Ajab's chatti

i was very honored to be invited as the only non-Bohri guest at the chatti of my friend's daughter, Ajab.  According to Taha, Chatti stands for sixth, for every baby's naming ceremony that takes place six days after birth.  The baby's name was picked by their spiritual leader, and kept secret (even from the parents) till this special day.  It was a very intimate, very sweet ceremony.

Some of my favourite shots:

- women of the house gathered around the little one

- Ajab being read prayer passages

- hiding underneath the prayer book... look at that head of hair! can you believe she's only 6 days old?!

- Ajab being told her name... she heard it first from her father's cousin, before it was announced to her parents and the rest of the family

- the proud parents

- grandpa about to run away being entrusted with some of Ajab's treasures

Congratulations again, T & T

i just popped downstairs

to the tiny shanghainese noodle store across the street, run by two nice elderly men

was going to buy take out (like i always do) and eat in front of the TV

but decided to eat at the store instead (save some styrofoam, save the world!)

i was the only customer in the store.

the beef noodles came quick, steaming hot. the two elderly men went around their own business and left me alone, but as i was almost done wolfing down my noodles, the chef came out from the kitchen and sat down at the empty table next to me.. wei, xiao jie ah, where are you from? you don't speak mandarin like most ppl around here.  me? we are both from shanghai, hence the shanghainese restaurant i guess. haha  ...i've been living in hk 30 years and my old pal here 50 years, but our cantonese is still so crappy! my children grew up here and they can't speak a lick of shanghainese, it's unfortunate really, but what can you do?!...

...and so what was going to be a quick-just-get-your-tummy-filled-and-go dinner turned into a nice meal with company.  thank you mr zhang and mr guo.

markets down. hope you are safely invested.

nothing major to update you guys (except i'm supposed to be studying right this moment instead of surfing the web), so here's a video of my friend's kid to keep y'all entertained:

michelle's website

happy hump day everyone!

one year of constant reminders & invitations later...

... i finally caved & joined facebook. why are y'all so obsessed with it?  isn't it only popular among high school/college kids?

my uncle is getting married tmr. yay

...hv a gd w/e everyone! 

Photo exhibition in HK

For those of you into photography, pls come check out this exhibition at the Fringe Club by PH Yang, a close family friend and one of my favorite photographers:

Heaven Earth Man Woman - A Global Odyssey 天 地 人．環球探索

Fringe Gallery Fringe Club | 2 Lower Albert Rd (at Wyndham St) Central, Hong Kong 12 noon - 10 pm (Mon-Sat) | Except Public Holidays Tuesday, 17 - Tuesday, 31 July 2007 Opening Reception Meet the Artist | Wine and Refreshment Thursday, 19 July | 7-9 pm 20+ Destinations | 12 Countries | 5 Continents | 1 World Discover exquisite images of people, landscape and architecture, in harmony with heaven and earth, captured by emerging photographer, P H Yang, during his wanderings around the globe. Some say Yang has a knack for capturing the soul and spirit of the people, places or moments that last a lifetime. His work has been exhibited at San Jose Museum of Art, California; juried-in by the Director of Artist's Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and published in Hong Kong. Meet Phan, the young monk who loves Madonna -- captured before, during and after his initiation into monkhood, as published in Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly - Feb 2007. Or ogle Ana Luisa, the Cuban lady who had both arms broken and in plaster casts, and yet continued to chain-smoke. Feast on dazzling and whimsical images from exotic locales -- the Sahara, Morocco, Tunisia, Cuba, Burma (Myanmar), China, Laos, Mexico, France, Italy, Holy Week in Spain, Vietnam and eclectic Hong Kong.

Photographer's website: http://www.phyang.org/

week 2

i am into the second week of my new job, so far so good... only problem is i have to get in by 7am every morning.  now all my friends will know that sleeping is one of my all time favourite activities (and i mean ALL TIME, no exaggeration - i will happily give up food for sleep).  i've had three jobs before this one and all three of my former bosses have told me at some point "stella, work officially starts at 9, you really shouldn't be coming in after 9:30am..." hey, it ain't something that i'm proud of, but once a sleep bug, always a sleep bug.

anyhow i'm proud to report that i've gotten into work on time every.single.day these past two weeks, but here's the thing, no matter how much earlier i go to bed, waking up at 6am is just plain hard. it doesn't matter if i go to bed at 9pm and clock 9 hours of sleep, i still feel sorry for myself when my alarm goes off at 6am. however, if i get to bed at 2am and don't get up till 11am, i feel much much more refreshed and happy.  you guys have the same problem?

p has been going to work with me every morning to make sure i get in on time, even tho he really doesn't need to be at work till 930am.  ur the best!

mini hero

my cat woke me up last night by dragging
the water machine across the kitchen floor.  i slapped him on the
butt and moved the machine back into place.  this morning i stumbled
out of bed, and on my way to the bathroom, saw a pile of cat vomit on the
ground.  "HOBBES!!!" i was seething.  stupid cat woke
me up AND left me puke to clean up.  but then i inspected the puke
(call it morbid curiosity) and i saw a wire-like thingie sticking out.
 and as i looked more closely, to my horror, i saw a couple
of these scattered across the kitchen floor...

ew.  hobbes must've seen the roach
in the kitchen, hunted it down, played with it, and covered it in a pile
of vomit to DROWN IT.  DIE, ROACH, DIE.

however he killed it, i am grateful... to my mini hero for getting rid of the roach for
me AND for masking its corpse so expertly for my benefit.  thank you Hobbes.

one of the amputated legs, as i was wiping it away with a wet kleenex, crunched.  i almost died.

over exertion

i overexerted myself yesterday, playing the
raving rabbids game on wii.  it's this task below (a stage 1 task, no less) that left my right side
of the body aching all over today:

i am ashamed to say it, but it took me 15 tries (at least) to throw that damn cow the required 60 meters to pass.  i kept letting go of the lasso too early or too late, slamming the poor cow into the wall with a loud MOO. 

yeah i know - video games and me, not the best of friends.

rainy days

rainy mornings remind me of typhoon days when i was in school... my heart used to beat faster when i woke up to howling wind and the rain beating down on the window.  "are we having a typhoon?  is school canceled???"  i loved those lazy days of sleeping in, sitting glued to the TV catching cheesy soap operas like the Bold and the Beautiful and lounging around in my PJs the whole day.  imagine, waking up and having a holiday land on your lap!

this morning i woke up to this:

and for a moment i was disoriented and... excited.  but then i remembered that it was sunday and rain probably meant having to stay in, involuntarily, on a weekend.  or getting grim and dirty sewage water on my legs if i chose to go out. 

when did it start getting harder to have fun?

Photo submission

Am thinking of submitting a photo for an amateur contest.  which one would you choose? 

Dance scene: the finale

Fruit stall
(i have this photo in higher res somewhere)