Farewell WordPress

So after my previous posting, I noticed that WordPress had been sending me notifications to renew my domain for MutuallyAwkward.com. And I just didn’t want to renew it. I’ve been pretty unhappy with WordPress’s site design options for a while now, especially with the fact that I have to sign up for their premium plan to do simple things like change my fonts.

You know what? I can do it all for free on Tumblr. I’ve started using Tumblr earlier this year, first for hosting Like Like Zine‘s website and then later on for the podcast that I co-host. I love how they look. And I want to enjoy blogging, writing stories, posting travel stuff, etc on a site I am completely happy with. So after blogging here for 5 years, I am moving this blog for the second time ever.

If you’d like to still keeps taps on me, you can check out the blog’s new home here: Rewind Tapes. I’ll still keep my WordPress account open since I am subscribed to other blogs that I like and for commenting, but for now on, my posts will be at the link above.

Cya there! Or if not, then like around and stuff!

~Vince

Hong Kong Scout Centre

 

Shortly after my parents’ divorce when I was a kid, my father had my brother and I signed up for the boy scouts at a form of father-sons bonding now that he had become a once-a-week parent. For the most part, it was an awesome experience, in which I learned  a lot of lessons in comradery and basic outdoorsy stuff (knots!). It was great until our scout leader went into retirement and out troupe was taken over by over-protective mothers who felt all activities should all be held inside for safety reasons. But those were the dark latter days – all in all, it was a great experience. And it just so happens that I happen to live a few blocks away from the Hong Kong Scout Centre in Jordan, Kowloon. It’s connected a gigantic hotel and though I’ve always walked by with curiosity, it was this weekend that I finally decided to wander in. Though not a museum of scout history (or perhaps I didn’t look quite hard enough?), I saw a few interesting things.

 

The HK Scout founder.

The good ‘ole days.

 

Before I found out where this place was, I would wonder why I always see uniformed kids frequenting my neighborhood. Makes me wants to see if my dad has any of my old Boy Scout photos saved up.

 

Final 2013 Week in HK

I head off to home for the holidays in a few hours and instead of getting myself some decent sleep, I’m already screwing up my sleep schedule my staying up late on the internet. The next time I see Hong Kong will be in 2014, but if this past week has to be my last week here for the year, what a helluvah week it was! A quick recap:

 

A Christmas choir concert!

Free outdoor movie near the harbour in Central! (It was “My Life as McDull” – a nice ★★½)

 

Harry Potter double feature with Jeane!

Dinner party #3 at my place! (Photo shamelessly stolen from my friend’s Tumblr ’cause my pics sucked)

The feast.

He lives in a stomach now.

Fish fingers and custard, a meal fit for a Doctor – and something which will be repeated come December 26th.

A second Christmas choir concert! This time for charity!

Giant churches are cool. And old looking.

 

There was also karaoke but such photos of those events do not exist. Farewell Asia until next year! (aka 2½ weeks)

 

 

Cycling Days

As part of my goal to get back to doing the things I’ve loved, I’ve been joining up with some fellow cyclists lately for rides on the weekend. So far all the paths I’ve taken have ended in Tai Mei Tuk, though I’m hoping purchasing my own bike soon will leave me with more options for riding. Nevertheless, the Tai Wai (or Tai Shui Hang) to Tai Mei Tuk path is a fun one, even after several rides through and is especially beautiful during night bike rides. And riding through the Plover Cove Reservoir at the end always leaves me impressed by its shear gigantic size. Here are some pics from some recent bike rides over the past few weeks. Riding this path is easily one of the top things that I love about Hong Kong.

 

Brunch Is Nice

 

I’m not one for foodie posts but I just had a pretty darn pleasant meal at Brunch Club near where I work in Causeway Bay. I was impressed by three things:

1. My delicious scrambled eggs with salmon mixed in it (not pictured).

2. Equally delicious lemonade served in an awesome glass/jar thingy.

3. A Homer Simpson picture hanging inside the men’s bathroom.

Kudos Brunch Club.

Who Wants to Picnic?

 

I found this awesome picnic basket in a cool vintage/random shop near Caroline Road in Causeway Bay this week. That whole area of Causeway is probably my favorite in the district considering I work near the 100%-crowded-nervous-breakdown part of Causeway Bay. It’s a nice area and I’m glad the crowds haven’t found their way there.

Mid-Autumn Festival and Site Updates

 

 

Picture above is a free lantern I got from one of the several Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations happening in Hong Kong this weekend. I wandered around the Victoria Park celebration last night while waiting for my friend. While the celebration itself wasn’t really anything special (or to put it more nicely, it wasn’t really anything I haven’t seen before), the free lantern was awesome!

This is my first post in a while but I’m ready to pick things up. I have a few reviews for Mutually Cinematic as well as general blog thingys on the way. In the meantime, for the first time ever, I’ve given Mutually Awkward a splash page! The splash page itself isn’t a marvel, but ever since I’ve decided to organize my postings into specific categories, I was always annoyed at how the main mutuallyawkward.com opened to a mish-mash of everything when that was exactly what I no longer wanted. This will definitely keep things more organized.

 

Window View of Jordan, Hong Kong

 

I took home my work’s Canon 5D this weekend to get familiar with it for a video shoot coming this week (I usually only work in post-production so I needed to raise my camera confidence). I took this still from looking out my window view in my apartment.

I figured I might as well posted it since, being the non-photo enthusiast that I am, 99% of all other photos on this blog contains pictures from my iPod camera.

 

Kam Tin

 

 

Like I mentioned previously, the hills and village of Kam Tin caught my eyes from the MTR a few weeks ago and today I randomly decided to do some wandering in that part of New Territories. I made my decision pretty late in the day, so unfortunately it got dark pretty fast. But wow – this is such a nice area, completely with several paths, creeks and even a small town-like-center (pic below).

Mission in Tin Shui Wai

 

After a quick online search showed me that the current book I am looking to check out from the library is only available in Tin Shui Wai, which is an area in New Territories, I headed out to claim my prize today. Unfortunately, I could not find the library friggen anywhere! Thanks a bunch Google maps. Though I was not entirely disappointed as I found Tin Shui Wai to be quite a beautiful area and even got to ride the light rail for the first time! I also took some time out of the day to see some sights in Tsuen Wan West (top picture).

 

 

 

At one point during the MTR ride heading out to Tin Shui Wai, the subway went to ground level and I saw amazing view of Kam Tin. I definitely need to get off at Kam Sheung Road Station in the near future and do some proper wandering.