Asia Game Show 2009

I am not a game person, but I went to the Asia Game Show in HK Convention and Exhibition Centre at Wanchai, HK last weekend. There were 4 exhibition going on at the same time in the convention centre. Initially I went to the BookFest held by Popular Book Company to buy some book. Since I was there, why not I visit to others exhibition that held at the same place.

Then, we chose to visit Asia Game Show. Luckily, I got my DC with me. (The pictures quality not that good. =P)

Once I stepped into the hall, all I am thinking was, am I a little bit too aged on this? Too many teenage gathering in this hall making me question that to myself.

There was a competition going on, the winner of GT-5 game can win the car.

The 1st prize. Very tempting .

The exhibitor was very thoughtful. They had prepared a section for 18+ adult to check out the 18+ games. However, the people in the queue were too young to be like 18.

To boost the sales of their game in the last week of 2009, the exhibitor done a lot of thing. They built very impressive, big and given away free stuff to attract customer.

And also giant beautiful billboard. People were taking photo with it.

Last but most importantly, Cosplay competition. The funny part was, everyone who wearing cartoon costume will attracting a group of well equipped photographer (龍友) to take their photo.

That was a very interesting exhibition.

Pasta with Tomato and Bacon

Ingredients

• 2 slides of bacon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• extra virgin olive oil
• 250 grams cherry tomatoes (or half can of chopped tomatoes)
• 1/4 pounds spaghetti
• a handful of chopped fresh parsley
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Parmesan cheese, for grating

Directions

1. Heat the pan and cook the bacon until crisp and golden. Break into small pieaces and set aside.
2. Drain bacon grease, and return pan to heat. Saute garlic over medium heat until tender. Stir in bacon and tomatoes. Reduce heat and cook for another 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in large pot of lightly salt water. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain.
4. In the other hand, on the cooking tomatoes sauce, stir in parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 5 minutes more. Toss with hot pasta.
5. Lastly, top with grated Parmesan cheese when serving.

Central District, Hong Kong

I walked Central area after the day I'd visited Dr Sun Yat-sen museum. Eventually, I found a lot of interesting and amazing view in this area.

I found a shop, Chocolate Rain Design near SOHO that selling full of unique and special handcrafted stuff. You can tell how unique is the shop from the shop design.

Not far from the SOHO area, I'd reached Victoria Prison. This is a prison that was built in 1841. IT was the first western building constructed of durable material in Hong Kong.

But too bad, I didn't have any chance to visit inside part of the oldest prison in HK. Therefore, I had no choice buy just took some snapshot around the prison.

Before entering Arbuthnot Road, I found a very interesting picture where the old prison actually is surounding by developed buildings.

Along the Arbuthnot Road, I saw Former Central Magistracy just located beside the road. It is a building that commenced in year 1913 and completed in year 1914.

The building has a majestic appearance with imposing pillars of the facade and other features in the Greek-revival style. The massive retaining walls were constructed with granite blocks.

Not far from Arbuthnot Road, before entering Lower Albert Road, I saw The Hong Kong Fringe Club. This building facing located at the junction of Wyndham Street, Glenealy Street and Lower Albert Road. The fringe club features and promotes theatre, dance, music and exhibitions of Hong Kong.

Standing at the junctions, we decided to walk along and passed through Lower Albert Road to reach Zetland Street before entering Queen's Road Central. Surprisingly, we saw another classic building, The Bishop's House along the Lower Albert Road. This building was completed in 1848. However, this building had been modernised in late 1960's.

There are more historical building located in Central, however, I did not have enough time as the day start getting dark. Eventhough Central best known as business center of Hong Kong, this is also a very historical place. I will definitely walking around and take more photo of Central again.

Christmas Gift

I received this amazing and unspecting gift from my boss before Christmas day. I am deeply appreciated his kindness. It was a gift of L'Occitane, a box of ladies' daily use cosmetics. The gift came with a beautiful box.

The box consists of 5 kind of cosmetics, which are Rose Bath and Shower Gel, Rose Body Milk, Rose Velvet Hand Cream, Rose Bath Soap and Rose Roll-on Fragrance.

Thanks a lot, boss. =)

Christmas Eve

On the Crhistmas eve, I met my friend, Jyean and joint a christmas eve party help at a new friend of mine, Cindy's house. Her place have been decorated into very warmy and christmas ambieance.

Instead of taking turkey, we chose to have hotpot in christmas eve chilly night.

Besides Cindy, I'd met other friends too that staying in her house. A cat that is same species with Garfield. His name is Cream.

He is a very gental cat and cute eventhough his face tell the different way.

And Chesse, a kind of sheepdog species. She is very naughty and vivid. =p

When the clock hit 12am, we start exchanging our gift.

I got a beutiful cup. Thanks to Jyean.

Merry Christmas!

Cauliflower Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 slide of stale bread, torn into pieces
• 3-4 strips of anchovies, oil from tin reserved
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cauliflower
• 40g chopped onion
• 160g risotto
• a handful of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 1/2 cups pre-heated chicken stock
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese, for grating

Directions

1. Whiz the bread in a food processor with the anchovies and little bit oil from the tin. Heat a frying pan with a splash of oil and fry the flavoured breadcrumbs, stirring and tossing constantly until golden brown.
2. Cut the cauliflower into small pieces. Cook the cauliflower while pre-heating the stock.
3. Fry onion with olive oil until soft. Put in risotto to fry for 1-2 minutes and stirring. Now add a generous ladleful or 1/2 cup of stock and stir gently, until the rice has absorbed the stock. Add another ladleful or two of stock and stir, until this has been absorbed.
4. By now the cauliflower florets should be quite soft, so you can start to add them to the risotto with the stock, crushing them into the rice as you go. Continue until the rice is cooked and all the cauliflower has been added.
5. Cook the rice until soft and stir in the parmesan, parsley, taste and season. Sprinkle with the anchovy pangrattato, grate some more Parmesan over the top and serve.

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Museum

I have been in Hong Kong for quite sometime. However, I haven't been to any museum in Hong Kong before. Since I got nothing to do today, why not I take a visit to Dr Sun Yat-Sen Museum? So, there I am.

Dr Sun Yat-Sen bronze statue standing in front of the museun located in the middle of Central District.

This is a 4-storey classic building of the museum. This was originally residence of Ho Kom-Tong.

Kom Tong Hall was among the earliest residential buildings constructed with reinforced concrete structure and fitted with concealed electrical wiring in Hong Kong. It sets an important milestone in the development of building construction.

Address : 7 Castle Road in Central District, Hong Kong.

A Lunch at Zhou Zhuang

When the time we visiting Zhou Zhuang (周莊）, we had a very local style lunch. I have forgot the restaurant name. We had ordered a set of lunch for 4 peoples.

The 1st three dishes were pork leg (万三蹄), grandma vege (阿婆菜) and marinated jellyfish (海蜇).

This is the 4th dish which is spicy spiral shell (辣炒田螺).

No.5 dish was the most weird food we had ever eat. This seem like a very ordinary cooked tofu. Actually, it was not a normal tofu we have eat everyday, but it was stinky tofu. EEEW.. :&

We had ordered a fried rice. A plate of fied rice that fried with grandma vege (阿婆菜). Plain but nice.

The last dish of this lunch set was a soup - 三味圓湯. It was a no taste vegetable soup. Overall, that was a unforgetable lunch we had in Zhou Zhuang.

B52

Cointreau + Kahlua + Baileys = B52

Outdoor Shooting

I was attending a shooting class on how to operate the basic function of the new DSLR I had bought not long ago. Sugar was the model that has been hired to our class for us to start learning on how to take a portrait using the functions in the DSLR.

She is a very nice and sweet girl ;)

Shanghai

Statued in front of Sheraton Hotel, Shanghai.

1 of the old building at The Bund, Shanghai. I cannot get the famous scene from East Zhongsan No.1 Rd coz the construction is going on all over the place. Besides, the bad dusty weather was affecting my mood of photo shooting.

After visiting not-so-impressive The Bund, we were planning to visit Shanghai Peace Hotel to check out the old Shanghai night club ambiance, too bad, this hotel undergoing an unknown dateline renovation. http://cw85324.chinaw3.com/2007/img/xygs.jpg

This photo was taken while on our way to Nanjing Road. Checkout the messy cable, how they managed to set them up or maintain them?

I didn't take any good photo during the walking at Najing Road. But, we saw a lot of familiar branded shop that we familiar were setting up along this road. We chose to eat Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in Nanjing Road. (Funny?? yes, we never eat Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in Shanghai before. =p)

The 2nd day in Shanghai, we went to Zhouzhuang (周庄) is a town in Jiangsu province, China. This is a very popular tourist destination. It has been called "Venice of the East". The structure of all the buildings, the well preserved ancient residential houses and view of this place are amazed me.





We found a lot of shop selling cooked pork leg (万三蹄) all over Zhou Zhuang. We had tasted it and it doesn't impress us.


A lot of shop that selling handcraft stuff, such as bags, and sculptures.

Zhouzhuang is surrounded and divided by lakes and rivers. Many stone bridges cross the rivers, showing distinctive views of the water-town.


Zhou Zhuang is a place that you wouldn't want to miss out if you visit Shanghai.