I’ve just finished yet another Korean drama, The Vineyard Man (葡萄园之恋 pu tao yuan zi lian) which [again] has Yoon Eun Hye, she also starred in Coffee Prince and Goong (Princess Hours). After 16 episodes I finally learned to love the male lead, Taek Gi, although it was after a bad first impression (especially after I watched Goong). It was a little like Endless Love, I grew to love the characters by the end of the series instead of an instant connection.

One thing I really love about The Vineyard Man is one of their theme songs played throughout the show called 想靠近你 (xiang kao jin ni). It’s track number 15 on The Vineyard Man OST, da ga ga go ship uh by Kim Jung Eun.

Play the youtube video below to have a listen and watch the ending of The Vineyard Man. Spoiler warning: Don’t watch the video if you don’t want to know the ending!!!

Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through loans for the sake of alleviating global poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help fund small businesses run by low-income entrepreneurs around the world.

Loans made on Kiva.org provide 0% interest to lenders. Kiva itself charges no interest from the borrower. Borrowers are charged some interest by the respective microfinance institution handling the individual loan. Kiva.org keeps track of how much interest is charged and will not work with those charging unfair or exorbitant interest rates. Kiva borrowers have a historical repayment rate of 100%. Kiva is working with regulators to allow microfinance institutions to offer variable interest rates to lenders.
-www.kivapedia.org

If you haven’t heard of Kiva before, here’s a great interview with Premal Shah, president of Kiva, on Aljazeera.

My brother introduced me to Kiva when he celebrated the fact that he received his first loan back. And now that I’ve finally gotten around to signing up and ready to give out some loans, it seems that the world of Kiva currently has more lenders than available loans!

I’m going to have to keep checking back to see when new loans come in in the mean time. If you want to make a difference to someone else’s life, come join our team and start micro-lending to those who need it most =) Click to Join Kiva

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-Edit 19th September 2008-

Yay! I chanced upon an Entrepreneur in need of loans when I refreshed Kiva today =) I’ld like to sponsor another when my next pay check comes through or when the $AUD improves… Hopefully the latter, 79c to the $USD is a pretty ugly number. 88c would be good…after all, 8 is for ‘fa’ (发财) right?

I’m running on empty now, my mobile phone only has enough credit for 2 sms’s because I’ve been waiting since last Tuesday (26th) for TPG to send me my mobile sim card! Don’t expect any calls or sms from me, I’m saving those last two sms’s for emergencies like when I get jumped at Curtin (Did you hear about yet ANOTHER attack?).So a warning to you guys, if TPG say that your sim has been sent out and to expect it in 5 working days… they mean 7 days. And even if they say it’s been sent out on a 1 day courier when you tell them you STILL haven’t received it on the 7th day, don’t expect it by the next day.

Personally, I think it’s more of an East vs West problem. Maybe TPG sends the sim’s going West a day later than usual, and maybe Australia Post purposely takes longer delivering East to West… even the express mail? …..

gGrRRr! I just want my mobile to function without any fear of running out of credit! I want to be able to call ‘000′ instead of just throwing the mobile at potential attackers!

TPG $19.99 Mobile Cap Saver Plan with $300 worth of included calls, text and data - tpg.com.au

Sounds too good to be true?
sigh. Just give me my SIM damnit!

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-Edit 6th September 2008-

I still haven’t received the sim from TPG!!!! The TPG Mobile Cap Plan really is too good to be true…. They keep giving me the typical: “Oh, just wait another day or so” response! Bleh…

It’s quite hard not to get annoyed at the TPG Customer Service staff because:

1. For some odd reason, the connection is a bit fuzzy.
2. They keep giving me answers which tell me they’re following systems and processes which don’t work!
3. I can’t call/sms anyone
4. Staff don’t placate or give me a bit of TLC
5. I’ve been put on HOLD much too long to actually believe the automated reassurance BS given, they should just let me listen to some radio!!
6. They tell me that they’ll contact me but don’t! >=(

I was told again to give it until Monday…. *sigh* I suspect that Australia Post messed up and the mobile sim was delivered to the wrong address. And unfortunately for me, TPG are too stingy to send out another SIM *cry*

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-Edit 19th September 2008-

I FINALLY received my TPG sim 3 weeks 1 day after they first sent it out and confirmed payment! It took 2 weeks for them to confirm that I wasn’t going to get my sim and 3 working days for it to arrive after the second send.

I’ve activated my account and waiting for confirmation of my number to be ported… it’s been 48hrs. I think I’ll have to call them again on Monday to confirm whether my account has been activated. It was awfully nice not to have to speak to TPG Customer Service reps for a week.

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-Edit 25th September 2008-

Was told that my number will be ported by Monday, Tuesday the latest. I didn’t have time to call TPG on Tuesday and got home too late from work to call on Wednesday.
Number hasn’t been ported, sim is inactive.

My brother’s TPG arrived in 3 days AND he’s already activated it. How happy do I feel?… You can only guess…

TPG were nice enough to call today, just as I arrived home from work (good timing!), to tell me that the number wasn’t ported because the DOB I provided is wrong (bad news!). And this is the point where my happy positive energy from work started draining.

1. Called Optus to work out what’s the problem, they tell me that I wasn’t the person who activated the Optus sim that I’ve been using since I’ve had a mobile, so I can’t be told anything
2. I deduct that it might be under Dad’s name and tell dad to call Optus
3. I called TPG back and they transfer me to some other department, they put me on hold and the proceeded to HANG UP on me
4. I call TPG back and they transfer me again, only for me to be put on HOLD to be transfered AGAIN……… AND THEY HANG UP AGAIN!
   • At the same time, Dad calls me back to tell me that he doesn’t have access to it either. He suggested my sister.
5. I call my sister up and tell her to call Optus.
6. Optus calls my mobile (the very same one we’re trying to verify), they tell me again that it’s not me or my mum.
7. So it’s not me, not mum, dad or my sister. We get my brother to call.
8. The TPG guy calls me up again to tell me the other DOB I gave him was wrong and when I tell him my dilemma he gives me another number to call
9. Another call to Optus finally tells me the sim is under my Dad’s name… How the hell did he not get it the first time? I don’t know
   • At the same time bro tells calls back to confirm the fact…

2.5hrs later I’m back in square one, waiting for my sim to be activated….

How do I feel? Completely drained and hating how systematized our world is…

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-Edit 28th September 2008-

Finally I can use my phone!~ The first day I wasn’t able to send or receive sms or mms so it was a bit inconvenient, but a girl from TPG called me up to inform me that my sim hasn’t been activated because of the wrong DOB… which was incorrect information obviously. But I was glad they called because I was then able to get my mobile working properly without having to call them up and go through the whole process again!

So to wrap it all up, I guess I would say that TPG is crap when it comes to re-issuing a sim but their technical support is pretty efficient if you can actually get through to them.

Just recently, I found 公主小妹 (Romantic Princess) on CETV1 as well as Princess Hours =) I previously watched a couple of episodes of Princess Hours, but it was the female lead, Yoon Eun Hye, which made me want to watch it again. She’s the same girl from Coffee Prince and there’s just something about her which makes me like her.

Anyway, I just wanted to rant about 公主小妹 (Romantic Princess) because I actually watched the ending of this very short Taiwan drama and was left extremely disappointed. Of all the different types of endings they could have had, the last episode of 公主小妹 was definitely one of the worst ones I’ve seen!

Instead of leaving me smiling and feeling happy, crying my eyes out or even satisfied, 公主小妹 (Romantic Princess) left me with thoughts of how stupid the characters were. I mean, the characters were all making it seem like Xiao Mai leaving for 3years was a life or death event, and that it would be a tragedy if Jin didn’t see her before she left. She’s an heiress for goodness sake! How can she not be able to afford a plane ticket within those 3years?

I don’t think the director or whoever was in charge realised that the last impression is just as important as the first impression.

If they repeat Romantic Princess 公主小妹 on another channel, I’m going to attempt to watch those episodes I’ve missed. I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, those missed episodes make a difference to how I view the ending….

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On a side note, I’m starting to notice a strong trend with these drama’s that I enjoy so much. They all seem to be based on a manga / manhwa / comic! No wonder I’m such a sucker for these dramas… I can still think of a few mangas which I’ve read that I would like to see in Live Action, I have a feeling I won’t have to wait too long at this rate =P

When I was going through my Manga phase, gobbling up all the Manga I could get my hands on, I stumbled across Hanazakari no Kimitachi E (For You in Full Blossom) or better known as Hana Kimi by Hisaya Nakajo. And I have to say that this Manga is definitely still one of my favourites because I can’t resist these romantic comedy storylines full of fluff and the beautiful artwork. I suppose it’s because this is such a typical Japanese story, so much like a fairytale and full of things we deem not possible.

I didn’t like Sano at first, the main male character, because of his lack of emotions and expression. But in reality, that’s exactly how some people are… all emo and that, and it just makes it even sweeter to see Mizuki bring his personality out. Nakatsu is another character I grew to like, he’s a complete opposite to Sano. Where Sano is calm, cool and collected, Nakatsu is full of energy and emotion and comical expressions.

So when I stumbled across the Taiwan drama version of Hana Kimi when I was shopping in Dalian, I just couldn’t resist – I had to buy it.

The good thing about the Taiwan drama is that they follow the manga pretty accurately, I really hate it when movies based on novels or what not are completely killed because they’ve made so many changes to the storyline. I’m a strong believer that the novel is better than the movie because a novel gives readers so much detail which you can’t find in a 1-2hour movie.

Obviously the original Hana Kimi story was changed – they cut the 23 volume Manga down to around about the first 9-10 volumes. I found the drama to be a a little too condense….If they didn’t change and cut the storyline with the photographer, I think it would have clarified it a lot more. Without the extra information, viewers would think that the photographer was just thrown in for the hell of extending the series…

Although Hana Kimi it’s a fairy good fluffy drama, I personally found it a bit TOO unrealistic to be a Live Action Drama. It’s one thing to have a fairytale on paper but another thing to have it played out on screen. BUT I still found it as great entertainment, I liked the cast (mainly Ella - Mizuki, Chun - Sano and Jiro - Nakatsu) and it’s good for me to practise my Chinese =P

Watching drama series or movies in Mandarin is classified as Studying!

I’ve been so busy these couple of weeks with my exams (which I’ve just finished Tuesday), and also with organising the degustation dinner for Fu Restaurant in Perth, Northbridge! First of all, what the heck does “Degustation” mean? I didn’t actually find out for myself until that very night and had a Wandering Gormet explain it to me. To put it quite simply, degustation means a little bit of quite a few of the yummy stuff the chef prepares just for you, which in turn allows you to taste a variety of food in one sitting… hrmm, that still sounds confusing eh? =)

Penneigh from WanderingGormet.net already wrote a great review of the dinner at Fu Restaurant in Perth (click here to read the article) so I won’t go into any details. There’s also some really great photos of the food served as well as the premises found on flickr thanks to WanderingGormet.net

The event turned out quite nicely even with the few hiccups and late comers. I’m even happy to say that I may have been the thorn and cause of great stress to the dear Mr Foo on that eventful night! That’s not to say he didn’t give me a few extra frown lines either, the 10 dishes somehow turned into 12 and the order on the menu was not adhered to! Just as we learn in good ol’ Marketing: “Garbage in, Garbage out“, meaning your results are as good as the data you enter. So in this case, the data might not be as reliable when the respondents are confused about what dish is what….

To be honest, I didn’t know how the whole thing would turn out and was a bit uneasy, not only because of all the tension I could feel rolling off Mr Foo either. Now that the event is all over with and people parted with smiles and a full tummy, I’m sure that next time I’m in a similar situation things will run much smoother. I’ll also know that no matter how much planning is put in, something will not go according to plan!

Thanks again to all those who attended and filled in the survey!~

Fu (富) Restaurant
287 William Street
Northbridge, Perth
Ph: 9328 3899

- Fu Restaurant