Love in the Big City

Hong Kong: the city to fall in love… with your job and nothing else?! 

I had been warned, Hong Kong is not a city where people settle down, it is a city for random dates and casual flings. At 24 years of age, that should sound exciting… if only this was a holiday destination and not my home… but the idea of going on numerous dates and trying to impress someone, when there seems to be this universal understanding that things just don’t work that way in HK, can be a little disheartening for this hk-romantic.

Naturally, the warnings from my friends and posts on popular HK blogs were blocked from my mind and replaced with little mantras such as “I will find someone tall, muscular, smart and serious” if only

About 10 months in and I have had the random date/fling*, here and there… only with other internationals though – an Aussie, a Frenchie and most notably a very handsome Norwegian. The local boys (and those from the mainland) have showed little to no interest. One guy even told my friend (when asked if he found me attractive) that he wasn’t interested in ‘white girls’ – which was a little shocking at the time and is somewhat amusing to me now. As a result, I haven’t yet found my HK prince.

This got me thinking about the lengths people will go to ensure they find ‘the one’. Recently, there was public uproar about a dating company in HK that was charging approx $500 USD per head for local female women to attend an event where international men were invited to dine for free. Pitching HK women as shallow and desperate for international men with money – which isn’t the case. But you have to wonder, if people ARE willing to pay that sort of money for the chance to mingle with eligible partners, what sort of city are we living in?

And so, here I am, realising that these warnings might have some truth. Don’t get me wrong – I am not jaded or desperate but I am intrigued. Thus, enter the next best thing? THE SET UP!

Yes – finally I have agreed to be set up with a man who appears to be paper perfect. Only time will tell. A new experience. An exciting experience? Naturally, I am going into this with no expectations and with the thought that this will be a bit of fun… and hey – it has given me something to entertain you with, right?!

Wish me luck!

* Date/fling – doesn’t necessarily mean I slept with these guys. A lady never kisses and tells.

One of the well written warnings: http://sassyhongkong.com/hong-kong-isnt-for-love/

Hong Kong: the transit city

4 weeks of exam hell (preparation included) and now I am finally back to the fabulous world of blogging.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve come to the realisation that HK really is a transit city. I knew on the surface that it was and is a temporary destination for many – as an international financial hub the city attracts talented people from around the world… it wasn’t until I had to say goodbye to some dear friends that I started contemplating the effects of a ‘transit city’ on the expat lifestyle.

People are always coming and going – secondments can be as brief as one to two months and the majority of postgraduate courses only last a year… In and out.

The main advantage of living in a transit city is that people are always open to forming new friendships. However, with that, comes the horrible realisation that sometimes these friendships are short lived – not always by choice, usually because of the surrounding circumstances.

As I was saying goodbye to a new friend, she mentioned that there are 3 types of friends in life:

1)   the ‘best’ friend – they are the ones you have history with and adore, they mean the world to you and you could hang out with them endlessly;

2)   the ‘hang out’ friend – the ones you love to just hang out with and can call on at any time for a laugh;

3)   the ‘fave’ friend – the ones that you don’t necessarily hang out with all the time but they could be a bestie if given the chance– 100% enjoyable to hang out with.

It got me thinking, in the last month, I’ve said goodbye to 1 ‘fave friend’ and 2 ‘hang out friends’ (although… at some point I also had a little crush on one of my ‘hang out friends’). It is kinda sad. My HK family and perception has changed. Transit. My HK family will eventually be an international family – friends scattered around the globe. It is all part of being an expat.

 

Hello Sunshine!

Hello pretty Sunshine!

Woooowwwzzeeeerrrrrsssss! I am so thankful right now – one of my fave bloggers nominated me for my fiiiirrrssstttt award! WAAAHHHHHHHHHH * insert other random sound effect here * Thankkkk you, Ames!

So here are the rules:

1. Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog.
2. Answer 10 questions about yourself.
3. Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers.
4. Link your nominees to this post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

Share the love and link the person who nominated you.

Blogs I follow:

I’ll have to cheat when it comes to this one – cos I’m still new to this world… please forgive me – here are my fave 7! Oh and apologies – how do I embed links? hmmmm… total newb. 

A dose of good… http://amylchiu.wordpress.com/

The Man Repeller  http://www.manrepeller.com/

Girl Meets Bulgaria  http://girlmeetsbulgaria.com/

Chronicles of an Awkward Panda  http://humdrummingly.wordpress.com/

Raxa Collective  http://raxacollective.wordpress.com/

Happy By Name  www.happybyname.tumblr.com

MWF seeks BFF  http://mwfseekingbff.com

The questions:

Favorite color? pink

Favorite animal? So tough. Dolphin.

Favorite number? 3

Favorite non-alcoholic drink? Hmmmm iced caramel mac. 

Prefer Facebook or Twitter? Always on facie.

My passion? Cake. gaga. anything remotely absurd. 

Prefer getting or giving presents? This all depends on who Im buying for and who is buying for me?!

Favorite pattern? animal?

Favorite day of the week? Hump day

Favorite flower? Gerberas and tulips

 

Thanks again for following my blog! And many thanks to the bloggers I’m currently following – 100% inspiration!

New Traditions: Easter with my new family in Hong Kong

My lasagne – ready to hit the oven… mmmm

family – old and new

New Traditions

Feels like a million years since my last post… Over the last week and a half I’ve played ‘host’ and ‘tour guide’. A dear friend that I studied with in my masters programme was in town… AND THEN!!! Two of my best friends (from Melbourne) spontaneously booked their tickets on Tuesday and Wednesday to come to HK for Easter weekend!

I’ve realised that you only start to appreciate family traditions with age and distance. I come from a big Italian family and the one part of our Italian heritage that lives on post my parents/grandparents immigration to Australia is our love of food. It is our family tradition at Easter (and other religious holidays) to eat lasagne and feast on a variety of salads and meats.Thus, all religious holidays go hand in hand with gutsing ourselves silly until we cannot move. It is fabulous.

I wanted to re-live ‘the feast’ in Hong Kong. On Easter Sunday, after a ‘night of crazy’ that ended at 4:30am, I woke up early to make my mum’s famous lasagne. The menu for our original party of 6 was as follows:

- Cold cut meats and cheese/starters (my friend who is currently kitchen-less was going to bring the first course)

- lasagne (as cooked by moi)

- potato puree with truffle, and a fig, basil and buffalo cheese salad (to be cooked by my foodie friend)

- apple crumble (whipped up by my roomie).

If only it was that easy.

At about 11:20am, one of my party-boy friends called to say he would be making an appearance at my local Church. So at 11:30am I rushed off to Easter mass, leaving the others to sleep/nurse their heads…

Within a few hours that morning, our party of 6 grew to a party of 9. The more the merrier I thought The 3 additions were close friends anyway and the only reason I didn’t invite them from the very start was my concern about space in our apartment (HK apartments are tiny). Nevertheless, I knew we’d make do; I was happy that they would be joining us for our family lunch.

1:30pm comes and goes… 8 of us are sitting around the table. Starving. My friend, who was doing the starters, is running late. We all keep looking at each other… hunger pains set in. We eventually decide to scoff the salad and potato mash…

2pm arrives… and my friend waltzes in… we all look at her eagerly… she holds up 2 bottles of wine as she screams ‘hiiiiiiiii’…

‘we’ve been waiting – we are starving’ – we all proceed.

‘oh? I brought wine!’ At this point I look around for the plastic bag of cold cuts. Nothing. ‘Do you want to get the cold cuts/starters out?’ I ask.

‘I thought we’d have a liquid lunch!’

My friend had substituted cold cuts for alcohol. It was hilarious. 8 hungry faces look around the table… My best friends from Melbourne look at each other confused that we aren’t feasting in the usual Italian way.

Eventually, one of the (hungry) boys got up with a promise that he would return with glorious food so we could start ‘feasting’. He returned with McDonald chicken nuggets, roasted pork (Chinese style), roasted duck (Chinese style), and some more salad.

I didn’t get my traditional feast, but I did start a new tradition! I had the best time and just thinking about it makes me so grateful for the new friends (and old ones) that I’ve made. My disastrous lunch was fabulous. I hope to do the same thing next year with my new Hong Kong family.

Future Easter menu:

- wine, wine and more wine

- lasagne (some things never change)

- McDonalds chicken nuggets

- roast pork (Chinese style)

- roast duck (Chinese style)

- fig, basil and buffalo cheese salad

wine?

 time to eat!!

gimme some of that duck!

Ching Ming Festival

Hong Kong’s positioning and history influences the public holidays enjoyed by this tiny Special Admin Region. We are fortunate to enjoy the Chinese festivals and holidays, as well as the conventional European/Western holidays such as Easter and Christmas.

Currently, I have 5 days of public holidays. Funny enough, my roomie thought that this was all part of Easter break. However, traditional Easter only provides for Easter Friday and Monday… Where do the other days come from?

Ching Ming Festival.

The Ching Ming Festival is a celebration of Chinese ancestors. Traditional families will go to their ancestors’ gravestones and clear away/clean the area. In Chinese, the words mean clean and bright. In a way, it is a festival of mourning. I can’t say much more on the holiday – other than, my local friends know of its existence and will help their family prepare for it, but none could explain the history and timing of the holiday. Still rather interesting.

I read that other than cleaning the gravestone, some will place food at the grave. Some people even let off fire crackers to ward off evil spirits – although these customs are only from my reading on the subject matter. OH and – do NOT conduct business or do anything important today – apparently it is bad luck because there are unhappy souls that wander the earth on the day of Ching Ming.

The stock exchange in Shanghai was closed yesterday for Ching Ming and the stock exchange in HK will close today for the festival.

Do you know anything about this tradition? Please share

Rugby Sevens, Rugby Fashions

My lil lamb – we call her Kimbo… 

 

Tickets to the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens sold out within 5 minutes. I naively found this out when I went to look up ticket prices, a couple of days after they went on sale. Not to worry- the Sevens isn’t all about the sport, it is however, very much about the beer and fashion.

Hong Kongers take pride in their costumes. When I talk about fashion and outfits in a rugby context, I don’t mean the conventional preppy rugby jersey and jeans look. Hong Kongers, and visitors to HK, spend weeks, if not months, planning their costumes and matching them with their friends. They tend to wear the same outfit for the whole 3 day series – from early morning through to.. well, I guess early morning You can see sheep, gladiators, super women and men, cowboys and sailors, hippies in colorful wigs roaming the streets, on the MTR, in the supermarket… These fabulous costumed people take over the city.

At the end of each game day, the crowds head to LKF and Wan Chai. LKF is barricaded and beer stalls are set up on the street. The ‘normal people’ [this includes me and the rest of HK that failed to get tickets] and the sheep, gladiators, sailors, smurfs etc all integrate! It becomes one wild costume party!

I will not be so naive to miss out on tickets next year. I love costumes, the Sevens provides an excellent excuse to dress up. Oh, and might I add – the rugby itself is somewhat interesting too – C’mon Aussies!

[The Sevens was held a couple weeks back… some of my friends are still getting over the aftershock of the 3 day binge… Hence, the late write up – needed to seek approval from the sober kids for the uploading of the following pictures]

Cluck Cluck

Life savers? You can save me anytime

WW – you are fabulous!

piggy piggy

My lil gladiator

Earth Hour in Hong Kong

The Island I now call home – Hong Kong Island. 

The Bank of China Building… lights off

Lights on… lights off…

Looking over the iconic skyline and beautiful lights of Hong Kong is one of my ultimate favourite things to do (in the world!). I don’t think I will ever get tired of the concrete beauty that lines the Island. Day and night – this city is mesmerizing. The laser show and frantic lights are always on.

After spending a full day at uni/at the High Court for a mock trial, I came home absolutely exhausted… and then remembered… Earth Hour! I have previously ‘celebrated’ Earth Hour with my pals back home… this involved turning off every light in the house. I also took pleasure in implementing a no phone policy – which my friends hated me for… [Living in the dark is much easier than living without your phone.] This year, I was curious to see if HK could actually observe Earth Hour. This city seems to be connected to one giant Duracell battery that never dies – the lights flash on and off – at all hours.

My roomie was agreeable when I insisted we turn off the lights in our apartment… and come 830pm, I watched the lights turn off in the Hopewell Centre (a landmark in HK that also happens to be viewable from my bedroom window).

Considering I was so exhausted from my long day, I didn’t feel like venturing across to the Kowloon side to look across to the harbour. Instead, I trammed to central, took a few photos, trammed back and then walked along the harbour in Wan Chai.

Hong Kong doesn’t feel the same without the flashing lights. It feels sleepy. Or, perhaps, I felt sleepy?! But as I was walking, the most unusual song came to mind:

Baby when the lights go out

every single word cannot express, the love and tenderness

ill show u what its all about

baby, I swear, you will (so) come to me,

when the lights go out

[circa nineteen ninety something?! Thanks Five – for that fabulous flashback]

Happy Earth Hour, Hong Kong! You did it – naturally the city was still well lit… however the landmark buildings had ‘turned out the lights’

PS I realise there are a number of other songs about lights – but for some reason this popped into my brain?! Child of the 90s… our minds work in mysterious ways!

 IFC – lights off

HSBC Building – lights off

HK Convention Centre and ICC Tower – lights off

ICC Tower – lights off

one hour later – lights on

Observations from my cup of coffee

Prime-time street viewing – sitting on a couch next to the windows that peer out onto Queens Road East, I watched and pondered for 3 hours. Sipping my Starbucks caramel macchiato and nibbling on a croque monsieur, I observed the following:

1. A pedestrian got hit by a (slow) moving van as he crossed the street. I have seen so many near encounters but never actually imagined that cars wouldn’t slow down for pedestrians! In my world, ‘pedestrians have right of way.’ That rule doesn’t exist in HK. Look left and right – and whatever you do, don’t bother trying to cross in front of a car, even if it is slowly approaching and there are a number of pedestrians around you.
2. A big black butterfly, the size of my palm, fell to the ground and lay on the pavement – its deathbed. I always notice bugs and insects – however, I’m always inclined to think they are giant cockroaches… I was pleasantly surprised to see a butterfly, and then equally as disappointed as I watched it flap its gentle wings, hoping that no one would trample it.
3. A dog wearing shoes. Admittedly, every time I see an animal dressed up in clothing I laugh. This was particularly funny because the owner was taking the dog for a walk – it wasn’t in a home setting. Cute shoes, too.

Watching the people of Hong Kong… an endless source of amusement. 

Tadpole eggs and bubble tea

Sweet Rose drink with basil seeds

The bubble tea phenomenon is nothing new- in cities around the world this Asian drink has become a favorite for many. The conventional milk tea with tapioca was a daily indulgence in the first month I moved to Hong Kong. And naturally, on my short trip to Taiwan (the origin of milk tea), I just HAD to have it all the time.

With over 100 varieties, and at only $16 HKD ($2 AUD) for a large size, I’ve slowly tried the unusual and interesting flavors and jellies only on offer in Asia. Most recently, I noticed that basil seeds were a popular addition to these milky/fruity delights.

Yes, that is right, basil seeds. At the Chinese New Year market a woman stopped us to sell what looked like tadpole eggs. She couldn’t explain exactly what it was but proceeded to tell us ‘it good for you’ and that it can be added to drinks and desserts. You can imagine my surprise when I saw it on the bubble tea menu. I can’t really explain the taste; I think it depends on what you have as the base flavor/drink. However, it has a semi jelly feel on the outside and if you put the seeds in between your teeth they are obviously rather hard.

The Sweet Rose drink with basil seeds was so refreshing and most definitely exceeded my expectations. It was the perfect companion for sitting in the sun on a Sunday afternoon.

 

 

For the love of CAKE – Give up something you love… make a sacrifice…

 

 

Have you ever tried to give up something you love? Temporarily? What about long term?

 

For 40 days and 40 nights, I will NOT eat CAKE. I love cake… I love cake more than anything. When I exit my apartment, there are 3 cake stores within 50 m… Some of the most beautiful cake stores have branches within walking distance and it kills me – Sift, Zoe and Princess – amongst the other local bakeries – with sweet sugary Chinese delights. And, have you ever noticed that there are always cake stores at MTR stations? Why?!

 

We are now officially in the period of ‘Lent’. A time to give up something you love, make a sacrifice [as a way of showing your love and appreciation for jesus???]. To be honest, I’m not that religious… I don’t know why we as Christians make sacrifices during Lent – I can only speculate… So before y’all think I’m preaching – I’m not – my message goes to the core of compassion. My mission is twofold: show compassion and discipline. And, how else does one show compassion in 2012? By giving up something… even just for a week…

 

I eat cake at least 2 times a week. I have lined up for over an hour to visit renowned cake stores… (such as Serendipity3 in NYC). I have also made a point of seeking out the best pastry chefs…(trying delights created by Katrina Kantani and Adriano Zumbo). Basically, I take the view that a party is not a party without cake… I live for cake.

 

With so many cake stores at every turn, the question is, will I make it?

 

Pics from Sift, Zoe and agnes b.