Recapping the Weekend March 10th-11th

Ni Hao all hope the weekend went well. Mine was alright the weather was not that great so I was a little jealous to hear that it was in the 70's all weekend back home in New England! However, I did the make the most of it and was still able to enjoy the time off from work.
Before the weekend started I did have to get through Friday however that was easy with the weekend ahead of me and... the fact that I picked up my TEAM JJ Shorts from my teammate and team manager Kevin Chan. Check out the full uniform! Looking good!

Friday night, Tucker our English friend Rich and myself decided to meet a friend of Tuckers at the Excelsior Hotel Bar in Causeway Bay. Its a terrific Bar with a beautiful view of the Harbor and Kowloon side. It was really dark when I took the below picture but at least you can get an idea of the view. The Excelsior hotel is great for taking a date or business client however its a bit expensive with a $200HK minimum per person. So we stayed for two drinks or in Cantonese Er drinks (er= 2). They have live music playing as well, in fact the lead singer of the band was a woman with a beautiful voice so that made the tab worthwhile. From there we headed to another close-by bar called the Barn 2, we stayed there for a while and finished two Towers of beer so we were all feeling pretty good! ;-)

View from the Excelsior Hotel Bar

Then Saturday morning I awoke and was able to have Skype video chat with my little brother Michael which was great because he is always at school when I video chat with my parents during the week. So it was great to see his face, catch up on his life and talk some lacrosse. I was able to give him some encouragement for his oncoming sports filled weekend. He had tryouts for Lacrosse on Sunday afternoon and a Championship Rec. Basketball game on Sunday evening. (Unfortunately his team lost the bball game but he did wonderful at his first tryout. It looks like he will make the Senior A team!)

After that I read some of my new book "Jump Start Your Business Brain" until Tucker woke up. We headed out together to walk around Causeway Bay and go visit this shop that Tucker likes. I ended up buying a new pair of shoes for going out. Pretty much everybody wheres these types of shoes here either in the high top like these (above) or the low top version.
After we were done with the store we met up with Rich and decided to head to Shek O and walk around Big Wave Bay. To get there you take the Island Line MTR away from Central to the 2nd to last stop and then from there you take a red minibus to Shek O. The Red Minibus's are different from the usual Green ones as you have to pay higher rates like 10 HKD compared to the usual 3-5 HKD.
Anyway, we got to Shek O and walked around Big Wave Bay and watched the surfers. There were not too many waves but we still got some good pictures from the day. I even saw a couple of my Team JJ teammates Ryan and Brian with surfing and enjoying the day with their families. We probably stayed there for 4-5 hours and had lunch there as well before we left.
Here's the pictures I took from the trip.

Rich at the Entrance to Big Wave Bay. Can you spot the CHINGLISH in this Photo?? What type of Rock Carving is it?? lol

One of the Surf Shops in Big Wave Bay

Cool sign painted on the wall of the Surf Shop. 

Now our friend Rich combined his degree of Engineering with Geology so he works as a specialist on some of the sites here in Hong Kong. With his degree in Geology he clearly has a fascination with rocks and minerals which proved true during our visit to Shek O. He spent most of the time climbing and looking at all the different "Anicent Rocks".

Rich Standing on Rocks

Rocks Rich liked

Can you spot whats out of place in the picture below?

Take a closer look...

How about now...

 Here are some photos from outside the shop that we had lunch at, can you spot anyone famous?

How about Hong Kong's own Chow Yun Fat?

Add caption

We were pretty beat from our day walking around Shek O so we decided that we would just stay in on Saturday night instead of going out. Plus most of the people I know are trying to save as much cash for the weekend of March 23, 24 & 25th as it is Rugby 7's.  That is other good news I was given FREE Rugby 7's tickets for the full weekend from my roommate Ben's Father! It was a really generous and thoughtful gift, which I really appreciate.
So while one of our other English friends Zac ate two full meals from McDonalds, Tucker, Rich and myself made a huge tray of nachos for dinner. Check them out below. I also made chocolate chip cookies for dessert which is compliments of my Mom who sent the cookie packets to HK for me.

First Layer: Cheese and seasoned ground beef with peppers and onions

Second layer: Salsa and Guacamole & More Cheese

Finished Project

While feasting we each had  a few beers and watched the Six Nations Rugby tournament games that were on. Sunday morning I woke up and it was raining so I decided right then and there that I was going nowhere until Lacrosse at night. So I stayed in cooked myself a hearty lunch and watched a terrible movie The Three Musketeers which was just god awful compared to the one I used to love as a kid with Charlie Sheen in it.
I made a big three egg omelet with pepper, onions, cheese, and some leftover refried beans and chips on the side that we had left from the nachos. (no one but me wanted the beans on the nachos, so I saved them.)
I threw some Franks Red HOT Sauce on their and devoured the eggs.

While I was home I also baked another batch of cookies for my co-workers at Englishtown. People are always bringing in snacks in the afternoon to share so I thought it would be nice if I brought in some cookies for Monday.
The day went by quick and soon it was 7:00 and time to head over to Happy Valley for Lacrosse. I was pumped to wear the full Team J.J. Uniform and ended up having a good game of 4 goals and 2 assists. Granted, it was against kids who I have been playing lacrosse less than I have combined haha. The game was a great workout to top off a heavy weekend as we only had 1 Sub in the game, so I literally ran the entire time! After the game a few teammates and myself headed over to the Jockey to have our weekly burgers and beers! That was my weekend I hope yours went well also!  So until next time. Zai Jian! (Goodbye in Mandarin)