The year has come when all the tiger babies will turn twenty-one. It's abit surreal yet amazing watching all my best friends step into adulthood, one by one, when it seemed like just yesterday we were sleeping in makeshift tents in an airconditioned room drawing cartoons of our classmates. Or spending the entire day underneath the desk making up stories with our Barbie dolls when we were supposed to be studying together. And suddenly we're stepping into that era where the next ten years will probably prove to be the fastest, scariest and most eventful of our entire lives.
I've missed a couple of fantastic twenty-first birthday bashes thrown back home while I'm here in Hong Kong, but there's no way I could have missed my darling roomie's. Dinner at Hard Rock, a night at Tribeca after, followed by a huge pizza party with all the exchange students the next night. The ambience at Hard Rock is perfect for parties, they really do up birthdays with their polariod shots, stage celebrations and the entire crew singing you a birthday song with their own band. Not to mention that I had the best burger that I've had so far in Hong Kong there. The huge pizza party didn't come with its almost-mishaps though, we booked the pizzas too late, so there was that half an hour period where we thought no other company delivered pizzas anymore, and we almost had to get snacks from the hall canteen. But thank God we found another pizza company just in time, and the pizza party did materialise after all. (The next day, I found out I had Pizza Hut's number all along in my mobile phone - Qi, don't kill me.)
I hope she had a memorable twenty-first birthday to dispel any homesickness and not spending her birthday back home. I truly enjoyed planning the whole process, it made me feel important enough. Love you. :)
There was a period where suddenly the whole world was in Hong Kong. To those who are still hesitating for who knows what lousy reason, this post should compel you to book that air ticket immediately.
When Mom was in Hong Kong, I had three days straight of fantastic food and hotel room stays. I got to try the authentic Italian place called Amaroni's Little Italy at Festival Walk which always looked too expensive for my meagre allowance. The ambience was lovely, with dim lighting, classic chandeliers and European paintings. The food was fantastic without a doubt, freshly baked bread and olive oil, soup, soft shell crab and cannelloni. We were both stuffed to the brim, but that didn't stop us from scarfing down Japanese food the next day at lunch at one of the best Japanese restaurants I've had so far in Hong Kong in Lan Kwai Fong. She brought me a little piece of home with a copy of The Straits Times and a mother's tender loving care with kisses in the morning. Of course, the extra money and Ben & Jerry's treats helped a great deal as well.
When Jinghan and Minwei were in Hong Kong, I effectively widened my CS circle of friends as we went to The Peak (my sixth time) and into Madame Tussauds, which was incredibly fun because we took about a couple of hundred photos with our favourite celebrities, sportspeople, people of the past and politicians. We also went for a session of KTV, delicious dinner at Yuen Long, grabbed street food, shopped at Mongkok till 1am in the morning and had claypot rice at Causeway Bay. I truly enjoyed hanging out with the two of them, and if the Taiwan plan goes through, I'm looking forward to spending time with them in their place of exchange.
When Minxiu was in Hong Kong, I laughed till my sides ached every single day. He never failed to be down with some ailment daily (sprained ankle, sore eye, flu which required about 5 packets of tissue a day and incessant coughing), and his actions, words and behaviour cracked me up immensely. And because he was part of the unforgettable China trip, I feel as if he truly belonged in this Hong Kong experience. From emerging with that huge suspicious looking grey bag consisting buys from almost every store at the factory outlet mall, parading around with those two bags filled high with DVDs (more than 100 discs, he spent HK$6000) to chalking up another HK$2744 at H&M in less than an hour, I've concluded that he is the greatest male shopaholic I've ever met. And the best part is, he loves taking photos - and of others, which meant that no moment on our China trip was missed. It was sad to see him go through the departure gates - of course not without those last pictures.
I love having visitors even if it means visiting those tourist attractions a million times over. It brings me a part of home, and home always means comfort.
Cheung Chau, that offshore island off Hong Kong. I liked it much better than Lamma - more bustling, more activity, beautiful shores, cliffs and that cave by the sea that probably was more of a hole. A full day of cycling and climbing slopes, and then lying by the beach simply staring out at sea and engaging in my all-time favourite pastime, daydreaming.
The avalanche of work has begun, China was a fantastic break away from all that - the pictures and commentaries will probably be up soon (I hope).
Shanghai beckons tomorrow, and I'm wondering what the next eight days are going to be like. Suzhou and Hangzhou will follow after, and I'm looking forward to some breathtaking scenery and being in a country where I speak the language of my ancestors. The Chinese spelling competiton I did with Cemin today at the claypot restaurant didn't help my confidence level at all, I wrote 朝国 instead of 韩国 and I actually forgot how to write the 察 in 警察.
Packing took the whole night, with Qi lying languorously in bed and laughing at me because I was having such a headache "packing light". I simply can't do it, I've never packed light in my life so packing eight days worth of clothes into one duffel bag was such a feat. I literally sat on my bed and stared listlessly into space for minutes at a time with a major headache because I couldn't decide which clothes to match, and how I couldn't just bring one jacket because that would mean all my photographs would just feature one outfit. And my grey trenchcoat and the backpack combination was fashion suicide, I gazed at myself in absolute despair in the mirror for five minutes. I almost gave up the backpack idea but that slight bit of practicality in me set in because I definitely wouldn't be able to squeeze all the shopping I do in Shanghai into my nice fake $20 Balenciaga-Chloe looking bag. So another jacket comes into the picture, one that would match the backpack. Packing light really does not exist in my vocabulary, just like relative velocity doesn't.
This picture is worth a million dollars, especially to all those who have laughed, teased and ridiculed me about not being able to cook in the past.
And I wasn't just posing for it, I actually cooked vegetables and it was edible. My family would double over and die laughing if they saw this.
Gone are my undomestic days, I see a bright future ahead in the culinary department. I see myself making a decent cheesecake in about thirty years time, since it took me twenty years to stir-fry vegetables.
