Man Climbs out a window and Cookies

So today was a very exciting day.  My air conditioning got fixed.  Basically the contractor had to hose the whole thing down to clean it out.  When I thought he was done, he proceeded to climb out the window.  I mean there are other ways out of my house and I live on the 45th floor - so really I was a little surprised.  Actually what he was doing was standing on a 7inch ledge and cleaning the outside part of the A/C.  But if you ask me I think he is crazy because he didn't have one strap of safety equipment with him.  You couldn't pay me to have that be part of my job!!

He made me think of Parker from Leverage - who as you can see in this video, she is slightly crazy and tends to just jump off stuff.

Anyways I was so excited that the A/C has stopped dripping on my oven - that I made cookies.  Here is a picture since whoever you are can't have any.  They are delicious :-)

Today

Today was a great day and I just wanted to share.

I found a really great online community which sets up regular hikes all over Hong Kong, so I am excited about getting involved with them.  I started my art classes again, which is wonderful because I enjoy art and its nice to be around other people who enjoy painting and art like I do.

I am still looking for a paranormal romance book club (which I am not sure exists) and I am looking for a roleplaying group here in Hong Kong, but for once I feel like there is hope living here in Hong Kong.  I am definitely starting to really enjoy it here.

Plus it was a beautiful day today and I love being near these mountains.  Thats all for now :-)

Raining Inside and Pink Dolphins

Its raining inside my house right now and every time I turn the A/C on.  Its not like I can live without it though - its a billion degrees outside.  I took pictures so everyone can understand my crisis and sympathise :-)

PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP

And close up it looks like this:

PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP

AND I FEEL LIKE THIS:

Well until we tell out landlord not much is going to change, but thats how it is as the moment. 

PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP PLIP PLOP

Now for the dolphins!

My hubby and I went on this Hong Kong Dolphin Watch tour about two weeks ago.  It was amazing and fun (and hot out there on the boat). I learned all kinds of stuff about these dolphins, which are actually called Chinese White Dolphins.  They are only pink in the south pacific area, though they can be found in South Africa to China but they are grey/light grey most everywhere else.  Even dolphins further south than HK, like in Australia are grey/light grey. They are called white dolphins because they are all born a dark grey and lighten as they get older, but the ones in Hong Kong and southern China are special because they are pink!

There is no definitive answer as to why they are pink in Hong Kong, the theories are they don't have any natural predators here so they have lost the need to have pigment - or that over time because this area is so full of sediment they loose their pigment.  A third theory is that as they move around and exercise their blood moves to the surface of the skin to cool them, making them pink.  

The sad part is that although they are really special, they are loosing habitat with all the reclamation of land in Hong Kong.  Also this is one of the busiest harbours in the world and many die from boat strikes or fishing net disasters.  Another sad thing is that the dolphins in HK live about half the time of the dolphins everywhere else (20 years instead of 40 roughly), because of sewerage and chemical pollution and various other things. There is hope though there is a marine reserve off the coast of HK - though it isn't well regulated, but its something!

Anyway the awesome news I have is that I will be working for the Dolphin Watch! I am so excited.  I will be an assistant for a while and then be able to be the main guide.  I am very excited to be doing something that is worth while! (even if it is part-time).

Winnie the Pooh Funny Exercises

My husband was reading Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne to me tonight. We got to the part in the book where Pooh does his exercise. It reminded me of the TV show I used to watch where the exercise song had been expanded (below). Honestly I feel like this should be my exercise routine sometimes (most of the time). Thought I would share the laughs down memory lane with all of you. Enjoy.

Flowers

Hello anyone out there who may be reading this blog.  These are for you:

I just got them today and I thought they were pretty so I decided to share them with you.  The vase is my from my mother's cousin who made it herself - she is awesome!  They smell really lovely too....enjoy :-)

I got new canvases today from the art store - so may be uploading some new art eventually.  Trekked around Mong Kok in search of printer ink and eventually managed to find it but also got canvases, new markers, flowers and a new plant, so it was a good day.

We are Special - How to be Alone

Kristin Cashore had this on her blogspot - and I just loved it so much I had to post it here. I hope you take it into consideration if you have four and a half minutes.

Graceling

Kristin Cashore

I just finished Graceling by Kristin Cashore and let me tell you WOW!  A riveting and absorbing book.  The book is a fantasy novel mostly about a character named Katsa.  She is a Graceling (someone who is blessed with an ability in a certain area i.e. swimming, cooking etc). The Gracelings are blessed at very young ages and this plays a big part in each Graceling's life.  The children evolve, grow and can be treated differently to make their Grace a gift or burden.  Katsa is a strong female character - anyone who knows me knows how much I love those- who is entertaining, relentless, stubborn and lovable.  Katsa has so many things going on in her life that she needs to fight (her uncle, the villain etc) but she comes out knowing who she is and not being afraid of it.  There are of course other main characters who are full, interesting and believable.  The overall story is incredible with all its exciting adventure and a couple of "what" moments.  The world is a little simply named (i.e. Nander, Estill, Middluns, Sunder) but fantasy names are hard to come by and really that is the only small fault I found.  Cashore's writing is compelling the whole way through, so much so that I started reading this book at 2pm and stopped when I finished it at 11pm.  This is easily one of the best books I have read in ages. I give it 4 out of 4. Graceling would be in my top 10 books I would take with me to a desert isalnd....it was just that good.

For good news I don't have to wait ages until this writer comes out with something else - she has another book out called Fire which I already have and intend to save for a full day of reading cover to cover.

Randomness

So I have been blogging a little while now and who knew there was so damn much involved with it!  I found this one blogger who wrote about how to gain followers and loose them too - Red Means Go  - if you get a chance, read it, its hilarious!

This picture is from another entertaining site about what happens when graphic artists get bored....check it out here.

Interview

I had my first interview in a very long time.  The job was recruitment consultant.  I think I would do really well as that, as most of the recruiters I know have a very similar personality and temperament to me...but who knows. I think it went well, I was interviewed by someone junior and then by her manager - so at least I got to the second round of things.

Apparently there are 2-3 more rounds of interviewing.  I find that to be a lot, but I really would like this job - so I'll be good and try to keep my answers consistent and understandable.  Sometimes in interviews I do have to tell myself to just shut up - I know thats amazing right for those of you who know me would find that incomprehensible!  hehe :-)

I find myself slightly worried about this job.  I would like to have it, I think I could learn a lot and that it could be a job I would really enjoy in the long term.  The pay is okay.  What scares me is the holiday.  I have been working in England for the past 3 years where my base holiday was 20 days plus the 5-7 public holidays we had (there may be more than that I donno) - but this job is offering drastically less than that.  Lets put it this way they are giving me enough holiday to go one place once a year - that's it!!!  My question is - if I get through the next rounds of interviews and decide to negotiate the holiday - what if they don't negotiate? - do I still take the job?  I find myself lost again.  I guess it doesn't even matter unless I get through to these other interviews.

But I am a worrier.

Blood Magic and Any Given Doomsday

Just finished reading Blood Magic by Jennifer Lyon and Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland.  Both are paranormal romance and both are the beginning to a new series and addictive.  But lets take them one at a time.

Jennifer Lyon

Blood Magic's biggest success is the characters.  I don't know how Jennifer Lyon does it, but they were real, thought out and honest.  I felt everything they felt and completely understood the dumb decisions they made - even if I thought they were dumb decisions.  I trusted the characters more than they trusted each other at some points and felt their pain as my own.  The downside of the book was the world she created, it felt to contrived.  It was confusing to say the least.  While I enjoyed the world she created I did find myself having to read sections of the book again and also feeling like I should be taking notes.  I don't think I will have to do as much for the next books she writes - as this is the first book in this world and there is a lot of information.  I feel she could have taken a couple points out and it still would have been a successful world.  I will definitely continue to read her books (if I can get my hands on them) - if just for the characters alone that are the best!  I would give this 3 out of 5 Hunks :-)

Lori Handeland

Oddly Any Given Dooms Day's strength lies in the world that Lori Handeland created for this new series.  She has another series called the Nightcreature Novels - which is fantastic.  The worlds she creates are amazing and believable (well as believable as paranormal can be) but her characters fall below the line I internally set for her.  Not by much mind you - but a little. I find that her books are a little short on pages sometimes, and it would be nice if there was just a bit more character creation in them, then everything would be perfect.  I wouldn't want like 20 more pages - but maybe like 6 or 10.  Just giving it that extra bit of attachment I get to some characters.  Maybe adding more pages wouldn't help me, but I would like to think it would. I would give her 3 out of 5 Hunks.  Her world is fantastic and I look forward to her other books where I hope the characters progress.

Some might say I have high expectations - well my husband says that to me often - but I have never felt like high expectations are a bad thing.  When ever my husband tells me I have too high expectations, I tend to remind him that I had high expectations for a husband as well and he manages to live up to that....so really my expectations are reachable.

Hope whoever is reading this out there gets interested in these two lovely authors.

Hopefully my next book will be "normal" as I feel sort of guilty that I read two of my paranormal books in a very short time - considering there is a limited supply of them in Hong Kong and I usually have to buy them when I am in the UK or the US or online....crap.

Darkness

I close my eyes to see the darkness
of the truest black colour with no violet or blue.
It conforms and holds me.
Tells off and scolds me.


I am tiny and helpless l in its firm embrace.
I am big and strong under its gentle caress.
I float to sleep on its cloud of nothingness.
I struggle to keep the serenity it gives me.

Paranormal Romance

I have been pondering why I enjoy paranormal romance so much.  I mean other than the obvious fact that romance is always a great read.  You can shut your brain off, shut problems out and immerse yourself into a world where love does conquer all.  But with paranormal romance you add in fantasy and unlimited adventure.  Fantasy in all forms is amazing that way - how anything can exist.

 

I mean looking at vampires alone you end up with: alive ones, dead ones, alien ones, ones immune to sunlight, different species, means ones, nice ones, ones that want to destroy the world, ones that one to save it, romantic ones, weak ones, powerful ones, old ones, young ones, ones that become automatically beautiful and ones that stay as ugly as they started out to be.  With all those options - and any others you can think of - how can fantasy and specifically paranormal romance not be enjoyable.  It can have something for everyone (well as long as its romance). This doesn't even include any were-animals, demons, witches or other paranormal subjects.

Lastly (but not least) I honestly think its because no matter what the couple struggles through in the story, they always end up working things out and being together in the end - and what isn't nice about that?

Snowdrop

I sit by a blue-green lake
In the green-yellow grass
Under a tall oak tree


Gentle flower looks up at me
tells me a story
of love and loss
and best laid plans


She droops her head
ashamed to continue
the tale too revealing

she says no more

Chinese Cooking

Tonight I had my first ever proper dinner party.  Now aside from the two trips I had to make to Mong Kok (because I had forgotten something), the having to buy a set of dishes that actually matched (we had none) and the fish that wouldn't die again (even though it had not head it was still kicking) I think it went rather well.  Everything was eaten at least....well there is a bit of Pavolva left - not for long though.  I made fried fish with a sweet and spicy sauce; tofu stir fry with bell peppers, mushrooms and sprouts; fried french beans and pork; and lastly spicy shrimp stir fry and a Pavolva for dessert.  Have you noticed the theme?.....the frying?

Hong Kongese (and Chinese I think) love love love all their food to be fried.  But not fried in the same way that we know it, as in covered with grease like good ol' McD's.  But they fry everything to pre-cook it, so it spends less time in the wok.

Did you know that if you get the oil hot enough when you deep fry food with a starch coating, the oil seals the item and the food cooks with its own water?  Or at least that's what they tell me anyway.  But its not just the fish or the tofu or even the shrimp that need to be fried - its everything.

I took a cooking class and literally everything that went into a wok for a stir fry was deep fried at least once at high heat before anything else could be done to it (except for the ginger, garlic and other seasonings).  We even deep fried beef to partially cook it...that was odd. Apparently it does two things 1) cooks the food most of the way so that restaurants etc, can have stuff mostly cooked in advance, so when you order stir fry it should spend roughly 45-60 seconds in a wok before it is ready for the table; and 2) it makes the food shiny. Since appearance is everything in Hong Kong and they seem to like their food with a shiny colour to it.

That cooking class I took the teacher was going on and on about everything is about appearance, to the point where things had no flavour.  To give you an example---for fried rice the vegetables that go in it (carrots, peas, corn etc) get cooked in boiling salt water to remove their "raw" flavour, before mixing with the rice in the wok.

Now I am not one to pick on nations and societal preferences, but this one is weird to me.  Then again I love fresh vegetable and I hate when people over cook them so they have no flavour....but to each their own.

Annoyingly I had planned on taking pictures tonight to show you my dinner - but alas it is not to be...I forgot...figures.  Maybe next time eh.

Who is Lucy and other thoughts

Lucy Holden is sort of like my alternate persona....if I were someone else completely, nothing like myself I would be Lucy.  Since blogging isn't something I would normally do, I decided I should be Lucy for this...makes it easier knowing that the real me isn't out there on display.

I (and I think Lucy agrees) love Paranormal Romance, Dark fiction - whatever you want to call it.  It makes me happy and entertains me.  I don't like normal romance books, they aren't real.  But Fantasy romance, well of course that isn't real - it has fantasy in the name :-) so its okay that there are vampires and demons and angels and wereanimals existing alongside people.  Occasionally I think - really if vampires existed would they really just become pretty.  I haven't ever made a decision about that. Luckily there are writers who have.  Laurell K Hamilton - she doesn't think just because you become the undead you are allowed to be beautiful and she has characters who have physical flaws, but we love them anyways.  I just finished reading Veil of Midnight by Lara Adrian.

As well as reading fantasy romance books, I read other stuff as well.  I also just finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, for the second time in my life.  It really affected me this time.  Maybe its because I miss Tennessee a little or just the south in general (its where I lived before the UK), but actually I think its more because Scout is a child and maybe I miss childhood.  While stuff wasn't necessarily easier when I was a kid (or I didn't think so at the time) there was more freedom and loads of potential.  The thing about potential is the more you grow up the less you seem to feel that you have.  It becomes harder and harder to believe, have other people believe in you and be able to afford changing your life completely.  Which as a child you could have done in an instant just deciding that day that you wanted to be a dancer or the President instead of what you were the day before.  I guess we have to grow up sometimes, but why does growing up always have negative connotations.  My husband loves his job, why can't we all?  I am looking for jobs and a career right now, and its hard to look back and see all that I wanted to be and then look forward again not knowing if I will even be able to get a job (much less a career that I want) here in Hong Kong.

I don't regret moving though - its really too early to say that (since I only got here in January).  I really like Hong Kong and I want to get to know it like I got to know London.  I loved London, it would speak to me sometimes when I was walking alone on the Southbank thinking.  I guess that's what I miss, a city that speaks to me.  Maybe Hong Kong can be that for me again.

First Blog

Wow, who knew it was so easy to set up a blog - gotta love Google.

Okay really I knew it was pretty easy, but I always enjoy giving props to Google.  I mean they are awesome.  Although secretly one day I want them to turn around and say they have changed their company slogan from "Don't be Evil" to "Be Evil".  I know this would be bad considering how much information I alone have stored with them in one way or another, and I am sure many people have the same amount or more, but for a minute I would think it was funny and that maybe they were just joking.  I would also be able to say I told you so to my husband (and what wife doesn't like doing that :-).

More on the subject later I am sure.