香港書展2015

一年一度的香港書展2015早前已正式開幕，和往年一樣當然我亦會和媽媽抽空一起去逛逛。由於今天是星期日公眾假期，所以我早已知道今天一定會是非常多人。因此我們便決定提早出發，盡量避開下午的人潮並順道享受Early Bird優惠。書展門票原本是HK$25一張，但只要於中午12時前進場就能享受HK$10的上午進場優惠。

成功進場後，我們先看看售價較便宜的內地書，然後才專注於本港、台灣及英文書籍。多間本港大型參展商的攤位也是非常巨大，而且都有華麗的裝飾，令人遠遠就能注意到它們的品牌。

以一塊塊Lego砌出香港的舊貌

「真腐女」的必備百科全書...

當然最後亦要展示一下今次書展的「戰利品」（笑）

《紙牌屋 2：玩轉國王》（簡體中文版）

House of Cards 2: To Play the King

HK$48

《刺客信條：秘密聖戰》（簡體中文版）

Assassin's Creed The Secret Crusade

HK$46

《刺客信條：文藝復興》（簡體中文版）

Assassin's Creed Renaissance

HK$44

《Assassin's Creed Unity》（英文版）

HK$70

《多啦A夢 Plus》 Vol. 5

HK$25.5

《為什麼靜香一定要嫁給大雄》

HK$65.1

再見，時代廣場 Page One

銅鑼灣時代廣場 Page One 的正門

昨天晚上看到報章報導，位于銅鑼灣時代廣場的 Page One 書店將於星期三結業。為了感謝讀者多年來的支持，書店推出特別優惠，店內的正價貨品以七折發售，而部份貨品更低到一折。由於有結業優惠，所以今天下午我亦抽空到時代廣場逛逛，看能否買到一些便宜貨。這是我頭一次到位于時代廣場的 Page One 分店，不過相信這也會是最後一次（笑）。

當我到達的時候，店內外已經是人山人海，相信不少人和我一樣也是看了報章的報導「慕名而來」。不過我總算能成功擠進店內，在堆積如山的書堆中尋找心儀的書籍。

不幸的是由於折扣優惠已開始了數天，所以不少書籍早已被人搶購一空，只餘下什麼也沒有的書架。而我亦找不到有那一本書是有一折優惠，我想它們應該只得非常少量或早已售罄。

選擇好要買的書後，不要以為這樣就可以快快付錢離開這個人山人海的地方。因為您先需要在店外排隊等候，跟隨長長的人龍後才能順利到達收銀台。

幸好，現場有足夠的工作人員（包括：書店員工及時代廣場的人員）和指示才能避免發生混亂。人龍共分為三段，我大約等了一小時才到達隊頭。根據工作人員所表示，今天的情況已經較昨天好，昨天的顧客需要輪候長達四小時，實在是非常驚人！

排隊時看到不幸被困在窗邊的 LINE 公仔（笑）

在店內搜尋近四小時後，最後我在 Page One 總共買了三本書，其中兩本是遊戲的攻略，分別對應《Tomb Raider》（古墓奇兵）和《Alan Wake》（心靈殺手），而它們都是以半價發售。正好這兩款遊戲我也還未玩完，現在有了攻略相助，相信很快就能順利通關並完成所有的收集要素。

餘下一本是有六折優惠的 Flash Professional CS5 工具書，雖然它並不是最新的版本，但相信對我仍有一定幫助，可以讓我溫故知新。

明天將會是該分店最後一天營業，不知它會否推出更多優惠書籍，但我相信明天的顧客人數比今天還要多。所以如果有心前往搶購的朋友，應盡早出發。

農曆新年快樂！

點擊觀看文字動畫

今天是大年初一，在此先恭祝大家羊年新年快樂、身體健康，新一年事事順利。由於是農曆新年假期的關係，所以今天我和家人外出時街上都是人山人海，非常擠迫，不過可能這樣才算有節日的氣氛（笑）。

談到恭賀新年，我相信大家在街上都會看到不少立法會或區議會議員所懸挂的賀年橫額。我早前在新界東亦看到不少，但被其中一張賀年橫額吸引了，它是屬於某兩名建制派立法會議員。被它吸引的原因並不是因為印在上面的賀年字句或圖案，而是…

它的製作實在是太馬虎！

來個大特寫讓大家看清楚

在橫額上的議員照片竟然沒有好好去除原有的背景（俗稱：退地）就草草地貼上去。因此我們可以清楚看到該議員的頭部四周多了一些奇形怪狀的色塊，其中以頭頂最為嚴重，看起來好像她生了一隻小角（笑）。相信負責製作的工作人員（她的議員助理？）只單單使用了 Photoshop 的魔術棒來去除照片原有的背景便草草了事並沒有再仔細修飾，很難想象這樣粗糙的製作也能通過議員自己或政黨的檢查，順利印刷成橫額掛在街上。

不過最奇怪的是在同一張橫額上，另外一名長髮議員的照片卻沒有這個問題，照片「退地」的功夫做得很好，沒有多餘的背景色塊。以我個人的經驗，去除背景時處理長髮通常會比短髮困難，需要花費更多時間。難道助理先生花了太多時間來處理長髮議員的照片，所以令他沒有心機或時間好好處理另外一張照片？無論原因是什麼，只希望他下次製作橫額時能小心一點，不要再讓我們看到那麼好笑的照片。

Frozen everywhere

On Thursday (Jan 8) night, I walked past a 759 store in the shopping mall nearby. They were having a special member discount for buying any regular price item, so I decided to go inside and see if anything worth buying. Then I saw this biscuit sticks with the famous Disney movie - Frozen printed on the box and it is called "Bourbon Elise Frozen Cast Stick - Double Choco".

Frozen and Hello Kitty together

As it is a regular price item, I got a 30% off discount for being a 759 store member. I used my special Xbox 759 member card which I got from the Xbox HK Christmas party for the discount. In the end, I could save HK$3.1 and only have to pay HK$8.1 for the snack. There is 8 biscuit sticks in total, so it is around HK$1 per stick.

Snowman at the back telling you the ingredients and nutrition information

There are some Japanese text written on top and I think it is related to the empty space next to the Snowman. Maybe Bourbon, the snack company, wants us to draw something there to match with the Snowman and background. Too bad I didn't have the time to draw that night.

The inside packing is same as the box

Time to open it and eat the stick

This Double Choco stick has two flavors inside, the top is filled with black chocolate while the end is white chocolate. You can choose which side to eat first but I personally like to eat it from the end.

White chocolate filling

Black chocolate filling

I like the white chocolate more as black chocolate is a very common flavor in similar product. But I don't understand the connect between the biscuit stick and Frozen. I guess the Double Choco is trying to represent the two main characters' hair color in Frozen. I think they can add more Frozen "flavor" to the snack like putting a sticker or pin inside. But of course it will definitely increases its production cost. Talking of money, I think the snack is kinda of expensive without the member discount and I don't think I would buy it with its original price.

Although I haven't finished the whole movie, I know Frozen is still very popular nowadays and it is on many different merchandises such as school bag, snack, toy, dress, book, pencil and notebook etc. I wonder how long will its popularity lasts.

Happy Birthday to Myself

Today is my birthday, so we have a family dinner outside and go back home for birthday cake. Unfortunately, we don't have a dinning table at the moment. A new table should be arrived around Jan 8, so we need to cut the cake on this small CD shelf.

The purple part is made with sweet potato, but something is missing ...

Of course a cake needs a "Happy Birthday" sign to become a birthday cake

 Now we are ready to make a wish and enjoy the cake

Although god already gave me the best present before 2015, I still received a "physical" present to celebrate my birthday.

As my old PSP (model 1000) is missing for a very long time, I decide to buy a PS Vita to replace it. I suspect my domestic helper has stolen it in my room but I don't have any evidence to prove it. But after I have cleared my whole room for the construction work, I still can't find my PSP in any of my drawers. So I think she must have taken it  but she didn't take the charger with her for some reasons.

There are a few colors available in my local game store. Originally I want to buy a blue PS Vita to match with my old PSP but there is only one blue color which is light blue/white. So I decide to choose a new color combination, lime green/white. It looks pretty good and I am very happy about the color.

Sony HK is having a Christmas and New Year promotion in these so called PlayStation® Platinum Shop. Every customer who bought a PS Vita will gets a free PS Vita soft case and 8GB memory card. That's why I don't have to pay extra to buy these essential items but I have pay HK$70 for the screen protector. As I am not a not PS Plus member, I think the free 8GB memory card is enough for saving the game data and I don't plan to buy a lot of digital Vita game on PSN.

Besides, I also pay HK$100 for the extend warranty for my PS Vita. Although my PSP doesn't have any problem for using over 5 years, I think it is a reasonable price to buy this extra 1 year insurance. But of course, I hope I don't need to use it in the future.

To celebrate the PlayStation 20th Anniversary, I receive a small prize for buying any PlayStation related product. At first, I think it is just a cute little decoration to put on my newly installed table.

But later I find out that there are actually four colorful masking tapes inside. The four colors, yellow, green, blue and red match with the traditional PlayStation logo which you can see on the previous picture. It even has the PlayStation mascot TORO cat printed on the tapes.

The game store owner also gives me a 3D Ubisoft Rabbids 2015 calendar as a bonus gift. I think this is some kind of gift for people who buy Ubisoft game such as the Rabbids series but I appreciate his offer anyway. Although the 3D calendar is pretty cute, it is very big and takes up a lot of space on my table. So hopefully I can find a good place to put it later.

One of the main reasons for me to buy a Vita instead of Nintendo 3DS is to play Persona 4 the Golden and this is the last Traditional Chinese copy in the game store. I am no problem playing the game in English but I definitely prefer Chinese version if it is available. After watching the Persona 4 Endurance Run on video game website Giantbomb years ago, I always want to experience this game by myself but I never have the chance. So I am very happy to finally able to play the enhanced edition of Persona 4 on my Vita.

Warning Warning !!!

The second Vita game I bought is Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus and it is the Hong Kong English version. Nowadays I usually like to buy the English version for most Japanese game as I don't have to guess what the Japanese text means. Unlike Persona 4 the Golden, I don't know much about the Senran Kagura series. So I think I will start playing this first and try out Persona 4 the Golden later.

The worst IKEA shopping experience ever

Yesterday (26 Dec, the Boxing Day), I went to the IKEA at Megabox with my mom and we found some gigantic plant pots on sale. They are very big and suitable for planting tree. The largest one is 56 cm x 60 cm. As we had to watch a movie (our first 3D IMAX movie - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) later that night, we couldn't buy one and bought it into the cinema.

After careful consideration, today afternoon we decide to go there again and try to buy some for our rooftop garden. We have a lemon tree there and I think it may needs a new pot soon. So the largest pot we saw in IKEA will be a good new home for it.

When we arrive at the gardening department, there are a few of them left. As we want to buy 7 of them, it is very difficult for us to carry them home. So we decide to pay for the delivery service provided by IKEA. Moreover, it is impossible to put all of them into their largest shopping cart. I also don't expect IKEA will treat their customer in such manner.

Then we ask the staff at the garden department to see how can we place the order and the delivery, he directs us to the ordering counter near the checkout. He said the staff there will help us to place the order and we don't need to carry all these gigantic pots to checkout all by ourselves. So we continue our shopping through the many other departments and finally reach the ordering counter after half an hour later.

At the time we arrive, there is no customer waiting. So we quickly approach one of the staff at the counter who named Frankie. We said we want to order something and want IKEA to deliver them to our home. So I fill in the form for the address and said we want to order 7 of these gigantic pots. Then suddenly Frankie said we have to pay extra for the pot (HK$200 in total). Before we place our order, we have already calculate the delivery cost in advance based on the information provided. As the total amount of our order is less than HK$1000, we should only need to pay HK$100 for it. So we don't understand why he need to pay more for ordering pots. We ask Frankie kindly for the reason behind. But he starts to become impatient and talk to us in a very rude manner. Then he knocks rudely on the shipping cost board to answer our query. Moreover, he even claims that the counter here wouldn't help us to place order and we should to carry all these 56 cm x 60 cm pots to the checkout on our own. But as I have mentioned before, it is impossible to do it without any assistance and he clearly doesn't care about it. He doesn't bother to explain anything and just tell us to go back to the gardening department, which is very far away from the counter. Actually he can simply use the phone on his table to contact the staff there for us but he is too lazy to do so.

With such impolite attitude, we decided not to buy anything from IKEA today. So we go straight to the customer service counter and file a complaint about Frankie immediately. After we explain the incident to the staff, then we are greeted by the supervisor responsible for the ordering counter. First, he apologizes for Frankie's inappropriate behavior. Then he clarifies that we shouldn't have to pay extra for just ordering the pots and Frankie is wrong. Moreover, he also claims that Frankie is just a part time staff. He may not familiarize with the company's delivery service and lack the proper training. Although he offers free delivery service to compensate for our unhappy shopping experience, we kindly refuse his offer as we are not filing this complaint for any compensation.

No matter you are a part time or full time staff, the customer won't care and he is expected to have accurate information about the product. In my point of view, it is alright for having some unclear or misleading information as everyone will make mistake. But I definitely can't withstand any impolite attitude from the staff. I always favour the IKEA brand and think that they have good customer service. So I hope this is just a special case and doesn't reflect their overall service. But the damage has already been done and it may take some time to heal. After what happens today,  I guess we should stop going there for a while.

Received another package

 

Another thanks for shopping card

A quick update for the construction work at my home, unfortunately it can't be finished on time. They have to continue to work after Christmas. So I have to keep using my laptop and can't play any game on my consoles for one more week. Hopefully all work can be done before 2015.

Last week, I received another package from a Japanese online store. Unlike the previous one I oredered from Play-Asia, a postman delivered it to my front door and I had to sign for it. So it seems that their delivery is more secured and way more faster. Of course, the shipping cost is more expensive than Play-Asia but I think it is worth the money.

So what inside the cardboard box? First, there is my Zelda Amiibo figure I bought for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. She is my fourth Amiibo figure in my collection. The other three are Pit, Mario and Link and they are all bought from the same Japanese online store.

 

Check out my previous post (in Chinese) for their unboxing

But as there is dust everywhere and I can't play any Smash, I decied to unbox her later. The main reason I want to buy Zelda is that I can get extra weapons for an other Wii U game -  Hyrule Warriors. Although I still haven't bought the game yet, I think it is better to buy the figure first as she has already sold out in many Hong Kong game stores. With all four Amiibo, I can sit back and watch them fight in a normal Smash or work as a team in 8-Player Smash.

Besides Zelda, there is something more important inside the box and it doesn't belong to me.

It is the newly released Godzilla game for the PS3 with the pre-order bonus. As my good friend Oscar is a big Godzilla fans, I decided to help him to order the Japanese version online to make sure he gets the pre-order bonus. The pre-order bonus includes a mini-figure and a download code for early access to Godzilla 2014 (the one in the latest western movie).

Based on the gameplay, the game is all about Godzilla destroys buildings and fighting other giant monsters who stand against him. Moreover, it seems the players can level up Godzilla and learn new skills. So I hope Oscar will have a great time playing it and I bet he will since he is  the most diehard Godzilla fans I ever met. Unfortunately, both of us are busy recently (mine the construction work and work for him), so the game is still inside the box and we don't have time to see Godzilla in action.

At last for the pre-order mini-figure, it is really really small. Luckily I didn't drop it or I am afraid I couldn't find it in my crowded and dusty living room. There are three types of monster and the store will randomly give one out to the customer who pre-order the game. So I don't know which one Oscar will get. But judging by its shape, I think I know which one it is.