When I was a teen, I got a letter of acceptance to study at Pittsburg State University. Where was this place? Who cared!  I was just grateful to be accepted there. Period.

All the arrangements, like the plane tickets and so on, was settled by another girl who was going to the same place as me.  All I had to do was hand her the money.

So there I was, a month later, in one piece, and at the correct location. In Pennsylvania Kansas. That’s right. Home of Dorothy, corn fields and cows.

The PSU Football Traditional Walk

Why am I writing about this? Well, apparently, I read that this Dutch 15 year old boy and his 71 year old grandpa took a flight to the wrong Sydney: Canada, not Australia – 10,000 miles in the wrong direction.

So, you see, I’m not the ONLY one who makes this type of mistake when it comes to location.

It is not the first time travelers have mixed up the Sydneys as well.

In August 2002, British tourists Raeoul Sebastian and Emma Nunn from London spent their holiday in Nova Scotia after thinking they were flying to Australia.

And in 2008, Monique Rozanes Torres Aguero from Argentina flew into the wrong Sydney for her vacation but decided to stay after befriending a local woman at the airport, according to the Cape Breton Post.

Here’s the thing. Did you know Northern America has many cities and towns that share the same name? Brad Pitt comes from Springfield, Missouri but so does The Simpsons (not the same town though). Then there’s Springfield, Ohio, the Antique Shopping in America’s Heartland. There’s others who share the same name I swear. And it can get confusing.

This is Brat Pitt before he got old looking, taking care of 6 kids.

And that’s The Simpson family.

It gets worse. Traveling, you see is not so straight forward. Back before I got married, Shaun decided to take me on a holiday to Europe to see a Magic Competition in Year 2003. He needed a tour guide as he was clueless reading a map, and I love to travel.

Win-win.

I couldn’t find pics of Shauna and I in that Spanish airport
cause it’s past midnight and I’m past caring,
but I’ve got this lovely photo of me in Beijing
at this crazy street where they dug up the entire area,no signage, no warning, no nothing.
You’d get fired in England, in America, or even in Malaysia
for no proper safety regulations.

I booked all the hotels, the BBs, the backpacking hostels, the cheap plane tickets. It was going to be wonderful. And we were on budget. That is was, until I made a mistake in Barcelona.

“Wrong way man. It’s over there”  Peter, our Beijing guide seemed to say. Peter was showing us around the Forbidden City. The tour was organized by Tim Ellis for some of the FISM 2009 (Magic competition) participants held recently in Beijing. Thanks Tim. Lovely tour.

See, I didn’t know Barcelona had 2 airports. I should have been clued in when we arrived in a small airport with hardly anybody in it when we arrived on Ryanair. Cheap airlines tend to stop at the most remote places don’t they? So, when it was time to get out of Barcelona, I obviously got back to the same airport, could not locate our flight, pleaded with some airport staff there who spoke no English, who probably thought we were some insane Asian tourists.

It all got lost in translation.

_________________________________

More on awesome our Beijing FISM 2009
(Magic Competition) trip ….

• It takes years to get it right
• Peach so cheap

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If we had spoken the same “language”, they would have told us we were at the wrong airport. It took Shaun, the genius (and he is a brainy one in the family, really) to tell me that. Alas, we could not get to the next airport on time because it was an hour away, and well, I just banged my head on the wall in shame, vowing not to make the same *cough* mistake again!

So anyways, now you know all this, don’t get lost the next time you travel ok?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzm74pfTrLw

These are 4 Chinese female magicians.
Female magicians are fairly uncommon in most parts of the world, but apparently not in China. Click here to view one of these ladies’ magic acts. If you’ve never seen a Chinese magic act, you won’t want to miss this. Very oriental.

Unusual, flat looking peaches I bought from a Beijing street vendor

My goodness. It’s peach season in Beijing. I saw vendors selling them everywhere. And they are so cheap. 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of the juicy peach was selling for Remminbi 4. That’s about Ringgit 2 or USD0.60 for that 2 pounds of fruit! You can bet I ate them every single day because nowhere else can I get fresh raw peaches this cheap! Those who know me knows I advocate eating more raw food for health reasons. So, it’s a real yummy treat. Anyways, it beats having to eat crappy airline food.

"Tasty" airline food. Today's menu: soggy tuna sandwiches.

Han Seol-Hui (Double quick stage sleight of hand)

Read about what it takes to be good in what you do! On your left is Soma. He’s the Grand Prix winner of this year’s FISM magic competition.

Flooded city in Bangladesh

Since January 2002, the Bangladesh government has banned the use of plastic bags in Dhaka, its third attempt to carry out such legislation.

In the year 2001, 9.3 million plastic bags were dumped in the city every day, with only 10-15% put in dustbins. The rest are left go into drainage and sewage lines, causing blockages. In the floods of 1989 and 1998 this prevented drainage, prolonging the flooding, Hossain Shahriar, a Bangladeshi ecologist and journalist from the Environment and Social Development Organisation (ESDO) told edie. “It was discovered that due to the drainage congestion – by polythene shopping bags, water could not go down,” said Shahriar. “This was the cause of increasing water born diseases and air pollution-related environmental degradation.”

Info from www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=5029
Image taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43038000/jpg/_43038199_bangladesh_flood_ap.jpg

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Jasmin says,

The Beijing shops generally do not give out plastic bags, and they charge Renminbi 0.20 per plastic bag. I think that’s a good start. Mentioned it to someone and she said “I won’t ever be able to do that. I need those plastic bags to dump my rubbish in”. Sigh!

Anyways, we still get free plastic bags in Malaysia, and so far the legislation is unable to do anything about it because the plastic industry is lobbying not to ban plastic bags.  See my previous post on this “No Rush To Ban Plastic Bags From MPs”

More info on banning plastic bags

• It’s a dog’s day at the neighborhood market
• No rush to ban plastic bags from MPs
• Plastic bottles vs paper cups at “More raw food at the night markets”

Soma looks like a better looking twin younger brother of
Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez’s husband.

Just recently, my husband (a die hard magic fan) and I went over to Beijing, China to attend a 6 day FISM magic competition …. you heard right, 6 days, where magicians from all over the world come over to compete to be the very best.

This competition is held only once every 3 years, and Shaun has been waiting for 6 years to attend (he could not make it for the Stockholm competition cause 3 years ago, my first child was just born, and we just could not leave the baby, ya know).

Anyways, it was an awesome experience. Almost 3000 people from all over the world gathered to attend the event which starts from 8.30am and ends about 10.30pm everyday for 6 days.

There’s something special about this event. These guys who compete take years to hone their skills, taking years to get it right. They do what they love and they never give up. They find new ways to thrill others, and more important, to thrill themselves silly! The very act of magic is to astound people, and make them happy.

These people have PASSION!

I meet a lot of people, through my husband’s work. And a lot of them have lost that passion. They don’t know what they want. And I have to say, there was a time I felt like that too so I understand where they are coming from. What’s MY purpose in life? What’s your purpose in life? Ever written your yearly resolution, just to toss them in the basket in February?

Just my thoughts

Jasmin

ps you have to watch this talented guy named Soma from Hungary. He’s one of the Grand Prix winner of this year’s FISM competition. Here’s the youtube link

FISM 2009 Grand Prix Stage Winner – Soma (Hungary)

If you see the video, you’ll notice that Soma looks like a better looking twin younger brother of Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez’s husband. You can also click on Soma’s photo to view the video.

SOMA – Phone Act from Soma Hajnóczy on Vimeo.