YeinJee's Asian Journal » Greater London

London set cosplay record

Yein Jee — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:28:14 +0000

342 video game fans joined forces in London last Saturday (Oct 25) to set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as video games characters.

Cos-players celebrating the new record (Image from BBC)

The Japanese must have no idea about the existent of the world record yet… they could easily smash the record by in one of their gamers/comics/anime festivals.

London set cosplay record from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Good bye Beijing, hello London

Yein Jee — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:28:43 +0000

The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games has officially ended. Set aside a few controversies, it was a job well done by the Chinese organiser in running the event. Kudos for that.

The closing ceremony was ok for me; nothing much different than the opening… visually pleasing but not heart warming. I am a bit worried for London though; their short appearance last night was quite bland.

Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the Olympic with greatness. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt obviously stole the spotlight… a few other personal favourite winners include Yelena Isinbayeva, Guo Jingjing, Zhang Ning, Roger Federer, Matthias Steiner, Japanese softball team and Argentine men soccer team etc.

It has been a wonderful event, but I am glad it has finally ended. The Olympics had taken away too much of my working (and sleeping) hours for the past two weeks… plenty of catchup needed now.

It’s goodbye to Beijing, and hello to London in 2012.

Good bye Beijing, hello London from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Beijing Olympics roundup (7)

Yein Jee — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:55:01 +0000

Some random news about Beijing 2008 Olympics…

The power of love

Matthias Steiner of Germany was the men’s +105kg weightlifting champion on Tuesday. When I first saw the picture, I thought of how romantic this guy was… I only knew a day later that the woman in the picture was his wife Susann, who died in a car accident last year, and it sparked plenty of emotions…

Matthias with his gold medal and a photo of his late wife (Image via Beijing2008)

This will probably be the most memorable Beijing Olympics’ photo for me… it draws love, sadness, romance, pride, commitment and loyalty. If I am a woman I would probably fall in love with this guy.

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Beijing Olympics roundup (7) from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The tale of Matthew Emmons

Yein Jee — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:48:14 +0000

American shooter Matthew Emmons is going to be one of the most memorable characters in Olympic history…

Matthew and Katerina Emmons

In Athens 2004, Matthew was just a shot away from winning a gold in the three positions competition… but he shot on the wrong target, a mistake that sounds almost impossible in professional shooting. He finished eighth.

It’s not all bad for Matthew though… later that night, he went to a pub and met Czech shooter Kateřina Kůrková who offered him consolation. The couple fell in love and got married in 2007.

If the name Kateřina Emmons sounds familiar to you, that’s because she is the winner of the first gold medal in Beijing Olympics 2008.

Matthew was trying to emulate his wife’s success, and he was pretty close at the three positions competition, again needing just an average score at his final shot to secure the gold.

Somehow, it’s deja vu… he didn’t fire the wrong target this time, but pulled the trigger at a wrong timing and got a bad score. He finished fourth.

Make no mistake though, Matthew is an excellent shooter. He won a gold in Athens in other shooting event and also a silver in Beijing. It’s just the bizarreness of how he missed those two golds that is going to make him a folklore of the Games.

Matthew has already expressed his ambition for London 2012… wish him luck.

[With reference from CNN and Wiki]

The tale of Matthew Emmons from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Moscow is world’s most expensive city (2008)

Yein Jee — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:58:03 +0000

Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.

Mercer’s survey is arguably the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

The survery covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Top 10 most expensive cities in 2008

Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong (China), Copenhagen (Denmark), Geneva (Switzerland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Milan (Italy).

Surprisingly US have only one city in the top 50 (New York at 22nd)… and Canada don’t even make it into top 50. Perhaps we should migrate to that region instead lol.

Moscow is world’s most expensive city (2008) from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Chinese student calling BBC a ‘lier’

Yein Jee — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:34:56 +0000

This patriotic Chinese student is among thousands of Chinese students and expatriates taking part in a silent protest on April 19 against the BBC and other British news organization for their distorted and biased reports on Lhasa riots and the London leg of Olympics torch relay.

I am not really sure how biased BBC was, but this Chinese patriot probably needs to spend more time learning his English…

(Image from Chinadaily)

English lesson of The Day…
Lier: A person who lies down (horizontally, i.e. lies on bed, lies on floor)
Liar: A person who tells lies (not telling the truth)

I make a lot of English grammatical mistakes too, so it’s probably not proper for me to tease this fella; but it’s just funny… imagine you are on international news and the first thing people notice is some bizarre typo.

Chinese student calling BBC a ‘lier’ from YeinJee's Asian Blog

The Singapore Flyer

Yein Jee — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:59:47 +0000

The Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest observation wheel, was officially opened on yesterday (April 15) by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long.

The Singapore Flyer (Image from Flyer’s official website)

Located at Marina Bay, the Singapore Flyer comprises a 150-metre-diameter wheel and a total height of 165 metres (equivalent to ~ 42 stories high), which is about 30m taller than the famous London Eye and 5m taller than the previous record holder, The Star of Nanchang in Jiangxi, China.

The Singapore Flyer from YeinJee's Asian Blog

KL Freeze in Unison

Yein Jee — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:40:03 +0000

Group of people has frozen themselves simultaneously for 4 minutes at Kuala Lumpur’s Pavilion shopping centre on April 13, 2008, at 3.35pm.

Inspired by Improv Everywhere’s Frozen Grand Central, similar pranks were performed in London, Paris and other cities where groups of people would pause themselves at the same period of time at a specific location. It’s hard to explain in words… watch the videos and you would probably understand what I mean.

KL freeze at Pavilion (Good job guys and girls!)

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KL Freeze in Unison from YeinJee's Asian Blog

London trip’s random photos

Yein Jee — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:30:21 +0000

Random photos in London, first full day of my UK trip in October 2005…

The National Gallery

I am not an artistic person; didn’t plan to visit the National Gallery, but I was desperately in need to visit the toilet… might as well take a peep after the pee.

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London trip’s random photos from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Tower of London, UK

Yein Jee — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:42:56 +0000

Tower of London was already closing when I reached there; not that I planned to go in anyway. The place is often ranked as the must visit place in London ahead of other tourist spots, but I’m not interested with its attraction somehow.

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Tower of London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Will the real London Bridge please stand up

Yein Jee — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:22:31 +0000

This is the real London Bridge. People often mistook the Tower Bridge as London Bridge; fact is the real London bridge is nothing as fancy as its famous cousin.

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Will the real London Bridge please stand up from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Tower Bridge, London, UK

Yein Jee — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:16:05 +0000

The Tower Bridge in London, one of the world’s most iconic landmark and probably the world’s most famous mistaken identity in which many foreigners mistook it as the less-spectacular-but-historically-rich London Bridge.

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Tower Bridge, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Big Ben clock tower, London, UK

Yein Jee — Sun, 27 May 2007 05:11:48 +0000

The Clock Tower, famously known as Big Ben, is the name of the tower at Houses of Parliament in Westminster. The Chinese affectionately called it the Big Dumb Bell for its Chinese pronunciation pun.

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Big Ben clock tower, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column, London, UK

Yein Jee — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:32:24 +0000

Trafalgar Square, one of the world’s most famous squares, located in the heart of London. Unfortunately the place was under renovation during my 2005 visit; the fountains were not working, and the usual crowd hanging out somewhere else.

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Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Piccadilly Circus, London, UK

Yein Jee — Tue, 15 May 2007 05:40:17 +0000

Piccadilly Circus, a famous road junction, popular hangout place, and iconic tourist spot in London.

Most tourists probably don’t know the name of the symbolic fountain though… it’s officially named the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain, or Shaftesbury Memorial in short.

The winged-nude statue on top has a name too… Angel of Christian Charity, popularly known as Eros after the mythical Greek God of Love.

Piccadilly Circus is a busy place; surrounded by theatres, shops, malls, hotels, restaurants, pubs and endless traffic. The neon signboards in the area are quite a scene at night; probably not as splendid as New York’s Time Square, but spectacular nonetheless.

When I visited London a few years earlier there were lots of pizzerias and kebab stores around, but only a few of them remained in the area. I still managed to grab a pizza nearby, but disappointingly it wasn’t as good as it used to be.

London & UK travelogue

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Piccadilly Circus, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

St James Park, London, UK

Yein Jee — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:43:38 +0000

St James’s Park is the oldest of the Royal Parks in London, located just beside the Buckingham Palace. I’m in love with the park (and the connected Green Park) since my first visit in 2001; and Londoners seemed to be really fond of it too.

Scenery from the Blue Bridge

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St James Park, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

Buckingham Palace, London, UK

Yein Jee — Tue, 08 May 2007 06:48:34 +0000

First destination during my UK trip in October 2005, the Buckingham Palace.

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Buckingham Palace, London, UK from YeinJee's Asian Blog

London, here I come!

Yein Jee — Tue, 01 May 2007 06:05:31 +0000

Arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in early morning of October 5, 2005; taking a free ride to the airport as my brother was working nearby. Destination… to visit my sister in London and embark on a 19-days Europe trip together.

KLIA was much busier than a few years ago; reminded me that I hadn’t been travelling overseas (except neighbouring Singapore) for almost five years… quite a long break for a self-proclaimed travel enthusiast lol.

Flight departed at 11 am; and after 11 hours of movies, sleep, food and toilet visits, the plane touched down safely at Heathrow Airport in London evening.

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London, here I come! from YeinJee's Asian Blog