Off again!

Last 2 days
I left the office on Tuesday after working quite hard, saying "see you in 2 weeks" to people, explaining my trip, discussing our future at Reuters. Went to Waterloo straight away to watch the England Sweden game with SL, HY and CF. Can't believe England still can't beat Sweden after 40+ years. Sol Campbell is really too old for this level. Even Dawson might be able to clear that cross with ease!

Parents arrived in London this morning. Met them at relative's house and went to yum cha. We went to do something which I should've done 9 years ago: pick strawberries from a farm. The weather was quite good and we got loads of strawberries, some cabbage and spinach for dinner as well!

Iberian Peninsular
We are heading off to Spain and Portugal tomorrow morning. The flight to Seville takes off at 6:15am, which means we'll have to leave home at 4am. Hopefully we'll still be fit enough to play for a day.

It's my second trip in a month. But this time I don't have tour guide, will have to find places of interest by myself and figure out the transport. Fingers crossed!

New company

Haven't blogged for 5 days, mainly due to tight schedule of World Cup matches, and abnormally high consumption of alcohol. Have been drinking almost everyday since the World Cup started, and spending a lot.. Oh man!

Job
Last Friday, all of us went to Reuters London head office in Canary Wharf for a presentation and welcome drinks. Their office is very impressive, and it was good experience to have a tour in their News Room, one of the largest in Europe. After a few hours in their office, I would love to work with them.

Yesterday I arranged a meeting with an HR consultant talking about my situation. She also offered me the new contract (she is going to do it with everyone anyway). Ha, it's a laugh. It's good for me because I don't have a dilemma to worry about. I will be happy to come home. Though of course it will still be wonderful if they can find me a job in HK! Have to wait a bit longer for that.

Friend + football
Another total football weekend. Watched almost all 6 matches in full. The best one so far is definitely the Brazil Australia match. CF has come to London and we went to a bar in Holborn to watch it. It was filled up by people in Brazilian shirts, and they could sing the Brazilian anthem! They were proper Brazilian fans, and the atmosphere made the otherwise plain match extraordinary.

Then for yesterday Spain match, we (CF + SL + me) went to an African bar in Covent Garden, where there was a group of Spanish fans occupying the basement. They warmly invited us to join them and their reaction to the equaliser and subsequent goals again made the match 30 times better.

Hopefully we will get something even better for tonight's England match!

Well done Beckham

England 2 - 0 Trinadad and Tobago
We missed the first 20 minutes of the match today because people in the office were trying to set up a TV tuner for a laptop, but couldn't find the channel. So only went down to a pub nearby half way through the 1st half.

The match is quite exciting, because everyone was supporting England and we shouted for every chance / half chance. They deservedly won it, but with a bit of luck I think. T &T did well enough to give them a draw, only on another day.

For me Beckham really showed his hunger for the World Cup, and he played reasonably well. Of course others like Gerrard and Terry performed really good as well.

First week after acquisition
Nothing much has changed yet, still in casual wear, still have company sponsored football, still working as before. Tomorrow we're all going to Reuters London head office in Canary Wharf for a tour and introduction. Excited about it. And of course, finger crossed that they are going to relocate me to Asia!

Snooker
I can feel myself more confident on pots compared to few months ago. Though still 6-8 behind to KC. Need to practice more with side spins.

News of the year!

See Reuters buys risk software firm for $41 mln

From today (12 June 2006), Application Networks Inc. ceases to exist and I am an employee of Reuters Group Plc..

Welcome pack, including a mouse pad, a T-shirt and a photo album!
Things

England kick off!

World Cup starts today for England. So far so good, 1-0 up against Paraguay. But come on guys, keep the possession please! You're not gonna win the World Cup like this!

Updated the photos in Boston. Please revisit the entry before last.

News of the day - World Cup!!!

What's bigger than the World Cup??!??!?! Kicking off at 1700 BST today with host Germany playing Costa Rica. From my office's sweepstake, I've got Trinidad and Tobago, and France. But I'll still support England in Group B!

Another piece of interesting news: here

More news to come!

Rest of the US Trip

Have been very busy to detail the rest of the trip, which was more relaxing than the parts I've posted pictures. So am justing giving the itinerary if anybody is interested (at all).

Day 4
Woke up quite late around 11am. Checked out the room and went to a town in Queens called Flushing for brunch. It's a newer China Town (the old one is in Canal St, Manhattan) with lots and lots of Chinese shops and restaurants. We went to a restaurant called "Nam Buk Wo", meaning something like "South and North meet". The food was excellent, with beef roll, fried dumpling etc.

Then Jay and I headed to MET to fulfill our unfinished business. It's a huge museum with a lot of Art and historical exhibits. Unfortunately the history of Musical instruments was closed for unknown reason, Jay was deeply disappointed by that.

We then spent about an hour in the middle of Manhattan where there are a couple of big guitar shops. Generally things are half price in NYC compared to London, damn!

China Town in Flushing (Queens), 3 pictures inside the MET and smoke from the Subway

After buying a incredibly nice and cheap "Cha Ngap Fan", we caught our coach back to Boston.

Day 5
A nice day out in Boston city. We started with lunch at Quincy Markets. Then we walked to the famous Boston Harbour (made its name with the Boston Tea Party, which triggered the American Revolution, see here). Got on a ferry tour around both of the inner and outer harbour.

After the 90 mins trip, we ported and walked all the way through State Street, Boston Common, had a break at a Starbuck's (the only Starbuck's break throughout the whole trip!), and did some shopping too. Finished the night with some homemade (made by Jay the man) tuna mayo sandwiches.

Glass towers near Government Center, Quincy Markets, Boston Harbor, Boston skyline from ferry, planes, Dick's (where we lunched)

Boston Common, The New England, Nike Town, ducks in a pond

Inside a shop in Neal's St., Starbuck's, evening near Prudential tower, inside Puma shop

Jack Daniel's barbecue sauce in Shaw's, homemade tune-mayo sandwiches, Jay's synthesizer, the man on double-bass, his electric bass collection

Day 6
Caught the T (equivalent to MTR, Tube or Subway) to Harvard. I chose this instead of MIT. It's not as normal/ugly as I expected from people's comments about it. The area is quite nice for studying. We wanted to have lunch nearby but Jay the man led us to the opposite direction, and reached the wrong T station after a long walk. So decided to take a bus back to centre for lunch. Had a chowder in bread bowl with homemade lemonade, NICE!

Highlight of the day was definitely the lobster dinner. Even though we waited for about 40 mins for our table, it was in the end very much worth it. The lobster was served in whole and steamed, excellent in terms of both texture and taste, and it was a treat from the man.

Tried to do some music at Jay's place, but really tired to do much.

(left to right, top down)Harvard, Harvard, lobster, Harvard, lawn mower that drifts in Harvard, Harvard Police, Boston, Oxford St in Harvard, Heathrow, vocal recording in Jay's

Day 7
Last day of this trip. Spent 4 hours on the song (I hardly did anything actually, Jay was way too good to let me do anything), before going to the airport. Don't know when Jay and I will see each other again after this trip. Hopefully we'll meet again somewhere in Asia soon.

Couldn't sleep throughout the whole flight, but read a lot. Arrived home at about 9:30am the next day. Slept until 6pm, which resulted in terrible jet-lag.



That's the end of the US Trip 2006. Look forward to the next one - Spain + Portugal in 2 weeks time!

PS: will publish photos if can be bothered.

Trip to the States - Day 3

The excellent weather carried on on my third day in the USA.

10:30 United Nations, New York
The first thing after we woke up on our 2nd day in New York, was to go to the United Nations head quarter on the 1st Avenue. We had the guided tour, which brought us into many conference rooms inside the building, and gave some history of UN and its role in the current world. There was also a photo exhibition in its lobby, in which you can find some astonishing pictures about natural disasters, wars, poverty etc.

From top left, clockwise: the UN main building behind bars, a picture donated by the Guggenheim inside, a piece of pottery melted by the nuclear bomb dropped on Japan in 1945, two sculptures found in the UN.

15:00 Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is one of the 4 main districts of New York (as far as I know, others are Manhattan, Queens and Bronx). It's a very nice residential area. WJ brought us there by subway. We bought some sandwiches and sat by the river side to enjoy the view of Manhattan skyline across the river.

Manhattan skyline, walkway by the river, a boy, first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty

17:00 Wall Street, New York
We went back to Manhattan after lunch. First stop was Wall Street, the financial centre. There we saw some influential buildings. After we took the Staten Island Ferry (free) to Staten Island. Well, the point was not Staten Island. On the way to the island, this ferry goes by the Statue of Liberty, so that we could get a closer look to this landmark, as well as enjoying a nice ferry trip. Therefore, we only stayed on the island for about 2 mins, as we took the same boat back!

New York Stock Exchange (with a enormous flag), Statue of Liberty, people rushing to the ferry, Manhattan skyline

We visited the site where the World Trade centres (Twin Towers) used to be. It was sad, of course. I couldn't imagine that the streets near there were full of bodies, officers, people screaming, dust from the collapsed building...

After, I insisted to take a yellow cabbie to Central Park to meet Jay's friends. We met up at the Apple store. Its entrance is a glass house outside a skyscraper. As WJ quoted, how can you make it classy but cheap?

We met up and go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. They do excellent grill. The dinner was really nice, with beer, nice chats and good food. We finished our evening at a very famous Jazz club called Blue Note. It was definitely the best live Jazz performance I've ever seen, even though I was asleep for a bit becuase of jet-lag.

The famous bull near Wall Street, closed American Stock Exchange, me in the Blue Note Jazz club, Apple store, World Trade Centre site.