Merry Xmas

I wish you all a merry xmas! May the elves, goblins, goats or old bearded men give you a lot of gifts in the coming days. Eat a lot of traditional food and spend time with your family and friends.

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Mezza Luna

Italian restaurant near Odenplan. Very tasty pizza!

Forno a Legna

Such a good looking pizza! Bide your time, I will devour you...

WWRUG10

I am currently at the WWRUG10 conference in Las Vegas. The WWRUG (World Wide Remedy User Group) is a community gathering around the Remedy tools and applications provided by BMC. This is the first time I am attending the RUG and I hope to be able to attend again in the future. Two persons have attended all of the RUGS and several have attended ten times or more. My guess is that around a quarter of us are here for the first time ever.


One new "cool" thing presented was an iPad version of the SRM interface. Some think this is great and I just wonder, Why?. Who needs to order stuff from their iPad, if you have one? I would see a larger need to have an interface for incidents and tasks for technicians on the run. Then even iPad is a bit bulky and you would need access with your Android/iOS/webOS/whateverOS smart phone. Maybe I am just confused about this new iPad product? We will see in a short future what it will become.

I was hoping to post blog entries at least once a day when I am here but I don't have Internet access. Now I am able to borrow a computer with Internet access so I can post this entry. I will write something more when I get home again.

Hainan China

Girlwing, her parents and I went for a eight days vacation to Sanya on the island Hainan, which is a tropical island south of China. Hainan is famous for its beautiful beaches, fancy hotels, pretty seashells, tasty seafood, giant Guan Yin (观音) and sweet coconut candies.

To the left you can see the first hotel we stayed at. GuestHouse International Hotel in Sanya is quite fancy with a great view from the top of the mountain and not too far from the beach. We payed around 400 yuan per night for a room.

The Guesthouse by night.

This little friend was waiting outside our hotel room one morning.

One day we went to NanTian Hot Springs outdoor spa. There they have fish that feed on visitors. They like exotic Swedish flesh.

Another day we went to see the giant GuanYin. On the way there we stumbled over some ancient grafitti. This one say longevity (长寿).

Here you can read "Live long and prosper" (寿无量).

These are common in temples and used for praying.

The entrance to the temple. Over the entrance you can see "二不" which should be read from right to left and literally means "not two". I leave it as your homework to figure out the deeper meaning of that.

The goal to our journey. A view of the giant Guan Yin.

Guan Yin again.

Next day we spent some time in the town and I found several interesting things to take pictures on. This is some strange tea.

When it is hot and the sun stands high, you should protect your skin from the strong sun.

Selling narcotics.

Need a copy of a key?

Or maybe buy some second handed shoes?

Here we are selling meatballs, fish balls and other kind of balls cooked in oil on a stick. To the right they sell lemonade.

In Hainan you can buy all kinds of fruit for really great prices.

Fruits are sold everywhere.

Lottery is the weeks highlight.

Selling more drugs.

A dried fish store.

An ice cold soup made of fruits like watermelon, sweet potatoes, cocnut, beans and some more stuff mixed with coconut milk and ice.

A lotus flower in a pond in the hotel area of the second hotel we stayed at.

Our bedroom in the more fancy Crowne Plaza in Sanya.

The hotel beach.

The hotel beach.

They serve drinks as well. Nice :)

This is the hotel area where we borrowed a tandem bike.

The Crowne Plaza is a really big hotel. This is just the hotel lobby. Second floor is housing a café. I like the ancient style. The hotel were the location for the miss world the same year we where there, but earlier.

World Expo 2010 Shanghai China

The World Expo in 2010 was held in Shanghai China. As I was in the city at the time I had to make a visit. It is a huge area of 5.28 square km hosting incredible buildings where 192 countries are exposing their culture.

It was interesting to see and it would take several weeks to see it all. We had only one day and most of it we spent in queues to enter the most popular places. I actually refused to queue for the most popular because of queueing times of around four hours. Instead I focused at the ones with shortest or no queues.

Wedding wagon from Mongolia.

Interesting facade on a building.

Beautiful old style house with hand carved wood details.

 

It was very tiresome

 so a rest is needed.

The gardens need constant work.

England made this giant seed.

Filled with real seeds.

A lot of seeds.

Seeds of all kinds and shapes.

They where like ALL OVER.

The Swedish Pavilion. I showed my Swedish passport and they let me jump the queue and enter via the VIP entrance. The same trick worked in all the Scandinavian pavilions. Good to be Scandinavian on the World Expo in Shanghai. :)

Fried dumplings for dinner!

Australia by night.

Malaysia by night.

Night view over the theme pavilions.

The giant China pavilion. You can see 5 floors. Under it you have all the Chinese provinces.

The Yunnan entrance.