Lost in Hong Kong

I recently returned from a family vacation in Hong Kong and China. Having spent the last year immersed in LOST, it was a bit of a shock to the system to suddenly be without. Our Cathay Pacific flight offered a selection of season 6 episodes, and I did see a preview for a season 6 episode on TV while eating dim sum in Hong Kong, but other than that there was absolutely no official LOST to be had during the trip. With a bit of perseverance I was able to get my LOST fix, however, starting with...

...The Numbers. Our first week in Hong Kong we stayed in room 1521 of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. My wife's organization held a dinner one night and we ended up at table 23.

We took a side trip to Beijing. Here we are waiting at our gate, gate 16.

We stayed at the Beijng Regent hotel. (Highly recommended, by the way.) Naturally we were again on the 15th floor, this time in room 1515.

Our first dinner in Beijing was hot pot at a restaurant in a nearby mall. At table 23.

After eating Chinese food for a couple of weeks (including several huge multi-course meals with relatives), the kids and I tried a Pizza Hut in Beijing. We were seated at table 48.

Look familiar?

We saw workers building the Orchid station in Hong Kong.

And we found that counterfeit DHARMA confectionery products are very popular with Hong Kong residents.

My kids were ecstatic when they found the cable leading to the Looking Glass station.

Perhaps the first LOST spin-off? I should fact-check this with Daniel Dae Kim.

Speaking of Jin, we also found some of the oversized palm fronds that he drank from while time traveling in season 5.

We also found these signs strewn across Hong Kong's Cheung Chau island. I didn't have time otherwise I would have followed them to see if she and Jorge were hanging out there.

We spotted many banyan trees on our trip as well. Here are a few of them.

So, despite the three-week interruption of our re-watch, we still managed to get our LOST fix abroad.

UPDATE: I tweeted the "Jin's Island" pic to Daniel Dae Kim, and the "Bethany" pic to Ms. Shady and both seemed to enjoy them:

DrMikey's 'Locke in Black'

The second DrMikey print I purchased during his LOST-6-year-anniversary event is the amazing Locke in Black.

DrMikey's 'Progress'

DrMikey recently held a sale on his LOST prints to celebrate the 6-year anniversary of the LOST premiere (and the fictional Oceanic 815 crash). I used this opportunity to pick up a couple of his posters that I have had my eye on for some time. The first of these is a depiction of the arrival of the Black Rock to The Island, with Jacob, his brother, and the 4-toed Taweret statue waiting by the shore. The Numbers also make an appearance.

DHARMA drop

My LOSTie pal Bonnie (@andalone on Twitter) recently sent me a "DHARMA drop" (apparently Ben hasn't paid her a visit yet) which included the items below. Thanks Bonnie!

Ajira Airways stickers

DHARMA swan station tattoos

Postcard featuring artwork by John Hopkins

Medicom Jack Shephard 12"

Medicom put out a 12" Jack Shephard figure in 2008 as part of their Real Action Heroes line. I monitored eBay for a few months until I finally found one offered at a decent price.

I "customized" the figure by adjusting the tie such that it looked to be blown by a brisk wind.


You can get some nice angles with the figure, especially in conjunction with a bit of mood lighting.


Kate really knows how to get into Jack's head.

The jacket isn't particularly well made, but it sports a rip in one sleeve as shown in the pilot.

Take away my pain on the road to Ottawa

While driving around town recently I noticed a familiar silhouette on the road behind me. I quickly passed a camera to my daughter in the back seat and she snapped a pic. Hurley, dude, an orange paint job isn't enough to fool me. Why are you following us, dude? Is there another job opening on the island. 'Cause that would be awesome.

Knot Locke

One of my favourite items in my LOST collection is this knitted John Locke figure produced by the wife of a British LOST uber-fan in a very limited edition of 10.

Locke's sheathed knife is at his side.

I have #6 of 10.

A bonus figure is included in the package -- the Smoke Monster. Beautiful!


And to top it off, 5 pounds of chocolate. Or is that 5 shillings of chocolate?

A Visit to Dominic's Film Set

As fate would have it, Dominic Monaghan is here in my home town of Ottawa, Ontario for a few weeks to shoot a movie called The Day. He has been spotted at several well-known Ottawa locations over the past week including Algonquin College and the University of Ottawa (where he held Q&A sessions with students), the National Arts Centre (where he attended a performance of Romeo & Juliet), the Rideau Center shopping mall, a downtown pub, and various restaurants.

This weekend I received a tip that a film crew had closed down a road in the small town of Vars, which is about 20 minutes from my home. Given that film shoots in Ottawa are quite rare, I threw a few LOST items (including Charlie's pants) into my car and drove there with my daughter to check out the situation. Despite the clouds and rain, this was an opportunity I didn't want to miss.

Although there was indeed a film shooting in Vars, it was not The Day. It was instead a film called La Sacrée, touted as the very first Franco-Ontarian comedy. Coincidentally (and I love this coincidence given LOST's propensity for overloading names) the director of the film is also named Dominic -- Dominic Desjardins.

Although slightly disappointed to miss Dom M, I had the good fortune to speak with a local resident whose home was used to shoot several scenes of the movie. She mentioned that the house had in another life been a branch of the Royal Bank, with the bank on the ground floor and the bank manager living directly above it on the second floor. Here's the fun part -- my Father had also been a bank manager and our family lived directly above the bank that he managed. Crazy, huh?

So, although my quest to meet Dominic Monaghan continues, I did get to visit a location shoot and had a very nice conversation in the process. I've included some pics from the visit below.

For more about the film check out La Sacrée's Facebook Page

The stretch of road on which they were filming was closed off.

A couple of rental trucks and several cast and crew cars lined the road.

The filming location.

The bank manager lived directly above the bank, and even had a concealed peephole in his floor through which he had a direct view of the bank's safe. It's a little hard to see here, but this is a view of the 2nd-storey floor, with the bank safe's door below. (The safe is still in place and the current owner uses it as a pantry.)

Fro Design LOST package

Fro Design has issued quite a few LOST prints over the last year. I decided to pick up their LOST package of twelve 11x17 posters. I particularly like the first four prints below.