Ztampfilicious

Last Wednesday, October 5th is a National Day Holiday here in Hong Kong. My younger step-daughter is visiting us from Australia so it’s time for a family outing! Since the weather has finally turned much cooler now, we decided to walk the Discovery Bay-Mui Wo Trail and then back to Discovery Bay by the ferry. In case you are wondering, both Discovery Bay and Mui Wo are on Lantau Island, the largest island in Hong Kong where we live.

Mui Wo is a rural town on the eastern coast of Lantau Island. The history of Mui Wo dates back to the last days of the Southern Song Dynasty. Fleeing south from the invading Mongols, in 1277 the imperial court sought refuge in Silvermine Bay (at that time known as Mei Yu). In March 1278, whilst attempting a further escape from the Mongols, the penultimate Song Dynasty Emperor Duanzong fell from a boat and almost drowned. After his rescue, he became ill and died a few months later at Mui Wo. Duanzong’s successor, Emperor Huizong of Song was enthroned at Mui Wo on May 10, 1278. [from Wikipedia] Today, Mui Wo is a collection of villages and hamlets, with a beach, fields, and a small wetland that’s home to egrets. The villages have become popular with urbanites looking for a quieter life. Close to the pier and bus terminus you will find the market and a selection of Chinese and international restaurants, mostly serving seafood which you can enjoy while gazing at the sea.

The Discovery Bay-Mui Wo Trail is a lovely one, although we found it was a bit further and harder than we expected (too many steep steps!). Fortunately, the day was a bit overcast with a few drizzles which has mercifully cooled the weather down for us and the view from the top of the hills was indeed beautiful – yes, even on an overcast day! Along our walk, we passed some small villages and a few organic vegetable gardens – quite a rarity in Hong Kong! We had a late lunch at the Turkish restaurant in Mui Wo – it was delicious! We ended the trip with a quick browse at the local secondhand bookshop that carries many wonderful old books before dashing off to catch the ferry back to Discovery Bay.

Here are some pictures that I took on our walk:

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

We had a nice impromptu Saturday night outing here! Yesterday afternoon we went to see “True Grit” in the cinema (it was a very well made movie, but nothing’s special/new/surprising about it), and then decided to just dine out. We went to this Schezuan restaurant that serves the best “Diced Fried Chicken buried in Dried Chilli and Schezuan Peppers” dish. I didn’t take photo of it last night, but I still have the photo (and layout!) from a while ago that I took at the same restaurant. In case you are in Hong Kong, the restaurant is called “San Xi Lou”, and located on the 7th floor of the Coda Plaza, on Garden Road, just beside the YMCA Building in Central. They used to be located in Causeway Bay under the name “Man Jiang Hong”. I highly recommend it! We usually have the “Fried Rice with Onion and Fried Egg” (one bowl is enough for the two of us) and the “String Beans with Minced Pork” to accompany the Chicken Dish.

As seen in the book “Picture Yourself Creating Digital Scrapbooks” by Lorie J. Davies and Sally Beacham. Created using Year In Revue Kit. Fonts are FG Matilda, Tork and 1942 Report.

We were so full after dinner, and I wasn’t feeling like heading home yet – the night was still young. So we just strolled towards the city. It’s a nice walking weather – clear sky, and pretty cold – almost like winter! We talked about this and that while walking and somehow we got this idea to go to The Peak. The Peak is an area on the top of the Austin Mountain where you can see the magnificent view of Hong Kong from above – when the weather is nice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak, and here to see pictures). Last time we went there was in 2004 during daytime – to show Hong Kong around to my younger brother who was visiting us then. As the Tram station was not faraway when where we were strolling down last night, we just walked there and joined the queue – which consisted of mostly tourists from all over the world. We bought the tickets just to get there, not including tickets for the Peak Tower and Peak Terrace.

The tram trip is a pretty exciting experience. The view was gorgeous and the tram itself is an historical, 120 years old tram. When you’re sitting inside the traveling tram, the buildings on your left and right would seem to be leaving at a weird angle – sort of like having Pisa Tower all over you! This is because the tram route is on an steep path, scaling the mountain. When you’re sitting inside it, you’re actually sitting at 90º angle to the mountain path – thus the building outside seems like the ones that are leaning. But when you’re standing up, the buildings would appear upright at normal angle again. This is because when you’re standing up, your body would automatically try to stand up straight – perpendicular to the ground, not to the steep path – and so you would be leaning at the same angle as the buildings! Isn’t that peculiar!

Once we arrived, we’re greeted by a breathtaking view of Hong Kong skyline at night… I took some pics with my iPhone – but the results only look good at small size :). You’d better check the link here for photos that could do justice to the view :). After wandering around for sometimes enjoying the view from various angles, we had a cup of hot tea in one of the restaurants there (well, I had a pot of peppermint tea with honey and my husband had a glass of red wine). Then it’s finally time to head home…

It was a fun evening! Especially because it wasn’t planned :)

It was such a fine day today… clear blue sky… relatively cool for a Hong Kong summer too!

So! In response to some interests expressed by some people here in Hong Kong to learn digital scrapbooking, I decided to hold some digi workshops! How exciting! I have several workshops planned, ranging from the basic to advanced hybrid projects.  Let’s start with the basic first:

Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking
A small workshop for beginners to get you started with digital scrapbooking.
Maximum 3 participants per session.

What it covers:
1.  The Principals of Digital Scrapbooking
2.  The Basic How To
3.  Creating Your First Page Using QuickPages

What you will get:
1.  US$20 (approx. HK$155) worth of products of your choice from Ztampf! Shop + a 25% OFF Discount Coupon for your next purchase at Ztampf!
2.  Print out of your pages on an A3 Canon Photo Pro Paper and on an A4 Canon Fine Art “Photo Rag” Paper. FYI: one A3 size paper will fit one 12″x12″ layout or a few of smaller sized layouts/cards, while one A4 size paper will fit one 8″x8″ layout or a few card sized layouts.
3.  The necessary knowledge to start doing digi, plus some tips and tricks!
4.  Three hours of fun :)

Fee:
HK$450 per person per session, to be transferred to my bank account* by three days prior to the workshop date at the latest. Upon receiving the payment, I will email you a US$20 Gift Certificate to use at Ztampf! Shop. Download the products you want to use for the workshop and bring them with you to the workshop (either in your laptop hard drive or on a CD-Rom).

Bring along with you:
1.  Your laptop (make sure the battery is fully charged, and bring along the DC power with you)
2.  You have to have an image editing program installed in your laptop, i.e. Photoshop Elements, Corel Photo Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Picture It or anything similar
3.  Photographs that you want to scrap with, along with the Ztampf! products you got
4.  A Folder or a Paper Tube to keep your print outs later

Snacks and drinks will be provided. You are more than welcome to bring your own to share too :)

Time:
Monday, February 23rd 2009
Morning Session, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

and

Tuesday, February 24th 2009
Afternoon Session, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Where:
Greenish Court*, Greenvale Village, Discovery Bay, Hong Kong

If you are not familiar with DBay,  I can also meet you down at the DBay Ferry Pier around 30-45 minutes prior to the workshop time.

*Complete address along with banking information will be disclosed upon registration.

To Register:
Email me with the following information (you can copy and paste this to your email):

Name:
Mobile No.:
Session Preferred:
Operating System you are familiar with:
Image Editing Program you have/use:
In the scale of 1 to 10, how familiar are you with your Image Editing Program?
Have you worked with Layers in your Image Editing Program before?

That’s it! Hope to hear back from you soon :).
Thanks!

Sooo… yes, I’m still itching and somehow it got worse again the past couple of days :(. Like now, it is 5 a.m. and I’m up because I couldn’t sleep thanks to the itch! I did fall asleep for maybe a couple of hours before the itch woke me up. Rather than tossing and turning and scratching in bed and accomplish nothing, I decided to just get up. So here I am!

One of the most annoying things about this allergy is it how disruptive it is to my work. I just can’t do any designing work properly. I tried. I started. It seemed to be all right for a short while, but then when the itch attacked… it was just too much. It’s not just the itch, but the overall ‘not quite well’ feeling as well… I have to let you all know that Ztampfever for this month will be coming a day or two late – I’m hoping to be able to finish at least 1 new item that I have been working on since before the itch started. Hint: It’s a Christmas-related stuff! So please be patient just a bit longer :). And again, many thanks for your many heart-warming emails – they really cheer me up amidst this itchiness.

So what I have been doing then? Well, little things like uploading a couple of iPhoto movies that I made to YouTube :). It didn’t require much concentration nor time! Here is my YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/profile?user=freefiresparkz (In case you’re wondering, freefiresparkz is my online nickname for ages – before Ztampf! came along). For best result, watch the movies in smaller size by clicking the button right beside the volume button.

Here are the movies:

Korean Twins

Hong Kong Skyline

That’s it for now, folks :).