Baker & Spice

安福路的Baker & Spice,罕见的有的卖新鲜的bagel。上海那么多鬼子,有卖bagel的地方极少,我只知道新元素有卖,但是是要堂吃的,而且只限早饭,供应到上午十一点为止,18块一个,陪cream cheese和草莓酱。这里有一个大大的木桌子,森林风格的,厚厚的台面,坑坑洼洼,木纹都露在外面,有不施粉黛的朴素。桌面很长,很宽,像那时包玉刚图书馆三楼阅览室的桌子,可以摊很多很多东西在上面,笔记,书,一本两本三本四本五本。摊一个笔记本,一杯黑黝黝的浓缩咖啡,一只bagel,落地窗外是安福路上的梧桐树和火辣辣的太阳。

上海开始变热了。雨停了,出太阳了。天气预报33度。夏天看是要到了。其实还蛮留恋上海的夏天,那种潮湿闷热,太阳的火辣辣的感觉。住在上海的时候,总是想着西雅图凉爽的夏天。那里的民居是没有空调的,七八月的晚上也还是要盖毯子的,白天太阳最大也最多是七八十度,九十度已经了不得了,要上新闻的,跟上海的39度的地位似的。西雅图的夏天,太阳像是刚刚用过的阳具,用王小波的话来说,是从天上垂下来的。

新元素的bagel应该是机制的。Safeway的bagel,$1.99六个的那种,虽然是新鲜散装的,也是机制的。机制的bagel看不见接缝,据Charles Clark跟我说,机制的bagel是用机器冲面团冲出来的,所以看不到接缝。手工的bagel,按照传统手艺做,是要先搓一个面条子,然后首尾相接成为一个圈。接得不好,在过蜂蜜水的时候就会散开,或者等到进了烤箱一烘,面团膨胀了,也迟早散开。我的bagel不是没散开过,不过不多,散开的都直接进了垃圾桶了,就像写坏了的字,直接揉成一团扔进废纸篓了。

王小波要是还活着,韩寒敢这么嚣张么?

下雨天

下雨天,泡壶茶看看书,放点音乐发发呆,想些平时太忙疏忽的事和人,或写写随笔。
下雨天,窗外滴滴嗒嗒,淅淅沥沥,那是江南的声音,那是家乡的味道。
下雨天,任凭车外大雨滂沱,躲在车里,不会打湿裤腿,不会鞋里进水,感觉自己是安全的。

Places to go

Ecuador
Galapagos Island

USA
Mesa Verde national park
Yellowstone national park
Dinosaur provincial park
Everglades national park
Grand canyon national park
Redwood national park
Great smoky mountains national park
La Fortaleza and San Juan national historic site in Puerto Rico
Hawaii volcanoes national park
Monticello and the university of Virginia in Charlottesville
Carlsbad caverns national park
Waterton glacier international peace park

Honduras
Maya site of Copan

Argentina
Los glaciated
Iguazu national park
Peninsula Valdes
Ischigualasto/Talampaya natural parks
Quebrada de Humahuaca

Cuba
Old Havana and its fortification
Vinales valley

Peru
City of Cuzco
Historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Huascaran national park
Chan Chan archaeology zone
Manu national park
Historic center of Lima
Lines and geoglyphs of Nascar and Pampas de Humans
Historic center of the city of Arequipa

Canada
Wood buffalo national park
Canadian rocky mountain parks
Historic district of old Quebec
Gros Morne national park

Brazil
Sian Ka'an, Mexico Brasilia
Atlantic forest south-east reserves
Central amazon conservation complex
Pantanal conservation area
Historic centre of the town of goias

Mexico
Historic center of Oaxaca and archaeology site of Monte Alban
Pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan
Pre-Hispanic city and national park of Palenque
Historic town of Guanajuato and adjacent mines
Pre-Hispanic city of Chichen-itza
Historic center of Morelia
El Tajin, pre-Hispanic city
Pre-Hispanic town of Uxmal
Hospicio cabanas, Guadalajara
Historic centre of sao Luis, brazil Historic fortified town of Campeche
Islands and protected areas of the gulf of California

Venezuela
Canaima national park

Chile
Rapa nui national park

Uruguay
Historical quarter of the of Colonia del Sacramento

Belize
Belize barrier reef reserve system

Dominica
Morne trois pitons national park

Panama
Archaeological site of panama viejo and historic district of Panama

Greenland
Ilulissat Icefjord

Oh, shit!

一大早起来就被打击到了。尼伯龙根的指环将在2010年9月16-19日以及9月21-24日于上海大剧院上演 ,演出单位德国科隆剧院。五年前就已经错过了一次,仅利用出差之便看了第一部,后三部不得不忍痛割爱。这次可好,人家演到家门口来了,可我却将在万里之外...

杯具啊~~

Fucking stupid

两个礼拜前,我要改我的保险的自动扣款账号,其实也就是从工行的一个账号换成另一个账号。于是打了电话到保险公司的客服热线,客服态度不错,解释的也蛮清楚:只要到他们网站上下载账号变更申请表,打印出来填好签名,再附上新账号的一张银行流水单,寄回到他们公司就可以了。听上去蛮简单的,我就照做了。昨天突然接到那家保险公司的电话,号称是我的保险代理人打来的,他说我的账号变更申请没通过审核,因为我的申请表上面的签名和三年前我买保险的时候在保险合同上的签名不一致。我当场被气得七窍冒烟。比对签名的做法,以前只听说信用卡签单时是需要的,账单上的签名要和信用卡背面的签名一致。除此以外,从来没听说过有要比对签名的。护照上是要签名的,但从来没有哪个领事馆要求签证申请表上的签名要和护照上的签名一致的。签名嘛,有时候工整,有时候潦草,潦草和工整的放一起,像是完全两个不同的人签的也很正常。况且,谁他妈的的记得自己三年前的某一份合同上的签名是怎么签的呀。

招商银行也让我很崩溃。上个月去泰国玩,先到的香港转机,在香港停了一天,买着买那的,刷了几万块钱,刷的都是招商银行的信用卡。然后到了泰国,在酒店入住的时候要刷信用卡预授权,我还是拿的招行的那张信用卡。结果刷不出。当时以为是那个酒店的POS机的问题,就换了一张工商银行的卡,刷过了。哪知道之后几天,在那里吃饭、购物,招行的那张卡在哪里都刷不出,就一直靠着工行的那张卡撑着,还好也没再买什么大件。幸亏我每次出去都带两张信用卡的,一张招行一张工行。等回来以后第一时间打电话给招行,客服说卡的确是他们停掉的,因为他们的系统觉得我在泰国入住酒店那笔四千多泰铢的刷卡预授权有问题。客服说,他们的后台系统发现我五月中上旬人还是在美国的,有很多刷卡消费,然后突然就冒出一笔在东南亚的消费,而且东南亚属于信用卡欺诈高发地区,于是他们的后台系统就触发了一个风险警示,当时试图打我电话和我确认那笔消费,但电话打不通,就暂时性的停了我的卡。我听了哭笑不得,多年来对招商银行累计起来的好感和忠诚度瞬间荡然无存。

招商银行之所以当时联系不到我,是因为我的手机到了泰国没法漫游。其实我的国际漫游问题最早是去年十月去香港时候就有了,症状就是开机连不进当地的网络。当时是和苹果一起去,她的手机就没问题,可以漫游,可以收短信发短信。把苹果的卡插到我的手机里,也是可以漫游的。但把我的卡插到苹果的手机里,就不行。所以当时就很确定是我的SIM和我的手机号码的漫游设定有问题。回到上海以后打电话给移动,移动的客服不认帐,说他们那边系统里的漫游设定是好的。结果就不了了之。等去年十二月份去西班牙,问题照旧:我的卡插哪里都不能漫游,苹果的卡在她的手机和我的手机里面都是好的。再之后,上个月去美国和泰国,都是一样的问题。每次出国回来以后打电话给移动,移动的客服都是那套陈词滥调,先是说说是我的手机的问题,然后问郑先生你有没有试过手工选择网络。每次都跟我说,郑先生,你现在已经回到国内了,我们无法帮您检查您的国际漫游的问题,只能等到下次您再出国的时候,如果还是同样的问题,请您到时候再联系我们。我对移动的客服说,我人都到了国外了,手机不能漫游了,我还拿什么给你们打电话呀?你大爷的。

My first review on tripadvisor.com

Finally, it's posted. Was written on May 26 and stayed in pending status for about three weeks until got published yesterday. It was a bit too long. I'd rather to believe that it was because they really reviewed every post seriously. (I guess) That made their site and the reviews worth trust, which is only most important thing for such a review community site to be successful.

Here is my review:

first choice when I come back

My wife and I took 3 days PADI open water diver course at Thailand Divers from 5/24 to 5/26, for 14000 THB per person (the same price as they listed on their website). We picked this facility after reading the reviews on TripAdvisor.

I am totally satisfied by their services. Signup process, document works, hotel pickup and cars, driver, instructor, gears, pool facility, course materials, breakfast/coffee/lunch on the boat, the crew on the boat, everything is as good as I expected, if not exceeded. They are very professional in handling every single detail.

I am particularly satisfied that they are not trying to sell anything to me. They don't recommend gears to me; they don't recommend their other dive tours to me; they don't try to get me signup advanced course. This is beyond my expectation. They did excellently and very professionally in separating the PADI course from the other business that they are doing.

The instructor Ryan Fryer, a South Africa young guy, is superb. He has been diving for 8 years and in Phuket for 4 years. Nice guy and great teacher. Experienced. Knowledgeable. Patient. Adaptive to different students (slow or fast, aggressive or conservative, shy or open). I am very happy to meet him and had him to bring me into the dive world.

If one day I come back to Phuket to take the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, the Thailand Divers will be my first choice. I will also recommend every of my friends to choose Thailand Divers if they consider to get Open Water Diver course and certificate in Phuket.

Apartment for Rent - 2BR/2BA $1,500/mo.

DESCRIPTION
Located at Jiangsu Road No.813. Spacious and contemporary apartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. Beautiful condition. Gorgeous view from all rooms: living room, dining room, guest room and the balcony of master bedroom. Huge walk-in closet and extra laundry/storage room. Very convenient downtown location. Walking and bicycling distance to Y+ Yoga Center (500m), Huashan Lvdi Starbucks (550m), Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (800m), Subway No.2 Line Jiangsu Road Station (900m), FeiDan Imported Foodstore (1.2km), Huashan Hospital (1.2km), Shanghai Film Art Center (1.3km), Shanghai Library (1.4km), Shanghai Jiaotong University (1.4km), Hengshan Road (1.7km), etc..

RENTAL FEATURES
131 square meters, wood floor, living room, dining room, air conditioners in each room, built-in bookshelves, balcony, walk-in closet, refrigerator, stove, microwave, coffee maker, washer, hot tub, separate water heater in the apartment, ADSL high-speed internet and wireless, 32 inches Sony BRAVIA LCD TV.

COMMUNITY FEATURES
Shared parking lots. Outdoor swimming pool (summer only). Tennis court. Children’s playground. Fitness center. 24x7 security. Services provided by the property management company, including calling taxi, receive package delivery on behalf, etc..

LEASE TERMS
Available July 24, 2010. 1 year lease with option to renew. Monthly rent 1,500 USD or 10,000 CNY. Deposit equal to one month’s rent. Deposit and first month’s rent due at lease signing. Pets friendly. 880 CNY monthly property management fee included. Tenant pays utilities. Receipt available upon request.

CONTACT
MR.ZHENG (owner), zhengziying@hotmail.com, +86 13901939043
MR.XIA (agent), jinchengxia@hotmail.com, +86 13918187685

FLOOR PLAN

floor plan

PICTURES

gorgeous view from all rooms
Gorgeous view from all rooms
spacious living and dining room
spacious living & dining room
huge walk-in closet
huge walk-in closet
in a decent-look building
decent-looking building

人品的力量

听说有这么一桩离婚的案子,男的和女的谈好了,把两人的房子过户给女的,男的只要女的给他25万现金。房子已经没贷款了,值两百多万呢。男的肯这么让步,似乎是因为男的有小三。不管怎样,那女的好像觉得这个协议不错,差不多就要答应那的男的了。今天又听说那男的反悔了,觉得25万太少,改成要50万了。

还有一桩离婚,离婚协议说把房子过户给女的。两人去完民政局以后,其他的条款陆陆续续很快都做完了,该分的钱都转账了,该分的东西都搬掉了,可男的就是迟迟不肯去把那房子过户。那男的说当时财产分割不公平,绕了老大的圈子,反正就是还要再问那女的要钱。女的当然不给,就这么拖着。拖了快一年,眼看着拖不过去了,男的也只好去过户了。

君子一言,驷马难追,遇到言而无信的,只能感叹遇人不淑,遇到的是小人,只能在心里骂无赖,除了咒他被雷劈死,拿他也没什么其他办法。到底是君子还是小人,其实不难看出来。只是平日里过生活,一诺千金的总让人觉得有点傻,花冤枉钱;出尔反尔的反而显得比较精明,精打细算,会省钱,能得便宜。只是到了关键时刻,等他背信弃义翻脸不认帐的时候,后悔就来不及了。

Jack Bauer说“I give you my word”的时候,是能让人感觉到一种力量的。那是一种正直的人品的力量。