The "Magic Balloon"

While digging one of the compartments of the closet where all kinds of banned toys were once kept out of my reach, mummy found this party pack. It was given to me by Ching Yi-yi (from Australia) about a year ago. Finally, I'm "old" enough to play with them...

The party pack consists of a DIY whistling helicopter, Snow Magic (tiny granules that expands 100 times its original size when soaked in water), a glow-in-the-dark stick and a magic balloon...

My favourite (and mummy's too) has got to be this Magic Balloon. She loved playing with this when she was a little girl. Those days, she could buy them for only 5sen or 10sen for a small tube that came with a tiny straw. These days, they come in bigger tubes and of course, the "straw" is a better-looking mouthpiece.

Is this medicine, mummy? Haha! (I had no idea what it was at first, so I asked her this question)

I'll huff and puff and huff and puff...

Hi there!

Does anyone know where we can buy this "magic balloon" here?

Nothing Better To Do...

Mummy did something silly with me today. It's called "play until there's nothing left to play in the house". She took out a box that kept some of the fondest memories of my baby days...

My pacifier and toothbrush collection box

I had 13 pacifiers (one for each month) before I was successfully weaned at 13 months

The 10 toothbrushes that I have used (and damaged)...

And the funniest part was, I wanted to suck one of the pacifiers. LOL! Curious to see how I'd look with a pacifier now, mummy chose the cleanest and newest one, gave it a good wash and handed it to me...

*chuit chuit chuit* I miss being a baby hahaha!

Goo-goo-ga-ga...

I liked it so much, I had it in my mouth the whole afternoon and evening, until daddy came back from work. When he saw me, he was stunned and speechless haha! *and just shook his head*

Observing Earth Hour

We observed Earth Hour for the second time today. Last year, we just stayed at home. This year, we did something different as we were back in Seremban.

Surprisingly, Gung-gung was an eager supporter of this cause, so at 8pm+, we switched off all the lights in the house and went out for a car-ride (ended up burning fuel instead haha!). Our journey to nowhere eventually led us to Carrefour.

Our our way home, Gung-gung suggested supper so we headed to a mamak stall in town for this very rare treat (we never eat out late at night)...

Roti canai... my favourite!

I absolutely loved the roti canai but my intake was only limited to half of the roti. Ah Ma (and mummy too) did not allow eating too much greasy food just before bedtime.

We reached home at about 10.30pm. The lights in our home was switched off for more than 2 hours.

Post-Holiday Depression

For the very first time in the history of my school life, I ponteng-ed school yesterday (because we only came back from HK yesterday). I think I must be the perfect attendance "record-holder" in my class and have never been absent, not even for a day, since I started school on 4th Jan.

Well, I finally went back to school today. Although we reached home quite late yesterday (at about 8pm), mummy felt that it wasn't an excuse for me to skip school today.

And guess what? I cried. I cried the next day too. And the next, for one whole week! My teacher said some kids are like that. Mummy thinks I may be suffering from post-holiday depression. I think I miss my holiday...

Kowloon Park - Final Day in HK

Today is our final day in Hong Kong. Since our flight home was in the afternoon (3.30pm), we decided to spend the morning at Kowloon Park. It was less than 10 minutes' walk away from our hotel.


Come on, let's go...

Fish ponds and pagodas at the Chinese garden

The beautiful flower garden

The children's playground

There was a mini aviary there too.

Some of the birds there

There was a huge swimming pool (part of a sports complex) somewhere in the middle of the park...

Can I swim here? I want to swim here...

We found another maze here! (The first was in Disneyland Hotel 2 days ago)

I loved the maze!

Like father, like daughter...

Shady, relaxing and scenic

Taking a rest

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for brunch in a tiny little shop. We had Cart Noodles...

Not bad. We ordered two bowls with different ingredients and shared out the varieties. Each bowl cost HKD18 (RM7.80)

We returned to the hotel to gather our belongings (already packed-up in advance) and waited for our pre-arranged transport to get to the airport.

Bye-bye HK...

The plane that we boarded

HK - Day 3

Woke up at 8am+ this morning. Our main agenda today was to meet up with FK Kau-foo (mummy's cousin who resides here with his family).

We went out quite early to hunt for breakfast. Just a few steps away from the hotel, we came across a dim-sum shop. It was full but as we entered, a family was leaving so we did not have to wait for a table. Then came the real challenge. The menu was all in Chinese and both daddy and mummy were Chinese illiterate! The staff there were really busy running around. Not wanting to bother them (we couldn't even catch their attention in the first place), we just ticked a few items on the menu at random... just main tikam.

Fooling around while waiting for our food... the service was quite slow and we waited quite a while

When the food finally arrived one by one, we were pleasantly surprised by what we had unknowingly picked... Ooh, got porridge. Ooh, got chee cheong fun. Got siu loong bao, char siu bao, fried nin-gou, and the last one, we did not order that but the waitress kept insisting that it was ours. So just makan lor... (we only paid for 5 items hehe)

The porridge came in a huge bowl and it was really yummy. It was bursting with "liu" (ingredients) like dried cuttlefish, big peanuts, dried scallop and fish. Overall, it was a good and satisfying meal and the price was very reasonable too (cheap, in fact), only HKD43 (RM18.70).

After a hearty breakfast, we walked to Harbour City to hop on a ferry to get to Central, Hong Kong island. So, more walking today...

Walk, stop, take photo, walk again...

La la la la la... happily walking with mummy...

My first ferry ride

We met FK Kau-foo, Anita Kam-mou and cousin Ishan shortly upon arrival at one of the piers. Auntie Anita recommended this Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus tour...

The rickshaw bus that we sat on

I refused to sit on the open upper deck so I cried and made a big fuss :(

Shame-shame... wailing loudly in front of so many people

To pacify me, daddy sat with me in the lower deck. I told him I was afraid of falling off the bus! Later, after much persuasion and reassurance, daddy managed to convince me that it was safe and alright to sit up there. See, mummy and everyone else were still there and no one had fallen off the bus. I finally obliged...

Smiling again...

I enjoyed the rest of the journey on the open upper deck. It was fun! The tour lasted 50 minutes but I spent only the last 15 minutes enjoying the breeze up here. Well, at least I tried...

Next, it was lunch time. More walking...

Both the dads carrying a kid each

Saw some cute dolls along the way

Kaufoo brought us to this very small and crammed shop for wantan noodles. It was fully occupied so we had to wait outside for a table...

Cute... Ishan and I holding hands just outside the shop

By looking at the crowd, we knew the noodles had to be good. It was, because I finished almost the whole bowl!

The noodle was very fine, springy and well-textured while the wantans were made with fresh, succulent whole prawns (no pork). Yummy! It was very pricey though, HKD30 (RM13) per bowl.

Eeeeeeeeek, cute bear... it was the mascot of a pizza chain

Later, we popped in a bakery for some snacks.

Left: Eating HK's popular "polo" bun in front of the bakery while waiting for the egg tarts Right: Mini egg tarts, hot from the oven

Reading in a cosy corner of a bookshop with Ishan

At the market where mummy bought some fruits

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our lovely hosts. To FK Kau-foo and Auntie Anita, we would like to thank you again for your time, the lunch, the snacks, the sightseeing bus tour (kau-foo paid for everything) and your warm hospitality. We hope to see you again on your next trip back to Malaysia!

Exchanging goodbye hugs... so sweet!

We took the same ferry back to the mainland.

The Star Ferry that brought us to and back from HK island

We window-shopped a bit in the Harbour City mall.

Imitating Leapfrog's pose in ToysRUs haha...

Then we went out for an afternoon stroll along the harbour front.

Some colourful display at the harbour front


Left: Skyscrapers in the background covered by mist/haze

Right: Watching a street performance right beside the Hong Kong Museum of Art

At the Avenue of Stars, along the harbour front

Sitting behind the Hong Kong Space Museum

Next, we walked back to our hotel. It was about 15 minutes' walk from the harbour. Poor-daddy had to carry out the back-breaking task of carrying me from one end of the city to the other. And he's been doing this for the 3rd consecutive day today (good workout for him haha).

Sleeping in daddy's arms

Along the way, brief stops were necessary, especially if we happened to spot a vacant bench or chair...

Any place is a good place to sleep... including the sidewalk

After a short rest in the hotel, it was time to cari makan again... dinnertime. We went back to the same eating place as last night's. After walking up and down the street aimlessly, we just settled for the restaurant closest to us...

We ordered 2 set meals, which came with rice and 2 dishes - scrambled eggs with loads of shrimps & spring onion, and fish fillet with sweet corn, plus watercress soup and a pot of tea.

Again, the service here was very slow. After about 20 minutes of waiting, the smart lady boss quickly came over to give me something - a rubbery toy cow (maybe to apologize for the delay)

Me and my Black & White cow... press the belly, got moo-moo sound one

After dinner, we took a walk in HK's famous Temple Street night market. The things there did not attract us at all... they were mostly fake branded goods, watches, clothing, bags etc. We felt that our pasar malam here had more things to see and buy haha!

As usual, I was fascinated by all the cute toys

We preferred walking into shops and supermarkets. After some shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest.

In the elevator of the hotel

Oh yes, earlier in the day, mummy discovered some very precious "treasures" near the harbour. Being deprived of fresh fruits and veggies for so many days, these were indeed our much needed "treasures"...

Organic fresh fruits and veggies!

The organic purple carrots and organic cherry tomatoes were bought from an Organic Fair. The blueberries were bought from the market. The organic produce here were very cheap, about 50% cheaper than those in Malaysia so mummy bought a big bag as "supplements", to make up for our rather lack-of-vegetables diet.

(And does the Mickey bowl look familiar? Mummy "curi" from the Comet Cafe in DL yesterday. It's a plastic disposable that would have landed in a bin anyway...haha)