off to the races!

Here's an adventure that I was in the middle of blogging about but forgot to post halfway. A couple weeks ago, I went to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (in Happy Valley) to watch the horse races for the first time. Horse racing is huge in HK so even though I'm definitely not a gambler (although I do have a love for BINGO - I'm such a grandma right?), I thought it would be interesting to tag along with my other two Canadian friends and see what the hype was all about.

It was a huge stadium with a whole tonne of people. Obviously, there were all these gung-ho horse racing fanatics who actually had memberships and could afford the box seats. Us commonfolk just paid $10HK to get in and watch from ground level (where all the other tourists were). haha. Apparently though, if you bring your passport along with you, you can actually go and get better seats up-top with something called a "tourist ticket".  

My friends actually ended up betting money and both of their horses won. Beginner's luck! One of the best parts of the night for me though was eating a giant FOOTLONG HOTDOG and getting SPARKLY PURPLE BOWTIES! Since it was Easter, I kept on seeing people at the stadium walking around with either a purple sequined bowtie or furry white bunny ears (all these European guys were walking around with beers + bunny ears. you might spot a couple of these real-life playboy bunnies in some of my photos below ).

Anyway, I really wanted a bowtie so I tracked down the booth where I thought they were selling them. But unfortunately they were all out of bowties. I was walking away with a depressed face when suddenly I saw this guy holding a whole bag full of the purple bowties!!! I instinctively pointed at the guy and probably yelled a slightly toned-down version of "WHOA!!! THERE THEY ARE!!! ATTACK!!!" The guy saw my overly-excited face, and gave me four bowties for free, probably so that I wouldn't harass him. That totally made my night. HAHA. I love free stuff.

After the races were over, we took the TRAM to a nearby ROOFTOP LOUNGE called Wooloomooloo Steakhouse where we had drinks surrounded by a gorgeous 180-degree view of Hong Kong. I didn't try the food but I would just go for the view. If you're in the Wan Chai area, I would definitely recommend that place to visit at least once!

Okay enough nonsensical narrative. Here comes the PICTURE ONSLAUGHT!

Isn't the view gorgeous? Aside from my occasional complaints about the poor air quality, the stifling pollutant smog, and the heavy humidity, Hong Kong is such a beautiful city. =P

life lately

It's time for another update of my life. haha. I've finally accumulated enough pictures to have a decent variety of randomness to share. Really, my life has mostly been work + work + more work, but there have been a few interesting outings here and there. So...here's what I've been up to lately.

I've been drawing cannibalistic animals...

...making tiger-esque snowflakes...

...and doodling on my fingers.

I've been eating some interesting things such as sushi with Pringles chips...

...giant chunks of pork knuckle (I felt like a caveman while eating it)...

chocolatey-sweet burger biscuits...

...transvestite Hello Kitty chips...

...unintentionally (or intentionally?) awkwardly-named seaweed "sheets"...

...and extremely shady-looking fish balls... (um, yes, they came like that).

Speaking of balls... ... ...

Moving on...

I've also seen some interesting products and displays in various Hong Kong malls... 

like googley-eyed froggy floormats...

 

...(literally) "foot-in-mouth" socks...

...giant bunnies on crack... (with equally drugged-looking girl beside it)...

...the Mona Lisa made entirely out of real pieces of toast...

...and dangerous killer ponies.

That last picture was taken at IKEA. I'm wondering who the designer is behind their stuffed toy collection, because in my opinion, their dolls really don't look that appealing. Anyway, here's another random IKEA fact - did you know that each section has a "SPECIALIST"? (basically, a worker who only patrols that particular section...) and they each have a special title - such as KITCHEN SPECIALIST - written in big letters on the back of their uniform. Anyway, it was all fine and dandy until I saw a worker with the title "BEDROOM SPECIALIST". Somehow, that's just one of those names that needs to be revised to avoid awkward conversations that go down like this:

Random Acquaintance asking generic conversation-starter: "So what do you do for a living?"

Ikea Guy: "I'm a Bedroom Specialist."

*awkward silence*

Okay, clearly I've gone off topic. What have you all been up to lately? LET ME KNOW! I miss Vancouver! Send me pictures of weird things you've seen! haha. And if they're awesome enough, I'll post them. 

=)