My Simple Life in E. Asia

Easter/Brussel in Blossom

2009-04-11T11:59:00.003-04:00

This was the first Easter I had after I moved here. There was neither a home party nor sharing chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies with friends/colleagues. Although a portion of my heart felt lost about that, I went out to enjoy the sun and had lunch in a beautiful garden with my closed friends. Surrounding by various kinds of flowers and cute cute toddlers/kids in the garden, that's also a good way to celebrate Easter as they all reflect energetic and fertile--the spirit of Easter.

How did you celebrate Easter?

In any case, here is a Happy Easter to people who celebrate it this/next weekend. For those Easter is not a public holiday in your area, this clip is for you....:)

yo choy

2009-03-28T04:38:00.005-04:00

While the Europeans cultivate sugar beets on fallow land, in some areas in Asia, people cultivate yo choy on fallow land in the early Spring. If you have ever seen a field of yo choy blossom, you would be impressed by its the stunning beauty and you would find that mother nature is the greatest artist for oil painting!

Yo choy and Chinese broccoli are both part of the Brassicaceae family. Yo choy is equally tasty by stir frying or boiling. Unlike broccoli, it doesn't grow bitter even when it is flowered.

Yo choy tastes the best (very tender) in spring. What shall we wait?

Here are photo credits that link back to the original source for each featured above: 1. 梨花, 2. An afternoon at Hama-rikyū gardens [02]., 3. statue and rape blossoms (菜の花) #9936, 4. DSC_0196, 5. DSC_0172, 6. DSC_0246, 7. DSC_0228, 8. DSC_0237, 9. DSC_0195

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

eeePC

2008-11-09T02:52:00.005-05:00

Eee PC, a lightweight and full-featured laptop computer, developed by ASUS, a Taiwan-based computer manufacturer, has been a hit in Asia. It attracts a lot of young female professionals because it is just like its slogan-- easy to learn, easy to work, and easy to play. Of course, the sophisticated appearance is also a plus for it to capture some market share. Lately, I've found that not only femal professionals but also tall and big businessmen love EeePC. I have seen many businessmen working with an EeePC at the airport business lounge in the past few months.

As EeePC becomes more and more popular, I start to wonder whether I should get one for myself because I am really really irressitnat to light and compact gadgets. Moreover, I always come out new ideas for a short article/post while commuting. However, I either forget what I want to write or find no time to write once I arrive home. So, if I had one, PERHAPS I could write more.

Just like this morning when I was on the metro, the lady standing next to me pulled out a s-shaped hook from her backpack, hook that on a handrail, and then hook her backpack on the s-shaped hook. Wow...she could be free from the heavy bag for a while. I was so amused by her idea and thought I had to share it here with everyone-especially for those that work at the computer all the time and have tight and sour shoulders.

Cherry Blossom

2008-03-15T18:01:00.002-04:00

I believe there are many outstanding people in the world, just we don't know who they are. I am fortunate to have two elites, Mr. and Ms. Greenthumb, to be my friends. One of them likes botanics and has devoted himself to cultivating indgenous Taiwanses botanics. The other with great attainment in Chinese literature is a sophisticated writer--the one I am always envious about and always admire a lot. The cherry tree in the photo is at the entrance of Mr. Greenthumb's garden. I especially like its tender and curly end branches; they are like fingers playing the harp. In fact, the wind brought over the seed and the seed settled here and it became the tree we saw. Perhaps, the cherry tree is another admirer of Mr. and Ms. Greenthumb so that it volunteers to join the garden.

A sweet offer from the publishers

2008-02-28T11:48:00.009-05:00

I was very excited about a nice offer by HarperCollins--free electronic editions of some of its books--early this month. As a result, registered users of HarperCollins are able to read and download new books such as Paulo Coelho's "the Witch of Portobello" and Robert Irvine's "Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy" at HarperCollins' website. (I really want to read the Witch of Portbello!)

Now there is another sweet offer. From today to Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, the ENTIRE novel, Beautiful Children, is free downlodable in PDF format at "http://www.beautifulchildren.net/read/". It is courtesy by the novel's publisher Random House.

Beautiful Children just hits the Times Bestseller list this week. The move by Random House is absolutely unprecendented. Although I've found it is hard to read the entire book in electronic format, I am sure many book-lovers would love this idea totally!