Pink Rain Shoes :D

I should start a new post category called, "Impulsive shopping" :D

Well :D When Old Lau and I had the buffet dinner the other night, we went to look for a pair of crocs for her because rainy season is coming and plastic shoes are convenient for such an occasion. :D

But in the end I was the one buying a pair instead while she got none! :D hehe

I have a perfect excuse this time! :D

It is to stop my dad laughing at my Grey plastic shoes (灰 X 鞋) ... :D

To explain (灰 X 鞋) in English is rather difficult... :D

Well the sound for grey shoes in Chinese is "Fui Hai", which is the same sound of 'being funny' in Canatonese. :D

But since it's plastic... we would call it "Fui Gau Hai".. :D And the sound of the word "Gau" is similiar to a swear word in Cantonese. :D hehe

Now you know not to buy grey plastic shoes! :D

Bad Hong Kong People!

Due to the H1N1 scare, all elevators in Hong Kong has applied the easy clean tactic. It means the management has put a plastic film to cover the buttons for easy wiping.

But every few days, the management has to change the film because people keep using their keys to 'pierce' the buttons instead of using their fingers to push them!!

I am so very annoyed by this.

Can't they just use hand santizier after they press the button if they think the buttons are dirty!?!?!!?!

ARGH!

Getting Ready for Trip! :D

My birthday celebration is like a month long event.... :D hahaha

Well... I have bought myself a big birthday present this year. :D

I don't know why, I don't really enjoy the color, red. But when it comes to luggage, I like the bright color. :D

Maybe because many lugguages are in dark blue or black, red is more refreshing and easier to identify. :D

I will bring this luggage to Sunnyvale in less than 1 week! :D So very excited! :D

Summer Treat! :D Grass Jelly

Summer is here! :D Everybody deserves some chill out treats :D

Instead of ice cream, we Chinese have this called the Grass Jelly (涼粉)


We usually buy these in a big block and then cut these into cubes ourselves. It's tasteless when we bought it.

It's served cold and put some honey on top and it's a perfect cold treat for summer.

Treasure Chest

What is in this chest, you wonder? :D

I was making a lame attempt to clean up my space again the other day and found this chest. I forgot what I put in it...

So, when I carelessly yanked it opened, everything inside spilled out!

What a mess... :D

Turns out it's my needle work box. :D

This tells you how often I sew things! :D

It's really annoying to pick up needles by your bare hands. :D

Now it's all organized. :D

Pre-birthday Dinner 2 :D

I have been meaning to write about my pre-birthday dinner 2 a few days ago.. :D

But... There's this annoying drilling upstairs every single day from 9-5... It's so irritating, it feels like it's drilling right into my skull. It practically drilled all my creativity away!

Now.. :D Let me show you the pictures of our buffet meal which would definitely makes you envy of me.

bread! :D

... which goes along very well with their signature butter! :D

I love being served with genuine silver wares. So very classy :D

my cup of Jasmine tea. My very favorite. :)

When I see sashimi, I go crazy :D

HUGE prawns!!!! We put the chopstick there for reference. Can you imagine the joy we felt when we saw these babies? :D

The brain of the prawn is golden yellow :D The most yummy part! :D

Another round of sea creatures before moving on the the mammals :D

Now to the 4 legged creatures... :D I can never pass up any prime ribs! :D Even though it's not a 3 inches cut thick :D the roasted prime ribs were so good. :D

Too bad I only had 1 slice. :D I needed to save some space for the rest of the goodies I haven't tried yet. :D

I also had a rack of lamb. It was the best lamb I have ever had. :D It still has that lamby kindy smell and taste. I don't fancy mint jelly much coz I think it tastes like toothpaste. :D You don't eat toothpaste after brushing anyways! :D But you can see I had a scoop of mint jelly nonetheless just to try. My feeling towards mint jelly didn't change. :D

And then, I had a bowl of seafood chowder! :D I love chowder. Although this soup wasn't as good good as the clam chowder I had in Monterey, it's nonetheless very enjoyable. :D

Then I sampled some carrots with thyme, a piece of cod in creamy white sauce, and CHinese cabbages with dried scallops and some squid ring. :D

I highly recommend the carrots!! Thyme and Carrot are made for each other. :D

OUCH! It's dessert time! :D It's my birthday party! :D so I am allowed to indulge! :D

Thank god these are all in miniature bite size! :D

Old Lau and I sat at the restaurant until 9:30pm :D I had such a good time, I couldn't wait for my next birthday. :D

Thank you once again, old Lau.. :D

Free WiFi on bus!! :D

The other day I went out with my parents to Causeway bay.

We happened to catch a bus which equipped with Free WiFi! :)

Hong Kong is such an awesome place!! :D

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to successfully configure my phone to use the free network yet! :D Maybe next time I will try again. :D

You can click on the picture to view a larger version.:D

What if Hitler Won the War?

Lately, I have found this movie called "Fatherland" on youtube. It's quite interesting.

It's a movie which depicts a world had Hitler won the WWII.



Nobody would know about the holocaust, and Hiltler would order all his high Nazi wingmen to be assassinated just to cover up his crime.

History is written by the winner. And by facing the mistakes in History, we can learn to forgive and not to make the same mistake again.

This makes me wonder:

• Why the Japanese government to this day, still does not admit to the Nanjing Massacre!?
• Why the Chinese government to this day, still does not apologize for the 1989 Tienanmen Square Massacre?!
• Why some foreign countries stole our historic relics and dare to sell them in auctions?!

I like to read history non-fictions, because I usually knows how it ends in advance. I don't like surprises. I need closure for these events!

I am a mid-Trigenarian

trigenarian:

A person who is in her/his thirties; a person who is from thirty to thirty-nine years old.

Happy Birthday To me! :D I turn 35 officially today!.


I love little birthday peach shaped buns :D For us Chinese, it's suppose to be a designated birthday food. :D I had them 2 days ago when I was having dim sum with my parents. :D

These peach shaped buns symbolize longevity. :D

Birthday Presents from Old Lau. :D

Last night, I went out with my best pal, old Lau to pre-celebrate my birthday. :P

Not only did she treated me for a great seafood buffet dinner, she even bought me birthday presents. :D

She knows me so well that she bought me a hair pin and a hair clam as present. :D

I loved them so much I even used the hair pin right away. :D

My mom always complains I don't have enough friends.

I always say, "I don't need a bunch of random friends, just need a few who spoil me is enough. (朋友貴精不貴多, 有幾個寵我的便夠)"

Old Lau is definitely one who spoils me to death. :D hahah

No more "Are you going to shower soon?!" "喂! 你仲沖吾沖涼呀!?" 已成絕響

Lately our hot water heater is getting old and cranky. It started to leak water. After all, it's been with us for 15 years! :D

This old water heater needed to be turned on manually every time it's been used. So every day off nights when I see my parents in the evening, they would ask "Are you going to shower soon?" (喂! 你仲沖吾沖涼呀!?)

This is to prevent the waste of natural gas. :D


Other than leaking water, the heater actually works quite well still. But the salesman who came over to check the heater sorta warned us that if we still keep using this heater, it might burst open the pipes and drown us when we are sleeping! :D

So my folks decided it's time to let it retired and adopt a new one. :D

This is the new heater. :D

It's not too stylish, but it's more convenient. It turns on by itself whenever the hot water tap is switched on. :)

So now my folks don't need to hurry me to shower so I don't waste the gas. :D

There's also something I don't have to worry about. :D

Whenever Mr. MonkeyMan stays over, I don't have to suddenly knock on the bathroom door and yell, "Honey, is the hot water on?!" :D

One less annoying thing to do to my boyfriend. :D

When Wolverine Sings!

Last week, I took my parents to watch the movie, "X-Men Origin: Wolverine".

I enjoyed the movie very much. Hugh Jackman was so awesome in the movie, I cannot help but label him a hunky action star. :D

But did you know, he is in fact a Broadway actor before he played the Wolverine? :D

He even played a gay song writer who had married Liza Milleni. His song and dance is so awesome! :D He won a Tonys Award for his performance in "The Boy from Oz" before he landed the role in the X-Men Movies.

I feel a new handsome man is about to add to my list... :D ahhaha

Below is a video of him performing in the Tonys Award. It's a must see! :D

Tram Maintanance Car

The other night, I O.T. until 2am, when I was waiting for my untrustworthy bus, I caught the tram maintance people at work.

This picture was so dreamy.

Somehow, my colleague gave me a cold can of coffee that night. The can kinda chilled my camera's lens. I think the result was kinda romantic.

After wiping off the mist from my camera, here is a clearer picture of the maintenance tram.

I have never seen this car during the day time, that's why I thought I must take a picture of it while it's working at 2am. :D

I love the tram. :) I ride it every chance I get. :) I remember when I was a kid, I always step on the bell on purpose. It created the infamous rustic "Ding Ding" sound I love.

Did you know lots of tourist would drop in their own foreign currencies into the fare box each year?

In April this year, the tram company had donated 10.6 tons worth of foreign coins to the ORBIS.

So people from the world, come and drop your coins in our little tram fare boxes. :D You might have already done your good deed of the day! :)

Fish meat siu mai 香港名菜: 魚肉燒賣

前兩日放假，十分 lazy，一睡睡到 三點.. 起身的時侯, 無比的肚餓, 於是, 我就走落街口嘅 魚蛋檔 去吉魚蛋喇.
I was being lazy 2 days ago on my day off. Slept till like 3pm. :D When I wake up, I was too lazy to cook, so I went downstairs to buy some fish balls. :P

但係, 我去到時, 發現我只想食 勁辣 魚肉燒賣.
But when I get to the little food vendor, I decided to get fish meat 'siu mai' + XXX hot sauce instead. :D

These are the fish meat 'siu mai'. :D One of my favorite snacks :D

魚肉燒賣, "嚥嚥 'un un'" :D 好有口感! 我仲叫佢加多 D 辣汁, 十分惹味！
The texture of the 'siu mai' is soft and chewy, the good kind. Not like gummy bear chewy kind. Bouncy on the teeth :D. I told the vendor to add extra XXX hot sauce, so it's ultra hot and spicy, my kind of taste! :D

香港 十大美食中, 呢仲燒賣一定有份！:D
I think this is one of the 10 best foods in HK! :D

Bathroom Pig :D

I had written our bathroom duck before (find here: http://ticklelabean.blogspot.com/2008/09/bathroom-duck-d.html)

Lately, I have noticed our duck has become fat.. like the rest of us Labeans... :D hehe

And .. we have gained a little piggy too! :D Lazy sleeping piggy! :D

 

Can you see the piggy? :D

Haha! Birthday Board at work. -_-

New gimmick at work. :D Birthday board. :D

This month, I am one of the birthday people, so people has written greetings to me. :D

Here is one of the most curious and entertaining. :D

HAHAHA.... the line in orange.. it says, "I wish after your birthday, I won't see your '-_-' look anymore. :D"

It has a very accurate depiction of how I look at my team members when they are giving me troubles. :D

It seems my signature expression : -_- is quite well known at work too :D :D :D

Sweet Julie and Gene! Ohhhhh!

There are 2 movies I will watch any chance I get when they are being played on TV.

These 2 movies are: "The Sound of Music" and "Singing in the Rain".

The reason? I love everything old and ancient. :D No... Well, I love Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly. :)

Why I love them? Well, I think I love their fresh and clean image. :D I don't think I have ever seen them in any bad guy roles. :D

I think Julie is the best singer in the whole world, while Gene can sing, he is the best dancer of all time. (Some say Fred Astaire was the best, but he's a bit too skinny for me. :P)

But lately, I was looking at some videos of these 2 legendary people on youtube and delighted to find that Julie can dance too!!

Since they are practically from 2 different generations, it's quite rare for them to be in a show together.

Thank god for this show called "The Julie Andrews Hour", now we can see these 2 sweet people dance and sing together.

It made my day! :)





They are so sweet together.

MMmMmm... Gene... :D Did you know he was suppose to star in the Easter Parade with Judy Garland?! But he was replaced by Fred Astaire because Gene broke his leg before the filming. If Gene's in that movie, it'd also be my all time favorite too :D

Vietnamese Spam :D

Old Lau went to Vietnam earlier and bought me an edible souvenir, the Vietnamese Spam. (札肉) :D

This is not the first time I have eaten these Vietnamese Spam. Back when I was in Canada, I always buy some from China Town for cooking noodles with. I have not seen one this huge though. :D

The one I got from old Viv was 8 inches long, 3 inches in diameter. It's crazy huge! :D

I had some for dinner last night.

It seems to taste different too.

Because of the heavy wrapping of lotus leaves, a faint fragrance of the lotus has leaked into the meat. Maybe I over cooked it some, so it's not as 'bouncy' on my teeth compare to the ones I had in Canada.

It's like eating sashimi in Tokyo, having a piece of Vietnamese spam bought to you directly from Vietnam is as authentic as it can be! :D

Viva Viet Spam! :D

Thank you very much, Viv! :D

Pre-birthday Dinner :D

It's so lovely to go out with friends. :D

After enjoying the lovely sunset whilst on the bus, it's time for dinner. :)

Old Lau and I went to our usual gathering place, Wing Hing Restaurant, in Wanchai.

Originally, we wanted to have their port wine baked oysters, but when we get there, the menu is changed.

Due to Monther's day, only set banquet or a few choices left to choose.

The first thing to order was the steamed soup. Tonight's special is a mushroom, pok choy, pork and fish belly steamed soup. :) Although it's not comparable to the pig's lung soup we had last time with Old Lee, it's nonetheless a very excellent soup. :)

Then we have fish paste, some type of clams and long Chinese melon (勝瓜) cooked in fish broth. This was quite refreshing. :)

Then we have baked eggs with fish guts :D 焗魚腸. This was sooo good.

The top layer of egg was baked crisply but the inside is still tender.

And then, there is their signature roasted chicken, which is always my favorite. :D

Last but not least, complimentary dessert. :D I had this bubble jelly in coconut milk. :)

After dinner, we even went to visit the hotel which was quarantined by the HK governement. It was due to release the people inside the hotel tonight at 8:30pm.

Of course, we couldn't get anywhere near the entrance of the hotel.

We could see from afar though.

Reporters or family and friends of the victims who were trapped inside the hotel for 7 days are waiting outside the hotel.

This is the report section, I believe, because of the satellite dish for instant news transmittance, I am sure.

And then, there are some cheer leaders or cheering bystanders waiting for the door to be opened and the release of the first batch of H1N1 suspected victims. :D

All is well.

Sunset in Hong Kong

It's my day off yesterday. Since my office has moved away from Wanchai, I seldom able to see the sunset at the Victoria Harbor.

I think last night's sunset was extra lovely.

I took this picture with my trusty Nokia 5800 phone on the bus along the Easter Corridor Highway. :)

I think having a girls' night out with my old pal, Old Lau also put me in this good mood too. :)

We had a fun night. :D Stay tune for more. :D