Glad to be alive

Rode on the minibus from hell today. I guess I've been spoiled by the Tai Wai minibuses. These are only 3-4 minute rides between the KCR station and home. Today I had to get from Tai Wai to Tsuen Wan. I considered my options. KCR/MTR would take wy too long (45 min). So it was either take the double decker bus, or minibus. I figured I'd take the minibus, since it was more expensive (hence faster than the bus). As the mini screeched to a stop in front of me, I should have reconsidered. But I got on anyway, as I was running late. Even before I sat down, the driver had his lead foot down on the pedal. Bounced into a seat and reached instinctively for the seatbelt. No seatbelt. Come on! Even Tai Wai minis have seatbelts! So me and the other passengers swung from the handlebars conveniently located in front of us. During a stretch of straight tunnel road, our driver really felt the need for speed. Although they have a big speedometer display for the passengers to see, it didn't stop our driver. Suddenly, there was a loud beeping noise, like an alarm, everybody looks up, and sees that we're past the 80km/hr limit. I didn't even know about this fancy system until now. Apparently the loud beeping was just too obvious for the driver to ignore, so he slowed it down to just under 80. 80k/h may not sound like a lot, but when in a minibus, it feels at least double that speed. There's a rumour that the drivers tinker withe the displays. We got to Tsuen Wan in under 10, let me repeat, 10 minutes!! That's got to be a record of some sort. I'm sure the driver will be thrilled. The good news was that I got to my appointment 15 minutes early.

War Wounds

Not really a war, more like a catfight with an actual cat. Went over to a friends home for dinner. First time meeting the cat. It was fine at first, I was all petting it and scratching her ears (the cat's). During dinner, the cat hopped up onto the empty chair beside me. I reach for its head to pet it and out of nowhere, it claws me! I was wearing a sweater so the claw gets caught on my sleeve, and then the cat freaked out and bit me hard. Pierce through the skin hardness. So now I've got 2 teeth marks on my hand plus a scratch from the claw. Not so loving cats at the moment. But missing Pig a lot still. At least Pig has the decency to NOT bite through skin. He just enjoys affectionately gnawing on my fingers.

More photos

I promised more photos from my trip to the Shatin Museum. Here they finally are.

Me in full on Chinese opera makeup

Me playing the part of a guy

I'm IN a fish tank, just so happens you can't see the fish

Mean looking statue

Found MJ in the kiddies section, a bit ironic

My Journey through Narnia

I over-anticipated this film. The trailers looked soooooo awesome. Although I wasn't expecting another Lord of the Rings, I was still a bit disappointed. The film was way too short. A bit over 2 hours, could've used another hour. There are some great characters in this book, but in the film they didn't have time to fully flesh them out (e.g. Mr. Tumnus). I loved Lucy, just want to pinch her adorable chubby cheeks. The Peter and Edmund characters did a decent job too. But my favourite characters from the film were the BEAVERS!! They are hilarious and so darn cute. Aslan was ok. In my mind, I always pictured him bigger and with a deeper voice. It was strange hearing Liam Neeson's voice coming out of him. The White Witch could have been 10 times scarier. This film does have its moments, the first 5 minutes made me teary-eyed, the battle scene was not bad, but a tad short. The cheetahs looked sooo cool. Overall, it was a decent adaptation of the book. I definitely recommend the books though. The whole series.

Too lazy to write

So I've been really wanting to post an entry these past few days. But due to laziness, I've avoided it and have been instead reading other people's journals. I was reading Lok's recap of her year where I stumbled upon a great story. A TRUE story experienced by me, Lok, Jen, and Kristina back in Guelph. It's a long one! Lok wrote it, so it's all from her point of view. This story is entirely true, a horrific yet funny story. Read on if you dare.

Lok (March 2005):

I've had the most screwed up day.. that I can remember. I can't even believe half this stuff actually happened, and was not a fabrication of my imagination.

There were 2 stories I was going to tell you guys, but seeing as they're long, I'm only writing up the one that was just.. god.. horrible.

It's a long read, but trust me, it's.. different. Not your typical, oh the food was cold kinda deal.

Okay, so I agreed to meet Jenn, Ruth and Christina for dinner, since we hadn't seen each other in a while (definitely before reading week) and it was kind of a late celebration for Christina's birthday. I told them about this restaurant that I had gone to before with some other people, that I had really liked. Their service was pretty decent, and the prices were well within our budget range - especially considering how much food they give you. Anyhow, we get there at around 7pm and things seem okay, they seat us in a room and such, and we decided what we wanted to eat and everything.

It became apparant after a while that their service was really slow. Okay fine. Like how slow can it get, we figured. We order the food maybe.. 7:15pm. Christina asked some details about the bento boxes (just in case people don't know, bento boxes have some sushi, a main course (chicken, beef, whatever), salad, tempura and comes with soup, rice and dessert) we all ordered, and the waitress told us that it came with california rolls. Christina said she really didn't like them and if she could substitute them with anything. The waitress asked what she wanted, and Christina said salmon rolls and it works out. Okay, so Christina gets the salmon rolls and we all get california rolls. Whatever works.

So we sat.. and waited. And waited. And waited. We ordered an appetizer before our bento boxes so we were kinda expecting the appetizer to come sometime soon. Christina goes to complain, and they finally get us the appetizer like around 7:50pm. Yes, more than half an hour for an appetizer. Okay fine, we let that slide. Give them a benefit of the doubt you know. Despite the fact that they had a 6 year old doing the cash, but we figured family business, whatever.

We wait some more, and the dinner doesn't look like it's arriving. Jenn goes to complain and the Manager comes by with an explanation.. but right then, Ruth's food arrives. We all notice that it comes with salmon rolls instead of california rolls. I know it's not a big deal, but Jenn doesn't eat raw fish, so she said she was going to ask them to change it, if they brought it - the meal IS supposed to come with california rolls, they said so. So we wait some more, and the rest of the food arrives eventually, after a long time, and Jenn's food comes with salmon rolls so she sends it back asking for california rolls. So the following convo ensues:

Manager: We have a lot of orders, very busy.
Jenn: Okay, but your waitress said that the meal comes with California Rolls, we asked her before. I don't eat salmon, can I have California Rolls instead?
Manager (getting angry): We have a lot of orders, very very busy. Will take a long time.
Jenn (getting pissed off): But your waitress said that it comes with California Rolls, I would like California Rolls.
Manager (getting really angry): We have so many orders, it's very busy. Just very busy.
Ruth: Okay, but she doesn't eat raw fish, and your waitress had said previously...
Manager (screaming): WE ARE VERY BUSY. WE HAVE LOTS OF ORDERS. IF YOU WANT CALIFORNIA ROLLS YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE, YOU CAN LEAVE! *storms off* - everyone in the restaurant stares at us.

Uh okay. You know, a simple 'okay, but we're kind of busy, it might take a while, sorry' would have done quite nicely. What's with the yelling? So anyhow, we figure that we'll just eat quickly (by now we've been there for like an hour and a half) and we'll just leave. You know, forget about it, just go, no sense in arguing. So we eat, even though our rice is missing and the food is so salty you can't really eat it by itself - not to mention it's not even hot at all. Totally different from what I experienced last time at this place, they were honestly really decent. Dunno what happened. Eventually the California Rolls arrive, but Jenn won't eat them 'cause she's not sure if the Manager did anything to them... can't blame her, you just don't know sometimes, you know?

We finish our food quickly and we just wanna get out of there. They bring us the bill, and Jenn asks if she'll get any reimbursement/discount for getting yelled at and bad customer service. Haha. The Manager comes back and says something like "NO DISCOUNT, IF YOU DON'T LIKE, YOU CAN SUE ME, DON'T EVER COME BACK HERE AGAIN".. or something to that degree. Uh okay. So Ruth, Christina and me just wanna pay and get out of here, bad experience, won't come here again kinda deal. Jenn decides to take advantage of the Manager's previous statement of 'IF YOU DON'T LIKE, YOU CAN LEAVE' and refuses to pay, and goes right out the door with Christina. Ruth and I pay up, and the Manager comes storming out to see if Jenn paid. Of course, she finds that Jenn didn't pay. So here's where it gets scary:

Ruth and I go toward the door. The Manager and her husband starts screaming at us about paying. We both go 'we already did'. So then the husband proceeds to blockade the door and says we're not leaving. Ruth tries to leave, and the Manager shoves her back inside, hard.
Ruth: DON'T TOUCH ME.
Jenn (by now, getting dragged back in by the husband): DON'T TOUCH HER. This is Canada, that's harassment.
Manager: PAY THE BILL
Jenn: No, apologize.
*Manager shoves Jenn*
Jenn: STOP THAT. That's harassment.
Manager (makes a slapping motion with her hands): I can do what I want if you don't pay
Husband (starts pointing a finger in Ruth's face): PAY THE BILL! PAY THE BILL!

At this point in time it's just a back and forth screaming thing, but honestly, the Manager and the Husband look like they're gonna hurt Ruth and/or Jenn. So the first thing I can think of is to get between them, because I'm taller than all of them, and bigger, so you know, no one hurts anyone else sorta deal. So I kinda walk in between them and kinda just put my hands in between.
Lok: Okay okay, this is getting out of control, let's all just calm down here.

Before I know it, the Manager and her Husband are shoving me into Ruth and Jenn. Hard shoving. I didn't expect that, and they did it aggressively for a few pushes. It totally caught me off guard and it really ticked me off. Previously I wasn't really mad about the whole thing, but them shoving me was un-needed. So I turned around and said loudly: DON'T TOUCH ME. DO NOT TOUCH ME. DO YOU HEAR ME? GET OFF ME.
Manager + Husband: WE'LL CALL THE POLICE! CALL THE POLICE! NOT PAYING!
Lok + Ruth + Jenn: FINE, CALL THEM! GET THEM ALL HERE! We're not the ones being violent!

After that they didn't seem that violent, and Jenn and the Manager were still going at it about the bill. Jenn demanded an apology, the Manager refused, then accused us of stealing the bill so that they wouldn't remembered what Jenn ordered (we had seperate bills by the way). Yeah. Because we like to steal bills. Please. The waitress says that she called the police and they were coming, so we said we would wait for them. We didn't touch the Manager or her Husband, what were we afraid of. Jenn pays after arguing with the Manager some more, and we wait in Ruth's car for the police. The police (4 cars!) got there after like 2 minutes, and we talk with them about what happened, word for word as I've told you guys.

The outcome? The Manager and her Husband said they only did all that stuff because NONE of us paid, which was bullshit. The woman cop that was talking to us said that the Manager was allowed to make a citizen's arrest, even tho she 'had' said whatever she said before. We could sue them, but it would take a year or so. The best bet was just to avoid the place, and to tell everyone else we knew to avoid the place. The cop said she wouldn't go there either, after what happened. Haha.

I know the whole situation sounded like the ultimate cheesey script you see on TV, but it actually happened. I know, it seems like I'm fabricating it, but I'm actually not. It's actually really sad that it even happened in the first place, I totally didn't even expect it to get to the stage it did. I mean, at the beginning, I found the whole argument between Jenn and the Manager amusing, 'cause I mean, it's sushi, right? But when they started pushing and shoving and we didn't retaliate, it got to another level. And that just really made me mad. And afer the whole thing I had a group meeting, so the adrenaline was still going and I didn't even think about how serious the whole situation actually was.

When I was going home tho, I realized how violent the situation actually could have gotten. Like how dangerous it actually could have been - it is their restaurant you know, I'm sure they know where the knives are stored. And I dunno what I was thinking, stepping in between them. When I actually did it, I was just thinking - these are my close friends, if you try and hurt them I'll kick your god-damn ass. But geez, they could have really hurt me, especially since I had my back to them. They could've hit me over the head or something. Aiyes.

And to make it more disturbing, the Manager and such are god-damn chinese people. I have never felt more embarassed to be chinese till today. F-ing geez. What does this say about chinese people? Not to mention this is Guelph. GUELPH! What happened to Guelph being a decent place? Don't all the restaurant horror stories come from Toronto?

In case any of you were wondering, Christina was outside during the ordeal because she wanted to make sure she could call 911 if they hit us or locked us in or anything. So we had a lifeline. Heh heh. We're all joking that we'll definitely tell this story to our kids tho, it's memorable. I still can't believe it happened, to be honest. But we're going to call the better business bureau and everything to report those people. Shoving and pushing took it to a completely different level.

Beware of "Fu Sushi" if you ever happen to wander past this seemingly harmless restaurant! Although I can laugh about it now, it was definitely one of the scariest experiences I've ever had.

Recap of the week

Ok, this one will be a bunch of short blurbs. I actually had a lot typed out already, but somehow mozilla crashed! So I'm lazy and don't feel like retyping everything. So here's the condensed version of what would have been.

Back to work for a week already. Great seeing my kiddies again. Getting lots of wet kisses and hug pileups. Pileups occur when 15 kiddies try to hug me at the same time. Must be careful not to fall down, or will get trampled by a stampede of 3 yr olds. Only 2 1/2 more weeks till CNY holidays! Major perk of being a teacher: awesome holidays.

Saw Car and Jen. Continued our little tradition of eating Japanese food and LOTS of it. Great time catching up and chatting about random matters of life. Met up with Lisa too. As we were bear hugging, Adonis miraculously appeared in front of us. Strange coincidence. Good to see him again. Sad that everyone's left for home now.

Received snail mail from Lok!! Love getting good old fashioned mail (hint hint). Thanks Lok for all the photos, some of which I don't even remember taking! Like the one where she's giving me a piggyback ride;). Brought back lots of sweet memories from the summer.

It's just sunk in that its a new year. 2006. I'll be turning 23! I'm excited at what this year will bring. Still have to make my new year resolutions. I'm aiming for the lunar new year to have my resolutions thought out;) Happy Belated New Year everyone!

Missing Myanmar

I'm back. Well, technically I got back on Jan. 1st. I felt I should post something, yet at the same time so much has happened in the short time I've been away. I'll try my best to sum up my most interesting Christmas and New Years ever. First of all, thanks to everyone for keeping me in your prayers. I almost ended up not being able to go. I was sick (stomach flu) 2 days prior to the trip. Myanmar was incredible though. Both the place and the people, but especially the people. Even my health was getting better, probably the pristine mountain air. My lungs were jumping for joy from the lack of pollution. Jokes aside, the team of people that I went with, they were amazing too. We all got along great and I was able to open up to them and share my reflections. It's hard to put it all down in words. So forgive me if I seem to be jumping all over the place. Although I went on this trip to teach the kiddies English, they actually taught me just as much, about myself and life lessons. Sounds corny, but I mean it. It all seems like a dream now, being back in HK and looking back. Kengtung was the name of the town. It reminded me of Guelph actually. Small town charm, random chats with strangers, and hospitality to boot. I got to learn some new lingo:) Mingalaba is hello in Burmese. Attempted to learn a traditional dance from the Lahu tribe. Got to try many new things. First time on a motorbike (sadly didn't get to drive one). First time eating worms, they were deep fried, not bad. First time bouncing around in the back of a pickup (the longest being 4 hours for a trip to a "nearby" village). First time bathing out of a bucket, by dousing water on myself. And many other firsts, but those were the highlights. The kiddies were so darn sweet. What a contrast to the kiddies I work with here in HK. It was interesting to work with such a wide age range (5-13yrs) and such a large group (60). Me and my mum worked with them for 2 hours everyday. And I had a blast. Lots of songs and games, followed by bible stories and English. I won't bore you with the details. At the end of it all, as were leaving, I felt the trip wasn't nearly long enough. I'm no good at goodbyes, but surprisingly I was able to hold back the tears. Overall, it was a joyful goodbye and somebody even said 'see you next year' to me. I replied with a 'maybe', but he didn't seem to understand, he just repeated 'see you next year' again with a huge grin. Who knows, maybe one day I'll see them again.