We will all have different memories to live by. Just received a web link for a photo gallery of Jack’s trip to Kota Kinabalu to climb Mount Kinabalu. Well, pictures illustrate more than a thousand words, from the warm sandy beaches to the freezing, inhospital mountain tops of Mount Kinabalu. I can tell he had fun, going with people I’m familiar with, friends I’ve known for a very long time.

I had fun when he was around in Melbourne, doing strange things while on trips with him and others travelling. His car got stuck on the beach while travelling to Adelaide and the tide was rising. It was only metres away from enveloping his car. We managed to get off the beach somehow. Our caravan also got stuck in the mud while we were in Tasmania as we tried to save time by driving to the park we wanted to visit the next day. It got stuck while we were trying to reverse out of the driveway to the park as the gates had got stuck. It was raining, my friend was in his pyjamas and we somehow managed to get enough branches underneath the tire to get a grip to get out of the mud. We never really made life easy but I guess that was the fun part once you look back at it. Jack was adventurous, and while I complained a lot inside my mind about the trouble we got ourselves into, felt very glad that we did, as I would not have had as much fun otherwise.

My current memories involve nursing a cold, from the insane NYC weather. It’s been terribly warm and it gets worse in the subway stations. That plus the fact that I’ve been going in and out of air conditioned rooms (reminds me of primary school, heh) and I think it finally caught up with me. Yesterday I was a little annoyed that some shopkeeper tried to swindle me. I finally got round to topping up my prepaid phone and the person only put in $50 credit when I paid $100. He insisted that he had put in $100 and kept giving reasons which had no basis. Me being me, having not dealt with too many dishonest people, didn’t really know how to argue back and I left the shop twice and called customer service to confirm my worries. He finally gave in and topped up the remaining $50 but continued his line saying that if I saw extra credit on the phone that I’d have to come back to the shop and pay up. If he was in anyway honest and believed what he said, he would not have topped up the ‘extra’ $50 just to get rid of me. So I wasted 2 hours just to get things sorted out. Heh, this is quite out of character for me, as usually I’d just leave the matter but I wasn’t going to let myself get bullied just because I’m not from around town.

Heh, it’s strange, the paths we choose to walk and how we lead our lives. Mine is currently a lonely path, and as much as everyone else wants to experience NYC, I can only describe how I felt and what I saw. With friends on trips seeing places, at least everyone can reminisce and recall the good times they had. At times, I really only require a lot less to be happy, at least, this is my point of view.

Somedays all we want to do is just shout out. The weekends I feel a little redundant as there is not much I feel I can do. The weather’s been quite warm lately, so not too keen to go out and bake. Waiting at subway stations can get a little hot as there is no air conditioning in the stations themselves, and it feels like an oven.

Went to watch Ratatouille yesterday. It’s a Pixar animated film and it talks about a rat named Remy who has a keen sense of smell and love of food. He stumbles upon Linguini, a young guy who has no cooking skills but the combo pair up and start cooking dishes that gets the critics raving. Heh, you’d think that rats and food don’t seem very savoury together, but it’s a good film that has managed to stand out against all the other movies I’ve watched so far. Animation is stellar as usual and there is an organic feel to the food being drawn on screen. The story was really meshed out well and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone, although kids will have a tougher time understanding the film.

Heh, really feel like cooking after watching the movie.

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Today I went to Chinatown again, just to hunt for a little shop that is renowned for its dumplings. Heh, being a little more familiar with the streets now, I decided I didn’t need to bring my map along. Ventured further along through Chinatown and managed to find some Asian grocery shops. It doesn’t sell as much variety as the ones I find in Melbourne but all that is made up by the fact that many other shops sell various other things like meat and vegetables that you don’t really need a one stop shop. The meat/vegetable/dry goods shops are reminiscent of what I’d find in KL, with the smells and sights distinctly familiar.

Anyway, found my store and walked in. It was basically called Dumpling House.

The shop was as described, with just one counter to serve the food over and you can see some old Chinese ladies and a guy preparing dumplings and various food stuff. Heh, the cooking methods are quite unique as I saw them put an entire dough (like a pizza) into some boiling water or oil and covered it. It should be oil as it came out crusty and was flipped twice before being taken out and chopped into equal slices. That was a form of sesame bread.

Saw all this while I waited for my boiled pork and chive dumplings. $1 for 5, so I ordered 10. Had that with vinegar and chilli sauce. Heh, not much to describe dumplings other than them tasting nice. After that I downed it with a bottle of soy bean milk. Heh, total food bill was $3 and I felt really satisfied.

They served various other things and the most expensive item on the menu was some noodles at $3.50 a bowl. It’s simple food, mainly flour for noodles and dumpling skin plus some chinese vegetables, minced meat and seasoning, but I like simple food.

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Just missing home at the moment. NYC is big and everyone can be busy with their own things, so it feels quite impersonal at times. Not that I don’t want to mingle, but I feel al little lost talking about baseball or any other American sport. Heh, still missing familiar company. As good as the experience is, I’d like to be able to finish this assignment soon and return to more familiar surroundings. Still a fair way to go.

Heh, just wanted to sneak a post in while it is still the triple 7 date (7 July 2007). Lots of couples getting married today to take advantage of what they think is an auspicious date. Then there is also a series of Live Earth concerts taking place throughout the world to raise awareness of global warming. The event was pushed by former US vice president Al Gore, who is very passionate in his plea to people to help save the planet. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, shows the effects of human activities on the planet and how it’s causing havoc on our environmental systems. Whether you believe it or not, he does build his case on facts and if you’ve lived anywhere for any extended period of time, can tell if the weather patterns for your area have changed within the last couple of years.

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Watched Transformers the day before the 4th of July holiday (which incidentally, was spent fixing up this site and it was too cloudy to see any fireworks, eventhough I heard plenty of it). Heh, brings back childhood memories, and it was a simplistic idea of giant robots that could take the form of modern day machines on Earth to blend in. The movie was pretty good on its own, with the end fighting sequences a little too convoluted and not adding very much. Heh, they even got the original person who voiced Optimus Prime to do it again for this movie, so you really feel the nostalgia the first time he speaks. Heh, was forwarded a web article about someone who travelled to Yunnan in China and they saw a giant sized statue of Optimus Prime there. The idea was post Chairman Mao, the Chinese there needed another role model, and what better depiction of moral values other than Optimus Prime, who was genuinely good and would do no evil. Heh. It’s quite strange.

I did manage to talk to someone from China who said that as a kid, all the other kids would clamour round the colour TV (not many people had a black and white TV, let alone a colour one) just to catch Transformers. Heh, and he also mentioned that he was not so fortunate to have these toys to play with then. Unlike mua, heh. Still recall going to Hong Kong with my mom and grandma while I was only 7 years old. My legs flaked under all the walking (which I didn’t do much of anyway) and I sprung alive when we entered a toystore, so that I could go lookup Transformers toys. Heh.

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Heh, this here is a pizza stand just outside where I’m currently residing. For 99c you can get a decent slice of pizza that is like a snack and would keep your stomach contented for maybe 45 minutes. It’s just a basic pizza with tomato paste and cheese (and I detect a hint of garlic in it as well). Heh, it doesn’t taste too bad, and I like the idea of just handing over a crinkly dollar note and getting a nice warm piece of food in exchange. Nobody bothers with getting the 1c change. Heh.

I’ve had food from $1 to $80 and NYC is really a city where you can push boundaries on dirt cheap to outrageously expensive. Heh, $80 is still in the middle range and sometimes it’s just for the ambience and the service more so than for the food.

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Heh, the world used to be such an expanse, and you could learn so much just observing different cultures. With technology, it has shrunk somewhat, as a kid who grew up in Malaysia has same childhood memories as someone who grew up in China and can share them across a table sitting in New York city.