Last month my dog got published. This month it’s the turn of my 14 year old nephew Kaz! His photograph Hong Kong Storm has been chosen by Proverse Publishing and Chinese University Press as the book cover of Mingled Voices 7: the International Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology 2023! The anthology launches at the Proverse Spring Reception at the Helena May April 27! My poems Imagine Nation and Tidal Slave are among the poems that won places and I’ll be reading Tidal Slave at the event. Needless to say, this is causing a lot less excitement in my family.

https://proversepublishing.com/kasra-shroff-photography/

https://proversepublishing.com/mingled-voices-7/

https://www.amazon.com/Mingled-Voices-International-Anthology-Anthologies/dp/9888833383/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125166248-mingled-voices-7

https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/Proversehk?product_id=4518

‘Hong Kong Storm’

Fresh from launching A Book of Changes at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Hong Kong Writers Circle opened submissions for its new quarterly online magazine Apostrophe – on APRIL 1st – no joke! The name is derived from the irony that a bunch of so-called writers omitted the apostrophe when registering the Society. Technically, we should be the Hong Kong Writers’ Circle, but we are not. We are the Hong Kong Writers Circle. This grammatical faux pas has split the Circle into two feuding semicircles: those of us who know what an apostrophe is and how to use one and those of us who do’nt.

I am apparently Art Director because nobody trusts me with an apostrophe. Unlike the writers who are required to be either residents or former residents of Hong Kong to submit, artists can submit from anywhere in the world and are not limited to only submitting one piece. Submissions for the first edition close April 30!

https://hkwcmagazine.substack.com/p/submissions

You can also email your art to sadie@mentalideas.org

Mojo likes books. He likes the smell, he likes the pictures, he likes the shape of the words, but most of all, he likes to eat them. Mojo eats books. You know that phrase ‘everyone has at least one book in them’? Well, Mojo has at least three. The last book he ate was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Where’s Wally? He’s lodged inside Mojo’s digestive tract. Mojo treats Bookazine like a buffet. His greatest literary ambition is to finish off War and Peace. He may have bookworms. Books are not the most exotic meal Mojo has ever had. He spent the morning eating magnetic fridge letters. The next poo he does could spell ‘disaster’.

Congratulations to Mojo! The Home Kong Kitchen mascot had his short tail published in the Women in Publishing Society‘s anthology Imprint 21. Despite being male. And a dog. And a poodle. His story is a restaurant review called The Foodie Poo. The anthology launched March 9 at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival and can be bought from Bookazine, Kidnapped, Vibe, the Lion Rock Press and the Foreign Correspondents Club, which hosted the event. Mojo is now toying with the idea of setting up the Poodles in Publishing Society (PiPS), a literary dining society for poodles who enjoy a good book as much as he does.

Another chance to catch up with my humour column for RTHK Radio 3 on VYP! This one walks funny, talks funny and is called Penguins

Thank you to editor Carol Dyer and the Women in Publishing Society for inviting me to read Bake Fail at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival launch of Imprint 21! It was the first time I had performed it in front of a live audience and I had a blast!

Bake Fail was published as A Piece of Cake by the South China Morning Post in 2022, which meant it couldn’t be included in the anthology, but you will find two of my other humorous short stories tucked inside; Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow from Sharp Pains, which broadcasted on RTHK, and another by my poodle, Mojo, which I helpfully translated.

Imprint 21 is available from bookstores BookazineKidnapped, the Lion Rock Press and Vibe. You can also pick up a copy from the FCC, where the event was held. Congrats to the Women with WiPS for putting on a cracking event and to the HKILF for curating such a literary feast! 

https://www.hkwips.com/imprint/imprint-21-at-a-glance/

https://www.hkwips.com/2023/imprint-comes-of-age-at-the-fcc/

Excited to have joined Everybody Media as a podcaster in their Collective! The London-based media company was founded by Naomi Mellor to produce and support podcasts that raise the voices of women and non-binary podcasters. The company partners podcasting giants like Wondery and is home to the annual International Women’s Podcast Awards. Being nominated for ‘Moment of Comedy Gold‘ by the IWPA in 2022 was one of the highlights of my year and I can’t wait to collaborate with them in 2023! Sharp Pains has just been uploaded to their site! You can find it and explore other podcasts here!

IWPA 2022 on IMDb

Catch me performing Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow from Sharp Pains live at the Hong Kong Int Lit Fest launch of Imprint 21 at the FCC March 9! Thanks to editor Carol Dyer for inviting me to fill a bald spot. Join me and the women with WiPS from 7-10pm for an evening of laughter and frivolity!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on RTHK Radio 3

SAVE THE DATE: A Book of Changes will launch on the closing night of the 2023 Hong Kong International Lit Fest March 12 upstairs at the Fringe! I will be reading an extract from my short story Toot, a chocolate horror. Join me and the Hong Kong Writers Circle for a hotpot of short stories, poetry and debauchery from 7pm! You can get tickets here!

My latest humour column for RTHK Radio 3 just got tutted up on VYP! It features a funny turn by my partner in crime Philippe Joly. This one’s the stuff of nightmares and called Dream On

Sharp Pains will be back with a few new bells and whistles in the Lunar New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi, amigos!

Living the Dream on RTHK Radio 3

Catch me on Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Skyler Jett‘s Music for Global Change broadcast later this year! God only knows what the lead vocalist of the legendary Commodores wants with me (unless it’s Bake Fail tips?) but I’m excited to be a guest on his broadcast! Plus, once he has interviewed me, he has agreed to let me interview him on one of my podcasts. In case you are interested, our conversation went like this: “Hello? Is it me you’re looking for? Or have you made some catastrophic error?”

Excited to find out the 21st Women in Publishing Society anthology Imprint 21 will launch on International Women’s Day (March 9) at the FCC as part of the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival! Two of my humorous short stories are among the contributions and I am excited to have been invited to read Bake Fail at the event! Bake Fail broadcasted as an episode of Sharp Pains on RTHK Radio 3 and was published by the South China Morning Post as A Piece of Cake in 2022.

Bake Fail was nominated for Moment of Comedy Gold by the 2022 International Women’s Podcast Awards and an Official Select of the 2022 On Air Fest in Brooklyn. Sharp Pains was also shortlisted for Best Comedy Program by the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards and some of the stories long-listed by the 2022-2023 Comedy Women in Print Prize. More festival updates soon!

After being nominated for Moment of Comedy Gold for the Bake Fail episode of Sharp Pains at their 2022 International Women’s Podcast Awards, I am excited to have joined the Skylark Collective (rebranded as The Collective by Everybody Media in Feb 2023) in 2023! I can’t wait to collaborate with them and help raise the voices of women in podcasting!

My dystopian short story Toot has just landed on on Amazon! It was published in the 2022 Hong Kong Writers Circle anthology, A Book of Changes. The anthology officially launches at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival March 12, but you can download it as an ebook or order in paperback on Amazon or from Bookazine now!

Just as I thought my post-apocalyptic 2022 was finally over and done with, I received this news alert at 11.59pm on New Year’s Eve: https://www.postapocalypticmedia.com/announcing-the-post-apocalyptic-short-story-writing-contest-winners-for-2022/

Thank you Post-Apocalyptic Media for making my dystopian horror/ love story The Opposite of Truth a runner up in your 2022 Short Story Contest!

Happy New Year, amigos! Wishing you all an apocalypse-free 2023!

Sharp Pains has been longlisted for Ab Fab legend Helen Lederer‘s 2022-2023 Comedy Women in Print Prize! I am beyond elated and utterly flabbergasted to have crept onto this list in the company of so many awe-inspiring witty women writers! Helen Lederer’s involvement is the icing on the cakey, giving me an absolutely fabulous excuse to gratuitously tag Absolutely Fabulous on this post! Merry Christmas!

This is how Home Kong wraps Christmas! Thanks to all of Home Kong Kitchen‘s volunteers for spreading much needed festive cheer to the most vulnerable in the form of staple foods, clothing, toys and delectable sweet treats! Special shout out to Deepa Tolani for loaning me her driver yesterday and making our festive run for the migrant women of Bethune House so pleasurable. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Christmas Message from the Migrant Women of Bethune House

It’s a wrap! Finito! Done! Thanks to the magnificent Resolve Foundation for the opportunity to serve as a mentor on this year’s fellowship. It’s been a wild ride and I have loved every minute of it. Most of all, thank you for matching me as a mentor with the dynamo of creativity and enthusiasm that is Eny Bawse! The fellowship may have ended, but our collaborations are only just getting started! I could not be prouder of Eny for all she has achieved and all that I know she will go on to achieve with her talent, wit, drive and inspired Self-Love Cupid project.

To support Resolve‘s work empowering community leaders to bring about social change, click here!

Thank you to everyone who braved the filthy weather and turned down Thanksgiving to show up at Mind HK‘s poetry event Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words in SoHo last night! The event was part of a week-long exhibition More Than A Label: I Was. I Am. I Will Be. I loved sharing and listening to the stories of the two other poets, the incredible Vish and Derek, and chatting about the stigma of mental illness in Hong Kong. There was an overwhelming amount of love in the air at the intimate event at the uber-cute gallery on Lyndhurst Street. I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks to Mind for the endless encouragement, opportunity to read Imagine Nation, and for curating such a powerful exhibition of letters and artwork. I loved reading every single one of the letters on display and the psychedelic 3D artwork of Mind HK ambassadors’ brains! Thanks especially to Odile for emceeing and sharing her own insightful observations. If you’ve not already seen it, you’ve still got a chance! The exhibition is open until Monday.

#More Than A Label #Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words #I Was. I Am. I Will Be

I will be reading one of my strange experimental poems at a poetry event organised by Mind HK in Central Nov 24! The Healing Power of Words is part of an exhibition of art and letters by Mind HK ambassadors to celebrate the first anniversary of the charity’s More Than A Label anti-stigma campaign. Please join me and support Mind! I’m not really a poet but I will be pretending to be one by shouting and wearing a hat.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-for-mental-health-the-healing-power-of-words-tickets-467482271057

I am away with the fairies that two of my strange experimental poems, Imagine Nation and Tidal Slave, have received places in the 2022 Proverse Poetry Prize and will be published in Chinese University Press and Proverse Publishing‘s anthology Mingled Voices 7. The anthology will be launched at the Proverse Spring Reception April 27, 2023. The winners and finalists were announced last night at the Proverse Autumn Reception at the Helena May. You can catch me reading one of them at a poetry event organised by Mind HK this coming Thursday! Click here for the lowdown!

My first poem, War of Voices, was awarded a place in 2020 and published in Mingled Voices 5. You can hear me reading it on VYP here. Thank you, Proverse! You have made me very happy.

The Foot In It episode of my RTHK Radio 3 and SCMP humour column, Sharp Pains, has just flown out of my mouth and trodden on VYP! PS. I’ve got nothing to do with the choosing of photos on VYP. My choice would be the one below.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3126994/horror-and-humour-my-husbands-huge-ugly-feet

Excited to be taking part in mental health charity Mind HK‘s exhibition of art, poetry and letters de-stigmatising mental health. The exhibition is a celebration of the first anniversary of the charity’s More Than A Label campaign and the theme is ‘I Was. I Am. I Will Be‘. I was, I am and I will be contributing a letter to my younger self, which will be among the many letters and artwork by Mind HK ambassadors on display. Please support! The exhibition is free to attend!

The exhibition will be held at 5, Sun Fung Mansion, 52-60 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong Nov 21-28. Details below!

https://www.morethanalabelhk.com/event-details/more-than-a-label-i-was-i-am-i-will-be

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3199782/5-wellness-events-hong-kong-november-promote-fitness-yoga-mental-health-and-mens-well-being

The Moody Foodie will be making a return to the South China Morning Post as a spoof columnist and digestive supplement. After accidentally being published in the Food and Drink section of the SCMP’s Post Magazine TWICE (!!), I have been cooking up ideas for a tasteless new column. After my first offering was deemed “too outlandish” (I know, I know – shocking), I have concocted a recipe I hope has legs and a strong stomach. I’m not going to reveal the ingredients but consider this a warning that you may soon need a bigger bucket…

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3175408/recipe-disaster-how-quiet-day-baking-her

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3188689/masterchef-wannabes-and-wildly-implausible-meals

These are coming out thick and fast! My latest humour column just hit VYP on YouTube! This one’s a painful one and called Scrub

Listen to Scrub on RTHK Radio 3 and read the goofy column in the SCMP here! Catch up on missed radio episodes of Sharp Pains here!

Scrub on RTHK Radio 3

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3139252/when-my-ugly-husband-lost-face-bathroom-beauty-product-raid

The story behind this year’s HKWC anthology, A Book of Changes, has been a lot more dramatic than anything you are likely to read inside! Hats off to the editors who have somehow kept their sanity. My chocolate horror story, Toot, is a bit of a departure from the usual stuff I write and I am excited to see it in print! The anthology doesn’t officially launch until the 2023 Hong Kong International Lit Fest in March 2023 but will be uploaded to Amazon shortly before. Sneak peak of the cover art below!

Also launching in March 2023 is the Women in Publishing Society‘s anthology Imprint 21, which will be held at the Foreign Correspondents Club. A couple of my humorous short stories are buried deep inside, like splinters of smashed Heiniken bottles nestled amongst precious emeralds…

More anthology news TBA Nov 18!

2023 HKWC Anthology

Transference has officially ‘gone viral‘!!! It has now exceeded 17M views on YouTube. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to co-produce this indie film with Raff, Contro Vento Films and Mental Ideas! Stay tuned for more film and TV collaborations! #mentalhealthmatters #controventofilms #mentalideas

Indie Filmmaker Raffaello Degruttola’s Film Goes Viral

Happy to be taking part in Mind HK‘s anti-stigma campaign More Than A Label‘s first anniversary event; ‘More Than A Label: I Was, I Am, I Will Be‘, an exhibition of art, poetry and letters by Mind HK ambassadors aimed at de-stigmatising mental health, which will be open to the public Nov 21 – Nov 28. The exhibition will be held at 5, Sun Fung Mansion, 52-60 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong Nov 21-28. More details soon!

Some of my previous ‘rants’ about mental health!

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3181151/im-bipolar-and-seeing-word-headlines-divided

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3120634/bipolar-disorder-sufferers-and-medical-experts-share-how

https://themighty.com/topic/bipolar-disorder/mania-bipolar-disorder-sleepwalking

Another slice of Sharp Pains madness has hit VYP! This one’s a filthy one and aired on RTHK Radio 3 as Tea Bag

Tea Bag on RTHK Radio 3

I love tea. Some might say I’m something of a tea connoisseur. Milk and two sugars, please! But I love tea. And also making famous people make me tea when I’m bored. Here’s one I brewed earlier…

Tea Break with..?

Congratulations Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge on reaching your 36th Anniversary! Thank you for inviting me to celebrate with you and the surprise certificate (which I share with everybody in my small but perfectly formed team at Home Kong Kitchen). The work Bethune House and the Mission for Migrant Workers does protecting the human rights and dignity of migrants in Hong Kong is humbling. Thank you for the opportunity to serve with loaves of bread. To learn more about and support Bethune House’s awe-inspiring work, click here!

POOF! Blown away in a hurricane to be nominated for ‘Moment of Comedy Gold‘ by the International Women’s Podcast Awards for my cheeky recipe for disaster, Bake Fail! The awards take place at The Conduit in Covent Garden, London Sept 29. Sadly, I won’t be able to attend in person but I look forward to setting my alarm for 4am (no, really!) to watch on Zoom! Thank you soooooooooo much to the IWPA judges, Amazon Music and Wondery, and the brilliant Everybody Media!

The episode of my humour column for RTHK Radio 3, Sharp Pains, has already exceeded my wildest delusions this year after being chosen as an Official Select by the 2022 On Air Fest in Brooklyn, New York. It was published in the South China Morning Post as A Piece of Cake in June. Sharp Pains was also shortlisted for Best Regularly Scheduled Comedy Program by the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards. Thanks to everyone who has followed my escapades in the SCMP, on RTHK and YouTube!

https://everybody-media.com/nominees-2022/

https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0044618/2022/1/

HUGE thanks to the fantabulous South China Morning Post for publishing my latest humour column on gastro bores in the Food & Drink section of the SCMP’s Post Magazine on Sunday! I last appeared in the Foodie section of Post Mag in June (last month’s offering was a Rant!) with A Piece of Cake. More Moody Foodie humour soon!!!

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3188689/masterchef-wannabes-and-wildly-implausible-meals

Ever wondered what to do with food from the rotting tray besides waiting for it to slowly decompose before eventually throwing it away? Home Spa has the answer! It has just gone live on VYP! And by “just”, I mean 3-4 weeks ago. (Sorry.)

Catch up with missed episodes of Sharp Pains on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show here! And look out for more humour columns (and the occasional Rant) in the SCMP! My latest, The Moody Foodie, was published in Post Magazine on Sunday! More foodie humour threatened soon!

Some links!

Home Spa on RTHK Radio 3

Home Spa on Apple Podcasts

Home Spa on iHeart Radio

Home Spa on Player FM

The Moody Foodie in the SCMP

I am bouncing off satellites to have been ‘matched’ as a mentor with dynamo of positive energy Eny Bawse by the Resolve Foundation! I met Eny for the first time this week and will be mentoring her on her journey with Resolve’s 2022 fellowship program and her incredible Self Love Cupid project. When that’s over, I am really hoping Eny will mentor me.

My humour column Sharp Pains was shortlisted by the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards in the Best Regularly Scheduled Comedy Program category… on April Fool’s Day… and being a fool (in any month) I totally missed it!!! It didn’t win (obvs) but being a humble 10 min monthly slot, I wasn’t even sure it qualified. The best I’d hoped for was that it might be shortlisted if the judges were feeling particularly generous/ concussed/ drunk – and luckily for me they were all of these things! The Bake Fail episode was also an Official Select of the 2022 On Air Fest in New York. I ❤️ NY! 

Catch up with missed episodes of Sharp Pains on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show here! And look out for more humour columns (and Rants) in Post Mag! It’s also playing on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel on YouTube!

New York Festivals Radio Awards 2022 Shortlist

Thanks to the South China Morning Post for publishing my ‘Rant‘ in last Sunday’s Post Magazine! I press buttons and rant the case for a new psychiatric term for ‘bipolar’. Your suggestions are welcome! Topping my shortlist is ‘Swingers’. It also has a double meaning, but at least it’s sexier than the spectre of nuclear attack…

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3181151/im-bipolar-and-seeing-word-headlines-divided

Sharp Pains has been growing a new audience of poetry fans on the Voice Your Passion channel on YouTube! (Poetic injustice?) The Bake Fail episode has just gone live! My cheeky recipe for disaster was published in the SCMP’s Post Magazine as A Piece of Cake earlier this month. Catch up with missed episodes on RTHK Radio 3 here and look out for more humour columns (and the occasional Rant) in Post Mag!

Excited to be an ambassador for mental health charity Mind HK! Thanks to Odile, Vicki and the rest of the team for the encouragement and opportunity to train and swap stories with so many inspiring people!

Thanks to the Resolve Foundation for inviting me to be a mentor on their 2022 Fellowship Program! This year’s theme is Wellbeing Reimagined. Excited to find out who my mentee will be and meet the other mentors!

https://www.resolvehk.org/

https://www.facebook.com/resolvefoundation

Transference has exceeded the mental milestone of 10M Views on YouTube! If you’ve not seen it, you can watch the full bipolar love story movie for free below!

There’s nothing I enjoy more in life than having a good rant! So thanks to editor Chris Wood for giving me an opportunity to have a cheeky ‘Bipolar Word’ in the ‘RANT’ section of the South China Morning Post‘s Post Magazine May 1st! This is the first opportunity the SCMP have given me to be anything other than a clown. I’m not suggesting ranting is bonafide journalism but it’s almost certainly the closest I’ll get to it.

Aiya! My editor just emailed to say my rant’s been bumped from Sunday’s mag for something that’s “time sensitive” (it better not be another u-turn on lifting Covid restrictions by Carrie Lam!!) He’s promised me faithfully my rant will be published “very soon”, so hopefully the following Sunday, the Sunday after that, or definitely by the end of 2027. Sorry!!

In the meantime, here are a couple of my old bipolar rants in SCMP articles I did not write myself…

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3120634/bipolar-disorder-sufferers-and-medical-experts-share-how

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2041246/how-bipolar-sufferer-came-down-earth-after-flight

A Piece of Cake has just been republished as a Recipe for Disaster in the online version of Post Mag! The story was originally published in the SCMP‘s Post Magazine April 3rd. It broadcasted as an episode of Sharp Pains on RTHK Radio 3 as Bake Fail and was an Official Select of the On Air Fest in March! More foodie humour soon! Look out for me in the SCMP’s Post Magazine this Sunday (Labour Day) with something a little bit different…

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3175408/recipe-disaster-how-quiet-day-baking-her

Today’s Bunny Run for Home Kong Kitchen was EPIC!!! Thanks to everyone who baked and donated melt-in-the-mouth hot crossed buns, melt-in-the-car cup cakes, melt-down-your-shirt choc chip muffins and melt-on-your-mask chocolate eggs, plus cookies, cuddly toys, painted eggs, mounds of bread and other thoughtful treats for our heart-melting homeless, migrant and refugee friends!

Honorable mentions go to Alana, Jean, the Neetu’s (1-10), Asha, Deepa, Amy, Roselle, Mags, Jess and Tina! I love you all! 💜 Happy Easter, Homies!🐣

As Hong Kong looks forward to catching up with the rest of the world and living with the virus by allowing groups of up to 4 people to dine out until 10pm (beaches remain closed though and you still have to wear a mask to hike by yourself on a mountain just in case), here’s one to try! Our inspirational friends @ImpactHK have just launched The Kind Kitchen, which employs the formerly homeless and provides them with on-the-job training and free housing. Please support the homeless by planning your next big night out until 10pm here! You won’t regret it! 🤩 🇭🇰

Usually, I steer away from committees, assuming I will be a liability, but last month I decided to commit to a minor role as Critique Group Coordinator on the Hong Kong Writers Circle‘s committee. This is my first experience of being on a committee and my second experience of being committed. In case you’re wondering ‘how is that possible?’ I was committed to a psychiatric hospital for a month in 2011. I’m hoping my experience on a psych ward will stand me in good stead for this demanding role. Question 1 to anyone interested in joining a critique group: ‘Do you know why you’re here?’ Nope? Good! Me neither.

2011

Thanks to the South China Morning Post for publishing my recipe for disaster A Piece of Cake in last Sunday’s Post Magazine! Online version will be uploaded soon. You can hear my deranged radio version of this one on RTHK here!

Bake Fail on RTHK

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3175408/recipe-disaster-how-quiet-day-baking-her

Crazy scenes across Hong Kong for the past few months as the panic buying craze spread faster than the virus. Supermarkets and pharmacies stripped bare. Even things like toothpaste (?) Like brushing your teeth was going to put Omicron off! “Sorry, mate, your breath stinks like stale dog biscuits. I’m going to infect the woman behind you instead. Unlike you, she flosses, too,” Omicron didn’t say.

Last month, Home Kong Kitchen volunteer Mojo Hobo Kaye launched his campaign to ‘Make Hong Kong Barely Tolerable Again‘ by urging Hongkongers to ‘Stop the Woofing Panic Buying!’ He then stole and fraudulently used my credit card to purchase himself a new baseball cap emblazoned with his slogan. Yesterday, Carrie Lam announced that she would not be running for a second term as Chief Executive. Government sources refused to confirm or deny whether Mojo had influenced her decision. However, Junius Ho warned that Mojo’s hat might have contravened the National Security Law. Police are still investigating whether the poodle colluded with foreign forces when he purchased the cap on Amazon.

The empty shelves, soaring food prices and tough restrictions have been making things trickier at Home Kong Kitchen. But thanks to the dogged determination of HKK‘s incredible volunteers, we have somehow managed to keep operating and delivering home baked breakfasts, dry foods, canned foods and medical supplies to the homeless, migrants and refugees. Thanks to everyone who has generously contributed! Every humble delivery of just a few necessities has felt like a mini-miracle. We are now collecting gifts of food, clothing, books, toys and festive treats for our Easter Bun Run and would LOVE to have your support! Email hello@homekongkitchen.com to find out how you can help! 

Mojo Hobo Kaye

https://homekongkitchen.com

My smoke alarm hasn’t stopped ringing this week! Thanks to the On Air Festival making it one of their Official Selects and support from the Women with WiPS, Bake Fail is the episode of my saucy humor column for RTHK Radio 3 that refuses to burn out. My culinary cautionary tale will be published in the ‘Foodie’ section of the South China Morning Post‘s Post Magazine April 3rd! Please check it out as I doubt I will have another opportunity to mention myself in the same sentence as ‘Foodie’.

Sharp Pains is taking a short sabbatical because my legendary partner in crime Noreen Mir is having a baby!!! You’d think she’d be put off extending her family by my columns but no, she told me she found them an aphrodisiac. The columns are now being repurposed as traditional Chinese medicine to beat Covid and boost population growth. But don’t worry – Sharp Pains will be back on the air before you’ve had time to notice it’s missing!

Thanks to everybody who has viewed, liked and shared Transference on YouTube, where it has just topped a whopping 8.5M Views!!! 8 is considered the luckiest number of all in Chinese culture, associated with wealth. As a gesture of goodwill and to pay the way for future film collaborations, I am marking this moment by writing director Raffaello Degruttola a cheque, immediately, for the sum of HK$8 (US$1.02), doubling his net worth! 😆

If you haven’t already seen it, you can view the feature-length film I was lucky enough to co-produce below!

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!

Transference: Global Release Nov 10!
AIB Awards: Virtual Awards Shows Nov 13 & Nov 16!
Local “Media Star” begs for help lugging bread around! 🤣

Thank you to the lovely people who run the Webby Awards for encouraging me (quite persistently, as the first couple of times they contacted me I just assumed it was a joke) to enter Bake Fail for their 2023 awards and offering me a scholarship to do so! I am sure I have no chance but imagining them listening to one of my obscure little podcasts was reward enough!