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Hi to all:
No need to purchase pre-made cookie dough as a basic cookie dough is the easiest thing that you can make and takes very little time (can whip up a batch in less than 10 minutes). Most of the ingredients for cookie dough can be found at hongqi (white sugar, brown sugar, flour, eggs and salt) while you may need to go to Carrefour or other larger stores for butter. The final ingredients (vanilla extract and baking soda) can be scored at Sabrina’s. Recipes can be easily found on all of the usual-suspect sites on the web; you can experiment with all kinds of cool recipes depending on what you are in the mood for (carrot spice, maple oat, etc.).
Notwithstanding, I would strongly recommend that you simply sit down and figure out the foods you wish to bake (maybe by pulling recipes down?) and then order the non-perishable staples off taobao. Some baking staples that I ordered:
– Whole-wheat flour, raisins, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, maple extract, almond extract, baking soda and baking powder.Other than an oven, you should also invest in a hand mixer (I think I bought at Ito a few years back).
Cheers!
@Charlie: Good call. I completely forgot about decathalon as it has been ages since i went there…makes perfect sense to go there first and see what they have to offer.
@Vincent: Many thanks for the link; this store is better than any store i found the last few days searching on taobao. After decathalon i will qq this store and have a chat.Thanks!!
Just watched the latest video, very cool.
So the heated floor comprises a copper plate inside the individual tiles that are all connected and powered by electric current I take it? If that is so, then way cool.
My friend did the “radiator” type of heating which is gas powered and coupled with the water heater. To install, they had to basically carve out lines in all the walls to run the pipe and that ultimately emerges from the walls of each room as a radiator element. Watching them drill the living crap out of all of the walls made me cringe so I passed.
Your system is absolutely brilliant in its conception and what appears to be a non-intrusive installation (when compared to above); great decision on your part mate.
just hooked up a vpn and finally able to see your blog; congratulations.
if it is any source of comfort, your renovation experience was similar to mine and pretty much anyone else I know who has renovated (nightmarish).
enjoy your new pad.
I’m done juggling multiple iTunes libraries between computers – easier to just stream everything from Google Music!
I completely understand you; I am sooo ready to migrate my library into some other program. However, I am not not overly warmed with the thought of using anything from google (another equally oppressive corporate master IMO).
Has anyone on this board had any experience with mediamonkey (the free version)?
I did that xmas buffet a couple of years ago (cafez) and the place was absolutely mobbed (replete with an overabundance of screaming children running around); you might want to book ahead of time as we almost didn’t get seated (though I wish we hadn’t). Can’t remember the exact price but might have been around 400 rmb/person.
As far as quality…I would describe that restaurant as “offering a large variety of extremely bland food.”
Not sure about your situation (time, proficiency in the kitchen, cooking equipment) but I would think with that budget (per person) you could go shopping and create a menu for yourself that would absolutely destroy anything that restaurant (or any other) could offer.
The Elephant Mountain hiking trails aren’t bad (though I wouldn’t call them a hike rather a short climb). If the weather is clear then there are nice views from the top; if interested you can find many trails nearby the Taipei 101 building. Do visit the 101; the observation deck is cool (been in my share of tall buildings and these elevators are sick) and I thought that giant ball (stabilizing building) was cool – overall, they give a lot of info about the architecture/construction, etc. which I liked. Also had coffee and hung out at a bucks on level 35(?) that offered a view.
The Palace Museum could work if you have an interest in Chinese antiquities with two caveats: there could be massive queues here (mainland tour groups) so be mentally prepared for that (though I am told that you could visit late afternoon or evening when less people are around); and definitely hook up a guide so that you can understand the significance and meaning of this stuff.
cheers.
Another option: you can purchase one of the calling cards they sell outside ChuanDa – Moziqiao gate. I have bought the China Mobile card (100 rmb card gives about 300 minutes to the U.S. – they claim 333 but i have never actually tracked). The quality of the line is usually excellent; on the rare chance you get a bad connection, you just hang up and dial back in, no problem.
i have personally found skype to be unreliable, though a friend uses Nonoh and says it’s good.
sorry to gravedig here but i couldn’t resist sharing this…
for some reason i remain fixated on the fact that they hold their bc codes on flash drives locked in safe deposit boxes “at banks in three different cities”…and i thought i was paranoid.
MtGox is reporting problems due to heavy traffic (not DDos); probably the same for those others.
yet another disturbing aspect to this…not enough server power.
a nice chart depicting yesterday’s roller coaster
i couldn’t sleep either; watching this go parabolic again but in the other direction. if it wasn’t such a pain in the butt to get in and out, would love to trade the volatility of this.
…btw, yet to be ascertained is who or what Satoshi Nakamoto is. When a brilliant technology/idea is introduced to the world, it seems strange that they use pseudonyms and disappear.
Good comments @JerryS. I additionally ask who is to say that this is free from government manipulation? Today, most bc transactions are settled in some form of fiat (goods and services transferred are not the norm yet) and since this is a peer-to-peer transaction, who are the participants in this market currently? Bad guys trying to hide money from government?…governments trying to drive the price of bc’s up to maintain their fiat? or average joe getting his face ripped off?
No doubt this is an interesting concept though i would have to second @JerryS. Maybe an alternative route to move money but not something i would go long on. Not sure i would call it a bubble but is absolutely volatile (noted last week quote at 92 bucks before cyprus and then hit 147 intraday before settling down to high 130’s – all of this within one 48-hour period).
given the chlorine, etc. added to tap water, bacteria is probably not a concern however, if you are concerned about heavy metals (lead, etc.) know that simply boiling water does not remove them – worse is that the pure water is lost via the boiling (steam) thus after boiling you are left with a higher concentration of metals to water than you started with!
you can purchase a water filtration system that is fitted on your sink (replete with its own tap) or if you could find one of those jugs that has a filter fitted on it (brita is a brand that i bought at “HOLA” on hangkong road that is pretty good). problem here is that over time you will have to go out and buy mineral supplements as you will get no minerals via that filter.
for the record, when the guy came to install the water filtration system i made him test several of the commercial brands of water commonly sold (ie. nongfu spring, cestbon) and they were actually pretty clean.
cool, saw the frankfurt flight (3 x per week?) but didn’t see the london flight.
fyi, chengdu will soon begin constructing a new airport in the east (around jianyang) that is supposed to open in 2017 – designed to be 3x the size of shangliu with 5 runways.
in a few years, chengdu will probably have direct flights to many U.S. and European cities.
Not sure of the circumstances surrounding your apartment decision but hopefully you will be given an opportunity to first view the “employer-provided” apartments before having to make the decision to find your own.
I first came to Chengdu in 2000 and have lived in the tongzilin area and jinjiang; IMHO the dongdajie area is a much better location. If you prefer convenience, then that dongdajie area is within walking distance to jiuyanqiao (bars), yanshikou/chunxi road (lots of restaurants and department stores/food shopping – ito yokado and isetan) not to mention a plethora of good restaurants that you can find/explore walking towards xinanmen or north of dongmendaqiao.
Yes indeed the dongdajie area is teeming with new construction right now so with regards to noise, the apartment location is critical…with regards to dust, the entire city is under construction at this point so I am not so sure yulin is any less dusty. Good luck!
