Articles from the original happyjelyfish.com website

Our Series Unusual Gifts

In our popular series Unusual Gifts we proudly present Sungflower Fream.

What is this sungflower fream, you may ask? Why, it’s of course a notebook!

The day my friend Jo gave me this gift, I almost cried with joy. It was so beautiful! Not only was the notebook (筆記薄 bat gei bou – pen chronicle ledger) called Sungflower Fream and decorated with photos of daisies, but the cover came with a message. (Or poem.)

“I have so little art, words leop from me with incoherent eagerness, or strmble our.”

She got it from a stationery shop in beautiful Toi Saan(台山 – Platform Mountain) in Guangdong Province.
Although it was Chinese New Year’s Day, the stationery shop was open and bursting with objects and people. The book was bound in plastic, crying out for beer-fuelled card games, I felt. So now I keep it on a special shelf and take it out only for trips to the mainland with three people and card games.

The book has many empty pages, and I’m hungry for Sichuan food and cards. Let’s go!

過年 (Go Lin – Pass Year/Chinese New Year)
川菜 (Chyun choi – Sichuan food)

飲茶 The Civilised Lunch

I’ve just travelled 25 minutes there and 25 back just to eat. What, didn’t I have perfectly good ingredients for Sichuan food in my fridge? you ask. Yes, of course. But no matter how good

Train! 火車!

One of the most wonderful of many wonderful things about mainland China is the train. Last weekend we went to Guangzhou for some r and r and it was good, but the best thing was

Its Name Was Amber, It Was A Vomit…

Do you see that lake? That was a green and throbbing grassland only yesterday. Surely this must be an amber rainstorm? 黃色暴雨 (wong sek bou yu – yellow colour violent rain)(That’s right! The surname Wong

Transformation Continues on All Levels 2

Is Cantonese dying? Last weekend’s visit to Guangzhou was quite depressing in many ways. It’s nothing new that people from all over China migrate to Guangdong province, especially Shenzhen and Guangzhou, to make something of

Transformation Continues On All Levels 1

Guangzhou used to be my favourite city with its leafy streets, car-less alleys and languidly flowing river whose name, Pearl, also gave itself to an excellent beer, 珠江啤酒 (jyu gong beh jau – Pearl River

Good Weather Likely

A lovely day has begun in the lovely city of Guangzhou and after yesterday’s torrential rain people are pouring out in the streets again. Just outside the hotel I saw this guy relaxing with a

Owner Of A Broken Face

I’ve finally finished the last chapter (or recipe) in my Sichuan cookery book, a book that isn’t really a book, for can it be a book when it’s only online? If not, what should it

Donner Und Blitzen Kebab

Drowning in weather! I got up at 5 having slept very little due to the absolutely wild weather that shook my house all night. Apparently the lightning had struck Lantau Island 3,000 times out of

Communi-Play-Tion

It’s no secret that I love the motherland, China, over all other lands, and not only because of Mons 雪花(Suet Fa – Snow Flower) beer and Sichuan food either. I’ve had more fun there than

Green Island Beer

Hooray! Almost finished with my Sichuan cookbook called What was it again? Cook, something cook, something Sichuan. Something. Anyway, in it I praise that beer so loved and, amazingly, hated, all over the world: “Tsingtao”.

At Last – New Video

Warning: Contains Mandarin!

Devil Festival!

What a night! Friday October 30th in Lan Kwai Fong, squeezed by hordes but in a mostly good way. We went out on a mission to spread the word of Cantonese, by force if necessary,

Putting Last Touches on Christmas Plan (Adventure Travel)

Just because I’m a Cantonese fundamentalist and don’t want Hong Kong to be taken over by Mandohooligans, it doesn’t mean I don’t feel a huge pull from the wild almost daily. Yes, I’m talking about

In Praise of Honolulu

No, not the city Honolulu where I’ve never been. The phenomenon Honolulu! Nestled between a parking house and some building, probably a hole in the ground pounded by pile drivers by now, lies 33 Stanley

Gagging For The Canto

SUNDAY: Scary Halloween Coming Up and Fast… and Thick?

Happy Sunday! Now, I like to dress up as much as the next man, whoever he is. But recently I haven’t made any films (my film camera sadly died in Mexico and I don’t want

10 Reasons To Learn Cantonese

Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau: The only Cantonese course in town where the tea cups match your outfit Why learn Cantonese? 1. It’s FUN! 2. It’s the local language of Hong Kong and it’s

Documentaries

The last few days I’ve been trying to catalogue my films. When I say “trying to catalogue” I mean “watching Breaking Bad to get ideas for angles, film techniques etc”. Breaking Bad – it’s really

Booooooze

A highlight of my recent trip to the USA was visiting a bourbon distillery. A lowlight, or, shall we say, nadir, was getting drunk on bourbon the week before. It was so good to see

SUNDAY: Sichuan Food Suitable for a Leisurely Lunch

I wish there were a proper Sichuan restaurant in sleepy backwater Pui O – or even Cheung Sha or Mui Wo. I’d go every day. One thing I’ve discovered about Sichuan food on my many

Nightmare or Living Hell?

Sometimes you (or some people) do things only because it feels so good when you stop. Bashing your head against a wall is one of those things. Moon Trekker (running around or across or round

Lanzhou, King of the North

Despite the charms of the Chinese train and that to travel hopefully (and painfully) is better than … not at all, it’s always good to arrive when the destination is beautiful Lanzhou. It’s the most