French Health, Youth and Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin wore a pair of pink Crocs sandals to a cabinet meeting last week (Aug 27) after losing a bet to the French Olympic athletes.
Roselyne made a promise that she would wear the shoes if the French Olympic squad could bring home 40 medals from the Beijing Olympic Games as a way to boost their morale… and the French athletes did just enough (7G,16S,17B) to claim the wager.
Went to Putrajaya on Friday (Aug 29) to catch the finale of Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2008, with performance from the Australian team.
First serious attempt on fireworks photography; results are rather poor. Here are a few of the relatively nice photos…
Naomi Yotsumoto is currently one of the most talk-about Japanese ping-pong players, not just for her skills, but mainly for her fashion and style during the games…
Vietnamese have quite a unique way to prepare their coffee. One of the most popular coffees is the ice-milk coffee (cà phê sữa đá) which is also popularly called the ‘drip coffee’ by travellers because of how it was brewed… like this and this.
Didn’t manage to drip the coffee myself when I was in Hanoi in July 2008; the cafe I visited served the well-prepared drink instead (photo above).
My sister who tried some coffee in Hanoi prior to my visit told me that the Vietnamese coffee was stronger than common espresso… can’t agree on that, at least not with the one I had. A decent glass of coffee though… smooth, thick and rich.
Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) 2008 is held in the month of August in conjunction with the country’s independence day celebration.
I was planning to go for a show on Wednesday, but the weather was not permitting; will try my luck again on Sunday. Meanwhile, catch a video below, produced by an official media partner of MIFC with the Malaysian team performing on August 12.
Besides the Malaysian team, other teams that are competing in the event this year are from China, Spain, Canada and Australia.
Update - check out a few photos taken by yours truly during one of the shows.
A video of BASE jumping from KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the KL International Tower Jump (KLITJ) in August 2006…
BASE is the acronym for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth… the categories of fixed objects that are usual jumping platforms for this extreme sport. [more on Wiki]
KLITJ is becoming a popular event for BASE jumpers around the world; the annual event is moving into its seventh edition in 2008. Besides the 421m KL Tower, the jumping sessions are now extended to a few other locations across the country.
A bunch of premium grapes were auctioned for 100,000 yen (~US$920) in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, on Monday (August 11). The bunch weighed around 700g and had 35 grapes, which converts to about $26 per grape.
These expensive grapes are a new variety called the Ruby Roman; nurtured by the Kaga Fruit Land in Ishikawa. It’s said to be the largest grapes in Japan, about 3cm in diameter. The average price for the Ruby Romans at Monday’s auction was about 27,000 yen ($248) per bunch. [via Nikkei]
Check out some other expensive Japanese fruits… the Yubari cantaloupes and the Densuke watermelons.
