And yes, I do believe we have the same time as HK.

I usually calculate West Coast time via the following formula =

If it’s 8am here, it’s 8pm there but yesterday.

JY, sorry for typing too fast and not proof reading as usual. Is Jed a Malaysian name? It is uncommon but I saw Jed as the first name before.

TQ, I must be losing my touch of making jokes. All mistakes could be due to old age. Yes, too little and too much of everything including money is no good. The Chinese saying ‘better in be in the middle’ is still applicable in today’s society. I’ve started with negative $500 (a loan) to OK – plentiful for my simple life style and I do not need money to buy stuffs or mistresses (like your good friend) to make me happy.

There are many examples of lottery winners having a tough time in life. If I won one (waiting for my turn for a long while), all would go to charities. Not noble, but I really do not need extra money and the stresses that come with it. The expensive restaurant foods could kill me with the high fat contents, the mistresses could make me died of overexertion , my worries about who are my real friends…

Have a nice weekend to you both. JY, are you 8 hours or so ahead or behind US?

Re: Joke # 1 : O I C….Actually, the subject of marriage didn’t come up, yunno what I mean?

Re: Joke # 2 : Didn’t some French guy once said, “In order to live a simple life, one has to be rich.” ?
Seems to make sense, but then at the same time , if I suddenly had tens of millions of RMB, I would be all concerned about how to keep up with inflation, which means I’ll be looking around all the time to re-invest the money. Actually, that’s a problem I don’t mind having to deal with. Perhaps I could buy a couple of apartments in some posh districts in KL, Singapore, and Hong Kong and rent them out, then go live in Yunan, run a Bed and breakfast perhaps in the land of eternal Spring. A bar and a second home in LIjiang . How does that sound?

(2) Not a good joke neither. It referred to what JD said about ‘colonization/moderazation’ to the natives. Will it make them happy?

Money is the root of all evils. For that kind of money, she would ….Very shameful.

Hi JD after several interesting posts (3 days is more than 2 hours) with TQ, TQ would marry you too!

I hope the First Emperor of China united both the written and oral language.

You remind me of the following joke.

The US tourist taught the fisherman how to make more money by hiring people and fishing earlier. When he came back to the island, the fisherman was very rich by local standard. He asked him what to do with his extra wealth. The fisherman said, ‘I still do the same staffs, like singing with my friends, sleeping most afternoon, and feeling happy as before.”

Dun be embarassed. Ha Ha.

Anyway, I read China women are quite predatory. Ha Ha.We call them “Dragon Ladies” here and they made news for breaking families and conning 70-year-old men of their wealth. Internationally, we have Wendi Deng + Rupert Murdoch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendi_Deng ) and the mistresses of CCP officials. Some of these new immigrants hang out at coffee shops and lure the bored old men.

I also read in the papers today about China women arranging for “escorts” to bring home over Chinese New Year. http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?tid=625885&gid=3

Kee Kee. HKD4,500 per mth is not a lot. Kee Kee. I would advise your friend to be careful. Extreme poverty usually breeds extreme greed?

This latest wave of immigration from China is also slowly turning Canto KL into Mandarin KL….AH! The waitress at the coffee shop where we had lunch today couldn’t speak CANTO. Can you believe it? Being made to feel like a foreigner in KL! What’s happening? Ha Ha. Oh well, the more the merrier.

Re Language + Education

Yes, I read about the crazy change to Mandarin.
The Europeans are really quite versatile.
Here, we have to get Malaysians to make friends with everyone, not turn the country into a Chinese outpost, preserve the local identity, and oh yeah, master knowledge.

Oh, I am so embarrassed. A thousand apologies, Ms. Yoong. You know what? About two months ago, I met a Hakka girl in China, and after chatting for no more than an hour , she asked me to introduce her to a man. Seeing that she seems like a decent person, I said sure, and asked her what her types were. She then went on to explain to me that she had a boyfriend before (it’s their way of telling someone that they are not a virgin – I guess it’s something that still matters in some parts of China) as long as the guy can take care of her she didn’t really care about looks or whatever. I then asked, “take care” how? Now, speaking of no BS and practicality. Her reply was RMB5,000 a month for living expenses. She said that was what her family told her. My HK buddy beside me started to get cheeky and said, “I’ll give you RMB4,000 a month, be my mistress.” It was hilarious watching them go back and forth over that for a few minutes.

Later, I found out that the straw that broke the camel’s back in her last relationship was when her boyfriend refused to “loan” her 30,000RMB (US$3,500) to start some business.

Now, I would have been tempted to date her myself, if the above conversation never took place. She has such a nice personality and not bad to look at either. It’s just that the whole thing went against my silly idea of romance. But then again, I keep reminding myself that marriage of convenience – as in arranged marriage, is still being practiced in many places here and elsewhere, and has been for thousands of years. The internet matchmaking business is huge business. Overseas and mail order brides and all. Who am I to judge? Anyway, I hope my rich business friend, who is on his way to China, will find her attractive, and be willing to take care of her.

Jed Yoong you wrote: “Oh big debate now. It’s mainly ‘cos the natives say it’s hard for them to learn in a foreign language or non-native language.”

I was watching on HK tele but not too long ago, and in this documentary they were debating over the same problem with using English as the language of instruction. I think HK also did something drastic after the handover , like Malaysia did when they gained independence from the Brits, and the English levels plummeted. I don’t know what to say. Meantime, Mainland China is promoting English in schools. The Europeans have it best. Everyone of them I’ve met all spoke English plus at least two other European langauges. Not so with most North Americans, though. I think it is getting better nowadays with more and more picking up Spanish as it becomes an important tool in certain States.