Christmas tree

I'll be leaving Hong Kong tomorrow... For the first time in my life, I'll spend my Christmas in a Muslim country.

Here's an interesting trivia, or something not very trivial (depending on your point of view) about Christmas tree.

Did you know that Christmas tree decorating and using the clippings of evergreen shrubs as decorations for Christmas has been a controversial practice at times in Western history? For instance, when the Roman Church decided in the fourth century that Christmas should be celebrated on December 25, some of the pagan celebrations of the Roman Saturnalia (celebrated at the same time of year) were carried over, such as feasting and exchanging gifts. But others were too controversial to carry over....

Using the clippings of evergreen shrubs from the landscape to decorate houses, a common practice during the December celebrations of Saturnalia, was strictly forbidden by the Church. The associations between decorating with evergreen shrubs and paganism were just too strong. Already in the early third century Tertullian had complained that too many fellow-Christians were falling into the Saturnalian rut by adorning their houses with lamps and with wreathes of laurel as Christmas decorations (Tertullian, "On Idolatry," XV).

But the controversy over Christmas tree decorating and using clippings of evergreen shrubs as Christmas decorations is not relegated to that remote epoch in history. In the sixteenth century John Calvin objected to observing the Christian calendar -- which includes Christmas and Easter -- because he felt such celebrations promoted irreligious frivolity. It was in this same century that Germany, by contrast, was establishing Christmas tree decorating as we know it today, launching the modern history of the Christmas tree. But in England the Puritans, influenced by Calvin, forbade the observance of Christmas (see "The Christian Calendar: A Complete Guide to the Seasons of the Christian Year," Cowie and Gummer). And it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century, at the instigation of Prince Albert, that Christmas tree decorating achieved its present status in England.

Dog eating

4 guys were imprisoned for killing dogs in order to eat them.

I don't eat dogs. I have to state this before you think I'm a dog killer.

This is just like a case of racial discrimination for animals, why you put people who kill dogs into prison, yet allow people to eat pigs, chickens, whatever..??

Yeah, yeah, yeah, dogs are the best friends of human... if you keep a fairly intelligent animal, and you treat them well, many of them will become the best friends of human...

If it's not some kind of animal discrimination, what is?? This is all human perception. It's really weird thing how such a concept- "dogs are the best friends of human", a very Western concept, turned into something so many people believe in...

Weather

Want to do some research on the weather of the place you're going in order to choose what sort of clothes you're gonna pack? (Yeah, exactly what I'm doing right now)

I found two interesting sites, you probably know all other sites like I do before like weather.com, yahoo, BBC, CNN...

This one showed you the "Realfeel" temperature. "The RealFeel Temperature is an index that describes what the temperature really feels like. It is a unique composite of the effects of temperature, wind, humidity, sunshine intensity, cloudiness, precipitation and elevation on the human body--everything that affects how warm or cold a person feels."

Sounds good? Check this site out. One of the best things about this site is that you can find weather of places that you can't find anywhere else... like the places I don't know how to pronounce in Morocco... haha!

This one has a great concept as well. Do I need a jacket? You can just type in the name of the place you're going and see if you need a jacket! However, the one who created this site must be very strong. From the weather in Hong Kong right now, his conclusion is that we DON'T need a jacket?!!!

New way to lose weight??

Maybe some day, we can take something like Yakult to lose weight...

Researchers found a strong connection between obesity and the levels of certain types of bacteria in the gut. That could mean that someday there will be novel new ways of treating obesity that go beyond the standard advice of diet and exercise.

According to two studies being published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, both obese mice and people had more of one type of bacteria and less of another kind.

Read the full article here.

My Itinerary

I'm going to work till 10pm on 23/12, then leave for airport at 7am on 24/12 (and be late, but I'm not going to arrive before 8am for a flight that leaves at 1105, why on earth did they set the assembly time so early??!!!)

Haha, this is my itinerary... as I said in the cbox... anyone needs anything from Paris, tell me...

24/12 Hong Kong- Casablanca
25/12 Casablanca-Rabat-Fes
26/12 Fes
27/12 Fes-Erfoud-Sahara
28/12 Erfoud- Ait Benddou- Ouarzazate
29/12 Ouarzazate- Marrakesh
30/12 Marrakesh-Casablanca
31/12 Casablanca- Paris- Hong Kong
1/1 Back to Hong Kong!!

Lois & Clark

I finally got all 4 seasons of Lois & Clark in DVDs!!! Unfortunately, the 3rd and 4th season did not have English subtitles... (I bought the US edition, coz it's cheaper) I can practically remember every word in every episode (hey I watched most of the episodes numerous times and checked every fan site and subscribe to discussion lists... I was crazy. I know.), there's no problem in understanding the words, but it'll be good to have English subtitles... anyway...

When I was in secondary school, I fell in love with this TV series. The most amazing thing about the series was how it dealt with a superhero as a normal person.

Superman was no longer a just super hero who is perfect in every way, no problem of his own, other than Kryptonite. He got to deal with his inability to save everyone, lawsuits, not being normal and trying to fit in, etc... And Lois was no longer a "vase", not just Superman's girlfriend. She had her own character, attitude and story.

It doesn't hurt that Dean Cain is SO gorgeous!!

I was so disappointed when the show was cut after the 4th season... It's one of the best TV shows I've ever seen.

Now I can finally throw away all those video tapes that's got mould on them...

Incubus Dreams

Writers tend to have a tendency to write better and better and then worse and worse. She is not the first writer I have come to like that ever has done that. Incubus Dreams is so awful that I stopped at page 180 to rant about it now.

Laurell K. Hamilton used to be one of my favourite writers. I don't particularly like vampire stuff, but I have devoured every book in her Anita Blake series. Everything on vampires, zombies, werewolves... Until Incubus Dreams.

Anita was a necromancer who had fallen in love with a vampire and a werewolf but struggled with her faith on her job and relationships. Great plot in all the books.

Now LKH is just inventing excuses to feed Anita's ardeur... (she feeds with sex, sigh, sounds like the plot of cheap bad porn...) with every monster in sight... what happened?? It's so boring... page after page of boring sex... If she doesn't know how to write them, stop writing!!

I can't even recommend her earlier books now, because if ANYone by ANY chance has come to love the books like me (and thousands of people in the world), he/she will be disappointed later... Just take a look at the reviews at Amazon.com... you'll know how unhappy her fans are...
sigh...

'Jailhouse Lawyer' Lectures Harvard Law Students

What good can a prisoner do? Study hard in prison and find a good job and help others after getting out of prison?? What if you have a life sentence with no chance of parole? Wallow in hopelessness?

Not this prisoner... He will be staying in the prison for the rest of his life. Yet he's teaching Harvard Law School through a speaker phone, trying to do what he can to change the future lawyers. All because he got an unfair sentence with the "help" of an overworked attorney.

"O'Bryant was determined to change those odds. He taught himself the law and is now teaching law students a lesson that can't be found in any textbook.

"We have to deal for the rest of our lives with what happens in that courtroom," he says. "And it's very important that they do what they can."

"He's reminded us of how important it is to really provide adequate meaningful counsel for those who are unable to obtain it," says Harvard Law student Lauren Smith, who's class has been lectured by O'Bryant.

O'Bryant's presence at Harvard has transformed the career goals of many students.

"They're giving up Wall Street, high salaries and all sorts of professional prestige and praise, to make sure that what happened to Chris O'Bryant does not happen on their watch," says Ogletree, the students' professor.

"I think it's something my career in the law is going to be focused on, is trying to find ways to give people a voice that don't have voices," adds Farbman, the review editor.

O'Bryant taught himself the law, filing handwritten appeals from behind prison walls. When his efforts failed, he focused his attention on helping fellow inmates appeal their own cases.""

Read the whole story here.

New Camera again

P1000056
Originally uploaded by amyhsk.

This is taken on the MTR with high ISO. Before I bought the camera, everyone says Panasonic cameras do really bad job at high ISO settings... not really good, but not very bad...

I found this great site about travel photography. If you're interested in travelling and photo taking, take a look, loads of very useful information!!

New Camera

P1000050
Originally uploaded by amyhsk.

I tried my camera out on the mini-bus and MTR on my way home... looks really stupid taking photos, so I took pics of the street. I tried out lots of function, hopefully I'll be more familiar with the camera function before I start my trip in a few days' time...

Digital Camera! Finally!

I finally got my new DC from my friend!

Panasonic LX-2!! If you want to know more about it, click here. Black one, look so pro.

I'll put up some photos here later after I try it out. haha!

Man of the Year

Who's man of the year? Me! You don't believe me? Check this out. Maybe I should say "us"... hehe... It's person of the year, to be exact... Americans are really obsessed with being politically correct...

A baby who had only lived for 9 days...

For those of you who still haven't heard the story, this is from the Standard. Her story is a testimony of how God worked through the tiny little baby who was born with a congenital defect. And how God used the weak instead of the strong. A very touching story.

"She was tiny. Yet her nine days have not only imprinted marks of love on her parents but also awakened calls from thousands who have closely followed her story online.

Ko Lam-lam was born with a defective diaphragm and her parents knew about it when she was still in her mother's womb.

Her parents refused to follow the advice of doctors that she be aborted, insisting Lam-lam be given a chance, however small, it might be for she was their most precious gift from God.

Her father Ko Cheen-pang and mother Man-ki are Christians.

"We'll never regret that we had been together for only nine days," her parents told The Standard's sister newspaper, Sing Tao Daily. The couple also created a blog to store the "precious moments" they had with their little one.

Since the blog was created two months ago, more than 13,000 browsers have read Lam-lam's touching story.

Recently, the parents added a message to the blog dedicated to their daughter: "If there's ever a day God would ask us to choose between Lam-lam having never appeared before us at all or there being only nine days of union, we'll definitely answer `nine days."'

The story began on October 7, 2006.

Immediately after her birth, Lam- lam was placed in the intensive care unit only to be connected to breathing machines. She was quiet and inactive, without the cries which make parents rejoice. Doctors confirmed there was a hole in her diaphragm.

"Every time we heard the machine beep, we got uptight," Ko Cheen-pang said. The tiny girl passed her first day without a drop of her mother's milk.

The next day her parents were allowed to enter the intensive care unit to remain at her bedside, touching her soft skin and whispering to her. She opened her eyes, looking curiously at her parents for the first time.

"At that moment we, the family of three, were together," wrote the Ko couple.

Lam-lam showed more signs of life on day three. She was active and showed her tongue naughtily.

On day four, her limbs moved as she half-opened her eyes to look at her parents. Nurses brought her to another floor for a medical check.

It was the first time she left the intensive care unit.

As her parents began to believe their daughter was making good progress, a shock hit them again.

"Doctors said it was time for the surgery. They explained the worst-case scenario. We were very anxious. Our eyes were swollen with tears."

The doctors were about to operate on the stomach and extend the intestine to the lower end. This was a major operation for an infant who was only four days old.

Her parents waited anxiously outside the operation theater, hoping doctors would come out of the room with good news.

But the surgery failed and doctors suggested removing the breathing machine to end the girl's suffering.

Lam-lam was then baptized and blessed by many of her relatives.

On day seven, the doctors again asked the Ko couple the same question and the parents pleaded with them not to give up.

"It'll be very difficult. The chance of infection would be very high," said doctors.

Lam-lam's conditions worsened the next day. "Hold on if you want to see your dad and mum for one more minute. If you can't, let go and need not worry about your parents," the couple wrote. On October 15, her parents placed toys and clothes beside Lam-lam, made a print of her palm and changed her clothes. That night, she passed away."

Team Hoyt

Someone forwarded this remarkable story to me about a father and his son.

"Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick. "

Read the whole story here.

Watch the video on youtube here.

Horrible experience in getting my hair cut

You'd think I'm afraid to look at the mirror right now from the title?

You're wrong!

Yesterday, I had to work at 1pm, but I wanted to get a haircut in the morning. I don't want to spend time going to the hair salon I usually visit. There're a few "salons" near the building where I live, I had been there a few times long time ago, and I had the memory that they're ok.

SO I decided to go into one of those "salons"...

The glass door was covered, so I could not see the inside. When I opened the door and entered, I realised I had made a huge mistake... by then, the barber (he's more like a barber than a "hairstylist") was already telling me to sit down...

The more I looked around using the huge mirror in front of me, the more I wanted to go, but he was already preparing me for my haircut...

So what's so horrible there?

It's VERY dirty... no dust covering everything, no spiderweb, not THAT dirty, but still you could see dirt, and I expected the place to be clean...

I washed my hair immediately after going to home... I'll never enter that shop AGAIN!

Not the first time...

I just remembered today, yesterday's election wasn't not the first one I missed. I also missed the Christianity subsector poll last month.

Because I am eligible for voting in two different subsectors, I got the chance to compare the two, though I did not vote in either.

In my own professional subsector, I received various ads from different candidates. Most of them concentrate on the development and changes in my own profession (sometimes just a list of the positions they held in various organisations), rather than Hong Kong as a whole(which is to be expected in a subsector election, but frankly rather disappointing for me as a voter). There're slight differences but most of them are similar... Better pay, better hours...

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I don't believe ANY substantial changes can be made despite what the future CE may say during the elections... (The only way to get things done in the government, sadly, is to garner enough public support through the media. They never do things before that. Only after everyone is blaming the government for a certain problem, then and only then, they'll TRY to do something.)

Anyway, after reading through the ads, I still have no idea politically where they stand. I did read an ad on a newspaper yesterday with a list of pro-democrats in the various sectors. If I didn't read that, I would NOT have any idea whatsoever.

For the Christian sector, it's even worse. I never EVEN knew who was running. I just watched a TV documentary on this election a couple of hours ago, actually one of my university classmates (who's from a big church across the Island) ran in the election! He lost. All the 5 of his teammates lost. (They're all pro-democrats.) I did know a deacon from my church was also in the election. That's about it.

I know of some of the churches are more politically involved. In contrast to my own church that insists on separation of church and state. (I have no objection to this, don't take me wrong. See my views on this here.) I need a lot more information, and it's sadly lacking...

Overall, I'm happy with the result that Alan Leong got a chance to run for the CE next year. Not so happy about the whole election thing. (My views for democracy has changed quite a bit in the past couple of years, that's another long topic of discussion though... I'm going to stop here.)

Voting

This week is the voting week. With the mayor election in Taiwan yesterday and the Election Committee Poll in Hong Kong today. For the whole week, news seemed to be all about elections.

I have always wanted to vote ever since I was a kid. I completed the voter's registration form myself a few days after my 18th birthday. (There was no upcoming elections at that time and hence no promotional campaign to get people registered. I just picked up the form myself!)

And I've NEVER missed voting UNTIL TODAY!

Last week, someone (who knew some of the candidates) reminded me to go and vote today, AS IF I need ANY reminder. I told him, "I can't go. I have to be on call from 8:30am (for 24 hours for anyone who doesn't know), and the polling centre is too far away from my home, and it opens at 7:30am, how can I vote? I didn't even bother to think whom I would choose from the list."

NOT THAT it makes any difference, Donald Tsang will still be the next Chief Executive. The government policies in our sector is not gonna be much different, no matter who becomes the chief executive. He's just going to give some empty or vague promises. I'd really like Alan Leong to get a chance to participate in the race though.

Chinese...

Last time I went to Hangzhou, a very friendly local woman introduced us to various sights around when we met on a bus. She asked us if we were from Shanghai. We smiled and said, "No, we're from Hong Kong." I can understand that. Honestly we don't look that different from people who lived in Shanghai. We do look VERY different from people in Hangzhou, so I can understand why people mistook us for Shanghaiers.

The same thing happened today, but I'm VERY mad... I was shopping in a boutique, a saleswoman talked to me in PUTONGHUA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe that? Initially, I thought she was some new imigrant working in the shop, or I mistook some tourist from mainland as salesperson...

She repeated the question in Putonghua again...

Then when I looked extremely puzzled, she changed back to Cantonese...

Needless to say, I did NOT buy ANYTHING from that shop...

Progress Notes (9/12)

I was better today than I had expected... considering that I had woken up TWICE last night, and coughed non-stop for ONE hour each time before falling asleep again...

This morning, someone gave me some codeine tablets, a bit drowsy as expected, but the coughing seemed to improve, no control here, I do think it's the drug, coz my coughing got worse a few hours afterwards after its effect wore off...

Thank God, I still had my voice for the fellowship meeting this afternoon, albeit a weird one... I was talking to a friend of mine (who is also recovering from a cold), her husband said it was as if two MEN were talking...

Bored...

Whenever people learnt that I'm the only child in the family, they usually asked me if I was bored with no brothers and sisters. The truth is I never get bored at home. I know the word bored, when I'm at school, not being able to talk, not being able to read books secretly, THEN I'm bored.

When I was a kid, I read, and watch TV and play games with myself. I never remembered a time when I couldn't read. My mom said she couldn't remember it either. I've been reading like forever... In short, I'm NEVER bored at home.

Yet today I'm bored. I wanted to read, yet got so tired when I started reading... I wanted to surf on the web, nothing interesting on the web... My survey questionnaires are finally all back, yet I'm so tired that I can't face the task of entering data...

Just typing this makes my head ache...

Yet I can't sleep as I'm coughing non-stop... I tried to go to sleep but abandoned my attempt in 20 mins... When is this going to end?

My voice...

I'm losing my voice... and I'm on call on Sunday, it'll be really cheap to get sick leave when you're on call unless you're dying or something...

And tomorrow I'm responsible for the fellowship meeting...

sigh...

Everyone asked me whether I need to go home and rest today...

Don't call me unless absolutely necessary, I don't want to say anything... and I want to stop coughing...

I woke yo before 5 am this morning because of the coughing...

Progress

I'm still sick... no longer feverish, no more muscle pain... coughing more and more though... maybe I'll lose my voice tomorrow...

How to plan for travelling overseas for dummies with a low budget? (Part 5)

For me, the most difficult part of travelling without a tour group is getting from place to place in somewhere without metro...

The problem for me is I don't know how to drive. Honestly, if I knew how to drive, renting a car would be expensive for me.

My solution is to join local day tours or local tours.

I strongly recommend this company if you're ever thinking about going to Ireland-- Shamrocker. I went to Newgrange from Dublin on this company's tour.

You can find a lot of day tours from this site as well-- Viator.com. For different countries in the whole world. I joined a tour from this site last time I went to Spain. I didn't like the tour though it was a cheap way to travel around. It was cheaper than train tickets. However, the tour was conducted in all sorts of different languages...

We got on the tour bus, then the guide started to speak in some sort of language I don't understand... then after a while, I raised my hand and said, "Sorry, but I don't speak Spanish!"

The man started to mumble something about he had already asked us before whether we understood him or not... Luckily, some guy from the States was sitting next to us, he said he did not hear him asking us anything in ENGLISH!

well... that day continued with everything explained in 3 or 4 different languages, the last one being English, so very boring day...

How to plan for travelling overseas for dummies with a low budget? (Part 4b)

After I finished part 4 on food, I recalled one more way I used to save on food during my first Europe trip.

There was this place in ?Milan (I couldn't remember clearly) with no self-catering facilities. One of my friends brought a mini electric water kettle. We bought some lettuce, and we cooked the lettuce in the water kettle that could only hold like one cup of water at a time... We spent more than 2 hours cooking the vegetables for 4 people...

Now you know why I spent less than HK$20000 on a 35 day Europe trip. Impressive, huh?

Getting sicker and sicker...

I think I most probably don't have a fever... but I feel feverish. Why do I need to be sick now? Why not one week later? I'm attending this course this week on study leave, which I have paid for. If I get sick next week, I can get sick leave...

Really difficult to concentrate when I'm sick...

Flu...

Yesterday it was just allergic rhinitis...

Now the runny nose seemed to turn into flu... I've got sore throat as well...

Digital Camera shopping

No, I still haven't bought the DC I wanted! I just want to vent my anger here!!!

I went to buy a DC for the professor who came to Hong Kong all the way from Australia to teach us in a revision course. We've decided on Canon IXUS 850IS. Great function, I would have chosen this one if I wanted an automatic camera. =P However, I wanted a manual one... (btw, for those who've been reading about my DC hunting story, Panasonic just dropped the price of LX 2 to 3990!!!)

However, both Broadway AND Fortress ran out of all their stock!!!

The two biggest electrical & electronic products stores in Hong Kong!

Then, what could I do? I went to another shop I've never bought anything from before CITICALL!! Why all the !!!? I need to warn all of you about the shop.

When I asked them, they told me the gifts they offered were exactly like the other two companies. I decided to buy it in case all the camera will be sold by tomorrow...

Then I realised the gifts are much worse!!!

Fortress offered high speed 1GB SD card, Broadway offered 2GB Toshiba SD card (at a slightly higher price or 1GB at a lower price). I didn't ask about the battery, but I was given a battery (not Canon one obviously) that looked horrible... like it's going to explode later...

And I asked if I could get the camera cheaper without the gifts. The salesperson said the price was fixed! (Broadway told me they could give me a further discount without the accessories...)

A HORRIBLE SHOPPPING EXPERIENCE! I would have waited for the camera from Broadway or Fortress if I were buying for myself. Unfortunately, I needed it THIS WEEK!!!

Remember, NEVER buy from CITICALL!!!!!!!!

The Day After Tomorrow

Most of the people who have got to know me for some time knew how environmentally conscious I am. I try to recycle everything I can. Not use air-con/walk as far as possible (I admit these are also for saving money, but hey, this is killing two birds with one stone.)

I just watched The Day After Tomorrow. The movie is entertaining, no matter how implausible the story is. Just wondering if the theory of melting icecaps disturbing ocean currents are really true. Probably no as fast as that, but may be possible??

My mom said movies were all lies and just lies. I said these movie makers created this just to tell us to protect our environment (and get a lot of $ out of it) .

I hated George W. Bush from withdrawing from the Kyoto treaty. Such short-sightedness. The vice president in this story is obviously him...

The math nerd is kinda cute too... haha!!

How to plan for travelling overseas for dummies with a low budget? (Part 4)

You want to travel on a budget, what can you do?

You can save by walking for short distances. You can save by buying cheaper plane tickets. You can live in hostels or sleep in train stations. (I tried it once... that's NOT an experience I'll ever want to repeat...)

You probably can't save on admission fees (unless you're a student with and ISIC card), if you don't go and visit places, why do you bother to travel?

For Europe travel, the thing you can save most on is food. (For China travel, the only thing you need to do about food is choose one that's reasonably clean, most of the are cheap.)

Food is extremely expensive in Europe. A reasonable dinner costs like 5-6x that of a similar one in Hong Kong...

Ways to save on food (I have tried them before, so they're feasible, don't think I'm kidding)
1. Get as many loaves of bread you dare at your free breakfast from your B & B or hostel or hotel (if you're living in a hotel, I don't think you need to do this), and then you can eat them for lunch or even dinner if you get enough and can STILL stand bread... This is how I developed bread phobia from my first Europe trip...

2. Cook your dinner AND your lunch... Many hostels have self-catering facilities. Many people will cook their own dinner to save money. I cooked twice as much spaghetti I need at night and save some of them for lunch, treat them as cool noodles, you'll feel fine... they're much better than bread... but it costs extra $. You may look like an idiot when you sit somewhere in the street/park/stairs/wherever you are, take out your lunch box, and eat...

3. If you've got friends overseas, you can visit them. They may treat you for your dinner/lunch... but whether you'll be friends with them after these free food, hmm...

4. If you get embarrassed easily and refused to do 1-3, you can go visit supermarket daily and buy food that are on sale...

What can I say? I don't care about food. If you like eating... then save more before you go on a trip!

How to plan for travelling overseas for dummies with a low budget? (Part 3)

Outside the Hostal
Originally uploaded by amyhsk.

Continue on my story about the hostal in Seville...

We went to Seville by a night train from Barcelona. When we arrived, it's daytime. We got off the bus at Plaza Encarnacion, walked across the street and arrived at our really beautiful hostal. It was situated just at the edge of a maze of fascinating alleys... great Spanish style, haha, well, as I know you're not exactly dummies, so you probably can guess what happen later.

We took care to get back to the place before it got real dark, but we needed to buy our breakfast and some water from the supermarket. The problem starts when we were going back to the hostal from the supermarket.

I didn't joke when I said it was a maze of alleys.

The alleys were so narrow, that they could barely fit a car. And you could see motorcyclists speeding through the alleys and drunkards holding beer bottles... you get the idea...

The worst thing was we got lost. The map was almost of no use inside the maze...

We were even more scared when someone noticed that we got lost and actually spoke to us in English!! We pretended that we didn't understand and ran like hell. Maybe that guy is really trying to help us, haha!!

To end the long story, I didn't regret choosing that place, coz it's really a beautiful place. I hated that map though. All the "streets" looked like streets on the map, when they're actually alleys with no street lamps.

Maybe you'll be surprised that I didn't know this... Hey, I'm from Hong Kong- a city that never sleeps!

continue next time...

Abstinence message goes beyond teens

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it's a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.

Abstinence can be a good thing, but they THINK they can actually do this in the US??!!

"I think the program should talk about the problem with out-of- wedlock childbearing — not about your sex life," Brown says. "If you use contraception effectively and consistently, you will not be in the pool of out-of-wedlock births."

As for these people who opposes the program, seriously, you think contraception is 100% effective??!! What did they do with sex education?

Read the whole thing here...

Unexpected comment...

Ever since I was a kid, I got comments like "independent" from people.

Today, someone actually told me he found me not confident enough and tends to seek advice too much... Really??

Then I asked him for examples, he couldn't think of any, said it was an overall impression.

Really wanted to know what I did to make such an impression. I always thought I'd be perceived over-confident rather than the opposite... hmm...

Very surprised by this...