笑吧! 走更远的路

人往往有不开心的事,
为了不影响身边的家人和朋友,
把难过与哀愁往自己心里面塞.
但不论胸怀有多宽多大,
终有一天还是会容不下,
爆发.
可以是泪,
可以是气,
当然也可以
不去烦恼,
不去难过,
不去管.
大声得笑,
继续走,
更远的路.

无希望的等待 ... 吗?

无论如何, 我想还是应该尽力去争取的! 往后的日子, 走一步, 看一步咯. 还未到最终点, 没有人知道会发生什么事. 知道自己尽了力就好, 没有什么好后悔的. 再说, 这次的选择, 如果成功的话, 也只有益无害.

我的胸怀充满希望, 等待.
Sudden opportunities, bold moves.

我又走慢了

Yasmin

Chanced upon the film, Muallaf on Xunlei.com. Super excited! Never expected to find a Yasmin film on a Chinese website (if doesn't have Sepet or Gubra, though), and one that I have not watched before. So I decided to check the film synopsis online before watching the film, and came across Yasmin's blogs:

The Storyteller: she really, really was. She took little segments of our lives and blew them up on the big screen. She surfaced our laughter, our tears, our courage, our fears. And all the other emotions in between that we fail to see or refuse to acknowledge. She cast a light on what it means being human, being one of many humans, transcending race, language and religion, and the strange web that weaves us all together, for and against our wishes, and how this is what makes being human so ... well, alive.

The Filmmaker: her last post was on 22 July 2009. She died on 25 July 2009.

The blogs brought fresh tears to my eyes.

片尾片, 败犬女王

总是觉得台湾电视剧的片尾片(就是在播放片尾曲同时播放的短片)很精美, 很好看. 目前在U频道播出的<败犬女王>也不例外.

其实这部电视剧还是挺好看的. 虽然头几集感觉有点漫长, 剧情也有点无聊, 但是却越来越好看哦. 是蛮贴心的, 可能因为片中女主角的性格与处境和我的很相似吧!

Earth Day 2010

Turn off the lights
and check your sockets,
save some energy
and what little is left
in Mother Earth's pockets.

雨过天晴

礼拜四下午下了一场很恐怖的大雨。雨后的夕阳就是这样了 ... ^___^*

Excitement!

Oh my GOD! This is the biggest rush of adrenaline I've had in a while.

KC, with whom I haven't been in touch since 2007 while chatting with him as the strike at Karachi happened outside The Sheraton where I stayed, MSNed me cuz of the countdown to Expo in my nick.

Ok, that's nice right, after all, a long time ago, I kinda had a little crush on him. He's cute ok ... Haha, but it's the next thing he told me that made my jaw drop.

KC: im in shanghai
KC: are u counting down to the expo here?
Me: yep, counting down
KC: Im working for Disney Shanghai at the moment
Me: (jaw dropped) OOOH happening!!!
KC: working here as a Creative Consultant
Me: Any vacancy??

Oh man, and he never wanted to work for Disney. He never wanted to work for anyone but himself and such a talented guy, he's got a number of great works under his belt. In fact, Disney approached him after he produced LaMB. I'm so proud of him!

Singlish

Wan Lynn sent me a questionnaire to fill in this morning, but forgot to attach in the email.

So I called out to her, "你没有 attach 那个 questionnaire!"

Daniel started laughing. He always laughs at how we mince our Chinese and English words in what we famously acknowledge as Singlish.

On the other hand, I wondered why I couldn't have said, "You didn't 附上 that 问卷!"

Luke had an explanation: We use English for work and Chinese for friendly conversations. So naturally, when we use both languages in a single sentence, we'll use English words for the technical terms and Chinese for the conversational terms.

Sounds very logical for this particular incidence. But is it always like this?

I still wonder.

Hong Kong Food Haven

Well, we didn't go to as many good food places as we'd like to, but every meal we had was awesome anyway! So, let me share some of the most remarkable ones with their addresses in case you're keen on trying the next time you pop by HK:

Breakfast:
Mido Cafe
Address: 63 Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei
Phone: 2384-6402
We went there for the cafe's 1950s charm and delicious buttered 'bo lo bao' (called 'bo lo yao' - oily 'bo lo bao') and milk tea.

Tsui Wah Restaurant
Address: 15-19 Wellington street, Central
Web: http://www.tsuiwahrestaurant.com
We went there for typical Hong Kong breakfast, but ended up ordering only milk tea and 'gai zai bao' (crispy yet soft toasted bun spread with butter and condensed milk). We watched in awe how the slender HK people down their bowls of instant noodles (with a variety of garnishing from luncheon meat to beef), 'gai za bao' and milk tea.

Dim sum
Foo Lum Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant
Address: G/F, Auto Plaza, 65 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Telephone: 2723-8132
Web: http://www.foolumgroup.com
This was the only dim sum restaurant we went to this trip; simply didn't have the time, plus there were so many other things to try too! We found this restaurant in a Singapore foodie magazine, and since it's close to where we stayed (Chungking Mansions), we decided to pop by the morning following our arrival in HK. Delicious dim sum, and definitely a lot more affordable than eating in Singapore!

Indian
Branto Pure Indian Vegetarian Club
Address: 1/F, 9 Lock Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
Telephone: 2366-8171
This Indian restaurant is hidden on the first floor (which is level 2) of a building. One needs to use the intercom and punch in the codes as per the instruction sheet by the door. The food is good, but be warned of the huge meal portions. Yup, there's only one size, so you cannot choose a S-sized meal.

Chinese
Lung Wah Hotel (Restaurant)
Address: 22 Ha Wo Che, Sha Tin
Telephone: 2691-1594
Web: http://www.lungwahhotel.hk
This restaurant is the original inventor of roasted pigeon. Aside from the trademark pigeon dishes, Lung Wah also serves up other great Cantonese dishes and to top it all, a wonderful cozy and amiable ambience. It's a little hidden up a slope, its architecture resembles more of a temple than a restaurant, and with a name that says "hotel", one could easily walk past it anticipating a high-rise hotel instead. So, check the local map before heading out the Sha Tin MTR, walk about 10 mins and be on high alert for the 2 sign boards (side by side) which say "Sheung Wo Che" and "Ha Wo Che" respectively. They're at the foot of an overhead bridge, and when you look beyond the signboards, you'll see the restaurant in all of its red glory.

Dessert
Hui Lau Shan/Xu Liu Shan (许留山) Mango Desserts
Address: A franchise with stores in most places including Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok, Causeway Bay, etc
Delicious mango dessert. Need I say more?

Street food
Fishballs 鱼蛋 and "Yong Tau Foo"
Address: Most places
Dip the fishballs in hot and spicy curry broth, pop em in your mouth and let em sizzle! Pick your choice of "yong tau foo" (not that there's as wide a variety as compared to what we have here in Singapore/Malaysia), the store attendant will boil em, put em in paper bags with wooden skewers with which you will eat the sizzling hot "yong tau foo"!

Got my Expo tix

Dropped by CTC today, the authorised travel agent for the Shanghai World Expo, for a 3-day pass at SGD90.

So I'm all set. 48 days.

Shanghai World Expo Pavilions

The theme this year is "Better City, Better Life". The Expo will feature ideas and concepts of future sustainable urban living from countries around the world of different economic, social, cultural and political backgrounds. Yet, from history we've learned that Expo pavilions will be dismantled after the grand event. Where do all the materials go?

I guess the success of this year's Shanghai World Expo is measured not by the exposure and publicity it receives, or the number of visitors it eventually attracts which will no doubt be a massive number, but by how efficiently the dismantled pavilions can be reused to minimise the waste and stress that they will cause the already overflowing landfill to the detriment of the environment and people, which will be a complete irony of the Expo's theme.

Other than that, although the construction seems terribly behind schedule, the pavilions are shaping up real nice. I'm proud of Malaysia's and Singapore's pavilions; some kickass structures they are! I just hope they'll all be fully completed when I arrive in 52 days.

Back in warm humid Singapore

Ahhh ... there I go again whining about having come home. It's great to see the family again and sleep in my own bed but I'd rather a few more days in HK :)

Oh well, I guess it's back to work and reality tomorrow. Good night, and ciao!

Neil Clarke, if you're reading this, I'll reply to you in a jiffy, keep posted to MSN, that's where pictures will go this weekend! :) For now, keep your words flowing, save me a copy of your original manuscript please, for Christmas, you Triumvirate of many talents :)

Last nite in HK, next stop Shanghai

How fast! This is the final night of our stay in HK. And I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Shanghai ... hehe ...

This morning, we went to Mido Cafe in Yau Ma Tei recommended by someone on an online food blog as well as lonely planet for oily po lo bao and milk tea. It's quite an atmospheric place, supposedly has stayed the same since the 1950s in spite of all the dynamic changes happening around it. I also fiddled around with my S90 - quite some kickass camera, this one :)

After Mido, we headed out to Lamma Island. Before boarding, both CD and I bought something from Zara at the IFC Mall - me, a nice top, CD, a nice pair of jeans. Both are about SGD60, which is quite a good bargain.

Lamma Island is nice tranquil place to chill out. We trekked to the beach at Mo Tat Wan, where we sat down with cappucinos and a slice of cheesecake. After some brief moments picking seashells on the beach, we boarded the ferry and ended up in Aberdeen, after which we took the mini bus to Causeway Bay.

Here, other than the mandatory Hang Heung egg rolls and lo po beng (wife biscuits), CD and I both got great bargains at some of the fashion shops in the vicinity of Sogo. We also had some street food like yu dan (skewers of curry sauce soaked fishballs) and yong tau foo Hong Kong style. Then the ham chee peng and another ova-shaped fritter caught our eyes so we had that too. While we were eating, a bowl of beef porridge on the poster tempted us, so we got that too. Hahahaha ... how greedy! We were truly full to the max.

We decided to head back to the hostel to dump the stuff before heading out to Mongkok's Ladies Market again for some souvenirs for the folks back home. So we spent a couple of hours there, and couldn't resist the temptation of mango dessert Xu Liu Shan, so we had that. Oh did I mention that I succumb to the lure of a nice gray shawl with pink criss-crossed patterns (despite telling CD that I'd bought so many of them from China!)?

Man, HK is indeed a giant money sucking machine, and a monstrous food mall. I love it, and miss it already. Last day tomorrow, we're having roasted pigeon at Sha Tin, supposedly the original inventor of roasted pigeon which has become a local must-eat HK delicacy :)

In HK: 10KM walk + S90 in the bag

Whoa! CD and I walked 10km today to see the Geopark's volcanic unique hexagonal rocks and other beautiful sights. It's indeed a very different side of HK, and I'm extremely satisfied!

What's more, today I finally got my S90 from Best Denki, HKD100 cheaper than the 2 other stores that I asked yesterday. Blimey and super happy! Haha ...

But damn tired. My face feels flushed, eyes sleepy, legs a bit sore (which I'm pretty sure will be even more so tomorrow). On top of that, it's colder today than it was yesterday, plus it's out in the countryside on high altidude, so what gives.

But I'm happy. So gotta ciao, sleep and be ready for tomorrow's adventure to the Wetlands :)