Sabai Dee from Laos.

"Sabai dee" means hello in Lao, and you can hear that all the time when you meet people on the street and where ever else. We are now in Luang Prabang in the north of Laos, and has been here for 3 days. It is a nice place and I've been surprised how calm and relaxed it is, when thinking of how many people is coming here. Maybe it is because the city is big ebnough to digest them all, even it is a small town of only about 25.000 inhabitants. More I think is has to do with the locals, as they do not excess the fact that many people come to visit. It is all very calm and the city is spread over a very large area, so it kinds of absorb all the visitors.
It is a stunning beuatiful town on a tiny tongue of land between two rivers, and the fact that it is a former royal capitol, can explain the many extreme fine and nice houses in french colonial style, which dominates the oldest part of town. Most of these are nowadays turned into Guest houses, hotels and restaurants, but nayway in a very modest form.
The trip here from the new capitol- Vientiane, where we arrived on the 19th - was long and hard, about 12 hours on a bus, on busy dusty roads at first, and then over some mountains on very narrow roads, where the bus had to fight with steep passes and a load of huge trucks on the way down. It is a hard trip and you only want to do it once -if you can avoid it.
But now we are here we do not regret it, only thinking that the next time we will fly into Luang Prabang and leave Vientiane out of the schedule, because it isn't really worth it.
It has just been Christmas and we celebrated it this way:
Freinds of ours who also came here before us, had arranged a trip with the local "Libraryboat" to a little village two hours by boat up the Mekong river. The library is a charity organisation, and you can sponsor books and learning material to the small schools in the villages. We sponsored some books and pencils, and went with the library boat to the village to hand these over. On the beach we were met by the whole school and their teacher. First they sang a greeting to us, then we got to talk to them and we did some language games before we could hand over these small gifts. But for them it meant a lot to get some pens and a scetch book each, and some reading books for their class. This was the oddest Christmas eve day in my life, but worth it for the response and the over 30 smiling faces.

Merry Christmas

This is going to be the last Hong Kong post in twenty ten. Next post will be from the peoples republic of Laos. We are at gate 47 at Hong Kong International Airport and waiting for our flight out. First stop Hanoi and then an hour later we board for Vientiane in Laos.
We will spend all Christhmas in Laos and at Christmas eve and Christhmas day we will be in the former Royal Capitol of Luang Prabang.
In my suitcase I have two pair of shorts and 8 t-shirts. That will do, at least I hope so.

Bye for now.

From Treasure Island to the Plastic Beach.

First Sunday in Advent, so merry Christmas to all of you around the world and I hope you will have a nice and cosy day, inside or outside or whatever the weather allows you to, in your part of the world.
The Christmas month started for me on a beach, and compared to what I’ve heard about the weather in Europe, we have had the most fantastic weather period with average temperatures of 26 degrees and a clear blue Sky.
But back to that thing I mentioned with the beach. On the 1st of December I joined our year 6 team and went with them on a nature experience camp on Lantau Island.
The Camp is called “Treasure Island, and is managed by a group of young people from places like New Zealand, the US, Australia and the UK. They run this camp for students from Hong Kong and offers activities like water sports, hiking and trekking and rope courses. It is a tradition that our year 6 goes there every year in December, but this was the first time that I got to join them.
And what a nice experience it was, not only for the students, but for all of us who went there.
The venue at Pui O beach on the south side of Lantau Island is just amazing, and when the weather turns out like it did, it is nearly as being on holiday. Well apart from the 167 students, who are all around you, I mean. We all slept in tents 2 minutes from on of the incredible Lantau Style beaches, and most of the day and evenings were spent on or around this beach.
Back to the civilisation on Friday afternoon, I started to boot my self up to the visit to another beach on Friday evening. This time is was a visit to the Plastic Beach, and the guide to this was the band Gorillaz.
And what a visit this was. It was kind of a mixture of concert and going to the cinema. To every of the songs, there was a movie playing on a huge screen on the stage, over the band. So if you couldn’t see so much of the band on stage, there was enough to look at on the screens. But there was a band there I just have to say, and they did play real instruments, I believe.

Mo-Concept tventysixth-eleven-twenty-ten!

Concept is concept, even when it gets changed a bit. I am sure that it is not only I who thinks it is annoying to have to look at that bearded face every day, so now you will only see it once a week.
On Wednesday next week it is over anyway, as we enter December. Or what if I continued and tried to get a real Santa Beard before Christmas?
It is not really like it was meant to be. I cannot get those two sides to grow very long and hang down below the chin like a decent "Fu Manchu". Maybe I should go to the locay africa hair extension shop and ask for advise or even some help.

TGIF Video

In some way this looks like the life of an ordinary human being like me, just put into a simple shot.



Only Friday afternoon the spinning stops for a while, but just to be continued the following Monday.

Kliche!

This one doesn't need much presentation, it present it self.
A kind of documentary and presentation of one of the danish bands from the 80teis and 90ties, who did have huge influence on the development of the danish post punk music scene.

Music for the 19th.

Poor Ireland, they might be broke but still they have some bloody good musicians. U2 for example. They even also went in front when it came to protect and help the poor and weak people and minorities. So maybe we will soon see a new version of the "Band Aid" concept, with load of top of the pop Irish musicians joining together singing; "Economy moves in Mysterious ways".



Fantastic song though. In 92 I was happy having this on vinyl, and happy when I got MTV and sometimes they played songs I liked on my 13 inch black and white astronaut helmet kind of TV.
Now I can find what ever I want and embed it to a blog, and U2's songs are still as good.

Nice, I think.

Mulled Wine & mulled aquavit!

If I am not completely wrong, then the Christmas Fairs’ back home in the old Countries has been going on for a while.
And how nice is it to tug yourself in a big warm coat on top of a nice woollen sweater, maybe some long johns under thick trousers, some of grand ma’s home made woollen socks and some big boots with a thick sole, and then start strolling along the long line of decorated stalls, listening to the Christmas tunes playing in invisible loudspeakers, and with the sound of the dry frosty snow, crunching under your thick foot soles, while you are looking for small and big items, which would make your Christmas even more Christmassy.Then when done with all that stuff; meet up with some friends and head for the nearest “Glühwein Bude” – the German word for a stall where they sell Mulled Wine, which is the part of Christmas Fairs’ I recall the best- and then just stand there with a warm mug of Glühwein between your hands, joking and doing small talk, and watch how the crazy Christmas busyness passes by. And then have another “Glühwein”, and this time with Amaretto added as a kick-starter. Hours can pass like that with an accumulating amount of mugs in front of you, meaning longer and longer strings of words to make a sentence.
For sure you will not be frozen on the inside when getting home. You might be a bit more talkative, and still have some jingle bells summing around in your head, and for sure you will have forgotten the bags with all the unnecessary Christmas Crab you bought, Knowing this outcome, I normally jumped the shopping part anyway, and got straight to the “Glühwein Bude”.
In terms of Christmas Fairs’ –or say markets- Germany was indeed outstanding, where there were several “Weihnachts Märkte” in each city –obviously depending of the size of the city- and in what I call my German hometown; Dresden, there was quite a few in the different areas of the city. Other great Christmas Markets I know and have been to, is the one in Nuremberg maybe the most impressive, also in that way that the backdrop of this old city covered in a cold cover of frosty snow, kind of add the right mood to the whole thing.
Why on earth am I getting into this now? I do not like the way Christmas is being celebrated back there where I come from. To me it has lost its original true meaning. The way it is build up now is exaggerated and materialistic values and manners are overexposed.


Anyway, here in Hong Kong I will spend my next two Saturdays at Christmas Fairs’.
But in comparison with the above described, there will be no match.
The one coming this Saturday is the Christmas Fair at the Danish Seaman’s Church here in Hong Kong. There will be plenty of stuff to buy; Christmas decorations and other typical Danish and Scandinavian stuff, and there will be the typical Danish “Smørrebrød” –open sandwiches’- and then Hot Dogs. Yes right you can get them all over the world, but not just any kind of Hot Dog, no; this is THE WAY Hot Dogs should be served –this is maybe the only subject where you can call me narrow-minded or even a gastronomically barbarian or racist, and it is true; in this matter I am – and that is the Danish way, the way you will get it an any “Pølse vogn” (Hot Dog stand) any where in Denmark, with ketchup, mustard, remolade, crunchy roasted onions, raw chopped onions and pickled cucumber slices on top.
The second is the Fair at our school, and I attend because it is for a good cause and it is nice to see our school filled up with parents, friends and then the colleagues.It is only that silly thing when I attend these Hong Kong Christmas Fairs’; I do not get into any kind of Christmas mood, I guess I need the cold, the darkness in the evening and the snow.
Example on this Saturday to the Danish Fair, I leave the house at about 10 AM, wearing a T-shirt and maybe short’s and flip-flops. I will get to the venue, I will meet other people dressed all like me, and we will all sit outside around a swimming pool with our beer and aquavit, sweating and trying to gather the spots hidden in the shade. Jingle Bells will sound from invisible loudspeakers and children and childish adults will walk around with a silly white beard and a red pointy hat saying: “Ho Ho HO”, while trying to sell raffle tickets, Christmas biscuits or home made Christmas Décor, wearing flip-flops’.
But like back home in the old countries; there will be no mulled wine, only mulled aquavit, as they cannot keep it cold. Anyway I am sure I will not be frozen inside when I get home, I will not have any silly Christmas stuff, I will either forget it or -like last year- sell it for more money, than I paid for it to a drunken Rugby player somewhere in Mong Kok.

Music Video of the Day:

Does stars need to be real people?

In Japan they now have the Hologram Star: "Hatsune Miku"!

It must be easy for the musicians, if the lead singer gets too bitchy -some times lead singers do that- they can just switch her off.

The audience should be real though.

Flashback: "Salanderland, July 2010!

On the 13th of November, I went into the 7-Eleven shop on Chan Man Street in Sai Kung and bought three 0,5 liter bottles of water, three cans of "ICE" beer and a packet of chewing gum.

On Monday the 10th of January, Lisbeth Salander went into the 7-Eleven Shop on Götgatan on the island of Södermalm in Stockholm, where she bought shampoo, toothpaste, soap, yoghurt, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, frozen cinnamon rolls, coffee, Lipton teabags, pickles, apples, a large package of Billy’s Pan Pizza and a carton of Marlboro Lights.
No I’m not sure which year this was, but who cares; it is just fiction anyway.


Like travelling around with a tourist-map in a foreign city, to look for great architecture and important historic places, so the visitors can now travel through Stockholm, equipped with the “Millennium-map”. This map you can purchase in the local tourist office, and then you can find and visit all the important places, which played important roles in the story about Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomquist, in Stieg Larssons “Millennium Trilogy”.

As mentioned somewhere before: these books were the main reason, we started our Europe tour in Stockholm this summer. And by saying this I want to be honest; yes, we also bought this map and found as many of the places described, as we found interesting.
It was a good way to embrace and see the city in another way than by staggering around to the most common tourist places, and it lead us to areas of Stockholm, we would never have located otherwise.
But it also was a bit awkward, to chase around from place to place where some fictive persons from an authors mind, should have experienced this or that.
In fact it all started before we even got there, as I booked us into “Freys Hotel”, where one of the baddies from the books also prefer to stay when he visit Stockholm, not that it was that much an important location in the story, but mainly because it was only about three hundred meters from the main train station, and so we could just walk the distance after arriving with the Arlanda Express.
But back to the 7-Eleven shop at Götgatan; no we did not go in that shop, there were already to many others with the same idea, but we did go to “Kvarnan” on Tjärhovsgatan, where Lisbeth Salander meets with the „Evil Fingers every Tuesday.
This should be one of the oldest pubs in Stockholm, and it was a nice place, but surprised me in that way, that it wasn’t that dark and Gothic, as I had imagined the place to be from the story.
It was more or less kind of ordinary restaurant at the first view. We were having some drinks at the bar and around us at the tables; decent citizens were sitting having their dinner.
Judging by the plates of food the waiters were carrying out from the kitchen, it could be a good option for a real nice dinner.
Time and time again a group of people entered the place, looked around, took some photos and disappeared down some stairs to the basement. After a while they came back up, talking and making gestures to a person among them, who seemed to be a guide, then they would have a look around yet again, take some more photos, before wandering of through the exit again, without buying a single drink.
That must have been joining the guided „Millennium Tour“ which you could also chose to attend, if you were not so used to read a map. At that time I found that a bit odd, I mean to walk around with a guide, who told about and showed these places where fictive people has done lot of different things, but as I think about this now: I cannot see any difference from when I visited New Zealand last year, and were travelling on the back of a horse, to different places where they had been shooting some scenes for the movie; “The Lord of the rings”. That is also fiction. Or what about a visit to “Disneyland”?
But maybe this is what Stockholm will be called in some years: “Salanderland”.

Fu Manchu @ fifteen eleven twenty ten!

Concept or not? If concept, then it has to be real.

I'm really doing my best, but i have some problems by getting the beard to be long at the ends, so they can hang down from my chin like the real Fu Manchu beard. Maybe I have to cheat and go to one of these shops who do hair extensions, and ask if they could do a beard extension instead!

Flashback: Glasgow, July 2010.

Among all the other advertisements and pamphlets’ in the tourist information center on George Square in Glasgow, this one stuck out in the section of “dining and drinking”’ by claiming to represent the oldest pub in town, “ The Scotia” on 112 Stockwell St.
I was in the information center to look for information about a visit to “Celtic Park” and how to get there. It was Catriona who found it and picked it up, maybe she was looking for venues for Scottish folk music, or just good and fun bars to visit in the evening. If she showed it to me immediately as she found it I cannot recall. I was too occupied to get one of my dreams to come true; to visit Celtic Park in Glasgow’s east ends, and I guess Catriona by another dream; to go shopping in the fancy streets in the busy city center.It was still quite early in the morning, and the weather had decided to show it self from one of its better sides -speaking of Scotland- than the day before when we had arrived by bus from Edinburgh. That day it had been raining cats and dogs from a heavy clouded low grey sky, which seemed to rest on just on the roofs of the buildings.
This day with its blue sky was different and invited to a day out. I got on the suggested bus from just around the corner and soon I found my self on my way to fulfilling a dream
This is not the story though, so that has to wait.
Meeting up again after these actions of the day, the rest was set out o be let to the unknown. And here the pamphlet with the “The Scotia Bar” came to play kind of a main role.
What is a holiday without experiencing the local establishments, and go for the ones far out of the well-beaten tracks.
The adventure of Glasgow pubs started at “Sloans” on Argyle Street. And now it starts to be a bit curious, as also the establishment claim to be the oldest in the town. It is a nice establishment, hidden away in a passage from Argyle Street, and has an outdoor beer garden area, two more floors over the bar, where the upper floor is a fantastic ballroom form the late 18 hundred. We went up the amazing staircase to have wee look inside, and what a great location.
Next stop was down at the river Clyde to locate “The Scotia Bar” on Stockwell Street.


It was easy found, but just across the street another establishment drew a bit more attention at first -“The Clutha”- as they had an outdoor serving area, just at the right spot to catch the last sunbeams of the day.
Scottish pubs have a certain atmosphere. They are always busy. You always meet all kinds of people and if you are open and curious, you can for certain be sure that you will end up having a good chat with the people sitting around there.
As we entered, there was a little handful of guests dotted around in the room, one at the bar and some others around in the corners on the benches.
At the bar is always a good place to start, if you can find a spot. This time of the evening it was not a problem, as only one guy was sitting there, so we joined him a the high stools. Not even a half pint later, we were in a conversation with him and the young man behind the bar. ”Was the Scotia Bar really the oldest in town, and was it in fact haunted, as it had said in the brochure from the Tourist Centre?
Both the young man behind the bar and the guest at the bar shrugged.
“Maybe it is. There is some who claims to have seen something, but you should go to “Sloan’s” on Argyle Street; they are for sure haunted”!
And then the conversation was on tracks, and got more and more personal. Names and occupation got exchanged and more beer ordered. Suddenly we got company by two ladies -working colleagues on the loose. I bet they had started enjoying life just after work, as they were in “a good mood” as they arrived. One of them found my Scandinavian accent “admirable”, why; I really cannot say, and sometimes I had to get Catriona to translate the heavy Glaswegian accent of hers, so I could continue the conversation.
The evening ended up like this; one of the two working colleagues on the loose, grabbed a guitar from behind the bar and started singing, and what a voice she had. She could easily have been someone famous from TV, which apparently also an older gentleman from one of the corners meant, as he was constantly mumbling something out aloud to no one in particular, as he was sitting on his own.
My translator (Catriona) assured me that he had appreciated the singing, and that he had meant the singer should be on TV singing, and not here for a few people in a bar.
The other lady started an argument with another older gentlemen; about what I really have no idea, but he left and she was still wound up, so the other guest at the bar tried to calm her down, abut soon she was arguing with him, so he also withdrew back to the stool at the bar next to me.
Cheers! So all in all, that was a good night at the –maybe- oldest pub in Glasgow.

Twelwe Eleven Twenty Ten!

So this was my 24 hours of an Island camp for this time. I would love to have stayed for another day, but couldn’t spend the time there because of other tasks to finish before Friday.
I can only –once again- praise the opportunities Hong Kong offers for outdoor adventures. All over the country parks, there is Camp sites dotted around in remote places to offer the youth all possible adventures and outdoor experiences.
Our group of year 9 was on a small Island in the bay outside Sai Kung, where they were sleeping in tents, cooking under open sky, and then taken on hikes in the j=hills, mountain climbing and kayaking. It is all organized and run by a company called “Asia Pacific Adventures” and their team of highly qualified outdoor educators, takes the students through all the adventures.
I was joining one group who was set out kayaking for the whole day in the waters between some of the many islands in the area that defines Sai Kung Country Park. And what can anyone want more as a part of your work? A day out on the water in a kayak, the temperature is around 25 degrees and it is sunny.
I was covered in sun cream, was wearing a kind of Middle Eastern scarf around my head and neck, had water and snacks in the cockpit (it is really called that) and then I was just enjoing to see the students stepping out of their comfort zones by getting to know that they can do more than ride the MTR on their own.
Amazing to see how a 13 year old can actually grow an inch in front of your eyes, when they realize that they had just crossed a 1 and a half-mile channel of water between two islands only using their arms and legs, and then jumped into the water from a 2 meter pier, before they have to get them selves all the way back to the camp, again by crossing the same water channel in a kayak.

I am going to Camp!

Year 9 are out on something called EOTC, and later today, I'm going to join them on an little island somewhere outside Sai Kung. Thats is why I am wearing my sunglases. The jacket I am wearing because the ICT guys has put the AC to freezing temperatures, but I do not quite why, cos they are sitting themselves in their office wearing big jackets. They could switc the AC of or turn it a bit down.
Back to the year 9 on the Island. They are sleeping in tents and living without any wireless internet connection and they are not even allowed to bring any phones or Ipod/ pads. I am sure that I am going to meet a group of misserable characters out there, and maybe I should hide my crappy PCCW cellular phone, so they do not attack me, just to have some bottums to press and some kind of digital gadget to attach to and connect to facebook.
So, I am not going to shave tomorrow; I could, but I do not want to. I want to feel the wild and rough life on the Island, only inhabited by desperate year 9 stuents living in tents, some wild boars and some porcupines. I really hope to see one of them!
By the way; EOTC means "Education Outside The Classroom".

Flashback; Denmark Summer 2010; The Meta Mermaid!

Denmark is known world wide for lots of different things, and some, which I do not want to name here at all.
One of the things I do want to mention is the little Mermaid located at Langelinie in Copenhagen. The little Mermaid could be to Denmark what the Manneken Pis is for Brussels doesn’t look like much, but every tourist has to get there and see it.

Logically I’m not that often in Denmark, and when I’m not in Copenhagen because my relatives and friends lives’ somewhere else. But this summer it happened again that I did a trip to the capitol.
Catriona has never before been to Copenhagen before and I’ve never been to Glasgow either, so because we were going to visit both Scotland and Denmark in summer anyway, so we did a deal and paid a visit to both cities.


In summer Copenhagen can be a real nice experience, though it does depend on the weather, but where doesn’t it.
The long and light summer nights combined with summer temperatures, can keep the most people awake into the long hours - the birds hardly keep quiet either. The Sun sets at around 11:30 PM but still, it doesn’t get really dark, and at about 3 or 3:30 the sun rises again, ready for a new turn.With it’s about 1 and a bit million inhabitants is Copenhagen the -by all means- biggest city in Denmark and it has a real flair of capitol and metropolis alike, just in a much smaller scale than you will find it in London, Paris or Rome.One of the biggest attractions is the little Mermaid at Langelinie. Not that it is that big, no in fact it is tiny, and once before I was there, I heard how some other tourist in a low voice told each other, how pathetic small she was, sitting there on a large rock at the edge of the water.
This summer though, she wasn’t there. She had taken a trip to Shanghai and the World Expo, where she was one of the big stars. She was sitting on her stone in the Danish pavilion.
A great idea when you ask me. But when that was decided there was a lot of debate going on in the state of Denmark, but that is not what I am going to get into here.
Instead of her at Langelinie in Copenhagen, there was a big screen and a live transmission of the Mermaid on it from Shanghai, filmed in exact the same angle and same size, like the visitors would have seen her “live” at Langelinie.Only because we did have a hotel close by, we went there to have a look at this “Little Meta Mermaid”, live on screen from Shanghai.
I must say I really like the idea with the live streaming of her when she was away on duty, so to speak, and now when the World Expo has finished, she is returning home to her old spot.
And maybe then Denmark should do the same thing with a camera and live broadcast her from there to somewhere. Why? Maybe that could keep her safe and prevent more damage and vandalism like that what has been done to her in the past; twice someone has cut her head of, one time only half, then someone did saw her arm of and she has been dressed in a Burka. (Look here for more.) I am sure that nothing happened to her while she was in China!

Fu Manchu!

It was itching and kept getting stuck in my t-shirts when I got dressed or undressed. When I was in bed at put my head on the pillow, it felt like my chin was lifted up by hundreds of small whiskers.
Finally this morning it was time before heading towards work. The razor had its problems, even that I changed the blade for a new one -Gilette Mach 3 or not- the 7 day beard did put up an eminent battle and the evidence was left behind in the bathroom sink.
Thousands of small black and grey studs was left, glued to the sides of the sink, like small fish cought out at the bottum of a dried out lake.
And the first stage of my own private Fu Manchu?

Like Wilhelm Tell; yes the man in Switzerland with an Apple on his head, but here also with a Fireball in his mouth.

Once upon a time in Hangzhou: 餃子 “Jiaozi!”

They are very tasty and you can eat them both for breakfast and at anytime else. They can be steamed or fried, can be with meat or with vegetables or both and they are not just a Chinese specialty. In France and Italy, they call their species for Ravioli, in Russia they are called Pelmeni, and in Poland and other eastern European countries; they are Pierogi.
In Germany they have something like it called Maultaschen, and I could go on like that for a while, I think.
This is about the Chinese Dumplings: “Jiaozi”. These dumplings are very common in the Chinese cuisine, where especially the northern provinces enjoy them throughout the year, and elsewhere to special occasions.

During the Easter break 2010; the Mortensens went on a school exchange trip to China's Romantic Capital of Hangzhou, joining our head of Chinese language; Mr Yu and 17 students from year 9 to 11.
We visited a college there and our students were accommodated in private homes to develop their Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), and we had an apartment on the campus.
Every morning a friendly young woman - Ms. Yu- who took us to the schools cafeteria for breakfast, picked us up. It was a huge room with mounted tables and chairs and designed to feed the around 3 thousand students, who was studying there and lived there in dormitories.
At the time we got there, only the teachers who also lived on campus, was there for breakfast. We had to line up in front of a little hole in a big glass wall, which separated the eating area and the kitchen, where they gave out the food. Just like in a bank or at the post office. Behind each of the food stations, stood 4 women in cooking uniforms serving the hungry masses the food they asked for.
When us two “Gweilos” got into the line together with Ms. Yu, a lot of giggling and whispering began among the women around the food trays, and as Catriona came up infrot of them, all of them gathered together with the head and their ears close to the hole, so they could hear what she would like. With some help from Ms. Yu, she managed to get an overview of what was available, and she started ordering, and every time the ladies said the word in Chinese and Catriona tried to pronounce it after them. This was a source for some great entertainment for the ladies behind the counter, as they stacked the named items unto her tray. When she seemed to have finished they asked “Jiaozi?” and pointed on the nice looking dumplings on a tray at the back.
Both of us know these dumplings from our China adventures before, and for sure these “Jiaozi’s” should be on the tray for a decent Chinese breakfast.
As it became my turn al the smiling faces once again peeped through the little opening in the glass wall, and as the word “Jaoutzhe” came out of my mouth, they nearly all fell backwards in a huge laughter attack, but pulled themselves together and dumped a huge portion to my tray.
I felt somehow embarrassed, but what; I could only try again to pronounce that word by listening to Ms. Yu at my side and carefully watch her lips while she once again very slowly said; “Jiaozi”.
Whatever; the ladies had decided that I needed some of the other stuff they had in their pots, and soon I stood there with a huge mountain of various unspecified food items on the tray, ready to walk to one of the tables, where Catriona and Mr. Yu and his family already sat, and very experienced maneuvered their breakfast into their mouth with chopsticks, while Catriona were still chasing one of her “Jiaozi’s” around the plate with hers. Before I could leave from the food handout spot, one of the ladies presented me a kind of round ball on a plate and made it clear that I really should taste this one, so that also found it’s way onto my tray, and I was ready to begin my own battle of finger artistic and chopsticks.The breakfast was indeed very tasty; even I couldn’t manage all of it. The “Jiaozi” went down first, then some kind of omelet with chives, some bread with herps and finally the tennis ball sized ball, they ladies had insisted me to try. It was some kind of sticky rice ball, with some sweet bean paste inside in the middle, and the outside was covered in sesame seeds, which stuck onto the sticky surface. It was very nice and a good sweet finish. But man, was I stuffed. I decided that the next morning I would insist only to take what I chose myself, and then less of it.
As we all left, all the happy faces behind the glass wall was again all stuck through the hole, laughing and waving.
Very friendly people those Chinese.
This turned out to be an ever-returning ritual. Every morning when we came for breakfast the same kind of show, just that they now knew what we liked, and even if we were a bit late and all the Jiaozi’s was gone, they’d save some for us on a tray behind, where no one else could see them, and then when we came, they proudly took them out and shoveled them onto our trays.
On one of those late days, we happened to be the last ones havinv breakfast, and just after we'd got our portions, all the staff from the kitchen came out, and started to line up them selves, as we'd done. Now it was they turn to be served and have their breakfast.
As a part of the cultural exchange program, we were going to make dumplings from scratch one of the days we were there. So that morning we got meet in the meeting room by a bunch of year 4 students, who should help us doing the shopping in the supermarket for all the ingredients, and then later back at the school a section of the cafeteria was transformed into a kitchen, where we all –our 35 students and another group from Auckland in New Zealand – were going to produce a huge amount of “Jiaozi’s”. That was very interesting, and on that day we could eat as
many as we liked, and even then there was so many left, that we tried if we could pay back our depts to the kitchen staff, by offering them the leftovers. They just laughed. Some of them tried our deformed Jaiozi’s, and kind of signalled back, that they were good, but again; they are very friendly those Chinese!

Decision day for the MOustache.

So now I've got the verdict of which kind of MOstache I have to grow. Late Yesterday the final bids came in and our comMOunication manager could spend some time putting together a list and design a poster with all us the poor souls, who now has to get up earlier in the morning and go to the bathroom and look into the mirror and try to design -and maintain- a MOustache for the next 3 weeks.

Here is a clipping from the official list with the verdict:
The Fu Manshu style MOustache!

As I saw the result of, I must admit that I were pleased that the good colleagues from the LIRC -which is our library, and who put the bid in for me- didn't choose one of the outragous ones, allthough the one they pointed out for me, will be hard to grow in only a few weeks.

An odd dream!

Previously on this blogg, I told I had some of the magical "Sun breeze" mixture cocktail on the Junk boat last night, and that you never can know what is going to happen after drinking that stuff.
Well I got home and to bed and slept very well, but I had this odd dream; I dreamt about the french impressionist painter Claude Monet, and that he was joining the fabulous Mr. E in the band; Eels. They played together in a new music video on a Junk boat on the lake in Monet's famous garden in Givernhy in France.
Mr. E was sitting on the top singing and playing a Harp while Monet was standing at the front with an easel, painting loads of his famour Haystack pictures with different coloured laser lights on the top.
Both Monsieur Monet and Mr. E had these big weird beards, they are so famous for.

Everything was beautiful and very colourful like Monet's paintings, and the tune was a new one, at least I never heard it before, I think it was called; "Blackbirds hiding in the beard of mine".

When I woke up I looked like this:

I can only explain it this way; The "sun breeze" mixture had been influenced by a recipe from a famous druid from somewhere in Saxony in Germany. I know this man and his amazing ability to create magical stuff, and so the ingredient of his mixtures must in some way have found it's way to Hong Kong, and now is the secret of the magic of the "Sun breeze" cocktail, served on entertainment Junks on Victoria Harbour.
Anyway, I have to shave today so there is not so much harm done, only that I have to plan more time doing it as normal.

(Thanks to Herr. Frank from Dresden for his magical touch.)

5 hours delayed live coverage.

Friday night and it was spend on a Junk trip on Victoria Harbour, between what is called; "the Island and Tsim Sha Tshui", or just TST.
A Junk is a kind of floating bar and restaurant, which you can book for a private gathering and spend for a night partying on the harbour.
They will provide all the booze you can drink and the all the food you can eat and everybody pay a fixed prize, and then it just evolve.
Tonight the weather wasn't the best. Since yesterday some heavy rain clouds had covered the territory, and today it started to rain. Just a little bit, but enough to spoil the roof top dancing, what normally makes those trips something special. Especially when you have a look around and can see the lights from the Sky Line on both sides of Victoria Harbour, and everybody has been drinking about 10 beers or 5 liters of something called the "Sun Breeze" cocktail, which is a mix of Vodka and Cranberry Juice, and is a kind of a magical drink. It tastes like some fruit juice, and you drink it like that, but you never know what s going to happen, so I'll have to wait till later when I find out.

We was apointed to meet a the pier in Causeway Bay at 6:45 PM to get out and ready for the dayly Light Show, which kicks off at 8 PM, and involve all the major buildings on both sides, and it includes laser show and every possible light design you can magine on the buildings.
And as the Junk rolled on the waves through the harbour, the light show started and there from a Junk in the middle of the harbour we had jusrt the most spectacular view on that event.

MOrtensens MOvember.

Today is the 5th day of the MO, and today it is the day where people can do their bid or the MOst outrageous MOustache, and on which individual who can do the best effort growing it.
If you support me, I am sorry to tell you that I am quite low down on the betting table, and to be honest, I do not expect to climb the latter either. Anyway, I will continue the fight and hope I can manage some silly MOustache by the end of this MOnth.
By the way; if you think that you can see a major change from yesterday, then it is because I got myself a haircut yesterday afternoon.
Another by the way: See the thing I use as a light source at the bottom of the picture. I finally found a way to use the Ipad I got some time ago in a useful way. So now I will always bring it out with me on shootings, either as a light source or a reflector, as it is quite useful that way.


The standings so far at 9:45 AM local Hong Kong time:
The bids is in Hong Kong Dollar.

Mo Grower - Top Pledge
Mo Braund 20
Mo Brasher 16
Mo Broome 200
Mo Cotton 900
Mo Coventry 20
Mo Day 100
Mo De Melo 20
Mo Diamond 100
Mo Duffy 10
Mo Dufty 20
Mo Fahy 20
Mo Faire 150
Mo Farmer 150
Mo Gillis 35
Mo Hansen 500
Mo Hogan 20
Mo J Morgan 50
Mo Johnson 5
Mo S McCann 20
Mo McManaway 100
Mo McRorie 10
Mo Mortensen 20
Mo Newhook 50
Mo P Morgan 150
Mo Reid 15
Mo Ross 250
Mo Spivey Jones 100
Mo Thomas 50

Concept MOvember!

When you have started a concept, you have to follow it through, so here it is; my growing beard on the 4th day of the MOvember MOustache.

Once upon a time on a Football Pitch!

It seems like my football team has decided to be active again, so they've booked the pitch every Wednesday in MOvember, so yesterday evening I was on the pitch struggling against the opponent team, and my own condition, which for sure has been better.
Until a year ago, we were playing twice a week so that was ideal. The pitch had to be maintained and a new surface had to be placed so it was closed for 3 months from October 2009 to December.

As it opened again In January I was so hungry for playing again, so I called Capitaino Perry to ask when our training was going to start again.
"At the moment," he said, "we are not enough players, the MOst of them are training for the Dragon Boat Races".
So week after week I was e-mailing, text'ing and phoning Capitano Perry, to ask if there was any football going on.
MOstly the answer was no, but one evening in late February, they decided to meet on the pitch for a little game, but mostly it was to do the Chinese New Year ritual again, before the new season started.

This is a ritual where they bring a roasted piglet, wine and some fruit for the gods, some incense sticks and a load of fake MOney to burn, to show that they do not value the hunt for material goods.
If you want know MOre about this, you have to go back some MOnths and find it in a post from February or March, this year.

I was sure that this was going to be the start of a good and frequent football season with training every week, like we’d been used to the year before.
But no, it was not. The weekly communication died a bit out, as it was always: “ no training this week”, so I just let it be, if there by any chance could be a possibility for some action, Capitano Perry would phone me or he send a text with a short message like: “7 o’clock, game hard pitch, OK?” or he could phone me saying: “We have booked pitch every Wednesday this month at 7 o’clock!” and I would go excited home from work, get dressed into the soccer kit, go past the drinking men at the little “dong” down at the bottom at the road, and tell them, “no, sorry no beer tonight, I m going to play football” and I would then wander of, really desperate wanting that beer, but I was going to play football for two hours, so I had to wait.

I would then come to the pitch in good time to warm up a bit (kick a ball from two meters to another other player) and would watch the kids from the Brazilian Soccer School do their practice, before we would start.
Twice I found my self all alone waiting there, which was quite odd, as the team always was a quarter of an hour early or so, and then when I stood there alone and watched how the time got closer and closer to seven, my phone would ring, and I would hear Perry saying something like: “ Oh, sorry, but I was wrong, we didn’t book the Pitch today, I have made a mistake, but next time, OK?”
I would then walk back home and be met by the stirring faces from the drinking men at the little dong: “ we thought you were playing football until o’clock, didn’t you just say that 15 minutes ago when you left?”

So now I just want to see if this new attempt of serious hobby football will last longer than to next Wednesday, but one thing is sure from yesterdays event; my legs are a bit sore, but it was worth every aching muscle.

As a little remark to the new year “piglet ritual evening” on the football pitch;
No, I did not take part in that training, after eating the piglet and drinking the wine.
As I’d tried to phone every week for two full months, and nothing had happened, I'd given up and decided to accept an invite from some friends to meet for some beers and a burger at our local US American Rip and Burger Joint, called Anthony's Ranch, on a Wednesday evening, normally I would never agree to do anything on a Wednesday night, as that was the Football night, I thought..

Getting ready for Christmas, or what!

Yesterday a colleague of mine told me that there was only 30 working days left before the Christmas break. So today it must be 29 days, right?

This means about 6 weeks to the next holiday, which sounds quite nice, but it also means about 6 weeks to the beginning of a new year. No more 2010. And yet another year has passed, and how on earth did that happen, without me really realizing it?
I think I just got use to write 2010, and soon I have to write –and get used to write- 2011. Two thousand eleven or twenty eleven, sounds actually not as bad but never as good as the one we’ve got now, but that is something that has already been up here, so let us leave it with this now.
I guess that at this time of the year, Europe is already completely decorated for Christmas and that every shop tries their best to get people to buy and buy and buy. That is what I can remember from living in Europe, every year the Christmas decoration came out a bit earlier than the year before. Quite so, that it was beginning just after the Schools autumn break.
Thank god it isn’t like this here in Asia.
They do something special at Christmas time, but it hasn’t at all the same hysteria and complete Christmas maniac around it like in the culture I come from. And I am not sad about that, and do not miss it a bit.
Maybe this has also something to do with the weather and the temperatures, coz who on earth feel the Christmas mood in 24 degrees wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, while staggering past some silly Santa figures and some Reindeer's or like here, some silver plastic horses, dragging a sledge full of parcels, not I.
By the way; these photos are from last year, there is still no Christmas decorations anywhere.

State of the MOustache :

Day three of the MOvember; it is starting to feel like sandpaper on my face.