Saturday, August 25, 2012

Summer Coming to an End

Yes, we've been too busy to update my blog. We're back in Hong Kong. Came back on the 19th of Aug. Little Baba started school on the 20th and I had to be at school for a meeting on the 21st. We had a great time over summer.

There will never be enough time to do all that I want to do in Singapore even when we were there for more than three weeks. There were still places that I wanted to bring Baba to but guess that'll happen when we head back for Christmas. Baba had lots of fun. When I asked him about Hobbit (my dog in Singapore) he replied saying, 'Ming Ming'. That's Joanne's dog in Singapore. And sometimes when he plays by himself, he suddenly will say Jojo, guess he misses her too.

Melbourne trip was a blast. It would have been better if Babe had time for me. But that didn't bother me as I had time to explore a city on my own. I've not done than since summer of 2010. Yes, before little Baba arrived. Melbourne was great. Met up with old friends, some friends that I've not seen for more that 15 years and some friends that I've not seen for maybe more than 6 years. Plus the trip was a good gauge if we should put in our application for our PR. After the trip, we've come to realize that it'll be hard for us to migrate to Australia and have the same quality of life as what we have now. Australia is expensive. There's no denying it. And teaching jobs may not be great and pay as well as what I have now. So guess moving to Australia in the near future is out of the question. This was also the first trip heading back to Australia without the budget constraint of a student. For once, I was not in the stage of counting my pennies and yes, it felt great!

 This was taken St Kilda. It reminded me very much of Bondi Beach. Love the little quaint buildings. I had luxury to sit and have breakfast and just people watch. Sometime that's quite rare for me. Luna Park is also in St Kilda. Looking and walking past it reminded of Eve. Don't know why. Didn't have a walk inside Luna Park. Guess it some ways, I kinda miss her too much and don't want to make it worse. The pic on the bottom was me making an attempt to take a self portrait of myself at St Kilda. It wasn't too successful.




The pic below was taken near the hotel. I miss walls like this that's covered with posters and beautiful graffiti. Don't get me wrong, I don't approve vandalism....but I like those walls.


After Melbourne, Babe was very busy in Singapore. He had to work but he still took time off to bring little Baba to the zoo. Little Baba had a great time hanging out and spending time with Babe. A couple of evenings when Babe was done with work, we went to Marina Bay Sands to shop and have supper. It was nice.  Just before we left Singapore, Joanne manage to take time off from work and we went to Port of Lost Wonder and oh boy, the kids almost went wild! I had so much fun to the point that I didn't bother to put on sunblock and got myself sun burnt! And I forgot, Baba had probably 3 birthday cakes!

 This was Baba's first birthday cake. An old friend from uni baked it. Really beautiful and yummy. If you want her contact, let me know. By the way, this pic was taken by my sis, Jacqui.
 And this is the second birthday cake. I baked this for Baba when mum had a small gathering. Well the cake was a little too hard. I didn't add enough baking powder but it was still okay, I guess, but Babe thinks that I really need baking lessons! Again pic was taken by Jacqui.
This is Baba's third birthday cake. Mum got him this cake for him on his actual birthday. So little Baba is an expert in blowing out candles now!

 Babe and Baba at the zoo. Baba is probably thinking Ma Ma, just let me enjoy the zoo trip!
 At Port of Lost Wonder! So much fun!
 And yes, we had so much fun!
Little Baba trying to pose for the camera. Supper at Marina Bay Sands.

When we came back from Singapore, little Baba had to go to school the next day. Sure, I was very apprehensive. Now the table has turned and it's hard. On his first day of school, he was fine. He had fun and so I thought he would be fine at school.....So I thought! The next day, I had to be in school for a meeting and so our helper went to school instead. And that's when the mayhem started. He cried really badly so badly to the point that he threw up and that's when the teacher and school administrator agreed that our helper can stay with little Baba till end of next week. So hopefully by then, he'll be fine.

First day of school for little Baba. Yes, we know, it's a little too early for Baba to start school. But we were very careful with our kindy selection. We didn't want to put little Baba into a kindy that was very result driven or very focus in keeping the kids still and rigid. We want him to have a positive experience at this stage and therefore we choose a Montessori kindy for him. Yes, it's kinda far, it's in Sheung Wan and let's not even talk about how much his school fees are....But so far even with the crying, he was happy going to school.

Anyway, that's all the update we have.