Yesterday, the weather was good... little fog. So we decided went "island hoping" once more. This time, we went to Cheung Chau Island.

The ferry took us about 45 minutes at very little cost of HK22 per pax. We sat in the "Deluxe Deck" - Elkan ran out to the open deck with his binoculars. It was very windy and cold. As usual, sea-sick Mummy was meditating quietly - ignoring our pleas to sit out at the open deck.



Cheung Chau is a totally different island from what I have imagined. I thought of it as the "Pulau Ubin" of Hong Kong but it offers much more! It reminds me of Taiwan's 淡水 village. Cheung Chau is an old seatown of a population of 30,000. Despite its old settings, It is quite an interesting & lively place. There are lots to see, shop and eat. It is really a nice place to spend a weekend. No wonder there are many small temporary motel kiosks outside the ferry terminal. You can easily rent a room for less than HK600. (There is even a mini HSBC bank and Mcdonald right outside the ferry terminal.)



We spent 3 hour hiking around the small island (and twice, we have to look high and low for Tracy's urgent toilet request!). The beach is pretty narrow (but much cleaner than the one we saw at Discovery Bay) and we saw a couple of people wakeboarding and wind-surfing there. The over-publicised 3,000 year-old Rock Craving is an overstatement. It is small and isolated (not worth the hike to see).



This small town does have its own authentic and unique offerings (but limited) - like the "PingAn Buns" and "dried seafood". There is a small shop along the beach where you can find "Tornado Fried Potato Chip". Shopping is relatively cheap (compared with HK island) but there aren't a lot of "local products". A lot of the handicrafts shop carry products from Indonesia and Philippine. (Sigh, another example of Tourism Erosion - where a place loses its cultural authenticness to mainstream tourism).



Seafood is great - as good as what we had back home in Singapore. Especially in this cool weather, it is a great joy to dine in the open by the pier and watch the sunset. And it is an eye-opener for me, watching those "boat people" cooking and eating on their own boat-houses.

I do enjoy myself a lot here. It is a good getaway from the over-congested Hong Kong. And it is only 45-minute away from Central Pier. A nice and affordable place to chill out.

The plot of this movie is so simple and beautiful. The screenplay is just so compelling, real and emotional. A heart-warming tale, the "Slumdog Millionaire" truly deserves its 10 Academy Awards nominations. And one Hindi movie that you shouldn't miss.

Thanks Joanne for the great photo-contribution! Man, you guys really had such a great fun back home! "

1) Juliana, you grew gracefully, so dun worry. (Duuk, is Juli getting nicer hormones? Less violent now?)
2) Kanena Heng Buddy, you did it again. Stop hugging my babies! (Gareth, come back! Yo...)
3) Yixi, what did you feed Jacob with? He looks so tall, strong and handsome! Like a real man now!
4) MC...your princess looks very hot and spicy!
5) Kal, just 2 changes - Red Inner + Jeans. Your red glasses and top look heng enough! If Hock is there, he will say the same thing!

This morning, Felicia and I attended our 1st "Meet The Parents" session at Elkan's school.

Since young, I have developed a phobia about such meetings. Even though this time the subject isn't me, I never like such session. Perhaps, I had been through too many "painful parents-teachers" meetings. And yes, I was the "big problem" back then in school. It was more like a session when my hopeless teachers poured out all their accumulated pain and helplessness to my poor mother (who paid them to complain shit about me). And yes, my mother lost face in school and I was caned for no reason again! (Bastard suppliers of canes! They must be happy with the soaring sales of canes - seriously our government should ban the sales of canes in Singapore! If they ban toy guns and hand-cuffs, there is no reason why canes are allowed to be on sales!)

Anyway, I was mentally prepared for todáy's meeting. I was expecting a session of negative comments and unconstructive feedback about my ultra-playful kid. And I told myself that this is a stupid formality...I should just attend and forget about those negative stuffs.

I was wrong.

In fact, Elkan performed very well in his class. The teacher sang lots of praises of him in many areas - master of languages, motor-skills and maths. However, this is not the main focus of our session today. For me, it was a very emotional meeting.


The teacher showed us a piece of drawing which Elkan drew recently. (see photo above) She saw an aeroplane, a house and some people in his drawing. She asked Elkan to explain the story in his drawing.

In his narration, Elkan recited to his teacher how much he missed his poipoi and family... and mentioned about those times when Daddy was flying away for work. From his own words, his teacher was moved by those feelings Elkan expressed. In Elkan's mind, Daddy is always flying away... all his favourite aunties, uncles, friends and poipoi were far away...always an aeroplane-ride away. Elkan is only 4 yet his drawing attracted his teacher's attention so much that she put this as the main topic in our session today.

She wanted Felicia and I to know that Elkan is a boy of deep emotions and feelings - and every time Elkan came back from a family trip, he behaved differently. She can feel him suppressing his emotions inside and there were short moments of rebel and rejection. "At this very young age, your boy has been through quite a bit. He has a lot of feelings and he needs lots of love and comfort, I can see how much he loves and misses his family... Especially his poipoi."

The teacher showed us those notes that she wrote on his drawing. And when she was going thru each element in his drawing, my heart cried so bady. In fact, my eyes were wet. I can understand Elkan's feelings. My boy was just like me. Always concealing our feelings with lots of acts and pranks. Yet inside, we are very sentimental souls.

At that moment, I just don't know where to focus my teary eyes. Avoiding the teacher's eyes, I looked down at his drawing. I, the usual chatty advertising salesman - choked and remained very very speechless today.

I hate such session. But I do love my boy so so much.