Macau

Vivian and I brought Euterpe to Macau for a short trip recently - it was the birthday of my daughter.

We stayed in a casino hotel and did no sight-seeing. In essence, there was nothing for this holiday but a series of eating out in local restaurants, with some short walks filling up the gap. We went with my mother, who was actually born and brought up in Macau. To my surprise, she had tried none of the restaurants that we had in that two days.

"That's easily explained," my mother said, "First, my family was heavily in debt and we could not afford dining out. Secondly, the places are nice but mostly for tourists."

She was entirely right. In fact, although I considered myself a part-time gourmet and am willing to pay for good food, I've not tried most of the Hong Kong restaurants in the recommendation list for tourists (say, by those traveling web sites), or local places that get a Michelin star.

Maybe I'm getting presbyopia and forget to pay slightly more attention to good things around.