NEW YEAR VACATION IN KANSAI, JAPAN

Spent 6 days in Kansai area of Japan, visited several places and enjoyed delicious Japanese food. I will update my blog ASAP. Please come back sometimes!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Though we had a tough ending of 2008 and a challenging 2009, Let's be positive on the coming year of OX.

Jan. 26 is the first day of Chinese new year. Wish all the friends around the world have the prosperity and happiness in the coming year of OX.

CONSUMPTION VOUCHERS (消費券)

To encourage more consumption then to stimulate the progress of economics, Taiwan government gives each resident of Taiwan a gift for new year; it is a set of consumption voucher (消費券) which is worth NTD3,600 (around USD107). Taiwan government hopes this NTD3,600 voucher policy can make every people spend more money on daily consumption.

Today is the first day for consumption voucher distribution. I did not tend to get them today, but when I came home around 4 in the afternoon. I found there was very few people in the line for them. So it took me only 5 minutes to get them. Easy and Happy!

How am I going to spend these vouchers? I think it is about time to get a new LCD TV. I think spending more money with these vouchers do meet government's idea about these consumption vouchers.

Hope this consumption voucher policy do give some power to boost the economics growth in a short time.

MY RECENT RECEIVED FERRARI GIFTS

Can you tell it is a stamp set? printed by Finland for F1 World Champion 2007 Kimi Raikkonen.

Right after Ferrari F1 team launch its new F60 for 2009 season, I got 2 Ferrari related gifts. One is the Puma Ferrari Kimi baseball cap by my sister-in-law, another one is the Kimi stamp set printed by Finland and from a friend.

The Kimi stamp set is quite unique. I thought it was a kind of ticket at the first sight. Then I realized the images of Kimi and the Ferrari F1 were actually stamps. What a nice collection of Kimi!

Thanks to my sister-in-law and my friend for those great gifts.

FERRARI F40 AND F50

Ferrari F40 (red) and F50 (black)

I got these 2 Ferrari model cars quite long time ago. I bought F40 because it is the special model for Ferrari's 40th anniversary and it is the last design of Enzo Ferrari. F50 is a gift from my cousin when she had a trip to Italy; she is also a Tifosi!

I have not taken a good look at these model cars for a while, so I cleaned them up and took some photos for them. But what surprised me was both of them were made in Italy, instead of made in China like other recent produced model cars.

Both cars are in scale of 1:24 and made by Bburago.

MODEL GUN COLLECTIONS(4) - M1 GRAND RIFLE BY HUDSON

(the famous 8-round clip of M1 Grand rifle)

(the receiver and the rear sight)

(the 10 inch blade M1 Grand bayonet)

Whenever you watch the war movies about WW II and Korean War, you will find a weapon carried by most G.I., and this rifle helped American troops to win WW II. It is the M1 Grand rifle, the first semi-automatic rifle generally issued to troops in the world.

This M1 Grand rifle non-firing model gun is manufactured by Hudson, a Japanese model gun company which is famous of high quality model guns in both non-firing and cap-blowback types. I got this M1 about 2 years ago through a store's close out sales, so I paid about half of the street price for it. This model gun is fully functioned as a real one except firing. Also, it can be disassemble and re-assemble as the real one. This is the fun to have this kind of non-firing model gun!

Recently, I got a new friend for M1 Grand from a bidding site, a M1 Grand bayonet manufactured by Utica Cutlery during WW II. It fits the M1 Grand model gun perfectly! There is no need to do any modification, and the bayonet works well with the bayonet lug of the model gun.

I am not that old enough to have a M1 Grand when I served in Army, but I do enjoy to own this model gun as a tribute to all those people fought with M1 Grand.

A CYCLING DAY AT DONGSHAN RIVER WATER PARK (冬山河親水公園)

I have not ridden a bicycle for a long time, even though biking is such a hot leisure activity in Taiwan. We took a family trip to I-Lan and stayed near Dongshan River (冬山河) after Christmas last year. Since the hotel offered free bicycles, I borrowed one and rode to Dongshan River Water Park (冬山河親水公園) to enjoy a nice ride along the river.

Though ridding on a rusty bike, I still enjoyed the fun of cycling because of the pretty view and very few bikers there.

Will I buy a bike after this trip? I don't think so. I really don't think Taipei area is a bike-friendly place, and I still prefer hiking than cycling.

HIKING TRIP TO A HOSPITAL

Oops! I have never thought I would have the first post on my blog about this kind experience in 2009. It supposed to end as a nice hiking trip.... But at almost the end of the hiking, I was bitten by a stray dog near Zhang San Temple(樟山寺). We were on the way to Chengchi University (政治大學), those stray dogs came from nowhere and one of them attacked us by surprise.

Luckily, my 5.11 pants provided some protection. So that dog only hurt my paints and skin. We went back to the temple and called local police for help. Thank officer Ou (歐警員) of Muxin Police Station, Wenshan First Police District (文山第一分局 木新派出所) took me to hospital and he promised he would contact relative department for this issue, so they can minimize the stray dog attacking.

I think I had better bring my baton with me since next hiking.

BTW, it was the first time I took a ride of police car (009 of Wenshan First Police District) even though my father had been a police officer for several decades.