Cooking is fun

I am the proud owner of a Kelvinator fridge right now. And because of that I declare cooking season is on. It is not that I could not cook before, but I prefer having a fridge so as to keep my veggies and leftovers in there. I still have not been able to get myself around to buying stuff every single day (as people here seem to enjoy), and I am not sure whether I will be able to do so in the foreseeable future. Living by myself as I am doing now, I would rather stock up every two days and have a day of shopping 'rest'.

Now, the next step is to buy a microwave or a small oven where I can reheat the leftovers. Not that there were any from my hearty lunch today anyway. :D

Buzzy buses

It has already been two weeks since I moved to my new apartment, and a week since I commenced classes. It is the first time I am attending night school, and I do have to admit that it has brought some sleep alterations. Nothing too bad, though, and I thought I would bring myself to normalize my sleeping habits a couple nights ago. It was then when I became aware of the buses.

I live in a sixteenth floor, one block and a half away from this area's bus terminal. I can actually see the platforms from my window, but in terms of sounds nothing much reaches all the way up to where I live. I mean, I do hear traffic noise but it is not loud enough to keep me from sleeping. Or so I thought. Ten o'clock at night, and the city is still humming its engine-run tune, softer and softer as the minutes go by. Eleven o'clock, it is almost a whisper; sleeping time. Wash dishes, brush teeth, stare at the guitar in the living room; off to bed. And there they come. Closer to midnight, it was almost as if a swarm of petrol-driven locusts had attacked the streets. Here goes one, with a big 'varoom', there comes another, coughing a loud 'put-put-put-put'. One by one they enter the scene until they gather into quite an ensemble of dissonant pumps and cylinders. They spend around half an hour playing, catching up and singing mechanic tunes, and then they disappear as suddenly as they arrived. It has been a continuous trend for the last few nights, which makes me think I will have to reschedule my sleeping times.

Aircon

The remote control for my air conditioner ran out of batteries, so for the time being there is no way I will be able to turn it off. And since one of my flatmate's own air conditioning system collapsed, leading him to spend more time in the common room and since I like my privacy, I am stuck inside my room with a micro-climate of nineteen degrees Celsius. Which is good, since I like cooler temperatures, but at the same time is quite funny since I have to either wear more clothes or snug under the bed sheets, as opposed to simply turning the aircon off.

In a way, it is the exact opposite of people who in winter adjust their home's thermostat so as to be able to circulate with little (or no) clothing inside, and when going outside they must put several layers of clothes on. In my case, I have to pretty much strip before leaving my room, which makes me shiver during the short seconds that precede the encounter with Hong Kong's scorching summer waiting on the other side of the door.

Air conditioning gets added to my list of humanity's best inventions ever (together with others such as the toilet, toilet paper and plungers).

Expo

I share the flat with two other people. One of them is from Hong Kong, and the other from Norway. Last night I bumped into the latter for the first time in weeks, since he had also been traveling. He had been to several places in China, and as he was listing them to me he got to Shanghai. "Dude, you have to go to the Expo", he said, and added: "I mean, I went to Disneyland as a kid and I thought it was the biggest, coolest thing in the world... But the World Expo beat that impression by far".

XD

Piracy

I met up with one of my language exchangees today (he teaches me Cantonese in return for my Spanish), and at some point he started asking me whether I knew a Spanish word he had heard in a film called "Todo sobre mi madre". The reason why he was asking me was that the pirate CD he had purchased only came with Chinese subtitles, and these didn't translate said word. Since his pronunciation was not the best and my knowledge of Spain's slang is limited, I suggested him to download the movie with English subtitles. "But that's illegal!", he exclaimed.

English alert

My English has been under a process of decay for the last three or four months. Slowly, more or less unnoticeable at first, but horribly evident after three weeks of pretty much not speaking it. So what am I going to do about it? Write. So, dear reader, be warned: The English contained in this entry -and probably in the few that may or may not follow- will most likely be full of flaws and cringe-inducing grammatical misuses.

Eventually, my use of the language should improve enough not to stress me out too much whenever I write emails, essays or articles in English, let alone speak in public, private and (oh, no) too private occasions. And yes, I am currently scanning through several 'Learn English!' websites. I guess this could prove embarrassing for a proud non-native speaker who has been studying a language for over thirty years, but it is probably a good thing that I am neither too proud nor have I spent that amount of time learning English (mainly due to age constraints). It would also be provident to point out that my sense of humour should show signs of improvement as I gain a bit more control over the language (I swear, I am hilarious inside my mind).

French goodies

It was Valentine's eve, and we went to a French restaurant for dinner. It was a small, quaint shop in Causeway Bay with dim lights and excellent service. The drizzly, windy evening outside helped build up a awesomely cozy atmosphere.

For entrée we had foie gras. An exquisite French delicacy, foi gras is duck's fatty liver; an oversized organ obtained after force feeding corn to the aforementioned avian. The technique is known as gavage, and apparently it is forbidden by law in some European countries for its negative consequences on the birds' health. In a way, the principle is similar to what the Japanese do to their wagyu, or Kobe beef.

I had heard about foie gras a fair bit in the past, but I never imagined it would be this delicious. I do not think I would be willing to pay that amount of money every week, but it was very nice to try it once. Or twice. :P

Fish soup. Cannot remember whether it was cod or some other slippery friend, but it was hearty and flavourful.

The salmon entrée was... interesting. Have not decided yet if I loved it or thought it was okay; the novelty of eating salmon with mildly sweet orange bits took me by surprise, so I was half pleased, half startled while I was eating it. Not sure what Angel made out of it in the end either.

Unfortunately, the photo turned out a bit blurry, but the steak au poivre was superb. I love it when they actually cook the meat the way you ask for. In this case, it was bleu. Nom nom.

The name of this dish escapes me right now. It was some sort of duck-based stew. Needless to say, it was amazingly tasty. The sausage was made of duck too. Angel was happy. She has an excellent instinct when it comes to choosing food items from a menu -way better than mine, and I used to think my instincts were good.

We were quite full after the mains, but we decided we had to go for perhaps one of the biggest classics of French pastry: Crème brulée. It was crunchy, sweet and soft, but I still believe it is not the best one I have had so far. The ones I tried in Paris were slightly better, but strangely enough the best ones I have eaten have been in Chile, in an Italian food restaurant. I do not discard I may be biased in this matter and that my opinion is influenced by eating habits acquired in a country where this dish is not a frequent treat.

Dinner was excellent. We had lots of fun, got to laugh and took lots of photos.

I should not upload these entries before lunch. It can ultimately lead me to feel 'empty in my bank'. Will see how I feel about my frozen meal now.