YOGAYUGA

I have been checking around with yoga courses from different yoga schools. There are tons of them in Hong Kong now. There are too many. You really can’t see which school is the best as most are very commercial. They all provide different kind of classes that you probably have never ever heard. Many do hire teachers from around the world, and mostly from India. Basic yoga classes are no longer popular, therefore many special classes have been introduced such as Bollywood dance, yoga dance and many many with strange names. I wonder if laughter yoga would become popular in H.K. one day. I also wonder how come many yoga schools and fitness centers can exist in H.K. Are we that stress?? There are at least ten of each I can think of either in Kowloon or on Hong Kong Island.

I have been checking out Yoga Limbs and Myoga. Yoga Limbs seems to be a very simple and traditional yoga school with serious students. It’s the only family run yoga school in H.K. They offer very reasonable price but the class time table is very limited. The atmosphere is nice. It looks like a Thai SPA house. It is located on the top floor of my dance studio. Myoga is much more like a yoga centre with various facilities. It certainly costs more. I think I prefer something traditional and practical with reasonable price.

I become a serious learner of Latin dance and yoga. They are my hobbies to begin with but now they become part of my life. I am seriously taking the medal exam next year March for Latin dance. I will do Cha Cha, Jive, Mambo and Bolero. Not sure if I could do well, but it can be the good try the teacher said otherwise, I would never know my own performance.

A Chinese looking Santa Claus……I found it in the Park’n Store of Shenzhen.

It looks funny. It looks like a Chinese new year idol rather than a western Santa Claus. It could be a Chinese cross over idea.

Christmas songs had been on and on since this morning. I was wondering where it was from, then found it was actually from our top floor. My dad had been listening Christmas songs under sunshine the whole morning. How enjoyable he was! He always loves to listen Christmas songs during this period of the year.

Many shopping plazas are filled with choir singing Christmas carol. Hong Kong is always a place tapped into various culture and festivals. People love staying at home for Christmas in the west, but Asians love celebrating Christmas with families and friends in public place. People here love the crowd rather than being alone. Therefore, expensive Christmas Eve dinner and non stop partying are the major activities all over Asia during Christmas. Christmas decoration light watching and Christmas shopping are the major activities people won’t miss in Hong Kong. I just feel it’s an excuse to treat yourself a nice gift by end of the year.

My parents did take us out for Christmas Eve dinner when we were kids. We were so exciting of choosing restaurants every year. The whole family went to see Christmas lighting in Tsim Sha Tsui right after dinner until mid night. This is what we loved to do. The weather of Hong Kong was much colder 20 years ago. The Christmas atmosphere was much stronger because of the cold. The weather here is getting warmer and warmer every year, so the feeling is no longer the same.

Well, Christmas is another holiday for me to enjoy. I cook, eat, smile, laugh, dream and love……….

We went for a quite expensive food shopping last Sat. We bought Chinese abalone, lots of them. There is so much to do before we actually cook them. I placed all the abalones under the sun today before I stored them properly. It’s a necessary process.

I plan to cook some chicken soup with abalones and scallopes during this weekend. It’s a long process as I need to have the abalones soaked in water for more than a day before I cook them. I have already bought some chicken tenderloin for the soup. I will prepare dry scallopes to cook with it. Can you imagine how tasty it will be? I bet you do! Winter is the best season of having chicken soup with abalone and scallope. It’s healthy and definitely yummy! It’s my favourite winter soup.

Christmas trees this year….fun, isn’t it? Barbie on the tree!