Hong Kong

This is my 1st travel post (hopefully there'll be more to come). Whenever we go travelling, I spend quite a lot of time planning cos there're so many considerations when travelling with kids. I hope these posts will be a help to whoever's reading and also a source of reference for myself.

When to visit
My family has visited Hong Kong twice in the last 2 years - once in Sep and another late Dec. Dec is definitely a better time to visit cos it's cooler. Sep was terrible with temp going up to 35 degrees.

Where to stay
This was quite a challenge cos there're 4 of us - 2 adults 2 kids. I wanted only 1 room and a lot of hotels only take a max of 3. Finally found through Wotif, that shows bed configuration, Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok East, that has 2 double beds accommodating 4. The hotel also has family rooms that have 1 king/queen and 1 double with a pantry and couch area. We took this on our 2nd visit to Hong Kong. It was very comfortable. The kitchen/dining area gave us room to have our breakfast.

Another plus point about the hotel is that it's connected to a shopping mall via its lobby with many food options. It's also linked to the rail which you can take and change to the MTR. Alternatively, you can take a 10mins walk on a sheltered overhead walkway that leads to the Mongkok MTR station. This walkway is connected to the mall. Along the walkway, there're staircases going down to various streets, the famous one being Ladies Street.


Where to eat
Breakfast is easy. In the shopping mall, there's Macs and beside it, a nice cafe called Cafe Balencia with all kinds of bread. Our favourite is a shop that sells porridge, fried dough and soy bean, and another that sells all kinds of mantou. We have to go onto the walkway and take the 1st staircase down to the streets. We usually buy back to the room to eat.

For lunch and dinner, the following places are quite good:

1. Hang Heung Kitchen at New World Centre, East Tsim Sha Tsui
- set dinner was good and cost HK$900 for 10 of us.
- right beside Avenue of Stars so after dinner can take a stroll along the harbour and catch the Symphony of Lights show at 8pm.
- the restaurant sells the famous Hang Heung wife biscuits.

2. Tai Hing Roast near the hotel, along the street that has a lot of pet shops
- we da bao roasted meat rice, duck, roast pork, char siew. Very big portions.

3. Yuen Kee along Kimberly Road
- a typical HK cafe setting that serves pretty good beef noodles.

4. Fook Lam Moon along Kimberly Road
- if you want to splurge, this is high class Cantonese restaurant with a lift that brings you to the second floor. Water is served from mineral water bottles. The sweet and sour pork and roast chicken are fantastic. 4 dishes cost us HK$1,200.

5. Royal Banquet Hall at Fantasyland, HK Disney
- decent food at ok prices. Their roasted chicken thigh and burgers are ok.

6. La Scala at Royal Plaza Hotel
- our room package came with F&B vouchers. We saved up everything for a buffet dinner on the last nite. The spread was very impressive. They have a cheese & cracker counter, waygu beef, sashimi and a great variety of desserts.


Where to go
1. Disneyland - definitely a must with kids. Preferably stay a nite there so there's more time. The most enjoyable rides were - Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Jungle Cruise. The Golden Mickey Show and the 3D Mickey's PhilharMagic were good. The hotel that we stayed - Hollywood was very good. The double beds comfortably sleeps 4. The buffet breakfast was pretty good, esp. the dim sum. We got a very good package - hotel, breakfast and park pass from AsiaTravelCare. Hotel food is rather ex so we settled our meals in the park. The Royal Banquet has rather decent stuff at reasonable prices.

2. Ocean Park - more for older kids and adults cos the rides are more scary. The dolphin show was lousy, as boring as the one at Sentosa.

3. The Peak - the tram ride up the Peak was very steep. We visited Mdm Tussauds. Most of the wax figures weren't realistic. Only a few were good like Madonna, Beatles, MJ. The kids were bored. They were happier playing at the playground at The Peak Galleria.

4. Ngong Ping 360 - the cable car ride was very cool. It's abt 25mins long and take you right up into the mountains. At times, our cable car disappeared into the clouds. We didn't bother to walk to the Buddha. Just stayed around the village and took some phots.

5. Avenue of Stars - unless you are a movie buff, if not, all the famous handprints mean nothing.


Where to shop
There are endless shopping options. I only managed to a few. With kids, shopping is almost impossible.

1. Grand Century Place - this was connected to the hotel so it's the most convenient. There's Esprit, Popular and supermarket.

2. New World Centre - this mall is quite pathetic. Nothing much except for the nice Pacific Coffe Co. where you can use the free internet ( we used it to confirm our flight back) and watch the Symphony of Lights.

3. Citygate Outlet - this is quite good. I like the Esprit, Quicksilver, Bodyshop outlets.

4. Shopping mall in Shatin that has Snoopy World - it's an outdoor area connected to the mall, like in IMM, where there's a playground, Snoopy figures and a life size american school bus that you can go into. The boat ride was not working which was a disappointment.

5. Ladies Market - we bought a lot of stuff on our first trip but on the second, the stalls were miserable. Mayb cos it was summer in Sep so they were selling a lot of T-shirts. In Dec, nothing much.

6. Tsim Sha Tsui - we walked quite a bit along the streets in Tsim Sha Tsui. Jus the usual Bossini, Giordano, Baleno shops. We couldn't find the outlet shops.

A Place of Quiet Rest

This book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss caught my eye when I was browsing the shelves at SKS. I've read another of her book - Lies Women Believe, and it was pretty good. Also the sub-heading - finding intimacy with God through a daily devotional life, spoke to me. It was something I've always wanted but find it hard to grasp. Devotion or QT has always been up and down. Only in recent years that it started to be more stable. Still I know it can be better.

This book addresses the Priority, Purpose, Pattern, Problems, Practice and Product of a devotional life. It's straightforward, drawing egs. from the bible and the author's personal walk with God. It's not a 'how to' book but challenges and nudges you to seek a consistent and meaningful quiet time with God.

Siblings Rivalry

I never really bothered much about this issue. Even though I've 2 girls, they've gotten along pretty well (some bossing around by the older one, a bit of whining from the younger) UNTIL NOW. At ages 6 and 3, the real thing has begun. The younger one has ceased being little miss nice about everything the older sister does to her. Everyday there's endless bickering, screaming over toys and books, teasing, coming to me tattling about what the other has done or said.

I tried to recall my own experiences with my siblings. Nothing much came to mind. Perhaps because of the wide age gap, I didn't really clash with them much. So I Googled and found a host of articles on sibling rivalry. Almost all those I chose to read quoted a book by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, "Siblings Without Rivalry - How to Help Your Children Live Together so You Can Live Too". I quickly searched the library and promptly made a reservation for the book.

It's an easy book to read (finished it in 3 days). The authors shared strategies on handling sibling relationships using real life experiences of a group of parents. The recurring idea throughout the book is for parents to constantly create opportunities for siblings to have good feelings for one another, to create a family environment for such feelings to grow. Having this helps parents to implement various strategies to reduce the clashes between siblings.

Although the book is not written from a biblical perspective, it does highlights several mistakes that parents make in handling sibling rivalry and seeks to provide better alternatives. It made me evaluate the way I relate to my girls, whether I've unknowingly stereotype them, cause them to be jealous of each other and compete with each other. It also caused me to think about my relationships with my siblings and how my parents relate to us.

So far I tried a couple of methods from the book:
1. Stop my younger girl from coming to complain to me about her sister by asking her to say politely to her sister what it is she wants, and asking my older girl to respect her sister's requests. It's still on-going but I'm surprised how my older girl seems to be more agreeable to accede to her requests when the sister asks for it instead of me asking on her behalf.
2. Stop praising one's behaviour to get the other to do likewise. This creates unnecessary competition between them.
3. Get them to say in words what's bothering them instead of letting them whine and call each other names.
4. When they fight for things, get them to work out a solution instead of me being a judge to decide who gets it.

I don't think it's enough to just employ the methods stated in the book. The greater need is to shepherd their hearts to be more like Jesus for their words and behaviours come from an overflow of their hearts. And more importantly to keep praying for them.

Growing My Walk with God

Tot I'll move away from family related reading to spiritual books to grow my walk with God. Have changed my book list title from "Woman Books" to "Personal Growth Books" so that it will be more general.

I've just completed "Power Through Prayer" by E.M.Bounds. It has challenged me to be serious with my relationship with God by giving priority to prayer. Nobody discounts the importance of prayer. Yet so few really set aside unhurried time to commune with God, to wrestle issues with Him, to wait upon His answer. The book primarily addresses preachers, urging them to devote themselves to prayer in order for their pulpit ministry to be life-changing. Likewise for the rest of us who serve God in other ways, if our lives are not saturated with prayers, our service amounts to nothing. The book also calls for people to pray for their preachers, that the latter may receive the anointing to preach the word of God that will touch lives.

As a wife of a ministry staff, I'm challenged to pray for and with my husband who's called to preach often. It has often taken a back seat in the midst of busyness with the home and the kids. The following quotes from the books are worth reflecting:

"To be little with God is to be little for God"

"We live shabbily because we pray meagerly"

"To pray is the greatest thing we can do; and to do it well, there must be calmness, time and deliberation"

Becoming the Woman of His Dreams

Sharon Jaynes wrote quite a good book "Being a Great Mom Raising Great Kids" that got me started on reading more on parenting. It also led me to another of her books, "Becoming a Woman of His Dreams" that expounds on 7 qualities every man longs for in a wife. This book opened my mind to understand the needs of man, something I sort of know but didn't bother to really want to learn about them. After reading, I was challenged to practise the 7 qualities to strengthen my relationship with my husband.

1. Prays for him
Use passages like Colossians 1:9-12 to pray for him daily.

2. Respects him
This one's a bit challenging. It requires a woman to submit to her husband's decisions though she has her own opinion and when the decisions fail, to not say,"I told you so." It also talks about being content with the family's financial situation and not make the man feels he's not providing enough for the family. The last aspect is for the woman to take care of her appearance for the simple reason that man is visual.

3. Adores him
Show your adoration, admiration and appreciation through words and actions. Find out about his love language (Gary Chapman's 5 love languages) and use it to show your love to him.

4. Initiates intimate friendship with him
Enter into his world of work and play to learn his interests so that there can be greater communication.

5. Safeguards her marriage
Be aware of people that can sabotage a marriage like in-laws, children and friendships with other men.

6. Encourages him
Be conscious of our words. Do they build up or tear down our husbands? Are we always cheering for them or criticising them?

7. Sexually fulfills him
In Sharon's surveys she collected for this book, sexual fulfillment was top of the list together with respect. It's something a woman cannot ignore and neglect because it 'recharges a man's battery'.

Biblical Parenting

Just completed "A Gift From God" by Larry Mercer. It's my 2nd time reading it. Couldn't quite remember what's it about. That's the problem with reading books and not noting down learning points. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice so here's what I've learnt and currently putting into practice:

1. 6 sins of parenting
I found myself identifying with 3 of them - exaggerating their actions i.e. saying they always/never do/don't do something, not giving them my full attention but always trying to do things simultaneously, expecting more than what they can handle at their age.

2. 7 secrets of parenting
I need to work harder on 2 of them - probe and clarify to understand their speech and actions instead of forming my own conclusions, show my love through words and not just actions.

3. teaching kids about the 10 commandments
The author paraphrase the commandments into simple terms that can be taught to kids.

4. 7 B's of discipline
Good principles to follow when disciplining kids - be clear of expectation and instruction given, be in control of anger, be calm in speech, be consistent and committed in administering discipline, be considerate to the kids' feelings and be compassionate after disciplining them.

5. pray using Proverbs
This book has an appendix with 31 examples on how you can use the book of Proverbs to pray for your kids. So far, I've prayed for my girls to be willing to listen to my teaching, to have a heart of wisdom to discern right from wrong and to trust in and acknowledge God in all that they do.

Getting on the right track

Have been experiencing feelings of overwhelmness (is there such a word?) now and then, a sense that everything is going out of control and I'm just living day by day meaninglessly. A new chapter of my life began this year when my elder girl started primary one and my younger girl nursery two. I suddenly have a block of free time and I wanted to make full use of it. I chanced upon a book by Elizabeth George entitled "A Woman After God's Own Heart". It got me thinking about my life, that I want to live each day meaningfully with joy with purpose and in an organised manner. From this book and another entitled "The Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman" by Anne Ortlund, I've learnt and put into practise 3 things.

1. Prioritise my life. 1st God, 2nd my husband ("your husband is your primary career" caught my attention), 3rd kids, 4th home, 5th myself, 6th others.

2. Set goals for each area of my life. Under God, I resolve to spend every morning reading the bible and praying, reading thru the bible and memorising 50 verses within the year. For my husband, I want to love him more by practising Gary Chapman's 5 love languages. My goal for the girls is to disciple them, to impart God's word and His ways. To manage the home, I put up a cleaning schedule and currently doing up a monthly menu plan so I don't have to stress myself over what to cook. The goal for myself is to grow by reading so that I've something to offer others, which leads to the last priority of serving others.

3. Keep a notebook for planning and recording my progress. My notebook is a ring folder with sections for each area of my life. I pen down my plans, thoughts, learnings, ideas, progress, etc. It keeps me focused and organised. The book by Anne Ortlund has a whole chapter on this.

I won't say my life is perfect now. But it's definitely more directed and I experience a greater sense of peace and joy.