Category Archives: Hong Kong

Fate

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Finance and News, Hong Kong

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Since it is Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day this week, I have quite a few friends visiting from out of town. At their requests, we agreed to go to Lamma for the day, to chill and eat seafood. Ironically, the friend who suggested Lamma to begin with dropped out the last minute. But because my mind had been conditioned to go to Lamma today, me and my remaining friend went anyway.

We started off at the Yung Shue Wan end of the island, where we explored the little village there (quite cute!), and slowly made our way to Sok Ku Wan, on the other end of the island where the famous seafood restaurants are. All my friends had assured me that it was an easy hike that can be done with flats. 2 hours of hiking and half heartedly kite flying later, I’m glad I changed into flip flops and saved my flats. By that time it was 6:30pm. The perfect time to have an early seafood dinner at the rows of outdoor restaurants lining the waterfront next to the pier. Apparently everyone else thought so too. We couldn’t find a seat anywhere for the 2 of us!

We decided to head back to civilization for food. Except the line for the ferry going back to Central was endless. We ended up waiting half a hour to get on the ferry going to Aberdeen instead. We were so glad we got there early . Lots of people behind us didn’t manage to get on the boat. The ferry was a bit more ghetto than the one we came in (that one was wifi enabled!), but I was comforted with the fact that Hong Kong is super safe and modern (I’ve never heard of a boating accident in Hong Kong before), and they wouldn’t let it be in operation otherwise. There isn’t even a typhoon! We arrived safely less than half a hour later, and made our way to dinner. I must say, I’m secretly glad there wasn’t any space for us at the restaurants in Lamma. I seriously don’t see how seafood can be much fresher than what I get in the city. There is a humongous power station on the island for heavens sake! The outdoor seating area also did not look appetizing…. I shudder to think what goes on inside the kitchen. I was much more comfortable back in civilization, where my friend and I enjoyed a nice and relaxed dinner indoors.

We called it an early night after that. We were exhausted. And so, I was sitting on my bed surfing the net when my mom came home admonishing me for not picking up the phone while I was out for dinner. At first I was annoyed. Sometimes people just don’t hear the phone (and I don’t even remember seeing a missed call!)! But now I feel guilty and a bit chilled to the bones. Apparently, there was a boat collision off Lamma island tonight. 120 people were thrown overboard, and up until now, 100 people were rescued but at least 8 have died.

My initial thought that my mom was overreacting. I was far away from the island by then. There was nothing to worry about. But then, the more I watched the reports on it, the more chilled I felt. I WAS JUST THERE. The island was overflowing with children . The victims may have been any number of the people I passed by earlier today. In fact, I distinctively remember seeing a Power Asset flag (the company of the boat that sank) at the peripheral of my vision. Through a few twists of fate, IT COULD’VE BEEN ME! I rarely take a boat, and Hong Kong never has such serious boating accidents. Out of all the days and all the boats in Hong Kong, the collision happened less than 2 hours after I was there! There wasn’t even much wind or wave this evening. It just came out of the blue!! If there had been a table, we would’ve been leaving the island at just that time!

Most of the time, I feel like life is what I make it out to be. But on occasions like this, it just strikes me how fragile life is, and how so much of it actually depends on the whims of fate. A chilling and unsettling thought. My heart goes out to the victims and families of this tragic accident.

Dragon boat racing

25 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Hong Kong

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20120623-222543.jpgYou know how many New Yorkers have never actually been to the Statue of Liberty because it is just too much of a hassle since it will always be there anyway? Well, that  is how I felt about the annual Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong. Held every May of the old calendar  (which roughly comes out to June), people crowd the beaches of Stanley to watch other people (I reckon mostly your friends?) participate in the Dragon Boat races, and do the “dragon boat swim,” which is supposed to give you good health. Huge crowds of hot, perspiring and salty beach go-ers and subsequent queues of people sandwiching together on the bus (because it would be a miracle to come across an empty cab) trying to get back to civilization just didn’t sound very exciting.

Well after 20 odd years in Hong Kong, I finally made it out there this year! Thanks to my friend’s invitation onto their company boat, it was a lot better than I’d envisioned. We were only stuck in traffic for a hour and lost for about 20 minutes, trying to find our way to the docks through all the traffic control. We arrived just in time to catch the last few races (in our opinion, the “best” ones!). For those interested, that is around 4:30pm. Many people i.e. my parents, are under the misconception that it all happens super early in the morning and is done by noon.

Just as we were frantically calling cab companies, to see if any would come in to pick us up and I was commenting to my friends that since we’re already on a boat, the boat should just take us back to civilization, someone came over to tell us that the boat was taking us back to civilization. I could not have planned it better myself!

Somewhere over the rainbow

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Hong Kong

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Instead of a typhoon (which is fine as long as it comes on very strong -so strong that it becomes a public holiday), at around 6pm we got a rainbow instead. One so vibrant and so rare that it got the whole office out of their chairs to take a picture. For those confused, a rainbow in the middle of Victoria harbor is literally unheard of in Hong Kong, let alone one so vibrant. Indeed this reaction was not limited to my office judging from the many pictures that quickly surfaced on Facebook from various angles. For those perceptive enough, one can even see the faint outlines of a second rainbow on the left of the more vibrant one!

Flower Power

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Hong Kong, Random Musings

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The other week, I bought a Twangoo (another version of Groupon) with a few girlfriends to take a flower arranging class.20120617-191652.jpg

The class was a lot of fun, who knew that flower arranging can feel so productive yet tranquilizing? It was surprisingly easy. You put a metal grid net on top of the vase, cut and arrange the flowers such that you create a dome shape. Just fill in the holes. I can definitely do this at home! Or so I thought.

Come Saturday, having mentally prepared to go to the flower market in Mongkok all week to select flowers and arrange them at home, I wasn’t going to let a little rain stop me from going. I put on my trusted violet Hunter rainboots and headed off with my boyfriend in tow. Five stops away on the ‘other’ island, it was quite a journey for us HK islanders. The weather proved stronger than my stubborn streak. As soon as we arrived, it started to pour hotdogs. Not to let it put a damper on my mission, my Hunter and I ploughed on, with my poor boyfriend trailing behind in his flip flops trying to walk around the puddles (My Hunters were awesome!). We finally ended up with a pair of flower scissors, a metal net (after over asking over 10 stores!) and a bouquet of gorgeous flowers. Hydrangeas, roses and a bunch of other flowers that I cannot name. It was super fun picking them out!

After a long journey home, I immediately got to work arranging the flowers. After 20 minutes, I knew something was wrong. I was almost done with most of my flowers, and there were gaping holes everywhere! I ended up with the above arrangement in the end. Not exactly dome shape, I like to think of it as an artistic and deliberate triangular arrangement. The back however, is another story. I figured instead of having patches of baldness, better to have a good front!

I definitely need more lessons before I start DIY-ing again. In my defense, I later found out from my mom that I’d been using the wrong vase with a wider diameter, which partially explains for gaping holes.

Dinner with foreigners

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Hong Kong, Random Musings

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This was passed around the Hong Kong community a few weeks ago. Not because we all wanted to recommend our “foreign” friends to go so that they can get a free meal at the Mandarin (though that’s not a bad idea), but because there are so many things wrong with the ad on so many different levels. I will not go into details, but would just like to point out 2 things:

  1. Out of curiosity, I called to find out what their definition of  “foreigners” is, and confirmed that it means Caucasian males.
  2. Upon further research, the reason why foreign men get to attend for free is because the event is sponsored by a German banker, who met his wife in one of these events and wanted to give “others” the same opportunity.

Also note that $4800HKD = $615USD. Seriously, only in Asia.

BG Inflation index II

06 Sunday May 2012

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One of my favourite midday snacks-to-pull-me-through-the-rest-of-the-afternoon recently has been fresh apple juice, because it tastes good and makes me feel healthy (even though I know that fresh fruit has a lot of sugar content in it). I usually buy it at a premium of $30HKD (almost $3USD), even though I can probably get the same thing for half the price, simply because it is the closest to my office. It is usually a pretty decent size medium cup.

Today when I went for my apple juice dose, the medium size cup looked suspiciously small. I had to lift it up to the sample size cups to make sure he didn’t give me the wrong one. Upon further inquiry, this is indeed a recent phenomena. It seems that now, the small and medium cup are essentially the same and the medium has turned into a small! Instead of hiking the price, they shrewdly shrunk the cup! Sneaky!!!

Ps. Just so I have a complete record, my bus ride home just went up by 9% out of the blue… not much in nominal terms, but very serious in percentage terms! (5/30/2012)

Born this way ball

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Hong Kong, Random Musings

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I just went to the Lady Gaga Born this Way Ball last night! She is undeniably an amazing performer! The set was state of the art. A castle with a lot of moving parts. And there were so many costumes, that I lost count how many times she changed. The horse, the motorcycle piano, the faux meat set, the machine gun bra top, was all very very cool. The atmosphere was, needless to say, wild. I was standing in the pit, and I felt like I was at a rave party (or what I imagine one is like)!

To be  frank, I only know like 5  Gaga songs. But I love a good performance and I think she put on a pretty awesome one – even if nothing made sense to me (I am not surprise since her interview in Vanity Fair barely made sense to me). I think there was supposed to be a story, something about giving birth to monsters and creating a different world, and then shooting down the floating face that looked like the Face of Boe from Doctor Who. Then she asked the audience if “they gave a fuck” and we were so confused that half said no and half said yes (I think the correct answer is no? Because apparently all the “monsters” are supposed to be bad?). Nevertheless we all loved her random inclusion of Hong Kong in her songs (I bet she does that in every city!). Her speech while she was playing her motorcycle piano was surprisingly normal too. It was  about not being afraid to be yourself etc. which she definitely represents!

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The show officially starts at 7:30pm, but we all know it’s code name for after 8pm – in this case 8:30pm. My cousin arrived at the arena at around 6:30pm and was very very lucky. He got there early enough to be admitted to the monster pit! Talk about a close up experience (that is what the special bracelet above is for)! He took the Gaga picture above with his phone – no zoom!

In the regular block A pit, it really was more like a club. I was actually closer than I thought, though at the time I didn’t notice because there were so many people in front of me. I would like to take this opportunity to say this:

1. To the man in the red afro: I know it is atmospheric and everything. But no one behind you can see anything in the crowded pit. You are not short. And bobbing your head around doesn’t help the view either. Thank you for taking the afro off midway. We all appreciated it.

2. To the man next to me with the BO: Please let me buy you some deodorant. In the meantime, can you please refrain from raising your hand up to take pictures, especially when you are hot and sweaty and it is very crowded?

Maybe I was just not meant  for the cockpit. I threw  frequent  envious looks up at the seated audience a few feet way from me.

I want more Kisses

29 Sunday Apr 2012

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Being a super sweet tooth with a soft spot for cupcakes, I make it a point to try all cupcake stores in town. The latest one on my list to try was Kisses Cupcakes on Gough Street.

At the recommendation of the store (which also happens to be my favourite flavors anyway) I tried the triple chocolate and the red velvet (last one on the rack!). The one thing the jumped out at me was that the icing is surprisingly frothy and creamy. A cross between icing and whip cream. On the other hand the cake itself is dense and moist. An interesting combination. The flavor was also as it should be, correctly tailored to the Asian taste and not teeth achingly sweet (though it is slightly weird, like drinking sparkling water and expecting it to taste like sprite). Upon closer inspection of the box, it seems that this is an extension of Chikalicious in New York. No wonder it brings back vague memories of the Chikalicious cupcake I had at St Marks – that is to say, not very memorable.

Am I dying to go back again and again for the cupcakes? To be frank, no. Fluffy icing and dense cake is just not my thing. For $25 per cupcake (and MORE for the Red Velvet, $28 I think?), I’d rather stick with Sift (still THE best ever). Their $200 for 6 customized Mother’s Day cakes is not exactly a deal either ($33 for a cupcake?? They’re not Ms. B!). Their whole $75 for a cupcake and white wine kind of sounds like a nice way to spend an afternoon though (reminds me of Sweet Revenge in New York). On the other hand, I can also go down the road to the Agnes B cafe which looks oh so welcoming…

Ps. The dense cake also gets really dry after a day. I’ve had Sift cupcakes after 2 days that still taste amazing.

Another Happy Happy Birthday

23 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Hong Kong, Lifestyle, Random Musings

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I was just looking through this blog, and realized that a few years ago, I’d written a piece freaking out about turning a quarter of a century old. Now that I have actually reached this milestone however, I feel surprisingly fine. Obviously there are still a lot of things to figure out and areas to improve in. But I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead. A little like the anticipation and apprehension I felt right before college.

Thank you again to everyone who has made it yet another happy happy birthday this year. I feel loved. Hopefully all my birthdays ahead will be the same 🙂

I finally got my long time wish of getting a cupcake tower this year!

I even got a floating balloon, which I’ve been thinking about for this year!

We’re still trying to figure out what the bottom part says… because it is definitely not my name.

Hydrangeas and roses.

And a taste of all my favourite desserts in Hong Kong! From Sift (for the cupcakes), to Zoe (above)..

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..to Cova….

..to Vero. A joint birthday celebration with a very old friend. First time in over 2 decades!

And lets not forget the delicious homemade carrot cake from S!

On Peddar Sample Sale

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Fashion, Hong Kong

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Last Wednesday, in an act of spontaneity, HG and I took ourselves to Times Square over lunch time for the Peddar Warehouse sale (equivalent for us to going from mid-town to Soho). It is the bi-annual sale for staff and friends of Lane Crawford to pick up goodies such as Louboutin pumps for more than 80% off the original price (also a chance for the Lane Crawford group to get rid of stock from the past many seasons). A little like our version of the Barneys Warehouse sale, if you will. About 40-45 minutes for transit (as fast as my pointy Cole Haan heels will take me – I seriously need to reconsider them, I am still feeling the pinching pain today!), we figured that we’d have a good 40-45 minutes of shopping before we had to rush back to the office.

This is not my first Peddar Warehouse sale. Back when I was interning at Chloe back in college, I went to something similar and remembered being relative impressed by the selection. I’d even picked up a pair of white Dior sneakers for HK$800 (roughly US$100). So I was quite excited to go to this one, as I imagined all the goodies I can get at a discount, especially now that I have a constant need for new work shoes. I felt adrenaline rush through as we approached the address, and we saw girls leaving with huge bagfuls of shoe boxes!

Turns out, a few years indeed makes quite a difference to things. To begin with, it used to be located in an office location and entrance was still relatively strict. I had to whip out my Chloe credentials. This time around, it is located in a secluded shopping area of the mall, and it is huge. Entrance was also quite easy, as we whipped out the forwarded email on our iphones and walked in. Turns out, there are lots of Lane Crawford staff and friends. I beelined my way to the size 6 shoe collection. I was disappointed to find that all the shoes my size were either kind of meh or way too tall to be practical. I picked up a pair of red Miu Miu peep toe flats with crystal embellishments for later consideration. As I enviously saw girls struggling with dozens of Louboutin shoe boxes pass by, I wondered how they managed to find anything. Am I looking at the wrong places? Determine, I then explored the other racks, in the hope that not all size 6 shoes are where they should be. I came out with the conclusion that I should’ve either come earlier, or have tiny or really big feet, because there really aren’t anything buy-able left in my size! The selection simple wasn’t that recent or decent. I think I spotted Miu Miu’s from pre-08!

I next moved onto the accessories section in the middle to try my luck. I found some knick knacks such as a crystal headband (which HG thinks looks exactly the same as all the ones I already have – which I disagree with. It’s a similar style, but it is totally different), a hot pink rectangular Louboutin clutch, a gold necklace and a studded belt. I wasn’t in love with any of them, but I wouldn’t mind having them either. They sold bags too. Again, the selection is not great. I saw a lady holding a huge YSL Easy bag covered with studds, in a murky army green/brown color, discounted to around $8000HKD (around $1000USD)… let’s just say, I can see why they couldn’t sell it off at full price.

The way the sale is structured, is that one pair of shoe is on displayed and then there’s a counter where you can go find the other shoe with the shoe box. After 5 minutes in line and it still didn’t move, I looked down at my pair of Miu Miu flats and then looked at the line in front of me, and the many bags of shoes still to be “found” (I am still baffled as to how people can have such big bags of shoes. They can’t all have had no work and really tiny/big feet!). I came to the executive decision that it is not worth it for a pair of flats that I don’t love but wouldn’t mind having.

So I took myself off to the check out line, to pay for the accessories. The line went around a few times and was almost out the door. We estimated that it will take half a hour at laest.  HG and I took stock of my selections – and decided it wasn’t worth the time. They aren’t even that cheap! We hurried back to work empty handed, and was amused to find another girl hurrying in front of us in very much the same situation. So much for sample sales in Hong Kong. I wish I’d remembered to take pictures of my almost buys so I can show and write, but sample sale shopping is just plain exhausting.