Happy New 2013 everyone!! 

Ahhh....it's been a while since I last updated my blog so I guess it's time to do some writing?

So, what have I been up to these last couple of months? 

First, let's start off with my bday! :)

My Birthday Celebrations

At the end of June I celebrated my birthday with my family. Like all years past, it ended with a nice cake, but this year it was a little bit more special. This year it came with a nice surprise...

My dad had ordered a computer from the States for my birthday this year. It was to be my mini gaming computer at home to plug into my HDTV. It took a while for it to arrive, but eventually came.

One fine Thursday morning, I got this revamped computer end of June:

Yes, what you are looking at is a completely brand-new revamped Commodore 64, revised up-to-date for 2011 with a dual Intel Atom chip chipset! It is a fully fledged PC and yes Commodore, one of our all-time loved brands, is back!! I had ordered it since May as a Standard unit with 2GB RAM, 250GB HD and DVD drive. But what happened was….I had mine specially updated by the boss of the company! Let me explain!

What happened was, at the time of order I was on their company support forum, and through a couple of exchanges (and supporting the company, as it was only just starting up) I became good friends with a number of members there. When I was contacted that it was soon to be shipped by the company, I told them the timing was perfect because it meant it would arrive around the time of my birthday. So I thought that was the end of that…. That is, until I got an email on a Saturday morning from the boss of the firm who he said apparently he'd done something with my order. One Saturday morning I was told my machine had been upgraded from Standard spec to Ultimate spec. Do you know what that means? It meant I got over $300 worth of goodies for my unit!! My unit got upgraded to the top level spec, with 4GB RAM, 1TB drive and a Bluray drive thrown in for free!

And here is the proof to show for it:

I was really really chuffed with this unit, and so happy there are people who really care….

And if you wanna share in my excitement, you can see and watch my Youtube box opening here ^^ >

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po49nHTotJ8&feature=related

Family Getting Married

These last two months, lots of activities happened on my family side, as two of my cousins from my family managed to finally get married. I couldn't attend either one of them, but I was happy for them all, as it had been a while since anyone in our family had such celebrations. One of my oldest cousins (3 years younger than me) got married, as did one of my younger cousins (9 years younger than me). Chinese tradition says as the oldest grandchild I should technically get married first before anyone, but that to me is only just a mindset. Though I'm not married yet I firmly believe in freedom of choice, affinity and one's fate. I believe such things will eventually come to those when the timing is right. :)

New Printer Installed

Two weeks ago we had a brand-new 60" printer installed in our studio. Using latex ink it is supposed to help create more durable pieces of art in our work.

We'd thought of getting the unit as it would help expand our service offerings, and allow us to print onto various substrate materials including cloth, vinyl, wallpapers and such. You could even create curtains with it! It's :) amazing….

Air Con Getting Fixed

Last Tuesday our aircon unit at work broke down so we had to call in the repair people. But what we didn't realise was the amount of work needed to get it repaired! Because the heat exchanger was installed poorly outside our studio, it had to be moved further out so the repairmen could do their job. So some scaffolders had to come in to add the bamboo scaffolding around the exchanger. But one thing…..we found they were working rather dangerously! In adding the screws in place for the bamboo and standing on a very short ledge outside the window 6 storeys high, they didn't wear or use a harness!! They said it was too hot to do so! My dad saw the people work and thought it was just scary!

Surprising Call From Old Family Friend

Last Wednesday, my dad and I got an anonymous call from an old family friend who we hadn't seen in years....and I'm talking like almost 15 years since we last met. Out of the blue we got a call at work from this friend, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I was told by him that, apparently he'd found us thru out of all places, but at AnD! Apparently he'd gone through my entire blog on here, and read up about my life up until this point. He'd gone to try find information about where my dad worked, and had read through most of my blog until he found the details. Luckily he called us…. so we're going to have a reunion soon. All thanks to the power of the web! :)

Some Friends Come, And Some Go...

Also earlier this month I learnt the sad truth about one other friend who died in London. He was a former darkroom printer client of my dads and also a family friend who we'd known for years. We learnt he'd died of a heart attack one Friday afternoon this early August.

It's sad these things like this happen in life. All one can do I suppose is do their best…

London Riots

Which brings me to the UK riots. Don't know if you heard, but it seems this August has been pretty hectic UK-wise. Lots of people lost their homes and possessions while others suffered loss of business because of the riots. On top of this London had to face a growing recession and

With the riots my relatives living in London was not affected at all, and some even contributed to the peace (a cousin of mine worked helped work as a reserve policewoman) but nonetheless the event had quite an impact on the local community because of the fear and unrest it caused. My old residential area got torched. :( And at one point the rioters were going to almost try to cause havoc near one area where my grandma lived, but luckily nearby her town there were some Charles Bronsons who were out in force! I learnt up to 300 angry Kurdish and Turkish folks were out in force on the streets to protect their (and others) property because the police was stretched thin. The police said they didn't recommend the 'vigilante' groups being formed, nonetheless if it wasn't for these brave souls things would have gotten worse in London. Thank god there are still some nice people left in our world….

Like these guys. The one thing you'll find with the British is that no matter what, they'll always make light heart of a situation no matter how bad it looks. So here are also some really funny photos I found of the events you guys might enjoy! ^^

Building Star Wars Lego

Lately I've been shopping with my bro for some Star Wars Lego sets. I've always been a fan of Lego but also of Star Wars and it's been a while since I built anything out of Lego. So what better way than to treat myself to some nice designs? Here are photos of at least two I've built:

Last Of All….Mooncakes!

As you know end of August is Mooncake Festival season in HK. And what better way to celebrate the festival than to enjoy some nice moon cakes. Except the ones I'm about to show you are not quite the same! ^^

I've been having an incredibly busy 4 weeks lately......seems that there's so much going on these days in HK I've barely logged into my FB page! ^_^

1) Trip to Disneyland HK

At the end of last month I went to Disneyland HK recently with a mutual friend. ^_^

It was my first time there.....my bro had been before and I wanted to go quite a long while ago but never really had the time. Given my friend was also visiting HK for the first time I also decided it was probably worthwhile for me to go too...

So we went on a load of stuffs. Trains, miniature plane rides.....Tomorrowland....plus we saw the parade.....it was pretty fun to say the least! Not for a long while had I had so much fun!

And no guys, before you think she is who you think she is, she ISN'T my new 'girlfriend', only just a mutual friend... :)

2) New 1000Mbps broadband cable installed!

I recently had the chance to try out the 1000mbps service from HK Broadband! An engineer came in about 2 weeks ago to our home to install the lines, which had to be specially connected to the phone network as it was one of the few being installed in our building. For a long while we'd been stuck using 8mbps speeds for browsing from PCCW and they were just awfully long periods for downloading. So imagine our surprise when a leaflet popped into our postbox adverising this new service for very little money monthly (like $190 HK$)! We just said we gotta have it! :)

3) Angry Birds

Went out and got myself some Angry Birds merchandise recently. I came across this lovely giant bird one day in Toys R Us (which is also a cushion) and just decided I needed it for my bedroom! I also got the Angry Bird keyring...it looks so cute! ^^

4) LA Noire

Got myself and my bro a copy of LA Noire recently. Gotta admit its one of the best games I've played in a long time. I've loved playing adventure games all my life (like Grim Fandago, Police Quest and Monkey Island) and I rarely played GTA-type games in the past, but when this game was launched recently it really caught my intrigue....

In the game you play as a police detective working through to homicide and vice trying to solve mostly murder cases using your sense of deduction. Unlike other choice-based games this one is dependent on you guessing what answers are the correct ones coming from the person you are interviewing, and getting it right/wrong is a matter of life and death. The game faithfully recreates the city of Los Angeles in the late 1940s where you are allowed to drive around the city to visit locations and chase suspects/criminals by car or on foot. And yes you can shoot suspects if you think they are trouble. It is so well put together it's certainly a spectacle to behold....

I came across this image recently from a friend of a friends.....do you think this is the ultimate prank?

Phew! What a busy week we've had! HK really is a city that never sleeps!

I'd just finished a very long tour of a HK International ArtFair yesterday (which was covering over 2 levels this year. With the attendance of thousands of special guests from the world over, I have to say I was very impressed with it this year.



Lots of Work From All Over The World

The collection this year was certainly a lot broader than it was last year. Last year consisted mainly of photos and paintings and some sculpture work but this time the venue was greatly expanded. Onto two levels! For the first time I saw a lot of work also coming out from Europe. As well as work from Asia (like it did last year), a number of interesting pieces was coming also from the States, including from places like Germany and remote places like Turkey.







Prominent Artists Exhibiting and Attending

There were some well known artists work I saw at the show. People such as Damien Hurst and Sam Leech, as well as many galleries and artists (foreign and domestic) who resided within China. While I was browsing through the levels I came across HK artist Louis Koo, and even people like actress Tang Wei! Tang looked a bit plain without makeup I have to say, but I guess that's HK life for you right? People are still people nonetheless and they need to enjoy life, no matter what they do.

Interesting Exhibits

There was some very interesting exhibits that I came across last night. Apart from the usual paintings and sculptures (like some amazing pieces like a miniature Chinese restaurant and great landscape pic) there were many where the user could actually try out and 'wear' the said artpiece! (in the 2nd pic above).

Then...I also found some truly innovate displays!

Amazing Interactive Display



I came across this amazing interactive display yesterday. It is displayed on a TV and inside is a person standing looking around on a street, with a phone number above their heads. If you managed to call through to the number above the person inside the TV they will pick it up and answer....and then something happens to them. I will leave this for you to decide what happens next....

Miniature Chinese Restaurant and Amazing Embossed Prints

I came across this amazing looking piece.
The first bit looks like this. You walk inside....



...and you see this!



Then you will see this......and be treated to a miniature Chinese restaurant, complete with sounds. Fun eh?



Embossed Prints

There was some truly amazing work being shown at yesterdays show. I think of them had to be this.







This was a series of about 3 prints which were made using an embossing technique. Incredibly detailed it is truly delicate work because all it consisted of were straight lines, it must have taken the artist ages to complete. And probably was worth a lot of money too....

Amazing Landscape Print





Also came across this amazing landscape print from China, which is over a metre long in 3 parts and depicts buildings as like in ancient Chinese-style mountain paintings. There was also an interactive version of this painting by the same artist, but showing moving cars in streets and waterfall moving.

Meeting with Lisa S








I also managed to meet up with resident AnD artiste Lisa S. last night at the Diesel showcase out of chance. Lisa explained that Daniel was unable to make the opening as he was still in Beijing shooting a new movie, I was glad I asked her because we had a hand to play in the development of that whole exhibit (printed by yours truly ^^) and I was anxious for their feedback. She said we had 'made them all look really good!' and was pleased with the results so I was well chuffed. At least it was worth it because it was all completed for Diesel and AsiaOne (the book publishers) under a very tight schedule.....