Mid-Autumn festival and duck feet birthday cake

Happy 30th Birthday Mike!
The most important news today is it's my baby brother Mike's 30th birthday. (actually his birthday is Sept 14th, but in USA, it's Sept 14 now). This is the only pic of you I have saved on this computer so it'll have to do. (L to R: The Sovar kids, Dana, Mike, Gene, Ann)

I can't believe you're 30. I moved away for college when you were only 12 which is when you stopped aging in my mind. Good thing I'm on the other side of the world and can't see you turn 30 or I'll feel very very old.

Mid Autumn Festival
The other big news in Hong Kong is the USA stock market crash today, but that's bad news so I'll ignore it and instead talk about the mid-Autumn festival and the fact that we had another holiday today, Monday, Sept 15th.

This is a holiday for eating moon cake (a calorie dense dessert like pumpkin pie but not as sweet), moon gazing, lanterns and fruit baskets. Families usually get together for a family meal and kids carry around light up lanterns. (sometimes shaped as Hello Kitty or an airplane like this little boy's)

There is a big carnival in Victoria Park and Mark and I went again this year. They had games for the kiddies and performers from mainland China including those amazing child Chinese acrobats who contort in unbelievable shapes. We only stayed to watch for a little bit since the place was crowded, the air hot and stagnant and Mark can only take so much family fun.

Yum, duck's feet
On a side note, this past week we celebrated a birthday in my office with the traditional birthday cake and for some odd reason, we also had a gift box of duck's feet and tongue that everyone tore into and devoured.

I went back to the kitchen to get a piece of cake and was surprised (as I often am in our office kitchen) to see everyone giddily eating these duck's feet and ignoring the cake. The duck tongues I was told were already long gone. So polar opposite of what I find tasty, but that means more cake for me. So, Mike, I celebrated your 30th birthday for you and had 2 pieces.