Raining Weekend

We were planning for a couple of days. In the back of the mind, was this little so-called weekend getaway plan to Shanghai. To relax, enjoy and savour the moment in the weekend in Shanghai.


Alas, it boils down to mother nature, i guess. Arghhh.....! Need to cancel the plan now!


Maybe chill in sleepy town? Going to Night Jasmine for a couple of glass of Dunkel? Or perhaps going for a soothing deep oil aromatherapy massage at Sawadika? Maybe hit the gym and get-the-ass-moving-cardio over the weekend? Should i get a nice lil' tattoo that i wanted to get?


Gooosh!


*Very undecided now*

Shanghai: Cha's Restaurant

When i 1st read the review and the description of this place, i was like ok. I must try and explore this. The prices is right, the food is right, the place is right and everything else seems secondary. The name is Cha's.

I got to know this cafe from SmartShanghai's radar. Cha is located right behing H&M store in Huaihai Lu. The full address is 30 Sinan Lu by Huaihai Lu. It is opened from 11am to 2am. Perfect time for tea during the weekend or supper after clubbing time in Fuxing Park.

Head there during the daylight mast shopping in Huaihai Lu for a butter toast, head there knowingly that there is a decent joint to "lepak" at. Some might prefer ice Lemon Coke though! I prefer Ice Coffee x2 with a Dunhill Lights between my fingers for a chill cool puff under the aircon! Freaking fantastic.




Not Char Siew Pao. But rather Cha Chan Teng's that is famous in Hong Kong. Everyone that speaks cantonese would like to hangout here i think. Its decor is classic with a twist. Its waiter/waitress are dressed like one that serves you drinks in Hong Kong as well. The tiles on the floors resembles one from there too. Even the menu board is a LCD TV disguises as a black board with wood frame. How cool!



Well. The food is reasonably cheap in the current Shanghai standard. Where can you find a set meal with a ice cool coffee/tea, with a slice of butter toast, scrambled eggs with ham/bacon and either a nissin/macaroni with ham for a measley RMB30 kuai. Its like a long lost heaven appear out of nowhere to save our soul from Bi Feng Tang and Xin Wang.



I personally think its cool and classic. Its a superb place for hippies-ala-cantonese speaking crowd in Shanghai to hang out here. Its called yum cha, btw. In Guangzhou, they yum cham with dim sum with chinese tea. In Kuala Lumpur, they drink at mamak stall that serve teh tarik and roti prata or known as India Fly Pie here.



How do they served something in between? Cha Chan Teng in a Hong Kong style mode! We have such restaurants in Kuala Lumpur during the booming days. You can see Kim Gary and a few others that have same Hong Kong style cafes mushrooming all around town. Only then, came the Old Town coffee hyperbole later.

Back to the this restaurant, go on and try it. A very reasonable affair with nice touch from the owners of this Cha's. Everything is new here. Aircon is cold. Smoke is in the air. Nissin is served on the bowl. You know you have a satisfied customer when they clear up the table in 10. Not even left over a single strand of noodle!

Check out this link for Cha's further info. They even have a good decent review done less than 1 month open. Personally, I rate this place A MUST Return! Gawd! Should i head there again soon? I know i need and i will.

For Cha's, keep up the good work and improve further!

Technosexuality, Gadgets and New Age Man

Technosexuality: a dandy narcissist in love with not only himself, but also his urban lifestyle and gadgets; a straight man who is in touch with his feminine side but has fondness for electronics such as cell phones, PDA’s, computers, software, and the web.

In other words, a cool geek.

Hey! Thats Ian Lagac and your humbly, me. Muahahahahaha!

Seriously, back to the point. I believe the emergence of this class of individual is not too surprising given then any ubersexual or metrosexual will eventually matures and evolve. Males and alpha males living in the metropolis, both straights and otherwise, working or not, making their dreams come true or just laying around chilling out, must equipped with the latest gadget. You name it and they got it.




Smartphones like Blackberry, Iphone, Palm Pre. Mobile mp3 like Ipod Nano, Ipod Touch, Sony Walkman. Camera such as DSLR, Sony, Canon Ixus and Leica M8. Netbooks and Macbooks are the words these days. These are here to stay.

As Charles Darwin once quoted,"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

Look around you, that if its you are reading this now at Starbucks with a wireless netbook sipping that latte, and see for yourself. Ask yourself this,"Is that guy gay? Is the guy sitting next to me straight?" You could not have seen more examples of these in any metropolis, anywhere between Tokyo to Shanghai from Manila to Singapore. Techno-males are here and they are everywhere.



Goodbye beard. Adios to rugged-ol-fitting-torn jeans. Sayonara to messy oily hair srinkled with dandruff. Au revoir to camping hiking boots in Starbucks. Welcome smartphones and Iphones. Huanyin to Ipods and Itouch 16G. Selamat datang to Macbook Air and Netbooks 10".

Gadgets are here to stay. Imagine your journey in a tube 10 feet underground travelling at 30 miles an hour. Look around you. How many instances that you are able to see individuals with wires hooked to their Ipod. How many of these young males staring at their PSP? Aplenty, that is.

Look at your friends with the latest smartphones (btw, PDA is a cliche and so-old-school gadget by now, which generation are you from, you say?) Everyone wants a Wii, gotten a PS2 and having that kick-ass 42" LCD TV in their living room. All of us wanted that new stylish DSLR or M8 Leica camera. Of course, some of us wants a simpler Sony slim pinkish camera in color to match with their bags.

The emergence of these category of people is here. They are no lie and they are equipped with latest news and information. They blog and they Facebook. They upload their latest photos online and they share like no tomorrow.


Catch up, ol' man or end up like the PDA, ol' skool.

Welcome to the new world.

Update 1: Read this too. Girl Like Gadgets More Than Boys?

Smartphone: Palm Pre

OMG! This article makes my day. It further reinforce my decision to dump dumb-dumb freaking phone forever and uses something smart, something sleeky, something cool but yet not like a nerd.

Any idea?

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Palm Pre!

I love this piece of plastic. Are they available on GSM yet?


I need this!

How can you not like it? Its a business phone without boundaries. Loaded with features such as push email and IM messaging, layered calender and linked contacts, multi-tasking at its bests by opening several application simultaneously, Wi-Fi GPS and 3G, Palm services and etc.



Its a smart phone at its bests.

Look at the breakthrough design and the pictures! Lovely, ain' it?


I am so gonna get 1! When GSM version is available? Check here for their kick-ass phone.

Pictures courtesy of Palm.com