Philip's blog

Not-Burglary from Philip Chan on Vimeo.

This is not a joke. I came back to my flat to find that someone had snapped the cylinder of my lock, broken in and not stolen anything. This includes not stealing an unopened iPod Touch, a laptop, and my car keys (+ my car).  

I'm a bit pissed off.

Three years ago today, four hot guys bought a bucket and proceeded to chow down. That was how modestmango.com was brought into the world. We've come a long way in three years.

We had cake, obviously.

Perhaps if we do some filming tomorrow I can post a proper birthday video... In the mean time, does anyone want to leave a birthday message...?

I was sitting there in the food court tonight when I thought to myself, "God, a lot of people seem to go on dates to the food court. I guess it sort of makes sense. You don't even have to order from the same counter - just get whatever the hell you want. There's no need to agree on the type of restaurant beforehand. Embarrassed about your uninteresting palette? She won't know about it. Well, not yet."

Then I thought to myself, "Holy crap, this pork bento box is unreal. I can't believe I only paid a fiver for it. I wish sushi was as accessible, as good quality and as cheap in Glasgow as it is here."

nd then I looked down at what surely would be my last taste of Speights for a very, very long time and I thought to myself, "I'm really going to miss this. I mean genuinely, I'm really, really going to miss this."

I can't quite believe that I will be returning to Hong Kong six weeks older than I was when I left. There's not really much to say about Auckland. I've been struggling to find things to keep myself occupied if I'm honest. Photos have been sparse as well. The big city is more or less pretty uninteresting. The harbour, yes the water is beautiful, but there's nothing on the water to point your camera at. The best views are outside of the CBD, where again I was met with unfortunate weather.

In case you're wondering what I'm doing on my last day in New Zealand - I'm sitting in a public library. I have definitely been spending far too much of my holiday sitting in New Zealand libraries. There are loads Asians here. Yeah, I know libraries are usually rammed with Asians, but I mean there are loads of Asians here. I had completely underestimated the amount of immigration into Auckland. Everybody is Asian.
 
I am not exaggerating when I say that every other restaurant in Auckland is Asian, and of the ones that aren't, they're likely to be run by Asians anyway. The Asian food here is cheap and authentic. There really is little reason to eat anything else. I think I've eaten more Korean food in New Zealand than I did when I was in Seoul. Yeah, okay, that's clearly an exaggeration but I've had it at least four times, and that's four times more than I thought I would.
 
Does anyone else think that sky towers are incredibly cheesy and annoying? Annoying in that they are always infringing on your field of vision whether you like it or not. There is something about a building that's been built for the sole purpose of tourism.
 

 
I think this will be the last post in the NZ series. It has certainly been a memorable trip, I've seen some amazing things and I've met some incredible people. But I must say, I'm ready and happy to leave.
 

 
So… Goodbye from New Zealand (I'm in a library).

I feel like I should dedicate more blog-space to Dunedin itself. I did spend the best part of five weeks there afterall. Dunedin was apparently based on Edinburgh. But they ran out of money, or it was too hilly, or something. Who cares, really? Many of the buildings such as the Otago University building above are based on Scottish architecture.

The train station in Dunedin is supposedly the most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. Good job then that they put loads of traffic lights and lamp posts in the way to ensure that each and every one of the photographs taken will look incredibly amateur.

Things I did included walking up Baldwin Street, the steepest residential street in the world (literal not figurative). Walking down was harder. There was an all-Kiwi souvenir shop at the bottom of Baldwin Street, selling "certificates" amongst the range of genuine Kiwi tat. The shop was, of course, owned by a Chinese couple.

Other things I did included spending time with nice people, including, but not limited to, these people:

See you all soon, I'm sure.

P.S. More photos right here.