Yesterday, the weather was good… little fog. So we decided went "island hoping" once more. This time, we went to Cheung Chau Island.

The ferry took us about 45 minutes at very little cost of HK22 per pax. We sat in the "Deluxe Deck" – Elkan ran out to the open deck with his binoculars. It was very windy and cold. As usual, sea-sick Mummy was meditating quietly – ignoring our pleas to sit out at the open deck.

Cheung Chau is a totally different island from what I have imagined. I thought of it as the "Pulau Ubin" of Hong Kong but it offers much more! It reminds me of Taiwan’s 淡水 village. Cheung Chau is an old seatown of a population of 30,000. Despite its old settings, It is quite an interesting & lively place. There are lots to see, shop and eat. It is really a nice place to spend a weekend. No wonder there are many small temporary motel kiosks outside the ferry terminal. You can easily rent a room for less than HK600. (There is even a mini HSBC bank and Mcdonald right outside the ferry terminal.)

We spent 3 hour hiking around the small island (and twice, we have to look high and low for Tracy’s urgent toilet request!). The beach is pretty narrow (but much cleaner than the one we saw at Discovery Bay) and we saw a couple of people wakeboarding and wind-surfing there. The over-publicised 3,000 year-old Rock Craving is an overstatement. It is small and isolated (not worth the hike to see).

This small town does have its own authentic and unique offerings (but limited) – like the "PingAn Buns" and "dried seafood". There is a small shop along the beach where you can find "Tornado Fried Potato Chip". Shopping is relatively cheap (compared with HK island) but there aren’t a lot of "local products". A lot of the handicrafts shop carry products from Indonesia and Philippine. (Sigh, another example of Tourism Erosion – where a place loses its cultural authenticness to mainstream tourism).

Seafood is great – as good as what we had back home in Singapore. Especially in this cool weather, it is a great joy to dine in the open by the pier and watch the sunset. And it is an eye-opener for me, watching those "boat people" cooking and eating on their own boat-houses.

I do enjoy myself a lot here. It is a good getaway from the over-congested Hong Kong. And it is only 45-minute away from Central Pier. A nice and affordable place to chill out.

I have never seen such a misty (note: not foggy) Hong Kong. What a perfect timely gift from Mother Nature! The thick mist appeared yesterday on Valentine’s Day. This morning, the mist got thicker (and at some point, visibility was only 50m). This is the perfect settings for a dreamy, misty, romantic Valentine’s Weekend.

This morning, Felicia "made us" participate in a compulsory "Valentine Game". On Friday the 13th, Felicia texted a strange "teaser" sms to both Tracy and myself. We have to be at home from 10:30am to 11:30am (on 14th Feb) for a very special Valentine Surprise. How exciting!

At 10:30am sharp, Felicia setup the table with pancakes, honey, bananas, chocolate fudge, strawberries and other goodies. (mmm.. very kinky sweet and sticky stuff) – I was pretty nervous what she was going to play…. (Seriously, I think I watched too many naughty porn shows!)

"Today is Valentine’s Day! And we are all going to play a simple game! I want all of you to make your own Valentine Pancake! There will be prizes for everyone!" she said.

The game is simple. (1) Design your own pancake. (2) Draw a lot and decide whose pancake you will be having for breakfast later. (3) Valentine Gift exchange. (4) Have lots of fun together!

Immediately, a few naughty ideas (example: "Banana Honey Thrusting Pancake" or "Pancake Boobs with Pinky Strawberry Nipples") came into my mind. But with Elkan around, I had to drop those ideas. We were given 20 minutes to "design and make" our own pancakes.

The worst part of the game was drawing lot to decide whose pancake we will be eating – seriously, none of us want to eat Elkan’s messy creation! He was digging nose and poking his pancakes… We were quite disgusted looking at him assembling those pancakes. Yucky! (Thanks goodness! Fate has chosen Tracy to take the bullet for Felicia and me! Haaaa.. she ended up eating Elkan’s very dirty creation!) Lucky me, I picked Felicia’s beautiful pancakes! Elkan got mine and Felicia got Tracy’s.

Check out our creations! It is not difficult to guess which is Elkan’s masterpiece.

(Feli, thanks for making our 16th Valentine’s Day so fun and memorable!)

Technology really change the way we live today. Unlike the old days, you see groups of old men gathering at coffee shops or parks playing chess and poker cards. Today, with the advancement of mobile technology, the youngsters in my generation can be playing chess, card games and even mahjong with any "strangers" out there in the cyberworld. Now with the new powerful iPhone, it allows me to play chess with anyone, anywhere in the world.

I have been playing this freeware "Reversi" for the last few days with strangers from all around the globe – UK, HK, Japan, China and even Dubai. We could chat and play the game at the same time. It is fun and challenging – as you never know who is the one playing on the other side (maybe it is a pretty hot chick or some 3-year old kid). But I also met a couple of assholes who quitted their games at half-point (as they kinda knew they were going to lose).

Today, I finally met the worst player (he is from Japan). At the end of our game (which I won), he wrote 2 rude messages to me and left the game (with just 1 more move to make). He wrote "f**k you" and the message above. I was not amused at all! (cos he left the game before I could reply!) If this is a game at the coffee shop and he displayed such rude attitude, I’m sure I am going to break his damn balls with my cup of kopi-see. Haaa.. but on the other hand, I may be playing with a small kid…

These new-tech game is good but the old way is better. At least those old folks at coffee shops are more "civilised and gentlemen" than these cybercraps! And there are plenty of face to face connection.