Espresso Beer

Espresso beer is one of those wonderful contradictions, like, er, methampetamine-laced cannabis. Hang on, that's not very family friendly. It's like cauliflower-flavoured bacon. It's like cruelty-free foie gras, it's like a low-calorie cattleprod, it's like a canine-friendly Mitt Romney. (That will be so dated if read in 5 years' time.)

Hooray for beer!

After a year and a half without it, we randomly happened on a restaurant in Tin Hau selling delicious, sweet sweet Hitachino Nest beer. Hooray for that delicious, owl adorned bottle of loveliness. Now am I going to be able to persuade them to sell me a case of the stuff?

Meeting up in Osaka

Because I know absolutely nobody in Osaka, I went on to meetup.com and looked there for people, and arranged to have dinner at a Canadian pizza restaurant north of the main station. Because I enjoy partaking of local customs, and when in Osaka, what could be more culturally appropriate than Canadian pizza?

Hong Kong Lederhosen

A different beerfest, three years earlier...


With the parents in town, I thought it best to show them traditional Hong Kong. By taking them to the Hong Kong beerfest. Nothing quite says 'Hong Kong' like a marquee erected in a car park, full of Chinese people being baffled by an oompah band.

Hong Kong Bierfest

This evening I went with everyone from the office to the Hong Kong Bierfest. This is the largest Bierfest in Asia, apparently, although given the less-than-farflung reach of the German Empire in the East, it might well be the only one east of Germany.

Show you have guts

February comes to an end, with the weather turning warm and the sky going blue. After the stress of last week, it was nice to relax.


Or it would have been, except I spent most of the day on the toilet, squirming in pain as my intestines rebelled. Perhaps it was something I ate. Or perhaps it was something I drank: with the first bottle of Asahi last night my stomach began to revolve, and it hasn't stopped all day.