死! Death!

經過呢一役, 我雖然戰勝咗死神, 但係都係有D o籐o籐震嘅感覺. After this battle of Bronchitis, I think I have defeated Death. :D In order to face death bravely, I will dedicate this post to "Death".

所以, 我呢個 post 係會 dedicate to Death.

原來我都識得幾多'死'嘅講法... There are actually lots of ways to say Death in Chinese.

中國人對死畢竟係有忌諱, 所以通常都吾會就咁話 "佢死咗"嘅.. However, we Chinese feel that it's taboo to talk about Death directly, so usually we would have some other indirect way to say it.

我地可以講:

• 仙遊 (sight seeing in heaven)
  
• 過身 (exiting human body)
  
• 逝世 (exiting life)
  
• 去世 (exiting life)
• 走咗 (go away)
  
• 入土為安 (rest in piece under the earth)
  
• 歸天 (return to heaven)
  
• 瓜咗 (this is more of a slang, I think it means "turned into a melon" as in melon are grown from earth and you are buried underneath it)
  
• 掛了 (this is what I learned from watching Taiwanese talk show lately. :D It means "hanged, hanged up")
  
• 打包 (wrapped in body bag)
  
• 熄燈 (最近呢個説法係從無線電劇-家好月圓而興起嘅) (turned off the light (this is a recent saying from a HK TV show)
  

而係英語方面, 原來我都識得吾少... These are the English way of saying Death I know from top of my head

• deceased
• expired
  
• passed away
• crossed over
• pushing daisies
• bite the big one
• checked out
• in heaven
• RIP
  

而我在internet 打滾咗咁多年, 識咗吾同國家的朋友仔, 都學識咗幾個不同國家的'死'字.. Lurking around the internet for so many years, I have met people from different countries, they had taught me these.. :D

• muerte (Spanish)
• tod (German)
  
• morte (Italian)

死死聲,真係吾好聽.. :D 都係好好保養身體, 健康為上... :D 善哉 善哉! :>
Death, no matter what country you are in, I think it's still not a fun activity people enjoy. :D Amen. :D

My Best Friend in Comics :D

A month or so ago, I bought a comic book by a local artist called Maggie Ma. Her works are hilarious! :D

I enjoyed her "My Idiotic Wedding" so much I ended up buying a box set of her comics. :D

The reasons I enjoyed her comics were:

1. her stories were ultra local
2. her stories were ultra hilarious
   
3. her stories represent my generation of goofy people
4. one of my best friends is a character in the books
5. her stories made me grin like an idiot on the bus :P

Vivi: Loves to earn money and save it up. Good in socializing, usually, she is the contact and liaison person among the buddies.

Vivi is a Tea-lover. She would bring her private teabags to everywhere. :D

Suddenly I thought of a term: 茶姑 :D (Tea Lady)

This is one of the strips that made me laughed out loud. :D It's about poop found in toilet at her work place. :D Funny! :D

Dream Chronicle VI: Dancing with the sharks

I had yet another vivid dream last night. As the matter of fact, I had 2. I could only remember one though.

I went to a tour in a foreign country. The travel guide was an old man. He took me to the ocean to swim with the dolphins.

In the beginning, we couldn't find any dolphins to swim with. :D It's like the ocean was empty. As we were about to leave, finally, there's a dolphin swim by.

So the old man was instructing the dolphin to do all kinds of tricks. However, when the old man told the dolphin to follow me around, it turned into a shark!!!!

It followed me around for awhile, but suddenly it turned aggressive!

I yelled for the old man to come help me, but he just refused. Later, I made the shark bit my finger and thinking blood would attract more sharks. Maybe then the old man would come. :D

Of course, more shark came, but old man vanished.

I woke up. :D

Bun! :D

近來天氣仲係幾熱, 我平時多把頭髮扎起. 真想不到小小的蝴蝶夾子可以夾得出一個實實的髻來. :)

這次用了四個小夾, 但現在只用兩個也可以成功地夾個髻囉 :)

My New Cousin! :D

Introducing my newest cousin!! :D 肥嘟嘟, 蠻可愛呢! :)

Pomegranate! Don't eat it!

Last week I saw some fresh pomegranates at the market. Since I had never tasted a real one before, I figured, even though it's about hk$15 for 2, which is compariatively expensive, I still bought 2 to try.

My boyfriend once told me, Pomegranate is the only fruit he absolutely loathe to eat. I didn't know why then, but now I understand! :D

Once I opened the fruit, it's full of little pulps of seeds. Unless you swallow the whole seeds, otherwise, you just suck the juice out and spit the pits out! :D It's quite annoying.

Also, because I didn't know how to pick them, I picked 2 very raw ones. They are so awesomely sour when they are not ripe! :D hahha
When I shared this with my dad that night, it's so sour that his facial features were all contorted! :D

In the end, I neglected the other unopened pomegranate for a week.

Since I was sick during that time, my taste buds are all so raw I needed some juice to quench it. So, instead of making the mistake of eating it, I squeezed it into a glass of juice.

Ohhh.. it's very good when it's just in juice form and when it's ripe! :)

I can't say I will buy pomegranate in fruit form again though.

Dream Chronicle V: Socialite's Mansion

I had a weird dream the night before last night. I bet it's those Chinese medicine made my brain dreamt weird stuffs. :D

The dream went like this..

I was visiting my alma mater which is located on the Mount Davis Road (摩星嶺) in Hong Kong Island. :D Other than my high school, Mount Davis Road has lots of interesting places such as a haunted fort, a political jail house (some say a concentration camp), a youth hostel, and a "Gold Villa" which is owned by a famous socialite couple, Mr. & Mrs. Bon Bon Chau" :D

The dream happened in this Gold Villa. Somehow I was invited by Bon Bon to visit his mansion. Although from the outside, the mansion was just a regular rich man's home, once I was inside, it's another story (別有洞天). Once I got pass the front gate, there's a long outdoor corridor which lead to a huge garden.

Inside the garden, I saw a huge bronze statue of an angel with a broken arm riding on a cloud. Beyond this angel, you see a huge tree. The tree was so big it's like it's a 60 story high skyscraper!

As I was approaching the tree, I saw another castle / mansion behind the tree. There were lots of other big plants I have never seen in my life hanging around the building.

The tragic thing was I that somehow forgot to bring my camera with me that day so I couldn't record all these down in pictures!

The mansion itself was like a museum. It stored lots of different historic artifacts in alphabetical orders. It's the strangest sight I have imagined.

After all the sightseeing with Bon Bon and his wife, I needed to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was gigantic with countless stalls.  The sad thing was, every stall was made of gold, yet it's dirty as a public toilet!  I ended up couldn't get to do my business and left.

Bon Bon's wife asked me to stay for dinner, but I politely asked for a rain check. I said, "sorry, Mrs Chow, I didn't have my camera with me and I need to take pictures of what I eat!! Maybe we can do this some other time?"

That's when everything changed!!! As I was leaving, the mansion behind me dissolved and I couldn't find it ever again.

I think I woke up at that point thinking to myself: "Dang!! Why didn't I have my camera with me!?!!?!"

It's a good dream though. :D

Salty Cumquat!

After sleeping all day yesterday and today, I finally feel a little bit better. Western medicine really knocks me out good. :D

Other than the Chinese herbal medicine, there's also another ancient street remedy that should be good for coughs and sore throats. We called this 咸柑桔 (salty Cumquat).

Old people see this as gold. :D The above jar of salty Cumquat is my dad's treasure. He made this himself and it has been with us for > 5 years. :D That's why the Cumquat looks like shit :P

To make this, you only need fresh Cumquat (people usually start making this during the Chinese new year because that's when we can get our hands on Cumquat in mass), and large grain sea salts.

To prepare it, you wash the Cumquat clean first. Then pat dry it, so no more water linger on the peel.

Put a thin layer of salt on the bottom of the jar, then drop a layer of Cumquat in. Cover the 1st layer of Cumquat with salt.

Repeat above layering technique until the jar is full. Cover the final layer with more salt. Shake the bottle to condense the content. If you can find more space, either put more salt or Cumquat in.

The key is to stuff the jar full so to push out as much air as possible. Also Cumquat must be covered by salt.

Seal the jar with a plastic bag on the opening and cover it with the lid. Hide it in a dark place. The Cumquat would be so scared that it will shrivel up and wet itself. :D That's why even though we didn't put any water in the jar to begin with, it still turns out juicy.

After a few years, you will see the above finished product.

It looks quite gross, but it taste a little tangy and not too salty.

For a fresher look of the making process, please go to this guy's blog post. :D

trackback: originally i spelled it "Kam Quat". But thanks to Chris, I now know the correct spelling as Cumquat. :D Thanks again! :)

Chinese Medicine

I've been eating western medicine for > 2 weeks and my coughs still not going away. Yesterday, my doctor even said my old friend, "Mr. Bronchitis" had visited again. :D

My parents and bosses all say if Western Medicine is not working to cure me, maybe I should seek some alternatives.

So my mom chaperoned me to a Chinese medicine healer, (I don't call them a doctor, coz i think that's reserved for people having a MD or PhD :D)

Here's her business card. It seems everybody can practice Chinese medicine. According to her card, she has a Master degree of Chinese Law from the University of Beijing, and a holder of diploma of Chinese medicine of University of Tianjin (Hong Kong branch). :D Well.. She has a law degree, so I hope at least she's smart. :D

The medicine packaging is simple. The healer wrote up a sheet of herbs that suppose to be good for you and the medicine cabinet owner would help measure and collect the appropriate herbs for you. The herbs are then wrapped in this kind of paper packaging with 2 rubber bands to tie it up. :D

These are the stuffs that supposed to cure me.... :D Don't ask me what they are... I think they are some tree trunks and leaves and seeds and flowers. :D Good thing this time it has no dead animals or insects in it.

This is a traditional medicine pot. :D You have to boil the herbs from 4 bowls of water down to 1 bowl. :D It's bitter as hell! :P But old people say "Bitter medicine makes you feel better". :D

I don't quite agree. :D




This is the final product and I drank it after dinner time.

京都念慈菴川貝枇杷膏.. 一樽攪掂晒?

Although I don't feel very sick right now, but my throat feels like it's on fire. :D People sing that the "京都念慈菴川貝枇杷膏" "不但只咳化痰好, 煙酒過多, 睡覺不足, 喉嚨痛, 聲音啞, 一樽攪掂晒". :D

So I decided to buy one bottle of this surup to try. :D I had 1 spoonful today, although I am still coughing, but at least my throat is not burning. :D I will update you when I finish a bottle and see how well this work. :D

Sunflower craze :D

I like to take macro pictures of flowers. :D I think when you see a flower with your eye, you see the whole flower and its surrounding.  When I use my camera, I'd like to see things my bare eyes can hardly notice. :)

 

  

  

 

150 Males vs 100 Females

I was reading an article about the 'unbalance gender situation' in China this morning. It's not a new piece of news, but as I was reading it along, I couldn't help but thought to myself "What a lucky girl I am".

Although there's no one-child-policy in Hong Kong, my parents only had me! :D And unlike most many Chinese parents, they don't mind me being a girl. Although I am not a perfect daughter to them, but I think they are pretty content about how well they had brought me up. :D

They had bought me up right!

When parents did a good job on their children, why care much about whether they are boys or girls? :) After all, this world needs both male and female to continue.

Chinese people have this problem about continuing their family name by the male line. But what is in a name? It's not like it cannot be changed. If your male child didn't like you, he could just go to the immigration and change his last name from Apple to Orange. Why so uptight. :) (何必咁執著呢?)

I say male and female are different, but equal. :)

情迷百合

I bought some lilies lately, I thought they are quite exquisite. :)

Here are some pictures I took of this flower. The white one is my boss' flowers at the office. The pink ones sit on top of my cupboard at home, still blooming. :)

我愛 Bathroom Duck :D

I was digging up some old photos in my photo directory..  I just realize I have over 60.7GB worth of photos since 2006! :)

In the mean time, I dug up a picture which I took of my bathroom. How interesting unintentional patterns would show up on walls and ceilings. :)

Here is our bathroom duck. :D Can you see it?

心靈 '咳' 湯.

There's no one better than mom in this whole world. :D

My cough is still recurring and western medicine doesn't seem to cure it efficiently.

My mom then heard about this Chinese tradition remedy which suppose to soothe my throat and supress my cough.

Last night when I got home at 2am, I found the soup on my desk.

Instead of making me reheat it, she stored it in our mini-vacumn slow cooker. :)

Although the soup doesn't seem too effective, but my mom's effort makes me feel so warm and loved. :)

The soup is made of a chunk of pork, some fungus (靈芝), and some other Chinese herbs that suppose to do good to my cough. :)

Bride of Frankenstein

Heheh! This morning I got up early to go to the Hair salon to fix my hair! I thought the hair perming gadget at the salon was quite funny. :D

Although you can't see very clearly in this picture, but there are actually lots of dangling claws with hair ironing rolls holding my hair up. :D

I thought I look like some kind of monster in the world of Frankenstein. :D Or that mystic monster with lots of snakes on her head instead of hair... :D

Vacation October 2008!!! Part III Itinerary: Cheung Chau

Here's the itinerary of the Cheung Chau Part of our vacation. :D

	11/10	12/10	13/10
0600
0700
0800
0900
1000	Go to Cheung Chau		Maybe:
1100	Wander!		Science Museum?
1200		Some more Cheung Chau	History Museum?
1300		Visit Pirate Cave	Space museum?
1400
1500	Check in B&B
1600	Relax!
1700			Sampan thru Aberdeen Harbour
1800	Meeting Parents for Seafood Dinner at Cheung Chau		Jumbo Boat Dinner!
1900		Peking Duck Dinner (cousin's birthday)
2000
2100
2200
2300
2400
0100
0200
0300
0400
0500

White spots on throat!?!?

I had a fever of 102.3 degree yesterday.. :D So I went to the doctor... here's the conversation between me and the doc..

Doc: go Ahhh..
me: Ahhh
Doc: hmm.. 你喉嚨有D 白點嘅?? (hmm.. How come your throat has some white spots?!)
me: 吓!?! 白點!? 係咪即係'白喉' 呀?!?!?!?! (What?! White spot!? Am I having "diphtheria"?!)
Doc: *smirk* 吾係, 可能是上呼吸道感染引起扁桃體化膿o姐! :D (No, possibly is just the upper respiratory tract infection causes the tonsil to suppurate)
me: 噢! (Oh!)

哈哈！有白點就＝白喉, 我想個 Doctor 認為我白痴多D :D hehe

Vacation October 2008!!! Part II - Itinerary: Taiwan!

After a few days of pondering, I finally come up with the itinerary for our upcoming Taiwan Trip. :) Here's the first draft :D

	14/10	15/10	16/10	17/10
0600
0700
0800	get up & go to pier
0900	Must arrive at central	北投 - 春天酒店 hotspring day. Ride the 北投MRT	Ride the Speed train and visit 高雄
1000	arrive at HKG			西門丁 (buy duck tongue!)
1100		Soak in Spring	Visit 蓮池潭 + Confucius Temple	Lunch at Taipei 101 (no flip flops allowed)
1200	Fly out to Taiwan	Check out the origin of the spring (地熱谷)
1300		Lunch nearby	Back to the City for Lunch
1400	Arrive at TPE	Hotspring Museum	Take the Ferry to 旗津	Get back luggage and hit TPE
1500	Check in & rest at Cosmos Hotel	Back to Hotel and Rest a bit
1600				arrive at TPE
1700	中正紀念堂 open till 6:30pm
1800	Dinner at Taiwan Story Land (台灣故事館)	士林 night market. 北投MRT 劍潭站 exit1	Dinner at 六合 night market	Fly back to HKG
1900
2000		Ride the Miramar Ferris Wheel	Going home
2100			Back to Hotel
2200	Back to Hotel	Back to Hotel
2300
2400
0100
0200
0300
0400
0500

LaBean's Library (Stephen King Section)

Let's continue with my Library Tour.. :)

This is my Stephen King Section. Although I am not a loyal fan of King, he has a few novels I really enjoy.

"It" is story about a child killing monster. It's so chillingly horrifying that it made me scared of clowns and sewers and the dark! I highly recommend it if you want a good nightmarish scare. :)


I have read another book by King that is not shown here. It's called "The Stand". It's also one of my favorite King Novels. I think I left it in Canada, so it's prolly in Liza's garage right now. It's an Epic about Good Vs Evil, Survival and Death.... all those kind of intrigues.