Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2012

15 global challenges that cannot be addressed by any government acting alone

  The 15 Global Challenges  from t he Millennium Project, a global participatory think tank. 1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change? 2. How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict? 3. How can population growth and resources be brought into balance? 4. How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes? 5. How can decisionmaking be enhanced by integrating improved global foresight during unprecedented accelerating change? 6. How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone? 7. How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor? 8. How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced? 9. How can education make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise enough to address its global challenges? 10. How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts,...

The Bloody Chinese Takeaway Opens On Christmas Day

Customers starts to inquire if the Chinese takeaway shop will be open on Christmas Day. "I am not sure." I said, " Last Christmas it was closed because of no delivery driver. But one of our driver says he can work on Christmas this year. He says that he is a White Paki. And there is a customer told us that she always got her curry for Christmas dinner, so I promised her we will be open for Her." The customer felt indignant when she heard we may open on Christmas Day. She said, "Police or firefighter or doctors have to serve for emergence, but I don't think the bloody chinese takeaway or chip shop have o be open." I said , "Yeah, but we're not Christians, and don't have a tradition of celebrating it." "But Jesus love all human kind," she said, "not just for Christians." The delivery driver explained the meaning of White Paki to me. And said he can work every day seven days a week like a Pakistanese. But ...

Takeaway goes online

A customer, while she waiting her meal, typed our Chinese takeaway telephone number into her mobile phone, when she finished, she said, "it's a better idea, isn't it? Add the number to my contact. I always take a menu, then lose it. " I totally agree with her, because the golden rule of customer service is -- customer is always right. What's in my mind was, she couldn't type more than 200 different meals and its prices into her mobile phone. Of course if she is a kind of customer who never change her meal, always a chicken curry and fried rice, it doesn't matter. Some customer never changes, never ask something different, even if they try to, but after looking at the confusing menu, those strange name of sources and cooking style, then give up, once again on the safe side buy a chicken curry. So, where can customers who keep losing the takeaway menu find when they need it? The answer is to go online. Some lazy shop owner don't send out menu, or...

Christmas Tree Decoration Themes

Beautiful Christmas Trees in Govan Cross shopping centre. We can see two major themes for the tree decorations -- Red Theme and Blue Theme. The Red Theme gives you a warm feeling, and the Blue or Green theme gives you cool feeling, of course both give you the festival atmosphere. Red theme with Green Base This tree is decorated with red bulbs and red butterflies (or flowers?), shining with yellow lights, and spotted with snowflakes which is not pure white, so they may match the other colours. Red theme with Red Base  This tree has same decoration theme with the first one, but on a Red Base, which enhanced the red theme of the tree, but it seems a bit too strong to match the green tree. This tree is the same as the first, but the picture was taken from a different angle, it's green base seems not quite match with the background. Green Theme on a Green Base This is Green Theme tree on a Green base,  it looks nice. You may notice the base is higher than the othe...

Rain all day

Rain, rain, rain all day long in Scotland. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Left-handed

When we were standing outside for a smoke, Chen asked me, "Is this my left eye?" "Why, you don't know left and right?" "No. I am left-handed.' He said, and lift up his right hand, "I use this hand to hold chopstick." "This is your right hand." "So this is my right eye. This eyelid is twitching tonight. "Left eyelid flickers fortune, right disaster. " You don't know right and How do you practice red guard march when you in school?" In China, we have junior's brigade in school, similar as boy or girl's guide in Britain. It's very rare that people at twenty still don't know left and right. He told me when he was a child, his was treated as hyperactive, had a lot medication. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Child's Play Tent

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device Dressed up for Halloween party, and posed in front of their 'Princess Castle'. They are obsessed with making a house, move tables and chairs and any 'building material' for the walls and door, and bed sheets and pajamas for the roof, adjust here and there, never tired of starting again when the house collapsed or the coat was taken away from the roof. So one day, I asked, how about a play tent for your birthday? Hooray! They shouted. And the night they asked their mummy to look for it on EBay  And she chose this one which is square and blue. A girl who doesn't like pink seems unusual. And it turned out that square tent is not as stable as round one, it just can't stand straight, instead, it slants to one side after two days. The seller is in Poland, so the tent is only £17, but the postage costs £10. The seller told me it's delivered by DHL, but inside UK, it's Parcel Force. They sent it to the loc...

Cooking is anti-social, leave it to Professional

The online takeaway website Just-Eat launches a campaign to 'save the public from cooking and the tyranny of celebrity chefs.' They codenamed a gang of rebellious chefs  Mr. Mozzarella, Mr. Basmati, Mir. T-Bone, Mr. Sweet & Mr. Sour, and Mr Halloumi, respectively. Mr. Mozzarella represents Italian, which is a kind of fresh or unripened cheese traditionally made from water buffalo's milk; Mr. Basmati for Indian, which is the 'easy-cook' basmati rice; Mr. T-Bone, that's steaks of beef cut from the short loin, consisting of a T-shaped bone with meat on each side; Mr. Sweet and Mr Sour of course represent Chinese or Japanese, which is a kind of source; and Mr. Halloumi is a semi-hard, unripened brined white cheese made from a mixture of goats' and sheep milk, it's favourite cheese in Cyprus, Greece, and Middle East. The leader of the gang, Mr. Mozz (short for Mozzarella), points out that there is "a madness that is threatening our livelihoods...

Govan Cross

Govan Baby Govan baby is pouring out holy water from a jug. 

Happy Halloween!

Christmas party dresses  and wrapping papers are now displayed on shelves where the Halloween dresses had been in the early morning on 1st November, everything has been "cleared out last night", the shop assistant told me. "It is quick! " I said to the shop assistant, "where are those gone? In the bin?" In an Indian shop, I saw some costumes scattered on the corner, and asked the shop assistant if he could sell them on discount, "I wanna buy one for next Halloween," I said. He promised me 'good price'. I found one that I thought my daughter might like, but he wouldn't sell it at half price. An old man whispered to his pal with a mysterious smile on his face, "These stuff should be taken away!" Halloween dresses displayed on the 1st November bring bad luck? I am not superstitious, but do felt spooky. I went to ASDA, many people passed by those Halloween dresses, felt very sorry for those beautiful dresses on sale at ...