Morning lark vs night owl

I got up at ridiculous o’clock today, sometime before 7am. I am not a morning person, so this is mega early for me. I messaged a friend in Sydney about the stupid time that I got up – and she wasn’t even up herself yet! And they’re two hours ahead! 🤣

So by about 10am, I was ready for lunch! Being a morning person is sooo good! You get so much stuff done ✅

I went over to TST to check out a Snoopy exhibition, which I thought was ending today. But then when I got there, it seemed like they’ve extended it for another five days. But I’m glad I went today anyway. It was pretty cool 😊

Woodstock on Snoopy sleeping on a cloud 😊

N had drinks tonight – and if you’re wondering why they had drinks on a Tuesday night, it’s because we have another public holiday in HK tomorrow 😊 Bring on all these public holidays! 👍

And it’s now almost 1:30am, and I’m still up 🙄 No chance of getting up early tomorrow again, then. This is what I’m constantly fighting if I want to become a morning person: the night owl within me! 😒

Vlogs

I couldn’t have asked for a more productive day today. I have no idea where all the productivity came from, but I ain’t complaining! 😆 And it’s a Monday, so I’m even happier! 👍

Oh I don’t think I told you: the birthday girl liked the video that I put together for her of her birthday brunch last Saturday! I forgot to add the date and place somewhere in the video, though, that was a bit disappointing. But it was the first ever video I’d ever put together for someone else, so I’m just happy that I got to even do that 😊

I should definitely try and do more vlogs while we’re living here in HK. They’re so much fun to do ☺️ Plus they’ll be a really good way to remember our time here. And like SG, we don’t know how long we’ll have the privilege of living here, so I’m going to try and make the most of it 😆

So maybe I can start tomorrow 😊

Fun and relaxation

N did a ton of karate today, two hours in the middle of the day and two hours later in the evening 😱 I did the complete opposite: absolutely nothing 🤣😔

Well, in terms of exercise, that is. I did manage to cobble together a quick video from yesterday’s brunch, I actually had enough footage to work with 👍 I hope the birthday girl liked it. If anything, it’s the thought that counts 😊 This whole vlogging business is so much fun, though. I really should do more, I enjoy making them so much 😄

N is also doing some research for me in the camera space. The difference between us, though, is that he is willing to spend a lot more money on technology than I am. So the camera he suggested to me is 5x more than what I’m willing to spend 🤣🤣 FIVE TIMES! So I didn’t even look at the specs of the camera. But for that price, I’m sure it’s pretty damn awesome. Or least it better be!

Anyway, I still need to read up on the various options that I have. I still have no idea what I want to buy! 😒

And I finally finished Crash Landing On You, five months later. I don’t know exactly when I started watching that drama, all I know is that it took me months to finish it! Not that it was bad or anything, it was just that I never really had the time to watch it. And when I was watching TV, it was usually with N, and Korean dramas aren’t really his thing, so we usually just watch whatever American show looks interesting.

But I’ve finally finished it, so now it’s time to find a new show. Actually, we’ve also just finished Community, so if you have any suggestions for our new show (or an Asian drama for me 😉), then please let me know! 🙏

Expat life and expat friends in HK

I used the HK Taxi app for the first time ever today. I must’ve registered my details on the app ages ago when I was first told about the app, because it had me down as “English only” in one of the fields 😂 That’s handy. It took ages for a taxi to accept my booking, though, so not sure if it was because I had “English only”, or if they were all just genuinely busy. It was a Saturday, after all.

Apparently you can also pay by credit card on the app, which is very handy because almost all taxis here only accept cash. But that too may cut down the number of drivers who’d accept your booking, as they all seem to like being paid in cash. For tax purposes and all… 😉 I rarely catch cabs anyway, so I’m happy to just pay cash for the odd time that I need to jump in one.

We went to a friend’s birthday brunch today (and the whole reason for the cab), and I filmed some background stuff to add to a future YouTube video. But everyone saw me filming, including the birthday girl, so I feel like I should try and cobble something together for her with the random shots that I took today at the restaurant. I hope I have enough footage to make it worthwhile…! 🤞 Not that I’m a filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s not like she’s expecting anything grand (or even good 🤣). But I think it’s the thought that counts 😊 So I’ll see what I can put together tomorrow. Hopefully it’s decent enough to give to her as a birthday gift of sorts!

We then went to a bar at Central for a few drinks as a few of the people at the brunch wanted to watch the AFL game (Essendon vs Carlton). I’m not really into AFL, it’s my least favourite football code (sorry, my Melburnian friends!). They had rugby league playing on another TV, but it was farther away, but I could still make out the two teams playing. I still know the different teams’ colours after all these years 😊

But as I might have mentioned in an earlier post, my favourite football code is rugby union. And at brunch, we happened to sit next to a guy who referees rugby union games around Asia! 😱 How cool is that?!? He was actually pleasantly surprised that I knew the positions in the game. Frankly, so am I 🤣

Eating and more eating

It was a public holiday in HK today, so we just had a relaxing day. We were going to go and have Singaporean for lunch, but when we got to the restaurant, we found out that they’re closed on public holidays. Grrr! Although we should’ve checked this before we left the house 😆 It’s just that most restaurants are open here, public holiday or not, so I didn’t even think to check.

So we ended up having Viet at the restaurant next door. We actually had the choice between ramen, Viet and goose (!), but Viet won out in the end. We walked past the goose place afterwards – I think goose is a specialty here in HK – but it just didn’t really appeal to me, so I’m sorta glad we decided not to try that place 😅 I think I’ve had roast goose before, but this place seemed to cook the goose a different way, I don’t quite know how, but it just didn’t look as appetising. Maybe I’ll give it a go when I’m feeling a bit more adventurous 😄

We then went back home and watched an episode of Community before taking a 2-hour nap 😴 We then headed back out for ramen, although at a different ramen place to the one at lunch (which lost out to viet). We ran into one of N’s workmates on the way to the ramen place, so it was nice to just stop and have a bit of a chat with him and his wife before we went off and had dinner.

It was a nice, relaxing day 😌

Happy, amused, and very full!

We went and had yum cha today for the first time in what feels like aaages. We went to one of our favourite places, but they’ve changed their menu a bit, and it seems like the quality of their dishes has dropped slightly. I’m sure they suffered during the past few months and are trying to cut costs, but you can’t sacrifice the quality of your food. Unless you are happy to take the risk of losing regular customers. I’m not sure if we’ll return again now. We probably will, since they’ve been one of our favourite restaurants since we moved to HK; but if we leave with the exact same opinion for a second time, then they may just have to be bumped off our list 🤷‍♀️

We then took Kitty to the vet after lunch. Getting her there is always a painful experience because she never likes leaving the house. She’s always been an indoor cat, and so new environments just aren’t her thing. And especially now as an older cat. She gets so angry at everyone, and she hisses and growls at anyone who comes close to touching her.

They still managed to get a blood sample. though, and her test results came out much better than the vet expected. So he commended us for managing her health really well this past year, as there was no major deterioration in her health, and to just keep doing what we’re doing. Yayyy, I was so happy to hear that 👏

And then later on in the evening, we went to this rather interesting hot pot restaurant. We went with a friend from China, and she asked us if we knew the meaning of the name of the restaurant, which is in Chinese. Apparently it’s the name of a famous brothel in ancient times! Interesting choice for a restaurant name! 🤣

The brothel theme continued in the restaurant, with some sex positions listed in their drinks menu and their moist towelettes in little packets that looked like individual condom wrappers 🤣 Quite amusing, and good food too 👍

I have to study the Chinese since, as you can imagine, this is not something I would ordinarily come across in my textbooks! 😂

Compassion and gratitude

I was feeling all compassionate and grateful today 🥰 I should try and bring in more gratitude into my days, try and come up with three things that I’m grateful for at the end of each day. It’s such a different mindset when you think in terms of gratitude, and I just feel happier when I do. I probably could’ve done with some of this during the week! 😂

The weather was still 💩 so I didn’t really feel like going out today. And then N had a Zoom catch-up with some mates from Sydney at 2pm HK time anyway, so I figured we may as well just stay home. And then maybe go out later in the evening, if we wanted to. Pffft, as if we did 🤣 But I did manage to finish my next YouTube video, and I also got through an episode of Crash Landing On You, my current Korean drama 😆 I need relaxation goals too! 😌

Hopefully the weather will be a little bit better tomorrow, and I’ll actually feel like heading out for a bit of a walk somewhere 🤞

Martyrdom

Today’s post is a bit of a rant, so if you don’t need additional negativity in your day today, then please skip this post and continue on with your day and hopefully I’ll see you back here tomorrow 😊

I have a friend who perpetuates the stereotypical ‘women do everything around the house and men don’t do anything to help’ mentality. I don’t like stereotypes in general, and I especially don’t like gender-specific stereotypes. As I may have mentioned before, I am very good at ignoring things that I disagree with on social media, so I ordinarily just scroll past anything that she posts on this topic.

But today, she drags me into it, and THAT I can’t ignore. What she was basically implying was that I am lucky to have a guy who cooks for me. Um, no. I just happen to be with a guy who likes to cook. There’s no luck involved, it’s just who he is. And we make the joint decision that he cooks simply because he likes it. And because he likes it, he practises it more and is therefore better at it than me. And it’s not a skill that I’m interested in improving. If we both hated to cook, I’m sure we’d eat out a whole lot more or order delivery more or eat pre-made dinners more often. So we divvy things up around the house based on our personal strengths and interests. I look after our finances simply because I’m better at it. I wash the dishes because I prefer to do this than cook dinner. It’s about our strengths, not luck or gender. I believe in maximising our strengths rather than trying to minimise our weaknesses. And if I was feeling like I was being overwhelmed with too many things going on in my life, then I’d talk to N about it and he’d be there to help me out. That’s the whole point of a relationship, isn’t it?? 🤨

So I see it a bit like playing the martyr. And if you want to play the martyr, then by all means, go for it. Just please don’t drag me into your martyrdom with you because I choose not to play that game.

Gifts and redemptions

I was feeling all pumped this morning, ready to do a ton of stuff around the house, but then that all fell to 💩 😂 And I ended up not doing much at all! I didn’t even get to go to Wan Chai to see if the cherry blossoms are still blooming 😔 Oh well. It’s Sunday, it’s supposed to be the day of rest anyway, so maybe I should’ve just rested!

One of N’s workmates dropped by to give us a few small cakes that she made today. She loves baking, so she’s always making cakes 🧁🍰 The ones she gave us today were so pretty! Totally Masterchef-worthy, I reckon. We had them for dessert tonight 😋

These wouldn’t be out of place in a Masterchef episode! 😱

Have I told you about the stickers that they give out at supermarkets here? They give you a sticker for every HK$X spent in their store, and if you collect enough stickers, you can redeem certain items during their promotional period, which usually lasts for around 3-4 months. Anyway, last period, we managed to accumulate enough stickers to redeem a hot pot and accompanying cooker! 😲 They don’t have the cooker in stock at the moment, so we’ll have to go back and redeem it later on, but we got the pot today! 👍 Very exciting! Now I can’t wait to have hot pot at home 😋

Our new hot pot! 👏

Busy busy

I had a mega-busy day today, getting up at around 8:30am and then eventually getting home at 1am 😱 We went over to a friend’s place tonight, and just hung out there for the entire evening. It was nice to actually catch up with friends during this time 😊

We caught a cab to their place and back, and both cabs that we got into had hand sanitiser available for passengers to use. All the cabs that we’ve been in in the past few months have had hand sanitiser available, so I’m guessing this is now part of the taxi regulations. And, of course, there is the obligatory ‘please wear a mask’ sign on the window. Like I’ve said before, you can’t really go anywhere in HK these days without wearing a mask 😷

But I think all the measures here are working: we’ve had single digit increases for one week straight now, so things are looking promising 🤞

But SG… They had almost 1,000 cases today, the vast majority being foreign workers. Local cases are actually falling 😔 If anything good comes out of this, I hope it’s a wake-up call to the SG government about improving the conditions of the dormitories for these workers.