Summer vacation

After pinning months and months for our Europe trip, it was well over and done. That was 2 months ago.

Our hearts started to itch.

Where shall we go again?

Having missed Hong Kong last year due to Dylan's new job, I decided that I have to do a good tour shopping around the land of 买东西，吃东西 .

This time I did my homework. And planned a full itinerary for our 5 days. We will leave no stones unturned, no streets unwalked.

We took Cathay Pacific on the red-eye flight. Reached HK at an unearthly hour. And since we couldn't check in to our boutique hotel yet, we made full use of the time for a day trip to Macau.

30 bucks for one-way per pax for the jetboat to Macau! Dylan and I were still cajoling each other to bet $120 on the table to recoup our transport losses.

First stop. Our favourite restaurant in Venetian. They serve one of the best honey char siew that melts in your mouth. Even better than Yung Kee I must say.

If you come to Macau, it is a sin to go back not getting their pastries and snacks. They have quite a few popular brands but we both personally like Koi Kei. I cannot imagine having to spend 100+ on snacks to bring home. I even lamented to Dylan that we should have brought a trolley bag along.

Other than eating and shopping, one must take photos to look like tourists. Having been to Macau before, we decided to forgo visiting the rest of the attractions due to tight schedule.

But it didn't long for us to be back to eating again. We ended the first day with a bagful of Macau snacks, probably 1kg heavier and 100% stomach satisfcation! :D

Despite the hotel room rate included breakfast, we decided to give it a miss as the spread was really mediocre. We were very thankful there was an awesome breakfast place just downstairs our hotel. I had toast, eggs and milo dinosaur almost daily!

And there begins our shopping journey. We went to Space Warehouse, Horizon Plaza at Ap Lai Chau. Decided to be adventurous and commuted by bus. So morning was spent shopping at factory outlets, come afternoon, it's back to the luxury streets.

We stumbled on this nice ramen restaurant at IFC mall called Wakayama. And me posing with my 1st birthday gift from Dylan - St Louis Goyard all the way from London. *beams*

Since being in HK, one must know how to live the yum cha life. So how can one miss not having dim sum at Maxim Palace? Surprisingly, other than the egg yolk custurd bun, the rest of the items wasn't really sensational.

This is where I found my 2nd love... ...

And here I am again, posing with my birthday gift I got for myself. Hehe. I was telling Dylan how I didn't own a hand-carry boston bag and how ESSENTIAL it was for different functions, waving my arms in excitment while I explained to him the context of my purchase. I don't think he ever understood a single word.

So if you can't talk sense to the man, you talk to his stomach... ...

This place opens till 1am daily! It serves a myriad of food and desserts and pretty affordable prices.

As you can see it, I am not proud of my impulsive purchases. But then again, a holiday is a time where you buy some happiness back with you right? RIGHT? :P We brought 2 large luggages along and we were still short of space! I am also secretly appalled by the husband's sudden vanity. He bought 2 pairs of shoes! And I didn't even get one!

At first, I thought 5 days were too much to spent in HK. I was SO WRONG. We only covered the main areas of Hong Kong Island. We did not even venture to Kowloon.

So with that very valid reason, I am sure we will be back in HK again soon!

His first field trip

It was meant to be a solo trip. I wanted to see if the son could handle an excursion on his own. Yep. It was a hard pill to swallow. My boy has grown up. But a mommy suggested that I go for the first time t get to know his friends better as well.

It was really amusing watch the kids mingle together. When we arrived, the kids were pinching their noses and screaming in unison "Ewww...so smelly!" I only had a thought in my head "How to go army like that?" -_-

I had a shock when I first saw his classmates. Are they really 4 years old?! All of them are so tall!

See? Shortest in the class. *gua gua gua*

Theme of the field trip was Cats Discovery. So we went to this amphitheatre that housed the skins of all kinds of cats - Jaguar, Cheetah, Leopard, Tiger, Lion. And my, I couldn't even tell the difference!

At the end of the day, it wasn't an easy task being a parent volunteer. The weather was atrocious, the kids were running all over the place. You had to make sure your own kid doesn't 'assault' anyone. I even witnessed a parent trying to feed his kid snacks along the way and during class on condition that he sat still. In the end, the rest of the kids were distracted and wanted a share of it. How annoying right!

Overall, it was still a good field trip with the son. I'm sure next time, the boy is ready to go out on his own without his Mommy albeit I'm still not sure if I'm ready to let his hand go.

Baby boom

Nope. Nothing from me yet.

This year seems to be a good year for baby influx. Just last month we attended 2 baby showers in a row and I have 2 close girlfriends delivering in Oct (Yep, 2 more Oct babies!)

It is truely amazing to watch your friends moving on in different ways of their lives, having their own family. And to think we were once kids ourselves!

This is Daniel's precious girl Kailynn. I knew him as early as when Nintendo was invented. Back then, we will look forward to weekends where our parents will bring us to the country club and we will do all sorts of monkey things - hide & seek (yes, imagine in a huge country club compound. we end up not finding each other anyway), seeing who can do the longest head stands, playing gin rummy and seeing who can last the longest at the arcade with just one token. Yes, those were the days.

With our next generation, hopefully we can pass on these memories to them as well.

Lunch was at Pan Pac Claymore. Buffet is always a child's favourite as they look forward to the sweet treats towards the end. Obviously, the son is very delighted.

The following week, we attended Dylan's buddy's baby shower. Meet Jerome. Likewise, Dylan and his buddy were secondary school mates. I think his buddy knew more dirty secrets of Dylan than I do. Haha. As you can see, the man is pretty happy for his friend. But did he have the sudden urge to have another baby? Guess not.

So another 2 more babies in Oct. It's also a boy and a girl each! I wonder who is next on the list?

Once upon a time in "Tiong Kok"

When I was young, I had friends telling me about their holiday experiences to China. The only thing that left an impression on me was that their toilets are perpetually filthy. So with that notion, I wrote the country off my list of holiday destinations for years.

This is until I had to go to Shanghai for a business trip in early May.

I love it when there's hardly anyone on the flight, even in the business class cabin. It meant that I could sleep and possibly snore without embarrassing myself.

So with an unimpressed feeling, I arrived at Shanghai, at the front door of my hotel - Langham, only to be awe-ed by the 5 star hotel decor.

Our hotel rooms in Singapore pale in comparison to this. And Langham is not even an international brand name. They had an elaborated walk-in wardrobe, the toilet floors are heated (mind you, not toilet seats but floors!) during winter, they had two toilet basins for god knows what, and even a personalized toilet bowl cleaner to wash your ass when you're done!

On top of that, all their hotel accessories are in pink! So chic!

I love travelling to countries during winter/spring. This is the time where I can be more adventurous in my dressing and not worrying to sweat under my armpits. So that's me camwhoring in front of the full length mirror. Must make full use of their walk-in wardrobe mah...

I'm pretty glad that I get to travel alone this time. So that meant some "me" time off work and I could venture around Shanghai at my own pace. For the first night, I visited the night alleys opposite the hotel. It was like a mini Holland Village.

I didn't dare to try their local restaurants so the best solution was to choose something familiar to home. I stumbled upon coldstone creamery and we had a franchise at 313 but it's always long queue! Their mud-pie coffee peanut combo mix really made every calorie intake worth it!

The 3rd night, my Shanghai colleague recommended to go to Yu Garden - something like our Chinatown version. So it's more camwhoring.

I only had time to shop at their factory outlets on the first day but look at what one day of damage could do!

And when you're cold, you just crave for more comfort food. So all these damage done during grocery shopping. *gulp*

Coming to Shanghai really changed my perspective although that are still some unhygenic places and seeing people spit in the shopping mall!!! is still something I need to get used to. But overall, it was a pleasant visit. And my co-colleagues treated me to Shanghainese cuisine where I had ducks tongue for the first time! *cringe*

I am secretly hoping that my job scope revert to Korea market. After all, that place is a shopping haven. :)

Something about Jayden at 3.5

Hello Everyone,

Today is a public holiday and my mummy is not blogging. So I decided to take over the keyboard and introduce myself at 3.5 years old.


Yes, at 3.5 years old, I still sleep with a hankie and pillow. Mummy cannot grumble much since I've managed to wean off the pacifier at 2 years old and am diaper-free too. Hey, as a kid, I do have human rights too.


I enjoy taking photos now and know how to smile at the camera though most of the time, I smile so hard, I can't see my eyes.

I have been sleeping on my own bed since 3 years old but some nights I still do creep into Mummy & Daddy's bed because it doesn't really feel good to sleep alone right. I don't understand why Mummy wants me to do it? *scratch head* But anyway, I still love my fire truck bed and would play imaginary fireman when I can't go to sleep.

I finally understood the meaning of Christmas and even helped Mummy to decorate the tree. Because she says that Santa will only give presents to good boy. I'm not sure how true is that because somtimes when I do misbehave, I still get presents under the tree. *cheeky shrug*

My favourite toy has got to be The Chuggingtons. It all started with 2 DVDs that Grandpa got me during X'mas and one innocent trip to Toys R Us. I got my first interactive Chugger - Frostini. I never liked the main characters - Wilson, Koko & Brewster and only collects the rest of the chuggers. Mummy thought there are only 3 characters but look at my collection!



I have all 10 of them now and I'm still trying to get Mummy & Daddy to get the Chugwash for my birthday. Mummy says it's an expensive hobby for one chugger cost $29.90. So 10 means nearly $300! I hope she used her own money to buy my toys. :p


At 3.5 yrs old, I'm still very much a water baby. I love swimming and have recently opened up to the concept of water play. I used to cringe at water showers and sprinklers but now as you can see, I'm enjoying them!


Of course, there are times when you just want to vege out and be a couch potato on the iPad. I even know how to use Youtube to search for my favourite cartoons.

So at 3.5, I'm doing what an average kid would do - eat, play, sleep and sometimes abit of study. I don't have any favourite sport or activity at the moment. I can read 1-10 and only half of the alphabets. I can only write 1 or 0. So that worries Mummy alot. But fret not Mummy! All kids learn naturally so let me play first for now ok? I love you Mummy! xoxo


Signing off,
Jayden
(Mummy's imaginary impression of me)

Day 8 - 10 : Paris

I don't think much introduction is needed for this city. The picture says it all, the bags people carry say it all and even people smooching at the park says it all - Paris.

But of course, when you come to Paris, you must do what tourits do.

The Eiffel tower

The Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe


The Louvre - yes where Mona Lisa is

Taking the cruise around the Seine River

And if that wasn't enough. We visted the Eiffel Tower 3 times - Day, Sunset and Night.

Eiffel @ Sunset

Eiffel @ Nightfall

I think the Eiffel @ Nightfall was the most spectacular. There was a brief moment where the tower will dazzle in various colours of lights and at that instant, everything seemed to come to a standstill. Everyone just looked at it in awe, oohs-and-ahhs. You could see couples hugging each other tightly, families embracing each other. It was a magical moment to be in the romantic city. :)

So when all the sight-seeing is done. It's time to get down to business - SHOPPING at Gallery Lafeyette. Even lunch had to be brisk as time was limited. 没时间啊！

Best quiche I've eaten at a French bistro beside Lafeyette

We had a 5-course French dinner but sadly, even my favourite foie gras didn't whet my appetite. How can French food in France go so wrong? :(

When food didn't go so well, desserts are always to the rescue. Macroons from La Duree. *nom nom nom*

Of course, all that eating and shopping makes one very happy indeed. :D

So what was the damage?

I think going to Paris makes one have the disillusion that you have an unlimited credit limit to just spend, spend spend! We never batted an eyelid when we saw something we like. The philosophy was "If you don't buy it now, what if you go back lamenting and become "the biggest regret in your life" (ok pun intended)?" Warped philosophy indeed.

My long awaited Classic Jumbo in Caviar!!!




Even buying bags also must be in matching color

Clothes from H&M, G-Star. We even bought shades just because Dylan forgot to bring his


The highlight of the trip - Daytona & Submarina

(steal my Chanel limelight *hmph*)

My humble Tag Heuer Aquaracer in mother of pearl face and diamond number dials

** DISCLAIMER **

Sorry if this sounded like an arrogant post flaunting our purchases. I see it rather as a reflection on some of the impulsive buys. And then again, how often do you go to Europe?! Ok, I'm just trying to excuse myself out. :p

LAST DAY IN PARIS
It must be a blessing that retail shops close on Sundays in Europe. So our group decided to take the sub and head down to Champs Elysee to embrace Paris life for the last time.

Where we're staying - some CBD area

Lunch was at Hard Rock which was mad yummy. Perhaps it was the overdose of poorly cooked pizzas, pastas, risottoes and what not.

And this is where we bade farewell to Europe. I'm sure we'll be back again. :)

Au revoir!