Mong kok

I decided to go back to Mongkok to explore some more. My morning ritual of a coffee and a newspaper took place at Pacific Coffee. After catching up with the new I walked around the big shopping mall there, but got bored and didn't make it up to the bookshop, which I wanted to go to. Then I walked to gold fish street to check out where I could buy my brine shrimp at the end of the the day. There were already so many people there. Yes, what to do on Good Friday when you don't believe in Christ, after making sacrifices to the gods and sweeping the graves of your ancestors.

The Ladies' Market (a place I haven't been to in ages) was my next stop to see if I can pick up any fake goods as a present for a friend. I found that the fake goods were actually poor imitation fakes. I know what you're saying - but they're fake! - Well, there are good quality fake goods and bad quality ones. So I ended up finding nothing and left. There were a bunch of Australian tourists and I couldn't help overhearing them bargain. One woman was happy because she was able to knock off HK$10, that's less than A$2! I think she needs lessons in bargaining. If you use my mother's method, first knock off 50% then go from there. Then if they don't give you what you want, pretend to leave. If the vendor gives you what you want, you should leave with the item practically at a cost where they've only made a 10-20% profit and not 200-300%.

What are the latest "new" things to arrive from Japan including new snack flavours? If you are like me and need to know, you head to one of the numerous malls in the Mongkok area near the MTR stations. There you will find floor after floor of small shops selling mostly t-shirts and shoes operated by people in their 20s-30s selling Japanese imported merchandise. You can also find trendy cheaper clothing as well. I bought a navy blue jersey, cropped sleeved, Jackie O jacket for HK$199! It was also the last one and the woman wouldn't let me try it on. She kept emphasising it was the last one. So I took it! At the snack shops, the latest kit-kat flavour was cherry blossom. I managed to find peach flavoured kit-kat at the park 'n shop supermarket later in the evening. It's peachy! After about four floors, I'd had enough and decided to leave the mall for the Spiral at Langham Place.

Langham Place has got itself a Mos Burger franchise! The line was too long so I decided against lining up for a rice burger. So I headed up the Spiral (named so because you take a really long escalator up to the top and you walk in a spiral to come back down) to see what new shops have cropped up. There were a new jewellery shops that were crowded with teenagers. The shop sold jewellery that looked like sweets and ice-cream. From the Spiral I headed back out to the streets to look for a fishball vendor. I bought a stick of curry fishballs and carrot juice. Not a good mix I know but I figured that the carrot juice will wash away the "curry" lining my stomach.

I walked back to goldfish street to buy my shrimp and an automatic feeder for my brother walked right to the end and found myself neat the flower markets. I was very tempted to buy a potted plant but I didn't want to carry it. Then after visiting nearly every wholesale flower shop, I walked around the corner and this woman was selling bunches of carnations for HK$10! Bargain! I bought three bunches.

After purchasing the flowers, I decided to head home. I'd walked solidly for about five hours and the shrimp had to be refrigerated for longer term survival.

Ashes to ashes dust to dust

It's too bad we regained the Ashes so early. I was hoping that the cricket watching would be prolonged. Perhaps this is a good thing for my readers as the subject matter of my posts can be about something other than the cricket.

I am now ready to head back to the northern hemisphere provided I can secure the services of removalists for a reasonable price to ship my things to Hong Kong before the New Year.

This afternoon, I managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping for friends living interstate and overseas. I was going to go to the riverside markets yesterday to purchase Australiana arts and crafty goods but my cricket watching got the better of me.

I hate shopping if I don't already have an idea what I want to buy. I'm also finding it very difficult to find goods that are actually "Made in Australia". Not even Bonds socks are made in Australia! Support the local economy they say, but I can't be buying everyone rocky road from Darrell Lea.

I'm sending out Christmas cards this year and I'm sending them to people who will least expect me to send them one because we have lost contact over the years. I think it will be a nice surprise that I haven't forgotten about them. So yeah, just because they haven't got an email from me they get a snail mail. A snail mail is worth ten times as much as an email.

Highlight of the Day
Biting into a butterfly cake from the Shingle Inn. These would have been the perfect Christmas gift.