Raining Down our Walk

Kowloon side (left) was raining, while HK Island was sunny

I have been doing weekly walks with a colleague and we decided to head off late this morning. However, about 15 minutes after I started walking eastwards, I could see dark clouds ahead and didn't have an umbrella with me.

Undaunted, I kept going and we met halfway at Tamar in Admiralty before continuing to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and then turned around and made our way back towards Kennedy Town.

However when we were at Admiralty, we could see dark clouds hovering over the Peak and felt it was going to rain soon. We jogged (with masks on) to the Central ferry piers and made it just in time under the covered walkway before the wet onslaught began.

 

We retreated to nearby Jardine House, where in the basement there is a glorified food court and had an early lunch of laksa and chicken lemak washed down with fresh coconut.

But afterwards it was still raining and we grabbed a drink at Starbucks. I suggested we continue by power walking in the mall, and thanks to the developer Hong Kong Land, we were able to make it to the IFC mall by a covered walkway completely dry and then did loops around practically every floor of the shopping mall.

We even walked the covered walkway to Shun Tak in Sheung Wan, but when we got there, it was pouring again and we retreated back to IFC mall. 

Eventually we went back to Sheung Wan again and as it was still raining we abandoned our walk and took the MTR home.

But by the time I emerged from the Kennedy Town station, the rain had stopped for the rest of the day!

Wonder what tomorrow's weather will be like...!

Heritage Lost: General Post Office

The General Post Office was opened in 1976, but will be demolished soon

I have fond memories of the Central Post Office, when Queen's Pier used to be nearby to take the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. When I first arrived in Hong Kong to work in the mid-1990s, I used to mail letters and large envelopes of newspaper clippings to my parents. The staff were so efficient and nice.

These days the place isn't as busy, people aren't queuing up to buy sheets of stamps, but mostly packages and the odd bulk mailing.

Notice the large marble slabs used as counter space

Last year there was a news story announcing the General Post Office in Central would be demolished to make way for A-grade office buildings. The post office would move its operations to an eight-storey building in Kowloon Bay, near the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal at a cost of HK$1.7 billion.

But there are hopes to protect some aspects of the building, though there haven't been any updates on this or when exactly the building will be knocked down.

I told my visiting architect cousin about this and so he wanted to check out the building. He was amazed by the beautiful marble slabs on the counters and wondered if they would be salvaged before the demolition.

We also saw a wooden arch that was probably saved from the previous General Post Office. It reads: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country". Below it is a black plaque that says the current building was opened on August 11, 1976 by Sir Murray Maclehose, then Governor of Hong Kong.

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country"

When we wandered in before 1pm on a Saturday, the counters were almost all empty, with staff chatting among each other. What will happen to all the people who have GPO boxes in Central? 

It's a shame the building has to be torn down -- it's a major landmark in Central and is an important walkway to get to IFC and the ferry piers, or vice versa to City Hall and office buildings like Jardine House.

But with land prices being so high, the government seems to think it needs to make more money (how much more does it need?) by selling prime land.

If anyone needs an education about heritage, it's the government. It has no understanding or appreciation of the importance of preserving old buildings, and then it wonders why it has no more heritage to promote to tourists...

Big Band Night Out

The Stray Katz have played once a month at Grappa's for over 15 years

The other day my inbox had an email about a local big band called The Stray Katz who would be disbanding after 27 years and this Saturday night would be their second last performance -- the last one is April 7.

I told my colleague about it and he brought his girlfriend along and we had dinner and a show at Grappa's Cellar in the basement of Jardine House in Central.

I don't usually go out Saturday nights -- usually having dinner with my relatives, but it's good to know Grappa's Cellar has some fun events from bands to solo artists to comedians who come through.

The Stray Katz is a rag-tag group, most averaging mid to late 50s, some Caucasian, some Filipino, some Chinese, playing trumpet, trombone, saxophone, drums, electric guitar and keyboard.

On the whole they were pretty good, playing everything from Dixieland to Frank Sinatra to Stevie Wonder to even their rendition of Spiderman. One singer sounded very much like Frank with the same phrasing, though on one song he lost track of the words and apologized! No need, he had a suave voice singing Fly Me to the Moon and Under My Skin, unlike another guy who didn't have the smooth touch so it sounded more like bad karaoke.

During a break I saw JR Robertson, the owner of Grappa's and he said the band leader of The Stray Katz wasn't there tonight because he arrived so drunk that they had to send him back home to Lantau in a taxi. Does this happen on a regular basis?

Robertson is disappointed The Stray Katz is disbanding because the band leader doesn't want to do it anymore, but Robertson has already talked to some of the band members about possibly continuing again. He explained the group meets up every week to practice, and some have day jobs.

It was a good night out, though the food was hit and miss. The bruschetta was OK, the deep-fried green olives were massive and filled with chopped pork inside, while the calamari was disappointing, flat in flavour.

The margherita pizza was massive -- a long rectangular pizza with around a dozen pieces on it, the taste improved with a tiny sprinkling of chili flakes.

Good thing we didn't order mains -- I would have been too full.

It was a fun evening bopping to the music, watching swing dancers on the floor -- including a guy in a turban dancing with a Chinese guy -- and having hilarious conversation threaded throughout.

Grappa's Cellar

Basement, Jardine House

1 Connaught Place

Central

2521 2322