Flew to New York on Thursday night since it’s a long week-end in Canada, the flight was full. And this was my 3rd flight to New York within 2 weeks. Arrived NYC  in the morning around 0630 and spotted a British Airways B744 aircraft with  a special Alliance Livery…

On the way back home , I took a couple of pics of the meal I prepared (except the appertizer)at the galley for passenger

Assorted Breads

Appertizer

a Main course before transferng into the  plate

the Main Course/Entree.

Frankly I miss the old New York pattern so much, we used to  leave Vancouver in the mid-day and arrive JFK airport in the evening around 2000, and could have got into the hotel in Manhatten around 2130, had a good dinner with crew memebr,  slept and and explored the city on the following day, either shopping, or going to museum, or even watching a musical, then operated the night flight back to Vancouver.

The current one is leaving Vancouver at night around 2200, arriving JFK around 0645, then  get to the hotel around 0730 have a breakfast and back to the room to sleep till around 1800 and have to start to get ready for the returning flight….usually get back home around 0230 the next day. Maybe the younger general can still squeeze a couple of hours to shop in NYC, for me however, I rather sleep as much as I can..therefore I find it quite  non-productive…….

After my long layover in HK, back to Vancouver and had  a 2 days off,  went  to the gym during the day time, had 2 different dinner each night with 2 groups of firends.

The first evening had  my 2nd Alaska King Crab dinner this year  at a Chinese Restaurnat, however was a bit disappointed with the quality of the crab, maybe it’s toward to the end of the season the crab seemed like a big smaller with less meat….. compare to the 1st one I had only 2 weeks ago….

Steam King Crab with garlic

Steam Japanese Rice with King Crab in a Lotus Leave

Stir-fried Lobster with salted egg yolk

The following night which was also a Sat night had a western dinner at a Chain Restaurnat the “Cactus Club” and Had my favourite Jambalaya Rice Bowl

A class of Sauvignon Blanc before dinner

Bandara Salad – cajun chix, corn, dates, feta, crispy chow-mein, honey-lime vinaigrette

Crispy Dried Ribs

The Jambalaya Rice Bowl(an record pic file) -shrimp, chicken, cured bacon, sausage, vegetables, spicy tomato sauce,sausage, vegetables, spicy tomato sauce, black bean salsa, crème fraiche

Sun, slept thru the whole day since I need to operate a Red-eye flight to New York . Woke up ar around 1700 and had a dinner at a nearby noodle shop and headed to work.

Haven’t been working in the First Class for a while and this flight the First Class was 100% full and one of the guests on this flight was Diana Krall who had just finished attending the Juno Awards in Vancouver and headed back to New York, didn’t take a picutre because she was soo tired and slept right after take off till the end fo the flgiht.

Arrived New York at 0615 by the time we arrived the hotel it’s about 0830 thanks to the Mon traffic. After having   simple and quick breakfast at the hotel cereal/muffin/fruit and a chamomile tea(which is known as a sleep aid) went back to my room and slept…..till 1900. Freshen up then went down to the lobby and got on the crew transport to the airport for the flight back to Vancouver..Luckily though this flight was very busy at the back, there’s no one in First therefore my main duty for this evening was to look after the cockpit crew…

Weather in Vanocuver was a bit mix…….Wet Snow in the morning, Raining in the mid day and Sunny in the afternoon and clear sky at night…nothing particular over the follwing 3 days except  ThursI had to prepare the Tax Return, which years ago was a very complicated task, rnowadays with the offical software, fewer mistakes will be made, and it just took me a hour to finish..

Downtown Vancouver during Sunset….view from my friend’s apartment

And at night I had dinner with a friend from HK at the Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar which is a Seafood Restaurant plus a Sushi/Sashimi Bar, offering a near to fine dining experience well trained server, good food presentation and quality, wide selection of fine wine, spirits, liqueur, a very modern  decor dining room only if they could have better Chinaware, Silverware and Glassaware, then it would have been a complieted experience….

Seaweed butter and quash spread

Hot + Sour Lobster Soup – tofu, beech mushrooms, butternut squash, mussels

Bouillabaisse – provencal fisherman stew with saffron, garlic, tomatoes and pacific rim seafood

Special of the day –  Ceaser Salad with Fried Crab Meat Ball

Special of the day Pan-fried Halibut

‘Kobe Style’ Beef Short Ribs – braised with coffee and chili, roasted winter squash, brussels sprouts and kumquats

Tea set and complimentary cookies

Spent a week to a refresher training course  in HKG, the purpose of the training course is to make are we are qualified and capable to be a fire fighter, life rescuer, first aider….etc and make sure you will have a safe flight! It’s a 3 days course, however before and after the course for sure had spent time with good companions to enjoy Food.

On Saturday 21MAR went to have dinner at this Shake ‘em Buns at Causeway Bay, they do serve yummy burgers at a over the average price. Then went to the Victoria park for the Hong Kong Flower show 2009. Before hading back to rest had some simple dessert

Shake ‘em Buns

Fried Mashed Potatoes

The Classic Burger they call it The Works

Chilli Burger

The Flower Show

Some Young Chinese Orchestra performing at the show

Also promoting the East Asian Games 2009

Some simple dessert before heading back to the hotel to rest

Sunday 22MAR after a very full Dim Sum Lunch(ooops no pics) and a pedicure went to ShauKiWan and walked around……

The Tram Terminus at the East side of  the HK island ShauKiWan

The typical market

Local Strett style food 1 ‘Small Bowl Shark’s fin soup’ (faked shark’s fin)

street style food 2 ‘Small Car Noodle’

Deep Fried Chives Dumplings

Time passed so fast after a 3 days very intense training  went to the Avaitor Pub/Restaurant at Tung Chung with friends for Happy Hours and some food, though the food was something to be considerated, the drinks, the sine and the atmosphere was great!! After all it’s a Pub anyway…

Snack Platter

Tandoori Lab(or Mutton to be exact because ofthe taste)

Duck config with Angel Hair

Grilled Mixed Seafood

On Thursday 26MAR before operating the flight back to Vancouver, Had an afternoon tea at the lobby lounge of the InterContinental Hotel HK, I was here over a year ago for their tasty  French Burger( a Burger with pan fired foi gras , sundreied tomatoes, and truffles whcih is still my favourite Burger!)and thier silver ware and 5 star service, my tea cup was automatically refill througout. The Highlight this time of course is the tea. The tea leaves they currently using on their Menu is from France  Mariage Frere  and the flavour I choose was Marco Polo with the Flavour of fruits and flowers of China and Tibet. The flavour was so good that it could last till my very last cup which was 3 1/2 hours later with numerous of hot water refills it was such a delight!

  It was a beautiful weekend  in HKG however the Winter seems not going away as the temperature suddenly dropped to 13C on Friday night so it was a cool Saturday after having brunch with my friend we eventually decided to go to one of the outlying islands in HKG –  Cheung Chau ( Long Island) hm…last time I was here should be 1996 before I moved over to Vancouver.

The ferry ride to Cheung Chau from Central HK Island was about 45 minutes, once you step out or the ferry pier , you will see how busy the place is…as Cheung Chau is one of the most popular week-end place to the HKG locals they usually spend 1 or 2 nights here for a very short break specially during  Summer as can find a nice long beach here where u can do waterspots remember this is the place where the Li Lai Shan was born and  started her wind surfing career and got her(as well as Hong Kong) First Olympic Gold Metal in 1996 Atlanta Olympic Game

Inside the Ferry, and the woman next to me was eating, which is very common with the local, I remember when I was a kid I used to buy a bowl of  instant noodle with fried egg and Luncheon meat from the food kioks in the ferry

Leaving the Central  Ferry Pier

Approaching Cheung Chau after about a 45 mins ride

The main street off the Ferry Pier

The main beach of Cheung Chau –  Tung Wan actualy I had my very first swim here at the age of 8

Here’s the place where we could rent the lockers, have snack , drinks and for the adults they could even play Mah-Jong here while the kids are having fun on the beach!

The is actually the kitchen of a restaurant

Cheung Chau is still a Fishermen village

Dried sea food for sale

walk along the hill…..a mini hiking…

finding the way to the Cheung Po Chai(Tsai) Cave a place where the accient priate put their treasure

here is  the entrance of the cave  this is my 2nd time at this place the first time was in 1979 when I was 13 with a gorup of school mates and I was one of the few who didn’t go into it, and now in 2009 I just dare to take a picture only so I have never seen those Treasures

after all the walk took the Kai-To(small boat ride) back to the main street

on the way and the weather was beautiful

Home of the fishermen?

at the fishermen village of course you can find those Sea food restaurnat

we ended the day tour with some street food, curry fish ball and fish meat Siu Mai(kind of dunpling)

How could my entry without food pictures! At night back to CauswayBay HK Island we had this family style Indian Food restaurant

Tandoori Lamb

Basmatic Rice and Nann Bread

Cottage chesse Spinach

Murgh(Chix) Makhani

 Sat had a belated birthday dinner with a group of ex-collegues at the Lumiere IFC Hong Kong a restaurant serves Fusion/Sichaun cuisine. As one of the high-end restaurnats, this one offers above average food, with a nice decor, Bar and a ver good view of the Victoria Harbour. However the high-light of the evening was the Birthday Boy who could have totally forgotten our dates and went for the gym, left his mobile phone inside the locker and let the whole group worrying for early 2 hours , luckily  he returned call after we had finished our appertizers and joined us for the rest of the evening, otherwise the birthday cake would have been cut by me….who just love celebrating birthday every nights hahahaha……

The Bar

A complementary welcome cocktail Water-Melon/Vodka with Cocoa Powder

The setting waiting for the Birthday Boy

Appertizers: the Chix Roll with Special Sauce

Fried Veggie Roll

Deep Fried Taro Ball with pork

Some basic Sichaun dishes which are very good to go with steam rice

Dan Dan Noodle

Pan-fried Dumpling

Complementary Birthday Cake with Vanila IceCream with Chilli

you won’t feel the sensation of the chilli till you swallow the ice-cream such an experience…

No idea what to do on Sun, my friend and I eventually decided to pretend to be tourists and tour around HKG 2 famous spots!

After a brunch at Tsui Wah a restaurant serving HKG local food, we went to the bus terminal at Exchange Square to take a bus to go to Stanely where you can shop at the Stanley Market and have a drink along te pubs and bars and you can also find an old building Murray House whcih  is relocated form somewhere in Central.

On the way to the bus terminal we saw lots of Filipinos Domestic Helpers spending their  Sun at the Bridges for pedestrians chatting, sleeping eating……etc

Stanley

The Murray House and the Ferry Pier

Afterwards we went to take a Tram and went to the Peak, rather than just walk around the Shopping malls and the wax museum we walked up to the top.

It’s quite an exercise  and we felt a bit hungry therefore we headed to The Peak Lookout Restaurnat and had some early dinner.

Tomatoe and Ginger soup

Ceaser Salad and Veggie Samosa

Grilled Spring Chix with Safron Basmatic rice

Stuffed Chix Breast  with Mashed Potatoes

We had aonther walk at the Lugard Road after the dinner and it’s took us 45 minutes to finish, the weather was very foggy, with the yellowish street lights the walk felt like very Misery!

After some photos taking at the Model Tram we headed back  and I was soo tired that I evenly had a nap on the Airport Express till I got back to the Airport area…

Remember I had a cold sore about a week ago? I was quite sure than  it came becos of my fatigue and the cold weather( together my immune system is lower) in Vancouver.

Monday morning I woke up with a sore throat, my 6 sense told me that I might have caught a cold. I had a large glass of water and it was so painful when the fluid passing through.  I had my temperature check at once since I had to go to work in the afternoon, luckily it’s normal….

Got on the flight and worked so hard on this full Biz class cabin, though only 30 passengers, then went for the rest right away. After a couple of hours  returned back to the cabin for my duty and  this headache accompanied me till the end of the flight. Took some pills and went to sleep on arrival   – not a deep sleep means not a good rest. The next day doing nothing but having 2 light meals, the 3rd day  returning back to Vancouver. After an uneventful flight I started to have a nasal congestion once I got home, and this morning a heavy runny nose and sneezing…

Actually I’m surprised that other than the headache not much symtoms occurred while I was working, but once I’m on ground or after work everything come out….luckily I have 2 full days to rest….

 Browsing the net and found these Vintage Farrah Fawcett  Products, have you ever seen them before? I have, and I did use them…when I was a teenager years ago…..

Monday night while I was having a shower before getting ready for flight to HKG, I had this tingling feeling on my lower lips, realised that I’m going to have a cold sore. I started to have cold sore since my teens and it comes everynow and then usually 1-2 yrs apart specailly when I don’t have enough rest and usually during winter times…what  most bothering me is…I don’t look good for about a week…other than that it really doesn’t affect me….

So  I just went out with my friend and spent a half day at Soho/Central  HongKong. We had a lunch at a restaurant called Sup-1 which is run by my ex-collegues, and her friends…serving ….fusion.

The Mushroom Dip with toastes..my favourite of the day

Window shopping around Central including H&M, though didn’t buy anything  it’s  fun to just pick up stuff and try it out at the changing room…..

Before my friend went for her BellyDancing class at 1830, we went to Dragon-I for a Happy Hour

I’m hiding up my Cold Sore

At night meeting up with another group of firend to have a  very simple Shanghainese Dinner since my stomach was too full to have a really big meal for dinner….

Havn’t been to the night scence for .sometimes whether in Hong Kong, Vancouver or even New York, my last time at a dance club was about 2 years ago  at the Celebrity in Vancouver. Last Saturday night  I spent an evening at the Davie(GAY) Village with a group of friends and one of them was actually a visitor from HongKong.

Had a pasta dinner at the Cafe Luxy a cozy Italian  pasta place..then we head to the 1181 a new bar( at least new to me) to warm up..then we headed to Odyssey a club which I used to go frequently and my last time here was…..hahahah 3 years ago!

Do I look like I had too much alcohol????hahahaha no……I didn’t even have one sip, just Natural High once with the Dance Music

And I’m suprised to see around 10 people who I’ve seen in the club over the past 13 years are still around and been told that they love clubs hopping nearly every week-end – how energetic after all these years….

So how about you, do you like Clubbing?