I am no longer to be found on Facebook - I think..........

On the 14th of May, without any assistance from Facebook (because they want to keep everything, regardless of whether you want them to), I think I was able to successfully disengage myself from Facebook. No, I haven't been to FB since 10 December 2010, when I saw Social Network and determined that I would rather be anti-social than join Zuckerberg and crowd.   With all do respect, if Mark Zuckerberg is the future of society, then I am content to live in the past!!!!

Anyhow, I had a sudden barrage of FB emails when I did my dastardly deed.....then a few more.....then.....nothing.

I think I'm off.....and I have absolutely no desire to find out how correct I am in this assumption.

This is the last blog until my return to HK on the 9th of June........will I or won't I make changes directly to the site????  Only time will tell.....!

The great thing about M&S Food Court around the corner....and the sad thing.....

I'm eating better at night - there is absolutely no doubt about it.  Beet root salad last night was wonderful.  The mango/pineapple plate, while not as good as the prior night where all the pineapple was sweet, was still great.

I love the cottage cheese with pineapple, too.....not to mention the Greek yogurt with honey.    I'm eating more because it is so conveniently located and therein lies the problem - I'm bulking up when I shouldn't be, because of sheer volume.........

That is sad.  Sadder is the fact that I haven't been to my neighborhood fruit stand because of the M & S convenience..........that is something I will definitely have to change!!

One meeting over.....and soon to start the day.......

Friday morning.  The Economist already downloaded on the iPad;  first meeting a success.  Now I have to go to the bank and then to pick up mail.....then home to my HK apartment and two tax returns, first, followed by reviewing two more........Life is boring at this time of year - got to be that way because  of the necessities of life......nothing more to say - a brief one, today

Poetically lazy, that's me, sadly......

I finished what I wanted to do, business-wise.   Yeah, there is some other stuff but I really do not want to work on it.......

I have music I want to learn.  I'm too lazy, not sufficiently motivated.

Sadly, I am in a case of the 'blahs', not really wanting to do much more than vegetate......after going to M&S food court, around the corner......and I'll do that after I find a DVD I want to watch, tonight.....

I'd go to the Procrastinator's Club - next time.......It's just one of those days......

Summer's here and there ain't no turning back.....

I was out, this morning, after my breakfast at the FCC.   To the banks.....to the post office.....to pick up office supplies.....and then crash because the heat and humidity is too much to handle - recovery time is needed.

I'm working, now.  It is 1:30pm.  It is 32 degrees out.  I think it is warmer in Central......and of course, the humidity is stifling........

This is the way it'll be from now through the first weeks of October.   Welcome to a typical South China Summer!

My Hong Kong morning.....

Corn flakes/skimmed milk/banana & tomato juice first, with 2 cups of coffee throughout and after.....

And these past weeks have seen free WSJs as well as China Dailys.......that's life at the FCC.   Only after, today, I have to first go to the general post office, followed by a visit to the HKPO on Queen's Road.

And I have a lunch meeting, today......and dinner meeting, tonight....but with two perceived easy tax returns to do, sandwiched in between lunch and dinner........

Less pressure, right now......and that is nice!!!

a pain in the back.......

Again.

Lower back pain.  Fortunately I am seeing my stretcher, this morning.    I'm watching the Braves-Rocies game, 7-0, Braves in the bottom of the 8th.  Watching and writing.......

I'm back in Hong Kong for a week.  I'm already behind schedule, failing to follow up on any more work after my second meeting of the day.   I went to the new Marks & Spencer Food Hall, around the corner and pigged out, last night, on healther bulk I did not really need.

Impressions from the land of the rising sun.....

10 days in Japan.  This was a mid-tax season break.  It was good to get away.  It is lousy to go home to face 71 more days of tax season.  If there is anything 'good' it is the fact that I've completed 100 days of tax prior to the 10 day break in Japan!

Impressions:   There are far more 'old' people here than one can imagine.  I might very well be the youngest cane carrier around!  Baseball is far more affordable than in the States although the game here is less aggressive.  I like the livelier ball, though:  saw 6 home runs in two games.   That definitely adds excitement!!

Oishimbo, the food manga for which I read the six English language books published thus far, has suspended weekly publication in Japan because of lots of controversy about radiated food emanating out of the Fukushima area.

Real estate is conducted here on a far more ethical basis than the Chinese, who are now buying, like....it is going to be an interesting clash of cultures here......

The lively ball

Last year, when Wladimir Ballantien set the Japan home run record, all controversy surrounded a lively ball.  This year, it seems to me, the ball is a hell of a lot livelier.

We saw Willy Mo Pena and Andruw Jones hit two in the rain out game in Sendai on Thursday.  The Jones shot was a real long blast.

Yesterday at the Tokyo Dome, there were 4 home runs, including a grand slam in the Carp's 10-3 rout of the Giants (to hell with the Yomiuri Giants - I dispise them as I dispise the NY Yankees!).  Is it a lively ball -even more so- this year??

This trip has been a welcome change of pace/environment from the tax work I left and will return to.  Emails are out of control - far more coming in than I can ever hope to keep up with.....but then, this happens every year and has been like this since the late 1990s during tax season.

The hardest thing is to find the time to do tax article writing - especially with only a couple of days left of this trip - true, I need to do a little each day but at the cost of ruining a vacation for me and my girls???

Baseball, sushi and nuclear disaster

I've been going to baseball games for 67 years.  Not once in all those years did I come close to a foul ball.

Katherine has been going to baseball games - perhaps 6 or 7 games, total, in all her life.  On Thursday, she got her foul ball, hit by Andruw Jones, prior to his bat's sweet part coming into contact with a fast ball to produce a real long home run.

Last night we experienced some gourmet sushi.   Expensive?  Yes!  Worth the price?  Not as worth it as that $US300 kobe beef dinner I had last year but definitely a worthy experience.

And yesterday, I did the basic research I felt necessary for the Fukushima aspect of the fictional effort I embark upon.  Baseball.....rock & roll.....nuclear espionage......lofty goals?   That will be determined as time goes by.

Weather is cold, here in north Japan.   I'm 'soft' and want my warm weather back.....and will probably regret saying this as I curse the south China summer that we'll be returning to, next week.

We take the train back to Tokyo, today........these few days north have been fun - and worthwhile!!

The ulitmate commitment against social networking!

A couple of years ago I got off my ass and terminated all banking at HSBC, the world's local bank that I love to hate!

In 2010, after seeing 'The Social Network', I decided that Facebook was the antithesis of everything I believed in and stopped using Facebook.

Last night, I opted out of Facebook.......and have 14 days in which to either answer one of their emails to me (10, thus far, and not even a full day, yet) or they will (so they say) completely 'obliterate' my accout.  Of course, I don't really believe them but I will watch with amusement the emails they'll be sending me.....

Now, after this blog posting, I will opt out of What's App.......keeping (although it really is not worth keeping) We Chat......

I hate the phone.  I hate networking.......if you really want to reach me, email is the way.  

And next for me?   Getting rid of the smart phone and getting a plain, old fashioned dumb phone!!

How NOT to go on a trip!

Don't catch a cold/sore throat/etc/etc that turns into a strep throat!  I spent yesterday at Tokyo Medical and Dental University clinic.  And yet, there are some advantages when you can't really do anything but cannot sleep:  one then tends to read!

And read I did:  on the plane, at the clinic, and all times in between.   Half way into 'The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair"   I re-discovered what a 'page turner' is:  I simply could not put the fucking ebook reader down.........I loved the book!!!!

The weather was warm, today.   My chills are not as chilly.....the bronchial cough is there but not as much - two more days of antibiotics will hopefully cure it all.  Yeah, I should be careful not to abuse drugs like this.....but to spend 9 days in Japan feeling miserable????  Hell no!!!!

The Seattle drizzle hits Hong Kong

Here it is, the 8th day of May.  I've been in Hong Kong for 5 of those 8 days and thus far and frankly, life has been a drizzle - not enough to warrant turning my cane to an umbrella but enough to make the start of the day with a morning walk to the FCC feel dreary - just like the thing I hate about Seattle - it is too dismal for me......

I was originally supposed to leave Hong Kong yesterday.  Then it was changed to today.....and as of now, it is likely that tomorrow will be the day I depart.  There is simply too much that has to be done prior to my leaving:  I will not return here until 25 May, so anything 'lingering' will cause difficulty......linger not.....just get the work done so I can leave as early as possible, tomorrow morning!!

And the next time for an addition to this blog?   Next week, from Japan!!

Cinco de Mayo in Hong Kong

Yesterday afternoon in Dongguan was nice - the upstairs patio of El Caliente worked perfectly for a day long event that started with a light rain but was primarily dry.   Had it been sunny, would it have been too hot outside?  Would the humidity have been stifling?

I took lots of pictures which I'll have to edit and then add to the website.......

And tonight, it's going to be another Mexican restaurant in another city for yet another cinco de mayo:  the T Bird alumni of Hong Kong gather at Coyote in Wanchai, tonight.....time to do a third tasting of Mexican food in three days....time to celebrate, again....without tequila........