Fortissimo

After a breakfast at the mall (fish fillets fish-n-chips style and bread) we went to Victoria Peak.
Took a tram up of course. The tram was speeding up the damn slope at a 40-degree angle, so we were pretty much literally glued to our seats. Hong Kong scenery is hard to catch because of all the haze. When we got up there we found ourselves among clouds (actually it was a particularly dense passing cloud). And up there was a total MALL like about six or seven storeys high. Well we forgot a map of the mountain trails, so we just wandered aimlessly for twenty minutes before spending the next ten minutes retracing our steps.
We planned to go to Madame Tussad's, until my aunt found out that they didn't hear 'Sing dollars' when I said 'twenty-four' (SGD1=HKD5).
Took a bus ride down to Central, and again we were glued to our seats as the driver took turns at full speed, with like only a metre on each side between safety and a four-freaking-hundred metre drop. I got up once to shift to the other side of the bus, because the turning here and there made the scenery change sides. I was flung forward into my prospective seat when the driver took a turn. Miracle the glass window didn't break.
Got to the interchange,and when we went into the next mall, I was totally arrested by the sight of these beautiful chess sets. Either English or Chinese chess, copper and either pewter or pewter plated pieces, each as a human figurine (except for castle of course) à la Harry Potter. Not that grand though. Just normal knights and kings and queens in proper cloaks and crowns. And the English set which I actually play was of all things made of some cheap beige-brown wood while the Chinese chess set... Wow. Sparkling rosewood. My aunt said if I don't find any souvenir by the end of this trip she'd get a set for me in June, when my mom's coming again with my little brother. On the way I saw in other shops, among others, a Chinese chess set with figurines in Dowager-Forbidden City style, in stone, and a metal set, English chess with Chinese figurines. Interesting. I might want to get that.

Met my aunt's friend from Taiwan also working in HK. We went to yum cha. Now yum cha is a slang for eating in a cheaper dim sum restaurant, where you could sit for hours or bring every of your relatives up to thrice-removed and no one would complain. But their service was a straight A. Dashing in with plates and cups and chopsticks, the woman with a perfectly passive, if slightly bored face, flung the plates to us, clanged the cups into position, and threw the chopsticks in front of our plates. The chopsticks were askewed, but she frisbeed the plates rather well. That didn't stop me from looking at her like she was Jotham Wong in a G-string. My mother intoned wisely, 'Times is money.' The teapots, one half filled with tea leaves and the other with hot water, were also set down with a spectacular bang. And since I was the only one with a deep voice there I was put in charge of the tea. Damned teapots, so heavy and such a small handle. If I had actually bothered to endure the heat I might not have rattled it so much.

Went to Lamma Island. And spent three hours going up and down slope, and still it was nothing compared to that damn Gunung Lambak. By the time I got to that halfway point I everything but collapsed on the ground. Still it didn't stop me from panting like a dog today. Not to mention my mom hanging on to the back of my shirt for me to haul her up.
Had a snack at a crummy seafood restaurant where half the things we wanted were out of stock, then back to the main island by forty minutes ferry, and we got slightly choppy seas to go with it. As usual we Asians never fail to be amazed by splashing water, and as the ship made a big blast of water erupt from crashing back down onto the sea, I could hear 'waaaaaah' from the other side of the boat.
Went straight for dessert. My aunt had paid for the yum cha lunch, so the other two typically wanted to repay her. One paid for the seafood snack, and the other was quite thrifty, so my aunt didn't want to make her pay for a full dinner, so we headed straight for dessert. I picked mango sago with pomelo on my aunt's reccommendation. Beautiful. We took the tram ride around, just for the knack of it I reckon. Don't ever do that, it makes sucha noise even a deaf man would cover his ears.
And when we were rid of the other two as we were taking the train back my aunt asked me where I wanted to eat, and couldn't believe I was actually truthfully agreeable when I agreed to a dessert and that's it. So back we went to the mall for a mixed meat hotplate platter, and home.

Sorry if you found it abit boring. It's 1.20AM and I'm gonna spend a whole day at Ocean Park Amusement... Park tomorrow, and besides I didn't feel like thinking properly to make an enjoyable post. Just the facts and selective commentary.

Watch our for my next post of tomorrow's events.