XQ's Blog

Today, I went shopping with my Airbnb guest in the supermarket. She liked ice cream and asked me which brand of the ice cream is the best in Singapore. I told her that I have no idea about ice cream. 

She then picked up a Haagen Dazs, I told her that you picked up the most famous one . That’s the only brand I know! She didn’t know the brand ! She is from a small city northern Russian by the way .

Anyway, when we approached the cashier, there was another women lining behind us, she said to us, “can we buy these ice cream together, as they are in promotion, we get 50 percent off if we buy together! ” It came to me as a bit surprise, but my guest replied smiled and naturally replied,” why not ?” 

So she gave my guest some cash and both of them get 50 percent off of the ice cream. Brilliant! 

I will have to say this women is smart and outgoing. This kind of thing just won’t happen in Japan, where women is shyer and reluctant to talk to strangers ! This is one of things that I love about Singapore !  

My colleague was telling me once you have kids, you better to have a car in Singapore despite its ridiculous price tag. 

I have to admit that you need a car in Singapore here if you want to be convenient. Singapore’s public transportation, as I am writing now in 2016, is still far less developed than Tokyo. 

 My experience tells me that if I go from a place to another place where MRT is nearby in the city centre , taking a taxi or driving is still twice or sometimes three times faster than taking MRT, thanks to the road that is designed for car owners , the rich people. There are not many traffic lights and crossing for pedastrain . 

I think the Singapore government should build more MRTs, seriously. 

前一段时间在晚上找到了一个很不错得马来西亚乐队，经过几次交流, 在网上看到他们的表演，特别不错。准备请他们来中国唱一些老上海Jazz。但是怎么也没想到，他们打了几十次中国驻马来西亚大使馆电话关于申请以艺术家身份来中国签证的问题, 到现在还是没有得到答复。 
国人有抱怨外国对待中国公民不公，故意加上繁琐的签证手续。我看是中国先对外国公民不公。比如B1/B2美国签证，我一个印度同事申请了拿的是有效期都10年，我去年去夏威夷的时候却是一年的。到网上查了一下，才知道其他国家都是10年，只有中国是一年有效期。原因是中国不愿意给美国公民10年的签证，美国没法给中国公民10年。

每次看到这个景象，总会觉得中国的大人很多都是童心未泯。

今天在办公室周围看到一位打扮穿着都很斯文优雅的美女，竟然盘坐在一个露天餐厅！

在日本可能就是千年难遇的景象！

I just had a guest who is from France. I am a wine lover and so I took this opportunity to ask him recommendations of wines.

He told me that Monbazillac is one of his favorite sweet wines.

So I did some Google search on the Internet, it looks like it is a quite undiscovered sweet wine.

The red wine he liked a lot is the Montepulciano.

Just pin down these two wines here for my future trip to France.