Hong Kong

I was in Hong Kong few weeks ago for work, and missed her just by a day or two. Otherwise, I would have kepohed and visited her new pad there.

Anyway, this was a really rushed and packed trip, and I hardly stepped out from the hotel, save for social obligations with my customers, despite staying right in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui.

View of the harbour from my room

Had dinner on the first night at Café Deco at The Peak. The weather was fantastic that night, so I managed to capture some decent night shots.

Grilled cheese and mushroom quesadilla, tempura soft shell crab and mango roll and Peking duck naan for starters; and strawberry cocktail for dessert

Choice of angus striploin steak, grilled fillet of superior salmon or grilled Western Australian king prawns as mains

We caught the Symphony of Lights show at the Avenue of Stars on the second night, but dinner (and the next night’s dinner) was disappointingly very forgettable!

On the last day, since we had some time to kill before our late afternoon flight, we went to Aberdeen and rode on the sampan poking our noses around the home of hundreds of people living on fishing junks around the harbor. It’s unbelievable to find such traditional lifestyle still exists amidst the modern high-rise community.

Next stop was the Stanley Market for some shopping.

My loot from Stanley Market for the girls

Back at Kowloon, we even managed to visit a local market (one of the guest in the entourage wanted to buy some Hong Kong kailan home!) before heading for our dimsun lunch, and finally the airport for our flight home.

Random updates

June had been a really hectic month at work and I had forgotten about these photos taken at several events throughout the month. So here’s a quick round-up of happenings in June:

I was in Penang for work during the first weekend of June, and Yiu Yiu participated in a colouring competition organized by her art class. This time, her papa bought her a new set of 24-colour pencil, to ensure she’s not let down again by the poor quality colour pencils that she uses to doodle at home. Though she didn’t win anything, she didn’t take it too badly compared to last year. Perhaps it’s because she won a prize for the lucky draw.

Busy colouring with her new set of colour pencils

Receiving her lucky draw prize

We celebrated mum’s birthday with a vegetarian dinner at Kechara Oasis @ Jaya One. The restaurant has a nice ambience and food was quite decent.

Mum with her five grand children

Birthday cards from Yiu Yiu to popo

I was away again the last week of June and Yiu Yiu's music class organized a Talent Time showcase. This is the second time in a row I missed out! It’s actually just a very simple event held at the recital hall of the music class building, but still, I can’t believe I missed BOTH the art competition AND the Talent Time TWO YEARS in a row!

Love notes

Hubby bought Yiu Yiu stacks of pastel coloured papers which she loved to bits. She’s been keeping herself busy with those papers – drawing and colouring cards or simply writing short notes for us. And I had the privilege of receiving some of her lovely notes:

"mummy I really really love you mummy. and I really miss you."

"mummy I love you. mummy eventhough I make you angry do you still love me. thank you for loveing me."

"I Rilly Rilly love you. I Rilly love love love love love love love love love you."

First semester Parents-Teacher Day

Last Saturday was Parents-Teacher Day at Yiu Yiu’s kindy, the day parents collect the report card for first semester examination, as well as getting an update of their children’s progress from the class teacher. Yiu Yiu already pre-empted me that her teacher will comment that she’s talkative! Must give her credit for having self awareness. Haha…

While waiting for my turn, I flipped her exam papers and saw this:

Haiya this girl ah! Copy also can copy wrongly, and that careless mistake cost her three marks.

All her papers

Overall, my pre-schooler is doing well, judging from what her teacher said:
• She has good attitude in trying/giving her best in everything that she does, and willingness to learn. Apparently she’s sometimes used as a good example to her classmates :-)
• She gets praised for her neat handwriting, and whenever it happens, she would be in cloud nine!
• She’s a bit slow in her work, but the teacher attributes it to her wanting to turn in her best work.
• She can sometimes overanalyze things, resulting in her confusing herself when solving simple questions/problems. Whoa! So young already having the “Paralysis by analysis” syndrome :-)
• She gets along well with her friends.
• She’s ever so generous in sharing her food with the teacher, though I think this is also driven by the fact that she would not need to eat so much if someone else is helping her finish up her food!

Her teacher didn’t mention about her being talkative so when I asked, she immediately concurred, and added that she can even be naggy, especially to the boys, to get them to do their work properly :-) Why am I not surprised?!

When I raised that she still doesn’t seem to get her phonics and spelling right, her teacher wasn’t too concerned, since she’s reading quite well, which I’ve also noticed lately. She just asked me to continue encouraging Yiu Yiu to read, which isn’t too difficult, since she likes reading.

Bento #211 – #215

Some recent bentos:

Blanched noodles in soya and oyster sauce, French beans, corn on the cob and tulip rose apple.


Chocolate flavoured mantou, corn on the cob, homemade fishballs (not by me!) and a single wedge of orange.


Red bean pau, heart-shaped cocktail sausages, corn on the cob and two wedges of plum.


Homemade fishballs (again), kamaboko stuffed with Japanese cucumber, corn on the cob and grapes.


Fish fingers with potato wedges, and watermelon cubes.

You are just nothing!

The girls were watching Barney in the car on the way home one day, and the show was on occupation, on what kids want to be when they grow up, when Yiu Yiu asked:
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, next time when you finished working, what do you want to be? (She meant to ask what my ambition was, but since she can’t say when I grow up, she just substituted it with when I am no longer working).
Mummy: I want to stay at home, and look after you and mei-mei.
Yiu Yiu: No, I mean, what do you want to be?
Mummy: Haiya, mummy already an adult, and I’m already doing what I do, so what else can I be?
Yiu Yiu: No! I mean…doctor ah, teacher ah, all these things. You are just nothing!
“You are just nothing!” How flattering!

The conversation continues…
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, can you be a ballet teacher?
Mummy: Ballet teacher? Why?
Yiu Yiu: Because I want to learn ballet, so you can teach me lor.
I should seriously look into scouting for a ballet class for her, since she’s asked for it several times now. And swimming...and Chinese and Maths Kumon/Enopi…the last being my own wish, not hers! :-)

Jakarta again

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve not had the chance to go to Jakarta in my previous company, and my trip then was the first. And just two months after the first, I found myself in Jakarta again!

I was a little apprehensive about this trip, coming so soon after Osama’s killing. We even had to change our event, involving more than 150 delegates, from JW Marriot to Mandarin Oriental, just a week before the scheduled date, as our company issued a security alert to avoid all US-brand hotels.

But it was business as usual, with nary any “abnormal” activities. But we did had a minor scare on the last day. We were having an internal regional meeting with about 15 people in the room when suddenly we heard something that sounded like a small explosion, and felt the room vibrating! Everyone started to look at one another but we carried on. This was followed by two successful “explosions” and our Indonesian colleagues decided to check things out with the hotel. Turned out, some guys at the gym one floor up, were doing something with the bar bells, and dropping them onto the floor. Phew!

Anyway, since I only spent all my time at the hotel and only went out during dinners, this post is about just that – the hotel and the restaurants we patronized.

The luxurious Mandarin Oriental Jakarta

Harum Manis serves authentic Indonesian food in a romantic ambience. The restaurant decoration is inspired by Javanese traditional home. The name Harum Manis is derived from the sweet cotton candy which can be found in traditional markets.

L to R (top): lumpia (spring roll), otak-otak (fish cake), gado-gado
L to R (bottom): stir-fried kangkung, gurame goreng (deep fried fish), satay 1-meter

Kembang Goela is a fine dining restaurant serving Indonesian home cooking with Dutch influence. The cozy interior, set in Javanese ambience and decor, coupled with the chandeliers and antiques, completes the elegant look.

L to R: deep fried spaghetti as snacks, drink with lots of chewy stuff inside, jus alpukat (avocado juice with chocolate syrup), the elegant menu

Clockwise from top left: dendeng balado (crispy fried beef slices), deep fried spring chicken, ikan kerapu bakar, stir fried four angle beans

True to its mission of bringing the majestic Majapahit Kingdom era back to life, antique pieces and artefacts from the Archipelago can be found throughout the premise of Lara Djonggrang, giving the restaurant a mystical and romantic ambience. This was my favourite among the three restaurants, both in terms of decor, and food.

L to R (top): gado-gado, corn pancake, vegetarian platter
L to R (middle): curry fish head, stir-fried vegetable, grilled chilli fish
L to R (bottom): deep fried spring chicken, grilled prawns, sate lilit

And as as luck would have it, I was in Jakarta again the last two days – that makes it my third trip to Jakarta within three months!

Short holiday at Impiana Cherating

School holidays are here but I could not spend much time with Yiu Yiu as I was away for most of last week, and again over the next two days. Hubby had planned on going back to Kuantan the weekend school holidays started, so I suggested that we checked into a hotel and let the girls have some holiday fun. Most hotels at along the Kuantan – Kemaman road was running on full occupancy but I managed to find one (and probably last) room at Impiana Resort Cherating.

So after spending a night in Kuantan at in-laws’ house, we headed to the resort the next day. Knowing the standards of hotels along this stretch, I was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the room, in particular the bathroom.



The long stretch of beach on which the hotel is located is also clean and quiet.


Since it was the school holidays, the hotel had several activities lines up for the guests – among them, colouring and cooking for children.



Later that evening, we hit the beach before winding up at the pool.




Instead of driving all the way to Kemaman, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant about 8km way. The restaurant also serve stuffed crab, which is what Kemaman is famous for, and we promptly ordered three. Food was pretty decent, and price was reasonable.

After breakfast the next morning, we went to the pool again before checking out and heading back to KL.

A cat in the house

I was having fish for dinner one day, and had left the fish head untouched, coz I’m not good at “dissecting” the fish head. A cat saw the uneaten fish head, attacked it...

...and polished it all off.

Arts from Yiu Yiu

Well, the title of this post says it all…

Here are the card and craft from Yiu Yiu for Mother’s Day.


And this, she drew while I was away in Jakarta two weeks ago.


She wanted to surprise me with it, but the papa let the cat out of the bag with a casual mention in an sms. And when I asked her about her drawing while skypeing with her one night, she got so upset that she cried – coz she said it’s not a surprise anymore :-)