Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
A Visitor
Had some time off work. James came to say hello. Thanks for putting up with a ghost for a week dude...some people continue to do so...
Monday, April 03, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
Candy Mandible with your host....
Now that I am between worlds so to speak, certain things have become much clearer-or am I deluding myself? I am getting close to feeling like I somehow fit in to this jagged jigsaw, that my skin has hardened a little, that my big-city calousness is nearly fully developed. Hong Kong really epitomises a new asian metropolis (that's why I'm here?)-the consumerist culture is the official culture, image its fuel, money a fast flowing syrup in my hands. Now that I can play karaoke drinking games with the best of them, patiently sneer at being overcharged, speak my mind directly without politeness and affect my voice with a slightly deeper timbre to suggest authority, I feel like this town could really work. Why why why am I in Hong Kong? It's not even important any more. What would a polar bear do if you placed it suddenly in the tropical east indies? How would a crocodile fare in the West Sahara? I'm no chameleon, but I bring little baggage to speak of to this town. I am my own experiment, HK is the petri dish. I eat the food (but I have my limits-frogs legs have a disgusting texture and I will not look at intestines) and talk to people. We talk about cultural differences and similarities, money, girls, films, foods. I no longer talk about some things that interest me but that I know will have no relevance in HK to anyone because I hate getting blank stares.
I don't use embellishment with my language too much-Cantonese speakers don't understand it for a start and their own language seems to lack it, instead being hardy, flexible, subtle and pragmatic. I can't just talk like me sometimes because I rarely speak to an australian native speaker. There's always Bob the man from Melbourne who is "In I.T" as Clint put it, is a good man, especially for ceremonious and excessive drinking. Australia Day unfortunately went by without mention.
Chinese New Year on the other hand was a different story. The married coworkers give out Lai See (red money envelopes) to everyone who's single or unmarried, The Fireworks are gobsmacking, and...people actually start to relax for a short while. To see people during this time walking unhurriedly is quite a shock. I really wonder what the hell Adelaide is going to be like when I say hello again. Hans, Yutaka, Charmaine, Wales and me went to the flower market in Causeway Bay which is a big tradition during the festival season. It's sort of like a fair with little shops selling lucky chinese new year trinkets and flowers, and there is always an innovative gimmick that has been invented to cash in on peoples hunger for buying luck. This year is the year of the dog, Monkeys like me are preordained to have a steady but slightly shit year, snakes will prosper and monkeys are gonna rule.
After getting crushed by the crowds in Victoria Park, we found a dessert restaurant and I tried Durian for the first time. Wales and Charmaine thought this was really funny as no foreigner usually eats this stinky, fetid fruit. But I managed and will try again at Charmaines insistance. “Keep persisting” she tells me, “and then you will understand.” You either love them or hate them apparently, but I have yet to swing either way.
I will not try to learn cantonese yet, we will see how my upcoming Mandarin lessons go. Besides, the usual mistakes of beginners usually are made with the use of tones. Say something slightly out of phase and you're telling your girlfriends mother that she has a nice cunt instead of nice cooking. Mandarin has 3 or 4 tones, Cantonese has 9. I practiced some Mandarin tones already to some lessons I have on iPod and made sounds like a coy macaw, a person with a hairlip, a cat sneezing.
My apartment is too small for my big soul so I will have to move somewhere else soon. Decent furniture arrangement is impossible. It’s a mess at the moment too-I continue to be sick with a stomach infection that doesn’t hurt but just makes my stomach gurgle and throb strangely. I’ve had it for months now and the other symptoms include aching joints, general tiredness and shit skin. So I usually just lurch around my apartment making a mess but cleaning things up only when I trip over them. They say that if you’re not from HK, it will take at least a year for your body to acclimatise. Goddamn, only 5 months to go…
So I’ve had no energy to really go out and wrestle with the world much.
On the other hand, I’ve discovered that there are people in this town that enjoy just actually chilling out listening to records and goofing around: Cedric and Francois. Maybe this girl I met a few times.
Chilling out. That’s pretty rare.
Media !Attention!
“Life of Pi” is the funniest book I’ve ever read.
Stereolab are undergoing a new renaissance in my head. Their album “Margerine Eclipse” is amazing and sweet, not too posy and just really happy and positive.
HK is good for “fucky house music.” I love that expression.
Shanghai Crab is really good.
Jet Li’s final purely kungfu movie “Fearless” is incredible. The action scenes are really mindblowing. The same motion director as from the matrix, but this time actually working with a guy who knows how to fight properly.
And how to describe work? I really like all the people I work with. I say that honestly. I like the work I am doing, though the project for a tower in Shanghai we’re working on right now needs an injection of vision and enthusiasm. I hang out a lot with work mates. Dennis is a local guy who is just a blast. He wants to practice his english with me, so I oblige by speaking slowly and clearly. He takes me to cheap fun places to eat. Kevin comes too sometimes. He knows his pirate software and DVDs and we enjoy trawling around looking at computer toys and gadgets. He has burmese roots. We all went and ate burmese last night in Wanchai and the food was simple and delicious. I will return!
Ok, that’s enough.
I don't use embellishment with my language too much-Cantonese speakers don't understand it for a start and their own language seems to lack it, instead being hardy, flexible, subtle and pragmatic. I can't just talk like me sometimes because I rarely speak to an australian native speaker. There's always Bob the man from Melbourne who is "In I.T" as Clint put it, is a good man, especially for ceremonious and excessive drinking. Australia Day unfortunately went by without mention.
Chinese New Year on the other hand was a different story. The married coworkers give out Lai See (red money envelopes) to everyone who's single or unmarried, The Fireworks are gobsmacking, and...people actually start to relax for a short while. To see people during this time walking unhurriedly is quite a shock. I really wonder what the hell Adelaide is going to be like when I say hello again. Hans, Yutaka, Charmaine, Wales and me went to the flower market in Causeway Bay which is a big tradition during the festival season. It's sort of like a fair with little shops selling lucky chinese new year trinkets and flowers, and there is always an innovative gimmick that has been invented to cash in on peoples hunger for buying luck. This year is the year of the dog, Monkeys like me are preordained to have a steady but slightly shit year, snakes will prosper and monkeys are gonna rule.
After getting crushed by the crowds in Victoria Park, we found a dessert restaurant and I tried Durian for the first time. Wales and Charmaine thought this was really funny as no foreigner usually eats this stinky, fetid fruit. But I managed and will try again at Charmaines insistance. “Keep persisting” she tells me, “and then you will understand.” You either love them or hate them apparently, but I have yet to swing either way.
I will not try to learn cantonese yet, we will see how my upcoming Mandarin lessons go. Besides, the usual mistakes of beginners usually are made with the use of tones. Say something slightly out of phase and you're telling your girlfriends mother that she has a nice cunt instead of nice cooking. Mandarin has 3 or 4 tones, Cantonese has 9. I practiced some Mandarin tones already to some lessons I have on iPod and made sounds like a coy macaw, a person with a hairlip, a cat sneezing.
My apartment is too small for my big soul so I will have to move somewhere else soon. Decent furniture arrangement is impossible. It’s a mess at the moment too-I continue to be sick with a stomach infection that doesn’t hurt but just makes my stomach gurgle and throb strangely. I’ve had it for months now and the other symptoms include aching joints, general tiredness and shit skin. So I usually just lurch around my apartment making a mess but cleaning things up only when I trip over them. They say that if you’re not from HK, it will take at least a year for your body to acclimatise. Goddamn, only 5 months to go…
So I’ve had no energy to really go out and wrestle with the world much.
On the other hand, I’ve discovered that there are people in this town that enjoy just actually chilling out listening to records and goofing around: Cedric and Francois. Maybe this girl I met a few times.
Chilling out. That’s pretty rare.
Media !Attention!
“Life of Pi” is the funniest book I’ve ever read.
Stereolab are undergoing a new renaissance in my head. Their album “Margerine Eclipse” is amazing and sweet, not too posy and just really happy and positive.
HK is good for “fucky house music.” I love that expression.
Shanghai Crab is really good.
Jet Li’s final purely kungfu movie “Fearless” is incredible. The action scenes are really mindblowing. The same motion director as from the matrix, but this time actually working with a guy who knows how to fight properly.
And how to describe work? I really like all the people I work with. I say that honestly. I like the work I am doing, though the project for a tower in Shanghai we’re working on right now needs an injection of vision and enthusiasm. I hang out a lot with work mates. Dennis is a local guy who is just a blast. He wants to practice his english with me, so I oblige by speaking slowly and clearly. He takes me to cheap fun places to eat. Kevin comes too sometimes. He knows his pirate software and DVDs and we enjoy trawling around looking at computer toys and gadgets. He has burmese roots. We all went and ate burmese last night in Wanchai and the food was simple and delicious. I will return!
Ok, that’s enough.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Photos Thailand
Here's the photos from my brief trip to Thailand. I'll be publishing an embellished entry soon...
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
2006 est ici
Wow, that was Christmas! Hope it was good for everyone-I sure had fun.
For Christmas Eve, Francois and Catherine invited me to their friends apartment for a huge feast. Catherine can cook, that's for sure. Sometimes, when she has a surplus after an evening's meal, the bunch of lucky campers at the office get a special lunchbox. The best were the boneless chicken wings stuffed with ham and celery....Yes, Catherine has endeared herself to many.
And there was no stopping her on Christmas eve. The apartment of these friends was big and luxurious, and so it followed that there would be a big and luxurious kitchen. And when you clunk around in a normal tiny HK apartment kitchen like a caged tyrannosaur every day of the week it makes a welcome change.
Francois and I helped Catherine and her friend with the food shopping. Yes, there's nothing like watching a live giant lobster getting hauled out of the water kicking and (screaming?) and pinned down on the fishmongers chopping block. Then the cleaver comes down again and again until there are 4 pieces of still-alive lobster , limbs writhing, getting thrown into a big plastic bag.
We also bought some giant prawns, giant Squill(alien-like crustaceans with spines on every limb that taste much better than they look), whole squids. giant scallops and fish.
Such plunder!
The feast was difficult to finish. Met more nice people that night, in this apartment with views over the harbour and its two friendly cats.
We even got christmas presents. They were quite silly toys, but we used them like we were children again. Seeing a pay TV company businessman and a senior project architect playing with toy cars on the loungeroom floor and someone shooting pellets at cats with a toy gun was very funny. My present was something a little more useful-a business card holder. People go nuts for business cards here.
After the Christmas feast, I tottered off into Lan Kwai Fong for some late night amusement. Larry and I ended up drinking till sunrise, celebrating a most unholy christmas.
And as for my apartment, I think it's time I finally had a housewarming party. Sheesh, it's gonna be a mess, so many bodies in such a small space...intimate...
Exploring some new hedonistic endeavors on the weekends these days, namely the feared karaoke. Rooms full of boys and girls drinking jugs of green Tea and chivas with crushed ice, singing god knows what canto pop, jumping around and playing number games with their fists, the smoke hurts my eyes, the green tea mix is so easy to down for the inevitable drinking games, and probably so the guys can make the girls drink more. That's my speculation....I thought going out was meant to be...relaxing???? Haha.
Between Christmas and New Years I went on a short trip to Thailand on my lonesome for 5 days. I chilled out in Khao Yai National Park for a few days before heading to Ayuthaya and then to Bangkok for a few nights. I didn't really have many set goals before I went except to chill out in a forest, see some ruins and maybe check out some night life. I guess I got all of those. Thailand is a great place, and I'm amazed that I liked it so much after getting so down about it after reading Michelle Houllebec's "Platform."
In Khao Yai NP I basically got shown around with a small group by a knowledgeable guy who showed us, among other things, where cinnammon comes from, where we get sandalwood, and how we make tiger balm. He had a cool telescopic lens for looking at monkeys and birds high in the treetops. At nighttime we basically chilled out and dealt with mouth-numbingly hot thai curries. I found that I could handle the hotness better than most of the other visitors strangely enough, mainly because I think I'm used to the hot food in Hong Kong. I don't know...
Anyway, the highlight was swimming in a waterfall, so refreshing...I think I want to explore these national parks more, because the infrastructure is excellent for the trails and information, perhaps it will soon rival the infrastructure of the "Wandern"-obsessed europeans. I'm told there are a few tigers around still...
Speaking of tigers, I just finished reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it's pretty amazing. That guy was born and raised in Poland, sailed the seven seas in his twenties, and wrote some of the finest english prose we will ever read. Amazing!!!
But I digress. My next stop after the park was Ayutthaya. I wanted to see some temples basically. What is nice is that some of them are still inhabited by monks. I cruised around the town by bicycle. It was do-able in an afternoon.
Now on to Bangkok.
By now my mouth muscles hurt from smiling so much. (Thai people are friendly). Tuk Tuk drivers are crazy and use their 3-wheeled vehicles as an extension of their manhood (there are no female tuk tuk drivers) by revving loudly at intersections, Touts try to sell you shit you don't need and evidence of a thriving sex trade is everywhere. I decided to check out the sleaze on my first night in Bangkok, having arrived in the evening, and headed to Sukhumvit Road. Seeing 50-year-old expat aussies and brittish and danish guys with their 18-year old (or younger) squeezes was slightly depressing. Here, of all places, I found any sense of patriotism I have to be under fire. So that was mildly a bit naff. A hideous madame tried to pick my pocket but hey, noone's gonna grab down there without my permission honey.
My first full day in Bangkok found me wandering around trying to get my bearings.
I was sick of "sightseeing" in the old quarter after only 15 minutes and decided I would wander around elsewhere. Parts of Bangkok could be in Paris, with tree-lined boulevards and canals etc. Other parts could be Las Vegas on the skids. Bangkok is so big-I want to cruise around there on a motorbike sometime. That would be the best...
Second day was more positive. I met a nice girl in a cafe, she recommended me some places to go in the evening, and I went there. It was giant night club called Route 66, in the shadow of some of Bangkok's highway spaghetti, next to some petrol stations. The night club occupied the length of an entire street. There was one entrance. There was a long corridor which functioned as an access spine to the various "rooms," each containing different music styles and atmospheres. It was like a clubbing supermarket, and it was AMAZING. Outside, the entire length of the street contained outdoor seating under floodlights. The place was crouded. I met some people there and ended up drinking with them for the entire night, after which they invited me to come with them to get some food. "So where do we hail the taxis?" I asked my newfound drunken friends, three boys and two girls. One pointed at his Honda Accord in the carpark, the other gestured towards a BMW. "Awe geez" I muttered, clambering in and forgetting all cares.
The cars pulled up in a dust cloud in a carpark adjacent to a post-apolcalyptic scene, a new tilt-up concrete nightclub restaurant with jutting angles and gleaming cladding. This sat next to an abandoned warehouse and another tarnished factory sat motionless away from the floodlit area as big as a stadium. Here we drank a little more and then ate more hot thai food (I've got to say that after a day in Thailand, the food becomes repetitive and the flavours do nothing but burn. And the MSG made my face swell until it seemed I could count numerous new yellow friends on my visage!).
But hey-that is pretty awesome for a night out in a foreign town I think.
Bangkok escapes description or pidgeonholing, it is constantly rediscovering it's identity amidst the durian groves and the moto fumes. I want more.
So I've got the emails of these guys, I guess it's about time I said hello.
My final day before I was due at the airport was spent in Bangkoks Chinatown, which was cramped but so vibrant and stinky and colourful. I never saw so many cinnamon quills, dried kiwi fruit and star anise in my entire life. There were lots of snacky looking things, and the covered walkways of the markets were surprisingly cool and shady. This place was definitely a highlight. I haven't been to so many Chinatowns, but this one was up there. Apparently many HK chinese go here to buy goods to take back and hawk for profit, it's so cheap here. Well, for those who know how to bargain. I need to work harder at this next time...
I landed back in HK on NYEve and headed straight to a club where Larry, his friends and myself found bottles of Screwdriver cocktails being launched down our throats by drunken over-zealous female Flight Attendants. People like to drink in these parts.
And soon there will be some visitors from Australia gracing these shores.
Isn't it exciting?
I met a girl who is studying in Adelaide. She is really sweet/friendly/gorgeous and I told her that I should give her the contact details of some Adelaide friends who can show her a night out. It would be more "clubbing" oriented I think, then again what about a decent pub, or maybe some karaoke to make her feel right at home. Any takers?
Soon it will be Chinese new year. I finally get to see my lion dance. Hopefully my friend Cedric will not be locked out of his apartment any more by then, haha. I sympathise. I did it too. It's always mighty funny in hindsight...
For Christmas Eve, Francois and Catherine invited me to their friends apartment for a huge feast. Catherine can cook, that's for sure. Sometimes, when she has a surplus after an evening's meal, the bunch of lucky campers at the office get a special lunchbox. The best were the boneless chicken wings stuffed with ham and celery....Yes, Catherine has endeared herself to many.
And there was no stopping her on Christmas eve. The apartment of these friends was big and luxurious, and so it followed that there would be a big and luxurious kitchen. And when you clunk around in a normal tiny HK apartment kitchen like a caged tyrannosaur every day of the week it makes a welcome change.
Francois and I helped Catherine and her friend with the food shopping. Yes, there's nothing like watching a live giant lobster getting hauled out of the water kicking and (screaming?) and pinned down on the fishmongers chopping block. Then the cleaver comes down again and again until there are 4 pieces of still-alive lobster , limbs writhing, getting thrown into a big plastic bag.
We also bought some giant prawns, giant Squill(alien-like crustaceans with spines on every limb that taste much better than they look), whole squids. giant scallops and fish.
Such plunder!
The feast was difficult to finish. Met more nice people that night, in this apartment with views over the harbour and its two friendly cats.
We even got christmas presents. They were quite silly toys, but we used them like we were children again. Seeing a pay TV company businessman and a senior project architect playing with toy cars on the loungeroom floor and someone shooting pellets at cats with a toy gun was very funny. My present was something a little more useful-a business card holder. People go nuts for business cards here.
After the Christmas feast, I tottered off into Lan Kwai Fong for some late night amusement. Larry and I ended up drinking till sunrise, celebrating a most unholy christmas.
And as for my apartment, I think it's time I finally had a housewarming party. Sheesh, it's gonna be a mess, so many bodies in such a small space...intimate...
Exploring some new hedonistic endeavors on the weekends these days, namely the feared karaoke. Rooms full of boys and girls drinking jugs of green Tea and chivas with crushed ice, singing god knows what canto pop, jumping around and playing number games with their fists, the smoke hurts my eyes, the green tea mix is so easy to down for the inevitable drinking games, and probably so the guys can make the girls drink more. That's my speculation....I thought going out was meant to be...relaxing???? Haha.
Between Christmas and New Years I went on a short trip to Thailand on my lonesome for 5 days. I chilled out in Khao Yai National Park for a few days before heading to Ayuthaya and then to Bangkok for a few nights. I didn't really have many set goals before I went except to chill out in a forest, see some ruins and maybe check out some night life. I guess I got all of those. Thailand is a great place, and I'm amazed that I liked it so much after getting so down about it after reading Michelle Houllebec's "Platform."
In Khao Yai NP I basically got shown around with a small group by a knowledgeable guy who showed us, among other things, where cinnammon comes from, where we get sandalwood, and how we make tiger balm. He had a cool telescopic lens for looking at monkeys and birds high in the treetops. At nighttime we basically chilled out and dealt with mouth-numbingly hot thai curries. I found that I could handle the hotness better than most of the other visitors strangely enough, mainly because I think I'm used to the hot food in Hong Kong. I don't know...
Anyway, the highlight was swimming in a waterfall, so refreshing...I think I want to explore these national parks more, because the infrastructure is excellent for the trails and information, perhaps it will soon rival the infrastructure of the "Wandern"-obsessed europeans. I'm told there are a few tigers around still...
Speaking of tigers, I just finished reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it's pretty amazing. That guy was born and raised in Poland, sailed the seven seas in his twenties, and wrote some of the finest english prose we will ever read. Amazing!!!
But I digress. My next stop after the park was Ayutthaya. I wanted to see some temples basically. What is nice is that some of them are still inhabited by monks. I cruised around the town by bicycle. It was do-able in an afternoon.
Now on to Bangkok.
By now my mouth muscles hurt from smiling so much. (Thai people are friendly). Tuk Tuk drivers are crazy and use their 3-wheeled vehicles as an extension of their manhood (there are no female tuk tuk drivers) by revving loudly at intersections, Touts try to sell you shit you don't need and evidence of a thriving sex trade is everywhere. I decided to check out the sleaze on my first night in Bangkok, having arrived in the evening, and headed to Sukhumvit Road. Seeing 50-year-old expat aussies and brittish and danish guys with their 18-year old (or younger) squeezes was slightly depressing. Here, of all places, I found any sense of patriotism I have to be under fire. So that was mildly a bit naff. A hideous madame tried to pick my pocket but hey, noone's gonna grab down there without my permission honey.
My first full day in Bangkok found me wandering around trying to get my bearings.
I was sick of "sightseeing" in the old quarter after only 15 minutes and decided I would wander around elsewhere. Parts of Bangkok could be in Paris, with tree-lined boulevards and canals etc. Other parts could be Las Vegas on the skids. Bangkok is so big-I want to cruise around there on a motorbike sometime. That would be the best...
Second day was more positive. I met a nice girl in a cafe, she recommended me some places to go in the evening, and I went there. It was giant night club called Route 66, in the shadow of some of Bangkok's highway spaghetti, next to some petrol stations. The night club occupied the length of an entire street. There was one entrance. There was a long corridor which functioned as an access spine to the various "rooms," each containing different music styles and atmospheres. It was like a clubbing supermarket, and it was AMAZING. Outside, the entire length of the street contained outdoor seating under floodlights. The place was crouded. I met some people there and ended up drinking with them for the entire night, after which they invited me to come with them to get some food. "So where do we hail the taxis?" I asked my newfound drunken friends, three boys and two girls. One pointed at his Honda Accord in the carpark, the other gestured towards a BMW. "Awe geez" I muttered, clambering in and forgetting all cares.
The cars pulled up in a dust cloud in a carpark adjacent to a post-apolcalyptic scene, a new tilt-up concrete nightclub restaurant with jutting angles and gleaming cladding. This sat next to an abandoned warehouse and another tarnished factory sat motionless away from the floodlit area as big as a stadium. Here we drank a little more and then ate more hot thai food (I've got to say that after a day in Thailand, the food becomes repetitive and the flavours do nothing but burn. And the MSG made my face swell until it seemed I could count numerous new yellow friends on my visage!).
But hey-that is pretty awesome for a night out in a foreign town I think.
Bangkok escapes description or pidgeonholing, it is constantly rediscovering it's identity amidst the durian groves and the moto fumes. I want more.
So I've got the emails of these guys, I guess it's about time I said hello.
My final day before I was due at the airport was spent in Bangkoks Chinatown, which was cramped but so vibrant and stinky and colourful. I never saw so many cinnamon quills, dried kiwi fruit and star anise in my entire life. There were lots of snacky looking things, and the covered walkways of the markets were surprisingly cool and shady. This place was definitely a highlight. I haven't been to so many Chinatowns, but this one was up there. Apparently many HK chinese go here to buy goods to take back and hawk for profit, it's so cheap here. Well, for those who know how to bargain. I need to work harder at this next time...
I landed back in HK on NYEve and headed straight to a club where Larry, his friends and myself found bottles of Screwdriver cocktails being launched down our throats by drunken over-zealous female Flight Attendants. People like to drink in these parts.
And soon there will be some visitors from Australia gracing these shores.
Isn't it exciting?
I met a girl who is studying in Adelaide. She is really sweet/friendly/gorgeous and I told her that I should give her the contact details of some Adelaide friends who can show her a night out. It would be more "clubbing" oriented I think, then again what about a decent pub, or maybe some karaoke to make her feel right at home. Any takers?
Soon it will be Chinese new year. I finally get to see my lion dance. Hopefully my friend Cedric will not be locked out of his apartment any more by then, haha. I sympathise. I did it too. It's always mighty funny in hindsight...
Monday, December 12, 2005
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