Jan 21 2023

Sunken Garden


1825 4th St N,
Saint Petersburg, FL 33704

← Hong Kong orchid tree

Small and neat, free parking lot is pretty big. They close at 4:30pm daily, perhaps to accommodate weddings and parties.

They converted the original entrance into a mini history exhibit. Among photos, is young Arnold Palmer.

Two koi pounds filled with big kois. A couple of Chilean flamingos 🦩 are constantly in talk or fight 😂.

A Hong Kong orchid tree is a rare sight for me. I lived there for a good few years, couldn


Jan 21 2023

TFO the Florida Orchestra


244 2nd Avenue North
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701

… more pix on Google Maps.

They’re merged from St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the Tampa Philharmonic in 1968, doesn’t have a namesake concert hall but merry go around a few venues: Clearwater, Saint PeteMahaffey Theater and Tampa @ Straz Center. Be mindful when you purchase the tickets.

… some of their concerts we attended:


Jan 21 2023

Mahaffey Theater


400 1st Street South
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701

The venue is on the water, north of Dali Museum and SPG airport. Parking is $10.

Does it look like the Lincoln Center in New York: the columns and wide open facade?

It holds many events; also is the home of TFO Florida Orchestra including our first classic concert:

 


Jan 21 2023

Sauvignon wine Locker American Trattoria


241 Central Ave
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701

Love their wine glasses🍷 will return.

It


Jan 20 2023

Duval’s


1435 Main Street
Sarasota, FL 34236

… more pix on Google Maps

Will return – all are good with fresh painter’s palette.

That block of Main Street is filled with restaurants. Duval has outdoor too. We stopped by for a quick bite inside. The crab cake is really good, so is the mussels – the white creamy sauce is so good I asked for bread -:) – can’t take me anywhere. The calamari is bit too sweet for me. Their tableware World INF-150 is nice.

 


Jan 17 2023

The storm shutters


Our neighbor’s: the shutters are being tested. 

The hurricane shutters is a must down here: everyone has it. When Hurricane Ian terrorized the east coast in 2022 (Sept 23 to Oct 2) – reportedly, it was the deadliest one to Florida since 1935 – we weren’t here but hired someone for $350 to put up/take down the shutters. Luckily, all are good. We store the shutters in the garage.

One of our neighbors got their shutters installed today. The team has 18 workers. When all are good, they took the shutters down and leave them in the garage. The small yellow labels are important: they’re the location indictors.

Our shutters were left on the driveway after the garage floor was being sealed with epoxy. I would have to pay for someone to move inside – in a way, Ian saved me a few bucks – the man who put up/remove during Ian didn’t charge extra for it.


Jan 15 2023

New York New York Pizza


11367 Big Bend Rd
Riverview, FL 33579

Salty – coming from me, who loves salt.

We’re in the mood of pizza and heard of this place – so made a pit stop. Ordered pepperoni and Florentine: both are salty. Are they New York? Hmmmm I don’t know bec I don’t consume enough pizzas to judge. But I do know that New York pizzas’ crust is thiner than, say Chicago… Honestly, NY pizza isn’t as thin as the pizzas in Italy -:).

DO I like NY pizza?

I love pizza and love Pizza Hut’s pizza -:)

In any case, tomato + cheese + dough … CAN any one screw up a pizza? -:)

I’m SO stuffed

… that’s the third infusion of Pu-erh tea, if you wonder


Jan 15 2023

The seven continents & visa


Jan 15, 2017, Central Park, New York

A continent is one of planet’s main divisions of land. There are 7 of them:

  1. Asia
  2. Africa
  3. North America
  4. South America
  5. Antarctic
  6. Australia
  7. Europe

As of 2024, Australia is the only continent I have not visited.

In the 1980s, I struggled with visas when using Hong Kong travel document. Visa, to most Americans, is the credit card.

… Sir Lanka [捂脸] 斯里兰卡🇱🇰 也是回事儿 [捂脸]
埃及🇪🇬的 海关票. 去埃及应该是我唯一参加旅行团的一次 事后觉得 幸好

那时二个夏天都买了EuroPass 满处跑. TGV 夜铺 都可以用

巴黎<~> Montpellier 有TGV 每到星期五就南下

一次在Heiligenhafen 大节过后就想不如去丹麦🇩🇰转转… 因为没有签证 站在海关犹豫不决
德海关员: 应该没问题…最多不让进就回来呗
[捂脸][偷笑]
现去哪儿都先查的一清二楚
… 但那时没有现在这么多游人喔
巴黎圣母院 最多的是🇺🇸大妈们
一车一车的 … 短暂的
他们离开后 立马又恢复平静


The UK visa in 1982 – my very first visa. It opened many doors for me, in term of apply visa.

今天找护照 看到第一本. 想起里面第一个签证 1982 七月八号 英国🇬🇧. 好巴贝嘎

珍贵的记忆. 那时的英国是铁娘子的(1979-90). 二个多月的福克兰群岛战役刚刚结束. 挺贫困潦倒的… 有些惨不忍睹. 到小童尼时(1997-2007) 英英才有起色. 荷里活的明星们也都开始穿越在大西洋上…
80年代初那时旅行到哪里都需要签证 反而哪儿都想去 [捂脸][偷笑]

 


Jan 14 2023

Tampa 坦帕 or 滩吧


Tampa, what a booming city! Her many winning pro leagues, Lightning, Buccaneers and Rays certainly added to its allure, and MORE.

Tampa is the city with 384,959 population (2022), ranks 49th city in the US.

Tampa Bay, or the Bay Area (not San Francisco’s Bay Area …) is the body of water connects to Gulf of Mexico. But usually it refers to its metro area, that includes surrounding cities, such as St. Petersburg to the west and Clearwater, north of St. P. The Bay Area has population 3,290,730 (2022), ranking 17th in the nation. Sarasota to the south is another place that worth to visit.

Tampa TPA is a neat airport, with many direct flight around the major cities in and out of US.

Many Chinese use 坦帕 but I think 滩吧 is more appropriate: beaches and bars, especially tiki bars -:).

Here is our visits

Sports

There are many good restaurants. Ethnic restaurants, such as Chinese and Korean (Sa Ri One closed) are so so but Vietnamese is generally good. My list is generally excludes St. Pete, and includes a few good restaurants between Tampa Bay and Sarasota. The ranking of the top 10 changes, obviously; and the rest just added randomly.

  1. Columbia Restaurant, Ybor
  2. Casa Santo Stefano, Ybor
  3. Alleno @ St. Pete
  4. Steelbach Steak
  5. Ulele, Armature Works
  6. Oak n Ola
  7. Forbici, Italian @ Hyde Park
  8. Social Roost
  9. Duval’s @ Sarasota
  10. Terra Gaucha Brazilian steakhouse
  11. Circle @ Apollo Beach
  12. Parkshore Grill @ St. Pete
  13. Kojak’s House of Ribs BBQ, a dump but yummy
  14. Acropolis Greek Taverna @ Riverview
  15. Bernini, Ybor
  16. On Swann, Hyde Park Tampa
  17. Yummy House
  18. Beaune’s Wine Bar @ Chateau Cellars, Ybor
  19. Sunset at Apollo Beach
  20. Oxford Exchange
  21. The Library @ St. Pete
  22. Steep Station @ St. Pete
  23. Bern’s Steak House
  24. Haven
  25. Rooster & Till
  26. Skipper’s Smokehouse
  27. Thinh An Kitchen & Tofu
  28. Datz
  29. Byblos
  30. Watervue Grille @ Harbour Island
  31. Bahama Breeze
  32. Watervue
  33. First Watch
  34. Pia’s Trattoria @ Gulfport
  35. Flan Factory, a cafe
  36. Rosenheim
  37. Hales Blackbrick on going dispute

buffets

… some dockside

  1. Rick’s on the River
  2. Circles @ Lands End
  3. Salt Shack on the Bay
  4. Finn’s Dockside
  5. Sunset Bar & Grill
  6. Jerry’s Dockside Bar & Grill
  7. Dry Dock

Ybor City is one of interesting areas in the Tampa, with many cigar bars and restaurants.

Cigar: Tampa is a cigar city. Especially in Ybor City: La Flor de Sanchez y Haya cigar company (Tampa Historical; UFL; Hotel Hoya) on 7th Avenue opened its door on April 13, 1886, became the first place in Ybor City to roll a cigar. Nowadays there are many cigar bars and lounges, with workers rolling up the sticks on either side of the 7th Avenue. There is also the famed El Reloj which was opened in 1910, and was considered to be the largest and finest cigar factory in the world. J.C. Newman Cigar Co. since 1895, is the oldest family-owned cigar maker in US.

Others

Things Asian


Jan 13 2023

My ranges 炉灶


It has been a long journey to acquire this third cooktop, in less than three month, to complete my indoor kitchen.

Oddly, the builder doesn’t offer electrical range and I don’t want gas range any more. So we opted the default gas range – the builder has to furnish a cooktop to get the CO.

Once we moved in, I went to Home Depot for an electrical range. Of course they deliver and install but the knowledgeable salesman said, they won’t touch anything gas. In another word, I’ll have to disconnect the gas range for the delivery.

Whom do I call?

An electrician, they suggested.

“$250 to come out, plus $89 per hour labor cost, and actual part if needed,” one electrical shop said.

Just then, a neighbor on FB said they’re having an electrician over right at the moment and could send him over … Heaven.  In about an hour, the electrician came and charged me $95 to disconnect the range.

At the time, I didn’t know there isn’t a market for resales, so when he mentioned that he sold all kind of appliances, I didn’t ask him to take it with him. Afterward, when we try to sell it on FB, there is NO takers. The HD deliver guy said sure he can take it, “it goes to junk yard, to be trashed.” A brand new gas range goes to junk yard, holy moly!

On my first outing to HD, I set my mind to a Samsung electrical stove top, which is simple and beautiful, and under $900. I though I found my utopia. It was Nov 1, and delivered four days late. Then,

  1. the oven won’t stop
  2. the surface is scratched

I pride myself as a careful user, how could I have scratched the surface so quickly when I hardly used it? I went to HD and ask to return the stove because the oven worries me. Between HD and Samsung, it took a month and half – 44 days plus two group of repair men, was I able to rid of this troublesome appliance. The first repair team came and they said, the range isn’t working well, but they couldn’t take it without an order. The second repair man came, said, he was authorized by Samsung to replace the ceramic top only. “It’s useless, the same inferior top will get scratch again very soon.” He urged me not to accept the replacement, “fight it out…”

In the end, HD agreed to take it back and picked it up a week later on Dec 15.

I then purchased the current range on Dec 8, 2022 and it was delivered on Jan 13, 2023. So far so good – I can only pray.

When I shop for the cooking set on Amazon, on the account without Prime membership, the same Frigidaire set is $69.99 and with Prime is $82.17. An accidental discovery.

ON the free standing stove ranges – what are the designers thinking to eliminate the shoulders on both sides? Don’t they ever cook? The two gaps are so easy to trap food drops and inviting roaches and ants… I have had four ranges in the recent years since 1996, and am horrified with this new design.

To cover the gaps, I purchased the counter gap cover (wondering if the designer’s spouses or family members/friends are in the business making these wide and unsightly gap covers … ) For my last range, right side fits fine with the gap cover but left side is way too right … which

  1. I’ve to use hammer to loose the gap, in order to insert the cover.
  2. I’ve have to cut it narrow, for esthetic reason.

… which is, just one damn thing after another.