Eventful Week

It has been an eventful week. First it was typhoon signal 8 for almost 12 hours on 6th August(Wed) and everybody get a full day's off from work and school. I have this love and hate relationship about typhoons in Hong Kong. I love it because I get a day off from work but I also hate it that come next day, all will be chaotic at the warehouse. I also need to report to my bosses in Japan about the situation and also come out with a contingency plan for the deliveries to be made to customers. This time, thanks to some hardworking warehouse staff I have, about 20 of them came back to work overnight after the typhoon signal came down in the evening. Deliveries for both days (Wed & Thurs) were made the next day without any delays. :D

Hubby and I stayed at home the whole time the typhoon signal was up, looking out the window checking the skies. We both thought that this typhoon seemed quite mild from where we were but there were news about many damages and casualties. After the typhoon signal came down we went to a cocktail party at Lan Kwai Fong only to be welcomed by a sign saying that the party had been postphoned. So there we were, Wednesday night in the unusually deserted LKF without a party to go to... In the end, we had dinner at Yung Kee Restaurant which is famous for its roasted goose. Surprising even to us, it was our first time at Yung Kee after being here in Hong Kong for more than 3 years. It usually has a long waiting queue and we are never patient enough to wait in line for our food, so this time, thanks to the typhoon, we got our teeth into the famous roasted goose without having to wait at all! It was delicious but very fattening, I must say. I gained 1.4 lbs after dinner that night...

On 8th Aug, it was the Beijing Olympics opening night. I met some friends for dinner after work and didn't get home until about 9:30pm, so I missed the 1st part of the show. Hubby was really impressed by the show, saying that it was so Zhang Yimou style. We were waiting for the Singapore team to march out but couldn't figure out what kind of sequence they were following. Definitely not in alphabetical order because when the countries Malaysia and Hong Kong came out rather early. In the end, hubby checked the Olympics website and found out that the countries were arranged to march out according to the number of strokes(笔划) in the 1st character of the countries' Chinese name in simplified Chinese characters. Singapore is 新加坡 so the word 新 has 13 strokes and came out quite towards the end. Malaysia is 马来西亚 with only 3 strokes in its 1st character so Malaysia marched out quite early. Get the idea? Anyway, after the whole event, there was an immediate re-telecast of the opening acts again so I didn't miss anything. It was really an impressive display. The massive casts, the costumes and the choreography was impeccable. 中国厉害！

On 9th August, Singapore's 43rd National Day, hubby and I went for a NDP dinner party organised by the Singapore Association in Hong Kong. We had the whole Satay Inn Restuarant booked for the occasion and we watched the NDP 2008 live on Channel Newsasia. It was a great night. I thought the show was great, not losing to the Beijing Olympics opening show except that we have fewer casts in the show. The venue was special, being on the floating platform at Marina Bay, surrounded by waters. And the NDP song this year was really good, brought tears to my eyes... And the fireworks were spectacular! Much more spectacular than the Beijing's fireworks! Yeah~Singapore!

The Consulate-General was the guest of honor that night and we got to meet many fellow Singaporeans. Many of them were wearing red and white, the Singapore's national colours and I have never felt so patriotic in a long time since the old school days. We stood up when the National Anthem was sung and I was reminded of the National Pledge that I had so conveniently forgotten. *Ashamed*

The food that night was of course authentic Singaporean foods such as the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice, Bak Kut Teh, Satay, Roti Prata with Chicken Curry, Laska and many more. I gained another 2 lbs after that meal... :-(