For some reason, the Dropbox app was taking up 6.5GB of space in my tablet.
Absolutely no reason why, especially since I had less than half of that for my account's space limit.
So after some googling, I finally found one result that said that reinstalling the app worked for one person. Since I couldn't find any other ideas, I tried it... and it worked!
Why???
But it solved the problem and I don't really care anymore.
To get a doctor to suck the snot out of your nose in Singapore, it costs $32.10, inclusive of tax.
I know because I just paid for it.
That's excluding the consultation fee though, which costs only about $80 since it's not the first session which costs more.
The use of the scope so that the both of us could enjoy the view of him suck the snots out also cost me $48.15.
Actually he did do something more which was not described in the bill.
He somehow pulled out bits of the bone in the middle of my nose because "it can speed up the healing". I'm not sure how.
I was, in fact, more disturbed by the fact that my bone is exposed!
Apparently, that was normal after the radio frequency treatment and pulling out my bone isn't necessary.
According to the bill, he did it for free. I'm not sure if I should be glad though.
On the other hand, he did tell me that my bone was crooked and he recommended the $4000 treatment that involves removing part of that very same bone, which I rejected in favour of the $400 radio frequency treatment due to cost issues.
More importantly, how on earth can he pull out bits of the bone using the plier-like tool? I mean, isn't the bone inside our noses supposed to be smooth? On the monitor, I could see that he wasn't scraping the bone out but pulling things that the plier could catch on to.
I don't even understand what I was looking at. Then again, I couldn't look at the screen properly because I was looking at it from the edge of my vision and I was not in a position where I could move my head when the doctor has a plier pulling my bone through my nose.
Now, one nostril has been itching a lot for 2 days, and it has been so irritated that it stays runny constantly and making me sneeze.
On the night of that day, I thought it was a cold. When the Panadol Cold pills didn't work by the following morning and I noticed that:
1) only 1 nostril was runny
2) I wasn't choking on fluids flowing down my windpipe
that I came to the conclusion that it was something the doctor did that caused it.
Hopefully this is because it's itching because it's healing inside because my next appointment with him is in next year.
Now that I really know what to look for, I think I'll have too much time in Shanghai. Maybe 1 day too many.
So I've loaded enough entertainment in my iPad, like all those new interesting free games that I have been downloading and saving for times like this. Daytime isn't a problem; it's the nights.
And unfortunately for me, it's may get rainy over there during my stay, according to the weather forecasts. Good thing I always planned to wear my Dockers for my overseas trips, but still, it's rain.
Typing this on the Notes app that comes with the iOS, pretty much the Apple version of Notepad.
Why?
Because I forgot that the free Internet access in this hotel comes in the form of an Internet cable, the sort that looks like a telephone cable.
TBH, I recalled that there was some issue with the Internet access here the last time I stayed her, so I was worrying about that too much to think about this.
Since the iPad is incompatible with this cable, no Internet in my room.
This isn't even the worst part. I could have been able to use this cable if I HAD BROUGHT MY PORTABLE MODEM!!! It had a port for this cable!
Fortunately, the front desk informed me that there IS free wifi at the main lobby, so it's not that bad. Still, I'm too lazy to go down at 9pm to order a supper delivery.
I should also turn off my home PC when I get the chance. Maybe.
Couldn't resist the temptation of using the Internet in my room through roaming.
I know, I know. The price is ridiculous, but China Unicom is having a somewhat less absurd rate of S$15 for one day of unlimited data roaming, so I started it today and will end it by 11pm tonight. The catch is that my phone failed to work as an access point despite having the only app for this purpose available for free.
Still managed to use it for a few important things, like checking in online, since Cathay Pacific allows this within 48 hours of boarding ( I love you Cathay). These days, it's important to do it early because when I failed to do so, all the aisle and window seats in the SG-HK flight, the longer of the two I took to reach to Shanghai, were all taken. In the 3-3-3 seat arrangement, this is fucking annoying for a guy my size.
I don't mind losing the armrests, it's the leg space that I want, and I tend to take a little more from the seat next to me. Girls sitting next to me is always the best because it makes no difference to them - they all keep their legs closed all the time so they need minimal leg space. Like that one sitting next to me on the HK-SHA flight.
IMO, the best seats are the window seats on the flights home. For the ones leaving home, it's the seat as close to the exit as possible, ie the aisle seats on the first or second (if the first is only available at an extra charge) along the left aisle ( since we tend to alight on that side). Once the seatbelt sign is off, you can spring up and be the first to get out.
This trip showed me how I need to wear winter clothing more often to understand my work better.
It's only when I was choosing my clothes for the local weather that I really understood why certain types of sweaters are more popular.
You know what's good about living in poorer countries, even the wealthier parts of them? The good thing are actually good and not poor imitations of what they could have been.
Like this meal I had in my room. It's actually good and it only cost me 169RMB, or rather, 180 including the small tip. Delivery charge is at the lowest, 15 yuan, because it's nearby. At the current exchange rate of 1SGD to 5.1RMB, that's roughly S$35, and that's for 4 dishes, all of which contain meat.
The phone operator even offered a free copy if the company's book of menus of all their restaurants. Apparently they don't give that out with every order like some fast food restaurants in SG do because she had to add a reminder on the order list and bill. Moreover, similar delivery services in Singapore don't even have such a collection of menus.
This book is great for business travellers honestly. Why go to restaurants if you're not in the mood to pay for ambience? And not every business traveller has 3G, case in point: myself. Roaming 3G has obscene prices worldwide. If not for this $15-a-day deal, the normal price offered by my mobile provider is S$20/MB. If that's not mind-blowing expensive, nothing is.
I'm only here for 3 nights, so I'm not wasting money on a prepaid card. If I hadn't forgot my modem, I wouldn't even have needed to spend that S$15. Heck, if that deal wasn't on, I would have just stayed at the lobby for an hour or two just now to do everything I did just like this morning.
Less convenient but the Internet is too important.
Not sure if I should bother with breakfast tomorrow. Noticed two things that may be linked:
1) they don't seem to offer breakfast for rooms of my level because when I casually asked on the night I checked in if breakfast was included, the front desk informed me that my reservation didn't include it, which I already knew, and I could pay for a breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor, which I didn't know.
2) the restaurant I had my free breakfast at previously wasn't there anymore.
The link is obvious. The restaurant at the top floor had redirected me to the other restaurant during my previous stay because I forgot which one I was supposed to go to, and I noticed that it was also offering breakfast buffet. Obviously it was for the people staying in the suites.
Now, it's for everyone who's willing to fork out a bit more. Not sure how much though because I didn't care. It was convenient and seriously, how much could they charge? S$35?
Also, because that restaurant's gone, the room service menu is terrible. Small selection, below average choices.
8.22am now. Woke up at 7.39am just now because the room is too warm at that temperature where the blanket is too warm and it's too cold to sleep without it.
But I prefer it to too cold because I think I almost got a flu yesterday. Maybe maybe not, but it's best I don't get it today, my last day of finding what I need.
Not planning on having breakfast today. I think I will just get some yoghurt drink like my very first morning in Shanghai. Hence right now I'm filling myself with the complementary tea in the room as I blog.
Also noticed a pharmacy on the way back yesterday and the prices appear a lot cheaper. Will check it out again, this time for the specific numbers.
If it's good and legal (to bring into SG), I will buy a few bottles, this trip or the next.
I think I need to go higher up the floors for wool sweaters. The lower ones, though offering the occasional good designs, seem to think that wool is too expensive for them to deal in.
No wonder there are so many of those non-wool sweaters on Gmarket - only the cheapos buy those and Gmarket is full of those. Nice prices, but then again, it's not that great because I rarely deal in such sweaters and I didn't haggle. We just focus a lot more on 100% wool.
I did try to dig out a price range for wool sweaters from one of them but no luck. She didn't even have that.
Wow.
But with the prices I get quoted for what they offered, I understand why. I'm not trying to be cruel but that's clearly their level; they don't have the capital for even the cheapest wool.
One more thing I noticed: games on my iPad that I don't usually play back in SG, I still don't play here in Shanghai even when faced with the sole alternative of the horrid mainland Chinese TV.
I would rather blog offline on Notes.
Time to delete everything.
Got cold today finally. For the first two days it was mostly at 20 degrees and above - comfortably warm. It rained and cooled things down to like 17 and I could see my breath when I blow through my mouth.
Not enough to improve my mood much though.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is being filled with news about nothing but Sandy and New York. Looks bad. Everything's been shut down. Makes me wonder how the homeless survive times like this.
They probably don't, mostly.
And no trading at all stock exchanges in the city. Wow.
Two days of no trading in New York. That has to affect other stock prices around the world.
And no power. Not too bad for me if it happens in SG now that I'm completely weaned off air-conditioning, but it would still suck because I wouldn't be able to use my PC.
Tablet should last for at least a day but its boring without the Internet. Lighting is easy because I have plenty of candles and tea lights.
But for the ones with electric stoves, this must be really bad. On the other hand, with the really early warning they got, they should all have stocked up plenty of food for the time being. Maybe a week.
Not sure how long the blackout will last.
I didn't believe it but now I do - people can actually those Bejewelled games for hours.
Watched the middle-aged lady next to me on the HK-SG flight play it on her tablet throughout the entire journey.
Fuck the inflight movies, fuck all the other better games one could possibly get on any tablet, she went Bejewelled all the way.
I am now officially impressed.
I didn't play a thing. Watched a movie and slept instead.
I really am not used to waking up before 9.
Anyways, the hotel breakfast buffet was about 81RMB - S$16. Range is poor but it's below the S$20 that I expected.
Also forgot to check the fish oil prices in Shanghai. Took a different route during the rain and got lost a little. Didn't want to take out my iPad in the rain until I found a shelter.
Felt pretty good to walk in the 17 degrees windy drizzle in a polo tee. Had an umbrella so I didn't freeze. Haven't felt cold in my arms since last year.
I guess this is like the reverse of how all the white people love the sun when they come to Singapore.
But I did find the price of fish oil in the Hong Kong International airport's departure area, duty-free, and Mannings was only having the GNC fish oil, 180 capsules for HK$289.90, or S$0.2556 per capsule. NOT CHEAP!
Watched Dead Set.
It made me list down things I don't like to see on TV and why:
1) Annoying people who rarely (but do) exist in real life. Why on earth would such a character make the show more enjoyable? The horrible death didn't help either. If the writer/director just want someone to be hated so much so that the slow painful death in the end can give viewers a sort of satisfaction, they must be some very angry people deep down inside.
2) Bad endings. Artistically speaking, bad endings should be considered normal. TV-ically speaking, fuck you. I just want something nice to raise my mood before sleeping. When I watch a zombie show, I want to see survivors surviving, not succumbing.
So yea. Didn't like it.
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