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How to... eat ice cream

Source: Google image

Women have a much deeper and more intense relationship with ice cream than they do with men. That's because with ice cream you get a lot more variety and a greater sense of physical satisfaction.

Deciding on what ice cream to have is one of the most complex decisions known to woman. Generally, you're either a fruity woman or a dark chocolate/caramel/coffee woman. Vanilla women don't really exist and you're probably dealing with a man in drag. Women will try any new flavour of ice cream once. There is something mystical about the state of ice creaminess, and anything that has been elevated to that condition, be it sausages, carrots or petroleum jelly, deserves respect.


The quantity of ice cream to eat is an easier decision: however much there is available is one portion. Cute little individual tubs are like tester paint pots: they give you a clue as to what effect you'll get once you crack open the proper industrial-size tub. Similarly, when you're having a cone, one scoop is a sure sign you don't really like the ice cream. Those cones have been tested up to a maximum of five scoops, and three scoops is a sensible minimum for a growing woman.


One way of making sure you're not at the mercy of ice cream shops is to have a freezer at home that has a bigger and better selection than the shops and the 24-hour opening. Just remember to get your favourite ice cream out ten minutes before you need it. There's nothing worse than sitting down to your favourite soap and then having to wrestle with a power saw and blowtorch to get a decent scoop from the tub.


A really difficult decision is whether to share ice cream. This decision is often made for you by the flavour. Obviously, you can hand out vanilla left, right and centre; but if it's a holy grail flavour that you can only find in one specialist supermarket in Truro, then you should eat the entire tub under a thick tower with the phone off the hook. In the worst-case scenario, when a so-called friend asks for a spoon, offer her a teaspoon and give yourself a reasonable headstart with a ladle. 


Ice cream is comfort food; when you're in front of the TV with a bowl of Belgian white chocolate ice cream, you've got everything required for complete happiness. Oh, and a man to get the refills.


Excerpt from Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade by Guy Browning 

Help me

Can someone whack some linear regression into my head??! :/


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Muji fail

I went through this entire packet of alphabet crackers and I only found 2 letters for my name.

Damn it!


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Long time no see, necklaces!

Having adapted to the Hong Kong weather, it has come to my attention that fall is the best season for stacking up all the accessories, especially the necklaces.

Why?
Spring: too humid you have to literally peel them off your neck
Summer: don't even remind me of the soaring heat and endless sweat
Winter: all bundled up there is literally no skin showing apart from my face

Alas, that time of the year where less is not more has come. At least when it comes to jewelry. ;)

Still really excited about this statement necklace I got today!


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Kinky Vicious by Liam Fitzpatrick

Source: CNNgo Hong Kong

Liam Fitzpatrick's collection of images of Hong Kong being captured and edited by nothing more than an iPhone 3GS. 

Kinky Vicious

Culture Club, 15 Elgin Street, Soho

September 19 to October 15

More details here and here.

Can't wait to go see it! :)

Bubba Gump Hong Kong

In light of a much needed pre-birthday celebration for one of my besties, we have opted to go to the Peak for some shrimp adventure after a very stressful work week (for some of us at least).

Where else but Bubba Gump?

Mango Frozen Lemon-Ups x 4 (served in the sparkly take-home cups!)/Run Across America Sampler/Shrimp Rigatoni/Fisherman's Combo Bucket/Frankie's Baked Seafood & Rice (apparently only available in the Hong Kong and Malaysia locations)/Mama's Best Strawberry Shortcake

To be honest, the experience at Bubba Gump Hong Kong was less than satisfying. My last encounter with the restaurant was at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Even though it was a good 3 years ago, I remembered seeing high-spirited employees marching around, carrying all the shrimp they can across tables. I also recall devouring perhaps half a plate of delicious garlic shrimps. *reminiscing in pleasure*

This night, however, was dramatically different. Our host left us standing idiotically in the middle of the restaurant, followed by the manager who gave us attitude right behind our backs because apparently we were blocking their traffic. Our server was grumpy throughout the meal, not to mention she called out on her junior staff in front of us too.

Food-wise, my expectations were definitely higher than what was placed on the table. Did I mention our main dishes were served cold? Our strawberry shortcake, as displayed below, tasted just like an oversized salty scone with vanilla ice cream in between. :(

Mama's Best Strawberry Shortcake gone salty :(

Even though a lot has gone wrong, we were up on the Peak, and the view is always mesmerizing. Sitting by the window enjoying the skyline during dinner is for sure one of the biggest pleasures. And of course, it's always the company that matters the most ;)

Fuji Instax fun! Playing in the park after dark (long time no see monkey bars and slides! And it's interesting to know that are now tall enough to reach the ground when we're on monkey bars!)/accidentally 'creating' an artsy pitch-black photograph. Thank you for being there to share the fun times with me :)

A slightly smoggy Hong Kong :)

I am loving the fall breeze. The cool, crisp air (ignoring the pollutants) blowing against your skin, creating goosebumps on your arms. I wish it could stay like this forever. Hong Kong winters can be brutal...

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53 Stubbs Road

As mentioned here before, the Frank Gehry debut exhibition in Hong Kong has been on my to-go list. I finally had the pleasure to drop by during lunch today!

Apart from admiring his previous designs such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Spain) and the Novartis Campus Gehry Building in Basel (Switzerland), the highlight of my trip was definitely his first residential building in Hong Kong, namely Opus Hong Kong.

The 1:50 model of Opus Hong Kong

The building, residing at 53 Stubbs Road, consists of 12 apartments only. As each apartment occupies the entire floor (except for the top 2 double-level garden apartments), they are all equipped with a magnificent panoramic view of the Victoria Harbour. Not to mention the floor-to-ceiling windows used in order to maximize the mesmerizing pleasure for the eyes. 

Construction in progress

I am definitely in love with these apartments. I can see so many great things you can do with the interior too. Large walls to be filled with frames, rusty decor for a little age to the modernness, softly dimmed candles everywhere and massive bookshelves. Yes, definitely a massive bookshelf. For more amp, one could even have a mini bar table set up by the kitchen to balance out the geeky-ness from all the literature!

Opus Hong Kong

Source: Swire Properties 

From an article that I've read before, Opus Hong Kong would most likely become the most expensive apartment in the city. I sure would like to know how much would one of these apartments costs!

Doodles

Best pre-dinner doodling I've seen in my life!

Met new friends over dinner after my back-to-back boat trips on a Sunday evening. Particularly interesting when almost the entire table was feeling the same type of unexplainable physical and mental discomfort - possibly the mixture of being dehydrated, hung over and the constant rocking of a boat. This symptom hit our hungry souls as soon as we sat down. Squinting, trying to figure out what our bodies were dealing with, the only phrase that made sense was simply "we're just so out of it".

Big pieces of paper, colourful crayons and a 15-minute wait for lemon iced teas to come were calling for our artsy sides. My grand master piece was that piranha flower above that came right out of the Mario game. The biting of the robot's hand was unintentionally though. Pure accident. 

If I were to pick one of my most often used sentences, it'd be 'I wish I could draw'. EVERYONE has heard me say that at least once before. Seeing what this new friend, an illustrator for video games, could do with just a few crayons has made me all giddy inside and out. I mean, look at his robot! And his Forever Alone meme as well, of course. My poor piranha has instantly become an amateur (note: piranha is already way better than my normal matchstick men).

Ribs/pepperoni pizza/pesto chicken pizza/linguine vongole/penne arrabiata at Pepperoni's in Sai Kung. Ultimate comfort food after a long day in the water!

And the best part of our food coma? Seeing the doodles again after the waitress cleared the table! Oh hello there again, piranha!

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My bottom left wisdom tooth has been hurting lately, to the point where I'm having trouble chewing. I hope the meds from the dentist work so I don't need to pull it out :( 

Weekly dose of Japan

You can never have enough of sushi ;)
Taken at Sushi Shota in Causeway Bay

We even got to witness the master chef's radish-peeling skills! (As seen in the second last picture) So thin you can literally see through it!!

And no, the gianormous dish of sushi wasn't mine :(

I love Hong Kong!

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Bare feet

Who needs shoes when you're getting married on a beach?

Megan Fox

Source: Google images

So tomorrow would be the first time that I attend a non-family wedding. But no, not on a beach. Still kinda excited if you ask me. I'm not a hopeless romantic but it's always nice to see the formation of a new family and of course, feel the love :)

Yet there is this little thing that I am nervous about. *fingers crossed*

Act of the day

Donated blood for the first time!
My good deed of the day :)

Playing with fire

Our lanterns this year :)

First up, happy belated mid-autumn festival everyone! This is one of the Chinese (and Vietnamese apparently) festivals where we celebrate our harvest back in ancient times. Moving on to modern days, it has become the time where we dine with family, devour mooncakes, light candles/lanterns and enjoy our public holiday ;)

The flames worked perfectly, until it reached the end which ultimately led to the unfortunate burning down of our dear rabbit. Props for having a bottle of water handy though!

Great food, great company and great fun. What else could I have asked for?

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Barbecue Hong Kong style with old friends accompanied by the sound of waves = a perfect evening

Sometimes you get so accustomed to the people around you it's hard to believe that they've been around for so long. Time has inevitably helped me separate my sun and shooting star friends. Sun as in those who remain a shining constant. Shooting stars - beautiful when they appear yet vanishes in a blink. I am collecting suns at the moment :)

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PS Dear Blackberry, I apologize for mistreating you all this time as well. I promise I will be very patient  with you, especially when you decide to take a good three minutes just to get to the 'unlock' screen. Please don't die on me until December :(

WANT LIST (revised)

Okay, maybe there is something else I want to add to the list...

*drumrolls* 

the starfish cuff by Bimba & Lola 

I'm like 5 months late and it's not longer on their site anymore poooooop. 

Source: Song of Style

I die.

Frank Gehry - Outside the Box

Frank Gehry's debut exhibition in Hong Kong.

ArtisTree, 1/F, Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, Island East

9 September - 27 October 2011

More details here.

OooOOo can't wait to see it when I'm in Taikoo Place for training the week after!  

Reminisce - part one

My Burano candle holder has finally made its debut after a three-month delay. Call me a grandma because even though the glass allows the flames to burn beautifully, the back of my head holds the tiny bit of fear that somehow the candle would tilt or something and my room would light up in fire.

Or maybe I can blame the Asian parent effect. My dad reminds me to turn off my iMac every night because not long ago some teenager's desktop overheated during the night and yes, the room burned down. It was all over the news. Apparently we cannot let history repeat itself...

Looking at my candle holder reminds me of the trip to Italy, which was yes, three months ago. Actually, now that I think about it, I've never written anything about my trip. Perhaps now would be a good time :)

As a matter of fact, it all started off in London. Honestly, I did not know this city was so windy. And I thought Chicago was the Windy City...

At Nottinghill after brunch, looking all G with the hoodie as I underestimated the weather there...

The Egyptian masks at the British Museum that match our skin tone so freaking well!

Sunday roast at First Room/afternoon tea at Winter Garden/crashing a hotpot dinner at a friend-of-friend's/picnic at Hyde Park/Love Never Dies/Big Ben/London Eye/British Museum/best roast beef sandwich (still a little iffy about the ox tongue as its taste buds were clearly visible...)/homemade 3-course steak dinner at 11pm/LOTS OF GOOD CONVERSATION AND LAUGHTER

Wouldn't be the same without our great host(s).

And then it was Florence

The beautiful view of Firenze from Piazzale Michelangelo

The start of trekking all over the country/squeezing ourselves and our luggages in the tiniest hotel elevator ever seen/getting lost in the somewhat intertwining streets/Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore/Basilica de Sante Croce/Piazzale Michelangelo/Ponte Vecchio/pulled some hair out as we didn't figure out how to open the supermarket salad bowl properly until we munched the last leaf away

I like how we accidentally messed up the settings of the camera which resulted in this grainy effect

By the way, it took us a lot of effort to climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo... I mean, we're two girls whom you can't exactly scream athletic at. And climbing stairs midday in soaring heat was definitely good for the butt.

To be continued...

WANT LIST

Number 1 on the list: a pair of oversized Ray Ban Wayfarers.

I already have a pair that is medium-sized (i.e. RB2132) but I want to go big. I need them big enough to cover half of my face. The lens also have to be dark enough to conceal my awkward chinky eyes.

Photo source: Google image

Yet no one seems to be selling them in Hong Kong :(

The simpler the better

An emotional train wreck would be appropriate to describe my state of mind for the past two weeks. Like walking on clouds; dreamy and surreal, but in a bad way. They always say when you fall hard, get back up and walk away with your head held high. 

So yes, I am 1) picking up the broken pieces; and 2) carrying on, anticipating where life takes me next.

Took advantage of my week off and headed over to the flower market again. Currently experimenting with hydrangea and baby's breath. Oh the smell of fresh flowers....!

Definitely the simpler the better :)