In Shanghai on a business trip to talk to LYF's friend who created a fairly successful game that's currently doing well in China. DG, LYF and I are living in the Purple Mountain Hotel.

Met Jasmine and Thomas and their friends tonight at Barbarossa Lounge Shanghai. One is black from Nigeria and his girlfriend from Mongolia. Fascinating foreigners. Aren't they all are? I meant foreigners. There is so much to talk about and so many interesting life stories to hear when you meet foreigners.

Jasmine talked about how womanly (女人味, literally mean "woman odor") the Nigeria friend might have found his Mongolia girlfriend would have had. I said to them that any woman could be womanly without showering for a couple of days. They found this comment funny. I'm glad I contributed some laughter to the gathering tonight.

DG is talking about not showering for tonight. I guess he's going to become manly by tomorrow night.

Valentine's Day is today. My blithe unconcern to XH's call from Hunan was a mistake. I was not in the mood to chit-chat at the moment she called. I was in the office where it was quite and others can hear what I say.

I tried to call her back later after work and she told me she had to go to shower and no time to chat.

Moody. Sign.

I had these kind of mood swing, too. I don't blame her. Mood swing sounds like an overstatement, seriously.

I made a purchase. I bought a Logitech V470 Bluetooth wireless mouse. I searched it on Taobao and physically travel to the store to pay for it. 355 RMB it was. I was thinking if I should give it as a gift to IT for she said she's gonna take me to Hongkong as her tour guide to pick up the Apple Macbook Air.

Recovering from the cold, I still got minor symptom of nasal congestion.

I created a new label called "expense." I guess the V470 deserves an inauguration of a new label. Talking about expense, yesterday, I gave XM (my wife's brother) 400 RMB to recharge his phone call to make call to his family in Hunan. XH has been telling me for a couple of days how she was unable to reach her brother through phone. XH is young. I don't know how's going to develop into a man. He's still much a kid.

He reminds me of XSS. I wonder how he's going to cope with the society once he got out four years later. I would really hope if there is anything that I can do to help. On the other hand, helping is not a nice way to put it somehow. Who I am to help anyway. I'm just a 30 something man still having trouble cooking a decent meal for myself. I'm not talking about being officious. I'm talking about offering the silly advice that more mature man, such as XSS, may laugh at.

Exactly.

Who am I to advice anyway!

There exist a certain pattern with catching a cold. The cold that I got isn't really over when I thought it should have been over during the night in Hong kong sleeping at Stanley's place. Today, in the office, my head and body is so heavy that I told DG that I got to leave for home to get some sleep. DG told me to try sleep on his bed. I tried, but I got up after an hour for the flimsy quilt could hardly keep me warm. Nonetheless, the hour of sleep recharged me. I got back to work. I kept myself sober and sane till 5pm and the cold symptom strike again.

castigate
verb [T] FORMAL
to criticize someone or something severely:
Health inspectors castigated the kitchen staff for poor standards of cleanliness.
Martina castigated her boyfriend for not remembering her birthday.

eyrie
noun [C]
1 (MAINLY US aerie) the nest of an eagle or other large bird which eats meat, usually built in a high, distant place
2 a room or apartment that is high up in a building:
I interviewed the chairman of the company in his seventh-floor eyrie.

chicanery
noun [U] FORMAL
clever, dishonest talk or behaviour which is used to deceive people:
The investigation revealed political chicanery and corruption at the highest levels.

I went to Hong Kong for grandmother's 97th birthday dinner gathering. Cousin Stanley announced his plan for the weddings which may take place on July 2008. Dad and I slept in their Kornhill apartment living room. It faces the mountain side of the Tai Tam Country Park. Cousin Stanley's fiancée, interesting, opined the gift of expensive flower boutique during Valentine's Day, which is imminent. If cousin Stanley were planning to send her the flowers, she'd rather get the equivalent cash amount instead of getting the gift of flowers.

I slept on my back with the head tilted backward and sometimes slept sideway to palliate the buildup of mucus inside the nasal passages. The nasal congestion symptom reached its peak during the beginning of the night.

Runny nose. The recent days were freezing cold. I googled and found people are actually practicing a so-called nasal irrigation (Youtube video)! It's fascinating! I'd have to try it sometimes once I get a hand on that pot!

I hanged out with IT these couple of days. We talked a lot. The vibe is good. However, I sense that we've lost touch with most of our local peer friends. I started my own family. She got promoted and was given more responsibilities. She said that the mind seemed to start to think differently when one is in the position of a manager. Positioning is the key to define one's duty; and in turn, the duty defines what and how she thinks and reacts to things around her. I think one may perform a manager's duty once he or she is given proper training on how to become one. Even those whom didn't have the privilege to be trained by professionals, practice makes perfect once he or she is in the managerial position for a certain period of time.

Blogger's labeling seems useful, but having all the key phrase and keywords adding into the labels for this post seems a bit tedious and the right column looks awful after a few editions of the keywords and after they pile up. Perhaps I'd have to treat the label as topics instead.

Waked up 11:30am this morning. The word that I'm going to learn today is beset and at the coalface.

beset
adjective [after verb]
troubled (by); full (of):
With the amount of traffic nowadays, even a trip across town is beset by/with dangers.

at the coalface UK
doing the work involved in a job, in real working conditions, rather than planning or talking about it:
At the coalface with a deadline looming, you sometimes feel under a lot of pressure.
The new methods will help teachers working at the coalface.
If you work at the coalface, you deal with the real problems and issues, rather than sitting in a office discussing things in a detached way.

It is the Chinese New Year. Mandy and August is in Hunan. I miss them very much. I watch August's photos on Smugmug almost daily. Mandy told me on the phone that August is getting fatter. The weather in Hunan is freezing cold. I wonder how they can survive without a heater.