New Display in Times Square

I thought this was cool so I took some pics! Its artwork made from old wood by artist Wong Tin Yan.

 They even sell little gadgets like this 4GB USB!

Mr. Wongs and Dinosaurs

 Last week I organized a group from Englishtown to head over to Mr. Wongs after work on Friday. I would say it was a hit as they all enjoyed the food and we ended up having a great night, as we headed out to LKF after!

Apparently Occupy Central, HK is still going strong. Impressive that they are still sticking it out, I thought all that had died down.

 I swear when it comes to dinosaurs I am still just a big kid. I STILL love looking at them and reading about them. All the fossils below are located here in Hong Kong and were found in a desert in China.

 Check these gems out! Spotted them in a local sports store in Pacific Place Mall in Admiralty.

A little St. Patricks Day celebration.

7 min Pilsner

Tuesday March 13, 2012

Ni Hao!

It's Tuesday and the week is slowly moving along. Just wanted to add a few pictures from the week so far. First of all the cookies I made Sunday, I brought in on Monday afternoon and went over great! Everyone loved them so that is always good. First of all take a look at the random decorations they have set up outside Times Square right now... not sure why they are hats, but they are. Random!

Next take a look at a couple of masterpieces I created in the Smartphone app "Draw Something"

Do you remember these guys?

Furby

Here is the portrait I was asked to do of Sir Elton John himself.

I realize the colors are not ideal however right now I am only working with four colors as I have not "unlocked" any other colors yet. I need like 250 points or something to add a few more colors, and I think I am at like 180-190.

Now I would like to show you the opposite of masterpiece compliments of my Sister Lauren. Now it took me about 10-15 minutes of hard thinking to realize what Lauren was going for here but I am advanced, so I did it much quicker than most would. You can see the letters I had, what do you think it is she was drawing?

Just in case you can't read the code my sister chose to write in its says: "EAT DURING SUMMER"

Still thinking about it? Its alright don't feel bad I am a master at this game so I was obviously going to get it at some point, there is no reason to feel bad if you don't. Now if your like me and everyone else I showed this too the image here suggests Ice Cream Cone as clear as day. The "clue" if you call it that also reinforces the Ice Cream guess. However, as you can see the letters to guess "Ice Cream" are not there, nor are the letters for Cone, Sunday, etc..  Now Laur, here is a lesson for you, once people see an image like this that suggests something very strongly it is difficult to guess anything outside that realm. That is just the way normal folks brains work. Needless to say that is NOT the way Your's Truly brain works. It took a bit of outside the box thinking but it did come to me, what Lauren was going for here was POPSICLE!

Yes...a Popsicle. I realize this in no way looks like any Popsicle I have ever seen and, I can break down the faults of this thing till the sun comes up but, here are just a few.

1.The Popsicle stick is not a stick WAY too WIDE, clearly resembles a cone

2. I have never ate nor seen a Popsicle that you have to use 4 separate (1Stick&3flavors?) pieces to put together. Sounds like a sundae.

3. The color scheme and shape of the Popsicle. Granted I know there are multi-color Popsicle like those Red, White and Blue Rocket ones but they are all connected as one piece and are definitely not sphere shaped.

 To her defense Lauren is in school to be a teacher so her drawing skills where never her strength. Which is why I believe she plays this game with me, because my skill and knowledge makes up for what she is lacking.

Don't worry this game is very addicting and I do not plan on quitting anytime soon so Lauren will have plenty of opportunities to redeem herself. I can promise you that I will re-post more of her pictures so everyone can judge her progress. Good Luck Laur.

Lastly for today I just wanted to introduce you to two interesting things that I tasted today.

The first is a bread that is made to look like a peach, and is filled with a red bean filling which is very sweet in taste. The breads alright, it seemed most of my co-workers are not that fond of them and Celia even said that they are for "Old People" so you can take away what you want from that.

Pretty cool looking though.

The next is a snack made by those super creative Japanese! My Japanese co-worker Ayumi brought them in for us to try. They are essentially fake French Fries and I am not lying to you when I say they actually look and taste just like french fries. Apparently they are very popular in Japan and fly off the shelves.

Well that's it for today! Until next post Zai Jian!!!

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)