No public nekkidness from me this week, I’m afraid. All say “Aaaw” now! ;)
I couldn’t sleep tonight, and took a deep dive into my photo archives. I found these two reflections of me. The first one shows me killing time with my camera, while waiting for the subway. Most subway stations in Hong Kong have glass panes and sliding doors in front of tracks, to prevent people jumping or being pushed onto them.
The second shows me taking a picture of a hat shop in Basel. When I shot it, I didn’t even notice that I was in it.
We went to the swimming pool this morning, to while the day away with swimming, playing and relaxing, but our plans were cut short by a thunderstorm in the afternoon. So we did the next best thing, and went to the supermarket, stocked up on groceries, and spent the afternoon cooking and eating.
First, we feasted on salad and pork chops, which were finger-licking delicious. I may have found the perfect way to prepare them…
I bought four pork chops, thick cut, with bone.
1)I washed and patted them dry,
2)sliced the edge of fat every inch, to prevent curling,
3)rubbed in salt and pepper on both sides, and
4)prepared three plates for the coating.
5)The first one with corn starch, for a light coat that ensures that the meat remains tender and the rest of the coatings don’t fall off during frying.
6)The second, a soup plate with one beaten egg and two cloves of garlic, crushed with a garlic press.
7)The third one with Japanese bread crumbs, which are flakier than normal ones and give a much nicer texture.
8)I heated quite a lot of oil in a big frying pan, and
9)lightly covered the chops with each coating, before
10)putting them into the pan and frying them for about 8 minutes on each side.
The coating was thin and not too greasy, taking nothing away from the taste of the soft and juicy meat. Little man ate a whole pork chop, and told me that it was very, very yummy. There is nothing better than getting compliments from him, because he is equally honest if things are not to his taste.
And we didn’t stop there. For dessert, we had mangos from Hainan. Like Lecram, I am a fan of yellow varieties. My supermarket mostly stocks yellow mangos from the Philippines, which have a clean citrus taste, and are ideal for making sorbet. Just puree the fruit, mix in sugar to taste, and pop it into the ice-cream maker or freezer. But today, I bought mangos from Hainan, which is an island off the South China Coast, similar in climate to Hawaii. The mangos were quite small, had a nice sweetness, and were incredibly fragrant. The scent was better than perfume, and my fingers still smell of them.
Inspired, I did a little research on the internet about Hainan. It’s just an hour away from Hong Kong by plane, and looks like an ideal spot for a beach vacation.
Yeah… I can picture myself on that beach, eating mango or drinking fresh coconut milk.
My week was busy, busy, busy… but on Friday, after my last meeting for Cosima Inc, I indulged a little and snapped pictures around Tsim Sha Tsui, which is the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula, and a major shopping and tourist area. I felt a little bit like a tourist too, with my camera around my neck, stopping at sights and taking pictures. I must have looked like one as well. On Nathan Road, touters stopped me every twenty meters, offering “Copy watches? Handbags? Rolex?”, “Tailor, Madam?”, and “Massage?”
The ride from Hong Kong Island to Tsim Sha Tsui with the Star Ferry costs HK$2.20 (US$0.28) on the upper deck and HK$1.70 (US$0.22) on the lower deck, proving that good things don’t need to be expensive. The Star Ferry Pier in the picture was only recently opened. The old pier from the 1920s fell victim to a land reclamation project, which will give Hong Kong Island a new waterfront promenade.
These trees and the little tower in Tsim Sha Tsui were luckier. They are still standing, but the hill that used to be around and under them is gone. I wonder, what is planned for them. Will they become the 3rd floor attraction of a new shopping mall?
The queue in front of Louis Vuitton reminded me of old times in East Germany. Whenever there was a queue in front of a shop, people would first join the line, and then ask the person in front what was on offer, usually something hard to get like bananas or jeans. These folks are probably tourists from Mainland China, wanting to buy a coveted status symbol bag, and the store makes sure that it doesn’t get too crowded inside.
I headed towards Nathan Road, Kowloon’s main thoroughfare. The picture below shows the entrance to famous Chungking Mansions. The lower levels host myriads of little shops, offering cheap clothing, electronics, watches, CDs and DVDs, food, and money changing services. There are also many snack bars with ethnic cuisine. I had a roti, which was delicious. A high proportion of the shops are run by Indians and Pakistanis, while many of the customers come from Africa. They buy in large quantities to resell the items in their home countries.
Chungking Mansions is a one-stop shop, if you have to travel on a shoestring. I saw heavily laden travelers waiting in front of the elevators, to go to one of the many budget guest houses on the upper floors. Accommodation is very basic, many of the rooms don’t even have windows, but the location is convenient and prices are the cheapest in town.
After Chungking Mansions, I went into a big souvenir shop. I tried to resist, but how could I not buy a little cheongsam for my mobile phone :)? It’s a little souvenir to remember the touristy afternoon in my adopted city.
Opposite from Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’s largest mosque is located, and behind it Kowloon Park, the green lung of the area. There is also a subway station at the same corner, making the crossing a very busy one. When I crossed the road, I stopped on the pedestrian island and took a series of pictures. It was fascinating to observe the rising and falling tide of people through the camera lens.
I headed back south towards the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, and walked along the Avenue of Stars, which is modeled after Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and boasts a Bruce Lee statue and imprints of Cantonese movie stars.
The waterfront is also the best place to watch the Symphony of Lights, a light and laser show displayed by skyscrapers along the Hong Kong harbor. It takes place every day at 8pm. It was a wonderful finale to my sight-seeing adventure.
Direct in front of our building a little lake has formed, to call it a puddle would be an understatement. The rainwater drainage ditches are filled with water rushing down the hills. And it’s so dark outside that we have turned on the lights throughout the flat after waking up this morning. The rain started a few days ago, and with the exception of a few short breaks hasn’t stopped since. The Hong Kong summer isn’t called wet season for nothing.
The frogs love it though. They sit in pipes and ditches, and in the evening they croak their little hearts out. But they don’t really croak or ribit like English-speaking frogs. They don’t quak either… that’s what German frogs do. Most frogs around here are Buddhist frogs, they “ohm”. A few of them pretend to be German dogs and say “wau wau”.
Which started me thinking about animal sounds in different languages. While some words for animal sounds are similar around the globe, others, curiously enough, are quite different. And normally these things are not written down in your average dictionary.
I found this fun forum entry, where people discuss words for animal sounds in their respective language. Did you know that Romanian pigs say “groh-groh” and Japanese cats “nyaanyaa”? … me neither.
So in the spirit of my earlier attempts to introduce you to the wackier side of the German language, here is a list of animal sounds in German:
bee – Biene: summ summ (summen, which also means to hum)
There are several words for the state of being alone, loneliness is one but it has a negative connotation, and therefore is almost the opposite of what I want to describe. In all of us is the need for companionship, of spending time with and being loved by friends, parents, children, and lovers, but solitude, and being comfortable with it, is equally important, because we all are separate human beings with our own feelings, beliefs, and thoughts. And spending time alone, and nurturing our own separate soul is not wasted time.
I came across an article by a young woman from India. In Being OK with Me she describes how hard but important it was for her to spend a period of her life alone and become comfortable in her own world. It is a wonderful essay on solitude and why it is not something we should fight.
The problem is that even if you have identified the need of spending time alone, in normal life it’s hard to get. It’s probably the reason why I like the night so much. Then it is not so hard to find the odd free hour to write a post, read a book, hang after a thought, or just bathe in an emotion.
Download Jamie Cullum’s All At Sea by right-clicking and selecting Save Link As.
The evening before Mother’s Day we went out to buy a new washing machine. Since my last rant, our old one has continued her cranky behavior, and we decided that Diva has to go rather sooner than later. We did some salivating over a manly Miele, but decided against buying one. Firstly because of the high price, secondly because of the high price, and thirdly because our washing machine has to stand on a partially open kitchen balcony. With Hong Kong’s high humidity, it would be the equivalent of buying a Rolls Royce and then letting it rot curbside at the wrong end of town, instead of parking it in a garage.
So we bought a Korean washing machine instead. It’s cheap and they give extended warranty. Three years for the entire machine, and even five for the motor. I think they learnt from selling cars that that’s a pretty successful strategy to crack the market.
And then look at the advertising…
How could a girl not want a washing machine by Samsung? Look what’s included in the price! When sweaty t-shirts, smelly socks, and dirty underwear stack up to the ceiling, a gorgeous prince will arrive on a white horse with flowing mane. He will take the girl into his arms, and assure her that everything will be alright. He will sort the mountain of dirty clothes, according to color and recommended temperature…
When the first load is in the machine, he will make coffee. And while the girl looks pretty next to her washing machine, he will whip up a quick but delicious dinner. When all is said and done, the prince will take the girl by the hand and lead her to the two chairs on the beach. They will gaze into the sunset and live happily ever after.
So, after daydreaming a little carefully weighing all the pros and cons, I said “Let’s buy this Korean wonder machine!”
On a whim, I left the train at Tsing Yi yesterday. Tsing Yi lies on a train line going from Central -Hong Kong’s business district - to the new international airport, opened in 1998. It’s really an island, but unless you look on a map it’s hard to realize it. In true Hong Kong style, the island has been flattened and enlarged by reclamation. However, the promenade along the water front is nice…
…and draws a lot of people, going for a stroll, a jog…
…or a chat on one of the benches.
Tsing Yi has seen explosive development over the years. The latest building boom was fueled by the opening of the new train line in 1998, which made traveling to downtown faster and more convenient. When the British took over the island in 1894, 4000 people lived on Tsing Yi, now almost 200,000 people do. The development, like most “New Towns” in Hong Kong is centered around the MTR station and a new, glitzy shopping mall on top of it. It also has a huge outdoor swimming pool, and across from it a lot of …
…graves with fantastic feng shui. If you want to rest in peace, this spot may not seem ideal, a little noisy with all the ship, train, and car action nearby, but the important thing is that the cemetery is located on a mountain directly by the sea. Fengshui-wise it cannot get any better.
For the living, there are two styles of accommodation, government-subsidized or private apartment blocks. The beauties below are subsidized housing estates with prosaic names like “Tsing Yi Estate” and “Ching Wang Court”.
The following, on the other hand, are called “Villa Esplanada”, “Tierra Verde”, or “Grand Horizon”. The paint job is more colorful, and there is a lot of marble in the lobby. It’s a middle income area, suburbia Hong-Kong-style… a little denser than in most other places.
Across from the water, a gigantic office tower is in the last stages of construction. While trying to get the best angle for a shot, I was thinking that a tower like this, would generate a lot of headlines in Europe or even in America, but in fast-growing Asia, it’s one of many skyscrapers currently being built, and doesn’t cause the slightest ripple. I bet in five years there will be even more buildings of the same height around it.
Yesterday’s South China Morning Post had an interesting article on the red-white-blue fabric mostly used for cheap travel bags, first mentioned in The Revenge of Louis Vuitton. Apparently, it’s so hip that several haute couture houses came out with clothes and bags made out of it. See… I told you it’s a winning design… call me Coco from now on ;).
What I didn’t know, is that these travel bags originated in Hong Kong, not on the Chinese Mainland. They were first sewn together by a Hong Kong bag maker (82 year-old Lee Wah, still working in his workshop in Sham Shui Po) and quickly copied by a lot of other manufacturers, because they were ideal bags for transporting presents to Mainland Chinese relatives, when times were still a little tougher.
The fabric has taken on a symbolized meaning for many Hongkongers. A Canto-pop star even wore a red-white-blue suit for a comeback concert. Yes, it’s cheap, but resilient and flexible too, and that symbolizes the Hong Kong spirit so well. The article also featured Hong Kong artist Stanley Wong, who works with the fabric (see pic above), and even exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
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I made potato salad with green asparagus, which I ate for the first time in a restaurant in Basel, together with fried fish. The fish was good, but the potato salad, with crunchy asparagus added to it, was the real highlight, so simple but delicious. Although mine tasted a little different, it was yummy too. Don’t ask me for a detailed recipe with quantities, but here is what I tossed together: - cooked baby potatoes halved or quartered with skin, as it is very thin it’s ok to eat - blanched green asparagus, sliced into bit-size pieces - a finely-sliced red onion - fresh coriander leaves, chopped - two smallish tomatoes for color, diced - dressing made of fresh lemon juice and olive oil - salt …tasted even better on the second day.
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I rented a handful of movies over the last days. I had quite a lot to do for Cosima Inc, and watching a movie after little man went to bed was the ideal way to wind down at the end of the day. I saw Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which I had never seen before. Paul Newman left me oddly cold. Don’t know what it was exactly, but he just seemed too pretty to play the broken alcoholic, and Elizabeth Taylor played him against the wall. One day, I would love to see it as a theater production with modern interpretation.
I also rented Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu. On the IMDB message board one female commenter remarked that he is one of the few actors that are ugly but still sexy. Well… I don’t find him ugly. True, he doesn’t have the baby face that’s currently in fashion in Hollywood, but in every role he exudes… energy. Don’t know how to better describe it, not the kick-them-in-the-face and jump-out-of-a-burning-car energy, but true vitality, and that’s sexy.
What else did I see… oh, a really beautiful and lush movie by Vietnamese/French director Anh Hung Tran. At the Height of Summer is a slow moving film, but a quicker pace would spoil the stunning visuals and nuances. The film shows the life of three sisters living in Hanoi during one summer. The lushness of Hanoi during the rainy season, Halong Bay, lots of food, beautiful music, and a really interesting view on life’s twists make this a wonderful film to watch. It doesn’t have a conventional plot line, and I am sure some of the allusions got lost in translation, but it still touched me. I have been to Hanoi ages ago, and this film made me want to visit again. It also made me want to see more movies by Anh Hung Tran, as well as Mark Lee, the cinematographer of the film. He was also behind the camera for In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai, which is another visual stunner.
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And in other news… our washing machine seems to be near the end of its lifetime. I was ready to leave the house, clad in heels and business suit, when I remembered that I hadn’t taken the washing out of the machine. I opened the door – it’s a front loader – and a gush of water flowed over my pants and shoes.
I am used to antics by this Diva, the broken door hinge exactly two weeks after the warranty ran out and frequent foamy leakages have kept us on our toes, but this was a stunning culmination of events. And it didn’t happen at a good time either… but it never does, does it?
Thankfully, the washing machine stands on a kitchen balcony with a drain, and I didn’t need to mop up the floor. In the evening, the Diva worked normally, tricking me into believing that everything was well. This morning, I tried to take out freshly washed clothes, pulled the door handle, and suddenly held the entire door in my hand. The Diva still works, if only grudgingly. I can put the door back into the hinge and close it, it only leaks a little. I am pondering with what kind of washing machine to replace her with. The dream candidate would be a manly Miele, the Rolls-Royce of washing machines. Unfortunately, it almost costs as much as one. I guess we better put some money to the side, while Diva is still inclined to get her hands wet.
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Boy, that was a lot of pent-up writing. Sorry, that it all came out in one gush :).
Today is my first blogoversary… yippee! Come on in and celebrate with me! Raise a glass of bubbly – alcoholic or not – to Cosima Underwater’s first year!
I almost missed it. I was thinking about introducing a few more labels and clicked on the first post one, and there it stood May 4th 2006, the day that I started Cosima Underwater, pretty much on a whim, not actually sure what I should do with it, nor where it would take me.
The second post on the same day was a picture, an HNT picture, and it introduced me to a wonderful community of people. That I met you all, while we were being half-nekkid, made it all the more enjoyable :).
So, on my first blogoversary I would like to thank Os for starting it all. Os, you are my Da Count for today. Without you, I would still be traveling alone in cyberspace… completely clothed. And how boring would that be?
