Birthday busy-ness

So much stuff has been going on, I went to see this wonderful little 10 year old boy play at the Wanch about a week and a half ago. His name is Yuto Miyazawa and he's from Japan, he's made the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest professional guitar player in the world. He got to play with Les Paul and Ozzy Osbourne among other great musicians. It was absolutely amazing to see him play and sing and he really truly is a prodigy. Plus he has the coolest guitar ever!!! If I played the guitar I would want to have this one.


In other news I went to a pub quiz night on my birthday on Tuesday and did not come in last but also Tessa and I decided that we will be quiz masters and have our own quiz night!! So we are half way through making that but not sure when Kila will want us to do it yet. After the quiz we went to a little place called the Buddha Lounge which is very tiny but very cozy and cute! The decor was very Thai and all the people that work there were really nice. 


On Sunday I went out with a travelbuddy from Italy and met some lovely Greek people as well. So now I will have somebody to teach me Greek and practice with. And one of them actually found his way through Hong Kong to come to my birthday party last night and got me some very cute little presents that I totally love! I also learned that South Africans and Greeks love the fat from meat when we went out for a late night dinner and my meal was practically all fat so they joyously ate it all up for me. lol!


On Thursday I went out for the pub crawl in Hong Kong and some of my co workers from Macmillan came with me. The night was fun and a lot of tourists came out for the night. There were a lot of Americans and British another Canadian like me, some Aussies and some Austrians. I think there were other countries represented but I can't remember where from. 


Which brings me to Saturday night...my birthday parteeee!!!! It was a James Bond theme and despite the amazing and fun idea very few people dressed up but a lot of people made the trip out to my house which was nice. I dressed up as Fatima Blush from Never Say Never Again, Danny dressed up as Baron Samedi from Live and Let Die, my Mom dressed up as M from a whole bunch of James Bond movies (the Judi Dench version), Aileen was Moneypenny from a whole bunch of James Bond movies, Sophie was Jill Masterson from Goldfinger, and John was Sheriff J W Pepper from Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun. Everyone brought lots of good food and drinks and I got some beautiful gifts. I got this fantastic ring and 2 scarves, some wine and chocolates, some Lily of the Valley bath stuff from Crabtree and Evelyn, a bulldog bank, a little music box that plays When you Wish upon a star, and a book. The house was a little packed but everyone had a lot of fun and it was very kind of everyone to come and pack themselves in here. So now here I am on Sunday morning/ afternoon writing this blog and I will post pictures as soon as I get some.

James Bond Character I was for my party

Catch up

Ok so last post was a half a month ago....anyways since I got back from Canada a lot has happened. My friend Sam was here so I got to play tour guide for a bit which is always kind of fun because then you can see Hong Kong through someone else's eyes in a new and exciting way, like when I first got here. We went around Tsim Tsa Tsui and the harbor to the Avenue of stars, I know 8 stars on the avenue of stars, I counted and I think that that's not too bad since they are all Asian stars. We went up to the peak and walked around and got to go to Bubba Gumps Restaurant (a take off of the Forrest Gump movies, and best shrimp ever!!!!) We visited some museums and went to Central and Wanchai of course. We also spent some time experiencing the local cuisine, dim sum not so much of a hit for him but hot pot was a definite favorite! i think the hot pot night may have just been one of his favorite nights. Of course we also got a taco tuesday in there becasue how could you pass up $10HKD ($1.27 cdn)tacos and $29 ($3.70 cdn)HKD margaritas. We also had a texas hold'em night here which Sam waged until the bitter end before finally losing out to my brother. His trip was fun for me but also a bit frustrating as I had to work quite a bit more than before Christmas. which brings me to next thing going on...I started a second job in Hong Kong......
I figured while I was here I might as well take all the money that Hong Kong can offer after all that is kind of why i'm here instead of working in jobs that involve my degree. So my second job is in the mornings on a rotation and I work for Cyclone Publishing, going out and teaching certain seminars for their company. The one I'm doing right now is all about the workplace like how to find a job, how to apply, how to write a cover letter/resume etc etc.. the next one I will be doing is teaching social issues to form 4's (13/14 year olds) which is kind of using my degree so that's a plus. I'm really enjoying this job a lot as the kids are older and the topics are really interesting for me as well as for the kids.
I'm also gearing up for my birthday to come, we are going to have a James Bond themed party at my flat, so everyone has to dress up in some sort of James Bond character so i'm pretty excited for that, the costumes should be really fun provided everyone dresses up but then again why wouldn't they its such a fun dress up idea. I know that my mom and brother already have their costumes ready and mine is almost complete just a few odds and ends to get all the details right.

hot pot 

Last night I went to Oyster with Emily and Lucia for $10 beers and then we hopped over to The Wanch to watch Corey Tam play with Gabe and Zane. Definitely a great show as those are three of Hong Kong's best musicians on one stage. So a really great night all and all. As for my volunteer jobs happening in August so far the only one that is a go for sure is the archeological trip in Macedonia, I'm still waiting to hear back from the Sea turtles trip in greece and trying to make up my mind about Oct/Nov/Dec's trip. I was going to go to Nepal but I am really feeling an African vibe and feel like that might be where I'm supposed to be going. I guess I'm just kind of reading and researching right now and hoping that something will jump out at me and I'll get a definite feeling of needing to be there. So wish me luck, pray for me and if you have any suggestions or places tat have been put on your heart please let me know. My next post probably won't be until my party on the 29th but maybe if something interesting happens i'll squeeze in another post. Thanks for reading and write to ya soon!!

Christmas Time!

Ok so Christmas has come and gone and I have left my blog to wither for far too long…. so here I am back and jet lagged as heck! So Christmas time was very interesting, very different but very interesting. I flew in on the 19^th spent the evening getting reacquainted with my niece who will probably promptly forget who I am once again until the next time I come back and she has a faint recollection of when I visited last time. So good times on the 19^th and then the 20^th came and my sister and I went to go and pick up my mum and went to the States for some girl time and some mother/sister/daughter time. So after three days of madness and a bit too much spending of my hard earned bills, we ventured back to the land of reality and Christmas madness. On the 24^th I went to a family Christmas time event at my sister’s boyfriend’s family’s house and had a wonderful Christmas dinner. Great food and wonderful wine! Which pretty much brings me to the big day…Christ’s birth, and family time, and presents. Then of course another dinner at my Uncle Mel and Auntie Sarah’s house which was amazing of course, along with some awesome cousin time. Trish had just flown in from Korea that day and Anne had just come back from New Zealand two days before and Shawna had also just come back from Korea for a bit so finally the fam was all back together and the cousins seem to be staying for the birth of their first nephew due to come into this world on the 1^st of January…Happy New Year!! Boxing day was quite interesting as well since it’s the first one that I have not worked in the last decade, sweeeeeeetness! On the 27^th I had a bit of a get together for all my friends since I was home for such a short time and I really wanted to see everyone I really tried hard to make sure I could somehow see everyone in one night since I was supposed to leave the next night. Unfortunately a lot of people couldn’t make it and some of the people I thought to be real friends sold out on me so that was that. On the 28^th there was a baby shower for the up and coming little boy about to grace my Aunt and Uncle’s family, who knew someone could get so much stuff! Wooooo Jamie made a killing there I’m pretty sure she won’t have to buy anything for her little boy for like two years…maybe three!! After the parteeee I was supposed to be getting ready for my 2 am flight back to the HK unfortunately it got delayed not once, not twice, not three times but four times and so finally 14 and a half hours after I was supposed to leave I was getting on a plane with my oldest friend Sammy. So that pretty much brings my life up to date. I will be getting ready for New Years eve to go on a super awesome Junk boat and have some great fun watching fireworks and meeting some new peoples and having some bubbly. So far I have no idea what I’m going to wear but don’t worry I’ll be sure to keep you posted. Lol!