After the accident I figured there must be something wrong with the front engine, or something associated with it, I tried some things out and its just didn't move from any power, so we we took the whole helicopter to a big toy store nearby my place where we had seen a guy doing repairs on a RC helicopter before.
The guy working there didn't think it was the engine though, so I let him take apart the 4-in-1 controller part and we found that a small component that he claimed to be some kind of safety, might have been a lost in translation thing or just something he said so Jane would understand because it really was no such things as a safety but a power regulator, basically just a transistor. He would repair it with no charge though so it was all good.
They didn't have any of that component in the store though but he guided us to where would could probably find it, so Jane and I went out on further excursion, leaving the helicopter itself behind on the way past my place. We did find the place we were looking for but after looking around in the hundreds of stores there we found that the one that most likely had what we were looking for was already closed, so we gave up for then.
A few days later we were planning to go out there together in the morning, but I was feeling bad and too tired so Jane went alone, it was the right place but of course they didn't have any in so she had to order some, and of course she couldn't just order one so she had to order five, but it still only cost 25 yuan.
That day she gave me my Christmas gift too, a small helicopter, like the one dad bought last year, it is really fun and it is practically unbreakable, we will have competitions later between the big and the small.
Jane had the afternoon off on Christmas and the components had arrived so she went out to get them and drop them off in my mailbox, but until yesterday I didn't have time to take everything to the toy store again but I did some research of what it was more exactly; it's a capsule with only one transistor in it, using 3 pins for source, 1 pin for gate and 4 pins for drain, it should be quite powerful and not break very easily, still accidents happen.
I had kind of hoped that he would just do it when I came there, it was just a small 8-pin component after all and shouldn't take much more than a few minutes, I could actually have done it myself had I had the tools, I wish I did have the tools now, so I had to leave it with him overnight.
When I went back there today there was something wrong, so we called Jane and after some explanations this is what was wrong: the front engine still didn't spin even after the component was switched, and the back engine, that he for some reason also had switched the component for, was spinning full power when the battery was connected, so something was obviously wrong, I inquired a bit about it and soon I just guessed that he had messed up some of the solderings and short circuited something. I took it home anyway just a bit disappointed.
At home I started researching a bit, I took pictures of the solderings too see clearer with some high def zoom and I was looking for pictures to see how the components should be mounted, I suspected that he might have turned one or both of them around. I didn't have much time though but after my afternoon classes I went home and did some more research, I called that to see what he said and according to him it seemed very likely that the component that made the back engine spin uncontrollably might be on backwards, it was the one not working at all that I had suspected but at least it was partly right.
After some more tests; trying to switch the engines, which the repair guy had said was really dangerous (I couldn't really see how that made any sense since its just a two pin connection and the engines are exactly the same, just connected in opposite directions) and discovered that at least the component for the front engine was working as it should and that the front engine didn't work with either component, which kind of implies something wrong with the engine. That was confirmed when I tried to help the lower rotor (the one for the front engine) and felt that it was actually trying to move, quite forcefully even, but had something stopping it, I helped it along and soon it was spinning by itself, but not as fast as it should and something was smoking so I unplugged the battery.
So I called dad again and explained my new found discoveries and while I did I also found what had been smoking, the connection plug for the front engine was partly melted, indicating that there might have been a bit too high effect on that one. I tried to spin the lower rotor again and now it was clear that something in the engine was broken, it couldn't move at all in one direction and in the other there was a frequent clonking sound.
My conclusion is as follows: The engine broke in the accident, probably something inside it twisted when the rotor turned itself around the axle and stopped the engine from spinning as it should. This would probably short circuit the engine itself which led to a way too high effect for the transistor and it melted. The repair guy couldn't understand why the engine didn't work after he replaced the component, actually doing everything right so far, so he changed the other one too but mounting it backwards, he probably experimented a lot with how it should be mounted,not with the one he mounted wrong though, but finally gave up and handed it to me as it was, the component for the back engine mounted wrong and giving a constant full power and the component for the front engine mounted right but trying to feed an engine that didn't work.
Solution: Came from dad, saying, we take that one as spare parts and I send you money to buy a new one, make sure to buy the same one though, I'll buy one but I'll try to find a silver one.
I might add some photos later!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Christmas in China
I don't really know where to begin actually but I guess it is, as they always say, to begin at the beginning. But if the beginning is Christmas itself I want to begin a bit earlier, on what we in Sweden call, dan före dopparedan (the day before Christmas eve):
Christmas spirit and feeling is something that is very alien to Chinese people, not in a way that they don't understand the feeling, because I assume this is almost the exact feeling they have for the Chinese New Year, but because they don't seem to associate it with Christmas at all, which is quite natural since they don't really have Christmas except in McDonald's, which is by the way the place you should go to if you want any Christmas feeling. A lot of places have Christmas decorations, including McDonald's, but it's less than one in twenty stores and usually only the hotels. I didn't come here to celebrate Christmas though and didn't have any expectations, but all this almost and close to attempts to create Christmas here just made me feel worse; so on the night before Christmas eve I was feeling really really low, with the only thing to look forward to for Christmas was work and not even a little; I was out from home for work from 7.30am to 7.30pm on Christmas eve and 8.15am to 4pm on Christmas day, and a long day on the day after too.
So to get my mind off too much Christmas things I had agreed to go to some kind of estate party that my friend Bella was helping her friend with, apparently it was some kind of scam where the estate owners wanted the estate to seem better so they hired foreigners to join the party to seem they lived there, not that I get why that would make it better, perhaps it's something about foreigners having more money, and they would have paid around 300 yuan for dancing for 30 minutes. When I was going there though, with no clue of where it was and my only way to get there was to have Bella talk to the taxi driver, her phone died and I couldn't contact her. It wasn't so bad though, I went over to see my American friends instead and had dinner with them for about an hour or two, then I went home to call home, which was really nice.
I did get loads of invitations though, people here party on Christmas and just everybody I know here called or messaged me to join them, with work and no mood at all to party away a non-existing Christmas I turned them all down.
On Christmas day I went to see my American friends again, this time according to plan even, but because they had stayed up all night drinking and had a really late breakfast they were just not up for dinner until around 10pm, by then I was pretty much starving and the place we went to Carol's, which is basically a bar/club/restaurant, managed to forget to tell us that the chef had left before we ordered our food, so we sat there waiting for about half an hour until someone braved up and told us, one of the waitresses nearly started crying over it.
So instead we went to another bar/club/restaurant not far from there and I had my life's first Christmas burger, two actually. For some reason we stayed there, probably because we had already started drinking and it is hard to stop once you have started, and we befriended the sister of the owner of the place and she hooked us up with wine and drinks and stuff. So even though we didn't really do anything I still didn't get back home until after 2am, and of course I had to get up by 8am the morning.
Christmas gifts:
A machete and a deck of cards with Chinese patriotic motifs from Aaron.
A tiny (lightest ever, like the one dad has I guess) Helicopter from Jane, because she is still feeling bad over the big helicopter accident.
The big helicopter from dad, which is still broken but will be replaced soon (more about that in another post).
A Swedish cook book from my little cousins, it is really nice and Jane has already drawled on half the pages.
Money from grandma, uncle Pär and aunt Gordana and from my parents too, that will be spent on travel quite soon (I'm pretty much buying my flight tickets today).
I am expecting gifts from two other friends as well and a package from my family, I don't know what anything is though.
I bought myself a set of magnets like the one I sent with dad for my siblings and cousins too, a bigger box for me, hehe, 520 pieces, more about that in another post too.
I gave Jane the lovika mittens and the bag with a green Julbock and I bought a bottle of Chilean Carmeniere for Aaron. Except for that I didn't give much, well except the magnets stuff for my siblings and cousins, but I wasn't really there to give them and I gave Kelly some Chocolate.
Christmas spirit and feeling is something that is very alien to Chinese people, not in a way that they don't understand the feeling, because I assume this is almost the exact feeling they have for the Chinese New Year, but because they don't seem to associate it with Christmas at all, which is quite natural since they don't really have Christmas except in McDonald's, which is by the way the place you should go to if you want any Christmas feeling. A lot of places have Christmas decorations, including McDonald's, but it's less than one in twenty stores and usually only the hotels. I didn't come here to celebrate Christmas though and didn't have any expectations, but all this almost and close to attempts to create Christmas here just made me feel worse; so on the night before Christmas eve I was feeling really really low, with the only thing to look forward to for Christmas was work and not even a little; I was out from home for work from 7.30am to 7.30pm on Christmas eve and 8.15am to 4pm on Christmas day, and a long day on the day after too.
So to get my mind off too much Christmas things I had agreed to go to some kind of estate party that my friend Bella was helping her friend with, apparently it was some kind of scam where the estate owners wanted the estate to seem better so they hired foreigners to join the party to seem they lived there, not that I get why that would make it better, perhaps it's something about foreigners having more money, and they would have paid around 300 yuan for dancing for 30 minutes. When I was going there though, with no clue of where it was and my only way to get there was to have Bella talk to the taxi driver, her phone died and I couldn't contact her. It wasn't so bad though, I went over to see my American friends instead and had dinner with them for about an hour or two, then I went home to call home, which was really nice.
I did get loads of invitations though, people here party on Christmas and just everybody I know here called or messaged me to join them, with work and no mood at all to party away a non-existing Christmas I turned them all down.
On Christmas day I went to see my American friends again, this time according to plan even, but because they had stayed up all night drinking and had a really late breakfast they were just not up for dinner until around 10pm, by then I was pretty much starving and the place we went to Carol's, which is basically a bar/club/restaurant, managed to forget to tell us that the chef had left before we ordered our food, so we sat there waiting for about half an hour until someone braved up and told us, one of the waitresses nearly started crying over it.
So instead we went to another bar/club/restaurant not far from there and I had my life's first Christmas burger, two actually. For some reason we stayed there, probably because we had already started drinking and it is hard to stop once you have started, and we befriended the sister of the owner of the place and she hooked us up with wine and drinks and stuff. So even though we didn't really do anything I still didn't get back home until after 2am, and of course I had to get up by 8am the morning.
Christmas gifts:
A machete and a deck of cards with Chinese patriotic motifs from Aaron.
A tiny (lightest ever, like the one dad has I guess) Helicopter from Jane, because she is still feeling bad over the big helicopter accident.
The big helicopter from dad, which is still broken but will be replaced soon (more about that in another post).
A Swedish cook book from my little cousins, it is really nice and Jane has already drawled on half the pages.
Money from grandma, uncle Pär and aunt Gordana and from my parents too, that will be spent on travel quite soon (I'm pretty much buying my flight tickets today).
I am expecting gifts from two other friends as well and a package from my family, I don't know what anything is though.
I bought myself a set of magnets like the one I sent with dad for my siblings and cousins too, a bigger box for me, hehe, 520 pieces, more about that in another post too.
I gave Jane the lovika mittens and the bag with a green Julbock and I bought a bottle of Chilean Carmeniere for Aaron. Except for that I didn't give much, well except the magnets stuff for my siblings and cousins, but I wasn't really there to give them and I gave Kelly some Chocolate.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Summary
5 new posts in a short order, first one about my trip to Leshan and the giant Buddha and then my four stories about Zhuhai.
Leshan and the giant Buddha
Zhuhai - Part 1 - Joyce and Almen
Zhuhai - Part 2 - The Helicopters
Zhuhai - Part 3 - Dad
Zhuhai - Part 4 - Ariel and Janice
Photos and a film or two will be added later.
Leshan and the giant Buddha
Zhuhai - Part 1 - Joyce and Almen
Zhuhai - Part 2 - The Helicopters
Zhuhai - Part 3 - Dad
Zhuhai - Part 4 - Ariel and Janice
Photos and a film or two will be added later.
Zhuhai - Part 4 - Ariel and Janice
I had hope that we could pick up Ariel before saying goodbye to Joyce and Almen since she was arriving with the boat they would leave with and about 20 minutes before that too, but because of check-in times, a slight delay and of course the migration process I had to wait alone for a few minutes between leaving Joyce and Almen at their gate and picking up Ariel at hers.
It was interesting to see Ariel, we have actually only met once before but we have talked so much online since then that I felt I have known her for a much longer time than I actually have. We went to her hotel first to check her in and wait for Kaj to come back so we could have dinner, it was already after 5pm after all so it shouldn't be too late. It wasn't very long after we had gotten her room that Kaj called that he was on his way back but we would still have to wait for his transport and getting ready, and after waiting in the room for a while we decided to take a walk instead. We took a taxi over to the shoreline and walked and talked along the coast for almost an hour, that is when I found the tandem and even weirder thri-seated tandems that I know Joyce would have loved to try if we had know about them earlier, for me and Ariel it was too late for that though so I quickly put it out of my mind and we just walked instead.
With the wait in the hotel and the walk it had already been around two hours when we decided that we were both really really hungry, but Kaj still hadn't called and he didn't reply messages, so we tried to get a taxi and just crash his room instead but we found out pretty quickly that the shoreline is not a commercial area in any way, it's is more like a transport route and the taxis driving there were all occupied and there were nowhere to stop anyway. So we had to keep walking and getting more and more hungry. We finally did get a taxi, by then it was already around 8pm so we were starved and when we finally got to Kaj's room he mostly seemed surprised.
Being so hungry and tired too we just had dinner at a Chinese restaurant at his hotel, it was pretty nice and not at all too expensive so it was totally fine. After dinner we where just all so tired so we only said goodnight and goodbye.
Of course I missed breakfast again on Saturday morning but we went out to have dim sum with Kaj in a place not far from his hotel when it was still quite early so I didn't feel starved at all. And dim sum is always nice. We had made a quite nice and flexible schedule for the day, dim sum in the morning (that is brunch), then go to some place where there is a nice statue in the water and after that we just walked, that is when we found the park with the kites and I bought the big one and it crashed into the tree and it was not windy enough etc.
Before we went to meet Janice at the boat we went back to dad's hotel for some rest, and dad had do do some unspeakable things too. Meeting Janice was as nice as meeting everybody else, we still had to wait for her a bit though but that was fine, just things you have to live with sometimes. I think all four of us were quite hungry when she came, or at least going to be soon, so we went off to have dinner immediately at a quite fancy Thai place that dad's colleagues had recommended. The food was real Thai-food, at least as real as I've had anywhere else and so much better than the not real stuff I found here in Chengdu. It was hot and curry and all good and nice, I just avoided the seafood that dad had to get like I always do. I really love those curry-coconut-milk dishes they have, mmmmhmmm.
After dinner we walked around a little in the area around there, it was close to the Macao border where Ariel and Janice would be going when they left and we were trying to find some kind of tea for grandma and would need some translation help with that so they stayed with us for a while there. The tea store we found was a bit too fancy so dad ended up buying tea for 180 kuai / 500g tea, he bought some other stuff too, candies and some weird jasmine flower and finally he payed up 400 kuai. It was fine though I guess, it seemed good enough and I think grandma might like it.
After that we went over to the border and said goodbye to Ariel and Janice, after the usual hugs and come to Chengdu and stuff it was once again just me and dad.
It was interesting to see Ariel, we have actually only met once before but we have talked so much online since then that I felt I have known her for a much longer time than I actually have. We went to her hotel first to check her in and wait for Kaj to come back so we could have dinner, it was already after 5pm after all so it shouldn't be too late. It wasn't very long after we had gotten her room that Kaj called that he was on his way back but we would still have to wait for his transport and getting ready, and after waiting in the room for a while we decided to take a walk instead. We took a taxi over to the shoreline and walked and talked along the coast for almost an hour, that is when I found the tandem and even weirder thri-seated tandems that I know Joyce would have loved to try if we had know about them earlier, for me and Ariel it was too late for that though so I quickly put it out of my mind and we just walked instead.
With the wait in the hotel and the walk it had already been around two hours when we decided that we were both really really hungry, but Kaj still hadn't called and he didn't reply messages, so we tried to get a taxi and just crash his room instead but we found out pretty quickly that the shoreline is not a commercial area in any way, it's is more like a transport route and the taxis driving there were all occupied and there were nowhere to stop anyway. So we had to keep walking and getting more and more hungry. We finally did get a taxi, by then it was already around 8pm so we were starved and when we finally got to Kaj's room he mostly seemed surprised.
Being so hungry and tired too we just had dinner at a Chinese restaurant at his hotel, it was pretty nice and not at all too expensive so it was totally fine. After dinner we where just all so tired so we only said goodnight and goodbye.
Of course I missed breakfast again on Saturday morning but we went out to have dim sum with Kaj in a place not far from his hotel when it was still quite early so I didn't feel starved at all. And dim sum is always nice. We had made a quite nice and flexible schedule for the day, dim sum in the morning (that is brunch), then go to some place where there is a nice statue in the water and after that we just walked, that is when we found the park with the kites and I bought the big one and it crashed into the tree and it was not windy enough etc.
Before we went to meet Janice at the boat we went back to dad's hotel for some rest, and dad had do do some unspeakable things too. Meeting Janice was as nice as meeting everybody else, we still had to wait for her a bit though but that was fine, just things you have to live with sometimes. I think all four of us were quite hungry when she came, or at least going to be soon, so we went off to have dinner immediately at a quite fancy Thai place that dad's colleagues had recommended. The food was real Thai-food, at least as real as I've had anywhere else and so much better than the not real stuff I found here in Chengdu. It was hot and curry and all good and nice, I just avoided the seafood that dad had to get like I always do. I really love those curry-coconut-milk dishes they have, mmmmhmmm.
After dinner we walked around a little in the area around there, it was close to the Macao border where Ariel and Janice would be going when they left and we were trying to find some kind of tea for grandma and would need some translation help with that so they stayed with us for a while there. The tea store we found was a bit too fancy so dad ended up buying tea for 180 kuai / 500g tea, he bought some other stuff too, candies and some weird jasmine flower and finally he payed up 400 kuai. It was fine though I guess, it seemed good enough and I think grandma might like it.
After that we went over to the border and said goodbye to Ariel and Janice, after the usual hugs and come to Chengdu and stuff it was once again just me and dad.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Zhuhai - Part 3 - Dad
Dad was, as always, mostly interested in food, and he was especially happy to have me there and even more happy about Joyce, Almen, Ariel and Janice since that offered him the much wanted chance of having loads of different kinds of weird food that his colleagues refuses to eat.
Dad's hotel room was really awesome; a bigger-than-king-size bed, a rather big area with a desk and all sorts of computer connection you can need, including VGA that I think is for the flat 32" (or perhaps a little larger but not much) HD-TV in front of the bed (I didn't manage to get that to work though), a really big bathroom with both shower, a nice bathtub and that I actually use the last day after my workout.
On Saturday when Ariel was there and before we went to pick up Janice at the ferry terminal we went out walking and found a big park where a lot of people flew kites and stuff, I wanted too much of the cake of course so dad bought me a really big kite, I felt like a little child again but I soon discovered that I had swam out to a little too deep for my comfort, the kite was heavier than the regular ones and the kind you steer around, but that also meant that it needed a lot more wind which there of course wasn't enough of, so after a tree crash we gave up and our instructor and sales man asked us to come back in the morning the day after when the wind is heavier to try it for real.
Of course the day after I was too tired, mostly because dad snores like a... well I don't know what to compare to, a yet engine doesn't really cover it, and there are no fully automatic 110mm cannons either so that doesn't work either, let's just say that its loud. So after three nights I had hardly gotten any rest at all but for once I manged to get up for breakfast at least. After that we just stayed in the hotel room for about half the day until the cleaning staff wanted to come in and then I went to the hotel gym and dad went out to find some kind of misshapen floor patterns he had seen and thought was really fun.
The workout was probably the best I've done in months, or even years, I know I've lost weight but still I was surprised how much energy I had despite my cold, that has been rather bad recently. I did a sitting bike for like 20 minutes, I want to say without breaking a sweat because it sounds cool but I sweated like a pig, it's just that I didn't die from it, after that I did an overall workout and it felt really great, the best part that after that my cold was nearly gone. When I got back to the room dad was already there, it was time for lunch and I was extremely hungry but I had set my mind to taking a long bath first, which I did and it was great. I am just a little over 90kg now by the way.
We finally got out for our lunch and for the first time we were without Chinese guide and of course we found a restaurant that didn't have any English speaking staff, we still managed to get some food and even though I didn't really fancy it dad was as happy as always. Time pressed though and I didn't dare letting dad finish it all, we went back to the hotel and I packed up my stuff, the kite had to go with dad, there is not much of a wind in Chengdu anyway. The hotel staff helped me get the taxi to the bus station but of course the taxi took me to the wrong station and after about 20 minutes of trouble I finally got, with the help of Jane on the phone, a woman to help me to the right station, just about 5 minutes walk for there, which was partly what had confused me in the first place, I thought it was basically the same station, but it wasn't.
The bus wouldn't leave yet though, and with that and the three hours bus ride I got to the airport about 60 minutes before departure, this is normally no problem in an airport but in this one where the structure is pretty much non-existent, it was actually hard to find any check-in desk and not any easier to find the right one. And after that it was hard to find the security check because there was no obvious connection between entrance, check-in and security, and add to that that I was pretty much starving so I ran off to a McDonald's and got two double cheeseburgers before I went through the security. Now I was in quite some hurry, the boarding had started before I even got the the security but I still managed to get on the plane. And to my surprise and happiness I found that I had been upgraded to business class! That made the flight home a wonder, it is freakishly much more comfortable to fly business class.
Back in Chengdu I just wanted to get home as fast as possible, I was tired and there were people; taxi drivers both real and fake, everywhere who wanted money to drive me home, I did a stupid mistake and agreed to have this pretty little girl, with a pink phone and that looked totally harmless, hook me up with a driver, that of course was fake and of course had two others in his car. The taxi ride home took little more than an hour and it should have taken about 30 minutes in that traffic, he basically drove around the whole city with the two other guys before getting me home, I came home and crashed! I had survived at least, hehe.
Dad's hotel room was really awesome; a bigger-than-king-size bed, a rather big area with a desk and all sorts of computer connection you can need, including VGA that I think is for the flat 32" (or perhaps a little larger but not much) HD-TV in front of the bed (I didn't manage to get that to work though), a really big bathroom with both shower, a nice bathtub and that I actually use the last day after my workout.
On Saturday when Ariel was there and before we went to pick up Janice at the ferry terminal we went out walking and found a big park where a lot of people flew kites and stuff, I wanted too much of the cake of course so dad bought me a really big kite, I felt like a little child again but I soon discovered that I had swam out to a little too deep for my comfort, the kite was heavier than the regular ones and the kind you steer around, but that also meant that it needed a lot more wind which there of course wasn't enough of, so after a tree crash we gave up and our instructor and sales man asked us to come back in the morning the day after when the wind is heavier to try it for real.
Of course the day after I was too tired, mostly because dad snores like a... well I don't know what to compare to, a yet engine doesn't really cover it, and there are no fully automatic 110mm cannons either so that doesn't work either, let's just say that its loud. So after three nights I had hardly gotten any rest at all but for once I manged to get up for breakfast at least. After that we just stayed in the hotel room for about half the day until the cleaning staff wanted to come in and then I went to the hotel gym and dad went out to find some kind of misshapen floor patterns he had seen and thought was really fun.
The workout was probably the best I've done in months, or even years, I know I've lost weight but still I was surprised how much energy I had despite my cold, that has been rather bad recently. I did a sitting bike for like 20 minutes, I want to say without breaking a sweat because it sounds cool but I sweated like a pig, it's just that I didn't die from it, after that I did an overall workout and it felt really great, the best part that after that my cold was nearly gone. When I got back to the room dad was already there, it was time for lunch and I was extremely hungry but I had set my mind to taking a long bath first, which I did and it was great. I am just a little over 90kg now by the way.
We finally got out for our lunch and for the first time we were without Chinese guide and of course we found a restaurant that didn't have any English speaking staff, we still managed to get some food and even though I didn't really fancy it dad was as happy as always. Time pressed though and I didn't dare letting dad finish it all, we went back to the hotel and I packed up my stuff, the kite had to go with dad, there is not much of a wind in Chengdu anyway. The hotel staff helped me get the taxi to the bus station but of course the taxi took me to the wrong station and after about 20 minutes of trouble I finally got, with the help of Jane on the phone, a woman to help me to the right station, just about 5 minutes walk for there, which was partly what had confused me in the first place, I thought it was basically the same station, but it wasn't.
The bus wouldn't leave yet though, and with that and the three hours bus ride I got to the airport about 60 minutes before departure, this is normally no problem in an airport but in this one where the structure is pretty much non-existent, it was actually hard to find any check-in desk and not any easier to find the right one. And after that it was hard to find the security check because there was no obvious connection between entrance, check-in and security, and add to that that I was pretty much starving so I ran off to a McDonald's and got two double cheeseburgers before I went through the security. Now I was in quite some hurry, the boarding had started before I even got the the security but I still managed to get on the plane. And to my surprise and happiness I found that I had been upgraded to business class! That made the flight home a wonder, it is freakishly much more comfortable to fly business class.
Back in Chengdu I just wanted to get home as fast as possible, I was tired and there were people; taxi drivers both real and fake, everywhere who wanted money to drive me home, I did a stupid mistake and agreed to have this pretty little girl, with a pink phone and that looked totally harmless, hook me up with a driver, that of course was fake and of course had two others in his car. The taxi ride home took little more than an hour and it should have taken about 30 minutes in that traffic, he basically drove around the whole city with the two other guys before getting me home, I came home and crashed! I had survived at least, hehe.
Zhuhai - Part 2 - The Helicopters
Finding the Gongbei market was not a very easy task, mostly because it's name is not Gongbei market but The Landmark. We did get to Gongbei street though, the same place where Joyce, Almen and I had been walking around the day before, and we did find some kind of shopping mall, the the one or even the kind we were looking for. After a few calls and a lot of questions of people around us we finally find it but that was not enough, the place was a maze and dad was utterly confused; he had apparently gotten in at the first floor and the helicopter should be on the third floor, the problem was really that there were only two floors and the whole complex is an underground thing where one entrance, the one dad got in through the first time, is in a tunnel, where as the one we came through was an escalator from above ground, so it took us quite a while before we found any helicopters.
We finally did find helicopters, even though it was not the same store as Kaj had seen before, and after a lot of bargaining Kaj bought three of them for 1200 yuan (400 yuan each for those of you who might have problems with math), they did not have any extra rotor blades though so we would have to find that somewhere else. And that issued another problem, going up to a store with three brand new helicopters and just wanting to buy the rotors might cause some problems, besides, dad didn't have enough space in his tiny suitcase for the extra luggage we had just bought, so he basically needed a new suitcase, again...
The bartering for the suitcase was fun, he started at around 350 yuan I think and after a lot of ups and down, with me almost speaking Chinese, we gave up at 220 yuan and left, he looked like he was about to cry when he came after us and offered 200 yuan, which was our limit so we got it. Packing down the helicopters we soon found another place where we could buy ten sets of rotors extra, so now with the including set and the one already mounted we had 16 sets of rotors to break between three helicopters. And I tell you one thing, it really is necessary!
On Saturday evening after we had left off Ariel and Janice at the Macao border we went back to Kaj's room and while he was writing emails and checking Internet stuff I started my first airtime with my helicopter, in about an hours time I had managed to get some real fly-time and of course already broken 3 rotors, all from the lower set. It was really fun though but flying in the bed made some stability complications, the helicopter basically has to start off from level ground, but crashing wasn't so bad since it was soft.
Once home I was rather eager to try out the helicopter too, but I didn't have much time and I really needed to clean up my place first, so not until Tuesday night when I had dinner with Jane first and then got back here to play I finally got to try it out. I played around a little first and had some minor crashes, no biggies, and then I let Jane try it out; it went quite well at first but then she lost control and flew it forcefully up in the ceiling and then just free fall down, crash - bang... When the noise had settled we picked up the pieces, the ones we found at least, and discovered that the damage was both less and more than we had expected, there was not really any visual damage except on the rotors and a small piece of plastic from the tail that had gotten smashed off and so far it was fine, but one of the rotors had bent around the axle in a really weird way.
I fixed it up as best as I could but I didn't have the tools to change the rotors that were broken so I just wanted to see if I could lift off with the too seriously damaged rotors, they were not broken off anywhere but the cracks in them were big and the bending had done its share to damage them too. That was one we found the real damaged; first the rotors wouldn't spin at all, then when it came around the lower set just died after a few revolutions and then it refused to start off again. After some research it seems that the front engine, the one for the lower rotor set, has been burnt out, or there could be some problem with the gyro.
Jane was feeling really bad about it and I was a bit sad, but it's not like it's unfixable, we will just take it the the toy store here and have it repaired, I doubt it will cost very much, a spare engine shouldn't cost much more than 50 yuan.
To be continued...
I will add photos and some of the videos later when I have changed them to a smaller format.
We finally did find helicopters, even though it was not the same store as Kaj had seen before, and after a lot of bargaining Kaj bought three of them for 1200 yuan (400 yuan each for those of you who might have problems with math), they did not have any extra rotor blades though so we would have to find that somewhere else. And that issued another problem, going up to a store with three brand new helicopters and just wanting to buy the rotors might cause some problems, besides, dad didn't have enough space in his tiny suitcase for the extra luggage we had just bought, so he basically needed a new suitcase, again...
The bartering for the suitcase was fun, he started at around 350 yuan I think and after a lot of ups and down, with me almost speaking Chinese, we gave up at 220 yuan and left, he looked like he was about to cry when he came after us and offered 200 yuan, which was our limit so we got it. Packing down the helicopters we soon found another place where we could buy ten sets of rotors extra, so now with the including set and the one already mounted we had 16 sets of rotors to break between three helicopters. And I tell you one thing, it really is necessary!
On Saturday evening after we had left off Ariel and Janice at the Macao border we went back to Kaj's room and while he was writing emails and checking Internet stuff I started my first airtime with my helicopter, in about an hours time I had managed to get some real fly-time and of course already broken 3 rotors, all from the lower set. It was really fun though but flying in the bed made some stability complications, the helicopter basically has to start off from level ground, but crashing wasn't so bad since it was soft.
Once home I was rather eager to try out the helicopter too, but I didn't have much time and I really needed to clean up my place first, so not until Tuesday night when I had dinner with Jane first and then got back here to play I finally got to try it out. I played around a little first and had some minor crashes, no biggies, and then I let Jane try it out; it went quite well at first but then she lost control and flew it forcefully up in the ceiling and then just free fall down, crash - bang... When the noise had settled we picked up the pieces, the ones we found at least, and discovered that the damage was both less and more than we had expected, there was not really any visual damage except on the rotors and a small piece of plastic from the tail that had gotten smashed off and so far it was fine, but one of the rotors had bent around the axle in a really weird way.
I fixed it up as best as I could but I didn't have the tools to change the rotors that were broken so I just wanted to see if I could lift off with the too seriously damaged rotors, they were not broken off anywhere but the cracks in them were big and the bending had done its share to damage them too. That was one we found the real damaged; first the rotors wouldn't spin at all, then when it came around the lower set just died after a few revolutions and then it refused to start off again. After some research it seems that the front engine, the one for the lower rotor set, has been burnt out, or there could be some problem with the gyro.
Jane was feeling really bad about it and I was a bit sad, but it's not like it's unfixable, we will just take it the the toy store here and have it repaired, I doubt it will cost very much, a spare engine shouldn't cost much more than 50 yuan.
To be continued...
I will add photos and some of the videos later when I have changed them to a smaller format.
Zhuhai - Part 1 - Joyce and Almen
A way too early start for my comfort, I had to get up at around 5.45am, I tried to catch the first bus to the airport. I found quite quickly that I could have slept at least half an hour longer though, the bus stop just outside my house also has a stop for the airport bus so I didn't have to walk the 15 minutes I had expected, and I was really early anyway. The bus never showed up though so finally I gave up and took a taxi, paid 80 kuai which is about twice of what it should have cost but I didn't care much. What surprised me mostly that morning was how sufficient my clothing was
, I only had jeans, t-shirt, a fleece sweater and my hat, gloves and scarf; it really wasn't cold at all. The reason was that I was going to some place really warm and couldn't really bring any thick clothes, and I figured that it would only be a short ride to the airport then it would all be fine so a little cold cold be survived, but there was no need even.
I hadn't had any breakfast, all places were still closed when I left, I did get a quite decent breakfast during the flight though, some kind of rice porridge that was quite ok. After being up from before 6am, waiting for nearly 45 minutes in the cold, airport businessing for 45 minutes, flying for about 2 hours, more airport business, a bus ride for 3 hours from the airport to Zhuhai and finally a 20 kuai taxi ride for the 500m from the bus station to Joyce's and Almen's so called five star hotel, that is nearly 7 hours of travel time, I was pretty starved. The hotel was rather nice actually but I still wouldn't call it five star, at least not if comparing to dad's. What was a lot nicer was seeing Joyce, well and Almen too of course but that is not really comparable.
The girls where hungry too so we went to one of the hotel's restaurants and had a really big lunch and basically just catching up. After lunch we went out to some small shopping street that seemed to be the city center for Zhuhai, also like 500 meters from the hotel and actually it turned out to be just where my bus stop was. We just walked around tiredly and didn't really do anything, finally we tried to localize ourselves and somehow found the way, after a whole lot of confusion, back to the hotel by foot.
We decided to rest a bit and then go to a park, but before our rest was done dad called us and we took a taxi to his, real five star, hotel and then went out with him for dinner. We went to some seafood restaurant, of course, and had loads of dishes, I actually don't remember half of it, damn I was tired.
The night was not over yet though, we went to find a shopping mall where dad wanted to buy helicopters, but that one is another story. After that we went back to Joyce's and Almen's hotel to drop off our newly acquired stuff and then went to a cafe near there to have some drinks and play with their weird fortune telling machine, apparently I have 5 stars in luck and 5 stars in love... Kaj and Joyce both had some weird jelly drink stuff that looked really fun but Joyce said it didn't taste that good, Almen had some other drink and I just had some ginger Coke. After that we went back to their hotel, took some funny pictures and tried to make a movie that I intend to upload here then we all went to our owns and slept.
The morning after I overslept breakfast but so did the girls, dad was working of course so it was just the three of us now. Again we had lunch at their hotel but in anther restaurant, much nicer in my opinion actually, we mostly had some dim sum and I really love the sweet bun dessert with some juicy mixture in them.
We pretty much stayed at the hotel the whole afternoon, first we went to play bowling, I think it was really fun despite the low scores we all got. Joyce had never played before but she caught up quite quickly, her low score was mostly because her concentration was just up and down all the time and after a few games I guess she got rather tired. My scores was probably also low because of concentration lack, it often like that for me when bowling, I can sometimes strike three or even four times in a row and then do total misses for two or three times. This time I managed to impress with a strike at the first throw and then not do anything good at all. Almen played quite steadily I think, both of them actually managed a strike or two, which is quite impressive for someone who has never played or only played once.
Once bowling was done we still had about an hour before going to the ferry terminal to leave off the girls and meet Ariel, so we went to the same café again and had some more weird drinks, or I had a weird one this time, I think it was watermelon juice, and Joyce and Almen just had mocca. We had some nice desserts too, some weird pancake things, one with peanut butter in that that was absolutely delusions and another sandwich thing with melted cheese and ham, goodie! We finally had to go to the ferry terminal but Ariel's boat was a bit late so they never go to meet her, we said our goodbyes and then they left.
, I only had jeans, t-shirt, a fleece sweater and my hat, gloves and scarf; it really wasn't cold at all. The reason was that I was going to some place really warm and couldn't really bring any thick clothes, and I figured that it would only be a short ride to the airport then it would all be fine so a little cold cold be survived, but there was no need even.
I hadn't had any breakfast, all places were still closed when I left, I did get a quite decent breakfast during the flight though, some kind of rice porridge that was quite ok. After being up from before 6am, waiting for nearly 45 minutes in the cold, airport businessing for 45 minutes, flying for about 2 hours, more airport business, a bus ride for 3 hours from the airport to Zhuhai and finally a 20 kuai taxi ride for the 500m from the bus station to Joyce's and Almen's so called five star hotel, that is nearly 7 hours of travel time, I was pretty starved. The hotel was rather nice actually but I still wouldn't call it five star, at least not if comparing to dad's. What was a lot nicer was seeing Joyce, well and Almen too of course but that is not really comparable.
The girls where hungry too so we went to one of the hotel's restaurants and had a really big lunch and basically just catching up. After lunch we went out to some small shopping street that seemed to be the city center for Zhuhai, also like 500 meters from the hotel and actually it turned out to be just where my bus stop was. We just walked around tiredly and didn't really do anything, finally we tried to localize ourselves and somehow found the way, after a whole lot of confusion, back to the hotel by foot.
We decided to rest a bit and then go to a park, but before our rest was done dad called us and we took a taxi to his, real five star, hotel and then went out with him for dinner. We went to some seafood restaurant, of course, and had loads of dishes, I actually don't remember half of it, damn I was tired.
The night was not over yet though, we went to find a shopping mall where dad wanted to buy helicopters, but that one is another story. After that we went back to Joyce's and Almen's hotel to drop off our newly acquired stuff and then went to a cafe near there to have some drinks and play with their weird fortune telling machine, apparently I have 5 stars in luck and 5 stars in love... Kaj and Joyce both had some weird jelly drink stuff that looked really fun but Joyce said it didn't taste that good, Almen had some other drink and I just had some ginger Coke. After that we went back to their hotel, took some funny pictures and tried to make a movie that I intend to upload here then we all went to our owns and slept.
The morning after I overslept breakfast but so did the girls, dad was working of course so it was just the three of us now. Again we had lunch at their hotel but in anther restaurant, much nicer in my opinion actually, we mostly had some dim sum and I really love the sweet bun dessert with some juicy mixture in them.
We pretty much stayed at the hotel the whole afternoon, first we went to play bowling, I think it was really fun despite the low scores we all got. Joyce had never played before but she caught up quite quickly, her low score was mostly because her concentration was just up and down all the time and after a few games I guess she got rather tired. My scores was probably also low because of concentration lack, it often like that for me when bowling, I can sometimes strike three or even four times in a row and then do total misses for two or three times. This time I managed to impress with a strike at the first throw and then not do anything good at all. Almen played quite steadily I think, both of them actually managed a strike or two, which is quite impressive for someone who has never played or only played once.
Once bowling was done we still had about an hour before going to the ferry terminal to leave off the girls and meet Ariel, so we went to the same café again and had some more weird drinks, or I had a weird one this time, I think it was watermelon juice, and Joyce and Almen just had mocca. We had some nice desserts too, some weird pancake things, one with peanut butter in that that was absolutely delusions and another sandwich thing with melted cheese and ham, goodie! We finally had to go to the ferry terminal but Ariel's boat was a bit late so they never go to meet her, we said our goodbyes and then they left.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Leshan and the giant Buddha
There is actually not much to say but I will upload some photos later.
I took a early bus, around 10am or something (ok maybe not so early but I was really tired), so I arrived in Leshan around noon, or 12.30 perhaps. Linger, who would be my guide for the day, should have met me at the bus stop but she thought I would arrive later so she didn't, instead she managed to guide me to the right local bus to the giant Buddha and she got on the bus two stops later, where her dormitory is.
At first it was a little bit stale and awkward but after a while, and a lunch, we both warmed up and started chatting more. We had the lunch just outside the Buddha area entrance and after that we went to another entrance for students and such to get a discount, so my ticket was only 70 yuan instead of 140 and Linger's was only 10 yuan, because she is a student there.
At first it was just walking around, well not only at first, basically all the time, but I stopped to take some photos once in a while, we finally found the Buddha, not so difficult as it sounds actually, and we walked around it, down and up again, and took some photos. We walked around some more there and looked at some other stuff and then we started our journey around the small mountain.
Linger is a walker and I like that too, as long is its not too much up and down like it was at mt. Emei, here it was better, and not very far either actually, so we walked around for an hour or two until we found our way out at the other end.
We took a bus back to a more central place of Leshan and there we walked along the river and got a glimpse of the Buddha from further away (not a good glimpse) but mostly we just walked and talked. At the end we sat and talked instead because Linger was getting tired.
It was getting later but I had realised that this was just about all I would get out of Leshan, so I decided to try my best to catch the last bus home (at 7pm) but before that we would have to have some dinner. Linger took me to Sue's favourite restaurant, a small hot pot place which was rather nice, and we spent the last our we had together eating and talking instead of walking and talking.
Finally she got me back to the bus stop and I got there just in time, 5 minutes before the departure, so we said our goodbyes and I left, rather happy about the whole day.
Photos will be added later!
I took a early bus, around 10am or something (ok maybe not so early but I was really tired), so I arrived in Leshan around noon, or 12.30 perhaps. Linger, who would be my guide for the day, should have met me at the bus stop but she thought I would arrive later so she didn't, instead she managed to guide me to the right local bus to the giant Buddha and she got on the bus two stops later, where her dormitory is.
At first it was a little bit stale and awkward but after a while, and a lunch, we both warmed up and started chatting more. We had the lunch just outside the Buddha area entrance and after that we went to another entrance for students and such to get a discount, so my ticket was only 70 yuan instead of 140 and Linger's was only 10 yuan, because she is a student there.
At first it was just walking around, well not only at first, basically all the time, but I stopped to take some photos once in a while, we finally found the Buddha, not so difficult as it sounds actually, and we walked around it, down and up again, and took some photos. We walked around some more there and looked at some other stuff and then we started our journey around the small mountain.
Linger is a walker and I like that too, as long is its not too much up and down like it was at mt. Emei, here it was better, and not very far either actually, so we walked around for an hour or two until we found our way out at the other end.
We took a bus back to a more central place of Leshan and there we walked along the river and got a glimpse of the Buddha from further away (not a good glimpse) but mostly we just walked and talked. At the end we sat and talked instead because Linger was getting tired.
It was getting later but I had realised that this was just about all I would get out of Leshan, so I decided to try my best to catch the last bus home (at 7pm) but before that we would have to have some dinner. Linger took me to Sue's favourite restaurant, a small hot pot place which was rather nice, and we spent the last our we had together eating and talking instead of walking and talking.
Finally she got me back to the bus stop and I got there just in time, 5 minutes before the departure, so we said our goodbyes and I left, rather happy about the whole day.
Photos will be added later!
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