Eat & Drink Asia

maybe it's because i'm an adman, but each time i visit a new place, i'm fascinated by the different types of products you can buy, especially food & bev. since i'm the shopping bag of the house, i get to call the shots on cool new stuff for the pantry, and take full responsibility for items that explosively miss the mark.

that said, i promise not to take this segment into restaurants and snap every item the waiter puts in front of me.....sorry, I make the rules and I say that is dumb.

first up...a beer from the Philipines named San Miguel. A popular beer in Hong Kong, and it's likely you can get it all over the world> confirmed.

not the point. what i'm getting at isn't about the beer itself so much (although it tastes pretty good)...i'm more interested in the choice of imagery for the can. Somehow, they felt it was necessary to reinforce the idea that this was indeed a beer by placing a bottle of the beer on the can.....call me crazy, but i don't remember any kids throwing back a tall boy of Nestea.

next, I found this little beauty in the freezer section of our local expat grocery story called Taste. now, I have no idea what 90% of the box said for these Meiji treats, so i figured the picture told most of the story...the ingredients told the rest: soda & vanilla flavoured confection. yum. so i ran home, opened the box, and popped one into my mouth. i have to admit i expected some type of soda 'fizz', but it was fairly flaccid in substance.....i did like it though, kind of a creamcicle idea going on.

i know, big deal right, anyone can eat a god damn ice cream bar....grow a pair and eat something that's got some bite...

Hopefully that doesn't require eating a pair, but I'm at your mercy....I'll do anything for you.
XOXO

Hiking irony in Happy Valley

when we arrived in Hong Kong, we received a bunch of hand-me-down travel guides and reference books for Asia. one of which is - the leisurely hiker's guide to Hong Kong...and given my appointed status as a man of leisure, i decided to get my read on.
flipping through the pages, i came across an entry for Happy Valley, and couldn't help but smile...hooray for happy. i geared up, got myself to the starting point in the next district, and let the guide, well, guide me.

first stop - St Margaret's church....built in 1925, statues of Peter & Paul out front...ok cool enough.

next, Tam Kung temple....ok, now we're talking. burning incense, cool statues....good times.
following the road ahead, it then leads me to a Jewish Cemetery. not exactly "happy", but i take a look and it's definitely a peaceful place.

add in another temple (Hindu edition), then another cemetery (Indian), skip to the Hong Kong cemetery, the 'don't miss' Catholic cemetery and wash it all down with the Muslim cemetery.

what the hell?

i flip back to the beginning of that chapter in the guide, read the finer print a little closer and realize i've just completed the 'celebrating cemeteries hike'.
somehow, i feel cheated.

after all of that, the guide has the audacity to suggest at the end of the trip to grab a drink at the Cosmopolitan Hotel nearby "if you are flagging".
not quite sure what that meant, but according to Urban Dictionary, i'll likely pass on the flagging.

here's the not-so-happy hike in living colour.

Air traffic needs to clear the runway....

....cause Rich is about to takeoff. I've been holding off on my dream for too long, the time is now. I'm 32 years young, and it's my destiny to be a male model. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking supermodel kinda status...something maybe 10 badges below that. The truth is, I have no experience, but come on, it's modeling right?
Let me bring you back stage for a second and let you all experience the life of a wannabe male model.

1. First thing that's needed to be a model is a portfolio. Now some will tell you that you need professional glamor shots....to which I say, they are probably right. My approach - sort through all personal photos where I'm giving 'good face' and send those off instead. Crop out anyone that is better looking than I am....(short work).

2. Show up to the casting call about 15 minutes late (model time), and wear sunglasses inside for as long as possible. Basic form to fill out, which asks for measurements....to which I have no f'n idea...and would make fun of anyone who does.

3. Then it's time for some one-on-one with the camera. The assistant working with me may or may not have been a model type....I couldn't tell behind that sexy surgical mask she was wearing. (Side note fact: I'd say about 2% of everyone in HK wears one of these bad boys).

4. Showtime....I give my best blue steel type of look...however, this casting is looking for smiles....and not just subtle smiles, but toothy-ass grins. Not my speciality, but I do my best. "Chin down", "Shoulders straight", "Your other left"....it felt like grade 4 picture day.

And that's that....modeling casting over and done with.
Do I feel good about my chances? It's a tough one.
As much as I am somewhat unique in this market, I'm also perhaps not the right guy to be pimping skin smoothing products or something else that would be best left for someone with a lot less body hair than this guy. My only hope is that there may be something for me in the 'creepy dad/uncle' category. Time will tell.
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A final note to address all this model talk and its place in the retired man's rationale. Alas, I must admit, a wise-man told me once that you should never go full retir'd. I promise you this, either way it'll be on my terms.

Here's the obligatory Zoolander clip you've all been scrolling for>

Monday Mail

as promised, we're going take some time out for a little freedom 32 mail.
here's one from Oakville, Ontario -

"Richard, now that you're 'retired', what is it that you do with your days?"
- A Concerned Parent

Thanks, Concerned.....a great question to lead off this segment.

The first few days were tough I admit, but now I have a solid routine down.

I wake up when the gf gets up for work around 6:30am, but quickly get right back to the business of sleep. I emerge from the cocoon around 9am, check out the morning news with a bowl of fruit & yogurt.....(this is sounding like a big fat fbook update).
cut to the chase - workout, followed by a long shower (sorry power smart fans), and then my afternoons are usually spent exploring the city. i am pretending to be a photographer and usually have my Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT at the ready. i've found a pretty sweet park in Central, that offers some weekday serenity as well as free wifi. trip to the expat grocery store and then home to cook/pretend to cook dinner.
oh yes, how could i forget, i'm also very excited to be doing a load of laundry everyday. all this makes Rich a kept man...and I'm fairly happy about the whole thing.
that said, my goal is truly to experience as much of this place as possible and would love nothing more than to mix up the aforementioned routine as often as possible.
alright, great question to start us off....would love a real one so we can keep this segment on the air though.

sneak preview for tomorrow - one word: Hansel

Weekend Warriors

TGIF folks...., am I right? 2 weeks in and really starting to hit my groove in this little city of mine. I appreciate all the love and encouragement thus far with my diary...err...blog posts. I'm going to take a little breather over the weekend, but join me on Monday for my weekly segment of Rich's Male,where I take the tough questions and let you all in to experience the full me.

in the meantime, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that this blog isn't super pretty....i'll work on that.

also, 'live tweeting' has been suggested and certainly would bring my broadcast medium closer to 2011....; unfortunately, I don't have a phone, so am bound by the various wifi zones around town to whip out my iPod and tweet tweet away....but a good idea regardless.

ideally, i wouldn't force people to leave their precious FBook to read Freedom 32....and will try to never go further than 2 degrees of separation from the book.

with that, I'll leave you with a few of my early snaps from around HK....

redirecting back to FB now...and breathe> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=601198&id=555555575

hey, how's about a little on Hong Kong - vol. 1

One of the greatest things about moving to a new city is the opportunity to explore it. My calendar, as previously discussed, appears to be fairly wide-open, and with that, I expect that I should be able to give tours of this town by the 4-month mark.

For anyone that hasn't been to Hong Kong, I offer a few high-level tidbits:

1) Hong Kong is one of China's special adminstrative regions (or SARs for short)....hmm....

2) the currency here is Hong Kong Dollars, and a Canadian dollar is worth about 8 HKD's.

3) feel free to check out wikipedia for the rest - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

Hong Kong is an amazingly dense city, with skyscrapers sprawling out of the ground similar to Manhatten. The cool thing that I've noticed though is that when you get down to the street level, most of the time you forget about the 'big city' around you, and in its place is a local market type of atmosphere.

Before arriving, I really had a sense that I would stand out and was told on a number of occassions that I would be a giant. Thus far, I can report that people could pretty much care less about me....so my hopes of becoming a pseudo celebrity have so far proven errouneous. I will keep trying though.

In my first weeks here, I've been trying to play a game I like to call 'get lost', where I randomly set out on a route without a map or GPS device.

It's fun for hours, I recommend to anyone without a day job, or a night job for that matter.

Anyway, I've learned quickly that HK isn't set up so much in a grid (like TO or NYC), and more often then not, the best way to get from A to B isn't by traveling at the street level, it's all about getting above the city by the elevated connecting walkways, with plenty of escalators to help on the ups and downs. So far, I'm happy to say that I've been able to make my way back to the flat in one piece every time.

Finally, I must admit I have yet to pick up any Cantonese, I haven't sampled any yuanyang and haven't taken in the nightly light show...figure I have another 720 nights to see it. I promise though, I will do my best to continue to provide you all with a digital take on a city that never sleeps.

Me on the other hand, I'm getting a solid 10 hours currently....oh retirement....

Here's a view from my new sofa office.

Local Canadian man retires at 32!

No, there is no need for a fact check. The story's title is correct. A simple scan of his passport confirms that Rich Morgan is indeed 32....and a quick scan of his wallet also confirms that he is unemployed, or as he quickly corrects - 'retired'.

Let's backup for a second to 2 months ago to where this all started. Add one job offer and one opportunistic gf mixed with a splash of Asia and there was only one resolution - retirement. Rich promptly concluded his tenure at a Vancouver ad agency, received his gold plated watch (iTunes gift card), and packed his bags for Hong Kong.

Enter Freedom 32, a chronicle of the misadventures of a bright-eyed retiree, looking for good time/long time, be it the nearest happy hour or early-bird special. Join Rich on this journey...or don't...up to you.

Of course, since this story is also a Facebook entry, it would not be complete with a real time status update:

Rich is off to make a sandwich.

(no confirmation on what kind of sandwich, but we really hope it's on a cheese bun)

Stay tuned, folks.