driving around town

what's up with the weather?


feb 21


feb 24


feb 29

leap year

i just had a weird thought...

2008 is a leap year = it has feb 29th
the next leap year will be in 2012.
will i still be writing this blog 4 years from now?
what will i be doing in 4 years?

this entry is to commemorate a once in 4 years chance of posting a blog on a leap day.



some other events that happen every 4 years: the olympic games, FIFA world cup, and the cricket world cup. :)

dad's birthday dinner

one year ago, we threw dad a big 60th birthday celebration and invited all our relatives. one year later, we decided to play chefs and have a small, intimate dinner at home. mom and i went shopping at costco and whole foods to pick out the ingredients for the night. the menu consists of some of dad's favorite foods: corn chowder, smoked salmon, and lamb chops. he has a sweet tooth like me (it's more like "i have a sweet tooth like him"... haha), so we had new york cheesecake for dessert to round things up.

to toast for many more birthdays to come


i think we did pretty well in terms of food, don't you agree?


daddy and his girls


happy birthday!
祝 年年有今日 歲歲有今朝

craft paper & crayons

i received some souvenirs which my good friend got from tokyo. since she's a wonderful artist, she got me some craft paper and crayons??

nope!


they're actually chocolate balls packed in a cute strawberry-shaped box, and two pairs of chopsticks!




we had a really great chat today, and she gave me a lot of good advice. i'm so grateful to have someone whom i can share everything with!

jetlag or insomnia?

ever since i came back from asia, i haven't been able to sleep well. (except for the first night, which i slept from 1am through 2:30pm the next day... that's not my personal record, though.) for the past 2 nights, i'd fall asleep around midnight while watching tv and wake up just after an hour, realizing that my lights were still on. i'd be wide awake by then and it was difficult to fall back into sleep again, so i tried putting on my tivo'd shows, listening to soft music, or reading a book. i seriously even counted sheep. but for both nights, i remember seeing the (sun)light from my window before falling asleep again. of course, the next time i woke up would be past lunch time.

i've never experienced such bad jetlag previously. i wonder if it's... insomnia? maybe i have a lot of things on my mind lately...

i have a sweet tooth

i have a thing for desserts and sweet foods, especially the not-so-sweet versions you can find in asia. here's what boosted my sugar level while in hk and japan...

unique "M" cocoa toppings on caramel mocha and cappuccino drinks from McCafe, hk


i didn't expect such delicious lemon lamington and coffee from McD


french toast from 茶餐廳 (local diners)
look at that dab of butter!!





chestnut cake from my favorite bakery near kobe


dessert trio


ひな祭りの和菓子
(hinamatsuri no wagashi - japanese sweets for the doll festival, march 3rd)

japan... cold

i thought hk was cold. but of course, japan is colder...

the temperature warmed up on the day i arrived, but it immediately snowed (just slightly though) the next 2 days. it was too cold for me to go out and capture it in picture. :(

the perfect food for the perfectly cold weather


good thing the train is heated!


can't resist a cup of hot cappuccino and jam toast (yes, i LOVE bread)

a few random hk pics from last week

lion dance exhibition at the new shopping mall elements 圓方


can't miss having hk-style milk tea and butter toast for afternoon tea


access to all directions

encounter with a tv star

on the day i went to disneyland, i not only met mickey and minnie. i also had the chance to meet the hk tv star 林峯 (raymond lam), courtesy of my friend who's a committee member of his fan club. she took us to the airport to see him off. he was heading to the U.S. for a concert show.

babies overdose

the third day of cny, i met 3 babies today!

first was 5-month-old alana, daughter of elaine and ashley. elaine said alana isn't in her usual "happy baby" mode today... maybe feeling under the weather? maybe teething? but i think she's still a cutie!

a confused ladybug?


alana is so popular that all the kids want to read her story books

btw, thanks guys for the wonderful burgers! and sorry i had to rush off...

next i went to another stop to 拜年, where i met my elementary school friends. a few of them had babies last year, and i got to meet 10-month-old leanne and 2-month-old adrienne.

leanne is such an active baby! she's just learning to crawl and was drawing everyone's attention.

here's leanne joining a game of Wii


she loves to sing too

on the other hand, adrienne is a super mellow baby. she slept through the entire 2 hours even when all of us girls were chatting and laughing!

baby adrienne and mama ami


i can't believe that we were once only in elementary school, and now our second generation are here!

恭喜發財!

年初一

祝大家鼠年行大運

心想事成 身體健康 一本萬利
步步高陞 青春常駐 龍馬精神

HAPPY YEAR OF THE RAT!


first thing today was to go to grandma's to 拜年 (give our greetings).


當然o吾少得"運吉"啦！哈哈！


grandma's famous dishes



red and gold at the mall

chinese new year's eve

in hong kong, the tradition on chinese new year's eve is to go to the flower market (行花市) after the family gathers for dinner. it's been 15 years since i last spent cny in hk... how can i not go to one this year!

"the fun stalls" at 旺角花墟花市 - they sell cute and modern things, like toys and dried goods. i got a big mandarin orange stuffed toy, wishing everyone 大吉大利!


"the traditional stalls" - selling plants and fruits.
don't really know what this is called but it's a funny looking kind of fruit


pots and pots of mandarin oranges


mom picking out some flowers for grandma


the crowd keeps getting bigger and bigger!

only in hk disneyland

since it is the year of the mouse, we decided to go visit the world's most famous mice - mickey & minnie!

it was a super cold and wet day... but we didn't mind because the park was quite empty. there was no wait for space mountain (can you believe it!) so we rode on it twice. disney decorated the entire park with chinese new year accessories; they made it into a real theme park!

these are some of the things you won't find in any other disneyland parks...

shapes of traditional coin make the mouse head


cny greeting banners

(btw, did you realize that there's no one else on main street? this would never happen to the ones in LA or FL...)

mickey and donald in chinese armor


hk disneyland has a "rainy day parade" on stand-by if it rains that day.
each character gets its own raincoat!


mickey and minnie in their rain gear


to celebrate cny, 8 celebrities each designed a special mickey statue, this one is by the famous clothing designer vivienne tam

(i took pics of the other 7 but didn't post them)

here comes the couple in cny outfits!


*kung hei fat choi*


daisy duck and minnie mouse performing a chinese dance


yeah, fireworks!