Baby J is ONE!

Baby J @ 1 year old

It was baby J's 1st birthday according to the Lunar calendar yesterday and it also coincided with a Chinese deity's birthday (大伯公), so we went to a charity dinner in honor of him. Now at 1 year old, baby J is walking and almost running, babbling words such as "mama" which can either be referring to me or his grandma, "mum mum" which means he wants to eat whatever we are eating, "nan nan" which means he wants a bottle of milk and plenty of "woos" and "ahhs" and "bahs" which I have not figured out what they are.

Physically he is of normal weight and height, very close to the 50th percentile mark. But I think he's kind of a fast developer in terms of his mobility skills and also verbal skills. Both his big sister and brother didn't walk or babble words as early as he did and many other mothers are commenting that he is really fast, so I guess he is. Sometimes I think he's growing too fast! I kind of miss him when he was still suckling at my breasts and let me craddle him in my arms. I miss the special smell that only breast-feeding babies have and also the times when we both lied on my bed and he would suck at my breast until we both fell asleep. I felt so blissful!

5th birthday in HK

My 3rd Hello Kitty birthday cake! ^-^

I had a great birthday week this year! And for consecutively 3 years, my staff in HK bought me Hello Kitty cakes since they know that anything Hello Kitty will make me very happy. ^-^

On Friday, I had dinner with hubby at Olea, Novotel Citygate, just the 2 of us. It was a nice cozy restaurant which was not crowded and had an open kitchen where I could smell the pizzas baking. We had tapas, pizza and lamb cutlets with sparkling wine. The pizza was especially delicious. I think we will be going there for dinner quite often...

On Saturday, we had tim sum lunch with J and the Ma's at Lei Garden, Shatin. J was going back to Singapore that evening and his wife was out doing her last minute shopping, so he joined us alone. Lei Garden's tim sum was really good, too bad they don't have a branch at TST where my office is...

For dinner, we went to Amigo at Happy Valley with the Ma's. Ma shares the same birthday as me and he recommended Amigo after having a great time for his wife's birthday in December. It was an old French restaurant with a history older than me. The interior of the restaurant was very European with a bar on the ground floor and dining on the second floor up a winding stairway. There were oil paintings hanging on the walls and the chandeliers were lighted with real candles! There was also a live band consisting of 3 Filipino guys who could sing English, Mandarin and Cantonese songs going table to table obliging song requests and entertaining the guests with their impressive voices. The ladies were served first and presented with a rose after dinner. For birthdays, the signature cake (Napoleon) will be on the house and also a Polaroid photo of the occasion will be taken. Oh yah, memo pads printed with the guests' names will also be presented upon arrival at the table! I think they are for making song requests to the band.

Anyway, dinner was delicious, we had foie gras, escargots, clam chowder soup where the clams were fresh, fat and juicy, then we had the main course and then we had the most delicious souffle that I had ever had. And since it was my birthday, we were given the house cake which was also good but not as great as I had hoped. At the end, we had our coffees and teas and which came with ice cream balls coated with chocolate which was better than the cake. I think it's because I like chocolate better? All of the above for the price tag of HKD3570 for 4 of us without drinks. Not cheap at all and I would recommend going there only for special occasions.

On Sunday, we spent a day with the puppies and we brought them out to the park again. Cookie was ecstatic! She ran so fast! I love watching all the different variety of dogs at the park and having the dog lovers come cooing over Cookie being so small and cute. Apparently, many of them have had toy poodles but most them not as small size as Cookie. Coffee was terrified of all the bigger dogs that come sniffing at his butt. Such a funny sight. LOL

39!

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday. I had a birthday present hand-carried and delivered to Hong Kong from Singapore! My ex-colleagues from the warehouse remembered my birthday and had J bring me the present while vacationing in Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong with his family. It was really sweet and nice of them. ^-^

This is the 5th birthday celebrated in Hong Kong and same as previous years, I received flowers and my staff bought me lunch. The girl at the reception was asking me if I will have a Hello Kitty cake again this year....hmm...I wonder?

I celebrated my birthday with E and J last night at a private dining place called "家宴". It was a 8-course dinner and it was delicious. I would love to go back for dinner again in February or March, with hubby and the Ma's. Their menu change every month except for the 3 signature items which are the lobster salad, the prawn and the crab dishes remaining the same. And I think they will all love it. It costs HKD260 per person and that includes tea and service charges.

Ok, back to my birthday. I am 39 this year but I am not worried of being old as I do not feel old at all. I may have a few wrinkles on my face and neck, I may have put on some weight at my waistline, hips and thighs, but I am in good health and everything in my life is falling into places nicely! I am finally on my way to getting the MBA that I had wanted to get more than 10 years ago, my children are growing up beautifully, our apartments in Singapore are finally ready for occupancy, bought the car I had always wanted to drive, bought not 1 but 2 tiny toy poodle puppies and my marriage life is better than ever! So how much more can I ask for? I am HAPPY, very HAPPY. Om Sai Ram!

I was talking to my daughter the other day when she was here on school holidays and she told me that she would like to be a fashion magazine editor. It's good to have ambition and dreams but honestly, how many of us actually get to do what we like to do and actually make a living out of it? I have a good job, it is not my ideal job but it helps me provide for my family and also gives me a comfortable lifestyle. In that sense, I like my job but I hope that in 5 years, I can actually start to do what is really meaningful and what I really like to do. :)

Nice long weekend...

This has been a long weekend for me as I have sick leaves for both last Friday and this Monday. I am not feeling sick but I have a terrible skin infection on a piece of scratched skin on my left foot. It all started last weekend at the wet market of Mongkok where I had an itch on my foot and I started scratching it until it was red and tender. I didn't think much of it until it became so painful and the skin was practically rotting that I went to see the family doctor. She told me that it was serious and gave me an injection plus anti-biotics to take for 3 days before going back to see her again on Monday. Then on Monday, she gave me 4 more days of medicine...really didn't think that it could be so serious.

Is it because Hong Kong is really dirty that I get all kinds of strange infections or is it because I am getting old? "Getting old"...I really hate to admit this. Will I be much healthier if I am living in Singapore instead? I guess I will never know as I have been living here for the past 4 years and I will be staying here for another year at least. The secondment contract is signed today.

I went shopping with mum on Friday afternoon at the fashion wholesaler, had dinner with the family including grandpa at the Thai restaurant in Elements and bought the sexy Nespresso coffee machine as my anniversary present. Hubby was happy that I have chosen the coffee machine over bags or shoes or diamonds. To him, it's a new toy where the whole family can use.

I started to download my final exams for Finance on Saturday afternoon, while D and hubby went to Mongkok to buy games and collect D's 11th birthday cake. It was crazy, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to answer the questions! The paper was really difficult! I needed my textbook but it has been left in the office...Hubby went back to fetch it for me while I continued to scratch my head. After 18 long hours of head scratching, hair pulling and eyeball rolling, I finally submitted the paper.

We celebrated D's birthday on Saturday night, after having California pizza for supper. D had chosen the cake himself at Maxim's and I think it was nicely done but somehow, they had spelled out his name funny with a capital L in the middle.

D's "Soccer Boy" birthday cake.

Father's Day Special Tea Set @ Elements

Sunday dinner @ Yamada.

My birthday presents

Here are the presents that I received for my birthday.

Prada (lamb skin)

Prada (beige)

Marc Jacobs (jacket)

Juicy Couture (lip-gloss bracelet)

LG (handphone in baby pink)

LV (wallet & card holder)

Happy Birthday~!

I am so happy today! It's my birthday and the 4th one spent in Hong Kong. Although family is not around, I have my staff celebrate birthday for me and since last year, the celebrations have been elaborate. Last year I received 4 bouquets of flowers and a lovely Hello Kitty birthday cake on top of a lunch and BBQ dinner with all staff from my department. This year, I have 2 bouquets of flowers, 1 Hello Kitty flower arrangement, 1 3D Hello Kitty birthday cake, 1 executive lunch and 1 steamboat dinner with all the staff from my department. Tonight, about 70 staff will be there celebrating with me!

See the pictures below: