HK and TW 2008 - Day 5

Dec15/08 - 1:58am (at home)
Today was sunny for a bit. I actually had a chance to put on my sunglasses for a little while. I must say, the day was pretty eventful. My alarm went off at 7:45am but since 文生 turned it off I fell right back asleep. At 8:45am I jumped (was startled from a subconscious dream?) right out of bed. Left shortly after 9:20am to catch the light rail toward 屯門. Luckily I saw 妙珠姨 and 旭珠姨 on the train so we weren't completely late. We had dimsum at a restaurant called 麗都總廚. Their dimsum was pretty good, especially the fried radish shred pastry. After lunch, we went to walk around a nearby 街市 and I got yelled at for taking pics again. Poopie. We also went to a shopping centre and they happened to have 糖蔥餅. It was a tad sweet but light and crunchy! The two 姨姨's left afterward and 文生 and I met up with 阿叔 to go see 阿嫲. She was so happy that I brought her lotion, but the crack of the visit: she loves 文生! I gave her money from Daddy and she was in total disbelief! LOL! "佢轉死性呀?" I guess Daddy has a really bad rep! She kept bugging me to get married...like in 2 weeks! Hahahaha!~ So 3 crack ups in one visit. 阿嫲 twisted my ear to make sure she drilled it in me. OMG! She was quite happy today!

We then went to 沙田 to see 阿爺 and 文生's 阿爺. The funny thing was we couldn't find his grandfather for the longest time. No one knew where his 堂 is, even the people working there! Afterward, we went to Whampoa to do a bit of shopping and we stopped for tea at 仙跡岩 where we saw 戴志偉 with a lady that may be his wife. Just before dinner, we went to 周生生 to look at that ring I like, but still can't make up my mind to buy it. I really like it though! This time, they had a better colour (E vs. G) but it's slightly less clear (SI2 vs. SI1), slightly smaller (0.453 vs. 0.488ct) but quite a bit cheaper ($11K vs $17K).

We went to 利宛 for dinner and had an eel hot pot, braised chicken with chestnut, a really nice 藥膳湯, sweet and sour pork, pea sprouts and 芒果糯米糍. We also had 煲仔飯 with preserved meats. Dinner was quite nice and service was pretty good. Bill came to HKD1600 though, haha, didn't have to pay. After dinner, 阿叔 dropped us off at 新世紀廣場 and we walked around a bit, bought some books and went home.

On our way back (just downstairs from our apartment), we saw a whole bunch of cops, a screaming brown guy stripped naked to his boxers and another disgruntled brown guy. From what we gather, stripped guy beat up the other one. OMG, makes me feel so safe to be coming home alone. Went upstairs and first thing I did was laundry. That was the start of a nightmare. I won't even mention the bit about not knowing how to turn on the machine, but by the time we did, we realized that the water supply valve doesn't work so water was leaking! Then we noticed the kitchen sink was leaking too! Aiya! Took us waaay too long to fluke the stopping of the washer leak. We tried taping, wrapping, but to no avail. Somehow it stopped. I hope. I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning. Just when I thought I can sleep earlier tonight since we came home before midnight (11:30pm :p) but I ended up staying up 'til now. Tomorrow we head to Lantau. Now I gotta sleep because I must have fallen asleep 5 times in the last 45 minutes writing this. (2:45am)

HK and TW 2008 - Day 4

Dec13/08 - 1:05pm (Food Court at Langham Place)
This morning the alarm went off at 7:45am and I got up to get ready to go out. We found a Mannings downstairs and OMG I bought almost $800HKD in masks!! LOL! 文生 had to meet up with friends so he left for IFC while I met up with Peggy in MK. I got yelled at by so many people for taking pics today =P. When we were having curry fish balls and 牛雜 we saw a dead 小強 and a freshly window-smashed bird that dropped from the sky. Ooooh...how appetizing. Peggy wanted more food so we came in to Langham Place and now I'm watching her eat. (1:12pm)

Dec14/08 - 4:27am (at home)
Just called mom to chat and fixed up our spending record for the day. Can't believe it's almost 4:30am and I'm still awake. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't have a gate mishap that took like half an hour to resolve. We got home at almost 2:00am from taking the 12:45am bus from Jordan. Since the front door gate to the apartment is loud, we usually try to be as discreet as possible when it comes to opening it. Tonight we must have woken up the whole floor because we couldn't get the damn key to work! Ended up grabbing the security to help but that still didn't work. The neighbour (Mr. Wong, whom we obviously woke up) came out to help and eventually his daughter stuck her arm under the gate and unlocked it from the inside. We felt so bad!

So after Peggy finished eating this afternoon, we went to check out the Vivienne Westwood counter at Seibu. They were having a 50% off deal and after messing around deciding which colour, which design, which size, which make to buy, etc., Peggy bought a wallet and I bought a purse. Originally I wanted the one I last saw in October but they didn't have it anymore. 文生 joined us then and we went to Moon Kee for mango pancake, 涼粉 with vanilla 雪泥 and mango, and 涼粉 with palm seeds. It was nothing special and taste was only "ok". After dessert, 文生 picked up a couple of tops at Chevignon (omg, he's an XL there) and we made our way to a 周生生 to look at rings. I really liked this 0.488ct one and it was $20,400 discounted to $17K and change. I hope Kwong Shing can dupe me one. Keke!

Peggy left to go home for dinner so 文生 and I went to find Dianna's cousin 愛玲姐's salon for 文生's haircut. OMG, can't believe I still remember how to get there. The place was packed with people and with only 3 of them working, we had to wait 1.5 hours before it was his turn. Afterward, we took pics and stuff (lol! They were like, "Dianna didn't tell us you were coming...") and then left to meet up with Winnie (文生's friend) for dinner. We went to TST for 板長 (yes sushi again) and then for 龜苓膏 again. I realized I didn't buy any clothes yet so I picked up some from Wanko and Giordano Concept. I bought a few tops and a pair of pants to add to my wardrobe. Left TST/Jordan at 12:45am. (4:54am)

HK and TW 2008 - Day 3

Dec13/08 - 2:28am (at home)
What a warm and long but productive day today! We got up at 6:45am (yes, that means I had 2 hours of sleep) and left home at 7:50am. We originally planned to leave at 7:30am but took a little longer trying to get my dried tangled hair combed out. Funny enough, we managed to get to the immigration tower just 2 minutes after 9:00am! I admit, we were a bit rushed to get there but I must say we did good time! Too bad the whole ride (light rail --> west rail --> mtr --> mtr hk) costs so much =(. The whole SmartID replacement appointment went quite smoothly and afterwards, we met up with Peggy (who was on the 4th floor of the same building picking up her SAR passport). By 10:30am-ish, we were already at Wing Lung getting some HKD.

We wanted to grab lunch at 翠華 so we asked an arbitrary uniformed 食環處 person on the street to see if he knew. He gave us directions and we proceeded toward the destination. Just when we were "almost there", the same guy ran up to us (must have been at least 3 blocks away by then) to apologize for giving us wrong info. LOL! How nice of him to run after us! We were hungry so we skipped looking for 翠華 and had 華康餐廳 near 灣仔街市. During our brunch, we noticed 袁彩雲 sitting 2 tables away! She looks better on TV LOL! We each had a 早餐"A" which had 鮑魚火腿通粉, toast, sunny side up x2. Of course being me, I ordered a 凍檸茶 to go with my meal.

After brunch we took the 叮叮 to 北角 in attempts to get 文生's 回鄉證. So much for that idea because he needed a SAR passport. Oh well, next time.

We made plans to meet with Sandra at Pacific Place so on our way back to Admiralty, we sidetracked for some 芒椰奶龜苓爽. At that point, 文生 recognized his old hood for kindergarten (go figure) so we went on a quest to find his old school. We didn't want to trek uphill (really steep hill) so we took a taxi. We thought all was well until 文生 found out that we went to a high school with the same name instead of the kindergarten. -_-"" Oh well x2.

We left North Point toward Admiralty via 叮叮 again but just before our stop, there was an accident blocking the tracks so we got a free ride up to that point and took the mtr for one station. I made arrangements for Tinlop and his aunt to join Sandra and us for dimsum so I can treat but Sandra beat me to it!! POOPIE! Now I need to find a chance to take Tinlop's aunt out again.

After dimsum, Sandra went back to work and we walked around Pacific Place briefly. OMG, their washrooms are soooo purdy! The stalls are huge and the decor is so impressive. To bad I wasn't able to take pics!

We then went to Central (via 叮叮 again) to take pics and 文生 spotted 李嘉誠! Wow! He was surrounded by two obnoxious-looking bodyguards when he waited to get picked up by his BMW.

文生 had to go to Mong Kok to meet two friends at 7:00pm so Peggy, 文生 and I took the ferry back to TST while Tinlop left to go dinner with his parents. Peggy left to go home after we crossed the harbour. We had 潮州 food with 文生's friends at a street side vendor. Four of us shared oyster congee, fried oyster with egg (that was good), eel with broccoli, 滷水鵝, cuttlefish and sausage platter. After dinner we went for 涼茶, stinky tofu and 文生's friends left when we decided to do some shopping. We were pretty tired at that point since it was after 10:00pm already so we just quickly picked up a couple pairs of pants and a shirt for 文生.

We took the 38X bus all the way home and an hour later, after passing out on the bus, we got home (it was 12:30am already). Now I'm beat! Alarm goes off at 7:45am tomorrow...(3:12am)

HK and TW 2008 - Day 2

1:50am (during flight)
After my nap of a couple of hours, I woke up to walk around a bit. OMG, my butt hurts! Had a snack of a warm "American" burger (it was pretty gross) and a Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream. 文生 and I finished the last few episodes of 東山飄雨西關情 and now my eyes are tearing. I'm tired and guess what? My butt hurts!!! LOL! Just going to kick off my shoes now and sleep. Six more butt-hurting hours until HK. Hopefully sleeping will make it seem faster. (1:54am)

6:06am - 7:06pm local (during flight)
After a 3.5 hour nap, piggy here woke up for "breakfast". I had a choice of omelette or dumpling so I chose dumpling, since 文生 chose omelette (I'm not an egg fan anyway). Well...we wouldn't have missed much either way since they were both CRAP! My "dumpling" was just one 燒賣, on really nasty noodles with one 叉燒包. The roll was hard and the fruit plate of honeydew, cantaloupe and grapes weren't that great. Yuck. Maybe I'm spoiled from my AC flight in October =p.

Only 1 hour left until HK! That nap really did in some time for me. Keke! I'm glad the flight is almost over because I want "real" food in my system! I was telling Vikki that the best food we had on the flight were the chicken strips we brought onto the flight from the McD's in Newark. I think I'm going to try and sleep for the last bit of the ride. It's so dry in here and it's obviously in more ways than one. The shows are crap, but I managed to play a few games of Freecell. *rolls eyes* (6:19am, 7:19pm local)

Dec12/08 - 4:00am (at home)
I can finally calm down and stop fussing over stupid things. Our flight promptly landed at 8:05pm despite a delayed departure. Things were just psycho from there. First, my SIM card that I bought back in October (still had $121 credit on it apparently) didn't work; then people kept budding in during the massive lineup at customs (lucky for 文生, Peggy and Vikki they have HK ID's so they didn't have to wait); then I thought I lost my luggage but turns out 文生 is oblivious and the person who lost their luggage was another person with the same name on the same flight (yet another one, go figure). I felt so flustered! I went back to the store where I bought my SIM and apparently the cell provider was upgrading their network so I wasn't able to use it. Just when I was going to get really upset, the guy at the counter told me he could give me another SIM for the balance. So I ended up with a new number, and new SIM. Fine, no lost there except now I have to give out a new number. I called 妙珠姨 finally and found out that they waited for us for dinner! OMG, now I felt bad. Since Peggy suggested dinner at 板前 at the airport, I told 妙珠姨 to go eat first.

So 文生, Peggy and I went to 板前 and had scallop sushi, uni, anago and two bowls of 三鮮飯. It had more uni (yum!), salmon and toro negi (what a waste). By then it was after 10:00pm so after we got "lost" at the airport looking for the buses and rearranging our suitcases, we took the bus out to Yuen Long to meet up with the two 姨姨's. Wow, what a long bus ride. After we got off the bus, we switched to the light rail and arrived at our place of stay shortly after midnight. Now we're finally able to sleep, after unpacking, organizing, figuring out how much money to exchange and slapping on a mask. I'm so tired now so I better sleep. Alarm's going off at 6:45am for our Wan Chai 9:00am appointment. =( (4:21am)

HK and TW 2008 - Day 1

9:27am (YYZ, on plane)
Wow! What a morning! After an entire sleepless night, 文生 and I left home at 7:50am and made it to Terminal 3 in 20 minutes. Eastbound traffic was completely stopped on the 401 due to some multi-trailer accident. Since Peggy and Vikki made it to the airport before us, they found out that there was room on an earlier flight and decided to take it. When we got to Pearson, we managed to catch the same flight! Whew! We flew by the check-in process, customs, bag check, and rushed to the gate just as the final passengers were boarding. I don't know how, but I managed to cut myself. I didn't even realize it until it started hurting. By then the blood was drying already. LOL!! OMG, I'm so tired! I'm about to pass out soon. -_-" (9:39am)

2:40pm (EWR, on plane)
OMG! What a horrendous ride to Newark! Almost barfed on the nasty roller coaster plane ride. Good thing the ride was short. We arrived at Newark at 11:07am and sat around eating nasty McD's until boarding time at 2:20pm. JM 們, we're on board enroute to HK!! It's currently pouring outside but hopefully it won't affect our take off time. HK seafood here we come! I can't wait for the 許留山 drinks, 龜苓膏, 雞蛋仔, etc. I can't believe it's already been 2 months since my last visit to HK. I am so looking forward to Taiwan. Hopefully this plane ride will be better. (2:57pm)

6:14pm (during flight)
Our flight was supposed to depart at 3:00pm but at 3:40pm, we were still there at the gate. -_-" Something about communication problems. For some reason, we're travelling east across the Atlantic instead of heading west towards the International Date Line like I'm used to. So I slept until about 5:00pm when the flight attendants came by with hot towels. Shortly after, dinner was served which consisted of an iceberg lettuce "salad" with 3 puny shrimp, 2 slices of cucumber and a wedge of tomato and lemon. The lettuce was blah. Main course was a beef on steamed rice. Of course the rice was mushy and the beef was overcooked. Still better than cooked salmon I guess. Blech!! There was a grain roll that I barely touched since it was kinda hard and I didn't even open up the triple chocolate brownie. The sound of the name makes my teeth tingle. I watched 2 episodes of Off Pedder and now I'm tired so I think I'll just piggy and take a nap. =p (6:24pm)

Excited, but Exhausted

Only 4 more hours until my flight to Hong Kong!! I'm so excited! It's a nightmare out there with freezing rain, slick roads, multi-truck accidents on the 401 and then some. I sure hope we make it safe to the airport! Then I hope our flights won't be delayed...

Since my poor 文生 had to work straight through from yesterday til 5:45am this morning, I stayed up helping Sofia and Meishan with their video for Sandra. Just finished packing shortly before 6:00am, so I managed to squeeze in a shower before picking up 文生 from Finch Station.

I'm pretty much set to go!

Oyster Slurping, Slurped

Wow, can't believe it's already been 8 years since I've started having annual Christmas oyster parties. This year must be the record year with 12 dozen oysters - Fanny Bays, Kumamotos and Kushis. Mmm mmm yum! I've decided to go with the case of Fanny Bays instead of the traditional Malpeques this year because of the suggestion from Chris at Diana's Seafood.

"Oyster Shots" - by Sai V
top - Kumamoto, bottom - Kushi

Only problem I had with this year's party (and my first party-related kitchen mishap) was this:

"Tragic Story of an Unagi" - by Sai V

Scorched eel that lit up in flames and set off my fire alarm

Countdown begins (again) ...

快啦快啦! Only 3.5 more days till take-off! I'm so excited! Currently doing some last minute research for Taiwan and OMG, the more I find out, the more excited I get! I just hope the experience at Masalili won't be disappointing~

Note to myself for future trips...don't count on PC Financial to be able to give you a large sum of money when you need it, especially in a short period of time. Apparently, you need to transfer funds to another "real" bank (like CIBC), and they will cut you a bank draft -_-". Something to definitely keep in mind for next time.

So the countdown starts again... I hope this doesn't mean sleepness nights until I get on the plane again.

Again, what is this world coming to?

有冇搞錯! 今日聽港台, 得知香港警察一單醜聞: 「一名29歲警員涉嫌在旺角警署認人室，強姦19歲的女報案人。」 - source 香港電台 遺失銀包報案都可以被人強姦, 仲要係CID! 真係有冇搞錯?!?

Project Scrapping ver. 2.1

This is soooo addictive!! It's 3am on a Saturday night (Sunday morning) and I can't believe I'm still up not partying, but scrapping!! Okay, mental note to myself: no more scrapping for a while~!

and we'll see how long that'll last...

The two pages that I did today... I gotta get more pics from Karen. Wait, I did say no scrapping for a while, didn't I?

Project Scrapping ver. 2.0

After finishing TinLop's photobook, I've decided to take a short break from scrapping. OMG, today I actually felt 手痕 and made these:



I can't believe how addictive scrapping is!!

$200 熱檸蜜

On Friday night, six (6) of us went to RQ for some K-ing. Having not been to night K in an unrealistically long time, we forgot how difficult it was to rack up the minimum room charge without drinking alcohol. Especially after having a huge hot pot dinner at Meishan's.

J = me, W = waiter

W: Alcohol and drinks last call la wor.
J: How much more to the minimum?
W: $40
J: Okay, just top it off with however many 熱檸蜜's that will cover.

5 minutes later, this arrived:

So guess how many 熱檸蜜's we ended up having? Okay fine, we ordered a dozen Coors too, but still, you get the point.

Project Scrapping ver. 1.0

Almost finished scrapping la~! After 5 nearly sleepless days and nights of non-stop PS-ing and digital scrapbooking researching, I am almost done my 20-page photobook. Soon, I can sleep before 5:30am without feeling I still have stuff to do LOL! OMG, there are some pretty crazy scrapbookers out there and I don't believe I can find that much time with my life to scrap like those peeps. Now I just hope Tinlop can "approve" it so I can send it off to the printers to have it printed. I sure hope it comes before I head to HK~

Two pages that I particularly like:



得唔得呀?

Good game!

People say "A picture is worth a thousand words". It sure does!! My best Scrabble game ever, completing the game using all letters except that one "V". Better yet, I won!! kakakaka!

You can see someone got their bum bum whipped!

Just another reason why ... Why? Oh why?

早前, "Louis Vuitton ... won $3.5 million from three companies and two individuals for making products with designs identical to its own ... In its complaint, Louis Vuitton called them ... notorious counterfeiters." - source New York Post 咁究竟 "them" 係指邊個呢?

都話0架喇, 唔犯法嘅都唔叫 Joyce Chan!

又多一個理由點解每次過 US Border 都會俾人問話喇 -_-"

Seared Scallops on Fettucini con Aglio ed Olio

小芬又下廚啦! Wait...I do that every day LOL~

Today I went to Dominion (now called Metro, but I keep referring to it as Dominion) and saw these ginormous scallops for $9.99/lb. I picked up four of them and they were just under 1lb so you can pretty much guess how big they were. I went home and made seared scallops on fettucini with garlic and infused olive oil (you guessed it, that's what the title means). I'm surprised that my infused oil still tastes so good since I've left it sitting there "infusing" for the last oh, five six years LOL!!

So steps to my creation (if anyone's interested):
1. Drop handfuls of the following into extra virgin olive oil: fresh rosemary, fresh garlic, whole black peppercorns, chili pepper flakes.
2. Let infuse for five, six years...or less according to taste =P
3. Boil fettucini and drain. Make sure it's al dente.
4. Pat scallops dry with paper towels and season with lemon herbs, pepper, salt and bread with breadcrumbs.
5. Heat oil in a pan and sear scallops for 1 minute on each side.
6. Transfer to casserole and bake in 350C for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake!
7. Press a couple of cloves of garlic and add to infused oil. Heat gently (so that the garlic is not so raw and yes, olive oil burns quickly so hence heat gently) and toss with fettucini.
8. Arrange fettucini on plate and top with a couple of scallops. Garnish with something green if you wish. (I didn't have any, obviously)

What is this world coming to?

有冇搞錯, 今時今日食乜都有問題. 細個時好鐘意食嘅大白兔糖有三聚氰胺. 話就話大陸嘢信唔過. 但係今日「日本神奈川縣一名67歲婆婆，吃過日清杯麵後，嘔吐及舌頭麻痺，當局驗出杯麵有殺蟲劑。」 - source 香港電台

咩世界呢? 咁我哋應該食咩先唔會死呢?

OMG! It's snowing outside!

Looks like it's the first snowfall of the year. Geez, the weather forecast was wrong this morning. Actually, it's still wrong now:


Wait... I'm at work....DOH!!!!!


But it's still wrong! That is NOT light snow!

小芬特製 『紅油抄手』

自從冇0係唐人街做嘢, 就好少去 「北方小館」 食飯. 現在 「北方小館」 都摺埋, 就更加冇得去啦. 佢哋啲酸辣湯、紅油抄手係最好食! 試過好多其他餐館但可惜食唔番0個種味道.

見雪櫃有包餛飩皮就癡起條筋自己做紅油抄手. 味道唔錯喔!

邊個話要靠男人?!?

What luck I have today! I drove out of my parking spot before I noticed my flat tire. Freaking hell. So since this is the 2nd time I've changed my own flat, it only took me 40 minutes. Two people walked by me and one drove by without asking if I needed help =( but I probably looked like I knew what I was doing LOL. HOWEVER, jacking my car back down, I noticed my spare is kinda flat too!! Dammit!! It took me waaay too long before I gave up on putting my flat tire back in my trunk so right now it's just kinda sitting there. Not to mention that I left my tire lock on the spare wheel and I almost LOST IT!! >.< I had to circle the entire route back to my parking spot before I found it lying there on the concrete. OMG, if it dropped down into the sewer I would have been crying. Now my joints are all hurting, my finger nails are all black, I have to go get a pump and I have to find time to take my car into the shop to get the damn tire fixed. Freaking hell.

金融海嘯

The financial trauma in the last few weeks have not alleviated one bit as the worldwide markets drop lower and lower each day. I can't help but feel a little depressed as I listen to the daily reports of all the indexes reaching their record lows. I was never interested in financial news before, but lately I can't help but pay attention. Thank God I won't need my mutual funds for a few more decades!

Back from Hong Kong!

話咁快, 8日香港之旅已經完滿結束. 真有啲唔捨得. 好開心可以搭頭等, 多謝你呀Tinlop!! 我會慢慢寫番我 8日來做過嘅、食過嘅、見過嘅嘢. 好期待兩個月之後又可以去香港啦!

Executive First Menu and Wine List - HKG to YYZ

Oct 8, 2008 - 11:25pm During Flight

Wow, I passed out! LOL! In attempts to watch Forbidden Kingdom (again) after lunch, I passed out after 2 minutes where I left off from my flight to Hong Kong. Probably because of the glass of red wine. Hmm, maybe it had something to do with the Gravol and the wine LOL.

That mosquito bite I got on my arm last night at dinner is really driving me nuts. I'm now going to have a snack of sandwiches and fruit tart. That brown thing next to the fruit tart, whatever it was, was gross. (11:29pm)

(4:58pm Toronto time) Almost home la! Piggy here just woke up from another nap and had breakfast of cold cuts, fruit, blueberry yogurt, cheese and a croissant.


Can't wait to see Hunhun!!

Oct 8, 2008 - 4:00pm During Flight

OMG! OMG! First Class again! Yay! We weren't going to get it but Tinlop knew someone on the flight so we got bumped up. Keke!!! Quite happy campers we are! 太上文太 is on the same flight but in economy keke. =p

This morning, I got up at 7:45am and got ready to leave. We did some last minute shopping at Tsz Wan Shan Shopping Plaza and picked up some snacks. I've held off the whole entire week on buying snacks and finally gave in LOL. We had a really tasty lunch of hot and sour 雲南米線. Sadly, 二嬸 paid again. =( I regret not bringing my camera out on the last day. I really thought I was only going to pick up last minute stuff and didn't think I would be taking any pictures! -_-"

I wanted to get some magazines too but Tinlop convinced me to get them later, and good thing he did! They were much cheaper at the airport. Not bad! I forgot that Sofia did remind me about that before I left. =p Tinlop's aunt is soooo nice! She took us all the way to the airport and waited for us to go through customs before she left.

I called 妙珠姨, 旭珠姨 and 阿嬸 to say I was leaving. Sandra, Maurice, Emmi and Joey all called me to say bye. So nice of them! Bye bye Hong Kong! I shall see you in 8 weeks! I miss everyone already... ai~ but I also miss my Hunhun so I'm excited to go home too. Yes, and I miss my MARMAR!!

I just ordered my lunch of a smoked halibut/salmon appetizer and a prawn/sole main. I hope they taste decent. =p

Here is the happy camper and her four-course lunch

Oct 8, 2008 - 2:39am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

Aiyo! Last day here la. Leaving for home to my Hunhun soon! Yay~!

After another day out, I still didn't get my Wai Yuen Tong. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow and if I don't get it, I'll pick it up next time I'm here.

I got up at 8:00am again today and left with Tinlop and 二嬸 for Jordan in the morning. We walked into Kowloon Park and then headed to Harbour City. OMG! So many boutiques of brand names here! I saw a Vivienne Westwood bag that I really liked but it was $6,000!! Yikes! After some more pics of the harbour, 阿叔 picked me up and we went 飲茶 at the mall under the Arc de Triomphe building in TST. The food was okay, but pretty expensive though. Edmund is still a little brat in my opinion. -_-"

The 蝦餃 were pretty good. Can you tell?

After lunch we went to visit 阿嫲. She lost a bit of weight, still can't see, can't hear but once we got talking, she started chatting animatedly! Went on and on about how Alan is brainless for not getting married. LOL!

After we left 何文田, we went to 沙田. Today is 重陽節 and omg, there were so many people at 寶福山! The smoke was really irritating and I smelled like bbq all day. Not to mention it felt like I smoked two packs in an hour. My lungs were crying!

As always, we went to the Shatin Shopping Centre after 寶福山 and boy did it change. Massive renovations made this shopping mall more westernized. Did I mention that Starbucks has successfully invaded Hong Kong? I hardly recognized it. Nothing was really appealing there so we left for 九龍城 at 5ish and had 潮州 fare. Actually I wanted Thai, but 阿叔 said: "泰國嘢時時都有得食喇, 我帶你去食潮州嘢啦!" Actually, the 3 times I was in Hong Kong, 阿叔 had brought me to have 潮州菜 every time. LOL! I didn't have the heart to break it to him. =p We had 潮州凍蟹、滷水拼盤、some cold fish、another fish with 酸菜 (I guess they forgot I'm not a fan of cooked fish LOL)、芥菜、潮州粥、椰汁雪蛤膏. Geez, that cold crab was HKD800 alone! The whole dinner came to a little short of HKD1,200. I'd rather have German food at Stanley again. I must say I liked the goose intestines that were in the 滷水拼盤. Sure can't beat goose intestines!!


阿叔 and 阿嬸 left after dinner and I met up with Tinlop to go to LKF to meet up with Emmi, her boyfriend Paul, Maurice and Sandra. We went to this restaurant/bar called Azure at the top of the LKF hotel. Damn, their stuff was expensive! The food presentation was definitely nice, but I didn't like how they harass you to pay the bill before your food/beverage consumption. Emmi's boyfriend is kinda cute and quite charming hehe. Lucky her la!


We left LKF and got home at 12:45am. I texted Joey to see if he has time to meet before I leave and then off I went to pack, shower and figure out why HKD $100 disappeared yesterday. I got an SMS at 2:45am from Joey so I called him and we chatted for a few minutes. I didn't want to wake anyone so I spoke in the hallway outside. LOL~

Anyway, I go figure out what to declare and then go to sleep.

Oct 7, 2008 - 12:50am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

After a quick bite, Tinlop and I continued our shopping in Hong Hum and visited 阿叔 to use his internet. =p Then 阿叔 offered to drive us to Temple Street so we hitched a ride. When I got out of the car, I looked to see that there were no cars on both sides of the street. I turned around to grab bags from Tinlop and when I turned back, I got honked at and almost got run over! OMG! Geez! Where the hell did that car come from?!?! I still can't get over my uncle laughing at me though. -_-"

We walked around and concluded that >HKD2,000 to get your 八字 read was just to much so we decided to leave. I did however, manage to pick up a whole bunch of keychains to bring back as souvenirs though. They're quite cute and they come in pairs.

After getting home, I tried packing and realized that OMG, the Rement stuff is waaay too bulky. Just barely fit everything. So now I gotta get the Wai Yuen Tong stuff and then I'm done my shopping.

Right now I'm listening to Joey's show on RTHK so I guess he's back from Australia.

and the verdict is....

The coin was flipped and now I'm in Hong Kong...LOL. I'm coming back to Toronto on Wednesday and will blog more as I don't have access to the internet this time around. I'm currently at my uncle's shop using his comp.

And no Vikki, I didn't end up eating dinner that night.

Oct 6, 2008 - 6:11pm Cafe de Coral 大家樂 in 紅磡

OMG! I'm spending too much money! Current tally is HKD $26,000 in 5 days. OMG! Even without Peggy's flash and the tickets to Taiwan, it still comes to over HKD $14,000! =(

This morning I woke up at 8:30am and left before 10:00am to walk down to Wong Tai Sin. Tinlop and I got our 簽s and Tinlop got his fortune read. Apparently, he would have four kids eventually. Tinlop 加油喇! LOL!

Afterwards, we went to Festival Walk 又一城 and finally bought my Armani cosmetics. Geez, for such a big name, they don't have that many counters/stores in Hong Kong. Go figure. We had lunch at 板前 kaiten sushi. It was yum! We didn't have that much food....keke....


Then we headed down to 紅磡 and I bought a whole bunch of Rement toys including my sought-after 回転寿司. We ran into a Wing Lung Bank with 15 minutes before closing and finally got more cash. I picked up my ring and now I'm sitting in a 大家樂 waiting for Tinlop to get his cakes (dessert) from 美心.

Oct 6, 2008 - 12:06am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

So we left at 11:30am and headed towards Wan Chai. Since it was continuously raining, we decided to skip Lamma Island and went to have buffet instead. We went to a revolving restaurant (like CN Tower) on the 62nd floor of the Hopewell Centre. It was good! I had crayfish for the first time today and I also had my long lost friend Ginger Beer!

After lunch we went to CWB for a foot massage. OMG! The pain! I had a male 師父 for foot and he was good but my feet hurt like hell. He had to leave so another lady did my back. OMG that damn woman hurt me so much I was crying! Although I did loosen up quite a bit afterwards, she still pulled my hair, knelt on my back, pressed a few wong places and FREAKIN BRUISED MY ARM!!! I had like four bruises on each arm and looked liked I was 毒打'd. "小姐, 你流眼水呀?" "唔係呀, 我流眼淚呀!" Freaking hell. Didn't like her.

After the massage, the sky opened up and let down very many cats and dogs. Oh, and very many lions and dingos! In other words, it poured like no tomorrow. We still went to Stanley and had 鹹豬手. Of course I ordered too much food and we couldn't finish it. We had a set dinner with 鹹豬手 (of course, I did come all the way here for it), sausages, goulash, schnitzel, salad, fried cheese, and more! Yes we were waaay too full. I blame the waiter since I asked him if we ordered enough food and he said, "well, if you guys don't eat too much, it should be enough." Hence I ordered more... -_-" So I finally got to treat 妙珠姨 and 旭珠姨. By the time we were done dinner I was soooo tired, Tinlop and I came straight home and showered. I'm hurting from head to toe. Tomorrow we go to Wong Tai Sin, Festival Walk and Hong Hum again.

Did I mention there were only four (4) of us?

Oct 5, 2008 - 9:57am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

Yesterday was lots of fun!

I left the house after Manling's phone call and called 文生 after getting on the bus enroute to 紅磡 to tell him about Joey's encounter. He was laughing LOL! We chatted for about 20 minutes and then he had to get back to his drinking at Charles' place.

I got down to 紅磡 at 10:00am and trekked over to 阿叔's shop. I'm surprised I still remember how to get there. Well, of course with directions from 妙珠姨. I got there just as 阿叔 was pulling in. What great timing! I kinda surprised him keke. We went for brunch at the 茶餐廳 across the street and I had a 奶油多 with a 凍檸茶.

Afterwards, I walked down to 廣盛 to get my ring fixed. Saw a couple of nice rings at the store and took pictures to show 文生. I was supposed to meet 旭珠姨 at noon so after taking a brief glance at all the cool toys that I wanted to buy at "Wonderful World" I had to scoot. I met up with Tinlop at Jordan and headed over to Mong Kok to meet up with 旭珠姨 and her friend so I could get the tickets to Taiwan. Unfortunately, we were half hour late >_< (I gotta stop doing that). We took quite some time to decide which hotel to book so after calling Vikki and Peggy to confirm hotel choice, I finally booked all the tickets and hotel at the same time.

旭珠姨 had reserved a table for lunch at 小肥羊 but since Tinlop was still full from lunch, 旭珠姨, her friend and I went to have lunch buffet ourselves while Tinlop went to shop. I wasn't very hungry myself so I had very little.

After lunch, 旭珠姨 left so Tinlop and I continued our shopping along Nathan Road enroute to more shopping at Mong Kok. Then it started pouring! Did we bring umbrellas? Uh, no. We ducked into a department store and I picked up 2 tops at Wanko. Finally the rain stopped so we continued to MK to get my flash and DVDs. I ended up buying the flash at Wing Shing and after one piece of 臭豆腐, we left MK to head home to shower before heading out to LKF to meet up with .... CINDY (小倩)!

Tinlop and I left home again at 9:30pm and got down to LKF at 10:47pm. First, we went to this Russian Ice Bar and had vodka shots in a freezer LOL! Then we hopped over to the gay bar that Tinlop wanted to check out called Propaganda in Soho. Since I didn't eat anything for dinner except that piece of stinky tofu, we went for poutine and onion rings before going in to Propaganda. OMG, cover was HKD260! 超貴! 小倩 and I watched as Tinlop had fun being chat up by a whole bunch of guys. We left him alone and headed over to another bar to have wine. At HKD361, bottled wine was definitely more worth it than the cover! We sat down and not too long later, Tinlop joined us again. He had lots of fun at Propaganda so I guess that covered the 肉呎ness. =p

We left LKF at 3:00am or so and wanted to get a foot massage in Wan Chai, but that didn't happen as they didn't have enough 師父's. I was so tired and drunk that we took a cab to Cindy's place in MK and crashed there until 5:00am. We then took a cab home and I went straight to bed at 5:30am and woke up again at 9:00am. Yes that's right, I haven't slept much on this trip at all LOL.

It's now pouring outside so I don't know if we're still gonna go to Lamma Island. Apparently it's Yellow Storm Warning today. It was T1 since we got here, but we managed to get a little bit of sun yesterday before it started pouring.

Oct 4, 2008 - 1:53am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

I just finished showering and now listening to Joey's radio show 『有冇搞錯』 on RTHK.

So our 8-course dinner consists of 燕窩蛋白燴翅、鴻圖野菌炒鮑魚粒、炭燒腩肉伴口水豆腐、生拆蟹粉小籠包、飄香臘味蒸糯米飯、金沙麻沙糍、紫米露、廿年花彫皇. OMG so full! Of course, why and how can I forget the 大閘蟹 x 3! THREE! 每位3隻, 兩皇一后, 五両大蟹! So so good! It only cost HKD298 per person. We also ordered 海棠炒野菌, so 9 courses! So full!


After dinner, 妙珠姨 had to leave, so 旭珠姨 and I went down to the harbour to take pics of the water. Too bad the building lights went off one by one as I was taking the pics. -_-" Funny, this Belgian guy came over to 搭訕 LOL! If he didn't give me pointers and tips on taking my pics, I would have thought he was up to something. So talkative that one.

旭珠姨 left shortly after me taking mediocre pics of the harbourfront at about 11:15pm so I SMS'd Joey. He was surprised as everyone else at me being in Hong Kong keke. Since he has a radio show from midnight until 2:00am, he said he'll call back. I was getting bored at TST so I headed home (and borrowed a washroom at the Sheraton Hotel enroute, LOL) on the 5C bus and almost slept past my stop! Good thing I left when I did because I ended up taking the 2nd last bus =p keke.

Now I'm waiting for Joey's call (2:07am)

(9:15am) OMG, came home from Joey's place at 6:00am! He called last night after getting off work at 廣播道 and suggested he come pick me up and I jumped at the offer. We had a long chat and caught up with stuff over the years. Now I'm going to call 文生 and then head out to 紅磡. Manling just called for Tinlop but he left with his aunt already to I just took Manling's clothing order. Haha!

Oct 4, 2008 - 12:13am 在 TST 坐 5C 九巴回家途中

Whew! What a day! It all began this morning at 6:30am when I woke up. I turned on the AC as it was getting stuffy. Tinlop got up at 7:30am so we left for 灣仔 at around 8:15am. We stopped first at the McDonalds downstairs for breakfast but I didn't eat anything. For some odd reason, I don't always feel hungry. Maybe it's the air quality...it's waaay too stuffy in Hong Kong.

We took the 5C bus to 尖沙咀 and then took the ferry to 灣仔. Tinlop got his Smart ID thingy done and in the meantime, I managed to call Emmi and 太上文太. We may actually leave on the same flight next week. 旭珠姨姨 called and told me where to go for dinner so I made plans to meet up with her and a later-to-be-surprised 妙珠姨 for 6:30pm. After spending almost 45 minutes (only, haha) at the Immigration Centre, we walked down towards the 銅鑼灣 direction in attempts for wonton noodles. We got totally sidetracked and I picked up 笑傲江湖 and 連城訣, a jacket and cardigan for 阿姨 and a new notebook for diary #2.

So back enroute towards lunch and we sidetracked (again) and stopped at a place called 川居 for 雲南米線 instead. I had a 香菇肥牛沙爹米線 and a 凍檸茶. It cost $38 only and was huge! The noodles were really good, but a tad salty. After lunch, Tinlop headed off with his aunt to visit relatives so I walked over to CWB 時代廣場 and waited for Sandra to call. OMG it started to pour!! Apparently there's a T1 storm warning today.

While waiting for Sandra (funny I ALWAYS meet up with Sandra at Times Square), I picked up three eye shadows at Lane Crawford's Shiseido counter in a matter of 5 minutes flat. I proceeded to look for my EF580. Damn still around $3,300 to $3,500. -_-"

Sandra showed up eventually and we went to get a 燕窩蜂蜜芒果爽 (mango with bird spit drink) at 許留山. She took me to 7-11 to recharge my phone because it almost died on me. That cost $10 and was ready in half an hour. Then we went to 旺角 in hopes to buy my flash but nope, couldn't find the store that quoted $3,100. DAMN!!! So I picked up some undies for 文生 and a top for me, and David (Sandra's fiance) came to drive me to TST.

I met up with 妙珠姨 (she was very surprised indeed) and 旭珠姨 and had an 8-course 大閘蟹 meal at 鴻星. OMG it was sooo good! So filling!

K, I'm getting dizzy on this bus, so will continue later.

Oct 3, 2008 - 1:20am Tinlop 二嬸屋企

Tinlop's aunt (I call her 二嬸 too) came to the airport to pick us up! Such a nice lady~

Hong Kong in October is so hot and humid. Today was overcast and 30C! OMG! My shirt was soaked in minutes. 二嬸 brought us from the airport to her place in 慈雲山. By the time we left the airport, it was already 2:45pm as our flight arrived late. So we rushed to change into something lighter and quickly went out to Tsim Sha Tsui to get Hong Kong Dollars exchanged. Afterwards we walked to Shum Shui Po to have dinner. As we were walking there, I called 旭珠姨 to surprise her, keke. =p We went to a restaurant called 金山 and had 椒鹽中尿皇、紅燒乳鴿、豉汁焗生蚝 and 腐乳炒通菜. Food was tasty but a tad salty.


After dinner, Tinlop's aunt left and we went to 恭和堂 to have 龜苓膏. Hong Kong 龜苓膏 is so much better! Then Tin and I walked to 旺角 to look at electronics and clothes. We picked up some really cheap masks at Mannings and I managed to get a couple of tops for 文生. My feet are sooo tired now.

I asked around about the EF580 flash and got price ranges from $3,180 to $3,390. I'm going to go back tomorrow to see if I can get a better deal. I'm meeting up with Sandra tomorrow after her interview and with a surprised 妙珠姨 and 旭珠姨 at 7:00pm for 大閘蟹. Mmmm, yum yum. I've been dreaming for juicy 大閘蟹 for the longest time!! The first time I came to Hong Kong in 2003, 妙珠姨 brought me to 西貢 for 大閘蟹 but it wasn't in season, so I've been looking forward to having it this time around!

I called Mom when I was at Langham Place and called 文生 at work while coming home tonight and despite ringing the bell at the right bus stop, the dumb driver passed our stop so we had to circle back. -_-" My aching feet!!

Executive First Menu and Wine List

Oct 2, 2008 - 11:14am (HK time) During Flight

I think it's dinner time soon (well, actually lunch time because it's already October 2, 2008 11:14am Hong Kong time) because the flight attendants just came with warm towels. Ahhhh.... only two more hours 'til HK! (11:15am)

(12:oopm) I just finished lunch of shrimp with fried rice, shitake mushrooms, fruit and a roll. Ooh...kinda salty. I never really like airplane rice because it's always too soggy or too 鬼佬. Well, I thought you can't really go wrong with shrimp...but yes, you can. It was over-salted. I recall the phrase from the Executive Class Menu and Wine List: "Additional seasoning is available upon request" *cringe* Maybe I should have ordered the sirloin.

Almost there la. My body aches from staying seated for so long. The cabin is so dry! Gotta keep drinking water.

Oct 1, 2008 - 2:55pm During Flight

I forgot my camera has a time stamp. -_-"

I just woke up from my nap of 3 hours. Nice nap I had! Woke up like 5 times to drink water though...it's so dry! Although Tinlop is sitting next to me, we can't really talk much because he's actually "behind" me. (3:02pm)

(4:43pm) Woke up again from another nap and will now snack on pasta salad, petite cakes and cranberry soda. The pasta salad was good and the grilled chicken was not dry as I expected. The cakes however, were tres dry...eek! and sweet! At this point, cranberry soda was my friend! (4:45pm)

(6:30pm) After snacking on my pasta, I decided to browse through the movie listings and discovered Get Smart! I really liked watching the reruns of this 60's sitcom when I was a kid so I decided to give it a shot. So just when I was gonna say "Get Smart! is pretty good and funny!", there was a problem with the system and they cut my movie short. -_-" Right at the climax. Poopie.

(9:00pm) Piggy (me) woke up again and guess what? Snack time again! This time I sneaked into the back pantry and asked for something different. So I'm having wraps and pretzels. It's so funny, the flight attendant tried to give me more of those nasty petite cakes and when I told her I didn't want any, she was like: "Why doesn't anyone like these?" So I responded: "They're not very good..." LOL. So I ended up with my wraps, two bags of pretzels and one Fruit and Nut bar. Of course, had to have my cranberry soda! I'm trying really hard to stay away from the cup noodles (they serve those in real bowls up here, and in their original paper cups in the back kekeke) but I must say I was tempted for some. The wraps were kinda soggy, but still quite tasty. I liked the roasted veggie one best.

Only four more hours until Hong Kong! Sleeping in 1st class makes this 15hr flight so much better!! =p

Oct 1, 2008 - 11am-ish During Flight

I can't keep asking Tinlop for the time so entries will be timeless until we land I guess.

I'm liking 1st class more and more by the second! I love how they serve you like you're in a restaurant. Napkins, table cloth, tray liner (cloth), salt and pepper shakers; the works again! The flight attendant actually placed my napkin on my lap for me! Keke!

I'm enjoying my appetizer of grilled shrimp (slightly salty), potatoes and bell peppers on spring mix salad, multigrain roll, and a glass of chardonnay. Wow, I can get used to this! My main course of fried scallops arrived with broccoli, lotus root and rice with mango sauce. The scallops are okay but broccoli is tasteless and mushy. The rice is edible, but the plate was so hot that it made 飯焦.

I'm so tired now. Probably the lack of sleep catching up with me. I'm falling asleep eating. LOL! Here's to some gourmet cheese! I chose two types of four. I got the harder ones as I love hard stinky cheeses. Well, the two cheeses I got weren't stinky at all, but had a nice flavour to it that goes great with the red grapes. Funny the cheese was better than the main course. The fruit dish consisted of watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, honeydew and cantaloupe. The fruits were all ripe and sweet!!

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:30am During Flight

頭等即係頭等...連啲 nuts 都高檔過人. 幾好幾好, 唔錯唔錯.

The map doesn't work so I can't tell time. Sucks not having a watch.

Looks like lunch will be pretty cool! I ordered shrimp, scallops and prawns. Oooolala!

I can't wait until I get to Hong Kong and surprise the 姨姨's, Sandra, Emmi, Cindy...etc. This would be way cool. Good thing I was convinced to come with that coin toss. Thanks Tinlop! I owe you big!

I like it how they serve everything here in proper glassware and not plastic. I'm giddy happy, can you tell?

Oct 1, 2008 - 9:45am During Flight

OMG! First class! 咁大個女第一次坐頭等! We're moving! OMG! Still can't believe it! The seats are large, there's lots of leg room, comfy leg rest, nice food, pillows, blankets, the works! Best thing is the seat goes all the way down so you can actually sleep normally! I'm so excited! Personal LCD screen is pretty big too. Wow. I can't wait to get to Hong Kong. This is absolutely worth the 3 sleepless nights! Although I feel like a 鄉下婆 oo-ing and ah-ing at first class, I can't help it! It would have been perfect if I got a window seat instead but oh well, who's complaining? Keke!

Notice the part that says "executive first" =p

Roomy isn't it?