New Range Hood in the Kitchen

New range hood

One of the smaller items on the kitchen's to-do list was installing a new hood over the range and oven. Or at least I thought it was a smaller item until I rolled up my sleeves and got into the details of the job...

I took out the old range hood last year when I replaced a couple sections of drywall and painted the cabinets. Usually I like to reuse whatever parts and materials I can to avoid being wasteful, but the old hood was a nasty orangish-bronze color and had over 40 years of grease worked into every corner of it. After the cabinets had been painted and reinstalled, I just couldn't see the old hood being anything but an eye sore and decided a new one was the way to go.

Pendulum Box

Pendulum box

I like pendulums. I like the materials they're made from, the various cuts that shape them, the symmetry and balance that comes from their point, but most especially I like the feel of their weight when they hang from a silver chain. The challenge with pendulums, however, is they're also rather fragile, especially at that delicate point that gives them their focus.

I've acquired five pendulums to date: two of them were from a street market in Santa Monica, one was from the Jade Market in Taipei, and the last two were waiting for me at a gem and mineral show here in Colorado. When I only had one or two it was a easy to wrap them up and keep them safely tucked away in a pretty pouch or box, but as my collection grew that method no longer seemed adequate or, perhaps more accurately for this project, appropriate.

Spirited Times

Hong Kong hostels

I'm a terrible tourist, sincerely and truly I am the worst. I'd known for 60 days when my next visa run would be and still I waited until only 8 were left before booking my flight. I was even worse with the my room at the hostel...they replied "all full" only 22 hours before my arrival on the Dragon Boat festival holiday weekend.

And I somehow decided the rest of my preparations were "complete" with a single page Google Maps printout of hostels in the target neighborhood and a copy of Wikitravel's article on Hong Kong saved to my laptop.

The True Meaning of DHL

Singapore Skyline

My first image of Singapore, even before the stubborn ATM outside of 7-Eleven, was that of a DHL truck laying at a 45 degree angle in the bushes of the meridian leading out of the airport.*

"Do you know what DHL means?" asks the cab driver in a strong Philippine accent. I search my jet-lagged expat memory and am forced to admit that I don't.

"Don't hurry la!" he says glancing at me in the rear view mirror as I burst into laughter and immediately take a liking to Singapore.

Ginger Tea to Universal Adaptor

Ginger Tea

So what's the first thing I want after I get my ATM card working again? Food! And being from Los Angeles with a host of Indian buffet lunches, and Taiwan having a severe lack of what I think of as curry dishes, I head out to Little India.

About 15% of Sinpagore's population is from India and from the moment I step off the subway car I can see I'm in a totally different part of town.

At lunch I get my curry fix with a fork and spoon while fingers all around me mix together rice and sauce into small mounds on their plates.

April (four-letter-word) Fool's!

I ended my employment at Kojen on Wednesday and as is the custom for foreign teachers who leave their jobs in Taiwan, I needed to make a visa run the very next day. So I packed clothes for a 6-day trip to Singapore, every possible document the consulate might need neatly copied and organized in both paper and electronic forms, and a bit of work to take with me for the those afternoons in air-conditioned cafes when I'd be avoiding the mid-day heat. Then I was off for a nice little vacation before my official "working vacation" in Taiwan began.