Things change, things stay the same
Like me, always going on vacation in the second half of the year. Head to China/Mongolia tomorrow, so here's the last blog for two weeks. Then, whoooooo boy, lotsa pictures of mutton dinners and open skies.
1) Some things stay the same, like my love of sophomoric humor. A street sign in Sai Kung.
2) Speaking of Sai Kung, I spent another great Saturday night up there, drinking and having fun and playing jukebox, and another horrible Sunday recovering.
Heading up there makes me seriously want to consider moving up there. It's got a great, relaxed vibe, and the whole town has a laid-back vibe and plenty of space to it, at least for now, before development totally overruns it. It's on the far northeast side of of the Hong Kong SAR as a whole, and is a 20-minute subway ride from work, then another 30-minute bus ride. Or, to put it another way, an expensive-ass cab ride home at night if I decide to go out in Central.
But the bars: they have jukeboxes. And the restaurants: they have space where you can sprawl out. And the coffee shops: they have places where you can actually sit outside.
And if you want fresh seafood - which I usually don't - here really is your place.
Just pick out your shellfish from the tanks in front of the restaurant and they will cook it fresh.
Or, if you are craving horseshoe crab, you just pick it up off the sidewalk, where they keep them.
3) And, under the category of both of the titles for this posting, comes the street corner just around the corner from me. You know how every city has corners of death, where businesses constantly churn, and no one can seem to stay in business? In Chicago, it used to be the northeast corner of Clark/Belmont and Sheffield/Belmont, but no more, I think.
In my hood, it's around the corner, on Victoria road, on Davis Street. It has been a number of businesses - traditional medicine, convenience store, curtain shop - but the latest was a quasi drug store that specialized in "organic" products. I.E. things like vegetable scrubs, "organic" dish soap, anything overpriced and heavily manufactured, but given the veneer of organic to guilt those with money to burn, whether whiteys in America or Chinese in HK, into buying them because it will make them healthier.
It lasted less than two months. It will not be missed. I asked once if they had ibuprofen, and they gave me a sneering "no," like I should not be taking it.
Good riddance. I was not weeping when I saw today, someone inside jackhammering away at the floor, preparing it for whatever else moves in and then dies a quick death.
What survies? My Japanese restaurant. The crazy old lady who sells chinese greens out of her styrofoam container every day just up the block, and who might be cursing at me as I go by because she's nuts but I have no idea because she only speaks Cantonese. Oh, and the "adult" shop specializing in lingerie and lubricant arond the corner from me. Haven't seen that shut down yet.
1) Some things stay the same, like my love of sophomoric humor. A street sign in Sai Kung.
2) Speaking of Sai Kung, I spent another great Saturday night up there, drinking and having fun and playing jukebox, and another horrible Sunday recovering.
Heading up there makes me seriously want to consider moving up there. It's got a great, relaxed vibe, and the whole town has a laid-back vibe and plenty of space to it, at least for now, before development totally overruns it. It's on the far northeast side of of the Hong Kong SAR as a whole, and is a 20-minute subway ride from work, then another 30-minute bus ride. Or, to put it another way, an expensive-ass cab ride home at night if I decide to go out in Central.
But the bars: they have jukeboxes. And the restaurants: they have space where you can sprawl out. And the coffee shops: they have places where you can actually sit outside.
And if you want fresh seafood - which I usually don't - here really is your place.
Just pick out your shellfish from the tanks in front of the restaurant and they will cook it fresh.
Or, if you are craving horseshoe crab, you just pick it up off the sidewalk, where they keep them.
3) And, under the category of both of the titles for this posting, comes the street corner just around the corner from me. You know how every city has corners of death, where businesses constantly churn, and no one can seem to stay in business? In Chicago, it used to be the northeast corner of Clark/Belmont and Sheffield/Belmont, but no more, I think.
In my hood, it's around the corner, on Victoria road, on Davis Street. It has been a number of businesses - traditional medicine, convenience store, curtain shop - but the latest was a quasi drug store that specialized in "organic" products. I.E. things like vegetable scrubs, "organic" dish soap, anything overpriced and heavily manufactured, but given the veneer of organic to guilt those with money to burn, whether whiteys in America or Chinese in HK, into buying them because it will make them healthier.
It lasted less than two months. It will not be missed. I asked once if they had ibuprofen, and they gave me a sneering "no," like I should not be taking it.
Good riddance. I was not weeping when I saw today, someone inside jackhammering away at the floor, preparing it for whatever else moves in and then dies a quick death.
What survies? My Japanese restaurant. The crazy old lady who sells chinese greens out of her styrofoam container every day just up the block, and who might be cursing at me as I go by because she's nuts but I have no idea because she only speaks Cantonese. Oh, and the "adult" shop specializing in lingerie and lubricant arond the corner from me. Haven't seen that shut down yet.
posted by throm at 1:16 AM
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