2006年3月8日星期三

Misleading

There was no reason for me to dine in a Japanese buffet restaurant any more after I had found how they had treated their customers. (Please refer to my older blog)

My staffs reminded me for I didn’t invite them to celebrate my birthday, which is also the anniversary of our shop. They had also hinted that they would like to dine in the Japanese buffet restaurant again for the unlimited foods and drinks. As their wish, I gave them the delayed invitation.

I was coming from Manila with my wife while they were traveling from our place to Alabang by the van that I had rent for them. They were leaded by my son who knew where the restaurant is located.

We were late because of the traffic congestion; when we have joined them, I saw the long table which they had occupied was decorated with colorful stuff toys; it reminded me immediately about the incident in last year. I then asked my son if he knew anything about the stuff toys. He told me that he did ask if the toys would be charged but the waiter replied to him that all toys came together with the drinks. Obviously, they were misleading the customers to thinking that all toys were free of change.

The manager and the waiter were called to clarify about the situation of the toys in front of me for I would be the one who pay the bill. They were saying the same story that the toys were came with the drinks, insisted that more drinks would get more toys. I was told since we had ordered bottomless ice-tea, then we could get one toy per drink only, unlike the other table beside us (the manger pointed at the table for me), they had ordered different drinks, and so they kept getting toys again. The manager and waiter were seems challenging me to order more drinks. However, they didn’t know they were making a big mistake for I was going to uncover their tracks.

I stood up to give attention to the customers next to our table, asking the manager for the price of the bottomless ice-tea. The answer was 145 pesos each; his voice was loud enough to reach the other table. His voice was suddenly got stuck when he realized that I was waiting for his answer about the price of the ice-tea alone without any stuff toys. I challenged him to tell the truth as the other table might get interested to know about the answer.

All the guests were surprised with the price when they knew the answer was 70 only, meant that the toys were charged 75 each without telling the customers anything about the details. In fact, this was an old story that I had approached in last year but I didn’t tell the staffs of the restaurant and the customers beside us. I let the manager took the toys away. Likewise, the other table also returned all the toys, but they had to return more as they had ordered more drinks.

The host of the next table toasted to me before they had left. It was lucky for the restaurant for they let us be seated in the room which was separated from the main hall, otherwise, the quantity of the returning stuff toys might be disastrous.

2006年3月3日星期五

Website of psychopaths

This was what I had seen in the first picture while the second one was downloading: A woman was holding a kitten in her hands tenderly, seems to show how she cares about this little lovely animal.

I was browsing on a Chinese news website yesterday. A terribly and disgusting news topic had caught my eyes, which indicated a young beautiful woman had killed a kitten with her “high heeled shoes”. I then clicked the link to see more details. Surprisingly, thousands of messages had already been posted there to denounce against the evil woman who did the bloody crime.

My heart was beating faster and I could feel my blood flow was giving more pressure to its vessels while I was waiting the second picture to be downloaded. The poor little kitten was put under a pairs of high heeled shoes in the second picture, showing that the kitten was yelling for help. One of a spike heel was already stabbed into one eye of a dead kitten with its fur blooded in the third picture. And there was the fourth picture that I don’t want to describe anymore. Obviously, all pictures were surely taken by a cold blooded psycho.

Messages of the news forum were posted asking all the browsers should post messages to flood the psychopathic site, making the server overloaded until it closes down; one of the browsers even give a reward for 10,000 RMB regarding his/her anger to hunt the woman who killed the kitten.

What's wrong with the people nowadays, killing innocents just for fun? When I recall the pictures in my mind, my stomach is still going twisted.

2006年2月25日星期六

Chinese Herbs

Chinese Herbs

A stranger called on me for I am a Chinese. With his charming smile, he asked me if I want to buy a fresh  "gall bladder".

"What should I use a gall bladder for?" I was wondering about his offer.

"It is a very good material to use as Chinese medicine.” He said.

"No, I am sorry, I am a Chinese businessman but not a Chinese traditional herbalist," I said.

He insisted I have to take a look for it was "real good for health". I reminded him for most Chinese medicines were dried materials, even the gall bladder should not be used a fresh one. Sometimes people may swallow a fresh gall bladder of a snake with Chinese rice wine but to use a big gall bladder from animal was incredible. Although I was not interested, he still took out a fresh gall bladder from an ice-box, I saw the open of the gall bladder was fastened by a nylon string.

"Can you tell me how to use it?"

"Well,,,just cook the whole set of gall bladder!"

"What? Just cook it! As you have said it is good for health, how about I cook it and you drink it? If it is good for Chinese, so it does the same for Pinoy (Filipino)." My temper was getting hot.

"......" he was quiet.

"Do you know the bile of it is toxic?" (Actually, I don't know about the toxic exactly.)  In fact, he was selling something that he knew nothing about.
When I found my speaking was too strict to listen, I than calmed down and lower my tone to avoid scaring the man,” I don't want it; but can you tell me what kind of gall bladder is it?" I asked.

"Horse." he said.

"I have never heard about using a gall bladder of horse as Chinese medicine. Actually, Chinese use dried bile of bear's gall bladder and gallstone from ox to be medicine, but just a very little quantity per dose"

"So....." he was disappointed.

"I mean it is worthlessness to me!"

His smile was gone; but in seconds, his eyes were filled with hope again. "Oh, one more thing, I have brought you a Korean ginseng for your health." he opened his bag and pulled out a bottle, in which a Chinese white ginseng was soaked with liquid. Hundreds of different usages of ginseng were told by him easily and he emphasized that I should have already learned about the mystical power of ginseng, which is the most marvelous Chinese herb.

"Let me tell you something. Dried ginsengs are used as medicine, while fresh ginsengs are only used to cook Chinese soup, they were sold in most supermarkets in Hong Kong for about 35 HK dollars, they are just cheap and common, just like the one you are holding now."

This poor man was fooled by someone who sold him a cheap Chinese white ginseng as a Korean ginseng; furthermore, I was sorry for I have broken his dream twice.

2006年2月11日星期六

My Grandson

My Grandson

There is “Like father like son”, and so there is “like grandfather like grandson” too.

Last Sunday, I met my grandson after he has his hair cut in a barber shop; he pointed at me and put his little hand on his shaven head, means we both look alike. Couldn’t explain to him that his grandfather is going bald but he was just has his hair shaved. He is just fourteen months old.

From the time he was born, my wife and I would go to visit him on every Sunday. Sometimes my wife even asked me to spend the weekend with our first grandson till Monday morning. I met with him weekly and never expected he would treat me as a stranger when he was about four months old, the period of all babies started recognizing who is familiar and who is a stranger.

As usual, we visit our grandson on a Sunday morning; he started to cry when he saw me, and refused me to carry him. I was unhappy the whole day for I didn’t have a chance to step close to the baby. He cried every time when I try to approach him.

The other weekend when I saw him, surprisingly, this wonderful baby had had a deep inhale and held his breath for seconds, seems he was petrified by something horrible. When he came back to himself; he started to have a strong endless cry. Immediately, I realized that could be I am so ugly to shock him and so I make myself disappeared. Day after day, I was already accustomed staying away from my grandson, in fact, I needed to hide from his sight to avoid making him cry.

For me, that was a special Sunday. When my daughter opened the door for me, she was carrying her baby. My grandson had seen me; amazingly he didn’t hold his breath but smile to me this time. Thus I was too happy and could not hold my tears running from my eyes. My daughter told me that she showed her son with my picture everyday and kept saying to him, “this is kung kung (grandfather).” I was so glad that her method was succeeded and it fastens the relationship between her son and me.

Incidentally, there was a big dancing competition held by a TV station when I was in China last October. There were some children participants showing their talents of dancing. One of my relatives was so exciting to watch them dance. For his curious, he asked me if children in the Philippines could dance as good as them. He was disappointed when I told him that children in the Philippines could dance much better for they could perform their body language much naturally. He doubt for he didn’t believe Pinoy children could dance much better than the Chinese. I told him, my grandson who was just able to stand by himself; however, he already knew how to swing his hip when he heard music plays. Exaggeratedly I stressed, my grandson is not a particular one but all babies being born in the Philippine are dancing genius to be.

Soon after the baby smiled to me, we are friends. Although I have to drive far from our place to Manila; for him, hours of traffic are worth to spend for and visiting him would be a joyful trip to me. I love him and he shows how he loves me by he knew how to say his first word, not “papa” or “mama” but “KUNG KUNG (grandfather)”.

2006年1月31日星期二

Bird

We can fly.
We can float in air.
We are free.

Down the mountain to the shore of sea,
From the rural to city,
By the ponds, lakes and rivers,
Stay on the trees, posts and under eaves.
You can see us everywhere.

We can fly.
We can float in air.
We are free.

The sky will become boring without our flying,
The world will become lonely without our singing,
Locust will vast swarm and strip the area of vegetation and
Insects will destroy the fields without our guarding.

We are free and peace,
God created the world that we love,
HE also created human and us.

We can fly.
We can float in air.
We are free.

Bang!
I fell on the ground,
Can you see I am bleeding?
My eyes are blurring for I am dying,
God, I am going,
Can YOU tell me what mistake that I have done?

They said that shooting was for sport
They said that shooting was for fun,
They said for I am nothing and
They shot for I am just a bird.

I could fly,
I could float in air,
I was free.

2006年1月27日星期五

A Joke

A Joke

Last Sunday, my friend invited me for lunch in Ongpin. Around 1 p.m. in the afternoon, he called me up when I was walking towards the President Restaurant. He asked me if I could join him with his friend before we have our lunch and told me where they were at the moment. For the address was just near by, so I reversed my foot steps and went direct to Lai Lai Hotel where I ever been. Months ago, the Tsinoy communities had coordinated their efforts to demonstrate against the management, for they have planned to establish some gambling facilities inside the building.

A room boy was cleaning a piece of carpet with vacuum cleaner in the hallway, he directed me to the room that I asked for. After I knocked the door, a Chinese woman came to answer and let me in, lights were dim and so I could not see her very clear. “Joey has called me for he is here,” I asked to verify if it was the right place. “Ni ke yi jiang putonhua ma? (Can you speak in Mandarin?)” she is definitely a mainlander. After repeated in Mandarin once again, she let me sit down and wait, for she was going to have a bath. Calling up my friend to ask where he was but he could say nothing with endless laugh. The situation alerts me that the woman was a prostitute from China and I was tricked; when I heard the water was running from the showerhead; I increase the sound of the television, open the door and slip out the room. The room boy was still cleaning the carpet outside the hallway and was wondering why my visit was ended so fast.

Never get angry with my friend, he is an ultimate joker, a naughty fellow, joking with friends is his most favorite. I knew him since my first job in a camera shop about 35 years ago; he was already a joke maker at that time. Before I could identify where he was seated in the restaurant, I heard he was laughing at me with his stentorian voice. When he passed me a cup of tea, he could not hold his laugh while he was making his apologize, I was laughing too for I was just being fooled.

He pointed at the classified posts on the Chinese newspaper, which he got the information to trap me. “How does she look like? Hahaha,” he was still laughing. “I am not sure, but I think she is looking for me!” We both chortled and he gasped like a patient of asthma. Customers were looking at us and wondering if we were going crazy. It was hard for us to finish our lunch with laughing.

2005年12月29日星期四

real to myself

Mr. Tan, thank you for letting me to know something about myself from the other angles.

The reason that I had my blog titled as “Talking to my heart” is that I want to write something about words from my heart, that is about my feeling, my living and my work. As the writing ability is limited with my English or Chinese, I have to tell everyone first, don’t be so serious about the grammar or the style of writing that I had, I just want someone out there sharing my feeling, my happiness and anything that I could tell. I do want to talk about the economic, the society, the politician, other things also, but I knew that’s out of my limit. Sometimes I just don’t want to talk much about someone’s attitude or how I feel about them, seems it may become some kind of gossip, but as I don’t like something being kept in my heart, I rather write it out by words to share with someone who willing to listen, I am not trying to make myself as perfect model of honesty, sincerity or something that people has to learn from, I am just what I am. I should tell all the people everything about my bad experience to avoid the replay of evil matter that I’d gotten. When my father was still alive, he always tells me about how to live as ordinary as we can, meaning that being humble should be the main rule throughout of our life. Although my mom was not being educated, but she always tell me not to care about how we had lost in helping someone, even she found that we had been cheated, this kind hearted woman just kept repeat to me that, it is better to have the ability to help then being helped.

I do believe and thank God that most difficulties that I’d met were just something small potatoes in my life, sure as a ordinary person, I just don’t want to share with some kind of problem that is extra ordinary and I do hope that won’t happen to me till the end of my life.

I do like the advertising of Sprite, the soft drink, from which brings out the idea: be real to yourself.

A True Friend by wildflower13

Wildflower13 sent me her poem, then I translate it into Chinese. Thank you Ej. also I am translating the longer version, hope it could be posted in the next day.


A True Friend by Wildflower13
知己良朋 Chinese version translated by nqph2004

We met upon the internet,
網中低頭見,
My heart you did not have yet.
兩心不曾牽;
I sit and wait each day,
每天坐與等,
for the song my heart will soon play.
心曲終譜成。
Of laughter, love and tears,
悲歡友情在,
You have washed away all my fears.
心魔洗得快;
To be my friend and see so deep,
良朋窺心透,
I now know why I don't get much sleep.
短睡也足夠。
I have waited through all these years,
等待經有年,
To find something to hold so dear.
寶貴勝金錢;
And now I know I'll never be Blue,
不再有煩憂,
For I have found a true friend in you.
真情永不休。

2005年12月26日星期一

my daughter's maids

It's very hard to find a good maid nowadays, I treat every maid just as good as my family member yet they may not think as what I did. I asked my daughter to do it as the same as mine, treated every maid as her sister but once if she found the attitude of the maid may not as good as what we expected, just let them go and do not try to extend her service any longer. She had three maids in this year, but two were not as good as what she wanted, one of them is a young girl about twenty, she didn’t like to clean with any wet cloth (?), its true, she never use any wet cloth to clean anything for she thought that if her hand get wet, she might got rheumatic soon. I really wonder if she even taking a bath without any water, I also wanted to learn how to make a dry clean of our bodies.

The second one was a young woman, her service in the first week was fine, but starting in the second week, she told my daughter she has low blood pressure thus she needed extra rest in the afternoon, my daughter agreed and ask her to sleep after very lunch to have a better rest, she had her after lunch nap longer and longer until my daughter called me that she was worrying about her maid for sleeping three to four hours in the afternoon everyday! She bring her to doctor to have a simple check up, everything is normal, even the blood pressure was just normal as 110/80, nothing was wrong as she told her employer that she got low blood pressure, and she was just enjoying her long break time after lunch. My daughter set her break time to an hour after lunch, then she complaint that she got dizzy if she didn’t get enough sleep in the afternoon, I told her if she was so weak to work as a maid, she had better to leave. Surprisingly she told me that she was happy to go as she was looking for a better job where she could sleep longer in the afternoon, I just can't believe there was such kind of lazy person. I was not shame to tell her that most GRO were sleep in the day time or she could consider that, I ask her to pack her cloth immediately and go. Honestly my daughter just follow what I told her, most of our maid were not need to have so many work as other, washing clothes as many as they could, we ask our maid to use the washing machine, just have to know how to push the button and let it washes automatically, they have needed only to keep the house clean, and room cleaning was actully done by ourselves but not by them. Just can’t believe how difficult to have a good maid.

The last one was gone two days ago, on the Christmas Eve. She didn't like to join us to have a holiday at Nasugbu, so my daughter agreed her to spend the night with her relative and promise to come back to work on this morning. As I could see, she was very nice, wake up early in the morning and cleaned the floor before her employer had woke up. She could do all the job well without any order by her employer, my daughter was glad about her help, but later my daughter found she has something ridiculous, she liked to move the furniture, without any requested by her boss, she would move the dining table from right side of the dinning room to the left side, and also the sofa set, the beds, anything she could move. At first, we may think she move the furniture for cleaning, but later we found it was not the purpose, she moved the furniture just because she like to do it, even my daughter told her to stop that for she was starting to scare about if she has her mental problem. She lose her smile if we stopped her to move the things that she wanted and seems sad for days. Fortunately, she was getting fine in last month, everything were in order. After the report of my mother that she saw the maid went out the door after my daughter has slept at night, I called up my daughter and let her to take care everything and wonder if she's better to terminate the service of the maid, but seems she trust her maid. The day before Christmas, she was gone and never come back, my daughter found she lost her 4 pcs of new jeans and most of new clothes given by relatives for her baby boy's birthday were gone, just can't believe once again, what was she going on?

One night at golf resort

My cousin told me a place for spending the Christmas Eve, a quiet place.
It took us almost 2 and half hours to reach the place, Evercrest Golf Resort in Nasugbu, Batangas.
From Tagaytay, we drove all way to Batangas, not far from the Tagaytay Zoo, after the Arch of Nasugbu, we found the entrance of Evercrest Golf Resort at the left hand side.
This is a nice hotel, staffs were smiling even the one who was cleaning the floor in the hallway, rooms are quite big with a terrace but unfortunately the cooling system of air conditioning are located there, if we open the door of the terrace, the annoying sound from the machine will be heard. The sun was already sunk after we checked in, the air was just cool and fresh, we could see there was a pond with a fountain, the surrounding area was illuminated by strong spot light which fixed on the wall of the hotel, lighten by golden ray.



We have a king size bed, there was a door could be pass through to the room of our daughter’s family, the toilet was just big but with a little bit unpleasant odor which my wife didn’t notify about it. We couldn’t find any guest having their dinner inside the restaurant of the hotel or could be the time was still early. We then have our dinner in Josephine Restaurant in Tagaytay, it is a real nice restaurant, it was fully of customers even most of the other restaurants were empty of guest.


In the morning, the scene was just beautiful, we could see the whole green golf course from the terrace of our room, and it’s so comfortable to our eyes.

My little grandson was just known how to walk two weeks ago and has his first time to step on the grass, it’s too soft to walk on that he has to move step by step very carefully. A lady was came up to ask us to leave the course and went to other higher place that won’t be hit by the golf ball, an accident during the holiday is really a bad luck.




2005年12月23日星期五

Gift in advance

Gift in advance

After purchased 15 pesos of common nail,
The customer was asking a T-shirt which was not for sale;
My men refused giving one to him,
A stranger who was just walked in,
Wasn’t one of our customers ever been.
He then gave us a big offer,
"Someone is coming to make an order,
to buy materials worth tens of thousands",
But only if I could give him
a bottle of wine for Christmas;
or two could be better,
"One for the day, and one for the night,
a party isn’t happy without wine."
He was asking more than one,
For that would enough to be drunk,
Without any order that he made,
An advance gift he couldn’t wait,
I said “Keep your promise, and I’ll take the chance,
Here is a calendar for your remembrance.”

2005年12月15日星期四

Is this my fault?

"God, do help this guy, if he gets trouble, I might get trouble also because I had a mistake for I live too close to him, it could be my fault."

Everybody has their own attitude, here I have approached a man like this, made me scare to help when he asks me to do him favor again. Andy supposes no one he could trust and everybody are trying to cheat him. I knew him for the last 8 years, we were from the same hometown although he was born in China but I was born in Hong Kong, anyway we have the same ancestors.

My cousin Ben, who is also Andy's cousin, has quite a big shop of construction materials. When Andy first came from China, he stayed with Ben. Months later, he wanted to start his own business, the best way he thought to do was making concrete products so he could sold it easily because my cousin Ben has a good market for him. He has short of capital, so he asked Ben for help. He then borrowed money from him and saying that the entire fund borrowed from him was going to buy machines for the production. Years later, when he moved near to my place, he didn’t give any of his debt back to Ben but returned all the broken machines to him that he had told him all his money were went to machines and therefore he could only return him the machines but money. My cousin Ben told me he was being betrayed. Andy speaks very bad Tagalog as he through doing business doesn’t have to speak well but do “trap” well the customer. I do think he “trap” all the people whatever the one he knows about or not. For me, I knew him as a bad negative sample of life.

Andy asked me to help him to consult with doctor; he has felt stomach ache, very painful. I then brought him to a hospital that he asked for. He told me what he felt and I translated his words to the doctor, three type of medicine was given to him. When the nurse explained to him how was the dose and the price of the medicine for stomach ache; when he knew that medicine was costing him 65 pesos each, he suddenly reversed all he had told the doctor, and wondering how I had translated. He said he didn’t has stomach ache, and complaining I might give wrong translation. He said that he didn’t understand why did the doctor give him such expensive drugs, the doctor may want to cheat him and the medicine may damage his stomach actually. For me, it sounds crazy, I was so embarrassed and didn’t know how to explain this to the doctor who was gazing at us.

The second time he called me for he felt pain for hernia, he asked me accompany with him to go to Chinese general hospital, for there was a doctor need not to pay for consultation and he though he might need an operation to end the suffer. He started to bargain with the doctor like we usually hear in some places where vendors selling souvenirs for tourists. The good doctor did agree that he would charge him only 12 thousands for the operation if he could afford that amount. I told him clearly that the amount of 12 thousand was just only for the doctor , and all other charges of hospital were excluded. He told me for sure he knew about that. When I knew that he had chosen a private room, I started to worry about something could be happened later. I visited him once after the operation. I knew I might get trouble, so I kept staying home and hoping that he won't call me for any trouble. He called me up blaming me again this time that I had put him in cattle of fish. Beside the 12 thousands of doctor's charge, all the expenses in the hospital was almost cost him another 40 thousands, he refuse to pay for it and began arguing with the doctor, he stressed that I have to take care about this case for I was the one who accompanied with him to consult with the doctor, however, he had forgotten he was talking very clear with the doctor as they used the same language. This time I refused to go for I had explained clearly to him. I felt common senses were not applied to him, and he was really ridiculous. The doctor finally surrounded, just given him a free operation, the doctor told me about this when I had made a phone call to him for apologize, there was not necessary to argue with such unreasonable person, really he was really a great doctor with mercy.

Last night, he called me up for his little daughter was slide down and wounded her chin, he asked me hurry to go there as the little girl was bleeding. When I arrived, the girl was stopped bleeding by some Chinese medicine, the wound was about one inch width and the bone could be seen, I asked hurry to bring the little girl to doctor. When he firstly mentioned about the hospital he had been for stomach ache, he stopped his words and asked me if there was another doctor who could help the little girl. I explained to him this is only a minor operation, even a nurse could handle it. He refused to if there wasn't a doctor, his daughter wouldn't be cure just with the help of a nurse. I was so worry if he could make me embarrasses again this time, I was really worry. Luckily, there was another doctor to help, but Andy starting to make me embarrasses; he let me asked the doctor if he could really know how to handle the wound of his daughter, because he want it to be sure. I was so angry this time and told him he could ask the doctor himself or better we should leave. I simply ask the doctor to take care of the little poor girl and I stepped out the ER, I just couldn't be with him any more, I help but I don't want to be embarrassed any more.

2005年12月10日星期六

health and death

I was supposed to call Edwin, my Godson who I want to ask why he didn’t appear in the badminton court for weeks, his wife called me up for his husband was rush to the hospital this morning for the reason of hypertension. He got 160/100 this morning and feeling dizzy, his wife bring him to a hospital and let him has a rest over there. He is 34 years old I think, last time I have my blood pressure check in a hospital, the doctor was advising me to reduce my weight and do same exercise while I am already close to 50 years old, has to reduce everything bad to health. I have begun playing badminton some months ago with my wife. Sweat wetted our clothes like we had just being pulled out from a swimming pool. I couldn’t going on the lesson after 10 minutes, thinking that it was not possible for me and my wife, but our instructor tell us to have a rest for 5 minutes and came back, so we did it, had the first lesson for about 20 minutes. The lesson continues for one full week. Fortunately we can play now for at least one hour without stopping in middle, sometime even more without feeling tired after play.

There is a bad news for to-day, my friend Connie, a money changer who was got shot and died yesterday morning when she was just open her shop, a man dashed into her office and try to rob her, she fight with the man and he open fire, a bullet shot right at her chest, she lost her life and money. He is a real cold blooded man, this is Philippine, anyone could got kill by someone but someone who kill shall not being executed because here is a country where death penalty was for display only, no one will care and just to those who got killed because they were already dead, if the killer being executed then it will against the will of the church, but how was the just for the one who got kill without any reason or could we said God took her life back through the hand of the killer? Oh my friend, poor friend.

2005年12月9日星期五

cold rain

Three days already since Thusday, it keeps rain all the time, from the morning till the evening then continue to the other day, what a ......, my God, when will it be stopped, I need business, my bank account is drying although everywhere are wet out there. I stepped out of my office, stood in the rain, what a cold feeling, it's not cool, it's cold, my heart is cold for Christmas is coming, everybody is looking for the bonus, I can't disappoionted them.