My Job

Yes, as several of you have pointed out, I have yet to tell you about my new job. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't have as much free time available thanks to...that's right, the new job...

I've had this job for over 2 months now. It's for a small IT company, located in Central, Hong Kong. It's basically a project management position, with the work changing as new projects come up. For the first 6 weeks I was working out of the Hong Kong airport. Now I am gearing up ( i.e. doing lots of reading and research) for another project that should in gear by the time we get back from our vacation in Hawaii.

The project at the airport was to install over a hundred check-in workstations in a new terminal. Due to many delays, this part never actually happened by the time my part of the project came to an end. However, I did get to do the following:

• Installed servers, switches, kvm's into 2 server rooms. This involved the frustrating and sometimes painful job of reconfiguring the racks to fit equipment of various sizes. If you've ever worked with caged nuts, you know what I mean. It's basically like putting together Ikea furniture in hell.
• Helped to prepare and image over 100 workstations, involving installing over 100 pci cards.
• Moved heavy equipment back and forth and back and forth again...to different areas of the airport as well as the server rooms in the new terminal, which was still a construction site, by the way.
• I had the pleasure of having to coordinate deliveries and work done by contractors...both of whom usually spoke very little english and didn't have a good sense of time management/time estimation.

The new project I'm gearing up for will be configuration and installation of a new POS software system for a retailer in Malaysia. It's fun to involved in ERP/SCM systems again...should be a good project!

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, Beth & I celebrated at Hong Kong Disneyland. The park is definitely smaller than the US one, but we had fun anyways. We rode Space Mountain twice as well as a couple of other fun rides. You can view are pictures here.

Consider this a Public Service Announcement:

And, in case you're wondering how I made this post...google is fairing pretty well during this outage, don't know how they do it, perhaps they have distributed servers around the globe...although, anything we can access is at glacially slow speeds. I feel like it's 1992 and I'm on dial-up with my 9600baud modem!

So, google products (gmail, google, blogger) work as does skype I believe...and, of course anything hosted in HK, such as: thestandard.com.hk, from which I copied this story:


Earthquake pulls plug on local businesses

JonathanChengandagencies

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Hong Kong struggled to cope Wednesday without access to large swaths of the Internet and the regional phone network, fearing the implications of a telecommunications slowdown that could drag on for weeks.

The tie-up, triggered by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake late Tuesday night off the southeast coast of Taiwan, sent ripple effects through the heavily wired and technology-reliant territory.

Financial traders worked without up-to-date stock prices and travelers were unable to call home, while ordinary Internet users were left without the staples of modern life, like access to Google and Yahoo.

Leng Tai-feng, president of international business for Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest phone operator, said two of its undersea cables were cut, with repairs likely to take two to three weeks.

Crews fixing the cables would have to pull the cables up and transfer them to a ship for repair, the company said, while Lin Jen-hung, Chunghwa's vice general manager, added: "Quality will improve day by day."

Voice calls to the United States were down to 40 percent of normal capacity in Taiwan, while Singapore Telecommunications, the largest phone company in Southeast Asia, reported a slowdown in Internet traffic in its area.

PCCW, whose local telecom services rely heavily on those damaged cables, warned users to expect "congestion over the next several days."

PCCW said the damage had slashed data capacity in half, while an upsurge in usage of Internet sites in the region added to the congestion problem.

"We are in the process of diverting the data and are monitoring the restoration of the cables," the company said.

Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong also issued a brief statement Wednesday, saying it had contacted and followed up with the suppliers of the undersea cables.

"Immediate actions have also been taken to provide limited telecommunications service to affected areas," the statement read.

SmarTone-Vodafone, the mobile service provider, sent a message to its Hong Kong users in the afternoon, promising service would be back to normal as soon as possible.

Internet access in Beijing was reported to be slow.

But officials there declined to give further details.

Vinh Tran, a spokeswoman for HSBC, said that there was no access for its online banking service in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland.

Both the Hong Kong stock exchange and the Securities and Futures Commission reported no disruptions to operations.

Some telecom companies were working Wednesday to reroute their service by other channels, including through Australia, the Indian Ocean or by satellite.

Meanwhile, Ng Nam, director of the computer center at Hong Kong University, said service may not reach normal standards as those cables are not accustomed to handling so much traffic.

The long-distance telephone service was cut off from Hong Kong to 19 places, including the United States, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand.

Experts were hesitant Wednesday to attach a price tag on the shutdown, but warned that delays could persist for some time.

"A lot of people are definitely going to be seriously affected," said Gary Chan Sheung-han, a professor of computer science and engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Those people included traders like David Leong of First State Investments in Singapore, who told a reporter: "I can't trade if I don't know the prices."

Diego Wittlin, managing director of the Hong Kong office of a small German toy exporter, said the telecom meltdown meant that business - and all means of contact with head office - has come to a crashing halt.

"I tried to call Europe about 20 times today," Wittlin said. "But the phone and Internet are both down, so we can't even fax."

For the time being, he is taking solace in the fact that his competitors are down as well - and that business is in the traditional Christmas season lull.

Still, Wittlin added: "It's a very uncomfortable situation. It just shows how vulnerable our systems are." Should the outage continue, Wittlin said he will resort to more basic means of conducting business - using courier services for important documents, burning data on to CDs and mailing them through the post, and trying to fax as much possible.

"You just have to redial 20 or 30 times, that's all," he said. "When e-mail's gone, these days, unfortunately everything stands still."

Wittlin's headaches highlighted a troubling point for IT experts trying to prevent a repeat of the incident: that global communications in the region, now more vital than ever, rely on a surprisingly small number of cables under the sea.

Charles Mok Nai-kwong, a former head of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers' Association and current chairman of the local chapter of the US- based Internet Society, said he hoped the situation will be fixed quickly.

But he admitted there are only "very limited things" that local telecom providers can do.

"Some people may be asking what Hong Kong can do to prevent this from happening again, but the question is: what can the world do?" Mok said.

He called on the consortiums that own and operate undersea cables to "re- evaluate the situation" by diversifying traffic and placing cables in different locations.

But it will cost money: up to US$500,000 (HK$3.9 million) per kilometer, according to a report earlier this year by Paul Budde, a telecommunications analyst in Australia.

"Planning an undersea cable, we're talking about billions of dollars and years and years of time," Mok said.

One of the two cables that were broken is owned by a consortium that includes Singapore Telecom, France Telecom and Pakistan Telecommunication.

The other is partly owned by China Unicom, StarHub and Telekom Malaysia.

Great new song, cool new video

by U2

8 Months in Hong Kong

As you may already know, Beth is in the states right now on a little vacation. I wasn't able to go with her, because I recently started a new job and can't take vacation right now (more on the job in a later post). We wanted Beth to take with her a DVD of some of the footage we've shot in Hong Kong and our other trips in Southesat Asia these past 8 months. So, I scrambled to put one together. The work on it went up to the last minute, whereby I discovered that whenever I tried to burn the DVD, my computer shut down...so, no DVD to bring :( So, I did the next best thing and hosted the video on youtube. I had to break it into 5 parts and reduce the quality in order to upload it, but hopefully it is still enjoyable. Also, my apologies for not having titles or captions that explain where certain scenes were taken. We originally were planning on having Beth narrate the film. So, unless you have the pleasure of her lovely company while viewing these clips, you may be a little lost....sorry!

Part 1 of 5


Part 2 of 5


Part 3 of 5


Part 4 of 5


Part 5 of 5

Do you remember how I always said...

I wanted my one beer keg that could fit in my fridge? Well...I got that too:

Signs of Life

I haven't blogged in a while. There just hasn't been all that much new or different going on to report on. And I'm not like my uber-talented wife, Beth, who can take even the most mundane details of the day and turn them into a blog post that's both funny and insightful. That's probably why she has a career that involves writing and I have a career that involves...oh wait, I don't have a career. So, anyways...things are good. And here's more proof that the Nordbergs are settling into life in their new home:

You've Got Radio - Can you believe it's been 8 months since I've listened to the radio? Technically I get to hear the radio in the taxis, but I don't really count that since I don't get to choose the station and most often I can't understand what's being said. We had shipped over from the states our surround sound/dvd/radio system. Unfortunately it was a 120 volt unit and Hong Kong supplies 220 volt electricity. This system requires 280 watts of electricity, which meant that we'd need more than the typical travel convertor. On Monday, I finally bucked up and paid the HK$330 required to buy a 300 watt transformer. So, I hooked up the system and surfed the Hong Kong radio waves! Of course, I was only able to find one station in English! At least now, though, we'll be able to watch movies without having to listen to the audio through the puny speakers in our projector!

She's a City Dog - Zoe's adapting quite well to city life. She now understands how elevators work. While waiting for the elevator, she hears the beep indicating that the elevator has arrived on our floor and before she sees the doors open, she lurches toward the door waiting for it to open. This proves she's learned what that beep means! Same thing when in the elevator she sits patiently while it descends until the doors open on the ground floor. Also, while on walks she has learned to adapt to her city environment. Those of you with dogs know that they prefer grass to, uhh...do their "business." Unfortunately there's not a lot of grass to be found here. She doesn't mind doing #2 on the sidewalk, but I've noticed that she doesn't like to do #1 on the sidewalk...perhaps she's embarassed by the attention in draws to her (she's very aware of other people). So, she found a good solution, allow me to explain ... Our favorite place to walk her is down by the ferry terminals at Victoria Harbour. Along the walkway is a long sewer grate. When we walk there, she deliberately walks along the sewer grate and we've discovered one reason why is that she likes to stop on it and do her "business" (both #1 and #2) as she has figured out that the "droppings" will then dissapear into the sewer grate, nice and descrete-like. How she figured this out, I don't know. But, I'm greateful that it's one less turd I have to poop and scoop!

Hail Thy Cab - We've gotten quite good at hailing cabs. And no, this doesn't involve sticking your fingeres in your mouth and whistling very loudly...I can't even do that. But, it does involve strategic thinking. The key is to go upstream to where the taxis are coming from and not just wait for one to come by where you are at. Plus, you also need to think about where you are trying to get to and which streets head in that direction (most streets here are one-way). The slightest difference in where the taxi picks you up can double the time (and possibly cost) it takes to get you there.

You Can't Just Give it Away

From this point forward, I will no longer be posting my pictures on this blog. If you want to see my pictures, you'll have to purchase them from istockphoto.com

istockphoto is a website that sells stock photographs to companies needing images for the websites, brochures, etc... I'm kidding, of course, about no longer posting my pictures here. In reality, a lot of the pictures I'd post on my blog wouldn't really be stock-appropriate pictures. They are pretty strict in terms of what the accept, both in terms of the 'stock worthiness' of a picture and the technical quality of the image. It took me a while to be accepted and I've had quite a few images rejected already, but have built up a portfolio of 5 images at this point. The image below was initially rejected for having at least 5 different branded logos showing. I was successful at removing them via photoshop, so they accepted it.

You can view my portfolio here.

Man...I sure do know my wife

As you have no doubt read in Beths blog, she recently had a question she wrote published in a local Hong Kong magazine. What you don't know is how this was discovered:

I was reading this particular magazine and this guy's column, "Mr. Know it All". I read the question from "Clare" and automatically knew that she had written it, even though she never told me that she sent in a question to this guy. How did I know that she had written this?:

• Beth is clearly working on a fiction novel, which isn't her preferred method of writing, but she has gotten positive feedback on it from those around her (including myself)
  
• The story is about 25 pages currently.
• Her little humours quip: "the overwhelming pressure (I mean joy from their continual positive feedback) keeps me...."
• "Clare" Daines is one of Beth's favourite actresses, at least until she acted in this movie.

So, I ask her "did you submit a question to Mr. KIA? "yes...." she says. "Well, I think they published it!" See, I told you I knew my wife!

While Mr. KIA, must think that I am one of her "indulgent friends with nary a hint of literary appreciation abilities", I can safely say that I am married to a future bestselling author and her book will do quite well, thank you very much! And yes, I do have more than a "hint of literary appreciation abilities" I am quite well-read, FYI.

But, I do have to admit to pressuring her to finish writing this book...and why? Cuz, I want to know how it ends! It's a page-turner..can't put it down!

Letter from Birmingham Jail

One of the readings assigned to us in my philosophy course, many years ago, was "Letter from Birmingham Jail" my Martin Luther King Jr. It is a fantastic read, not only relevant to the civil rights issues he was fighting in his day, but also to people everywhere: the oppressed, the opressor, those fighting oppression and those just standing by.

The letter was written to 8 clergymen from Alabama who had criticized King for coming to Alabama to peacefully protest the social injustices occuring there. They called his actions "unwise and untimely." You can read the full text of the letter here.

Here are just a few of the quotes that stood out to me:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. "

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

"So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

I'm sure may who have read this letter, like me, have looked with disgust upon the clergymen who wrote the letter of disaproval to King. Who are these men, whom history has surely forgot? I did some research and wasn't able to find information about very many of them, save one: Joseph Aloysius Durick. At the time of the letter to King he was a catholic bishop in Birmingham. What happened to Mr. Durick after he got the response from Dr. King?...He changed Joseph Durick became an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the South. How did his congregation thank him? By branding him as a communist and a heretic.

Warning...actual opinion ahead!:

I'm sure most of you Americans got the luxury of watching the Emmys on Sunday. I have, as of yet, not been able to *ahem* acquire said episode. I did acquire the first 15 minutes of the show, which I will watch tonight. From what I read, Conan did a great job and was his usual hillarious self. I was surprised to read this article on MSNBC. Apparently, the opening skit had spoofs from several television shows this season, one of which showed Conan in a plane crash on a desert island...a spoof on Lost. Now, a bunch of people are offended because this aired on the same day as a plane crashed in Kentucky, killing 50 people. This is crazy! How can people be so easily offended? The skit was filmed well in advance of that crash! It was a spoof on Lost for crying out loud!

Now, bear in mind, I am not one of those people who is constantly complaining about America being "too politically correct" I fashion myself to be a pretty sensitive person, what others my term as "politically correct" But, this is just ridiculus. And I'm even skeptical that those who complained were even really offended, so much as just looking for something to complain about. What's worse, the media is referring to this as the "Conan skit"...basically defaming Conan for participating in such an offensive and insesitive act! Hello...it was taped in advance, he had no idea a plane was going to crash! And even if you think it shouldn't have been aired, it's not like Conan would have much control over that...he's just the host! Poor Conan...I guess that's the price you pay for having a sense of humor.

I said 'hey'

As is often a case when there is a major news event the public is obsessed with, all other events get pushed out of the way. One can remember how the death of Mother Teresa was quickly eclipsed by the death of Princess Diana. Or how, when the Rwandan Genocide (which went on to kill a million people in 100 days) broke out, it wasn't was newsworthy as the suicide of Kurt Cobain. News, unfortunately, is the result of what sells easily to the public.

As we all know, the John Michael Karr is the media's latest obsession...this morning Beth and I got to see the very newsorthy coverage of a live video feed of the plane carrying Karr from LA to Colorado...I was on pins and needles...a great use of the media's time...not...

As I checked the news on MSNBC this morning, I did notice a headline, buried down in the front page and replaced the next hour: "Trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, dead at 78" I'm sure most don't recognize that name. He never achived the popular following of say Miles Davis or Dizzy Gillespie, and was mostly dismissed by jazz purists, but among his fans (primarily other trumpet players, I'm sure) he was magical.

What made him so good? He could play very high notes. Well, it's more than that...but it is what he's most known for. For those who haven't played the trumpet or other brass instruments, this is probably hard to appreciate. Playing exceptionally high notes, especially in a controlled manner is quite difficult to do. I still remember listening to him with my fellow trumpet players in high school. We'd pass the tape player back and forth on the bus on our way to different schools to play in the pep band. We were awestruck. Trumpet players, especially, are a cocky bunch, always trying to one-up one another by playing higher notes...but, there is no competing with Maynard...listening to him knocks the wind out of you. I was fortunate enough to see Maynard in concert a few years ago and was again awestruck at his talent.

I've long since given up playing the trumpet...I sold my crappy, old student model for $100 to someone just picking up the instrument. I don't even listen to Maynard that often, I really couldn't say that he's among my favorite musicians. When his songs come up on my iPod, I usually skip past them, on to the rock/pop choices that dominate my playlists...I'm a lyrics guy, what can I say? And honestly, a lot of his songs are fairly cheesy, musically speaking. A lot of them are jazzed up versions of 70's disco music. He is well known for his rendition of the Rocky theme song "Gonna Fly Now" He has also played the theme to the original Star Trek and the theme song to the movie "Shaft" Like I said...cheesy. But, the way he plays those trumpet solos still get me excited.

Like I said, I got the privilige of seeing Maynard perform a couple of years ago. Beth and I went to see him at Jazz Alley in Seattle. We weren't able to get great seats up front, so we sat towards the back, near the bar. While waiting for the show to begin, watching some no name group on stage, I'm sure, I notice a door to the side of the club open and an older, portly man enter and walk towards the back. I realized that this is Maynard himself, from the few pictures I have seen. He passes right by where we are sitting. Casually I say "hey"...he said "hey" back. The performance was great, of course, an answer to a childhood dream tucked away but not forgotten.

I remember talking to my former boss upon learning that he used to play the trumpet in college. I asked him if he had heard of Maynard Ferguson so I could share my story of seeing him in concert. He said that he and his friends liked to listen to him and were amazed at his talent. As I listened to Maynard on my iPod, the first time in a while, I realized that he may never be very well known, there will always be young trumpet players listening, floored my this man's "chops" I know that for a couple of band-geeks in the mid-90's, he was a magician.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Recipe

If you've read either Beth or I's blog or talked to us about things we miss from back home, you no doubt know that we have been unable to find good Chinese food here in Hong Kong. So...we have taken upon ourselves to recreate those longed-for dishes in our own, tiney kitchen.

Our first dish to tackle was Sweet & Sour Chicken. We scoured the internet for a sauce recipe that looked good. The recipe below is a modification to what we found. We reduced the vinegar, reduced the cornstarch and increased the water. Enjoy!:

1/8 cup white vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 tbl. cornstarch
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice
3/8 cup water

combine and boil. simmer gently for 5 minutes.

what's that? you need a recipe for the chicken? Oh, come on...it's chicken, you can figure it out!

Next dish to tackle? General Tsao's Chicken...mmm!

It's easy breezy...stream of consciousness style

The weather seems to be improving, slightly. The temperature is the same, but there is a slight breeze in the air lately, which helps considerably. Beth recently bought me new headphones for my iPod. I had lost my original earbuds in the move and the only other headphones I had were the big, chunky, over the ear ones...which, I love, but aren't really best for taking to the gym or walking around the street in, unless you want to be stared at a lot, and i have... So, the new headpones are the kind that you stick into your ear canal like an earplug, I was hesitant about trying these because I thought they would be uncomfortable...but, they're not, they're great! And they do a great job cancelling the external noise, you can have the volume much lower than normal and still hear the music great! So...i'm now taking my iPod to the gym in the morning, which is great, because they have a pretty bad music selection. Some of it isn't so bad, typical American pop music. There are a couple of pretty lame choices, though. One is this song that includes the line "You're Easy Breezy and I'm Japaneesy" you can read the rest of the lyrics here, if you're intrigued. There's another one that's bizzare. It's techo and features a voice that I think is supposed to sound like George W. Bush, Beth disagrees. Anyways, all the voice says is "Destroy..." and then the names of all these musicians...like "Destroy: Madonna, Destroy: Prince, Destroy Houie Louis" very bizzare indeed! And then there's this Eminem song they play...now, I admit, I do enjoy an Eminem song from time to time...this is coming from a guy with a very eclectic musical taste. My iPod contains: U2, Miles Davis, Nirvana, Green Day, Eminem, Gustav Holst (orchestral music), & Celine Dion (only 1 song!)...I really don't think many of those musicians would appreciate being in each other's company! so, anyways, even though I can appreciate Eminem..this song is so vulgar it's not even funny! However, every time it's played, someone stops the song midway through...I guess either someone complained or some staff person with enough English skills to pick out the vulgarities Marshall Mathers is laying out while he's bustin' his rhymes. Oh, and whoever is in control of the music often will skip past songs for no reason! They treat it like it's their own personal iPod that we all get to listen to!

that is all...and yes, I did start writing this before Beth posted on a similar topic...little blog stealer!

I usually don't do this...

but...these were too funny not to shrare:

Very funny Star Wars video...thanks, Cam!:

Funny t.v. pilot created by Ben Stiller...thanks, Dan!:

Engagement Anniversary

Some may find it odd, but Beth and I like to still celebrate our engagement anniversary and our dating anniversary. Our engagement anniversary was this Friday (yesterday). Here is Beth, holding the boquet that I had delivered to her office. I'm told there was much oohing and ahhing...that's right, I'm the man...Beth, who always has a way with words, wrote me this wonderful letter. She said I could share it with you:

Dear Nick,

Please let me begin this note by first apologizing for the fact that the contents of the last card I gave you was drafted ‘last minute’; in fact so ‘last minute’ that allegedly you observed me drafting my sentiments. I’ve often been advised ‘the fresher the better’, but I’ve learned this pertains more to Japanese seafood than greeting cards. In this case fresh (inked) simply meant unprepared-ness and perhaps perceived insincerity.

While I did not intend to communicate lackadaisical-ness; I do admit I was at fault and deserved to be scolded (as you tactfully did). However, all that said, I would like to point out how much more difficult it is to obtain a proper card in Hong Kong than in say, Washington state where stores actually sell the things people want.

You may wonder why it is this time you’re receiving a typed note. You may judge me, or this note, as being less personal because it is typed rather than hand-scripted. But let me explain. I’ve chosen to draft my thoughts now via Word a good 60* hours before our anniversary dinner because I’ve not yet landed what I think is a great card. In fact, in light of the last shopping trip where I purchased a card for you, I don’t expect to land a ‘great’ card at all, but rather an acceptable one. Please, upon receipt of the mediocre card I will soon acquire, do not assess our relationship or my thoughts on our relationship based upon the text, appearance or otherwise of the said card.

Please note that I’ve yet to see greeting cards sold elsewhere than in a 3rd level store in the IFC mall (which I want to point out is VERY inconvenient) and furthermore, the selection in said store is limited to about 20 choices. Personally I’d rather make my own card than give you one that goes on to explain how I wish you all the best ‘the year of the dog’ has to offer; but I do know machine-folded pieces of very thick paper for which you paid $4US dollars have their place in the world of romance.

And so, I will continue my search for a card. And my search may take me right up and until Friday when before our dinner (conveniently scheduled at the IFC) I may ask to be excused for a minute in order to obtain a very thick piece of paper which I could not procure anywhere near my office during my work-week lunch breaks. And then, you may observe me returning with a bag and observe me pull out a card and you’ll initially judge me, thinking ‘How could she be so unprepared, AGAIN?!’

But, I will then pull out this note, my pre-typed thoughts and beg you to accept it as proof that I did indeed think of you and our engagement anniversary prior to 15 minutes before our celebratory dinner. Yes, truthfully I’ve thought about you all week. Wishing we could wisk ourselves away for a quick weekend in WA state, eat at a favorite place, walk around the pier in Seattle, drive up north to Canada and eat at the restaurant where you first proposed, all of that.

We know that is all not easily done, and so we’re celebrating in Hong Kong for the first time and that is OK with me. In some ways I’d argue HK is more like Canada than WA, so perhaps we’re more on the mark in terms of recreating the atmosphere present when you asked me to marry you.

I remember the first time we’d gone to that restaurant. It was a month or two after we’d started dating. I remember after we’d finished eating, while walking to the car you’d asked me what to do when you feel like sharing something with someone though your not sure how they’ll respond. After asking a few qualifier questions which you couldn’t answer easily I replied with “well, you might as well say it--get it out.”

And so then and there you told me you loved me. Looking back I’m curious on what exactly illuminated those feelings for you that night. Was it seeing me rapidly consume a massive plate of pasta? I don’t think so.

I remember feeling a bit afraid when you first began the conversation. I guess I had a lil’ ego cuz I thought you were heading toward asking THE question. I felt the train that was our relationship moving very fast from the time we met and was nervous it’d keep speeding along. But alas your words were a simple, but important, ‘I Love You’ which I accepted without much fear.

Back to the marriage proposal. And so, based on the Canadian “I love you incident” you drove me back to share a much bigger declaration of love.

And here we are six years later still chugging along. As our wedding invitation said, “Love is a choice and a commitment” one which has been tested a time or two in our six years. But we’re still having fun despite the challenges. I love the fact that most often when vacationing we’re asked whether we’re honeymooning. How neat it is that though we are most definitely not newlyweds we appear to others as very much ‘into” each other.

You and I have had the luxury, especially in the past few months, of spending many nights and weekends together, just the two of us, casually cuddling while watching movies, hanging out, or whatever else we please, when we please. Those are my favorite times. You know from referencing the manual on maintaining me (J/k, bet you wish you had one) that I need my alone time here and there. But when I am not needing alone time there is no single individual I’d want to be with more. I love hangin’ out with you; we are very compatible when in that mode.

This year especially it’s astounded me how much alike our thoughts are. Many times we’ll be watching a movie, reading an article, choosing a restaurant, etc. and one of us will make a comment and the other says; “That’s JUST what I was thinking--exactly!

Well Nicke, thanks for another year of loving me. Thanks for all the times you’ve rubbed my back or washed my feet or given me what I wanted perhaps without anything in return. Thanks for truly liking me and wanting to be around me. Thanks for the spontaneous excitement you show over us and our relationship from time to time. Your comments to me do not go unnoticed and are always appreciated. Thanks for enjoying making me happy and all that you do to do so.

I enjoy you as well and as far as any other sentiments I feel toward you, well if you need this card and it’s contents to know what I think and feel then I haven’t done my job. I’ll quiz you over dinner on the top 10 things I like about you just to make sure you’re getting enough positive feedback from me!


With Love,




Beth Nordberg
Wife of Nicholas Nordberg
Former Fiancé of Nicholas Nordberg
Former Girlfriend of Nicholas Nordberg
Daytime Proposal Writer
Chief Cuddler, Nights and Weekends


*Approximate estimate, give or take a few dozen hours; just kidding. But seriously estimate is not guaranteed.

 

Krispy Kreme is here!...almost

Krispy Kreme opens tomorrow! For a fun and inspirational video click here

Thank goodness the donuts look 'normal' I was afraid they were going to confuse the donuts with those Chinese buns used in dim sum and stuff them with pork or something worse. And it doesn't look like there are any 'Bird's Nest surprise' donuts or glazed sharks fin donuts.

oh boy, now i'm never going to lose weight....good thing it's in causeway bay and somewhat out of the way!

Singapore Sling, Anyone?

On Tuesday Beth left for Singapore for a business trip. This is me seeing her off at the Airport Express station. It's a pretty cool concept. They have a station in the middle of downtown Hong Kong where you can check in to your airlines, get your boarding pass, check you bags, and then take an express train to the airport on Lamma Island.

That means I've had the past few days to myself. It was, in a word: boring...very boring. I know what you're thinking: you don't work anyways, so haven't you already figured out ways to keep occupied? Yeah, but it's a lot more boring knowing that at the end of the day I won't get to be with Beth. So, my days consisted pretty much of eating pizza and playing Super Mario Kart...I'm getting quite good, btw...I unlocked 2 more secret cars! I did, however, drag my butt to the gym every day, and the kitchen is now clean...so, I was somewhat productive.

Tomorrow (Friday) I leave in the morning for Singapore to join Beth for about 5 days while we explore Singapore and perhaps some of Malaysia and/or Indonesia, which are close by. We'll be sure to report back as soon as we return! 

Protests

One thing that is interesting about living Hong Kong is that it is both the major (actually only) city and the center of government for the entire country. It's like living in a combination of New York and Washington D.C. That means that if I'm in Central, near the government offices there are very often small protests occuring. Small as in 10-20 people. What has been frustrating is that the signs and protest chants are all in Chinese. Now, I'm not about to insist that they protest in English just for my benefit, but it would at least be nice to have the signs be bilingual so I can have an idea about what they are protesting. I like to be informed...maybe I'll joing them in their fight..but, first I have to know what the issue is.

However, just the other day, I can across the protestors above who where mostly African and protesting in English. They were protesting the fact that Hong Kong does not have an asylum policy. A little research into this showed that there are currently 1500 asylum seekers in Hong Kong, most of them from Africa or South Asia. More than 150 of them are being detained (i.e. in prison) or have to report weekly to the police.

So, thanks to protests in English, I'm now better informed!

Things that peeve me off: #4812

Online shopping:

Due to the inability to find certain things in Hong Kong and the high prices of that we can find...I've tried to turn to online shopping to get those hard to find items...mostly eBay and Amazon.com. The problem with Amazon is the only items they will ship overseas are books, cd's and dvd's...and those, of course, come with higher shipping costs because the goods are coming from the states. Oh...but, amazon.com is a smart, international company, you say...and yes, indeed they have several different regional sites, including China....well, guess what happens when you go to their China sites....it's only in Chinese! Doesn't really help me! Same thing with eBay's Hong Kong site. Now, I'm not trying to be insensitive and demand that everyone speak English for my benefit...I just think that amazon and eBay must not have fully thought out their internationalization plans here. These are American based companies...they could have easily created English translated pages for their regional sites. Heck, every web page I've been to for Hong Kong based companies have a little link for the English translated pages!

That's all...I'm done ranting now.