The LambCutlet Disorganisation

Yes I did make it back from 香港 (Hong Kong); though after 20+ hours of travelling, my poor brain and body were in no fit state to do much of anything except sleep!

Anyway, promise to have those 2 weeks worth of blog entries from my time in 香港 (Hong Kong) finished up though the photos are pretty much current at time of writing.

Back to work already tomorrow, wonder how much, if at all the jet-lag will hit me this time? :D

Fairwell and see you soon 香港 (Hong Kong)! Left about 4 hours ago and currently somewhere over the Himalayan mountain ranges overflying the Tibet Autonomous Region of China with probably something like 6 hours air-time left having had “lunch” about an hour ago and making good use of Lufthansa’s FlyNet® whilst listening to some Manderin pop music! ;)

Pity not flying First or Business Class as I’m currently at the mercy of my laptop’s battery since Economy Class doesn’t have power-points for these new-fangled wireless laptop thingys… :) See you all later when I’m ye olde Blighty!

The 15th day of the 1st month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar means it can only be 元宵節 (Lantern Festival). If you’re asking “I thought it wasn’t till the 23rd this year?” then you’d only be partly right as the Chinese calendar uses astronomical observations from Beijing which is 8 hours ahead of GMT.

In anycase, the 15th day marks the end of the celebrations for Chinese New Year and indeed the first major festival after the Spring Festival, earning it the name “Little New Year”. For Buddhists, the day is also a holiday and likened to the West’s Halloween though instead of little brats out trick or treating, children will go out carrying bright lanterns which in modern times will be more elaborate than those of old and themed on animals and the like for their designs.

The day is also known as “Chinese Valentine’s Day” as this day is one without the usual strict curfews and in days of yore, young people were chaperoned in the streets with the hope of finding love. Being young(ish) and single myself, I’m not quite sure yet exactly what I’ll be doing though the middle cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) has already offered to come along with me to 維多利亞公園 (Victoria Park) and join in the fun of parading about with lanterns!

12th of February — Today turned into a bit of a sleep in day by more than one person!

• Having arranged the previous night with 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) to meet up for the day by giving her a call once I was up then go find something to do, forcing my tired self out of bed before noon proved rather pointless as after three calls at 12:00 HKT, 14:30 HKT and finally 16:00 HKT was she up!
• With a bit of a wasted afternoon, it was just straight up to uncle’s and have a family dinner getting there sometime about 18:00 HKT after mucking about on the laptop sorting a few things out such as photos from the previous day
• Over dinner, we all discussed about interesting places to visit in mainland China, anecdotal funny incidents and where to go or avoid in terms of places to visit, eat, drink or sleep!
• With the night still fairly young, I figured I’d pop down 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) to the Public Pier for some night piccies using the rather handy mini-tripod I brought along with me for this trip
• Called it a day by 23:30 HKT and waited at the nearby bus terminus for the Nos. 7 bus back to the Metropole Hotel where I am staying

With nothing planned for the next day, I made the descision to still try and get up as early as possible fighting the delayed jet-lag not helped by rather a few late night so onwards to the 13th!

11th of February — Picking up from last time…

• My cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi), her two guy friends and I arrived at the cinema and joined the huge queues after our little walkabout, showed our tickets, got some muchies and drink and headed up to the 4th floor to our allocated mini-cinema which was showing Meet the Fockers, sequal to Meet the Parents. Enjoyable 2 hour film, though as ever, no spoilers from me! ;)
• One of my cousin’s friends actually took their private car out yesterday so after the film at 02:15 HKT, it was he that gave everyone lifts back homewards! Good chap. ;)
• Arranged to meet my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) come day time once we got some sleep. With myself waking gone 14:00 HKT, didn’t really get much done at all before I needed to make my way up to Lok Fu
• Arrived at my uncle’s sometime around 16:00 HKT with my youngest cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) more or less ready and on baby sitting duties for my nephew as the elder cousin 卓欣 (Cheuk Yan) had taken grandmother for a check-up with the doctor’s
• The plans for the evening was to go to 大埔 (Tai Po) in 新界 (New Territories) round a friend of my youngest cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and have a barbeque. A friend whom volunteered himself to be our driver (大埔 (Tai Po) is quite “out in the sticks” by Hong Kong standards) was to arrive at about 18:00 HKT
• Another friend whom was getting a lift with us arrived at 17:00 HKT so to past some time; my cousin, him and I popped down to Lok Fu Shopping Centre just a few minutes walk away to get some ice cream for my nephew, a traditional Chinese dice game and some cigarettes for the male friend
• Arrived at the house in 大埔 (Tai Po) some time near 18:40 HKT having got a little bit lost on the way! The house itself was a rather nice little European styled maisonette complete with small garden, something of a real rarity in Hong Kong. Almost perfect weather for an outdoor evening barbeque too!
• The choice of food was typically Hong Kong Chinese with such things are fish balls, peppered beef fillets, duck’s liver, chicken wings and so on, cooked above a bright burning charcoals as opposed to the glowing ones favoured by Westerners. Oh, and everything gets a good smattering of honey and another little twirl over the fire to be considered done!
• Elder cousin 卓欣 (Cheuk Yan) arrived with her hubby and son around 21:30 HKT bring some food of their own to cook with a Japanese theme of things like squid balls and fish rolls. By this time most had gone back inside where it was warmer to gamble though I and another friend braved the now slightly breezier conditions to finish of barbecuing the beef and pork fillets!
• With food and charcoal pretty much exhausted by 22:30 HKT, the few that braved the elements headed back in to either gamble or just watch and try and figure out what’s going on (that is, me). Nephew managed to keep himself well entertained my playing with two small dogs the party host keeps. :D
• Time rapidly approaching 00:00 HKT, everyone were either placing last bets to win some money for a taxi ride home, make up for what they lost so far in the evening or both! Nephew by now was fast asleep on the couch as he’d more than tired himself out
• My elder cousin 卓欣 (Cheuk Yan) whose hubby was driving his work van offered myself a lift back to Mong Kok where I was staying plus a girly from the barbeque whom lived inbetween at Sha Tin where as 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and her designated driver helped get home a couple of the others that were a little stick as regards to how to get home!

So now being rather worn out and stinky (damn barbeque smoke!), time for a shower and sleep then see what happens when commeth the new day! :D

10th of February — 2nd day of the 1st month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar arrived marking the halfway mark of the first three most importants days of Chinese New Year, though the whole festivities actually lasts 15 days from the 1st day right through to the 15th day!

• The cunning trick which I had used to beat jet-lag were more or less nullified with a couple of really late nights and little sleep, so didn’t manage to get ready and be out and about till some time near 13:30 HKT
• Took the Number 7 bus from the hotel to the Star Ferry pier then caught the ever trusty & cheap Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and managed to snap a few photos of a rather misty afternoon
• Once in Central; née Victoria, it was time to wait for a tram to go eastwards towards Causeway Bay as I wanted to visit Sogos to have a gander and perhaps grab some lunch in the basement floor which had many Japanese restaurants and food stalls serving tasty things
• Should you ever ride the tram on Hong Kong Island from end-to-end one day and wonder why on earth it snakes and zig-zags the wayit does, the reason is simple if you know a bit of history. Basically, when the tram-line was built in the 1900’s, that was the coast of Hong Kong Island! Successive years of land reclaimation has put the line some 400ish meters in-land now!
• Arrived at Sogos, though the arrangements of building seem wrong from what I recall 15 years ago. Admittedly, it could well be a different Sogos to the one that existed when I was last in Hong Kong!
• The basement floor has mostly been completely taken over by a Japanese supermarket which by virtue of being nicely packaged and presented in the usually arty Japanese fashion meant the price hike was pretty high
• Stomach needed satisfying so just ended up randomly chosing one of the two restaurants left within Sogos now and ordered a nice large bowl of roast pork & ramen in soup plus some pan-fried dumpling. Was a pretty tasty lunch, though for HK$60, you could have gone in a less posh Chinese noodle shop and had soup noodles with a meat for about HK$20!
• Time was now mid-afternoon and wanting to get back quickly so as to get ready for this evening, I opted for the MTR where Causeway Bay station has an entrance from within Sogos itself. The station platform itself has the characteristic name of said station in huge Chinese calligraphy
• Got a call from my uncle around 18:30 HKT to be waiting by the bus stop outside the hotel to get to aunt’s for 19:00 HKT. More or less as I got down there, the taxi they were in arrived and off we went to aunt’s for another family dinner
• Once there (the flat took some finding!) we were all treated to another huge dinner which included some stir fried scallops, one of my favourites! :D
• No joy for fireworks as we weren’t in the ideal location plus it was still rather misty, obscuring the view. Made the best of it by watching it on TV and managed to take a couple group photos of mostly my aunt’s daughters’ families
• Time was now gone 23:00 HKT so my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and I headed out for a movie her friends, which she had earlier today booked tickets for. Film of choice? Meet the Fockers no less!
• Film wasn’t to start till 00:15 HKT so we all wondered around Mong Kok going by the mass of stalls selling clothes of all sorts, electronic gadgets, food like spicy roast squid or satays of all varieties and a Hong Kong speciality… stinky to-fu! A lot of these activites are usually banned during the year for health and safety reason, though for the first three days of Chinese New Year, the authorties turn a blind eye and it’s a case of almost anything goes! Also had a quick stop at an indoor desert stall and got a cold drink or iced desert. I opted for some sago pudding with coconut milk which I have to say was very nice indeed!

Time was now gone 00:00 HKT so it was another day and time to go watch a movie… till next time! ;)

9th of February — 雞年快樂，恭喜發財! For those less well versed in the local tongue, “Happy Year of the Rooster and wishing you happiness & prosperity!”. Having already had a long day; it was definately a case of “start as you mean to go on!”:

• Just before midnight, myself and my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) started to make our way to the Lok Fu MTR station walking through public garden & recreation ground where once stood the flats my uncle’s family used to live. Those flats have been pulled down just over a decade ago and where built in the middle of the 1900’s to cope with the huge influx of people’s fleeing mainland China. The new flat is literally lightyears better than what existed and all part of Hong Kong’s constant renewal
• Once into the MTR station and aboad the train, we had our first proper chat catching up with how things are at our respective home and what things have been happening since, plus she was very surprised I still recall how to get about the ex-colony! We alighted around Mong Kok and pretty promptly managed to meet up with her friends we’d arranged with earlier for our little excursion in the tiny hours of New Year’s Day!
• With everyone together, we got ourselves prepared by grabbing a drink from one of the stalls serving a few types of melon juices, sugar-cane juice, plus some others I couldn’t quite decipher what they were. All were prepared with copious amounts of crushed ice though! ;)
• Even though we decided to pass on going to 維多利亞公園 (Victoria Park) as the crowds there numbered something like 1 000 000, I certainly can’t say it was much quieter where we had decided to go to as most of the main roads heading in that direction where pedestrians whom snakes around the roads forming long queues overwhelms the cars causing so pretty big traffic jams! The traffic police were trying their best to manage the crowd of cars and people though…
• After about 45 minutes or there so, we finally arrived at the market fair just a bit after 01:20 HKT. The venue itself by day is a sports ground but my guesstimate is that there would have been at least 10 000 people there? In any case, it was going to be hard going to not travel in which ever direction the crowd wanted to go in!
• Aside from the crowds, it was also very noisey, mostly with the stall traders trying to out-shout their nearby traders with shoppers purchasing goods by handing money over the sea of people before being handed, hopefully, the goods and some change!
• With it being the Year of the Rooster, there were many cute and cuddly things on a chicken theme, plushes of all shapes and sizes were being sold though by far the oddest were the egg-roll plushes!
• Other things being sold including many little wind-mills which signify the bringing in of better fortune as they rotate, flags and banners of many types with auspicious sayings, red lanterns and lastly the “usual” New Year’s flora of peach blossom, pussy-willow blossom, manderin orange trees, peonies and narcissi
• With myself being 177 cm of height, 5′ 10″ in old money, in Hong Kong is comparatively tall since most men would only be about 165 cm, 5′ 5″ and not uncommon for girls/women to be under 150 cm or 4′ 11″, though my cousin just makes the grade at 152 cm, 5′ 0″. Makes for a funny photo anyway as I couldn’t actually kneel down much more given the relentless scrum behind me!
• By 03:30 HKT, we had pretty much seen what we wanted to see there and buy what we wanted to buy. My cousin was pretty impressed with her haul of 3 wind-mills and one of her friends whom had brought some blossom branches of various sorts earlier the previous day still had them completely unscathed even though the crowds on many occasions threatened to have crushed them into oblivion!
• Next up was back to the district where I’m staying at the hotel and pop into one of the bars to meet up with a few more acquiantances and have a few drinks. During the chit-chatter that followed, turns out the average office worker in Hong Kong works 9 a.m. till more-or-less whenever, 6 days a week totalling at least 50 hours! Explains why most workers know the bars so well as they’d often go for a drink at least a couple times during the day!
• The preferred drink of our little group is what I’d describe as quirky in a typically Hong Kong fashion… Iced tea with whisky anyone? :D Cousin sensibly chose to mix her whisky with soda, though I just opted for some of Phillipines’ finest San Miguel Pale Pilsen
• My years of drinking in Blighty in amongst the company of Scouser’s and Geordie’s has paid off a little since I’ve built up some tolerance, which was definately a good thing since if I was to join in on any of the drinking games that the others were playing whilst I looked on from the side-lines trying to figure out what was going on I would have been doing a heck of a lot of drinking! My cousin was also rather worryingly good at some of the games… Eeek! :D
• 06:00 HKT came rather quickly and was time for the bar to stop serving and close for an hour to tidy up and be ready for another day. With this some of the group made their way home though myself, my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and two of her friends decided to go for a morning 飲茶 (Yum Cha) at a restaurant we found and ordered the usual scrummy dishes! :D The company within the restaurant were slightly unexpected elderly people though they’re more likely to be early risers than the night owls we were!
• It was gone 08:00 HKT by the time we’d finished and was greeted by the bright glare of daylight as we headed outside and get respective modes of public transport to make our ways home. Finally collapsed into bed at the hotel sometime around 09:00 HKT to try and get a few hours sleep before going back up to uncle’s for 18:00 HKT to have dinner with the extended family and perhaps a few packets of 利是 (Lai Si)!
• Sod’s Law would have it though I was ready to go out for 17:00 HKT, a couple things came up which needed to be dealt with meaning I ended up being rather late, not showing up till 19:30 HKT Was also not helped by missing my bus stop as the bus I took went a slightly different route throwing me off as I was not being able to use the landmarks I had used the last time!
• Dinner was another veritable feast which my uncle’s wife having spent most of yet another day preparing, which by the time we’d finished, proved too much food for even 12 people! This was also the first time in nearly 15 years where I’ve seen my two elder cousins, daughters of my aunt (Chinese kinship terms are much more specific and better able to explain families and can mostly refer to specific persons without using names!) and though they were in their 20’s when I last saw them… both looked completely unchanged despite the extra years! What was different was the fact the children they now have are teenagers whom were babies or not even born yet at the time I left!
• Though an adult, yet still single; I recieved are unexpectedly large amount of 利是 (Lai Si) from the elders plus my cousins whom have married though the question of if I was seeing a girly came up yet again. Not a case of not wanting to find, just haven’t yet found! Anyway, as per the end of all New Year’s period dinners, it was time for eating some fresh pears plus cracking open lots of dried melon seeds and opening candied things from the “Tray of Togetherness”. Also managed to have some mangos too which I’m rather fond of :D
• By about 22:00 HKT, my aunt and her daughters plus kids needed to make their way back to the respective homes and made arrangements for my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) to pick me up at 19:00 HKT on the 10th and take me to aunt’s place and have a family meal there too!
• It wasn’t long till the time was gone 23:15 HKT and I said my goodbyes too so as I wouldn’t miss one of the last buses to take me back to get some much needed rest! :D

Roll on the 2nd day of the 1st month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar! ;)

8th of February — Note to self, try not to go to sleep at gone 06:00 HKT when one has to be up at 08:30 HKT and all ready by 09:00 HKT getting 2 hours sleep! All the less helpful as it would unwittingly turn out to be a really long day…

• Uncle came round to the hotel by 09:00 HKT as the first port of call was to get my Hong Kong Identity Card renewed from the child one I had prior being re-patriated back to the United Kingdom
• After flagging down a taxi and going to the Registrations of Persons Office we thought we needed to go to, once making some enquiries there and having my ID and birth certificate checked, we were told we needed to be at any of 5 more specific offices that specialised with the changing of child ID to an adult one
• Turns out the closest of the 5 offices, was also very near the hotel, so rather a large amount of lost time and unneeded taxi mileage! Once inside around about 10:00 HKT though, the process was going smoothly initially with a 30 minute or so wait. The fact I have been in the United Kingdom for a rather long time and this was my first visit back in nearly 15 years not being an issue. An “amendment” was also made as I wished to have my Chinese given name which doesn’t currently exist on any of the legal documents relating to myself that I’m in possession of
• With both index finger-prints digitally captured along with a digital photograph showing what I look like was taken, I was told to go to another office clerk to have more things dealt with. This was were things were really starting to drag out. For reasons unknown to me, many things were being checked many, many times with most of her colleagues providing clarifications of proceedure, with occasional gap-filling along the lines of “try it and see what happens” approach!
• After about 2 hours, with my uncle waiting in the reception hall all along and making a call on the mobile checking why it’s taking so long, the whole process was done and dusted sometime around 12:30 HKT. The renewed card should hopefully be ready for collection on the 25th, though if this isn’t the case, my uncle has already been officially deligated to handle the collection on my behalf
• With this out the way, it was now time to go and 飲茶 (Yum Cha), which we had originally planned to have done at 09:30 HKT! So it was now more a lunch than breakfast… ho-hum
• The place that was picked was more for convenience, rather than for the fact it served exceptionally good food though considering how generally poor to outright inedible dogshit “Chinese” food can be in the West, I let this little point slide for my inaugural sampling of some 點心 (Dim Sum) and Chinese tea in over a decade
• So many dishes I fondly remember and finally being able to devour again, such as: wheat pastry wrapped dumplings with pork, rice noodle rolls with dried shrimp and barbequed pork, lotus leaf rice wraps with egg yolk and chicken, crystal dumplings with prawns, barbequed pork steamed buns and a very large bowl of congee with fish and spring onion
• With very full bellies and bill paid, uncle had to make his way over to work as it was an afternoon shift for him whilst I headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui to get the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and get the errands I wanted sorting out by today, which I did… just. On the way back, I took the opportunity to snap Hong Kong shrouded by low level cloud making the views majestically misty and the rather unexpected in-bus television entertainment on the Kowloon Motor Buses!
• Back at the hotel and spending a little time to freshen myself up, it was up to my uncle’s home in Lok Fu for 團年飯 (Reunion dinner), this time lacking the elder of the three cousins though did gain two other uncles and was again treated to all those foods that I’ve not seen, let alone tasted in rather a long time as they’re very difficult to get the ingredients for in olde Blighty or what you can get has a lot to be desired for their freshness; or more aptly, lack thereof!
• After dinner, conversation somehow got to the theme of where to go and visit in South-East Asia with the younger of the two other uncles recounting many a tails!
• With time around about 23:30 HKT, I decided to take up the offer from my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) to join her friends in their little excursion in the New Year Day markets, though not the one taking place at 維多利亞公園 (Victoria Park) as that was monumentally busy already and instead picking a more local one… what happens there though is a matter for another day! ;)

Till the next time, ta-ta for now! :D

The 1st day of the 1st month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar brings in the New Year of the 木雞 (Wood Rooster)! So I wish everyone a happy and properous New Year! Yesterday and the next few days were and are going to be hectic, so blog updates will be a bit lagged though I’ll at least try and keep the photos up to date. Now to go meet the family and with some luck get a few 利是 (Lai Si) packets. ;)

7th of February — Blah, today was a bit of a late starter. Having set my alarm to get my backside out of bed for 09:30 HKT, the “snooze” button was all too tempting on more than one occasion meaning I didn’t get up till 14:45 HKT and not out of the hotel to do what I was supposed to do till 17:00 HKT. Tomorrow perhaps in getting the errands I wanted to do?

Still, today’s haul was still pretty good dispite the tardy start!

• Slowly walked down 窩打老道 (Waterloo Road) taking pictures along the heading to 油麻地 (Yau Ma Tei ) MTR station. Noteable things along the route include a Manderin orange stall which had plants with really big heavy fruit on them and a Lutheran Church, though the latter’s architecture could only be described as “70’s Hong Kong”
• A brief two-stopper ride upon the MTR to get myself down to 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) and immediately scuppered as I tried to exit the station since my 八達通 (Octopus Card) had made up it’s mind I was out of the station (which I wasn’t) and needed to join the short queue to get a station exit card
• Heading towards the Star Ferry Pier; I can see the Hong Kong Space & Hong Kong Cultural Centre across the other side of the road, where I spent much of my childhood in the former, though never went to the latter
• Through a subway to get to the other side of the road which contained a mini-shopping centre which led to basement shopping arcade complete with peach blossoms dotted about, though with a grander golden coloured 利是 (Lai Si) packets adorning it as opposed to the usual red. Think of them as Sinitic X’mas trees… ;)
• Once across the road, it was a look back at the world renowned “Peninsula Hotel”, for those whom have way too much money to spare and need that bit of luxury and get really pampered
• Walked right by the Hong Kong Space Museum & Hong Kong Cultural Centre as I headed towards the Start Ferry Pier and it wasn’t long till the old Clock Tower came into view.
• Spent a good 20 minutes taking various scenes of the habour from the 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) Public Pier. It was from this very pier where my late mother’s ashes were scattered into the harbour by my uncle.
• Now it was time to board the Star Ferry as I wanted to pop over to Hong Kong Island and at HK$1.70 each way it’s dead cheap (though not as cheap as it used to be). Taking photos whilst the ferry was rolling about proved only moderately successful though!
• Arrived on Island side and grabbed an up to date street map and local guide. Proceeded on to tram station opposite the HSBC building, of which I took an obligatory photo plus a couple of The Legislative Coucil Building nearby
• Boarded the tram to get myself to 上環 (Sheung Wan) as wanted to see if the open air street market foods by the Macau Ferry Terminal still existed, since they serve super-cheap food though probably the best tasting
• Unless I remembered incorrectly where the food stalls were, their place now seems to be occupied by a bus terminal so it was off into the Star Ferry Terminal proper where I managed to grab breakfast/lunch/dinner consisting of roast pork and duck with a large helping of rice with some nice green tea for after
• With time getting close to 22:00 HKT, it was now time to hop on the tram again, board a Star Ferry and ultimately back to the hotel!
• However, the night-time skyline of Hong Kong just distracted me too much and took a couple snaps in what were rather slightly misty conditions. It was a very good job I remembered the mini-tri-pod too!

Tomorrow (well, this morning) I’ll be meeting up with uncle once again to go make enquiries about renewing my Hong Kong Identity card, if at all possible then to a time honoured thing for the Chinese, to 飲茶 (Yum Cha) where there will be lots of tasty little morsels to devour! :D Later on that evening, it’ll be back to the family home for the traditional “Reunion Dinner” which takes place on Spring Festival Eve, though my arrival on the 6th put that forward a couple days; however, no harm in doing it all twice! ;)