退休

Dad just got his approval of retirement due to sickness (he had a stroke earlier this year). Why does someone needs to apply to retire? Because you will get money from the government for the rest of your life. The process is just to verify that you really can't work and not just being lazy.

So he started to plan what he would do after he stops working. Besides traveling, there really isn't much that he can do. During his life, because of work, he really doesn't have a hobby or something that he can develop on. Luckily he gets to spend half a year in HK without losing his benefits. So half of the time is taken care of. As for the other half of the time that he is in Norway. We are still trying to figure it out. So my suggestions is for him to do some traveling with mom. So that mom gets to take a good look at Norway (and the rest of Europe)

The restaurant.... I am going to miss it.



This week I will pretty much be Tchaikovski. The chef at our restaurant is quitting so I have to drive him from a the bus station to the airport. The new chef is arriving so I have to drive him from the airport to the bus station. Last but not least, my sister will be coming to Norway to celebrate my birthday this weekend so I have to pick her up from the airport. I wish she could stay in Oslo longer, but but.....

Found these pictures in my camera, this is where we said "I do":

新婚趣事

Yesterday I decided to clean up my huge pile of clothes that had been lying on my desk and chair. I soon realize that I had too many clothes and so I had to make the decision on whether I would keep it or throw it. So I pick them up one by one and ask my wife if I should throw. She would either say: "yeah, throw it." or "nah, it looks good on you." Then I picked up a green sweater and asked her: "what about this one?" and she looked at me all sad and said: "I bought this one as your birthday present!" (note. my birthday is next month but I got them from her a week ago. I already forgot.) After calming her down I placed the sweater along with other seldom wear clothes she bought for me into the shelf next to bottom, below the jeans/pants).

After arranging the clothes to the shelves inside my closet I realize that I can adjust the height of the shelves. So I told my wife: "wow, I just realize that I can adjust the height of the shelves. I can lower the shelf for the jeans/pants to get more space and take away some space for the garbage." (note. I was pointing at the shelf of the clothes she bought me as I said that.) and then it took me the rest of the night to convince her that she misunderstood what I said.

She has a good sense of humor so everything was fine.

三國志 vs 三國演義

My blog friend Laulong has a post about 三國演義 joke. Makes me all itchy because if it wasn't for this book, I wouldn't be reading Chinese today. My dad gave me this book when I was in Norway and because the story was so interesting I kept reading it and looked up dictionary for words that I do not know. Thus kept my interest in Chinese growing.

People has said, the book 三國演義 is 70% true, and 30% false.
Here I pointed out a few parts in 三國演義 that is not exactly the same as the true history of the three kingdoms.

- Chapter 2: It was 劉備 who beat 督邮, not 張飛.
- Chapter 5: 温酒斬華雄 never happened. 華雄 was killed in battle (not 1 vs 1) with 孫坚.
- Chapter 25: 斬颜良诛文醜, 关羽 never killed 文醜 himself, 文醜 died in army battle with 曹操.
- Chapter 46: 草船借箭 is 孫權, not 诸葛亮.
- Chapter 49: 诸葛亮 didn't "borrow" southeast wind. He knew the wind would come around that time of every year.
- Chapter 75: 華驼 never help 关羽 刮骨疗伤. He was killed by 曹操 before 赤壁之戰. He was 曹操's doctor though, in the storybook he was killed by 曹操 after 关羽 died.

They were from a book I read which the author read the "Romance of the three kingdoms" and try to find the information from the history books and thus drawing those conclusions.

My dreams has always been to visit the remaining sites in China. It should be relatively easy since my wife is from 重庆 and that's where 張飛 was located.

Newspaper

東方日報
曾蔭權民望再創新低
23/07/2008

It's amazing how newspaper can bend the truth in such a way that even a kid can realize they are false:

曾 蔭 權 豪 擲 一 百 一 十 億 元 派 糖 亦 未 能 為 其 插 水 下 跌 的 民 望 止 血 ， 其 評 分 及 支 持 度 雙 雙 再 創 新 低 ！ 香 港 大 學 民 意 研 究 計 劃 的 最 新 調 查 顯 示 ， 曾 蔭 權 的 評 分 跌 至 五 十 四 點 五 分 ， 較 本 月 初 時 的 調 查 再 跌 一 點 四 分 ， 是 該 計 劃 自 九 七 年 開 始 調 查 曾 蔭 權 民 望 以 來 的 最 低 紀 錄 。 民 意 研 究 計 劃 主 任 鍾 庭 耀 及 立 法 會 議 員 劉 慧 卿 都 直 言 ， 曾 蔭 權 用 逾 百 億 元 做 紓 困 措 施 ， 但 民 望 仍 然 繼 續 插 水 ， 反 映 政 府 管 治 好 有 問 題 。

港 大 民 意 研 究 計 劃 在 本 月 十 四 至 十 六 日 成 功 以 電 話 訪 問 了 一 千 一 百 八 十 一 名 市 民 ， 訪 問 了 他 們 對 曾 蔭 權 及 特 區 政 府 的 評 價 ， 其 中 本 月 十 六 日 正 是 曾 蔭 權 公 布 大 灑 一 百 一 十 億 元 ， 提 出 十 項 派 糖 措 施 的 日 子 。

The polling was from July 14th to July 16th, but the new financial plan came out on July 16th. So even if EVERYBODY knows about it already at July 16th. It would still only affect the poll result by 1/3. Let's not forget, even if they called 1 person and got an answer on July 16th, they can claim that the phone polling lasted till the 16th. I call this bullshit.

However, doesn't really mean Donald's rating will rise after that, just that there are really no point to purposely bash something in order to get publicity. Donald is stupid and that's a fact. To find things to bash about him doesn't require too much effort. Just unnecessary.

身痕

Summer time is boring here in Norway since 90% of the people goes out for vacation. While I was working on nothing and start thinking about the money that I lost in the stock market lately, I just want to do something to make it back. A thought came up......

Start an online store! Again!

Yes, I have done that before and more than once. There are three ebay stores out there that I have once been part of and 1 big one that I used to work for. However, now that I am alone in Norway it definitely would be a challenge to start over especially when facing a different market and a whole new business model.

My superstitious mom told me that if I make any big move before I turn 34, I will fall very hard and lose everything, but then if I just sit around and wait for the x amount of years till then, how am I suppose to be successful? Dilemma.

Took some wedding pictures, here is a couple to share.




Here is our main destination for our honeymoon: (too bad we can't live there)