not just another evening walk

sometimes we forget that the best things in life are just right at your doorstep. took a walk round my hood with DY and brought her to one of my favourite spots in ktown. met a new 'friend' here, but clearly the love was a one way traffic heh..

an angmoh walking his dog (maybe i should say gwailo since we are in HK) was amused at how we were posing so much alongside a very un-interested dog.

MC hotDOG!

i spotted this perfect backdrop for a great picture.. love the depth in this! makes me really inspired to pick up my camera and go around capturing HK in its finest.

captions for this pic would definitely be: concrete jungle..

VERY nice emo shot i did for DY. perfect lighting, perfect colours, perfect mood.

of course i did not forget to introduce her to the awesome meat of an unknown animal sold at the local corner store adored by all my Singaporean visitors thus far.

life changing

two 'life changing' events happened to me today:

1) i was in a room with Kit Chan for over an hour!!! - yes, THE. REAL. DEAL.

2) i tried the, i quote: "life changing udon" at this small unpretentious Japanese CAFE tucked away in one of the quiet streets of TST.

with all due credits given to the food, (DY and i went back twice in a week for their udon!!).. CLEARLY, life changing event #1 was more life changing than #2!! *UNREAL*

never in my wildest dreams i thought i could be in a room chatting with her in person. and thanks to her, i have one more word added to "PQ's limited vocabulary book" now: psoriasis.. go figure!

tai tam tuk reservoir

no one really knew where we were going.. but we just walked and walked.. we took a bus to wong nai chung and then got off to start the hike. was not a tough hike per sae but i was deinitely in the wrong shoes! it's not a place you want to wear your limited edition adidas sneakers to, you know what i mean?!

had quite a bit of fun "rock climbing".. we were trying to be "smart" by climbing up to the top thinking there may be a short cut.. clearly there wasn't hah..

entire hike took about 3 hours but totally worth it! great view and hard to imagine it is HK.

the obligatory jump shot at the end, of course!

bra...

or should i say, bra-less?? so you will not believe it - i went to work today without a bra!!! oh my F god. seriously am i too tired or am i too tired? geez. mind and body not in sync.. thank god for the jacket i had on me.. LOL.. and i hope no one discovered it?! *faint

天意

after what happened today, a song actually came to my mind..
难道说...一切都是天意, 一切都是命運, 終究已註定..???

so..
天意, 到底是 可违 还是 不可违??？

shop like a PRC

i do not know what got over me today.. somehow just felt like spending some money? bought a pair of tory burch shoes and a burberry bag... all the buying decisions, made in a flash. but all the items were.. so "not me"!.. =_=||

TOTO

so my dream to win the 10 million dollars Hong Bao TOTO is officially over as the results were released. but apparently the mum texted me next morning to say i struck "3 and a half numbers".. haha ok i did not know 3 and a half numbers also can win money one. but yah.. 60 bucks not bad lah.. if anything this is "heng heng" money so must take! HUAT AH!!

ah siao 又发福了..

SG Hyatt - Straits Kitchen

the best of all the mediocre hawker food combined, haha even though it does not sound like it but i meant it in a good way! will be back again!

华艺 festival - 插班生 之 才男才女 篇

DY and her crew during a rehearsel in the afternoon.

this is CY and her attempt to play an "instrument" haha..

he was the music director of the night.. i liked how he 改编 the songs to give them a new lease of life!

somehow.. drummer is always a little 胖胖的 and botak 的..

CY's brother in law also kena pulled in to become the keyboard 手!

华艺 festival - 插班生 之 lelong 篇

haha so what is my role in this whole thingy? apart from being the audience i got another "important" responsibility.. which is to take care of all the "miscellaneous".. LOL!

apart from running to the carpark to help the guitarist to retrieve his iPad for song list and sorting out the crew t shirt by sizes to the most important part - HELP TO LELONG their merchandises!! haha look at our failed attempt in trying to get this very, very cost conscious friend of friend to buy something from us.

BUT!!! overall - i must say.. BB sales girl 是强的!!! we made lots of money that night!!!

definitely a night of fun and experience. my passion for selling may have just been reignited there haha!

otah also "staff retreat"

been craving for otah from this shop for the longest time and for two days in a row i went with hope, only to be disappointed twice!! sigh. well at least i hope you guys enjoyed the staff retreat!!

有钱真好

bought two bags for the dad - one from Tumi for him to use when travelling and one from Victorinox for him to use at work. were they expensive? yes they were. were they worth it? hell yes...

when examining the bags and all the amazing pockets and compartments..
dad: bag 不用买这么贵的啦

smiling broadly and still examining all the amazing pockets and compartments..
dad: 这么贵的 (bag)拿来做工好像很浪费 hor?

me: aiya.. 现在又不是说我们买不起...

dad finally takes his eyes off the bags for a while, looks at me.. then looks over to the mum and said..
"对，对，说得也是，现在不是说我们花不起"

somehow i felt that the dad was really happy to know that her daughter seems to have "made it". felt super shiok after saying what i said and seeing the expression on the dad's face. makes me feel all the hard work i put into my career was all worthwhile. being able to afford to provide for my family is extremely gratifying. - 有钱真好.

满满的爱

if you think you recently got yourself a lemon.. try looking at my stash.. haha! 大家不要枪，人手一瓶!

low-light?

here i am getting a new look for the new year. it has been more than 2.5 years since i coloured my hair and was really not used to seeing myself with coloured hair! funny how people change, i used to love having the most colourful hair.. but now so conservative all of a sudden haha.. 长大了?

so apparently this new technique is called the "low-light".. which means colouring your hair entirely in the lighter colour and then pick out streaks of your hair to colour it dark blue/black, instead of the other way around!

butler

because i really wanted to bring home the empty bottle, we each had to drink additional double shot whisky so that we can finish the entire bottle. apart from a wide selection of whiskys and Japanese whiskys, they also do great cocktails. but what impressed me the most was still the impeccable service. they are so personable yet professional. never ever tried hand carved ice ball for our own whisky on the rocks! it was literally a ROCK :) definitely worth paying every single cent tonight.

0955am on 18 Jan

ALL SOLD OUT.

as expected - it was a bag of mixed feelings between disappointment and sigh of relief. it has been a family project of sort, with the BIL helping to research and coordinate things from his end to the mum going to showflats with the niece and nephews.. we all hoped it could come to a happy ending. at the same time, it was a huge commitment and i was not sure if the decision was a right one to take at this point in time..

well, guess what? maybe it is time to re-visit those ambitious traveling plans again! hohoho..

Tai O rediscovered

come to think of it, 2010 is the last time i have been to Tai O if memory serves me well. glad i did it again this time with JY as the 20 HKD speedboat ride was a perk and the quaint little cafe we found, that never used to be there in Tai O was a bonus.

good job to the founder of this cafe, who would have thought of such a hip idea for this little fishing village? :)

off to Macau with "PQ"

notice the 37 "P" and 37 "Q" on the tickets?? "P & Q".. "PQ"?! haha ok cheap thrill. so it has been a fun weekend getaway in Macau.

chiong-ed two shows in one day with JY. house of dancing water was quite entertaining for its stage effects but to be honest the stunts they pulled did not really require a lot of skills and the story line was quite shit. basically the prince is useless and the princess saved herself. walau. next was Sodagreen's concert which came highly recommended by LL.

it was quite an interesting show but i guess the problem is that both of us are really not familiar with their songs. JY got bored in between the show and started playing with her camera. hah. have never stayed over in Macau before so it was a good first time experience for me. previously i have only been there was with the parents in 2010 so was a little of a touch and go.

chinchalok and friends 01.01.2013

so what else can you ask for on the first day of the new year when you got good friends visiting from Singapore to eat sambal chinchalok with all the gorgeous seafood lined up at the famous Intercontinental hotel's buffet... while enjoying the obiang-cheena looking but nontheless entertaining laser light show at TST harbour?

very good start of the year with a fantastic line-up of visitors for the first 2-3 weeks! next up we can expect ms jy choo aka swimmer friend in HK wootz!

shiok shiok BKT

complete with yew char kueh at the side. HK chilly winter night, bring it on!

my conversation with a 10 year old

today's conversation with NN's daughter reminded me of Moses Lim in "Under One Roof"...

NN: last time we were in China my son ate too much before going up to the roller coaster. in the end he puked all over his cousin who was sitting opposite him. the funniest thing was, the weather was so cold that his vomit actually froze on the cousin's hair!

me: ewww! that is disgusting! i do not think i can forgive anyone for shitting on me like that!

NN's 10 year old daughter: hahaha.. yah i remember this story

me: so.. (looked over at the daughter) can you tell me what is the moral of this story??

NN's 10 year old daughter: what do you mean by "moral of this story"??

NN: jie jie is asking you what have you learnt from this story?

NN's 10 year old daughter: oh.. err.. do not over eat before you go on a roller coaster?

me: no no no! you are wrong! moral of this story is: always choose the right corner to sit so as to make sure you will not kena any shit!

NN's 10 year old daughter: *puzzled look*

me: not only you should choose the right seat, you also must remember to watch the direction of the wind! you need to change seats according to the direction of the wind because even if the shit did not hit you the first time the wind may still blow the shit all over your face you know?!

NN's 10 year old daughter: *totally confused*

me: you may not understand this story now but it is a very important lesson you have to learn which will be valid even 30 years from now ok?!!

hmm.. i think i make a very good teacher for the kids. :)

HAPPY BOXING DAY!

Christmas is just.. Christmas

so i pretty much spent the entire Christmas eve and Christmas day watching.. SUITS! awesome drama series man! got me addicted. well i also tried to get into the mood of the season by making some "christmassy" lunch and dinners. the pan friend potato cake turned out well and honey mustard on chicken and ham - you rock my boat baby!!

shit Olivers was selling 55 HKD for ONE PIECE of ham.. seriously!! but thank god i picked up the LAST BIRD of the day on the "rack" after knocking off at 4pm on eve.. you know in HK as with EVERYTHING.. you somehow need a RESERVATION - yes, even roast chicken from supermarket! *roll eyes* anyways.. good food, cool weather and me-time - that is my Christmas 2012. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

inception #2

ok, i was wrong, THIS was not a record yet.. because i dreamt about work, SEVEN DAYS IN A ROW this week!! WALAUEH! try topping my level of sian-ness on this!!..  oh but in between the dreams about work i also dreamt about a "真字".. which was 2681.. which did not strike by the way (haha yeah i actually checked the Singapore pools website lah).. so random my dreams LOL!

anyways that is not the zhong dian. zhong dian is.. i am very sian. which, is also not the zhong dian. i guess the zhong dian is.. i do not know how to stop thinking/dreaming about work!

although i welcome more dreams about "真字s", well only if they are ZHUNz! tee gong po pi HUAT LAH!

"xinjiapour" pre christmas brunch

the bunch of Singaporeans caught up for brunch before everyone starts going out of town.. new friends, old friends. but the interesting part is how all of us have MUTUAL friends! and how do i know it? power of FB!!

it was nice exchanging presents and just being surrounded by distinctly Singlish accented conversations.

our secret life gig

second time going for their gig today. last year around this time was their first gig and it was quite an interesting sight as about half the band was pregnant at that time! clearly.. a year later, they all recovered very well after having their babies.

"A" was one of the lead singers that night - great rendition of "Tonight We Are Young".. not once, but twice!

tree planting in Mui Wo

ok fine, i did not plant any trees. all i did was to "maintain" them to give them fertilizers and stuff. but thought it sounded cooler if i said "tree planting" haha.. well we also built some support structures which helps to prevent land slides so that was cool too.

i always wondered if it was possible to climb through the mountains.. like are they filled with grass or trees or was it rocks?? today i finally got the chance to climb to the top of the mountain!

captured the moment just in time.. two cats with identical pose looking at me! ahh.. todays feels good!

12.12.12 @ 12pm

apparently today is a special day because of the above date format. which reminds me, i secretly thought that 20.07.2007 (my birthday) would be a great day for me to get married 5 years ago, except that i had no one to get married to. LOL.

had lunch with the usual gang today in one of my favourite restaurants in IFC. food was great and according to the gang they thought the price was worth it. i thought so too until i converted it back to SGD and it was 63 SGD.. oh man, no one would ever spend this amount of money on a week day work lunch out of their own pockets. yet in HK.. we consider this "worth it"..

every gentlemen's dream..

so i was in a meeting with this client today...

he was lying down throughout most of the meeting. he said it was his first time doing it so he was very nervous. he even made me take lots of pictures of him while doing it..
.
.
.
.
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where did your dirty little minds led you to? that is him, getting his "Mandarin Shave" from the Mandarin Oriental Barber..

he took part in Movemember and raised the most funds as an individual in Asia! we had lunch followed by his appointment at the Mandarin Oriental Barber. in there i saw what many would define as "successful individuals" getting their hair trimmed as well as a clean shave, including him obviously. just one of the ways many of the rich people spend their money i guess. oh, and forgot to add that lunch was a whopping 700 HKD for two pies at the Chinnery in MO. HK.. a land where money is the only rule.

 

if the dad ever comes back to HK again i will definitely bring him to this barber - a clean shave by a professional in a pampered environment is every gentlemen's dream. :)



let's play scrabble!

don't you love my new business cards? we recently changed the design of our business cards, not sure who came out with them - i like them but i cannot say the same for the rest..

me and HW were fooling around arranging the business cards to form different funny words. have a good weekend!

duck rice.. moved on..

连你都 move on 了, 我还在原地踏步!

WhatsApp

the mum: 爸爸说很想念你，希望过年早点到 。

就是这句话让我......!
i miss the mum i miss the dad and i miss the cat!! not helping with my homesickness during this miserable weather!!

WHY AM I STILL HERE?! is something i asked myself again today..

22°C

toast, tea, turkey breast, honey mustard sauce, organic grapes..
surf net, read news, download mp3, watch youtube..
tram noises, neighbours not home, gloomy weather, 22°C..
this is my Sunday - i wonder what is yours?

essential flowers

LL the Fengshui savvy friend is right, i should get some flowers and plants to increase the "生气" in the house. sorry i started with WHITE flowers this time.. haha.. next time will get colourful ones!

HK friends?

meet my two HK friends: friendly taxi driver #1 and friendly taxi driver #2.. yup these are my "HK friends" after living in HK for more than two years.

friendly taxi driver #1 was walking out of the CCT after his morning breakfast and saw that i was waiting for a cab at my usual hijack spot. he quickly waved at me to come and shouted "长江中心?!" .. apparently he has picked me up from that spot enough times to remember my destination. he told me to remember his license plate number cos if i see it parked outside of the CCT i could go in and get him to come out and drive me to work.

friendly taxi driver #2 drives past my usual hijack spot at 750am every morning. he gave me his number and told me to whatsapp him by 735am if i want him to pick me up at that time.

why so difficult to make local HK friends ah?

inception

this must be a record - i actually dreamt about work THREE DAYS IN A ROW. monday to wednesday. this truly is a NIGHTMARE. i think i kena inception by my LBN. haha.

吉利尼

found Killiney's kopitiam in.. Hung Hom!! the milo dino was very... "correct", kaya toast also "correct"!! mee siam hmm.. mai hiam buay pai. but most importantly, Killiney's never got a chinese name until now! they are called 吉利尼 ok, don't play play.

你明不明啊??

if only you came later or i came earlier - we would have had so much fun together!! most importantly, with me around, i may even be able to prevent 一场家庭悲剧的发生!! since you cannot change your 33 let' us make sure we manage the 36 well.. 你明不明?.. 你明不明啊??

TAXI

i see you every now and then.. i tell all my friends about you.. today i finally met you in person! hello "TAXI"!

see's candies

is so SWEET - both literally and figuratively. THANKS :)