Walking through the Western District

I walked through Sheung Wan and the Western District today and was charmed by its sights and sounds. It reminded me of an old Hong Kong, steeped in Chinese tradition and brimming with local culture. 

I wonder why I've never quite walked through this area before - probably because I've never really needed to buy dried seafood. The Western district is famed for dried seafood, a staple in Chinese soups and tonics. The reason I went there today was to pick up tickets to Paul van Dyk, who's playing tomorrow night near Lan Kwai Fong. My husband had bought tickets (a friend said to him, 'What, are you like 15?!') which strangely needed to be picked up right smack in dried seafood valley.

The sun was out in full merry force today, and shop owners lost no time putting out their goods to dry. I saw them everywhere - at the traffic light, ingeniously melded in with some road-work barricades, on the sidewalk, by the fire hydrant, and just about anywhere where there was a good spot of sun.

I came across a traditional bakery, which you hardly see any more of these days. 

And a traditional Chinese shop selling bed and bath items that many Chinese families from generations past use for their babies and kids. Those cartoon bolsters and mattresses are a blast from the past.

I also chanced upon a little opening ceremony for a Chinese restaurant. None of the ribbon-cutting and posed handshakes. The typical local opening ceremony, complete with whole roasted pig: 

Something Sweet

I was at Prince's Building the other day, and couldn't resist having a cupcake. Sift has a little store-front right by the escalator, displaying row after row of delectable cupcakes adorned in a gazillion flavors of mouth-watering frosting. Who, who can resist such a sweet beckoning?

It was 11am, and I had absolutely no business eating a cupcake that was neither breakfast nor lunch. Neither did the other customer who was there at the same time. She was heavily pregnant and clearly addressing a craving, since she had not one, but two cupcakes. I'm guessing that wasn't her lunch either. 

One of these days, I'm going to try them ALL.

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday was the best weather we've seen in Hong Kong since spring descended upon us.

Spring time is unfortunately, not a great season in Hong Kong - it's the combination of a hot temperature with extreme humidity that makes it such a killer. The air is so dense and so wet that walls weep - having mold and water seep out of your walls is a common occurrence. 

We lost no time seizing the bout of unexpectedly good weather and went sailing out on a junk with some friends. It was such an amazingly gorgeous day, the sun hot on our skin and the sea breeze cool on our faces as we set sail. We started off from the Central Piers and sailed out to Clearwater Bay.

My son and his friends loved playing on the upper deck, where they had endless fun trying to run and keep their balance on a moving boat. They were tackling one another, throwing one another down as they lost their balance and generally cracking themselves up. 

When we got to Clearwater Bay, we anchored and were tempted to jump right in to the inviting waters. We decided to have lunch first, after which the kids just could wait no longer and demanded to go swimming right now. My son declared 'I love swimming!' (which is news to me).

We plunged right in - the water was cold! - but quickly warmed up from trying to get the kids in with us, floats and all. Every single one of the kids started crying - maybe because the water was cold, and it was the deep blue sea instead of a swimming pool, and probably because if one starts crying, the rest naturally cry together - their excitement just mere seconds earlier all but forgotten. 

The kids eventually got over it and started enjoying themselves more. The water was beautiful and the day was glorious. I felt so relaxed lying back in the water, splashing around, taking in how magnificent the day and place was. Looking out at the mountains rising right behind the beach, hugging and holding on to my wonderful family in the water, the day could not be more perfect.

The Lion City

Here's an article in The Washington Post that's an interesting read. Sheds light on Singapore for anyone who's not familiar with the country, and written from an American point of view. 

The Avengers

At first, we had no interest in seeing The Avengers but after hearing rave reviews from friends, we had to watch it. Armed with our 3D glasses, we were very much looking forward to our movie date night at the cinema.

I found the movie highly entertaining, what you would call a classic blockbuster - it had explosions, crashes, massive monstrous things, super-heroes and impressive 3D effects - action-packed entertainment that required no heavy thinking.

Way back when I was working as a movie publicist, my colleagues and I used to joke about how to predict if a movie would do well at the box office. A sure measure was if there was the lethal combination of a) a monster, and b) water. With this, everything else - cast, storyline, etc - just needed to be mediocre. Our case in point was Lake Placid, which if you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I mean about the movie being really sub-par. But it did extremely well at the box office because it was pure gormless entertainment.

My husband didn't like The Avengers (I guess he's not the man in the street that mass movies appeal to), but I did. Robert Downey Jr provided all the laughs as Tony Stark, Chris Evans made a good Captain America even though if you think about it, fighting with his shield does seem a little cumbersome in light of the sophisticated weapons that the enemy was brandishing. For some reason, I kept thinking Colin Farrell was Thor (even though I know he wasn't), and seeing the demi-god wield his hammer also seems a tad funny, if you stop to think about it. I think in every super-hero movie, you just need to suspend disbelief. Once you get that out of the way, you can sit back and be entertained.

Mark Ruffalo was a good Hulk although he talks like he's got marbles in his mouth when he's Bruce Banner. I like the scene where he's revealing his secret and then transforms in mid-air into the Hulk (nice CGI work!). Jeremy Renner was some super-hero that I don't even know, but he had a good scene where he leapt off the building, did a flip, and shot his arrow backwards (!). Scarlett Johansson wasn't particularly impressive but neither was her portrayal overtly gratuitous.

All in all, an entertaining movie which did actually look better in 3D.