Pages of INK

It’s been 2 years since we last put up the Christmas tree (due to space constraints or overall laziness) but upon Ashley’s insistence, we put up a smaller version in the bedroom this year. The fun of digging through layers and layers of boxes in the storeroom aside, I must admit, having the tree up with sparkling lights and lined with presents underneath did spruce up the place considerably!

Ashley counting down to Christmas every night instead of counting sheep.

I had to attend a wedding dinner this year so didn’t get to join the family for the annual Christmas Eve dinner. Wifey was nice enough to bring back leftovers like lasagne and cheese cake though which I gobbled up for breakfast the next day. There’s no escaping those calories!

Christmas Day was spent attending church service in the morning followed by lunch at Marche at Somerset 313. Alicia got into a bit of a fight with another older boy at Marche over a toy at the play area and bonked him on the head with a woodern horse! So much for being nice and not naughty.

The highlight of the day was returning home to open presents! Here are some pictures before and after.

On your mark… get set…

Go!

All done!

After coming down with tonsil infections 5 times this year, I finally bit the bullet and consulted an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialist to find out what was wrong with me. Five infections in a year is not normal and each incident was worse than the previous one in terms of duration, fever and pain. I had the feeling that antibiotics were becoming less and less effective too when the most recent infection was still not healed after 2 weeks. Thus, when surgery was proposed, I jumped on the thought of fixing the problem once and for all.

On Friday 17 Sep 2011, I had tonsillectomy done at Gleneagles and the operation was over in around an hour. I had a look at the Swedish meatball-sized tonsils that they removed afterwards and was really glad that they were out of my system. I then spent the next 2 nights in the hospital recuperating and enjoying the excellent hospital service. I’m really glad I chose Gleneagles to have my surgery done at as post-op care was excellent. The nurses there were very attentive and made sure that I was always as comfortable as possible. They were very swift in responding to requests like prompty stopping my Morphine drip after I started complaining of nausea the next morning and bringing me ice cream/milk/toast in the middle of the night. They also have free wi-fi, cable TV and daily newspapers so I was never bored. Wifey, Ashley and Alicia also visited me on Friday and Saturday to keep my spirits up.

Now on day 7 into my recovery, I’m glad to report that the pain isn’t as bad as I feared. My throat is still pretty swollen, making me sound odd when I talk, but at least the sharp pains are few and far between. I think the medication prescribed (antibiotics, Arcoxia and Panadol) really helped with that. I heard that the pain would get worse when the scabs start to fall off but we’ll see! I’ve also been drinking McD milkshakes and eating ice cream almost every day (can’t think of a better excuse to do so!) which is really soothing on the throat (but probably not so good for body fat). If all goes well, I should be a-ok in a few day’s time.

The only not-so-good news – the $7k+ hospital bill. Luckily, some of it is covered by company insurance and Medisave, but still… ouch!

28 – 29 Dec 2009 – I have many fond memories of Blenheim from our honeymoon back in 2003. Blenheim is situated in the Malborough region, a place famous for its many vineyards and wineries. Blenheim seems to have grown quite a bit since 2003 and is no longer the small town that we remembered. Unfortunately, our stay this time was pretty short so we didn’t have a chance to go on any wine tours. Not a big loss though; it took us almost 7 years to finish the two bottles of wine that we bought during out last trip so buying wine wasn’t very high on the agenda.

We arrived in Blenheim to really gorgeous golden evening light. Thanks to that, we made a snap decision to drive up to the hills to take some pictures for Project New Zealand. After consultation with the motel owner, we settled on Wither’s Hill Farm Park, a short 10-15 minute drive away from where we were staying. The hike up the hill was another thing however, and by the time we reached the middle, the sun had already started setting. Such a pity!

Ashley walking up Wither’s Hill Farm Park while trying to avoid the many clumps of cow dung.

Probably the only decent shot we got halfway up the hill. This was taken at around 8-9pm and the moon was already up in the sky.

Ashley getting in on the picture.

On the way down, Ashley tripped on some gravel and scraped her knee pretty badly. I’m not sure if it was the pain or the sight of blood but she ended up crying all the way back to the motel. Luckily the motel owner had some first aid supplies so we managed to clean the wound and get her knee bandaged. I remember teaching her how to play cards that night to distract her from the pain.

The next day, we had lunch at the Montana Winery, a place where we enjoyed a really nice lunch in 2003. Sadly, the menu had changed and the food wasn’t as nice as before. There must have been a management change during these few years!

Lunch at the Montana Winery.

View the full Blenheim photo album here.

27 – 28 Dec 2009 – Christchurch was hit by a devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Sep 2010, almost a year after we visited and I remember opening the morning papers to see a picture of how the tower at Christchurch Cathedral had collapsed. It was a sad sight to see as the cathedral was one of the most beautiful structures we had visited during our time in New Zealand.

The tower behind us collapsed during the quake. I wonder if they have rebuilt it yet…

Inside the cathedral – it was fairly empty as choir practice had just ended.

Ashley also had fond memories of spending time in the cathedral square playing on the bungee trampoline for two days in a row. I don’t know how she did it but she didn’t find being propelled 10-20m in the air scary at all!

Boing boing boing…

Apart from just hanging around the square, we didn’t really do much else in Christchurch. I hope we didn’t miss much!

Link to the full album here.

26 Dec 2009 – Nothing much happened on Day 4 apart from our epic 8 hour drive from Queenstown to Christchuch. Along the way, we stopped at familiar places like Lake Tekapo for lunch and to relax a little.

Driving along Lindis Pass. It’s hard to keep your eyes on the road with such nice scenery!

Taking a short break along Lindis Pass as Ashley was feeling quesy and threw up outside the car right after stopping. She kept complaining that she was uncomfortable but did not know how to say that she was giddy.

Picnic at Lake Tekapo.

Another stunning view of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

How does it feel like driving for almost the whole day? All I can say is that I’m glad that my dad-in-law and I could take turns at the wheel or else it would have been very tiring!

The full Day 4 album here.

25 Dec 2009 – This being Christmas Day, a lot of shops and attractions were closed for the day. Not Puzzling World at Wanaka though, which was our destination. Wanaka is around a 1-2 hour’s drive from Queenstown along the scenic Crown Range Road.

The view along Crown Range Road. As the road goes pretty high up into the hills, you get a very nice paronamic view of the valley below.

Puzzling World is a great place for families to visit and you can easily spend half a day there just exploring attractions like the Great Maze and Tilted House. There are also optical illusions aplenty like the Ames Forced Perspective Room and Hall of Following Faces, the former displaying the same type of illusion used to make characters seem either taller or shorter in the Lord Of The Rings movies.

The objective of the Great Maze is to navigate to the four different towers on each corner of the maze. Not an easy feat and one that could take a few hours!

The Tilted House – believe or not but the seat would actually slide upwards due to gravity because of the tilt of the room.

After we were done with Puzzling World, we drove around a bit to take some photos of Zhiyi for Project New Zealand (She had her makeup and hair done while the kids were having lunch). Here is one of my favourites taken among the tussock at Outlet Road.

Link to the full Day 3 album here.

24 Dec 2009 – After spending the night at Lake Tekapo, we drove down to the adventure capital of New Zealand – Queenstown – to spend 2 days there. But before leaving, we woke up early to take some pictures at Lake Tekapo. Dad-in-law was kind enough to act as my photography assistant by holding the reflector! As you can see from the photo below, the lake has a very unique turquoise blue colour.

Zhiyi modelling for “Project New Zealand” – a collection of bridal photos for my portfolio.

Along the way, we stopped at a fruit farm/shop called the Jones Family Orchard near Cromwell. It’s a great place to pick up souvenirs (fruits, chocolates, nougats, etc) and try the natural ice cream. The blueberry ice cream we tried tasted so good and fresh!

Jones Family Orchard

Nothing like good ice cream to perk up! This was taken at the garden next to the shop.

The first time we visited Queenstown, I remember staying in a small cozy motel by the main road that looked a little like a tree house. This time round, we put up at the larger and more posh looking Autoline Motel. Right after checking-in, we made our way to the town centre and waterfront for an evening stroll. Needless to say, it being Christmas Eve, not many establishments were open though there were a lot of people strolling about to catch the nice evening sunset.

Sunsets are always so beautiful in New Zealand. Golden hour at the waterfront.

The little photographer springs into action.

Link to the full Day 2 album here.

This post has been a very very long time in the making as I only just managed to finish editing all the selected pictures from the trip from the few thousand taken. With photos from so many paid jobs to edit as well, this always ended up taking a back seat. Now time to move on to the photos from our Hawaii trip in 2008!!!

23 Dec 2009 – Today was the day we headed off to New Zealand for a 12 day trip. For Zhiyi and I, this was the second time visiting (first time being our honeymoon) but the first time for the kids and in-laws. Apart from it being a family holiday, we also flew over to attend my cousin Snowdon’s wedding (at the tail end of our trip). Needless to say, we were looking forward to visiting many of the places we had fond memories of. True enough, New Zealand had not changed much since we were last there in Nov/Dec 2003. The countryside was still as pristine, the roads and motels just like brand new and people as friendly (except for one bad incident of racism in Christchurch).

Alicia’s 2nd plane flight, at 8 month’s old. She coped well with the 11 hour flight from Singapore to Christchurch, though I think my mum-in-law was a little nauseous from the turbulence.

A majestic view of some mountain ranges on South Island that we flew over en route to Christchurch. I wish my camera had geo-tagging!

Our first destination was Lake Tekapo, a small but very popular and scenic town among tourists. Lake Tekapo has an amazing turquoise blue colour, a byproduct of “rock flour” from the glaciers interacting with sunlight. We stayed at a motel called the Lake Tekapo Scenic Resort which was only a 5-10 minute walk away from the lake, making going for a morning and evening stroll very convenient. We also had plans to take a stroll at night to see stars but the temperature was just too cold then even thought it was the middle of summer.

Catherdral of the Good Shepherd – Lake Tekapo’s most well known landmark. When we last visited on our honeymoon, we saw a couple getting married here.

Link to the full Day 1 album here.

Ever have those days when you just feel so lethargic and uninspired, and getting out of bed seems so tough? Well, that was me two weeks ago. It didn’t help that I was also recovering from and on-and-off bout with flu which lasted for a few weeks, the start of it which saw me nearly hospitalized (again!). I knew that I needed a break and some vitamins from the sun to get my mojo back.

I received many helpful recommendations from colleagues on where to go for a short weekend getaway and finally settled on Club Med Bintan because of its close proximity to Singapore.

Compared to some of the other resorts I’ve stayed at in Bintan, the surf and sand at Club Med are really good.

The beach is really well maintained and the sand white and powdery.

Our 3D2N package for 3 adults and 2 children had cost around $2.3k which was inclusive of ferry tickets and stay at the resort. This is pricier than many other resorts, but after experiencing the service there, I’m not surprised why.

Club Med was the first hotel we’ve stayed in that is so kids-friendly. They have programs for children between 4-11 (Mini Club Med) that stretch all the way from 9am till 8pm, essentially leaving parents with the whole day to do their own things. They have one for toddlers aged 2 and 3 too (Petit Club Med) but we decided not to sign Alicia up and opted to spend the day with her instead.

Ashley braving the trapeze. She said her heart felt like it went up to her throat afterwards.

For adults, there are a lot of sports activities to join and the pool is always available. Zhiyi and I attended tennis coaching classes for two days in a row and it was really fun. They have other things like archery and golf too but we didn’t have time to try those out. At the end of each day, the GOs (guest officers) would perform musicals. The themes during our stay there were song and dance tributes to “Glee” and “Michael Jackson”.

This young girl wanted a close up view of all the dancers!

And finally, with regards to food, it was practically all-you-can-eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with snacks and drinks served all around the clock at the pool bar and various other locations around the resort. Apart from certain alcoholic drinks, everything was already included in the initial bill so we could eat as much as we wanted till we got sick of the food! I for one took full advantage of the free flow of ice cream served at The Waterfall restaurant.

On the final evening there, Zhiyi and I went for a wonderful massage at the spa. We had ours in a nice spacious room situated on a rock outcropping looking out into the South China Sea. Nothing is more relaxing than having a back rub while listening to the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below!

View of the pool area from the reception area. Definitely a place that I would love to visit again one day!

View the full gallery here.

Not much words for our last day in Hong Kong. Just a few pictures as we say goodbye to this wonderful island.

View the full gallery here.