Hong-Kong

We just did 6 hours of walking around Hong-Kong today. My feet are hurting but it was fun. My partner's mother took us on a "getting lost", wandering, meandering tour of places within the vicinity of her old stomping grounds (she was born and raised in Hong-Kong but now lives in Canada). I tried to find a few rare books I am interested in purchasing, but no luck. Definitely got a better view into the world that is Hong-Kong.What is delightful about being here is that it's very English-friendly; everything is bilingual between Cantonese and English.

I will write you a more detailed account with some photos of my experiences later. But for now, let me leave you with a very amusing lesson on Chinese-English.

The following is quoted from "The Ultimate South China Travel Guide of Canton", presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

"Canton, or Guangzhou as it's known today, was once known as London of The East.... This guide is designated exclusively for use from 1685-1839, i.e. from the opening of Canton as a trade port until the outbreak of the First Opium War. After the 1842 signing of the Treaty of Nanking, restrictions imposed on foreign visitors changed significantly, making it inappropriate to use this travel guide beyond the above said period."


"Don't know a single word of Chinese or Cantonese? No problem!... You must get yourself used to CPE (Chinese Pidgin English), because the locals communicate fluently in this distorted form of English composed of sounds that resemble English, but of syntax that breaks away from English grammar. This dialect is mainly used in trade. The word "pidgin" is thought to have derived from Chinese pronunciation of the English word "business"."

Common Greetings & Conversation

(in English first, then CPE)

Do you speak English?
You savvy Englishee?

How do you do Sir?
How dee do, Sir?

Very well, thank-you Sir. 
Velly wellee, thankee you, Sir.  

What is your name? 
What you name?

How old are you? 
How muchee olo?

What time is it now?
Justee now what time? 

Where do you lodge?
What placee you stop?

Where are you going?
What placee you go?

Are you sure? 
You savvy true?

I don't know.
I no know.


I can't understand. 
I no understand.


I am very sorry. 
My velly sorry.


Many thanks to you. 
Too muchee thankee.


Is breakfast ready? 
Breakfast t ee hap makee ready? 


There is no taste in it. 
No got tas (t) ee.


Give it to the dog.
Give dog chow-chow.


Tell the cook to make it properly.
Talkee cook man makee proper.


Give me a cup of tea.
Give me one cup tea.

Call the barber.
Callum barber.


Get ten coolies for me.
Long me catchee ten piecee coolie.


I am going out. 
My go out justee now.


What is this made of? 
What thing makee?


What kind of goods are they? 
What quality goodsee?


They are goods of the first quality.
Firs(t)ee quality goodsee.


What is the price of this? 
What pricee?


Can you reduce the price a little?
Can you chargee more lessee?


I fear I cannot reduce much. 
I fear no can chargee too muchee lessee.


Does that include the duty?
Duty hap got inside? 


I want this.
My wantchee thisee.


What colour do you want? 
You wantchee what colour? 


I don't want them.
My no wantchee.


Give me a receipt.
You give my one piecee receipt.


(the following is for emergency)


Help me!
Makee help my!


I am drunk.
Got tipsy.


I am sick.
My hap sick.


Go and call the doctor.
Go callum doctor.


He has  been murdered.
Some man killum him.


Get out of the way.
Go (a)way.

Last saturday...

Howdy! So the book signing & live face painting last saturday went well. I was set up in the window of the bookstore where there is normally a book display. The store,"Diamond Books",  is located at 5035 Sherbrooke, on the border of Westmount where it meets NDG. It's a cute little store that has been around since 1914.

They have alot of kids toys, kids books, as well as the usual spectrum of fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, religion and more. They have also been developing a good reputation for interesting, and unusual art books, as well as a collection of rare books. The store was recently bought by a vivacious young women named Emma Sindell, who specialized in marketing while at University.

Take a look at the event photos below:

International Contest - Win a poster or book

As announced on the video-journal "The Contest Winners", the International part of the contest has been extended until May 1st, 2010.

A minimum of 30 entries are needed for the prize to be issued.  Anyone, anywhere in the world can enter.

What  you need to do is send me a postcard by mail; please pick a postcard that is 4.25"x5.5". Please email me privately for my mailing address. Winners will be announced on this blog through a Youtube Video. Good luck!

Montreal Book Stores

So my new book, "The Art of April-Anna" is now officially available in 3 bookstores, with more to come!

Kidlink Livres Et Jouets: 5604 av Monkland, H4A 1E3. 514-482-4188

Diamond Books Store in Westmount (open since 1914) is carrying both my books, & greeting cards; 5035 rue Sherbrook O. 514-481-3000

Biosfaire Librairie Inc. 4571 rue Saint Denis, H2J 2L4. 514-985-2467

Photography by Michael Connors.

On Saturday, March 13th, 2pm,
Diamond Books; live event! I will be available to sign books, and will be offering Glitter Tattoos, Face Painting and more. There will be a soiree in the evening as well (6pm). Everyone is welcome!

Photoshoot winners!!!

At last.... prank calls?

At last, I am making time to update my blog. There has been so much going on, not all of it interesting in terms of blogging, but certainly enough to keep me busy and not always able to update this blog! It is my intention to get back into regular blogging, I quite enjoy it and it's a great way to share with friends, family and strangers interested in my adventures, especially once I head out on my next big trip; Hong-Kong!!

Last sunday, Feb 21st,

we did the photo shoot for the contest winners for the temporary glitter tattoos. I will be putting the video-journal together over the next few days from that shoot. The photos turned out lovely;
(photo by Pierre Simard) I am just going through them right now, there are over 800 photos! I will post a few soon. I just have to pick which ones I wish to use and do a little photo-editing (I figure cleaning up pimples is justified since we don't have pimples all the time, just sometimes).

I did a full head to foot body painting on friday, for a client that is a big sports fan. This contract was booked in the fall, so it has long been
 anticipated. The client wanted to have body painted jeans &; a hockey shirt; it turned out fabulous!

(Kiss Band Clients from Halloween)

Another set of clients I had over the weekend was for a family that wanted to be turned into the Kiss Band, based off what they had seen me do for another family back at Halloween, only this time it was for a masquarade. Turned out great! The family was happy and I must say the daughter was very good at immitating Gene Simmons tongue! 

Nuit Blanche

Saturday was Nuit Blanche, otherwise known as "White Night". I love Nuit Blanche, it's one of the rare times in the winter when really the entire city is out and about, very much like New Years Eve but even better. All the art galleries, musuems, stores and other places of interest are open as late as 2am or 4am. It's the only time of the year I can go visit the contemporary art musuem at midnight! I love it! The city challenges people to stay up all night, they even offer free metro & buses all night! It's great! Most of it's free too. This year I walked for 6 hours around the city with my boyfriend, cousin & his girlfriend. We went to the Architect  Museum, the McCord Museum to see the "Irish in Montreal" exhibition, had a pint at the Irish pub around the corner, glimpsed a bit of the "underground art" on our way to the bathrooms, then headed towards Old Montreal in the hopes of going through the Labrynth but when we saw how nuts the line up was, we decided instead to just wander a bit, eventually heading over to the Hilton Hotel where we had tickets for the "Swimming under the Stars" on the top of the hotel in their heated pool. The pool wasn't as warm as advertised, it was just warm enough to make sure you weren't cold, but not so warm that you wanted to stay for a long time, at least not unless you are like me and decided to swim aggressively under the water, which I quite enjoyed, until the drunken youth nearby decided to start playing "marco pollo" in the pool. What I liked about this pool is that we were surrounded by trees that were planted at the top of the building, and the pool is much much deeper, if it hadn't been winter, and if the pool hadn't had drunk people in it, it would have been nice to do some diving. I had tons of fun and was completely delighted by the fact that I was swimming outside in winter until 4am. We ended our night by doing something completely unhealthy but very Quebecer, poutine!!

Prank Calls?
So to finish off todays blog posting, I am going to leave you with some prank phone calls by a young Irish girl, known as nine year old Rebecca Barry from Dublin, ‘Little Becky’ used to be a regular for listeners of Dublins’s 98FM breakfast show; from the internet research I have done, it doesn't seem that she is doing the show anymore. I believe at this time she would be around 11 years old, but at the time of the recordings she was approx. 8 years old.