Hong Kong Trip 2010

Hong Kong was the first trip for the year. Went there with Wil from 1-5 Jan 2010, however, had no time to do a short blog on it till now as was really busy with work and looking for a house since back from HK.

I am currently on a 2.5 weeks break. This is a long awaited break since nearly 2 years ago, It was initially nearly a month break but has to be shortened due to unforseen operational needs at work. Whatever it is, I have enjoyed this break so far. In addition to the wonderful Taipei trip, I do whatever that I like, no pre-planning of to-do for every day, not much household chores, no calls and emails on work, and just rest and spending times with loved ones and good friends. I feel so good to hibernate!!!

Haha, back to HK trip. HK service standard is very good! The Airport Express was impressive with drop-off at several hotels. We bought the octopus card that could allow us to travel on its MTR for unlimited trips for 3 days.

I like the winter weather.

Visited Harbor City. We could still feel the Christmas and New Year ambience with the brightly lit building decos. Walked to the Avenue of Stars and managed to catch the well known "A Symphony of Lights" along the stretch.

Try out this shop at Tsim Sha Tsai for its Yu Dan Fen and oyster porridge.

The dessert shop "Xu Liu Shan" have lots of dessert choices.
Hmm... the only thing that I cannot really take in HK is its "Yuan Yang"... too bitter for me...

By sheer chance, visited the marketplace in Wan Chai. Wow, I like the goldfish shop and those selling fresh food. I sound like an auntie hor :p


Visited the Ocean Park too. Ocean Park has improved tremenously after the entry of HK Disneyland. The Dorphin show at the Ocean Theatre remains my favorite! Got to try their ferris wheel again, nice feeling. This time round, got to see An An and Jia Jia at the Giant Panda Habitat! First time seeing pandas... they are so cute!! I wonder if they miss their Daddy and Mummy in China.

Went up to the Victoria Peak. Must try out the Peak Tram if you are going to Victoria Peak k? It is an engineering feat to have train travelling up at about 45 degree angle. Victoria Peak has The Peak Galleria now and Madame Tussauds is housed in it. Got to see HK from Victoria Peak (though sky was a bit cloudy), and of course posed with lots of famous persons in Madam Tussauds. I am glad to visit Madame Tussauds. The exhibits are made with lots of fine-eye for details and certainly worth seeing.

Visited Lan Kwai Fong and SOHO. It was a long way up, and the Central Mid-levels Escalator is a long stretch of interconnected escalators. Visited Ladies' Market and Fa Yuen St too. Ladies' Market has shrank a lot; heard that most stalls have moved to Zhuhai.

Wanted to visit the Tsing Ma Bridge, however, we were too late... at the end, we had a feast at Tao Xiang.

After the 3 trips, I think I have to eat more healthily now and lose some weight.

Taipei Trip 2010

Went Taipei for bridal photography cum holiday from 15-21 Apr 2010.

I have always like the beautiful scenary of Taiwan, and it is really nice to take bridal photography in Taipei. My Significant Other, thank you for this beautiful memorable present! :-)

Another person to thank is my buddy, Xueling, who came all the way to Taipei to give us her moral support. Thanks gal! Hee hee, you're our 'Manager' in future ;p

It has been raining in Taipei when we were there. By God's Grace, the weather was extremely good on the day for our bridal photography and the photography session went very well. Halleluyah!

Managed to visit a couple of places in Taipei this time round.
Finally got to see the beautiful Danshui. Saw a bird eye's view of Taipei from Taipei 101 Observatory too! Wow, the lift is really a high-speed lift. Reached the 89F Indoor Observatory in less than 1 min.

Shilin Night Market has transformed! It is much cleaner and with more proper shop fronts now. Have also visited Wufenpu Garment Wholesale Area. However, the clothes did not seem to be wholesale prices leh. Maybe my negotiation skills need more practice!! Another night market visited was Shida Night Market. This is my first time going to Shida, and it is crowded as it is just next to the university. Visited Ximending too. Simply like the idea of so many shops are still opened at late night.
Realised that there are lots of Sogo in Taipei, and I bought a pair of shoes with sparking starfish on it.

We like the food from the stalls in the night market. We tried the 'smelly beancurd'. The one we tried in Shilin was apparently a famous one (overheard it while queuing for it) and it's really nice with the gravy. Others are mee sua with oyster, fried oyster, octopus soup, black pepper biscuit, onion biscuit, soya bean curd with chiko nuts, soya bean curd with nuts, soya bean curd with red beans, sausages and mo chi. We stayed at the Friends Hotel and there is this shop "My Home Steak" diagonally opposite the hotel which serves very nice steak and at extremely economical price (about $8 for the steak, bread, soup, dessert, fruits and drinks). Have to self-serve own soup and drinks.

On the last day, we visited several places of interest, including Botanic Garden, National Museum of History (however it was closed on Monday), National Taiwan Arts Education Cente, National Theatre and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Took lot of photos of flowers for the day.

It has been almost a week since back from Taipei. I still miss the scenery and weather there... :-)

Australia Trip 2010

I went for an Australia study trip from 8 Mar to 14 Mar, together with 5 other colleagues, mostly nurses. The main objective of the trip is to learn about Nursing Works. For myself, I am there for the objective of learning about lean nursing processes for redesigning of the ward layout to facilitate efficient and effective work processes, particularly nursing processes.

We went to 3 hospitals, namely Cabrini Hospital and Alfred Health in Melbourne and Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide. I am impressed with the bedside handover and systemic approach in handover, and the various approaches used to increase patient-nurses contact time.

In Melbourne, we have visited the Queen Victoria Market. I like the fresh fruits, vegetables, dried fruits and flowers. We have the pleasure of being one of the earlier batches of visitors to the newly opened Australian Garden (equivalent of our Botanic Garden). A large part of the garden is still under construction; believe it will be more impressive when I visit it next time! Next is Philip Island. I love the Philip Island Chocolate Factory!! I feel like I am in the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Almost submerged myself in the world of chocolates… Visited Koala Conservation Centre and saw koalas for the first time and got to know that Koala sleeps 20 hours a day!!




Saw beautiful sunset at The Nobbies.




Lastly is the most memorable Penguin Parade. We “upgraded” our admission ticket to view the penguin at Grand Pix, and it was a memorable sight to see the parent penguins coming back from the ocean to feed the baby penguins waiting at the shore.

We have also visited the city areas, including Bourke Street and Chinatown. We took the trams to travel around. It was quite fun. We even took a train from Flinders Street to Belgrave. Wanted to take the Puffing Billy but it was too expensive for us.



At the end, we ventured around the area and I went hiking with one of my colleagues. Guess what?? I saw my dream Tree House!! It was on sale and we are invited for its open house. So we went for the Open House happily. We stayed at the Parkview Hotel at St Kilda Road in Melbourne. It is a good hotel with good amenities and location.

In Adelaide, we had only a short tour of the Holdfast Bay, near to the Stamford Grand Hotel that we were staying. Glad to catch the sunrise at Adelaide.

I like the relaxed lifestyle in Australia. The only thing I am not used to is the early closing time of the shops. They closed sharply at 5pm or 5.30pm mostly. The team is pretty creative. Knowing that the shops would be closed by the time we reached Melbourne from Adelaide, we bought chicken, vegs and wraps from Adelaide supermarket and had “chicken popian” in hotel. The cost of living is pretty high in Australia.

It was a memorable trip with my 5 colleagues :-)

Today is the first day of Ching Ming.
Mum, sis and myself made our way early in the morning to Bukit Batok to visit my Dad.

I tried to hold my emotions but I couldn't.
My tears just rolled, as I missed my Dad very much!
I miss the times that I could tell him what I face at work and in my life, and hear his advice.
I could remember his smiles, his expression when he was angry and when he was doing his favorite carpentry works.

6 Apr is my Dad's Birthday.
Happy Birthday, Pa Pa!

The family miss you a lot.