Back ground

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

My Hong Kong trip


Its been 15 years since my last visit to HK. Ive been wanting to go back for a very long time and my long awaited getaway was finalized when I decided it was finally time to go back just in time for my cousin’s wedding and grandma’s birthday.  HK is a place that never sleeps and full of excitement and colour..  a busy city day and night.   It is truly a shopping paradise from themed shopping districts, street markets, trendy boutiques and malls. Also known as the culinary capital of Asia from five star cuisines to traditional fast food, snacks or casual food/pastry…lots of variety with good eats everywhere you go.

Theres just so much to see and do in this bustling vibrant city, I was literally walking from day to night everyday..LOTS of walking. If you’ve never walked the streets of an Asian mega city before get ready for a major workout and sturdy shoes with shoe gel pads is a must. With no pads the first 2 days of walking resulted to massive pain on my arch, heel and lower back which until today im still feeling pain around the arch bone.. oh well it was certainly worth it

So here are some highlights from my trip, lets start with the food which was on top of my list.











    Modern Toilet 
A popular Asian chain “toilet themed” restaurant where you sit on a toilet bowl seat and eat/drink from miniature toilet bowls and urinal cups. You can even order swirly chocolate ice cream on a squat toilet that looks like poop.. hmm appetizing?
___________________________________________________
 “Yung Kee”  one of the most famous and oldest restaurants in HK where you can have classic Cantonese food. Everyone comes here for the signature dish:  Roast Goose which was superb and have won numerous awards.  Other than the goose, according to their menu it listed that every dish that’s been entered into competitions had won over the past few decades including Iron Chef!  Fortune magazine also named it as one of the top 15 restaurants in the world (the only Chinese Restaurant to be included in the list) ___________________________________________________
 
 “Sing Heung Yuen” This is a traditional type of street side food stall and one of the most famous ones left, a great way to experience HK food in a old fashion way. Don’t expect to get a seat right away as this place is known to have line ups throughout the day.  Locals and tourists would come here for their specialty items such as their many types of tomato broth dishes , milk tea and crispy condensed milk toast *expect long line ups ___________________________________________________
"Kau Kee" 
Noodle shop with over 80 yrs of history serving famous tender beef brisket cooked with a secret recipe and its flavoured broth - the best beef broth ive ever tasted and rated one of its best in HK *expect long line ups __________________________________________________
"Tai Cheung"
This egg tart heaven which serves fresh batches of piping hot egg tarts every 15 mins as people line up ordering by the dozen.  No doubt this is one of the best buttery pastry crust ive ever had with its extremely smooth and silky egg custard that melts in your mouth with every bite.
___________________________________________________
SHOPPING:
The shops in HK open late and stay open later. Don’t expect stores to be opened in the morning as most shops are shut and HK people are late night owls. My favourite are the street markets where you can find cheap clothes, bags, watches and souvenirs.
Kowloon side of Hong Kong (Street markets and full of shops selling bargain priced trendy fashion and goodies ):
Sportswear street (Fa Yuen St)
Ladies Market 
Temple Street                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Goldfish Market 
_____________________________________________________
NATHAN ROAD KOWLOON  - Walk under the neon lights in the busiest streets of Nathan Road which runs through 4 districts and is lined on both sides with tons of shops and restaurants along the street then spread out to different points. This street can definitely induce sensory overload
__________________________________________________
CAUSEWAY BAY HK  - This major shopping district and one of the most crowded areas in HK is most famous for its 13 storey Japanese department store “SOGO” and Time Square (an indoor shopping complex) along with many smaller malls/shops all concentrated in this area
__________________________________________________
MACAU I have not read about Macau since my last visit years ago and was surprised to find out that it has now developed to a little Vegas with familiar casino hotels such as MGM, Wynn, Venetian, Sands and  others in development including a major casino zone called the Cotia Strip
Travel from HK to Macau is around an hour ferry ride away. However the waters were so choppy with crazy waves which its known for, I was sea sick with a nausea floaty feeling which did not go away for some reason and lasted for 2 days
So there are 2 sides of Macau (which is also a former Portuguese colony) – theres the heritage sites and historic streets then theres the developing so called Las Vegas of the East.  The 3 must do’s in Macau is to taste the famous Macanese and Portuguese food,  sightseeing and casino hopping.
My favourite Portugeuse Egg tart treat:
Lots of food everywhere and free food sample tasting 
Macau at night - the little Vegas of the east interesting find is you will see casinos all on one side of the street and then theres  pawn shops all on the opposite side of street.. only in Macau!
Old Macau with a mixture of Chinese and Portuguese buildings as well as heritage sites from the 1800's
This street on the bottom right was really cool with only Red wooden doors , windows and signs on all the units throughout the street
AND FINALLY..... 1 hour foot massage only $13.00 USD!!





Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Happy Joy Joy

















Wow it has been a while since my last post. Ive been back from my 2 week Hong Kong vacation several weeks now but it has taken me a long time to recuperate coming back to reality! Hope to have some time to work on my travel blog to highlight my adventures during this holiday break. Happy holidays

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

just shut up and give me more treats














This has got to be one of my favourite 'YouTube' animal vids that has been around for a while.It’s a compilation of “talking cats and dogs” Love how the dog sound  like Scooby doo and the cat sound like a baby





This funny x-rated African Grey parrot cracks me up.. *warning contains strong language! 

I would love to have one...so fascinating and entertaining!  especially when they have a British accent.. bloody hilarious! 








Sunday, November 08, 2009

Tough call

Dogs or Kids...  tough call
watch BOTH videos and decide!



Bad dog


Tantrum

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Halloween fun







                       Me as "Wednesday Addams" this Halloween.Found everything at the Value Village childrens section, had to go back 4-5 times to find the perfect 3 layer outfit from the round white collar shirt, black one piece skirt, round collar button up blk sweater. Finished off the look with a collectors porcelain doll that I had to break its head off, oversized plastic knife and Black hair spray to cover my dyed hair streaks



 








Heres my side kick - Cousin "IT"  close to life size made from a scarecrow doll as the base frame which I had to have its legs and hands extended from a little guy at 2ft tall extended to 4ft. I had fun getting him dressed up with 2 ultra long Black long wigs to cover the front and back of the head, John Lennon type round shades, Brown fedora hat along, long Brown robe and blk gloves.  I hid a mini press button recorder in one of its glove to make cousin IT talk. Just a bunch of high pitch gibberish which I had pre-recorded onto the recorder





































Saturday, October 31, 2009

My personal scarefest thrillers x 10


Ive always known the fear of being scared is worst than actually being scared,thats my problem with this one.Mustve been all those horror flicks ive seen in the past.Well its Halloween time and with the horror movie genre being one of my favorite genres its time to make up my top 10 list of my all time favorite horror movies that either :        
        
A) scarred me for life 
B) made me sleep with lights on    
C) made me afraid to goto bed or washroom  
D) made be afraid of the dark
E) all of the above
 

My Top 10:
1)The Exorcist –  An obvious choice. Creepy, shocking and disturbing. A classic horror based on a true story,  it scared people then and it scares people now. The rotating head, levitating body and spider walk..just some of the most classic scenes in the horror genre

2)Amityville II  (The Possession)  –based on a true story and the best of its series. I found it to have a very creepy atmosphere..just terrifying and eerie as hell 

3)The Omen –the all time horror classic..must be something with the chanting, the music and the ruthless mean little boy.. creeeepy 

4)Stir of Echoes – a psychological horror that is scary and fascinating. A story that taps into our fear of the paranormal to give plenty of chills 

5) The Shining –   Kubricks classic materpiece of horror in a spooky hotel of evil. Jack Nicholson goes berserk with scares around every corner from the washroom scene, the twins to redrum redrum!! oh and the bloody hallways..  

6) Event Horizon – a very scary sci-fi horror with great gory special effects and disturbing to mess with your mind 

7)Texas Chainsaw Massacre – intense horror with just plain blood and gore. Keeps you nervous the whole way through.  Just the whole concept of being in the middle of nowhere and with nobody around to help you is scary enough

8) What Lies Beneath – great suspense horror. I couldn't look into the bathroom mirror for a week without feeling paranoid after watching this

9)Hellraiser II  Hellbound  - Pinhead has to be one of the creepiest villain ever! Twisted with special gore effects takes you to hell and back

10) Sleepy Hollow -  Gothy director extraordinaire Tim Burton creates the best looking horror film with an amazing set and characters. Gory and dark with great cinematography

Thursday, October 29, 2009

just let it be

You cannot change other people
You love them the way they are or you dont
You accept them the way they are or you dont
To try to change them to fit what you want them to be is like
trying to change a dog for a cat, or a cat for a horse.
That is a fact.  They are what they are - you are what you are


Don Miguel Ruiz


Sunday, October 25, 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Haunted House Attractions

The coolest interactive haunted house has got
to be the infamous Britannia Manor located in
Austin, TX which is also home of software
billionaire Richard Garriott. Apparently he
spends over 100,000 each year to spook up this
place! The attraction goes through the mansion
including some of its secret passages and is
interactive just like a video game where you
have to crawl, climb, solve puzzles and run
like hell..

Its a full contact interactive adventure which
runs up to an hour long across 20+ stages. Since
the attraction ended back in the mid 90's theyre
back this year as Dunstan Manor with a vampire
based theme "Blood Ritual"




Would love to check this one out if only I was in Texas.. 
I would probably pee my pants.. voted as one of the top 
haunted house attractions in the US



This one looks fun.. rated top haunted attraction in the UK 
- ROOM 13 at Alton Towers Hotel


Im on the look out for one this year so I can scream my head off!!

Monday, October 12, 2009

time for a new look




















Its been months since my babies had their last hair cut, im such a bad mommy.. they looked like homeless dogs and had to go through the entire summer with a big shag. Well since ive been done with my deadlines last week I finally have some spare time to do things that was left aside including blogging..organizing scrap books..doing some major house cleaning and of course giving my doggies a makeover. This took me a good 4+ hours which I couldve brought them to a groomers at $30 each but I would much prefer to wash/cut them myself, ive actually never even used a groomer before. Although my dogs are poodle breed and mixed poodle, I would never give them the poodle trim. Those silly show cuts are just too goofy.. heres some funny ones

Micro porky pigs


These adordable tea cup piglets are starting a new pet craze. They're small enough to fit on the palm of your hand, very clean and low maintenance, no wonder theyre gaining in pet popularity nowaways. Pigs are highly intellegent and rated the 4th smartest animal on the planet after moneys, whales and dolphins. I would love to see a trained piglet do some tricks or see someone walking one on the street!