20111112/13 Hong Kong Day 0 & 1 - Dolphin and Symphony of Lights

Daddy, mommy and Kathleen went on a trip to Hong Kong.

We took the midnight (ok, 1.15am) Cathay flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. It is Kathleen's first non-budget flight (and 3rd trip out of SG).

At the airport while waiting for the flight, a funny thing happen.  We saw a fat lady trying out the weighing machines for luggage, and so asked K to try too.  The first one she tried said 14.5kg.  500meters later, on the 2nd machine, it said 15kg! Wow...first time heard of putting on weight by walking :P

The soles of K's shoe came out at the airport.  Luckily Daddy is able to find super glue at the Cheers outlet at T3 which is open 24 hours and glue it back, and the shoe held for the rest of the trip (did not bring extra shoes for her)

On the flight, K was 'loaned' child size head piece, and she was also given a children's kit which contains Mickey Mouse stickers, paper game, coloring booklet etc.

Not sure if its due to the bigger plane or weather or skill of the pilot, but this time round, there is no pressure on the ears when the plane take off, and K exclaimed in her usual dramatic voice 'Mommy! My ears are not painful!' several times.

posing with children's headset and cathay's kit for children

Cathay actually served dinner on board at 2am+!!!!! Which everyone is not prepared for.  After that, everyone tried to sleep only to have the pilot interrupting our sleep by announcing 40minutes before ETA that we are going to reach Hong Kong!!!! Grumpy mommy swore that she will never travel midnight flight again (she used to travel midnight flight without any problem).  So end up mommy only has 30minutes of sleep and K and daddy a little bit more.

After reaching the Hong Kong International Airport, everyone from the flight queued for the Airport Express ticketing counter to open to get the tickets.  We got the group ticket for 3 at $210 (else 2A1C will be $250) and took the Airport Express to Hong Kong station, to switch to the Central station and then onwards to North Point where our hotel is.

Kathleen with the group tickets in the Airport Express train

The journey indicator for the Airport Express.  Only 3 stations from airport but took quite some time.

We only found out at the Hong Kong/Central station that group tickets are not entitled to the free travel to another station within the hour (only valid for people using Octopus cards to pay the full rate for Airport Express).  So had to rush to buy Octopus cards.

After dropping off the luggage (yes, only 1 checked in luggage because mommy think that it will be easier to handle if K fell asleep and one parent had to carry her), we rushed off to Tsim Sai Tsui MTR station, where Kowloon Hotel is.  The reason? A trip out to sea to view the Hong Kong pink dolphins (yes, I hear laughter, but it has been mommy's dream to see the pink dolphins in the wild since she heard that Hong Kong has them).

After reaching TST, we found the hotel, and then proceed to the nearby Cafe De Coral 大家乐 (their local fast food restaurant) for breakfast.  Daddy has yummy porridge with tea, while K has toasted bread with condensed and mommy had your typical boring tuna sandwich.

At Cafe De Coral

After that, we waited at Kowloon Hotel for the tour guide (in pink dolphin T shirt no less) from Hong Kong Dolphin Watch to appear.  On the way to Tung Chung Pier, they told us about the living habits of the pink dolphins.  The dolphins are suspected to be actually white (because the dead ones they found are white) and the pinkness are due to them flushing when they 'exercise (aka swim)'.  The guide also told us about the dangers that they face from passing ships, and from sewage discharged into the seas. Despite having the pink dolphins as the mascot during the handover of Hong Kong, there was nothing much done to clean up the environment for the dolphins.  And with the rapid expansion of the Hong Kong International Airport, another large part of the dolphins' habitats are being destroyed.

Boarding the yacht

Mommy, expecting cold airplane air, and cold sea winds, dressed K up in sweater, but the weather was super hot, and there is no other clothes to wear!

At the upper deck of the yacht

At the lower deck of the yacht

The yacht that we are on, and another boat carrying kids from a birthday party, coordinated to find the dolphins.  We first encounter a mother-child pair (young pink dolphins are grey in colour who gradually turned pink as they grow up), then after some more searching, encounter a pod of about 5 or 6 dolphins.

The 2 boats would stop their engines when they are approaching the dolphins to prevent scaring the dolphins away and also to prevent hurting the dolphins.

The dolphins can be seen swimming out and diving back into waters, and some (or the same one) dolphins also like to poke its top half of the body out of the water (see picture below).

K kept asking why we cannot catch the dolphin which makes the caucasian tourists laughed. 

Seen! Pink dolphins at sea!

Mommy asking K to pretend that its her personal yacht :P

The trip lasted the morning and we were later sent back to TST/Central area via the coach.


After that, we checked in into our hotel - Ibis North Point.  It is a small room, with a small bed, and overly cold aircon that feels like 15 degrees when it says 30 degree.  This room, is the coldest part of the whole trip (which is exactly what K told popo too when she was back in SG).

K and her bolster in the hotel room.

During the evening,we took the MTR to TST (alot of retracing on this trip), and took some Christmas photos before going for the Symphony of Lights performance at the sea area.

After the symphony of lights, we had wanted to go to Ladies' Street/Market but K said that she is tired and so we took the Star Ferry back to Wan Chai before going back to the hotel.

So ends day 1 of our trip.

kid's talk

1)

Kathleen in her circus master voice : Ladies and Vegetables!!! Boys and Girls!!!!

(what an insult to the gentlemen :P)

2)

At the chalet when mommy is going to the supermarket to buy BBQ stuff, leaving her in the chalet with daddy.

Mommy : remember, stick close to daddy and don't go out of the chalet on your own.
Kathleen inched a little bit closer to daddy
Kathleen : I am very already close to daddy

3)

Kathleen : Mommy, can I marry you next time?
Mommy : Unfortunately I have already married your daddy
Kathleen : Why? Is it because I am a short girl?

(her ego already bruised by her short stature :P)

20111105 - 20111107 - Pasir Ris Chalet

After a 2  year break (see here for a posting on the previous chalet), the extended family went for a chalet again.

This time round, the venue is at Costa Sands Pasir Ris Chalet, located near to the Pasir Ris Beach/Park.


二姨姨 and us are the first to arrive, and we checked in into the chalet.

It is a double storey unit with 2 mattresses (like gym mattress) on the lower floor and 2 single beds on the upper floor.  And 1 toilet (logistics issue haha).  Also comes with 1 table and 4 stools (not stated in the website so we end up bringing 2 stools for the old folks)

Kathleen 'open ceremony' by jumping on the bed  on the upper floor.

大姨姨, 三姨姨 and Janice 表姐 are next to arrive.  The 姨姨 decided to go to the nearest supermarket to shop for the BBQ food, while 三姨姨 and Janice 表姐 decided to go the library.

Everyone end up going to White Sands.  四姨姨, yy,Charlie and the grandparents also arrived at White Sands and so everyone went back to the chalet together.

 
The kids end up monopolising the air conditioned room upstairs and using it as their ipad/DS gaming room, exchanging gameset once in a while.  This gives the adults enough time to do the BBQing as we do not need to entertain the kids.

see the sleeping bags in the foreground - KSism :P

The adults started to set up the fire.  This time, with ample time (we brought alot of cakes from outside, and also bought muah chee, tu tu from White sands so everyone is quite full and not hungry so we have time to slowly set up the fire).

They marinated the raw food while the fire is being started.  This time round, there is fish, teppanyaki pork, chicken patty, sausages, taiwanese sausages, beef (for the beef eaters, we cook them separately using a different tongs as 婆婆 and some of us do not take beef), chicken wings, fishball, crab stick, 豆苗, bean sprouts, onions, etc

大姨姨 brought a induction cooker and used it to cook pasta and heat up pasta tomato for everyone, especially the kids.  二姨姨 brought her teppanyaki set as contingency but luckily the weather is good and did not rain.

The food are well cooked this time, with only some chicken wings burnt.  The adults take turn to BBQ and eat, and 大姨姨 (as usual) cook her 拿手好菜 - frying vegetables (including 豆苗 and bean sprouts) using little 'plates' folded using aluminum foil.

After we have finished eating the BBQ food, Uncle James left due to work, and its time for birthday celebration! Charlie and Kathleen are both November babies and they share a birthday cake.

Yuan yuan joining in to cut the cake and dictate where to cut

Enjoying the cake on the stairway

As usual, the kids have some glow sticks time after that.

Glowsticks time!

After having the birthday cake, the grandparents, 大姨姨 and daddy left.  The rest of the people then take turns to bathe (taking a longggg time, but the TV is showing that Vampire movie, which takes out abit of the boredom) (I have to say, the 2 leads' acting, especially Kristen Stewart's, is terrible) and then went out for a walk to Downtown East (and  buying 3-in-1 Milo) around midnight.

As the lower floor does not have any air con.  We tried to squeeze everyone into the room upstairs by bringing the 2 gym mattresses upstairs.  So end up, Janice, Kathleen, Charlie, Nicole and 二姨姨 slept on the mattresses upstairs, while mommy, Julia, 四姨姨, Yuan Yuan sleep on the gym mattress, while the healthiest/most physically active 三姨姨 slept on the sleeping bag.


The air con was very cold at night (it was only the next day that daddy discovered the hidden panel which allows us to change the temperature), and it rained the whole night.  So everyone (well the skinny adults) felt very cold. And it was so cold, the adults had to go to the toilet at night. :P

The funny thing was, in the middle of the night, mommy looked up and noticed that Kathleen and Charlie had kicked off their blanket, so she covered up Charlie again, and carried Kathleen down to the gym mattress so that it is easier for her to make sure that Kathleen is well covered.  Then, Charlie started tossing and turning (and she had this habit of sitting up and FALLING back onto the bed) and Janice, not realising that Kathleen was already transferred to another bed, keep shouting 'Oi, Yan yan, don't kick me'  Mommy replied a few times that Kathleen is already 'down there' but Janice still think that the troublemaker is Kathleen! :P

The next day, we had breakfast (alot of leftover from the cakes that we bought for tea the night before, with the Milo) in the chalet before going out.  二姨姨 distributed lollipops to the kids, and they eat while they walked to the park.

Julia and Kathleen walking together and enjoying their lollipops

After finishing the lollipops, we went back to the chalet to rent bicycles.  Charlie and Kathleen rented bicycles with training wheels, while 三姨姨, Julia, Nicole, Janice and Yuan yuan rented 2 wheeled bicycles. 

Julia, Nicole and Yuan yuan are learning how to ride.  Yuan yuan managed to learn how to balance within 15 minutes, which surprised 四姨姨 as she had tried teaching him a few times before, but the carefree atmosphere at the park with his favourite cousin seemed to help.  Julia and Nicole did not manage to learn, and not-so-good bicycles did not help.

After cycling, we all went back to the chalet and reward ourselves with potong ice cream! :)

Then went for a swim in the pool!

After that, we went back to the chalet again and had instant noodles for lunch, using the water kettle-cum-noodle cooker that mommy had brought (each round can cook 2.5 packs, not bad!).

After that, the rest of the 姨姨 and kids left (after helping to pack most of the things), leaving Kathleen and daddy and mommy.  Kathleen went for a nap. The plan was to go for another round of cycling after she had woken up since daddy was not there in the morning, but by the time we reached the bicycle shop, it was 6.30pm and they are preparing to close for the day (closing time is 7pm).  Very disappointed :(

So off we went to Downtown East for McDonald's dinner.  After that, we walked around E!Hub for a while and watch some bowling games (Kathleen like to watch bowling) before heading back to the chalet.

The next day, we woke up early, packed the remaining stuff, checked out, and went home.  Tiring weekend, but with good memories that hopefully will last for a long time. :)

p/s 三姨姨 later sms-ed and said that Janice had 'chicken wings syndrome' - pain below armpits after flapping her arms too much while cycling. :P

20111008 DIY cake decoration

Daddy's birthday fell on a weekday this year, and with the opening of the Icing Room near our place, what's a better gift than a self-decorated birthday cake? :)

Told the little gal the surprise I have in mind, and she promptly told her daddy 5 minutes later that we are going to get him a cake.  Can't keep a secret....

We got a vanilla cake, 2 small bags of colourful cream, 3 bigger bags of cream (one with a tip), fish and silver ball decorations, and some cut fruits.

And when we went home, she keep telling daddy that the cake is nicely decorated (ahah.. when it is still supposed to be a surprise).

Simple vanilla cake with fruits in between the layers.  Not bad... and Kathleen now even say she wanted the same thing for her birthday..hahahahha

First.. add the silver balls....

pretending to decorate with the cream... she is not strong enough to squeeze the cream out though

the final touches - the fish

pose!

happy!

enjoying the cake of her labour :P

201109 chicken pox!

There was a Friday when the child care was closed, and it was also PC/IT show.

So silly mommy happily thought that she can take leave and bring Kathleen to squeeze with the Friday crowd.

On Thursday night, she saw what look like badly scratched marks on Kathleen's legs.

On Friday night, she saw more marks on the face.  Oh no, better get some cream and clearance from GP before the cc rejects K on Monday, she thought.

And when mommy and K are at the GP, the doctor dropped the bombshell - its chicken pox!!!!!!

No PC/IT show for mommy :(

So for the next 2 weeks, daddy and mommy took leave to take care of K.  Crazy because work is busy, still got to work from home on those days when mommy is not in the office.

Luckily her case is not very serious (and to think the GP gave some anti viral that he claimed will make 'more' come out and 'faster').  But naughty girl cannot stand the itch and scratched every single blister she has (so there goes the GP's advice of knowing when the contagious period is over, which , by right, is when the blisters dried up) (except for one).  And some small 0.5cm blister in diameter becomes 2cm with her constant scratching until mommy had to use plaster on it at night so that she will not scratch it at night.

She also scratched the blisters on her scalp so badly (especially at night) that the pus from the blisters stick all her hair together.  So in the end mommy had to slowly massage her hair during bath time to untangle the mess, and also clip up her hair in bits so that her scalp will not be damp.  Luckily the cream given by the GP on the 2nd visit helps for her scalp too.

After 2 weeks, she finally got clearance to go back to school. Yipee!

And popo even report that after she came back to her place after 2 weeks, she told popo affectionally "popo, wo ai ni" (popo, i love you) which of course makes popo very happy! :)

20110809 zoo

The cousins went to the zoo on National Day.  The zoo was super crowded when we first arrived, which is not surprising as it was a public holiday. 

We walked into the zoo, seeing exhibits along the way before reaching the elephant enclosure for the elephant show.

The elephants pretending to be helicopters with their trunks as the propellers

water break after the elephant show

Then, we went to watch the Rainforest fights back.  After that, Janice and yy queued up so that they have a photo taken with the snake (Janice loves reptiles).  Kathleen and Charlie are not interested of course. [Note : on a subsequent visit to the Science Centre, Kathleen was brave enough to stroke a bigger species of cockroach (which is so big it looks more like a beetle) which was available for touching after an insect talk]

Looking bored while waiting for Janice

Posing for photo with the snake around Janice's neck

yy given a chance to touch the snake too

Even si yiyi (4th aunt) give it a try!

We then walk some more before going to the KFC at the waterplay area for late lunch.  It was crowded but luckily we managed to get some seats close together.  After lunch, it was waterplay!  There are so many people that the water looks dirty (blackish in colour) but the kids are oblivious to that.  They spent at least one hour there playing non stop.

Kathleen initially only wanted to play the slides (handsome young man helping out there which she still talked about  now :P) (very nice of the zoo to send crew there to maintain order) but with Charlie around, she was still adventurous enough to run around the other water features and even sit on the foam ground waiting for water to pour down from the buckets above!

She went down this slide at least 50 times?

Running through the rings spraying water.  It looks as if Kathleen is pulling Charlie along, but in actual fact, she is just more afraid of the spraying water than her cousin and therefore run faster :P

It was such a hot and crowded day that when the yee yees went back to KFC to buy more drinks, they found out that most of the drinks have been sold out (bad planning on KFC's part)!

After the waterplay, we went for the newly revamped show at the water play area.  The animals are still not very familiar with their parts, and it was funny seeing the crew unable to make the dogs do whatever they are supposed to do, and one dog even pee-ed in front of the audience! :P

During the show, Kathleen felt very tired and we left after the show with si yiyi, Charlie and yy, while energetic san yiyi and Janice continue to roam around the premises.

kid's talk

1)

Kathleen waving her pencil which has a star on top.  She calls it her 'magic wand'.

K : Look mommy I got a magic wand! I can make magic!
m : oh... can you make mommy taller
K : (immediate reply) Cannot
[conclusion : there are some things that even magic cannot fix]

2)

Kathleen always add 'es' to the end of singular word to indicate plural, despite many attempts on my part to teach her.  Eg, her card will be cardes, etc.  Then one day, in a eureka tone ...

K : mommy mommy I know, one man (men), many MENSES!
m : nonono!

[coincidentally, it was that time of my month...]

3)

On the MRT, Kathleen was digging her nose and trying to dispose of her nuggets onto the seat by rubbing her thumb and index finger together, all the while judging my reaction. 

m : no
K : ok, (bend down) I will just pick it up and put it back into my nose
[and the thing is, she really did it!]

20110806 mommy's thoughts - life without daddy

For the first time since Kathleen was born, daddy was sent overseas for 6+ weeks by his company.

Luckily for him, he is going to Australia, not Africa, so not much hardship on his side.

At home, mommy has to take over the chauffeur job of sending Kathleen to child care in the morning before rushing to work.  Clocked a total of 2800km of driving during those few weeks!  Mommy also cannot go back to office to work during weekends which means tougher time management!

For Kathleen, she has to wake up earlier since mommy work regular working hours.  The poor gal and mommy just catch up on those missing beauty sleep on weekends :P And Kathleen had to follow mommy on all her wild trips all over the island on weekends to visit friends, look for the perfect bicycle, went Sentosa etc all using public transport (cos mommy got so sick of driving, she prefers to take the public transport where she can talk to Kathleen and show her things and play with her).

Mommy also got a children ezlink card for Kathleen.

Kathleen misses daddy and catches up with him by skyping with him during the weekend, when she will show him the new things she get (eg, birthday goodie bags, McDonald's free toys etc).  And Kathleen also entertained herself in the car by recording her voice on mommy's handphone

Good thing she enjoyed is that she gets to share the king size bed at home with mommy (no more squeezing with daddy) but not good is that the lizard gets the upper hand at home! :P  The house is also alot neater without daddy leaving his things around, and the tv only gets turned on twice in those 6 weeks!

Then one Friday night in end July, all this ends as Kathleen and mommy went to Changi Airport (via bus!) to pick up daddy, and now the days of slightly more sleep, squeezing in the bed, playing on samsung galaxy tab, messy house, TV perpetually on all the time, being chauffeured by a more experienced driver are back again.

And the lizard seems to know that it no longer has the upper hand and did not appear again (so far).

Ice cream

With the hot weather, nothing beats ice cream and coke :P

Can't make coke at home, so made ice cream instead, without a ice cream maker.

The adventurous mommy did it one day in May when daddy is not at home.  This is using the long winded recipe which requires using of egg, and also freezing the mixture and then beating them, several times.

I followed a mix of the 2 recipes found here and here.  K wanted to join in, so I let her crack the egg and use her hands (washed thoroughly before that of course) to 'sieve' the egg white and egg yolk, beat the mixture, and even do the final act of breaking up the oreos and dropping them into the mixture.

I unintentionally curdle the mixture, is luckily is able to salvage it by beating it intensively to break up the mixture while adding the whipping cream (a solution found via googling, thank goodness!)

In the end, we manage to make enough for 2 boxes - one with and one without oreo pieces.  Of course throughout the 'making', Kathleen will keep asking me if she can eat it, and asked so many times throughout that weekend when I am in between the process of freezing and beating the mixture.

Kathleen with the 2 final product after freezing overnight

Enjoying the fruits/ice cream of her labour :)

close up - looks good and yummy right? :P

When the final product is ready, everyone eagerly tucked in.  Its yummy! :) Taste richer than supermarket variety.  Even fussy daddy likes it.  And then mommy brought one box to popo's place for all the yee yee to enjoy :)  Best eat fresh, by the way, because after one week, we can start tasting the ice cuticles while crunching the ice cream.

Then in July, mommy to let all the kids try out DIY ice cream using this recipe.  We had tins, ziplog bags for each kid.  Mix the mixture in the inner bag, and then put the ice cubes and salt in the outer bag.  The kids are supposed to shake so that the freezing outer ice mixture will freeze the ice inside, but in the end we gave up and put all the ziplock bags into the freezer at popo's place.  The outcome? Another yummy (but sinful) ice cream with just 4 simple ingredients ! :)

Kathleen with her ziplock of half eaten ice cream

Think this is so fun we will be doing it again soon :)

20110422 chek jawa

Everyone had wanted to go to Chek Jawa for a visit, but the timing is never right.  Then mommy found out that it will be low tide in the morning of Good Friday, and so almost everyone (the females, that is) wanted to go!

Since we are supposed to reach Changi Point Ferry Terminal (opposite Changi Village Hotel) very early, we all decided to have a sleepover at 大姨姨's place the night before to ensure that everyone will be able to wake up.  Yuan yuan even rushed over after his tuition had finished.  Everyone except Daddy , that is, and Julia and Charlie (who is sick) and 四姨姨 (who have to take care of Charlie).  So all of us sleep in 大姨姨's bedroom, with 4 sleeping bag (the kids sleeping on the 大姨姨's  mattress), and 大姨姨 sleeping in the sofa bed in the living room (wise choice, because the kids refuse to sleep :P)

Besides the discomfort of the sleeping bags, we were not able to sleep well as the neighbours across the road seemed to favor talking in loud voices in the middle of the night.  And there are also vehicles zooming past with their loud engines and horns despite the fact that it was supposed to be a minor road which is near to the dead end.

Poor 大姨姨 forget to reset her alarm and it woke her up at 5.30am when we planned to wake up at 6am! :P The kids are very tired to wake up so early. We then wait for Daddy to appear while having breakfast.

Daddy appeared on time and we left around 7 plus.  We reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal with lots of empty parking lots to spare.  One of the bumboat operators managed to squeeze us in with a few other passengers and we board the bumboat immediately after arriving at the jetty.  There are some seats 'inside' the bumboat, and some outside (but still sheltered).  The ride costs us $2.50 per person.

Boarding the bumboat

Bold Kathleen held onto one of the poles for a photoshot after seeing Janice doing the same

Lots of yachts behind...

The ride across the sea was smooth (Kathleen had asked mommy the day before we will encounter sharks or dolphins but thankfully we did not encounter the former :P) and soon we reach Pulau Ubin.  Upon reaching dry land, an uncle asked us if we wanted a van ride and charge us $4 per person for both ways, and so we got our 'personal' van to Chek Jawa.

We went to the jetty first after consulting the staff at the information kiosk.  It is still low tide and the sea moss is exposed (see picture below, all the green colour below the boardwalk is the slightly submerged sea moss).  The older kids managed to spot mud skipper, sea coral, and even a school of fish!  The weather is hot and sunny though.

a anemone in the middle of the picture

a school of fish that we encountered swimming at the end of the boardwalk.  Someone did ask if they are edible .. :P

After that, we went to the other boardwalk and climbed up the 21m viewing tower which allow us to view the intertidal flats.

the pointy looking things on the right edge of the picture is the coastal boardwalk with people walking on the flats

We proceed to the coastal boardwalk and managed to see many fiddler crabs (those crabs with one big pincer and one small pincer)

Visitors are only allowed to go down onto the flats if they managed to book the group organised by the volunteers ($60 per group, max 15 person, usually have to book half a year in advance) which of course we did not manage to do.

One of the few shelters along the way

After we have finished getting lots of vitamin D, we called the uncle for the van and then made our way back to the jetty where Janice wanted to go to the tidal pool in search of marine animals.  We found fishes and even hermit crabs in the pools!

hermit crabs!

The kids having fun in the tidal pool while the adults are suffering from the hot sun.  The long white and brown line behind is the jetty.

It was about 10plus then, and alot of people have just arrived at the island (which made us wonder if they did not manage to wake up as early as us, or they simply do not mind the hot hot sun).  We took another bumboat back to the mainland to see a long queue of people queuing to take the bumboats to Pulau Ubin (again, we wonder why).

We then proceed to have lunch at a nearby coffee shop before going back to  大姨姨's place.  We rested for a while before (ahhh..children and their endless energy) going for some pool fun.  After swimming, we went to to find Charlie and 四姨姨 there and then the cousins spent some time playing computer games before going home for the day.

Mommy asked Kathleen which is her favourite part of the outing, and her answer? The sleepover and swimming.  The city kid just does not like lots of walking, especially under the hot sun.  But for the adults, at least now we have finally made that long awaited trip to Chek Jawa... :)