just a wealth of information?), I decided to wake up instead of sleeping the time away. Just had my regular mid-flight snack of instant noodles.
We were delayed leaving Chicago on the 27th (are you keeping up? we just passed the Int'l Dateline) for no particular reason. By an hour, in fact. And we're not making up the lost time due to strong headwinds; which also means this flight is gonna be 13 1/2 hrs long! Consequently, we are scheduled to arrive in Narita an hour late as well which means we only have 15 mins to run to our next int'l flight! Or so we thought. Apparently the next flight (to Bangkok) is on the same aircraft so since we are late getting in to Tokyo, it will leave late to Bangkok as well. We're saved!
The dinner we had on the plane was marvellous today. Tony and I both chose the Japanese Obento meal which was delicious down to the last morsel. There was sake and green tea to go with the meal. It definitely tastes better than the usual "would you like beef or salmon?" :) Business class is half-full on this flight, amazing! We are in the upper deck of the 747, of course, which is the only way to fly, IMHO. This private cabin is even more exclusive with only half of the 28 seats occupied.
Funny thing happened after we reached cruising altitude: pilot came through our cabin holding duct tape! Believe me, that's never a good sign. "Oh, let's see. If we can't fix it with duct tape, we'll just do without this part of the airplane."
Anyways, this has been a great flight so far. Service has been outstanding which is quite unusual for the NRT-bound flights. Usually, the HKG and SIN-bound flights have much better flight crews. In-flight entertainment, however, has sucked! Horrible, dated movies. I have slept about 6 hours (so far) which hopefully will be enough to keep me awake until we land in Bangkok past midnight local time. I'm already feeling sleepy coz it's past midnight DC-time. All these timezones are so confusing! More later!
DEC 27 :: [UA609 DCA-ORD] There were still some people stranded at National this morning when we checked in! Amazing. US Air screwed up bigtime this holiday season. We left DC this morning under beautiful clear skies but freezing temperatures. The view of the city as we were taking off was amazing. The cloud cover started to build as we flew west and I stopped looking out the window because it was just a sea of white. Some time later, I realized that the white outside wasn't just cloud cover anymore, it was a sea of snow leftover from the snowstorm that blanketed the midwest which is what started this whole Christmas travel mess. I am somewhat glad we didn't make it to KC coz we would've probably had a crappy time trying to get back to DC to make our flight to Bangkok. But here we are, on the first leg of our multi-leg 26-hour journey (incl. layovers) to Asia.
[eventful] That pretty much describes out Christmas weekend. After missing our flight to KC, we settled on partying and revelry in DC instead. 3 parties for the 3 nights we were stuck here in DC. And it was a blast! We had Chris/Dave, Chris' parents, Andy and M2 over at our place for Christmas Eve, Christmas was spent fabulously at Nicole's house with her entire family, and Boxing Day was spent at Chris/Dave's with their entire family.
Nicole decided to forgo turkey this year in favor of prime rib which was absolutely delicious (I think I had more red meat that night than in the past month!). Smoke some huka, drank some wine and it was just the perfect Christmas. Kamil is growing up to be just the funnest little girl and Bella is so adorable!
We actually did some shopping the day after Christmas and found Target to be completely uncrowded. Then again, so were the shelves! Didn't really find what I was looking for but ended up spending $200 anyway. Dinner at Chris' was a fabulous family affair. Chris' parents were there together with Dave's parents, Dave's brother and future sis-in-law (*wink* to Naomi) and Naomi's mom. It was very festive! We had turkey (yay!) and the usual stuff. It was the perfect way to bookend our unintended but eventful Christmas weekend in DC - our first ever and probably the last for the foreseeable future.
Winter definitely had a grip a DC over the Christmas weekend with temperatures barely above 30 the whole time and lows in the teens! But we're hours away from saying goodbye to the North American winter and hello to the equatorial heat. I need a tan! ;)
[paper faces on parade] We spent the early part of Christmas Day at the movies; together with lots of people who were taking a break from the family! :) We watched Phantom of the Opera based on the Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical that opened in London's West End 2 decades ago. The movie version is stunning, with lush scenery, and powerful imagery. Of course, one has to go in with the mindset that this is a strict adaptation from the musical and therefore, the whole movie is one song after another. The other complaint I had was it seemed like the actors were lip-synching. But no matter, the movie was rich with beautiful scenes and fantastic sequences like "Masquerade" (with a Madonna Vogue-ish theme to it). I thought the acting (esp Minnie Driver) was quite good, but even all that plus the 6 Golden Globe nominations is not gonna change the fact that this movie will be a tough sell to non-musical fans. But if you are, go watch this movie! The cinematography is stunning!
DEC 20 :: [lost] Yup, we didn't get the half-a-billion dollar contract for the UK thingie. Our competitors, HP, had the upperhand because they could cut prices dramatically on their own products whereas we had to purchase the HP servers from them at market price. They had a better commercial position and an upperhand on pricing.
It's all very disappointing. Bah humbug.
[daylight robbery] In the true sense of the phrase. As I was walking home from a job interview today, I passed by CVS and briefly contemplated ducking in to warm up. I really could not walk anymore at that point, it was so cold! And right there in front of the CVS on Dupont Circle, I hear this lady scream at the top of her lungs. I look up to see a guy tugging at this lady's long-strapped handbag and the lady refuses to let go. And then, the horrors - this guy punches her in the face. She falls to the ground, still clutching her bag and screams continuously. I was already on my way in to CVS so I came back out to see a bunch of people helping her and dialling 911. It was just awful. All this, in broad daylight, occurring at 1pm.
I'm sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Why does society tolerate this? I say life imprisonment to people who commit even the pettiest of crimes. California's three-strikes law should be enforced nationwide instead of being declared unconstitutional. There should be zero tolerance on crime. And even less tolerance for criminals who prey on women and beat them up. Zero tolerance!
[c-c-cold] Trust me, you do NOT want to walk 6 blocks in 20 F (-7 C) weather. Not with the winds whipping around in a frenzy. My legs were numb by the time I got to my destination and that's because there was only one layer of clothing there. Everywhere else that was exposed was frozen and immobile. Not fetch. I have no idea how people live in colder climates because this is ridiculous enough for me. I hope all of you who had to walk to work today took cabs. Now pardon me while I go thaw...
[11 F] Temperatures bottomed out at 11 F (-12 C) this morning! Windchills were down to -18 F (-27 C). Snowfall yesterday was 0.1". Those are readings in the city. Lord only knows what the suburbs had to endure this morning. I haven't been outside yet but will soon have to. Am not looking forward to braving these temperatures. The house is set and a nice and warm 68 degrees so I'll just sit here for a little while longer. Stay warm!
DEC 19 :: [first snow] Yay! It's snowing!! 5:30pm on Sunday, Dec 19th. First snow of the season. Yippee! This excitement will last until the first time I have to go out and shovel. It's an annual occurrence. I get all excited and happy and then it's hard work and back aches.
So, to whet your appetite. I have included the menu from last night's dinner. I had the white truffle menu (of course) and the most fabulous dishes were the tagliolini (LOVE thin pasta) and the risotto. They were both to die for. Everything else was good except for the fish which was tasteless for cod. And the foie gras - my fav food in the world - was not a good choice paired with white truffles. All the other courses ranged from good to stunning. I even enjoyed the white truffle ice cream! As for the regular menu, the really good stuff I sampled were the squab liver mousse (so smooth and silky) and monkfish soup. I love pappardelle but the porcini ragu was salty and icky.
The wines were all really good. No complains whatsoever - especially when they refill your glass over and over and over again ;) Yes, it was a good dinner. The yumminess of the meal was as memorable as the price tag! Giggle.
[ooh!] I just heard a loud crack of thunder and it's raining like you would not believe. Apparently the changeover to snow is going to happen within the next hour or so. Our first snow! Less than an inch probably and it may not even stick. Oh well, winter is definitely here.
[snow?] Is it going to snow tonight? Apparently it might, just a little. One thing's for sure - it's gonna get mighty cold tonight and tomorrow morning. Temps in the low 20s and windchills of 0 degrees! That's -18 C! Eek. They're also calling for a white Christmas in DC (yea, whatever) which sucks coz there is no snow in the forecast in Kansas City. What they do have in KC is butt-ass cold freezing temperatures. Oh well. Winter weather is here and it's as crazy as it can be. I just hope it doesn't delay any of the flights we have lined up over the next week.
Yoga-ed today. Feeling lethargic, sleepy and tired. Liver needs a rest. Skipping two parties tonight. Next week is going to be quiet (so far) until our Christmas eve departure to KC.
Hmm, I haven't written about the rest of my weekend. Friday started off slow with no plans and mushroomed into happy hour at Halo with Tom/G and Rick (2-for-1 mojitos!) followed by an awesome meal at Rice where the owner (friend of Tony's) kept bringing us free dishes. We ended up with like 7 appetizers and 4 entrees or something silly like that. How fetch. Saturday afternoon before Laboratorio, Rick/Tony and I drove up to Germantown for Bill/Soochon's Christmas party, stopping at Target on the way to pick up gifts and such. On the way back, we stopped over at Nicole's to drop off some presents and rushed back to DC for dinner at Laboratorio. All in all, it has been a pretty quiet weekend.
Laying low this week. Nursing my liver back to health :)
[laboratorio] Technically, this should be under "DEC 18" but it's past midnight so I decided to include it under the 19th. Yes, we just got home and yes, it was from dinner... FIVE hours ago! Giggle. This dinner definitely takes the cake for the longest ever but the funny thing is it didn't feel like it was long or dragging at all.
This dinner also takes the cake for being monumentally expensive! Oh my Beyonce. We all knew how much the tab was going to be but seeing it on paper was coronary-inducing. The total came up to $2030 for the 6 of us. It was startling. The regular tasting menu was $125/pp but Kiat had to be all gung-ho and convinced half the table to go for the white truffle tasting menu which was $240/pp! It was so worth it but still, oh so expensive.
Yes, the whole dinner and experience was worth it. I would definitely do the tasting menu again but probably not the white truffle menu. While good, it was certainly less exciting and exhilirating when you get it for every single one of the courses (including the dessert!). And there were 12 courses. So truffle fatigue definitely set in at the end of the night.
As much as I have a love-hate relationship with Roberto Donna, I have to say that the food was great, the service was beyond excellent and the evening was memorable. Plus, the company we had - Mike/Gary, Tom/G - were as good as we can ask for. There was some groundbreaking news revealed tonight by all four of them but I shall not disclose by request. But let's just say the news is very, very significant ;)
So much more to write about, so little energy left after such a long day of shopping, multiple parties, awesome dinner and truckloads of drinking. Till tomorrow...
DEC 17 :: [never learn] I woke up this morning, looked into the mirror and said to myself, "Oh my Britney Federline". FYI, Britney is invoked when it's something tragic, like lip-synching, for instance :D.
I was in bed at 3:30 this morning (and awake at 8:30!). Don't ask. The Victory Fund staff party at Fred's place was a complete riot. Fred's place is really nice but Mt Pleasant? Gurrrrl, that's like way far. Anywho, I was Rick's date and everything was going well - food was awesome, plenty of fun people, presents! - until they ran out of cranberry juice. I was like, gurrrrl, what kind of a gay party is this? How can we run out of friggin' cranberry juice.
So we reached for the champagne. And you know what? I never learn the simple fact that mixing vodka with champagne equals bad ju-ju. Really bad. I was hurtin' this morning. I vaguely remember piling into a cab with 5 other ppl (!) to head down to Duplex and after staying for a few minutes, I stumbled out and into the cold and headed home. At which point I sober up enough to eat something and watch OC (TiVo-ed). Giggle. It was an awesome episode. I have no idea how I remember watching OC but not the rest of the evening. I did get a really fetch present during the gift exchange - DVD of "The Hours". What I really wanted (and it got stolen many times) was the American Idol starter kit! Giggle. Some bitch took it away from me and I never saw it again.
OK, as tragic as my day has begun, one has to soldier on. Alls I can say is no drinking for me tonight. Period. Must rest before big dinner tomorrow at Laboratorio. More to come.
DEC 16 :: [pictures!] Finally, the pictures from my fabulous Thanksgiving vacation in Italy: Venice, Florence, and Milan, are up. Enjoy!
[deficit] The US current account deficit (both trade and capital flows) hit a record high of $164.7bn in Q3. America is borrowing roughly $1.8bn a DAY. That's more than $6 for every man, woman and child in America... per DAY. Fun, huh? But the currency markets were expecting an even bigger deficit so those numbers proved such a sigh of relief to everybody that the dollar strengthened across the board. It's so warped. Doesn't anyone in this Administration want to rescue the dollar? Anybody?
DEC 15 :: [dead] Baseball in DC is almost assuredly dead no thanks to Linda Cropp. What an idiot. She couldn't muster up the courage to oppose the financing deal for the Washington Nationals outright so she introduces a surprise amendment and shoves it to the DC Council and the residents of this city at the eleventh hour in a show of cowardice? Nicely done. She definitely doesn't get my vote... ever. (Not that I can vote to begin with, hah!)
[brrrrr!] OK, it was crazy cold last night as we partied at JR's. Windchill dropped to 16 degrees (!) while I was walking home and the temperature actually hit 26 degrees this morning. Aahh! It's almost 10am and it's still below freezing here in DC. They're calling for snow this Sunday. I'll be excited when I see flakes coming down from the sky. Till then, meteorologists are the only people in the world who can be wrong so many times without getting fired.
So there we were again (Tony, Rick, M2 and me) at JR's for yet another Christmas party. Oh. My. Beyonce. Free drinks between 7 and 9 meant I had enough vodka-cran to pee red this morning. It was packed but not as crowded as last year. The decor was garish to the point of super-bright what with all the lights. Everybody looked different in the light :D Lots of cute local boys, bartenders wore shirts/pants/ties, everyone looked fetch and the party was great. The 12 days of Christmas was a hit, as usual - the room gets divided into twelve sections and each section gets to sing one part. We stood at 5, of course, coz all gay men love to scream "fiiiive coooock riiiiiiiiiings!" in unison (I can't believe I'm actually typing this). Mrs Claus looked divine as usual in her red velvet dress and knee high boots (and perfectly coifed hair and make-up to boot). Mr Claus looked, well, just like Santa (maybe it's a woman underneath to keep with the theme of gender-fucking?) and *GASP* where were the elves?! The Santa family photo looked glaringly incomplete without Santa's little elves who last year were 2 gorgeous hunks dressed in nothing but red underwear. How festive.
Party, party, party. Woo!
[dollar vs euro] This topic is obviously a huge subject of discussion these days but it really became personal after our trip to Italy. The Euro has climbed a staggering 65% in just 4 years; from its record low of $.82 in Oct 2000 to its current record high approaching $1.35 (and yes, while we were there, the Euro set a record high day after day). It was fixed at roughly $1.18 when it was first born on Jan 1st, 1999.
For selfish reasons, I would obviously prefer a strong dollar since I travel oh-so-much. But a weak dollar is apparently good for the US economy because our exports become cheaper and by selling more, corporate profits go up and the US economy stays afloat. Additionally, everything made here (cost in US$) and sold there (price in Euro) instantly garners more profits when the Euro earnings are converted back to dollars. Better earnings, higher stock market.
So what's not to like? Well, keeping the economy "afloat" is an understatment. A weak dollar is like skating gloriously on very thin ice. Sure it looks pretty initially but the subsequent fall will be very very ugly. For starters, everything we import suddenly becomes significantly more expensive. We don't see it now but price increases are gradual and will surely hit our pocketbooks soon. And since we import a lot (we import $1.6tn - yes, trillion - of goods annually; a $600bn trade deficit), inflation is going to be widespread. Interest rates will rise even more to curb inflation and that might topple the economy, spreading the recession globally. The other major fear is that Japan and China might dump their dollar holdings - a staggering $2tn worth in Treasury bonds and paper holdings - causing bond prices, and consequently stock prices, to fall from the glut. Yields will go up to entice future buyers to mop up the excess bonds and interest rates will rise in tandem. With more selling, the dollar falls further triggering sharply higher interest rates that will choke the US economy and depress demand for imports triggering a worldwide recession. Result: financial collapse as this vicious cycle grips the global economy. Yikes!
Furthermore, the weak dollar hasn't really made a dent on the trade deficit; the one thing it is supposed to help tremendously. In fact, the trade deficit is getting worse. So why is this Administration still advocating a weaker dollar? Beats me. Especially since the major culprits of the falling dollar - the enormous federal budget deficit and public debt - is mostly this Administration's doing. Coupled with the fact that they have no interest in fixing our dire fiscal situation anytime soon (and trying to make it worse, actually), it's no wonder the dollar keeps on falling.
A strong dollar is always preferable as it inspires confidence in the currency and allows the US$ to maintain its status as the global currency. Hoping for a weaker currency just so that we can prop up certain sectors of the economy or reduce our deficit is like hoping cows can fly. At the end of the day, it'll just bite us in the ass.
Nonetheless, the fundamentals of the US economy remains very strong - stronger than the Eurozone or Japan - and the possibility of a collapse in the value of the US$ is remote at best. Japan and China will almost assuredly not sell their dollar holdings for fear of depressing the value of the dollar (and their holdings) even further. A gradual decline over an extended period will be followed by a gradual increase and the cycle continues unabated. It's hard to stop the global economic cycle especially when you realize that $1.5tn (yes, trillion!) worth of currency is traded DAILY. No government on earth can intervene or manipulate a market of that size.
In the meantime, I'll just be making lots of travel plans to Asia instead of Europe! :)
DEC 13 :: [desperate] So here I am, plopped down on the couch post-dinner and ready to catch up on Desperate Housewives which I TiVo-ed from last night. To my horror, ABC decides to air the Redskins-Eagles game instead and the TiVo captured the game and not my favorite nightime drama! Quelle horreur!!!
This is exactly why I dislike ABC with a passion. What on earth are they thinking? Who cares about the friggin' Redskins? They're a bunch of losers anyway. I'm so pissed right now it's not even funny. I can't believe they pre-empted my weekly dose of Desperate drama for football! Who-tf cares about football?!? This is another reason why gender equality is a dream - the male testosterone sports events always trump the female-oriented dramas. How annoying. If ABC cares about ratings, Desperate Housewives would've easily gotten more viewers than the Redskins-Eagles game. If you want sports, go watch ESPN!
And to make matters worse, it looks like ABC only pre-empted the show in the local TV market so I've missed this episode forever!! (at least until summer reruns) Aahhhhhhh!! I am incensed and seething. Repeat after me: I hate ABC, I hate ABC...
[playing chicken with rates] Yes we have been doing so for the past 6 months when the Feds started raising interest rates. After 4 consecutive raises (and one more coming tomorrow), we're raising the white flag. Actually, we've already raised it. We locked in at 4.5% and we're not looking back. Our 1-mth ARM had already risen to 3.75% so the additional .75% was not such a big deal and we'd end up saving tons by locking in now. The closing costs? Not so fun. If interest rates continue to go up, we'll recoup the closing costs within a year. But you never know with things like interest rates. The economy could tank tomorrow and rates would plateau and we'd be paying a hefty closing cost (and locked in at a higher rate) for nothing.
Anyway, regardless of what happens, the peace of mind that comes with not playing chicken with interest rates and having a coronary each time the Fed meets is worth the price. Right?
[scandinavians] Having overdosed on Scandinavians (Finns and Swedes in particular) all weekend, I have one word (OK, maybe two) to describe them: incredibly beautiful. Yea, yea, we all know they are tall with blond hair and blue eyes. Yes, yes, drop dead gorgeous, blah blah blah. But they're beautiful people on the inside as well. Perhaps it's just the people who are friends of our friends and therefore it's easy to like each other but I find Europeans far more endearing than some of our fellow Americans. It's so easy to admire the social tolerance and justice they have over there and it's so difficult to imagine why we don't have it here. Aren't we supposed to be the foundation of democracy? The brightest light of freedom? Why aren't we also the beacon of civil rights, human rights and equality? How can two civilized peoples view the world in such a totally different way? Maybe America is not such a civilized place after all. After all, what is civilization when materialism is celebrated and poverty is viewed as a nuisance? Where social injustice pervades through society and starting wars is a moral value?
If only it weren't so cold in Scandinavia in the winter!
[freeeeezing] OK, I know it's winter but does it really have to be this cold? I'm all bundled up like an Asian mummy and I'm still cold. Brrr. The killer winds today didn't help either. This week is gonna see our first sub-freezing days since March. Bundle up! Still no snow in sight...
[two down...] And one more weekend to go! Gosh, you'd think I wouldn't be looking forward so much to the parties ending but after this past weekend, I think I'm done. Giggle.
I mean I've done more parties in a row before. I guess I'm just getting old. Or maybe it's the going to bed at 3am on Thu, 3+am on Fri, 4am on Sat and midnight (thank God!) last night was the culprit. All attributed to Rob's birthday party weekend of course ;)
Friday night was a champagne-blini-lumpia party at Rob/Mikko's and meeting all the out-of-town guests and family members who descended en masse to Washington. This was followed by a quick jaunt to JR's and then dancing all night at Cobalt with Rick, Josh (str8; Rob's nephew) and A'Nova (str8 and ultra-fabulous; Rob's niece). I would be flogged for mentioning that Rob's nephew/niece are my age but hey, they are :) I was quite a good boy that night and stayed somewhat sober compared to the rest of the troupe! Rick was completely shit-faced, lol!
Didn't miss yoga on Saturday. Shopped a bunch too and found, not one but, two pairs of velvet pants to go with my pinstriped velvet jacket. Totally fetch. And yes, I returned one of them since I cannot see myself needing TWO pairs of velvet pants. At this point I should also mention that we had two of Rob's 4 Swedish guests at our place - Tina and Malin. They were the perfect houseguests. It helped that Tina was completely fluent in English. Anyway, we had a blast and when it came time to leave for Rob's party, they - and the other two houseguests staying across the street - all had boas to complete their outfit! Of course, I felt completely left out so we marched up to Pleasure Place and immediately got myself the now famous rouge-noir boa to complete my velvet-Filthy-rouge-noir ensemble. So there ya have it - the story of my boa.
Somehow, in between all that, we managed to attend our neighbor's Christmas party. And are you beginning to see why I'm partied out? :)
Sunday rolls around and I find out that Rob's party ended at 6:30am! We were, of course, home and in bed three hours prior. 1pm rolls around and we're all gathered at Dupont Grille for a fabulous Sunday brunch complete with bloody marys. And the drinking continues. The day ended at Rob/Mikko's again for some pizza and beer (to finish off the keg). It would've been sacrilege not to have finished off the beer :)
And today, well, I couldn't just leave our houseguests stranded at home waiting for their flight so I took the day off and drove them around DC for some drive-by picture taking (have I mentioned it's freeeeezing today?). After sending them off, I met up with Thyra, John, Josh, Rebecca (Rob's sister) and Rob for a fabu-lunch at Aria in the Reagan Building courtyard. Yum.
Phew. I'm exhausted just writing about all the stuff that's happened since Friday! I can't take anymore weekends like the past two. But alas, I have one to go. But first I have to get through this week... party on Tues, multiple parties on Thurs... Sigh.
DEC 12 :: [gurrrrrl] Last night was f-ing crazy! Rob's 40th birthday party was so fetch it hurt. I had a totally fetch rouge-noir boa over my fabulous velvet pinstriped jacket from Florence and a new pair of Universal Gear velvet pants. And to complete the ensemble, I had an FCUK T-shirt that said "FILTHY" in Gothic letters. Gurrrrrl, I was on fire! And to top it all off, Rick had the same T-shirt on and we were both REALLY filthy :)
Everyone was caressing my boa all night and the feathers were shedding all over the floor. If you needed to find me last night, just follow the red/black feathers! :) There were other boas present as well - orange, silver, black, white, it was like the Benetton boa collection. By the end of the evening (or morning?) the house looked like a multi-colored chicken exploded all over leaving multi-colored feathers on the ground!
OK, enough about me. The party was fabulous. EVERYone was there. And EVERYone was dressed to kill. There was enough cleavage last night to rival the Grand Canyon. And there was enough bling to join P. Diddy's tour.
More to come... the birthday boy is rounding us all up to reconvene for brunch. I just had to talk about my fabulous boa while I still remember!
DEC 10 :: [hangovers are evil] OK, maybe *I* am the evil one - partying on a Thursday night! Seriously, when the lights came on and the music stopped at Chaos last night (ahem, this morning), you just know you've gone too far on a weeknight. Giggle.
It all started with Cosmos and dinner at Logan Tavern with Chris. Food was OK, drinks were yummy. Next stop - Halo. Brad wasn't working last night (pout) but Luke at Logan Tavern made up for it :) Two cosmos and two mojitos later (yes, I was drunk at this point), we went to Rob/Mikko's for more drinks (yikes!). And then they dragged us all to JR's. In keeping with the bartender theme, Matt gave us invitations to the JR's Christmas party next Tues! Oh my Beyonce. I don't think I can party anymore after this. And finally, we ended up at Chaos where we were rudely kicked out at 2am.
That was like a prelude to the crazy party weekend in store. I was hungover this morning and I'm slowly getting back to normal... Work is overrated anyway :D
Anywho, I'm watching MTV Europe Music Awards at home. It's being held in Rome and Anastacia sang "Left Outside Alone" in front of the Coliseum. Quite unreal. The Italians know how to party. And all the awards were won by Americans. And man, were some of them dumb. One of them (I think it was a Backstreet Boy) came up on stage and said "Ciao, Rome!". Hello? The Romans call their city "Roma", d'oh! Needless to say, nobody cheered. If I was in the crowd, I would've been like "stupid American". And then one of the groups came on stage and incited the crowd to chant "Ole! Ole-Ole-Ole!". OK, double d'oh. That's like a soccer chant and it's in Spanish, not Italian. And again, nobody really got into it. One wonders why. You'd think the music artists would've at least bothered to go local (how hard is it to say "grazie" instead of "thank you"?) instead of sticking to their ignorant American-centric selves, gees.
But American music rules. And together with exporting our pop culture, we also export ignorant pop artists. Wow, I'm harsh today. Grin.
DEC 9 :: [o canada] Equality everywhere but here. Sigh. Go North? Life is equal there.
Mild weather. Nothing much going on. Work is quiet. Sleepovers at chez moi. Not much partying. Bored. Where's the snow? Three more weeks to Bangkok, yay!
[dean's back] Still a powerful voice:
"We cannot win being Republican-like. We tried it and it does not work. The question is not whether we move left or right. It's not about our direction. What we need to start focusing on... is the destination."
"We cannot be a Party that seeks the presidency by running an 18-state campaign. We cannot be a party that cedes a single state, a single District, a single precinct, nor should we cede a single voter."
"I'll give this to Republicans. They know the America they want. They want a government so small that, in the words of one prominent Republican, it can be drowned in a bathtub. They want a government that runs big deficits, but is small enough to fit into your bedroom. They want a government that is of, by, and for their special-interest friends. They want a government that preaches compassion but practices division. They want wealth rewarded over work. And they are willing to use any means to get there."
"In going from record surpluses to record deficits, the Republican Party has relinquished the mantle of fiscal responsibility."
"In going from record job creation to record job loss, they have abandoned the mantle of economic responsibility."
"In cutting health care, education, and community policing programs... and in failing to invest in America's inner cities, or distressed rural communities... they certainly have no desire to even claim the mantle of social responsibility."
"In starting an international conflict based on misleading information, I believe they have abdicated America's moral responsibility."
And still relevant.
DEC 6 :: [fico] I am *so* tired today. Big yawn. The rest of my weekend was uneventful. We shopped most of the day on Sunday; tax free week in DC is awesome! I even got Banana Republic to ship me an item from their online store, free shipping and tax free (yay!) coz they didn't have the item I wanted in the store. We ended up, predictably, at JR's last night and breathed the smokey air for about 3+ hours before retiring for the evening. I can't wait for DC to become smoke-free.
Anywho, speaking of shopping and credit cards, I actually got my FICO score today. It was 757, 763 and 783. Out of 850. Hmm. I wonder how my score can be that low. Apparently anything over 720 is pretty good and you get the best rates available. But I'm teetering close to the low-mark, aren't I? I have zero debt, no balances on anything, no car loan. I do have a dozen or so credit cards, most of which are inactive. And I have a mortgage to my name. Hmm. I can't figure this thing out. Maybe I don't have enough of a credit history yet? Or maybe they penalize you for being a resident alien :O.
I want a better score, wah! I'm gonna stomp around like a baby until I get it.
DEC 5 :: [one down, two to go] That's how I feel about my December weekends! This past one was filled with two parties; one of which was my company's Christmas party last night. The good: Food was surprisingly good and Rick and Ryan were my guests. The bad: Everything else. Let's face it, I have absolutely nothing in common with the rednecks that call themselves SAIC employees. Nicole and I formed our own mini-party at our table and practically ignored everyone else. No sense in making nice and small talk with people you don't care about and couldn't stand being around outside of the office.
Evil grin.
I wore my fetch black velvet pinstriped jacket that I bought in Florence and my fabulous Thomas Pink pink tie and everyone wanted to pet me and caress me. Poor country bumpkins wouldn't know fashion if it bit them in their ass. The music was horrendous but we made the best of it. Open bar was great and did I mention the food was good? The turkey was delicious and it has increased my hankering for more. Sigh. I have to wait till Christmas.
Have I mentioned what a dump the Wyndham is on 14th and M? And our dumpy little SAIC business unit has it there year and year. Sigh. Again, no taste. I don't even know why I keep going to these trashy events. Maybe it's the free food and open bar (just say the words "open bar" and I'm there!!)
Friday night was better. WAY better. The gang of eight reconvened at Eve restaurant in Alexandria. Oh my Beyonce, it was fabulous. We got there at 8pm and the bar was packed with somewhat-trendy suburbanites (alright, Alexandria is more urban than suburban). We had a fabulous lesbian bartender who was so intent on getting me drunk she kept making me a new cosmo (without taking the old one away) when I made comments about how little cranberry juice was in each cosmo. It was barely pink, really.
But a restaurant is all about the food and Eve was flawless. To continue my lust for Italian food, I ordered a linguine-tini with clam sauce. To say it was divine would be an injustice, and not to God. This dish was earth-shattering. I could've eaten this all night long. But I had to move on to the main course which was a spectacularly roasted monkfish (everybody else went with venison, pork belly and sweetbreads) which was so amazing I could barely gasp. No dessert for me :) Top it all off with some fabulous Shirazs and Chenin Blancs and the night was just perfect. I couldn't believe this was Alexandria but it was worth the drive! Another "I can't believe this is Alexandria" is the prices - $10 appetizers and $25 entrees. That's not high considering the quality but this is just a bistro after all; a fancy one at that.
But service was great, food was outstanding and the ambience was just perfect. I would definitely go back to Eve in a heartbeat.
I can't wait for my first trip to CityZen in 2 weeks. It may only be half as good as Per Se but at half the price, I'm not complaining :) I love food!
DEC 3 :: [firenze] Our train pulls into Florence after stopping umpteen bazillion times en route (strange since we were on the Eurostar Italia) and we hop into a cab only to see two sets of numbers running upwards simultaneously. We couldn't figure it out and ended up paying the sum of both numbers. Very bizarre. It wasn't until Milan that we had a better idea of the cab-fare system in Italy (like everything else in Italy, it has its own quirkiness).
Florence, Florence, Florence. Tony raved on and on about it prior to us getting there so much so it was almost disappointing when we got there. Yes, our hotel was awesome (super contemporary, very Ian Schrager) and our room had a heart-stopping view of the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno. Very inspiring. But walking around Florence initially, it never seemed to hit me that this was a beautiful city. At least not in the way that Venice was i.e. an immediate grip on your imagination.
It took awhile but at the end of our trip, I loved Florence for what it was. The sheer number of public art is mind-boggling. All the Piazzas are adorned with reminders of a golden Renaissance era that started here. The Uffizi is chock full with some of the best Italian paintings in the world. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. It was surreal to see them all in one building.
And then there was David. Ah, David. Michelangelo Buonarroti was a genius. But his piece de resistance, and the single most impressive sculpture from the Renaissance-era, was David. David is a sight to behold. Inspiration carved into marble for all of the world to see. It stands tall and proud (and clean) today at the Accademia. You must go see it. That and the sculptures that guard the front of the Uffizi's courtyard. Very, very amazing. The Florentine air is thick with inspiration. And you should take a deep breath to enjoy it better :)
As for Tuscan food, well, I'm not terribly impressed (I know, am I the only one?). We fell into the same trap for our first dinner in Florence. Our (very expensive) hotel misguided us to this terrible hole in the wall (along with other tourists who fell for the same trap) that served extremely salty food. It was bad. And we even splurged on a bottle of Super Tuscan here. Bad, bad, bad. So bad I can't remember off the top of my head what the name of the restaurant was.
The next two nights were much better culiminating with an amazing meal at La Giostra. Oliviero on night two was pretty good. I ordered the famous Fiorentina (T-bone) steak and thought Outback was better. Everything else was decent. La Giostra was fabulous. I never thought I would ever eat chicken liver but the liver pate on crostini was phenomenal. And Tony ordered what-has-to-be the best osso bucco on the planet here. And we washed down the best tiramisu we've ever had (foamy and fluffy) with the most grappa I've ever drank in one seating. Needless to say, I was hungover the next day all the way to Milan. Not pretty :)
How could I neglect to mention the delicious papardelle with wild boar and fettucine with porcini mushroom pastas? The porcini mushrooms were so fresh and heavenly. Total yum. So why was I disappointed with Tuscan food? Coz it was mostly heavy foods i.e. red meats and meat sauces. And I'm not a big consumer of red meat. So there.
The shopping in Florence was pretty good. Lots of open-air markets that sold medium-quality stuff for rock bottom prices: pashminas for E10, scarfs and ties for E6, belts for E4 and leather anything for under E20. Quite amazing. We bought all sorts of crap. We also bought some truffles (YAY!), risotto and porcini mushrooms. Writing all this makes me hungry again.
Did I say I didn't like Tuscan food? Hmm... Coz I remember two amazing lunches here too. The first one was a stand-up affair at Cantinetta da Verrazzano. We had amazing focaccias here, stuffed with heavenly porcini, prosciutto, pomodoro, mozzarrela, basil, etc. Fantastic. Even better was the chocolate-and-cream torte thingie we had at the end (I can't believe I can't remember what it's called). Fantastic. And the other was at Trattoria ZaZa. Amazing amounts of good food and chianti for ridiculously cheap prices. Also notable was the fact that this place opens all day. So you can eat lunch at 11 or dinner at 5 instead of having the 1pm/8pm schedule forced upon you.
In between all the eating, we went to the Duomo which is massive and almost too big to appreciate up close. We also climbed up 400+ stairs (!!!) to the top of some tower thing for a view of Florence. Similar views to be had from Piazzale Michelangelo on a hill overlooking the entire city. And then we went to two totally tawdry gay bars which I won't even go into coz it's too adult-oriented to print ;)
All in all, Florence grew on me and then just stuck with me. I can't imagine not going back. But wait, there's Milan... This time, we were on Trenitalia first class with only one stop to Milan. Ahh, much better. I needed that to recover from my grappa hangover the night before. Note to self: Never drink grappa again.
[milano] Three words to descibe Milan - Shopping, shopping, shopping. It's the home of Armani, Prada, Gucci, Ferragamo, etc. No Asian tourist groups here, thank God. Most visitors come here individually. Milan is not one of the must-do cities of Italy (like Venice, Florence and Rome are). Architecture was ho-hum. But boy, you know you're in northern Italy when everything works. The public transportation system is flawless in Milan. But who needs public transportation when everyone drives a Bimmer, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Ferrari? No joke, we saw about 10 Ferraris just walking around for 2 hours in Milan. Milan, besides being rich, is also well kept and tidy. It's night and day compared to, say, Naples or even Rome.
And then there's the Duomo (the Italians and their Roman Catholic symbols). It's huge, yes, but it also has 135 spires adorned with 3,400 statues. Reminded me a little of Angkor's Bayon but far less impressive, of course. Going to the roof is one of the must-do things here. The view is incredible and seeing the spires/statues and the architecture of the Duomo from above is amazing.
I shopped in Milan. A LOT. We checked out Armani's HQ here and it was as big as a Target (!). The staggering array of fashion houses here explains why Milanese are some of the best dressed people on the planet. Walking down the street is like an exercise in envy, staring at all these people's outfits and wondering (a) where they bought it and (b) how much they paid for it.
I expected Milan to be colder than Florence or Venice but Florence was warm and Milan was a little cooler. Venice was the coldest which is strange coz it's near a body of water.
We had a great meal at a suitably named Trattoria alla Milanese. Great osso bucco (though not as good as La Giostra's which is strange coz osso bucco originated from Milan) and risotto. And we had a panettone dipped in zabaglione dessert which was absolutely sublime (I can still remember the tastes). We picked it by pointing to other tables (no tourists here!) so I have no clue what it's called. Only that it was really good and the meal was cheap even after ordering a Barolo *gasp*.
On our final day in Europe, we cabbed to Linate airport and found the two sets of numbers again. Much to our relief, we were only charged one of the numbers, the higher of the two. I still don't understand the system but I'm quite glad he didn't add the two numbers together! Linate was fog-shrouded and after some nail-biting moments, we were off on our BA flight to Heathrow and onward to DC. No delays, uneventful and I caught a cold on the plane home. Sigh.
DEC 2 :: [sniffle] OK, my cold has officially become annoying. I thought it would go away quickly but my nose is still running for the fifth day in a row. Good news is no congestion, no coughing and no headaches. But I'm so over this. Mostly because I have two parties this weekend and I wanna drink! Sigh.
It doesn't help that it's cold outside either. Brrr. December is definitely here. Even though the shortest day of the year - the winter solstice - doesn't occur for another 19 days, today marks the start of the earliest sunset in DC and the sun will continue to set at 4:46pm for the next 10 days. After that, the sun sets later with each passing day, yay! Since I never get to see the sunrise, days with the earliest sunsets are the shortest days for me so it's good that the days will start getting "longer" again. I don't know how I survived in London when the sun would rise at 8am and set before 4pm. Not that it mattered in London since the daylight hours are dreary, dark, and grey anyway :)
I promise I'll write about Florence and Milan, soon. Drugs are kickin' in and I'm off to bed. Night. Oh, and no, no snow this weekend. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.
31 :: live in bangkok
31 :: 125,000
30 :: bangkok, baby
29 :: city of angels
28 :: somewhere over the pacific
27 :: UA609 DCA-ORD
27 :: eventful
27 :: paper faces on parade
26 :: horrifying
26 :: devastation
25 :: in your heart
24 :: wasn't meant to be
24 :: buried
23 :: sneaking it in
23 :: bush's war
21 :: take me out...
20 :: lost
20 :: daylight robbery
20 :: c-c-cold
20 :: 11 F
19 :: first snow
19 :: ooh!
19 :: snow?
19 :: laboratorio
17 :: never learn
16 :: pictures!
16 :: deficit
15 :: dead
15 :: brrrrr!
15 :: dollar vs euro
13 :: desperate
13 :: playing chicken with rates
13 :: scandinavians
13 :: freeeeezing
13 :: two down...
12 :: gurrrrrl
10 :: hangovers are evil
09 :: o canada
09 :: dean's back
06 :: fico
05 :: one down, two to go
03 :: firenze
03 :: milano
02 :: sniffle