Ocean Park Pt.2

Ever since we went to Ocean Park last November, the girls have been asking to go back. I had considered that once our Disney passes expired, we could maybe buy Ocean Park passes for a year. But who would have known that we would end up moving really close to Disneyland and really far from Ocean Park. We should have done the reverse since there was a pretty easy bus to get to OP from our old place, and now it's a pretty long journey. Oh well... I think Mike and I got our fill of Ocean Park after yesterday anyway.:)

Mike had Parent/Teacher Interviews all day on Saturday, which means that the teachers get a day off in lieu on the Monday after. We figured that would be a good day to go when it would potentially be less busy, so we surprised the girls with the idea and they were so excited!

 This time we started with the aquarium since last time we ended with it and ended up rushing through. 

 A view of Ocean Park from the Ocean Park Tower.

 Annie spotted the Canadian flag as we entered the "Raging River" (log ride). We probably shouldn't have taken Leila on the log ride. Instead of getting braver as she gets older, she has gotten more fearful, and she ended up pretty traumatized from the experience. Sorry, Lulu.:( We won't do that to you again! Annie, on the other hand, still loved it, but this time once was enough for her. 

 My favorite part of the day was riding the cable car down from the top of the mountain where all the big rides are back to the bottom. 

 A new addition to Ocean Park since last year is the "Old Hong Kong street". 

 Annika had remembered the Frog Hopper as her favorite ride from last time, and it didn't disappoint this time either. Luckily, this part of the park which is meant for young children was not busy at all, so she could ride it again and again. And she did!

 Fortunately Leila realized that this ride was fun, not scary!

 This frog guy was really weird!

On a suspension bridge on the "Emerald Trail". 

Annika was having a great time all day, and I did notice that her nose was running a bit throughout the day, but seemed that on the trip home she suddenly came down with a vicious cold! How did it come on THAT quickly?! She was up a lot of night coughing, and I've never heard so many sneezes in a row and that frequent. Boo! At least she doesn't have school today. Mike is back for a PD day, and tomorrow, all of Hong Kong is taking the day off to celebrate my birthday! Well, that's not exactly true of course, but May 1 is a national holiday (labour day) here, so that's kind of fun! I was hoping for another BeachDayBirthday, but we'll see what the weather is like...

Oh, helpers...

I can't help it. We've been here almost two years, and I still haven't gotten used to the interesting phenomenon of domestic helpers in Hong Kong. 
Yesterday on the train, I couldn't help but notice a baby being carried in a wrap by a helper, while the mom played peek-a-boo. I don't know the circumstances or anything, but I just thought it interesting- I probably would prefer to have my baby in my own arms/carrier/wrap, but that's just me. Also, my babies might not have willingly gone in another carrier with another person with me standing right beside them, but that just goes to show the close relationship between the helper and the baby. 
A few other helper sightings that I have found curious:
- A mom shopping in Ikea with three young triplets and three helpers- one for each!
- An old man hobbling around a track with his walker, while a helper lounges in what must be his wheelchair, texting on her phone.
- Someone at church with their eyes closed and arms raised in worship while their helper stands beside them holding their baby.
- Okay, I didn't see this one myself, but my friend just had a baby, and said that in the nursing room of the hospital she saw a helper holding a breast pump to a new mom's chest and was manually expressing the milk for her employer. (!)

It's just such a common occurrence here in HK, and we're not immune to it either. Tomorrow night we are going on the first date night we've had since Rita was here, and we've asked a helper (well, I prefer to think of her as a friend who happens to be a helper) to watch the girls. She's employed full time, but likes to earn extra cash when she can. She's a very inspiring person and really is too skilled to be a babysitter or a helper. She told me this week that she's collecting books to one day bring back to the Philippines and start a library, since there is so little employment and people turn to drugs and alcohol for entertainment. She's waiting on God's timing, and I hope one day she can bring her dreams to life.

I was visiting with another helper who lives on our floor and seems to be on the same schedule of bringing kids to the school bus in the mornings because we seem to often be on the same elevator heading home. She confided that she is sacrificing now because her dream is to one day move to Canada. I hope that she too can realize her dream and that she won't freeze in Canada! 

Last night on the Podium...

Okay, I spend too much time perusing other (mostly the DIY-type) blogs and am way too lazy to keep up this one. Why haven't I posted about Guilin? Just laziness, and also such an overwhelming number of photos that I'm not really sure what to do with them all. FB is such an easy option in that regard. It was such an amazing trip, so I don't really know where to begin. 

I just personally appreciate the record of looking back at our past few months and see what we did, what the weather was like, how much the girls have changed and grown, etc. so even though it might just be the mundane, I'm going to try to post a little more often. 

 Anyway, continue to enjoy the extra space around Tsing Yi. The bugs have suddenly come out in full force and I got eaten alive when we were at Tsing Yi Park this week, so instead we've been opting to just head to the podium where the bugs don't bother us. 

 A peaceful evening...

 Hold on, Leila! This guy pushes fast!

 Kids in Hong Kong often have some kind of a towel tucked in the back of their shirt. We think it's to mop up their sweat. As depicted in the pictures above and below you can even get a variety of animal versions of the design. My friend's son recently asked if he, too, could have a towel tucked in the back of his shirt. Guess that's what it takes to fit in around here!:)

 Such concentration!

By the way, is "podium" a Hong Kong word, or were we just unaware of the various meanings the word can have? Because the definition that Mike and I both had in our head of what a "podium" was compared to what it is here are two different things. We had no idea what Mr. Yip was always talking about while apartment shopping during our first few days here. Basically it's the common outdoor area, usually on the third (sixth in our case) floor that links up all the towers of the estate. Our new estate has twelve towers (all 51 stories high!), so the podium is pretty big and has little garden paths and seating areas, a big and a small playground, and it's where you access the clubhouse. Farm Road didn't really have one because it was just a single story building, but bigger estates always do.  
Anyway, fun times on the podium!