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POOF! Blown away in a hurricane to be shortlisted for ‘Moment of Comedy Gold‘ by the International Women’s Podcast Awards for my cheeky recipe for disaster, Bake Fail! I am honoured to be in a category with such funny and inspiring women and non binary podcasters! 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!

Thanks to Philippe Joly for shooting my hilarious (well, we found it hilarious) ‘acceptance speech’ (a video that will never be played as it requires winning!!!) Thank you soooooooooo much to the IWPA judges and the brilliant Skylark Collective!

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 Festival in Brooklyn, New York. Sharp Pains was shortlisted for Best Regularly Scheduled Comedy Program by the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards. Bake Fail was also published in the South China Morning Post as A Piece of Cake in June. Thank you to everyone who has followed my columns in the SCMP, on RTHK and YouTube!

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HUGE thanks to the fantabulous Charmaine Mok and 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 – Aug 14! 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

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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.

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 soon!

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

Sadie Kaye in the SCMP

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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.

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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

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Thanks to the South China Morning Post for publishing my first ‘Rant‘ column 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

https://www.scmp.com/author/sadie-kaye

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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‘s 123 Show here and look out for more humour columns (and Rants) in Post Mag!

https://www.scmp.com/author/sadie-kaye

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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!

Homepage

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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

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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!

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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!!

  • Bipolar Express

My rant is more of a Bipolar War Story, but check out the views Contro Vento Films and Mental Ideas‘s Bipolar Love Story has had on YouTube! 😲 Thanks to everyone who has watched and supported its mental health mission! 🙏

A couple of old 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

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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

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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! 🤩 🇭🇰

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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

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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. Follow me in the SCMP to receive notifications of new stories, or listen to my (slightly) naughtier version of this one on the radio here!

Bake Fail on RTHK

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

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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

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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! (And my absurdist spinoff Meet the New Parents could even be out sooner than that!!)

https://www.scmp.com/author/sadie-kaye

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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!

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Thanks to the Women with Whips, sorry WiPS, for giving me a cracking welcome to the Women in Publishing Society and plugging my writing, bake fails, and other obvious shortcomings on their Woman at Work platform! Can’t wait to whip up a frenzy of creative collaborations with these crazy, inspiring women! Just putting the final spit and polish (so far, just spit) on my submissions for this year’s Imprint anthology, Imprint 21, which will hopefully be launched (Covidy wavey things permitting) at an event at the FCC in November!

Woman at Work: SADIE KAYE

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Thanks to the On Air Festival in Brooklyn, New York, for selecting the Bake Fail episode of my screwy humor column for RTHK Radio 3, Sharp Pains, as one of their 2022 Official Selects! So happy to have been included in this good vibes festival that emphasizes experimentation, a unique point of view, and explores storytelling and creativity in sound!✨

http://onairfestival.com

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Hear me roar on the irrepressible Ran Elfassy‘s Shooting It Raw podcast, where I will be his 101 guest. His podcast has an intriguing photography element. He’s also a fellow Sai Kunger. Convenient… But that’s not why I’m doing it. He won me over with the line, “Did you know that each time you write ‘sorry’ to me, a tiger cub gets horrible and explosive diarrhea? It’s true. It’s SCIENCE!” It sounds just as credible as the rest of the science being applied in HK. 🤪

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Transference has received over 5.2M views on YouTube! The bipolar love story by Raffaello Degruttola explores the corrosive impact unresolved mental health issues have on an obsessive relationship. The film was made with a lot of heart and features haunting performances by its two leads. I was lucky enough to co-produce it. If you’ve not checked it out, you can watch the whole thing for free here! #mentalhealthmatters #controventofilms #1091pictures #mentalideas

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Nearly 14 years after his tragic accident, aged 31, one of my besties and partners in documentary crime Johnny Lambe has been immortalized in a memoir by his magnificent mother.

Thank you, Mona Lambe, for the laughter and the tears today, as I devoured your memoir of Johnny in one greedy sitting. You are incredible to have been able to set your own grief aside and to have woven your stories together in such a unique and clever way. You have created an extraordinary, breathtakingly honest, and often very funny celebration of his life and soul. I feel more blessed than ever to have shared a seminal chapter of my life with such a rare gift of a friend who kept me incapacitated with laughter and inspired by his presence. His infectious humor, joie d’vivre, passion, talent and spirit live on through you and this book.

Johnny touched so many lives. His life was packed with adventures and I am so grateful to have shared my most memorable ones with him. Johnny’s last film was Sailing Miss Sadie, in which we sailed to Venezuela with three young offenders from The Prince’s Trust.

https://www.bookdepository.com/Johnny-Lambe-Mona-Lambe/9780957601512

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My first skewed humor column of 2022 for RTHK Radio 3 aired Jan 25 as the final segment of the 123 Show! Featuring actor Philippe Joly, this one’s the stuff of nightmares and is called Dream On…

Links!

Dream On on RTHK Radio 3

Dream On on the 123 Show

Dream On on Apple Podcasts

Dream On on Player FM

Sharp Pains will be back on RTHK Radio 3 earlier than usual in just over a week’s time!

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We all need a good chuckle in Hong Kong at the moment! So thanks to Ian Yarrow for providing mine this morning!!! 🤣🤣🤣

In case you’re wondering, the photo is of me in costume as Wanda on the set of western film West of Thunder. I wasn’t about to pop to the shops to panic buy toilet paper or anything… 🤪

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My last Sharp Pain of 2021 broadcasted on RTHK Radio 3 Dec 30 as the first item on the 123 Show! Featuring a cameo by actor Philippe Joly, this one’s a jittery one and called Caffeine Free…

Sharp Pains is back on RTHK with its first episode of 2022 Jan 25! Meanwhile, Post Magazine has spotlighted my 3 terrifying short stories as one of its must-read features of 2021! Thanks to everybody who’s followed my skewed humor columns on RTHK Radio 3, the SCMP and recently VYP!

Links!

Caffeine Free on RTHK Radio 3

Caffeine Free on the 123 Show

Caffeine Free on Apple Podcasts

Caffeine Free on Player FM

Caffeine Free on VYP

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Double Trouble, Double Vision and Double Dutch collided today when my 3 Terrifying Short Stories about the deranged, sleep-deprived new parents of twins were published in the spectacularly festive edition of the South China Morning Post‘s Post Magazine! It was a deranged way to end a deranged year in which pumping out deranged humor columns for RTHK Radio 3, the SCMP and the odd anthology has been the only thing keeping me SANE (ish). The stories are a complete fabrication. I’ve only hijacked a plane once and I was SLEEPWALKING then so missed the fun part, only waking up for my arrest!

Thanks to editor Chris Wood, Dave Besseling and the SCMP artist who brought the stories to life with eye-catching illustrations! The magazine version was waaaaaayyyyy cooler, but you can still read the online version here: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3159075/3-terrifying-almost-true-new-parent-stories-hong

Tomorrow I’m back on recording the comedy podcast version!

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Exciting news from LA: The Depressed Comedian episode of my Mental Ideas Podcast has been officially selected by the Cinemonic Entertainment Core for their 2021 Cinemonic Podcast Festival! I explore why depression is no laughing matter (or is it?) with American cartoonist Larry Feign, best known in Hong Kong as the creator of the Lily Wong cartoon strip. The festival takes place Dec 15, 2021 at 7.30pm, LA time. Mental Ideas returns to RTHK in 2022 as a weekly strand of the 123 Show!

https://www.cinemonic.com

Cinemonic Podcast Festival 2021 Catalogue

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My latest humor column aired TODAY (Dec 2) on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show. Rolling in at an epic 12 mins, it’s my usual puerile humor but with a smidge of Christmas schmaltz thrown in. Sharp Pains will be back on RTHK with a riot of festive frivolity Dec 30!

This one’s a shiny one and called Secret Santa…

Look out for 3 of my Sharp Pains short stories in the Long Reads section of a festive edition of the SCMP‘s Post Magazine Dec 12! And catch Secret Santa on the Voice Your Passion Poetry Channel Dec 19!

Links!

Secret Santa on RTHK Radio 3

Secret Santa on the 123 Show

Secret Santa on Apple Podcasts

Secret Santa on iHeart Radio

Secret Santa on Player FM

Secret Santa on VYP

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Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their continuous support of Home Kong Kitchen! December is our busiest time of year – and we’d LOVE to have your support! We are collecting gifts for the homeless for our festive deliveries of Christmas Gift Sacks (sewn by crafty kids) for the homeless @ImpactHK and migrants in need @Bethune House Dec 16, a Christmas party with refugee kids @Refugee Union Dec 17 and will be making more door to door deliveries of home baked gingerbread, fruit and other small gifts for the elderly with Amigos HK Dec 18! We are also selling raffle tickets to support the Mission for Migrant Workers at their annual fundraising event Dec 19!

Make friends, support the homeless, sweat and swear like a refuse collector (?!) by joining our festive jamboree: hello@homekongkitchen.com!🎄 🇭🇰

https://homekongkitchen.com

Charity begins at Home Kong Kitchen!

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I took part in my first lit fest last weekend reading an excerpt from my absurdist short story Shitstorm at the 2021 Hong Kong International Literary Festival! Shitstorm is one of many short stories and poems published by the Hong Kong Writers Circle in their 2021 anthology After The Storm.

The book is now available to buy as an ebook and in paperback on Amazon, in Bookazine and (from next Friday) in my local indie bookstore, Kidnapped in Sai Kung! Even though I had a slight brain fart moment in the Q&A bit, nobody seemed to notice (Brain Fart is my default setting) and I had an absolute blast reading to a live audience, instead of to myself in a poky little studio, imagining the groans of RTHK listeners! Still not sure how I managed to poke myself in the eye with the mic though… At least that‘s never happened in the studio before.

Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their little plug of the event and to the Writers Circle for introducing me to some of the best people in Hong Kong and making it all happen! If you’d like to join our Circle, click here! And if you’d like to support the HK Lit Fest by sponsoring an event or becoming a patron, click here!

When you really don’t trust the people you’re with (or just forget to remove your mask!)

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The indie film I co-produced has just soared to over 4.3 million views on YouTube! Thanks to everybody who’s watched and supported the film’s mental health mission!

CONGRATULATIONS to co-producer, actor (and Mental Ideas ambassador) Simone Lahbib for winning Best First-Time Director and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Soho London Film Festival last night for her directing debut Swipe Right, a chilling thriller exploring the perils of mobile dating apps! 🍾 🤩 🙌

#Transference on IMDb #Contro Vento Films #1091 Pictures #Mental Ideas #Mental Health Matters

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I had a blast attending Proverse Publishing‘s Autumn Reception at the Helena May last Thursday, mixing and mingling with the winners and finalists of the 2021 Proverse Poetry Prize! Congrats to all and to Proverse for organizing such a fun event! I’m also excited to be interviewing a couple of them for my next series of Mental Ideas, which will broadcast in 2022. S2 explores the relationship between mental health and imagination in a psychedelic way! First up is the incredible Vishal Nanda, who blew me away with his lively speech and inspired poetry book Please Stand Back From The Platform Door. Vishal is a fellow ‘bipolar bear’ (as he signed his book to me), but I’m certain that’s the least interesting thing about him. He is donating ticket sales from his upcoming book launch on Dec 8 to mental health charity Mind. Don’t miss it!!!

https://mentalideas.org/2021/11/15/proverse-autumn-reception-nov-18/

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My latest humor column for RTHK Radio 3 aired Oct 28 – 48 hours later than usual, thanks to Noz spacing out (her words, not mine, as I’m in no position to call anyone out for being ‘spacey’). This means Sharp Pains will be back 48 hours sooner in November!

This one’s a scratchy one and called Cats… It’s relatively inoffensive (apart from to Cat People obvs).

Links!

Cats on RTHK Radio 3

Cats on the 123 Show

Cats on Apple Podcasts

Cats on iHeart Radio

Cats on Player FM

Angry Cat Sharp Pains Listeners

Cats in Hong Kong Buzz!

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Catch me reading an excerpt from my short story Shitstorm in the Hong Kong Writers Circle‘s 2021 anthology After The Storm at a Hong Kong International Literary Festival event at the Hong Kong Fringe Club Nov 12! Admission is free, but you do have to book as space is limited. The anthology will be published the same day or shortly after (definitely in time for Christmas!) and available to buy from booksellers, including Bookazine and Amazon. Bring on the festive fun! (Halloween feels more of a trick than a treat now you have to wear two masks!!)

Clearly the person who wrote this had not read Shitstorm. 🤣
After The Storm: The 17th Anthology by the Hong Kong Writer’s Circle

https://www.tickets.festival.org.hk

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I received an unexpected early Christmas present this week! The South China Morning Post will be publishing THREE of my humorous short stories in the Long Reads section of the festive edition of Post Magazine Dec 12th! 🙌

I originally posted that the stories were inspired by Sharp Pains before remembering that it was actually the other way round! Whatever… Sharp Pains is back on RTHK Radio 3 next Tuesday (Oct 25) with brand new episode, Cats (a yowler!) …

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Transference keeps on keeping on surpassing mental milestones: the indie feature film I helped co-produce (through Mental Ideas) is fast approaching 3.7M views on YouTube! Thanks to everyone who has watched and supported it! Had we charged a cent a view, we’d have actually broken even! But of course the film’s purpose was to raise awareness of important mental health issues, not to make money (as I continue to console Raff…🤣 🤣 🤣)

Can’t WAIT to see Raff‘s latest ingenious film Little Boxes, shot entirely on Zoom in lockdown! It’s racking up an impressive array of awards nominations, despite still being in post-production! Congrats Raff, producers Lee Boardman (my old flatmate in London billions of light years ago!), his gorgeous wife Jennifer James and the talented group of actors they train and mentor at their Manchester-based acting school/ company Actor Tribe who star in the film!

I’m hoping to catch up with Raff and Lee for a chat (on Zoom – ironically…) about the film on S2 of Mental Ideas on RTHK Radio 3! You can watch Lee playing Arron Banks in Brexit: An Uncivil War on HBO in Hong Kong now!

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Staycationers take note: you don’t need to travel to plan a trip. Why not torture your ears with my psychedelic poem instead? War of Voices has just landed on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel! Thanks to wordsmith extraordinaire Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy for the kind introduction and for inviting me to read! His latest poetry book, Unappeasable Ghosts, is a precious gem and I can’t WAIT to interview him on S2 of Mental Ideas soon! The new series explores the mercurial relationship between mental health and imagination.

You can listen to me reading War of Voices for VYP below and buy the poetry anthology in which the poem was first published here! All the other poets on the channel are phenomenal so please don’t forget to subscribe!!! And if poetry’s not your vibe, Sharp Pains will be debuting on VYP from Nov 18 in weekly episodes! That should sufficiently lower the tone! 🤣

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I went Trick or Treating last Saturday delivering delicious home baked muffins to the elderly in a square in Kwun Tong and at their homes close by! The muffins were baked by Home Kong Kitchen‘s resident patissier, Alana Ho, and our most prolific home baker Chriz Abert! Thanks to my friends at Amigos HK who arranged this sweet treat! The trick part was that elderlies who’d been vaccinated received an extremely cheeky complimentary poodle! 😂

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Episode 13 of my highbrow humor column Sharp Pains broadcasted on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Sept 28 @2.30pm HKT! Guest hosted by the relentlessly chipper Todd Harding, standing in for Noz, this one’s a windy one and called Pajama Farty…

Links!

Pajama Farty on RTHK

Pajama Farty on the 123 Show

Pajama Farty on Apple Podcasts

Pajama Farty on iHeart Radio

Pajama Farty on Player FM

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War of Voices will be on the Voice Your Passion poetry channel on YouTube Oct 18! Thanks to Dr. Ahmed Elbeshlawy for inviting me to read and for sending me his latest poetry book, Unappeasable Ghosts. Looking forward to interviewing Ahmed on S2 of Mental Ideas soon, which is shaping up to be a cracker with a stellar line-up of guests! This time the focus is on the mercurial, symbiotic relationship between mental health and imagination.

You can listen to me reading War of Voices for VYP below and buy the poetry anthology in which the poem was first published here!

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Home Kong Kitchen has been creating a difference for Hong Kong’s homeless collecting items you would find in a wash bag for a special Mid-Autumn delivery to ImpactHK! The project was inspired by a chat with Impact founder Jeff Rotmeyer who lamented that although HK provides excellent public showers, they don’t provide basic amenities like soap and shampoo. Thanks to HKK’s incredibly generous community, we collected enough amenities to fill over 100 bags!

The wash bags were designed and sewn using recycled cotton by a team of 7-16 year olds spearheaded by my aspiring costume designer 15yo niece, Mia Shroff! 🙏 Check out some of their incredible designs below! Thanks to fashion designer Evgeniya Menassa for providing guidance and allowing kids who don’t have access to sewing machines at home to create the bags using her facilities. Guess who we’ll be inviting to create this year’s Christmas Gift Socks? (Yes, I am already thinking about Christmas!!!) 😂 🎄 🧦 ✨

This was a stunning team effort by Homekongers aged 7-70! Thanks to all who contributed to our cutest project yet! 💜 💜 💜

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My latest skewed humor column aired Aug 31 @ 2.30 HKT on RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show, where smooth-talker James Ross was filling in for the legendary Noreen Mir. Get well soon, Noz!!! 💜

This one’s a hairy one and called Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow…

Links!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on RTHK

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on the 123 Show

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on Apple Podcasts

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on iHeart Radio

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow on Player FM

Sharp Pains will be back on RTHK Radio 3 in September! Follow me in the SCMP for more hair-raising humor!

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Something magical happened to me today that illustrates that magic is real and all around us. I received an email from a former fellow inmate at the Priory Lunatic Asylum in Bristol, where I graduated with a First in bipolar disorder in 2011. He was an addict and I gave him my lucky token with Carpe Diem engraved on it because it seemed to me (rightly or wrongly because I was very manic) that he had an even bigger mountain to climb than I did. The token was given to me by a friend and mentor who passed away from an aneurysm some years ago. But his magic lives on because he gave it to me and I gave it to another who gave it to others. We all have magic but it only really works if you share it with others. Never forget that you are magic and to pay it forward with a simple act of kindness. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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When the Government suddenly lowered the age range to offer free COVID vaccine jabs to anybody over 30 – which you’ll be surprised to learn I marginally surpassed – I felt like I’d just been handed a Golden Ticket for Willy Wonka’s Vaccine Factory! This was like chocolate, only better.

The process was amazingly slick. Smiling staff greeted me and walked me through each step of the journey. I got given free stickers, a pen, a keepsake souvenir brochure reminding me of my big day out and a lollypop for being particularly brave.

You can’t tell cuz I look like an alien bug but I’m really smiling here!

So Brave!

But my little bubble of bliss barely lasted 20 seconds. As I walked out, the crowd had turned inexplicably angry. I asked a harassed security guard what the problem was and he informed me that the vaccine I had received seconds earlier had been “permanently suspended for safety reasons”.

My stomach lurched, my heartbeat quickened, my vaccinated arm felt like it belonged to somebody else. 5 seconds ago I’d been in WonkaLand, finally having a decent day out worthy of the portmanteau ‘staycation’. Now I was going to have to spend the evening sawing my own arm off to prevent the rancid vaccine from spreading.

I checked my phone for a reassuring explanation, but the only advice I could find online was a vague appeal for calm by Hong Kong’s Chief Medical Officer urging recently vaccinated people “not to panic overly”. I was panicking alright. But I could not tell if I was panicking overly, underly, or just right for the situation.

It wasn’t until I was speed-walking home that explanations about cracked vials, faulty packaging and vaccines being stored at the wrong air pressure emerged in an avalanche of news alerts sent to my phone. As I trawled through them, the slight discomfort in my vaccinated arm was suddenly cancelled out by the primal face ache caused by a nose cracking, as mine made impact with a rogue lamppost.

I’d like to say the lamppost came out of our tussle worse off than I did and ended up looking something like this …

… Unfortunately, this is just a diagram of my sinuses.

Anyway, it turns out the vac was only suspended through an abundance of caution. I received my second jab today. As she jammed the needle in my arm, the nurse asked if I’d experienced any unpleasant side-effects from the first jab. “Only a broken nose,” I nasally assured her.

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Can’t believe I’m writing this… RIP Reuben M Tuck! Truly one of the funniest, whip smart, joyous, down to earth (while never quite of this earth) and loveliest people on the planet. The undisputed star of my 2015 Bipolar Express doc and someone I had known since I was 18 (and he led me astray – or it might have been the other way round). He died peacefully at home in Thailand but was only 58. Absolutely heartbroken for his wife Normandy, his family and all those who loved him. FU 2020. RIP Rueb❤️ XX

You can hear Reuben talking about his bipolar with his trademark charisma, candor, humor and wisdom here: 

https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/bipolar_express

He was an absolute gift of a guest and it was down to him that the doc did so well, picking up an award from RTHK in 2016 and being Highly Commended by the Association for International Broadcasting in 2015.

Blurred Lives: Me, Bill Sheehan & Reuben M

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So… a white American teacher in his mid-50s has been exposed by super-sleuth Nury Vittachi, Hong Kong’s answer to Danger Mouse, for posing as a young Chinese activist all over the world’s media, writing prolifically about his experiences as a student leader in the Hong Kong Protests for the New York Times and the Guardian, winning praise from ex-guv Chris Patten, being followed on Twitter by Joshua Wong and Nathan Law and writing several books about his experiences as a younger, better looking Chinese dude.

I myself have occasionally dabbled in the murky world of pseudonyms. My legal name is obviously Miss Adventure, but if I want to write, produce or present something that’s really sh*t, I will invariably use the pseudonym Sadie Kaye. The tragic thing is that Sadie Kaye, unlike Kong Tsung-gan, is a real person. Real as in really, really thick. It’s been 8 years and she hasn’t even noticed all the phony baloney I’ve been putting out as her. Also we both look quite similar because we were both born in a lighthouse on an artificial island 5 miles off the coast of Sai Kung, which makes my identity theft more legitimate somehow.

But this article does throw up some uncomfortable moral dilemmas. Who is the man in the profile picture? And does it count as yellow face if the picture is in black and white?

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3097523/hong-kong-activist-writer-kong-tsung-gan-confirms-thats-only

Kong Tsung-gan

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A last chance to appreciate the very great honor of having been ranked #1 for Comedy in Hong Kong by ReverbNation for the past 5 years.

ranked-1-for-comedy-on-reverbnation-1.jpeg

Maybe it was my bipolar that caused me to do it? Maybe it was the mood of collective irresponsibility that’s been sweeping Hong Kong? But I did it anyway. After receiving one (of nineteen) too many daily emails inviting me to pay USD$92 to submit my ‘music’ to the Online Farmsounds Music Festival, I snapped and deleted my ReverbNation account.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” ReverbNation counseled me. “Yes”

“Do you understand that if you do this, you won’t be able to recover your account?” ReverbNation cautioned me. “Yes”

“Do you understand that if you do this, all your stats, ratings and links will automatically expire?” ReverbNation warned me. “Yes”

“Did you know that you are ranked #1 for Comedy in Hong Kong?” ReverbNation changed tack, clearly alarmed by my unwavering determination to commit social media suicide. “Yes”

“Have you remembered to take your meds today?” ReverbNation reverted to doom-mongering concern. “Yes. Yes! YES!!!” I tapped manically.

It was only after purging my mac of every notification I had ever received from ReverbNation that I discovered I had also deleted 14,498 faithful followers: exciting, contemporary bands with names like #BatShitMetalFreak and #IPlayTunesOnSpoons. I wondered what they were doing. Probably applying to the Online Farmsounds Music Festival, I decided. Feeling inexplicably left out, I googled the Online Farmsounds Music Festival. They were only interested in country music. I didn’t much rate #BatShitMetalFreak’s or #IPlayTunesOnSpoons’ chances. Maybe it was worth paying the USD$92 to see if they fancied a Hong Kong horoscope?

14,498 faithful followers deleted. I felt a flicker of self-doubt. Had I remembered to take my meds today? I doubted that, too. At least I still had my Soundcloud fanbase. I logged into Soundcloud. 22 unfaithful followers stared back at me. 4 friends, 1 ex-stalker, 1 ex-mother-in-law, 14 randoms, my psychiatrist and The Dog.

To add pain to my punishment, I then had to manually delete 11,000 (out of 11,001) thrilling tweets automatically generated by ReverbNation documenting my historical radio slots, then every post I had ever not posted myself on the Miss Adventure Facebook Page, which was all of them.

Looking at my empty social media profiles, my index finger throbbing and badly deformed by repetitive strain injury, I felt naked, exposed, vulnerable. Out of morbid curiosity, I checked how many other comedy producers I’d out-ranked on ReverbNation for the past 5 years were based in Hong Kong. There was only one: SadiK aye, who’d never uploaded anything and couldn’t even be bothered to spell her own name, but ReverbNation had outrageously credited as “Lead Vocalist – Miss Adventure Band”.

10 minutes and 3 mood swings later, I felt a deep sense of peace.

Reverbnation-logo

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For anybody interested in knowing what bipolar feels like, this photo of Elvis and his entourage encapsulates it better than any words I have ever read! 🤣🤣🤣

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Really inspired attending HKU’s Bipolar Ambition Exhibition last week featuring the work of two Bipolar Hong Kong and Mental Ideas artists – the super-talented Coby Legans and Juliana Kung!!! Coby has been one of Bipolar HK’s longest and most giving members, although we did recently lose her to Perth, Australia, where she’s training to be a mental health counsellor, and Juliana has shared her artwork with Mental Ideas and designed Home Kong Kitchen‘s stunning emblem!

It takes a lot of courage putting yourself out there as a bipolar artist in order to raise awareness and fight the stigma associated with the condition and so hats off to Coby, Juliana, and all the other incredible artists who exhibited their artwork, some of whom we were lucky enough to hang out with! The sky at HKU was almost as memorable as the artwork, too, just as a typhoon came rolling in…

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Home Kong Kitchen is TWO YEARS OLD!!! That’s two whole years of flour bombing, bread lugging, hand sanitising, mask (s)wearing, restriction dodging, loophole sleuthing and priceless moments shared with HKK volunteers and the beautiful humans we help out! Thanks for the memories, Homekongers! Here’s to many more birthdays to come! 🥳