Finally We Go Beiijing: Day 0

It is finally our turn; we really have been waiting for this holiday (just like our many other holidays, haha). I had been working very hard since right before my Mumbai business trip, when I had to cover for colleagues; we took turns for vacation. I joked that it is like we have to “earn” our holidays and then it would be pay back time after the holidays. Worth it? Ya, I need my holidays. 

Packing had officially started last weekend. I had always prided myself with my ability to pack and travel light.. For the past winter holidays, the 4 of us travel with only 2 big luggage. This time, I don’t know if the kids’ clothes are now bigger and thus takes up more space or the doing of the extra warm heat techs. Attempting with 2 big luggage is a squeeze and we decided to add on a medium one, in case of shopping. One to be handled by Daddy Lim and one each for the kids, just nice, I shall be served! Hoho. 

The extra hand carry contains the winter jackets. I had originally packed all of them in the luggage until I was reminded that if the luggage is lost, we probably would freeze to death in Beijing. Speaking of which, I remembered to buy our travel insurance at 11pm the night before we flew. Hoho. 

There were a lot to be done before the trip other than the packing. Nana and I got our hair done. She had wanted to perm her hair for the longest and got it as a Christmas present. Alien invasion.

My greys are peeking. I had contemplated coloring after the trip but figured out that I should also look 美美 in Beijing. She sat for 5 long hours in the salon. Such great sacrifice. 

My day started with a trip to the gym. I am wondering if it is possible to jog outdoors in Beijing. Hoho. 

While on leave, I had 2 calls to attend and was busy putting last minute things into the luggage throughout the morning and rushing around the house for last minute household chores. 

Mochi was sent to the sitter’s (SS) place at 10am. Poor boy, who started hiding the moment he saw his carrier. 

We haven’t post about our Christmas tree. We didn’t put it up since we got Mochi, thinking that he would ruin the tree. Nana was brave enough to attempt. 

Mochi lives in harmony with the tree. We occasionally see the ornaments on the floor. 

We had a light bite at home and got ready to head to the airport, intending to start our holiday early and right and do some walking around at the airport. 

Where is Zaky? He forgot his hoody. Zzzzzz. 

Random… Nana let me wear her socks with hands! 

We were so early at the airport that we roamed and we ate and we still had a lot of time. Daddy Lim and the kids visited the butterfly garden. So brave. 

We saw a group of China aunties posing exaggeratedly in front of the LV shop. Our kids attempted too. 

Finally board the plane. We love SQ. I got to sit with the kids.

Daddy Lim was right behind us and lucky him got an empty middle seat. 

It was a 6 hours flight and we waited for a long time for dinner. Bcos we were hungry, we forgot to take pictures. Zaky not only ate his bun but also took Daddy Lim’s and mine and was caught eyeing Nana’s greedily. 

China must be very big bcos we flew over land for a long time. 

The kids dozed off towards the end of the journey. Finally, we touched down. 

We saw some passengers wearing their winter jackets but decided that it was too much hassle to do so in the plane. While exiting the plane, I was wondering out loud if it was cold outside (the plane) and one of the air stewardesses answered “very cold”. Lol. It was indeed very cold, it was in minus, but we were indoor and managed with our light jacket. 

We had to take a shuttle to the immigration and then get our luggage. 

Given that it was almost midnight, the immigration was empty. Auntie SR had just visited Beijing a month back and waited at the immigration for 2 hours. 

We had arranged for a private driver for RMB 400 to send us to the hotel. I WeChat the contact person the moment we landed and was told that the driver was already at the exit and holding a placard with my name. We did exit, but there was no driver and we couldn’t find the contact person on WeChat. Zzzzzz. We figured out that we could take a taxi but going via the private transfer would save us a lot of headache. 

After 15 mins of waiting and finding, we gave up and decided on the taxi. I haven’t figured out how to do didi, which is their cab hailing app. As for the taxi, we simply followed the signboard, prepped the hotel details and think that everything would be in order.

Then, the 2nd problem came. The taxis are sedan cars and are unable to take 3 luggage and 4 passengers. Zzzzzz.. maybe I should have kept to 2. We had to take 2 cars instead. I took Zaky and I hurriedly pushed the international SIM card to Daddy Lim so that he would have data and would be able to keep in contact and more importantly, make payment. He ended up turning on his auto roaming instead but I managed to set up Zaky’s international sim. Zzzz. 

Did we arrive safely? Yes. My driver took the highway and arrived faster but cost us RMB200. Their driver took a non toll road and the fare was only about RMB100. While unintended, we ended up saving RMB100. It was our 1st attempt trying to use Changi Pay and it worked!

It was already 1ish by the time we checked in to our room. The hotel was decent and quite new looking. I was worried for a while when the taxi driver said that it is some small hotel. 

I actually cannot quite remember what type of room I had booked and was worried when I saw a single Kings bed. We can’t all squeeze in 1 bed! Then I saw the bunk beds. Heng ah. 

What is a holiday without supper. Daddy Lim and Zaky were peckish. We saw vending machines while we were checking in. That was where our supper came from. Everything is so high tech and there is so many QR codes to scan to activate this and that. The hotel staff was very helpful. I saw so many food delivery and I aimed to be able to do that during this trip. Haha. 

We forgot pictures of the supper and Nana turned in to bed soon. It was already 2ish and we had to wake up at 7am the next morning in prep of Universal Studio Beijing. 

The room was cool with the natural air conditioning. The room has no window but it wasn’t claustrophobic. Instead, the hotel cleverly used cute decoration to counter that. The bed and linen were nice. I was also very tired but Daddy Lim beat me to it and started snoring minutes after lying down. Bcos the room was so quiet, his snores sounded like an oncoming train. Hoho. Luckily, 姐姐有练过. Train or not, I slept. Good night! 

Mummy Lim

Must Be the Last Business Trip for 2024

My last business trip was a short one to Jakarta in the beginning of October. I was supposed to go to Mumbai in end November but had to push that back by a week. I totally enjoyed not traveling in November. 

Just like the last Jakarta trip, this one was decided at the very last minute and I was scrambling to find air tickets. I almost had to take Air India. No!!!! The last Jakarta trip, I was scrambling to find hotel. Hoho. 

It was the same Mumbai routine - I was up at 4.30am and arriving at 5.30am for the 7.30am flight. What is different this time is the Christmasy feel and the many families heading for their year end vacation at Changi Airport. I want to go holiday too. 

Hello Kitty is in town!

I had some cosmetic to stock up. Like I said, it had been “a while” since I traveled. 

As if there was a sale… no sale ah, but I needed to stock up. 

I hesitated at the extra empty calories but eventually decided that I needed to make myself happy before traveling to Mumbai for work. Nice teh.

Luckily I did bcos I was seated at the hind of the plane due to the last min ticket purchased and there was only vegetarian food left by the time the food trolley reached me. I could wait and see if the stewardess managed to stun some leftovers from the business class. Never mind ah. The stewardess was very grateful bcos so many other passengers were “waiting” for their non-vegetarian food. 

It wasn’t too bad. It was some curried potato and chick peas and roti. I was actually quite happy with the carbs. Lol. 

I know I should have slept but I backside itchy and didn’t. I caught 2 movies instead. Hoho. I headed directly to the office in the CBD and started my work day. I worked hard and had a busy day bcos I was also covering 2 colleagues who are on leave. It was about 5.30pm when I left the office.

I opted for a hotel that I didn’t stay before bcos this one is nearer to the site office. The last one was horrible but this one had been tested and proven by other female colleagues. The hotel is decent though a little old. I was brought to a room with pool view and the porter was so proud of it, showing me the view.

Then barely a minute later, I was told that they had given me a wrong room and brought to another one that faces the street. Lol. Still not bad lah.

The bed and linen could be better but I have very high threshold for hotel rooms, so I was generally comfortable. Hoho. 

This was my dinner - the sandwich was leftover from lunch and I ordered soup. Happy and comforting food. 

The hotel is located in livelier area but I had no time to explore and was working into the nights throughout the whole stay. Then, calls took place in Singapore morning times, which meant super early in India time. So gym time become even earlier. Then I realised that my earphones were low batt. Zzzzz. Luckily, for all 3 mornings, I was the earliest in the gym and blasted Spotify from my phone. The gym opens at 6am and on the 1st morning, I made them open it at 5.45am for me. 

The gym is decent and well equipped. 

They have plenty of dumbbells. There are many pairs of 5kg but missing the 3kg and the 4kg. I duno why. 

I did my hiit, treadmill and elliptical respectively for the mornings. All good. 

The hotel serves decent bfast spread too. I think it is common to have mainly vegetarian food in hotels in India. The only meat were sausages and bacon. I had to take a picture of this Singapore noodles.

It tasted like stir-fried noodles with a very strong curry taste. I cannot tell which part of it tasted like Singapore. The bfast spread was about the same every morning. This was my dinner for the 2nd night. Nice!

On the last night, dinner was my half eaten subway from lunch, topped up with the airplane bun that I tabaoed from the 1st day.

My flight was at 11.40pm on Friday night. My colleagues said that I should leave the site at 5.30pm bcos of Friday traffic and I should allow for 3 hours for immigration. I gladly heeded their advice. On the way to the airport, I was accompanied by an egg yolk sun, which also meant that it was hazy. 

I arrived at 7ish. Immigration was slow but I had plenty of time. My dinner at the airport. Nice ah. 

I duno why, but I was less tired and the wait was easily occupied by social media scrolling. I think I was deprived after working hard the last few days. 

This time, I was seated in the middle of the plane and I am quite sure they still have non-vegetarian food when the trolley reached me but I was disciplined. I didn’t need 2 dinners and opted to sleep instead. Sleep is never easy on the plane but I had Jay Chou to accompany me. Ya, I can sleep anywhere and was sleeping while listening to Jay Chou. 

Overall, the plane was ok, except for this pair of toddler twins who started whining and crying intermittently and then persistently about 3/4 into the flight. It was irritating and their parents didn’t seem to do much and they just kept to their irritating whining-kind of crying. It didn’t quite affect me as Jay was masking the cries. I saw how devastated the passengers who sat directly in front of the twins were. 

Finally home! Landed at 7.30am on Saturday morning.

My luggage had a dent. The airport staff said that it was due to the air pressure. 

She did manage to “undent” the dents but the dent marks were still visible. The staff said that I can make a report but duno if the repairs can be done. It doesn’t sound like there will be compensation. Haiz, 算了. I was too tired to argue. 

So that is it! My final business trip for 2024 completed! 

We are all totally looking forward to our Beijing holiday in mid December before the business travel starts again next year. Thank God for journey mercy! 

Mummy Lim

One Year with Bukit Pajang

How time flies! It has been a year since we moved to BP. We survived well. 

Most of the daily housework falls on “The Mummy”. Daddy Lim’s main task is to feed and clean Mochi’s bowls. Otherwise, Daddy Lim and the kids helped out occasionally or when I barked at them. That is also why we needed to be clever and efficient when it comes to the daily chores. Other than Xiaomi, we also hired a part-time helper who comes for 3 hours once every 2 weeks. She handles the thorough vacuuming, mopping, and also the sink, toilet and fan cleaning, plus the bedsheet changing. These chores are simply laborious and I absolutely hated the toilet cleaning. Outsourced! 

The house is definitely not sparkly clean. We see stains, occasional sticky floors, dust, Mochi’s fur in corners and stuck on shelf, lizard dropping… and the list goes on. I comfort myself that this is evidence of a lively home, this little bit of messiness doesn’t kill and more importantly, this is only a temporary home. We are blessed nevertheless! 

I have always said that BP is more ulu than JW but we have managed alright. I have a direct train to the office and Daddy Lim had to do a little more ferrying (the kids) than before. His only complaint is the jam during peak hours and the unsheltered parking lots with the bird shit. 

Things at home are surprisingly starting to fall apart. The common toilet bifold door is constantly coming off the track, we saw a chip off the plaster boxing in the master bedroom, one small part of the vinyl floor (or is that tile?) also chipped off.. and there is more. I don’t think we have been particularly rough with the house. I can only hope that the house tahans until when we hand it back to the landlord. 

The latest thing to malfunction is the aircon. Each time we service, the gas issue will surface. I have no idea why. Isn’t servicing supposed to prolong the aircon service life? The last time this has happened, the technician commented that the aircon unit is super old and we should consider changing it. We recently serviced it in November and reminded the technician to top up the gas. Last week, the aircon went down and we had to urgently call in the technician. There was apparently a leak, which was repaired and gas topped up. We were told to monitor and if the issue comes up again, we should really change the aircon. 不是我不要..

The aircon works for a few days and the problem came back. Now, we are waiting miserably for the agent to coordinate the change of the aircon unit. I hope the weather would be merciful for the next few days. 

Otherwise, it is all good. The kids, though whined at the housework, are happy with the freedom and now invite friends over freely. Zaky had been playing chef on several occasions, cooking up delicious pasta to feed Nana. No kitchen is burnt down and they did a good job cleaning up too. We are doing well!

We will chill for the 2nd part of the lease, just like Mochi. 

Mummy Lim

Lim Family Day Trip to JB by Train

One of those days, I declared that we should go for a day trip to JB bcos the year end holiday is too far away and I really think I deserved a trip. Once I got the date (bcos everybody is so busy), I bought the train ticket. It is the kids’ 1st trip to JB via the train. 

We booked the 8.30am train and arrived Woodlands Train Station at about 7.45am to long Q. Wasn’t it a workday? The Q fortunately moved quickly and while we were the last few to board the train and had to stand, we made it safely across the Causeway. It was only a 5 mins’ ride anyway. 

The malls only open at 10am but the aunties had already told me where the good food are during our last trip. It was a walk away (round the mall, across the road and walk some more). Daddy Lim and the kids played tourists, walking slowly and snapping pictures, then kept asking me where is the restaurant and are we there yet. How to when they walk so slow and kept getting distracted?

We didn’t get lost and found the Ah Mah Teochew Kueh place that I went with the aunties. It was closed but Auntie H said that all the restaurants in the area serve similar food and they are all good. We settled for the restaurant next to it. 

Nana said that we didn’t have good food the last trip. I am quite sure she remembered wrongly bcos we ate so much. Anyway, I told her that the food will be good this time. It was really good. 

Nothing was left.

We thought that maybe the 8.30am train would be too early but apparent not. By the time, we walked to the restaurant, had bfast, it was already 10am and just nice for mall crawling. 

The plan was to catch a movie after dinner bcos our train back was at 9.30pm and we assumed that we would be too tired by then. The screening timing didn’t match the plan and we went for a 11.15am show instead. Total cost for 4 tickets, a popcorn and drink? Only RM71! No wonder Singaporeans love JB. 

Despite the late bfast and the movie snacks, we decided that lunch is a must. 

Aston! 

Nana didn’t complain about bad food this time. 

After lunch, we rushed to Eco Palladium bcos the kids wanted to play “Floor is Lava”. We were late, pushed back the appointment and had time for snacks. Ya, eat again. 

It was actually quite silly to come all the way and spent $$ on Grab just to play this. But we had fun and we are still very lousy at this. Lol. We will die very quickly if the floor really turned lava siol. The game was for 20 mins and I am glad that it was only this long bcos I was very tired. I wasn’t the only one; we all stole breaks in between. 

The original plan was to play some pool or even escape room before heading back but Nana was eager to head back for more shopping and we were seriously out of time. We went back to JBCC mall and did a little more shopping, ice cream and then dinner. Ya, why? Lol. 

I don’t think we were hungry but Daddy Lim said that he “would be” if we skip dinner. 

We had Korean fried chicken then headed off for the last activity for the day - massage. Very nice. Hoho. 

It was time to head back to the station for the train after the massage and the trip home was uneventful. We at least got seats this time. I was very surprised that we didn’t have enough time. We didn’t do laser tag, we didn’t go Karaoke, we didn’t even have much time to shop. Seriously, where did all the time go? 

Nana and Zaky are the winners of the trip. They each bought a pair of baggy jeans and I am secretly happy for my wallet bcos it is a fraction of what I would find in Singapore. I think we need to do this more ofen. Haha. 

Mummy Lim