City of Desire

Today (Sunday) was my first non-work day here in Hong Kong. I needed to take my mind off my girls that I miss something fierce so I decided to hit the town. There are a few things in life that I really like. Sushi of course, Indian food is another love of mine. I am really getting into tea and I now have an almost spiritual attachment to the flute. It is just my instrument and it is where I go to relax. If Hong Kong is half the city it claims to be I should be able to meet all my desires, right? Right!

I headed to a music store that I had seen previously but it had been closed. Hmmm, it is lunch time and between me and the music store are at least 4 sushi restaurants that I have already scoped out. Time to satisfy desire number one. I stopped at another conveyor sushi place, G-sushi. I noticed that this place always had the longest line out the door when I conducted my sushi research. I am not sure why, I was not impressed. Keep in mind that it was sushi, it was good and it was very inexpensive so I did not suffer but I thought the Genki sushi I ate at the other day was better and a little cheaper. This place did have some things on the order menu that were better than Genki but for some reason it took forever for them to make it. It was good enough to satisfy my desire.

On to the music store. I went to Tom Lee Music. I must say that in the orchestral instrument world, Hong Kong has some nice music stores. They have a deep selection of sheet music and I had to pick up some. I was able to find one book on traditional Japanese music for flute. That should be cool. I have always loved traditional music and instruments. You may recall that I picked up a Chinese flute in China when we went to get Megan. I asked the folks at Tom Lee if they knew anywhere that had traditional instruments and they gave me directions to a place about 4 blocks away. Great! I’m off to sail the sea of humanity.

I made my way to the Yuet Wah Music Centre. They had all sorts of traditional instruments. I was excited to see all kinds of flutes. I only know the basics of Chinese flutes. I am standing there talking to the salesman about what I want but keep in mind that he speaks almost no English and I have found that my conversations are rather limited when all I say is “Thank you” which happens to be half of the Chinese that I know. At this point another man walks up asking the salesman something in Chinese. It turns out that he was a flute teacher. He helped me pick out a good flute and he showed me how to apply the bamboo film over the tone hole that gives the Chinese flute its distinctive sound. This is actually a very delicate process and I have not been able to find much advice on it in the US. They had the special glue that they use to do it and everything. At this point I was totally giddy. I knew I was getting secret tips from the other side of the world and I was going to be able to bring them home with me. Mr. Chan was showing me those little things that you just can’t know unless someone passes that knowledge to you. I didn’t want it to end. Hey wait, he’s a teacher!!!! I now have a traditional Chinese flute lesson for Tuesday night with Mr. Chan Tak-Ming. How cool is that! What an adventure. BTW, Mandy the flute cost $20 and the lesson was about the same (Wow) so don’t stress that I am squandering Megan’s college fund….hmmmm will I guess that is about her college fund but you know what I mean, don’t worry.

I headed from there through the back streets into one of those crowded, chaotic street markets that typifies big city Asia in the movies. Very cool but nothing caught my eye. I then spotted a little tea store. These are not that uncommon in Asia. I went in and a very nice man offered to assist me. He asked if I liked jasmine tea. Actually I love a cold jasmine tea that I get at a Pho Vietnamese noodle place near work. I don’t think he was THAT good of a salesman. I think he just got lucky but he set the hook deep. He offered to have me taste some. We sat down at this really cool table and he went through this well choreographed routine to make the tea. It was quite interesting. I had a great time and the tea was excellent. What luck! They were having a huge sale prior to the Chinese New Year. Then came the part where I purchased some tea and all the trappings that I need to duplicate the experience at home. This is also the point at which I exceeded the space my carryon luggage could offer for the trip home. I do this all the time. I will come up with something. Oh and honey, I hear that the community college system in California is quite good so don’t worry ;) Anyway, I don’t know if I have any friends that like tea but, if so, we have to get together sometime to try out my new tea set. Ahhh, I just got this effeminate shiver that ran down my spine. Okay, we have to come up with something far more masculine than “tea party” but if you would be interested let me know, just not in public, okay.

But wait, this blog book has more! On my way back to the hotel I spotted my first Indian restaurant. Could it be? Could this really be a quadruple desire day?! After a quick trip to the hotel to drop off my new toys I returned to the offer up my dinner adventure to Shaffi’s Malik Indian Restaurant. Chicken curry, dal, saffron basmati rice and nan, mmmmmm. More testing is needed before I can be definitive but I think Singapore still holds top honors in the Indian food category. The dinner was good but the curry was a little off and it only takes a single bobble to put you out of the running.

What a great day. There are a couple of things that would make it even more special but they are not here with me. Off to China tomorrow for our product build. I best get some sleep. Sweet dreams…...