Serangoon Secondary School

I will be joining Serangoon Secondary School officially next week - wish me all the best!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Sunway lagoon

We took the Transtar First Class and left Hock Seng Building at 8 a.m. There was quite a jam at the checkpoint and we were delayed by almost an hour there. After the second link way, the steward served us our meal. We ordered 2 Western ( baked rice with chicken), 2 Oriental (carrot cake with drumlets) and 1 Muslim (fried beehoon). Those who did not preorder their meals were served the Oriental meal. On our return trip I was surprised that we were served only one type which was nonya rice with buttered chicken. I could not take anything on our return trip as I had severe diarrhoea the day before - that's also why it took me so long to post the entry for this trip - still recovering from the diarrhoea..

We arrived at the Sunway resort at 2 plus and checked into room 1606 and 1608 - 1608 was much bigger so we asked the hotel to put the extra bed there. 1606 has a king sized bed with a sofabed whereas 1608 has 2 super single beds. The rooms are very spacious as you can see from the picture below. It has a writing table and free broadband access with the cable fixed on the desk. The toilet was also a luxury with both a shower area and a separate bathtub which means my sons could bath at the same time!

After putting down our lugguage, we went to have lunch in a Teochew restaurant "ChaoYang" as we wanted to take some porridge. We were the only customers in the restaurant and I must say the porridge is good especially the meat ball porridge. The meal was the most expensive for this trip at RM200+.

At night, we ventured to the area outside the hotel and I must say I am quite impressed with the mobile stall selling "lulu" steamboat. You can choose whatever you like e.g meat or fishball stringed on a satay stick and then dipped into a pot of hot water or boiling oil to cook it. You can then eat them with sweet sauce, chilli sauce or satay sauce. The vendor will then count the number of sticks after we had eaten and then charge us - around RM1.60 to 2.50 per stick. Then we packed some noodles from a nearby food court for my mother-in-law and my sons.

Buffet breakfast was served at Sun and surf cafe and I must say I was very impressed with the spread. Chris and Ian love the nasi lemak, harsh brown and roti prata - in fact they took that for 3 consecutive days! They also helped themselves to the scrambled egg, pancakes and waffles. I took mainly the porridge and bee hoon. The bread and pastry were good too.

We went to the waterpark on the second day - the highlight of the trip and my boys had a great time at the wave pool and around the waterways. After that Chris wanted to cross the suspended bridge which we did not do so last year - however I think the boys had cold feet and at the end only Lee made it through from one end to the other end of the bridge!

We went to the Zoo and paid an additional RM120 for the 5 of us. Nothing much inside and the train could not operate due to a technical problem at 1.30 p.m. - quite a disappointment. The white monkey looked innocent but be careful when you go near it. It snatched and broke my mother-in-law's crystal bracelet. It refused to let go one of the beads and the zoo keeper tried to tempt him with food in exchange for the bead. At the end they had to open the cage to get the bead in case he swallowed it.

We ate at Hartz chicken buffet and I must say my boys love it! It was really cheap as it only cost us RM82 for the 5 of us! A variety of chicken dishes and good salad bar with free flow of drinks. I must say their coffee was the best I had in Sunway! In the evening, we ate at this Chinese restaurant in Sunway pyramid facing the street. Chris had chicken noodle and Ian had chicken chop. We ordered Set B which consists of roasted pork and chicken as well as bean sprouts and fried bean curd. We also ordered 3 different types of soup each. The roasted chicken was good - similar to Peking duck with its crispy roasted skin.

I couldn't recall much for the 3rd day as I had very severe diarrhoea since the night before - luckily I could get the medicine from the pharmacy nearby. We went for massage and my sons spent the time in an internet cafe nearby the massage centre. The massage was RM80 for a 2 hour body massage. The charges by the internet cafe was only RM7 for 3 hours. The sons love the variety of games available there. We bought Kenturky chicken for my sons and my husband ordered room service. I was still suffering from the diarrhoea so I took a little bit of chicken porridge.

We went to buy some clothings from bb maxx which was a real bargain. After that a van picked us up at 12.10 p.m. to the bus terminal. We waited quite long at the Palace of the Golden Horse Hotel for the other 4 passengers which the van had to pick up to the terminal. We finally reached the bus terminal at 1.25 p.m. and we took some light refreshment in the transtar first class lounge.Our bus departed at 2 p.m. and reached Singapore at 7 p.m.

Back from HK - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 - We took the MTR to Admiralty and then a cab to the tram station. The queue for the tram ride was extremely long as it was a Sunday. We even saw some of the maids working in HK having picnics at the peak as it was their day off! After that we went to Causeway Bay. A lot of shopping there and finally we went to Times Square to have our lunch. We had ribs and roasted chicken set at a Tony Roma's - and I must say their salad is very nice. After that we went back to the hotel to put down the items we had bought at Causeway Bay. On our way back to the hotel, we found a mobile hawker selling roasted quail eggs, walnut, chestnut, potato etc at the road junction. I bought the quail eggs which were simply delicious! After that we took the train to Jordon and then went down to the Jade Market and Temple Street. Another round of shopping before we had the claypot rice at the famous Heng Kee. We took the MTR from Ya Ma Ti to Prince Edward. There are 3 computer terminals for free internet access on the concourse. I waited behind a lady and realized she must be a maid working in hk. I can't help but saw that she was reading hundreds of emails! There is a limit of 15 mins for each session but I saw one lady who refreshed the page and started the whole session again. I realised that it would be impossible for me to wait as these people must have a lot of free time and would be spending a lot more time on the terminal!

Day 4 - We took the MTR to Wong Tai Sin temple followed by Che Kung Temple. After that took a cab to Tsim Sha Tsui and finding nothing much to shop there, we took the MTR to Causeway Bay again. After that we had lunch in this small restaurant where I found my lost missed fish dumplings! After a long walk, my foot hurts and we went for a massage at a centre near to our hotel. The lady boss told us that Nicholas Tse was there filming a show called the "Witness" and was hanging by the signboard outside her massage centre! The tour agency sent a car instead of a bus for the airport transfer - which means we reached the airport very early as it travelled very fast! We took our tea at the Cafe Deco in the departure hall. I ordered a combo sandwich and my husband took the goose liver again!

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Posting from HK - Day 1 and 2

Day 1 - We arrived in HK 1230 a.m. on the 21 Nov and checked into Metropark Mongkok hotel at around 2.30 p.m. The room is really small - half the size of the room I stayed in at Regal Oriental. After putting down our luggage, we tried the wanton mee in a "cha chan teng" nearby. After that we walked around Mongkok area and and then took the MTR to Central which is at Hong Kong side. I called up Winsor and asked him where we could get some DVD. He told us that it would be easy to get them at Kowloon side - Tung Choi Street. We managed to walk to Lan Kwai Fong and also experienced going up the longest covered elevator in the world to SOHO area. At the end we had lunch in sheung wan at a restaurant called Mama Mia. We ordered 2 sets - My hubby had steak with goose liver and lobster soup whereas I took the set with ribs and pea soup. The dessert has a very interesting name "heart too soft" - something like a chocolate cup cake with fluid chocolate inside. The sets come with a free bottle of red wine and we only paid HK 338 for everything. A good start to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Time really flies - I have known my hubby for 22 years!
After that we went back to Tung Choi Street to get the DVDs and tried out more street food. My husband ate 2 pieces of smelly tofu and I love their fried octupus. He also tried the snake soup.

Day 2 - We went for the half day tour. Our first destination was the Avenue of Stars and the tour company took a picture of us. We visited the jewellery factory and a factory outlet. After that we visited Ngong Ping village which is at Lantau Island.

It was quite a fright on the cable car ride up to Ngong Ping Village. There was a technical problem and we were stalled for a few minutes - imaging being suspended in the air a few hundred metres above the valley. You can view the video clip below.

On our way up we actually saw quite a number of people climbing up the mountain - I was so.. impressed .. I think I will drop dead half way up the mountain. We finally reached Ngong Ping village and walked towards Po Lin Monastry and took our lunch at a nearby Vegetarian restaurant which is surrounded by the forest. We ordered the set lunch which comes in a set of 2 bowl of soups, 2 dishes of vegetable/ mock chicken and rice. I must say that we enjoyed the lunch esp in the serene of the countryside. We took the cable car down and then the MTR back to our hotel. We went for the French/Japanese buffet in our hotel. My husband fell in love with goose liver and had it again! The spread was good with mini lobster, snow crab, prawns, oyster etc. I am very impressed with the roasted lamb and something like a stuffed bacon. The food was simply delicious and attracted a large no. of patrons though it is quite costly at HK258 per pax. However, as hotel guests, we are entitled to 25% off. I also accessed the internet by the computer terminal at the cafe ( HK20 for half an hour usage) to check in via the internet for our return trip at the singapore airline website. I was quite happy that we had been given the window seats so I did not make any changes this time.

Learn@ Award Cermony

I brought Ginia and Janice to the learn@ Prize Award Ceremony @ MOE today. Beverly could not make it as she is having her piano exam. They had beatened more than 100 teams to get into the Climate Herald category (top 40 teams). For this competition, they had to blog and present their proposal at MOE. It was so amazing that they beat top schools winning the Bronze Award. I have asked Ginia to pass the trophy and certificates to Mrs Florence Lee tomorrow so that they can be presented to the team when school reopens. I also told her to take out the $300 book vouchers and divide them among the 3 of them.

Day 4 in Hong Kong

We visited Yan Chai Hospital in Hong Kong for our CIP. I must say I was a bit taken aback by their hospitality - they had prepared a banner to welcome us and had made all the necessary sound setup. They even invited the elderly volunteer group and I was surprised to hear that most of them are in their eighties. I talked to one of them and she told me she came to the hospital to volunteer everyday! Our group presented some song items and games.We actually bought 10 first aid kit from Singapore and bought 2 packet of rice, 2 cans of oat meals and 2 cans of ovaltine from the Kowloon City Mall for the old folks (the teachers shared the cost of the items). The students interacted with the elderly and one of the elderly cried and she told me it was because she was very happy with our students visiting them. We also had a tour of the nursing home in the hospital to understand more about their facilities as well as more of the elderly in hong kong. As the service is heavily subsidized (the resident only pay HK$2000 as compared to almost HK $10,000 in the private nursing homes) there is a long waiting list for the Yan Chai Nursing Home.

After that we had lunch, which again is such a spread with corn soup, platter with char siew, shellfish and japanese seaweed, prawns, french bean, lettuce, chicken with pepper, duck slice with cucumber etc. After that we shopped at Granville Road before we went back to our hotel to pick up our lugguage. Bernice's family were also there waiting to pick her up as they will be spending 4 more days in Hong Kong.
We went to the Factory outlet near to the airport and the students did some last minute shopping. Many of us bought some "wife biscuit" as souvenirs for our family in the airport. We also took our dinner at the airport as check in was at 6.30 p.m.
I have uploaded all the photos and you can view them @ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151881891024200.1073741872.676019199&type=1&l=b07dc2b551

Day 3 in Hong Kong

We had dim sum for Breakfast and our tour guide bought something from Mcdonald for Siti. Like what the tour guide explained - the students must experience the yum cha culture in Hong Kong. I thought this was a very kind gesture by the tour agency as the students would be very sick of the hotel buffet breakfast if they were to have it for 3 days. It was quite a spread at the Golden Delight restaurant @ regal tsim sha tsui hotel - siew mai, prawn dumpling, chee cheong fun, noodle, lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice with scallop, abolone congee, white sugar cake and spring roll with potato.

We took a tram ride to the peak and I must say that it was a unique experience for all of us along the steep slope. We were mesmerized by the view at the rooftop and the wind was strong. However the journey down the peak by bus was pretty bad for many of the students as well as Mrs Lai and Ms Vani. The bus was like spinning round and round and they all had motion sickness. After that we went to Repulse Bay and Aberdeen Fishing Village. I must say I am very disappointed with the visit to Aberdeen Fishing Village as we can't see the boat people anymore. We could still see the Jumbo restaurant and we took some pictures there. After that we went to the Golden Bauhinia Square -nothing much to see there but I was so impressed by the efficiency of the photographer. It took them less than a minute to take and print out the picture - the time we took to walk back to the bus!

We had lunch at this Teochew restaurant "ChouZhou City" and I must say the food is good. Many of us asked for porridge instead of rice as they had motion sickness earlier on. As the students do not want any more duck, their speciality braised duck was replaced by braised meat slices, pig ear and tofu. The students love the food - soup, steam egg with minced meat, lettuce with mushroom, caizin, chilli chicken, celery with fish slices and fish fillet in soya bean. After that it was free time at the hotel and we went through the report for EUA in Mrs Lai's room. Dinner was at the hotel and I must say that I was touched as the students had spent the afternoon rehearshing for some items to bid me farewell. The tour agency told me that they will give us a room but instead we had to dine with other diners and I was quite embarrased and touched by their performance, especially Mrs Lai and Ms Vani, in front of the other diners as well.


More photos at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151881846334200.1073741871.676019199&type=1&l=c2acb03f95