Jean-Francois Amadei

I came to Hong Kong not only to pursue my study over here but mainly to follow an old dream, but I'll talk about that in another post.

When you arrive in Hong Kong for the 1st time it's quite difficult to find a clean room to rent (unless you have plenty of money, which wasn't my case) at descent prices. The best way is to go to some serviced apartment (kinda hotel but for six or twelve months stay) to share with some roommates, you have modern fully furnished apartment (with Spa, Sauna, Swimming Pool and Gym) without having to pay any agencies or give deposits.

I was lucky enough to find one in Hung Hom (just in front of Wanchai on the opposite bank) in quite a high building (It was a premiere for me, I always lived in 1st floor !) with marvelous view in every room (North Point for the living room, Wanchai for the bedroom one and Central for bedroom two). It was really nice, but I stayed there one month only ! Why? No 7-11, no bars, no clubs, no buses or MRT (had to walk 15mins) and almost 1h and half to reach HKU !

Once I got sated of one of the greatest appartement I ever lived, I just asked to move in a HKU Hall (St John's) (it was in November). Yes it's smaller (but big enough for one guy) but still with a great view (Long Fu Shan Mountain, where you can have some hiking or footing), much more friendly and it comes all the amazing facilities provided by HKU (Squash, Swimming Pool, Gym...etc).

OMFG BBQ ! 3 songs ? JF you are fantastic !!

Today I'm gonna present you a group that I'm following since the last summer : Jupiter with two songs I really really like : Starlighter and Chips. I have very few information about the group (except a messy and poorly informed MySpace (just like 99% MySpace in the world...) where I just read that they are French) but their music is nice mix of modern melodrama melodies with a really awesome 80's-ish touch (especially with this kind of guitar/keyboards (forgot the name) made by Yamaha) that give you as much energy as you need whether to go clubbing or just before to go to work, out loud in your Popod!

(download)

(download)

The second group introduced here is usually not the kind of music I use to listen, but when I started to listen that song, just like the "Proust's Madeleine" instantaneously brought me in some other places...except that I don't exactly know where ! The music starts with notes that are not totally 80's-ish but rather 90's with a deep touch of japanimation/old RPG's, suddenly starts drums that once again brings you back in the 80's as they are the same that Kate Bush used in her song "Runnning Up That Hill". Then, the singer starts and all the mix become a quite usual English pop song...very strange as the band seems quite young.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to find out that Thomas Crampton (a very interesting guys I'm following since years now, when he was writer for LLM's blog) is providing a really interesting new position to a person who would satisfies these criteria:

The funny stuff with that story is that it created a little buzz on the tweetersphere with people curious about how the interview are conducted, how the best applicant should be chosen. We (all the applicants) also have had a lot of support from our twitter friends which I think it's really nice of them :) However, I think I'll have a problem about visa's matter (which is silly as I already have an HKID (thus the right to abode in Hong Kong) and plenty of time to work (even with classes besides...) but you know how administrations can sometime be so illogical) but I'll try to solve this problem by going to the immigration building on Monday morning.

Anyway, whether I'll be hired or not this has been a nice experience where I finally could meet people I really like and also made new friends among people at Ogilvy and other applicants. It's quite sure that our road will cross again in a near future.

This is an another smart interactive advertising example that I found in the Causeway Bay MTR.

 In order to promote its new phone, the Arena ("sand" in Italian, strongly inspired by the iPhone), LG set up an interactive giant phone projected on the ground. The twist is you can try the phone's interface by simply step on the widgets or buttons.

 For those of you whom ever been to Taipei, this technology is the same as the one we can enjoy at the top of the Taipei 101 building (when you walk on space or clouds)

My dad is a great soccer fan, he's into that sport since more than 45 years by playing (almost every Friday until very lately, now he's a bit old for that), watching games (every day) and by managing a soccer club (he's a youth team coach). Therefore, until I was old enough to go out alone, I spent every Saturday afternoon nearby a soccer field, not to play but to watch other people (my dad's friends) doing it.

I'm not a big fan actually, but I'm still interested in the environments (who's winning, who's buying who, new players, results and ranking) and since I live in Asia I really start to miss going to Marseille's stadium (Velodrome Stadium), the atmosphere over there is unique!

This is definitely my favorite part, when I hear it I have chills!

Here we back for a new episode of Tortue's Garage, tonight I'm generous I will present two songs with two different style.

Even if my parents are, I'm not a wine fan (not an alcohol fan actually, I barely drink a glass of any alcohol per month) but lately when I passed before a "Wine & Business Club" (in Tsim Sha Tsui) and I bought a bottle of Bordeaux 2006 (sorry I forgot the name), a corkscrew and a glass at a total cost of $ HK133 (+-13 €). Then, I sat myself at my desk, reading my (numerous) RSS feeds, listening a football game on RMC (French radio) under a moderate air-con (it's 30°c over here) and finally taste this wine, I'll surprise nobody by saying that it's very very relaxing.

Does the wine is good? Frankly I have no idea (I know nothing about wine degustation) but I can tell you that it was not bad (at all!) at least.

I sometime ask myself how weather predictions can be so wrong ! This morning I checked HK Weather which showed a big sun all over the island, but as soon as I reached the beach it started to rain...
 
Anyway, I'm under a tree listening my Popod and reading my book !

Last Wednesday I was hanging around Mongkok with a friend when we decided to enter in a cinema to watch "Wolverine" (great movie by the way). Nothing special to that except that the payment process was quite interesting.

 Indeed, instead of going to the cashier (before a long line) we went to use the electronic one. With the help of a touch screen, I quickly chosen the movie to see and instantly paid with my Octopus card ( a widely used contacless card in Hong Kong for translation or small payments). The whole process took 10 sec and 1 minute later I already was in the theater, amazing isn't it?