Thanks to South China Morning Post journo Anthea Rowan for featuring me in her article exploring the stormy creative highs and lows of bipolar disorder in Monday’s SCMP!
Thanks to SCMP photographer Antony Dickson for an hilarious impromptu photoshoot on my roof, where for no particular reason (other than the weather was nice) we decided to recreate classic scenes from two of my favorite movies with my new poo Mojo Hobo Kaye!
I put my foot in it LIVE on RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show in my first Sharp Pain of 2021! My latest humor column broadcasted Jan 26 @2.30pm HKT! Sharp Pains will be back in the Year of The Ox! Here’s hoping it will be a lot more lucky and a lot less plaguey than its Ratty predecessor!
Kung Hei Fat Choi!🐂
Linkies!
The Year of The Ox is upon us and to celebrate Home Kong Kitchen will be baking and serving cream teas for refugees @ Refugee Union in Sai Yin Pun THIS SATURDAY (Feb 13) from 2pm! Thanks to our collaborators @ Breadline for arranging this opportunity for us to mark the Lunar New Year in our own little way: the Cornish way!
Cream teas have been steeped in Chinese mythology and tradition ever since 400BC when Confucius tried one, overdid the clotted cream and sagely proclaimed “You are what you… think I’m gonna barf!!!” (His publicist later shortened the quote to “You are what you think.”) Here’s hoping the Year of The Ox will be a lot more creamy and a lot less plaguey than its Ratty predecessor!
If you would like to help me serve teas to refugees on Sat or wish to contribute baking or other gifts of cooking utensils, oils, pasta, rice, old clothes or laptops/ phones/ tablets capable of running the Zoom app (for refugee kids to do home learning), please fill in the form below! 💜
Kung Fat Hei Choi & Sun Tai Kin Hong! 🐂
Incidentally, I did consider serving cow pies instead of cream teas, but living in such close proximity to these feral beauties is enough to turn even the most un-woke meat-stinking Gen Xer vegan!
Also, I’ve got no idea how to bake cow pies. Is it flour, eggs, clotted cream, bananas?
Episode 4 of my humor column Sharp Pains aired Dec 29 on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show @ 2.50pm HKT! This one’s dedicated to all the knackered people out there and is called Tired…
Links!
Links!
I normally pride myself on my ability to give at least a minute’s notice before a radio broadcast. But this one aired TEN WEEKS AGO, which is a dismal new record. This one’s called Flex & the City…
More pandemic black humor from the Hong Kong Government this week when we were advised to open all the windows (COVID-dispersing ventilation) and not to go outside (air pollution). But it’s not all doom and fumes! This means two new episodes of Sharp Pains have already aired!
Links!
Flex & The City on RTHK Radio 3
Flex & The City on Apple Podcasts
Flex & The City on iHeart Radio
Flex & The City aired on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Nov 24 @ 2.50 HKT!
Last month, I announced my pie in the sky intention of making, collecting and distributing 100 Christmas Gift Socks to the homeless! Thanks to the amazing generosity and support of bighearted Homekongers, I can only ever find one sock and that target was nearly trebled!!!
Thanks to everyone who donated their time, energy, creativity and baking to Home Kong Kitchen in 2020! It’s because of you that HKK us collecting and delivering bread, bagels, muffins and other gifts to homeless people living in unlicensed shelters and refuges most days! We are also making weekly deliveries to Impact HK every Friday!
There are many ways you can volunteer for Home Kong Kitchen: you can bake a difference as part of our community of home bakers, you can make a difference as a bread donator, or you can create a difference as an artist on our sustainable bread boxes!
Thank you for your kindness and support! 💜 💜 💜
My virtual awards date was Hobo-dog Kaye (RIP 😢 – though he did at least wait until the awards show was over to do it). My attire was my dressing gown. The time was 2am. I’d run out of wine 4 hours ago so I toasted The AIBs 2020 with a cup of FUEL high protein instant porridge. It was an intense two-part awards program presented with unwavering gravitas. The lightest moment was when the AIB uploaded a mugshot of my leering face dementedly side-eying the award. Even I was scared my photo might glitch to life and shatter the screen of my iPad in a spontaneous smash and grab!
Luckily, it was all over before I could get in one good swing of my axe! Sky News StoryCast and Tortoise Media‘s My Mother’s Murder was announced the Factual Podcast category winner. Congratulations to the Association for International Broadcasting on two excellent awards shows and all the worthy winners! It was a bewildering honor to have been nominated and one of the highlights of my year (2020: sooooooooo gooooooooooooood!)
Hats off (because he has no hair) to the legendary Larry Feign, my guest in The Depressed Comedian episode, which the AIBs featured in their awards show!
Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for publishing this piece on my Mental Ideas Podcast‘s AIB Awards nomination, film Transference‘s release (available NOW on Apple, Amazon and loads of other indie film platforms!), Proverse Poetry Prize anthology place and other happenings in the buzzy month of November!
You can watch the 2020 AIBs live TOMORROW (Fri Nov 13) and next Monday (Nov 16) in a 2-part virtual awards event webcast at 11pm HKT/ 3pm GMT on the AIB’s website and Facebook page! My cheeky little Mental Ideas Podcast for RTHK Radio 3 is a nominee in the Factual Podcast category. As rank outsiders go, we are the rankest. (The program booklet below certainly provides evidence of that!!!) But I am still giddy with nervous energy and bewildered awe just to be included as a nominee at all!
#2020 AIBs #Association for International Broadcasting #Mental Ideas #RTHK
You may have caught me looking slightly guilty a few weeks ago in the SCMP‘s Post Magazine chatting to the hilarious Kylie Knott about my tasty little Home Kong Kitchen initiative: Baking A Difference (geddit?) for Hong Kong’s homeless!
BLOWN AWAY by the response to this article, solidarity and generosity of Hongkongers mobilizing support to help the most vulnerable! 2020 has been a difficult year but this project has rejuvenated my spirits and restored my faith in humanity, bringing me together with so many inspiring individuals and organizations that epitomize the spirit of Hong Kong!
Thanks to you, Home Kong Kitchen is collecting and delivering bread, bagels and muffins to unlicensed shelters, refuges and people on the streets most days. We’ve also delivered vast quantities of shop-bought bread donated to us to charities Impact HK and Feeding HK via Breadline.
HUGE thanks to Daisy Tam Diers for orchestrating our bread runs and bighearted artist Juliana Kung for designing Home Kong Kitchen‘s emblem! It has everything I love: character, beauty and flying bagels! Actually, I think they’re meant to be orbs, but I saw bagels. I see bagels everywhere now. They’re plastered on every billboard, graffitied on every work of art. Mona Lisa’s smile? Bagels. Munch’s Scream? Bagels. Birth of Venus? Bagels. Map of the MTR? Bagels. The New Fragrance by Christian Dior? Bagels. Leonardo’s Last Supper? What else?? Bagels.
I’ve discovered every homemade bagel weighs the same as a brick and that lugging vast quantities of bread around has really paid off in honing my hump! (Sadly not the lovely lady lump kind; the Quasimodo kind…) If you’re interested in supporting Home Kong Kitchen, please fill in the form below! I’m especially keen to hear from volunteer drivers to assist with deliveries on a one-off or regular basis!
If you’re unsure how to pronounce my name correctly, this is it!! 💜💜💜
In this preview of a series of podcasts I am making about Hong Kong Writers Circle, I interview HKWC Chairman Chris Madden and Nathan Laurer, Chief Editor of the Circle’s 2020 anthology, Masking the City: Hong Kong in Allegory. The anthology (which has just received a rave review in the SCMP) is being launched at a Hong Kong Literary Festival event at the Hong Kong Fringe Club this Friday (Nov 13). It’s free to attend so check it out!!! The anthology is now available to buy at Bookazine and on Amazon!
For the next few weeks, up until Christmas, I’ll be posting an interview with a different author from the Writer’s Circle each week! Each writer will read a short excerpt from their allegory. Don’t miss it!!!
Episode 1 of my new monthly humor column, Sharp Pains, broadcasted live on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Sept 29, 2020 at its new regular time of 2.50pm HKT! For those who missed it, you can download it as a podcast by clicking any of the links below! The first episode was called ‘Ghost‘
The Association for International Broadcasting have just published their shortlist for the 2020 AIB Awards – and I am blown away my quirky Mental Ideas Podcast is among the nominees in the Factual Podcast category! 🙏 The winners will be announced at a virtual event, streamed live by Al Jazeera Nov 13 & Nov 16. Oh 2020: what a rollercoaster of highs and lows (mainly lows) you have been! If I hadn’t started the year with bipolar disorder, I’d almost certainly have developed it by now… 🤣🤣🤣
Brace yourself for the first episode of my humorous new audio column, Sharp Pains, which launches on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Sept 29! The series will also feature actor Philippe Joly voicing the part of ‘Daddy’.
I’m also super-excited to be producing & presenting two new podcast series: Writer Unblocked & Hong Kong Marriage Stories. The former is now in production and the latter in pre-production for next year!
In a daze to learn my first (and only) poem, War of Voices, has won a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize and will be published in Proverse Publishing‘s 2021 anthology next April! Which place (last place?) will be announced at a reception in Hong Kong Nov 19!
My late grandfather, a poet, who also dabbled in banking, would be proud! I’d love to say he was an inspiration but since his legacy is all in Welsh (and it’s a sin to translate Welsh poetry into English) it’s impossible for me to tell if he’s been much of an influence or not.
Thank you, Proverse! You have made a wannabe poet with more issues than Vogue very happy.
This summer I’ve been on a roll and making a lot of dough! Thanks to the amazing team effort of Ying, Moira, Chriz, Raquel, Mercy, Michelle, Emma and Amy, we were able to donate ALL THIS to Hong Kong charity Breadline! (And this was just Week 1…)
The food waste charity, founded by Daisy Tam Diers, does a cracking job of feeding the homeless, elderly, migrants and refugees living well below the breadline on the streets or in shelters. The charity usually relies on food waste donations from cafes and restaurants, but with most operating restricted hours at low capacity, Breadline and other food waste charities have been unable to keep up with demand at a time it has never been higher. So after reading an article in the HKFP, I rallied a few of the neighbors together to see if we could feasibly bake our own to help the charity continue its work during the pandemic.
For the past couple of months we have made this a weekly initiative and we’d love to have your support! If you’re based in Sai Kung/ Clearwater Bay/ Tseung Kwan O and would like to join our Baker’s Dirty Half Dozen, fill in the form below! We’re all novices so don’t let a trivial thing like experience put you off. My first loaf came out of the oven not just burnt, but on fire! It still tasted pretty good though, once I’d given it a good hose down with the fire extinguisher.
We were also able to donate at least 12 shop bought loaves to Feeding Hong Kong, who had received an anonymous tip off about my baking and decided their insurance policy didn’t cover it.
We are now exploring the possibility of setting up an online bakery, Home Kong Kitchen, where you can order home made breads, pastries, muffins and other yummy treats online and we deliver it to your home. We can’t promise it’ll be the best you’ve ever tasted but we can promise every cent we make will be donated to homeless charities. We are also collaborating with local artists to create sustainable bread boxes out of recycled waste with doodled designs and messages of solidarity to our homeless friends.
Roll models
Covid-19: Hong Kong food charity struggles to assist needy as partners suspend donations
Crazy is a cheeky little fiesta of madness and the last episode of the first series of Mental Ideas Podcasts so DON’T MISS IT!!! The Mental Ideas Podcast will be back in 2021! You can download all the episodes from this series on RTHK‘s Podcast One platform. Stay tuned for news of spin-off Mental Monologues and the first series’ launch on BBC Sounds!
You can catch me presenting my humorous new audio column on Noreen Mir’s fantabulous 123 Show on RTHK Radio 3 from September 29, 2020! I’m also cranking into production of two new podcasts, Hong Kong Marriage Stories and Writer Unblocked. If you’re interested in taking part as a guest, get in touch!!!
A HUGE thanks to all my mental guests: Mat Ricardo, Christina Yung, Larry Feign, Florence Wong, Ruben M, Josh Walters, Dan Davies, Kiki Wong, Jackie Chan, Philippe Joly, Eugenia Kim, Raffaello Degruttola, Ifat Hyndes, as well as to Nick Samuel for composing the mental music, Angie Mann – and especially to the legendary Noreen Mir for exec producing and all her endless encouragement, guidance and support!!!
Until then amigos, if you can’t stay sane, stay crazy!
I talk dirty. Great big wads of dirty cash! You can’t use banknotes anywhere in Hong Kong since the first wave peaked. Too dirty! Toilet paper is our cleanest currency now…
This week’s episode of my Mental Ideas Podcast explores the relationship between bipolar disorder and money. It features an array of new and returning guests, including filmmaker Raffaello Degruttola, Christina Yung, Ruben M, Kiki Wong, Jackie Chan, Josh Walters and Florence Wong.
Join me on RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show this Thursday (June 18) in about… ooooh… ONE HOUR!!!
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/689137
There’s no show next week as it’s a public holiday in HK but the Mental Ideas Podcast will be back the following Thursday (July 2nd) @2.30pm HKT! Don’t miss Crazy!!!
First chance to see a film I co-produced Transference: A Bipolar Love Story online at the New York Socially Relevant Film Festival! The indie film recently picked up awards for Best Dramatic Feature at the Anatolia and Zoroaster film festivals and has been officially selected by the Arizona International Film Festival. It is being distributed by 1091 Media/ The Orchard.
As well as being the film’s world premiere, there’s a live Q&A on Zoom with the film’s director/lead actor Raffaello Degruttola and lead actress Emilie Sofie Johannesen. Both are incredible! Transference: A Bipolar Love Story is one of four films shortlisted in SRFF‘s Narrative Feature category that will stream online for 48 hours from June 26 (5pm NYT) to June 28 (5pm NYT). Click on the link below to reserve your place!
https://www.ratedsrfilms.org/narrative-features-2020
On today’s episode – I coin a new catchphrase from an interview with wellness entrepreneur Ifat Hyndes and try it out on a taxi driver. Mat Ricardo talks about the power of acceptance. I say something that is unacceptable in a lunchtime slot on the radio. (Whoops!)
Join me LIVE on RTHK Radio 3 in about… oooh… NOW!!!
Check out Ifat’s new gig as a global ambassador for Operation Smile and find out how you can help: https://www.operationsmile.org/act-now
On this week’s episode Mat Ricardo reminisces about the time he was starting out as a street performer and a member of the public walked onto his pitch and took a dump. Left to raise the tone (uh-oh…) Trollywood actor Dan Davies gives a moving account of his own experiences with internet trolls. Only he has another word for them… and he uses it a lot…
Catch me LIVE on RTHK Radio 3 in about oooh 2 hours!!! You can now download all the podcasts in this series in one mental place! Check out my new page on the RTHK website by clicking HERE! I’ll be adding more links to this post after the show airs!
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/686422
Brace yourselves for another “slightly strange” (yeah… thanks Noreen 🤣) episode of my Mental Ideas strand of RTHK‘s 123 Show! This week my guest is the inspirational Christina Yung! She banks. She cares for her Mum. She writes books and takes magical photographs of Hong Kong old shops. She’s in tears twice during the interview and has the most infectious raucous laugh I’ve ever had the pleasure of developing tinnitus from!
Bit of an emotional rollercoaster this week as we discuss dementia and the Hong Kong Protests among other topics. Obviously this was recorded way back in BC (Before Coronavirus), hence all the hugging. I’d be arrested (again) for all that Friends BS now.
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/685085
On next week’s episode of Mental Ideas veterans Mat Ricardo and Dan Davies return and recount their most memorable experiences with internet trolls in Trolls Anonymous. Only Dan has another word for them… and he uses it a lot…
Catch me LIVE on RTHK Radio 3 in about… oooh… TWO HOURS!!! You can now download all the podcasts in this series in one mental place! Check out my new page on the RTHK website by clicking HERE!
Virtual Reality dance-maker Eugenia Kim explains how her bipolar disorder has fueled her creativity and inspired her latest VR film! It’s called Lithium Hindsight 360. And yes, it IS better than Avatar…
Virtually Eugenia broadcasted on RTHK Radio 3 May 21 and explores the much-hyped relationship between bipolar disorder and creativity. Is there any truth in it? Or is it just a dangerous delusion of grandeur?
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/683736
This week’s Mental Ideas Podcast is a real emotional rollercoaster as I’m joined by inspirational photographer, author and banker Christina Yung! Join me live on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Thurs May 28 @ 2.30 HKT!
All my quirky little podcasts from this series can now be located in one convenient mental place! Check out my new page on the RTHK website HERE!
I’ve got a criminal record as long as your arm, but most of my heinous crimes were committed while I was in Nod. At least that’s what I told the popo…
Catch my cheeky one-hander The Criminal Sleepwalker on this week’s Mental Ideas Podcast live on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show in about ooh TWO HOURS today (May 7) @2.30 HKT!
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/681284
On next week’s episode I am joined by the power of virtual technology by two lunchtime legends: showman Mat Ricardo and actor Dan Davies in a deadly episode, Death & The Frozen Tundra.
Following a relatively smooth (considering the backdrop!) debut stint as a podcaster on RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show, I am excited to have been invited to produce & present a brand new strand for the show!
Hong Kong Marriage Stories takes a refreshing, insightful and entertaining look at the institution of marriage and the complicated, often hilarious dynamics between two people. It may not be a fairytale (unless it’s the one where you kill an ogre with an axe and get pots of gold?) But it’s Love, Factually.
Whether you’re still in the honeymoon period or have been married for decades, whether your marriage is magic or tragic, whether you’re smugged out, bugged out or drugged out, whether social distancing has brought you closer together (ha!) or driven you to the brink of homicide, RTHK’s Miss Adventure wants your engaging and entertaining marriage stories!
Interested in taking part? Get in touch!!! You and your spouse can disagree on everything – except being interviewed by me once separately and once together. Throughout the series, listeners will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite marriage story (probably on the grounds of entertainment value, rather than durability). The winning couple will receive a ‘Hong Kong Marriage Story of The Year‘ trophy, a certificate signed by the Pope (TBA) and a romantic date night of our choosing!!!
Psychopathic actor and entrepreneur Philippe Joly attempts to explain why psychopaths make such great neighbors, CEOs and movie stars. But I’m laughing so much about fake noses, it’s almost impossible to hear him. He also has the GALL to bring up his experiences working with Jackie Chan. No, not the bipolar banker I interviewed in episode 2. The other one.
There was no Mental Ideas Podcast last Thursday as it was Buddha’s birthday. (Happy Birdy Buddy!) But it’s back as a strand of RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show THIS THURSDAY (May 7) @2.30 HKT with an arresting episode, The Criminal Sleepwalker.
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/678866
One type of podcast guest that’s proved easy to secure in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic is grounded airline cabin crew. Bipolar is a condition that’s often been associated with mad creative geniuses, like Van Gough, Beethoven, Mozart, Theresa May and Carrie Lam. But what if you work as a first class bathroom assistant for a living and don’t have a creative bone in your body? The Agitated Air Stewardess is a harrowing tale of triumph in the face of absurdity. Florence Wong ROCKS!!!
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/677659
The Mental Ideas Podcast is back on RTHK Radio 3 this Thursday (April 23) @ 2.30 HKT, where I’m talking psychopaths in The Psychopathic Actor with French actor Philippe Joly who isn’t one (allegedly). Don’t miss it!!!
I am rewarded for all my bad work with the once-in-a-lifetime exclusive opportunity to interview a living legend LIVE on RTHK Radio 3! JACKIE CHAN is on the podcast!!! No, I am not making this up!!!! She works in banking and has bipolar disorder!!!!! Oh.
But she could kick THAT Jackie Chan into 2021…
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/676520
On this week’s episode of the Mental Ideas Podcast, I interview Agitated Air Stewardess Florence Wong! Join me this Thursday (April 16) @ 2.30 on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show!
Episode 1 of my Mental Ideas Podcast, a new weekly strand on the fantabulous Noreen Mir‘s 123 Show, aired April 2, 2020 on RTHK Radio 3!
Depression. It’s no laughing matter. Or is it? Why are so many of our best loved comedians depressed? I trance in and out exploring this tragi-hilarious topic with award-winning cartoonist, depressed humorist and best-selling author, the irrepressible Larry Feign: creator of the iconic Lily Wong comic strip published in the South China Morning Post. Larry was the first cartoonist to have a full-page spread in Time Magazine, worked in animation for Walt Disney Studios and is the international best-selling author of 15 comic books and children’s book series The Fart Brothers, which he sensibly writes under the pen name M.D. Whalen because he doesn’t want to be too closely associated with flatulence.
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/675344
The Mental Ideas Podcast will be back on RTHK Thursday April 9 @ 2.30pm!
