Typhoon Nuri passed through Hong Kong last Friday (22 Aug 2008), typhoon signal 9 was hoisted. This was the third typhoon to affect Hong Kong this summer. Heck! that's frequent. Based on my previous experiences, Hong Kong typhoon was just another fun day off work, where I could go for a mad karaoke session with friends or having a lazy day at home.

Last Friday was different. Everything started with my workmates' speculations on weather forecasts. Everybody was excited to have another day off, and they were all busy thinking of what to do when the typhoon's here, and they were all praying hard for the typhoon to happen.

I don't wanna be a hypocrite. I do enjoy the day off ;) But the thought of those in the Philippines who had been affected by typhoon Nuri before it hit Hong Kong...that makes me feel guilty for hoping.

This time I got to witness how dangerous the typhoon was. Hong Kong, the city of light, is full of neon signage boards as well as scaffoldings of high rise construction works, practically everywhere! Even a wander around the neigborhood could kill. I realised that when I saw a couple of banners being blown off near my flat. Those banners have metal skeleton and if it whacked someone on the head, it would instantly kill them. Luckily the emergency unit acted quickly and removed them within minutes.

However, when your time is up, your time is up. There were a couple who got hurt simply staying home as a scaffolding from a nearby building hit their home. What an unfortunate incident!

Some others were simply looking for trouble as they went out to the water fronts and watched the typhoon, bringing their children (!!!) and putting themselves at risk!!! Some surfers went to Big Wave Bay...and one was missing. Call me a piece of chicken shit, or maybe I am just old. These days, I chose to stay as "safe" as possible by staying at home, cooking and eating my way to obesity (hehehe)

Golden Beach

I said I dislike going to the beach. But what a girl could do seeing such a bright beautiful day? So I hopped onto a bus...to the beach! Yay!

The beautiful Tsing Ma bridge we were passing on our way to the beach

Who doesn't love a little sweet message?

Loving the view from the Gold Coast weekend market



A pair of huge shades = essential!

Talk about shopping with a view

All the beach paraphernalia. I am loving the green transparent crocs

Shop for unique one of a kind knick knacks at reasonable prices

This place isn't just your average Mong Kok shopping street. Digging the mozaic clocks

Can't wait to go to the beach

Go! Go! Go!

Hunky lifeguards and a sweet boyfriend slathering lotion on his girl's back

My beach essentials: shades, bottle of cold water, reading material, sun block (minty fresh, spf 30 minimum)

Inside my cinnamoroll make up pouch: refreshing eye drops, lil comb, translucent compact (Maybelline), tinted lip balm (lip ice mentholatum), eye liner (cyber colors, gray brown, retractable), hair bands, safety pins (just in case, you obviously haven't experienced ripped off skirt or top? hehe)

Kids just love the water!

Look at that adorable pink little Hello Kitty bucket?


Yes! In Hong Kong, it is not a surprise that it belongs to a couple of boys!

Throughout my stay at the beach, I just sat under a huge tree, trying to read and failed miserably as I kept getting distracted by hot bodies hehe, and didn't even touch the water. But still, I had a lot of fun! and anything taste better at the beach hehe, I had McD meal and it couldn't taste yummier!

Now I'll need a year to recover from this unevenly tanned skin ;)

Gay is the New Black

Preparing for the Olympics, Hong Kong changed the look of its rubbish bins (they used to be dark blue and scattered all over the city, competing with the increasing number of 7-11 and circle K outlets at every road corner). The new bins are bright orange, they are sights to make your eyes sore (imagine having stared at your computer monitors non stop at work, and now you are confronted by this bright orange thingy).

One thing for sure, the new bins are hard to miss, which will probably help with people who always throw rubbish everywhere they please despite the HK$1500 fine and the fact that there's a bin about 3 footsteps away (hate those people). A friend's conspiracy theory says that these new bins are made of harder metals inside out, and it will help containing nails of homemade bombs, in case of terrorist attacks (shudder shudder).

But someone else apparently had another opinion. Notice the message posted on the bin?

Interesting. Why gay? Does orange mean gay? Does shiny mean gay? Does new mean gay? and how can we make it gay enough? How about painting them shocking pink? Oh, I guess that will just make it more blond or more Paris Hiltony? Cos we'd love some gay rubbish bins...they do our hair and design our clothes better :p

I think these orange ones are just metro

Pajama Party

Make LOVE, Not WAR

War games are so NOT for summer. At least that's what I think. The rented stinky camouflage attire, the stuffy and foggy safety mask, the vest for the heavy magazines, the weapons, the boots...are so not 40C temperature friendly.

I think we only enjoyed our pre-battle posing in fully air conditioned changing room in our camouflage outfits...and the hot soldiers

We realised we were in a deep sh*t when our commanders told us to drop down and do some push ups! Hey! We're in e-Commerce, for freak's sake! The only parts of our body which are trained are our FINGERS (through years of solid experience in using various instant messenger platforms, social networking platforms and online betting or "entertainment"). So, no! We don't do push ups!

On to the battle ground, I could barely move...don't even think about crawling and rolling around screaming "Cover me!" or "Clear!" ala Hollywood movies. I could hardly walk straight as the protective mask distorted my sight, and the sweat of my nose kept causing it to slide down, thus I could not see my own weapon, let alone my targets LOL. So I spent my whole first game not knowing what to do, squatting behind a barrel, listening to my partner's frustrations as her gun wasn't working. So much for a strategic battle. LOL

"You!!!....you!!...arrgghhh....."

What did I learn from this war game:
- I look hot in camouflage
- I need a pair of customised apple bottomed pants
- Shoot the deads
- Keep shooting even when you're dead
- Don't play in summer (the heat, the rain)
- Don't play in spring (the rain)
- Don't play in winter (the cold)

- Don't play in autumn (hard to book a court, as everybody's playing)
Just don't!

LOL