Double Birthday Celebrations

Chinese New Year Displays.

It's nearly the end of The Year of the Rabbit and the start of The Year of The Dragon. I've been looking at some of the displays for Chinese New Year.

On Thursday Peter and I went to Citygate Shopping Mall, Tung Chung to visit Fortress and look for a new gas oven. While there, I had a look at the decorations. The Chinese New Year displays here are themed around 'Wings in Blossom' and consist of flowers and butterflies. They were really beautiful, but quite difficult to photograph, because everywhere was just so busy.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

'Wings in Blossom' Tung Chung.

On Friday I was going out for an Indian meal to celebrate Sarah and Lai's birthdays. We were meeting in Central and I went across a bit early and wandered around the Chinese New Year displays in The IFC Mall. These were also largely floral. The largest display I saw here was called 'Path of Blossoms.' It had one gigantic flower, smaller flowers and blossoming peach trees. The whole display was placed on a flower shaped base.

'Path of Blossoms' from above.

'Path of Blossoms' from above.

'Path of Blossoms'.

Other displays in the IFC.

Other displays in the IFC.

I also went for a quick walk along the waterfront. The sky was quite dark and it was threatening rain. There was a strange display of large white egg shaped objects in the water. I wasn't sure what they were. Later I discovered they are an art display and they are lit up in changing colours at night. They looked great in the pictures I saw online, so I'll need to return in the dark at some point.

Art display. I'll come back to see it lit up at night.

Many of the people on the waterfront seemed to be heading to the AIA Carnival which has several different rides and lasts until February 25th.

Crowds going to the carnival.

I noticed a junk gliding by with a man's face on its sail. It was hard to make out who it was until I used my zoom lens and realised it was Lionel Messi who is in Hong Kong for a football match between Inter Miami and Hong Kong. The match will take place in Hong Kong Stadium on Sunday.

Junk with Lionel Messi.

Junk with Lionel Messi.

Junk with Lionel Messi.

It was time to head to the restaurant. We were going for an Indian meal in Bombay Dreams to celebrate Lai and Sarah's birthdays. Their birthdays were actually in January, but it's taken a while to find a date that suited everyone. Bombay Dreams is an Indian restaurant located at the top of Wyndham Street, not far from The Fringe Club. I was first to arrive, closely followed by Linda, then Lai, who was in a very good mood as she had just had some very good news. Maggie arrived soon after and then Sarah.

Bombay Dreams.

Our group.

Our group.

We missed Yang and Elizabeth who unfortunately couldn't join us. Yang is always our official event photographer and we only just remembered to take pictures of the food before hungrily devouring it. Yang would never have let that happen. We need her back.

We were given a complimentary vegetarian dish to start with.

Complimentary vegetarian starter.

Same dish in a more abstract shot.

Then we had poppadoms. I got carried away and ordered five plates of these when I actually only meant five poppadoms i.e. one each. Fortunately, the waitress brought two portions of poppadoms, then checked to see if we really did want five plates. We stuck with just the two. Oops, silly me!!!!

Poppadoms. That counts as one.

We had vegetable samosas and this time we really did eat them all without remembering to take a photograph, which just proves they must have been appetising.

For mains we had a creamy butter chicken:

Butter chicken.

a tasty tandoori chicken tikka:

Chicken tikka.

bhindi bhaji, a delicious okra dish I have never tried before:

Bhindi Bhaji.

and my personal favourite tandoori fish tikka, which I also don't think I have tried before.

Fish tikka.

We accidentally forgot to order rice, but made up for it with a mountain of plain, butter and garlic naan bread.

Naan.

The food was excellent. We all had lots of news to catch up on and lots to chat about. Everyone was happy to be together again. The restaurant was soon very busy and lively.

Linda is a great organiser. She had sorted out a lovely birthday cake, groaning under masses of sliced mango. Not sure what we would do without her. We sang Happy Birthday, which didn't draw too much attention, as the restaurant was so noisy by then. People joked that I should cut the cake as I had pretty much flattened my cake while trying to cut it at my birthday meal. I was secretly hoping Sarah and Lai would mess up cutting their cake, too, then I wouldn't look like the only idiot, but they didn't. ( I'm now secretly hoping Maggie will mess up hers, as it's her birthday next. Haha, I am evil.)

Mango birthday cake.

We gave Lai and Sarah beautiful potted orchids which are very in keeping with the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities. It was a lovely evening and great to see everyone again.

Orchids.

Orchids.