HongKong-20090831

It’s the last day of our tour.

We decided to pack our things ready, check-out, and then dumped our luggage with the bell service, and then went off for the rest of the day until time for airport.

We went again to Causeway Bay, because my Karinna wants to eat some food there. We ended up at a porridge stall, the same one we went the last time we were here in HK. The food there is good actually, and they have this chee cheong fun with you char kueh in it.

After our brunch, we walked around the shopping centres there before making our way to The Peak.
Took the train to Central station, walked to the tram station.
Was a little surprised that there are charges now for the tram ride. My memory seems to remember that the tram rides up to the peak were free.
Maybe times have changes, and they want to make more profit from it.
Since we were there already, we just went ahead with it.
I guess maybe it's the afternoon time that we were there, the view was not particular great. Still nice, but without the night lights.
With night lights and cool breeze, it's normally better.
Also, the city was somehow a little more hazy than we expected, so there are parts that were sort of 'blurry'.

We took the tram down just before 3pm. From there, walked towards Lan Kwai Fong, and to this street called Wellington Street.
Why? Food! :P

Walked to this place called Mak's Restaurant, which supposedly serve very nice Won Ton Noodle. We ordered 1 won ton mee, and 1 shrimp dumpling noodle. At the end of our meal, we ordered another dish, which is the tender beef meat and tendon.
Wow! The beef is delicious!

With the meal, we went back to our hotel to take our luggage. Dragged our luggage to take the free shuttle to Kowloon station, and then bought the train ticket to the Airport.

HongKong-20090830

It was raining in the morning, and then drizzle as well. When it stopped, the sun started shining bright, and in a short while, there seemed to be no trace of any rain on the floor!
By the time we got out of our hotel at about 9am, the roads were like dry!
This morning, we decided to go to Lantau Island, to the Po Lin Monastry to eat vegetarian meal.

We took the MTR there. This time, there were some new lines around HK, and we went to this Austin station, which is a shorter route to change to the MTR that brings us to Tung Chung. Tung Chung is last stop in Lantau Island, and the place to go to Po Lin Monastry.
We were hoping to catch the newer cable car transport, but it was not in operation today, probably due to some maintenance. So with such luck, we had to resort to the traditional bus, which will drive around the mountains, and up towards the Monastry.
Of course, we bought the ticket for the vegetarian meal. 2 of us, we had 1 big bowl of soup, 4 different dishes, and another big pot of rice. Of course we never finish the rice lah, not crazy ok! :P

There seemed to be a lot of changes at Po Lin Monastry, and they are enhancing more parts of the place there. And with the cable car, there is a new place shopping place up there. On the whole, it is quite a nice place to pass your time doing nothing much there.

Resting is the key.
We left the place after that, walked around the shopping place at Tung Chung MTR station. It’s a place where it’s full of special outlets of different brands. There’s Coach, Burberry, Espirit, just to name a few.

Then took the train back to Jordan. Bought some stuff for my mother-in-law before going back to hotel to rest for a while. Think somehow our legs were tired quite easily, took lots of rest here and there before moving to next place. Hehehe
Symptoms of older age? :P

Back at the hotel, hitching onto the free wireless government internet. However, the reception for it is pretty poor, don’t get to have a smooth access most of the time, and it tends to lose connection quite often as well.
As long as it allows me to do some blogging, still ok lah.
Nowadays, I am used to typing my blog content in a text file first, so that it’s easier to cut-and-paste to do the entry. Hehehe

After Karinna took her nap, we went out for our dinner. Went to Mong Kok this time, and just popped into a traditional HK restaurant. Karinna wanted to eat roasted goose drumstick, so ordered one. I just had an ordinary double meat rice, which consists of roasted pork and chicken.

After that, it’s just strolling around the place before going back to hotel.
Weather is very hot, so staying in the hotel is not too bad an idea.

Tonight is the last night in HK. Tomorrow will be going back to Singapore, and life will be back to normal again.

HongKong-20090829

Although didn’t want to wake up early, but somehow, we still woke up like 7+am.

Took our breakfast at a nearby food stall. Not nice. Karinna had porridge, and I took Won Ton Mee.
The only saving grace is the won ton, like most of the won tons we had in HK before, pretty good.

We went to the MTR station, took the train to Admiralty station. I remember we took a bus from that location to Stanley Market before. This time, when we came out of the station, the previous interchange which I remembered is no longer the same. More buses go from there to Ocean Park.
Asked a local before we found the bus stop. Took bus number 6X, and it went pass Repulse Bay before reaching Stanley. The only think we remember about Stanley, is that the last time that we went there, it was like ‘closed’. Damn suay.

This time, we’re lucky. It’s an alive and kicking place. Weather was very hot though. Was contemplating whether to have our lunch there, then we decided no. We’ll go to some place which Karinna printed out for “Typhoon Shelter Crab” at Causeway Bay.
We took bus number 6 back, which is the non-express version. It took a longer route, and went through the winding place in that area. We both also fell asleep along the way.

Managed to wake up from the snooze around Wan Chai, then took the MTR to Causeway Bay.
Found the place, and we ordered the crab, and Crab Oil Fried Noodle. The crab is pretty spicy, and we only ordered the ‘medium spicy’ version. We think the food is over-rated, but it’s interesting to try another way of crab cooking.

After our lunch, walked around Sogo, then decided to go back hotel to rest. Don’t know why, both of us were tired. Actually, it’s more of legs aching rather than tired. Maybe the other day walked too much, then the pain slowly appearing. Hahaha

Took a nap, bought dinner, then simply waste time away in hotel room. Enjoying the interesting view from our hotel room. :)

Macau/HongKong-20090828

This morning, we went to Senado Square again. No special reason, just no idea where else to go. hehehe
And, another reason to go there is to buy some food products back home. Some sort of almond biscuits, and it's actuall quite nice.

While we were there, we had our breakfast at McDonald. Yes. You read it right. McDonald!
Apparently, lots of old folks have their breakfast there as well. They had this soup macaroni meal, that comes along with a beef pattie and coffee. All these for about S$4.00. We had one of those for Karinna, and I took the big breakfast meal, also about S$4.00

Then we went back to our hotel. Did a final pack-up, and just leave it ready to take-and-go. Then we went down to our hotel's small casino to look around and play a bit. Played some jackpot before we checked out of the place.
Of course, didn't win, but spent less than S$10.00 to pass time for about an hour. Not bad.

Then we took the shuttle to the ferry terminal, bought the tickets to HK, and proceeded to the departure gate. Somehow, we were 'rushed' to the ferry although we're 1/2 hr early for our ferry.
Guess what, they 'rushed' us into the 1330hrs ferry when we'd booked for the 1400hrs ferry. Sigh.
OK. Still manageable, just didn't want Karinna to be too tired from all these rushing.

Actually, our HK hotel is very near the ferry terminal, probably about 5 mins walk. But we still took a taxi from there, because of our luggage, and lazy to walk with bulky items around.
Checked into the hotel.
B P International.
WOW. I think we had an upgrade for the room as well. I didn't book for Garden or Harbour view, but our room an a lookout to the harbour, and the garden is just right out of our window!

HK hotels are known to be small, so ours is also pretty small. Nothing comparable in size to the one at Macau.

We just walked around the place. Temple street is just 2 streets away. More importantly, went to the MTR to see how we can work out our transportation for the next 3 days. We decided to use the normal card, and then claim back the deposit/balance when we're back to the airport.

Then walked around again, but Karinna felt tired already.
So just made our way back to the hotel for an earlier rest.

Macau-20090827

It was quite a tiring day for us yesterday, so we both had a good night sleep, and waking up fresh. :)

First, we just visited the hotel's casino. Very small one, and we took a little of the food available there as our breakfast.

First, we went to Lisboa. Pretty nice deco.
I wasn't lucky. My shoes disintegrated, and Karinna laughed so hard until she teared.
ka na sai right? hehehe
Just loitered around the place for a while before we head out to our next destination.

Then we headed our way to Hac Sa, which is right at bottom of the whole Macau.
Took bus again, fun!
Went there to eat actually. Some famous Portuguese food there appeared on some of the Macau guidebook.
We reached there at around 12 noon, the place wasn't opened yet, and there's a queue waiting for its opening ceremony. Feels like a nice food place.

We ordered quite a bit.

The food is simply yummilicious!

Then we took bus back to Lisboa area. Wynn and MGM Grand are also around that place.
We walked around Wynn and MGM. Very nice places.

Then we decided to go back and rest for a while, and let me changed to my sandals.
Moving around with disintegrated shoes is not really an enjoyable thing.

Our next stop, Venetian.
Took the free shuttle there.
It's really grand, and played a bit of jackpot there too.
The theme and deco is somewhat similar to that in Las Vegas. They also have the same gondola thing in Macau. And the same fake sky.

We left around 8+/9, hop onto the shuttle to Sands, another of the iconic ones to visit.
Just as huge! They have like 4 levels of casino! Crazy!
And it's crowded as well.
There was some live-singing show when we were there.

We left around 10+pm. Karinna was tired already, so need to rest.

Well, that almost bring the end of Macau trip itself for us.
Hong Kong, wait for me. Tomorrow.

Macau-20090826

Yesterday wanted to put an entry in the blog, but somehow, the 'Error on page' problem appeared again.

I'm not bothered to make effort to eliminate that problem, just live with it first.

Today, woke up damn early at 3am. Our flight to Hong Kong is at 6.40am, and as a practice, better be at airport 2hours before flight time. So must wake up early to make sure don't miss the flight. :P

We reached HK about 1020hrs, and realised there's a ferry transfer service from the airport to Macau directly.
Cool!
This way, we saved the trip to HK Kowloon, then take the ferry from there to Macau.

Only thing is that, the next ferry time slot is at 1245hrs. Not so bad lah, by the time take the express train to the city, then to Macau, probably will also result in about the same time.

We reached Macau at 1.30pm. Managed to catch the free shuttle service from the ferry terminal to our designated hotel.
Casa Real Hotel.
And we got a free upgrade to Deluxe room. I like. No. We like. :)

Room was not exactly ready then, so we put our luggage at their storage, and headed towards Senado Square.
We took a bus there. Kinda fun to take bus in foreign land.

From Senado Square, the main thing for me is to see that Ruins of St Paul.
Pretty interesting walk towards the place.

Some pictures here taken today.

Then we decided to take another trail walk as recommended by some books.
Thus, we walked back to Senado Square, and made our way to Ah-Ma Temple.
This was a much longer walk, and walk until we damn tired.

The walk is pretty interesting as well, mixture of buildings of Chinese and possibly Portugal flavour.
Walked for almost half an hour or so, and finally reached the temple.

Karinna said there is supposed to be some huge Guan-Yin statue on top, so we climbed up.
Climb and climb and climb, until cannot go up anymore.
No statue leh. hehehe
Gave up, then just walked down and looked around.

Took another bus back, actually, more like anyhow take bus, which brought us back to ferry terminal again.
Then it's free shuttle back to hotel. :)

Ate around the hotel area, as we both quite tired from the walk, as well as lack of sleep. :P

Great to have internet access, thus, this little entry.

Prose88 - 小孩

小孩


我们的生活不同了
我们的忧虑不见了
因为你已经出现了

我们的屋子变小了
我们的世界变大了
因为你就快来临了

妈妈的眼睛 爸爸的鼻子 你都有了吗？
妈妈的神韵 爸爸的秀气 你都要了吧！
妈妈的善良 爸爸的风趣 你都尽管拿！

看到了你的小生命
我们的笑容有生气

看到了你的小身影
我们的思绪会稳定

听到了你的小心铃
我们的生活有意义

小孩啊小孩
我们等着你


21 August 2009

The Ba-Zhang Story

I was very angry today. At least in the morning.

My mom called me around 10+, complaining to me that my father didn't bother to help her.
Story is, she had to do something at a cruise, which she had asked a friend to go with her. That friend apparently needed to go as well.
Otherwise, they will be fined for not being there. Don't ask why on this. :P

This friend, mends a stall that sells ba-zhang or something, at don't know what place also. So in order to get her to go, my mom volunteered my father to go and mend the stall.
erh... hello?!??! crazy idea, as my dad is old, and not suitable to do such things.

Anyway, my father went, and somehow, after some talking with the friend, he said he was asked to go home.

So my mom got angry, said my father put her in a lurch, and make her lose face, and blahblahblahblahblahblah. My ears cannot tahan also.
She wanted me to persuade my father to stay there to help.
Actually, don't think my parents listen to me, but they always think they the other party listens to me!

OK OK!
Called my father, and he like nonchalant about the whole thing, and going back home.

Then my mother called. Complain complain complain! And like want to 杀人放火 like that. To appease her, I even said I go and mend the stall!!!
Wah piang! Terok right?!?!?!?
sio-ba-zhang! ahhh! sio-ba-zhang!!! buey sio-ba-zhang!

In the end, the old man still went home, the old woman cried complaining.
I had to call my sister to call the old woman to appease her a bit as well.

The whole episode is a joke.
1. My mother shouldn't volunteered my father. He's never been helpful anyway.
2. My father is old and weak, mending a stall will probably make him more 气喘.
3. My father should not have gone there in the first place. Go already and don't help is really a pain in the ass. Make things worse.
4. And why that lady has no other friend to help her? Damn!

In the end, to make sure things are ok, I drove back to check on my mother. By the time I reached there, she had left for the ferry.

Then I wanted to make my way to my father, but damn heng!
My car battery died on me!
Cannot start my car, and stucked at the place for half an hour before help came along. Sigh.
When you're suay, it doesn't come just once!
@#!%^$^&$%@#$^&$^%&*(^&$%#@$%#&^%

When my car was revived, just went to make sure things at my father side still ok.
In the end, he's not home yet when I reached there.

A totally wasted trip, but at least things appear to be normal.
Good.

Well, I guess this won't be the last. :P
Sigh
It's true that old people are like kids ... ... ...

BabyTay

26 June 2009
On the day before, 25 June, Karinna did a “Clearblue” test. Result was positive. Very excited.

Went to see Mr Chan on 26th June, the Chinese physician at Marine Parade.
He more or less hinted the positive pregnancy for Karinna, and prescribe some medical herbs that is good for the foetus.

02 July 2009
Went to Thomson Medical Centre to see Dr TC Chang.
Karinna sourced him from the website, somehow.
After telling him the possibility of pregnancy, and giving him some details of Karinna’s condition (she just did a medical checkup very recently), the doctor did an ultrascan.
Yahoo!
We saw the little egg in there!
It’s about 11mm by 9mm in size.

And it’s about 5½ weeks by estimation so far. A more accurate estimation is possible at the next visit, which is 2 weeks from now!
C@@L!
It’s very exciting, to know a little Simon/Karinna is coming along soon!

10 July 2009
Have been thinking a little about the names for the baby. Need to prepare 2 names, 1 for a boy, another for a girl, so whichever gender it is, the name can be ready! Cool huh!?!

13 July 2009
Booked air tickets for Hong Kong from 26 Aug to 31 Aug, which covers Karinna’s birthday as well. According to Karinna, travelling is ok during trimester 2, so that time should be ok for her.
After that, it should basically be waiting for the baby to arrive, the Little Tay.
Anyway, planning to stay 2 nights in Macau and 3 nights in Hong Kong. Have to start booking for the hotel accommodation too.

16 July 2009
Today is the second time we see Dr Chang.
Again, a scan was done to see the baby. The baby has grown, it’s about 1.27cm today!
More interestingly, today is to check the heartbeat for the baby. We thought we would be ‘hearing’ the heartbeat, but no, we were SEEING the heartbeat. Cool huh!
So the baby has grown to a size that is expected by the gynaecologist, and the current EDD is like 28 Feb 2010!
So we are happy to hear that!

08 Aug 2009
Went to see our Head of Fertility, just to be a little kiasu, to hear from our benefactor himself.
Again, it’s all good, and he prescribed some herbs to be boiled around the 13-14th week.

13 Aug 2009
Today is the 3rd appointment date with Dr Chang.
As usual, ultrascan is done, and it’s about 4.95cm now!
Interestingly, can see his nasal bone, and this time can hear his heartbeat! Think it was beating at 159/min!
No horse run man!

I know the video is kinda boring to all, but to me, it is a different story. :)
A few more pictures, courtesy of the clinic. Paid of course! :P



Then with this visit, there’s a test to be done for Down Syndrome.
The physical check reveals a good chance for normality. A test blood was also done to have a more affirmative result, which shall be known by tomorrow.
All the readings were showing along the normal zone, so everything is good again. Yeah yeah yeah!

14 Aug 2009
The clinic didn't call to tell us the result. We called back but was told not out yet. Rather, doctor hasn't seen it yet. How interesting. Nevermind. Wait.

In the end, they called.
All is good.
YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Botanic Gardens

This morning, we went to Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Met up with Karinna's colleague Matthew and his wife and his little girl, and his niece, sister-in-law and mother-in-law. Big group hor. :P

Mainly to let his daughter Megan 'play' with the dog. :P
So we brought our 2 notty dogs to the park.

Reached there close to 10am. It was crowded, had to wait for a while before gaining entry to the carpark.
But I guess once in a while going to Botanic Gardens can be quite a nice thing to do.
The air is fresher, and lots of greens. Good for the eyes.

A group of people practising their Taiji.

The small naughty one with Karinna.

Short video of Sapphire making noises.

There was slight drizzle for a while, so went back into the main shelter. Was a littelr dark there.
While in there, trying to coax/con the kids into touching the dogs. Took a while, but in the end, still managed to get them to tickle the dogs. hehehe

Megan with her grandmother.

On the walk back to the amphi-theatre area.

We left earlier than Matthew's family. By the time, I think our dogs were all too tired also.
In the car, all like dead dogs like that. hehehe

Any outing is a joy to them. :)

Detox

Funny, had problem creating an entry yesterday again. Anyway.

Yesterday, went to the 推拿 again. Went there about 4+, just before it closes at 5pm. :P

This time, the pain is much less acute.
When he rubbed his palm on my shin, it's not as bad as the previous time.
Still pain, just bearable.
Even when he pressed my neck area, the pain is still endurable.
No pain no gain!
No problem!

Still, my tilted neck/head is a chronic thing, which he said he has this time, adjusted my bone a little more in-depth.
I think a lot seems to attribute to my habit now also lah.
Sigh.

But the comments are the same.
Too much wind in the body, blockages along my back spine etc.

So with all the crack-crack-crack, he had unblocked some of those.
Supposed to feel lighter, but I so heavy! :P

This time round, I bought the detox stuff.

3 items (on the left) to help colon cleansing.
Supposed to drink these stuff in the morning with empty stomach, and then do the same before dinner, or before bedtime.

Another item (yellow box) for detoxifying granulates. Don't know what the hell is that also, but I understood it as meant to tone down the 热气 in me.

Need to keep off meat while doing these detox stuff.
When should I start? :P

Casper 2nd Birthday

Today is our National Day.
Happy National Day to all.

It's also my little nephew's birthday.
He's 2 years old today. Time flies.

My brother booked a chalet at Pasir Ris Coasta Sand Resort, and had a BBQ there.
Weather was ok, except for a short very slight drizzle in the middle of our BBQ-ing.

All were there except for my brother and his family, as he's not in town this week.

Most of the food were catered, except my mum cooked some (actually, A LOT) fried rice, and bee hoon as additional stuff.
Need to make sure some food is available when the BBQ starts. :P

And this time round, the fried rice and bee hoon didn't taste very nice, although still ok for me.

As for BBQ, the usual chicken wings (I didn't eat any), prawns, chicken chop, some satays, lots of sausages, fishball, blahblahblah until I don't know what is there also.

Come to think of it, the main thing I ate was the fried rice.

No specific person was doing the BBQ-ing. In the end, it's my brother-in-law Frankie who did the most cooking.
My other sister Kelly, and her husband Eng Hong also put in their best effort to serve out the food.

My other brother-in-law, think drank a few red wine already a bit high. Keep bringing me around to take pictures for him and other family members.
hahaha

What didn't happen was, my nieces and nephews said want to do the Pledge Moment at 8.22pm, all failed to do so!
Aiyoyo! How can? :P

Some pictures taken can be viewed here, which were uploaded into my Facebook.
Benjamin said must tag wor, so I have to go to each picture that has his toot-toot face, and put a tag.
Maybe I should have tagged him as "Toot-boy". hehehe

Sheer Elegance - Life Is Too Short Girl

Long long time ago, there was only a few radio stations in Singapore.
There were mainly 1 English and 1 Chinese radio stations.

Then in late 80s, 98.7, 95.0, 93.3 and blahblahblah came along.

As the youngster then, I tuned in to 98.7 and 93.3 for the most current songs.
As years go bym I 'promoted' myself to 95.0 and 97.2 for more of the older songs.
I've stopped 95.0

Now, for the English station, I tuned to Gold FM90.5
Oldies but goodies, and the goonies are not enuff. :P

Here's a cool one.

Sheer Elegance - Life Is Too Short Girl

推拿

Yesterday afternoon, I went to do a massage.
Actually, it's more of a tui-na, rather than massage.

It's at Orchard Plaza. Yeah. First thing come to the mind, it's sleazy huh? :P
Anyway, afternoon time can't be that sleazy.

I walked in, no other customer there.
So the shi-fu do for me although I didn't call to make appointment.
I told him I occassionally have some serious backpain, some had some knee pain problem few weeks back.
And also more importantly, my head/neck has been 'tilted' towards my left for many years, and if there's any possibility to adjust back to normal.

He said possible wor. hmmmm.

He has a table for customer to lie down. There's a hole for the face to be placed at when lying face down.
He started with checking the backbone. My upper back was ok, lower back, think he said the 3rd-to-5th disc (not sure if the name is right) area is not so good.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Then he sort of pinch my back all over, and hell it was damn painful!
A-dui!!!!!!!!! @$##%@$^%#%^#$#^%$

Small ordeal over.

Then he worked on my shin area.
He rubbed gently on my left shin.
*WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
Pain ah!
My 男人的眼泪 almost 掉出来!
Then come to my right shin, he said it is more painful, as it had more wind than the left shin.
HUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!??
Die siah! What to do?

Then he worked on my head/neck. Twisted my neck sideways, and crack crack crack! Damn shiok ok.
Then don't which acupoint he pressed on my neck/shoulder area.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Press until all the saliva in me ma jiam like oozes out like that. Think my face must have been cringing like mad.
Both sides also pain like hell.
It's the kind of feeling like 生不如死. :O
Terok ok!

Then he went on further to crack a few sounds for my back, and that's it.

Basically, I have too much wind inside my body. Lots of blockage here and there, and he had so-called unblock them wherever possible.
Actually not so bad, I do feel a little 'lighter', as in not as stiff as how I used to feel about my body.
Also need to eat less meat, and more vegetables, and should eat only until 70% full for each meal.
Hmmm. Some things can be hard to do. :P

In the end, he also tried to sell some detoxing stuff.
I didn't buy them, but I think the next time I visit him again, I would try the detox stuff.

Babies

Since I got my new printer/scanner/copier, I took out some old photos to scan.

And these are the scans I did yesterday night, for fun too!
No prize for guessing who is the guy.
Who is the little baby that I am carrying? hehehe
See below for the answers.



Right on top, it's Deon, then comes down to Pauline, and lastly, it's Brenda!

Of course, I was still quite skinny back then. Hamsom right?
hahaha
And see the spectacles I am wearing, it's the same one!
So big so obiang eh??
Still hamsom lah. :)

Samsung SCX-4300

My HP printer has been making lots of noise every time I try using it.
Actually, didn't use it for printing anymore because I believe the ink has been dried up. That's the problem with inkjet stuff.

Today, went to Sim Lim to get a printer. Had been looking for one since few weeks back.
It is time to get a new one.
I was considering possibly a laser printer. Not necessary for colour printing though.
How often do I really print in colours anyway?
And laser printing looks more professional right?

The cheapest around has to be Samsung SCX-4300.
It's sleek black, looks cool.

The price is not bad, $180 for cash-and-carry.

Basically, need it to print, and able to do scanning and copying, that is all I need. Fax function is not high on my list. :P

Need to do more scanning, need to dig old pictures to scan as digital format too.
It's gonna take a lot of time.
Hmmmm. How? Headache. Help!