English Names

Traditional Chinese do not give their children English names.  So most of us grow up with Chinese names, normally made out of 1 to 2 Chinese characters.  The lack of an English name means that it is not easy for English speakers to remember us because it is difficult to pronounce our names and therefore, most of us, normally starting from high school (or as and when we feel we needed one), we get ourselves our own English names.  Although it's become a trend now for parents to give their children English names at birth, some still don't do it or they would prefer for the children to choose, whether or not to have an English name, or if they choose to have one, they can choose their own...

In Malaysia, the English names are quite normal, Kelvin, Kevin, Stephanie, Cindy, Tracy, Danny, Jonathan, Joey, Vincent, Irene, Helen, Elaine, Catherine/Cathy/Katherine, Eric... If you shout out one of these names in a supermarket, you'd probably have a least half a dozen of ppl answering...

And then I got to Macau, now HK... I can't help but notice some of the very unique English names the younger ppl have here:


Basically, there are quite a few catagories...

There are the ambitious ones like Million(!), Handsome(!)...
Then stationary/instrument... Staple, Paper, Piano (there must be a flute somewhere, or a trumpet...), Yoyo (a very common girls' name in HK/Macau)...

Then food... Orange, Spaghetti (OMG), Honey (uh-hm, this is my cousin brother's English name)...
Weather... Windy, Rain, Sky...
Adjective...  Mainly, Aware, Fancy (could be a noun as well...@_@)

Characteristic...  Sinner (one of my x-colleague, Sin is his surname...), Ego (what can I say?), Freeman, Fairy, Baby, Honey (yes, it's my cousin brother)
Body parts... Fanny, Pinky...

Then there are some that I don't know how to catagorize...  Weko, Midco, Fifi, Ginny (drinkable or simply Italian?), Shirty (who turns out to be a fantastic wife, mother and friend), Mask (yup, MASK, not Mark)... hmm...

Some sound really funny and I'm sure you've come across quite a lot if you've been here long enough or met enough ppl.  But hey, there's no way to figure out what the younger (Gosh I feel soooooooo freaking old already!!) generation has in mind...

What's for dinner?

Getting home from work everyday feels good but when it comes to time to figure out what to have for dinner, it's not so much fun.  And one of Adrian's favourite question on the phone during the day is "what are we doing for dinner tonight?"  Sometimes he would have ideas and even prep the dinner himself.  But it's just like lunch at work... you know what I mean.

It's Saturday today.  I have minced beef in the fridge and that's it... hmm... I looked it up. And it looks like the Minced beef sauce on mash is the easiest choice.  And, it turned out to be great.  Chinese style mash... coz you have some oyster sauce in it.  Yum yum.  Well at least Adrian thinks that it's bursting with flavours hahaha!!

Mission accomplished.

My crocheting project - Bloom & Blossom

I started work approx. 4 weeks ago.  The office is in a building at the beginning of Canton Road, right next to Harbour City.  Everyday when I go home, I have to walk pass all these super brands before I could get off the street (it's not like they're not there in the morning, they're just not opened yet, so I could hardly notice their existence).  On the first day, I spotted this white crocheted handbag in one of the shops, gosh, it was soooooo beautiful!!  Ya, of course, it costs just about HK$15K, of course it's beautiful!  Err... well maybe not all the expensive ones are beautiful (especially the ones that are covered with logos and monograms...) but trust me, this one is.

And so, I thought, well, it's crocheted, with a bit of leather handles & trimming and all... I can live without the leather trimming and handles and...  I just like how it's crocheted.  There I was standing outside the facade of a super brand, making the decision to crochet myself a nice looking bag.  hehee

I decided that it shouldn't be white (it's gonna be summer and ppl are gonna get sweaty and the bag is gonna end up greyish or something... or when I have curry, it will get spotty).  So I went down to the wet market in Jordan, there's this stall that sells some simple yarns.  I picked the pink one (would have picked another colour if they had anything nicer than pink...), paid HK$18 (should be more than enough for even a tank top).  Went back to the apartment and started crocheting away...

One week later, it's 60% done, with a lot of trial and error -- that's what you have to do when you don't have a pattern to follow... Adrian and I went down to Sham Shui Po hunting for the handles, zipper and the yarn for the trimming.  It took us all afternoon, exhausted but we got what we wanted.

With just a bit of trimming to go and a zipper to attach, I went off the Shanghai for a workshop.  Left it home with Adrian.  Mind you, Adrian was surprised that I didn't bring it with me and finish it off in Shanghai.  C'mon, I'm there with my new colleagues, I don't want them to think that I'm a weird, anti-social new colleague that came from Malaysia -- a place that does not need this thing called sweater, hence no one needs to know how to knit or crochet...???

Anyway, I returned to HK exhausted, but I just couldn't resist the thought of using a handbag that I've crocheted for the first time!  Well, I did have something like a bag crocheted when I was a kid but it was nothing serious like this one.  This one, I am going to use it, in HK, on Canton Road, in my office, with many many many colleagues in the sportswear retail industry (some might have some hi-fashion background!!), maybe 2/3 times a week!!  So this is bloody serious!

I completed the project last Saturday (total cost of material: HK$98), this is how it looks now... I've been using it since Monday (well Tuesday didn't count coz I was on a sickie)...

Bloom & Blossom

This is one side, if you compare with the picture below, it's got slightly different buds...

This is the other side, can you tell the difference between the two sides?






My colleagues has given me a special title, The Knitting Lady (織女)... hmm...
 

Getting fat on whipped cream!

I went down to the wet market today.  Well, I was there to get the ingredients for the dinner, for Adrian - the one's going to cook... Didn't really know how he'd manage because he only gets off work just about 7...

As I was making my way back to the apartment, towards the end of the stretch of stalls, $20 for a box of strawberries!  Not the best in the world but good enough... I was very tempted and so I bought bought hehehe

Like I said, they weren't the best strawberries but they do look and taste good enough.  Then I start to wonder... eat it like that?  Nah~~~ And so l googled it... everything seems so complicated!  You can either make a dessert or jam... to turn these strawberries into some form of dessert, pastry and oven is a must... nope, I only have a simple microwave and a convection stove, a pot, a sauce pan and a pan.  Jam?  I'm gonna have to need to buy a glass jar and then the cooking and bottling and blah blah blah... bottom line is, it's a lot of work.

I guess just the normal whipped cream on that should do it.  So I googled it again... lucky me, I found the best anwer: how to make whipped cream from scratch (I just know Adrian wouldn't appreciate those that came from a bottle).

And so I went out hunting for cream and a whisk, at just about 5pm, 2 hours before Adrian get home and I have budgeted it to be just about $30.  I got them both at $30.  Although I had to look in 3 different shops for a reasonably priced whisk, so that I don't blow my budget hehehe

I managed to get back to the apartment just before 6, had the air-con on full swing, started cooking our main course, Chicken Chasseur.  Just about 20 minutes before Adrian got back.  Then I started whisking, whilst the chicken's being cooked.  It was really hard work (arm exercise!) but when you see it rise, man, it was wonderful!!  WAHAHAHA


Yup, we stuffed ourselves, after the Chicken Chasseur (that I cooked, as instructed by Adrian), we stuffed ourselves with the dessert.  I just chucked all the strawberry cubes into the whipped cream, mixed them up and then just served in the sauce pan.  And it was fantastic!  And I feel good about Adrian being able to have semi-proper dessert after dinner -- his mom spoiled him!!

This is how the saucepan looked... felt so much like licking it!!

も一度日本へ行きたいなあ～～

初めで日本へ行ったのは２００７年の十月だ。　メンヂィちゃんと一緒に東京へ旅行に行った。　すごく楽しかった。　買い物して、料理をたくさん食べて、温泉に入って、道をちょっと迷って、いい思い出だよ！

今月、仕事でも一度香港に戻った。　今度、昔からずっと欲しくて、理想な仕事ができて、よかった。　仕事、頑張って、主人と一緒に、今度の十月、も一度日本へ行くつもりだ。 　そして、鈴鹿サーキットで日本のF1グランプリを観戦できるんだ。　やった～～

Voo~ Hoo~~~ Vettel and good job to Lewis!!

Despite the fact that his engine failed him the first 2 races, he finally nailed it this time!  Good job!!

And Lewis, VERY WELL DONE INDEED!! From 20th to 6th, it's unbelievable!  He made the race so interesting.  If there was a driver like that in the 90's, I wouldn't have called it "the dumbers-go-round"(儍佬兜圈）!! 

I just love how Lewis drives, he's just sooooooo good!  And to top it all off, I've got a couple of pints of Guinness to go with!!


Great weekend!  --  Although Adrian doesn't agree, but it's good to be back!

Where to Cross the Border?

Received a forwarded mail today, sadly, it reflects something really funny about Malaysia, and it's nothing to be proud of...  it goes something like this....


WHERE TO CROSS THE BORDER?


If You Cross The North Korean Border Illegally, You get 12 years Hard Labour.  (Worse if you're a North Korean and try to cross the border to leave the country illegally!)
  
If You Cross The Iranian Border Illegally, You Are Detained Indefinitely.
   
If You Cross The Afghan Border Illegally, You Get Shot.

If You Cross The Saudi Arabian Border Illegally, You Will Be Jailed.

If You Cross The Chinese Border Illegally, You May Never Be Heard Again.

If You Cross The Venezuelan Border Illegally, You Will Be Branded A Spy And Your Fate Will Be Sealed.

If You Cross The Cuban Border Illegally, You Will Be Thrown Into Political Prison To Rot.
   
If You Enter Britain Illegally, You Will Be Arrested, Prosecuted And Sent To Prison And Deported

If You Are An Indonesian AND ILLEGALLY CROSS THE MALAYSIAN BORDER

   YOU GET:
  
   -  MyPR (Permanent Residence / Pemastautin Tetap)
   -  A Driving License,
   -  Voting Rights,
   -  Job Reservation,
   -  Special Privilege to be Considered as Bumi,
   -  Credit Cards,
   -  Subsidized Rental Or A Loan To Buy A House,
   -  Free Education,
   -  Free Health Care

 Oh Malaysia, what a great country!!

Malaysian Cable TV - Astro

Astro, Malaysian Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Pay Television service, erm otherwise known as Malaysia's one and only Cable TV service provider (mind you, they also have radios aired through their channels).

I've subscribed to it's service for more than 10 years now.  Except when it rains and we lose the signal, and when there is more airtime for advertisements than the actual programmes in some channels, I really like them a lot.  I'm sure most ppl know what I'm talking about -- it's like half of what you are paying is for the advertisement that are usually a pain in the arse!

If you have watched AXN Asia, you'll notice that the volume of the actual programmes are generally very very low but the volume of the advertisements is usually at least 2 times louder.  So if you were watching, say, the replay of House (one of my favourites), some time in the middle of the night, when the rest of the family is sleeping but that's the only time you have the TV to yourself, you'd better have the remote control in your hand so that you can mute it immediately when it's the commercial break that you have paid for... otherwise you risk waking up the whole family.  It's not just ordinary advertisements, some of them must have been made in hell... e.g. Video Zonkers, So You Think You Can Dance (when they have Mary Murphy screaming like a lunatic - I wish I could slap her and you can tell how annoyed Nigel is) and so on.  Well maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they could just cut the bit where ppl or Mary Murphy is screaming... Goodness...

So I've been using this decoder since the day I signed up, erm... at least a decade ago, now, I found that it doesn't really receive any signal anymore.  It sounded like they won't replace your decoder until it's exploded spontaneously.  Until then, you'll have to call them every time your decoder dies on you and wait for them to send a technician over to fix it for you.  And every single visit costs RM50...

Well, with the technology today, I'm sure we can watch just about everything online instead of having to have a decoder, a remote control and a satellite dish hanging out your balcony... However, with the crappy "broadband" service available and the limited internet knowledge that my mom and dad have, close to none I should say, it's just impossible.

At the mean time, we can just hope and pray for the best.  Let's see what turns up after the technician's visit...