NEW YEAR'S EVE 2010

This was taken at Richardson's Bistro of the Lodge, the A$400 a night resort hotel at the fringe of Freycinet National Park. It was the end of a long day, when we started 12-hours ago from Hobart in the morning. The hotel was full and everyone was dressed up for New Year's Eve at the main dining room. We were at the other end of the dress code and tired but on recommendation from a local kayak instructor the girls met we ended up at this lovely oasis. It was 8pm, still light, and the sun was about to set. Needless to say, we did not have a booking. The Bistro was very busy with family business, kids, baby carriers were everywhere. Then, like magic, a table next to the picture window, with a superb view of yet another beautiful bay, and the #8 sign prominently displayed was available ... for us! If that was not a good way to end 2010 and to start 2011 we do not know what is. It was a very special, very warm but very different New Year's Eve for the 4 of us. Dora's 'V' was proof!

If you visit Freycinet make sure you drop by the Bistro, look for the Lodge. Their dark mushroom soup with homemade loaf, and local mussels poached in white wine were just out of this world.

HADLEYS HOTEL

We stayed at the Hadleys Hotel right in the middle of town on our first night in Hobart. Built by convict labor, a huge resource by the way that built most of the infrastructure on this huge island, the hotel was opened in 1834. At that time Hobart was a launch pad for everything that had anything to do with exploring the Antarctic since it was 'the closest point'. Here is a fun story. One prominent explorer, whose name escaped me, actually beat the famous Captain Scott to the South Pole. Returning to Hobart in triumph, he stayed at the Hadleys but was 'poorly treated because he was given a room that he could hardly move around'. The hero of his times was so pissed off (pardon the language I am sure that was precisely how he must felt) 'he shaved, put on a change of clothes, and walked across the street to the post office to send his legendary telegram to announce to the world his conquest of the South Pole'. I bet you did not know this piece of Tassie history.

I was so impressed I could almost feel his presence that night. I believe we were sleeping on that same bed he slept in, albeit a larger room. Heritage, memories, history ... yes ... but modern day hospitality comforts ... well, what can I say?

BAD EXPERIENCE

While we were totally mesmerized by the natural beauty of Tasmania we ran into a few incidents that dampened our enthusiasm. One area is service attitude. As a family we are 'low key' travelers, we are always conscious, and we always respect the local way of doing things. During our 4-day visit we were treated poorly in a few places. We cannot help but get the distinct feeling that while the locals welcome tourist revenues, they may not welcome tourists. I can only use the word 'rude' to describe these unfortunate encounters, one of them is at a small eatery in the town of Swansea.

The Lonely Planet named 'The Ugly Duck Out as one of the best spots for Fish & Chips' according to a survey by either a Sydney or Melbourne paper which I forgot. We found it, on the way to Freycinet. I do not want to bother you with details, the bottom line is; the fish must be 'fresh' out of the freezer right before it was cooked, and their service attitude was obviously in an even deeper freezer. I think Dora paid A$10 or $12 for a single serving, and that did not include ketchup or tartar sauce, at another A$1.5 extra. Hello? This was 2-days after Mures so I knew exactly what Fish & Chips standards should be. The Ugly Duck Out should try duck, instead of fish, in my view.

As a vegetarian Adrea was the lucky one, she passed. As for me, I will double if not triple check Lonely Planet eatery recommendations from now on.

SYDNEY - HOBART 2010

We had the fortune of good timing. On the day of our arrival, December 29th 2010, the first wave of yachts were coming in for the finish. The Sydney-Hobart Race is a serious challenge for serious sailors. I believe a handful were consumed by this unforgiving patch of water between the Continent and Tasmania. A card-carrying landlubber, I used to 'play sailor' and competed in lame harbor races in Hong Kong, the Sunset Series with the Royal HK Yacht Club on a Sonata 24. This open water game is wonderful to watch but it is not for everyone, and it is definitely not for me. Hobart came alive though, cheering on the sailors, offering them and loads of tourists like us the Tassie Food Festival, the Salamanca Open Market and so on. I love this picture, taken right after her 'victory jive' to cross the line as either the 4th or 5th to finish. To give you an idea, two days later slower boats were still arriving, in admirable sporting spirits.

HOBART EATS

If you like seafood of any variety Hobart and its vicinity has a lot to offer. Do not expect Michelin style dishes or fusion (that unappetizing word) presentations, but look for 'Tassie comfort food'. MURES, right on the waterfront is a classic, and I confirm their Fish & Chips is as legendary as people attest. Where else would you be presented with a batter menu, in addition to a list of 'what is left' in the freshly filleted fish department that are worthy of the drill. This is exactly what MURES offered when we sat down for a late lunch. 'Sorry, we only have 2 pieces of Flathead which should not be cooked in beer batter'. Yes, Chef! The lightness of the batter, the beautiful texture of recently caught fish, the bitterness of the arugula and perfectly sea-salted chips will send your taste buds to heaven, as you levitate. MURES is a must! It is not cheap, even for lunch, with the A$ sky high but this experience alone would make it worthwhile.

BARILLA BAY Oyster Farm & Restaurant is another choice of ours. It is located near the town of Cambridge along the Tasman Highway. Established in 1980, it is one of the prime sites to produce the finest quality Pacific Oysters when they were first introduced to Australia. 'Clean estuarine waters & total tidal water replacement' apparently did the trick. Oysters are brought straight from the farm to the kitchen on a daily basis, they do not get any fresher. We ordered this platter called 'Shucking Awesome' - what a fantastic name - which was 30 oysters presented in wild imagination eg crushed almond with salsa verde, cucumber & yuzu jelly, fresh pear & ver juice and, of course, the classic shallot & red wine vinaigrette, Kilpatrick & Rockefeller. I am a purist on downing oysters. Despite all the fanfare the best way is still a few drops of lemon juice and I stop right there ... 'au naturel'! At A$1 per oyster we reckoned it is not going to break the bank so we feasted like there is no tomorrow. Being high in Vitamin E and zero in fat these babies are perfect for my diet. It was already dark when we arrived, it would be much more fun to take a tour of the oyster farm first before you indulge. Do not miss this one.

'PALACIO NG'

Regina & Peter generously hosted us in Melbourne for a few days before our hop to Tassie. We stayed at their palacial home and this was taken at 6am in the morning of our departure. Always a sage counsel to me, Peter preached years ago, when we were partners at RRA, the concept that at retirement one must live in one's largest property because one will need space, lots of space ... 'face to face with one's spouse 24-7 could be a challenge', he advised. Daman lives his words and this is the end game, complete with swimming pool, tennis court and something I would die for, a large herb garden.

I do not know if it is my age but the hustle of a city like Hong Kong has lost its buzz on me. No, I am not quite ready to live in a farm in New England or become a bush dweller Down Under yet but 'tranquility' is still a luxury, even on retirement. I crave for it these days, still. People ask me what I enjoy the most since turning in the Executive Toilet Key and my answer has 2-parts (1) instead of regular hours I go to the gym whenever I like, day or night, sometimes even day and night (2) I can curl up with my Kindle in my reading sofa, the best spot at our home, then read ... read and read, until it is time for a nap. $ cannot buy, as the saying goes.

PERFECT 'TOM-YAM-KOONG'

It has been a while since we hosted a Thai dinner at home and I was horrified how 'out of touch' I was last night. That said, my Spicy Prawn Soup, one of the Top 10 in Thai cuisine, was very real. It might just be my best ever, for the record. I thought I would share this recipe, it is quite easy.

* home made chicken or vegetable stock 1.5 cup
* 2 stems of lemon grass, crushed & sliced
* 1" of galangal, thinly sliced
* 1/2 cup of fresh straw mushrooms cut into halves
* 6 medium size prawns, shelled & deveined
* 2 kiffir lime leaves, stems removed & torn in small segments
* sawtooth coriander, sliced

The seasoning sauce is comprised of : fish sauce 3-4 teaspoons, lime juice 2-3 teaspoons, and the 'Piece de Resistance' .... 10-12 crushed small hot chilies, that means at least 10, ideally 12. Get it? If a thicker soup is preferred add 1 teaspoon of roasted chili paste aka Nam Prik Pow and 1/4 cup coconut cream. All this should be pre-mixed and set aside.

Professor Wandee made me promise that I will not change her recipe 'to suit local tastes' and I observe that like a Commandment. When a guest says 'I like Thai, but not too hot though, can you scale it down' my answer is 'how about a French or Chinese meal instead'.

The cooking method is straight forward : start with the stock, add lemon grass & galangal, bring to a boil. It is important the pot stays open, and never covered. Add the mushrooms & prawns but DO NOT STIR, let them come to a boil again. At full boil, pour in the seasoning sauce mixture, add kiffir lime leaves, sawtooth coriander .... take the pot off the heat and garnish with coriander.

Tom Yam Koong, directly translated as 'soup-spicy-prawns' is a great entree for any Asian theme dinner. Try it!

WINE GLASS BAY - FREYCINET, TASMANIA

This is without any doubt the high point of our 2010 year end family trip, sans Terri & Fergus who were grounded by the twins. Wine Glass Bay is arguably the most beautiful beach I have come across anywhere, the 'Queen Bee' of Freycinet National Park, a 2.5 hour drive from Hobart, base camp of our way too short 4-day visit to Tasmania. I need to declare this breath taking view is copied from a post card as my camera will not produce such a wide angle shot.

A picture is worth a thousand words, everything you see is authentic, the sand is confectionery sugar white, the curve of the bay is perfectly round. With encourgaement from Dora, Andrea & Jess this overweight aging man actually made the 3-hour hike up the hill (at the top right hand corner) then down to the beach, back up the hill again and stayed in one-piece. All my efforts on the treadmill is nothing compared to this hike.

The beach must be 4-5 times larger than Repulse Bay and we were the only 4 souls on it, along with a lone local bush walker, and a wild wallaby who is used to human beings as he came right up to the girls, sniffed their cameras - probably thought it was food - and posed for pictures. At places like this one wonders how we managed to survive in a city like Hong Kong, and why?

'PUI YUET'

'PUI' means accompany and 'YUET' literally means moon, or in this context month. It was an old practice, recently revived, so much so it has created not just demand, but fervor. In the old days traditional Chinese families believed post-natal care (for the newborn but even more so for the new mother) is best handled by experienced practitioners ie a PUI-YUET or a Super Nanny. Normally the duration is no less than 3-months when supposedly the new mom will be nurtured back to health, while skills of baby management are transferred. Back then these ladies were mostly uneducated, let alone professionally trained, but their invitro knowledge more than made up for what they lack in susbstantive terms. They enjoyed a certain 'status' due mostly to the ignorance or in some cases indifference of the families who hired them, 'let the Pui-Yuet decide', kind of attitude.

I am not sure if it is insecurity, laziness or simply keeping up with the Jones that made new parents of late scrambling for this service. Not only are these ladies hot commodities, I even heard stories of timed pregnancy to coincide with the availability of star Pui-Yuets. Can we get any crazier than this? One pays for this service too, up to $100,000 for the 3-months, very likely tax free. BTW they are no jack-of-all-trades, as they expect domestic helpers at their disposal, in addition. To me their wish list to get the job done is a lot longer than the one that records results. I am only the grandfather but from years in management this old man can clearly see the difference bewteen the fluff of activities, verses solid performance. I am sorry, Pui-Yuets offer lots of the former but much less of the latter. At such an exorbitant fee level, where is the value proposition? These nannies live high on a comfort platform erected by anxious new parents who erroneously think their service is indispensable. The rest is herding instincts or trend setting, like the latest LV handbag, it is the 'I must get one too' mentality.

If I sound unconvinced and cynical it is because I am. When our girls came along all we had were an outdated copy of Dr Spock and sporadic but dubious advice from our parents who were hopelessly out of touch. They did not visit everyday nor did they text us every 5 minutes. Dora & I were consumed, but we were fine, we loved it because we did it all ourselves. We could not afford any luxury but we survived on determination and self-reliance. It seems Hong Kong has become a haven of abrogation for young parents. For instance; feeding to the helper, driving to the driver, learning to the tutors, playing to the coaches and now babying to the Pui-Yuets.

Well, what is wrong with this picture?

'SUN SEC' PRIVATE KITCHEN

We were invited to a well known 'old school' private kitchen formed many years ago by alumni of Sun Hung Kai Securities. Registered as a business the official name is Sun Sec. (with a full stop) Wine & Cigar Ltd, in short it is SSA ... 'A' for Alumni perhaps ... not to be confused with Spencer Stuart Associates or Society to Save Animals. The logo design is not exactly award winning but it gets the message across.

Our hosts were very generous, we had a sumptuous menu of traditional and unique dishes. The notable ones that lingered on after the meal were .... 'Roast Pigeon', their signature, which is probably the juiciest I ever had; 'Lettuce Roll' in which tasty minced baby shrimps are mixed with other savories, superb in flavor & texture; 'Fish Head Steamed in Lotus Leaves' with dual flavors of plain and spicy sauces, plain is better; and a most impressive presentation of 'Sauteed Fresh Japanese Oysters'. Cost of a table for 12 ranges from $3,888 to $4,188 to $4,988 but the beauty is only 1-table is seved every night. One starts with drinks in a wood panelled living room, unmistakenly the 70's, complete with large green leather sofas while the banquet is served in a separate, spacious dining room.

The forefathers of Sun Hung Kai Securitites were legendary including Messrs Fung King Hei, Kwok Tak Shing and Lee Shui Kee, the only surviving founder. Their business redefined the financial landscape and of course the Hong Kong Stock Market. Outside of these historical figures the alumni list is a who's-who in big business such as; John Chan, Jack So, Ron Arculli, Sun Sun Chan, Andrew Chou, John Szeto .... and so on. I love the collages on the walls of the private dining and majong rooms. They are a MUST SEE should you visit. It is like a mini-photo museum of that unique moment in time that defined what we have today. It is amazing!

May Yeong, the Manager, is very hospitable. Apparently they welcome outsiders, one does not need a Sun Sec graduate diploma to eat there. BTW their daily set lunch is only $65! In Central? I must try it.

SUN SEC Wine & Cigar Ltd is located at 7F Siu Ying Commecial Building 151-155 Queen's Road Central ... call May @2854 1908

'I AM WHAT I AM'

You must have read the news of the changing of the guards at the U.S. Congress where a new Speaker of the House, John Boehner from Ohio took the gavel. While bipartisan politics are a fact of life in America, and one tends to lose count of who won, who lost, who made a come back, who was corrupt, who womenized ad nauseum this new leader has a style I can readily identify with.

Aside from political acumen Boehner is best known for letting his emotions run high. One tabloid labels him 'Weeper of the House'. When Brian Williams at NBC asked how he would approach this (suggesting it may be a weakness) he replied ... 'I am emotional, in particular when it comes to issues with families, and those who serve in the military at war. I am who I am, and this is just the way it is going to be'. It is no big statement, but it shows what is in the head of this political leader, one who gives an honest answer.

I told myself almost two years ago when I crossed that magic line of 60 I want to be my most honest self as my sunset tour unfolds. Taking a page from Boehner's gospel may help me in this direction. 'I am who I am' .... need I say more?

SZETO WAH

Szeto Wah, better known as the 'Father of Democracy' in Hong Kong, lost his battle with cancer and passed away on the second day of the new year. I am a typical product of Hong Kong's colonial past, brought up without any political fibre, let alone passion. I have little time for many of the so called politicians in town these days, whose personal agendas are thinly veiled by the facade of dedication to public service. Szeto Wah was in a league of his own, and being so different, he was always above the frey. He stayed with his principles, he did not compromise, he refused to be 'bought' and since Tiananmun in 1989 he did not waver a single time on the strong position he took with the power-that-be in Beijing, while some of his colleagues at the legislature were falling over themselves just to 'get that nod from Grandpa up north'. How nauseating! We need many more of him in our little village if we were ever to retain our uniqueness. The sad thing is when one looks around, there is no Szeto Wah in sight, not even one with potential in the pan-democrat camp.

I thank you, Szeto Wah, for being you and for teaching all of us what being truthful to oneself means. I shall miss you, rest in peace!