Parading Your Best Easter Bonnet in New York

The Easter Bunny and a fancy dress made of balloons

New York City celebrates Easter in a DIY way. Every Easter Sunday residents show off their creative chapeaus. It starts from 10am to 4pm, and there isn't a particular place where it starts, but apparently St. Patrick's Cathedral is where you have to be to catch the action.

Two women channelling Audrey Hepburn

Many wear hats covered in flowers, bunny rabbits, Easter eggs and complete the look with matching outfits, like colourful suits, dresses, or this year in balloons.

One brought his ragdoll cats and he himself wore a cat mask, one woman had a black hat that had a brim that revolved with yellow taxis on it, two women inspired by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady with over-the-top floral bonnets, a woman with a red and white mushroom on her head, and her small dog had one too.

What I love about these bonnets and outfits is how fantastic they are, bold with colour and fantastical in how they turned out! These New Yorkers really go all out, and are willing to step out and show off their artistic side.

A ragdoll man feeding his ragdoll cat

I saw a picture of a woman with a giant blue emerald with a diamond-crusted bird on top -- of course! It's the Jean Schlumberger brooch called Bird on a Rock. He was a famous jewellery designer who worked with Tiffany & Co. A variation of the brooch was recently worn by Heated Rivalry actor Connor Storrie at the Golden Globes.

She is Emily Hupp, a jewellery box historian who explained that Schlumberger made the brooch for socialite Bunny Mellon, which is why she had a small bunny pin on her dress; she wore a yellow rose dress because Mellon was a gardener. So what better way to pay tribute to New York than with this bejewelled creation on her head?

Hupp and her Bird on a Rock hat

I love Schlumberger's glittering pieces, and appreciate Hupp's homage to the designer! 

Some day I hope to make it to the Big Apple's Easter bonnet parade with a fun creation of my own. If anything just to take part and enjoy sharing the fun with others.

Cat Stuck in a Tree Makes the News

An arborist makes her way up to rescue the cat at the tree top

Lots of drama in Surrey today with news of a cat stuck in a tree -- a really tall tree for three days.

When Samantha Decamillis was walking her dog on Saturday she spotted the black cat at the top of a tree.

She called the fire department and the City of Surrey about rescuing the cat, but no response until Decamillis said she notified the media.

Today animal services came out, but weren't sure what to do, and got an arborist to climb up the tree. It has no foliage at the top, which means it's a dead tree.

When the arborist finally made it near the top she tried to get the cat into her net, but at first it was terrified of her and didn't want to go in. But in her second attempt, the arborist pushed the cat into the net and there were loud cheers from down below.

However, soon after, the freaked out cat managed to jump out of the net and fell to the ground and was seen scampering away.

Onlookers couldn't find the cat and hope it's OK. They are just relieved it is out of the tree where it had nothing to eat or drink.

The cat has definitely used up one of its nine lives today!

Cheap Eats in Sai Ying Pun

Large clams steamed with vermicelli and spring onions on top

I met up with my ex-colleagues for dinner the other day. One of them arranged for us to eat at a dai pai dong in a government-run cooked food centre and the food we ate was fantastic, perfect for a casual group of people.

The restaurant is called Daisy's and it's a no-frills place where diners sit on plastic chairs around a round table with flimsy plastic on top. But the food is top notch.

Another round of the crispy deboned chicken 

One of the highlights was the deboned -- yes deboned -- crispy chicken. The skin was so crunchy, while the meat was tender and juicy. Another was giant clams topped with vermicelli and spring onions. Some people were hesitant about eating the large orange reproductive gland, claiming it tasted mealy. But it's part of the scallop!

Other dishes included an omelette with preserved vegetable, Chinese kale stir-fried with garlic, prawns stir-fried in salted egg yolk, another salted egg yolk with squid, string beans stir-fried with minced pork and chillis, and fish with tofu in a claypot.

In general all the dishes were pretty good and including several bottles of Tsing Tao, the meal came to HK$250 per person.

We had the added entertainment of playing with two cats who wore tops to keep warm! In general they are quite friendly.

One cat mans the stall Daisy's

My former colleague likes Daisy's, not only because it's across from where he lives, but also because it is gay-friendly, pointing out a rainbow sign in a corner of the restaurant.

Daisy's

Centre Street Market between First and Second Street

Sai Ying Pun

2547 5899

Whatsapp +852 6891 1362

VIFF Review: Flow

The wordless animated film features a black cat

What happens to the animals when a tsunami hits their environment? That's what the animated film Flow finds out in a co-production by Latvia, France and Belgium. There is no dialogue in the 84-minute film, though the animators take a bit of liberty with the animals' abilities.

Viewers first meet a cute black cat in what looks like a forested area, but after being chased by a pack of dogs, there is a herd of deer trying to outrun a massive flood of water that the cat gets caught up in.

The animals navigate flooded areas by boat

The feline encounters a boat and meets a capybara, a secretary bird, a lemur and a labrador, one of the dogs earlier. Together this rag-tag group, but in particular the cat realises through the challenges they encounter that they need each other to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

The film is gorgeous -- some scenes look very real with the reflection of the water and the abandoned buildings, while the animals look slightly cartoonish, but that only makes them more endearing. There are several amusing points in the movie to lighten the mood and change the pace, but overall it moves along and isn't a drag.

It's interesting there are no humans in the movie, though there are many things they have left behind, like buildings and statues that have outlived them; the animals seems to adapt quite well to these places.

One of the animals the cat meets is a capybara

Hope to see Flow in wide release and curious to see how children in particular think of the film.

Flow

Directed by Gints Zilbalodis

84 minutes

2024

Settling into Vancouver, Cats and All

The peaceful view from Coquitlam 

Almost a month ago, a friend from Hong Kong landed in Vancouver. She has been preparing to move for years and now it's finally happened.

We had a chat yesterday on the phone and she seems to be settling in well. She said she spent the first two weeks doing all kinds of mundane but necessary things, from opening up bank accounts, buying insurance to finding a place to live.

One cat investigates the blinds

She is currently staying in an Airbnb in Coquitlam and enjoying it, despite the location not being the most convenient. Her exercise consists of walking up and down hills to get to the supermarket and back, but she loves inhaling the fresh air.

"It's so nice to be here, in freedom," she says. Since she arrived she stopped watching Hong Kong news because she found it depressing. "People are being arrested everyday," she says.

Next month she will move into her rental flat, also in Coquitlam and needs to buy furniture and other household goods and is eyeing the Ikea catalogue. But being in Vancouver is  all exciting to her and she hopes to soon be reunited with her mother, who is currently in Malaysia.

In the meantime her two cats are keeping her company, one 14 years old, the other four years old, though they don't get along. Hopefully they at least like Vancouver!

Picture of the Day: Totem Pole in HK

The totem pole is blocked by potted plants

One day during my trip to Hong Kong I had some extra time in the late afternoon before meeting a friend for dinner in Harbour City, so I went to Kowloon Park.

After all my years living in Hong Kong I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the park so it was a good opportunity to wander around and see the facilities that include a swimming pool, a mini soccer pitch, an aviary, piazza, a maze garden and sculpture garden.

These feral cats don't like humans

I walked up a hill and saw some feral cats that reside there; a cat lady was fussing over them and bringing them dinner. It reminded me of the volunteers who feed the cats that reside on the giant rocks by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai...

But I also came across a totem pole! What was this doing here in Hong Kong of all places! I tried to get closer to it, but the tiled steps leading to it were closed off by potted plants in a bid to keep visitors away from it. Were people touching to cause the staff to prevent people from getting too close? This is why my picture looks so awkward.

As a result I could not find a plaque or some kind of explanation of why this totem pole was here.

An article by Christopher DeWolf gives a bit more information: "On the other side of the park is a totem pole carved by the indigenous Tlingit people of British Columbia in Canada."

Palm Springs: Strange American Products

Any interest in trying this popcorn?

Ah Americans always come up with the most curious products to entice consumer to buy. Usually products that you don't need at all.

A visit to World Market is a case in point.

It sells all kinds of items from homeware and kitchenware, as well as wine and food. The food ranges from Japanese Kit Kats to pasta sauce, Ghiradelli brownie mix, coffee beans and Hello Kitty cup of noodles.

Keep wine cozy with this sweater

In the discount area there was a bag of Oreo-flavoured popcorn. I've heard of cheese-flavoured and salted caramel, chocolate and cinnamon, but Oreo-flavoured?

I was not intrigued enough to purchase it, even though it was 55 percent off. And if you really wanted to, you could make this yourself by crushing the Oreos in a food processor or manually crushing them with a rolling pin (the cookies in a Ziplock bag!).

The other strange product I saw for sale was a mini Christmas sweater -- for your bottle of wine.

Yes -- did you know your bottle needs a sweater to keep warm? And an ugly Christmas sweater to boot?

There were ones with a dog embroidered on it, and one with a cat too. The canine one says "Happy Howlidays", while another sweater says, "Cheers to the naughty list".

Perhaps that includes having a red nose?

World Market also has a stationary section. There were Snoopy notebooks, but a colouring book dedicated to cats' behinds?

It's called The Cat Butt Colouring and Activity Book, which features 45 pages of cats in various scenes, from an intergalactic feline's butt in space, to decorating a cat butt cake. 

Are cats' behinds a thing?

Apparently there are other cat butt colouring books like Cat Butt Christmas and Cat Butts in Space!

Are cats' butts a thing? I had no idea until now...

The things you discover at World Market.