Pay per Pamper

Bun: helloo my name is Chocolate Man Bun. I come from Hong Kong *makes V sign*.

Tourist: Do all the buns in Hong Kong look as cute as you?

Bun: Oh no boss, I'm special bun boss. Export quality. For you boss, cheap cheap... only 25 dollars! Normally 50 dollars!

Tourist: Oh, er.. How much is that in real terms?

Bun: It means that you can make the average Hong Kong person smirk and laugh at you behind your back for paying 5 times the price of the average bun. It would make Chocolate Man Bun velli vellii happee boss!

I know I have been absolutely horrible for updates recently. It is not that I have nothing interesting to blog about since all I do everyday is to eat work. I have been wandering about various shoe shops in Hong Kong and ShenZhen looking for summer dolly shoes. I am now the proud owner of many pretty shoes! =) I love this place! The girls have also been good for shopping trips about Hong Kong as well as China. We went for the best Peking Duck in Hong Kong last weekend. There is a two week waiting list and they would only let us order one per table even though we had 12 to a table while the table next to us had 4 people and still got one whole duck. -_-

We went off to China for our massage fix. Bearing in mind that I just got a facial and scrub the night before I was exceedingly pampered this weekend. I couldn't take any more pampering and cancelled my facials over the weekend. Not that I had the energy to go, we went to watch footie at the Irish pub on Saturday and to Lan Kwai Fong with the Oxford kids. I now have four new geeks on my floor who work insane hours for research purposes. It doesn't help that they like vegetables. I don't like vegetables. Vegetables are bad for you *gah*.

The following week will also be pretty packed. I have two facials scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday. Drinks with the bankers on Wednesday, shopping in ShenZhen on Thursday, sight-seeing in Macau on Friday, DimSum and room trashing on Saturday, sleep on Sunday before facing work again on Monday. In fact, the social calendar is now booked up to mid June.

In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, one can't help but wonder what the parents are up do. I am waiting to see if my mother remembers she has a daughter in Hong Kong (hellooooo??) and if my girlfriends in UK remember to update their blogs so that I can stalk them again. I can't help but wonder if one day, we will actually drift apart and not see each other again? That, is not worth all the egg tarts in the world.

I walk past this poster every day in the corridor. Does it remind you of anyone Lai Ye? ;)

Black Rain; Typhoon 3

Big is better! =)

The guide books always tells you not to visit a place during their monsoon/typhoon/flash flood season. My experience of rainy seasons tend to be around Christmas and early in the year. Countries like Britain are famous for the rain. People actually go to UK to experience the constant drizzle and to get their feet soaked and their toes chilled to the bone. I remember sitting in my living room in Glasgow watching the rain and it just would not stop raining! Then I decided that enough was enough and went back to sunny, dry Aberdeen for a lovely crisp winter.

Hong Kong has a season where there is an increased risk of typhoons and this lasts the whole of summer. This year they predicted the typhoons were going to start early. There are various levels of typhoon with 1 being mild, 3 being moderate and 8 & 10 being serious and people are supposed to evacuate. I was warned on evacuation procedures, to stock up on food, emergency contacts... I thought all this was a load of rubbish. I mean, how bad can a typhoon be compared to the gale force winds and horizontal rain of Glasgow? They had all the procedures for evacuation set up at the workplace and we were supposed to evacuate to safer grounds and all places shut down in the event of Typhoon 8. Today I woke up to lovely horizontal rain and howling winds. It took me a while to realise that I was in Hong Kong not Glasgow. The only difference? The rain was warmer.

The plan was to go to HSBC to pick up a card. I went last weekend and the stupid Central branch was closed on Saturday afternoon. They used to be open all day Saturday. So being the dissatisfied customer that I was since I travelled all the way there just because it was the only branch in Hong Kong open all day Saturday. I well and truly grilled the fifteen HSBC employees I had dinner with on Friday. Yea, the banker, the medic, the lawyer and I joined 15 HSBC employees for a seafood feast. I am still drooling over the lobster noodles. *yum*

So I didn't make it to the bank as I was watching for a wane in the intensity of the storm. But it didn't stop. I called up all my friends and everyone was out braving the elements *stupid people*. Hong Kong is so small that there was nowhere that escaped the storm. By 4.30pm I was well and truly bored with my own company so I decided that I would go check out the durability of my shoes in extreme weather conditions. They lasted but my feet are pre-blistering. When we were at the mall the warning was typhoon 3 with red rain. Now, they have categories for the rain as well. Whilst we were shopping away they upped the rain level to black rain. It still looked about the same as red rain to me. However black rain is supposed to be on par with typhoon 8. So I was warned to stay inside the mall. =)

The lawyer, pseudo-lawyer and myself want to go test our umbrellas in typhoon 8; black rain. That would be so cool! But then again we may get blown away by the winds. On a second thought, those tiny HK gals would be blown away first. This would reduce population density and thereby increase my chances of securing a guy. Hm.. this typhoon business is good stuff! I can now justify the krispy kreme.

Boredom Kills

I chanced upon colourgenics on Flo's blog and it couldn't describe what I feel at present more accurately. I am well and truly bored.

You are tired of the various 'ups' and 'downs' of life at this time. If only you could win a lottery - or better still, be the heir to a large inheritance which would allow you to afford a life of absolute luxury. This day dreaming will shortly pass and whether you like it or not, sooner or later you will have to face reality.Being a likeable person you get on well with neighbours and friends. You don't need anything to 'Rock your boat'. You want to 'love' and to be loved'.Enough is enough - but the problems never seem to stop. They never stop. You feel, and maybe you are right, that the problems seem to go on and on and you have indeed had more than your fair share of trials and tribulations. But to give you credit - you bounce back time and time again - you stick to your beliefs because deep down you have that inner knowledge, that 'belief' system that in the end, everything will turn out OK - and you are right -it will!You are being unduly influenced by the situation that is all around you. You do not like the feeling of loneliness and whatever it is that seems to separate you from others. You know that life can be wonderful and you are anxious to experience life in all its aspects, to live it to the full. You therefore resent any restriction or limitations that are being imposed on you and you insist on going it alone.You don't like conflict and you endeavour to avoid criticism. You want to do your own thing and to be able to decide what is right for you. You have considerable personable charm - and this is used with considerable effect on those that keep your company.

One can always dream huh? :)

Fatty Lamby at Work

Lookin' cool in 3D Shades.

I went back for the weekend two weeks ago and ate so much my pimples stretched out and my face looked smooth(er). The little brother was back for the weekend too and it was enjoyable throughout. I didn't fall ill! :) How good is that eh? I am impressed with my immune system. There is hope yet that Stella can survive in Malaysian weather!

We went to eat kolo mee and to the bookstores, wandered about eating more junk and visited the cyclist at his booth for charity. Yes, the boy made it back home, just don't tell his mother that he plans to go adventuring again soon. Miss Lamby showed more entheusiasm in seeing me this time round because my suitcase promised chicken biscuits. These very chicken biscuits that had me scouring the whole of Hong Kong for the best and most authentic. The ones I got in the end didn't taste/look/feel like the ones I got the first time round but I liked this one better. The siblings also made full use of the big-sister-with-cash to demand various things. I did not succumb hahahah.. We went to KLCC sky bridge to check out the view and act like tourists while trying to ask all the attendants questions on fire escape routes which they couldn't asnwer. I was particularly concerned as the Big Boss worked in KLCC and I really don't want his safety compromised by the inadequate evacuation systems in place. Either the attendants were ignorant or they just didn't think a girl like me would need to know answers to questions like those. Still, they should attempt the effort to emphasize the evacuation system of the buildings. I didn't attend my Fire Ambassador talk for nothing!

The Three Bears. We eat kolo mee for a living.

I found out the Lamby started her own blog. Unfortunately she was using a blog engine we didn't use, so we got both the siblings to switch to blogspot. So now all four siblings can be stalked via blogspot by my mother. -_- While most 10 year olds may seem to write about barbie dolls and pink fairies my sister had a more practical outlook in life. She blogged on the world as seen through the eyes of the Fifth Sibling:

"Today I went to LCCT to sent my boss's(Olivia) sister(Stella: boss of Mango) because she needed to go back to Hong Kong. She has to work. She came back here only for the food she said. She cam only on Friday and now she is going back on Sunday. That is wasting a lot of money. She doesn't like to work, but she has t earn some money for the family. Although when she receives her salary the next week it is half gone because she has already spent it."

Spelling mistakes are cute in Lamby blogs. I couldn't get away with things like this! The little brother is also using his blog to write his stories. I am hoping that blogging about the mundane things like kolo mee would allow each of us to find out what the others are doing. However, when you have three siblings all raving about kolo mee, there is bound to be one feeling left out (Don't worry Osbert, you can eat all you want when you come home).

The mother has also been dropping hints about marrying me off. For the most part, I avoid the issue and get away with it. But then she came and showed me the new cook book she got : "Recipes for Confinement- 40 days" and very entheusiastically told me she was preparing to be a grandmother. -_- The worst part was that my aunt saw the book and seconded her stance.

I.am.so.screwed.

Kolo Mee Race

I am going to eat as much Kolo mee as I can physically manage before collapsing and getting my stomach pumped out because of Kolo mee overdose.

48 hours

Happiness in a recycle bin.

In 48 hours I will be in my own sweet bed, pushing my sister off it and kidnapping Lamby to flatten! :) I have been debating if I should go home just because. Since I was thinking so much about going home I decided to book my tickets anyway. Why think so much, thinking gives you pimples and my teeth are bad enough I don't need pimples to mess it up further. So I am going back for a grand total of 64 hours. I am looking forward to seeing the family again.

My sister will not be a happy bunny wunny as I still can't find the chicken biscuits she likes so much.