Thx :*

After an absolutely shitty week, I am desperately wishing the remaining weeks in 2012 to be as smooth and simple as can be. Since I've promised myself to be more positive this year and I think I had a pretty promising start to this week, I think its most fitting to have a random list of things of which I felt thankful for today :D Here goes~

Dear Monday, 27 August 2012, thank you for:-

• The nice biscuits and chocolates that I got from my colleagues today without any particular reason. Made me feel a teeny bit greedy but it all tasted good so what the heck :P 

• Giving me a seat on the MRT on the way home today almost immediately after I got on, something which rarely happens during rush hour~

• Fewer phone calls today which let me do more work than I had hoped since I could concentrate better without being harassed by phone calls all the time :)

• A nice lunch! We had something that I felt like eating today and we had enough time to enjoy our lunch instead of rushing to finish like a few times last week XD

• Not being scolded by my clients even after holding on to their work for so long, more than 2 weeks in fact because I've been spending the past two weeks furiously trying to catch up with my work that I just kept putting aside tasks that needed more time and research.

• Letting my boss agree with me to release 6 files full of documents to the client instead of asking me to photocopy every single document like they requested at first *phew*

• Getting runny sesame glutinous rice balls which I love so much and think I'm addicted to. This may seem weird but sometimes the balls just aren't runny or chewy enough. The soya milk was super warm today as well, so thank you!

• The internet at home which is working surprisingly well today, allowing me to indulge in my drama of the moment *Rooftop Prince Mansei!*

• Having people in my facebook friends list who actually answer my questions when I need advice, feels good to know that they are not just mere acquaintances  whom I have only met once in my life @@

• The availability of aloe vera gel for my stress pimples which have sprouted all over my face recently and which I hope will disappear by the end of the week, since I'm being so optimistic and all :P:P:P

Since its just past 12 midnight, here's wishing for an equally great Tuesday ahead!  and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and... oh well, you get the gist~

Gonna end with a photo of the cutest puppy in the world (or in my home.. whatever..) to make me feel even fuzzier:- 

 *suddenly realised that abrupt endings are my forte* :P

Unexpected Fireworks *.*

On a particularly hot and sunny day in July, I finally got to meet up with a friend from my KL work days. Oh how I miss those guys! So, it was quite nice to finally get the chance to meet up with Niki :)

 

Even the sky was happy that day :)

She'd chosen to go to Sentosa with me when I asked her whether there was any place that she wanted to visit, and so Sentosa it was.

 

Riding on the Sentosa Express. Pardon my shiny forehead, sweaty nose and half-awake eyes but we didn't have many shots together

We did the usual touristy stuff, including taking a photo with the Universal Studios globe and then going into Hershey's and Candylicious to escape from the sun, and I finally entered the casino :)

 Thanks for the air-conditioning, Hershey's!

 We ended up at Livewire where we could do some cheap gambling, none of us wanted to bet at the casino since the minimum bet was S$5 and we didn't want to be throwing our hard-earned money away. Bought Toto instead for S$2, hahahhaha...

Since the glass doors aren't see through, we really didn't expect such a big crowd inside @@ lots of old pros..

Okay, no particular meaning but you can see my new imitation Paul Frank phone cover here and I really like it :P

Lunch was KFC in front of the Merlion, hee.. dining with a view~

Spent a nice part of the afternoon relaxing by the beach.. Yeah, I'm more the hide under the shade of the coconut trees type of girl and not the soak up the sun and the sand type :P

Saw this couple with their awesome swimmer dog, it was so cute to watch it doggy paddling with its short legs.. i never knew that they allowed pets on the beach in Sentosa~

Yeh, Saranghae you too chingu! :)

Niki and her cousin had to leave Sentosa to reach Marina Bay by 7pm as they were going to visit the Skypark~ I have never been up there and since there was going to be something special happening there that day, I decided to tag along.

It costs $20 to go up to the Sands Skypark and we can only go up to the 56th floor. Skypark tickets and the use of the infinity pool are complimentary for hotel guests tho.. so it should be worth staying at if you have some $ to spare.. hehehe..

Turns out they were having the National Day Parade rehearsal at The Esplanade that day and we would have a chance to enjoy the spectacular fireworks show!! :D

A glimpse of the night view before the fireworks show at 8pm~ The place was so crowded and it was lucky that we got a little hole to share between us.

And the show began!!! I was really quite pretty, pity I couldn't quite capture it on my phone but it made the $20 Skypark ticket really worth it :):):) Don't think I will go up there on a normal day since there isn't much to do except look at the night view through the wire fencing XD

Our nice day was marred only by our dinner at TWG. I really can't justify the price with the food and the service! We're also expected to wait at least half an hour for a table *groan* Just because its one of the more affordable places for food inside Marina Bay, urgh.. That lasagna was really just mediocre and don't even get me started on the watermelon juice! Anyways, had dinner around 9pm and finally made it home at around 11pm @@

My souvenirs from the day.. Really tempted to get a Fujifilm Instax Mini *slurp* but I know I'll be lazy to carry it everywhere with me in the end, so I should just quell those thoughts :P

Hong Kong 2012 - Chapter 6: Avenue of Stars and The Ding Ding Tram~

Started off our final day in HK bright and early, the goal: Authentic HK Dim Sum for breakfast/brunch~! After that, we'd planned to visit Avenue of Stars and then cross over to Central to visit Causeway Bay..  After checking for directions with the concierge, we made our way to Nathan Road for dim sum at Cheers Restaurant (稻香）which our colleague had tried before and recommended.

 

Stopped by Mcdonalds to share a burger before beginning our search for the place.. They have twisty pasta on the menu, how cute~

 After walking around Mongkok and passing through Langham Place, we finally found the restarant!

The restaurant was bigger than it looked from the outside, and we were given a table in a smaller room. It looks empty here because we were very early, by the time we left, the entire restaurant was packed and there was a queue outside as well. I guess HK people really love their 'morning tea'~

 Order sheets.. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't use pushcarts, I think a real dim sum experience must always have pushcarts because choosing what you want from the cart is the part that is most fun XD

 Looking so excited over dim sum :P

Food for 3~ yeah, only 3 survivors left on the last day, one sick, one tired, another one on a date..

 My favourite was the steamed spare ribs, so yummy~~ but for the other stuff, i think we can get that quality in Malaysia as well, sigh.. too high expectations for HK dim sum I guess.

This is how they keep track of what has been eaten for the final bill.. little number stamps on the card :)

After our meal, we made our way to Mong Kok station again to head over to Tsim Sha Tsui

Taadaa.. behind us is the replica of the statuette given to winners at the Hong Kong Film Awards (how do I know that? well, wikipedia told me :P)

Obligatory touristy shot with the Avenue of Stars sign~ :)

There were so many palm prints both familiar and unfamiliar, but this one made me feel proud to be Malaysian.. heehee...

Photo-bombed by a little girl while taking a picture with the cute 麦兜 =.=

More touristy shots. As you can see, it was rather hazy on our last day there, and it was also getting warmer in anticipation of summer.. I ended up discarding my scarf and jacket after awhile.

We were nearing the ferry terminal and all of a sudden, I had this deja vu feeling like I knew this place! 

It's the place always seen in TVB dramas where the actors want to jump into the sea when they are feeling depressed.. hee.. :)

Finally arrived at the ferry terminal and bought our tickets.. err.. tokens. The ferry ride was so cheap, only HKD2.30 if I remember correctly.. I'm a stickler for cheap deals~ :)

Vending machine selling birthday and greeting cards, never seen this before back home..

Caught a ride on the tram, it was a novelty when we first got up but the ride was very long and quite boring frankly. I almost fell asleep on the way, lucky I had a seat because the space was quite tight and there were people standing all the way..

This was the general view along the way because we were passing through residential areas to get to our destination, which was Causeway Bay~ 

Souvenir time!!

  Never seen before in Malaysia/Singapore green tea, mango and spicy chocolate Pocky sticks~ Mango was awesome, wish I'd bought more..

Pink Longchamp Le Pliage for Mum and black Planetes for me :D It's much cheaper and affordable in HK, even for my standards. The small Le Pliage with short handle was about SGD100 after conversion and Planetes short handle only about SGD160, definitely not a price that we can get back home..

Shorts from Mango, I find it very hard to find nice shorts and pants for my big butt, so these were a nice find :) about SGD35 each after conversion~

The customary T-shirt from Giordano (which is so reasonably priced there!), Passport holder, pink clutch (both very cheap from Ladies Market), Perfume set from SaSa and a Revlon Lip Butter (it wasn't available in Malaysia when I visited HK, I came back to find that they had been introduced here, but luckily the colour I got, berry smoothie, isn't available here, otherwise... *facepalm*)

My Octopus card (which still has some credit in it) and random touristy rubbish that I don't know whether to throw or keep, LoL~

and the weirdest souvenir of all, Kotex White, the blue one is the one sold here. The Kotex White packaging looks so much better :) I got this when we were contemplating whether to all stay back in Hong Kong with our sick colleague since she wan't allowed to board the flight while she was running a fever. Just imagining dashing for the flight and being the last at the gate just makes me feel :S all over again.. 

Some notes I wanted to make for my HK trip:-

Glad that I got to try out all the different kinds of transportation there, i.e. taxi, MTR, funicular train, bus, cruise, ferry and tram :):)

I found it funny how they have jewellery stores on practically every corner, like how we have McDonald's or Starbucks here, do people really buy jewellery every other day?! @@

Rather disappointed that I only got to see the outside of Times Square for a few seconds before we had to leave as we had to rush back to the hotel to bring our sick colleague to the hospital. Our trip ended rather abruptly with a visit to St Teresa Hospital. It was a mad rush to the airport after that and we nearly missed our flight after a lot of drama. Two colleagues were left behind that night because of some very unhelpful people at the airport, lucky that only happened on our last day otherwise it would have really spoilt our mood for the trip.

Really regret that I didn't have more curry fishballs and didn't try steamed milk while I was there.. More eggtarts and curry fishballs and Hong Kong desserts and HK style milk tea too!!! Well, there's always next time I guess~

 2012 was a good travelling year I guess because right after Hong Kong, I went to Hanoi, Vietnam!! Hope that I have time to record my memories soon before I forget everything.. 

Hong Kong 2012 - Chapter 5: Cruising along Victoria Harbour

Continuing from where I left off, this post will feature the amazing night view of Hong Kong, which is something you must not miss if you do visit!! We gathered at the lobby at 4.30pm to take the bus that would bring us to Temple Street or 庙街. My colleague who didn't join us in the morning was still feeling sick, so she skipped the whole itinerary, poor thing.. (no refunds for skipping the tour some more, luckily it was a company trip).

Forgot to take a picture of the first bus, so this will have to do, it was a long and boring journey before we got to Temple Street because there were a few stops to pick up tourists from other hotels.. XD

Luckily the weather was good, can you imagine if it rains while you are on an open-top bus.. haha

Finally made it to Temple Steet~

Personally I preferred Ladies Market much much more, this was too obviously a tourist trap, and prices were higher for the same things compared to Ladies Market, and it had much fewer stalls, with many stalls selling fake goods, I got bored of it after a short while. Luckily we were only given about 45 minutes to walk around..

After Temple Street, we switched to this open-top bus, everyone enthusiastically rushed to the upper level, except my boss, hehe... it was so fun to zip around the streets with the cool wind in our faces, until we came to the bigger roads that is..

Not only were the streets crowded, the upper levels are all crowded with signs too XD

After we got to the open areas without buildings on both sides to block the wind, everyone nearly got their noses and ears frozen off, hahahhahaha.. it was really cold, until I didn't know where to put my hands even :S but the view was all worth it! :D

This was the best I could do without a zoom function but luckily my colleague had brought her Canon along, so no worries~

We were quite far away actually at this point, so she had to zoom and zoom @.@

This was taken with my camera.. pretty neh, if i may say so myself.. :P Its the International Commerce Centre Building, the tallest building in HK with 108 floors, also the 4th tallest building in the world by the way.

The Peninsula Hotel, a super duper expensive hotel that we can only dream of staying in one day @@ The room that made it to the top 10 most expensive in the world list costs USD5k a night~

Finally made it to the harbour with our numb faces, as you can see, it was cold!

Next up was buffet dinner aboard a cruise, where we could also enjoy the Symphony of lights show which is on every night at 8pm~ When we got on the cruise it was already 7.55pm, so we all rushed to grab some food and headed to the upper deck to watch the show..

With the music and the lights on the buildings all around going in tandem with the music, it was just amazing to watch~ Can't imagine how long they took to coordinate everything, and its a free show too, how awesome!!








We were very lucky since we were there at the end of chinese new year, all the lighted billboards with the fancy greetings were still up, you won't get to see those during the rest of the year I guess~

Here's a short video just to let you know what it felt like, with the music playing and everything.. I only thought of taking videos towards the end, how stupid.. I think its something that no tourist in HK should miss.. Can't wait to go again just to see it~~

We only returned to the hotel at around 11pm, and we were all longing for our beds.. but we had to check in on our sick colleague first. Instead of getting better, she had gotten worse, alternating between freezing and having hot flushes. She was too weak to even get a glass of water from the kettle, but she was adamant that there was no need to see a doctor and she would feel better after getting some sleep. So we forced her to down some porridge and left her to rest for the night.. Oh well, you can guess what happened the next day~ on to Day 4...