Friend from Shanghai

On this lazy Saturday afternoon, I was watching March Madness at Harry's Hofbrau when suddenly my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and realize the call was from Tao!

Tao was a former co-worker. Both of us joined the same company about 6 months apart and became fast friends. We used to take walk every day around the campus, discussing everything from technical problems to career decisions to weekend activities. Both of us also shared interest in independent movies and skiing.

After a year of working together, Tao decided to move Shanghai, China, where he is an application engineer for Cypress Semiconductor's capacitive sensing chips for use on touch screen cell phones.

We had interesting discussion on capacitive sensing structures, the engineering cultures of various cell phone vendors, and of course SRAM designs. Tao held almost 20+ patents in various aspect of SRAM circuit design, but in our conversation, he told me he had completely forgot about transistors. In fact, he struggled to remember the term "body effect".

We also talked about his life in Shanghai. Tao told me his life is more balance now. He moved from Pudong to the Puxi, the older part of Shanghai, where life is more diverse. He is taking sketching lessons and playing soccer, things he did not have time for while working in the US.

We chatted for almost 3 hours, before jet lag starting taking its toll on Tao. We decided to call it a night, but it was great catching up.

Trip to Singapore 7-CK

CK is one of my closest childhood friend. We met each other in Primary school and were in the same class for 6 years. As luck would have it, we were again in the same class through 4 years of Secondary school. We went to the same junior college, and despite being in different group, continue to hang out together.

I always considered CK the smartest person I know. Right out of college, he found his own company, which was bought out by a listed company. He is now back in his own company, working on new project.

We lost touch in the past few years and I am happy to find out he is now married and has a beautiful daughter.
---
This Singapore trip had been very interesting. I met with many of my friends, most of which were about my age. I had a sense we are all near the mid-life crisis age now. Most of my friends are quite successful in career and family, but now are looking into doing something more in this life. I guess in some way, I had similar feelings too.

Trip to Singapore 6-EY

EY is a friend I know from college. He was in school on a military scholarship, so even though he is only a year older than me, he had been in college for a few years when I started. Given this head start, we did not get very close in school, but he was always a good advisor to us newbies.

A few years ago, EY came back to the US for more schooling. Since his school was located near the Bay area, so got to do more things together and got to know him better.

We had a good chat about relationships, career and financial planning. EY had managerial responsibilities in the military and gave me a lot of good insights.

Trip to Singapore 5-Via Ferrata, Stella

A few months ago, I read on ZaoBao.com about Orchard Central latest attraction: The world's tallest indoor via ferrata.

I had done some indoor rock climbing in the past and rather enjoyed the experience. Via ferrata is not rock climbing, but is similar in the sense one has to climb up a wall:) I figured I would enjoy it too.

Also, according to my online research, via ferrata is fairly popular in Europe. I personally didn't think it would be popular in California. Californians would frown upon allowing anyone to drill permanent metal rungs into rocks for any reason. Doing it to promote touring would be unimaginable.

I reached Orchard Central at about 3pm. Took me a while to find BorderX, the company running the Via Ferrata. It was located on the 4th floor. We were to climb up to the 8th floor.

I was given a climbing harness and helmet to wear. Instead of being belayed by someone on the ground, there was a Y shaped rope attached to the harness. At the end of each rope was a carabiner. This is to be hooked on a metal cable running near the metal rungs. The cable were held to the wall via anchors drilled into the wall. If a person fall during climbing, the carabiner would be caught by the anchors. The Y shaped rope ensured at least one carabiner would always be clipped in, especially when moving carabiner from one stretch of the cable to a higher section.

A second protection was a long rope tying me and my guide together. The lead climber would secure the rope in pig tail shaped anchor drilled into the wall and I was to release them when I climbed to the appropriate height.

Finally, a quick draw with carabiner at the end was connect to the harness. This is for resting. I could connect a carabiner directly on the metal rungs, leaned back and rest while climbing.

Since this was my first trip, the guide, Zaki, was the lead climber and I followed. I had expected the climb to be a walk in the park, but it was actually quite tiring. While the hand hold and foot hold were really good compare to rock climbing, there was still some exertion. Also, the metal rungs were not always in a straight line. Sometimes, it bended according to the wall and part of the metal rungs had to be climbed with out leg hold. On the lower section of the wall, leg holds were mounted to the wall, but on high section of the wall, I had to press off directly on the wall. There were also overhang structure to make the route more interesting.

Zaki was very patient and encouraging as I started climbing. There was a lot more for the climber to do compare to rock climbing. Clipping carabiners to the next section of the protection cable, releasing rope from the pig tail pin. Sometimes I would forget and found myself tied down:(

During the climb, I learned that Zaki is actually a competition rock climber. This is his full time job, leading climbs at BorderX. Due to work, he had not have time to train, but going up the Via Ferrata was a piece of cake for him. He usually take 4-10 people as a group up on each climb. But, during the holiday season, things were slower and I was the only client.

We stopped on a ledge to catch our breath, then pushed on. At the top of the climb was a small room to rest before climbing down a straight ladder into the shopping mall.

My first climb took about 20mins. According to Zaki, he had clients taken anywhere from 10mins to 1hr 20mins on this climb. I asked if anyone had fell from the Via Ferrata and he told me it had happened. It was usually a rather traumatic experience. Compared to rock climbing with belay, a fall on via ferrata would not be caught until the anchor point. The distance between the anchor point was usually half a person's height, but at certain places was up to a person height. No wonder Zaki was advising me to clipped on the the next higher anchor point as soon as possible.

I half joking told Zaki I did not get my money's worth on one 20min climb. He told me I paid for an hour and could go again! This time, he put me on the right hand route, which was a more straight route but had more difficult overhang structure. There was also no resting ledge in the middle of the route.

I asked to be the lead climber and Zaki oblidged. The initial part of the climb was fairly easy and I got up quickly. At the overhang structure, I cheated and used the quick draw to rest between each rung. I did not check the time, but felt I made good time.

After my second climb, I was drenched. Zaki told me the air conditioning did not have good flow near the wall, but I suspected my physical conditioning was not quite up to par too. I decided to call it a day.

Overall, via ferrata was quite fun. It was a pity the BorderX facility had limited number of route. While easier than rock climbing, via ferrata was still quite physically demanding. I liked the fact I could loop my elbow over the metal rungs to "lock" myself to the metal rungs while climbing. This provided much stronger hand hold using a stronger muscle compare to hand hold in rock climbing.

More pics from my Via Ferrata climb here.
----
That night, I met for dinner with Stella at Newton Circle Food Center for fried Hokkien noodles. Most Singaporean/Malaysian restaurant in the Bay area are operated by Malaysian, which prepare a different style of Hokkien noodle. This is one dish I craved for the most when I return to Singapore.

I got to know Stella while she was working in the Bay area. She had left San Francisco for Melbourne, Australia in 2007, but for family reasons, moved back to Singapore in 2008.

We talked about how life style was different in Singapore compared to San Francisco and even Melbourne. There were a lot more things to do and places to visit. Comparatively, activities in Singapore were more limited. Part of her wanted to move to a more "westernize" society, but part of her was glad she was home with families.

We chatted about her recent travels to African Safari, and her travel plans for the new year. It was a good time.

Trip to Singapore 4-T

This morning, I met T for breakfast. T is another friend I knew from Army. I had wanted to arrange meeting with him and Yong together, knowing the two of them do not get together unless I am around, but T had prior arrangement.

We had breakfast at Marine Parade hawker center. T is a sales manager in a telecommunication company. His company recently brought in a new CEO from CISCO and along with that a whole bunch of new VP from CISCO. Along with that, the company recently acquired another company, but in the Asia office, it was the acquired company's GM who is now running the show. T is frustrated with the culture change and is looking into starting a second career, possibily something internet related.

Trip to Singapore 3-Driving range with YC and Family dinner

This morning, YC took me and Yee-Chye to Marina Bay Golf Course driving range for a little workout.

Both YC and Yee-Chye are friends of my brother, from high school and Army respectively. YC is like a family friend and visits often, while I had not met Yee-Chye for about 10 years.

En route, I found out we would be going to the driving range instead of the course. Apparently, in order to play on the course, one had to pass an exam. Both Yee-Chye and myself had never played golf, so that's not going to happen:)

Yee-Chye and myself are southpaw, while YC is not. We were using YC's clubs, so we had to adapt and swing right handed. YC handed me a 7 iron, go through the basic swing mechanics and off we go!

I had trouble with locking my back on my swing and had lots of trouble just hitting the ball straight on. When I finally locked my back and got contact with the ball, I was hitting it too low. The ball did not travel far. The furthest I could manage was hit the ball about 50m.

After we had hit 20-30 balls, YC took out his driver and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. With the bigger sweet spot, the driver was easier to hit with. I was able to hit the ball about 100m, but had a nasty slice and the ball did not travel straight.

I had always thought golf was a fairly relaxed game. But after hitting almost 50 balls, combined with the hot and humid weather of Singapore, I was completely drenched.

YC took me and my parents to lunch at Tunk Lok Classic. We had a cold spinach appetizer. This dish was very similar to a Korean spinach salad which I often prepared, but used sesame paste to further heighten the flavor. We also ordered a Chinese BBQ pork with Chinese hot mustard as appetizer.

This was followed by scallop and abalone in soy sauce. Here, I tasted a nuttyness to the sauce, and suspect it was thicken with butter. There was a steamed bamboo clamp dish, and we finished with steamed fish with wood ear mushroom. The seafood were all very fresh, and there was very creative use of sauce.

For dinner, it was a family affair at my sister's house. My cousins, who are both working in China, happened to be vacationing in Singapore and joined us. My sister planned the menu and prepared bruschetta to start, "Westernized" salt-water duck and baked salmon with dill mustard sauce for the main course. She also made a orange chiffon cake with lemon curd and mixed berries for dessert. There was also a cheese platter and Australian/New Zeland wine for the after dinner conversations.

After dinner, I went with my cousin and his girl friend to Zouk. It was fairly dead. I guess by Boxing day, most people had enough of Christmas parties and had wanted to take a break.

Trip to Singapore 2-Yong and Danny

Today I met with Yong for lunch at Din Tai Fung (Junction 8) for fried rice, chicken soup and, of course, xiao long bao. Yong was my Army buddy. The last time we met, he was starting his own business. He is now a successful system integrator, running a company of 2, working mostly with Sun systems. While he also worked with Window machines, the decrease popularity in Sun hardware was having a big impact on his business. Yong is married but have no kids. He told me he was tired of his work and wanted to work on something else in a few years.

Dinner was with my primary school friend Danny. We literally know each other for most of our life. In fact, Danny had sort of become a family friend. He would visit my parents from time to time, even when I am not around.

Danny took me to Chin Lee restaurant for Teochew food. We had coffee pork ribs, chicken pan cake with plum sauce, fried prawn roll, stir fried Chinese broccoli with mushroom, tofu with minced meat sauce and, the all popular Teochew dessert, orh nee (yam pudding). I am actually part Teochew. While I ate Teochew food infrequently growing up, some of the ingredients, like plum sauce, was often used in our daily meals. I had not found many Teochew restaurants in the Bay area and enjoyed the meal very much!

Danny is a support specialist at SIM University. He is married and has a really cute daughter.

Calligraphy class get together

As some of you know, I started practicing Chinese calligraphy at Tzu Chi foundation's Northern California chapter in late 2001. I had been attending classes regularly until early 2008. Over the years, many students had come and gone, but a few fellow students and our teacher became very close friends.

In March 2009, we had a gathering at K and DM's house. It was a really good time. Our group of friends had stopped attending class regularly and it had been more than a year since we last met each other.

We shared stories of LS mountain biking accident in Ireland, M's job in Southern California and her return to the Bay Area, K's co-worker's story, Phil's travel and poem and teacher R's part time gig as TV talk show host.

After 9 months, we had another gathering, again at K and DM's house. Phil came with his wife and M brought her daughter along. Since it was a work night, we could not stay as long, but enjoyed a scrumptious French dinner prepared by K and DM and lots of conversation.

K and DM would be moving to Southern California in May next year. LS just came back from a trip to Peru and wanted to go study Spanish in Guatemala. Phil's mom pass away a few months ago and he had been travelling between US and Taiwan taking care of business. Teacher R is now a full time TV host. M is preparing to launch her own skin care product.

In this holiday season, it was really nice catching up with old friends. I had a good time and wished for more similar gathering.

House warming and Wedding

I got an email on Thursday from V. It was an invitation to his wedding on Friday evening at Mantra in Palo Alto. I had already made plans for the evening, but told V I would stop by after my dinner to congratulate him and his wife.

A few weeks ago, I was at G's house warming party. I knew G and V from my first job. At that time, I had been with the company for almost 6 years, while G and V were NCG (new college grads), just left from grad school, starting their first job. I had worked with both of them to help learn about the work environment and the company's design methodology.

I had left my previous for 3 years now, but it was exciting seeing the coming of age of the then new engineers.

Friend from Taiwan/New York

WCT and I went to grad school together. We were all part of the late night gang, working from 7pm to 3am in clean room every day. A special bond was formed while we were working crazy hours in a stressful environment.

After graduation, WCT went to work in New York for GE Labs. He also started a family and keep non-engineer hours. Given the time difference, we did not contact each other very often. But every time he came into town for business, we would make an effort to get together and catch up.

We last saw each other in April in San Francisco. He was contemplating about a teaching position in National Taiwan University. I learned on this visit he is currently an associate professor at NTU's Electrical Engineering Department.

There was a lot of change in his life over the last several months which we shared over dinner at a mutual friend's house and drinks at A Perfect Finish.

Friend from France(?)

K was in town for a week.

I first met K on my first job. Both of us joined the same company about 6 months apart and were both fresh out of school. We worked on the same unit on the same project, MM. This project being our first our of school, we put our heart and soul into our work. We worked late to make sure we met dateline. We came in on weekend to catch up. K was my RTL counterpart. We interacted a lot and became close friends.

After project MM, K and I moved onto project RK. But, we worked on different units and together with lifestyle changes, drifted apart. Then I left the company and did not hear from her for a while.

We started hanging out again in 2007. In 2008, she was accepted for the MBA program at INSEAD in France. She had been in France studying for the past 6 months and is back in town for a 1 week class. Given her busy class schedule, we do not keep in touch except through updates on Facebook.

We met at the local PF Chang's for dinner, with 20 of her other friends. Some were co-workers on MM which I have not met since the project was completed. It was fun catching up with everyone.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

I called my Irish American friend Gary over the weekend to wish him Happy St Patrick's Day. Turned out he was in Wuxi, on a business trip. I jokingly asked if there is an Irish pub nearby. His answer was, unfortunately no.

Gary used to buy us beer at Connor O'Neills while we were both going to grad school, so we were really closed:) We moved to different cities after graduation, but I still seeked his advice from time to time.

At the end of our conversation, Gary asked me to have a pint on his behalf on St. Patrick's Day. I am only too happy to oblige. I drove to the King's Head Pub on my way home for a green beer, but saw a long line of people waiting to get in. Not wanting to wait, I decided to have a black and tan at home instead.

This one's for you, Gary!

Dinner with A and S

A IM'ed me at work last week, asking me if I am free for dinner on Saturday evening. I told him sure...

A's SO, S, is a good friend of mine from undergrad. We don't meet very often because we stayed in different part of the bay area. One event we have done regularly together is the San Francisco Dine About Town (DAT) promotion in January every year. We are both a little bit of a foodie:)

However, DAT(Dine About Town) changed its format this year. Instead of offering the promotion the entire month of January, as in previous years, this year, DAT promotion is been offered during the last 2 weeks of January and the first 2 weeks of June.

I was sick on the the weekend in January where we were supposed to meet, so this is like a make up dinner:)

We met for Little Lamb Mongolian Hot Pot in Union City. I have heard positive reviews about the food there and eagerly went. Turns out A and S loved the place and have been there several times already. They did most of the ordering. I posted a review on Yelp about the restaurant.

Good food, great company...After a somewhat busy week at work, I was glad to unwind a little and enjoy myself.

With this new format for DAT, we will definitely try to do dinner in San Francisco during the first 2 weeks of June.

Friend from Phoenix; A friend in need is a friend indeed

My buddy from Grad school is getting married! A had worked long and hard for his PhD. After graduation, he worked at Freescale and somehow found time to study for a MBA as well. He is now an NPI manager. After years of school and work, he finally found time to date and settle down. A is one of the nicest guy anyone could know, and I am really happy for him.

His fiancee used to live in the Bay area and still have family here. They organized simple wedding celebration/reception at Shanghai 1930. I have not seen A in about a year now, and was quite excited to meet him. Besides, I heard Shanghai 1930 has good cocktails and good jazz...good enough reason for anyone:)

It was a fairly low key affair. Turns out I was the only friend from the groom side, so my showing meant a lot to A. I had a few cocktails, got stuffed on the free appetizers and generally had a good time. There was a band (Terry Disley) playing jazz which I enjoyed as well. My detailed review of Shanghai 1930 can be found on Yelp!

A is getting married on Dec 23rd in India. I volunteered to inform our mutual friends.

After the party, I went to the Bart station for my ride home. I had came up from Fremont BART and notice there was no train from Embarcadero to Fremont after 8pm. I panicked and call another friend, A, to pick me up from Millbrae and drive me to Fremont.

Turns out I made a mental mistake. The direct train from Embarcadero to Fremont was not running, but I could still make Fremont by going to East Bay and transferring trains. A told me he found the information on the web after I called, but decided he will come pick me up anyway. I am really grateful about that.

Friend from Singapore

Got an email from TS about a month ago. He is visiting from Singapore!

TS is a old friend from my Army days. Him, me and another guy use to hang out together a lot, complaining about our superiors. I last met him about 2 years ago.

Anyway, his wife was in town for a conference and he tagged along. We met up for dinner in Fremont at Salang Pass. Unfortunately, I had a fever that night and was not able to do too much with him.

Still it was great seeing a friend from long ago and seeing how much had change between him and me. The youthful, wide eye lads of yester-years are now older:)

Kayak Self Rescue Clinic & Visitors From San Diego!

In preparation for People Paddle 2007, City Kayak offered a self rescue clinic at a discount to people paddle participants. I decided to take advantage of this offer, since I enjoy kayaking, and the lessons will make me more comfortable in renting a sit inside kayak for future trips.

Ted from City Kayak led the lessons. The first part was a demostration and practice on land. For self rescue, we learn paddle float rescue, which can be used in any conditions. Then there is T-rescue, where by another kayak would assist a cap sized kayak. Finally, the sloppy rescue, to be used in calm weather conditions.


In this picture, Ted have me simulate wave on the paddle float to get us a feel of where our center of gravity should be, in order to have the maximum leverage against the wave.

After land practice, we have a hands on session. We were all given wet suit, and then cap sized our kayak on purpose. Getting wet in SF during early April is not a good idea, even with wet suit:(

I was able to do the paddle float rescue and with the help of Brenda did T-rescue. However, I think I have an extremely unstable kayak and was never able to do the sloppy rescue. Hopefully, this will not come back to haunt me during People Paddle:)

More pictures of the clinic at posted by Dean.

After the clinic, I met up with my landlord's family from San Diego. I first met the family while working as an intern in San Diego almost 10 years ago.

We have remain friends after I moved out. We last saw each other in 2003, and then sort of lose touch. When I sent out email asking for donation for People Paddle, they suddenly realized I am in the Bay Area and they were out here visiting.

We had dinner together in at R&G Lounge in Chinatown. After dinner, I drove them around town for some of my favorite SF sights.

I am really happy to get back in touch.

Friend from Chicago

S call out of the blue and mentioned she is in town! She is literally one of the first person I met when I came to this country almost 15 years ago. She was like a big sister to me, sending me cookie while I was in college and welcoming my visit during Thanksgiving.

We had not seen each other after I left Midwest and came here to work.

We met up at B44 for dinner with her friends, then stop by Jade bar for after dinner drinks. It was really cool catching up with her.