minalism travel

Practicing Tai Chi In A Public Park – Photograph from nydailynews.com It is a sunny and relatively warm Saturday morning for January. You would think that after spending at least two years waking up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings, to travel all the way from South London to East, while I was working for the Barnardos Aut' & About Scheme , that I would be accustomed to being out and about at this time. But no, it's still a struggle, so I get myself out of the apartment as fast as I can and on my way to meet today's adventure.  Agenda of the day: visiting elderly residents at their homes courtesy of the kind efforts of Janet Wai and SK Shum, who organise the Hong Kong Voluntary Group on Meetup , and the team of staff at the Wan Chai Methodist Centre for the Seniors. These visits have been successfully running since 2007 providing an invaluable and under-catered service to the 'real' residents of Hong Kong. My team were given three elderl

Lunchtime can never arrive fast enough when you're hungry! And after an early start to my day, I was certainly quite starving on my journey home. I ducked into a small Vietnamese restaurant just outside Sheung Wan MTR station, that had been recommended to me many times, and picked up some simple and delicious looking take-away, Lemongrass Beef with Vermicelli Noodles and Vegetables  (sadly I was too hungry to take a picture of my tasty lunch... that's how good it was! But to give you an idea, here is a photo from a great little article I found with an even tastier looking recipe, that looks almost identical to what I ate). Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad – Photography from  http://kokocooks.com/ Take-away noodles in hand, I got home and literally dashed in and out, wanting to squeeze in a quick run up Ladder Street and down Bonham Road, before I tucked into my delicious food, and got comfortable for a night in at my apartment. So I quickly changed into my running short

The Hong Kong Park Aviary – Photograph by Stephen Bay The  Hong Kong park  Aviary is definitely worth while a visit. Aside of being situated in a beautiful green space it is a nice activity to add to your overall park experience.  Despite the lovely settings, I was forced to retreat as it was just too damn cold to stay outside, so I grabbed a coffee and jumped in a taxi to Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan area. I had run out of bottled water, so before I headed home I made a quick stop at a small local shop around the corner, which is more like a makeshift temporary hut used by an elderly Hong Kongese couple to run their own partially open-air convenience store. I mean, why give the fat cats the money when it's these folk that know the real meaning of earning a HARD living? Even though they don't speak much English they always make an effort to converse with me through random words of Cantonese, English and lots of hand gestures. In their own humble ways, they seem