Balloons

When we were preparing for little Baba's birthday, I noticed that Jojo had a phobia of balloons. She didn't want to be near the balloons and she was basically almost in tears with the balloons. As I probed further and asked more questions, she was afraid not of the balloons themselves but rather them floating away.

When looking at her fear, I realized that it's with the most of us. We're not afraid of certain things in itself. And honestly, she loves balloons when they are not filled with helium! So what are our fears? Is it the thought of losing the very thing that we love so much because we're afraid that it might float away from our very hands? That's what I'm sort of facing now. I'm very afraid of things floating away. But I don't want to love them too much and grab them too tightly that they burst in my face. Neither do I want to let them go. So what do I do now?

I really don't know. I hate it when things are in my hands and within reach and I've to let them go. But maybe it's the letting them go that I'll come to realize what God has truly prepared for me. Well, in short, my summer is ending on a low in the sense that my vision of life has once again become foggy and I've really got to lean on my Heavenly Father to guide me through this fog.

Almost the end of summer

So we're almost at the end of summer holidays. This summer has been amazing! Let me repeat, amazing! I had 7 weeks of holidays and only had to turn up at work for 2 days. Just 2 days! Anyway, it's been a good summer.

So summer started with a flight to London and then flight to Bologna, train to Florence, train to Lake Como, train to Milan, train to Verona, train to Milan and finally flight back to HK. The trip was superb, fabulous, amazing, wonderful, incredible, marvelous, and well, you get it. I had the best time with Eve. Totally the best time. Even though we've not seen each other for two years, it didn't matter as we just picked up where we left off. She was just the best travel partner. We did everything that we wanted to do and see. Eve tried to show me everything in London. Italy was way beyond expectations! The food was so so good. Let's just say that we never had a bad meal at all! The sights, oh mine! I loved the architecture, the nature and just everything! Shopping, well, let's not even go there.

The photos say it all!

 Bestie and me after all these years of friendship! Thanks girl for being the best traveling companion! We were at some tube station in London. Can't remember where. Probably too jet lagged to even remember!

 At Bologna. Our first Italian stop.

 Laughing at the manhoods that we have been seeing!

 Beautiful carousel in the middle of Florence.

 The Duomo in Florence. We stayed probably less than five minutes walk away from it.

 Beautiful Cinque Terre. The beginning of the 4.5 km or more hike.

 Just look at the beautiful houses on the cliff.

 And I survived the crazy hike! Very glad that I did it.

 Another village at Cinque Terre.

 The bird's eye view of Florence. Someday, I'll be back with Babe. Truly beautiful city that captivated my heart.

The view of Lake Como from our hotel. Well, George Cloney owns a house there and obviously we never ran into him. Nevertheless, great view with great company, what more could I ask for?

On the wall of Juliet's home in Verona. Well, that's what they say it's supposedly to be the location of Juliet's balcony but in fact it has no connection at all!

The Duomo in Milan. Very beautiful. Such as shame that we weren't dressed appropriately to enter the church.

It was kinda sad when my trip with Eve ended but at the same time, I couldn't wait to get home to Babe and Baba. Got back to HK for a couple of days and then Baba and I took off to Spore. It was a totally great time in Spore. Got to see Jo Mei Mei and most importantly, attended Jacqui and Joel's engagement, can't wait for the wedding. Well, sort of....Jacqui's moving to Melbourne after they get married, so that's kinda hard for us too. And then we celebrated little Baba's birthday with the family. And again, enjoy the photos!

 Cousins reuniting at the airport.

 Totally yummy burgers!

 This is one of my favourite photo. Holding hands. Simple action that speaks of love.

 One of my highlight, Breakfast with Sesame Street Characters.

 Jojo loves Madagascar.

 Trying to get in all the ladies in the family.

 Don't we just look alike?

 A family pic!

 Cookie Monster and Big Bird.

 An afternoon at Pollywogs.

Litte Baba loves his latest cousin.

 And I made these Cookie Monsters for Baba's party.

Swim time at Baba's party.

 We had a poolside party.

 Soon it was time to leave and we flew off on Baba's birthday. 

 When we came back to HK, we had another party for little Baba with his classmates. He had a blast! He was pretty much surprised to see his classmates. And so was I! It was a typhoon signal 8 in the afternoon and it was still typhoon signal 3 when everyone arrived at the party. Goes to show that little Baba is totally loved by everyone!

So you'll think that that's it for summer holidays right? No! Babe decided that we should take a weekend trip to Taipei with Baba and again, it was a blast. It was good for the family to bond and basically spend time with each other. And again photos!

 We visited the zoo. Probably the cheapest zoo that I've ever been. Not that I've been to many zoos in the world. Wait, think I've been to at least 5 zoos around the world? But anyway, it's like SIN2.50 for the three of us to enter the zoo! Totally worth it and there were quite a fair bit of animals there.

 When the hotel knew that it was around little Baba's birthday, they sent us a pretty large cake for the three of us.

 My cute little fireman! We went to Baby Boss in Taipei and Little Baba had the chance to play fireman.

Swim time at the hotel pool.

And with that, it pretty sums up my summer holidays. It has been a great break. I'm enjoying the last bits of the holidays before I start work proper.