Miffespresso, what else?

Today I’ve got up early and the morning and I’ve prepared a nice breakfast for my sisters and myself. Here you can see Miffo having decaffeinated coffe in her mug.

Ok, I admit I would have preferred going with Father Bunny to a Starbucks and being there on a big sofa reading car magazines and sipping an expensive coffe that everyday is done with less care by its employees.

In the other hand in a premium location - Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona - an old cinema has been converted in a huge Nespresso boutique who attracts thousand of people every day, many of them tourist. They say it is the biggest in the world. Check it here if you are an interior design freak. There you can read all the stupid things the designers explained and explain to justify the incredible sum of money they robbed.

Taken from http://www.decostilo.com/

Miffo said:

- Well, Father Bunny is not Mr. Clooney but his “Espresso Decafeinatto Lungo” is good value for money.
- And best of all, the China he uses is superbunny

Xiam and Mem, replied

Be an hamburger, my friend!

More chat about food. While is quite difficult to convince my father to enter any fast food restaurant, anywhere in the world, anytime, even if we are terrible hungry he is always curious about new fast food brands.

I must say that I share his point of view about too many Mcdonalds and KFC’s among others opening in China during those past years. The food is the same crap as in Europe and the price is much cheaper but quite more expensive than a good Chinese restaurant.

Thank god some local fast food brands have appeared and some of them with a lot of energy, sense of humour and quite good food (this last statement according to other testimonies)

a good example can be found here and a review there.

The picture is mine and it was taken by myself so stop whims about copyright and other crap

And he thinks he can make makis...

I opened my Flickr Pro account some time ago and it’s one of the few e-services or e-whatever that I pay for.

Unlike our mother, for dad and me pictures are just fast small time pieces that we capture to store in our hard disk (ehemm, several hard disks). We use our small camera and we publish, post, store or delete as is. No further action, not even cropping or colour balance is applied.

May be we are lazy, may be we do not care. Anyways I have been looking for something new, something funny and something bunny.

And this is what I have found.

via Los Dragónnes

If someone can make these rolls, the improvements dad has made with Miffo teaching him are just nothing.

Thank god I have learnt that if you want to cook good Chinese you’d better hire a good Chinese cooker/chef.

Bad Habits – Malas constumbres

I need some time, let’s say I need some of my Father’s time to classify and organize my pictures and our thoughts.

Meanwhile I just enjoy looking my pictures whit my sisters and friends while having tea, a very nice white tea that I bought in Honk Kong.

I am missing Hong Kong a lot this time. After a really “grey” travel with a lot of stress coming from my parents and visiting what it’s may be the biggest trade fair in Asia – very boring and tiring activity- .

Besides my father told me during our trip that we won’t travel to Dubai this summer and I got upset with him. I tried to change her mind using “guerrilla” techniques:

• I use a chador the rest of my trip
• I don’t speak to him in English or Spanish, just Cantonese
• And in the hotels we stayed in Mainland China I organized illegal games in our room and use his credit card to buy beer and cigarettes.

I was afraid of Mrs Katanga knowing about it (she advises my father about more strict education and going to school) but now I know that she smokes.

Necesito tiempo, bueno, digamos que necesito algo de tiempo de mi padre para que clasifique y organice las fotos y nuestros recuerdos.

Mientras intento disfrutar de las mismas con mis hermanas y amigas mientras tomamos té blanco, un té blanco muy bueno que compre en Hong Kong.

Esta vez echo mucho de menos mi ciudad. Después de un viaje un poco gris con un montón de stress por culpa de mis padres y visitando la que seguramente es la mayor feria de Asia – y más coñazo y aburrimiento-

Además mi padre me dijo durante el viaje que no iríamos a Dubai este verano y me enfade mucho con él. Intenté hacerle cambiar de opinión usando mis técnicas de guerrilla.

• Me puse un chador el resto del viaje
• No le hable nada más que en Cantonés
• Y en los hoteles que estuve aprovecha para montar timbas en la habitación* y cargar cervezas y cigarrillos a su tarjeta de crédito.
  
  *Algo habitual en China, ver la habitación llena de tipos en camiseta jugando a las cartas, fumando y bebiendo cerveza.

Tenia miedo de que se enterara la señorita Katanga (le aconseja a mi padre que me eduque mejor y que me lleve al colegio) pero ahora se su secreto: ella también fuma.

Inside my travel bag - En mi bolsa de viaje

A couple of days ago I saw a nice picture taken by my friend 9j. She pictured her mother’s handbag content and posted the picture on Flickr.

I decided to do the same thing with my travel bag. Actually I got it from my father and I did not want him to miss it and I let him to continue carrying it.

And while making the picture I thought that it would be a perfect subject for a Meme. So I send this meme to Mrs Katanga. Mr Cyteck and Mr. Evaseè.

If you fail to reply a mad black dragon coming from Himalaya’s highest mountains will burn and eat your babysitter.

------TEAR HERE------ DO NOT USE HOOKS ------- LINE MADE IN PANAMA--------

Hace un par de días vi en flickr una foto muy maja que sacó mi amiga 9j. Era una foto de lo que llevaba su conejo madre en el bolso.

Decidi hacer lo mismo con mi bolsa de viaje. De hecho esa bolsa era de papá conejo y no quiero que la eche de menos, por eso se la dejo seguir llevando.

Y mientras hacia la foto pense que sería el tema ideal para un Meme. Así que se lo mando a la Sra Katanga, el señor Evaseè y al Sr. Cyteck.

Si no lo haceis un malvado dragon negro que viene del Himalaya quemará y se comerá a vuestra babysitter.

Creative Bunnies

Father bunny is not very happy with me because I made some jokes about my sisters. You know I love them so much, but sometimes is difficult to have so many sisters.

Mother bunny thinks he over protects me and that he always tends to allow me all my whims. That’s not true.

It doesn’t matter I must stay in my room without TV and no tea with friends for three days. I hate you evil father.

I’ve decided to take some pictures of my sisters and to upload some that I took in Miró´s museum.

Shake, shake, shake…shake, shake, shake….

Shake you up bunny, shake you up bunny.
Oh, I can, I can do well, very well

A slight mod to one of the old (and sometimes terrible) song that KC and that slightly over her weigh lady (Italian surname) try to sell to night hawkers addicted to TV shops. A 9 CD nightmare that you can discover here

Today the great day arrived and Father Bunny and Draculina will need to prove me that they can run faster and better than me.


I know my sister can defeat me in short distances with no effort but she is not good when the track is longer and not totally flat some love handles in your body can help you to sustain your effort. And to tell you the truth Father Bunny’s days of glory are something of the past and the only exercise that he really needs to do is signing checks to cover my expenses.

The event we chose it was Cursa del Corte Inglés, one of the largest running races over the world that achieved world record in 1994 with 109,457 athletes (still today holds The Guinness Record). This year around 50,000 people took part so quite a crowd ready to step on you.

The race starts and ends in Plaça Catalunya, eleven kilometers that are not as easy as you may think if this is your first race. Let me guide you in a VirtuaRabbit tour in which I will share my thoughts.



KM 0. This year runners with a timing chip are in a separate area a few meters in front the rest of participants. A good idea to avoid crowds and to allow official and real times match.

START. I passed throw the start line with FB and Draculina, we have only lost around 15 seconds but suddenly after 100 meters a big jam stopped us abruptly. People entering the race from both left and right sides are blocking me and my father while Draculina is able to find the right place in a fast zigzag between humans, cars and another urban elements.

KM 0.63. We turn left in Aragon street, still crowded but I manage to get rid off FB while trying to chase Draculina. My pace is not so good but sensations are. FB is surprisingly close to me and advancing with less effort that I expected.

KM 3.22. Still chasing my sister that is doing 3.45 minutes a kilometer. I decided to save energy because in about 500 meter the first slope is coming ( from 3.80 to 4.80 approximately you are heading up to the Olympic Stadium and the slope is quite a pain inside your athletic shoes


KM 3.80 Suddenly the race stopped. Even the fastest runners are slowing down. I expected Father Bunny to crash as many others (he has not been running hills during his training). Draculina is suffering and she has stopped to eat and drink some carrot juice. I passed her and I managed to arrive first to the first water station. Father bunny has reduced his pace from 4:30 to 5:20 and his pulse is 164. No good news for me I expected him trashed aside the route.

KM 4.80. I was running first, FB was at low pace and Draculina almost broken. I run down the hill for the next 200 meters but again a, this time bigger, slope was in front of me and the Olympic Stadium. This time I needed to reduce my pace considerably but FB – that has down the hill tried to reduce his bpm- was going uphill quite fast. Actually faster than Draculina that was out of breath and suffering when she joined father bunny in this point.

OLYMPIC STADIUM. Here it’s Miffa, yes! entering the track with the crowd waving the new Bunny hero. It was nice being there and having the chance to step on the same track than many professional athletes. Father Bunny and Draculina were not doing good inside. I decided to buy myself an ice cream and rest for a while. Anyways the race was quite easy for me.



KM 7.31 Draculina passed my like a rocket. At this part until Km 10 we descended Montjuich and she showed her great ability at a stunning pace of about 30 km/h. Father Bunny was doing around 15 km/h (He decided to forget about his knees for a while)

KM 9. I saw Father Bunny at the distance, He pushed hard downhill and therefore he was not keeping so much energy as he expected in those two last kilometers. Draculina stopped in Km 10.5 to chat with Mother Bunny. She did and impressive descend and was able to join the best runners. Unfortunately for her she waited for FB.

KM 10.5 Draculina stepped onto Father Bunny’s shoulders, he tried to run but his pulse went wild and reached 170. He still tried to win me but finally we did the same time.

Unfortunately for him I have won my age group and therefore our bet!

Genetics, department stores, GPS and heart rate monitors.

A week ago Father Bunny and his friend Mr. Barney ordered what my father thought that was “The ultimate” device. Both my father and Mr. Barney are hardcore geeks that spend large amounts of money in pathetic gadgets that normally use at only 10 % of their real performance.

The device is a Garmin forerunner 305, a GPS (Sirf III) device with plenty of options that surely can help you in achieving better performance. Let’s say it can do almost everything except running or cycling or skiing.

Mr. Barney is a very experienced ebay buyer and thus he helped FB tracking a brand new unit sold in Arizona (USA) for 150 € instead of the more than 400 that he will pay here in Europe (Is only me thinking than the EU distributors are robbing EU customers?)

He was worried about the gadget not arriving before his great running event. The one in which I decided to participate to defeat him. Needless to say is that I do not need that hardware…

First it weights a lot, the track is perfectly signaled and most important a rabbit’s heart rate is in between 130 and 325 beats per minute.

Citius, altius, fortius. Are the olympics tempting Miffa?

I don’t think so, I think she is jealous of Draculina and me sharing the unique feeling of running though Barcelona and inside The Olympic Stadium and therefore she convinced Ookina to run with her.

They tried to maintain it secretly but Miffa’s vanity forces her to ask for my camera and guess what I found.

She has even bought a yellowchip!!

Ookina will use NB 909 and Miffa custom built Sketchers

My new friends: Xiam and Mem

I am still selecting some pictures from our last travel and trying to sort some notes I took while on a train or on a plane.

With a lazier than usual Father Bunny there’s still a lot to do. But let me introduce my new friends I met in Fujian province.

She and her sister were captive in a small and dirty shop near Gulangyu Island. Thank god we were there to save them.

Father Bunny took them and Miffo to visit a bike motor show. Her name is Xiam. There they took a lot of pictures, Father bunny will upload his pictures to Flickr but I suggest you to take a look onto Cyteck’s.

Futomaki 太巻き

Futomaki 太巻き is a big thick roll usually vegetarian. Miffo is seriously cooking for us using the techniques she learnt from her Japanese family.

We are trying to learn some dishes from her but with irregular results. In the other hand Father Bunny is doing quite decent Baozi after our last visit to Hong Kong. May be he was not going to the gym at 6 o’clock while in Kowloon.

Umeko (梅子) visited Mexico. Part 2 of 2

2008/05/13 some minor changes and corrections are done to this post.

When I met my step parents, almost four years ago my father was even more over protective than now, and now he is a real pain in the neck. By that time he was planning to visit Guatemala that is located south of Mexico close to Yucatan Peninsula and that share some of the best Mesoamerican Buildings and archaeological evidences of old cultures.

The north of Guatemala and the Guatemala and Mexico border still are not hassle free zones to travel with little bunnies as father Bunny said then and so I missed that great adventure. Someday I am going to stick onto Father Bunny’s photo archive to upload some of them to flick.com.

Umeko 梅子 (Cafemiffy, please forgive poor Father bunny for confusing a cherry with an a peach apricot ) had the great opportunity to visit such places. She was in Oaxaca but her and aunt Ale had little time to improve our wikibunny article and they made a stub. After some Miffawikinization here it is Umeko’s adventures in Mexico Part 2.

Umeko stayed most of the time in México City, but she had the chance to spend several days in Oaxaca. Oaxaca is one of the poorest states of the country, but it’s one of the most interesting places, because of it’s historical, gastronomical and natural values.

Oaxaca, the capital, is a colonial city. Here’s the Santo Domingo convent, founded in the XVI century by the Dominicans (1575-1731). Its baroque church is perfectly preserved, and its museum owns one of the most important prehispanic and colonial art collections of the country.

Before the Spanish colony, the region of Oaxaca was the home of the mixteco-zapoteca culture. Actually, a lot of people still speak the zapoteco language, and the ancient traditions are profoundly kept.

In the surroundings of the city, there are two of the most important archeological sites of Oaxaca and Mexico:

Monte Alban: built at 2000 m above the sea level, the view is simply amazing. One of the tombs found here, kept inside a lot of treasures, compared to those of Egypt. You can appreciate them in the site’s museum. All of the buildings, castles, and ball game are amazingly preserved.

One of the constructions, “el edificio de los danzantes”, get its name from the “estelas” (huge stones carved in high relief) found inside it. They are called dancers, because they look as if they were dancing, but actually, they represent war prisoners that were sacrificed. Their movements and face expressions, are from intense suffering.

Mitla: well known for its elegance and beauty. Its buildings are incredibly preserved. Its totally different from all the prehispanic cities, because of the designs on the walls. In some parts you can even see the color the walls were painted… red, yellow, black.



And last but not least, Umeko visited one of the most loved Oaxaca’s habitants: the Tule tree!

Thanks Lupita I will surely visit Mexico again!

This amazing ahuehuete (that’s the tree’s species) is more than 2000 years old, weights 600 tons, its 42 m tall, has a perimeter of 58 m and diameter of 14 m. Just beautiful!! There are a lot of funny forms on its trunk, and the children of Santa María del Tule, (the town), will be happy to help you find them.

That was a just a little blink of México, enjoy as Umeko did!!

Umeko (梅子) visited Mexico. Part 1

First of all I would like to introduce Umeko. She is from Holland and part of the Chan family (a huge family with more members every day) since my last trip to Amsterdam.

Umeko wanted to travel to a distant place because she was a little bit depressed and tired of so many dark grey days and rain. She has a very adventurous and challenging character too, so Father Bunny arranged things and she travelled to Mexico.

I must say that both of us were scared about her visiting Mexico DF but she returned safe and very happy after a lot of joy and excitement visiting places and making new friends. Note that we may or may not endorse some opinions.

Umeko in Mexico!!

Umeko spent a whole month in Mexico, with Aunt Ale, who went to visit her family. She had a wonderful time looking up very interesting places, meeting people, enjoying the awesome weather, and best of all… tasting the REAL mexican food, totally different from that of many lousy “mexican” restaurants in Barcelona...(1)

Umeko couldn’t miss the huge Zocalo, the center of México City. There’s the National Palace and the Cathedral.

And here in the middle of the traffic hour (which actually seems to be every single hour in this city), in Paseo de la Reforma, one of the most important and beautiful avenues of the city. In the back, the Ángel de la Independencia, one of the most symbolic mexican monuments.

Actually, Umeko had the chance to live another kind of mexican experience, not the typical caribean spring break scene (2). And she’s also a witness: not every single mexican carries a gun, and of course, they don’t throw shots to the air to celebrate, as Father Bunny always tells…(3)



Mexican hospitality is well-known. The people is really warm and kind. The always try to make you feel like home. Of course, Aunt Ale’s family was delighted to receive Umeko, they just loved her, because she is so small, soft and cute!!

One weekend, the whole family went on a trip to Querétaro, which is about 2 hours from México City. She made a new friend, Lupita!



Lupita took Umeko to an emblematic place of Querétaro: la Peña de Bernal.

It’s a huge rock in one piece of about xxx m tall (4). Great place for camping, climbing and rappelling. The view is amazing, and people say even UFOs have been seen… great place for close encounters...



There’s also a little market of handcrafts where you can find all kind of typical mexican souvenirs.



Bye bye Lupita!!(5)




Miffa and FB's notes:

(1) Personally I hate Mexican restaurants

(2) She told me that she wanted to be there despite all the Americans and European looking for a ready to make Caribbean picture.

(3) That's true, some of them carry machine guns and knives to celebrate even louder.

(4) this article needs more research but I swear they were there.

(5) We will like to invite Lupita to Barcelona (or China)

PS: We arrange with Lloyds Umeko's travel insure (That covers any danger she eventually could face, including little bunnies kidnapping)

Rice

Miffo is trying to share some Basic japanese sushi techniques with me. I’ve done some improvements and cutting and rolling stuff is not a problem anymore.

But, still It’s hard to make a good rice if you don’t use Japanese rice. I’ve tried different rice and rice vinegars combinations but still I am unable to get the proper texture and flavour.

May be as Father Bunny says:

- “You need to learn from a real Japanese chef”.

Let’s see. In the other hand he has been training secretly with Draculina to en a 10 km under 48 minutes.

PS: I still have to write one of my recipes for Katanga's blog.