Foxymoron

Better safe than sorry

Diseases. Animals. Death. Etc. I can't seem to get away from it.

Last week I wrote about avian flu and Streptococcus suis (aka pig disease). No one outside of the region is really worried about pig disease but of course everyone is on high alert for H5N1 to jump to humans anytime now. Everyone's waiting for SARS version 2.0 that is even more deadly and experts say has the potential to kill 360 million people worldwide. I hope the hype and the fear will lead to all the drama that Y2K resulted in. Talk about anti-climactic. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry.

At the moment, I live in Kowloon Bay in a housing estate that shares the same block as Amoy Gardens. Amoy Gardens is still, to this day, dubbed the epicentre of SARS here in Hong Kong. SARS infected 329 of the residents who lived in Amoy Gardens, and of the 299 Hong Kong people who died of the diease, 42 died lived at the estate. Everytime I walk by, see its name on a sign or hear the name, I can't shake the images of masked people and the fear that the person walking towards me might sneeze in my direction.

Although some people have learned their lessons from SARS, not everyone has and unfortunately, this affects all of us. Despite the horrible memory of disease, many people don't wash their hands with soap after using the toilet (gross). I've seen them! I've seen food hawkers in Causeway Bay hork (phlegmy goodness) into a can inches away from their food. And the washrooms, don't even get me started. The list goes on but you get the ugly picture. Yes, Hong Kong, is a potential epicentre for avian flu outbreak. But even those of you back home in Canada aren't safe. Remember Jan Wong's column about how SARS spread from China to Hong Kong and then Canada and the world? Even if you do, I suggest reading it for a recap (scroll to the bottom of page).

I know this may come across over-cautious but I will be stocking up on alcohol swabs, masks and all that stuff soon. I already wash my hands like a freak. Better safe than sorry!

Up and down and up

Daddy Chiu arrived on Tuesday which is part of why I haven't blogged in a while. I spend all my free with him. We have, unsurprisingly, shopped and eaten our way through a good chunk of the SAR. Last night, one of his friends took us to the seafood buffet at the Ritz Carlton. Delicious but it'll be at least a few months before I can look at another oyster again.

Dad came with gifts, of course, which included the latest issue of Maisonneuve (Mona Awad does it again with her personal piece about her struggles with weight loss in  "The Shrinking Woman"), the new Broken Social Scene, the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah CD and a number of other books, including my copy of William Zinsser's On Writing Well, which always inspires me to go forth and write, write, write, damnit!

I haven't listened to Clap Your Hands yet, since BSS is just so damn good beyond my expectations. It's just so multi-layered and beautiful that I have to listen to it again and again. Every listen is a new experience in which I hear something new.

Every person in their mid-20's I know is at some crossroads in their life, myself included. I'm not complaining, nor am I unhappy, hey, crossroads are better than dead ends right? I've been watching My So-Called Life every night before bed. That Angela Chase is so wise beyond her 15 years and I wonder what she would say now, at 26. In last night's episode she said, "it's such a lie that we should do what's in our hearts. If we did what's in our hearts, the world would grind to a halt," and it's been ringing in my head all day. So cynical and yet, in many ways, so true.

The view from here

...is from the Ocean Park cable car...

Last night Con and I spent the evening in Wan Chai. I tasted guacamole for the first time in what felt like ages at this Tex-Mex place called Coyotes. I had a salad with grilled snapper and it was delicious. I miss good Western food so it's not hard to please me. Having been in a similar position only a year ago, Con's one of the few people who understands what it's like to be away, missing home but not really wanting to go back. Not yet anyway.

We talked about old friends and familiar comforts. We miss autumn and driving. Then this afternoon, I received mail from our old friend, Iris. She sent me a Halloween card and best of all, two maple leaves, one yellow, one red and stickers. If you can't make fall happen, at least you can get it mailed to you. AND earlier this week, I got Dana's care package I am grateful. She kindly sent me an umbrella, hair product, candy and just when I thought I'd never see/taste it again, Swiss Chalet sauce. I think she must have read my mind.

When I talked to my mom on Sunday night, homesick, she reminded me that "Good friends will always be good friends no matter where you are." Moms are (almost) always right, eh?

Ay ya

Argh. My blogging may be suspended for the next few days due to my inability to activate my credit card (and therefore pay for Typepad) from Hong Kong. I'll figure it out, hopefully within the week.

I'd also like to mention that setting up a bank account here in "the world's freest economy" is a mighty hard. Some might even say, it's a bitch. But my mom would tisk at my use of the word bitch in a non female dog kind of reference. Yes, mom reads this blog now so careful what you say in comments. I think comments will still be enabled despite my account's suspension.

Stay fierce my summertime fires

My day off and I spent it running errands. I didn't mind though, I went to the Post Office and happily walked away with my own personalized copy of Emm's homemade wonder, The Great Lakes. Everything, down to the embossed CD cover is simply beautiful. All the references to the Great Lakes, states, provinces and landscape made me emotional as I sat eating rice in a busy fast-food cafe at lunch hour. It all took me back to Southgate, to Sarnia, to New York City, to Forest and the middle of nowhere. I think this is one of her finest albums. If you haven't already, go order it while quantities last.

I've also been digging the new Metric. Yes, it's available here, as is the latest Broken Social Scene, but c'est tres expensive.

False Alarm: the real thing?

This was the scene at HITEC a couple Saturdays ago. Mike and I went, fully suspecting to see/hear some terrible music. We did. But it opened my eyes.

I've hinted at this but I'm just going to come out and say it now. The Hong Kong indie music scene is bad. I can say this now that I've been to some shows and done my research. At first, I thought I was just being a Western snob. Yeah, yeah Toronto is soooo great. Toronto has the Arts and Crafts family. Toronto has Paperbag. Toronto has blah blah blah. Whatever Andrea, nobody here cares about that.

Toronto's music scene may be better than the average developed city, and I do think it is, but I can't actually say that is backed up by thorough research. I can, however say that Hong Kong's indie scene is much worse than the average developed city. Now wait, I'm not going to bash it to bits. The image of the audience jumping up and down, practically moshing to False Alarm for the two songs they performed that night, was eye-opening.

Happy vegetables

While all of you back home are enjoying your turkey or Tofurkey dinner, I'm in Hong Kong, eating greasy fried rice or noodles. Some of you may be thinking, "that doesn't sound so bad," and it's not but it's no turkey dinner. There's not even a Swiss Chalet-like place in these parts, and that my friends, is almost criminal. But I should probably just lay off the meats. I wrote an article about vegetarianism in Hong Kong for the weekend magazine. I've always wanted to be a vegetarian but it's hard here where there is more barbeque duck/pork/chicken/things hanging in the windows on one block than there are places to get a decent salad in the entire city.

Anyway, my article, titled "Breaking the taboo" is available online. It's really about the Vegetarian Society of Hong Kong and the interesting Saturday program they have: free vegan lunch for all! I was impressed and surprised to find a community here, not because they are vegetarians but because they are so, well, chill. I haven't eaten dinner and I'm hungry just thinking about food. I hope you're all enjoying your various dinners, whether with family, friends or the television. As the Vegetarian Society reminded me, remember to chew 30 times before you swallow.

(Photo: I believe that is jackfruit)

I know you just wanna be on fire

I'm not dead. It just looks that way.

I told Nico that I think I've lost a bit of my spirit in the past couple of weeks. Don't worry, it sounds a lot more dramatic than it is. I think it's just the result of long work days and coming in on my days off to catch up on the features I had to write. It's exhausting, this journalism thing, especially on a limited budget like mine, I can't even drink some of my sorrows away.

I don't have much to say except that while my Cantonese is slowly improving, I have noticed my English is deteriorating. I barely use words with more than three syllabuls and why would I? I've forced myself to read more and although I've had it for years (ever since she spoke at my school in grade...8 or 9?), I only now started to read Jan Wong's Red China Blues. I know some people think very poorly of the Globe writer, but I've always liked her. At first it was because she was only one of a handful Chinese-female role models I have. But when I interviewed her for my RRJ feature about her newspaper, The Globe and Mail, I really appreciated her company and straight-forwardness. Anyway, I'm enjoying her book for her writing, reporting and more insight into my personal roots.

I admit that I've been feeling guilty about my "bourgeois" life. Hong Kong's standard of living is pretty damn good compared to the rest of Asia, but man oh man, I'm still not used to some of the restrooms here. Is it too much to ask for toilet paper and a mopping once in a while?