yuan vs hkd

as of Sunday, Novemver 18, 2007 11:18pm local time

1 Chinese yuan = 1.04843744 Hong Kong dollars

what?!!! the last time i went to shenzhen, hkd is still a wee bit higher than yuan. i shouldnt be surprised. with the way the market is going (which i really dont know), expect the unexpected. should i be worried? should i panic now? in spite of this, the usd is still constant at 7.7hkd in money exchange shops. but the php is a striking low @ merely 1hkd=5.5php conservatively. im not familiar with the happenings, cause and effect of things in the economy. haha all im really concerned about is the going-rate of what im earning, saving at the moment. guess it's time to look beyond.

rest in peace?
according to an investment guru, the hk dollar would cease to exist in 5-10 years. jim rogers said in this article that the current HK currency will soon disappear. and in its place, yuan. (well, good enough) politically, i dont know the effect of this in HKSAR considering it still has its own policy apart from the mainland. hopefully, i will learn more about it in time hkd really does disappear.

citygate outlet mall

went to citygate in tung chung. all the shops here are outlet stores of known brands - from RL, lanvin, kate spade to esprit, giordano and nike. tung chung area is near the airport already around 1 hour ride via the MTR. if you ask me.. is it worth going all the way there to buy stuff? well, if it's your first time, i think it's okai. still a bit expensive for me.. plus the fare. i think i can buy similar items without going to far.

how to go there: (thanks to tutubi for the directions.)
take mtr to tung chung exit C. fare cost: 46hkd roundtrip.

and of course, the pictures are here.

halloween (addendum)

HERE!!!

the dark knight comes to hongkong

apart from the visit last halloween (thanks to a costume-fitted batman), the cast and crew of the next batman installment, The Dark Knight, is in hongkong to do some shots in the Central area. IFC2, hk's tallest building, will grace the screen along with the victoria harbour night view. there were also strict rules in letting the crew do their helicopter scenes at night because they don't want residents to be disturbed with the noise. the filmaker also requested that the other buildings lend its lights to the scene, to keep them open during filming. i wonder what happened to this request.

im going to central today. hope i bump into mr wayne. hahaha

the standard has more details here.

prison break s3e07

warning. spoilers ahead.
this series is getting exciting. i thought when the brothers reached panama, the story would go blah blah. in spite of the writer's strike (?), they were still able to come up with a very twisted (in a good way) storyline. killing sarah - wow, that was risky for those who are basking on the tandem of michael-sara. well, it's not a love story guys! someone had to die and too bad, it had to be her. just think, it's for the good of the show. escaping SONA in broad daylight - is michael a genius or what? despite the obstacles, he was able work around the guards whistler's ways - that last scene caught me off-guard. amanda (or gretchen) talking to his boss asking whether to give the brothers a 2nd chance at escaping.

cant wait for the next one!

breastmilk is still best for babies

nope, im not breastfeeding nor do i have a kid. i just happen to often hear this discussion from my colleagues - fathers at that. jay and his wife were having some problem with their 1 year old son, matt, who was diagnosed recently of asthma after going home to manila. many theories came about from the pollution which (supposedly) triggered his allergies to his food intake to matt, not being able to take breastmilk. firstly, imagine a baby, barely 1 year taking the tricycle! is that baptism by fire or what? inhaling all the pollution, dirt in the streets. even able-bodied men will give in sooner or later. what more a fragile being? im not saying hk has very clean air but somehow it's still manageable, i think. so from there, cough, colds and then came allergies. i would often hear jay worry about his son, and now all the more he wants to keep a clean environment around him. they can't be sick as matt might contract it. they wont go out unless necessary. and recently, regretting not pushing his wife to breastfeed.

best for babies
this is one ad that you can truly rely on. breastmilk contains antibodies which will protect your baby until he has enough antibodies to produce on his own. he gains immunity from illnesses which his mother have. matt was breastfed barely 1 month. and somehow they attribute this asthma to his lack of nutrition that should've come from breastmilk. now, jay is insisting "sa susunod na anak namen, ako na mismo magpapadede sa kanya". no pun intended.

... enough to ask my mom if she breastfed me.

after halloween

halloween in hongkong is a kind of big event here -- more of a party event where people get to dress in their fave costume. from the scary, gory creatures of darkness to the queens of drag to the boy bands to the animated comic/movie characters. many wore at least a 'sungay' headband to get into the spirit of hallow's eve.
as expected, LKF was packed with revelers frantically taking pictures. most were awed with the caped crusader aka batman and the cyborg, robocop. many were hounding them (us including hahaha). thankfully, there's high police visibility in the area making sure we were not crowding up in one place. there's a one-way traffic to ease the build up of people showing up even at 12mn.

all in all, kudos to those who came in wonderful, well-thought-of costumes who made our sight seeing more exciting and alive. to those policemen who made sure everything is in order. and to the one who gave drink to robocop making him last all the way to the MTR where people are still lining up to take a pic with him.