Rest before the hard work begins =)
Rest before the hard work begins =)
休息是为了走更长,更远的路 - the purpose of temporal rest is to prepare for longer, further journey - and so the Chinese "idiom"?? said. That's precisely what I felt over the weekend away *SMILE*
Fifth sis wanted to bring mum on a short trip since mum had not been out of town for quite a while already. We therefore decided to go on a short, free-and-easy trip to Hong Kong over the weekend. It was nice of sis to make all the arrangements with the travel agent, borrowing books from the library to check out HK's places of interest which we can visit, nice eateries, etc - mum and myself practically did nothing in preparation for the trip, except getting the currencies changed.
Well, since it was a free-and-easy trip, all we need the travel agent to do was to arrange our air tickets and hotel. Guess what?? We booked ourselves on a Cathay Pacific flight and was only told a day before the trip when we tried to do internet check-in for ourselves that our seats were not confirmed on that flight!!! Fortunately, the travel agent managed to get seats on SQ flight for us, otherwise, this trip might not materialize after all. Haha, we were thankful for this "upgrading" and the wonderful services which SQ provided - so even if we were initially "sore" about the boo-boo, we decided to keep quiet and not complain *wink*
I mentioned the wonderful services SQ provided, didn't I?? Yes, I'm so proud of SQ!! We requested for a wheelchair for mum (she can't walk too long a distance and what we considered manageable, to her it's a challenge) when we checked-in, and almost immediately, our requested was acceded to. The airport service staff came rather promptly with a wheelchair and explained to us in detail the different routes mum would take, being on a wheelchair. He advised us to have mum wheeled all the way from the check-in counter to immigration, to the gate, and finally up to the airplane (especially for this flight the plane is parked at the remote bay), instead of what we originally chose - just to wheel her into the gate and she will board the plane on her own. He was so patient and so meticulous and all smiles in his service. It just makes our day!! Even on our way back, another service staff came and wheeled mum all the way out to the car pick-up area, patiently waiting for us as we "loitered" a little to purchase duty-free goods. The flight attendants were also wonderful - allowing us to board the plane first before the others, reminding us to stay behind and wait for the wheelchair to arrive before disembarking, etc. There's really no way the HK side can compare to the patient services given by our SQ people. The airport service staff at HK side kept mumbling and hinting to sis that the walk from the plane to the check-out area and finally to the bus pick-up point was such a LONG distance. That aside, we knew what he was hinting at definitely, but his face showed no smile and patience at all - it seems that his facial expression dropped downwards with every inch of movement forward.
When we reached our hotel, we were rather disappointed with the "facilities" of the room. We requested for a triple-sharing room and guess what we got?? A small, squeezy double room with an additional bed - so that constrained the available moving space. Not only that, there's no proper table, only 2 very SMALL side table - no dressing table, no chairs at all, no wardrobes (just 3 pathetic hangers), and no mirror in the room (only in the bathroom!!). Anyway, we didn't want to let what we see spoil our mood or our day, and we just reminded each other to be thankful that we have a place to stay and we won't be spending too much time at the hotel anyway, so ...
Since it was a free-and-easy trip, we were generally on our own. The plus point is that we were not constrained by time and we can choose our itinerary accordingly to fit our schedule. The flip side of course is that we have to arrange for our own transport - and most of the time, to accomodate mum, we flag down taxis to get us from place to place.
Mum enjoyed this trip very much - we brought her to take the Peak Tram up to the Peak (太平山), visit Madam Tussauds' wax "museum"??, went for a short ride inside the 电车 (cable tram?? - is that what it's called?), sis brought her to Lantau Island (大屿山〕to see the Big Buddha while I went shopping on my own that day, took the Disneyland line (nicely decorated, velvet seats, Mickey Mouse's theme kind of train), went to Maritime Sqaure, etc. Sis also took her to eat some very good food - like the very fine porridge at 富记 (really fine k - literally don't see the grains, yet it's so tasty and good, very smooth too, which makes us go back for 2 more times in the short 3 days), the famous clay-pot rice near our hotel, etc.
It was a pity mum didn't get to come along with us to the Avenue of Stars （星光大道〕， anyway she didn't miss much coz there was so much walking not accessible by any transport, and the nightly laser show was a let-down due to the foggy night sky. We didn't visit Disneyland too since we've been to the one in LA.
I think the rest, the food, the cool weather, plus the free-and-easy schedule was what the 3 of us appreciated and loved most throughout the trip. Shopping was somewhat a disappointment as most of what was on display were the winter clothings (it's towards the end of winter already so lots of boutique were having sales for that). And I got to read a few chapters of the book Twin passed to me before my trip (she said I must bring it along and read it - it's a life-transforming book besides the Bible, haha). And oh, I indulged myself in the dessert at Hui Lau Shan (许留山) too - I can just go ga-ga over mangoes =) 3 cups of different mango combi dessert in 3 days =)
It was a good rest, but now that I'm back and the week ahead spells out a whole list of To-Dos, it's time to to garner all my energy and strength to ensure a good fruitful semester/school break. Thank God for the trip and trusting into His hands this week ahead too.
休息是为了走更长,更远的路 - the purpose of temporal rest is to prepare for longer, further journey - and so the Chinese "idiom"?? said. That's precisely what I felt over the weekend away *SMILE*
Fifth sis wanted to bring mum on a short trip since mum had not been out of town for quite a while already. We therefore decided to go on a short, free-and-easy trip to Hong Kong over the weekend. It was nice of sis to make all the arrangements with the travel agent, borrowing books from the library to check out HK's places of interest which we can visit, nice eateries, etc - mum and myself practically did nothing in preparation for the trip, except getting the currencies changed.
Well, since it was a free-and-easy trip, all we need the travel agent to do was to arrange our air tickets and hotel. Guess what?? We booked ourselves on a Cathay Pacific flight and was only told a day before the trip when we tried to do internet check-in for ourselves that our seats were not confirmed on that flight!!! Fortunately, the travel agent managed to get seats on SQ flight for us, otherwise, this trip might not materialize after all. Haha, we were thankful for this "upgrading" and the wonderful services which SQ provided - so even if we were initially "sore" about the boo-boo, we decided to keep quiet and not complain *wink*
I mentioned the wonderful services SQ provided, didn't I?? Yes, I'm so proud of SQ!! We requested for a wheelchair for mum (she can't walk too long a distance and what we considered manageable, to her it's a challenge) when we checked-in, and almost immediately, our requested was acceded to. The airport service staff came rather promptly with a wheelchair and explained to us in detail the different routes mum would take, being on a wheelchair. He advised us to have mum wheeled all the way from the check-in counter to immigration, to the gate, and finally up to the airplane (especially for this flight the plane is parked at the remote bay), instead of what we originally chose - just to wheel her into the gate and she will board the plane on her own. He was so patient and so meticulous and all smiles in his service. It just makes our day!! Even on our way back, another service staff came and wheeled mum all the way out to the car pick-up area, patiently waiting for us as we "loitered" a little to purchase duty-free goods. The flight attendants were also wonderful - allowing us to board the plane first before the others, reminding us to stay behind and wait for the wheelchair to arrive before disembarking, etc. There's really no way the HK side can compare to the patient services given by our SQ people. The airport service staff at HK side kept mumbling and hinting to sis that the walk from the plane to the check-out area and finally to the bus pick-up point was such a LONG distance. That aside, we knew what he was hinting at definitely, but his face showed no smile and patience at all - it seems that his facial expression dropped downwards with every inch of movement forward.
When we reached our hotel, we were rather disappointed with the "facilities" of the room. We requested for a triple-sharing room and guess what we got?? A small, squeezy double room with an additional bed - so that constrained the available moving space. Not only that, there's no proper table, only 2 very SMALL side table - no dressing table, no chairs at all, no wardrobes (just 3 pathetic hangers), and no mirror in the room (only in the bathroom!!). Anyway, we didn't want to let what we see spoil our mood or our day, and we just reminded each other to be thankful that we have a place to stay and we won't be spending too much time at the hotel anyway, so ...
Since it was a free-and-easy trip, we were generally on our own. The plus point is that we were not constrained by time and we can choose our itinerary accordingly to fit our schedule. The flip side of course is that we have to arrange for our own transport - and most of the time, to accomodate mum, we flag down taxis to get us from place to place.
Mum enjoyed this trip very much - we brought her to take the Peak Tram up to the Peak (太平山), visit Madam Tussauds' wax "museum"??, went for a short ride inside the 电车 (cable tram?? - is that what it's called?), sis brought her to Lantau Island (大屿山〕to see the Big Buddha while I went shopping on my own that day, took the Disneyland line (nicely decorated, velvet seats, Mickey Mouse's theme kind of train), went to Maritime Sqaure, etc. Sis also took her to eat some very good food - like the very fine porridge at 富记 (really fine k - literally don't see the grains, yet it's so tasty and good, very smooth too, which makes us go back for 2 more times in the short 3 days), the famous clay-pot rice near our hotel, etc.
It was a pity mum didn't get to come along with us to the Avenue of Stars （星光大道〕， anyway she didn't miss much coz there was so much walking not accessible by any transport, and the nightly laser show was a let-down due to the foggy night sky. We didn't visit Disneyland too since we've been to the one in LA.
I think the rest, the food, the cool weather, plus the free-and-easy schedule was what the 3 of us appreciated and loved most throughout the trip. Shopping was somewhat a disappointment as most of what was on display were the winter clothings (it's towards the end of winter already so lots of boutique were having sales for that). And I got to read a few chapters of the book Twin passed to me before my trip (she said I must bring it along and read it - it's a life-transforming book besides the Bible, haha). And oh, I indulged myself in the dessert at Hui Lau Shan (许留山) too - I can just go ga-ga over mangoes =) 3 cups of different mango combi dessert in 3 days =)
It was a good rest, but now that I'm back and the week ahead spells out a whole list of To-Dos, it's time to to garner all my energy and strength to ensure a good fruitful semester/school break. Thank God for the trip and trusting into His hands this week ahead too.
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