lunar new year

Back to work after three days off to celebrate chinese new year. Tai Wai, where I live has been packed full of people since saturday night because of the famous, Che Kung Temple, which is just a minute down the road from my flat. Because of this busy business of celebrations, fire crackers, lion dances and generally just red and gold everywhere, it's taking me a lot longer than usual to get where I need to go.

Not much else has been going on really. I've been hanging out with gabe I lot more and it's reminding me of our chatteris days. We've been practicing kung fu in sha tin and playing a whole lot of nintendo wii.

Tuesday night I couldn't get to sleep so I ended up leaving my flat at midnight and made my way down to lan kwai fong. I met my good friend emily at a canadian joint, had a few pints and ended up pub crawling with three germans, a columbian fella and a gal from shang hai.
good times.

take care all
brendan

New moon. New face

Happy chinese newyear everyone!
I'm sitting at work waiting for my final student of the day then the drinking begins. To be honest though, the drinking definately started last night. I met Irene at an artist bar called Joyce is not Here for some sangria, then made my way quickly through a load of beer with jenkins and shaun watching Beerfest. We ended up heading out to the fringe club to see a few bands play already completely drunk. After playing cards on the roof and enjoying a few more rounds plus music, I managed to get the bus home. I woke up this morning on my sofa....late for work. Everything around here is quite relaxed today as everyone seems to be in the holiday spirit. So, I've felt no consequences due to my wonderful lie in.
My stomach has been at me all day though. Hair of the dog, here I come.

cheers
brendan

oops

This morning I just can't seem to shake that sleepy feeling. After having spent my friday night in central to watch a few bands at the edge and the shotgun she ra's at fringe club, I made my way home and layed down in my comfy bed....completely forgetting to set my alarm.

I missed my first lesson.

In case you were wondering...

more wasabi is the answer.

Finally, London.

I have indeed made it back from england alive, but due to my crappy work computer I haven't been able to log on to blogger to update on recent adventures.

So, london was amazing. Rod and I went to a carnival where one ride gave us an amazing view of most on london at night, with the added pleasure of spinning around upside down to boot. It was fantastic.
After that we wandered around looking for a stand up comedy venue called The Comedy Store. We did. We went. It was packed and had a really intimate atmosphere. Aside from a few open mic night comedians I had never seen any stand up but it was obvious that the five people on stage were professionals, were outstandingly hillarious and possessed a remarkably quick wit. The whole show was improv with some added help from the audience yelling out ideas that those on stage had to work with.
In a fantastic mood, we hit up a near by pub, which carried it's very own lager called Samuel Smith. Excellent and not too pricey.
Earlier in the day we went to camden market and wasn't all that different from Kensington market in toronto, although much larger and there was more of a rock style to most of the clothes. Near the market was a fantastic bar that really reminded me of home and toronto called, End of the World Bar. Being a bit early though no bands were playing but the music was awesome. I realized yet again how out of touch I've become from new music. Hong Kong is virtually empty.

There's obviously a lot more to say but it's rare for anyone to have enough time to say it all. Somewhere in there we had dinner at a chinese restaurant. I ordered in cantonese and the waiter hadn't a single problem or raised eyebrow in understanding what I wanted.

London, I hope to see you soon.

cheers
bebs