Apple Pie Muffins

I love eating apples but only when they're crisp. Once they start getting soft, you won't see me touch them with a 10 foot pole. But growing up in a "don't you dare waste food" family taught me to use up the soft apples and not let them go to waste! (that or feed them to 文生, lol!) Lately, despite being apple season, apples have been really expensive! When I finally got a hold of some golden crisps at $0.77/lb, I grabbed a few of them since they looked sooo good. Of course, looks can be deceiving! They were SOFT and tart. Meaning even 文生 wouldn't touch them. WHAT TO DO?!?!

I recall I learned how to make these wonderful apple pie muffins in junior high school. They were too sweet for my liking but I remember if I cheated on the sugar, I'd get really good results. So after an afternoon of running around with mom restocking on food yesterday (another 橫掃四大超市 kinda day), I decided to use some of the apples, well one of them, to make my muffins!

They were done at 1am, filling my apartment with a nice cinnamon apple-ly aroma. YUM YUM!

so good and chunky~!

Would You Want to Know?

Everyone has a different lifestyle but virtually lives life the same way: birth, school, work, retire, die (more or less). You pretty much have an idea of where everything fits in with the exception of dying. So the big question is, would you want to know?

Between disease and natural causes, everyone is destined to "pass on". In my mind, those who die naturally are blessed with not knowing, so as long as you're living your life to the fullest and is happy for who you are, you've lived a fulfilling life. On the other hand, those who are not as fortunate, who have been diagnosed with illnesses (terminal or not) are counting down an undetermined number of days/months/years. Some people will use this time to try and do as much as they can before the day comes and others, well, will sit around and sulk.

I don't know if I really want to know what the future has in store for me. Brings me back to a conversation I had with the book store cashier at the HK airport: "要不要買本來年運程書看看?"

"Nope. Thanks."

Still Hungry?

Oct. 5 - 4:17a home
Yup, it's 4am! Of course I'm still up blogging, lol.

Woke up at 6:30a this morning and couldn't fall back asleep so I laid in bed for a bit before getting up to get ready to leave with 阿叔 at 9:00a -ish for Jordan. Had a quick breakfast with 阿嬸 at a 茶餐廳 before meeting with Tinlop and Meishan in TST.

10:00a rolls along and we all met up at the currency exchange to get some moola. The CAD exchange rate was pretty sad so I ended up using my USD instead. Good thing I brought along both currencies! Tinlop's 二嬸 took us to a few travel agencies to see if we could fit a short trip in to Korea or Singapore but nothing was in our budget or time restraints. Meishan called up her aunt the night before to meet for dimsum at 11:30a so we headed over to Cheung Sha Wan for some really crappy dimsum. No really, it was really crappy. Did I mention it was crappy? We quickly ate the bare minimum and left for MK to have street food and noodles instead. Of course, I had to have my share of 炸大腸 so Meishan and I devoured one skewer each. I didn't want to spoil lunch, so I opted to stop there while Meishan happily chowed down some stinky tofu. LOL~ Since having the 傷心酸辣粉 back in January, I knew I had to go back for some more so that's where we ended up for "lunch".

After lunch, which was already our fourth meal so far, we shopped around in MK for a bit and bought shirts for Mr. Man. Meishan even picked out a new pair of glasses. We needed a pee break so we stopped over at a McD's and there I was hoping to get my red bean pie again only to find out it was seasonal!! I opted to try the sweet potato pie, which was yum too but not as good as the red bean lor! If I didn't lose count, that would have been "meal" number 5 (and it was only 3:00p).

We proceeded up to Fa Yuen Street to buy some more stuffs and that's when Tinlop had some fresh egg tarts. I called up Emmi to see if she had time to meet up before dinner but she didn't want to come over to the Kowloon side so at around 7:00p Meishan, Tinlop and I hung out at Fairwood in TST to rest up and wait for our 8:30p dinner seating at 鴻星 to have 大閘蟹 with 妙珠姨, 旭珠姨 and 達文叔. OMG, dinner was from 8:30p to 11:30p! Freakin hell. Service was extremely lacking and food wasn't even cooked right. It was pathetic. Sigh...

After dinner, Tinlop was tired so he went home while Meishan and I walked down to the pier to check out the Avenue of Stars. I was hoping the lights would be still on but much to my dismay, they were turned off as soon as we got to the pier. We trekked all the way to TST East and noticed a live band was playing at one of the bars so we decided to sit in and watched a bunch of 中/老坑's dance until 2:00a. I must say, they were good!

By this time, buses and MTR were non-existent so we walked back up to Jordan to take a roller coaster of a mini bus back home to 深井 which only of course took about 20 minutes. I just showered and Meishan wouldn 't sleep until I do. So now I do. Tired. (4:30a)

Surprise!

Oct. 2 - 11:03a during flight
Wow, what a take off. Guess we're going to Hong Kong afterall. This morning Tinlop sms'd to let us know that we're flying direct which is great since travelling via Vancouver would be more expensive and much longer. I thought things were looking good! So I got up just after 7:00a to get ready for the airport by 8:30a as requested by Tinlop. 文生 decided to wait with me, awwwwww, and walk me to the gates this time (he never did this before), so we sat by the Starbucks waiting for Tinlop and Meishan to arrive.

Tinlop had this mischievous look when he arrived and told us that the flight was completely full! Wow! The flights going to Vancouver were completely oversold so he decided we'd see if we'd get lucky to get on the direct flight, despite the lack of seats. Lo and behold, we got on! Like Mario always says: "you guys always get on!" Lol!

We took off at about 10:15a and shortly after, we encountered a bit of stomach upsetting turbulence. Wow, it was quite bumpy to say the least! I hope I can manage since I'm not taking any Gravol whatsoever. After sipping some apple juice and saving the all-too-familiar pretzels for later, I took out the touchpad and started typing. Not bad...the keyboard is nicely laid out and the screen is very accurate and responsive. Now, to watch TVB or just listen to the Hacken concert and fall asleep? (11:16a)

Oct. 2 - 11:56a during flight
Being seated at the very very back of the plane, it's normal that we get served last. Usually by the time food gets to us the good choices are gone (like the congee from last time). Knowing that the pork noodles are extremely salty and soggy, I attempted to ask for chicken with rice and got it just as they ran out! Ooo, lucky! So I chowed down the corn and edamame appetizer and ate the ooh so salty, but at least tender chicken with nasty parboiled rice. It was drenched in a mustard mayo sauce that was just plain salty but at least it was semi palatable. Of course the brownie was toooooo sweet so I left it after taking just one bite. I think I'm going to watch a bit more 九江十二坊 before I attempt to sleep. Should really digest a bit before I gain more weight.....haha! (12:04p)

Oct. 2 - 6:15p during flight
Wow, what a bumpy ride! We've had several bouts of air turbulence on this flight which caused more than just our drinks to shake, lol. Must be the weather... I just finished up the all too familiar "snack" of cup noodles, after drifting off to sleep during an episode of 秀才愛上兵. Starting to get a headache though...not good. I think I'll just chill for a bit before attempting to nap again. (6:20p)

Oct. 2 - 9:46p during flight
Omg, I'm so hungry...but an hour to go before we get our congee/omelette choice. Mind you by the time it gets here, it'll be "would you like omelette or omelette?" Sigh...

I just got up and went to the back with Meishan and Tinlop to chat for about an hour or so. Felt so good not to be cramped up in the middle seat with nothing to do. At least we got some chatting in and I got to stretch. Poor Tinlop's entertainment system didn't work so I switched seats with him and now I'm at the absolute back row. Only about 3 more hours before we land! Omg, I cant wait to get off the plane, lol! (9:52p)

Oct. 3 - 12:21p (HK time) during flight
Final hour before landing! Finally! As usual, lunch was served 2 hours prior to landing and as expected, they ran out of congee as soon as they got to me. Poo. Good thing Tinlop was willing to trade so I saved my stomach by eating some easily digestible food. My headache is getting worse so I hope I can bear the landing without barfing...ewww... Countdown time! (12:24p)

Oct. 4 - 12:28a home
Yay me! I didnt throw up! Hoot! We landed shortly before 1:30p and proceeded to swim through the loads and loads of freewalkers and managed to get out of the airport in record time. Between getting Octopus cards topped up and phone activation, we were at the bus terminal by 2:20p. Surprisingly, it's quite cool in HK! Unlike last time we were here in October, it was only around 25C with showers. Since it was nice and early still, we thought we'd go back to Tinlop's 二嬸's place, then trek over to Hung Hom to drop off my luggage with 阿叔 and then meet up with Sandra and surprise her. However, the bus ride from the airport took almost 2 hours! Sandra was already heading home so I had dinner at 二嬸's and then the very sleepy trio went over to Sandra's to surprise her. Keke, she was surprised all right! I love surprises!

Sandra's son Harold is soooooo cute! Too bad he was sleeping so we couldn't play with him. We snuck out for a bit of Cafe de Coral (Sandra didn't eat yet so she ate dinner while Meishan, Tinlop and I just had drinks) and I bused all the way back to 深井 in about an hour. I’m so exhausted right now...omg....I need to crash... Except I'm hungry...poo. (12:45a)