Gain tae Scootlund!

Awrite wee jimmies an' burds. Aam gonnae Auld Reekie ower th' weekend an' willnae be back until monanday. See ye 'en!

114 - Sans, Saints and Ports

 There's a game that I've played around seventy times - and the challenge of the game lies in naming all the countries you possibly can. For me, it no longer is about the number of countries I manage to get, but a race against the clock to try and beat my own record of guessing all 195 nations correctly in 4 minutes and 8 seconds. (If you'd like to try, here's a link.)

This winter holiday, I decided to take advantage of the extra time I have and learn all 195 capitals. (Again, if you'd like to try, a link) I only have around 15 African capitals left to memorize, and then I will have them all down. I am surprised at the number of countries that have a capital city beginning with 'B'. (Just to illustrate: Baghdad, Baku, Bamako, Bandar Seri Begawan, Bangkok, Bangui, Banjul, Basseterre, Beijing, Beirut, Belfast, Belgrade, Belmopan, Berlin, Bishkek, Bissau, Bogotá, Brasília, Bratislava, Brazzaville, Bridgetown, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Bujumbura.) It annoys me greatly, as you can imagine.

My next venture will be to study a great number of the islands, rivers, lakes, seas, bays, streams, gorges, dams, volcanoes, mountain ranges, deserts, forests and rainforests in the world, then to memorize the three largest metropolitan cities of each and every country, then to familiarize myself with all the UNESCO sites around the world, and finally, to know the detailed geography of a handful of countries like the back of my hand, possibly just the G8, perhaps the G8+5, perchance the G20, maybe the G77 - Hell, maybe all of them.

Why do I want to do this?

I don't know. This is just one of those things that people do for no reason because it makes them feel good. Who knows whether one day this might come in handy on an everyday basis, or whether I will never implement this knowledge before the day I die.

Who cares?

It's fun to me.

42 - Pictures from my trip to Sichuan, China.

So I promised I would post pictures from my trip to Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou Valley. They're places in a province of China called Sichuan, the province in which last year's Sichuan Great Earthquake took place.

Behold, the photos. I tried to select the best out of thousands, so enjoy?

A statue outside a monastery that has different parts from all twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. I was born in the year of the Sheep, so I'm touching the goat's beard for good luck.


Remember the post on bad translations of Chinese food on my other blog? Well, through this gate was the street that sold all that food.

The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.

Four of them all battling for bamboo.

Red panda, lucky shot of this one standing.

Jiazhaikou Valley, famous for its spectacular scenery comprising rivers, waterfalls and lakes. We had to take another plane from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou in order to get here. In this photo, I was a little... cold. It doesn't look cold from the photo, but it really was.

Those colors are unreal, man. 熊猫海, Xiong mao hai, "Panda Lake".

Pretty waterfall.

My mom and I at another waterfall.

My mother reckons her photography skills are awesome because it's artistic. What's artistic, apparently, is the tree that's in the way. To me, that defies all logic.

Pretty tree.

Really blue lake.

Blue and green hues of 草海, chao hai, "Grass Lake".

五花海, wu hua hai, "Five Flower Lake".

Side-view of 诺日朗瀑布, nuo ri lang pu bu, "Nuorilang Waterfall".

I'm just trying something...

Still Nuorilang Waterfall. This is hilarious because we were trying out the widescreen function. In case you still haven't found me, I'm in the bottom-right corner.

We flew back to Chengdu and this was taken in the bathroom of the Chengdu airport.

My mother likes taking photos of my slavery as I retrieve our suitcases at baggage claim.

Have you ever stayed in a honeymoon suite with your mother because the hotel couldn't place you anywhere else? This is the consequence: a view of the shower from your bed, with the curtain on the outside of the bathroom. Weird.

Mount Emei, 3099 metres above sea level. The only food they sold there were sausages. Who doesn't like sausages?

Cold.

Everything with a thin layer of snow.



My mother disturbing me in my sleep on the way down the mountain.

Leshan Giant Buddha, viewed from a darn boat. This was what I wanted to see from the very beginning, but the boat we got didn't stop to let us get off and actually walk around and up next to the buddha. But anyway, it's 71 metres tall and the Buddha-in-a-wall to see in one's lifetime.

On the flight back to Hong Kong.

Pretty clouds.

33 - More Chinglish.

(Click to enlarge the images, people.)

Cuiture?

This small error is like a stake in my heart.

It is made worse because the mistakes are mass-produced.

Lifec ycle of si lk wrom. :D




Not-recyclable. The hyphen is not right.
What is more amusing is the symbol underneath. I did not know there was a symbol for the opposite of recycling.

lol.

Courageous use of the semi-colon.


It's so civilized, indeed.

How do omnivores usually throw away their rubbish?

Alright. I'll climb over the fence.


This made me feel so clever.