Book: One Last Hope

One Last Hope: A Voyage to Escape Nazi Germany
Roberta Kagan
Amazon Product Link

I'm sorry, I had to give up on this book. I'm about 20-30% in.

There were such good reviews on this book, that, what's the saying, got me hook, line, and sinker.

This was one of the more difficult reads. Not for anything, just for the bad writing.

This will be spoiler-heavy.

Other authors can do flowy prose and all that. In this book, it's like a kid is writing sentences.

The characters aren't developed. It's like, Guy A met Guy B. Together they met Girl A and Girl B. They had dinner. Guy A and Girl A are chatting and hit it off quite good. Guy B likes Girl A so is mad with Guy A.

The things that happen are just stupid. Girl A goes out to look for a job. Almost gets mobbed. Luckily, Guy A followed and saved her. Next thing you know, Girl A does the same shit again.

Oh, and the coincidences! Guy A wants to get away from Girl A's family. Oh look, next chapter, Girl A's family all die in a fire because Girl A's uncle smoked a cigar that, hey all along it WASN'T mentioned, Guy A had given him as a gift.

My brain couldn't take it anymore when throughout the book it kept saying Guy A and Girl A can't speak English. OK, I know that since this is an English book so they have to write it in English. What I mean is, it states they are not good in English. They speak German, French, and Yiddish. Then, in a scene, Girl A gets to meet with another Italian girl (not Jew, so no Yiddish I suppose), yet they hit it off and become good friends. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just wondering, how were they communicating to be such good friends. And the conversation was literally like this:

"Hey, there's no one here, let's be friends. Talk about yourself."

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

OMG, I just can't take it anymore.

I'm kind of thinking those 5-star reviews are paid reviews. I think even an ESL student can write better than that!

I had to give this up. I'm reading another book.

Mobile phone plans

A little bit of China ridiculousness to share here.

First off, I want to reiterate somethine I always say: Macau is not China. Macau can be a SAR (Special Administrative Region), Macau is a part of China, but Macau is not China.

If you send something from China by post to Macau, you pay international postage.

Thus, Macau is not China.

Also, someone holding a bank account in "Bank of China" in Macau, does not mean that they hold a bank account in "Bank of China" in China.

Taobao, Wechat, and Alipay is a pain to set up when you are in Macau. Yes, international platform is available, but if you are in Macau, they do not give you the option to input "passport details" as identification information. You are forced to put "China ID" if you choose your location as Macau. However, I live in Macau, but I do not have a "China ID", because I'm not Chinese. It's just stupid.

So today I was being a good girl and went to renew my mobile phone plan (my current contract would end on 26-March). I learnt about a family sharing plan, so I put my Dad's phone under my number. My Dad has been using a prepaid card all these years, and he keeps asking me to help him top up. I figured, I don't use much data on my personal phone (because my work phone has unlimited data), so if I renew my contract to a sharing plan then we are only paying for 1 plan.

Turns out that now they are doing this "Greater Bay Area" promotion thing. What is the Greater Bay Area? That's Hong Kong, Macau, and the area in China directly around us (so, Hengqing, Zhuhai, Shenzhen I think?).

My old plan costed me almost $400 (local money) per month with 7GB of data. I subscribed to a promotion where I paid an extra $12 to get 2GB extra, so let's say $400 for 9GB of local data (Macau only data). If I got to Hong Kong or China, I have to pay roaming or buy a roaming package, or buy a local card to use.

This new plan they gave me has a base plan of $260 for 12GB of data, can be used in Macau, Hong Kong and China. Even the talk time is included. Then, I add a $10 one-off charge to port in my Dad's number. So essentially, it's $260 for 12GB to be shared by 2 phones. Since I hardly ever use my personal phone, you can say my Dad will get all that 12GB for himself. Now I'm trying to convince my Mom to join in the plan, as they have a $500 for unlimited data and we can share that within the 3 of use, and in a way, I can just pay for their phone plans as well.

I'm trying to find things to pay for my parents (a lunch here and there, groceries, and I don't ask my Mom for money back when she asks me to help her buy something online), because my Mom isn't charging me rent. I've offered to pay rent, but she just keeps saying I should save up money. And then she turns around and complains that I don't pay rent. (Same for my Sister). Anyway.

So I'll trial run a few months to see if 12GB is enough (it SHOULD be, but I kind of think my Dad doesn't understand the importance to keeping to the WiFi signal while at home), if it isn't, I can just upgrade my plan to the unlimited one. And if we do go unlimited, I'm going to port in Mom's phone, and what the heck, my Sis' phone as well. We'll see. Coz I can't just look at the data plan only. I need to figure out if the voice airtime is enough as well.

Covid-19 case free

So... today the 10th confirmed Covid-19 patient has been declared recovered and released from hospital.

There are no more confirmed Covid-19 cases in Macau.

I was amused by this Japanese article.

https://wedge.ismedia.jp/articles/-/18875?layout=b

On an LJ friend’s post, I commented that in Macau we’ve closed down schools and offices and all that, to try to contain the virus. Granted, Macau is a small city so (623,000 in 2019) so these drastic measures are still acceptable.

This friend replied that the government can’t just do that, which I agree, depending on where we are talking about. Macau is small, just a city with borders. Next door Hong Kong is larger and has already lost control. Other big countries too.

It has worked for Macau. We are now Covid-19 free.

The part in the above linked article that I found amusing was where it said “measures taken in Macau is equivalent to an economic suicide”.

Well, yes, quoting our Chief Executive, “we claim to be a rich city. We have the money. If we don’t spend it now, when do you want to spend it?”

So yeah. Closed government services. Public areas closed off. Schools shutting down. Enforced Casino shutdown. Spas, beauty parlours, spa places, all shut down. Do not offer dine-in options in restaurants, take out only. Do not hold gatherings. Do not go to crowded locations. Government cracking down on sellers raising face mask prices. Government selling affordable face masks, guaranteeing each citizen and worker can buy lots of 10 pieces, for 10-day use.

Drastic? Yes. But it has worked for us.