Wan Chai 灣仔

Deserted Lee Tung Street (aka Wedding Card Street)

Spending an afternoon in Wan Chai allowed me to see another part of the city that is in decay. In the ever-expanding city, aging neighbourhoods are always seen as hindrance to new developments. When many parts of the city become homegenous in characteristics, however, the elements that define a neighbourhood become most important in making great cities.

Mailboxes - existing and missing

Wan Chai is one of the oldest area since the development of Hong Kong and it is under an urban renewal scheme to redevelop this aging neighbourhood. What is being demolished is the humanistic scale and density; the replacements are high-density commercial and residential developments.

My Wanchai Photo Album
Wanchai in Wikipedia

More BOOKS

What I managed to get from the Book Fair:

From Dymocks Bookseller booth:
Life Swap // Jane Green // HK$64
The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time // Mark Haddon // HK$64
Everything is Illuminated // Safran Foer // HK$64

From Crown Bookstore 皇冠書屋 booth:
一本精華遊 // 余迪偉 // HK$54
autographed

From Basheer's Design Books 書得起 Booth:
supersurfaces // Sophia Vyzoviti // HK$107
Young Architects 7 SITUATING // Architectural League of NY // HK$126
DETAIL Concrete Construction June06 // HK$46

KA-CHING: HK$525

Macau

Following the Friday of reading and walking at the Book Fair, Saturday morning my family and I took the turbojet and headed to Macau for the weekend! This was my first visit to this former Portuguese colony.

Before this visit, my impression of Macau was strictly defined by its casinos and more or less the almond cookies that had somehow become the local specialty/souvenir.

What I discovered from this trip was that this very small place had a lot more than just casinos. With its World Heritage sites, Macau has so much to offer!

Ruins of S. Paul

Not only has the historic city centre been gentrified for tourism, all the tourists' destinations are very well thought out and planned. I was most impressed by the Ruins of St. Paul, not only because it's the icon of Macau, but this "ruin" was conserved sensibly.

Visit my Macau photo album!
Macau Tourism
Macau on Google Map

Hong Kong Book Fair

Annual event that creates enough buzz for bookworms and even people who don't read, like me. I am going tomorrow morning Friday and will try to dig a few books on Architecture from Page One booth.

my book list
HK Lab 2 // $350
Hotel as Home, Home as Hotel by Gary Chang // $150
Supersurfaces by Sophia Vyzoviti // $116 - roo~ check this one out!
Winning Designs: A New Breed of Architecture // $380
a few fictions

http://www.hkbookfair.com

Anime + Fantasy Festival

The day I lined up for SoftHard concert ticket at the Cultural Centre, I came across this booklet on this anime festival. There'll be many anime films, full-featured/short, on the program.

* free passes for the above three shows

Free movie passes are also offered for weekday afternoon shows - you know those odd time slots that only people like me (unemployed) can really catch. I'll see how that goes when I go pick up the passes tomorrow in Wanchai, near the Convention Centre where the Book Fair is held!

HKIFF ANIME & FANTASY

Lights Out HK 8.8 8pm

8.8,8pm

www.lightsout.com.hk

Cars!

Sunday afternoon show.

Cantonese-dubbed, funny but
now I cannot keep track of the characters' English names.
Amazing rendering as expected.
Good but not my favourite of Pixar's animations.
Guido is the one I like the most.

Love Undercover 3

Got free pass from my cousin to Love Undercover 3
Watched it last Wednesday.
A typical local production with
non-existent story and funny nonsense humour.
The 98-minutes already seemed too long from the beginning.
No further comment. blah!

Punctuation of Irony

Source: Point d'ironie - Wikipédia*

*Invented by the French writer Alcanter de Brahm at the end of the 19th century, the point d'ironie is a punctuation mark, which can be used at the end of sentences (like an exclamation point or question mark) to indicate to the reader the ironic phrases in the text

LINK:
http://www.pointdironie.com/

Sh!!

Got tix to 04Aug2006
SoftHard Concert!

LINK: Gwaii Haanas National Park

A visitor soaks in a hot spring in
Gwaii Haanas National Park, British Columbia.
Source: National Geographic

Recalling my flight from Toronto to Hong Kong, I came across an article about a National Park. I did not recall the location of the place as I was half falling asleep and half awake all the way, between reading, watching videos and playing video games. I did store the name of the park in my phone so one day I could retrieve and research on it. This evening, I managed to go through the notes to see Gwaii Haanas National Park & Hot Spring Island. A quick google search gave me Parks Canada and a chance to learn more about the Pacific Coast!

Things to do: Sea kayaking (for you greg and O), hotspring-bathing, camping, hiking, fishing, photography, motor and sail boating...etc

Quick Facts:
1. Gwaii Haanas was rated No.1 Park Destination in North America in 2005.
2. No more than 3000 visitors each year.

Links:
Parks Canada - Gwaii Haanas National Park
National Geographic: Destination Scorecard

my broken iPOD

Remember this?

I do...my broken 4G iPod since Feb'05.

It's here with me in HK, sitting on my desk.
It plays music, still works as a hard drive, and the backlight works.
Though the black area is spreading - like spilled ink. Sigh.
Emailed a non-official service centre - Mactivity.com.hk
Quoted cost on B/W LCD Replacement: $580 incl. labour and parts.
Found Apple Service Centre HK.
I am going to have my iPod evaluated on replacement cost.

Apple Customer Service Centre
Room 1703 Hang Lung Centre
2-20 Paterson Street
Causeway Bay Hong Kong
AppleCare Hotline: 2112 0099

FIFA

Adidas Baby Shoe as souvenir
provided by sister

Happy Birthday Sam!

In celebration of Sam's birthday, as friends from junior high school Patrick Kaleung Sam and I gathered at an Italian-American restaurant - Amaroni's Little Italy. By the time we finished the three appetizers - Soft Shell Crabs, Clams in Garlic White Wine Sauce, Prosciutto and Melons; and two mains - Classic Pizza (sausage, peppers, onions & mushrooms), Penne with Shrimps and Chicken, our taste buds and stomach were completely satisfied!

Amaroni's Little Italy
LG132 Festival Walk,
Kowloon Tong, Kowloon
Hong Kong

Rotating Sushi Bar

One of my favourite place is Rotating Sushi Bar where sushi plates move along a conveying belt, so that you get to look at the plates for their appearance and freshness before you take it for your own enjoyment!

We had dinner at Nagoyaka Tei on a weekday and there was still a lineup for tables! That's so typical of Hong Kong... anyway, the wait wasn't long as most of the people ahead of us were couples, and we were family of five. We got seated at a booth and immediately we went at it picking the sushi plates from the conveying belt. Ended up eating so much sushi and fish! Yum!

Currently Listening to: Jack Johnson

Brushfire Fairytales

On and On

In Between Dreams

Jack Johnson