...sing better?
...stop being an idiot?
...stop making the same mistakes over and over again?
...get my couch sooner?
...just be happy?
I'd settle for just being happy. OK - and I'd like to not be an idiot either.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Multi-Day Summary – Ocean Park, Cheung Chau and Chinese People (February 20 – 25)
Somehow, during a vacation where I’m not doing that much, I don’t seem to have much time to blog! So this is a multi-day summary, all being written at the same time actually – this is now all post-trip, but I’m still trying to blog chronologically so you can sort of follow along.
On Thursday in week 2, went to Ocean Park. Turns out most of Mainland China also went to Ocean Park that day, since they have the entire week off for CNY, whereas Hong Kongers went back to work on Thursday. My family told me it would be crowded, but even they didn’t realize how crowded it would be!!! Lineups were: 1.5 hours to take the cable car up to the Headlands, where all the great exhibits were (also a great scenic ride); 1.5 hours to see the Jellyfish exhibit (while it rained on us – hard); 75 minutes of sitting in the rain, for a 20 minute dolphin & sea lion theatre show; 45 minutes to see the aquarium. No line up for the underwater shark tunnel, but the tunnel was like a 1 minute viewing thing. Oh – and every time we went to the washroom, it was at least a 20 minute lineup. We ate at odd times so we could avoid the food lineups (p.s. – do not eat hot dogs in HK, they are gross!)
So ok, the lineups and rain were really annoying, but they were not the worst part. The Chinese people were. The exhibits themselves were awesome, and I would totally go again to see them (the aquarium in particular, which took the longest, was amazing! Such a huge variety of fish, and tons of them! There were 3 stories worth of fish, and I saw just about all of the ones from Finding Nemo!) But even after all the lineups, once you got inside, it was ridiculous. Frankly, Ocean Park should not have let in all those people, because they could not handle the capacity. It was wall to wall Chinese people, and (I’m stereotyping here, but I get it from my aunts) the Mainlanders have the worst line up manners. My dad says it’s not really bad manners, but the result of scarcity of resources. Whatever – there’s no such thing as lining up when it comes to Mainlanders – it’s constant pushing. Pushing forwarding, pushing backward, pushing sideways – pushing you into the person in front of you even when there’s nowhere to go. And butting! If there’s the smallest open space between you and the person in front of you, they will slide right in there. And they have no concept of personal space. Not only are they pushing, but when they’re just standing still, they have to be standing so close to you that they’re touching you. Why can’t they leave some space? Oh yeah – because if they do, some other Mainlander will go there! Argh!!!! So even after the hours of lineups, once you get into the exhibits, you can’t get close to the display windows, and it’s really hot and full of pushy people. I felt really bad for my aunts because they basically only went because I was going, and I chose that day because I didn’t really have any other days left. I bought them dinner afterwards though. J
The good news is, out of the hundreds of pics I shot, I got a few decent ones – especially of the jellyfish, which I didn’t think was going to be a great exhibit but it was. They’re posted on my Flickr site (linked here), as are the Finding Nemo fish I saw. The clown fish were the coolest – they really did swim in & around the anemones, just like Nemo did! J
Next day we went to Ching Bik Chuen, via Cheung Chau. Cheung Chau is small island (one of the many off of Hong Kong), which you get to by ferry (takes about 1 hour). Cheung Chau is really cool, it’s essentially an island composed of a fishing village, but it’s also becoming quite the tourist spot with many B&B’s, some beaches and big hotels. It also seems to be catering to Western tourists – I saw a few white people there, and I thought it would be all Chinese. The nice thing about it is that it’s still relatively unknown, so it was quiet – and, there are no cars on the island at all, except for an ambulance and a few tractors! Everyone bicycles there to get around (unless you walk, of course). So there are a ton of bicycles for rent, including these 3-seaters that looked like rickshaws, with one person pedalling and 2 people behind them sitting in a comfy seat with a buggy cover. We didn’t rent any, but it was fun to watch all the other cyclists. And the streets are filled with the sound of bicycle bells, as all the locals warn the silly tourists walking obliviously around to watch out! J My uncle, who loves to cook and is a great chef, spent the morning at the local markets (there are many) buying fresh seafood, then brought it to this restaurant he’s really familiar with and got them to cook it for us! How cool is that! If you didn’t know the place, it just looks like any other ratty dai pai dong but it was actually one of the best restaurants on the island. The food was delicious, and afterwards we all trekked up the hill and into this cave which, legend has it, belonged to this pirate – can’t remember his exact name, something like Cheung Bo Tsai. Cheung Bo Tsai was one of the most powerful & notorious pirates of his day, and he found this cave on Cheung Chau island and hid all his treasure there. Now tourists and crawl through the cave themselves and see the great view from the other side. Thing is, the cave is pitch black (no lights at all), and it’s quite steep and narrow at points – so you have to bring your own flashlight, and go in a group of people, very carefully and slowly. If we weren’t with my aunt, who’d been through it once, I have no idea how we’d have done it!
After Cheung Bo Tsai’s cave, we took a small ferry over to Ching Bik Chuen – a tiny bay on one part of Lantau Island, which is huge (it’s the island where the big Buddha statue is). It’s purely a resort area, and my aunt and uncle (same one who likes to cook) bought an apartment in one of the resort condos. (Pictures on Flickr.) The condos don’t look like much on the outside, but they renovated it really nicely on the inside. Just think – it’s like their weekend cottage. While people in Toronto fight traffic for 2.5 hours to get to some overcrowded cottage in Muskoka in the summer, they can take a ferry for just over an hour and get to a private island resort with no one else there but them and other condo owners! The really cool thing about Ching Bik Chuen is that literally, you can’t get off the ferry boat unless you own a place/live there. The people who work on the dock know everyone who owns property there, and they greeted my aunt and uncle by name when they arrived. My aunt said that if she hadn’t called ahead and told them she was having visitors over, we wouldn’t have been allowed to land! Talk about great security – and the feeling that you’re worth a million bucks!
After visiting Ching Bik Chuen we took the small ferry back to Cheung Chau where we had some of their famous fish balls and noodle soup, then called it a night and took the ferry home.
On the weekend (Sat & Sun) before I went to Taiwan, I also managed to:
-tour around Central, a part of Hong Kong with cool shops and businesses, with my Dad as tour guide. (Pictures on Flickr.) The neat part was, we kept running into these professional tour guides who were taking their tour groups to the same spots my dad was taking me!
-Go up to the Peak – the top of Hong Kong island – and get some photos. I didn’t have my polarizing filter with me, when I really needed it – and Hong Kong is naturally smoggy and misty – so although the view (and the weather) was amazing, the photos didn’t turn out great.
-Go to the AIA Hong Kong World Carnival – HK’s version of the CNE which comes between Xmas and CNY. Although it’s very like the CNE, with its cheesy midway games that you don’t ever win, and the midway rides that are scary cause they look like they’re going to fall apart – it was way cooler than the CNE, because of its location. It was almost right on the waterfront, in Central, so surrounding the fair grounds were all these downtown skyscrapers. It was like being at the CNE in the middle of Bay Street! We had awesome weather for it too so it was really fun. AND – we managed to actually win a game! Included in the retardedly expensive entrance fee were 30 coins to play games. It took me 15 tries at the ring toss, but I actually got one! And the prizes were really good – for getting just 1 ring, I won a quite decent sized Pooh bear! My cousin actually won 2 rings, which would have gotten a big Pooh bear – but she wanted the smaller one. All 3 of us won Poohs, which was really cute for photos later that night at our family dinner.
I almost forgot – I went over to TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) at night with my Dad to take pics of the CNY lights (see Flickr). HK is probably the only place in the world where you can do what they do with lights on the skyscrapers – not because of technology, but because they have such a dense population of skyscrapers, and a shore on the opposite side close enough that you can appreciate all the lights. Also at TST is something called “Festival Walk”, which is their version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A bunch of famous HK movie stars/producers have their Star on a square in the sidewalk, as well as their hand prints. We saw Jackie Chan’s, Bruce Lee’s (couldn’t find Andy Lau’s, although I looked) – and – THIS ONE! Haha – he’s no one really famous but I had to take a picture of it for Ray & Sandra. The funny part is, while I was taking pictures of it, people started to crowd around and take pictures of it too because they thought it was someone really good since I was taking pics. They must have been so disappointed! The highlight of the Festival Walk was definitely this statue of Bruce Lee, which they did as some commemorative piece in the last 3 years or so. Set against the backdrop of the HK night skyline, it’s really quite impressive.
On Thursday in week 2, went to Ocean Park. Turns out most of Mainland China also went to Ocean Park that day, since they have the entire week off for CNY, whereas Hong Kongers went back to work on Thursday. My family told me it would be crowded, but even they didn’t realize how crowded it would be!!! Lineups were: 1.5 hours to take the cable car up to the Headlands, where all the great exhibits were (also a great scenic ride); 1.5 hours to see the Jellyfish exhibit (while it rained on us – hard); 75 minutes of sitting in the rain, for a 20 minute dolphin & sea lion theatre show; 45 minutes to see the aquarium. No line up for the underwater shark tunnel, but the tunnel was like a 1 minute viewing thing. Oh – and every time we went to the washroom, it was at least a 20 minute lineup. We ate at odd times so we could avoid the food lineups (p.s. – do not eat hot dogs in HK, they are gross!)
So ok, the lineups and rain were really annoying, but they were not the worst part. The Chinese people were. The exhibits themselves were awesome, and I would totally go again to see them (the aquarium in particular, which took the longest, was amazing! Such a huge variety of fish, and tons of them! There were 3 stories worth of fish, and I saw just about all of the ones from Finding Nemo!) But even after all the lineups, once you got inside, it was ridiculous. Frankly, Ocean Park should not have let in all those people, because they could not handle the capacity. It was wall to wall Chinese people, and (I’m stereotyping here, but I get it from my aunts) the Mainlanders have the worst line up manners. My dad says it’s not really bad manners, but the result of scarcity of resources. Whatever – there’s no such thing as lining up when it comes to Mainlanders – it’s constant pushing. Pushing forwarding, pushing backward, pushing sideways – pushing you into the person in front of you even when there’s nowhere to go. And butting! If there’s the smallest open space between you and the person in front of you, they will slide right in there. And they have no concept of personal space. Not only are they pushing, but when they’re just standing still, they have to be standing so close to you that they’re touching you. Why can’t they leave some space? Oh yeah – because if they do, some other Mainlander will go there! Argh!!!! So even after the hours of lineups, once you get into the exhibits, you can’t get close to the display windows, and it’s really hot and full of pushy people. I felt really bad for my aunts because they basically only went because I was going, and I chose that day because I didn’t really have any other days left. I bought them dinner afterwards though. J
The good news is, out of the hundreds of pics I shot, I got a few decent ones – especially of the jellyfish, which I didn’t think was going to be a great exhibit but it was. They’re posted on my Flickr site (linked here), as are the Finding Nemo fish I saw. The clown fish were the coolest – they really did swim in & around the anemones, just like Nemo did! J
Next day we went to Ching Bik Chuen, via Cheung Chau. Cheung Chau is small island (one of the many off of Hong Kong), which you get to by ferry (takes about 1 hour). Cheung Chau is really cool, it’s essentially an island composed of a fishing village, but it’s also becoming quite the tourist spot with many B&B’s, some beaches and big hotels. It also seems to be catering to Western tourists – I saw a few white people there, and I thought it would be all Chinese. The nice thing about it is that it’s still relatively unknown, so it was quiet – and, there are no cars on the island at all, except for an ambulance and a few tractors! Everyone bicycles there to get around (unless you walk, of course). So there are a ton of bicycles for rent, including these 3-seaters that looked like rickshaws, with one person pedalling and 2 people behind them sitting in a comfy seat with a buggy cover. We didn’t rent any, but it was fun to watch all the other cyclists. And the streets are filled with the sound of bicycle bells, as all the locals warn the silly tourists walking obliviously around to watch out! J My uncle, who loves to cook and is a great chef, spent the morning at the local markets (there are many) buying fresh seafood, then brought it to this restaurant he’s really familiar with and got them to cook it for us! How cool is that! If you didn’t know the place, it just looks like any other ratty dai pai dong but it was actually one of the best restaurants on the island. The food was delicious, and afterwards we all trekked up the hill and into this cave which, legend has it, belonged to this pirate – can’t remember his exact name, something like Cheung Bo Tsai. Cheung Bo Tsai was one of the most powerful & notorious pirates of his day, and he found this cave on Cheung Chau island and hid all his treasure there. Now tourists and crawl through the cave themselves and see the great view from the other side. Thing is, the cave is pitch black (no lights at all), and it’s quite steep and narrow at points – so you have to bring your own flashlight, and go in a group of people, very carefully and slowly. If we weren’t with my aunt, who’d been through it once, I have no idea how we’d have done it!
After Cheung Bo Tsai’s cave, we took a small ferry over to Ching Bik Chuen – a tiny bay on one part of Lantau Island, which is huge (it’s the island where the big Buddha statue is). It’s purely a resort area, and my aunt and uncle (same one who likes to cook) bought an apartment in one of the resort condos. (Pictures on Flickr.) The condos don’t look like much on the outside, but they renovated it really nicely on the inside. Just think – it’s like their weekend cottage. While people in Toronto fight traffic for 2.5 hours to get to some overcrowded cottage in Muskoka in the summer, they can take a ferry for just over an hour and get to a private island resort with no one else there but them and other condo owners! The really cool thing about Ching Bik Chuen is that literally, you can’t get off the ferry boat unless you own a place/live there. The people who work on the dock know everyone who owns property there, and they greeted my aunt and uncle by name when they arrived. My aunt said that if she hadn’t called ahead and told them she was having visitors over, we wouldn’t have been allowed to land! Talk about great security – and the feeling that you’re worth a million bucks!
After visiting Ching Bik Chuen we took the small ferry back to Cheung Chau where we had some of their famous fish balls and noodle soup, then called it a night and took the ferry home.
On the weekend (Sat & Sun) before I went to Taiwan, I also managed to:
-tour around Central, a part of Hong Kong with cool shops and businesses, with my Dad as tour guide. (Pictures on Flickr.) The neat part was, we kept running into these professional tour guides who were taking their tour groups to the same spots my dad was taking me!
-Go up to the Peak – the top of Hong Kong island – and get some photos. I didn’t have my polarizing filter with me, when I really needed it – and Hong Kong is naturally smoggy and misty – so although the view (and the weather) was amazing, the photos didn’t turn out great.
-Go to the AIA Hong Kong World Carnival – HK’s version of the CNE which comes between Xmas and CNY. Although it’s very like the CNE, with its cheesy midway games that you don’t ever win, and the midway rides that are scary cause they look like they’re going to fall apart – it was way cooler than the CNE, because of its location. It was almost right on the waterfront, in Central, so surrounding the fair grounds were all these downtown skyscrapers. It was like being at the CNE in the middle of Bay Street! We had awesome weather for it too so it was really fun. AND – we managed to actually win a game! Included in the retardedly expensive entrance fee were 30 coins to play games. It took me 15 tries at the ring toss, but I actually got one! And the prizes were really good – for getting just 1 ring, I won a quite decent sized Pooh bear! My cousin actually won 2 rings, which would have gotten a big Pooh bear – but she wanted the smaller one. All 3 of us won Poohs, which was really cute for photos later that night at our family dinner.
I almost forgot – I went over to TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) at night with my Dad to take pics of the CNY lights (see Flickr). HK is probably the only place in the world where you can do what they do with lights on the skyscrapers – not because of technology, but because they have such a dense population of skyscrapers, and a shore on the opposite side close enough that you can appreciate all the lights. Also at TST is something called “Festival Walk”, which is their version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A bunch of famous HK movie stars/producers have their Star on a square in the sidewalk, as well as their hand prints. We saw Jackie Chan’s, Bruce Lee’s (couldn’t find Andy Lau’s, although I looked) – and – THIS ONE! Haha – he’s no one really famous but I had to take a picture of it for Ray & Sandra. The funny part is, while I was taking pictures of it, people started to crowd around and take pictures of it too because they thought it was someone really good since I was taking pics. They must have been so disappointed! The highlight of the Festival Walk was definitely this statue of Bruce Lee, which they did as some commemorative piece in the last 3 years or so. Set against the backdrop of the HK night skyline, it’s really quite impressive.
OK, see why I haven’t been blogging at all? I’ve been surprisingly busy for a trip with nothing planned. Next blog is about my trip to visit Ray & Sandra in Taipei, which is also shown as a “guest entry” on their blog.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
This little piggy....
I mentioned in my earlier blog about the pigs on display for Chinese New Year. Here is pictorial evidence.
Pig poster hanging on restaurant door:
Pig Angel - made by Swarovski:
Pig poster hanging on restaurant door:
Pig Angel - made by Swarovski:
Field of Pigs
Panda Pig - & friends
Pig 8 ball
Gotta love HK!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Kung Hei Fat Choy!
It's the year of the pig! Or in HK - they seem to be cute little fat porkers, or piglets, or piggies. There are 24 k gold piggies, large painted ceramic piggies, inflatable plastic piggies, and of course - my favourite - roast suckling piggies. Yum! Luckily in HK, the pig symbol is everywhere so I know exactly what year it is. I think 2 years ago it was monkey cause I remember a similar thing with monkeys. At home in TO, it's not so prevalent - at least not where I live and work, so I have no idea what year it ever is.
I haven't been blogging much, even though I've been here a week - that's because for most of that week I've basically been shopping non-stop. I've bought my next 2 year's worth of clothes & shoes, almost - have a few things still to get, including a very expensive purse. But NOT the Christian Dior that I've been lusting after - still can't get over my guilt on that purchase, so I think I'll have to stick to this nice black leather Lancel handbag, even though it's not a well-known label at home so in some ways I'm spending a ton of money on nothing. I can't even link to a web page to show you what I'm talking about, it's that obscure - you'll just have to see for yourself when I'm back.
I have also managed to gorge myself on food every day. It's so good here! I have no pics of food because I realized a) there's no room on HK streets for both me and my camera, and b) chinese food generally doesn't look very good, it just tastes good - particularly the authentic stuff. You know what I'm talking about - fish ball ho fun soup, congee (any kind), dim sum, almond paste dessert....yum! Thanks also to GKY, aka "Hong Kong Concierge service" for arranging all of three dinners for us, all at good places. Peking Garden was great! I've been blessed with many friends to visit while I'm here this time around too, including Peter, Maria, and Ray & Sandra...so everyone except Peter & GKY are here from other cities. Funny how I tend to meet up with people in 3rd locations while I'm on vaca! The only one missing from my list is DragonX!
The last 2 days have been spent getting ready for Chinese New Year (CNY for short). It's never been a big deal for me, even getting the lucky money in red pockets - probably cause most of my CNYs have been spent in audit busy season so I've had no time to think about it or enjoy it really. A few tasty pan fried turnip cakes, new year's cake and some family dinners have been it. Even the last few years when JCL has asked me to go "hang lien siu" with her family, I've been like - what's that? For those who don't know, "hang lien siu" is basically walking the street markets the 2 or so days/nights before actual CNY day. In Toronto, I never went but I understand it consists of driving to Pacific Mall, struggling to find parking amongst the throngs of chinese people who can't drive, then wandering the mall all night and eating. So I've never even been tempted to go.
In HK - it's totally different! It's not just the night before, it's about 2-3 days before. And it stems from the tradition where everyone buys flowers for their house to decorate it and make it nice before CNY. So a lot of the market stalls are selling flowers, and the flowers here are really exotic! However I went last night with my cousin & aunt and they also sell these retarded cheap plastic inflatable toys, and those stalls were more packed than the flower stalls! At first I couldn't figure out why anyone would waste their money on these environmentally unfriendly toys that frankly I wouldn't want if I was a child, and that are only worthwhile for about 3 days. Then I realized that some of these toys were actually quite clever - and if you understand chinese words & sayings (which I don't), the market is actually a showcase for young business people to display their wit and design prowess. For example, here's something my cousin bought - a plastic trophy cup with the words "bao lei sing cup", which is a CNY wish saying "guaranteed you will get promotion". But instead of the chinese character for "cup" (it's a real character), they used the English word "cup". Get it? Trophy - cup - hahaha. Ok yes, I know - it's fobby - but still cute. :)
There was a ton more stuff, but too much to write explanations for - and it was so bloody crowded that I couldn't take any pictures. Literally it was wall-to-wall people (but no walls!) and we could barely breathe. I only lasted maybe 1 hr and we had to go - and I only stayed that long because we had no way of getting out until we walked all the way to the end! The entire "fairgrounds" ran from one MTR (that's subway) stop to the next. So it's big. And wide. When we walked down one "aisle", we could only see what was on one side of the aisle because of all the people between us and the other side!
It was worth it to experience though. Today I went with my aunt & uncle to a flower market during the day. It was also packed, but not nearly like last night. I tried to capture the crowdedness of the market but I think I'm too short to achieve the right perspective. Anyhow here are a few shots of the different kinds of flowers they have:
I haven't been blogging much, even though I've been here a week - that's because for most of that week I've basically been shopping non-stop. I've bought my next 2 year's worth of clothes & shoes, almost - have a few things still to get, including a very expensive purse. But NOT the Christian Dior that I've been lusting after - still can't get over my guilt on that purchase, so I think I'll have to stick to this nice black leather Lancel handbag, even though it's not a well-known label at home so in some ways I'm spending a ton of money on nothing. I can't even link to a web page to show you what I'm talking about, it's that obscure - you'll just have to see for yourself when I'm back.
I have also managed to gorge myself on food every day. It's so good here! I have no pics of food because I realized a) there's no room on HK streets for both me and my camera, and b) chinese food generally doesn't look very good, it just tastes good - particularly the authentic stuff. You know what I'm talking about - fish ball ho fun soup, congee (any kind), dim sum, almond paste dessert....yum! Thanks also to GKY, aka "Hong Kong Concierge service" for arranging all of three dinners for us, all at good places. Peking Garden was great! I've been blessed with many friends to visit while I'm here this time around too, including Peter, Maria, and Ray & Sandra...so everyone except Peter & GKY are here from other cities. Funny how I tend to meet up with people in 3rd locations while I'm on vaca! The only one missing from my list is DragonX!
The last 2 days have been spent getting ready for Chinese New Year (CNY for short). It's never been a big deal for me, even getting the lucky money in red pockets - probably cause most of my CNYs have been spent in audit busy season so I've had no time to think about it or enjoy it really. A few tasty pan fried turnip cakes, new year's cake and some family dinners have been it. Even the last few years when JCL has asked me to go "hang lien siu" with her family, I've been like - what's that? For those who don't know, "hang lien siu" is basically walking the street markets the 2 or so days/nights before actual CNY day. In Toronto, I never went but I understand it consists of driving to Pacific Mall, struggling to find parking amongst the throngs of chinese people who can't drive, then wandering the mall all night and eating. So I've never even been tempted to go.
In HK - it's totally different! It's not just the night before, it's about 2-3 days before. And it stems from the tradition where everyone buys flowers for their house to decorate it and make it nice before CNY. So a lot of the market stalls are selling flowers, and the flowers here are really exotic! However I went last night with my cousin & aunt and they also sell these retarded cheap plastic inflatable toys, and those stalls were more packed than the flower stalls! At first I couldn't figure out why anyone would waste their money on these environmentally unfriendly toys that frankly I wouldn't want if I was a child, and that are only worthwhile for about 3 days. Then I realized that some of these toys were actually quite clever - and if you understand chinese words & sayings (which I don't), the market is actually a showcase for young business people to display their wit and design prowess. For example, here's something my cousin bought - a plastic trophy cup with the words "bao lei sing cup", which is a CNY wish saying "guaranteed you will get promotion". But instead of the chinese character for "cup" (it's a real character), they used the English word "cup". Get it? Trophy - cup - hahaha. Ok yes, I know - it's fobby - but still cute. :)There was a ton more stuff, but too much to write explanations for - and it was so bloody crowded that I couldn't take any pictures. Literally it was wall-to-wall people (but no walls!) and we could barely breathe. I only lasted maybe 1 hr and we had to go - and I only stayed that long because we had no way of getting out until we walked all the way to the end! The entire "fairgrounds" ran from one MTR (that's subway) stop to the next. So it's big. And wide. When we walked down one "aisle", we could only see what was on one side of the aisle because of all the people between us and the other side!
It was worth it to experience though. Today I went with my aunt & uncle to a flower market during the day. It was also packed, but not nearly like last night. I tried to capture the crowdedness of the market but I think I'm too short to achieve the right perspective. Anyhow here are a few shots of the different kinds of flowers they have:
And pics of the crowds in the flower market, including a vendor hawking her wares - there were literally people with megaphones and loudspeakers yelling out to the hordes:
Ok - time to say night - way past my bedtime. Thanks again to Hong Kong Concierge, going to this church tomorrow. Can't even be late because I don't know how to get there so I have to meet people!
Kung Hei Fat Choy everybody!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
My life will never be the same again
It's day....I can't tell, maybe 2? Maybe 1? in HK for me. All I can remember right now is that I had the best flight ever from Toronto to HK, because all those Calgary flights - plus the cost of flying to London - suddenly became worth it! Yes, ladies and gentlemen - being Elite status and super privileged makes me feel special. I got upgraded to business class!!!!
Words cannot describe how well the flight went. You know how normally, after being on the plane for 16 hours, your butt hurts, your back hurts, and you're extremely tired and cranky? Especially when you slept for 45 min the night before because it took 5 hours to pack? Yeah...none of that happened this time around. The seats reclined almost 180 degrees! I could sleep! And although the TV sucked, we had noise-cancelling headseats! For the first time, I didn't have to crank the volume to max and hold the headsets pressed flat against my ears to hear the TV! And we got wine for free! And champagne! And they had like 6 flight attendants for 20 passengers, vs. 4 for 60! And they hung up my coat! And we had footrests, so for the first time my legs didn't dangle! And although I had a window seat, I didn't have to give the guy next to me a lap dance just to get to the bathroom! I could walk around him!
Sigh....bliss....it was wondrous. The most amazing 16 hour flight I've ever taken. Don't know how I ever roughed it in economy class before. If I do nothing else for the next 3 weeks, this will have been totally worth it.I even brought the menu off the plane with me so I could tell you what I ate, but it's downstairs right now and I'm using my aunt's internet. Let's just say, some of their menu items were "created" by Lai Wah Heen (although from the taste, I can almost guarantee it wasn't cooked by them).
It was SO GREAT. Seriously, words cannot express. I'm seriously contemplating now whether it would be worth the extra $4,000 to fly bus class to HK every time. Actually I think my parents should pay for it. That way I'll never be cranky getting off the plane again. :)
Thanks be to God for blessing me with the upgrade!!
Till next time folks...stay tuned for further updates from my HK trip. Although I can't imagine anything topping that experience. :)
Words cannot describe how well the flight went. You know how normally, after being on the plane for 16 hours, your butt hurts, your back hurts, and you're extremely tired and cranky? Especially when you slept for 45 min the night before because it took 5 hours to pack? Yeah...none of that happened this time around. The seats reclined almost 180 degrees! I could sleep! And although the TV sucked, we had noise-cancelling headseats! For the first time, I didn't have to crank the volume to max and hold the headsets pressed flat against my ears to hear the TV! And we got wine for free! And champagne! And they had like 6 flight attendants for 20 passengers, vs. 4 for 60! And they hung up my coat! And we had footrests, so for the first time my legs didn't dangle! And although I had a window seat, I didn't have to give the guy next to me a lap dance just to get to the bathroom! I could walk around him!
Sigh....bliss....it was wondrous. The most amazing 16 hour flight I've ever taken. Don't know how I ever roughed it in economy class before. If I do nothing else for the next 3 weeks, this will have been totally worth it.I even brought the menu off the plane with me so I could tell you what I ate, but it's downstairs right now and I'm using my aunt's internet. Let's just say, some of their menu items were "created" by Lai Wah Heen (although from the taste, I can almost guarantee it wasn't cooked by them).
It was SO GREAT. Seriously, words cannot express. I'm seriously contemplating now whether it would be worth the extra $4,000 to fly bus class to HK every time. Actually I think my parents should pay for it. That way I'll never be cranky getting off the plane again. :)
Thanks be to God for blessing me with the upgrade!!
Till next time folks...stay tuned for further updates from my HK trip. Although I can't imagine anything topping that experience. :)
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Tribute
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
-Psalm 23
Rest in peace. January 31, 2007.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
-Psalm 23
Rest in peace. January 31, 2007.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
On Notice
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