Woke up with a splitting headache. The pillow is simply horrible. It’s so flat and worst than a fluffy pancake. Ugh… But I won’t let this spoil my day. We are heading out to Lantau Island again to take the Ngong Ping cable car and visit the other interesting sites there.
Maybe another 6.0km on the MiBand? We shall see…
I must say Hong Kong Disneyland was rather enjoyable this time! We bought our tickets from klook.com at a discounted rate (HKD70 less per ticket) from the published rate. And the weather was cool without any sun, the queue lines were minimal, plus the crowd not too overwhelming, it was excellent to be outdoors.
Most rides we waited in line was a mere ten minutes, with the longest being 20 minutes. Despite getting to the park at 10.30am and not staying for the night fireworks, we managed to do nine rides plus the Lion King musical.
I thought Iron Man was neat, so was Toy Story but we all chickened out on the RC Racer ride, it looked too scary.
The day ended with each having a bowl of hearty noodles after we got back to Jaffe Road. I clocked in 5.8km and 9,625 steps today. Long day. Well calling it a night soon because tomorrow is another activity filled day!
The decision to visit Disneyland is solely for M2. She requested that this is a must do when we mooted this family trip. Our last Disney visit was to the California one back in 2012, so it’s apt to revisit another Disney park although a much smaller one. It will be a long day ahead…
We all woke up to a freezing cold apartment. Dang! It’s cold, I had to sleep with socks on. Quickly we got ready and headed out for breakfast.
The morning meal was typical Hong Kong style before we took the MTR to Disneyland. What fun we had!
Everyone woke up by 3.00am and got ready without being pushed. Our pick up came at 4.30am and got us to the airport by 5.15am, way too early to check in. But it’s okay, better to be early than late for the 8.45am departure because KLIA2 is huge and the place was packed with travellers. By the time we walked to the gate, I have walked 1.8km already and the day has not even started!
The AirAsia flight was on schedule and we took our time, not rushing with the crowd at HKIA. We even ate at the airport before taking an Urban Taxi into Hong Kong island. This trip, we are staying at an AirBnB instead of a hotel. A cosy two room with a little kitchenette, it is located on Jaffe Road at Causeway Bay, very central to food and shopping.
After checking in, a short rest and we were out again. By the end of the day, a good one I must say, I have done more than ten thousand steps or 6.0km. By 9.30pm, we were all dead tired, so best to call it a day as tomorrow, it will be another fun day ahead.
Now that M1 is back, we will go off for a family vacation. Last year, we did Ho Chi Minh City and boots or warm clothes were not necessary. This year, we opted for Hong Kong, definitely colder and certainly boots, jackets and sweaters are required.
So my Blundstone boots will travel again. Yay! Looking forward to this trip but not the wake up call and ride to the airport. The 8.45am flight means waking up at 3.30am for a 4.30am pick up. Ugh. It’s an hour’s journey to KLIA2 and travellers are advised to be at the airport three hours before departure. Ugh.
It will be a long day ahead tomorrow.
As one would know, coming home from the US would take over two days, and with one day having never occurred in your life when you cross the International Date Line. And depending on the flight’s origin, time and connections, it may take even longer.
M1 actually left campus on the evening of 7 December after the last exam paper. She had a ten-hour layover at LAX before the long journey began the next day. Throughout the day, I was tracking the flight path on Flightaware.com.
Everything was on track and it was reassuring. I could even carve up a Citizen to while away the time. But coming into the last stretch of the flight, the aircraft approaching HKIA went off track. It looked like a time-wasting ten minutes diversion. Maybe CX 885 was early and there’s no landing rights, nothing major. It was scheduled to arrive after 14 hours 39 minutes but in the end, it was captured at 15 hours, still an hour ahead.
This then gave the layover an additional hour to two and a half hours before the final leg to KLIA. Unlike a previous trip, she had only a 50-minute layover and she had to run the length of the airport to the gates before they closed for boarding! Nothing of that sort this time. Phew.
The flight arrived ten minutes early at 12.27am on 10 December but knowing her, she’d be the last one out. Sure enough one hour later, she strolled out from the Departure Hall. And in a blink of an eye, another year has gone by, my firstborn is back and the family unit is complete again.
I must say that Graphic Design is a wonderful profession to be in. For me, it’s more fun than work because it challenges the creativity and it’s not mundane because every project is different. And when you know what the end result is used for, it’s satisfaction guaranteed.
Last night we attended Marche de Noel, a charitable cause organized by the French community in Malaysia. Roped in by a French friend three years ago, we have been supporting this event since 2015. Our role is to provide pro bono design work for the marketing of the event. From flyers, posters to social media call-outs and stage backdrop, we do our part.
The Christmas party was held after a successful day bazaar where funds were collected for two foundations that they support, A Heart for A Heart and Make a Wish Malaysia. And when one sees what the funds are used for—fulfilling sick and needy children’s wishes to come true— satisfaction is simply priceless.
I’m glad we play our part. And this year, a little more than priceless satisfaction, I won a Lucky Draw prize, having bought some tickets. What a nice reward.
It is another two more days to go before our firstborn, M1 comes back again for her Christmas holidays from university. Actually more than two day as it will be a little past midnight on Saturday when she arrives and of course, I will be tracking her flight path all the way.
Can’t wait.
Citizens of Gigglesville are getting new colors! I dropped by the art store over the weekend and bought new colors to expand the range for them. Actually not totally new but more of different shades for the existing red, blue and green for variation. I even picked up a bottle of Glow!
I thought the name of the blue shade is rather funny, Real Blue, as if all these while, the other blues that I am using are fake! Hahaha… it’s a nice dark blue nonetheless. So now, there’s three shades of blue which is good. Variations.
The dark Engine Red is similar to an existing Naphthol Red Deep, but it’s okay because like the blue, the red range now also has three shades.
And although the names are the same, the new Leaf Green does not even look close to the old Leaf Green. It is leaning more towards an olive shade while the old is akin to a Granny Smith’s apple green. Like the other two colors, the green range now also has three shades with the new olive addition.
As for the Glow paint, it’s something new to explore. The big debate now is whether to paint just the eyes or the whole body. With balsa being so porous, I’m don’t know how the end result would look. Hmm… got to experiment and see.
I don’t know why I thought eating in Rawang was the itinerary when clearly the highway, being called Rawang Bypass, would not lead us to the town. Looks like I did my research and got it all wrong. I could have been too excited at the prospect of savouring new food to realize the implication of the name.
As its name implied, we bypassed Rawang when we did the day road trip on Friday. Our scenic and leisurely-paced drive led us to a lot of places except Rawang but it was fun!
We made several stops – at a hill slope village with a Chinese temple showcasing a karma cycle mural on its hillside wall; savoured a simple noodle lunch in another town; saw a man-made dam and appreciated the vast volume of water surrounded by the mountains; and a winding ascending drive to Fraser’s Hill for a second lunch amidst lovely weather and a very tranquil surrounding without the crowd.
I’m glad we bypassed Rawang. It was lovely especially driving to Fraser’s Hill with towering trees to admire along the way and cool weather to appreciate because of the elevation. Such a welcome change in weather, we had the windows down all the way and turned off the air-con in the car. Indeed sheer driving pleasure.
And the walk around the quaint little town enjoying the foliage and green surrounding, breathing in the fresh air, made this impromptu stop very enjoyable.
I am sure we will be back to discover more and poor Rawang will be bypassed again.
Angieneering 
Remarks