I, Lobster

Maybe I shouldn't stay in the sun so long. Or I should stay in it more often. Went to the pool over teh weekend, sat there for 30 minutes and now I look like a lobster...

Lessons from cross cultural training

In Europe, when you travel further East than Berlin, you will be subjected to "Cultural Sensitivity Training" as it could happen that you meet someone from another ethnic background. White means something different in various countries. One thing is simple and I have not come accross anyone else that does it: Chinese Family names come first. Easy, right. Ho Ching Dew is Mr. Ho.

As I am not Chinese (No, really, I am NOT), my first name comes first, the last name last.
Can someone please tell the people in the banks and authorities about this fact? Just tell them that Caucasians and Chinese are NOT the same and that they also don't use the same logic for names.
Maybe eventually people will stop calling me Mr. Stefan (to which I am not reacting, cos there could be a Mr. Stefan. There are only a few families named Pertz. I react to Stefan or Mr. Pertz)

Less beer, more WORKOUT

After consolidating the 6-pack into one big one, the time has come to reverse this. This week I have signed up in a place where they have some rusty equipment and machines. I am not sure if one would call it a gym. The dust on the 100 pound dumbells dates back to the independance of Malaysia, there are the owner's kids sleeping on the floor (as if it wasn't difficult enough to control the weight, now you also have to watch out not to step on someone's face).

Here in the Condominium they have installed cameras in the gym, which is really silly. In any other fitness center they ban camera phones. Why? Cos you don't want some pervert to post videos of your wife in the gym on Youtube.

This month I am going to Hong Kong 2 times. Both trips are for the Asian Trucker.