Home cooking

No more team A/team B split, which means no more cooking at home

 

Lease termination

 Finally, social distancing restrictions have been relaxed. First time since December 8th. Gyms to reopen and dinner available up until 10 pm. In other news, I also received this whatsapp message from my landlord this morning.

"Morning, we regret to terminate the lease agreement as attached because we intend for self use when we purchased the flat. Thanks so much for your continuing support!"

Very annoying. Time to start looking for a new apartment.

Camping

I'm trying to recall how many times I've been camping with a tent. Most recently was in 2015, for Burning Man and "Carnival of Mirrors". I've used sleeping bags in the past, but sleeping in an actual tent, maybe once when I was a child with Chris and Jenny. In any case, the number of times that I've spent a night in tent is most likely under 3 times in my entire life. So as we head into the four day Chinese New Year weekend, an opportunity to camp in Hong Kong arises. A friend's birthday, and the only way to facilitate a group gathering is to host on the beach, so why not spend the weekend camping, too?

I've had friends who have camped in Hong Kong in the past, and I've probably been invited camping 3 or 4 times. Each time, I've had an excuse or a reason not to participate. My main objections to camping have been: 1) my lack of camping equipment, 2) the weather and 3) my general lack of interest in camping. So this weekend, where do we stand on each? 

1) I borrow a friend-of-a-friend's tent, I also borrow a friend's sleeping bag. 2) the weather for 2021 has been great, with this Wednesday being the first day of rain this year. This weekend would clear up for a warm winter's weekend. 3) I honestly have nothing else to do. So for Chinese New Year, I embark on my first Hong Kong camping trip.

The weekend plays out as follows: Friday morning we catch a taxi out to Sai Kung Pier. We managed to book a 12:30 pm speed boat (150 HKD) which takes 25 minutes from the pier to Long Ke Wan. Sai Kung itself has multiple camp sites, with varying levels of facilities. Long Ke Wan is one of the more popular day trip destinations, but due to lack of shower, shop and restaurant facilities is less popular when it comes to camping, especially compared to say Ham Tin Beach. We were initially worried that we would have to hike to Long Ke Wan, which is a short 30 minute walk, but we were carrying supplies such as tents, sleeping bags, ice, water, food but thankfully the speed boat service was running on the first day of the lunar new year.

Long Ke Wan, is busy, there's around 100-200 people camping which is fairly busy considering that there's only one unisex toilet. There are a lot of families and students, and there's a cool vibe. We setup camp 50 metres from the shore, in the middle of the beach. Our first port of call is to setup our tents, collect some firewood and get prepared for the evening. The crew that I'm with have brought a portable bbq, a gas burner, a Yeti, portable speakers, and some deck chairs.; They're very prepared. There's a good selection of wine, nice cheese, salsa, chips, eggs, sous vide steaks, Boerewors and Braaibroodjie (one of the guys is from South Africa, well Namibia).

However there are a couple of take aways from this experience, spend more time collecting various types of firewood (ie: dry twigs, heavier logs, medium textured wood), bring more fire starters, bring charcoal for cooking. Secondly, bring an inflatable bed. Sand is not actually that soft. Finally, do a little more preparation around food and utensils, ie: pre-crack eggs, pre-open items so there's less by product waste, consider transferring liquids from glass bottles to plastic bottles.

The scene on the beach is chilled. Most campers have elected to setup camp closer to the vegetation where there's a little shelter from the wind and less moisture. After sunset, the beach is littered with campfires, some play music, some have fireworks. The sky is clear and the stars are about as impressive as you can get in Hong Kong. The evenings are cool and damp, with condensation forming on the sides of the tents. The sounds from within the tent are foreign to me. The constant sound of the ocean crashing against the shore, the gentle rustle of the wind against my tent and the sound of nature, or silence. 

Overall, a pretty fun experience, so much so that I may even consider buying some camping equipment. That being said it is nice to have a shower and be back in my own bed.

Chinese New Year: The Year of the Metal Ox

One service that is unique to Hong Kong and other parts of Asia is that around the start of the lunar new year you can contact your local bank branch and reserve new bank notes for Chinese New Year. What does that exactly mean? Well, the New Year tradition is to give red packets or 'Lai See' with fresh, or new bank notes. These can be in any denomination from 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 dollar bills. There are typically two services that banks provide: (i) Newly issued bank notes, (ii) Cleaned and re-flattened notes, which make old notes look new (although I have not seen this come up this year). 

This service is provided to people who issue red packets. The main demographic are those who are married. Married couples in Hong Kong can generally can issue anywhere between 30-100 red packets each year, depending on family size, social circle and closeness with colleagues. Recipients ranging from relatives, friends, colleagues and kids of all the above. Outside of family it is common to extend red packets to anybody who you might interact on a constant, reoccurring basis. This can include service people (eg: store owners, helpers, hairdressers, nannies, personal trainers, fitness studio concierges, etc). During graduate school I'd seen married students handing out red packets to other university students. As you can imagine the cost and number of individual notes can become quite large, hence the need to make reservations for the new notes. 

For me, I generally reserve anywhere between 2500-3000 HKD worth of notes. 500 for the tea lady at work, my hairdresser also gets that amount. 200 for my apartment doormen and doorwomen, 100 for my Laundromat and then 20 for the miscellaneous interactions (office cleaners, gym cleaners etc).

Thanks to my colleague for writing this personalised New Year Couplet.