Stationery Expedition

I decided to go examine the local stationery offerings at shops reported to stock Platinum Preppy fountain pens. I find that this type of expedition is usually better conducted solo so as to avoid any guilt for other people's boredom or excessive walking. And there was excessive walking. First off, I took a bus from Kennedy Town (these placenames don't seem to mean much when they roll into one urban mess) to Upper Happy Valley. With my body not being satisfied with staying awake, I ended up at... Upper Happy Valley.

The map showed some hope of salvaging the situation with a dotted line connecting up to another road which would see me to the first shop. //Hong Kong maps need contour lines

Well... this happens to be the dotted line:

Not very well signed and random ruins. There were multiple paths and it seems more like a drain maintenance access network. The path up did follow a drain at a delightful 60 degree angle. Pictures are kinda useless in those situations though.

Having made it to the top, the road was pretty much downhill... but with not so many footpaths and a lot of buses. I took this shot while on a no-footpath/warning landslide part of the road:

I think that's lawn bowls in the middle there.
Anyway, a random middle-aged lady asked me whether I was going to Country Park or something - she saw my map. I was detained and interrogated for about five minutes before proceeding downhill.

Anyway, here's all the good stuff:

A4 seems like a nice combination of side-click and generous eraser.
A5;A6 are all "so soft that the rubber dust sticks together" kind of eraser.

B1 combines two gel pens with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. The pens are nice but the pencil does wobble a bit.

On another note, my shoes stink from not drying after the steeplechase (five days ago). =/

:O

Lamma Island

I believe that where there are hammocks, there's time to kill.
Lamma Island happens to be one of those places. There are no roads in town, only footpaths and four-wheeled trayed vehicles. These carry:

• building materials
• rubbish
• goods (eg plasma television sets)

Their emergency vehicles are pretty cute too:

 

 

Most of the buildings aren't very tall and it has become popular for some office-workers to live here and commute daily to Central on Hong Kong Island. People don't seem to do much here... the randoms that kinda look like housekeepers read books and listen to music in their hammocks.

They also have a coal power station which probably isn't worthy of being featured here. Also, the wind turbine was out of action on the day.
Also, I was told that their old temple burned down from a fire... started by incense.

Edit: Oh yes... apparently buildings that once were used for animals have been converted for human habitation ~ how delightful.

High Table Dinner

High table at Loke Yew Hall

I suppose a high table dinner would be something like a compulsory ball. Everyone from the same hall attends (something like three-hundred people) in formal attire. Arrival and departure tokens help with the attendence records.

The guest speaker spoke about the importance of hostel/hall life and 'regging'. It did seem a bit like a dodgy initiation process for newcomers.
He then spoke at length about community service, how everything is public about his life including what trouble family connections can bring as well as climbing the ladder of society. Even so, all the questions from the audience were planted, with the last girl reading directly off a strip of paper (not even facing him).

There was nice procession music though. As a bonus the banner fell down and the vice-chancellor held onto it for a while.

 

Vice-chancellor in the grey.

No more banner.