At least todays weather...

or just a part of it.
Yes I feel tired and without any great ideas -if there ever has been any- but at least I want to post the view from our rooftop from tonight at sunset.
Tomorrow we have a day of as it is the national day and the peoples republic of China's birthday, so to speak. The 1st of October 1949, China - as we kind of know it today- was born, and we will enjoy the day of, and I'm sure there will be plenty of fireworks to watch like last year.But maybe tomorrow as we got a day of something more interesting will happen here or maybe not. But isn't that the good thing about a blog; you just never know what to expect. Like this evening I just started to click on the "next blog" button, and found a quite funny one of the kind: Farmers & Writers.
Look at the header' isn't that just great? Especially the right side of it, the thing in the back ground?

The grass is always greener...

Life can be kind of a hustle, can't it. I mean once you get somewhere you in fact want to be, there is just some other obstacles arising. Take me for in stance. I've been a lucky blogging bastard for about one year, doing the house work, cooking and I had time to do some things for me and my wife, and at the weekends we both could go out to see some of the many things Hong Kong has ready for it's citizens and visitors, as I had the time to solve all the mess we made again, during the week as a lucky blogging bastard at home. Yet I wasn't completely happy as I felt the grass was greener on the working side of life. Of course there was the financial side of it with only one income. But mostly I missed the challenges of working in my field with film and media, and of course I missed the social aspect of belonging to a staff somewhere, and have to deal with all kind of people using a television studio. Now I'm at that kind of work again, and that is good. It is a very exciting job and a big challenge, but now the problem occurred, that suddenly we cannot relax and explore anything at the weekends anymore, as we have to do the house work, which we now -believe it or not- doesn't have time to during the week, as we both gets up before the break of dawn to get to work at 8 AM, and both comes back after 5 PM, and if there is something you just don't wanna do when your head is tired and filled with work related problem solving, then it is tidying and cleaning a house. Well, I guess we just have to pull our selves together and grow up, I mean everybody -nearly- must have the same problem, and seems to be able to manage these banalities without having to post thoughts and frustrations like this on a blog. But could these people who manage that, then please post a comment here, and tell me how on earth they do that? Or; maybe it is the time where we should get a maid? Just for a couple of hours, two or three times a week? Hmm, what a hustle, all these decisions to make, maybe it is time for a new poll, to get some help to solve this matter.

The new media monks!

The first week of my new work has gone, and I'm ready for a new short post.
A lot has changed since my last post. I'm no lucky blogging bastard anymore as such, now yet a lucky bastard in another meaning, as I'm doing the thing again what I really do with passion and obligation; working with video cameras and editing software, creating short film's and documentaries. I'm not really doing it my self as such, but teaching or guiding the students and teachers at the college to create their own stories.
A project like this is new to the school, so my two new colleagues - Jason from New Zealand and Noah from United States- and I, started on the job on this day, one week ago in an empty room, which was going to host the new media studio at Renaissance College, Hong Kong. we are supposed to teach staff and students the language of the new media, and as we haven't yet found the right expression or name for our position, we just call us for the; "new media monks", as a line back to the mideavel, where people often had go to the monks, if they wanted to have something read or written, as they wasen't able to read or write themselves.
This may be a little boring to many people as it could seem a little esoteric, and maybe only can be understand by my former colleagues at the Medienkulturzentrum in Dresden. In fact they have their 10th year birthday here in September and October, and now I am building the same kind of thing -in a smaller scale- at a school here in Hong Kong, it's kind of odd, isn't it?
But any way, that is another story, but hereby I really want to congratulate them back there, and hope they have had some good celebrations, and I'm very sorry I couldn't be there.
Back to here and now. Compared to Germany the schools here in Hong Kong seems to be better of, when it comes to computer equipment and software. Renaissance College, for instance, is sponsored by Apple Macintosh, and they provide the school with the machines they need, and do all kind of service and updates on all the staffs personal laptops, as well as on the laptops of the secondary students, like on the desktop computers placed in the hubs at all year levels in the primary, and in all department of the secondary school.
On our first day we got 6 G5 power Mac's delivered into the empty room and then we started to organize and install these machines, in the way it would be the most suitable for the work we are going to do, teaching graphic design and publishing and of course what I'm going to do; Film, TV and online editing with Final Cut. This sight of the empty boxes might make some a little envy.
The next weeks will be busy quite busy, as we have to get us self and the Studio known across the school and it's over 120 teachers and 1600 students. But I'm certain that that will be some exiting weeks, and when it comes up and running, it wont not look as empty as here where Noah is setting up some of the machines, and I will post some of the podcasts, some short feature film and some documentaries being made there, on this site as they get's developed.
I also have a plan to create a youth edition for a school wide television format, and hope that some of the productions could be part of a project of making video letters about being young in Hong Kong, and then exchange these with young film makers productions in -let's see- Dresden, or where ever some groups of young people makes films about their own neighbor hood or the city they live in, and want to share these with other young people somewhere in the world. So if you make short films and are interested showing these to young people in Hong Kong, just place a comment under this post with an e-mail address.

What a wonderful way to waste a weekend!

Sorry, but can somebody out there, name me a better way to end life as a lucky blogging bastard, than this? After one year I have resigned from the club of lucky bastards, and this weekend -which in fact was the Mid Autumn festival weekend- was the last one as a LBB. Tomorrow -Tuesday the 16th- I'm going to start to work again. Maybe this also will have an influence on the updates on this site, as I haven't got the time to post all this silly stuff, or maybe it will just change character, and become more work related. If someone wants to know what kind of work, I can tell that I am going to introduce film and TV making at Renaissance College and built up a video workshop at the school. It is going to start from scratch as nothing of this kind have been at the school before, and of course I am very exited, as I can see some great potentials for a studio like that at an International college. But this wasn't going to be about work, not at all, it was going to be about this wonderful way to waste a weekend.

Wear all black and no talking during the game!

All Kiwi's & Aussies -nicknames for New Zealand and Australian citizens- among our friends, was all very tense and seemed in a little distress, as was something of special importance about to happen. In deed there was! The final in the battle of the Tri-Nations crown was coming up. All Blacks against the Wallabies live from Brisbane Australia. Of course the talk is about Rugby and one of our Kiwi friends -Paul Benefield- was talking about this as "the game of the century". So to give this event the kind of attention it deserves, he had organized a video projector and built a big screen on the rooftop at their house, and invited everybody who might have the slightest interest in watching a live rugby match, have some beer, some food and to yell loudly towards the screen: "Com on All Blacks, do the hakka and crush those wallabies". I'm sure, that the Kiwi fraction among the guests, were all so certain how the end result would turn out, and so it was OK, that only one of the colleagues turned up in an Australian top, and sometimes also shouted out loudly, when Australia tried their luck running towards the All Blacks, to find a way through their defense. Paul -in the brown top- is very concentrated, and the only Aussie at the screen party -in the yellow shirt, had to send SMS to friends in Australia, to have someone to share his sympathy and excitment with during the game.
I am a soccer man, and must admit that I don't even know the all the rules of rugby, and so I had to ask all the time; why this and why that? At the beginning Jason -the guy next to me- answered very friendly, but as the game went into its deciding stage he just handed me another beer to keep me quiet. at the end New Zealand did win, and has now the Tri-Nations title, and -nearly- everybody was happy. Even that I.m more to soccer, I can enjoy watching rugby together with real fans, because it reminds me a bit about the Saturdays back in Dresden, when I used to go to a bar called Keepers, to watch the German Bundesliga together with some good friends, and at least rugby, can have some similarities with soccer.


The Sea breeze Sunday.


Sunday we were invited on a Junk trip from Tsim Sha Tsui to Clearwater bay. Food and drinks all inclusive, and as the boat came out through Victoria harbor and entered Clearwater bay, where it threw the anchor, there was nothing much else to do than relax, have a drink and every now and then to jump in to the water to cool a little down, before having another drink. Where the day before the majority had been from New Zealand and I got used to their dialect, even sometimes adapted it my self like a parrot, the majority on this Junk trip was South Africans, so suddenly I had to get familiar with this quite special version of the English language, which seems like a mix of Dutch, Africans and English.
The crew on the boat really did an effort to try to boost the trip, as they kept on serving their "Sea breeze" cocktail, Vodka, orange- and Cranberry juice, and as the time went on, I think they increased the vodka part in that cocktail, and as they also served it in plastic water bottles, there was no excuse; you could even take the drink with you into the water.



























When we finally woke up this morning and got out of bed, I still felt like being on that boat, as every thing was still moving a bit like the boat riding the waves. It could be that my brain still tried to level something out, or it might be the last effects of the famous Sea breeze cocktail, which for sure at the end had made an impact on the guests on this Mid Autumn festival Sunday party Junk trip. And like I said; what a wonderful way to waste a weekend.

Mooncakes!

From end of August and the beginning of September you can observe how suddenly long queues of people are being formed outside bakeries, and outside all the extra selling stalls with huge piles of Cardboard bokses, which suddenly has been built up in all shopping centers, and you might be hit by this sudden idea, that you've forgotten something, like a long holiday was supposed to come up and everybody desperately need supplies for weeks. Now; from the bakeries and the temporary selling stalls, they all come out carrying small and nicely decorated coloured paper bags along with all the other bags from their extended shopping trips. In these nice paper bags, you can see some very nice decorated and very colourful tin bokses; that is the "Mooncakes" they are bringing home for the coming Mid Autumn Festival. This festival is one of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, and is held on the 15th day of the 8th Lunar month -which is now this weekend- and is held to celebrate the end of the summer harvest season. Families and friends gather together on this night and eat the mooncakes and pomelos under the the open sky, and the moon. Mooncake is a very rich and quite heavy pastry, with a thick crust and various fillings like Lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste and then added dried fruit, nuts and some sorts even contains the yolk of a salted duck egg, hid in the middle of all the sweet paste, fruits and nuts like a little surprise. After the Mid Autumn festival, you can find hundreds of empty mooncake bokses at the trash collecting points. I thought they might collect them all again, to be useed again next year, but no; on the nice ornamented and coloured surface the year is pressed into the tin like a stamp. So last year I collected some of those bokses to store some small things inside, as they are very beautiful, solid, practical and easy to pile up, and that is very good for people like us, who move to different places every now and then.

Cheese & Go On at Colour Brown!

When you go down See Cheung Street at the edge of the old part of town in Sai Kung, you will for sure notice the smell from the loads of Seafood Restaurants and the Boat engine repair shop hosted in that Street, and then you might wonder where the smell of fresh roasted coffee, which catches your nose from a far distance, suddenly appears from. In one -or more- of the previous post, I've mentioned having a coffee at my favorite Cafe in Sai Kung. No, it is not the Starbucks one, even they are also present. No, the Cafe I am referring to and like to go to is called Colour Brown.
This small Cafe is squeezed in between an art school for children and a gas stove shop in a maybe 500 square feet small local. The cafe is owned by a young Chinese couple who import fresh coffee beans and then roast and grind them in their cafe. Along with the most common varieties; expresso, cappuccino and latte, you will find honey ginger coffee and coffee from fresh roasted coffee beans from Jamaica, Sumatra, Columbia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Honduras, Cuba, Kenya, papa New Guinea and, year -you name it. As an exotic variety, why not try the Pink- or Purple Rose coffee or Lavender- Camomile- Peppermint- Lemon Grass or Jasmine coffee?

For tea drinkers the choice isn't any smaller. A large selection of Fruit and Herbal is offered in big nice glass teapots and served wit nice runny honey. For the hunger you 'll find home made cakes, various soups and sandwiches.
The Cafe is small but very cosy arranged and on the walls you will find some changing exhibitions of -I guess- local artists. At the moment it is large prints of the Cafe's own and most famous trademark; the two dogs Cheese & Go On. If you want to find Colour Brown and ask around in Sai Kung for the Cafe, many of the locals might not know, but if you ask about the two small brown dogs; Cheese and Go On, the most will lighten up in a smile and start pointing in one or another direction.
Most of the day these two dogs hang around outside the entrance, enjoying the cool air stream of a big fan blowing on them, and gets excited from the attention of the guests or the passing pedestrians, who often stop for a little while, for a cuddle and a little chat by those two small brown fellars.
If you should pass by and find the cafe empty -here I mean the owner isn't there- you should probably just have a look in the little Chinese teashop, just across the street. Either he is there, or -if there is no dogs outside- he has taken them for a walk around town.

Every other day!

Every other day we get up at 4.45 am to go for a one hour run before work. The roads are empty and quiet, the heat is still endurable and the light at the break of a new dawn, makes it even nice to look at and then at least you can enjoy that while struggling along the road, with sweat hailing down from your body.
Well today wasn't one of the every other running days, that was yesterday. Anyway, I've always felt that it could be worth to do some photos in, and around Sai Kung at this early time of the day, but I've never done it. When we're running, I can't bring a camera, and just to get up that early to walk the about one mile -just for some photos- never really occurred to me as reasonable. But since yesterday I've got a bike again. After over one year without one, I finally got one again, and so I got up at 5.20 am, took this bike and drove the one mile on the empty road to the sea front and the public pier of Sai Kung with the camera, to triy to catch some of these stunning moments at the break of dawn. Unfortunate this day was not one of the most beautiful as the sky was covered by clouds, and so didn't let the golden light through, to colour up the sky and the sea, as usual.

You maybe wont believe it, but Sai Kung is rather busy at this early time, and most of the people we meet on our runs, are also people doing exercise. And at this time, the majority of these people are the older chinese people. they run, ride bikes, walks, do gymnastics and Tai Chi all along the sea front, and some even go into the water for a 5.30 am morning swim. I like this culture of exercise, and everybody does it and nobody pay any attention, it is normal here. Through the day it is common to meet people -old as young- doing exercises at all public places. And the impact; lot less fat and overweight people than back home -in the western culture- and I often had the thought that; "I could never imagine older western people, would dare to do exercises at the public places and squares in western cities. They would be too embarrassed doing so, where everybody can watch them, and what they would think about them; "no, that's not normal, wanna another coffee? Do ya take sugar & cream? -All right then, here's more bisquits."
Our Tai Wan village from a new perspective. Normally I use to put our rooftop view here for you to see, but now as I've got more mobile; here is our village as seen from Sai Kung, and all the small dots you can see -if you look close- in the water, is just all the morning swimmers, who's yelling and loud talking -along with all the birds- breakes the morning silence.

Dairy & Diary?

I am very sorry, and I do apologize of all my heart that I -not even by mistake, no by ignorance- could publish posts including such errors, and hereby, mislead the readers into some false interpretations. I am deeply mortified as it is so embarrassing. Please do forgive me, and I promise it will -probably- not happen again. So if you wonder why I've added that; "Ask a word" gadget, you'll know the reason why.
I guess these kind of things happens to all publishers every now and then, I mean, have to apologize and even to withdraw some stuff they've printed and hereby misguided the innocent masses to draw some false conclusions. So they put in a little notice, announcing that they know about their mistake and that it is now corrected. So do I.
Well, the errors wasn't even caused by wrong spelling, not really, or maybe it was, anyway, I am talking of using one wrong word in a wrong context; Dairy and Diary! Very identical words with very different content. If it wasn't for my Scottish native speaking wife, I would probably never have realized it my self, but the other day she took a look over my shoulder, and made me suddenly realize what a mess I had done, confounding those two words. Well, how was I to know, sometimes I just do trust the automatic spellcheck provided with this program, and if there is no red line under a word, how can I know that it is the wrong one, as the spellcheck doesn't look for mistakes made in the content. And by looking at it again, it could be plausible anyway, as you in fact could speak about; "The dairy of a PE teacher" or "The dairy of a LB" etc. As a matter of fact, it could be reasonable to talk about that, but in this context, It just add a completely different and nearly surrealistic signification the stories. And just by changing one single letter, causes this rather significant transformation of signification in that one little word. Stunning, isn't it?
Ok, I've changed it, but I'll leave it be in the Hanoi "dairies"(Dec.2007 -Jan.2008), as I like the quite funny associations the mind makes out of that, and sometimes; small mistakes like these, can change the way you look and think a bit, and by doing that, give a new perspective and then you can make a difference.

My name is lo, gwei-lo!

Gweilo is a Cantonese expression for a Caucasian male, and even though there is some different opinions about its origin and literally meaning, I just want to make it short; gweilo means something like: "foreign devil" - "ghost man" or "white (pale) ghost". If you want to do some research about its etymology and history yourself, then click here.
I got to know this term, as my friend Bob lent me a book by Martin Booth: "Gweilo" -which is the memories of his own childhood, being brought up in Hong Kong in the fifties. Nowadays gweilo is widely common in Hong Kong and used to describe and name western foreigners. Some may still use it as a racist term by adding the chinese word: "sei" which means dead -sei gweilo: "dead ghost man" but if it is used towards a living person it means: "bad person". As i wasn't aware of this expression and/ or its various interpretations in the beginning, maybe I didn't realize if some Chinese called me a gweilo and so it didn't get angry or hurt, if they did. Now as I know it I can, but to be honest I don't mind as the term today by many Hong Kong Chinese, simply is a general term, which they consider as non derogatory.
Like for instance all my Chinese mates in the soccer team; "Sai Kung Yacht". Frequently readers -if any?- may know that I've desperately been looking out for a soccer team to join since coming to Hong Kong. The short version; I've found a team here in Sai Kung, and I am happy about that and they are all chinese. One night some months ago, I tried my luck by turning up at the soccer pitch with my soccer boots, and I just was standing watching them play for hours, finally they asked me if I wanted to play. Now I'm a member as well and play twice a week, but we have to get back to the gweilo thing. When we play and I run free somewhere on the pitch to get the ball, they always shout; "gweilo" to get the man with the ball to pass it to me, so I'm used to it. At the beginning I wasn't sure if they meant it the "bad" way, but in a break one time, Perry -who is one of the few english speaking on the team- told me that they called me gweilo, because they couldn't pronounce -or remember- my name, and that gweilo for them meant; "white ghost" in the common -non derogatory sense. So I'm gweilo to them, and it isn't any worse as when I lived in Dresden and the team mates by one of the clubs I played for; the "Sportsfreunde 01"- just called me; "Däne" (the dane), and there I -for sure- wasn't always sure, if that was meant in a non derogatory way. By the way, on the picture its me with no. 31 on the top.

The Dresden connection # 1!

Why Dresden - Hong Kong? My wife is from Scotland and I am from Denmark, but we met in Dresden in Germany where we both lived and worked for over 6 years. As we left in summer 2007 for Hong Kong, my colleagues at the Medienkulturzentrum, gave me this blog so I could keep everybody updated about living here in in Hong Kong. Dresden has -and will- never vanish from our minds as the city, its people and our friends there, just give such great memories and an ongoing contact. Dresden has become a sort of our German "Heimat" Last Friday we again could welcome one of our good friends from Dresden. Annet Bluschke, a 22 year old woman, who once worked with Catriona at Dresden International School (DIS), but now studies Psychology in London. The last ten weeks, she has been working as a volunteer at an orphanage in Manila in the Philippines. Now she was on her way back and planned a stop here in Hong Kong to pay a short visit to one of her fellow students and to us. We were very pleased by that, so in the evening we took her to one of our favourite restaurants in Sai Kung to celebrate this small reunion. At the same time our friends; Bob and Yvonne Stearns -from Canada but both also worked in Dresden at DIS for 6 years- had a guest too, also a young woman from Dresden; Melanie. She was a former student at DIS, where Bob was her Principal. She is now studying in Brisbane in Australia, but came to see the Stearns here in Hong Kong. So that is the connection; Dresden - Hong Kong. It was a funny coincidence, two young women -who didn't know each other before- both from Dresden and arriving here at the same time, to visit a Canadian and a Scottish/ Danish couple, who they knew from Dresden. Then I started to think about all the visitors who have been here in the past year and, suddenly it struck me; they all have some kind of relation to Dresden; the Dresden connection even. In the next months, I will post a little series and present these visitors and tell about their relation to Dresden.

Lifestyle for Pets.

At the weekends, our normally quiet little town of Sai Kung gets invaded by thousands of visitors from the highly populated areas of Kowloon, Sha Tin and Hong kong island, just on the other side of the mountains which, like a shield, surrounds Sai Kung and the country park and divide it from the rest of the Kowloon peninsular. The only way to get to Sai Kung from there, is by mini bus, bus or private car. The enormous stream of visitors normally leads to huge traffic jams and depressing long queues both at the local supermarket and at the bus stops. Not surprisingly is the goal that all these visitors aim for, the fresh air, the nature and the free space, that Sai Kung and its country park can offer, after yet another week squeezed together in the small and highly crowded spaces in the city. And together with all these people, and their hunger for space and fresh air, comes all their dogs. Sai Kung seems to be a garden of eden for dogs. Sai Kung itself has a rather big population of dogs, and by the weekends invasion, it becomes massive. It then seems, that there's just dogs everywhere, and as an european it can seem out of proportions how some of these dogs are treated; some of the chinese people act towards their dog as it could be their child. The promenade along the sea front, is the best place to go on; "dog and owner behavior" observation. Dogs dressed in t-shirts or what ever form of clothing, dogs wearing sunglasses or hats, even shoes, you name it, as everything goes. Another god spot to watch, is at some of the restaurants with an outside area, here it is rather normal that dogs even get a chair at the table, being fed by their owners, as was it a child. This relationship between humans and animals is -like most things in Hong Kong- a target for doing some business, and as the people behave -by turning all these projections towards their pets- a solid ground for some awkward shops has been given. Like for instance the new Pets Fasion and lifestyle Outlet store here in Sai Kung. So maybe soon we can also enjoy a pets fashion show, with trendy dogs on the CATwalk.

Fusion hedgehog

Does anybody know this band called "Fusion hedgehog"? Wonderful name right? No this is no famous heavy crossover fusion metal band -I guess- this is just another story from a LB. It may come as a surprise for frequent readers of this quit silly blog, but in fact; English isn't my mother tongue, that is danish, but who on earth under stand that- except the Danes. But sometimes when I am writing and want to find some other words or expressions -than the rather limited vocabulary I learnt in the danish schools- in the search of more diversity to live up the stories, I do seek the assistance offered by online translation engines. Very often they respond very odd and spit out amazing and surprisingly suggestions. The other day I was looking for another word for a cultural melting pot, and because I haven't found a Danish - English translation engine, I use German - English and gave in the German word Schmelztigel; for melting pot, and after a second the program suggested: "Fusion hedgehog". And I couldn't stop laughing. In german Schmelzt means melt or melting and the word igel means hedgehog. Of course I saw some perspective in this so I started teasing the translation engine and began to feed it with sentences I found from some german newspapers just to see what came out of that and I must addmit; it can be quite funny.

For example:
"Er hat es sich anscheinend nicht leicht gemacht, am Ergebnis allerdings änderte sich dann doch nichts mehr" -which means something like: "It seems that he didn't make it easy for himself, and at the result it didn't change a thing anyway" became in English; "It made it apparent not easily, changed at the result however for nothing more then nevertheless."
Or what about this one: "Miroslav Klose hat sich jedenfalls schon eingeschossen, sein Trainingspartner war eine Ballmaschine." Means: "Miroslav Klose has already shot him self on to the target, as his trainings mate was a ball machine" as the program had chewed on that for a bit, it gave this answer: "Miroslav Klose zeroed in itself, its training partner was anyhow already a ball machine."
Well I'm happy for the Fusion hedgehog, and maybe I'm gonna invent cool band names and then sell them to hopeful young musicians, who just can't find the right and cool name, which boot show their disrespect for the establishment, and show they has got a good nose for big business.
Ok, at the end I want to be completely honest; it turned out that I did spell that word wrong -as German isn't my mother language either- because I forgot an E in the word: SchmelztiEgel. so as a pay back for me accusing the translation engine to be no god, I do apologize, finally it was my own ignorance, and at the end the program taught me to spell SchmelztiEgel right.
And as it is just very abstract and silly today anyway, I just want to show some advert for an odd kind of store I found in the village of Shek O, in the southeast corner of Hong Kong island.
And I wonder if Mr. Lee just wants to be ignored or whatever people means when they say F... someone, or if it really is meant literally, and if it is like that: What a great business idea Mr. Lee has got there, even his favourite toys is lined up!

Flat warming in Tsim Sha Tsui.

At the the very south of the Kowloon peninsular, you'll find the area called Tsim Sha Tsui. Here just at the front to Victoria harbor with its famous view to the sky line of Hong Kong island, you are in one of the most busy and famous parts of Hong Kong.
The big avenue; Nathan road, divide the peninsular in an eastern and a western part, like a straight line from Prince Edward in the north and down to Salisbury road just at the Harbor front in the south, with Hong Kong Cultural center, the Art Museum, the Space center and the Famous Peninsular Hotel, the hotel where James Bond like to stay when he happens to be in Hong Kong. Tsim Sha Tsui is maybe on of the busiest parts of Hong kong and is an alternate fusion of different cultures, consumerism, Haut Coiture, cheap tackiness and Fine Art. Walking around the streets of this cultural melting pot, will give you a good picture of the latest development in Hong Kong and the brutality with which measures they are transforming the city so it fits into the picture of a modern world city ready for the 21 century. Old narrow streets and housing blocks gets wiped away to give space for huge modern finance - business centers, shopping malls and hotels. Behind the big main avenues, you'll still find some small narrow street with hundreds and hundreds of small shops offering everything from dried chinese herbs over hardware to high fashion. But not only from all these shops business is being done, here you' ll also meet the big army of copy salesmen, who -on street level- are trying their luck, offering copied brand watches and handbags to the big number of tourists exploring the area. Next to Wan Chai, Causeway bay and Central on Hong island, Tsim Sha Tsui is maybe also offering the best alternative to a fun night out, as here a various numbers of restaurants bars and pubs can be found.
To this place our friends Jason and Lesley has moved.(See former post; "Celebrating Lesleys B-day...") From the quite life on the country side in Sai Kung to the busy and noisy life in a flat in the middle of an area where the light is always on and the bars never close. From a view to the mountains to a view out onto huge commercials and neon signs.
Tuesday evening at 6 pm, they opened their flat for all interested and nosy friends, like me. After a gathering, some snacks and other refreshments in floating form in the flat they offered a guided tour around their new resident. It wasn't much of a tour though, just some steps forward; the kitchen, turn around -or go backwards- turn left; the guest bedroom, turn right one steps; the bedroom. 650 square feet, typical Hong Kong apartment, very nice and cosy. As it became too crowded, we all headed out in the busy evening light and life of TST (short form for Tsim Sha Tsui) for nachos and tacos at a mexican place around the corner and next to bars like; "The stags head, Whale pub, Drop Zone and Kangaroo pub. Just to make it clear to everybody and to avoid any misunderstandings; it wasn't going to be a late night as everybody had to go to work the next day so even we were at home at a decent time to rest for the next day and its tasks and duties. With this post I want to wish Lesley and Jason congratulations and all the best with their new home and I hope they will enjoy it and be happy there as well. And maybe friends could find a bed to sleep, if it should happen that one should get lost on the way between two pubs and home at a night out in TST, just a plain hypothetical thought.