pricey meat

i should clear something up from yesterday's post. actually, not ALL buses are US$0.40. some are more expensive like if you take the ones that go through the underwater tunnel... i'm not sure what exactly they call it... wait, trying to find it online... cross-habour tunnel. yeah, so those buses are slightly more expensive, but probably not to the extent of those in la. the buses i usually take are about US$0.40 - $0.50.

today, we took dad to the hospital for his check-up and a scan of his bladder, which entails shoving a fiberoptic camera tube up his urethra... not too appealing. the doctors told him he's doing fine and that he should not worry about his cancer too much. not knowing my dad obviously, they don't know that he'll probably worry until his next appointment (and the appointment after that).

afterwards, we took the bus down to central and had a late lunch at the can teen. then we took a walk through citysuper... anyone know how to do an upside-down exclamation mark? apparently, the 'i' in city is an upside-down exclamation mark and well... i don't know how i can do that. anyway, we saw a piece of australian beef (sirloin) for HK$130 for 100g. we worked that out to be US$75 per pound. there's about 450 grammes in a pound. so at HK$130/100g, we multiply the price by 4.5 or HK$585/lb. the exchange rate is about HK$7.8/US$1, so the final price for a pound of that beef is... US$75. crazy.

we settled at starbucks again, and after 40 minutes, my parents left. about 20 minutes later, they called me saying that they were locked out cuz my dad gave me his keys earlier in the day and my mum didn't bring hers along. so i took the bus back. it started raining in the afternoon and i didn't have an umbrella with me... or so i thought. apparently, i had one in the backpack i was carrying but i thought it was in my mum's bag. so anyway, long story short, i ended up walking in the rain from the bus stop to my parents' flat. funny thing, it feels not at all different than any other day in hk. humidity sucks.

just some random stuff... there's this show on tvb, a tv channel station in hk, that has this program that basically is the entertainment tonight of hk called, k-100. on tonight's episode, they had an interview with vivian hsu (who, i'm sure, mark is pretty familiar with). i'm not exactly sure what the significance of it is, but she was interviewed and she had her hair done in cornrows.

we are currently watching this show on tvb that's called fantasy hotel (but roughly translated it's called "the happy inn"). since my cantonese isn't that great, i'm pretty much catching about 70% of the dialogue from the show. anyway, the story goes that this old man gives his inn to three friends. the female, who's divorced, is starting to fall for one of the friends. however (and isn't this just like life), he's starting to get involved with this actress who decided to quit being an actress (btw, she is a terrible actress in real life... just horrific). the third guy has this girlfriend who's a money-grubbing bitch and is really annoying and no one likes her. so after about 14 episodes, here's what's happening: the guy gets the actress, the girl finds out and is now depressed. the old guy is getting married to this woman he's known for a long time, her son is trying to hook up with the girl. all the meanwhile, they are trying to run this inn. the girl looks a very similar to sammi (the singer/actress).

there's an advertisement running here that is starting to bug the fuck out of me. i don't know what it is selling, but there's this chick with a stuff teddy bear and she's running around in a top and a pair of panties... and then somewhere in the middle of the advert the voice-over goes blah-blah-blah, birthday par-ty, blah-blah-blah. (blah being what's being said in cantonese.) anyway, the way she says "birthday parrrrr-ty" bugs me.

on sunday night, tbv has this show with some actress that i really like*. she was on some show i talked about last year. now this year, she's on a different show, and a pretty risque one at that. anyway, she's mixed (probably white and chinese), from somewhere outside of hk (probably from one of four places, US, england, australia, or canada),and came back to hk to start an acting career. i'm trying to find a picture, but have yet been unsuccessful.

edit: found a picture (8/12/05)

on another note, is it me or are there way too many chinese people here? should i be worried that i don't feel at ease? i don't know. i feel like i don't really fit in here in hk. i can't really communicate with people too well since my chinese is not great, and i don't have any reasons to talk to any white people. ugh. that's the way it is i guess.

oh, some guy felt sorry for his ailing mother so he decided to push her into the harbour. good stuff.

* note: i don't like, like her. i just think it's really interesting cuz she's obviously mixed and she speaks cantonese. i heard that she's in the same boat as me... meaning, she can't read, but she can speak.