Hello Again, Hong Kong!
Shop and Shop
Had a fairly smooth journey to HK. Was very happy to see ‘kai-lan’ on the flight! True, it’s a bit overcooked as most airline meals are, but it's just great to see my fave veg after nearly a week of mostly salad!!!
Was waiting at the airport for G who was arriving from Singapore when I found that Chris had come to the airport to meet me! Pleasant surprise! At the hotel, I complained that the bed was very hard while G claimed to like hard beds. But turned out that it was me who had a great sleep (after nights of losing battles against jet-lag in Canada) while G didn’t sleep well!
Next day, the weather was horrid! Rain and more rain. We went to a 茶餐廳 (tea-house) for breakfast. There are loads of them in Wanchai so we were really spoilt for choice! The set usually consists of eggs and ham/sausage (sometimes with bread) plus beehoon/noodles/macaroni etc so it was very filling. One thing I noticed about 茶餐廳 meals is that there is very little veg! We braved the rain to walk from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok, avoiding big shopping centres for little shops. G got some soap souvenirs while I bought loads of CDs and a few clothes! We went to so many shops and G helped me compare prices to get the best deals. Then we spotted some shops near Jordan that sold clothes that we thought might be suitable for G's mum. But they were very ex!
We were tired and wet from the rain so decided to have an easy night. Then we discovered that this Taiwanese TV channel was showing “Jewel in the Palace”! And G who previously didn’t watch the show became addicted after just one day!
Next day the weather was worse than ever. Heavy rain and windy at times. We decided that sightseeing in this weather wouldn’t make any sense so we parked ourselves in big malls like Times Square and Sogo in Causeway Bay to avoid getting too wet. My umbrella broke and I had to buy a new one... It was my turn to accompany G to buy stuff. Judy also popped by and it was great to see her! I tried to locate Bobo’s albums for Vii but still couldn’t find any...
Electric Tram at Causeway Bay
Bobo and C-Hing Poster at Times Square
Conference
Sunday marked the beginning of a busy week. Before the afternoon workshop, I decided to walk around Wanchai to see if I could find Bobo albums. Not only did I stumble upon Oriental 188 (like Sino, it has quite a few 2nd hand CD shops), I finally got hold of a brand new copy of "Retrospect" (Bobo best selection) at another shop! After going to more than a dozen shops! Vii, Bobo CDs very hard to find! Then both G and I decided that we'd better stopped going to CD shops or I would just keep buying stuff...
Back to the conference, the pace was less hectic than in Canada and of course I didn’t have to fight jetlag which made things much easier! It was also easy to find cheap eating-places. Anyway, met some nice people at the conference, my poster presentation went without a hitch, buffet lunch was provided everyday, and the banquet was great with entertainment in the form of dragon dance, Chinese dance and ‘Face-Changing’.
Lion Dance at the Opening Ceremony of the Conference
Poster of the first HK Govt Lab
Dragon Dance at the Closing Ceremony of the Conference
Night Scene from HKCEC (but i really need a tripod...)
Toothache!
My gum started hurting on Sunday morning but both G and I thought it was ‘heatiness’. So I bought chrysanthemum cooling tea and drank 5 packets but it didn’t help one bit! So pain I had to see a dentist! Fortunately I knew someone who knew a dentist at the conference who in turn knew a local dentist. He treated my problem (wisdom tooth, arrrrgh!), gave me antibiotics and painkillers, and didn’t charge a single cent! I will buy a present and send to him. But he said I'd have to have that tooth extracted...eeeew.
Ngau Kee
Met up with Judy, Ah Sum and their friend Ah Mun for dinner at Ngau Kee. It has moved but still in Central, somewhere near those long escalators. We sat upstairs but agreed that the previous shop exuded a better ‘feel’ somehow.
Ngau Kee at its new location
Red-light District
Wanchai turns out to be a red-light district and our hotel is smacked right in the middle of it!! So on our way to and fro the mtr station, we would see some middle-aged women (presumably the ‘mummies’?) and sexily-dressed ladies sitting outside the bars/clubs. But it’s quite safe cos they obviously go for the men. Twice, however, I saw some girls coming near me saying ‘Come, Come!’ and my heart skipped a beat! Think I was unlucky to be walking just in front of some men!
Night Scene at Wanchai
Wrong Info
Got a call from Sum saying that hocc might make an appearance at some place not very far from my hotel. Since I was free I went there and met Ah Mun and her friend. (Mun is Edmond’s fan.) It turned out to be wrong info :( I only saw Ronald arriving, and Candy, Edmond and Ming-Gor leaving. Guess whoever who said they saw hocc might have mistaken Candy for her.
I had wanted to take a photo with Edmond, who smiled at me in his van! But in the end I didn't. Dunno, I realised that even though I like him, I didn’t really mind not taking a picture. Guess it was the same situation with Candy last time. I mean, this time when I saw her, (she disappeared fairly quickly; they all seem to be in a great hurry), I thought of taking a pic for caocao (but sorry, I wasn’t quick enough). I guess this is the difference between someone I truly consider an idol and someone I just like. So ultimately there are only two singers (Sammi and Hocc) whom I really desire to have a picture taken with, I think.
Kowloon Bay Trade Centre
Money told me I could go for the show at Kowloon Bay! Well, Ah Yip said that there are free shuttle buses from the mtr but the bus-stop was a little way from the station. I asked station control but didn’t get clear instructions and they conflicted with those given by Yip. Heck, I was wondering around like lost sheep when I got a call from Sum! Thank goodness she was going too and led the way. Seems like most of the tickets had gone to Leon fans considering his huge fan base. There were quite a lot of ‘auntie’-type fans. I wouldn’t laugh at them cos I think it's quite remarkable and I myself will most likely still be a Sammi & hocc fan 20 years from now!
I went to thank Goodae and Goomo (esp the latter) for giving me advice about going to Montreal. At first I said I am from Singapore and she remembers! Then I mentioned Montreal and she asked me how I like the place. She said I need to eat more and put on some weight! Goodae was his usual humorous self, telling me that I should just say his name in Montreal Chinatown and I don’t have to pay! He also told me, 'Don't show the photo taken with me to your boyfriend or he will be jealous!' When he heard that I would be leaving the next day, he said ‘oh, if you stay longer you can catch the musical.’ Haha...
Anyway, Hocc was first to appear on stage. She sang "Becoming Butterfly", "You are the 80s", "Glamorous" and "Rolls.Royce". She said that it’s too late to buy tickets to her musical (cos they are all sold out!) but can buy the DVD. So yeah, there will be a DVD release!! Too bad she didn’t stay for the whole show...The other performers were Charles, Janice and Leon, plus appearances by Joey Tang and Dennie Wong. Yay, I quite like Dennie. Through her resourcefulness and dare, Sum got me a souvenir! Thank you so much...hehe...
After the show, we went for dessert, meeting up with Judy and also saw Money and some others. I don't like dessert but I thought I'd try something different called '西瓜涼粉撈'. It turned out to be 'chin chow' (grass jelly) with watermelon! Eeeks, I don't like chin chow, but I ate it all up...But I shall try something else next time...Returned to the hotel really late (think it was last train for the night or nearly the last!) G was still awake, having finished packing already. I was too tired and just went to bed!
Goomo looking absolutely fabulous
Goodae looking great too
Hocc on Stage
Charles and Barry (one of the MCs)
Charles with Dennie Wong on keyboards
Janice and Joey Tang Jamming Session
Leon
Business Class
Guess what, the return flight was overbooked so they upgraded me to Business Class!! Shiok man! The seats were wider than economy with so much leg room I had to take a picture. Suaku lol! But first time on business class! They kept serving drinks and the meals came in course by course – appetizer, salad, bread, main course, fruits, ice-cream! And there was real cutlery rather than plastic. I thought they might have a bigger toilet but was a bit disappointed to find that they weren't much different from the economy ones... But overall a nice experience, too bad it wasn’t for a long-haul flight!
Afterword
I was exhausted after returning home. Slept pretty much the whole day and had to drag myself back to work. Loads of conference material to get through now...
Had a fairly smooth journey to HK. Was very happy to see ‘kai-lan’ on the flight! True, it’s a bit overcooked as most airline meals are, but it's just great to see my fave veg after nearly a week of mostly salad!!!
Was waiting at the airport for G who was arriving from Singapore when I found that Chris had come to the airport to meet me! Pleasant surprise! At the hotel, I complained that the bed was very hard while G claimed to like hard beds. But turned out that it was me who had a great sleep (after nights of losing battles against jet-lag in Canada) while G didn’t sleep well!
Next day, the weather was horrid! Rain and more rain. We went to a 茶餐廳 (tea-house) for breakfast. There are loads of them in Wanchai so we were really spoilt for choice! The set usually consists of eggs and ham/sausage (sometimes with bread) plus beehoon/noodles/macaroni etc so it was very filling. One thing I noticed about 茶餐廳 meals is that there is very little veg! We braved the rain to walk from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok, avoiding big shopping centres for little shops. G got some soap souvenirs while I bought loads of CDs and a few clothes! We went to so many shops and G helped me compare prices to get the best deals. Then we spotted some shops near Jordan that sold clothes that we thought might be suitable for G's mum. But they were very ex!
We were tired and wet from the rain so decided to have an easy night. Then we discovered that this Taiwanese TV channel was showing “Jewel in the Palace”! And G who previously didn’t watch the show became addicted after just one day!
Next day the weather was worse than ever. Heavy rain and windy at times. We decided that sightseeing in this weather wouldn’t make any sense so we parked ourselves in big malls like Times Square and Sogo in Causeway Bay to avoid getting too wet. My umbrella broke and I had to buy a new one... It was my turn to accompany G to buy stuff. Judy also popped by and it was great to see her! I tried to locate Bobo’s albums for Vii but still couldn’t find any...
Electric Tram at Causeway Bay
Bobo and C-Hing Poster at Times Square
Conference
Sunday marked the beginning of a busy week. Before the afternoon workshop, I decided to walk around Wanchai to see if I could find Bobo albums. Not only did I stumble upon Oriental 188 (like Sino, it has quite a few 2nd hand CD shops), I finally got hold of a brand new copy of "Retrospect" (Bobo best selection) at another shop! After going to more than a dozen shops! Vii, Bobo CDs very hard to find! Then both G and I decided that we'd better stopped going to CD shops or I would just keep buying stuff...
Back to the conference, the pace was less hectic than in Canada and of course I didn’t have to fight jetlag which made things much easier! It was also easy to find cheap eating-places. Anyway, met some nice people at the conference, my poster presentation went without a hitch, buffet lunch was provided everyday, and the banquet was great with entertainment in the form of dragon dance, Chinese dance and ‘Face-Changing’.
Lion Dance at the Opening Ceremony of the Conference
Poster of the first HK Govt Lab
Dragon Dance at the Closing Ceremony of the Conference
Night Scene from HKCEC (but i really need a tripod...)
Toothache!
My gum started hurting on Sunday morning but both G and I thought it was ‘heatiness’. So I bought chrysanthemum cooling tea and drank 5 packets but it didn’t help one bit! So pain I had to see a dentist! Fortunately I knew someone who knew a dentist at the conference who in turn knew a local dentist. He treated my problem (wisdom tooth, arrrrgh!), gave me antibiotics and painkillers, and didn’t charge a single cent! I will buy a present and send to him. But he said I'd have to have that tooth extracted...eeeew.
Ngau Kee
Met up with Judy, Ah Sum and their friend Ah Mun for dinner at Ngau Kee. It has moved but still in Central, somewhere near those long escalators. We sat upstairs but agreed that the previous shop exuded a better ‘feel’ somehow.
Ngau Kee at its new location
Red-light District
Wanchai turns out to be a red-light district and our hotel is smacked right in the middle of it!! So on our way to and fro the mtr station, we would see some middle-aged women (presumably the ‘mummies’?) and sexily-dressed ladies sitting outside the bars/clubs. But it’s quite safe cos they obviously go for the men. Twice, however, I saw some girls coming near me saying ‘Come, Come!’ and my heart skipped a beat! Think I was unlucky to be walking just in front of some men!
Night Scene at Wanchai
Wrong Info
Got a call from Sum saying that hocc might make an appearance at some place not very far from my hotel. Since I was free I went there and met Ah Mun and her friend. (Mun is Edmond’s fan.) It turned out to be wrong info :( I only saw Ronald arriving, and Candy, Edmond and Ming-Gor leaving. Guess whoever who said they saw hocc might have mistaken Candy for her.
I had wanted to take a photo with Edmond, who smiled at me in his van! But in the end I didn't. Dunno, I realised that even though I like him, I didn’t really mind not taking a picture. Guess it was the same situation with Candy last time. I mean, this time when I saw her, (she disappeared fairly quickly; they all seem to be in a great hurry), I thought of taking a pic for caocao (but sorry, I wasn’t quick enough). I guess this is the difference between someone I truly consider an idol and someone I just like. So ultimately there are only two singers (Sammi and Hocc) whom I really desire to have a picture taken with, I think.
Kowloon Bay Trade Centre
Money told me I could go for the show at Kowloon Bay! Well, Ah Yip said that there are free shuttle buses from the mtr but the bus-stop was a little way from the station. I asked station control but didn’t get clear instructions and they conflicted with those given by Yip. Heck, I was wondering around like lost sheep when I got a call from Sum! Thank goodness she was going too and led the way. Seems like most of the tickets had gone to Leon fans considering his huge fan base. There were quite a lot of ‘auntie’-type fans. I wouldn’t laugh at them cos I think it's quite remarkable and I myself will most likely still be a Sammi & hocc fan 20 years from now!
I went to thank Goodae and Goomo (esp the latter) for giving me advice about going to Montreal. At first I said I am from Singapore and she remembers! Then I mentioned Montreal and she asked me how I like the place. She said I need to eat more and put on some weight! Goodae was his usual humorous self, telling me that I should just say his name in Montreal Chinatown and I don’t have to pay! He also told me, 'Don't show the photo taken with me to your boyfriend or he will be jealous!' When he heard that I would be leaving the next day, he said ‘oh, if you stay longer you can catch the musical.’ Haha...
Anyway, Hocc was first to appear on stage. She sang "Becoming Butterfly", "You are the 80s", "Glamorous" and "Rolls.Royce". She said that it’s too late to buy tickets to her musical (cos they are all sold out!) but can buy the DVD. So yeah, there will be a DVD release!! Too bad she didn’t stay for the whole show...The other performers were Charles, Janice and Leon, plus appearances by Joey Tang and Dennie Wong. Yay, I quite like Dennie. Through her resourcefulness and dare, Sum got me a souvenir! Thank you so much...hehe...
After the show, we went for dessert, meeting up with Judy and also saw Money and some others. I don't like dessert but I thought I'd try something different called '西瓜涼粉撈'. It turned out to be 'chin chow' (grass jelly) with watermelon! Eeeks, I don't like chin chow, but I ate it all up...But I shall try something else next time...Returned to the hotel really late (think it was last train for the night or nearly the last!) G was still awake, having finished packing already. I was too tired and just went to bed!
Goomo looking absolutely fabulous
Goodae looking great too
Hocc on Stage
Charles and Barry (one of the MCs)
Charles with Dennie Wong on keyboards
Janice and Joey Tang Jamming Session
Leon
Business Class
Guess what, the return flight was overbooked so they upgraded me to Business Class!! Shiok man! The seats were wider than economy with so much leg room I had to take a picture. Suaku lol! But first time on business class! They kept serving drinks and the meals came in course by course – appetizer, salad, bread, main course, fruits, ice-cream! And there was real cutlery rather than plastic. I thought they might have a bigger toilet but was a bit disappointed to find that they weren't much different from the economy ones... But overall a nice experience, too bad it wasn’t for a long-haul flight!
Afterword
I was exhausted after returning home. Slept pretty much the whole day and had to drag myself back to work. Loads of conference material to get through now...
posted by yung | 12:37 am
4 Comments:
wah wah leon lai! he's so man~!! omg~~!! hehehehehehehehehe
yung, i agree with goomo. u r way too thin. eat more eat more :P
oh no, forgot to tell u... nevermind. ok i help u look out for Bobo new album (if it is out).
ww, i'm trying!
wah, franfran likes Leon too?
not really like la...
jus find him very man.. gentleman look :P i wonder his new album nice bo..
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