Wow! Welcome me back… haha.. Just realized that for half a year I did not update my blog.. oops..Many things had happened between then to now.. but to say it simply, it has been a very challenging era for me. Great responsibility are given to me and have been handling it as best as I can. Many things that I need to learn and new responsibilities that I need to take on and more challenges that I need to overcome and endure in the coming new year..

To speak truthfully.. I am so damn tired.. My only wish now is for a me to go for a short holiday to recharge my batteries. But over the next year.. my wish is to handle and able to manage my team well and everything will be able to go on smoothly and each month able to meet my budget and of course if can able to exceed my budget and less complain and able to meet all the audits requirements!

Let’s hope in the new year I am able to find the strength to carry out all my wishes above and able to achieve my goal! Endurance and more patience are being called for..

Hmm.. whats my goal? To be a Spa Manager.. woah! yes.. its a goal to work forward for.. Let’s hope I will achieve this with great health.

Anyhow, will be going for countdown later at Grand Hyatt Macau! Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you will have a great 2012 with great health, wealth, luck and happiness!

Even though I have some emotion ties with the company, as this is the company that taught me a lot, cultivated me to who I am today but it comes the time when you need to leave the nest and explore more of the world. Even thought my previous company is a very good established resort, one that I kind of “grew up” with, but I think the 7 years or so that I was with them was just enough for me to grow and now that I have left them for about 2+ years, I realized that it was really the time for me to leave the place and learn about another type of organization since the resort is quite small and it was not an international brand hotel. 

Now as for my other 2 options: the position at Hangzhou and the one over here are still on pending mode. The position in Hangzhou is not being approved since my manager do not wish to release me over here, therefore I am not able to get the inter-hotel transfer. However just recently, my manager just informed me an upsetting news even though might bring my promotion closer but I am still wondering if its a good or bad news. My promotion here is also still being determined if they have any labor quota for the Assistant Manager position, which apparently, there isn’t, therefore would need to reapply which takes some time. So it still remains a BIG ? if I will be promoted. I will just wait and see on what will happen next and make any other decisions according to the outcome then. 

Since last year, I had been planning for the trip to Japan. Just when I got everything booked and secured, the next day the earthquake in Japan happened which lead to a catastrophe of a major Tsunami, series of earthquake and the last of all the nuclear leakage which now makes Japan not a destination to go for the next couple of months/years. The headache of cancellation of the trip and trying to get the money back from the travel agent and airlines. At the end able to get most of the money back but with some handling fee that Hong Kong Travel agent is charging for the cancellation. This will remind me not to go through travel agent and to get things done myself to save some ridiculous fee that the agent will charge. Since I was clearing my last year leave and not able to cancel those days, which is about a week, so we planned to go to another destination. Many ideas seems to poped out : Ireland, Europe – Switzerland, Canada. But after thinking that we only bout a week to plan so decided to go somewhere nearer. Since SP had been to Taiwan but a few years ago and for me a few months ago but there are a few places that I did not manage to visit, so decided to go to Taiwan instead. Its not my norm to go back to a place where I have been before, however since I want to go somewhere for my birthdy, Taiwan here I come! This trip mainly just focusing on Taipei and Sun Moon Lake, the only place that I wanted to go previously but did not have the time to go.

A week before the departure, SP had an emergency – her grandma is not feeling well and need to be admitted to the hospital for observation.  The trip was then put on hold till her grandma is certified alright and able to go home then to decide if the trip to be proceed. Nothing is more important than family members and their health. Once we get the green light then we started making the air ticket and accommodation reservation through internet.

Finally the day arrived. SP comes to Macau, a day earlier before our Taiwan trip and we went to watch the House of Dancing Water with 2 other ex-colleague, SS and WL. Had a great time catching up with them and hoped that they enjoyed the show even though I had some tummy problem half way through… sigh.. lucky I watched the show before! We had a late dinner that night but SP and I had the popular Pork chop bun and the spicy fish ball at Old Taipa.. It was very yummy! But I liked the fishball the most.. After dinner at one of the Taiwan eateries near my place, we head back home as I need to pack and rest before the trip..

The next day, Taiwan here we come!  We arrived at Taipei and we took the bus from the airport to the city. The bus drop us near to the train station where our hotel located. However, to our surprise.. its quite chilly and it was drizzling a little. Dragging our luggage along, finding the correct direction and finally we reach our hotel. The hotel was ok.. nothing fantastic.. I find the most funny part is we enter from the main road but it was actually the back of the hotel where the concierge is and we need to go all the way to the back for the reception then after registration, we back track to where the concierge is to go up to the room…. funny layout.. After storing our luggage in the room, off we went to explore. SP wanted to buy a sweater as she did not bring a thicker ones, so we stopped by at one of the shop. After that, from the map, we saw that there is a Hello Kitty shop quite nearby and we decided to look for it. SP initiated the interest when we were doing our research. So I though it should be quite cute and tag along.

After walking a few minutes we found the shop. Everything is pink and white and of coz. Hello Kitty is everywhere.. the lamps, the display, walls, placemats, food … even the toilet amenities! very very kawaii and girly.. haha but surprising many people goes there too.. some of them are tourists. We ordered some snacks and drinks.. Photos enclosed.. Had a cake and a coffee.. of coz with Hello Kitty decoration!

Finished oooh and aahs at the Hello Kitty cafe, we went to the main street and start to look look see see, window shopping at the shopping centres nearby. Since the Kbox is all around we decided to go for a karaoke session that night and reserved the time. As there are still time in between, we went exploring again and along the way we had some street food and drinks..  When the time is up we went to the kbox, sang and listen to music for about 3 hours then we head back to hotel.

The next morning, after breakfast we check out and took a cab to the main train station. When we reach there, only we realize that the bus station to take the bus to Sun Moon Lake is still a distance a way. So off we go and manage to get on the bus. The journey is about 4 – 5 hours. So we slept, read, listening to our mp3, played games using SP iphone.. and finally we are there! The area is quite small, I think during our 3 days 2 nites there, we walked around the area at least like 4 times. We stopped at the visitor centre and we asked the person how to go to our hotel which is just around the corner where the bus did passed by but we were too busy looking at the scenery to notice it. We checked in and since we indulge a little for these 2 days, so our room has a balcony and has the view of the lake and we have a welcome fruits too.

But due to the weather, instead of the lavender color that we often see in the website and pictures… the water is all blue and misty.. Can’t see far away island. We walked around and had lunch at one small shop which has some kind of a set meal. It comes with soup, veg and fish. It was quite good and quite entertaining since the shop owner is disciplining her kid in the shop too.. so we had children crying and running around too. The first day we just walked around the area, followed a walking path to another side of the lake and when we climbed up there was a tree filled with wishes and there was a cafe and a souvenir shop. We went in to have a look and ended up buying some. The shop gave us some paper to write our wishes and to hang on the trees, so each of us wrote and hang it up. Hope those wishes will come true!  After that we had our dinner in another eateries nearby and we had beef noodle that night. After dinner we decided to return to our hotel and rest.

The next day, it was a rest day. We nearly missed our breakfast timing but it was good.. We woke up in our leisure and prepared for the day. We took a boat to the other side of the lake and thinking of taking the cable car to the folk village but due to the time, we decided to go over the next day instead as the folk village will be close in an hour time. So we just explore the area and had some of the local food over there. We also bout a bag of “keropok” and we enjoyed it while waiting for our boat to arrive to bring us back to where our hotel is. The trip back was quite scary in away as the fog is quite thick and you can’t see anything in front of you. It was like the scary movie with the house near to the lake and there is something in the lake.. That night we went back to the same restaurant for dinner and we had rice with minced pork.. It was very yummy with the gravy. After that we arranged for a spa treatment to close our day. It was totally bliss!

The next day was a rushing day for us, as we work up a little earlier to have breakfast and took the ferry over and we straight away went to the cable car station which is about 10 mins walk from the jetty. During the cable car ride, the area was foggy and when the cable car reached the top of the mountain where u can’t see anything over the other side, it was really something like a haunted movie.. I seems to visualized haunted movie like as though I always watched them but truthfully, that is not the case. I don’t watch horror movies. When we reach the folk village it was around 11am. So after walking around and had some light lunch, we watched a couple of the cultural shows and we head back. However, we saw the wrong time for the ferry therefore, it turn out to be a drastic rush for us as we need to catch the bus back to Taipei. The boat man was quite helpful to contact another boatman to bring us back to the hotel – needless to say we need to pay more too! But luckily, running and dragging our luggages, we managed to catch the last bus to Taipei.. Whew! Half way through the bus stopped at a station to drop and pick up passengers, we went down to use the toilet as we did not manage to go during our mad rush, and we also managed to grab our dinner – KFC! Yes.. my fav finger licking good food!

By the time we reached Taipei, it was at night, we took a cab to our hotel and checked in. Since this was the same one that I stayed previously, it was some kind of a deja vu for me. We explored the Ximending where its a popular place for youngster to go there for food and shopping. We had Mee suah for dinner and we walked around till the place closed around 11pm then we head back to hotel.

Next day we went to the Museum of Palace where we see artifacts, the Jade cabbage, some treasures and we ended up there fore about 3 – 4 hours. Many China tourists are also there, therefore when we are trying to take photos, they are always somehow becoming the backdrop.

After the museum, we proceed to Shilin market, there we had many many delicious snacks, we had the big bun wrap small bun, fried chicken fillet, big sausage wrap small sausage, oyster omelette, smelly beancurt, bitter gourd + apple juice. It was total superb! After having those delicious food, we need to walk them off, so we did some shopping and ended with a foot massage.

We had a rested morning and in the afternoon we took a half day tour to the north of Taipei. We went to Jiufen, to see the Volcano crater and the stone formation. We did some more shopping in Jiufen and we ate the fish ball over there, where I had mine during my previous trip. It was totally nice to go on a trip with such a relax mode.. It was totally bliss.

The next day we went to the Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall to have a look and to take some photo. When we return back to our Hotel for our other half day tour to Yamingshan and to go to hot spring, we stopped by for ice cream at the Cold Stove where SP celebrated my birthday! The staff actually sang a Birthday song for me.. It was real fun.  .When we arrive back to Taipei, we finally make our way to see the Taipei 101 in the evening to catch the lightings. We even went up to the 39  floor to see the skyline with commercial building being lit.  After that we went back to Ximending to meet up with my Taipei friends and we had Tim Sum for dinner. It was really good to catch up with them.

The next day was our departure day back to Macau. Since we still have a couple of days in Macau, brought SP to the fort and we ended up did not go to see the Panda which was the original planned. We went to have portugese food that night and ended with another foot massage in Macau to end our holiday. This was a truly relaxing trip as we did not rush to go anywhere and it was a truly relax and unstress period for us, which we need to recharge our battery to start our engine again when we went back to work.

Click to view slideshow. 

I flew back on the 28th January to Singapore and the next day I took a bus back to my hometown. As time, my throat felt very itchy and scared it might lead to cough or sore throat where it will deprive me of my good food, I control my intake of cookies. But still, I managed to eat a lot of yummy food and some of my favourite food. On our reunion lunch we had about 8 dishes and among them we had a real huge steam fish and huge steam prawns. (Sorry, too busy eating, therefore did not manage to take any photo) It was truly yummy! This trip I had: fried carrot cake, kuay chap (a kind of  white noodle shape of triangle and eat with salted vegetables, and stewed pigs innards – some people might not accustom to this delicacy but it was very delicious!), lontong (rice cube with vegetable curry), laksa johor (white noodle with fish sauce), thosai, nasi lemak, red bean and jagung ais kacang and of course my mum’s cooking.. more healthy.. and only can find in 1 place – my home!

Of course when New Year approaches, there are many preparation and cleaning that we need to do. This year we even bought some “Kuang Ming” lantern to put at night. When we lit up the lantern, we make a wish and let the lantern bring our wishes up to the sky. However, we really had a lot of fun putting the lantern as due to strong wind, we end up chasing after the lantern to “rescue” them in order to avoid them being burn to ashes so soon or worse burn down other people’s house! It was really fun, which involve everyone in the family, some hold the lantern, 1 person to block the wind and it come from different direction! 1 to monitor the fire when we lit the cube of wax at the base of the lantern. Most of our lantern will go upwards and zoom to the side therefore it did not go too high, only 1 or 2 able to make it higher.

This year, there are also many family that play fireworks.. It was really nice.. Those are quite similar to those being played during National days but only slightly smaller. Very nice to watch all those colors exploding in the sky, witht he loud noice, they really give a little festive mood to the neighbourhood!

This year is the year of rabbit and in one of the temple that I went, they even have some live rabbits being put on display and some of them even wore clothes. Really cute!This year CNY was quite good for me, as I managed to catch up with a few friends in my hometown – PH, SL, SP, CS and LF and some of my Singapore friends, who I don’t often contact – EL, my ex boss – SL and some of my ex-colleague – EP, AK  too!  I also managed to have dinner with my cousin JL with my aunt and I followed my parents to visit my other aunties and cousins. I find this CNY I am able to catch up with many friends and relatives that I do not often catch up with, which was good!

Another activities that is a norm during CNY and that is gambling. I am not saying those going to casino, I am saying those we play with relatives with small bet for the fun of it. We had our gambling sessions – blackjack and mahjong. Needless to say, I lost during my mahjong session but I won a little during the blackjack session. Overall, I still lost. haha.. but it great fun and it was just playing with family members and for the festive season. No matter how busy this festive makes us, its always fun and we always look forward for the next year CNY. Not forgeting able to collect ANG POWS!

As many people and also what I believe: Health is wealth. To expand to what I briefly said on my previous blog on my ordeal early this month. I was having a lower abdominal cramp for a day or two and thinking it may be a constipation problem. The day it went worse was the day where its the coldest of the year where its 4 degrees and my cousin is here for a visit. I woke up early on that day and ignoring the pain and went out to pick up my cousin from the old taipa as she would like to know where to buy the popular pork chop bun.  Brought them over to my place and we left to go to Macau side to have tim sum. Brought them to Tok Tok Koi restaurant and they enjoyed the food. After that we went over to Zhuhai as they would like to go to the underground market to shop. Since there was not much things that they are looking for, we only spend a couple of hours there. However, during these couple of hours, my abdominal pain start to increase. Luckily I am able to stand the pain till I reached home with occasional cramps.

Once we reached home, I called to my manager hoping to get a couple of hours off. But she advised me to go to see the doctor since I have been having these cramps for the 2 days already. My cousin and her husband accompanied me to the nearby company clinic. The doctor is quite a nice lady but she told me that I need to go for an ultra sound as she is not sure what is the actual problem that is causing the pain.

Defination of Ultrasound

Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to look at organs and structures inside the body. Health care professionals use them to view the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver and other organs. During pregnancy, doctors use ultrasound tests to examine the fetus. Unlike x-rays, ultrasound does not involve exposure to radiation.

She wrote a referral letter to an X-ray clinic in Macau.  At the end my cousin and her husband accompanied me to the X-ray clinic. A truly clinic tour for them which I feel very embarrassed as this happen during their holiday and due to my problem, it wasted some of their time. We waited for a couple of hours with me drinking lots and lots of water as they need my bladder to be bloated with water, so since I just emptied before visiting the clinic, it takes a while for it to fill to its brim.

Halfway through, thinking that I am already ready I went up but the doctor tried to scan but my bladder is not too full yet and asked me to drink more water and wait for a while more. After half and hour, I am finally ready and went up. Voila! its bloated enough. The doctor applied a jell on my skin and it was real cold and she use a scanner to go over the jelled area.  I was hoping the doctor quit pressing down as I was really urgent to go to the loo but my endurance called in. The doctor finally informed me that I have a growth size of the golf ball at my uterus but still unsure what was that, seeing that I was getting anxious getting looking at the screen. With that worry in my mind, I dash to the nearest loo to ease myself. It was such a relief that that part of the test is done but here come the worry, what is the growth? a cyst? Do I need to operate? If need, do I need to operate in Macau, where I have no family members around? Can I do it when I go home? What if its a cancer? Shit.. if operate, its going to be damn painful and my skin has keloid skin.. its going to look so ugly.. all these statements and questions start to pass through my mind. Now I need to wait till the next day for my result.

As the day gets darker, we finally managed to get a cab to drop my cousins to the ferry terminal as they need to get across to Hong Kong then I returned home. Hope I did not disrupt their holiday too much..  Once I get home, my pain start to intensified, I lie on my bed to rest and doze off a little till a phone waked me up and I need to leave the house quite urgently.

On my way back, the pain was so unbearable that I squatted down in the lift and waited for my floor. It was during then, that I started crying for my parents and missed being at home.  My house mates took care of me that night, making me porridge – making me eat something even though I did not have any appetite, a warm foot bath and a warm pad to put on my tummy. It helped considerably and I must have shaken and worried them that night. :p The next day they called me to ask for the result but the result is still not out yet till the next day. But gradually with help of the heat pad, the pain eased off.  The next afternoon, I finally received my result – I have a 4.1 x 3.9 x 4.5 cm myoma.

Definition of myoma:

Myoma is a solid tumor made of fibrous tissue, hence it is often called a ‘fibroid’ tumor. Myomas vary in size and number, are most often slow-growing and usually cause no symptoms. Myomas that do not produce symptoms do not need to be treated.

Since I do not need to treat it just yet, it was a great relief, however, this is not the cause of the pain. Therefore I need another 2 more test to find the cause of it. One was to test my white discharge and another was a Pap Smear (PAP) test. The 1st test was to find out any infection or any other bacteria but thankfully it was tested negative but with a slight infection which the doctor finally gave me some medications. When I went for my PAP test, the doctor asked me to lie on the bed and placing both knees on a steel plate on each side. She then applied some lubricant and insert a kind of device to open the vagina which she then proceed to use a soft brush to brush as much cells from the area. The doctor kept chatting with me to keep my mind off the uncomfortable situation. Thankfully less than 10 minutes, its done. My PAP test result only received after a week where it was a negative for any cancerous activities, which was a great relief. BUT the cause of the lower abdominal pain was due to.. NO idea, as the infection was also not the cause of it. So Not sure what is the thing that causes that pain and can only just leave it as a question mark or due to the cold weather? hmm.. yet to be determined. However, I was really thankful that there is nothing serious. Eventhough I did not break the news to my parent in order not to worry them, but I published it on my FB, as I did not expect my dad to be online on that day to read it, however, to my dismay, he did! So at the end I still worried them. Once my result is out, I informed them of my result to ease their worry. After this incident, it truly came to be that health is really important than anything else. Just for all the tests, I had spend more than MOP1k which I was hoping able to claim from the company insurance. But eventhough I do not get back the money, I do know that I would still continue with them. Not matter how much money you earn, once you neglect your health all your wealth will go into your health plus you cannot even enjoy your fruits for your labour.

Time just flies while you are busy with your own work. At times, we need to stop a while to reflect and be thankful with what we have and/or achieved. Last year 2010, there has been a lot of changes. some for the better some remain the same. As for what we would like to achieve in the new year of 2011. Here is my summary of last year and my expectation for the new year:

2010

1) lost our Assistant Manager (AM) and Spa Manager(SM) in the same month and had a new AM then she being promoted as SM within 3 months

2) Lost a few GSOs  in the early year and recruited a couple new GSO at the late last year.

3) Managed to travel to Korea, Taiwan, Shenzhen and went back home twice

2011

1) Better Health – Coz I have some problems just a couple of days ago and went for a few tests. Manage to discover that I have Myoma but lucky its not so serious. Now still waiting for my PAP test result and some other test results.

2) To go home for Chinese New Year and hope able to catch up with all my friends

3) To be able to advance my carreer to AM – be it in Macau or other spas in other country

4) Able to go for my Japan trip that I am planning now in end of March with SP so I can spend my birthday over there

But the most important one is still point no 1

Whenever we go travel, we always either go with friends, in a tour group or solo.. As exciting as solo being, at times, you tend to go with your friend/s as your travel companion. However, not everyone is a good travel companion,whether they are your spouse or best friend. When we go to another country to visit, we would want to travel with someone for a couple reasons:

1) At least you will not feel lonely, you can share the wonderful or negative experience with your friend.

2) You have someone that you can depend on if you need help and this is the most important reason.

During the trip, there are bounds to be a lot of give and take.. compromise  like places to visit and dine.. But some due to save some money and wish to share a room, then there is more to compromise like time to use restroom, air conditining. If one can’t compromise on any of the element, then they jolly well pay a little more and get their own room.

I do understand that each one of us has our own budget to travel, but still you cannot be like uncle scrooge. At times we can go for those cheaper meal and 1 or 2 meals to go for a little more expensive ones, I find is not an extravagant. I do not agree for those who like to stinge during travel.. eat bread and jam, unless this has been agreed upon prior to the travel or if you are going for those back packing trip, then yes, for the experience, I would not mind doing some of this but one or 2 meals I would still like to go for their local food.

An advise also for those travelling, make sure before you go to any travel you are fit to travel. If you are going with a friend to a foreign place and you fell ill, your friend will have to help you and send you to see clinic and to nurse you. So not only you ruin your own holiday, you also ruin your friend’s. Of course, there are times where its all out of sudden, then its no choice for the matter. But if you are already feeling a little under the weather before you go, then you need to decide to continue with it or not. We are not saying that we do not wish to help you when you are ill, if its a out of sudden one, its ok, but if all a while you have not been keeping fit and you go for those exciting trips, where you are not fit enough, its a burden to your friend/group. So choose your activities according to your fit level.

There is always a golden rule in travelling, you take your own things. We can help you look after when you busy but other than that, you carry your own water, luggage, bags, umbrella (if required). As if in your group there are guys and gals, normally if guys are more gentleman, they will help the gals to carry things, but now there seems to be another kind of guys where guys will ask the gals to carry their things, just because we gals, normally will have a bags, which is the most irritating issue. So guys, if you do not wish to carry gals things, then you carry your own things, please! We (gals) are most grateful!

Having a friend is good, they are able to help you whenever you need but both sides need to stand on their own feet and not to be too depended on other person. So choosing who you go with is very important as it will affect your enjoyment of the trip. If you do not enjoy them, then it will be such a waste of money isn’t it? Due to you will not feel like you have fulfilled what you go there for.  If you really do not have anyone you wish to go with, then at times, its much better to go on your own, but depends on the country if its safe for solo travellers. Places like Thailand, China, India, is always better not to go alone due to the security is not so tight.

So when you start planning for your next holiday, choose who you wish to go with more carefully! Happy Travelling!

P/S: SP – As promised..

One of the thing we love the most of going home is of course to catch up with your family members and the 2nd is the FOOD! During this trip, I had my fried carrot cake, fried kuay teow with crockerals,  Ah see won ton mee, U mee, chandoll, nasi lemak, lontong, breakfast bee hun, bak kut teh, kuay chap, loh mee, roti canai, teh tarik, thosai, home cook food, kueh kosui (made my mum.. yumm!) and we went up to Hadjai where we have tom yam soup and many many delicious food! I think I had put on a couple of kgs..

When we went up to Hadjai was 3 weeks after their massive flood which is till 2 m high. We saw the damages that incurred to the citizen due to the natural dissasters. Some of the shops are still washing and cleaning, some had opened. We went there for the Loy Krathong festival. It really reminds me of the song that we heard during childhoon – Loy Krathong song – loy loy krathong.. .. Here we bought the set of float decorated with flowers and leaves. In the middle, there is a candle and 3 incense sticks. Before we put it down to the lake/river, we have to cut some nails and hair to put it inside (indicate our bad fortune) and we will do a little wish and gently put it down to the water. It will float away with our badfortune. Some people put some money in there, and we saw a couple of kids digging at those floats that had float away and the owner had left for money.It was a very nice exprience since its the first time I went for this festival. Some photos are as below.

Along the way up to Thailand, we stopped in KL for a few days for shopping and we went to have a look at my bro new flat. Its very nice and still need for renovation. Have a very nice view of the golf course. How I wish I am able to own one of this flat.. Maybe I really should start saving up to be able to buy one somewhere.. oh well.. till then I can only keep dreaming.. haha.. coz everytime I get to save some money.. I always use it to travel to somewhere.. now already thinking of going to JAPAN! see.. how to save money in this case? hmm…

This is going to be a very very short blog.. hehe.. its because I can’t contain my excitement! I have 1 more day to go and the next day I AM GOING HOME!… Finally! The last trip back home was in February before Chinese New Year where I just went back for just a week. From then till now, my parents came to visit me in July and I went for 2 major trips – Korea and Taiwan.

But now I will be going back for 21 days! Isn’t it, wonderful!  All my favourite food – nasi lemak, roti pisang, teh tarik, asam laksa, laksa, BBQ ray fish, wan ton mee.. Here I come!.. yumm… The thaught of those food really makes my mouth water.. Of coz, before I go back I need to do some errands first.. Rental and Internet I have paid already and I have passed the letterbox key to my housemate for her to open for the electricity bill and so that they can pay before they go home as well and they will be back end of November, a week after come back.

Now I am just counting down days.. 1 more day to go!!! Even though there are a few things that I do worry during my absence on the newcomer, E, but C will be fine. I will miss the days working with her as each day I ended up always laughing till my tummy hurt.. Always fun working with her.. E is more quiet than C but maybe she is very new just join us on the 1st November. So let’s give her some time to accustomed to the environment and the job scope.

Not sure if I will have time to blog when I am at home.. if not.. shall see you 3 weeks later and will share my joy being at home with you guys then!.. (oh another thing to look forward to was my aunt from Australia also will be back for the holiday at the same time as me!  Isn’t it fun?)

So during my 5 days off, I went to Hong Kong again for 3days 2 nights bunking over at my friend’s place. She was a Korean who we worked together in Singapore. Before I went to Hong Kong, many people keep telling me that the apartment in Hong Kong is very small. But what I had imagine was its should be about the same size at the flat that I am having now in Macau and maybe only slightly smaller. But when I went to A apartment, where she share with another lady (land lady/subrental) The flat was really small. If compair to mine, its about the 1/3 of the size. Its really small. When I walk in is the toilet/shower on my left and right is the dining area which also join to the living area. Next to the toilet will be the kitchen.  Its just a small narrow place where there is some cupboards and small fridge. After the living area then there are 2 rooms. A’s room is slightly smaller compaired to the other room. A room rental is even more than my entire apartment rental! So can you imagine how expensive is it, staying in HK? Using the same amount, in Macau can get a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom in a very new apartment – also with much more space.

Therefore for the 2 nights I sleep on the wooden floor at the living room. Its not that bad. On the first night, we planned to join a social event organized by an inter-nation organization for expatriates who stay in Hong Kong. So thinking of just broadening our social circle we went to find out what’s all about. There are quite many people from many countries just mingling around – most people went there to get some networking with others for personal reasons and some for their company. As A explained to me, in HK, how you tell them what you are working as is very important as they will then judge you if are high position or not. eg.. If someone work in a bank as a teller but when they go to this kind of event, they will just say “Oh i am in the banking” .. see how prestigious it sounds.. but if you were to ask deeper then, you will find out what they actually do. Most people here are always working in banks. We met a lady in an investment bank (can’t remember) who came from Australia and kept on saying out tax rates in HK or Australia. Then we met another guy from Taiwan who used to work in the same bank from Australia and they started chatting bout their colleagues, So A and I left their table and found a table by ourselves. However, one auntie came and sat down coz her legs is very tired. But salute her, with her age, about 50+ and she gave us her name card (with her wedding photo). Can’t you believe it! She was working in University in US but she kept telling us she made a wrong choice of coming back to HK. She need to come to these events to network.. hmm.. Both of us kept wondering networking for… ?

After a while we find that this kind of event is not really our cup of tea. After finishing our 2 drinks we left and went to Lan Kwai Fong and ended up in this pub. We just had a glass of disgusting Lychee martini and a glass disgusting red wine and just catch up with A then then call it a night.

The next morning, we went to Disneyland. We reached there about 11am and we went to the most exciting ride (Space Mountain) Its like a roller coaster but at the end coz its all darkness and we do not actually feel the downwards feel and we just moved together with the ride, so at the end its not exciting at all. We went for other rides as well. But for us its not exciting but probably good for kids under 10 years old. We did see Alice in the wonderland, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Snow white, Cinderalla, Ariel, Beauty. We even manage to take photo with Chip and Dale, Minnie and Mickey Mouse! But a bit dissappointing with Disneyland. BUT, Disneyland did gave me a few souvenirs from this trip. As October is a month of Halloween, they did a couple haunted houses. So we unknowingly went into one of them. As its separated to a few groups and so happen A and I were the first ones to go in with the 2nd group. Unfortunately in my group we have some scarry cats. So I just walked infront with A clinging on me and coz I just kept walking no matter what came out from the sides or back or top or bottom, so both of us are kinda separated from the group and A kept asking me to wait for the rest. So seeing her quite frightened, I slowed down and the group caught up with us. We came to a part where there are 2 rows of statue on each side. I commented that one or 2 of this statue will definitely just come to life. One smart scarry alec suggested to run through. I mean if they want to run then go by all means but don’t pull people. To my dismay, one of them pulled me along and sure enough, I fell and it became like stampeed with 5 -6 people landed on top of me. I came out with bruises on  both elbows and knees.. and even lower abdomen. sigh.. just my luck…

That evening, even though we are quite tired, we even went to a factory outlet at the end of that line since we are already at that area. As if we were to go there from the city its very far and more expensive, so since we have bought the 1 day tourist pass, we decided to take the opportunity to go over. But there wasn’t much we wanted to buy but A just bought a shorts from Polo Ralph Lauren and I bought a casual shoes (with white sole for badminton) from Nike.That night we had a good night sleep after walking the entire day.

On my last day in HK, we went for yam cha at Causeway Bay, and then we went to ladies market. Bought a few things, DVDs for my aunts, some games and then we just went back to rest a little while I packed all my damages into my faithful Umbro bag and then we left for western dinner at a shopping center nearby her place. After dinner, I just took the MTR to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry back to Macau. It was a short trip but definitely a memorable one!