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.