2011/12/29

除夕夜 New Year's Eve

night scene in Macau
過多幾天便要踏入2012年了, 不少人巳經安排好各式各樣的倒數活動, 又或是再次狂歡, 甚至一年一度的懺悔及自省時段.....最後一擊的發橫財之旅也是不少人的除夕夜節目. 令我想起在澳門拍下的一幅照片, 說起來, 這些五光十色的霓虹招牌不知從何時開始, 漸漸在香港的街道上一個一個地消失.

雖然我不鼓勵賭博, 但無可否認這些發財招牌實在頗有本土文化特色, 尤其當成行成巿之時, 互相"輝映", 復古味很濃又帶着繁華鬧市的縮影, 十分有趣. 特別是光管的顏色總令人覺得仍有一絲希望似的, 也許這也是不經意的色彩運用所帶來的一種假象罷!

今年除夕夜, 又有多少人會被"吸引"呢?


預祝大家新年快樂, 做個開心快活人 :)


 3 more days to countdown, we will be in the year of 2012. New Year's Eve is quite an important night for most of us, I believe you've already arranged your party to celebrate with friends or family; may be attending the countdown event at Times Square , lots & lots of wine and cocktails again as an extension of Christmas; may be an once a year end confession...how about a billionare dream trip to Macau or Las Vegas?

This reminds me of a photo taken  sometimes before in Macau, the colourful neon sign of those "Fat Choi" pawnbroker that lines up all along the street, which create a picture that full of local culture, attractive colour combination of oldies and the air of a metropolitan city; their warm tone brought you a virtual feeling that seems chances exist everywhere. 

I am definitely not encourage any of you to buy your dream by gambling, but these pawnbroker signage do really reflects the success of colour combination, no matter whether they did it in purpose or not.  I wonder how many people will once be mis-leaded again by these bulbs  in this New Year's Eve?


Wish you all to have a wonderful New Year with 
Joy & Smiley faces :)

2011/12/22

The Christmas Song

A beautiful voice By Vervemusic on Sound Cloud :
For you ;)

2011/12/20

便利小鍋? "Convenience Pan?"

Frying pan with 3 compartments from Japan 

香港人真的很幸福, 要吃日韓料理很容易, 往街上店舖找便是了. 即使要自已在小部屋煮也不是難事. 甜蛋卷是不少港人愛吃的日本食品之一, 制作也很簡單, 不過要用一款長方式的專用煎鍋,煎出來才像樣, 問題來了...又一隻鍋? 這是我們最苦惱的事, 牛排有牛排專用煎鑊, 中菜又有中式小炒鑊, 湯煲,燉品盅, 炸鍋... 總之一大堆.

如果用上圖的"便利鍋"便可以省點儲物空間, 更可以隨時隨地煮我愛吃的蛋卷了. 單看圖片, 有趣又可愛, 是best buy 嗎?...等等! 問題來了: 一人份制作應該可以應付, 但大前提是要煮輕食, 不用太多油或調味, 少汁液, "細碼"受熱情度相約及不需要翻動的食材.最後還要加一個專用清潔刷, 否則要"善後"也不輕鬆.....

好了! 結論是, 要吃甜蛋卷, 還是出街找最方便 :P

It's always been so easy for Hong Kong people to enjoy Japanese or Korean cuisine in most of the shops here, even though to make a dish at home is not difficult because we can find imported ingredients easily from our supermarket. Japanese style sweet egg roll is one of the most popular and favorite dishes that we love, the making process is easy if you have that rectangular frying pan which is tailor made for it both in shape and size. Oops...another pan for it? That is the problem! Steaks pan, Chinese wok , Deep frying pan, large and small saucepans...another one for egg? Oh no!


How about the one above, seems nice and cute, quite convenience, too; then we can have our fry sweet egg roll at any the time, all problem solved? best buy?...Wait! 

Single dining portion shall be fine, but it has to be simple cooking, meaning, small cut size, not much oil, seasoning or sauce dishes; all ingredients can be cooked in similar degree of heat source, no need to turn over too often, and the most important is to have a special fit size cleaning brush to "serve" this pan after each used...otherwise, you can think of the nightmare.


O.K. my conclusion is : to enjoy a sweet egg roll? go straight to your nearby shop, and forget this post :P

2011/12/15

Hey! It's Christmas!

Street view at night in Hangzhou
Christmas =

End of the Year?
A moment to thanks?
Someone to remember?
Something to regret?
Wishes to make?
God's blessing to share?


It may means so difference between you and me, the one live in U.K. vs in Hawaii; those with official holidays in U.S. & H.K. vs in China & Japan. 


But wherever there is light in the dark, we can share a moment of peaceful & tranquil; if you are not going to full booked your schedule in this Christmas, may I send this treasure moment to you as a Christmas gift...& may God's peace be with you, 

Merry Christmas :)

 

2011/12/11

Done

Hi all,

The display problem was fixed, thank you for your patience, enjoy :)

Display problem for Firefox & Chrome

Hey, our dear readers,

You may find there is display problem when visit us thru' Firefox or Chrome, we are trying to fix it, sorry,
some Google bugs as usual :(

2011/12/09

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

snow man in the globe

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
and a 
Happy New Year :)

2011/12/07

簡簡單單 It's so simple

Simple flipping manuel in restaurant
設計設計...好像不攪什麽"彫鑽"花式就不是設計似的. 時裝如是,產品如是, 室內設計也不例外; 結果一律被當時所謂流行時尚的顏色丶物料丶造型所騎劫, 再加些似是"人冇我有"的裝飾, 便可以"賣設計"了.

記得好幾年前在中國武漢的必勝客內, 見到桌上這個用亞加力造的餐牌, 心想: 就這麽簡簡單單, 實用方便又美觀便巳經很好了! 為何在香港那些又過膠又用鐵圈又插這插那的...那麽複雜呢? 不但難清潔, 又有尺寸限制, 翻起來鐵圈又不順暢,

又是"simple is the best"及"form follow function"的理論.
老生常談, 但是一到要我們去開始一個設計項目時, 又回到"不嚇死人勢不休"的狀况. 最近在本土室內設計行內的  "暗柜密室, 鏡後密室, 柜中柜, 升降組合" 等便是這個例子.如果是一間小屋, 基於空間有限, 這樣處理還是可以理解, 但所見是千多呎住宅, 也就實在不明所以了.也許這就是"設計"罷!

 Design is.....special material, trendy color, hit style + some exclusively tailor made decor...done - ready to sell?! is this want you believe?

I was in a Pizza Hut some years ago, in Wuhan of China; there was an acrylic made flip card holder which drawn my attention, that's it! Simple, nice looking and functional. How come what we've got in Hong Kong are so complicated? Yeah, it's true - some are laminated card on double metal ring + metal stand or slot in acrylic stand + laminated card in larger size slot into another acrylic stand....super messy and dirt accumulate onto different material used. Every time after I flip over to order, extra time for me to re-attach them one by one back into their position.

This is exactly what the proven of "simple is the best" and the "form follow function" principle!! What an old tale? But how come we never make it when we work with our design project? Why do we stick onto a "WOW" response from our client by selling those little "tricks". 

An example recently occur in our field, the design of "a hidden room behind mirror wall of a room" " a hidden space behind a cabinet panel" " a hidden equipment inside a cabinet "   " a hidden bar behind your closet" "a hidden staircase behind your headboard toward another hidden room......it's not difficult to understand if the flat is in limited space but why for a spacious house over 1000 sq, is that the only reason of creating "WOW" response of what a surprise and unexpected design that we are going to sell? I doubt !