2017

It has been a tough year and much a learning year for me. This year taught me real hard that the real world is not as good and as fair as it should at least be. When hard work doesnt pay off and when honesty is not what people want to hear, you realise that this world, a mask is mandatory. Bootlicking is not an option anymore. People only want to hear what they want to hear, you do what you are only asked to. Any thing more, dont expected it to be awarded and appreciated. My note 4 is dead and i haven got the chance to repair it to post my year photos. So based on my tiny brain, i remembered the training at bangkok with colleague; it was good, i meant really worth the trip because there was so much to learn from the experienced. The family hong kong trip which was once in a blue moon and the fact that we all grown up and expectations and lifestyle are all different. My niece grew way too fast that she can speak alot now. Many life questions popping in and out this year where i have no answers. Every year i wish for a better year and every year is a challenging one for me somehow. Maybe my self reflection is wrong. Maybe im still lost....

To the me in 2017, be stronger and better.

Hong Kong Trip

I think we have booked the air ticket for more than 6 months ago, probably in dec last year. Probably that is one of the reason how you can save on the trip expenses. We bought the SQ promo ticket at S$260 to Hong Kong. not bad a deal right? It's been so long since we family go on a trip. 14 year ago i guess? And i get to sit SQ again! you know it wasn't that easy to take SQ, given the fact that we always want a low budget trip ( we are poor… LOL). So after waiting for more than 6 months, we are off to Hong Kong on 29 Sept with early morning flight. :) 

Airport OOTD with my fav cousin

and my once-in-a-blue-moon-travel-with-us xiaomei. 

Did I mention this time we are bringing her to Hong Kong too?! so excited for her lor.

Singapore Airlines, by far my favourite airline (thou the service wasn't as before…)

We reached Hong Kong around 11 and did the first thing we always do; buy prepaid card. I didn't really want to buy which I will tell you why later, so i went to help the 8 of us except baby with the Octopus card (Singapore's ezlink card). I would encourage whoever travel to HK to buy this because it is really more convenient with the card than you always have to buy single trip ticket. Of course that is if you want to go on public transport rather than cabbing every time. 

So our hotel we stayed in Hong Kong is called Dorsett Mongkok. Anyway, did i say it was the first time in Hong Kong for me? My sis asked me to plan everything but my planning wasn't that well planned because I actually didn't come up with any itinerary. Hey i was super busy ok with work. So this hotel was actually recommended by my colleague. They didn't really say it was super good because seriously they did emphasise to me that the rooms are super small but it was actually convenient and cheap. Dorsett Mongkok is in between Mongkok and Olympic Station. Nearer to Olympic station. We booked the rooms direct from the website because there was some promo. So a 5D4N stay total up to S$287 per person, which means to say per room per night is about $150? I believe there are definitely cheaper hotels or accommodation but because we are travelling with baby so we definitely couldn't really afford to stay too cheap. Let me know if you have any other cheaper options for my future visit to Hong Kong! The room is really quite small but their service is good and the hotel actually provide each room with a 3G unlimited data phone which you can bring out and free local calls. HOW GOOD IS THAT? SEE THE REASON WHY I DIDNT BUY PREPAID?! HAHA. I AM SMART OK. Because basically the entire trip, i on hotspot so that I can use my own phone to surf net and post live photo update. AND i use the hotel phone to call my sisters during the entire trip. Tell me how convenient and best thing about that!? Of course the phone with hotspot on the whole day can only last for a day or slightly lesser till the night and the batt will be dead. BUT GOOD ENOUGH!

SO this is the room, really small but is ok! me and my sis are actually quite easy going with the hotel as long as it is clean with bathroom. 

there there, the youngsters and little one

Off we went to the nearby restaurant for lunch because we are all hungry, i mean VERY.

simple beef noodle in a what Hong Kong called 茶餐厅

Then we head off to Ladies Market. Since we are actually in between Mongkok and Olympic, we decided to walk to Ladies Market. To add on, Dorsett Mongkok has got free hotel shuttle service to 4 places. Hotel > Mongkok/Ladies Market > Temple Street > China Ferry Terminal > Kowloon > Hotel. But the timing wasn't that favourable. I actually didnt really like it throughout the trip. Yes it is super convenient to have a shuttle service but the timing is hourly pick up from hotel and one way route. So imagine the whole trip we took this shuttle bus, even to go back hotel from Mongkok/Ladies Market which is a good 35 to 40 mins. I mean, to me it is a waste of time seriously, we could have spend the travel time on the shuttle bus to go some places. But, yup the travel group style is different this time. So here we are at Ladies Market, I would say if you are in a gift souvenir shopper, you might like it here. Otherwise I didn't really buy anything from here, didn't feel anything worth the buy.

cute little keychains

A Street POTD 

By the time we are done at Ladies Market, we went into this random plaza for some retail shopping and there the time passed for dinner already. Had some Japanese food near 油麻地 station and we are off back to the hotel as most of us are dead tired.

The second day we woke up to a cooling weather, lucky me for my last minute planning to Disneyland.  The ticket is of course not cheap at almost a 100 bucks but how not to come disneyland when our niece is coming with us? :) Pictures to do the talking now~

A group photo!

See my cutie pie! 

you just become a kid again when you are at disneyland

everything is so cute and cartoon 

One of the not so kiddy ride, you won't find many rides suitable for us in Disneyland de

yet another one again. This is not bad

of course you need to take at least a photo with the mascot or disney character. Mickey Mouse is too popular with freaking long queue. no chance for that

Then because we are in the Halloween month, they have got Halloween costume Parade instead. But it was rather a short one.

In Disneyland, I think there are a few shows that is worth the watch. We watch the Lion King Musical and Mickey and the wondrous book. Really is worth the watch but it would be good and I suggest to go in as early for Mickey and Wondrous book because we were one of the last to go in and we sat really very corner and far away which wasn't that good view at all.

Olaf! 

and the ever famous Elsa. When the music drop off, everybody was like " woahhh" 

Then the long awaited firework

dreamy and starry world

and there comes the last day for my dajie n family, mom and xiaomei cause they are flying back on 2 Oct and shan me my cousin and aunt extended one more day instead. Early in the morning we head to Jenny's bakery to bulk purchase the cookies because apparently you need to buy this back as a must-buy souvenir. There is two outlet in Hong Kong, one at 上環站 and the other at 尖沙嘴. We are really super lucky because when we reach there, no queue at all! No need for 2 3 hours queue! How lucky is that! Probably because it was drizzling as well and nobody really wants to go out. So we finish with our bulk purchase super fast before 9am.

Oh. Shan and me have to try this because everybody is hyped up about this so we  bought and try. I couldn't drink others except for Milk Tea and I would say, not bad, not bad.

Here our bulk purchase to bring back SG. Initially thought one person can only buy 4 boxes but nope! No such condition for us that day. But we still limit ourselves la. 

Head over to Edward Station to this 一点心, one Michelin Star restaurant. It opens at 10am but expect a queue even before it opens! We head there early to queue and already the second in line despite so early. shortly after, the queue starts long. This restaurant is super small thats why you need to go early otherwise you easily have to wait for another 1 hour or 2 even if you are in a small group of 2 or 3. Finally satisfiy the dim sum craving in Hong Kong. Seriously how can you not eat dim sum in Hong Kong. I believe any of the random street would have some awesome dim sum for sure. 

=D

Then we are off to Mongkok area to do some shopping again, my aunt and cousin are crazy shoppers seriously. They can buy anything anywhere. Me on the other hand, none. Weird enough, I really didn't buy anything up till the 2nd last day. Just food, so I was hoping I could buy something. probably some clothes or shoes. But negative. damn it. And we wanted to go to Victoria Peak and take the tram but it was National Day for China. Crap shit, what a day to plan that because the queue to buy the tickets was UBER DISGUSTING and that doesn't include the queue to board the tram. WTF seriously, i didn't get the chance to ride the tram T.T We decided to abort the plan because it was too insane. Went to Temple Street hoping to get something but end up getting a lot of socks because it was really irresistible. Too cute! Even up till now Im regretting that I didn't get enough. Headed back to hotel because the non youngsters are tired. LOL

Street OOTD again

So we 4 head out to have some dessert. Back to Mongkok again!

playing with Snow

Tadah! Dessert time. Quite like this even though I don't eat Macha. 

We need to spend at least 50HKD per person so we have no choice but to order at least 3 items amounting to 180HKD

This is definitely a must. The above dessert was just for instagram worthy sake. of coz we did finish all 3 la. 

Bid Goodbye to dajie and all because they have afternoon flight to catch and we planned to 大屿山 for the crystal cable car and infamous bean curd that my cousin say we have to try. 

initially we thought this was it, as we saw the first shop that sells bean curd and it say gu zhao wei. LOL but nope not this. 

Of course we spam a lot of photos over here because of the nice lighting and our specially chosen outfit for nice pictures. LOL.

There there, the right bean curd. look for the word 山水豆花. There is two shops over there, i presume both are about the same

The crystal cable car whereby you can see the scene under your foot

Then we went to causeway bay to see if we can do some shopping but i think there must be something wrong with me. Nothing caught my eyes for me to buy. desperately sad but my cousin and aunt are dead beat tired but it was still 7ish and I didn't really want to waste my time again in the hotel room rotting. Usually my travel don't happen like this; I only go back hotel around 10 or 11pm unless I am really too tired or sick because why rot in the hotel room when you are already out for vacation? There is so many more things to see! So I didn't give up and continue my walking with Shan. Probably only Shan can walk with me like this, that calls for the reason why she is always my travel buddy. But i really have nothing to buy over at Causeway bay so i suggest going to the habour to see the night lighting of HK. But the avenue of stars is closed and almost the whole stretch couldn't enter so we only get to see the other half of the night view.

still nice, still relaxing

taken with my note 4 :)

Then we went to 油麻地 Station and decide to walk all the way to Mongkok Station because the whole area of Mongkok has really got a lot a lot shopping. The whole Nathan Road is full of shopping retail. We didn't really plan if we need to catch the hourly shuttle bus, we just decide to take the walk and if we do manage to catch the bus then lucky us if not we have already prepare to walk all the way back hotel. More things to see too :) But of course it was already Sunday night and presume all the shops are closing early because by the time we take our walk, its already 9plus. Bought Mac fries and munch our way while street shopping. End up in Sasa buying some facial cosmetic stuff because I couldn't accept the fact that I really didn't buy anything. LOL. So we end up catching the last shuttle bus back to hotel at 11pm.

Last day of our Hong Kong trip, how can we not visit the Australian Dairy Company? We couldn't really do much on the last day too given that our flight is at 340pm. So we head over to the cafe at 9plus to see a long queue. But as you have already known, HK is well known for sharing seats and fast service for F&B. Nobody will eat and spend the whole morning slowly chatting at the table. So the queue move pretty fast too. We are done with our Breakfast around 1020am.

Australian dairy Company! Yes the eatery!

And we were crazy to order a breakfast set for each which include the macaroni, 2 piece of toast and eggs in scrambled or sunny side, egg white pudding and tea. My stomach almost explode eating all. In the end we gave up on our Tea/Coffee when asked! 

We went back to hotel to checkout and head out to Edward Station to do last minute shopping again because the Nathan Road stretches all the way there and obviously we are all regretful of why we are not there earlier for the trip because there is too much to buy. I didn't have enough time this time to buy a lot of things. Damn sad. and we are off to the airport already with a very nice taxi driver that we met! Let me know if you want his contact because we got his! Really super nice uncle.

I wasn't planning to have a crazy trip in Hong Kong because it was our once in a blue moon family trip and there are old and young so we really couldn't do much. Didn't want to say I enjoyed a lot because it was very much different from my travel trips but it was still consider relaxing short vacation while I break away from the reality.

To the land of smiles

Blogging from Changi Airport Gate 22. Flying off to land of smiles for training. Yet another solo flying trip. It has been a crazy July. First time I was sent to the hospital via ambulance. First time I need to drip. 3 bags somemore. First time I had to take so many injections and test. Life is never so smooth afterall. Some decision just need a little more courage and assertiveness. I can do it.

Coming back in August with a better month. Ciao~  

"Push yourself. Don't settle. Just Live"

There is something about this movie, this story. I couldn't quite pen it down but it felt so deeply for me. Not on the romance part but rather the meaning of life. The philosopy of life. It was sad no doubt that he chose to end his life eventually but who could ever understand the agony of losing everything that one once ever had. The wealth, the charisma, the almost perfect life.

But, what is worse….. to once have everything and lost it? or to have nothing to begin with? I guess the latter.

Time to pick up this book for a read and the sequel.

Take me away from this reality…..

non reality vs reality

Sometimes delusion and fairytale can make you forget how cruel and dog eat dog this world is. Temporary that is. So for that moment you are at least peaceful and happy.

4 months into this year and I just had the toughest realization. It is still a world of boot licking and favouritism despite the hard work. No matter how much you do, if you are not the favourite, it is pointless. They might thank you for your effort, but always nth more.

Hardwork will bring result.

Really?

changes as always... welcome 2016

2015 has been yet another happening year. Here's the snippets of my 2015.

Jan - quit my F&B job and went to Genting with the bf to relax.

Feb - my cute niece 1 yr old celebration at Raffles Hotel Restaurant.

Mar - Watched Beauty and the Beast Musical with my sister and I was jobless since then.

April - Said goodbye to 1000 degree thick glasses because I went to do Lasik which is the best decision in 2015 so far.

May to September - I started work at a hotel and have been crazy so far. Went into Istana for the first time and the second time again. Went through F1 and crazy shit 2500 pax event.

October - Halloween at USS with the bf, all thanks to my ex manager

November - SHE concert and Shan grad at Home Team. Then I went travelling to Taipei with the bf, me being the tour guide.

Dec - Crazy work month in Dec not because there were alot of events but because everybody clearing their leave and I was left to do most of the job. record breaking of 10pm plus to leave office for home. It was insane.

I have the first xmas exchange with my gfs as well. (Though the presents are still with me now)

Went to Garden By the Bay to see the winter wonderland for the xmas feel because I was so upset over a crazy work month.

My 25th birthday went simple with my favourite crab feast with family ( initially we wanted HDL but all full) and nice company with my love over a cafe meal. We wanted to have a gold glass / platinium suite movie but couldnt get the timing.

I lost some and I gain some, I realised some and I'm happy over most. Thou I am still wondering around in my career life and have been thinking alot as to what should I do, I am still glad that 2015 has been over.

My resolution is simple - to have a good career path and keep more friends.
Someday I wish I could be like normal people; to travel with friends and love ones. ( My travel buddy has always been my sister/bf)
This year december, hopefully I am able to see a White Christmas!

May 2016 be a better and fulfilling year for everybody!