Torino Winter Olympics

I have actually been thinking of writing something about this year's Winter Olympics for a while. I don't think Winter Olympics is something people from the tropical countries are familiar with. I cannot recall when my first time hearing of Winter Olympics was, but remember vaquely it was probably during my university years. This year is actually the first time I have a chance to watch and follow a bit of what winter olympics is like.

Turin, or Torino, a town in Italy is where Winter Olympics 2006 is held. The famous winter sports like Ski, Snowboard, Crosscountry, Figure Skate, etc are on the line.

My attention first went to a very much impressive competition in the Ladie's Halfpipe Snowboarding. The American girl who won Gold was just very stunning. Actually the Norwegian who finished third was also very great. I just love her flip!

Kjersti Buass of Norway competes in the Womens Snowboard Half Pipe Qualifying
(© Getty Images)

Team USA member Hanah Teter wins gold in the Women's Snowboard Half Pipe Final.
(Rob Tringali/Eastman Kodak Company)

Then, Freestyle Skiing. How can these people jump like this?!?!

Roark of the US competes during qualification in ladies' moguls freestyle competition
© Reuters

Mikko Ronkainen of Finland (men's moguls freestyle competition)
© Getty Images

Dashinski of Belarus (Men's Aerials Final)
© Reuters

However, what attracted me the most was this one sport, a-so-called 'CURLING'. What the heck is it?

Anette Norberg of Sweden releases a stone as Catherine Lindahl (L) and Anna Svaerd of Sweden prepare to brush the ice
© Getty Images

Amy Nixon of Canada lines up a shot during the bronze medal match of the women's curling
© Getty Images

Norwegian curlers study next move during loss to Canada in women's curling bronze medal match
© Reuters

There are balls, there are brooms, there is the sweeping.... are they cleaning the ice ring? =P It's actually something like เปตอง on the ice. Indeed, an interesting sport. If you fancy knowing the rules, go here.

Talking about Torino Olympics and not talking about the talk-of-the-town Ladies' Figure Skate Competition might probably make my blog uncompleted. A couple of days back, Japan was in a dreadful situation of not winning any single medals from this year's Olympics. Their last hope was on the 3 ladies participating in the figure skate competition (ARAKAWA Shizuka, ANDO Miki and SUGURI Fumie). From 'short program' skating yesterday, ARAKAWA Shizuka ended 3rd after the young American COHEN Sasha (1st) and the Russian SLUTSKAYA Irina (2nd). However, after the 'free skating program' this morning, ARAKAWA's super magnificent skating brought her up to the top and took the Gold at the end. Her skating was truly wonderful, very much paired with the standing ovation she received from the crowd at the end of her performance.

Arakawa upon finishing the short program skating

Her most famous posture. Eventhough the new rule doesn't include this move in the scoring system, as her trademark, Arakawa put it in her performance anyways. It was beautiful!

The first Gold Medal for Japanese Figure Skating and the only medal for Japan in this Winter Olympics 2006

To our surprise, there is one Thai athelete participating in this event too! NAGVAJARA Prawat currently lives in Penn State, USA, but because of holding Thai nationality, he participated as a representative of Thailand in Cross-Country Skiing. There are also a few other members from the near equator countries in the winter olympics. It could be very interesting if these people can beat the cold countries' residents in this kinda game, huh? Who knows... it maybe something we see in the future ;-)

Birthday Celebration②： At Capricioza

Let the pictures say it all for me.











Date: Saturday, February 18, after the Maiko-henshin session
Place: Capricioza, Sanjyo, Kyoto

Maiko

Let's get done with the Life Rerun. I think I have done a good catch up so far. Today's post is a few days delay, but still the most recent activity for me. Yeah, as the title goes, it's about 'Maiko' or Japanese Geisha. Since Kyoto is very famous for the district of Geisha and old town atmosphere, there are a number of studios offering photo packages for those who want to try getting dressed up like the Kyoto-often-seen Maiko-san. Well, since we are all in Kyoto now, we were thinking it should be a good experience to try being dressed up like a maiko. We planned for it, fixed the date and finally there went the photo shooting time.

It was.... er..... a good experience, I think. The photo turned out really bad though. I think it was because we went on Saturday when it was very crowded, so the works (make-up, hair-dressing, photo-shooting) weren't that neat. Jill's friend went a day earlier than us (on Friday) and the product turned out quite differently. At least for different quality. Anyways, we were given a chance to stroll around a bit behind the studio and had the free-time photo shooting for ourselves outdoor. That... was the fun part. You're not supposed to show your teeth when you smile whilte being a maiko, but hey.. since we had the time for ourselves, we did a lot of things you don't see maikos usually do. ^^ Let's follow the pictures.

getting dressed up

putting on the hair thingy

Maikos (who's who?)

Maiko#1

Jill said she likes this picture (with Nhong)

I think you can tell who's who

You can tell right away this is not a real Maiko, it's MAI! ^^

ภาพเบื้องหลัง - the most beautiful picture of all!

BONUS PICTURE (BEWARE!!!!!)

no description. Picture explains it all!!! haha =P

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Team members:P'Pum~, Pear, Mai, Jill, Bow and one of P'Pum's Chinese friend
Place: Shiki Studio in Higashiyama area (near Kiyomizudera)
Photographers and supporters: P'Ton, P'Y2oh, Nhong', Lar+, Ai Ling, Yhib and Eddie

Life Rerun - Episode V: N-A-B-E

February 15

A dinner celebration with my professor upon finishing up our Masters course. Very yummy nabe (hot pot) at my professor's favourite restaurant, Kabocha no tane (Pumpkin seed) in Gion area. A very recommended restaurant to visit!

Elena, Ko, Prof.Hioki, O and me

February 16

N'Bow came over (or should it be called a 'moved over'?? =P) to spend her time at my place. She successfully came to my house without me having to pick her up \(^^)/. I left her at my place in the evening though - needed to attend a conference at my department. I finally got to meet up with the professor who helped looking through my Master thesis. So happy! ^^
Two of Jill's friends (N'Na CD29 and her friend, N'Jom) were also visitting at the same time, so we had a full-house kimchi nabe party. Had lots of funny stories. N'Bow also brought her home-made yummy white chocolate mousse over. Very delicious ja~~. (droolin.....g!!) :9

N'Bow and her home-made white chocolate mousse

the inside

Birthday Celebration①： At Asiatica

February 10, 2006

It was to our surprise there are 6 of us (in Kyoto) whose birthdays fall in February. Wanting to make it memorable for all of us, we decided to have a birthday celebration altogether at a Thai Restaurant called Asiatica near Pear's house. The food was really great! Let's start with food first, huh?

ต้มแซบ
ผักบุ้งไฟแดง (Morning glory in oyster sauce)
ไก่ห่อใบเตย (Thai Chicken in pandan leaves
ขาหมู (Pork Leg)
ปลาทอดผัดพริก (Fish in chilly sauce)
ยำวุ้นเส้น (Spicy glass noodle salad with seafood)

I went to get my hair permed that day in the afternoon with N'Bow (our adopped youngest sister...haha) Man .. perming hair takes so much time (and money!!!!). -"- But it was defenitely a great change for me. I felt like I needed some change. Felt like I needed to something new to get out from the old atmosphere. And yeah, I think perming hair really helped. ^^ (Thanks to Jill who successfully dragged me out to the salon!! haha)

curry hair in pink: what a coincidence!
P'Pong~, P'Pum~, Yam, P'Ying+, P'Muay+,
Pear, Nhong and P'Y2oh
Mekumi, At-chan, Mae-chan and P'Nha
P'Ton, Nott, P'Golf, Mai, Bow and Jill
Birthday people:
P'Nha (2/10), Pear (2/14), Mai (2/17),
P'Pong~ (2/23), P'Pum~ and Nhong' (2/27)

Happy time ^^

our birthday cakes
blowing the candles (haha.. everyone went blurred!!)

Then, 8 of us went over to an all-night karaoke session! So much fun, indeed.
But I think I have had enough karaoke for the month!! =P Great birthday celebration. Thank you na ka~.

Life Rerun - Episode IV: My Valentine's

Breaking the chronicle timeline again, I decided to save a post on our February birthdays party which was held on Feb 10 for later and skip to my Valentine's day.

Well...... there was A LOT going on that day. LoL Haha... you really know the stories?? My Valentine's this year is quite a memorable one. First of all, I had a special cooking session - Kanom Pung Nah~ Moo+ (minced pork on bread).

Preparation

deep frying

Why special? 'Cuz I haven't had a chance to cook this dish in an extremely long time. Plus, I was cooking for someone special. ^^ And that special someone is

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my students!!

yeah.. yeah.. I went teaching again. This time was a cooking class. A food club of one elementary school to the west side of Kyoto invited me over to be a special guest for their last club event. The school was REALLY far out and I had to use the all 4 rail companies in Kyoto to get there from my house (Eizan from my house to Demachiyanagi station + Keihan from Demachiyanagi to Shijyo Station + Hankyu from Kawaramachi to Omiya station + Kyofuku from ShijyoOmiya to Uzumasa Stataion).

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Then, I caught a bus back to P'Ton's place to have dinner with a few others for Pear's birthday. I was feeling extremely sick that daythat I felt like sleeping all the time. But I survived with P'Ton's yummy food, delicious cake prepared by Chan and our Malaysian friends (Eddie and Ai Ling), and great tisamisu made by Wolfgang, our German friend. Card session after that was indeed very interesting. ;-) Happy Birthday again ja~, Pear.

Fried Tofu and vegetables

Simple-but-yummy Thai Omelette

Super great deep fried shrimps :9

Pear, Jill, P'Ton and Eddie

Happy Birthday, Pear

Tiramisu

Tiramisu, the Maker!

what happened to the cake ^^