photo diary - hong kong 香港 2008, part 2

This is the continuation of the photo diary of my trip to Hong Kong in early winter of 2008. There are so many photos I want to post and I have to make hard choices. Many evoke my nostalgia of my growing up there.

I board a bus as soon as I got off the airplane. I chose the bus instead of the much faster subway train because I could not wait to see the city en route to my cheap hotel in Mong Kok in the Kowloon peninsula.

as in my youth i went straight to the front seats in the upper deck of a double-decker bus

home made dimsum 點心

Very few would want to make dimsum at home. Traditionally dimsum are small dishes of food one eats at a Chinese restaurant in the morning along with copious amount of tea. This morning meal is called 飲茶 (pronounced as yum cha), which translates as drinking tea. Dimsum comes from 2 Chinese words dim 點 and  sum 心, meaning touches one's heart. While individually most dimsum dishes are not too hard to make, making a verity for a morning tea is too much trouble an undertaking unless you have a very big family.

sewer gas odor - trouble shooting, part 2

In my continued quest to find the source of the elusive sewer gas odor in Tatyana I finally have time to conduct a more thorough investigation. One thing I had wanted to do is to check he integrity of the vent connections of the two waste water storage tanks. Unfortunately due to the very compact packaging of the Westfalia design most of the connections can not readily be inspected visually. One prime suspect of the odor the vent tube plumbing system from the two waste water storage tanks on their way to the roof top vent port en route behind the plywood cabinetry. Most of these space are not visible without employing an inspection camera designed to see tight spaces.

belgian waffles

I almost forget there is a package of Belgian waffles I bought at Trader Joe's. I seldom eat sweets and this including sweet dishes. I saw the Belgian waffles in Trader Joe's flyer that came in my mail one day. What piqued my interest was it is made in Belgian. I decided to pick one up while shopping in the store.

pan seared scallops

Today I planned my trip in the morning. I went to UPS store to ship some used part removed from Tatyana which I was able to sell online. I also went to Costco to return a Samsung security DVR which I was not satisfied. Instead of taking the Mini I took Tatyana so when I return home, the engine oil would be hot to ease the engine oil change. A well-laid plan to start the
day.

I arrived to Costco when it just open. I can do the shopping quickly and avoid the late saturday morning traffic returning home too.

A surprise fine at Costco are these Italian crystal wine glasses - 8 for $24 works out to be only $3 dollars each. I have been wanting some crystal wine glasses a long time but had been unwilling to pay $10 or more each.
italian crystal wine glass

filters for brunnhilde - part 2

Today I set out to change the engine oil and air filter on Brunnhilde. Recently Napa Automotive Supply has Mobil 1 synthetic oil on sale for $5.98 a quart. This is about $0.50 cheaper than the lowest retail price. I stocked up 24 quarts enough for more than 2 oil changes.

Brunnhilde has engine oil capacity of 10 quarts (with filter change). My existing oil catcher pan is way too small so I bought this big one at Walmart. While it is not ideal, at ~$8.90 it is less than other automotive supply stores charge.

new oil catcher pan from walmart

matured coconut

This is a companion post to the young coconut that I wrote a while back. Growing up in Hong Kong one often saw street vendor that sell coconut meat and coconut water in the summer. For 50 cents you get a piece of freshly cut piece of coconut flesh from a mature coconut. You can also buy a glass of coconut water.
matured coconut (left) and young coconut (right)

I recently bought a mature coconut for the first time. Unlike young coconut a mature coconut is much more difficult to tackle.

manhole covers

In my trips to Japan I developed a habit of capturing images of manholes. To me they are the most overlooked and under-appreciated beauty of everyday objects. Of all I think the ones in Japan are most prolific and artistic.

wonton noodle 雲吞麵

You can find places that serve wonton noodle soup in any Chinatowns in most north American cities. Finding a good and authentic bowl is next to impossible. In my experience the best one can be found in Toronto and Richmond in Canada, only if you have knowledge or have done copious amount of web research well in advance. There may be only a handful of them that serve a good bowl.

photo diary - hong kong 香港 2010, part 1

In 2010 winter I took a trip to Asia that lasted over 3 months. Amongst the countries including China, Japan, and Thailand. I visited many cities in these countries including Honk Kong and Macau which are special administrative zones.

This is my second trip to Hong Kong since I left it in my youth emigrated to North America.

dusk at vactoria harbour

brunnhilde's power window

During the last trip home from the Columbia River Gorge Brunnhilde's driver side door power window failed. I was not going to pay the exhaubitant price of $250 of the entire window regulator assembly because Mecedes' cheesy design of the flimsy plastic slider. Automakers should know very well the stress imparted on the power window components after decades of building vehicles with power windows. It is unbelievable that Mecedes' engineer managed to screw this up, and yet have the audacity to gouge the customer with a $250 replacement assembly.

yep - this flimsy plastic slider fail leads to a $250 replacement regulator!

Most Sprinter owner who encounter the same failure opts for a home made solution which involves fashion a replacement plastic slider out of plastic closet wheel. I consider doing same but decided against it due to concern of it's reliability in extreme low ambient temperature.

chill is in the air

The summer has just flew by. This year is my return to to boardsailing after a 7-year hiatus. When I went sailing the first day, I could hardly sail a couple of tacks because I was so out of shape and the disuse of the muscles groups. I was quite worry that I would be unable to resume the sport with my very sinky 35-liter board. 

espresso machine repairs

Like most people who enjoy coffee, I used to pay relatively little attention to how to make a good cup of coffee. Over the years I have owned and worn out many automatic drip coffee makers, grinders, and a $99 espresso maker. I would at times buy middle of the road whole beans and grind them just before brewing. I have worn out a Braun burr grinder in the process. Most of my drip coffee makers were also Braun. When I am camping I would make drip coffee manually with a simple pour over filter. The coffee were drinkable, but never outstanding but often better than most decent restaurants serve after a meal (yes they are typically less than acceptable given how much they charge).

About 5 years ago I begun to look for a better quality espresso maker. Like many would be semi-serious espresso DIY drinkers I was first drawn to a pair of low price Italian entry level machine combo.

rancilio silvia

rancilio rocky grinder

filters for brunnhilde

I have been wanting to change the engine oil for Brunnhilde quite some time now. What kept me from the maintenance work is figuring which brand of OEM filters to buy. While there are reputable manufacturers of after market "OE quality" parts, they qualities are not all equal. Each time I went shopping on the web the availability of different brands changes. Many list a number of possible brands so what you get is a crapshoot.

Eventually I decided not to waste more time and ordered from a vendor that seems likely to delivery what I expect. That requires reading between the line of the descriptions very carefully - something I do quite well from my professional experience.

the content costs over $200 USD

brunnhilde's shower - part 2

I put the rest the playing with the bath shower head in Brunnhilde after testing to show it is an inferior design to the exterior shower head that also comes with the vehicle.

I later realize I could swap just the shower head/arm without swapping the hoses. Swapping the hoses would require complete removal of the bath sink cabinet which is a major undertaking because one have to re-caulk the sink when done. I really want to make this improvement for the inside bath. The exterior shower is less important especially autumn is approaching.

I prefer the much cleaner design of the exterior shower head made by Rada. It feel much more supple in ones hand - I believe some the main arm is cast alloy instead of plastic.

the stock one in the bath is just too big and ugly for the compact sink

brunnhilde's shower

I hope the choice of the title does not attract the wrong crowd to the post and be disappointed. I have noticed some dubious referencing sites that sent traffic to my other post brunnhilde's new struts. You just never know the wonders with google's search engine...

There is no skin except those of my hands in this post so if you are disappointed please read no further :-)

One chronic thing that bug me it the dual purpose shower head/sink faucet in the bath. When I first acquire Brunnhilde the shower hose cannot retract back into the sink faucet's mixer valve to use in the sink. The problem is cause by the shower hose binding in the very tight space behind the sink cabinet assembly.

the flexible hose cannot be retracted into the mixer valve assembly

salmon - my other repertoires

Found these photos from 2 years ago on my venture to make smoke salmon and lox. I did a quick research on the web and just did it after reading the fundamentals.

smoked salmon with goat cheese

apple popularized white cars

If you are not living under a rock you probably came across in the recent news that a BMW designer credits the recent American car buyers choosing white more than ever is largely due to the influence of Apple's product design.

Somewhat counter intuitive white is the best color to reveal the subtle contours of a 3 dimensional object. Evidently it is the preferred color in Japan for prototype styling design. When I designed my kitchen, I chose the high gloss white for the cabinet finish. I spent countless hours prototyping the projecting of the counter top front under all lighting conditions to determine a satisfactory amount.

To avoid the undesirable shadow cast by the overhanging counter top (at different lighting conditions) onto the gloss white cabinet finish I chose a minute 1/4" projection (overhang).

ventilation fan - preliminary version

This is a iterative step in the making of a ventilation fan for Tatyana. The purpose of the fan is to reduce the cabin temperature from solar gain when the vehicle is parked in the sun.

The three previous posts related to this:
james cook enhancement - part 3
the proof is in the pudding
intelligent venting fan

A lot of owners of this camper replaced the stock bath skylight with the very popular Fan-Tastic Vent. I personally like the stock skylight. I see no downside with it's non-motorized design. I also like the retractable fly screen as well as the high quality design and construction.

The goals of my home-made ventilation fan are:

• very low power consumption
• very low noise
• does not involve permanent alteration
• easy to deploy and stowable when not in use

sewer gas odor - trouble shooting

In Tatyana's cabin there is often smell of sewer gas odor. I have checked the potential causes including the sink drain vent (one way) valves and ensure all the u-traps are filled with water. The odor would come and go and is more pronounced if the vehicle is driven with window open, or camping in a breeze.

I am suspecting the sewer gas venting to the vent port on the roof is finding it's way back into the bath room skylight adjacent to it, when the slightest air movement brings it into the skylight which I always leave open for ventilation when the vehicle is parked.

adding this long snorkel ought to fix it