A recap of Carson's first week in Hong Kong

It's been a busy and fun week for us! Let's peek at day-by-day summaries...

• Monday: Exploration of Sai Ying Pun (dim sum lunch at the Star Seafood restaurant, walking Centre Street from bottom to top, sampling two favorite bakeries); a tour of the University of Hong Kong (Katherine's office, the Senior Common Room, etc); a tour of our previous apartment complex; Shanghainese dinner in Shek Tong Tsui.
  
• Tuesday: Riding the "ding ding" (trolley) from Sai Ying Pun to Admiralty; wandering the Pacific Place shopping mall and finding the amazing Great Food Hall; exploring Central (riding the full length of the Mid-levels Escalators from bottom to top, wandering SoHo, late lunch at Ivan the Kozak, snack at Krispy Kreme!, late dinner at a pizza place).
  
• Wednesday: Exploring Causeway Bay (buying leather goods at Satchi 2, the Sogo department store, Krispy Kreme!, turtle pudding!, Times Square, factory outlet clothing shops, a pet shop which claimed to be "Chinchilla Land" yet had no Chinchillas, the World Trade Center mall, Honeymoon Dessert), dinner in the cafeteria just below our residence hall.
  
• Thursday: Exploring Wan Chai (browsing the furniture stores of Queen's Road East, lunch at the delicious Singaporean "Prawn Noodle Shop", factory outlet clothing shops, computer and video game stores, a yummy dessert shop, exploring Park and Shop - a common Hong Kong grocery store, picking up some irresistible bakery goodies), dinner at our favorite Chiu Chow restaurant in Shek Tong Tsui, exploring Kennedy Town (cruising the streets all the way down to the waterfront).
  
• Friday: Gazing across Victoria Harbour from both the Central and Tsim Sha Tsui sides, riding the Star Ferry across the Harbour, dim sum lunch at Serenade, strolling the Avenue of Stars, participating in countless primary school student interviews to help them practice English, gift shopping around Nathan Road, crossing the Harbour again and taking a bus to the lower Peak Tram station, riding the tram up to Victoria Peak, gazing down from the Peak to Victoria Harbour during the day, dinner at The Peak Lookout where we encountered The Peeing Cat (see below), ascending the Peak Tower to take in the Harbour's night view, sampling a bit of gelato while we waited to take the tram back down.
  

And, between all of this, we've been getting lots of mileage out of the Nintendo Wii I picked up about two weeks ago (playing games like "Trauma Center: New Blood", "Wii Sports", "Super Smash Bros Brawl", "Super Mario Galaxy", "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess", and "Worms: A Space Oddity"). Livin' it up! ;>

Now to the pictures...

Monday: Carson's first Hong Kong meal!

Tuesday: Our late lunch spot in SoHo...

Tuesday: ...followed by our late snack spot!

Wednesday: Carson's first dessert shop experience nearly knocked him out! (Toddy palm and kiwi drinks with "yeung zi gum lo dou fu faa", a wonderful dessert soup made from fresh mango juice, pomelo, sago, chunks of mango, and sweet tofu.)

Thursday: Lunch at Prawn Noodle Shop!

Friday: Carson towers above Victoria Harbour and proceeds to uproot the tallest building in Hong Kong, Two IFC.

Friday: After causing mass destruction, the evil mastermind's true plans are revealed: complete control of all dim sum! Or maybe just lunch at Serenade.


Friday: One of the many primary school student interviews (which were loads of fun) Carson and were involved in.

Friday: A daytime Peak-view of Hong Kong

Friday: Dinner at the Peak Lookout under the shadow of the Peak Tower

Friday: The Peeing Cat, on the roof of The Peak Lookout, fleeing the scene (make sure to click the picture for a closer view). Moments before this was taken, the Peeing Cat sat right in the roof gutter, aimed, and launched an arc of urine over the edge - showering a table just below. We immediately alerted the staff and they cleaned it up...right before seating a large group of Korean tourists in the now-notorious spot.


Friday: A close-up of The Peeing Cat, who visited us later during the dinner (but did not pee on us).

Friday: A nighttime view from the Peak Tower

Friday: You might think this is just a sudden photo of me, but it is in fact an expert demonstration of the secret Chinese nun photography technique. To fully appreciate the skill with which it is executed, make sure to click the photo.

Friday: Riding the tram back down. It's not the smoothest ride. ;>

Today we're heading back to SoHo for dinner and a movie ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), so Carson will get his first Hong Kong theater-going experience!

Carson safely in Hong Kong!

A little tip: When picking up family or friends from the airport, make sure you go on the day they are actually supposed to arrive! Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to pick Carson up in an hour. Well, we did, but Carson never arrived. Why? Because both Katherine and I had independently come to the conclusion that he would be here on Saturday night (Hong Kong time), but he was in fact scheduled to arrive on Sunday night. Whoops! This was in no way Carson's fault - he clearly listed his arrival date as Sunday in a recent e-mail to us. Perhaps the craziness of moving into a new apartment cross our wires. No worries, though - we figured everything out eventually and went back home (relieved that it had been our mistake and not that Carson was missing. ;>)

Amazingly, though, this experience was exactly what needed to happen, exactly when it needed to happen. As it turned out, Katherine had some very important warden's duties to attend to tonight (Sunday), so there was no way she could go to the airport to meet Carson. This meant I needed to go by myself on the hour-long journey, collect him, and get him back to our apartment. Had Katherine and I not made that exact same trip together yesterday, I probably wouldn't have felt very confident in going alone. But, we did make that trip, so it was fresh in my mind, and that gave me all the confidence and knowledge I needed. Carson and I had no problems at all.

Carson briskly walking out of the customs security zone at the Hong Kong International Airport. (So briskly that my camera couldn't quite focus. ;>)

A picture of all three of us (Katherine joining us remotely via the cell phone I'm holding) greeting Carson upon his arrival!

The adventure begins!

Warden's apartment tour redux!

The place is all setup (at least, as much as it'll be setup this week :>) and ready for a fresh viewing! Here you go...



We hope you approve.

In about an hour we're heading to the airport to pickup Carson (my cousin, best man, and the very reason I met Katherine in the first place) for a three week stay...and I can't wait! Blog posts might slow down a bit while he's here, but you'll definitely get to glimpse our adventures from time to time.

A more suitable meal to Christen the new place!

Last time you saw our first meal in the new apartment. Now you'll see our first meal after having set everything up! Katherine's mother worked her culinary magic again and whipped up a lunchtime feast...

Steamed fish

Chinese broccoli

Fish cakes

Long beans stir-fried with asparagus and garlic

Chicken soup

Congee

Happy eaters!

Mid-move update!

We're still in the thick if unpacking and setting things up, but I though you all might like a little glimpse into what's going on. Here's our basic move agenda for this week...

Monday: Pack!

Tuesday: Movers tote everything from our former place to our new place. Custom-made TV cabinet is delivered. Small kitchen appliances delivered. Begin unpacking and get the basics setup (master bedroom and bathroom).

Wednesday: Links Relocations delivers all the items we shipped from Ann Arbor (they actually arrived at the end of January, but we kept them in storage). New lighting fixtures delivered (we're replacing almost all of the existing fixtures).

Thursday: Custom-made bedside tables delivered. Continue unpacking and setting up the apartment.

Friday: New lighting fixtures installed. Continue unpacking and setting up the apartment.

Saturday: Continue unpacking and setting up the apartment. Carson (my cousin and best man) arrives in Hong Kong for a three week visit + vacation!

Right now it's Wednesday night, so we're about half-way through the process. Lets take a look at a few images captured thus far...

On Tuesday, just before the movers arrived, I thought I should grab some images of our former apartment since I wasn't ever able to give you a post-move-in tour. This is one looking at our bed in the master bedroom.

Also in the master bedroom, but looking at our wardrobe (with the front removed and almost all of the clothing out).

A shot of the guest bedroom in our former place - you can see a bit of the bed and the wardrobe.

The foyer/office/dining/living room in our former place with the great majority of our stuff ready for the movers.

Tuesday night just before our first dinner in the new place. And that dinner is...Pizza Hut! Strange for us, since we normally don't go for chain restaurants, but pizza was a very easy dinner after a long day (and Pizza Hut could get it to us fastest :>).

Wednesday while Links Relocation is unpacking some of our kitchen goodies. And yes, that fellow is drowning in a sea of packing materials. ;> I must take a moment to mention that Links Relocation was absolutely fantastic in every phase of this move. If you ever need to ship your belongings to a major Chinese city you absolutely must hire Links. They handled 65 boxes for us, getting them all to the complete opposite side of the world, and when they arrived at our door, not a single thing was damaged or broken. Not so much as a chipped dish! (And I should know - I just spent a few hours hand-washing them all, since Hong Kong is not well known for dishwashers. ;>) I can't tell you how impressed I have been with the people and the process.

When next you hear from me, I should be able to give you a video tour of New Apartment version 1.0! Woo!

Happy Mother's Day!

Katherine and I have two wonderful mothers and today we were thinking about them both. Katherine's mother happens to be a tad nearer to us right now, though, so she was the only beneficiary of this cake...



When we visit the States later this summer, though, my mother will get a belated celebration. :>

The official anniversary dinner!

For the big night, we decided to go to Wan Chai (rapidly becoming one of my favorite districts - easily in my top three) and try an Indian place we had long been curious about. For those that don't know, I absolutely love Indian cuisine (though I love a lot of cuisines, so perhaps that statement doesn't hold much credibility), but we've only sampled Indian once since moving here. It was high time for round two...

Banana lassi. Awesome!

Mango lassi.

Papadum.

Condiments (from far to near): Tamarind chutney, mint chutney, and pickled veggies

Vegetable samosa

Saffron basmati rice

Rogan josh

Saag paneer

Onion kulcha

Too yummy to wait for pictures! ;>

Penultimate anniversary dinner...

The night before our actual anniversary, we went to Causeway Bay to eat at a very popular Hakka restaurant...

A view from our table (it was packed, and this was only one of the floors)

The house special chicken (with scallions)

Fresh scallop soup (with shrimp, mushrooms, and scallions)

Partially-dried squid with celery, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and strips of jicama)

A dinner worthy of our soon-to-be anniversary!

Treated to a feast!

This is the first of a few catch-up posts focusing on events that actually happened last weekend (whoops!). I didn't really intend to delay these, but it has actually turned out for the best: we aren't doing anything interesting this weekend (prepping for our move), so these posts will liven things up.

Last Saturday we were invited to the home of Cynthia and Ben (whose marriage in January was our first social event after moving to Hong Kong) for an amazing meal...entirely prepared by Cynthia! Let's take a look...

Cynthia (left) prepares the spread with Ben (middle) and Zhang Wei (right) looking on in anticipation.

The near-final spread (more food would come out later!).

Chicken curry

Green papaya salad with fresh shrimp and peanuts

Marinated mushrooms

Eggplant with sesame sauce

A mango black forest cake (from Maxim's bakery)

Homemade chiffon cheesecake (so light and fluffy!)

...and quite a lot more (naan, spaghetti with homemade meat sauce, winter melon soup, etc). Don't worry, we weren't the only people tasked with gobbling up these wonderful dishes - here's a little video which will give you a better idea...

Cynthia did an absolutely wonderful job and we will definitely have to repay the favor.