Post Visitor Week Slow Down
Doug, Coral, Sunny, Doris, Ma Shi Te, Eddie, and Takeshi came and went. I really regret not having enough time to spend with everyone. I wish there were more interesting activities I could take people to, but I was lucky that there was at least one event I could take Coral to. The memory of my friends in Hong Kong is still fresh in my mind. I always feel relaxed when friends visit.
So what have I done recently? Nothing much, resting up I suppose. I've been spending a lot of time with the twins. I work out with Janice now and we go out with Angie quite often. It was a family event Friday and Jamie and I tagged along. Kennis had called me the day before and arrange a dinner meeting. We ate over at
California Pizza Kitchen.
Afterwards we had Karaoke at a lounge on the 2nd floor of Circle Tower (O Two?). The premise of the night was to hook their brother up with his target but observers reported the situation was pretty grim. I vote that he stay on the
friendship ladder instead of risk jumping over.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke
November Birthdays have been crazy. Happy belated birthday to Gloria. Her birthday just passed Friday. Next happy birthday to Priscilla and Alman. Ms Pamm's birthday is this Tuesday but I'll say happy pre-birthday to her now.
Last night was probably the first night I've done so much running around socially. I usually just stay in an area. I took a power nap after work and then rushed out to Central to meet up with Michelle and Germaine. Those girls were on time, and we decided to go up to
Armani/Bar HK first. My friend Ah To was VJing for last night's event, featuring DJ Toshio Matsuura. His music was pretty funky. I haven't seen Ally in a while so I invited her out to join us, plus since Coral didn't make it to Priscilla's BBQ she came out to Armani Bar a bit later as well.
Next stop was
Causeway Bay for the pre-drinking events. Coral and I headed over to Circle Tower behind Times Square. I stopped off on the 21st floor first to say hello to Pamm. I made it just in time for her birthday cake. Then up to the 22nd floor to meet up with Priscilla and our group. I was so excited when I saw Doris upstairs! So it was already amazing last night, Priscilla, Coral, Sunny, Doris, Tiffany, and I were out partying again together. I got in at half price because I told the girl that I didn't drink.
Around 2am we start cabbing it to
Lan Kwai Fong. I think it took about 3 taxies. We split up the group at the door to get people in. I've been pretty lucky and the bouncer still remembers me and a few others in. Downstairs I ran into a lot of models from the
Juice Launch event the previous night.
Nana the Korean/Uzbekistan mix was there as well as Angie and Janice's Brazilian twins and their friend with the cowboy hat.
It's been a fun week. Coral's flying today so I wish her a safe trip. I'll be seeing Sunny and Doris around.
Edit(2006.11.20): Nana is Korean/Uzbekistan mix not Spanish.
Labels: Birthdays, Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
I must say the
Juice launch party
last night at
Tribeca was really fun. I took Coral out to meet up with my friends from
Dreamodels. I think it was Coral's first fashion show in Hong Kong so I hope she had a lot of fun. The male models were really jokes on the cat walk. I have to say the music at the scene was really good and I wanted to stay late to party but I knew I had to work today. I'm pretty tired today, I don't know if I can last tonight.
Thanks a lot to the girls, it's always a good time with them. We joke around a lot and have a lot of fun. I've posted the
picts but please ignore the obviously setup gay shots...the twins forced me to do those. The star models for the night were
Ana R. and
Lisa S.Labels: Clubbing, Fashion, Fashion Show, Friends, Hong Kong, Model
Club Magazine & Screwed up Prank Calls
First off Happy Birthday Nana! She is my NYC lover!
Last night I had no plan to go out but I ended up going to the new Club Magazine with Agnes, Cherie, and Germaine. I have to say, there sure were a lot of young people last night. I was less than impressed. The teenage girls were out as a group on the floor. The guys, were standing along the sides pushing each other and daring each other to go over to talk/dance with the girls. I've never seen such a high school scene at a club before. This one is even more local than Sugar. The DJ, was a CD playing machine. He's just some guy who was hired to beat match CDs. The CDs would skip and he'd have to quickly cut to another song. The beat matching wasn't good and he would let the songs run on and on...for around 6 minutes I think Agnes mentioned. I was going to bring Coral out but I think she got lucky by staying at home.
So the reason I'm posting is because I received several calls this morning. All from a "withheld" number. I have my suspicion who it is. First, the caller speaks in English. She has a kind of eerie messed up tone when she talks. There's a high probability that the caller knows me since she talks in English. If I look at the pool of people in Hong Kong who would or could use English to call me and who isn't a long time friend, that reduces the pool of suspects quite a bit. The caller made all sorts of comments about "missing me" and a comment about "being nasty". Seriously, I hope you're okay and this was just a random prank. It sounds like a serious problem if it isn't. I tried to contact you but you're acting all weird now. Shall I continue to bless you?
Labels: Clubbing, Hong Kong
Finally
Sunday I have my day off. We woke up early (by early I mean 11 am) and headed down to Causeway Bay to meet Angie and Janice for
Dim Sum. The first thing that happened, Takeshi had his cell phone stolen. Probably on the
MTR. He took a few pictures with it in the morning and we walked straight to the MTR. He was holding on to the overhead handrails with both hands and when we transfered at
Admiralty he noticed it was missing. There were a lot of domestic helpers on the MTR that morning, which just increased the number of people typically on the MTR.
As soon as we got to Causeway Bay I went to
Three to see if I could get IDD (long distance) added to my mobile. I ended up having to buy an IDD card. But we needed to find the number to call so we headed to the World Trade Centre and I bought a blueberry drink just so Takeshi could go online to
Softbank to find the number to report his missing phone. After that was all done we headed over to JP Theatre to meet up with the girls.
Dim Sum was good, and fun. We had this little girl beside us that loved
Winnie the Pooh. It just so happened at our table one of the girls, Angie, was a Winnie the Pooh freak as well. They got a long really well and the girl ended up giving each of us a
Barbie Sticker. The girl was only 2 years old but she was really tall, about the size of a 4 year old. I think we've been pretty tired this week, I forgot my sun glasses at the restaurant. I didn't notice until much later.
After dim sum we walked around
Times Square and then took a bus down to
Stanley. Stanley was nice and relaxing. We walked around, checked out the market and I even got to play with some kid's skateboard.
For dinner we headed back to
Jordan to check out the night markets and food at
Temple Street. The specialize in a kind of hot pot rice dish. Surprisingly the girls have never been here before. The only thing to note was that we had a drunk hanging around our area during dinner. He got pretty close a few times and he was stumbling around everywhere.
After dinner we headed back to
Mong Kok. Even though Takeshi lived/stayed in this area he didn't have a chance to explore it. I took him over to the
Ladies' Market and to the sneaker street the next block over. My friend Fiona happened to be in the area with her friends. They were going to Neway Karaoke to celebrate a few birthdays so we sat with them a few minutes before going home.
Takeshi really enjoyed his trip to Hong Kong. Thanks to Hiroko and Denise for Day 1, Thanks to Angie and Janice for Day 3, and Fiona for sending him off to the bus.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke, Travel
Yesterday we had an awesome night. It was a get together for
Coral's birthday. At the same time it was a joint birthday event for Priscilla and my friend Ah To. Because we were partying late Friday night were pretty much crashed right when we got in. I didn't have a chance to talk to Takeshi so I wrote him a note and I left it wrapped around his mobile phone. I figured he would notice it for sure. I mentioned that I wanted to meet him back at my house at 7:30 and I left our home address just in case he got lost.
When I got back home around 7:30 I noticed the note was on the floor and the map book that I previously lent him was still lying on the chair in my room. When he didn't show up around 8 I was a little worried. I gave my friend a call to report that I lost a Japanese person in Hong Kong. Eventually he called and told me he never saw the note. He travelled around Soho/Mid-Levels, and saw the
Symphony of Lights down at the harbour. He came back home and we got ready to go out to eat. Shortly after we walked out the door my contact broke and we had to go back home. We went out again and headed to Jordan. I wanted to take him to Temple street but we didn't have enough time so I took him to another famous spot;
Tsui Wah. Anyone who likes to stay out late knows Tsui Wah.
After dinner we met up with Jamie, Ah To, and Ah To's friends. We found the karaoke bar (198 Nathan Road) and went up. We arrived pretty early but that's okay since we had a decent size group, around 8 people, already. Very few people that I know choose to party in Jordan, or Kowloon for the most part. The owners of the club were Doug's relatives apparently so we had a deal. I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a pretty fun night. Priscilla came out with a few of her friends, I got to see Adrian, Julian, and Eva again. Tiffany's been missing in action lately but even she showed up with Sandra. I thought I would only stay for a little bit then go clubbing with Takeshi but it was just such a fun night I couldn't leave. Oh, I almost forgot to mention Sunny and his cousin Carl were there as well. It was great hearing Sunny and Coral sing again (they're really good singers) and it was just great to be out with old friends again. Happy Birthday Coral! Great party.
Labels: Birthdays, Friends, Hong Kong
Canada, China, and Japan in Hong Kong
My friend Takeshi flew in Friday and so I've been running around like crazy. I setup a multiple page PDF document with detailed instructions on how to get from the airport to Mong Kok. I arranged for Hiroko to meet up and show him around. So first I have to thank Hiroko for being so helpful. I ended up using up her day off just to help me out. Friday night I met up with Ma Shi Te at Pacific Place. It was a bit frustrating giving him instructions but he eventually just took a taxi to meet up with us.
Takeshi, Ma Shi Te, and I walked over to
the Peak tram and took it up to the Peak. I wanted to see the new observatory that was renovated but
EA apparently had a private event and they closed off the top. We took a look around and walked back to the bus. I was surprised to run into Pansy and her friend Emily going to an
Edison Chen party up at the Peak.
We headed down to
Lan Kwai Fong to party at Sugar with Ah To, Iris, and their friends. I'm not that found of Sugar actually, it kind of sucked that night too.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong
I just got up not too long ago which is okay since it is a Sunday. I really need to rest today, it is going to be one busy month.
Yesterday after my standard Saturday class at
Readership I went to the
gym and rushed to meet up with Coral and Doug for dinner. It turns out that they were "just about finished" when I was heading out so I decided to meet them at TST for drinks instead. They ended up eating fruit for about an hour leaving me to wander around Harbour City by myself. Jasmine managed to get off work around that time anyways so I met up with her and we went to find Coral and Doug. They were suppose to have dinner with Raymond and the gang. Well Ricky and Carole where there but Raymond and Connie were stuck doing work. We went off to have a drink, but our group quickly ballooned. Hiroko and her visiting boyfriend Matsuo were eating in the restaurant right beside our bar. Patrick and Sam came out to join us as well, and Sunny just got into Hong Kong so after dinner he came out as well. Coral and Doug took off after to go home and pack for their next day China trip and I headed out with Sunny to
Hei Hei club and
Volar afterwards to meet up with his, other, cousin Carl. Hei Hei was pretty interesting, we chilled outside for a bit to chat and started talking to these strangers, in Japanese. Everyone spoke Japanese fairly well and we were trying to figure out who in the 3 groups actually was Japanese. It turns out none of us are.
This month is just crazy. Eddie just left Hong Kong, I didn't even get a chance to meet up with him, Coral, Doug, Sunny, and Doris are visiting right now. In a few days Ma Shi Te (another Chinese friend from Canada) is coming to visit. He just told me this morning though. Takeshi is flying in from Japan on the 10th of this month. I never expected to have so many visitors in one month.
As for today, I've just been chilling at home, resting up for the week to come. My friend Fiona called me last night thinking she might go to Hei Hei but there was something wrong with her phone service so she used her friend's to call me. I didn't know it was her friend's phone. I messaged her last night when I got down to Hei Hei but I didn't get a reply. I called her using that new number this morning and had a conversation with a friend who mistook me as someone they met that night. I thought she was one of Coral's friends whom I also met that night. We just happened to both be at
Langham Place, I just stepped out to grab my "breakfast", and so we decided to meet up. I was so confused when she came over I have never seen this girl, Elyse, before. After chatting we finally figured out what happened. It was pretty jokes.
Labels: Friends
I had a great time at the
FCUK fashion show last night. It was held over by the
Wan Chai convention centre. The production and choreography was excellent. It was a big event, a lot people came out I ran into Celia and I heard later that my friend Clara was out as well. Surprisingly there were a lot of Asian models. We saw
Lok Galie again at this function. This is the second fashion show I saw her at. Her and
Amanda Strang (who wasn't at this show but I saw her recently at the
Porsche Design show) are making the rounds in Hong Kong.
Labels: Fashion, Fashion Show, Model
Welcome Friends to Hong Kong!
Wow November will be a crazy month. I have what seems like a lot of friends visiting. Eddie (my ex-coworker at
Canada Life) is here with his family. But, they're pretty busy and are leaving tomorrow. I just had dinner with Coral and Doug last night. They introduced another friend who recommended the restaurant Thai Perfect (Causeway Bay) to us. It was okay, Coral's friend knows the manager so we picked up a little discount. Doesn't seem like too many friends so far right? Sunny is coming in Saturday. Doris will be here Sunday. Takeshi is flying in from Japan probably on the 10th.
I haven't planned this month yet... but it is starting to feel busy already.
Labels: Friends
I just got back from Taiwan last night. I was a fun, but difficult, four days three nights. I'll try to give you a quick summary.
Day 1
We got to the
airport early to pickup the plane tickets. We had breakfast at
McDonalds and walked around before we went to board. This is the first time for me to fly
EVA Air. I haven't even heard of this airline before but Diana arranged the tickets and the price was pretty cheap. My review for the ride, it is a little bumpy. Maybe it was the air condition in
Taipei. Even though the flight attendants spoke to me in Mandarin all the time, I thought they were quite friendly and a few were pretty as well. The plane trip was fast, the flight time was only an hour. We were playing tetris but the in flight announcements kept pausing our game play. Upon Arrival my first impression was that everything in Taipei seems a little old. We stayed at the
Leo Foo Hotel. We didn't do much but just walked around discovering Taipei. We spent an unusual amount of time looking for stickers...some fetish the girls have. One thing that really amazed me was the size of Partyworld, the local Karaoke (KTV) company. They have huge buildings built all around Taipei for Karaoke. I have to mention the motorbikes and scooters. There are tons in Taipei. It seems a little crazy, they ride and park everywhere.
Day 2
We had a lot of fun on day two. We got up in the morning and went to grab some local sandwiches, they were great. After we made our way over to
Taipei 101 (the world's tallest building since 2004 apparently) we walked around looking at the various shops. We had originally planned to take the elevator up to the top but the weather was cloudy with poor visibility so I'll save it for another day. What surprised me was that I found a Roots store in Taipei 101. Stop by the AT (Afternoon Tea) store if you get a chance. The portion sizes are pretty big and it was great to relax after walking around so much. We checked out many of the malls in the area. One of my personal highlights for that night was going to
Din Tai Fung, one of Taiwan's most famous restaurants. There are two located in Taipei, we went to the old one first but got there at 9 (right at closing time). Our schedule in Taiwan was pretty tight, but I really wanted to try the
xiao long bao (or shao long bao) at that restaurant because they were so famous. We took a taxi to the second location , the newer one, which actually closes at 10. After dinner we headed towards
Shilin night market for more food and sights. It was a long exhausting but fulfilling day.
Day 3
We spent day three trying to get our souvenirs and our much needed chores done. We went with Diana to get her Taiwan ID renewed but because of some paper work issues she needs to go back to Taiwan again to get it done. We went all over buying souvenirs, we spent tons of money at the local 7-11 and
Wellcome. We picked up a few cakes from the local bakeries. One nice one in particular is
Amo; Tel (02)2306-3752. Diana gave me a box of "cookies" from
Kobayashi and I must say they tasted amazing, I would highly recommend trying these. We went out to
Danshui that night to take a look at the Fisherman's Wharf. The area is actually pretty plain, but the wharf/bridge is quite beautiful all lit up with lights. We took quite a few fun pictures here. There really isn't anything else to do but take pictures and to relax. There are a few local snacks to try in this area though. The one thing that I wanted to do today but could not do was to take the girls out to see a horror movie. Being
Halloween I wanted to celebrate a little but we were pretty tired from walking around. Too bad we found out later, on day four, that there was actually a movie theater really close to our hotel.
Day 4 (Final Day)
We tried to do our last minute shopping here before our plane flight. Something terrible happened though, I left my digital camera inside the taxi. I was pretty lucky because Clare had taken a picture of the driver's license information. We had to call the police to report it missing they sent out a policeman to talk to us and he walked us over to a nearby police station. Luckily they reported that the driver turned the camera in at the office and that we could go over there to pick it up. We decided to hit up a few shops and an art bookstore before going over. We raided another 7-11 and packed up our things to go to the airport. Nothing really special happened after that, I think we all enjoyed Taiwan but couldn't wait to be back home.
If I have time and money I would love to go back and see the things that I missed out on this trip. Culturally there were many interesting things about Taiwan. It was interesting to compare the brands and stores in Taipei versus the ones in Hong Kong. Culturally I found Taipei to be a cross between Japan and China. Completely different than the culture in Hong Kong.
Taipei has good food, generally well mannered people (fairly quiet rides on the Metro with few people chatting on their cell phones), and some nice interesting scenes. It is a more relaxing environment compared to Hong Kong but not as convenient.
Pictures are up for my friends to see (
day 1,
day 2,
day 3,
day 4)
Labels: Hong Kong, Travel
