港女行：Elephant Grounds Coffee.

Hey, you pretentious people. Follow me to Elephant Grounds Coffee.

If you're into those photogenic coffee, ice-cream sandwiches and dainty coffee shops, this is the post for you.

I visited Elephant Grounds in Sai Ying Pun the other day, it’s located in a designer shop called WOAW so if you’re not on the lookout for it I’d say it’s quite difficult to locate. For a “parasite” coffee shop I daresay that its marketing is quite nicely done. At least it’s got me (who lives under a rock) noticing it (on Instagram).

The shop was quite interesting, there's all sorts of designer stuff there that's a pleasure to browse through. Although I didn't buy anything it's still enjoyable to look around and poke my nose into their pretty displays.

I ordered a latte and the legendary ice-cream sandwich for me and my friend, and we settled on one of the stools outside.

Let me first talk about the coffee shop corner. It is dainty. It has around 10 seats around the bar and outside and that’s it. And the stools are small too. I made the mistake of going there with a backpack. Go in a rock band tee, shorts, platforms and an envelope clutch. You'll match the atmosphere more, trust me. 

The coffee was alright. I ordered a latte, priced at $40. The milk foam heart was neatly done. Nothing special there. 

The ice-cream sandwich, at around $60, was avocado and lime between peanut-butter cookies with little crunchy chocolate balls. The ice-cream was really creamy but I didn’t like the cookie that much as I found it a bit too hard. It’s better for you to share the sandwich if you’re not a big eater as I find the portion a bit too large for a snack.

My experience there wouldn’t be very memorable if it weren’t for the impulsive photo session I had with my friend. After we took pictures of our food, the surroundings, us with the food, the food with the surroundings, and every other picturable possibilities… we started to have fun with ourselves. And this is what we ended up with…

 

Guess I'm more found of taking "after pictures", at least I am able to tell people I actually consumed those stuff and enjoyed the moment rather than letting the camera have a higher priority over my food.

We had enough of taking pictures of the food and took selfies instead.  

We ended up spending more than an hour playing trapped in a cup.

More pretentious foodies  港女行：潮流的甜品 Next Station Dessert & 雪國度

Weekend nature trips: 山系女行: 攀山涉水 之 唔怕跳崖怕蜘蛛 Cliff jumping in Sai Kung

Morning routine: Increase efficiency and be MOTIVATED

Feel that it is impossible to balancing health, work, life and getting everything under control? How about "stealing" some time from your mornings?

There's a saying, "an hour in the morning is worth two in the evening" (一日之計在於晨).  I agree with this wholeheartedly. Now that I am finally putting effort to develop a healthy lifestyle, I found that I can actually utilize my time in the morning to get more things done.

My morning routine is as follows:

6:15 am.
I wake up and get my playlist going, still loving 8tracks as I can simply key in my mood and let the app take it from there. Especially if you're into discovering new songs and artists or just bored easily, this is just perfect. Of course, there's also a like function and allows you to create your own playlist.

6:35 am.
Time to roll out my yoga mat and get some sit-ups done. Still trying to build a workout routine, haven't settle on anything so far but some reps on the things I like to do. Though I've figured out that the plank and side plank is starting to be favourites.

7:00 am.
Head outta door! It's an hour's train ride from my home to the office. What's better to learn a new language while you travel? I've always adored the way French sounded. Duolingo is the best app I've encountered so far. I'm sure I've talked about it somewhere already.

I also have a habit of writing in my diary on the train. I felt that I have so many thoughts that's wandering on my head I had to let them flow somewhere. So there goes!

8:00 am.
Arrived in the office and launch into another productive and motivated day!

It makes me happy to feel that I have used my time wisely and efficiently. While people are going on about how there's not enough time, why not find a way round it and get the problem solved?
Mine is the morning way, what's yours?

Be The Girl I Want To Be.

Hey, meet my new mantra.

Strange it may be, talking to oneself, but this is working (at least for me). Don’t pretend you don’t talk to yourself anyway, everybody does. Think about the last time your report got you a pat on the back – “Good job, girl.”

Anyway, I was just saying that I have been telling myself to be the girl I want to be. It’s a bit like having the mind over matter, being in control of myself through willpower. After all, who’s going to help me if I don’t help myself?

If I want to get in shape for the beach, I exercise, I eat less. Whenever I want to eat I tell myself that I’m going to be the girl I want to be and I push the thought of food away. That’s like a reminder to myself about my cause, my purpose instead of simply being overwhelmed by cravings (that’s most likely temporary).

 I would like to be productive, to be efficient in my work. I tell myself to just do it and be the girl I want to be.

Of course everything is not just about plain thinking. I gave myself action steps and guidelines to follow. I have a vision to the person I would like myself to become, an image of how I want people to perceive me. Then I follow the “ideal me” and take control of my life.

For instance, I am feeling stuck at work with so many tasks that I didn’t know where to start. I simply think about the girl that I want to be, think about how she would tackle the situation, admire how she does it and follow her lead. 

Simple, Easy, Breathe.

A salad that I’m really proud of.

Honestly, when is the last time you fixed yourself something and it brought you legit joy which lasts for days?

You may say I’m overly easy to please, but the happy drive I’m getting from my Sunday salad is lasting well into my Monday. It is nothing fancy, nothing expensive nor time consuming. It’s simple and easy as it looks.

It all started with a cob of corn and ripened mangoes. I was going to name it the “Yellow Salad” when I thought some baby onions would go with the mangoes. I’m all into experimenting and weird food pairings so this is no surprise that I would toss them in. I came across some apples in the pantry and thought the colours would look good. Besides, apples are crunchy (to compliment the soft and squishy mangoes) and their taste goes well together too (think the yogurt drink). With all the textures and flavours, the colour could do with some improvements… hence, a kiwi goes in.

And then I told myself I had to stop before things get out of hand.

我喜歡了一個女孩子

，她是一個小朋友。

我常常把她弄得很氣憤也令她很失望。她告訴我要在我提出分手之前與我分手，要在我離開之前離開我。

她很好勝。
是很認真的在whatsapp裏說：「唔好逼我做最後一個講嘢！感覺好差！」
然後又說：「早知一早唔覆就唔會又俾你企左高位」...
接著再說：「記住而家係我唔理你！你啲fd問起或者你同你啲fd講，記住講清楚話係我而家無搵到你冇理到你冇煩到你！」

好吧，那就是你現在拋棄我，我被甩了，而不是我主動不理你的。
就在最後最後的短訊裏我打的字數多過你，用的時間短過你，回覆的次數密過你，還用問句結尾得不到答案了，那肯定是在低位了！


還有，她好喜歡比較。

「我有什麼比不上×××？」
「你是和我一起開心還是和×××一起開心？」
「為什麼你總是約他們不約我？」

她好喜歡問問題。

「你放工有咩做？」
「去邊度？」
「同邊個？」
「做啲咩？」

有時她的問題還是有骨頭的。
「走去旺角幹什麼？是要陪*那個*人嗎？」
「在和誰sd msg? 你的兵麼？你的新texting buddy 麼？」
「唉，往事只能回味，現在你都不會自拍sd給我啦！」
「以前我們做×××多開心，依家冇嚕」

她好喜歡哭。
吵架了，生氣了，喝醉了… 小小女孩都有哭過，只可惜我是受硬不受軟…
深深體會到男孩子在女孩子哭時的不知所措。

記得她提過小時候因為表哥激嬲了小小心靈，在照片上家人的臉上畫圈圈了。而表哥的圈圈最大因為他令到小小女孩最生氣。我想現在我的臉上應該是無數的圈圈圈圈圈圈圈。

其實，我被拋棄之後感覺不知是好笑定好喊… 好笑是可能我還覺得她是在鬧脾氣吧。
說真的，她看見我這樣說一定會很憤怒（「我哭成淚人了！你還可以笑得出？！」）
好喊是，其實她都只不過是一個小孩子。畢竟我們都有過共同話題，一起走過了一些日子…

人會變，月會圓。
當一個人在你的生命裏再沒有正面影響時，身體思想很自然就會把那個人排斥。
我希望當小女孩不再理我的時候她不會再哭，不會再缺乏安全感，不會再要與人比較。
我想她會記得我們曾經是多麼productive, 對事情有要求，對大家有positive influence的朋友。

Health Lifestyle & Goals Review.

My blog stats brought me back to this post which made me think about my health goals.

Two years back I said I was doing 2.4k jogs and adding 400m, two years later I felt that I can barely make 3k... Well, not much improvements there.

However, I have not given up my exercise plans. As summer approaches I have made a resolution to develop some abs. For the last month I have been obsessively reading up on the way to train my muscles, lose the fats (so that the muscles show) and gain strength. Currently quite found of doing mini workouts in the morning so that's a score for keeping fit. So far, my muscles still refuses to show but I can feel their potential *wink wink* Perhaps a few more sets and a structured routine could get the job done.

I have also successfully talked my friends into enrolling into thai-boxing courses and dance lessons with me. Who wouldn't like to get in shape with a pal? Totally an increase in motivation to move around and making work outs more interesting. I am even looking forward to these sessions!

But what I enjoy more, is the frequent hiking trips that I am doing with my friends. I happened to realize that the perks of living in Hong Kong involves easy and convenient access to well developed and beautiful scenic hiking trials. My last trip to the Four Pools (四疊潭) is simply amazing.

Coming up, Tissot Limitless Challenge hot to go!

山系女行: 攀山涉水 之 唔怕跳崖怕蜘蛛 Cliff jumping in Sai Kung

又到夏天，大家減好肥未？ 

Summer's here! Are you ready?

weekend又係諗去邊嘅時候，喜歡親親大自然的我與友人到了西貢跳崖去！ 

It's the weekend again, time to come up with some entertainment for myself. Nature-loving me have decided to go cliff jumping with some friends in Sai Kung.

8：30 彩虹乘小巴入西貢。 地鐵站前的水果檔不是很喜歡我們，買到了又貴又爛的水果。

9：15 往西灣亭的村巴走了！幸好星期天不定時村巴時間表給我們帶來了9：30 bonus bus，要不然（路邊的阿婆說）星期天多人到的士也等不到。 

8:30 Took the bus to Sai Kung from Choi Hung. FYI, the fruit vendor right outside the MTR didn't like us very much. Sold us over-priced bad bananas *bleh*:/
9:15 We missed the bus that's going to bring us to the starting point, however god gave us another one at 9:30 which is very very fortunate *all smiles* If not we'd be stuck there forever cause Sunday traffic in Sai Kung is horrible.

 為了不要錶印，沒有時間觀念了 
Lost track of time because I didn't want a "watch mark"

從西灣亭找到沙灘，沿著過橋前直行的路就去到四疊潭了！！
From Sai Wan beach, we walked in from the bridge and arrived at the Four Pools!!

跳崖 Cliff-jumping

走到溪澗的盡頭是。。。

At the end of the lake...

千絲瀑！

The Waterfall!

爬上去！Climbing up!

然後我們只顧著享樂沒有再拍照了。

And then I didn't take anymore pictures.