Last Day in Hong Kong

I stayed up late to pack our bags. I woke up early today to pack our bags. :) We let the kids sleep in, since we got home late for the first time during our entire stay in Hong Kong.

Breakfast was McDonald's, as usual. Only this was, Japa didn't check the bags and we ALL got Egg McMuffins which we did NOT want!!! Grrrrrr!

We had lunch at our "regular" restaurant for the last time.....and finally took a photo just so we would remember the name. I mean, we had been eating most of our meals here for the past 6 days, lunch or dinner. And none of us knew the name of the place, hehehehe. So, for posterity's sake:



With all our bags packed, we stopped by the Concierge to pick up the laser tubes that were ordered by the Columbarium. And we were surprised by the size! At least it was light! So....we figured that it was best if Japa would take all the bags to the airport via taxi. When all the bags and the crate were loaded, I noticed some space in the middle of the back seat. I told Rogan to squeeze in there, heheehhe. That's at least one boy who would NOT be a liability on the MTR (I'm talking about having to constantly keep in him in my sights just so he wouldn't get into trouble or some other such thing).

We finally got to the airport. The kids rode FREE on the Airport Express train, so we saved some money there :) Japa was first in line in the Business Class line, flashing the Premier Elite card. Whew! Thank goodness for that one. The lady was verrrrry nice, helping Japa check in the crate at the oversized package section AND giving us ALL seats in the upper deck!!! Which meant that we got Business Class seating! Whoohoohooo!!!!

Here are a few pics of us enjoying our seats before take off:




Uneventful flight, with Ranger nodding off in his uber comfy seat before take off. Raine didn't throw up, and we were one of the first ones off the plane. We claimed our bags, paid a minor amount for the laser tube in the crate and went off.

We dropped off Raine and Raegan in LaVista because they were going to sleep with Zhar; Rod had left for the States yesterday.

And finally, finally, FINALLY. We got home. Ahhhhhh. Nothing like your OWN bed!!!

Girls' Time and Boys' Time

After having breakfast at McDonald's, we went our separate ways:

{GIRLS' TIME}

We went to Mongkok so that the girls could see what Hong Kong shopping was like. That it wasn't all department stores and fixed prices. Of course, the first store we went to, Bossini, was where the girls had fun shopping, hehehehe. They picked out shirts and jackets and were happy.

Mongkok showed them the stalls and stalls lined up on the streets. And the bargaining! Coach Jana taught them that they could chop off as much as 60% off the asking price of the vendors! Even *I* was surprised that we could go that low; I guess I was so used to shopping with Mom, who'd go only so low with her bargaining skills :) Apparently, prices were dropping because most of the goods were coming from China.

After shopping for a few more things, we passed by Park N Shop to get lunch. At 3 pm. Hehehehe. Yup, the girls got a chance to "live" the life of a Hong Kong shopper: going without lunch because there were still so many stalls to go to. :)

After a lovely lunch of char siu pork and roasted duck and rice that left us fully satisfied, we rested a bit before hitting the pool. Yeah right. It was *still* freezing water in the darn pool, despite the warmer temperatures outside! Sheesh! The ONLY reason why I ventured into the water was because the girls were playing with their new camera that could take UNDERWATER shots! Look how COOL this is:


All I did here was to hit Auto Levels in Photoshop and our skin tones were highlighted a bit. Otherwise, the pic was clear as day! Is that cool or what!

After the cold pool, the steam room was a WELCOME treat! We stayed in the steam room for probably close to an hour. Japa said that he heard us all the way to the gym, we were laughing and chatting up a storm! Hahahaha!

{BOYS' TIME}

When we left McDonald's, the boys went back to the hotel. And Rogan literally pooped up a storm. Our toilet overflowed and Japa had to call Housekeeping in a major way! Hehehehe. Ugh. Thank goodness us girls weren't there to witness the grossness of it all! Ewww.

The boys took a short dip in the cold pool as well; they couldn't stay that long since Ranger's lips were turning purple. They also had a much-needed stay in the steam room, long enough for Ranger's body to heat up.

{DINNER}

We found out that there was a Toys R Us by the Tsuen Wan station. So we walked aaaaaaalllll the way there. It took us about 15 minutes of straight walking and by the time we got to the Discovery Park Mall, we were hungry! After a short stop at the toy store that didn't yield a Star Wars Lego set, we proceeded to the food court.

And oh my goodness, was it totally authentically CHINESE! Everything was in Chinese, with the exception of McDonald's and KFC! After settling the kids onto tables and chairs, we bravely lined up for our food. Thank goodness the cashier could understand what we wanted. Sort of. Hehehehe. Obviously, we stuck to the "safe" staples of pork char siu, roasted duck and chicken. Everything with rice, of course.

And were we FULL by the time we were done! I regret not taking a pic of our food though, since everyone dug in when the food was set on the table. We were that famished! :)

{SCRAPS}

After dinner, I hurried everyone home because I needed to do 2-weeks' worth of layouts to qualify for the incentive over at Weeds and Wildflowers Designs. And I made the deadline, barely!





TTFN! I still need to pack! We're finally going home tomorrow!

Squeezing in Some Educational Time

What's a trip to Hong Kong without a trip to.....the HK Science Museum? :) It opened at 1 pm, so in the morning, we all trooped to Ocean Terminal to Toys R Us to get some prizes for the kids for swimming well.

Apparently, Raegan seems to be getting too old for toys; she couldn't for the life of her figure out what she wanted to get. She finally settled on some huge bubble thing. I have a feeling she just grabbed it just for the heck of getting something. At least it wasn't expensive; Raegan knew she was in for some clothes shopping this trip.

Raine picked out a dancing mat thingy, the one that you hook up to your TV and has some songs that you dance to while stepping on arrows on the mat. Ranger was content with a small Lego Star Wars toy. Not that he'd assemble it himself, but he's been Star Wars-crazed recently!

Rogan, on the other hand, had a huuuuuuuuuge problem: he couldn't figure out what Star Wars toy to get! And of COURSE he was looking at the huge expensive ones! Sigh! He really really REALLY wanted the AT-TE Walker, it was the second most expensive one of the bunch! Aaargh!


We told him this was going to be partly a prize and a birthday gift (his birthday's coming up in June) to which he quickly agreed to. Boy, let me tell you, he could NOT wait to get his hands on this thing! :)

Ranger freaked out when he realized we had to leave all the toys at the store just so we wouldn't have to carry everything around when we went to the HK Science Museum. It took some major convincing to do, but he grudgingly agreed to let go of his "prize". Hehehehe.

And so we walked and walked and walked. And walked some more. Apparently, I had told Japa the WRONG information. I totally thought the Science Museum was the Planetarium...which was why we took our sweet time over lunch since we thought that the museum was next to Ocean Terminal.

Was I majorly wrong! We were on the OTHER side!!! And so, after walking for a little bit over an HOUR through the HK Theater of the Arts and the Avenue of the Stars (which, by the way, looks very very clean and new, with this awesome glass encased deck with a whole view of the Harbor!!!) and a playground where the kids spent some 15 minutes playing, we arrived at the HK Science Museum.

Whew!

This dinosaur skeleton (a Lufengosaur) greeted us at the museum lobby. It was pretty big; skinny, but big. Very cool. I asked Japa to take lots of photos because I have a few dinosaur kits that I can use, hehehehe.

When we got there, we were a bit dismayed to see lines and lines of school kids outside the museum! Ack! We thought we'd have a quiet and pleasant stay inside the museum!

So we started at the lowest floor since most of the school kids rushed to go up to the topmost floor. Good thing, too! At the bottom floor, we enjoyed solving some puzzles. Rogan even refused to move to another station until he had at least tried to do the puzzle! :) I know we spent a LOT of time in that puzzle area!

Then it was off to the World of Mirrors where we had so much fun laughing at ourselves as we went in front of mirrors that changed our shapes and heights. There were some freaky mirrors too, that seemed to cut off our bodies!

There was this cool capsule room that proved that people's perception of time differ when placed in the dark. Even Ranger had a try at it, he wasn't scared of the dark!

With so many things to do in the museum, I could probably fill a whole album with photos! By the time we were done (taking our sweet time doing all the different things), about 4 hours or so had passed. Now THAT was money truly well spent! :)

I'm A Swimming Momma

A swimming mom. One who follows her kids to the pool and back.

And that's what I pretty much did today. I didn't want the kids to be too tired from too much walking this close to the competition, so I got breakfast for them and coach at the nearby McDonald's. Besides, the kiddos were tired from yesterday, what with having to wake up so early and the flight.

After a leisurely morning, the kids' stomachs decided that they were ready for lunch. So off we went outside to walk in search of food. We vainly tried to look for this hole in the wall place that we ate at last year, with Lai and Reese, but couldn't find it. The kids were complaining that they were hungry and by this time, we had been walking for a good 15 minutes or so.

Fine. The kids pretty much bullied me into going back to the hotel where KFC was. Yup. That KFC. Hehehehe. Where we had dinner last night. Oh well. I guess athletes would rather eat something they know for sure than risk some new food that could ruin their tummies.

Mid-afternoon, the kids got ready for swimming. I wised up since last year when I had all their stuff in ONE bag that *I carried most of the way from the hotel to the pool. This year, each kid had his/her own backpack and packed their OWN things. If they forgot something, well too bad. Mama wasn't about to go on a 10-minute trek back to the hotel for that forgotten item.

I know, so un-swimming-momma like, but hey, I'm teaching responsibility, right? Hehehehe.

So we walk to the Shing Mun Valley Swimming Pool, a few minutes' walk from the hotel via long footbridges. Made it easier, not having to walk on the sidewalks as cars whizzed past the kids. Every mom's nightmare, I'm sure.

And as the kids trained for the better part of an hour or an hour and a half, this swimming momma took our her current copy of Newsweek and tried to catch up on world issues. :) Ahhhh.....the Swimming Momma life :)

For dinner, we waited for Papa and Ranger to arrive. We went across the street for dinner at this restaurant where they served HUGE bowls of noodles and soup! Rogan of course went the safe way and ordered some chicken in creamy sauce and rice.

Our entrees came with a drink, but since most were teas, the kids wisely declined. So Japa and I split the drinks and mine were all juice-based:


From the left, that's kumquat tea, almond with lychee tea, and peach tea. All oh-so-yummy and refreshing! :)

Pulling Suitcases

What a day. It started at 4 am, when we got up to get ready for our 8 am flight. We met Coach Jana at the airport and lined up for what seemed like hours just to get through immigration! Sheesh! I have NO idea what the hold up was, but that line was looooong!

We got through and I must admit I sort of dumped Rogan and Raine on Coach; I was so hungry I couldn't wait to get inside the lounge where I could eat! I left some money with the kids so that they could have some juice with their sausage and rice, and so that Coach could get some breakfast as well. Raegan and I went to the lounge; it was her turn this trip since on the last trip through NAIA, Raine was the lucky person to go with me to the lounge.

I hurriedly ate some arroz caldo so that we could sit with the kids and Coach before we were called to board. Told you I felt guilty! But hey, at least I was full, hehehe. We boarded the plane and although we had bulkhead seats, we were waaaaaay over at the back of the plane. Not good if you have a daughter like Raine who has a tendency to barf due to motion sickness. Uh huh.

How far back you ask? If the plane was up to row 115, maybe less, we were at 85. So of COURSE I had Raine drink her Bonamine to prevent her from feeling dizzy! Luckily, she was able to control herself and didn't even feel dizzy. And this was at the BACK of the plane! I was so proud of her! hehehehe.

We landed, got our bags and went on the train to get to our hotel. Luckily, the Airport Express has a promo until May where the kids travel for FREE!!! Yay! Gotta love that word! We went down at Tsing Yi, crossed to the Yellow Line, and after 3 stops, crossed to the Red Line, heading to Tsuen Wan.

We got off at Tai Wo Hau and proceeded to lug our suitcases all over the streets. Yup, the streets. We started to walk from the station to the hotel (a few blocks away). Then we got to the bottom of a footbridge that wound itself all the way up and across the streets. Ooookay. At least there was a RAMP that allowed us to pull our suitcases up the footbridge!!! And thank goodness for the person who invented the 4-wheeler suitcases; although it wasn't exactly a cinch to use up the ramp, it made life sooo much easier! Poor Rogan had to contend with a suitcase while the girls each had a roller. I had the other suitcase and the humongo duffle bag that had all their swimming stuff in it. Sigh!

Our rooms weren't ready so we left everything at the concierge and went to search for lunch. Across the hotel, on the ground floor of a building, was this obscure place with noodles and rice dishes. We were SO there! We remembered this place from last November when we were here for Mantas as well.

And boy, were we all hungry! The act of pulling those suitcases was reason enough, I think! These pics are evidence enough:






And no, the pictures aren't ruined. That's STEAM from the food that you see rising from the dishes!

Earth Day Part 2

Today is Earth Day the DAY. :) The kids started to freak out when I mentioned that we were celebrating Earth Day today. I meant "we" in the collective, globewide "we". They thought that we were going to "celebrate" by not using any electricity for one whole day (as opposed to Earth Hour when it was just one HOUR). LOL.

I went over to the Earth Day Network, to use the Footprint Calculator, and see how many planets are needed to sustain my lifestyle. The results:


Sheesh! It would take NINE planet Earths to sustain MY kind of lifestyle IF everyone on Earth lived like me! And I thought I was pretty ok, trying to do my part to save Mother Earth! I guess I have a penchant for relying too much on convenience and technology.

I spent a couple of hours running all over the place buying last minute stuff that we need for our trip to Hong Kong. Thank goodness I decided against going to the office. It practically took me the ENTIRE day to pack everything! Two suitcases and a duffle bag. No rush, no panicking. Just a slow, systematic way of putting everything in the proper place. :) Yes, call me OC.

I was able to:

1. buy my hanger-thingy for my undies
2. get the R4 cartridge for one of the kids' DS
3. buy Krispy Kreme for the kiddos :)
4. shop for vienna sausage for food on the plane (yes, the kids WILL eat that no matter what)
5. withdraw some much needed money for food and incidentals

All the above in the space of a couple of hours. Not bad, I say!

Ok, continuing to pack.....

Happy 11th Birthday, Raegan!!!

Oh my goodness! My first baby is ELEVEN years old today!!!!! Officially (?) a tween....or has she been a tween for several years now and I was just clueless? Lol. Wouldn't put it past me! :)

A different birthday "celebration" of sorts.....Raegan and I are in Singapore and everyone else in Manila. Well, we did have a "pre-birthday" dinner of sorts before we left, when we ate at Sweet Inspirations, but I guess it's still always best to do something special on your birthday.

So.

We started the day getting up REALLY early. We did have a swim meet to go to, hehehe. Breakfast was a pathetic bowl of noodles. Yeah. The breakfast of champions right there, bwahahahaha! But the birthday girl was pretty content and looked happy with her noodly power breakfast:


Packing up the things she would need for the day, Raegan didn't forget her birthday gift, her new Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS:


We actually got this yesterday, at a Toys R Us inside a mall on Orchard Road, but I told her she could only open it today, for her birthday. So she was excited to rip into the box and prepare everything for her (long) day today.

The birthday girl had a pretty good day, swim-wise. She improved on all her times, and came in first in 2 heats and 2nd in another. The Singaporeans were just incredibly fast! Raegan was 16th (out of 28th) overall, the top swimmer from the Philippines in the 10 and under category.


Her second event was 100m freestyle, one of her favorites (I think). She came in first in her heat, and placed 15th out of 33. Again, top swimmer from the Philippines in her age category, woot!


Last event for the day was what seems to be Raegan's specialty. At least, that's what it looks like to my untrained eye. The 200m individual medley. I like to think that Raegan's coaches took note of her potential in this event when she placed 4th last year at Mantas. Raegan came in 2nd in her heat (to some Singaporean) and was 14th overall, out of 24 swimmers. There was one other Filipina swimmer, and another from Brunei. The rest were Singaporeans.

Yes, the swim meet pretty much took the whole day, never mind the fact that we left right after Raegan's last event. After a couple of hours rest at the hotel, we were off to dinner. An early dinner, since we all had to be up with the moon, er, sun, tomorrow.

Raegan shopped for a few things, the FIRST time she willingly and enthusiastically shopped for clothes! Lai got her a pair of shorts and a shirt for her birthday, too, which added to Reagan's stash for the day, hehehe.

Here's my baby's "first official shopping spree":


And for dinner? Raegan treated us to an all-time favorite: KFC!!!


hahahahaha! I know, I know, what a place to celebrate! But trust me, we ALL wanted KFC! While I was buying our chicken, Lai went to the nearby Yoshinoya to buy R.I.C.E. Of COURSE we had to have rice with our chicken! Wouldn't be complete without it!

And yes, we were STUFFED by the end of the meal! Not to worry, the kids definitely need it for tomorrow's events. As for us moms, uhm..........it was a GREAT meal! Bwahahaahahha!

Stress in Singapore

What? Stress on only our second day in the city of the Merlion?!? Read on and you'll find out why.

{BUS TRIP}

We asked our lovely "smart" lady at the front desk (who shall be unnamed since I don't want to be the cause of her possibly losing her job) told us that there was only ONE bus that would take us to the Tampines Mall. Yes, we decided to be adventurous today and explore another mall; one with a Toys R Us since I wanted to get the boys their Star Wars Lego.

Anywhoo, this front desk lady explicitly told us to go to the bus stop on the LEFT side of the gate. Okay, check. We were there. We waited for about 15-20 minutes and the bus finally came. Check out Lai's pic above. It does say Tampines, yes? So we all excitedly dropped in our coins for the cheap fare (compared to taking a taxi!). When Lai, who was last in line, dropped her S$1 in the box, the stupid driver asked us where we were going. We told him we wanted to go to the Tampines Mall and he looked at us and said that we were on the wrong bus!

He could NOT have missed the fact that we were all tourists. Yes, we stupidly thought it was the correct bus since we were directed to it, but hey! It's my blog and it's my story! Hahahahaha! Anyway, to cut a long story short, we had to get off sans our fare since the stupid bus driver would not return the coins to us. Hmp! He probably pocketed the damn change!

So we crossed the street and waited for the CORRECT bus. And yes, we asked the driver BEFORE we even boarded and dropped in our precious coins! Finally! On the way to Tampines!
Forty minutes or so later, we were still on the darn bus, chugging through millions of bus stops through a residential area. Yes, the smart front desk lady assured us that it was only going to be ONE stop! Sheesh!

Of course I spent the time in the bus wisely, snapping pics with my handy dandy cellphone! Hehehehe. Much to the consternation of the kids. But they still smiled for the camera!

{TAMPINES MALL}

As it turned out, the mall was the LAST stop of the bus. Sigh! So we got off and followed the crowd. And they led us to the mall. We were all agog at the newness of the mall. Apparently, everything was new: the mall's opening day was TODAY!!! So much people, so many sales, so little time.

We agreed to meet after about an hour, and off we went our separate ways. Ten minutes later, I got a text message: Coach wanted us at the pool at 12 noon instead of 1:45 pm! What?!?!??? LOL. I looked at my watch and it was 11:15 am. Right. Hurriedly, I texted Lai and Matec about the news. And Raegan and I hurried through the mall in search of Toys R Us. Which was nowhere to be found! Ack!

We were in the WRONG mall! Toys R Us was located in the OLD Tampines Mall. We practically ran through the MTR station to get to the mall and buy the boys' Lego before we woud have to meet up with the others. We got to the meeting point a minute or so after everyone had. Is that stressful or what!

{DIVIDE & CONQUER}

This was the strategy that we swimming mommas came up with. It was the most logical. So:

I would take the 3 kids to the pool, passing by the hotel to get their stuff. Reese was the only one who was wearing her swimsuit.

Lai would buy Dic's basketball shoes first.

Matec would buy lunch for all of us, and we would just eat after the kids' practice.

Grabbing everyone's shopping bags, we rushed to the taxi stand and got into a taxi. Thankfully, there was no traffic. As we neared the hotel, I distributed the keys to the kids and told them to dump the shopping bags and grab their swimming stuff as fast as they could. I had barely chit-chatted with the taxi driver when the kids stormed out of the hotel doors with their bags in hand! I swear, it wasn't even a minute when they tumbled out of the cab!

{SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL}

And so we arrived at the race venue. Whoa. It was a huuuge sports complex! I guess the kids here concentrated on their respective sports while studying. There were dorm rooms, gym, a built-in track along the inside of the building! No wasted space for sure!

The rest of the team had just gotten there, too. Barely. They had come from the airport and had only time to check in and leave their bags in the hotel rooms before having to board the bus that would take them to the sports complex. And we thought WE had it bad, hehehehe!

The kids were barely in the water when Lai and Matec arrived with food! Not that we ate when the kids were still swimming; we wouldn't hear the end of that, no sirree!

After close to an hour of swimming, the kids were done. A quick shower and we all trooped to the school cafeteria to see what was for (late) lunch and to eat our lunch. Matec and I ordered their lunch. It was a reasonable S$4 for a ton of food, plus juice and a dessert of orange slices. Good thing we did, too, since Raegan and Franco dug into their duck toppings AND then ours! Yikes! Hungry maybe? Heheheh.

Then it was back to the hotel to REST. Like we had a choice. We had to bring the kids to the south for their powwow with Coach Archie later in the evening.

{NEWTON CIRCUS}

Nope, not a circus with a big top and animals. It's a tourist-y place of food, food and more food. It was 7-ish and we were famished. Wrong thing to be when ordering food in a place like this, especially if you're Elizza!

Some pics of our ginormous meal:

This is Elizza, with mouth watering as she gazes into her black-pepppered crab's (dead) eyes:


This is the uber uber YUMMMMMY fried rice that we had. As in! When we ordered it, we put it down in front of Raegan and Reese as Lai and I searched for more food to order. We had barely ordered our other food and sat down to wait, when we saw that the girls had practically INHALED 3/4 of the fried rice!!! So Lai jumped up and got another big order; take note, this big-sized order was supposed to be good for 4-5 people!!!! Ack!!!


And yes, both of us adults almost finished that one extra order of rice!!!! It doesn't look all that great in the pic, but trust me. It was verrrrrry good! Probably with tons of MSG mixed in, hehehehe.

Here's my oyster omelet which I had to have, just like Lai had to have her crabs:


I know, gross looking, but totally yummy!

Last, but not the least, the carnage of our table after our meal:

Blech!

It was powwow time for the kids and the team while we swimming mommas waited in the lobby for them.

Home to the hotel, chatted with Japa and the other kiddos for a bit, before falling asleep.

Sooooo stressful, yes? :)

In Singapore

I am finally showered and all CLEAN after a pretty long day! Ahhhhhhh!

The day started at 445 am, when our alarm went off. A quick shower, a dash of ironing for the hair, a quick Mcdonald's breakfast courtesy of Elizza and Reese, and we were all off for Clark Air Base...in Pampanga....for our flight to Singapore.

What airline? Tiger Airways, a Singapore-based airline that offers el cheapo fairs! As in! The fare I paid for BOTH Raegan and myself were still less than what we would have paid for on Philippine Airlines for EACH of us! So now tell me WHY wouldn't we drive the hour and a half to the airport?!?! Hehehe. Soooooo worth it!

The catch for the cheap fares? No food on the plane. Not too bad actually, since we did eat before the flight. And since we were up early, Lai and I were fast asleep for a good part of the flight. Raegan and Reese were yacking up a storm, reading and playing their DS games the whooooole time!

Here are Raegan and Reese just before boarding the plane. Good thing I had my handy dandy cellphone camera on hand. And yes, I insisted they stop and smile, hahahahaha!


Here we are at the Singapore BUDGET terminal airport. Take a look on the lower left corner of the photo. It clearly shows the word BUDGET terminal, hehehehe. What, like this is a lower-class (well it actually is) level of terminal?!?! Gasp, gasp! Bwahahahaha! It's just so....so.....so un-sosy like you know? :)


{FUNNY HOTEL STORY}

From the airport, we hail a taxi. Our driver spends probably 5 whole minutes leafing through a book of maps. Then we speed off, and he starts punching in the address of our hotel in his GPS. While driving. He asks me to call the hotel, and I do, so he can ask for directions. He talks while driving. A manual car WITH a stick shift! He literally needed THREE hands!!! Sheesh!

Anyhoo, we get to a sort of residential area with big white structures. Apparently they were the British Army barracks way before. There are some buildings in one part of the camp that the Singaporean Army still use. Anyway, it was an okay-looking area, and we finally got to the hotel.

I swear, as we were driving up to the front of the hotel, I heard Reese say, "YIKES!" Bwahahahahhaa! I am laughing as I type this up! That remarked totally made me laugh and it was EXACTLY what we were thinking, only that she said it out loud!

It wasn't the greatest looking hotel, that's for sure. And we were MIGHTILY RELIEVED that we had the wrong hotel. Sort of. We were dropped off at the old wing; our rooms were in the new wing. The lobby was much much MUCH better, and the rooms were pretty decent.

I guess it's hard for US if OUR kids have been used to the standards of Mamalyn! Haaaaaaay! I swear, I'm going to hold true to my promise - er, threat! - of booking a really rinky dinky room for us to stay in during one of our trips! Hmp!

This next photo shows our FIRST meal in Singapore.


Man, were we sooo hungry! It was Yoshinoya for us, at Compass Point, some mall near the hotel.

Here's a fave pic:


Raegan totally enjoying her dinner of noodles with dumpling......at the food court on the highest level of Compass Point. That bowl right there was a mere S$4! What a meal, eh? Hehehehe.

It's Official.....

....I have a darn AGE SPOT!!! Ack!!! It's at the base of my neck, on the left side. Of all places to be, it had to be in a visible area!!! Grrrr!

And freckles! Holy moly! I had always wanted to have freckles....as a KID, NOT at this day and age! Sheesh! I asked a dermatologist, Elise, what these brown spots were, thinking that they were sun spots. They sure were.....freckled ones! LOL!

And this darn age spot is an indication that I *am* going to be forty this year. Hehehehe. Honestly, if it were situation somewhere else, like my upper arms or something where I can hide it from view, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But at the base of my neck??? The only thing that can hide this from view is a scarf (I'll DIE wearing a scarf in this horrid heat wave we live in now), a turtleneck (blech!), or a really thick necklace (ummm......nope!).

What are my options? Aside from just leaving it, there is laser treatments, which is horrendously expensive! Scratching that from my list, lol! There's also diamond peeling, which is ok, if I had the time and the effort to religiously go to the dermatologist's clinic (I really don't). I also have some creams that were given to me. We'll see how that works.

Ok, that's my big news for the day. LOL!

The girls were out the entire afternoon and evening: Raegan went shopping with Tita Bang, and Raine went to try out tennis with Tita Zhar and Mamalyn.

Japa was at the Shrine, overseeing details for the wake of Oel's dad who passed away yesterday morning. The boys stayed at home: watching tv, playing the PS3 (or was it the PS2? I can't keep up with their toys anymore!) and their Nintendo DS, playing the computer.

Me? Scrapping like crazy to get an album done for Bishop!

Got these pages done using CT stuff:

FR PATRICK

I used Vintage Charm, a collab between Matahati Designs and Faith True at Scrap Orchard for my Fr Patrick layout. Perfect touches, I thought! :)

CLIMBING MONT ST MICHEL

I used Patricia Christensen's Spring Fever kit for this fun page of us making our way up Mont St Michel (except for the stamp cluster). Perfect colors, I thought!

And I used fabulous quick pages for these:

MAISON ST JEAN

SR MONIQUE

BY THE ROADSIDE

7 Chikkas and an Unico Hijo

7 Chicks and a Guy. That was us, traveling to Hong Kong. Mom, Lola, 4 sisters-in-law and me......oh, and Rod, the Chikko. Hehehehe.

It was supposed to be an all-girls trip, but Rod maneuvered himself in and thank goodness he did! At least he did the guy-stuff, like get most of our bags from the baggage conveyor, lug the bags in and out of the airport bus, carry the ton of stuff we shopped.....and ate the food that no one else could stuff inside our already-full selves!

Yes boys, this is the barest minimum of what is expected of you when you go with the girls.

I'm stealing this pic off off Zhar's blog since I don't have any pics. I (wisely) didn't bring a camera, big OR small. Stella took tons of pics and Elizza brought out her camera when we insisted she did (probably because Stella's cam had run out of batteries). Hahahahaha.


And what a trip we had! The main purpose of the trip was twofold: One, to force mom to have some R&R, what with all the time she stayed at the hospital watching over Dad, AND two, to eat authentic Chinese food. This CRAVING for REAL Chinese food started with Bang and Elizza a few weeks ago. We didn't get our fill of real Chinese food during the Chinese New Year, and it's been a topic of conversation ever since.

So....our Hong Kong trip was filled with tasty, authentic Chinese food. For ALL meals except breakfast. We had our regular breakfast at the Executive Lounge and it was quite filling, really. However, with Bang in charge of food (O.M.G!!!), our tummies were streeeeeeeetched out to the max with 3.5 days of appetizing, heavy, oily and yummy lunches and dinners!!! Heeeeelp! hahahahaha!

It was a FUN-filled trip, too, with the laughter, the secrets (that weren't really secrets since everyone knew what it was before the hour was up), the kikay stuff, the shopping....and the eating. I took pics with my phone for my photo-for-the-day, but that was it.

I leave it up to you to click on my sisters' blogs on the right for a full-blown account of where we ate and what. I don't think I remember everything!

All I know is that we had delish Peking duck, dimsum and the uber uber yummy lobster in some creamy buttery sauce, on the last night that Tony (friend of the twins from Taiwan) brought us near the racestrack. Oh my oh my oh my! That was just DIVINE!!!

It was the FIRST time I remember us being gone from our hotel room the WHOLE DAY! From after breakfast to AFTER dinner! Whoa! And we had Lola with us, too! Whew! By the end of the trip, my back was so sore from all the walking and the standing. Foolish me forgot to bring a gidle to act as a brace of sorts. Tsk, tsk!

I did manage to scrap, though, so my bringing my laptop wasn't a total waste! Hehehehe.

ON THE CAROUSEL

Appraisals and Scraps

Back at the main office today. Working on performance appraisals. I need need *NEED* to get a base appraisal for all the employees sometime yesterday, hahahahaha! As in ASAP! Like late last year. Sigh! But hey, again, my word for the year has been working magic and is actually enabling me to finish what I need to do!

And what with all the words on the computer screen today, it felt GOOD to just have to look at pictures for a change!

PLAZA INN
MICKEY JELLO

Our Hong Kong Disneyland is looking pretty good --and fuller-- with what I've been scrapping. Hopefully, I will finish this album sometime this year, hahahaha. Seriously. I'm doing our September 2008 trip....and we still have a November 2008 trip to HK Disneyland that I have yet to start on!

Posting this early.....I can't wait to try and fall asleep. Is this what age does to you: requiring you to function on less hours of sleep in a day?!? Sigh! Seems I've been going on an average of 4-6 hours of sleep the past few weeks and it's making me miserable. I try and take longer to wake up, but nothing's doing the trick! I wake up at the slightest noise, or lack thereof, like when our airconditioning turns off automatically, hehehehe.

It does help that we have a brand new 4-inch memory foam mattress. It took a while to get used to how thick it was though, but now that I have, my sleep has been pretty good. My back is cushioned and I can feel myself SINK in all that thick memory foam stuff. Of course, I could also do with a sleep number bed, like the one we have in the States. The girls love that mattress, too, allowing us to have a softer or firmer mattress as we wish. Ahhhhhh!

Ok, off to bed!

Before I forget, a very HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RIELLE!!!!

Bye, Vegas! and A Snowed in Airport

All good things must come to an end. I leisurely packed when I got up, finishing up 1.5 suitcases while the kids were asleep. While they were taking showers, I threw everything in the washing machine and started packing the comforters, the sheets, the towels. In a frenzy? Not really. Just trying to be methodical about the entire packing thing. So nope, no panic. Yet. Hahahaha!

Good thing we had gone to church yesterday. We had the house to ourselves and I was able to pack continuously (in between yelling at the kids to hurry and to pick up after themselves!). Everyone else attended the 1130 am mass. A little bit before 1 pm, Boydee called to ask if we were going to eat out. I told him I was planning on taking the kids for one last time at CiCi's Pizza just so they can stuff themselves, hehehehe. Besides, they LOVE pizza! I was just waiting for a car.

So everyone dropped of Mom and Dad at home, picked us up, and off we went. And man, did the kids (any myself, of course) have fun. Love all the pizza selections, but I especially love the pizza bread and the sticky buns! Yummmm! Yes, not exactly great for my (forever) diet, but that's what my trusty diet pills are for, eh? Hehehe. I never leave home without them, or in this case, I never start the day without popping one in my mouth! They seem to work, since I don't think I've gained any weight at all over the holidays. Crossing my fingers that I lost at least a couple of pounds, though! I know, with all the pizza-stuffing we've done this trip (three times!), it'll be a WONDER that I don't gain any weight!

While we enjoyed our lunch, no one thought of the time. When next I looked at my watch, it was 130 pm and I had said that I wanted to leave by 2 pm!!! Yikes! We rushed out of CiCi's and headed for home. I literally threw everything that was out into our handcarry bags; thank God the boys were there to make sure my last few bags were within the prescribed weight limit and Roc hurriedly heated up sausages and rice for the kids to take on the plane.

Yes, I always take food for the kids. Never know what the airline will serve. At least this way, I know they'll have something to eat for sure, especially picky Ranger!

As we neared Vancouver, the pilot announced 3 or 4 times that the Vancouver airport was closed. Oookay. I thought we weren't going to be able to land because of the apparently heavy snowfall in Vancouver. Luckily, as we got closer to our destination, we did land because the snow had stopped.

We disembarked from the plane to this:
Look at all that snow! We were lucky that the snow HAD stopped, otherwise we'd be looking at spending the night at the airport! And with 4 kids to contend with, I wasn't looking forward to that possibility at all!

At the airport, the kids ate and then started to review for their exams. Hehehe. Yup. Can anyone say CRAMMING?!?!

Packing Like a Madwoman Possessed

Um yup. I had to pack, pack and pack some more until I fill up close to 11 bags and/or boxes to take home to Manila when we leave on the 4th. With Japa gone, I was like a madwoman possessed...seriously! All I could think of was that I had a day and a half MAX to do everything: packing, laundry, storing our stuff so Roc could move into the room.

*very loud sigh here*

Thank goodness the kids could pretty much fend for themselves, with the older ones taking care of Ranger, seeing to it that he was bathed, clothed and fed, hehehehe. Whew!

Everything the kids got for Christmas were folded into suitcases and boxes. Used clothes in the hamper, ready to be thrown in the washing machine tomorrow. Winter clothes --- the jacket, sweater, vest, gloves, cap, beanie, etc of each family member --- all went in two under-the-bed storage thingies that Roc will probably put in the garage.

My mail? Oh goodness, my mail! Hehehehe. I have NO time to go through everything, so that'll be crammed into my laptop bag just so I won't forget to look at them.

Good think I like to pack (it's the UNpacking that I hate), otherwise I'd be hating life right now. Of course, it would have helped if my dear husband knew how to pack, but for you travelers out there, here's a direct quote from him: "Seventy pounds is seventy pounds, no matter how you pack it."

Uh, yeah, right. *roll eyes*. Should I say typical guy? With the exception of Dic, all my brothers are lousy and useless packers. No one took after Dad except Dic and me, sheesh! Good thing my brothers married people who are excellent packers! And I'm not saying that lightly, either! Bang's pretty good (although I have yet to see one of her "creations"). Lai learned from Dic, and she does a pretty good job. Stella sure knows how to stuff anything and everything that needs to go in the box or suitcase; she finds every available space there is! Zhar I've heard can pack pretty well too (she has to, knowing how Rod abhors packing!).

So, yeah, I'm in good company......but I've got 3 more suitcases to go!!! That'll be tomorrow's project (like I have a choice---we leave tomorrow afternoon)!

It Is SOOO Good to be Home!

Ahhh! My own bed to sleep on! Yes!

It's been a long day, what with getting up around 7 am (was awake at 530ish and chatting with Raegan), breakfast before 8, checking out of the hotel and THEN spending a few hours at Disneyland. We had a late lunch, rushed back to the hotel to collect our bags and took a taxi to the airport. Arrived just in time for the check-in counters to open, and did some shopping....at the Disneyland store! Hahahaha!

The kids were all over the different kinds of Disney pins! In fact, the entire morning was practically spent following the kids around as they stalked every cast member they could find so that they could trade pins! Sigh! No wonder I'm tired!

Tomorrow, it'll be back to work. And I know the first thing on my desk will be the bill of our attorney to charge for the case we're going to be filing against one of our former employees. An expensive lesson and example, but it's the principle of the thing, I guess. Just so we get our message across. Good thing we know the law firm who's going to be handling this case; this sort of thing should be up their alley.

It's always a good thing to look for a firm specializing in certain cases, I guess. Criminal lawyers for criminal cases, cerebral palsy lawyers who know how to look out for the causes of their clients, divorce lawyers for divorce and annulments, immigration lawyers for visa and residency stuff.....and the list goes on and on. No wonder we've got lots of lawyers in the world!

Ok, time to supervise the unpacking of some of our bags, and time for a much needed shower. It's been a looong day!

Enjoying Hong Kong Disneyland!

Disneyland-Bound