Hangers

Wm and I were each convinced into buying a set of these at a street stall in HK from a very smooth-talking seller. I thought they would be absolute rubbish once they're taken home but look at how EFFICIENT they are. I have managed to clear almost half a wardrobe space. So WM if you're reading this, GO HEAD OUT AND HUNT THAT STREET SELLER DOWN AND BUY ME ANOTHER SET, TWO IF YOU CAN MANAGE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! (and please make sure it consists of 6 tops hangers and a pants hanger).

p.s I failed miserably hunting for a cheap wardrobe so I gave up and bought a clothes rail instead for $20! I will just throw a sheet over it and push it into my dressing area when not in use. (rail has now been replaced by a new wardrobe - 24th May).

If you're wondering how they work, look closely here.

p.p.s. This is STILL a food blog. So here is a picture of some roast duck which we had tonight.

(note: This gorgeous roast duck was bought in HK; and carefully brought into Brunei on my last trip...)..

Black Out

And what did you do during yesterday's 7 hour black out? I skipped dinner, had 2 beers, showered by candlelight, tried to read a bit and went to bed. Fanned myself to sleep.

The children had a blast as they were allowed to shower in the garden - Mark in his swimming trunks and Hazel in an old strappy cotton dress; by candlelight.

Hazel

Especially for the Stokes in Vancouver, the SilHaydns, and the Dom.

Here's Hazel today just before we left for her school fair, looking quite cool in Roxy T-shirt, British India cotton hoodie (remember this, Sil?), leather weave belt, grey chino shorts and Adidas slippers.

I said 'pose, Hazel' and I got this! (Can't believe she's 10 already).

And at her school. Those with an aversion to snakes, please move swiftly on.

Looking very comfortable right next to an enormous caged python.

There was another 10 footer slithering around. eeeepssss.

With thanks to the very friendly and knowledgeable staff of Louis Mini Zoo who provided the creepie crawlies and who answered every question patiently from a very curious 10 year old.

Hong Kong

Day 1 - 18th April 2008 - I arrived at Mum's apartment at around 4 pm, via train/taxi. Sat around for a while with Mum, unpacked the huge suitcase of stuff she had left behind on her recent 2 month stay here and unpacked my own almost empty suitcase (small bag of toiletries/1 thin cotton dress/2 tops and 1 pair cropped pants/1 pair of sandals). I intentionally packed light in anticipation of a good shopping haul ahead of me and I was right!

We went downstairs to the markets to buy crab and prawns for dinner and here is the fishmonger perched on top of his tanks to get our live crabs for us. We bought 2 lovely 'flower' crabs and some live prawns to steam.

Wm arrived (via Singapore) at around 9 pm to find this wonderful meal awaiting her.

And the rest of very simple home cooked food. We eat a lot of vegetables as you can see!

Lovely creamy chicken porridge. More vegetables with dried prawns. Kai Lan.

Watercress soup with minced beef

Gyoza. Wintermelon soup with fresh straw mushrooms. Roast Duck.

Cabbage with dried prawns.

Fresh straw mushrooms with tofu and garlic bulbs.

More fresh crabs on my last night (smaller than what we had on day 1 but still yummy).

That just about concludes my HK eating trip with the exception of a dimsum breakfast and lunch with the cousins.

I'll get back to cooking soon.

Hong Kong

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
Am in a bit of a hurry this morning so I'll leave you with some pics of just some of the delicious food we had in HK. I'll add descriptions later but in the meantime, before any of you run off into the distance screaming at the sight of these two pics; it's really not what you think - it's beef brisket and BEEF TENDON noodles - really not what you think at all!!! hehehe And it's gooey and it's sticky and it's tasty and meltingly delicious.

The rest.

Egg Tart - all trembly and eggy/wantan soup/beef in rice flour

Porridge with salted meat/century eggs/wantan noodle soup/deep fried fish balls

Seriously big prawns/fish cake with seaweed soup/dim sum

Roast duck and goose

Here's Wm and I in our shopping gear - huge shopping bags, make-up worn off, messy hair, and crumpled clothes just outside the very posh BAPE shop in Central in search of something for Mark. We walked from Wanchai to Central that day; a walk of almost an hour.

MUM'S HOME COOKING NEXT!

Hong Kong

It was a short, hectic but surprisingly relaxing trip to HK. Sole purpose was to visit departed Dad but Wm and I managed to achieve a LOT of shopping and eating in 5 days. So here we go, shopping first. Just a few of my favourites:
1. A long silk hand embroidered jacket (I really don't know when/where I will wear this but could not resist it
2. A 'Chanel look' very fitted jacket in black/white tweed with light silver flecks and slightly flared sleeves
3. Roxy cargo pants styled for a teenager but this xx year old will be wearing them with pride!
4. Thai silk wrap around top with French cuffs and double lapels - stunning
5. Fuschia and cream tweed panel fish tail skirt with fuchsia silk underlay
6. Sun dress from Mango - too sexy for wearing around town/Mall so again - where shall I wear this to?
7. My mostest favourite - very low waist skirt with embroidered waistband and 3 tiers of fine pleats
8. A white cotton top to wear with everything
9. A cream jacket perfect with jeans and casual pants
10. Gold beaded top with pleats again
11. Denim skirt
12. Dusky pink thin corduroy skirt
13. Monsoon wraparound tshirt with tiedye effect (horrible pic - it looks better worn)

Z asked me to tell her what I bought and at last count it was 31 items (excluding a heap of clothes for Hazel) .... gulps - perhaps I do need treatment after all.

FOOD NEXT!