Category Archives: Life in HK

Cost of Living Review: Eggs

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Eggs are something that you definitely eat at least once a week. In a family where there are 2 kids, we would probably finish a dozen of it within a week or so. My kids are eggs lover. They can eat ‘em in all sorts of form be it steamed, fried, scrambled, soft boil, hard boiled, poached except raw!! I recall once, my Cambo maid actually stir fry vegetables with eggs..OMG..speechless, but the kids ate it (=.=).

So lets look at affordability of eating eggs this week.

In Malaysia:
Since I’ve left for about a year, I’m not sure what’s the latest egg price, hence I did a google search and found about this official website (Federation of Livestock Farmer’s Association Malaysia – FLFAM) that puts the price of eggs sold in Malaysia in general. Are eggs controlled items in KL? Not very sure. Anyway, I got to know there are so many grades of eggs sold in KL. Ranging from AA up to F. F is priced at 0.00…broken egg LOL. Anyway, on an average, eggs cost RM0.35 cents. Pretty affordable. I definitely can afford to make egg sandwich for kids party :) .

Does anyone knows if Malaysia sell imported eggs? What about Organic eggs, how much do they cost?

In Hong Kong:
It’s amazing how many types of eggs you can find here, all from different country. They don’t have grades, and comparing the sizes, they are more or less the same. I spent some time to copy down all the types of eggs sold at supermarket and here’s an overview of how much they cost:

Organic eggs: HKD71.90 (for half a dozen)
US eggs: HKD29.00 (for 2 trays of 14 eggs) – promotion
HK brand eggs: HKD28.00 (for a dozen) – weird, how come US eggs are cheaper than HK LOL
Thai eggs: HKD28.90 (for a dozen)
Korean eggs: HKD27.00 (for a tray of 10 eggs)
Japan eggs: HKD40.90 (for a tray of 10 eggs)

Makes me wonder why they are importing eggs from so many country? Further reading found that back in 2008, they started doing egg testing on all the eggs from China for fear of melamine content :| . This made the supply slower and the prices soared. Also here’s an article that mentioned that egg price rose 15% comparing 2009 and 2011.

As you can see here, US eggs are the cheapest. 2 trays for HKD29!! We will usually grab these. This only happens on certain day of the week where there’s promotion, so you gotta catch the right time.

This works out to about HKD1.03/egg.

Verdict:
Assuming that we consume 5 eggs a week, this will work out to:
In KL: RM0.35 x 5 = RM1.75 (HKD4.25)
In HK: HKD1.03 x 5 = HKD5.15 (RM2.11)

The difference is not much, but if you are heavy eggs eater, you will probably feel the pinch. When we first came, they weren’t selling US eggs, hence we felt the pinch each time we purchase eggs. Eat sparingly was the motto back then :P .

It’s definitely more affordable making egg sandwich for party in KL rather than HK :) .

Cost of Living Comparison Round II: KL 1 – HK 1

Have a nice weekend and do check out the Organic egg price for me in KL ya ;) . As for now, any eggs for lunch / dinner tonight?

Cost of Living Review: Pre-school

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Since most of my readers have school going children, be it pre-school or primary school, thought I should share this first (Actually I haven’t got time to do my marketing this week, so can’t put up anything on grocery yet :P ).

In Malaysia:
Fees: RM700/month on the average (equivalent to HKD1719) 
I used to send my children to Fungates Pre-school in KL. Every month, we spend around RM400-500 for school fees (per child). This is only for 4 hours, i.e. from 9-12pm. If you leave your child for daycare (which not all the pre-school provides) you will need to add an additional RM250. That comes to about RM700 per month (rough estimate).
Transportation: RM120 (equivalent to HKD295)
I used to have transport auntie to send my kids to MIL house. That’s from Section 14 to Damansara, about 20mins drive on a non traffic jam day.
Food:
Lunch and snacks are part of the package above. You don’t get to see what they serve in the school, but trust that they are giving the kids healthy food. Snacks are usually biscuits.
School Trips: 1 per year, budget about RM50 per trip (equivalent to HKD122)
We all love joining the kids for school trips. During their days in fungates, you have 1 school trip per year. Everyone goes together from N1-K3. I’ve joined 2 of the trips and seriously, it’s rather tiring just to watch them getting the kids from one place to another. Depending on where you go, there would be charges.
School Events: Twice per year, budget about RM50 for party (equivalent to HKD122), if concert budget about RM80 for costumes (equivalent to HKD196)
They have party twice per year, at the end of each semester. Usually it’s themed and you need to dress your kids up. You also need to bring food to school. They will also have either sports day or concert (alternating every year).
School environment:
Pretty clean, sanitized daily. Checking of body temperature. Cleaning of hands (to avoid HFM). If you leave your child for daycare, each child will have their own sleeping bag. You bring home the sleeping bag every Friday to wash over the weekend.
Safety:
Varies from each Fungates. The one at Section 14, you are given a card with your child’s name which you need to display at your car when you pick them up. If you forget to bring, they will still let the kids go with you, provided you are familar faces to the kids.
Rules:
Strict. If you are late, you are not allowed to go in..booohoohoo…
Books & other fees: RM1000 (equivalent to HKD2455)
I seriously can’t recall the administrative fees they charge each year at Fungates. But I recall each time when I register the kids, I need to pay at least RM1500 per child, which includes the fees for the last month. So lets just estimate as RM1000 (including books). And some fees you need to pay twice (after each semester).
Miscellaneous:
The weird thing bout Fungates is, you only go to school like for 10 months, but you need to pay for 11 months. Something like that. But it’s not the same throughout all the Fungates. Homework could be quite a fair bit. Maybe now has changed since the school system changed last year. But I recall there’s spelling test every week :| . There’s exam every semester. And then you will have parents-teacher day thereafter.

Before I start talking about HK Pre-school, just to let you know that we send Vyktore to govt. subsidized pre-school. There are many types of pre-school here. Private, DSS (Direct Subsidized School) pre-school, govt. subsidized pre-school, etc…If you send you child to govt. subsidized ones, the govt. pays 50% of the school fees. And that’s throughout K1-K3. It doesn’t matter you are expat or local, whatever religion, whatever ethnicity, so long as you know the right channel to apply and provide the required documents, you are entitled for it. I’ll safe the details for another blog post on how to apply for govt. subsidize on another day.

In HK:
Fees: HKD1787 (equivalent to RM726)
His pre-school is full day system. Starts at 900am and ends at 430pm. It opens at 800am and closes at 600pm. The full day fees is HKD3574 for K3. Since it’s subsidized, I shall put the subsidized amount here cause we are talking about how much we spend every month.
Transportation: NIL
Well, his kindy is just downstairs our apartment, 5 mins walk door to door. Hence we need not pay for transportation. For picking up, it will be either our part time helper, Hon or myself.
Food:
It’s part of the fees that you pay monthly. Their menu changes every 3 months. Before the start of the quarter, they will provide you the menu. Breakfast would be either: oats, milk, bread. Lunch would usually consist of rice with a dish OR noodles. It comes with fruits as well. Tea time (4pm), they will have biscuits and hot drinks or fruit juice.
School Trips: NIL
They have school trips like every 2 months and sometimes every month, depending on the season. Different age group goes to different places. For Vyktore, so far they’ve been to Library (at least 3 times), Ocean Park, Traffic Safety Town (where he gets to cycle there and hold a girl’s hand :P ), CNY Flower Market, some Charity organised event (where parents could join), Dentist World and a couple more which I can’t recall. We didn’t have to pay for any of these trips, except the one that went to CNY Flower Market where we gave him HKD20 so he could buy something and experience trading.
School Events: NIL
This is pretty fun too. Each time when there’s some festival e.g. Mooncake Festival, Dumpling Festival, CNY, they will organise mini events in the school for the kids. For Mooncake Festival, they brought their lantern to school and off all the lights and let the kids roam in the kindy. During CNY, they had steamboat. Not much cost associated to these events. For the steamboat, we just had to bring some food stuff as part of the ingredients.
School environment:
Extremely clean (I think due to SARS experience previously). They sanitize the whole school everyday!! Temperature checking is a must. Since it’s indoor, you need 2 pairs of shoes. When you arrive at school, you need to change to the indoor shoes. Then when you leave, you need to change back to your outdoor shoes. Each child have their own sleeping mattress and you bring it home for washing every Friday. If you fall sick, you are expected to provide an MC. Upon returning from sickness, you are expected to provide a letter that the child is fit to return. Oh, and if they are just having cough and cold, the school helps you to feed the medication as well. There’s some form to fill in and they will follow the timing that you provide to them. Bliss :) .
Safety:
Each kid is given 2 pickup card. Everyday when you send them to school, they will give you a card. When you pick them up, you will need to present the card. They give 2 as spare since sometimes Daddy might sent the kid off, but Mommy might pick the kid up. If you did not bring the card, you will need to fill in a form with your IC No before you can pick the kid up.
Rules:
Pretty Strict, but you can still go in to school when you are late LOL. They will also call you upon checking the attendance and found that you are not in school.
Books & other fees: HKD1000 (equivalent to RM406)
Books are expensive here. It’s about HKD1000 a year. But there are no other fees e.g. admin fees, registration fee, dunno what lab fees, art & craft fees, bla bla. Oh and it includes a school bag too. Everyone uses the same bag. Save some money no need to buy school bag :P .
Miscellaneous:
School begins every September (follow British schooling period) and ends in July. That’s 12 months. But if you do not attend school during summer holiday, you don’t have to pay the remaining 2 months. Homework is 2-3 pages per day for K3. It could be a combination of English + Chinese or Chinese + Maths. No spelling test, but they make the kids read and recite passages based on some of the words they write in their homework. No exams for his school. They review the kid on weekly basis to check on their progress. A handbook with the latest progress will be given and parents are expected to acknowledge it every week and return to them. It will tell you within the week what has been thought and where is their capability level.

Verdict:
Let’s do a total sum for a year for ease of comparison.
In KL: we spend RM10,170 a year/kid in pre-school
In HK: we spend HKD20,657 (RM8,395) a year/kid in pre-school. Without subsidy from govt. it would cost HKD41,314 (RM16,790) a year/kid.

KL is cheaper in terms of pre-school (if we do not consider getting subsidy from govt.). Then again, if you are smart like us and manage to find lubang for govt. subsidized pre-school, then you could save a tonne and it becomes cheaper than KL. Since I’m comparing what I used to pay in KL against what I’m paying here in HK, then I consider HK is the winner in this review.

Just FYI, a year of K2 fees for International school near our place is about HKD57,000 (excluding transport).

Cost of Living Comparison Round I: KL 0 – HK 1

T’was a long and wordy post :| . Hope I can do a shorter one next week.

Cost of Living in HK

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Since we moved to HK about a year ago, friends been asking me how is it like living in HK? Is it expensive? Because most of us visit HK as tourist, and being a tourist, we always have that foreign exchange conversion mind, we will always compare the prices here and back in KL and everything seems so expensive.

Thus I’ve decided to give you a weekly insight review of how much things cost here, just for the fun of it and allow you to compare if it’s cheaper to live in HK or to live in KL.

I’ll be posting it up every Friday hopefully doing simple comparison of some items be it perishable goods, kids clothing or even petrol. So if you want to find out how much I spend for groceries and whether it’s cheaper to live in KL or HK, do stay tuned :) .

Weekend is approaching…

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Wohoo..it’s mid of June today and weekend is approaching. I’m glad that the week is over without any big hiccups over the last few days. School exams are over too for Faythe and she did pretty well. I’m currently compiling a list of To-Dos for their Summer Holiday and hopefully we can check check check most of ‘em if not all of ‘em.

Needless to say, I’m just 1 month away from celebrating the 1st Anniversary of living abroad LOL. Excited? Yeah, maybe I should throw a BBQ party. *giggles*.

Anyway, have a nice weekend and Happy Father’s Day. Reminds me that I need to go book for hi-tea after this.

Here’s leaving you with a photo taken last year when the house was still empty. 

大澳 (Tai O)

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Tai O is a fishing village town cum island by itself, situated on the western side of Lantau Island. Some history of Tai O can be found here on wikipedia. Residing nearer to Tung Chung and easily accessible via bus or direct ferry. If you remember the movie, Project A by Jacky Chan, that police station in the movie, was actually filmed here. We didn’t manage to visit the police station, but only caught a glimpse of it as we travel back to Tung Chung by boat.

We came here last Feb during the end of winter. It was freezing cold but we enjoyed it. Since we were there after 2pm, we didn’t have much time to explore the entire Island, just a little bit here and there and there seems to be so much more to offer & explore here as compared to Cheung Chau. As usual, we wouldn’t miss trying out the restaurants there to fill our tummy. And we all agree that the trip to Tai O is better off with ferry than the whirly-windy road up the hill & down the hill via the bus.

Here are some photos taken during our 4 hours trip. More photos over at my FB album.

depleted wall and door, love the effect of it.

Look at this boy with oversized sunnies LOL

Youngest in the group, Ben.

Dried food products. Seems like it’s cheaper to buy here than Cheung Chau.

BBQ dried seafood.

One for the family. Gosh..the kids are not looking!!

drinks of all kinds of colours

Old roofs could still be seen here.

There were alot of old post boxes like this and I couldn’t resist to take pics of each of them.

pretty rose.

Old school grilles, with designs somemore..rare-ness :)

this is how they make assam?

Salted egg yolks!! We didn’t know they were selling salted egg yolks like this. We bought some to try, lovely.

Everyone busy lining up to by some peanut kuih, erm but we dare not try.

There were alot of houses like these, made of just metal sheets? Not sure why they use this instead of bricks.

The man squatting in front of the metal house. I asked him to pose as if he’s some gangster killing time LOL.

The house is so small, you have to use an external stairs to go upstairs LOL

A simple worship place, made with metal also O.o

Wow, I wish I could move this to my balcony LOL.

A man enjoying his snacks by the door

talk about details…even the grill has words engraved on it.

This uncle is trying hard to cycle..salute him.

more post box….

Made them sat on the stairs and took pics.

Fire Danger Warning, but smoking cigar outside.

Another cat.

Ah a postbox with my surname, how cool

Hon’s colleagues, Bala & Janet.

All sorts of jeruk on sale

Trying out the baked salted egg..tasted just like egg+salt, LOL

Vyktore enjoying biscuits sandwiched with maltose.

Fried wan tan noodles with sliced beef. Heavenly.

Sweet & sour pork is a must for kids.

Marinated jelly fish with fish cake. Local dish.

Fried prawns with soya sauce. My favourite.

Scallops steamed with spring onion and vermicelli. Nice.

Fried taufu

Lovely sunset. We’ve not been seeing sunset during winter but managed to enjoy the sunset in Tai O.

Peanut kuih, tried this elsewhere before, not bad.

Giant size dried oysters

waiting for the boat at Pier.

got this shot of them from far.

長洲 (Cheung Chau)

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I’m sure most of you have heard about Cheung Chau (長洲) after watching TVB Drama Series for so many years. I’m one of them too. And I was excited when I came to know that Cheung Chau is not too far from Lantau Island. Cheung Chau is also famous for the Bun Festival which is held every year during May. I would definitely consider going there for photoshoot during the Bun Festival next time, when my kids are older and I don’t have to bring them along with me as it’s too crowded.

This was our first adventure to other Islands in Hong Kong. It was a hot Sunday afternoon. There’s a direct bus from Tung Chung to Cheung Chau (3M). We took a bus to the Pier, about 45 mins, then we took a ferry over to Cheung Chau.

Cheung Chau is very commercialised compared to other places like Tai O, Pui O, etc. When we alighted the ferry, the 1st thing that greeted us was McDonald’s!! As it was so hot, we succumbed to McDonald’s and went to get our Coca-Cola Slurpee. And that has to be the best ever Slurpee I’ve ever tasted in my life :) .

Since it was lunchtime, we started walking along the way to hunt for food. Finally went into one of the restaurants and ordered some yummy dishes. After filling our tummy, we just continue walking and explore this place.

We saw a lady selling home made 豆腐花 (tau fu fah) and ordered some to try. Unlike back home where they serve 豆腐花 with gula melaka, here they serve it with syrup or yellow sugar. Still prefer the gula melaka version :) .

After that, we headed to the beach where the kids had a great time playing while the adults chill out with beer at the restaurant (just beside the beach).

From Cheung Chau you can take a ferry back to Central as well and that’s what we did. It was a much longer ride. We had dinner at IFC Mall before heading home and call it a day.

Here are some photos taken at Cheung Chau. For more photos, visit my FB album.

Look, McDonald’s in Cheung Chau :) .

Fried Mantis Prawn.

Stir Fried Kailan (looks super oily eh ^.^)

Kam Heong Lala (without the curry leaves)

Chilli & Salt Fried Tofu (this was a hit)

Stir Fried Crabs with Ginger & Spring Onion

Fried rice for the kids

Sweet & sour pork (for the kids too)

Steam fish..yummy :)

This lady was selling home made tau fu fah. Since it was so hot, we stopped here for our dessert.

Slurps…smooth and tasty tau fu fah.

 Do you think this fella is aged at least 50 years old? Look at how huge it is!!!

 We didn’t ride any of these, but thought that it’ll be nice to take some pics. Next time must rent and ride hehe

 Buying some salted fish to try. 

Walking towards the beach

Cheung Chau Buns

Kids enjoying their beach time

Tallest building in HK, IFC Mall, at HK Central. We took a MTR back to Tung Chung thereafter.

長沙灘 (Cheung Sha Beach)

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Well, I’ve came here for almost 10 months, but haven’t quite blog about our adventures thus far, thought I’d start with this recent one. Lantau Island, that’s where we stay is pretty well preserved. If you’ve seen the various photos I’ve posted on my Facebook, you would be surprised that it’s Hong Kong. That’s also one of the reason why we are living there instead of in HK Island. You feel less hectic and more at home here than in HK Island itself. More laid back. Even the escalators are slower in comparison (swear I’m telling the truth cause I switch from fast mode to slow mode when I commute within my office and home).

There are alot of hiking trails (we’ve completed 2 so far), beaches, mountains, Island hopping (we’ve done 2 as well) and geological park. Back in March when the weather was finally warmer but not too warm, we took a bus from Tung Chung to 長沙灘 (Cheung Sha Beach). It’s a short ride on a windy road via Bus 35 (the one that goes up to Po Lin Monastery). It only takes 20 minutes from Tung Chung to Cheung Sha Beach.

Kids were delighted as usual since we get to break free from the usual shopping mall visits. We went there with our family friend, of which their kids are same age as ours (their best buddy here).

The beach was rather empty to our delight. We were informed that locals don’t normally flock here. They’d go to more commercialised beaches like the ones in Cheung Chau. Only the angmo will come here, and this area are usually populated by the foreigners that wants a laid back life and mainly those working in Airport.

I wouldn’t say that the beach was fantastic if you compare those back home in Malaysia, but definitely much cleaner and less muddy. I’d rate this above some parts of Port Dickson & Morib in terms of cleaniness.

For once, Vyktore enjoyed the beach so much and I was so delighted that he finally did. All this while he’d just sit on the mat and eat his snacks. Never want to get himself there. He claims that it’s dirty. But during this visit, he totally enjoyed the waves and rolling about on the beach.

There’s also facilities for you to clean up after the beach bathing which is well maintained. Changing room is also available. Don’t need to wrap the towel around you and change discreetly in the public hehe..

Here are some photos taken that day.

We will definitely return here again for beach bathing weekend.

 

 

My Concert Life with Jacky Cheung

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Throughout my life, I’ve only watch Concert for 3 times. And out of these 3 times, all 3 are Jacky Cheung’s concert. Not that I don’t want to watch other singers’ concert, but the timing was not right. When Audrey and Huey Fong came to HK to visit us last year, we found out that Jacky Cheung was having a concert in Venetian, Macau. All the tickets were already sold out when we learned about this, but later we found out that he added 2 more days and tickets were on sale!! We quickly grab 3 tickets and off we went to Macau on 29th Dec.

This is in fact my 2nd time watching JC concert with Audrey. The last time we went together was during our 20s!! And obviously JC never fails to amaze us. Although he’s 1/2 a century old (that’s also the title of his concert), but he’s even more energetic and charming than previously. Like he say, the older he is, the more good looking he is LOL. All his moves and dances left us in awe. He also paid tribute to his late godmother, Sum Tin Ha. His love notes are forever so touching and he sang them beautifully. He is no doubt a great singer.

There’s a heavy usage of graphics in this latest concert and I read that he choreographed the entire concert himself. Excellent job!! The stage moves from up to down, turn horizontally, split vertically. Then he came with a helicopter while singing and ending the concert with fireworks. Whoa, we were left amazed. He even did a short clip of himself in cartoon from young to old accompanied by his notes.

Come next weekend, I’ll be going for the same concert again, but this time in Hong Kong itself. It will be his final league after performing the same concert for over a year since 2011. I’m really looking forward to next week and this time round I hope I get a better view.

Here are some photos taken during his 100th 1/2 Century Concert in Macau. Oh BTW, if I’m not mistaken, the videoclip of him and Shu Qi was filmed in Macau as well, so watching the concert at Macau itself was indeed mesmerising.

Bersih 3.0 HK Edition

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I woke up on 28th April with a hope to bring change to my country, Malaysia. It was a rainy morning in Hong Kong. But as the organiser has said it loud and clear, the show must go on. It will only be called off if there’s Typhoon, Signal 8.

Days before the event took place, I found myself wrestling with my thoughts. I finally succumbed to the fact that I must be part of this historic event. And not just sit at home to watch the post Bersih 3.0 footages while I quietly regret in my heart that I have not done my part for our future, my children’s future and the future of all Malaysian. I was trying to convince my other half to join as well, but he procrastinated and in the end I tasked him to take care of the kids at home while I walk the talk.

Bersih 3.0 HK Edition meeting place as at Causway Bay, SOGO. I met up with Peggy (that so happened came to HK for holiday) earlier to have a quick lunch. Then we walked towards SOGO entrance and it was only 1:45pm, but the crowd was noticeable from far. Everyone were clad in yellow, the Bersih official colour.

The organiser expected about 100 people turn up at the event. But the final count apparently, there were 400 people!! Amazing!!

Everyone look very excited. Some travelled as far as from Southern China to participate in this memorable event. They couldn’t get their permit on time, but nevertheless made the effort to come all the way to HK. Someone was seen selling the Bersih T-shirt and they were quickly snapped up by rally’s participants. Obviously some were busy snapping photos for each other. People from all walks of life was there. It was as though we are going for a carnival instead of a rally.

At 2:00pm, we moved forward to a cordoned area that the police has prepared for us where we stood there and sang our National anthem with pride. I’ve never felt so proud singing this song together with our fellow countrymen. Then the leader came and gave a speech about today’s rally. Why we are doing this? It is not about politics. It’s about a clean and fair election. It’s about the people’s voice to be heard. And though we are many miles away from Malaysia, it doesn’t mean that we would not be bothered about what is happening back home.

One of the things he talked about that touched me was when he mentioned that alot of people whom has migrated overseas challenged why they need to care about Malaysia and what is happening since they are not there. But that is so wrong. Doesn’t mean we are not there we will not be affected. Don’t forget our parents are there. Our siblings are there. We still need to pay tax for our house in Malaysia although we don’t pay our income tax there. So we do need to care!! And someday, we will return home, when the time comes. But for now, let us continue to fight for the rights of our brothers and sisters at home.

It was a very long talk. He finished his speech in English, then someone shouted, Bahasa please. So he started repeating his speech in Bahasa. Then someone requested for Mandarin version, and he quickly obliged. And of course, we must have the Cantonese version since we are all in HK. And finally, someone requested for Hokkien version, and he did!! Everyone laughed when he spoke in Hokkien. We are truly a multilingual country. But no matter what language we speak, our voice must be heard that day. That a fair and clean election is what we demand for.

At 3:00pm, we lined up to form a long line and started marching. Together with us was a team of police officers, deployed to ensure our safety and assist the rally itself. They led us all the way from Causeway Bay right up to the Malaysia Embassy at Gloucester Road at Wan Chai. They stopped the cars and let us pass by the roads leaading to Wan Chai. From time to time we were reminded to walk inside so that we won’t be hit by cars. We chanted “Ah Shuir Hou Yeh” to the policemen for being so supportive, unlike the ones back home that layed barbed wires and refuse to let our countrymen to sit in at Dataran Merdeka.

As we walk, we sang our Negaraku. We sang Setia. We chanted “Hidup Bersih”. We chanted “Hidup Rakyat”. We chanted “Bersih, Bersih”. We chanted “Malaysia Boleh!!”. It was these moments that remind us that no matter where we are, how old we are and who we are at the end of the day we are all united as 1, 1Malaysia. And together we will rally for a better tomorrow.

One of the man was the leader that guide us with the chanting. At one point of a time, he ran out of his voice and we all laughed. But quickly someone took over and it continued. That was how strong the spirit was.

We finally reached the Malaysia Embassy after walking for 45mins and the guards were standing there, refuse to let us in. The police requested us to spread the crowd within the left and right of the embassy and ensure that we were not blocking the road. Again we sang Negaraku. Then the leader read out the memorandum that they want to pass to the Consulate. Some of us wrote our name on the memorandum as well.

At first the guard refused to open the door for us to pass the memorandum and spike off some concern among the group. Then we started chanting “Buka Pintu” to request them to open the door and finally they did. The Consulate quickly grab the memorandum and the guard closed the door. They were so afraid that we would start a riot. But seriously, we are there for peace, not for riot. If we wanted to start a riot, we would have done it along the way. And at that very moment as well, someone announced that they started shooting tear gas and water cannon in KL and we all jeered as loud as we could, condemning the act of our police and FRU units back home. Why has it gotta end with such an ugly sight despite a peaceful rally.

The rally ended at 4:00pm and we all thanked the police for being there with us. They’ve done a great job to ensure our safety. And someday we hope that police back home would do the same as the police in HK. Those would be the days where we will not live in fear of racial riots and rally. Those would be the days where police and citizens would rally together for a good cause. Those would be the days of a true democratic country. I would live to tell my children that I was part of the historical event that lead us to a true democratic country. And let us all hope that, that day would come soon.

Here are some photos taken on that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos are uploaded on my Facebook.

Greetings from HK

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A view of the apartment where we are staying. Don’t be shocked, as this a norm in HK. Considered luxurious as it comes with a string of facilities & clubhouse. Very well maintained and active owner association.  

It’s been 4 months plus since we moved to Hong Kong. And I’ve not blogged since July!! My longest ever blog hiatus. Only had time to update FB on and off, that’s about it. Life been 1 word: H.E.C.T.I.C. So busy, I didn’t even have chance to download photos from my SD Card O.o.

First it was cleaning up the house when we just came. That includes all the unpacking of the stuff we hauled over. Thank god Hon already unpacked most of the stuff that we shipped over. New credit cards had already been issued and the old ones with Credit Cards Uk canceled and Hon had also transferred our bank accounts to a HK bank. We left in such a hurry as I was starting work end of July, so we basically work ourselves towards a timeline so that I can still get some rest after that before starting my new job.

Second, was settling the kids at school. Vyktore side was easy. We registered him to K3, just downstairs of our apartment and we were done. He started off with Summer Holiday Program and for first time in his life, he never cry/whine anymore when he needs to go to school. Finally!! Faythe took a while to adjust and everything seems so alien to her. Actually I pity her because she was not exposed to Cantonese at all, and Mandarin also half pail water. In fact I was struggling as well helping her to cope with homework. Not many, but tedious. I had to do some translation to assist her. In the end we decided to hire a tutor to come and teach both of them, 3 times a week, at least can help to ease some burden off me. If not, I would have gone nuts, after work, come home still gotta translate homework. She just finished her exam and results will be out in a few weeks time.

Then, it was my job that I had to adjust myself. I’ve always been lucky with my job, moving it closer and closer to home, but my current job requires me to travel at least 1 hour, 20 mins. Although it allows work from home, but it’s based on the project I’m assigned too. Unfortunately, I’m assigned to a project that is based in office..hu hu hu…It’s pretty tiring having to travel so far for work, though I can get a seat most of the time. But well, at least I’m not stuck in traffic jam. I usually do some reading (catch up with what’s happening in Malaysia) or play some games to kill time. Gotten used to it after a while. Colleagues are OK. But I do find them a bit strange, as some of them likes to tell grandfather story alot instead of telling you directly. So after a round of grandfather story, you gotta try figure out what they want you to do. Weird eh.

We have a group of friends here (mainly Malaysian & Singaporean), so it’s not a strange place after all. And coincidentally, one of them, his family is also here and his kids’ age same as ours, they’ve became best buddies ever since. It’s great to have friends especially when you are in foreign land. We are quite closely knitted though only knew each other for few months. Even went for short trips together.

That’s basically a quick update on us. Oh we also managed to get a part time helper to come over to help clean the house 3 times a week and help to pick the kids up after school. Extremely reliable helper and we feel so blessed.

Till the next update, I hope it’s soon…cya.