Day 4 - Fatter Bird

23 June 2009

Sponsored Dinner – Jones Bay Wharf
It was an interesting place situated right next to the wharf, about a 15-minute ride from the hotel. The place looked cold on the outside but was rather cosy on the inside. I ended up being seated at a table together with the Taiwanese and Chinese. One of those dinners where you have to develop and nurture the “guan xi” ties between yourself and the other countries/organizations.

And it’s natural too. The Asians tend to flock together. Especially the Chinese-speaking ones.

The food turned out to be so-so. Some dishes were good, some were strange.
The entrée was some dish which had strange flour-like blobs coated with a cream sauce. It really looked like the Chinese “tang yuan”. No filling nothing. Just flour. Hmm mm.

For mains, lamb or barramundi was served. Somehow the server put a plate of barramundi in front of me and so I had that same fish for the second night in a row. It was quite well done and the grilled potatoes which came along with it were very well done as well. I stole a pice of lamb from the guy sitting next to me and the lamb was very good too. Tender and no overpowering odour of any sort haha.

Tiko Bird
There was a “tiko” uncle from Taiwan seated across the table from me during dinner. Tried to hit on me in front of the rest...it was a little too obvious. Gosh. I hope my rep wasn’t dragged down by him or anything…

One instance was the conversation between us that happened when a communal plate of dessert was placed in the middle of our table

Him: Meijin, have some have some. (bear in mind I was the youngest at the table and the smallest fry. It wasn’t appropriate of me to take anything in terms of etiquette)
Me: Oh no, it’s ok, you guys better have it first. Anyway I think it’ll be too sweet for me.
Him: How do you know it’s sweet if you’ve not even tasted it yet?
Me: It looks sweet enough..
Him: And you look very sweet too…
Me: *acted blur* *laughed it off* *turned to the lady next to me*

Chinese Twitterings
Language has improved. Hehe. I can’t say my Mandarin conversations are decent but at least, I’m able to handle it better than before lol. Hanging out with the Chinese folks have given me a beter grasp of my mother tongue...

And they love calling me by my Chinese name. They’re just so amused that my Chinese name is read as “US Dollars” haha….oh well, makes for good small talk whenever I meet a new Chinese person.

Weather
Cold again. But much better than the day before. I’m beginning to fall in love with scarves.