from bags to belts

Yesterday I had the thought that fabric belts would be fast and easy to make. And I was ever right! I decided to sew some pink ribbon on one side, to cover the place where the two edges meet. And contrary to a previous hypothesis, I found that I actually can sew quite straight. Slowing down and being careful -- who knew that straight stitching was that easy?! :) I had some D-rings left over from a different belt-making project that never materialized, and they worked out perfectly.

Here's the final product... does the fabric look familiar? It matches my bag. Thanks again, Erika, for encouraging me to buy it in the first place!

basil and mozzarella

I got home from hiking with an unexplainable craving for cheese. With a nice block of mozzarella in the fridge and some tomatoes on hand, I decided to make this salad. It's a lot like an Insalata Caprese, just arranged a little differently.

Ingredients: 1 tomato, mozzarella (amount may vary depending on how much you like cheese), fresh basil, drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I share this simple salad recipe mainly as an excuse to show off our basil plant. It has really flourished since being repotted and moved outside. It started out as a tiny little thing that I purchased from the herb section of City'Super, and now it's practically a basil bush!

quilting inspiration

I have lots of stuff to post, but not enough time at the moment. But here's some quick quilting inspiration I just came across via a post on Boing Boing. I like the idea of quilt squares being used like pixels... Link

super-sized knitting

When I found this on the Craft blog, I could not believe mine eyes.

Check out the size of those needles!
The final product -- a cable-knit rug!Link.

I think I'll just stick to [average human-sized] scarves for now...

fa yuen finds

Salome and I hit Fa Yuen Street today... it was my first bargain-hunting trip in quite a few months. In the past year or so, I've really made an effort to buy less, and when I have been shopping it's usually been at chain stores where I feel more confident of the quality (and can try things on!). But during today's trip, I was reminded of why the words "Fa Yuen" will always hold a little magic for me -- good deals, and surprising finds!

Though this surely goes against a fundamental rule of smart shopping, I usually try to go to Fa Yuen Street with an open mind, ready to consider all clothing items that I come across, and without any list of things that I need. I know... it seems like a sure way to end up with extraneous, unneeded stuff. But I find that if you approach Fa Yuen with a list, regardless of what you've found in the past, on the day that you go, you will not find anything even closely resembling the items on your list. Of course, I also try to balance the open mind with a good dose of realism. I try to avoid purchasing clothes that are either so daring that they will never be worn, or items that, in the words of my mother, "just don't do anything" for me. And I find that trips to Fa Yuen, or any shopping excursion in fact, are a great opportunity to exercise self-control.

Anyway, I found a lot of great stuff for my sister's kids today, and also a couple things for me. Here's a photo of what I got pour moi. I can't imagine an instance in which I would wear these two items together... though if I were about 100 lbs thinner and on a beach somewhere, maybe I'd be modeling for the J-Crew catalog (which is about the only place I think I've ever seen the turtle-neck + shorts combo).


I don't usually post many of photos of myself (especially in funny timer poses), but I do so now to show off my finds!

Brown Esprit turtle-neck: HK$20
Pale blue Old Navy shorts: HK$50

That's a grand total of HK$70, people! Which is only about 9 US dollars... pretty crazily cheap!

The stuff for my nieces and nephew will probably be Christmas presents... so I won't post photos here, as I'm sure that the three of them are regular readers of my blog. I also figure that the clothes would really benefit from some cute mini-models, so I'll wait until they make the journey down.

super saturday

Here are some highlights from last Saturday.

Part I: Visit to the new school building (where we'll move next month!)

One of the [two?] gyms.

Sal inside the auditorium.

Another view of the auditorium.

Sal in her future classroom.
My "office." It connects to a small classroom of similar size.

I'm so excited to have windows! Yay for natural light!!
Part 2: Bowling at Belair

Sal and Kai (nice form there!)

Caroline and Salome.

Our group gathered around fellow teacher, Lori, who sprained her ankle in the first frame (and still managed a strike!)! Poor thing! But can't feel too sorry for her -- she ended up winning both games by having other people bowl for her!
Part 3: High and Dry -- Wet Market art exhibit

The Conservancy Association Centre of Heritage is housed in a beautiful old colonial building that used to be nurses' quarters at HK's first maternity hospital.

Fish-monger Kai.
Butcher John.

Scary cockroach painting.

A view of the old maternity hospital.
The sweet stairway.

hku reunion at chungking mansion

I had a very full day today and (of course) have lots to blog about. But first, let me do some catching up...

Last night I met up with three HKU friends (+ 2 spouses and 1 son) for dinner. The reunion was long in coming, and it was fun to see everyone again! Since we last met, all four of us have made the transition from student to teacher, and it was interesting to hear everyone's stories about their first days of school...

Before meeting up, we exchanged emails in the hopes of deciding where to go for dinner. I had no shame, and suggested (surprise surprise) a little vegetarian Indian place that I know of. The idea of Indian food was well-received, but a couple in our party expressed a desire to eat the flesh of animals... so Brantos was out. Thankfully someone in our group had connections, and we ended up at a great Indian restaurant in Chungking Mansion. Chungking Mansion, in spite of its somewhat scary reputation, will always hold a special place in my heart -- it's the place where, 10+ years ago, I first developed a taste for Indian food! It's also a fascinating place to explore.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of our food (shocking, I know!), but our friend, Asma, did take us on a little tour of the kitchen, which was really exciting.

Here's a huge bowl of rice-flour/lentil batter being mixed. It's used to make dosas (sp?) -- rolled-up savory pancake that is one of my faves...
And here's the very important tandoori oven.
And here are all 7 of us, full and happy, crammed into the elevator on our way down.

lion rock

Last Saturday I went hiking with Sal, Kai, and John. We were originally going to go see some waterfalls, but that hike got canceled. It all worked out for the best though. Because of the relatively pollution-free skies, it turned out to be a perfect opportunity to go up Lion Rock!

I didn't take many photos -- I did quite an extensive Lion Rock post in April -- but here are the few I did get.

Sal and Kai with Kowloon and HK island stretching out behind them.


Kai photographing the city below. When are you going to post your pictures? Oh, and there's the raincloud that sprinkled us on our way up and made our journey down quite slick and treacherous.
Here's Sal and I at the top. Sal looks lovely as always. I look quite ridiculous. Who knew it was possible to squint that much?!

We saw a lot of these cute little plants along the trail. To see more foliage from the trail, check out this previous post.

We hiked down to Tai Wai and had lunch at a Thai restaurant (unfortunately, no photos). Yum. I think I'd like to end more hikes in that way.

lantau peak

I have some new photos to post, but the anal-retentive chronologically-minded person within me says I cannot post the new pictures until I get the old ones sorted. So here goes...

Two weeks ago I took a hike up to Lantau Peak. It was the first time I'd been up there, and it was quite a climb (think never-ending stairs...). And like many other peaks in HK, Lantau Peak has its share of false peaks. If you're not sure what I mean by false peak, let me say that there is nothing worse than pulling yourself up to what you think is the top of a mountain, only to see the actual summit up ahead, with a whole new set of stairs separating you from it. Thankfully, my hiking buddies warned me about these evil false peaks, and I was able to slowly plod to the top of the mountain (incidentally, HK's second tallest!).

Here's a small shrine that we saw nestled in a large boulder along the path. There was a Latin inscription. "Ave Maria... Lantao."
A temporary shelter at the top.
It was a very rudimentary structure, but I'm sure it would be invaluable if you somehow got stranded up there in a storm.
A view of Ngong Ping below.

Here's a view looking down the mountain. It was very steep. I was in some pain for the next week or so after walking down. Sitting down was difficult, and walking down stairs -- nearly impossible!
Another view of the path, with the sea below.

Some wild violets growing in the crevice of a rock.
The path finally brought us to Ngong Ping, where the big bronze Buddha sits. I think it'd been over 10 years since I'd been to see the Buddha. I should check, but I believe it holds some sort of record. Let's see... I'm guessing it's the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. In spite of its record-breaking status, I've always thought of it as quite a strange tourist attraction. The fact that I'm not Buddhist probably has something to do with it, but I think the main reason why it seems odd to me is that I can remember it being built. I can understand wanting to see an ancient statue of Buddha, but one that was built in the 90's? No thanks.
Ngong Ping has been built up recently with the introduction of the new cable car, Ngong Ping 360, which is out of commission at the moment because, yes, one of the [empty] cars fell off! Apparently the new (yet old-looking) Ngong Ping Village is quite the tourist trap, and has taken a lot of business away from the little stalls surrounding the Buddha. For that reason, we could find no restaurants or dai pai dongs anywhere, and were forced to satisfy our hunger with cup noodles.
Here's a close up of my cup noodles. I took this picture mainly for future reference -- to remind myself never to eat cup noodles again. But also, check out the fake little crab cake thing... does that face look familiar? Oh yeah, t's the cute little blond cup noodle boy!
More posts to come soon!

templeton's biggest fans

My parents made it back safely from California. Here they are doting over Templeton. Yes, I did ask them to pose like this... nonetheless, this photo depicts a scene that is very common at our house.

I have more photos to post (from hikes over the past two weekends), but since they will require some explanation (and I don't feel like typing right now), they'll have to wait for a future post. Stay tuned...

wbmc

I just saw something interesting on the evening news -- the World Beard and Mustache Championships just took place in Brighton, UK. They have an official website which, of course, is worth checking out. I found this part of the site especially interesting -- it explains the various categories and rules for judging. This year's champions have not been posted yet, so I'm planning to check back tomorrow.

retail therapy

I felt a little stressed at work today, so on the way home decided to indulge in the ultimate retail therapy experience -- buying a pair of fun, completely impractical shoes. I love the color and style, and the fact that they were on sale and one third of their original price. But I'm not sure how I'll manage with the heels. I usually try to avoid buying high-heeled shoes... mainly because they're impractical for me to wear in walk-everywhere HK, but also because (not to strengthen any pre-existing stereotypes but...) in HK I often feel like some kind of freakish giant anyway, so don't really yearn to add inches. And then of course, there's the fact that since I don't wear heels much, I become very awkward and clumsy when I do. But oh well, let's throw caution to the wind on this one.


I got them at Marks and Spencer, which is incidentally about the only store in HK that carries [womens] shoes in my size. After many years of shoe-buying difficulties (I've worn a women's 10 since I was about 11), a few years back I think that something finally clicked in my brain. No matter how many pairs of shoes I amass, deep down in my subconscious lurks the fear that I will run out of shoes and have nothing left to put on my feet. It tells me to buy what I can now, for who knows when the next shoe-drought will be. I should say that I know this fear is completely irrational, especially seeing as my parents are returning from California tomorrow, and I know for a fact that their luggage contains at least two pairs of footwear for yours truly.

But I do like the shoes, and will make a concerted effort to wear them...and hopefully my next post will not contain any news about blisters or a broken ankle.

iPod first aid

This morning I noticed my iPod sitting on my side table, gathering dust after months of disuse. And the sight made me sad. See, sometime in April or May, after multiple failed recharge attempts, I had resigned myself to the idea of my beloved mp3 player being broken or needing a battery replacement. And being the go-getter that I am, I did nothing about it. Well, this morning, on a whim, I plugged it in. And lo and behold, it started recharging! This is not my iPod's first near-death experience, and though the whole thing perplexes me greatly, my confusion has quickly been replaced by musical ecstasy! Not that the lack of iPod was stopping me from listening to music altogether, but I guess I'd become so overly dependent on its convenience, that I found it hard to go back to my CD player on any permanent basis. Aside from a few albums bought and listened to over the past few months, I'd pretty much allowed myself to be music-starved. So now it feels like I'm feasting! Even playlists that had grown somewhat stale for me, now seem new and fresh! How exciting!

Oh, and after this evening, I am first-aid qualified, which hopefully, in some abstract way ties this whole post together. I didn't take any pictures of dummies this evening, mainly because we didn't practice on them. I guess I could have gotten some shots of my table-mates decked out with slings and magazine-splints, but somehow, that thought slipped my mind.

"are you ok? are you ok?"

I am now a very safe person to be around. After a 3-hour course this evening -- stand back!-- I know CPR!
Some highlights:

1. The three C's -- Check, Call, Care.

2. The phrase in the title -- "Are you OK? Are you OK?" -- repeated multiple times in monotone by a video-taped demonstrator.

3. ABC -- Airway, Breathing, Circulation... although we weren't taught how to test circulation...

4. Acing the multiple choice test at the end. Test-taking is one thing that I'm good at (and something that has occasionally been mistaken for intelligence), and it was pleasant to take an easy one with near instant gratification.

5. The interesting plastic mouth barrier that kept me from really having to perform mouth-to-mouth on my dummy.

photo phun

Spot the differences (on the T-shirts, not the people wearing them...)
Salome with two of her favorite porker friends -- McDull and McMug (not sure which is which... you'll have to help me with this one, Sal...)
Sticky pictures with Athania. Flash back to over a year ago when we took our last ones... Unfortunately, we had a little disagreement with one of the machines after it automatically chose some photos for us (i.e. the two bottom center ones) and we lost a couple that we really liked (one of which involved some trick photography -- large, close-up Athania trying to eat small, far-away Michelle).

no search parties needed

You may have noticed that my posts have quite suddenly dropped off from once a day to *fingers crossed* once a week. So to ensure that no search parties are sent out (allusion to one of Jon's recent posts), I thought I would take this opportunity to assure any concerned readers out there that I am alive, and actually doing quite well.

I started orientation for my new job about two weeks ago, and in that time have kept quite busy sitting in meetings, sorting through things in the ESL room, and generally figuring out what my job entails. Since I'll have a support role at the school, I will be working closely with 9 different elementary teachers and classes, and also under the new administrative umbrella of "Student Services." That means that there are quite a few people that I need to keep up with, so a lot of my energy so far has been spent trying to figure out how to do that most efficiently and effectively. Everyone has been really helpful so far though, and I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what was done last year, and what will be expected of me when school starts on Monday. I also think any anxiety that I do have will quickly dissipate once I meet the kids, get to know them, and get a better idea of how I can help them out.

I'm looking forward to school starting, but am thinking that for a while at least, it will mean less time for blogging.

mom's tote

Here's my latest tote. I had my mom in mind while making this one -- I think she'll like the colors. And there's a ribbon tie in the center to keep it closed.
I also think she'll like all the pockets inside. My personal favorite is the water bottle pocket (actually requested by Mom).
Mom, I hope you like it. If not, no worries -- I enjoyed making it, and wouldn't mind making another. Enjoy your last few weeks in California!