Month: January 2004

  • Day 3: Toy-shopping! Thanks to Ben, Marc and Emelda (from CN Asia) for introducing us to some very cool toy and figurine stores here in Hong Kong.


    Bondage bears! The BE MY SLAVE series.

    Recent shopping highlights include a couple of figurines from the  Stereotype: Be My Slave and Ciboys: Go West series produced by Itrangers Lab. (And did we tell you they are only US$3.50 each?)

    We also visited the Hong Kong Museum of History and saw the “Hong Kong Story”, a 6-years-in-the-making $19 million exhibition. We had no idea it was going to be such a big deal. The story starts in Prehistoric times (with geological exhibits), continues through eight large halls of beautifully reconstructed village scenes, colonial houses, fishing boats, temples etc. covering every key event in Hong Kong history from the British settlement, Opium Wars, Japanese Invasion…. up to the Chinese hand over and the present day. Awesome.

    Followed by Goldfish Street and street markets in Mongkok, a lively, superbusy district packed with shoppers. (Shopping is the national pastime). Then dinner & creative brainstorming with Marc and Orion in Shek-O, a coastal village with winding roads and gated mansions. We are looking forward to working together again this year. 

    NEW YEAR RESOLUTION FOR 2004: MAKE A REALLY GOOD CARTOON.


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    PHOTOS


    Street in Causeway Bay


    This was spotted in a toystore in Causeway Bay.
    L to E: “Do we know any kids who want to grow up and become animators?”
    E: “Not in MY family…”


    Goldfish Street, Mongkok.
    The place to buy fish, aquarium supplies, tortoises and other animal companions.



    Shoppers in Mongkok. This street is busy every day/night of the week.

    The orange poster from above photo:

  • Day One: Hong Kong
    Thursday 8th.
     
    It’s tempting to complain about all the irritations we’ve experienced between LAX and Hong Kong, but we won’t. (We’ll be writing a separate letter to Philippine Airlines instead…) It’s such a relief to be here at last. We are so glad to be somewhere totally different where we can be distracted from thinking about you know what.
     
    On the way to our hotel in the shuttle bus, as we were taking in the scenery Eddie was saying how much more he appreciates this second visit to Hong Kong. than our previous trip in September 2002 (or was it 2001? I’ve lost all track of time). And I totally agree with him that one’s appreciation of a travel destination is always influenced by where you are coming FROM. The greater the contrast, the greater the thrill of arrival. Our previous trip to HK was from Sydney, another urban center. This time, coming here from LA which is a big suburban sprawl and not really a city-city, we are really enjoying Hong Kong’s urban density and its striking contrast from Southern California.
     
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    The TDC Design Gallery at the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre (Wan Chai) is a cool place. This is a store/gallery that features Hong Kong product design & we dropped in after checking out the Toy Fair. Lots of cute and colourful stuff here from plush toys to electronic gadgets, fashion accessories and novelty gifts, and of course, we had to buy something… decisions, decisions. This one or that one. We left with a “Buddha Bank”, a ” Blue Elephant Music box thingy”) and a very cool book: Hong Kong Sixties Designing Identity (ed. Matthew Turner, Irene Ngan; published by the Hong Kong Arts Centre). ..couldn’t find a link for this.
     
    By the mid-afternoon our feet were aching. The jetlag kicked in hard. It was a struggle to make our way back to the hotel. We were asleep by 9.30pm.
     
     
    Day Two
     
     

    We spent the morning walking through Central. I bought some stuff from Shanghai Tang (chinoiserie boutique); Eddie was very happy to find two Kurasawa DVDs at HMV for US$3 each. Then onward to Cat Street Bazaar, an alley famous for its Maoist Propoganda antiques (pics above); and a long ride up the Mid-Levels Escalators. It’s one of those touristy things you gotta do at least once in HK.

    In the afternoon, we had the pleasure of hanging out with Cartoon Network Asia-Pacific in Quarry Bay, catching up with Marc who introduced us to all the programmers, designers, producers, licensing VPs etc. in their colourful merchandise-filled offices. It was lots of fun. We left the place with Cartoon Network premiums/gifts and this underpants-clad 2004 Calendar from CN Japan that had us scratching our heads… 

    7pm… Back to our hotel. Oh, the jetlag. Eddie’s crashed and I have a sore throat which I hope doesn’t develop into anything…

    Tonight we rest our weary legs. Tomorrow the retail therapy continues

  • [Written last night...]

     

    Where to start. We were on our way to LAX. The time was about 5pm; we were on Highway 105 heading towards the Sepulveda Blvd exit. Some traffic was backed up in front of us. Suddenly there was a loud BAM from behind, our car jerked forward and I heard Eddie yell out. Followed by another huge impact in the front as we collapsed back into our seats. The sedan behind had hit us so hard our Mini had slammed into the SUV in front. My stomach was stuck somewhere up my ribs; it was hurting so much that I wondered if I would be able to free myself from the awkward scrunched-up position I was in. Eddie was frantic, moaning about whiplash. I had seen his whole body jerk forward. (Moments like these you are thankful seatbelts were invented) 

     

    “Are you OK? Are you OK? ” It was hard to move and about I think I was so shocked I couldn’t speak.

     

    “I can’t see anything.”Eddie was saying over and over. ”I can’t see. I don’t know where my glasses are..”

     

    There we were, stuck in the middle of a freeway. Eddie was blind as a bat without his glasses. There was traffic whizzing by on either side.

     

    The impact(s) had been so hard that his glasses had flown off his head and landed somewhere at the back of the car. It took me 10 minutes to find them, thankfully they were still intact. Everyone got out of their cars to inspect the damage. The woman who had hit us kept mumbling “I’m sorry”. The party of five from the SUV were video-ing everything like a bunch of tourists. The driver, flapping his insurance policy around. We waited on the side of the freeway, freezing cold and all, for the cops to arrive…Then our brand new 2 month-old Mini Cooper was towed away to Culver City.

     

    The car is dead. Kaput. The front and back are squished up. It can’t be driven. Even the CD-changer at the back is jammed. There were broken pieces on the freeway. The spare tyre had rolled off some place. The back lights flashed on and off repeatedly.

     

    In Culver City at the Tow truck yard where our crumpled Mini Cooper remained, we got our suitcases out of the trunk and took a taxi home. The time was about 7.30pm… we would never make it to the airport in time for departure at 9pm. Not that we felt like it anyway.Not after what had happened.

     

    And so we kept asking ourselves tonight -WHY?

     

    It wasn’t like we’d done anything wrong or were asking for it. The accident seemed so random like it could have happened anytime anyplace. And the timing sucked, the fact that we were on our way to our (sorta) New Year vacation.

     

    If this had been a sign that we were not meant to fly to Hong Kong tonight…. why not? We’re trying to think ‘positively’ like this disaster might really be some sort of blessing in disguise except that we have no idea what that is. What upcoming event/lesson are we being prepared for? (Or are we reading too much into things)

     

    I had tried to ring Philippine Airlines but all their offices are closed on a Sunday night (of course). I couldn’t find a phone number for LAX. All I wanted to do was say we can’t make our flight but I can’t even get in touch with the airline people. Tomorrow I will ring the travel agent and figure out what we’re going to do (Can we postpone? Or have we just written off that airfare?). Eddie will be speaking to the insurance people and I guess they’ll inspect/repair the car… and we’ll see what happens next.

     

    Needless to say we’re both feeling pretty devastated and have sore body parts. 

    At least we are both alive.

     

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    *Update

     

    The insurance company is handling the car, and repairs are starting as soon as they assess the damage.

     

    Our trip has been rescheduled. After an anxious day of to-ing and fro-ing on the phone with Flight Centre, we are now going to leave early tomorrow morning on a full flight. (They managed to squeeze us in at the last minute!) We have an overnight stopover in Manila, arriving in Hong Kong on Thursday morning.  And because we have no car/no fax machine to pick up the new tickets & hotel vouchers, our agent from Flight Centre had so kindly driven personally to our apartment to drop them off. How nice is that? (If you need a travel agent, speak to Vincent @ Flight Centre, Glendale Galleria. He’s a great guy!)

     

    Hopefully all will go smoothly from now on. Things couldn’t get worse right?

  • So we have to be at LAX three and a half hours before departure. That’s a long time to be hanging around an airport. And then we have a 2 hour stopover in Manila before arriving in HK on Tuesday morning. Total tavel time (including hanging-around-airport time) = 25 hours.

    … Flashback to LAX just after 9/11 when we were stuck in a queue for 3 hours… The line leading towards the Security checkpoint was so long it extended outside and wrapped around the building.

    … Two months ago our flight was delayed fifteen hours because of an airline mechanical issue.We were stuck in the LAX departure lounge for at least 4 hours before they (very slowly) carted us off to a hotel for the night.

    We are praying that there will be no complications at LAX this evening and that the flight with Philippine Airlines will go smoothly. I’ve checked the movies and they’re not too thrilling. I guess we’ll be needing lots of reading material.

    Random Links

    Kozyndan Online Shop – Incredibly affordable prints!

    Eye of the Goof weblog. A new favorite.

    Music: From Vinyl to MP3

    There’s an article at NYT (linked from boing boing) about converting music from vinyl to mp3 format (so that it can be played on an ipod or whatever). Sounds like a really major operation, but according to Eddie it’s really a pretty simple process that he does all the time.

    Eddie: There are two ways…

    1. From turntable to computer.
    You take a line-out (2 to 1 stereo cable) from the stereo outputs on your turntable amplifier/mixer to the line-in on your PC.  Basically, the results you get stem from the quality of the turnatable/pre-amp/mixer you are using; I use a DJ turntable and mixer set- up, which allows me to EQ the vinyl.  You can also use an RCA turntable from Radio Shack, but you won’t have the same control over the sound quality of the vinyl output.  It will still get your vinyl on to your computer, though…

    You then need a program on your computer which can record the audio. I use Cool Edit. So basically,while the turntable is playing, the music is being recorded in Cool Edit. You then save as .mp3 or .wav or whatever format you want.  Too easy!

    2. From turntable to mp3 player.
    The same process as above except that I use the record function on my Nomad Jukebox and can set the sample rate (128 mhz mininum). I prefer Method 1 because Cool Edit has some nifty edit functions (fade in/out, volume control, cut and paste) while Nomad only has an auto-naming function when saving the tracks (time and date).  Still, this is useful if you’re away from your computer, and want to get your vinyl onto your mp3 player.

  • Shoes & Food…

    Another cold wet day. We spent the afternoon in Santa Monica & West Hollywood doing some pre-travel shopping: Eddie bought a pair of John Fleuvogs, I got a pair of Skechers. (…on our previous trip to HK we were doing lots of walking) I fell in love with these boots at the Fluevog store but the pricetag made me wince. Some other time…


    Mao’s Kitchen – Chinese propoganda posters on wall

    We finally made it to Mao’s Kitchen, the Communist-Chinese-themed restaurant in Venice. Because I had read rave reviews on the internet, our expectations were really high.  And that was a shame because after a long long wait*, when our “Mao’s Hometown Fish” and “Sesame Beef with Yam” (which had no yam, btw) finally arrived, there was disappointment to be had. It was funny we were both thinking the same thing: “This tastes like PF Chang’s”.

    Should we have ordered something different?

    For non-US readers:  PF Changs is a chain of American-Chinese restaurants. (There’s one near WBA.) I haven’t yet gotten over the novelty of being in a Chinese restaurant where none of the waiters are Chinese.  The food is tasty but not what you would consider real Chinese if you are used to Sydney Chinatown ‘homecooked’ food like we are. Almost everything at PF Changs is overcooked with too much sticky sweet sauce. Not that there’s anything wrong with sticky sweet sauce but you have to wonder how much nutritious value remains in the meat and vegies when they are so drenched that you can barely identify them on the plate….

    * According to Chairman Mort ~ When restaurants give you a bowl of nibblies before your meal is served, this is an indication that you’re going to be waiting for ages for your food to arrive. They don’t give you that bowl because they are kind.

    It will be nice to taste real Chinese food again, in HK.

    On the subject of food, I found this eatLA blog (via bloggingLA). It hasn’t been updated since June 2003 but still very handy because we haven’t been to most of the places reviewed here.