Message date: 2008-08-17

me, my blog -- all askew but thankful none-the-less

Something is amiss in the Garden Variety Family blog. I began writing my post commemorating our 16 months of waiting on the 16th of this month. Well, I got sucked into the prime time Olympic swimming last night that it didn't get it posted. I woke up today to finish it up and post a day late (worse things have happened) when I discovered that things have gone curiously awry. I put a post together thanking my Secret Pal a couple weeks ago. Through my April log in group we have had a 10 month lon
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Back from Genting...

Hi guys!!! I am back from Genting!!! Some piece of good news to be heard when I came back. Singapore won the Silver medal in the Woman Team Table Tennis. Congrats to team Singapore!! You guys did us proud. A very expected lost to Team China. China is way too strong and they are like training for their life for this Beijing Olympic 2008. Well done to them too. Well Genting is FUN!! Enjoy every minute over there. Meeting up with relatives all the way from
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Ctrip online air travel sales up 44%

Ctrip publicity brochures Revenues and profits from China
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How well do we use our freedom to choose the illusions we create?

Hi, Web Goblin here. I will be guest-blogging for Mr. G as needed over the next four weeks while he's in China. I just wanted to get that out of the way at the start, as there's been some confusion. The following email touches on this and related matters, deserving an interstitial reply: I presume this will be intercepted and read by the guest bloggers, as Neil is apparently going to China to achieve (more) enlightenment at the Shau-lin monestary, or something. I may have missed a point or two
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A Reasonable Explanation

The Case of the Empty Seats: The mystery of the half-filled stands at many events at the 2008 Olympic Games has been solved, according to Chinese internet users, who say it is the result of a policy to prevent the gathering of large and possibly uncontrollable crowds. They claim ticket sales to the public were secretly restricted. Blocks of tickets went to government departments, Communist party officials or state-owned companies, which have quietly obeyed orders not to hand them out. "Peop
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Experience List

So I've been plurking and lurking lately, saw this on Aoj's blog and wanted to play along. The experiences in bold are the ones I
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We have arrived in Hong Kong! - Hong Kong, China

Jump to the full entry & travel map Hong Kong, China We had a smooth 13 hour ride over from San Francisco. Customs and passport control was no problem. The Hong Kong Airport is a breeze to navigate. We rode over the longest suspension bridge in the world! This city reminds me of a very modern San Francisco - bridges, buildings and large hills are harmoniously combined to create a vivaciously bright city! We met at the lobby bar and enjoyed the gorgeous view as we settled down with Ts
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OPEC: Will Cut Production To Increase Oil Prices

Just in case there is any doubt that OPEC is still alive and well maintaining its control over oil production, just take a minute and read the following carefully: By MarketWatch Last update: 3:09 p.m. EDT Aug. 16, 2008 An Iranian official in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Saturday that the producers group is considering leaving oil production levels unchanged or perhaps even trimming them to shore up lagging prices and defend market share.
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XI'AN - Xi'an, China

Jump to the full entry & travel map Xi'an, China SOFITEL HOTEL... http://www.accorhotels.com/accorhotels/fichehotel/gb/sof/5949/fiche_hotel.shtml 8/12...Flight to Xi'an (2 hours), home of 8,000+ Terra Cotta Warriors and 8M people.  Arrived early afternoon and met by guide Eric.  Checked into fabulous Sofitel hotel, our top hotel thus far.  Took a family swim in the hotel pool and Kris took a sauna and jacuzzi...the men's locker room has a jacuzzi with flat screen tv &
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Collecting Tinsel

Every few years we
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Career

Hello Im facing a dilemma right now, At the moment, Im working for a Spanish company in China. It is one of the largest companies from Spain. I'm in charge of finding out potential factories to be acquired, and its respective due diligences and market studies. However, the valuations process we carry out is a pure bargain process, without valuing them. We dont do Net present value and all that sort of stuff. The job is sort of boring as I have nothing to do more than 70% of my time. Howeve
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Normal Sunday.

Hi. I'm at work again. And its, boring? I hate my job though the pay is fab. Well I had a pretty normal Sunday with the westies. Normal tennis games although it started to rain pretty heavily soon before we were about to end. And yea we were supposed to go catch a show but ended up at Steph place drinking soups, eating curry, catching the Singapore vs China olympic game (which Singapore got thrashed. Okay honestly I mean the China thrashed China ppl.) and playing mahjong! I've no idea how the
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The bad bad badiness of China and Russia

The bad bad badiness of China and Russia Oh, the horror of North Ossetia, oh the humanity. Russia is getting back to its perpetual authoritarian roots...the irony here, the huge, whopping, heaping, irony here is that North Ossetia borders another minority region in Russia that has been struggling for independence for quite a while and that the U.S government and the U.S. media haven't really given a damn about; that is, to say, Chechnya. Grozny was leveled to rubble and the U.S. news media so
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Cross Country. - Hong Kong, China

Jump to the full entry & travel map Hong Kong, China One of the 3 parts to a 3 day event is the cross country. The interesting thing about this 3 day is he cross country course is half an hour away from the venue. So this means after the dressage the horses need to be trucked to the secondary site of Beas River. The Olympics have converted a golf course in to the cross country venue. Now to move one horse in mid competition would be a task not many would want to under take. To move 75 yo
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Spurs in China??? - Beijing, China

Jump to the full entry & travel map Beijing, China Hello Peeps, We are still alive and I have only been stopped by the police/military once to have my bag searched. The food is great!!! :) The people of Beijing are all super nice and say phrases that they have been taught like, Hello welcome to Beijing, bye,bye,now, dis way pwease, and everytime they speak English they laugh. We went to watch Basketball a couple of days ago and watched a couple of losers or Spurs . We also say some boxing
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