Deep-Felt Advice From The Arse

I’ve just come back from a rather brilliant yam cha at Holly Restaurant in 東涌 (“Tung” [Dung] Chung), followed by shopping for tomorrow’s Dinner For Spares. (Yes I’ve started a new scheme: Come as you →

Scary As! Watch At Your Own Risk

I had forgotten how much I like making films, and how those I cast in the various roles grow to hate go on to mega-stardom. Take one of the girls in this Halloween-themed film for →

Why Move?

USA! A land of Christmas and interestingly decorated cafés. A land of truck stops and rolling hills, big roads, big cars and big trolleys for people who are too fat to walk. The first time →

SUNDAY: Exciting Day, Interviewed by Dragon and Cow

Yesterday was so exciting for me. First I met my web master, the excellent Michael who has changed the very site you’re looking at for the better and given me so many good ideas, and →

Bored No More

FINALLY! I had had absolutely no yam cha (afternoon tea and dim sum) since September 14 and was starting to see double. Although I had plenty of deep-fried, comforting Southern food on my blaze-through of →

Hong Kong, my Hong Kong

I’ve been home a week, and Mexico is merely a dream again. Only the photos and a couple of excellent fridge magnet plus a beautiful pendant I got from a real Mexican girl, remind me →

Another One Down: Ploughing Through the Theme Parks of Shenzhen

深圳 (Sam Jan – Deep Drain/Shenzhen) 世界之窗 (Sai gai chi cheung – World’s Window) 百佳 (Baak gai – Park’n’Shop)

People! I can’t recommend Newark Airport enough! A mere 20 minute drive from downtown Manhattan, (or 12 hours’ drive from Shaker Village Kentucky as the case may be) is this place where, unlike JFK and →

I can’t believe I’m home again! The two weeks in Mexico and the US seemed like two months because there was so much happening, and everything mine eyes looked upon I saw for the first →

A huge moment! The Roanoke Island Bluegrass festival! Thank you Steve Harvey for making this possible. The setting was beautiful beyond words, on the edge of the United States of America, in the same spot →

New Service

Hello, my name is Cecilie (pronounced “Cecilia”) and I’m a China-holic.

And Hongkie-holic.

I’ve been living here for more than 20 years and speak, read and write Cantonese and Mandarin fluently.

More than 20 years … that’s so long that Hong Kong is just home to me now, but newcomers who take my language courses tell me that this city can be pretty confusing, even intimidating.

Instead of finding out everything the hard way, probably wasting a lot of time in the process, why don’t you let me help you settle into Hong Kong easily? I’ve been everywhere, I know everybody and I’ve done everything. Well, almost.

But if I haven’t, I certainly know someone who has.

I can help you:

Find a social life!I can:

Cecilie’s One-stop Everything service.

Everything about Hong Kong you’ll ever need – without the hassle!

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 travels through the mainland is that Sichuan food has everything your body needs. Even after eating it every day for two or three weeks, even a month, I crave no other food. That must mean that Sichuan food is nutritionally perfect.

But of course, the most important thing is that it tastes so damn good. That’s why I started cooking for the people of Lantau (and other places) – to give them joy and, dare I say, a little piece of Paradise on their chopsticks.

Unfortunately though, I can’t always accommodate the hungry hordes, but to alleviate their suffering I have written a cookbook with 20 extremely easy to make recipes.

Just click here to download it right into your iPad, laptop or phone. I paid a company (one of the worst, most inept companies I have ever had the misfortune to deal with, by the way) put it on book sellers’ website but as far as I can see, you have to live in that country to buy the book! Not very internet-y, eh? So just get it straight from this site.. It’s cheaper too.

長沙 (Cheung Saa – Long Beach[sand])
梅窩 (Mui Wo – Plum Den)
天堂 (Tin tong – Heavenly Hall/Paradise)

But if you don’t like cooking you can also come to my place, of course. Minimum eight people, beer included.

A Pox on Sunny Vision and all their Descendants

I was hoping I’d never have to write this (again) but here it is: My blog www.chinadroll.com has disappeared from view, and it’s SO not my fault. I was a customer of theirs for 3 1/2 years, paying them shitloads of money, did what they told me to do and generally shut up and put up.

Two weeks ago I wanted to move my blog to a different, better and much more reasonably priced host; the one that’s hosting this website in fact. (For during the 3 1/2 years Sunny Vision has been hosting me, they have shown themselves to be staffed by … possibly orangutans? And not the one million ones that together could hammer out Shakespeare either. The orangutans that were thrown off the Ark for being too ape-like.)

I sent an email to Sunny telling them to bill me for whatever it costs to move to a different host, as well as giving me the password etc to pass on to my computer guy.
They shut down my blog that minute. That’s right, couldn’t even keep it there for a couple of hours while the excellent Stephane worked his magic.

There is a post about this from two years ago on my other blog, which is currently floating up there in the stratosphere somewhere, waiting for permission to land. Meanwhile I’ll just have to rely on text messages and nailbiting.

WHATEVER YOU DO, never go into ANY kind of economic partnership with Sunny Vision! They should be called Sunni.