Trip to Zhangmutou, Guangzhou, China

My friends are coming over to China from Brisbane for their business trip. Haven’t caught up with Ken for 16 months, so I decided to go to China with him so that we could catch up.

Stephen arrived at Hong Kong International Airport around Tuesday midnight and decided to stay at the airport and wait for Ken’s arrival the next morning. I met up with them in Sheung Shui so that we could cross the border together.

On the train to Shenzhen

On the train to Shenzhen

As soon as we got there, we had a smoke and Ken burnt a hole into his mask and made this… Funny~!

New Smoking Mask

New Smoking Mask

We quickly went to catch the express train to Zhangmutou. I didn’t know where exactly we’re heading at the beginning, I only found out that we were heading this town when we were buying the ticket.

On the train to Zhangmutou

On the train to Zhangmutou

After arriving, met up with a new friend, their business partner, Sam and had lunch at a restaurant nearby the hotel we stayed in. The chicken pot was really nice! Then we went over to Sam’s factory to check out his new product. Kenny, Sam’s younger brother was already at the factory waiting for us. We stayed at the factory for the entire afternoon then went to have dinner with Sam and Kenny’s father. Then it’s time for a few drinks… This one was taken during supper after we finished drinking.

Having supper

Having supper

It was great to catch up with Ken and Stephen! Don’t know when they’re gonna come over again, it all depends on Stephen ability to boost up their business. Otherwise, I’ll meet them in Brisbane at the end of the year.

Anyways, it was really great to have caught up with them!

PK Lai

Busy week~~~

The past 2 weeks have been very hectic and was indeed busy as hell… Had no personal time at all. There were deadlines to meet, clients to meet, proposals to draft & exams to prepare for… so on so on… Now that it’s all behind, I can finally sit down quietly at home. Feels like the past 2 weeks has been such a wonderful time. I’m the type of person that likes to have a very tight schedule. I love being occupied with appointments and tasks. So now that I’m sitting down in front of the computer, I just wish that the following weeks and months can also be so occupied.

On Saturday night, I was finally able to have some time for my friends. After my exam in Kowloon Bay, I met up with @nefuis at Mongkok to have a look around at computer stuff, mainly MacBook and MacBook Air. After not buying anything, we went to a restaurant where we could smoke for dinner. Sat down and chatted for hours!

After dinner, it was already fairly late. I purposely walked all the way from Mongkok to the Western Harbour Tunnel to catch a bus home. I like walking pass that area. Whenever I see those fruit distributors start work so early in the morning, I would feel very grateful that I can be in a job where I have such flexible working hours. Another reason is so I can bypass my favorite Chinese dessert place in Jordan.

I sat down and asked for my usual order. The lady said, it’s sold out! Okay, went for my 2nd favorite. Also sold out! Then I asked what’s left? She said, mainly the hot stuff (it’s not that I don’t like the hot stuff, it’s just that after all that walking, I wanted something cold). So I said, well… I’ll come back some other time then… and I left kinda disappointed.

I continued my journey home and finally got home around 03:00 in the morning.

PK Lai

ORBIS Walk for Sight 2009

After about an hour’s sleep, got up, had a shower, changed then caught a bus to Central. All happened before 06:30 on a Sunday morning! I can hardly remember waking up so early on a Sunday apart from the day I ran the Standard Chartered Marathon.

I got to Two IFC at 07:15 and was waiting for @nefuis to turn up to have Mackers breaky. It was too early and obviously my body wasn’t functioning properly yet. As soon as @nefuis arrived, we each grabbed a breaky meal at Mackers then ate it on the way to Pier 9 where the Heroes meet. Standing outside Pier 5, @nefuis and I put on our shocking pink Afro wig. So that we would show up in it. @martin_tintin turned up as soon as we met up with @Jane_Paris and Jacky. The shocking pink Afro wig caught a lot of people’s attention all the way. After meeting up with the rest of the Heroes, we got onto the shuttle bus heading Tai Tam Reservoir.

We were so excited about this event and as soon as we got there, people started pointing their cameras at us, the shocking pink Afros. Had to register ourselves at one of those marques,  once we’re done, time for a ciggy. Here’s how we looked like. The 3 lovely ladies peeking over our shoulders are some of the Heroes, Sam, Jess and Nat.

The 3 shocking pink Afros

The 3 shocking pink Afros

There’s marques where they paint your face, sell ORBIS goods, food and drinks. Jacky was the first to visit the food stall when we got there! He was so hungry! Here’s Nat at the face painting marque.

Nat having her face painted

Nat having her face painted

We took this photo after we’ve gathered everyone on the field. I love this photo!

Heroes

Heroes

The walk was supposed to start at 10am and the organizers got us started with a group warm up. Here’s @Jane_Paris showing us how warm ups are done! keke…

@Jane_Paris teaches us how to warm up

@Jane_Paris teaches us how to warm up

After the warm up, we’re all set to go! This is definitely my favorite photo of the day! Thanks to @Jane_Paris for shooting it!

The 3 Afros with Mr Cop

The 3 Afros with Mr Cop

The walk was fairly easy at first, everyone was kind of cruisy. But as we got to check point 3, it wasn’t that easy anymore. The slopes were quite steep and most of us were getting less talkative. Haha!

Heroes - the ladies

Heroes - the ladies (sorry Aki)

The scenary was quite nice all the way despite the cloudy, foggy and teenie bits of rain.

Wouldnt think this photo was taken in Hong Kong

Wouldn't think this photo was taken in Hong Kong

Looking up to the reservoir

Looking up from the reservoir

Nice reservoir architecture!

Nice reservoir architecture!

Heroes

Heroes

It was indeed a fairly nice workout for a Sunday morning. The distance between check point 4 and 5 was obviously further than the rest.

Where’s check point 5?

It’s just round the corner!!

We kept saying that for almost half an hour and still no sight of check point 5! Haha! Well, at least that kept us all laughing and entertained.

Check point 5 is just round the corner!

Check point 5 is just round the corner!

Finally got there! Check point 5!

Check Point 5

Check Point 5

I must have accidentally changed the aspect ratio of the camera. Haha… You’ll find that there’s 1 pink Afro missing, he was at the toilet! When we’ve gathered everyone, we started our way back to the starting point. The return trip was much easier as it’s mostly downhill. I got fairly worried about slipping at one point and was kind of walking really cautious. We were getting closer and closer to the starting point and Sam decided to mimic all the match stick figures that we see on the way.

Sam mimicing the match stick figure

Sam mimicing the match stick figure

We got back to the starting point and was already starving. Headed over to the food stall and grabbed our meal. I couldn’t wait any longer!

Starving!!!

Starving!!!

We’ve already been planning our lunch/brunch all the way and not long after we’ve had a bit of rest, some of us took a taxi while the rest hopped onto the shuttle bus. We ended up having brunch at a Hokkaido Milk place in Causeway Bay. Hmmm… it wasn’t really up to anyone’s standard even though they had this A4 size ‘Test Run’ sign on the the window. Take a look at @Jane_Paris and I’m sure you’ll get it.

Errh....

Errh....

After our wonderful brunch, the Heroes parted ways.

Just wanted to say, it’s been great fun walking with everyone! Was really nice to get to know more about everyone who were at our first meeting! Also, nice meeting the Aussie girls too! Wish that we could all catch up some time soon! Take care Heroes in pink!

PK Lai

Before going to Tommy & Vivian’s Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Tommy & Vivian!

Their party was jointly held at Hive on Saturday night, since their birthdays are next to each others.

Met up with @nefuis on the night before attending the party to shop for something pink to put on as our team color. Initially, we were going to buy a pink tee shirt that says ‘I <3 HK’. But none of the stalls sell pink. They’re only either white, black or red. Then we thought, since it’s not going to be warm on the day, no one’s going to see our tee shirt underneath our jacket. So we then changed our target to a scarf, kept looking around, nothing suitable. We were half way down Fa Yuen Street in Mongkok as we came up to this wig store. Looked up and there’s these colorful Afro wigs. We tried them on just to have a bit of a laugh. Then we got serious! Tried to bargain our prices lower, got to HKD $35 and we couldn’t go any further. Even when we said we will buy 10 of them. Since we wanted to get one for every one in the team.

I went for the shocking pink and @nefuis picked a slightly lighter pink at first, then we rang up @martin_tintin to see if he’s interested as well and he said ‘yes’. He wanted the shocking pink as well, so @nefuis changed his mind at the end and joined us. After successfully purchasing something pink, we left Mongkok and headed to Causeway Bay.

After having pork chop vegi-rice for dinner, it was still too early to go to the bar where the birthday party is going to be. So @nefuis suggested that we should go and play a bit of snooker. It’s must have been ages since we last played snooker together! Well, at least 10 years for sure! I can’t even picture that scene. So we went to this snooker club where I go all the time. I took out my LX3 and started shooting short video clips so that we can play around with them in iMovie later. @martin_tintin came over as we were about to finish then we went over to HIVE.

Vicky, Me and Vivian

Vicky, Me and Vivian

Most of our friends were there that night and it was really nice to catch up with most of them. The 3 of us couldn’t stay that long because we have to wake up really early the next morning to participate in the ORBIS Walk for Sight 2009. So after drinking for a bit and tried to make the birthday boy, Tommy drunk, I left with @martin_tintin around 01:15.

Sorry for not staying any longer! Wish you both a Happy Birthday!

PK Lai

Thank you for your support!

I’d like to say ‘Thanks!’ to everyone for your support with my application for ‘The Best Job in the World’. The 50 short-listed applicants have been announced and I’m not one of them. I would like to wish these 50 applicants ‘Good luck!’ and for the successful applicant, ‘Enjoy the 6 months at Hamilton Island!’.

Although I haven’t been selected for the job, I had great fun participating the recruitment process. I did something new, interesting and fun! And most importantly, I loved it!

I really appreciated all my friends in helping out, especially @nefuis, you have been very helpful, encouraging and great! Thank you!

If the position recruits again in 6 months time, I’ll be buggering you all again… hehe… Once again, Thank you!

PK Lai