E V E R Y D A Y . B E A U T I F U L . P U R P O S E F U L
February 2, 2010 Leave a comment
(Photo Taken: Sai Wan Ho – Finally, I found the one shop that is so true to its original brand promise – Only opens from 7am to 11pm. This 7-Eleven near my house closes at 11pm. For those who didn’t know – 7-Eleven was found by Joe C Thomson back in 1946, operating from 7am to 11pm. It was only in 1962 when 7-Eleven first introduced the 24-hour retail concept in Texas.)
January 24, 2010 2 Comments
Having been through a couple of these sessions (and getting Elkan’s recent report card), I wasn’t as nervous as our first session. However, yesterday’s session was rather embarrassing to us – if not, horrific for any parents. This was what his teacher said to us:
"Elkan is performing very well in his class and he speaks very good English – compared with the rest of his classmates. He is more mature and behaves slightly beyond his age. There were a couple of INTERESTING INCIDENTS when Elkan surprised me. I was teaching the class ABC. And by the time I came to the letter "F", he yelled loudly that the "F-Word" is a bad word. And not to mention about the "S" word too. Another incident was when I was teaching the class about the names of the fingers (Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring, Baby). And when the time I was about to introduce the middle finger, Elkan yelled, stating that that was a "bad finger". Of course, in both incidents, only 2 of us were able to relate what was going on. The rest of the class weren’t in the know of such stuff."
You cannot imagine the look on our face. We were totally speechless. We never expect such a feedback from his tutor. And we weren’t very sure how to react to that. For a moment, I thought we have taught him the right things. At least, he was aware the "negative" bits of foul language. But we just not so sure about his guts of telling his teacher off in class on those "meanings". (Anyway, the review about Elkan is excellent and his teacher loves him a lot!)
Guess what Elkan said to all our visitors and friends lately:
January 23, 2010 Leave a comment
January 10, 2010 2 Comments
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After dinner, Scott brought out his new mahjong table and mahjong tiles (yes, brand new!). Alex taught the group (and Harshad) how to play "HK-Style Mahjong". The rules are less complicated than the ones that we played in Singapore. And the HK-wining rates are far more generous than ours. One of the best rules is: Only the person who gave out the winning tile has to pay. The other two need not to pay. (So nice!)
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Guess who won? It is not the Hongkies… not the Singaporeans or the Malaysians. It was the 1st-time player, Harshad – who won us all! Talk about beginner’s luck! It certainly exists in this world! (Let’s hope he is not addicted to this boring game of tiles)
December 31, 2009 Leave a comment
Time flies and today is the last day of 2009. In the next 10 minutes, our friends and families in Singapore and Hong Kong will be celebrating 2010! (This is the year when Minister Mah failed to lead Singapore into the World Cup Finals!) December has been an exceptional great month for me. Especially the last 2 weeks, I have spent good quality with my families and friends.
Here in Japan, we have already gone into the 1st hour of 2010! We joined 100 over really beautiful strangers on the top floor of Metropolitan Hotel counting down (in Japanese) to 2010! We certainly don’t know the Japanese numbers but we recognized the final moment when party poppers burst into the air! The atmosphere was fantastic! And very very new year!
The star of the party was certainly Elkan. He wooed and won the hearts of the young Japanese and Caucasian girls. Harshad too, was <again> popular! Enough said – enjoy our new year photos!
December 31, 2009 Leave a comment
Today is already our 3rd day in Japan. We have completed our 3-day Osaka tour and just arrived in Tokyo 5 hours ago. I am now typing this blog in my hotel room while Harshad and Elkan are gluing their eyes on some interesting Japanese channel (watching UFO and young girls stripping into Bikinis etc). Felicia and Tracy are crazy out there shopping in the cold. It is 3 degrees tonight. The windy condition bring the chill right into our bones. Certainly not for the boys.
Our trip to Japan was filled with many unexpected surprises. First, it was Felicia’s premonition. 5 hours before our flight, she woke up with a very bad dream about some horrific accident. That was not comforting for someone like me – who suffers from aerophobia. Still, we went to board our flight at 10am. Guess what, the unexpected happened. After stranded onboard for more than 30 minutes, the pilot announced that there was some technical problem and all of us have to leave the plane and board another plane.
While waiting for our 2nd plane, the counter manager made another announcement. Guess what? The plane which supposed to take us to Osaka was detected with another technical problem and therefore all of us were asked to board the original plane (which the manager claimed that they have fixed the technical problem!).
With Felicia’s premonition plus my aerophobia, there is absolutely no way we are going back to the original faulty plane. Felicia and I made our voice heard and we insisted to board another new plane to Osaka. In the end, we took the 4pm flight (our original flight was 10am) and part of Cathay’s goodwill, we were all given business class tickets! (What a treat for all of us, especially for Felicia and Elkan – it was their first business class experience!)
Japan is filled with some of the most bizarre and beautiful things. And it is certainly a confusing place for us. Those train rides and the ever-confusing routes and exits – we spent 10% of our time trying to figure how to go from point A to point B. Lucky we have our GPS phones with us to lead us to the right direction. Ordering food is another adventure for us – especially for Tracy (who is a vegan). We kinda mentally prepared for all these inconveniences so this language barrier didn’t affect us at all. Take this from us – it is so much easier to find someone who speaks Mandarin than English in Japan. There are a lot of Chinese working at the restaurants. (So, do go in and order in Mandarin.)
Here are our Top 4 favourite Moments in Osaka:
NUMBER 1 – OSAKA AQUARIUM
If Singapore Zoo is regarded as the world’s best zoo, then the Osaka Aquarium is easily one of the largest and best aquariums in the world! Huge tank housing exotic species (like the Mola, Giant Spider Crabs, Tiger Shark, Giant Mantas and even dolphins!) that you may not find in any other places. Excellent layout that brings you from the top level to the bottom. The star attraction is the 2 whale sharks (the largest fish in the world) plus many other sea animals like penguins and sea lions. It is worth the time and money!
NUMBER 2 – TEMPOZAN GIANT FERRIS WHEEL
It was formerly the World’s Largest and Biggest Ferris Wheel (now ranked 3rd behind the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer). Still standing at 112.5m high, the Osaka Giant Ferris Wheel offers a great panoramic view of city. It carries 60 cabins and 2 of the cabins offer glass-bottom view! We can’t resist the "transparent floor" and so we took one of the 2 special cabins! A romantic ride for lovers as this place was pretty quiet. Lucky for me – I have taken the London Eye and now the Tempozan Wheel.. leaving me the Singapore Flyer – to complete my Ferris Wheel Experience Collection.
NUMBER 3 – SHINSAIBASHI, DOTONBORI – SHOPPING
Cross the popular Ebisubashi bridge and take photo with the famous Glico "running man" – this is the heart of Osaka’s shopping districts. Certainly a woman’s heaven, this is a very crowded place. Be sure you have enough stamina to roam this place. If not, sit and relax at many of the starbuck joints and wait for your lady ro return. One of the newest attractions is the odd-looking "8" building "Namba HIPS" – It is an entertainment building with gaming and casino inside and a 74m FreeFall ride on the outside.
NUMBER 4 – OSAKA-JO (CASTLE)
Built in 1583, the Osaka Castle (Osakajo) is one of Japan’s famous and largest castles. The park is one of Osaka’s most popular hanami spots during the cherry blossoms seasons, which usually takes place in early April.
December 28, 2009 Leave a comment
For some strange twists of fate, the Pacific Coffee at the Center marks the place where I first and the last place I met Kitty. It was there where I interviewed her. It was also the same table and chair where she submitted her resignation letter to me. Sad to lose such a nice neighbour at work. (but no worry, we will be meeting her at Tokyo next week!)
December 27, 2009 Leave a comment
Cousin Yei and his wife Summer (our 76-77th Visitors) finally met us in Hong Kong – after 2 years of invitations and endless nagging. They were supposed to be my “surprise VIP guests” last night but Summer was down with fever. It is always good to have them around – especially during festive seasons like Christmas.
Of course, we had the usual traditions- Yei was in his usual self – rattling about my weight, my fats and my waist-line. And he really hate me for taking his photos and blogging his visit (haaaa… sorry bro, this is my job man!) Elkan was gaga over Summer and Felicia was trying to contain him. And Mike – he was generously buying us meals after meals. Family – don’t you love them so much?
December 26, 2009 Leave a comment
We kicked start the party by contesting each other in our 1st Bowling Competition! We spilt ourselves into 2 groups and fought against one another – for a mere cash prize of HKD140 (pool cash prize). In the end, it was the "Under-Dogs" who walked away with the cash! Needless to say, Hong Fei, Sherry and me were the losers.
We went back to our house at 4pm for our mini luncheon buffet. It was indeed very challenging to pack the small tiny house with 12 people (including 2 very hyper-active kids!). At 6pm, we played our "Secret Santa" game and most of us guessed the right wishers – except for Felicia and Harshad. Poor Zeph, he was the most pro-active and supportive friend in our "Secret Santa" game but Kitty didn’t turn up (due to some injury) – therefore, he is the only one who left without any xmas gift. Poor chap. (Let’s skin and steam that cat on Monday!)
Later that night, we went over to Megabox for our midnight movie "Sherlock Holmes". While waiting for our movie, the group got bored and did something spontaneous – we went ice skating at 11pm! It was our first ice-skating experience in Hong Kong – and it was Harshad’s virgin touch on the ice! For the first time, I saw Harshad so terrified and helpless. We were all laughing at his panic state! Clearly, none of us are good in this. Hong Fei and Tracy didn’t really skate – they did stunts on the ice – both of them were trying to outbeat each other with fancy falls. Trust me, they purposely went for the falls.
December 26, 2009 Leave a comment
THANKS TO ALICE – She spotted me on TV News yesterday after and recorded it for our pleasure. It was a lousy Christmas Day. Felicia, Elkan and me were supposed to go over to Macau to meet up with Auntie Amy. However, Felicia bought us the 1am tickets instead of the 1pm tickets! Worst of all, there was a big crowd and there were a lot of chaos and confusion. Unknown to us, there was a ferry accident in the morning and many passengers were stranded (due to a delay of the ferries). I was walking out of the crowd when the camera caught me. We lost HKD800 for the wrong tickets but that place me a 3-sec fame on HKTV.
For some reasons, Auntie Amy didn’t buy my story. So, this is the best evident for her! We did try to go over. Haaaaa…
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