Old Delta Planes!!!

I praised Delta's plane too early! :D Although the flight from HKG to NRT was modern and lovely, with USB plug and touch screen entertainment units on every seats, the flight from NRT to SFO was a different story!! :D

The whole 9 hour flight was boring and the food was terrible! I don't know how the guy sitting next to me can sleep the whole flight except during meal time.  He didn't go to the bathroom at all, not even once.  Whenever I woke up and wanted to go, I find him sleeping like a baby, so I end up didn't wake him! :D Gosh.

So glad that Liza took me to dim sum right after I landed. :D We Chinese need warm food after a long flight. :D

Narita Leveled up!!

Ah-Ha! :D Just landed in Tokyo-Narita airport! :D Compare to the last time I was here, this airport's appearance didn't change much, but it actually did a major upgrade which I am happy with a lot! :D Which is free wifi!! :D

好吾好食返個拉麵先上機呢? 仲有成1.5hr 才 fly.  The food on the flight was the most awful I have ever encountered!! :D  Even the flight attendants complained the meal being cold. I only ate the cubed fruits since I had some breakfast at the airport lounge earlier anyway.  But now lunch time is approaching, I am feeling a bit hungry. :P

Oh! one thing I love about the HKG-NRT flight was it that has a usb outlet to let me charge my iPhone all the way!!! If I knew about this, I should have put some videos on my iphone!! :D hahha.

If they would just have a normal electronic outlet for plugging in my laptop too, then I would definitely fly Delta forever. :D <3

Learning songs in a 3rd language... :D

Let's watch a music video first. :D


I've been listening to this song for the last 2 days (Even play it in my sleep). :D I told my team that if our team won the 2012 Q1 best team award, I would take them to Karaoke and sing a Korean song to entertain them, (because they think Chinese and English is not a challenge for me) :D, so I think this would be one of the songs I would perform. :D

http://southkoreaaddict.blogspot.hk/2011/01/you-are-my-spring-by-sung-si-kyung.html

Fly!! :D

Finally after  2 years(?), I am flying to SFO again. :)  A bit nervous but excited! :D Location   It's one of my "memory lane" trips after all. :D

Since I am a CX elite card holder now, I of course wouldn't miss the chance to use its "Plaza Premium Lounge" benefit. :D

It's not really that exciting here. Maybe because it's too early, the breakfast is not ready yet and unlike the China Airline lounge i visited last year, the choice of food is not that well planned. :D

I don't know why my customers care so much about this lounge when my bank decided to cancel this benefit. I guess it's the "It's free, don't waste it" mindset Hong Kong people hold so dear. :D

Hmm.. I think I will have some congeegee and a sausage :D

Ick! Light color stuff, not for me! :D

NOoOooOOooo..... :D

I swear I should not buy light color stuff anymore! :D How come it's so easily dirtied?! :D

I only bought this for my new laptop for a couple of weeks and today I found it's blackened without me noticing where from!! It's annoying.

Hope it washes off.

我可能不會愛你

我好耐都沒有看香港製造的 "港劇" 了, 真的對那些沒有演技的藝員, 和那些令人摸不著頭腦的劇情沒興趣。　

近期看多了台劇 & 韓劇, 韓劇多帥哥！台劇可以學國語。　一般來說，我只看一些輕鬆攪笑，并且有 happy ending 的劇，　我 fragile 的心受不了像 ＂藍色生死戀＂那種　＂求生不得，求死不能＂的愛！（其實沒有看過呢出韓劇，只看劇名便 rejected!） 

最近看完呢套 台劇　＂我可能不會愛你＂，好有感觸!　原本呢出劇都係 fall into reject group, 但不知怎麼攪的，　在一個憂鬱的晚上，　看了那第一集，　便愛上了　＂陳柏霖" 演的那個角色！

呢個男主角因為怕失去他其實愛著的女生而選擇只做 best friends, 咁樣一輩子都不會失去她囉。最後結局是怎樣？　你們自己看啦！:D

有點 surprised 是陳柏霖的演技進步了。以前看過他在一些香港電影的演出，　總覺得他＂囧囧＂的，臭小子一名，怎麼現在成熟了，　演活了這個情心款款的，在背後默默等待的 "黑馬王子"?!

現在回想起來, 我和前度係做咗十幾年 best friends才 upgrade 到拖手仔的, 現在我們各走各路的, 我雖然好 enjoy 現在的自由, 但也難免感到有點可惜沒了一個知己。有時夜闌人靜時都會不禁想像下：＂如果我們沒有開始過，那有多好。＂幸好我們有很多美好的回憶，assured 自己一路以來的每一個選擇都是無憾的。　

在戲裡, 陳柏霖唱了首插曲,他的歌喉我不能讚喇, 但歌本身很 match 套劇的 theme, 而他也唱得好有感情, 他還有份作曲的! 加分! 

作詞：徐譽庭、張孟晚
作曲：陳柏霖、王宏恩

由於太 enjoy 呢套劇了, DVD, 我買了!

嘩! 寫咁長攪咩鬼!!! 這麼長,用了我兩天才打完 o家!

THE END

香港海事博物館 之 Titanic Exhibition!

I was so excited when I saw this poster outside the museum, I understood the exhibits probably won't be big, but I didn't expect it just to be a few cardboard full of information which I had read many times on the internet already! :(

Frankly, I expected at least like a silver fork fish out from the shipwreck to be displayed, not just cardboard displays. :p

One of the displays caught my attention though, titled "The Hong Kong Connection".  I didn't know there were Hong Kong people on board!

There were actually 8 Chinese sailors on board the Titanic and 6 of them survived!

More Reading:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/chinese-sailors-titanic.html

http://topics.scmp.com/news/hk-news-watch/article/Hong-Kongs-Titanic-survivors

Well, the museum of course has other permanent exhibits which really tells you Maritime history. :) I only found out this "No picture taking" sign after I finished taking all the pictures I could inside the hall. :D

Here are the pictures:
http://ticklelabean.shutterfly.com/ 


The museum will be closed starting 4 June 2012 and be relocated to its new location at Central Piers in early 2013, so I dare say the pictures I took would be worth seeing because who knows what they would put in the new museum next year? :D

Dark Shadows.. me like! :D

I went to see the movie "Dark shadows" with my good pals Old Lau and Old Lam last week, I really enjoy their company especially now that Old Lau would be leaving us after she spit out my newest god son! :D

I don't know why people rate it so low at rotten tomatoes! I simply enjoyed it.  Maybe because I am biased about anything with Johnny Depp in it! :D

Somehow I think the weirder he looks, the sexier Johnny Depp makes! :D

Maybe because I wasn't familiar with the "Dark Shadows" Tv show, (it's simply not from my era), I enjoyed the story a lot.  I don't know why my colleagues say this movie is boring, I beg to differ!

Here's what I enjoyed:

• It has an excitingly fun and destructive sex scene :D :D
• Explosions! :D
• It involves a vampire, a witch, a werewolf and some ghosts! :D Even the Twilight Saga movies didn't have witches and ghosts! :D
• Johnny Depp's exotic assent and look! :D  
• A love triangle storyline! :D
• I enjoyed it a lot especially when 2 of my good ól friends are with me! :D

Why can't you just go in and watch it with an open mind? :)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077368/

自家制: 九菜煎餃! Home made pan seared dumplings :D

I miss cooking on vacation. :D Everybody knows I take pride in showing off my cooking ability. :D

With work being stressful nowadays, I have lost my enjoyment in cooking lately. Last week, during my mini-vacation, I finally have the mood to do some homemade cooking myself. :D  What is more comforting than making one of my favorite comfort foods - dumplings/wantons? :D

I must say I am already an expert in wrapping Shanghai wantons soup, so this time, I figured I should make some "sticking to the pan dumplings (鍋貼)" instead.

Wraps are store bought from this specialty shop 老字號－灣仔鏡記. (My mom buys noodles there since she was just a small girl, which is over 60 years of history) The stuffing is my all time favorite, Chives and minced pork。

See the difference between the pan fried dumplings and the wonton in soup style? :) (Bottom Left is the pan fried version, the right is my usual soup style wonton)

What you do is you lay the dumplings on the pan with a bit of olive oil, add about 1/4 bowl of water, then cover the lid and let it cook for about 5 minutes.  Then add a bit water (maybe 1/6 bowl this time) and recook it for another 2-3 minutes until the water evaporated.

This is how you can tell the dumplings are cooked. You see how the wrapping turns a bit more transparent instead of the original white form? :)  Usually people only let the bottom part cooked to crisp, but I like a bit more crisp wrapping, so I flip it sideways and cook a few more minutes too. This way, I am quite sure even the inside was cooked. :)

This is the first time I ever made pan fried dumplings and I am quite satisfiied with the result.  I will have to perfect the style of the "closing of the wrap" though to make it prettier in the future. :D

Men in Black III

Saw this on 24/05 when it first came out in Hong Kong. :D Although we don't get to see all the movies from USA, we are often quite lucky to see blockbusters like this before it even come out in America. :D

Unlike watching "The Avengers", "Men in Black III" doesn't require the viewers to know about the background of the characters as much.  All you need to know is that they are government agents who catch Aliens for a living. :D

In fact, this 3rd installment tells you a bit of the 2 main characters' background way back... I don't want to give away too much here, you go see and you will like it. :)

Let's list out what I didn't like:

• No more quirky love story for J!?
• Not enough aliens
• What!? Will Smith didn't sing a catchy theme song!?

As usual, here's a list of what I like about this movie.

• Time travel!
• Aliens! :D no matter how few was shown this time
• The OK joke! :D hahah Even my mom gets this one! :D hahah
• That guy from "No Country for old men!" - Josh Brolin is awesome imitating Tommy Lee Jones!! He even copied those sideway stares and non-smiling smiles! :D It's worth it to just go in and see Mr. Brolin's version of Mr. Jones :D 
• The ending was quite touching. :)

I think next movie to watch is a locally produced paranormal flick called: 魕

Lovely lunch at Stanley

It was my last day of a mini 6-days vacation yesterday, so in my last attempt to have fun, I went to Stanley to see the so called "Titanic Exhibition" at the "Hong Kong Maritime Museum".

I must say while the Titanic Exhibition was a disappointment, my lunch made up for it. :)

It was such a lovely cloudy day, I chose to sit outside at the patio for my relaxing 1.5 hour lunch. :)

Here's my choice for the meal:

• Complimentary rye bread with olive oil and vinegar 
• Serrano Ham & Salami with Melon
• Lobster & Spinach Bisque (+$25 for upgrade from soup of the day) I called this the Hulk Soup (too much superhero fantasy lately)
• Grilled U.S. Prime Rib Eye Steak with Port Wine Sauce
• Sangria (+$58 with the meal)
• Iced after meal Coffee

The whole meal cost HK$370ish which is quite worth it as the quality was good.

The Sangria was not as good as when I had it in Spain, but it's good enough to bring back the fond memory of my last summer trip in Spain. :)

The spinach soup was interesting.  This reminded me of the greenish spinach glue I had with Old Lee at the House of Prime Rib in San Francisco back in 2005. :D  I am not very fond of greenish stuff made into liquid form though. :D 

The appetizer, melon and harm was refreshing and I wish I could just have another plate. :D

Steak is always my choice of meat when I go out to eat somehow, so there's not much surprise there. I asked for medium rare, but it comes a bit too well done.  But the meat itself was tender enough to make me overlook this flaw. :)

Overall, I would recommend this restaurant for when you feel like indulging yourself a bit in a lazy afternoon. :)

Mijas Spanish Restaurant

Shop 102, 1/F, Murray House, Stanley Shopping Centre, 7 Carmel Road, Stanley, Hong Kong

A Gay Superman!?!?! NOOOOOOOO

Lately, with all those superheroes mania from The Avengers, I am more prone to comic news. Yesterday, I stumbled upon this piece of news about DC comics might turn one of my favorite superheroes into a gay superhero.

I personally have no problem with a gay superhero, (I have a few good friends that are gay, and they are the kewlest) but please don't touch my superman! :D

I would be most delighted if they introduce a brand new gay superhero instead of turning an old one gay.  After all, I don't think superman would just turn gay after chasing Lois Lane for such a long time. :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147928/Is-Batman-gay-Major-DC-Comics-character-come-closet.html

Cute penguins! :D

Penguin is one of my favorite animals. :D Staying home like a zombie during this vacation, these cute little videos kept me entertained. :D Enjoy the cuteness of nature. :D

LaBean 19th... (x2) Jubilee

Jubilee, I just like this word. :D It sounds cheerful. :D

Everybody knows I usually celebrate my birthday for at least a week, so here's what I did started 16th May. :D

First to celebrate my turning into a real 三八, a high carb meal is called for! :D hahah

Old Lam, Old Lau and I went to this< 金牌小籠> restaurant at Causeway Bay. :D

clockwise from top Left: drunken boneless chicken, steamed little rack buns, yellow eel and yellow chives stir fry and mango juice! :D

spicy garlic shrimps, Chinese cabbage, wonton soup, steamed mushroom dumplings. :D

Noodles! :D steamed buns and fried dumplings! Oh my! :D

The dinner was quite rushed because we met at 6:30pm and movie starts at 7:40. :D With a pregger woman among our flock, we even missed the first few minutes of the movie! :D

Among the dishes, I enjoyed the fried dumplings the most.  The stuffing was just right and then dumpling wraps was pan seared crisply. Perfect! 

正三八!!!!

哈! 哈!! It's my birthday today! :D I am officially turning "38".  :D In Chinese, calling a woman "3 8" could mean telling her she's a bitch! :D

Yes I am and I am proud of it! :D

I am still in lazy vacation mode, so I will take my time to update you my week long birthday celebration detail later. :D

Divorce! :D

I am quite happy with this piece of drawing :D hahah  Simple and to the point, don't you agree? :D

Too much stress, weird nightmare!

I must be too stressed, I had this haunting dream this Monday morning about that asshole compliant!

I dreamed that I was actually having a day off and visited an art gallery.  As I was enjoying myself, my cell phone rang.  My trouble colleague called and I answered:

Me:  "hello, this is Tickle LaBean, how may I help you? (I would only say this at work)"
Colleague:  "Tickle! This asshole customer just called our hotline and ask for you, do you answer?!"
Me:  "Are you Fxxxing mad!? I am on a fxxxing day off, tell him to go fxxk himself!" :D

Then I woke up in a pool of my cold sweat!

How crazy!

New toy comes new accessories

First order of thing is to protect the keyboard! :D It is a sheet of silicon which covers the keyboard but does not affect your typing. :)

Then is to buy a TSA approved laptop sleeve so I don't have to take the laptop out when checking in at the airport :D As I grow older, I seem to enjoy more bright color.. maybe because my life is going too dim/grey. :D

Also, a little mouse is a must have. :D That's it for now. :D

Complaint handling skill - Leveled up

After the disastrous 2-3 weeks being harassed by the same unreasonable customer, I had my last encounter with him finally on last Friday and I think the case is settled... for now.

This case was so serious that it had been handled by both CS & complaint team's head and CEO in HK was even alerted.  Anyways, this gave me a great deal of pressure because if I screwed up, my career path in this company would highly likely be shorted or paved by sharp glass. :D

What I learned in this experience was that, there is no point in sounding tough in rejecting an asshole :D  A Chinese saying, 以柔制剛, just like "paper wraps rock" works perfectly for undermining unreasonable assholes. 忍!!

Well, let's hope this asshole goes away for a good long time and my world would go back into peaceful happy time. :D

失而覆得!? 其實係大頭蝦!

About 1/2 year ago, I wrote about my absent minded dad threw away the book I bought from the "Imperial palace museum" from Taipei, as it turned out, he didn't really throw it away!!! He just couldn't remember where he freaking stashed it!!!

Last night when I went home from work, I found out there was an eerie green light emitting from my folks' entertainment room, so I went and investigate and found out their monitor auto-off setting was messed up.  As I turned away afterwards, I found my freaking book is stashed among my dad's library!!!

I shall read it through during my birthday mini vacation! :D

http://ticklelabean.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-post_15.html