I can't believe this! I always frown on those typical TVB/TCS scripts about lovers forgetting each other's birthday or anniversary. I have been very very good with dates - after all, I am the only one who remembered and greeted Yixi on his birthday this year! (Haaa... I am rubbing more salt to his wounds).

Guess what? IT IS MY ANNIVERSARY TODAY AND I TOTALLY HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT IT! (Last year, I took a day off and brought them to Disneyland: See last year entry) Shoot me! Hang me and punish me with lots of love bites!

No excuse this year, however, I was indeed very very busy clearing those dreadful weekly deadlines. Last week, I even reminded myself about my own Anniversary on the 24th - as it will be our 16th Anniversary. Believe it or not, I even shared my 16-year love tale to my new colleagues this afternoon! 

CAN U IMAGINE I GAVE FELICIA "A WERID LOOK" WHEN SHE SERVED ME A HEART-SHAPE CAKE BY THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT? The 1st thing that came to my mind was "Dim Ah? I thought Felicia doesn't like me to snack after midnight and she is serving me CAKE??? Must be another sampling!"

She then whispered these words (sweetly) into my ears "Happy Bobojojo Day!" - OH MY GOD! I looked at the date on my computer - SHOOT! IT IS 24th NOV! I am so so so clueless - I totally lost all concept of time/dates! Honestly, I thought today is 20th! (What happened to my 21st, 22nd and 23rd!??) Shame on you - JOE - the first and last thing you think about is ~ FOOD, FOOD & MORE FOOD ~ at midnight???!!! What should I do now??? Mmm...maybe I should show my appreciation by finishing her cake tonight.

(Photo Taken: Having Hot-Pot on a cold Sunday evening - with a couple of HK buddies! This place is really good - even celebrities like Aaron Kowk and George Lam were here! What's missing is a good oil massage in a warm steamy room...I am asking too much AGAIN... Urghhh.. my fish-eye len is making everyone look so slim!)

Thanks to Meijie's pandan leaves - Felicia made her 1st attempt and it is about 85% close! Maybe this is the colour of our next winfall in Hong Kong. The colour of a good business.

(Photo Taken: Cold Warning Sign at The Center Lobby - Temperature drops to cozy cool 11 tonight)

Since Obama is in town - Let's get him to do a motivation speech about CHANGING BEHAVIOUR in our Uncanny Way of Life. Clearly, we must CHANGE. First, change the topic of conflict. Make it purposeful, those are so so petty issues. Second, change the way these video were being captured. (Dude, HOLD THE Fu*king camera phone better!) Third, change the venue of the videos - why majority of these conflicts happen on SMRT or in some kind of Transit? Fourth, change the actresses - why are these woman always old, 40s and fat? Menopause? Can we have someone younger! Lastly, change the man-in-action! Where are the macho Singaporean Man, the NS-men when we need them??? These videos are making our men look so so so weak in handling the uncontrollable iron ladies. Instead of shooting the footage, man, get in ACTION. We must CHANGE.

Nope...we didn't adopt any new kids into our household. And Tracy didn't do a Juno.

Thanks to Tracy - we played "Baby Sitters" this weekend as she brought home 2 young toddlers (15-month and 3-month old)! Felicia and I were kinda worried for her as: 1st, she never had any baby-experience. 2nd, 2 toddlers??? We just wondered how she is going to manage these kids - especially when they were sleeping OVERNIGHT. (Those kids were Tracy's friends'.)

Guess what? The experience was good... and for that spilt second - I felt like making my Number 2. Elkan handled these toddlers very well - not a slight hint of being jealous -when daddy was hugging and carrying young "Is-a-Bell-lah". These kids were great, very easy to take care. But poor Tracy, she has to sacrifice her Saturday date with her pilot BF and home-arrest with these kids. She was in and out of the kitchen making milk, clearing diapers and tugging the babies to sleep.

It is one of the few strange things about Hong Kong that I can never understand. And it is one of those that pissed me off a lot!

There are many shopping malls and office blocks (be it small or big) in Hong Kong that are in this "sick and stupid" trend of locking up toilets. It is not because their bowls and taps are made of gold..but most of the mall toilets are "meant for tenant only" (and not for its shoppers!).  If that is the case, why bother to open a mall? If you need to use the toilet, you need to get a key from the tenants.

Last weekend, one of my favourite mall "Winsor House" joined this sick trend and started locking up its toilets. I have to walk around the entire mall looking for the one and only toilet or the shoppers - which was located at the basement. And when I reached there, I saw a long queue of women. Trust me, it was long - about 30 ladies! Lucky for me, the queue for the Gent was so much shorter - only about 5 people in the row.

Outside the toilet, I saw pregnant women and old ladies and children in the queue. The management who made this decision to lock the toilet probably didn't understand the needs of a pregnant lady or the elderly! The cleaner was there and she unlocked the door for the ladies. Instead of being praised for her acts, the security manager in suit reprimanded the cleaner. "Do not let the shoppers use the toilet lah" he said to her in that typical snobbish tone! Man, for that spilt second, I felt like slapping his dick-face!

That was it! It pissed me off so much that I went straight to their customer service counter and yelled at the poor receptionist.  I cannot see the logic at all! The mall rather let their shoppers spend quality time queuing for the loos than shopping and spending money? That was just so fu**king STUPID! In fact, Winsor House was undergoing "upgrading works" now - an it says "let your shopping desire flow" on one of their hoardings. Yes, let my shopping desire flow elsewhere! The whole shopping experience was so lousy!

To my bigger horror, I later found out that the toilets were only locked on weekends (when it was also the busiest period!) ! This is certainly ridiculous! And after some observation, I suspect the ill-intention of the management. There were a lot of foreign workers gathering around the mall - my guess is they may not want these people to use the toilets. And if my assumption is true, then it will be a bigger sin - the management is simply racist!

Last Tuesday, the operation manager called me to "smoke" me with their standard "customer-service script". I interrupted her speech and gave her a hostile lecture about shopper marketing. Seriously, if they can't afford to keep the toilet opens, why bother to run a mall? And if they are worried about the non-shoppers who just come and use their toilets - they can simply put a cashier outside each toilet. Better still, shut down your mall entirely!

 

Straight from Tokyo, Kenneth (our 74th-75th Hong Kong Visitor) hopped in yesterday with his wife, Karen! What a perfect timing for a Friday gathering - King Bug meeting Flu Bug. (I was down with fever and was on MC yesterday - not H1N1.) His Grass-Shopper Wife was somehwere out there at Mong Kok. It was indeed a very short meeting... and they flew back today. Gotta miss them throughout winter. Sigh... I have to wait till summer before I meet this bug again.