Month: January 2017

Hong Kong 2016 Day 8: Brands and Products Expo @ Victoria Park

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Happy Chinese New Year!! Year of the Rooster or the Chinese would say Chicken – as we really don’t know if it was a male or female that crossed the river in the zodiac story… actually we don’t know if they were male or female animals at all!!! (This came up in a conversation between Mr Games, Miss Money and I last night!). LOL!

Saturday 10th December 2016

Another early morning it was. I really wanted to sleep but I don’t think this holiday was meant to be for sleeping. 😦 I think I know how Miss Pinky feels when we go on holiday). 
Well back to the congee place again!! This time we had noodles and again we had abalone congee but with pork slices instead of chicken. Yummy! I really really like abalone!!!! Not sure why Hong Kongers and Chinese people in general eat noodles for breakfast. It’s normal for me. People in Hong Kong just eat anything for breakfast even if it’s something people would eat for dinner… Strange we are!

Total cost came to HK$94 (~£9.89). Still good.

Well where did we go on this very, very hot Saturday???
We went to Victoria Park where all the events for exhibitions are held. It never ends I think… there’s always an event there for all the public holidays.

First we went took a bus to Central Ferry Stop to Macau. Then we had to go up to the bridge part to get to the tram section… I had to use my internet roaming, otherwise we would have gotten lost. We took a tram heading to North Point, and we needed to get off at Victoria Park. For HK$2.30 (~£0.23p)… That’s really cheap! It used to be HK$2, That’s a 15% increase, but still cheap. It’s a really popular and cheap way of travelling across Hong Kong but when it’s really overcrowded, you just don’t know where to stand or dare to sit down in case an older person comes along… 😦 We thought we were going the wrong way, but we got off at Victoria Park! The modern trams are like the buses and tell you which stop you’re at. Note: get on at the back of the tram, and get off at the front… Not sure why it’s a backwards thing… You also have to pay at the front when you get off!

Right across the street was the event MummyGeek wanted to go to for many, many years. She had went before but that was when she was younger, and events change over the years. It’s called 工展會 Gung Jin Wui, which means “exhibition”. This exhibition was for Brands and Products of all sorts – food, snacks, cookware etc., etc… ¬_¬” Think MummyGeek thinks we’ve not been to one. Well, not one in HK, but she’s never seen the places I go to in London. LOL! 

We just missed the start of the opening, so we just missed Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying who was there to open up the exhibition. Ah, too bad!

We headed towards the entrance, and then suddenly MummyGeek was held back because she looked over 60 (uh hm – she’s over 60), and one of the exhibition stewardesses told her to go into the queue for elderly people as it’s free for them! ¬_¬”” WHAT! MummyGeek gets to go in for FREE!! So Mr Stingy and I had to go and queue for our tickets. Fortunately the queue was going fairly quickly (this is how service is run UK! Stop being so slow!), tickets for us youngsters was HK$10 (£1.05). Gosh, that’s really cheap for an admission…. Maybe because they were in an open space, plus they were probably expecting thousands of people in 2-3 weeks.

We got in, and we just explored as much as we could. It was sooooooo hot.

I so wanted a Hello Kitty kettle, but when I saw the price, it was no-no… 😦

Had a shitake mushroom taster here… it really tasted amazing! Fat juicy shitake mushrooms are amaaaazing!

Because of the heat, MummyGeek and I had to have a gelato. Mr Stingy told us later he too had to have an ice cream. ^_^

We saw Mr Stingy looking at this stage and trying to cool off… It was at this point we decided to go back to the hotel…

We took a tram back an got back near to Central. MummyGeek was hungry, so we had to stop and eat. We randomly went to this place 羅富記粥麵專家 Law Fu Kee. Was served by one rude and forgetful waiter… Everything was served apart from my beef brisket noodles soup. ¬_¬” I waited and waited and waited until the cashier came over and asked if there was a problem because I was sighing a lot. She said the waiter was always a problem, didn’t make a mistake with the calculations but forgot to put my order on… Stupid! Fortunately the cashier made a minus of HK£10 from our bill… Lucky!

So we had a plate of dried noodles and Chinese leaves with a separate bowl of soup… this was ok…

Mr Stingy and MummyGeek had the wonton noodles soup – looks so much better than Mak’s Noodles!

And these deep fried fish balls. Don’t think the sauce goes well with it… Very odd taste. But seems like one of the popular dishes on the menu, which the waiter had recommended. LOL!

Finally my beef brisket noodle soup came!! We must eat fast as their turnover is really fast!

Well, better than Mak’s Noodles…

Total came to HK$164 (~£17.26) with the HK$10 discount from the cashier. This place won’t be in my good books… an unlucky experience.

中環皇后大道中144號金利商業大廈地下
Address: 144 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong


It was a long walk back to the Central Ferry Stop to Macau. We literally had to walk under a car tunnel where runners were going through. ¬_¬”” My dear life… 

Unfortunately I had a really bad headache, and so I had to have a nap. Think it was too much exposure to sunlight, lack of sleep, bus aircon and not eating enough for me to sleep… 
I woke up and still had a headache. MummyGeek wanted us to go out and get some T-shirts in a nearby local shopping centre where my aunt and cousin lives… We went and I definitely wanted to go back to the hotel room as quickly as possible… It was a nightmare finding big sizes for Mr Stingy. Grrrrr… He didn’t bring enough and he hates shopping. ¬_¬”” If I didn’t have a headache, I think I would have wanted to buy loads of clothes. Heheh.

In the end I threw up a few times (managed to get to the hotel room fairly quickly)… and thankfully my headache went! Phew! Think it may have been some milk I had that morning.

Decided I didn’t want anything to eat that night… So I had an apple… 😦

End of Day 8.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 7: Tai Po… MummyGeek reminiscing her past…

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Friday 9th December 2016

Free daaaaay!!! Meaning I get to “hang out” with MummyGeek (like I haven’t been for the past few days… sarcasm ¬_¬”) and Mr Stingy got to go out and do his own thing – think he decided to go to Ma On Shan and find a new bus route from the hotel.
So where did we go for the day? We went to Tai Po by taking the 74A bus which only comes hourly. It wasn’t like that in the past, but because of some new train lines people aren’t taking the buses anymore… MummyGeek always wanted to have a look at this food centre which is on the top floor and it’s just right next to the bus stop we got off from.
Address: Tai Po Hui Market and Cooked Food Centre, G/F-2/F, Tai Po Complex, 8 Heung Sze Wui St, Tai Po District., Hong Kong

There were a lot of food stalls opened when we got there. Some weren’t opened yet… But in the end MummyGeek wanted to try out these Shanghai noodles at 東記上海麵 Dong Kee Shanghai Noodles. 

We were allowed to choose a our own veggies on top of the noodles, so MummyGeek chose choi sum and preserved cabbage with beef brisket. I had the same but without the preserved cabbage. We could choose either a pork chop or chicken wings, and we both chose pork chops. I thought MummyGeek had ordered chicken wings, but nevermind!

Shanghai noodles taste almost like Japanese udon noodles, but I think these have more elasticity and much chewier than udon noodles. (Bought some in London from Longdan Express and Shanghai to see if it would be sort of the same texture – it was!). Hm, I think I prefer Shanghai noodles. 

The fried pork chop was scrumptious. Well seasoned. I just wish we had ordered the chicken wings now!

Total cost came to HK$94 (I think – forgot to note it down, but it was practically almost the same price as previous breakfasts ~£9.89).
Just to note, you might be sharing a table with some other Hong Kongers and their maids. We sat next to a couple of women and a Filipino maid… Sometimes I wonder why do people in HK have maids? One – to help with the shopping. Two – is it cheaper than taking their children to nursery. Three – ??? Apart from The Queen and the rich peeps in England, I don’t think none of us has maids in the UK. We practically do everything ourselves. Does an extra pair of hands really help? I’m just happy to have lots of freedom!

After breakfast/brunch it was time for MummyGeek to feel like she was back at home and just walk around… We went to the normal places we go to, like the shopping centres. It’s not far from the main street, but we always go via the old shopping centre and then into the Tai Po Mega Mall (Address: No. 8 & N.T., 10 On Pong Rd, Tai Po, Hong Kong). It’s a bit of a trek if you try and find a different route. 

We explored the Mega Mall, went to the loo as well, but of course everything there was expensive. We looked at the woks and saw one that cost over HK$3000…. WTF! (~£315). Sorry but no way do I need an expensive wok like that!). Didn’t really want anything from here, so we went back

In the end MummyGeek said we should have a look around the old streets. She wanted to look at the area she used to work in when she sold flowers and plants when she was young….

Towards the end of this street (Kwong Fuk Road), can you see those trees? That’s where there was an old flower market MummyGeek used to work in. It’s now converted into Kwong Fuk Bridge Garden where some old people hang out. 

Where these shops are now used to sell rice, I guess before rice were sold in packets and big bags… MummyGeek was not happy, but told her that shops have to modernise and rice shops wouldn’t have lasted. Never seen a rice shop in my life! And next to that Kohler shop was once a cafe MummyGeek used to go to for her brekkie/lunch. LOL! She really does miss her past!

Anyway, she said there was a market around there so we walked up further and found it… I’m sure we’ve been to this part before.

We once went to this market with MummyGeek’s younger sister man years ago. You can buy cheap clothes and foods here. ^_^

MummyGeek wanted to buy some peanut sweets for DaddyChef… these aren’t bad, very fresh, and not too sweet! Just make sure you seal them properly because they do actually smell a lot. ^_^ LOL!

Finally it was time to head back… We saw these old two ladies fighting over cardboard boxes. ¬.¬” This is only supposed to happen in HK dramas, not in real life! Blimey! The older generation take newspapers, cans, boxes etc., etc to a recycling centre where they can exchange this for money. I guess the heavier it is the more money you get… Maybe they should introduce this in the UK for people to recycle more. Just watch out for the arguments to follow! Theresa May – you need to get on with the environmental issues in the UK as well as your stupid Brexit plans!!! (I did not vote for this political and enviromental crap to happen).
We waited ages for a bus to come. We were at the bus stop in time, but unfortunately it does come hourly… Well the bus was frigging late! At least 45 minutes late… It was a very hot that day too. 😦 MummyGeek was not impressed, and I think I was going to die from thirst… I did tell MummyGeek to buy a drink earlier, but she didn’t listen to me (as usual)… I kind of had to push her back in case the bus came… she didn’t like that ¬_¬”” … sorry mum! :p
Well we got back around 4-ish… our snacks already bought in Tai Po…

Guess what?! These egg tarts cost HK$3 each! Yes that’s right! ~£0.32p … ¬_¬”” London why are you sooooo expensive!!! I love egg tarts… please London Chinese bakeries, reduce your egg tart prices. 😦

This is what MummyGeek bought… we had to feast on a lot on the remaining days… SIGH. Too much food!

What’s this again? Ah yeah, some sort of pineapple bun style cake… interesting… (not using real pineapple). The top was just like a po lo bun (pineapple bun) but on top of a sponge cake.

Have to show you what I got at the Mega Mall. I caught a Charmander for HK$30 (~£3.16) with my Octopus card using one of those toy machines whilst MummyGeek was in the loo… ¬_¬””

Lunch consisted of red bean soy milk and malt soy milk… Plus a takeaway of roast pork and duck from BBQ King. ^_^ MummyGeek paid!

And uh, these are the crisps I bought… ¬_¬” I like snacking!

End of Day 7.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 6: The Garden of Stars and The Peak

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Didn’t post this weekend… Too busy being lazy, catching Pokémon, studying Japanese and for the HSK Level 2 exam…

Thursday 8th December 2016

Ta da! I finally slept for a bit. Food helped. Kind of. But still had to wake up early for a fun packed day ahead. We finally got to go out without having to worry too much about anything else…

We had nice weather throughout the week, and I think I started tanning quite well. ^_^ (It’s started to fade now… need more sun!).

MummyGeek and I went back to the congee place again. I think I’ve not had so much congee as a breakfast since I was a baby I bet. LOL! 
On previous days I had seen people order this fried dough covered with cheung fun… I wanted to know what it was, because I’ve never had it before. It’s called “fried two” Ja Leung 炸兩. The taste is hard to describe. It’s got the texture of something fried and steamed at the same time. The fried dough loses it’s crispy texture as the cheung fun takes over it. This was served slightly cold too. For me, I’ll stick to fried dough and cheung fun separately. >_<"

Congee on this day was abalone and chicken flavour. Wow. At HK$40 (~£4.21) it was mega worth it! I think this would be a very expensive dish in London if restaurants started serving this. Triple price is likely! ¬_¬”… But wow, I was trying to leave the abalone last. The texture of it was soft and sweet enough to go with the congee… Amazing, I’m craving for this right now. ^_^

Total cost came to HK$94 (~£9.89). Still mega cheap for two people!

Time to head out now to Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Stop! We took a bus (I think we took the 81C – forgot to take bus notes) and stopped at the very last stop, when we should have got off the stop before. In the end we had to walk back… But also in the meantime, we were looking for the Bruce Lee statue because I’ve never seen it!

We trekked back and forth, underground and ground floor level… It was like a hectic walkabout… MummyGeek got fed up and asked an old man who pointed to the opposite street that the statue was on the other side… I had actually wanted to go in a different direction as there were arrows pointing up (where we should have gone). :p

Finally, after walking across to the other side from below, walked a few kilometers, we noticed that the old guy was probably pointing to the old location of where the statues were at The Avenue of Stars. Unfortunately that part of the harbor is closed off for renovation. Fortunately, close by there was a lift directing us to The Garden of Stars… Phew! I think we would have got fed up if we didn’t find it. 

Anita Mui

Bruce Lee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally got to see this iconic tourist site! When it returns back to the Avenue, I’ll be sure to return to take pictures. 
Ok… now it was time to find the bus stop to the Ferry stop. It took us a long time, but we eventually found it! We almost missed the ferry because I was looking at postcards. Mr Stingy and MummyGeek kind of got angry, but they could have gone up the stairs whilst they waited… LOL. In the end I kind of ran faster than the two of them. ¬_¬”” Phew, we didn’t miss the ferry going to Central!

Next was to get the Bus 15 up to The Peak. Last time we were there we took the tram, but too many people go up that way. And it’s more expensive. I always remembered this bus number for some reason. We were very lucky to have spotted it the minute we got off the ferry… Quick, quick guys… we’re going to miss the bus!!!

It was one of the most bumpiest rides I had been on. It was also hot that day… Almost fell asleep. Did MummyGeek go on a lot of bus rides when I was still in her tummy? I think she did, coz I really wanted to sleep. LOL.

Yay! We reached The Peak after a long bus ride just going up and round the mountain… How does any bus driver take this route?
We went via the shopping centre way… I just wanted to quickly get to the other building for some shots…

If you went up the bus route and wanted to go to the Sky Terrace, there’s an entry fee of HK$48 (~£5.05), which I think is totally cheap! Cost of the tram and Sky Terrace is a bit more at HK$88 (~£9.26) for adults… You can pay via using your Octopus card too!

We went back down after only being up there for about 10-15 minutes and trying to see through my phone with my selfie stick… ¬_¬”” Hard work guys taking pictures with a selfie stick in bright sunlight and windy conditions. 

MummyGeek was so happy to see this place Mak’s Noodle. She had seen it being advertised somewhere and said, oh this place is great… ¬_¬ … I actually wanted to go and eat the Dim Sum Shop next to it… Too bad!

We ordered two wonton noodles n soup and one beef brisket noodles n soup… It took a little while to come, but when they did, my face was of disappointment. ¬_¬” Such small bowels for a big hungry stomach. 😦 Disappointed big time. MummyGeek, those advertising adverts didn’t tell you they were small bowls did they?!

Well I was extremely not impressed. Soup was ok. It was all ok, just not enough. Tasted quite ordinary really… Not recommended unless it was a big bowl. :p Was recommended by @eatlovenoodles on Instagram to try out Tsim Chai Kee who does noodle combos… Unfortunately I didn’t have to go and find it. 😦
Total cost HK$131 (~£13.79). Blimey. Take me back to the congee restaurant!!!!
Ok, so back we go on the Bus 15… bumpy ride again… we took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui. This time we missed the ferry but got the next one…

We explored the new Christmas decorations at Harbour City shopping centre… This shopping centre is definitely for the rich tourists…

Then I stood outside for a little while with MummyGeek waiting for Mr Stingy who took a while coming out, so I stood around waiting for the sun to set…

It was time to go… MummyGeek was moaning because her legs were hurting… well we were running all day long…

We tried to find our bus stop, but we actually went around the wrong corner, so we had to go back and take another bus to the bus station we mistakenly went to at the start of the day and then change for the 81C – where I said the bus stop is a bit further up – and then MummyGeek said we’re going the wrong way (no we weren’t)… ¬_¬”” It’s always the journeys going back is the pain.

Finally back in the Shatin area! Mega hungry that night… Bought myself a bowl of cart noodles Che Jai Min 車仔麵… Have been wanting a bowl of these for a long time. ^_^ Got to choose my own noodles and

I also bought more food in case I starved that evening…

Don’t panic… I didn’t eat the crisps just yet!

My noodles were awesome! Makes me want to go and make some right now.

Noodles cost me HK$44 (~£4.63).

強記小食車仔麵大王，沙田河畔花園E座地下Block E, Garden Rivera, Sha Tin

MummyGeek bought these red bean puddings at The Peak… thought she was crazy. (She also bought egg tarts that were HK$9 a piece – expensive Mum!). Well, these puddings tasted better than my mother’s. Hahahah.

Finally I got to sleep a bit…

End of Day 6.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 5: Shek Kip Mei, Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok

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Wednesday 7th December 2016

Ack. Another night of NO SLEEP! That bottle of wine didn’t even get me to sleep for too long. 😦 What does that make me? Non susceptible to alcohol? ¬_¬” Ugh. 
So it was kind of an early morning again… around 8.30… Time for brekkie!!! ^_^
MummyGeek and I went to the same congee place. I had the congee with fish slices, and MummyGeek and one with pork liver… I think we had the fried dough again and chee cheung fun, but didn’t take a picture of those. My fish one here in the yellow bowl really smelt and tasted fishy. Didn’t really enjoy it that much but ate the whole thing.

MummyGeek asked me to try the pork liver but I skipped (I did try it eventually on another day).

Total cost came to HK$72 (~£7.58). Not bad. ^_^

I was still hungry so I started on a packet of crisps I bought earlier. This is Carbonara flavour. What can I say? It was quite peppery, and I didn’t like them. ¬_¬” Sorry Japanese snacks can be quite queer for me too!

Time to hit the streets of Kowloon finally! No family bothering us!! Woohoo!!
We took the Bus 86C which took us to a place called Shek Kip Mei… The place where MummyGeek and I found a dai pai dong (street food stall) in one of the side streets – it’s still there!!! Anyway, it was Mr Stingy’s first time there. I remembered some of the streets but couldn’t remember the places exactly.
We ended up walking around and around trying to find Ap Liu Street – the famous street for electronics.

Ah, found it, we were actually just next to it. We had to go to a Metro station anyway to exchange our old Octopus cards with the white machine – just don’t go to the desk as they’ll look at you as if you’re stupid! ¬_¬”” Sometimes I think Hong Kongers are set in their ways with attitude problems. Nevermind. Miss Vegan said to me in her country Guyana, it’s the same with the attitude. LOL! I guess I just need to get used to it.
Ap Liu Street is filled with electronics. We ended going to one store asking for a media box because the one that DaddyChef uses is practically a failure. Seagate – please fix your GoFlex Media Box or release a more up-to-date version! Anyway, we bought a cheap one. Think we should have bought a slightly more expensive one as when we brought it home it was a little complicated to use!!! ¬_¬””

MummyGeek was excited!! We found this shopping centre called Dragon Centre 西九龍中心. Address: 37K, Yen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon. She likes to YouTube everything, and this shopping centre was in a news article that she came across. LOL! Why did she want to go here? You’ll find out more in a moment…
I found the billboards with some provocative underwear advertising… LOL! And I thought the ones in the UK were too sexy. I guess not… :p

In we go…

Now to the top floor!!

This seat here in the dining area is the reason why MummyGeek wanted to go this shopping centre. You can’t see it well in this picture, but in fact it is slanted to make people not sit there for too long. People were complaining there was nowhere to sit as the oldies were sitting there watching the television sets. LOL. My mother is crazy. 

MummyGeek said she was hungry, so we picked a place and ordered food… This place cooked 3 meats/seafood and one vegetables in a soup with boiled rice on the side. 
This is my bowl. Very colourful isn’t it? Well, it sounded appetising but on taste it was VERY bland. Ugh. Boring. I had to add salt and soy sauce for any affect. Mum, please don’t take to me this stall again. Thanks.

Total cost came to HK$72 (same price as breakfast!) including two drinks – had ordered a lemon tea, but changed my mind for a Fanta when they had no cans for the lemon tea… ¬_¬” Sorry. My mind thinks differently.

We had already split up with Mr Stingy, so MummyGeek and I explored most of the shopping centre. There’s a lot of stuff in there. Just don’t forget to go in between the stores as there’s much more too look at than you think there is. ^_^ I think I could have done lots of shopping if MummyGeek wasn’t with me at that moment in time. But I really stopped myself because I didn’t want to take home lots of things…

We eventually went downstairs, bought some snacky things, then saw these cakes… I really want that Gudetama cake!!!

LOL! This looks like the 3D origami Darth Vader I made a couple of years ago. ^_^

Time to go now and explore more and shop more! We kind of got lost and didn’t know which bus stop to go to next… Seems like we’re always getting lost!! Eventually we found a bus stop/shelter near the shopping centre which was heading to Mong Kok.

Took a picture of this to show that Hong Kongers like to protest about property…
Finally got to Mong Kok in one piece. I kind of knew this place but always get lost trying to find Ladies Market… Time to bargain and shop peeps!! Split again Mr Stingy for a good hour or so… 😀

Gosh, that was a long walk!! But we got some good bargains, got cheated from one stall but gained more from another… it was like walking into a very business like market. It’s a good place to test your bargaining and negotiation skills… if you don’t have those, then I don’t think this market is for you to be in. Just ask for cheaper… CHEAPER PLEASE… If they refuse, then walk away. WALK AWAAAAY from that item.
I really had to try and find stinky tofu which can only be found in places like Mong Kok or where there’s a lot of street food… Ah heaven!!

I found stinky tofu in one stall… I bought two pieces, one for MummyGeek and one for me. Mr Stingy didn’t want any… Yum yum yum… We had to take a mini bus (at the very end of Ladie’s Street) back to Sai Kung and change for the 299X to get back to the hotel, since it would’ve been much more complicated if we took a bus back to Sham Shui Po or Shek Kip Mei. Hope I didn’t stink out the bus… Those mini buses are killer buses. They speed like crazy drivers!

At the bottom of the hotel (MummyGeek wouldn’t let me take it to the room in case it really stunk badly) I ate my stinky tofu. To be honest, it didn’t stink that badly, and thankfully I didn’t add any sauce as it would’ve been ruined. Really tasty fried tofu with a bit of stinky bad toilet smell…  ^_^

That night we didn’t eat much… I just ended up eating “Getting Married Cakes”. MummyGeek’s favourite cakes… and no I’m not getting married… it’s really hard in my world to find a nice guy to get along with, who has similar interests and all… My workplace has no such guy available. Hahahah. 

I only had one cake which had an egg in it. I think MummyGeek wanted this one. Oh well. :p It’s really filling for the stomach, so don’t eat too much!

And that’s all I had for dinner including a box of milk and some crisps.

Sleep again… trying to sleep again… :p

End of Day 5… goodnight!

Hong Kong 2016 Day 4: Grandpopo Summons Us

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Tuesday 6th December 2016

Day 4 kicks in. And I’m positive for the past few days in Hong Kong something is trying to prevent me to sleep at night. Is it the temperature in the room? Yes. Did I need to go to the loo? Yes. Was I distracted by my phone? Maybe. Was I hungry? I don’t think I was that night, but likely yes…
Well, it seems I had to wake up anyway because I had to call my Grandpopo (MummyGeek’s mother, aged 95… yep, 95)… My family from DaddyChef’s side were quite surprised we didn’t call them already… ah, no need. They aren’t very much into modern technology so we might as well call them when we get to HK. And that’s what we did. Called them at 8.30 in the morning and my aunt answered the phone. She was a bit abrupt with us because I think she feels we care more about my father’s side of the family more than them. Not so true. I don’t care about either side (in terms of family gossip and feuds – gosh, does this happen in every family?)… Both sides are ignorant to us, the ones who escaped to safety in Britain, only to come back for a couple of weeks for a holiday. :p 
Anyway, Grandpopo summoned us to come that day. That was a surprise to us, because in the history of all the times we came to HK we always went later… Hmmmmmmm…
So MummyGeek and I went for breakfast, I forgot what Mr Stingy was doing in his room or if he had already gone for brekkie. We went somewhere different this time. Another place near the hotel, and this place served Chinese-Western food. This isn’t my favourite kind of food, but you know, eat light. ^_^ So French toast, spam and egg on one plate plus the noodles was for MummyGeek, but I ate her plate of Westernized food… I also had the plate of pork chops and flat scrambled eggs… LOL!!! You would never get this in the West. 😦
Total cost came to HK$61 (~£6.42)… Expensive! Well the rates are still pretty low since the Brexit vote. 😦

新潮軒打冷小菜粉麵, 沙田勵城花園3號地舖
Floor 3, Lai Shing Garden, Sha Tin

Time to go to Grandpopo’s! We waited forever for the bus when we could’ve got a taxi. Bus service has really changed as there’s new stations that have opened up. Good for some, but for an old tourist like me who know the bus routes more than the tube map is bad sign for us.
Anyway, we arrived before lunchtime. Upon our arrival Grandpopo started crying as she hadn’t seen us for 3 years. Gosh, she makes me teary all the time. MummyGeek had even told me to crochet her a hat before we came, which I made within a few days… Black wool is hard to see at night… 
My aunt had already flew across to town via taxi and came back with so much food! Blimey… so we ate as much as we could… My mother’s side of the family loooooooove Mr Stingy, so my aunt bought this mostly for him. ¬_¬”” 
We spent most of our afternoon at Grandpopo’s… we even had to call my other aunt and one of our cousin’s from DaddyChef’s side to come last minute… Uh, sorry, but you did tell us to call you to go and visit! They haven’t seen my Grandpopo and aunt for 30 years. Blimey! That’s a very long time!
My aunt and Grandpopo even had some visitors – have no idea who they were… A business couple… :p 
Aunty took us around, so I took some pics of the surroundings…
Common HK flower
Aloe Vera!!!
Bananas… the smaller native type… they aren’t sweet…
There’s baby mosquitoes there
Wow… I have never spent so many at Grandpopo’s for a very long time… Think Grandpopo is feeling lonely and bored… But I see the resemblance between MummyGeek and Grandpopo! They talk too much!!! ¬_¬””
It was time to go, and my cousin dropped us off. Exhausting!
Later on, MummyGeek and I went back downstairs and back into the supermarket near the hotel… Bought my dinner from there because I had too much for lunch!!!!! Pot noodles and ice cream with a portion of BBQ pork…
You see that bottle of wine next to the bin? It’s empty. Got this from Grandpopo’s as they had a lot leftover from guests bringing them over. Had the whole bottle to myself (as it had a cork screw and we didn’t have anything to seal it) with the char siu… The red wine tasted great with meat! 
I got drunk and spilt the soy sauce onto my duvet (the cleaners didn’t even change the duvet cover!).

End of Day 4 … But did I manage to sleep?!

Hong Kong 2016 Day 3: DaddyChef’s Hometown

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Monday 5th December 2016

Woohoo! Day 3 already! But boohoo, I had very little sleep. Jet lag really hit me hard. Usually I’m able to sleep really well but our room was right next to a road, and the windows are not double glazed. There was also some loud music from below where they were blasting it all night… that’s a point off from me for the hotel noise levels. Terrible. 
Well then, it was an early morning for both MummyGeek and I (we were sharing a room). I think MummyGeek woke up hungry (plus I was a bit peckish too ¬_¬) so I kind of forced her to go out and eat something around 6.30 in the morning… Sorry Mum!!
Some of the restaurants were just re-opening but we went further afield and decided to go to the congee place that we went to many years ago… MummyGeek always bought takeaway from there (and I think they’ve forgotten her).
Anyway we went in and sat at the back. I wanted yau ja gwai 油炸鬼 (literally meaning: oil fried ghost) which is a fried dough (the one on the left in the picture). It’s one of my favourite Chinese snacks/to go with congee foods. LOL! They taste so fresh in Hong Kong. The one’s in London taste tough, really tough! It makes me giggle to think about comparing the English-Chinese food. Hahahaha!!
The other dish on the right is called chee cheung fun 豬場粉 (literally meaning: pig intestines noodles – but aren’t really made with any part of the pig… it just looks like pig instestines). Pig is pronounced as chee here, but in Cantonese it’s pronounced as ju/jyu. Must’ve been a Hakka or another dialect that made it sound like “chee”. Anyway, MummyGeek said to sprinkle on some sesame seeds to make it more appealing to eat. Her Chinese food instincts has come back.

Here’s our congee (rice porridge if you’re confused by now at what this is). I think we both ordered the same flavour. Century egg and thinned pork 皮蛋瘦肉粥. Think you can still get this in London restaurants.

Century egg is a preserved egg and turns out black. The egg white tastes like jelly and the yolk tastes like yolk. I’m a big egg fan, so I don’t care if people think it’s weird to eat. I miss eating it already!
Total cost came to HK$66 (~£6.90). Yeah, that’s right! About £6 frigging 90 pence! If I were to eat this in London, I’m sure it would be double the price!
南記粥品店，沙田沙田圍怡成坊田園閣地下
Naam Kee Congee, G/F, Greenfield Court, Yi Shing Square, Sha Tin Wai, Sha Tin
On the way back I had to stop by 7Eleven (come back to the UK please!!) I purchased more Vita brand soya milk. Two of them were low sugar ones. 

MummyGeek asked if I was still hungry and asked if I wanted to try out the fishballs and siu mai from 7Eleven for HK$14 (~£1.47)… uh… why not, since I’m on holiday…
Hmmm, best not to have… Disgusting. Not recommended people!! I don’t even recommend them to the HK people.

Finally it was time to go and head to DaddyChef’s hometown. But before that MummyGeek made the mistake of getting a boiled chicken to go and worship my grandparents and uncle in one of those big restaurants – next to the hotel … ¬_¬” (won’t name the restaurant, saving me embarrassment) … waited for the chicken for a while … an expensive boiled chicken at HK$168 (~£17.68)… Uh, what chicken costs that much! Korean fried chicken does. Anyway, MummyGeek got angry. I was kind of calm. MummyGeek wanted to leave and get her money back… Mr Stingy was waiting for us at the bus stop, and he didn’t have any credit on his phone. 😦 Sorry for the wait Mr Stingy.
We took the bus 299X. It seems they’ve changed the buses in HK. They’ve even changed the bus route for the 299, so it skips Ma On Shan… Hmmmm… Well we got to Sai Kung in half-an-hour, half the time than previous times! 
It was around lunchtime so we had a bit to eat. Well, MummyGeek went to buy some more stuff for the worshipping, and I think she got lost! Because Mr Stingy and I finished our plates of fried noodles with shredded pork and glistening with msg. Cost came to HK$135 (~£14.20), not that cheap, but still cheaper than London I guess. MummyGeek had to get hers packed into a takeaway box… Silly mother! ¬_¬”

Finally sped up and got a taxi to DaddyChef’s home village, which is further afield from Sai Kung Centre… One of my cousins had expected us to be there early… What’s the change in tune with my family? ¬_¬” All of a sudden they wanted us to come early. Since my uncle’s death, DaddyChef’s family has changed… No fun times anymore!
During that afternoon, my aunt and cousins decided to take us to the family graveyard, where most of the villagers and family are buried. It was our first time there! My granddad was still alive back in the 1990’s! My uncle’s tombstone is next to my grandparents. He passed away two years ago… So we made our prayers and worshipped them to rest in peace. T_T 
(I’m very grateful to Miss Money, Mr Games and Mr Sensible for making me climb mountains and trying to keep me fit as we had to go uphill to the tombs. I was fit. MummyGeek and Mr Stingy are not fit! LOL!)
This Mou Mou the family dog!! Do you remember him from my last trip?

Here’s my Uncle’s “view” from his tomb. Pretty isn’t it?!

Now a small drive back down to the village.

My cousin who expected us to be there the night before took Mr Stingy and I around the village, whilst MummyGeek stayed behind to gossip (I took her camera, and I used my phone). It’s the first time I’ve seen my cousin be so free as he’s not working. Gave it up for the sake of sanity I guess. I would love to do the same, but I don’t have any other type of income, so I guess it’s best if I just stick to what I’m doing… being an annoying pest to my colleagues. >_<" Sorry colleagues (to those who mysteriously end up reading my blog)! Love you all!! ^_^
I had been around my village once when I was 15, but after that and throwing up in someone’s front yard I never went again. LOL!! So keep scrolling…

This is the tombstone of the very first villager of DaddyChef’s home… (We don’t have the same surname, but I think we’re kind of related…).

An ant nest – my cousin said

We ended up going around the back of the village where there was a walkway for boats and private fishing… Where my uncle’s small boat was. Heheheh… Anyway, this is where we rested and had a small chat about DaddyChef for a few minutes. Mr Stingy was tired!

Time to go back!! And we saw the magnificent sunset go down between two mountains. Too bad I didn’t bring my own small camera. I didn’t bring my Nikon camera this time as I thought it was too heavy… and people look at me weirdly with it!

This is the chicken from the restaurant earlier. It actually tastes nice, so I can’t complain… but the price is ridiculous! I think MummyGeek is still going to complain about them in her head. Hahahahah.

Mou Mou needs a rest… too much walking for him that day. He’s such a behaved and beautiful dog. ^_^

It was time for dinner!! We didn’t want to go out again but we ended up going to an underground restaurant in Sai Kung Baak Sa Wan 西貢白沙灣. A place out of sight from the public… It’s like one of those Japanese underground bars. ^_^ You need to park in the area and it’s not far from Sai Kung Centre. We had to walk via a different entrance since my aunt didn’t want to cause a ruckus with the restaurant next door as she’s like buddies with both stores. I know what she means… I have to do the same with friends and colleagues… go the other way and avoid! LOL! 
I didn’t know what to eat since I’ve never been there. I seem to never order at places where my family are there… saving myself energy to read Chinese. ¬_¬” No excuses Geek!
Anyway we all enjoyed the food! Mr Stingy is one picky guy, but thankfully he liked the fried squid and sweet and sour pork. 
Fried squid

More chicken ¬_¬”

Sweet and sour pork
Guess what this is… it’s Pissing Prawns (mantis shrimp)!! Wooo!! Expensive seafood. They are called this because they piss out water when they’re picked up. I have no idea how much they are but we ordered two. I thought, is that two? Looks like many! Well, if you remember when I went to Cheung Chau I had small ones, and these are massive ones, that were quite hard to peel… Meat tasted like lobster meat. Yum yum yum… MummyGeek said my cousin was staring at me enjoying my prawns. ¬_¬” Looks like he wanted some too. Hahahah. I don’t get to eat this in London peeps! Don’t worry cousin, you can have your share… ^_^

There were three super friendly cats in the restaurant… probably waiting for us to drop food onto the floor. Meow.

Total cost unknown… Must be at least HK$500 or more!

If you try to find the restaurant, remember it’s next to a parking lot, past the toilets, down some stairs and into a door… 

金九記海鮮火鍋酒家, 西貢白沙灣145號地下

Seafood Hotpot Restaurant, G / F, 145 Pak Sha Wan, Sai Kung
Near our hotel we saw some live Pissing Prawns. This is what they look like alive.

My food adventure did not stop that evening… Had to try out these Haagen-Dazs… I liked the blueberries one and the mango one… Didn’t like the purple potato flavour much.

Oh, and I had goose as an extra before bed… MummyGeek insisted I have a night snack… It tastes so oily. Tastes like duck… Not a fan of goose. Duck all the way! This portion cost HK$98 (~£10.31). Expensive!

End of Day 3 – did I sleep well? Find out in Day 4!

Hong Kong 2016 Day 2: Landed

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Sunday 4th December 2016

Swiftly moving onto Day 2! We landed on time. I cannot fault Virgin Atlantic for making us arrive on time. 
Then out we go, off the flight, onto a train connecting us to Terminal 1, pass immigration, got our luggage then it was time to get our Octopus cards re-activated. The girl who attended to us said we didn’t needed to get our Octopus cards updated (but we did!). If you have a really old gold coloured Octopus card, make sure you get this changed. You can do this in any Metro station. There’s a white machine for you to do this.
Now off to find our bus stop. The A41 bus that takes us to our usual hotel… Regal Riverside Hotel in Shatin, New Territories. It’s more convenient to stay in a hotel than with family… I’m serious. We were very lucky as the bus came straight away when we just got there! Phew! It cost us HK$22 per person (~£2.30), which is still cheap in my standards, but expensive in HK terms. :p
The ride takes about an hour and at this point one of my cousins expected us to be at DaddyChef’s home that evening… and I thought we just landed! It’s frigging 5 to 6pm! Give us some rest man! ¬_¬” We booked into the hotel, got our rooms, which were far apart from each other, and also there was a HK$2000 (£210) deposit for both rooms which they’ll take if you break something, or take anything from the fridge. You best be warned Mr Stingy!

It was time to eat, and it was great to see BBQ King 叉燒王 (Cha Siu Wong) still opened. So we ordered our food… I had to pay since MummyGeek didn’t exchange any of her money, and Mr Stingy was being stingy as always. Busy for a Saturday night! Cost: HK$119 (~£12.50)… so cheap! I think this would have cost us more in London!

Here’s my meal that night. I sat on the floor where there was a small glass table that I kept hitting my legs on. Argh! The cha siu wasn’t like it was before. Not as sweet as it was before. They’ve really toned down the sweetness probably because of complaints one of my aunt’s said. 😦 Bring back the old BBQ King recipes. The duck was ok. It felt like ages since I had Hong Kong food even though I can make this at home or I can buy from China Town in London. But the meats really taste different… the animals have been fed differently. Heheheh. >_<" I think we ordered the soup as well which you have to pay extra for… Watered down Chinese soup does not taste nice… :p The standards have dropped. 😦

I enjoyed two boxes of iced lemon tea… just wanted to have this because of the box designs really. ^_^

沙田沙田大涌橋路20號河畔花園D座地下39號舖
Shop 39, Riverside Garden, 20 Tai Chung Bridge Road, Sha Tin

It was an early night from all of us… so tired!

End of Day 2 … I promise there’ll be more pictures in the next post!!! ^_^

Hong Kong 2016 Day 1: Flight

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It’s been 3 years since my last visit to Hong Kong. And this year it was time to take a break with Mr Stingy and MummyGeek just before Christmas coz I hadn’t done any Christmas shopping or whatsoever. ¬_¬” DaddyChef stayed home. ^_^

I pre-booked my flight in August just before the Summer Bank Holiday – was quite thankful that the tickets were quite cheap on Expedia at the time I booked because I even pre-booked seats, the expensive ones for stretching out our legs (wrong idea to have done that really).

Saturday 3rd December 2016

So Saturday started off early in the morning with me doing some last minute shopping and packing before our flight that night. Desperately needed a shade of blue wool to crochet on the plane for a bit (it was a scarf for Mr Picky. I was lazy to start with Christmas presents last year).
Managed to finish packing and also take a picture of the sunset in London…

It was time to leave around 4.30 pm. I pre-booked a taxi using the Addison Lee phone app. Miss Vegan suggested this company as they were more reliable than Uber… I think Uber might be too scary. Anyway he did arrive just on time, but I got a text to say he was late… weird! ¬_¬”” That trip cost us around £40 with a discount code for 3 people and luggage.
Managed to get a picture of the moon and I think Venus was out at that time but don’t think you can see it in this pic.

Got to Heathrow Terminal 3 around 6pm. Tipped the driver with £2 but he had parked in an awkward place. Uh oh. I needed the loo desperately at this point, I think I had drank too much coffee!!! ¬_¬” SIGH.
We then went to check in our luggage in the Virgin Atlantic section… I thankfully checked in on the app with all the passport details and other things etc., etc… We had a nice person attending to us, she probably thought we were an amusing brother and sister deciding which luggage was the heaviest and what was loaded in my suitcase… Mine was the heaviest for sure, and so that had to go on the belt first. It was loaded with biscuits, sweets, teabags and other silly things for our families back home. MummyGeek bought so much! Grrrrrr… The lightest suitcase was MummyGeek’s. No fair mother!! The person at the desk also said they’ll be no kids surrounding us, so we were overjoyed…
After checking in, it was time for the security section. One of the boring parts… thankfully I was wearing no metals on me but for the first time Mr Stingy had the bells ringing on him. It was his shoes (and he was wearing old socks with holes ¬_¬ … oh big brother, what is he thinking ,,, ).
We had around 2 hours to explore and look for food and buy anything that we needed, like water. I know I complained about Yo Sushi! in Heathrow Terminal 3 sucks last time, but MummyGeek and I still bought our food from there… Unfortunately it still sucks. I don’t understand, why did they use sushi rice with vinegar, and then added the chicken katsu on top of this?! Ugh!! A bit of cooking and tasting skills needed here.

It was finally time to find our gate after 8pm… it was a bit of a walk but not that much. MummyGeek survived with her bad knees.
Flight was uneventful apart for a wrong dish which was added onto the flight. Bangers and Mash. When it should have been a pork or beef dish. I forgot. But I think I got something bland. Breakfast seemed to smell horribly wrong for me so I didn’t have much. I wonder if caterers give us horrible food on purpose. 
The plane Boeing Dreamliner is actually a rubbish plane. Not sure why Richard Branson bought these. They are rubbish for economy flights compared to my last flight with Cathay Pacific. The toilet situation is really bad too. You have two toilets on each side, unfortunately if two of the toilets are occupied you can’t skip to the other two toilets which are free. I prefer the toilets that you could use at the back of the plane, even if it meant disturbing the stewards/stewardesses. The toilet facing backwards was horrible! The top flap kept falling to my back… ewwwwww… Hygiene people, HYGIENE!!
And since I had booked seats with more leg room, it didn’t feel any different than any other economy seat in terms of the width size seat… HORRIBLE! 
Plus there was a kid in front of us!!!! He was a fussy kid who wouldn’t let any adult rest. 😦 The person at the desk lied to us.
I had zero sleep on that flight, even House of Cards Season 4 couldn’t make me go to sleep. :p


End of Day 1.

Homemade Soya Milk

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My last pending post from last year. And I’m procrastinating and forgetting what I did in HK already. :p
I have never made soy milk in my life before. So MummyGeek showed me how.
It’s a well known “recipe” to do amongst the vegetarians and vegans… and the Chinese… LOL. It’s inexpensive but a timely process.
All you need are these two ingredients:
– Raw bag of soya beans (or they could be called yellow beans – wong dao)
– Water

1. Empty about a third or half of the bag into a container – a cylindrical type.

2. Add water. You can add as much as you want depending on how concentrated or diluted you want it. Soak for a few hours or overnight until you’re ready to use it. You will know when it’s ready when some of the shells come off or you can pick some out and feel if it’s soft enough.

3. I cleared out the dirty soaked water using a large sieve.

4. Add clean water.

5. Use a hand blender or a blender and whisk away until you see milk coloured water.

6. Separate the soya bean remnants and milk by using a sieve into a saucepan.

I don’t know what you can use the remainder for… ¬_¬””

7. Boil the milk for a few minutes.

8. Empty into a mug and add sugar if needed… And enjoy…

Mine was quite concentrated but I enjoyed it.
Just have to use the rest of the beans now… Maybe I’ll use fewer beans and more water next time.
Ok… I promise the next posts will be from the holiday!

3D Origami: "Mrs Minion"

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Yes I know female Minions do not exist! But how do they produce… Ewwww… Mysteriioooous. LOL!

So I made this for one of my favourite colleagues who has left us for the year and hopefully will come back to work with us at the end of the year (but he might change his mind). This was his going away present for him and his wife, so I hope the pieces make it to their new home abroad on the beach somewhere or in his new office. ^_^

Miss Vegan suggested I make a pink Minion for the Mrs, and thankfully I had some hot pink paper pieces. Heheheh.

Come back my colleague!! T_T All seems to be going downhill at the moment… SOB.

Going to try and make more 3D origami pieces this year. Need to use up my paper!!