Kínai Újév / Chinese New Year

Kedves Mindenki! Dear Everyone,

Hosszú idő telt el, mióta utoljára komolyabb frissítés történt volna a blogon, persze gyűjtjük az anyagokat és a fejemben sokszor meg is születik egy egy bejegyzés vázlata, csak a megvalósítással van mindig a gond. Most is sietve kell dolgozni, mert orvoshoz kell mennem a vízumhoz szükséges egészségügyi felmerés végett.

It’s been quite a long time since we last added anything to our blog, of course it does not mean that we don’t collect materials, sometimes I even have the draft of the next entry, it is just hard to find enough time to write it down. For instance now, I again need to hurry things up as I have an appointment at the Manhattan clinic for medical check-up. (for my visa)

Az első, ami időben még friss élmény, mert hat még tartozunk a decemberi Malajziai beszámolóval is, az a kínai újév!!! Most, ahogy már korábban mondtuk is, a bika éve jött el, pontosan nem tudom a jó és rossz oldalát ezen évnek, de annyi baj legyen.

The first, still lively experience is the Chinese New Year, as we still owe you the summery of the Malaysian trip from December : ). As we mentioned it earlier, this year is the year of the ox, I am not quite sure about all the advantages and disadvantages of this animal, but it is not a problem now.

Vasárnap estére esett e jeles ünnep 25-e. Egyik igen kedves barátunkhoz voltunk hivatalosak, Laura az ausztrál lányhoz. (Sajnos ma este is hozzá megyünk, mert a búcsú vacsorája less, holnap ugyanis hazaköltözik)

The New Year was on last Sunday, the 25^th January; we were invited to one of our very good friend’s place for the evening. Laura, the Aussie girl, unfortunately tonight we have her farewell party : (!

Ez a Laura környéke / this is Laura's neighborhood

A vendégség nem volt ellenünkre, mert ez a csodálatos vattapamacs is a ház része, borzasztó aranyos 5 hónapos kajla retriever kölyök. Amennyiben finom falat van a kezemben, még magyarul is hajlandó szót fogadni!

It is always fun for us as to visit her because this fluffy, playful puppy also lives in the same flat. He is incredible, charming little 5 months old puppy. He is so good, even he is willing to understand Hungarian if he smells some delicious snacks in my hands! : )

Laura és/and Mike

Laura az indiai negyed sarkán lakik, onnét egy bőőő fél óra séta a kínai negyed, ahol is az újévi fergeteg ünneplés volt. Vagy is mi azt hittük/ reméltük!

Odaérve, épp megéhezett az apró társaság, hallottunk pár dobszót, de gondoltuk, ah van meg időnk még csak 10 óra van. A szolid vacsora végeztével vissza próbáltunk menni a forgalomtól elzárt főútra, de a tömeg és az árusok hihetetlen egyvelege riasztó volt és jobbnak láttuk a másik utat választani. Igen ám, de ez a gyorsforgalmú út másik oldalára terelt el minket, ami a színpad hát volt… Nem volt hosszú a bánkódásunk, mert a gyér pop és előadói művészettel rendelkező kínai fiatalok nem voltak a helyzet magaslatán.

Laura stays in the Indian district which is roughly a 30 min walk to the Chinese district where we expected to see some sort of Chinese super colorful street festival. By the time we arrived; the small group decided to stop by a hawker center to have something to eat. We heard some drums but we were convinced that we will not miss any of it, as it will be just a small snack.

As we finished the meal we tried to head down to the main street but the crowed and the numerous Chinese stalls scared us, so we ended up taking another rout. This led us to the other side of the road so the stage’s back was facing us. This seemed to be a problem but after couple of minutes, listening to the “show” we were just happy not to see more of the weak stage performance. Let me just say that Chinese young “artists” are not trying to satisfied Western visitors. : )

A fergeteges show után vártuk a tűzijátékot, de helyette kínai petárdák érkeztek, pont annak a bevásárló központnak a tetejéről, ami alatt mi álltunk…

Így semmit a világon nem láttunk belőle, de a háborús övezetnek megfelelő robbanások azért kellő riadalmat keltettek a nézőtéren, plusz, a hihetetlen köddé sűrűsödő szmog, na, még az is jött! : )

Szóval, ennyiben maradt az újév e része, a többivel még jövök…

After the frenetic stage show we were longing to see the New Year’s fireworks but instead of that we got fire crackers. We were standing close somewhat under a shopping mall and “luckily” the crackers were installed on the top of this mall. So from the crackers, we did not see anything at all! The war zone type of explosions was scaring the audience, so some even run away. In the end the final delight was the incredible dense smog, heheheh : )

This is the true story of our Chinese New Year, but there is more coming soooon…

Olyan meleg volt 26-án, hogy a magyar mondás teljesen megállta a helyét: "Banánérlelő meleg van" ! :)

They can afford to be honest...

Hi All,

Michael is back at the keyboard, thanks for joining the fun this morning :)

Following up on Imola's street story of the Jumping Mango (see below), I want to show you some of the impressive sites that Imola and I saw last night whilst out for an evening stroll in our wider neighborhood. About midway through our walk, just after sunset, we passed through one of the many well-appointed and (I assume) publicly-funded playgrounds which dot our neighborhood. As we came upon a stone bench, we saw this hand-lettered sign from a child, held down with rocks:


Looking past the cute presentation, the heartwarming honesty of this young person and her family served as an affirmation of the basic principles of human goodness in this world. In the next moment we commented "well, they can afford to be honest." Here are just a few of the many lovely homes in the area:



That's all for now, back to work!

All depends on location

While in Singapore the weather is getting brighter and warmer. For instance yesterday I thought it must have been 40 degrees and sunny. Meanwhile at home as I can see the weather is a bit different...

Here are my favorite and only niece and nephew playing outdoors... tough kids, aren't they.

Note / Megjegyzés

Nővéreim kritikája után szeretném, ha tudnátok a cipőm az esküvőn tűz piros, már már vörös, a varrása fehéres volt. Nekem készítették Dél-Koreában.

Pont olyan szine volt, mint a rózsáimnak. Az pedig, hogy miért e szin, a ruhám, a hajam, a sminkem mind klasszikus volt hmm szerettem volna legalább egy valami magamon, ami más, különböző. :)

After my sisters' complaints, I would like to inform you that my shoes at the wedding were red, a deep one. They were specially manufactured for me in South Korea.

The color was exactly like the roses'. The reason is to be a bit different, just a little bit as my dress, make-up and my hair was classical. So I went with the shoes, being red! :)

Mango story /Mango történet

The small story of this huge mango is that I found it. Simply found in on the road. Yesterday, on my day off I decided to head to the pool which is about a 5 min walk from our house and on the way I heard a plop... I was looking around and than I recognized that this huge ripe mango just jumped in front of me saying, hello eat me.
So I took care of this, ended up being used in an excellent mango-strawberry shake. :) Here are the pictures...

A kis története e hatalmas mangónak, hogy simán az utcán találtam. Szabadnapomon, szombaton tervemet megvalósítva éppen csattogtam a tőlünk 5 percnyire lévő szabadtéri medencéhez, mikor is hallottam egy puha csattanást...
Körbenéztem, mi lehetett ez, hát ekkor láttam meg, hogy egy hatalmas érett mangó ugrott épp elém, mondván, egyél meg!
Hát, több se kellett gondjaimba vettem a rám bízott mangót és ma bevégezte egy szuper mangó-eper turmix formában. Képekben:

New pictures!!!!! Új képek!!!!!!!!

Hello,

We would like to call your attention to the new wedding album in the picasa web album. You find it on the right side.

A felhívnánk a figyelmeteket, hogy az esküvőről több képet töltöttünk fel a picasás web tárhelyre. Jobb oldalon található a link.

The wedding / Az esküvő

Aup hívása! / Dad's call

Why are Chinese "amazing"...?

Last week our "lovely" Malay lady who refuses to use automate washing machine and rather washes her cloths outside. We have a small corner "pool" place in the back of the house, tiled where she washes her stuff.

Happened that she washed something that made the whole place stuck, pipes weren't flashing, water was just standing 10-15 cm high in that small "pool" place.
Well, here it is 30-25 degrees the constant heat so this small swimming pool started to rot.
I guess you don't need much to imagine the result. After 2-3 days it smelt like a cow farm, and the smell came into the kitchen, so we did not cook or eat there.
Mike, on Sunday said -ok it is disgasting but somebody gotta do something- so he started to clean up the place. Ahhhhh :(

I was shocked, it was sooo disgusting and Mike was in the middle, bleee I wanted him to stop so I called down the main renter/landlord guy who he tried to help, but he said I would threw up! Agreed: We needed a proper plummer!
He called one, a Chinese guy came while Mike&I were gone.

The story is that the plummer came and asked for 180 dollars, he cleaned the pipes with a flexible stick and after it was done, he brought a plastic battle covered in a plastic shopping bag (pure professionalism) and he told to our landlord guy, please back up, it is a very strong and poisoning chemical stuff.
The landlord guy was suspicious and asked him, may I ask or rather check what you are pouring into our piping system!?

Chinese: no no, keep your hands away it burns your skin!
Landlord: Let's see, and he put his finger deep into the bottle.... WATER! He was right the Chinese was cheating, it was only water, so-called extra dangerous chemically for cleaning the pipes!!! for 180SGD (that equals with 121USD and 25.000HUF)

But the same story can apply to our story with my wedding bend...

I have no wedding bend till this point (Saturday, 10th Jan)

We went into a store asking for a customized ring, as the wedding bend should match and fit with my pearl engagement ring.

Mike had to leave early so I stayed to "handle" the Chinese lady who - I love it - started to speak Chinese with her colleague and to the goldsmith...
Of course I did not have a clue except wondering, how much will it cost us....? hehehe :)

I was right , the lady told me 600Dollars (404 USD= 83,000HUF) I thanked her kind kind help and thought to myself, oh ok, I can surely do better than this!

I was told to go to the Chinese district and ask a goldsmith to customize a ring for me. The first place gave the offer of 380SGD for the work and ring. OK, that is better!!!!

On the way Mike and me went into another place where the lady told us, 300 SGD for the ring and for the work. Wow, ok that is perfect we thought!
The shop assistant asked us to come back on Monday and we leave my pearl ring behind and the wedding bend will be ready this week.

We returned in 2 days as it was agreed, but the lady decided to ask for more money, as we are in a hurry with my ring....
... I was pissed off, it was so stinky, she greeted us with the tone in her voice "I will get paid today"

Mike saw my anger and suggested having a walk... we never went back!

So basically they try to take advantage of you as you are a Caucasian and now we see even if you are local, you are still not safe!!!???

New Year's party / Újévi ünneplés

The whole story started a couple of days ago, I received a mail from a girl who I have never met before. She told me that she is Hungarian and she also lives here in Singapore. Let's meet!- she asked.
It was on the 30th, the meeting went well we had good time together and we agreed to spend New Year's Eve together. They moved here in July 2008, and as her husband works for an oil company they are pretty well supplied. e.g. they live in a condominium which is right in downtown Singapore.
More than that, we appreciated the fact that the skyscraper had a "park" or "observation level atrium". Pretty awesome! Here are some photos:






At midnight it looked like this:


Being happy (love alcohol) in a cab on to way to a club.


We had good time because it was a New Year's party, and, as everybody knows, not every year starts with an awesome party!? :)