Well it's been a while since i last posted and the only interesting thing that has happened is Typhoon Nuri. Though by the end it hit Hong Kong it had weakened into a Tropical Storm, but the typhoon signal did hit no. 9. If it hadn't weakened it would probably have been a number 10! Woo that would have been interesting - funny how it doesn't stop people from going out though.
The other good thing about it was we had another day off work and it was a Friday, so long weekend, yeah!!
Been looking at potential places to rent, concentrating on Heng Fa Chuen since it's so nice and quiet and relaxing down there (the phase that's near the water not the mountain side coz apparently there are some apartments on the mountain side that are a bit 'unclean', mainly because the area they were built on used to be a cemetary or something along those lines)
I hit my '3 month' probation last Thursday as well (just before the Typhoon hit) - what a good way to celebrate, giving me a long weekend. No complaints and i have been escorted out of the office so it's a good sign eh?!
Dad'll be here in 1.5 weeks, ohhh poor doggies left at home ... gosh i miss them.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Tropical Cyclone Kammuri
Ohhh i'm on the early shift this week but there was a tropical cyclone warning and the signal was increased to no. 8 at 6:47am so that means... no work today!!!!
Yippay! And the fact that the cyclone wasn't going to be nearest to HK until 12ish meant that the HK market wasn't going to be open - so no chance of having to go to work in the afternoon!
There was a loud sound of glass breaking this morning, i figured it was someone's pot plant falling from the window but then i saw on the news a building where a window appeared to have broken and fallen to the ground and i thought 'gee that looks familiar' turns out it was our apartment block!!
Out of curiosity, headed downstairs to see what happened and it was actually the office building across the road. Two glass panels had fallen off the building and hit one of the apartment windows on the way down... there were so many news crews downstairs as well.
The glass had even bounced half way up the street:
Guess it was bit of excitement for a rainy day
Yippay! And the fact that the cyclone wasn't going to be nearest to HK until 12ish meant that the HK market wasn't going to be open - so no chance of having to go to work in the afternoon!
There was a loud sound of glass breaking this morning, i figured it was someone's pot plant falling from the window but then i saw on the news a building where a window appeared to have broken and fallen to the ground and i thought 'gee that looks familiar' turns out it was our apartment block!!
Out of curiosity, headed downstairs to see what happened and it was actually the office building across the road. Two glass panels had fallen off the building and hit one of the apartment windows on the way down... there were so many news crews downstairs as well.
The glass had even bounced half way up the street:
Guess it was bit of excitement for a rainy day
Monday, August 4, 2008
Ani-Com & Games
Ohhh, I thought i'd be good and go to a "Honkie" event and lo and behold there was the 10th Annual Ani-Com & Games Exhibition at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Entry fee was only $25HKD... so off i went on Sunday afternoon. Mum mentioned that on the first day there was like 60000 people there and i'm like ok, cool whatever - those were the hard core fans who went in to get the limited edition things i reckon. So i headed down there and boy was i surprised there was a massive group of people heading a certain direction (guess where THEY were all heading...) luckily since i'm by myself it was easier to slip in between groups of people but i hit the front driveway of the convention centre and you have to form two lines: one with pre-paid tickets the other none. So, ok i'm not THAT well prepared, i have to line up. You can't really call it a line it was just a mass of people funnelling into a doorway.
I have to give it to them, it was very efficient (i didn't even wait there for that long, there must have been over 100 people in front of me) - it helped that it was a single ticket price and they didn't take $100 or $500 notes so get in line whip out your money and then off into the hall.
I was verry surprised at the amount of people there, the showbag hall at the easter show had nothing on this crowd, i can only imagine the first day would have been 2-3 times as bad. This is only one tiny little section of the exhibit.
The only main problem with the crowd was, it was a hot day. Everyone is crowding around and people are sweating.... stinky city..
Now, an anime/games convention is not complete without at least half of the exhibit made up of absolutely adorable stuff - i feel sorry for the kids who go and see all the things they want to buy. I overheard a boy saying, "Oh i have $100 at home. Gee, i'm really regretting not bringing that extra $100 out..."
So here are some of the cute stuff on show:
You know, i'm really kicking myself for not getting the other monkey. I bought the monkey with the smug look but both ben and mum said i should have bought the set of 5 kittens, i rather i got that other monkey with the x for eyes... but you know, i was actually looking at them and thinking... "Mum will kill me if i came home with that - doh!"
And of course, there are mini toys as well
And of course, cos players
Then there are the Bandai girls etc..
Boy, was it weird taking pictures of these girls (everyone else was male... the things i do for my brothers... i hope they appreciate it...)
The other thing you don't see if how organised the kids are, they were all pulling mini suitcases so that they can put all their purchases (i.e. manga) in them and then they go and sit down off to the side to take stock of their purchases (and pack the suitcase) then they go back into the crowds and buy some more stuff. Gee i'm going to be better prepared next year (if i'm still here)!!
Anyway the rest of the photos are on my facebook page, it was a fun afternoon (though gee i really wish i'd bought more soft toys...) next time i'm going to go full hog and buy everything i like and worry about the consequences after ^_^ i could always sell the unwanted stuff on eBay
gee i'm almost tempted to run down there during lunch break and do some more shopping...
I have to give it to them, it was very efficient (i didn't even wait there for that long, there must have been over 100 people in front of me) - it helped that it was a single ticket price and they didn't take $100 or $500 notes so get in line whip out your money and then off into the hall.I was verry surprised at the amount of people there, the showbag hall at the easter show had nothing on this crowd, i can only imagine the first day would have been 2-3 times as bad. This is only one tiny little section of the exhibit.
The only main problem with the crowd was, it was a hot day. Everyone is crowding around and people are sweating.... stinky city..
Now, an anime/games convention is not complete without at least half of the exhibit made up of absolutely adorable stuff - i feel sorry for the kids who go and see all the things they want to buy. I overheard a boy saying, "Oh i have $100 at home. Gee, i'm really regretting not bringing that extra $100 out..."
So here are some of the cute stuff on show:
You know, i'm really kicking myself for not getting the other monkey. I bought the monkey with the smug look but both ben and mum said i should have bought the set of 5 kittens, i rather i got that other monkey with the x for eyes... but you know, i was actually looking at them and thinking... "Mum will kill me if i came home with that - doh!"
And of course, there are mini toys as well
And of course, cos players
Then there are the Bandai girls etc..
Boy, was it weird taking pictures of these girls (everyone else was male... the things i do for my brothers... i hope they appreciate it...)
The other thing you don't see if how organised the kids are, they were all pulling mini suitcases so that they can put all their purchases (i.e. manga) in them and then they go and sit down off to the side to take stock of their purchases (and pack the suitcase) then they go back into the crowds and buy some more stuff. Gee i'm going to be better prepared next year (if i'm still here)!!
Anyway the rest of the photos are on my facebook page, it was a fun afternoon (though gee i really wish i'd bought more soft toys...) next time i'm going to go full hog and buy everything i like and worry about the consequences after ^_^ i could always sell the unwanted stuff on eBay
gee i'm almost tempted to run down there during lunch break and do some more shopping...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Fish ball noodles and dessert
After an incredibly good sleep-in, mum and i headed out to Aberdeen for some infamous fish ball noodle soup at a place called "Xie Ji Yu Dan" 謝記魚蛋
Once there we ordered the fish ball & slice soup plus fried fish skin - these guys don't waste the fish. For those not in the know, fish ball and slice is made up of fish mince and since they need to use so much fish they definitely need to do something with all the fish skin. So they fry it and you can eat it just like that or throw it into the noodle soup for a bit of a crunch.
I've got to say the fish skin is much nicer that the stuff you get in the typical noodle soup in the busy parts of Hong Kong - those are just mass fried and delivered to the shops - this place does everything themselves.
So managed to stuff ourselves a fair bit, but we walked past a dessert place on the way to the 'main' meal so obviously we had to stop there for some dessert on the way out.
Mum had a "mai mai sa" which was made up of three types of rice, mine was a coconut, papaya (or is it paw paw) plus a fungus thingy that us asians like to eat - it was supposed to be cooked inside a steamer etc but they didn't. Instead they microwaved it, unfortunately they nuked it a little too much and the initial taste was like something you had over microwaved. Still it was enjoyable but would have been sooo much nicer if it hadn't been over-nuked.
Anyway afterwards we were sufficiently stuffed and wandered around the streets of Aberdeen checking out shops. Mum and I went a bit handbag crazy at one of the shops but we were still quite pleased with ourselves afterwards (it wasn't that expensive considering 2 of them were leather handbags - no way we could have got that price in Oz.)
Couldn't resist and had to sms Erica about it - will have to take her over there to check things out sometime.
After we had shopped ourselves out, we found there was a free shuttle bus taking us over to one of the housing estates over there - so we jumped on and headed over there to check the area out. It was nice, more suited towards family though here are some pictures of the area.
But first, here's one of mum showing off two of our purchases...
The one on the left is an 'environmentally' friendly bag, the one on the right is my new lunch bag!
Ok, back to the estate - this is what she was pointing to
So i'm also using today as a chance to test out my new camera an Olympus mu 840. It is really cool and has all these preset options including documents, taking photos of things behind glass (that would have handy in Europe & London) plus sunset options. The photos were pretty good as well
Another thing i had to test was the macro settings on the camera...
The verdict is... i'm quite pleased with the camera but the embarrassing thing was the reason i bought it was because i was sick and tired of the 'dots' appearing in my photos from my old camera but testing with the new camera i found out it was because of my ISO setting - doh! oh well my old camera has an excellent zoom so i'll still use it, too bad it sucks the batteries.
Once there we ordered the fish ball & slice soup plus fried fish skin - these guys don't waste the fish. For those not in the know, fish ball and slice is made up of fish mince and since they need to use so much fish they definitely need to do something with all the fish skin. So they fry it and you can eat it just like that or throw it into the noodle soup for a bit of a crunch.
So managed to stuff ourselves a fair bit, but we walked past a dessert place on the way to the 'main' meal so obviously we had to stop there for some dessert on the way out.
Anyway afterwards we were sufficiently stuffed and wandered around the streets of Aberdeen checking out shops. Mum and I went a bit handbag crazy at one of the shops but we were still quite pleased with ourselves afterwards (it wasn't that expensive considering 2 of them were leather handbags - no way we could have got that price in Oz.)
Couldn't resist and had to sms Erica about it - will have to take her over there to check things out sometime.
After we had shopped ourselves out, we found there was a free shuttle bus taking us over to one of the housing estates over there - so we jumped on and headed over there to check the area out. It was nice, more suited towards family though here are some pictures of the area.
But first, here's one of mum showing off two of our purchases...
The one on the left is an 'environmentally' friendly bag, the one on the right is my new lunch bag!
Ok, back to the estate - this is what she was pointing to
So i'm also using today as a chance to test out my new camera an Olympus mu 840. It is really cool and has all these preset options including documents, taking photos of things behind glass (that would have handy in Europe & London) plus sunset options. The photos were pretty good as well
Another thing i had to test was the macro settings on the camera...
The verdict is... i'm quite pleased with the camera but the embarrassing thing was the reason i bought it was because i was sick and tired of the 'dots' appearing in my photos from my old camera but testing with the new camera i found out it was because of my ISO setting - doh! oh well my old camera has an excellent zoom so i'll still use it, too bad it sucks the batteries.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Ow....
I have just returned from a 50min foot/leg massage session and the only word that describes it was ow.... In the last couple of years of going to get massages i have not yet had a massuese (is that how u spell it?) how can make me cringe with pain but man, tonight the guy who massaged me made me twitch...
ok so i have massive calves... (it has to be genetic - as bev's friends have noticed...) but geez the guy was like "i haven't seen calves like that on a healthy person - it only takes one or two presses before his customers scream out in pain" - I am kinda proud i held out for a long time but i think he was deliberately massaging me harder to see how long it'll take before i gave up...
It was seriously the most painful massage session i have gone through, but afterwards i have to say i'm not hurting... maybe i'll take up his offer of being my massuese when i decide to go for a back massage hehehe - glutton for punishment...
the only good thing that came out of it was he hit all my accupuncture points on my feet and proclaimed me quite healthy (internal organ wise) - for those who don't know the feet have pressure points which are linked to all your internal organs so that the guys can actually tell if you're having problems sleeping, got a bad liver, get headaches, can't sleep - it's quite interesting.
And compared to Australia, this place is pretty cheap and clean as well - trying to relax during a massage in the middle of Westfields just doesn't cut it. Of course, it doesn't beat Dragonfly ... ahhh i could do with one of their 2hr massages...
We'll have to see if my legs are all bruised tomorrow morning...
ok so i have massive calves... (it has to be genetic - as bev's friends have noticed...) but geez the guy was like "i haven't seen calves like that on a healthy person - it only takes one or two presses before his customers scream out in pain" - I am kinda proud i held out for a long time but i think he was deliberately massaging me harder to see how long it'll take before i gave up...
It was seriously the most painful massage session i have gone through, but afterwards i have to say i'm not hurting... maybe i'll take up his offer of being my massuese when i decide to go for a back massage hehehe - glutton for punishment...
the only good thing that came out of it was he hit all my accupuncture points on my feet and proclaimed me quite healthy (internal organ wise) - for those who don't know the feet have pressure points which are linked to all your internal organs so that the guys can actually tell if you're having problems sleeping, got a bad liver, get headaches, can't sleep - it's quite interesting.
And compared to Australia, this place is pretty cheap and clean as well - trying to relax during a massage in the middle of Westfields just doesn't cut it. Of course, it doesn't beat Dragonfly ... ahhh i could do with one of their 2hr massages...
We'll have to see if my legs are all bruised tomorrow morning...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Quickie Post
Weell just a short post on my favourite subject... food!
And because i'm in serious Aussie beef withdrawal...
Well i should mention something other than food. So how about work... arghh it was such a long day today but not stressful or anything. Just ultra busy (so that time flew by pretty quick) but seriously had so many issues i haven't had a chance to look at all the issues that have been assigned to me *groan*
The weather is getting hotter here, i think it's going to get really bad in August *sigh* - if only they'll send me back to Sydney for training for a month (that'll be cool, avoid the heat for a while). Though it's not the heat that gets to me it's the damn humidity - waking up in the middle of the night all hot and sweaty is so annoying!
And because i'm in serious Aussie beef withdrawal...
Well i should mention something other than food. So how about work... arghh it was such a long day today but not stressful or anything. Just ultra busy (so that time flew by pretty quick) but seriously had so many issues i haven't had a chance to look at all the issues that have been assigned to me *groan*
The weather is getting hotter here, i think it's going to get really bad in August *sigh* - if only they'll send me back to Sydney for training for a month (that'll be cool, avoid the heat for a while). Though it's not the heat that gets to me it's the damn humidity - waking up in the middle of the night all hot and sweaty is so annoying!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
And the weekend rolls around again
Well after a nice sleep in on a Saturday morning, mum and I headed out to North Point for some traditional chinese congee, dough sticks etc.
Afterwards we wandered around the back streets of North Point to check out the shops (the area is good for people planning on doing renovations - tonnes of interior design stores, electrical, furniture and lighting stores) Then we headed over to the local markets to get the ingredients for dinner - it is a bit worrying that some of the stores are selling cooked and uncooked stuff right next to each other and they're not really stores but stalls...
The other weird thing is people buying frozen chicken/meats... ok when you buy fruit you tend to give them a light squeeze to make sure they're ripe but what is the point of squeezing frozen meat/chicken?? Bizaree...
The other nice thing about North Point is the little stalls selling craft stuff like scissors/elastics/lace - unbelievably cheap as well. Mum bought this really cute fold-away scissors that i can use for my cross-stitching it's really cool!
Check it out:
Oh well, that's it from me. We're going to go out and have a look at display apartments tomorrow - just out of curiosity...
Afterwards we wandered around the back streets of North Point to check out the shops (the area is good for people planning on doing renovations - tonnes of interior design stores, electrical, furniture and lighting stores) Then we headed over to the local markets to get the ingredients for dinner - it is a bit worrying that some of the stores are selling cooked and uncooked stuff right next to each other and they're not really stores but stalls...
The other weird thing is people buying frozen chicken/meats... ok when you buy fruit you tend to give them a light squeeze to make sure they're ripe but what is the point of squeezing frozen meat/chicken?? Bizaree...
The other nice thing about North Point is the little stalls selling craft stuff like scissors/elastics/lace - unbelievably cheap as well. Mum bought this really cute fold-away scissors that i can use for my cross-stitching it's really cool!
Check it out:
Oh well, that's it from me. We're going to go out and have a look at display apartments tomorrow - just out of curiosity...
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