Living in Wan Chai

I have a new doorman in my building who is from Pakistan and he has a very thick English accent. Today was the first evening where I found myself waiting for a lift, which gave my doorman a good excuse to start a conversation with me.

Sometimes when I don't understand exactly what someone is saying I tend to just guess the general theme or subject and agree with whatever the person is saying. This approach has got me into trouble in the past. On one occasion I was the deciding vote to change a company policy and earlier this year I accepted to manage a project and then had to establish what exactly that project was.

So I found myself waiting for my lift and I was sure the subject of discussion was films and movies. My doorman asked if I like Chinese, Russian or Indonesian movies and I nodded, agreed and replied that I liked them all. Finally my lift arrived and I escaped to the tenth floor.

When I returned to my building later on that same evening I was again met by my doorman. He handed me a list of numbers and names on a piece of paper and also gave me a handful of name cards with colour photographs. The name cards were advertising prostitutes and the paper seemed to be direct lines to brothels.

It was at that point that I realized that perhaps the previous subject of conversation was not films but prostitutes. I returned the information and tried to explain how the mistake had occurred.

I'm not sure if my doorman understood my explanation, I might wake up tomorrow and find he has arranged a leather clad midget with a whip standing outside my flat.

bx

P.S in my doormans defence I do live close to the red light district and have run into prostitutes in unusual situations before.

Batman Mystery Solved

Last year I was convinced that part of the Batman movie was being filmed on my street in Hong Kong. I took a few pictures and you can see them by clicking here.

It turned out that it was not Batman that i saw being filmed on my street but a Hollywood film called "Push". And the actor that I kind of recognized is called Chris Evans.

Look at the pictures I took then look at this clip from the film and the mystery is solved.


bx

Science, steak, squid and sea

This past week or so has been quite busy. Last weekend I visited the Hong Kong Science Museum and it was pretty cool. It made me realize two things.

1. I have forgotten lots since my science class days
2. Hong Kong people receive a far better science education than people in the UK. I know this because my friend from Hong Kong could explain how all the exhibits worked when I looked confused.

The good thing about the museum is that most of the exhibits you could interact with, which made the science part more fun!

Other things happening this week was Jason visiting from Australia. A group of us went out on Friday night to welcome him to Hong Kong shores and it was quite fun. He had never met Laura before, so when he found himself dancing on the stage in a club with her in competition with another dancing couple he probably wondered what he got himself into.

I also took Jason to the Boston Steak Restaurant in Wanchai. Below you can see the before fire shot where he was not too sure what to expect.

And the after shot, where he had to move fast to save his own eyebrows when the steak was set on fire.

This week I have also gone night squid fishing! Did i catch a squid? No I did not.

Did I take a picture with a squid pretending I caught it?

Yes I did.

Did we eat the squid?

Yes we did.

And just to remind us that we were fishing at night in the middle of ocean surrounded by jungle, a giant moth decided to pay us a visit.

This past week has also seen a junk boat trip during the daytime. I have taken enough photos of junk boat trips over the past few years, so here is a picture of the whole group at the end of the day.

In other news Nikki has just purchased a shockproof, waterproof and freezeproof camera in an attempt to see if she can own technology that can withstand her general disaster prone nature. We are going to the Bird market, flower market and goldfish market to test it out today.

There is also a Typhoon fast approaching which could be the first of the summer!

bx

Intruder

Don has left Hong Kong, and he sure made a big deal of it! He had a total of four leaving events. The first event was his last gig with his band. I left the bar once they finished and my final comment to the lead singer was "Well done, you really sang in tune this time". It was not meant to be rude, and I had consumed a reasonable amount of beer, but I should watch my phrasing in the future.

Event three was dinner at the Spring Deer Restaurant. Words can't describe how amazing this restaurant is. I sometimes try to book a table two weeks ahead and find them full. It is probably in my top three Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong and I'm going to take my brother there when he comes to visit!

In other news I went kayaking on the weekend and was attacked by a bird in my flat. I was on my bed and watching TV when I noticed movement in the corner of my room. I did not have my glasses on and was worried it was a giant insect or something, so I stayed focused on the blurry shape whilst trying to find my glasses with my hands. Just as I put them on the bird dive bombed me and hit the window near my bed. I grabbed a pillow case and wrapped it round the bird then threw the animal out of my window. The bird dropped ten stories to the road and was run over by a bus.




Only joking, it flew away and was fine. In retrospect I should not have thrown a stunned sparrow from my window though.



The kayaking was uneventful.







bx

End of 2008 - 2009 Chatteris CNET team

The Chatteris CNET team for 2008 - 2009 have left the building...





bx

Tram

Today I am mostly...



Trying out new things with my camera...

bx

Waterfalls

On the weekend I went on a hike that I was told would be 'easy' but turned out to be quite difficult.

The hike itself is directly up a steep mountain and the path turns from dirt track to rubble to just mud on occasions. This is quite different to usual Hong Kong hiking where the government places concrete pavement along the whole route. It was fairly dangerous at parts too, with 70ft drops next to some very small paths.

So far I have not really made this hike seem that fun but it was all worth it for 3 reasons. Those 3 reasons were the 3 waterfalls that are spaced apart at different heights of the mountain. There was also a pretty cool temple along the way too.

The water was apparently fresh but I decided not to drink any because knowing my luck there would have been a dead panda floating upstream. I did swim in the water though and it was really nice after the sweaty hike.

When we returned back down the mountain we had a BBQ at Adrians place.

Adrian lives right next to the start of the hike and has an amazing three level village house. It is technically his family house but they all live in England.

Anyway, next weekend it is Donalds leaving party which should be amusing as he is playing in his band.

bx

Before I was born

Sorry for the lack of posts but the blog broke. You could still read it and everything but I could not add anything for some reason. Problem fixed now though.


Anyway, first off my dad was rummaging through boxes in the garage and found this picture of Hong Kong he took in 1973.



And here is the same picture I took in 2009!





In 1973 my dad had not met my mum, or accidently created me. So it is strange that he took a picture of the street (and building) that I would one day on.

bx