Back for Good

*Clears cobwebs*

Hello everybuddy! 

Phew! It has been a whirlwind homecoming since our return on 5th September 2015. Yes, we've finally moved back to Malaysia and we are now in PENANG!

Life in Shanghai has been great. We've had the best of almost everything in Shanghai but nothing beats the comforts of home. Despite being relocated up north (of the peninsular) and being home away from home, we still feel very happy and thankful to be back on Malaysian soil.

Goodbye 上海 Shanghai...

Hello 北海 Butterworth! (from "upper sea" to "northern sea" haha) 

Here's just a short update for now. Hope to be able to revive this blog soon. So much has happened since the previous post (what? 8 months ago?!) no thanks to China's great firewall for robbing us of our internet freedom. 

1st Anniversary

1st January is not just the start of a brand new year. For us, it was also the start of a brand new life when we moved to Shanghai in 2013.

We feel blessed and thankful for a smooth-sailing 2013 and today marks the first anniversary of our stay in Shanghai. We celebrate this special day by flying back from a wonderful holiday in Taiwan. It's quite coincidental that we ended up flying into Shanghai on the same date in two consecutive years...

1 Jan 2013 - First entry into Shanghai from KLIA

1 Jan 2014 - Re-enter Shanghai from Taipei

We spent New Year's Eve in Hsinchu, Taiwan. We went for dinner in a mall and later watched fireworks on TV (in the comforts of our hotel room) as well as live fireworks display from our hotel room window. 

Fireworks at Taipei 101

Here's wishing everyone a splendid 2014! :)

The Big Move

(Backdated post)

We started packing up on 31st Dec 2012, just one day before our departure day. The professional movers reached our PJ home very punctually at 9am and started putting everything into boxes. They worked so fast that mummy had a hard time keeping up with them because she did not want everything shipped over. Before she could tell them not to pack a certain item i.e. family photo frames, rocking chair, some "rubbish" etc., they had all been individually wrapped and put into boxes already!

Efficient men at work

While daddy and mummy were busy supervising the movers at home, I had an enjoyable day out with Aaron (my kindy classmate and best friend) and his family. We went to Kids E World in IPC. Mummy felt very thankful for Auntie Stephanie's (Aaron's mummy) help in babysitting me the whole day while she managed the big mess at home.

We had about 40% of the household stuff in our home that we wanted to ship over and in just half a day, the efficient workers managed to pack them all up... in a total of 56 boxes altogether.

All packed up... 56 boxes big and small, ready to go!

Red carpet treatment for our things as they made their way out of our apartment lobby :)

Our goods were temporarily stored in a warehouse until we have confirmed our home address in Shanghai. The sailing date began on 21st Jan from Port Klang and reached the Shanghai port on 31st Jan, after sailing across the South China Sea for 10 days. Custom clearance and routine checks took a week and we finally received our belongings, all in good condition, on 8th Feb, just two days before CNY. Mummy brought along two big crates of foodstuff and she's glad that nothing was confiscated (by the custom officers) and none of our goods was damaged.

Back in our Shanghai home... lots and lots of unpacking work to do!

It took daddy and mummy nearly 5 days to unpack, store and put everything neatly into place. On the first day of CNY, our home was still cluttered with the remaining half of the empty boxes along the corridor...

These were later given to a cardboard/paper collector, who felt so happy, thankful and lucky to have met us on the day when we desperately wanted to get rid of the empty boxes (the first half) but did not know where to dispose them!

Look, even my rocking chair (and bicycle in the balcony, see it?) made their way here :)

New Year, New Life in a New City

A big change is happening in our lives. At this moment, while all my peers are preparing to start Year 1 in a primary school, I have nothing.... no new uniform, no school shoes, no school bag, no books etc. but I still attended my Year 1 Orientation Day at school today where I met my class teacher. She's a very nice, soft-spoken and sweet lady and it's such a pity that I can't be her student :(

You see, mummy and I will be tagging along with daddy as he embraces a new career development abroad. Come 1/1/2013, we will be flying off to start a new life in one of the world's biggest and most populated city - Shanghai, China. I will be staying and schooling in Shanghai!

How do I feel about the move? Honestly, I am not keen at all with the news of our big move. My first concern was "China got earthquake or not?" Secondly, I am a very sentimental girl and I cried at almost every single thing that we had to let go of. I cried at the thought of not being able to see Ah Ma and Gung-gung as often as I liked. I cried (3 times!) when daddy sold off his car. I cried when we had to pack up and say goodbye to our house. There are so many things that we are going to miss in Malaysia, especially our loved ones!

Although we will be leaving with a heavy heart, we also look forward to our new life over in Shanghai. We look forward to staying in a "new" home, going to a new school (for me), meeting new people, eating new food, shopping in new malls, exploring new places etc.

Daddy and mummy are currently super busy running last minute errands and packing up! Our days in Malaysia are numbered... only 3 more days to go. Keeping our fingers crossed that everything will turn out fine. Till then, here's wishing everyone a wonderful 2013 ahead!

We might not have Internet access in the coming weeks but there will be several scheduled posts appearing every now and then to keep this blog alive :) Blogspot and Facebook are among the many websites blocked in China but we will find a means to access and post updates...