sakura in hk~ (and happy birthday dear apple <3)

if only it wasn't inside a mall :(
there was a lovely sakura tree display inside harbour city over the weekend XD i actually didn't notice it till i stopped by the agnes b delices story to buy some chocolates for fishy @.@ i was carrying a ton of stuff from badminton (and shopping for home stuff at francfranc) so i had sat down on a bench in front of the trees, THEN realised what they were XD

unfortunately, pics taken with an iphone camera, and also with the display inside a mall, there was no way to aim the camera/phone at the actual trees to make it look authentic :( i tried my best xD

it would be nice if this was in the middle of anywhere but an HK mall xD;

i also managed to clean the flat so that it looks MUCH tidier than my last pics XD i also freed my larger miffys (although some others are still stuffed into white plastic bags D:) and put away all those 紅白藍 bags~

and also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY APPLE~~ so glad to work with you and also start this new badminton sunday thing xD hope we both can become healthier and stronger this year @.@

re: new flat...
thanks everyone for the help and also comforting words about getting used to the flat =___= currently i'm just needing more space to put things (my parents basically spread their stuff eveywhere since they weren't going to be living there often anyway and wouldn't have much stuff altogether, and also figured i wouldn't move in hahah..) and also have a problem with those dratted silverfish! they appeared out of nowhere the other day, following some crazy changes in humidity (from 60% to 90% @.@;;;) , and i was forced to kill 3 ~_~;;; hopefully after i live in a bit they'll disappear as the house is pretty dry anyway....

for those who aren't squeamish and curious as to what we have in HK flats/houses to worry about besides cockroachs, please click here

i'll show pics of the rest of the flat soon :D (after it gets cleaned a BIT more this weekend.. xD)

current mood: SOOO TIRED! i need sleeeeeeeeep~~~

PS: i gave in an got twitter D: http://twitter.com/spark_ling
just so that i can keep a countdown with nic and such xD

nic~ thanks dear T_T i am getting used to my bed, but i need to have more shelves/places to put my stuffff~ my poor miffys are still stuffed in bags~~~ (but hopefully will be better when you visit!!)

i've moved :D

i've JUST moved (during the Easter long weekend) so it's been soo busy for me @.@ kind of last minute thing but it'll be good for me :D

long story short, i'm still in hk, but moving to a different area :D i've already forwarded my snail mail addy to all those i have in my email list so if you didn't get it (for some strange reason), let me know!

thanks so much to bro, ken阿哥, christine, kenny, phil (for fixing the router and asking now and then to see if i need more help as well!) and of course my darling fishy... i am feeling so loved =3=~~~~ thanks for the helppppp you guys!! i'll forever be in your debt~~

so sorry for the rush as well, but it was best to do it during easter long weekend~ thanks to micsis and bro who lent me over 16 紅白藍 bags to use, plus two of their suitcase and i also had multiple bags to hand carry plus my mini miffy suitcase... to a total of 24 items (not including my two bags that i hand carried lol)..

i've already cleaned up most of the bags.... here are two pics to describe what my flat looks like right now =___=

1. a big mess:


2. poor miffys suffocating in plastic bags :( :( sorry ~_~i will get down to cleaning up my flat this weekend!!! then i'll have proper pics to post xD

i've also been playing lots of badminton, which i'm really beginning to love xD i finally got my own racket a few weeks back and love it sooo much! the bounce on it is amazing and helps me a lot :D i can't wait till sunday when we get to play for 2 hours :heart: it's been really good to do exercise again after so long~

current mood: super sleepy due to 1. not sleeping well in new bed and environment, 2. the longgg break, 3. super humid and hot in my room but the a/c is quite "dangerous" to use at the moment (not cleaned .. no time! lol), 4. my neat freak genes (thanks mom!) causing me to want to clean up at least SOMETHING each time i come home... (even though my MOM told me to leave it as is and get some sleep....)

ps: looking forward to nic&mio (much love), lessons, badminton & tennis, my trip to canada (yay new suitcase to use :D :D :D :D)

mr. tuna~ once i find my postcards again, i gotta continue on my trend XD

raven~ *HUG* can't wait to see your smiling face~~~

nic~ mio ::heart::

silly~ i miss you so much girl ~ i can't wat to see you again!

random happy things :D

i've been sooo lazy in updating lately because i've been busy with lessons, badminton, work (hmm it's number three.. lol), seeing friends and basically not having too much time to write ~_~ and also i dont' think i have too many interesting things to talk about hahah

however, i did receive/buy some random happy things that i'd like to share :D

the weather being super cool in hk lately, fishy and i decided to head over to 女人街 and see if we could find the octopus card sticker that he wanted to get awhile back.

we ended up buying these reallllly adorable cut-out cutters (? lol i have no idea what to call them.. cut-out punchers?) which i tested out on our journal:



it's soo adorable! not only can you use this for the cut-out but the punched out section looks adorable and can be used to decorate things XD *is proud*

second thing we got was this nice sticker for the octopus card.. unfortunately they only had one so i took it :3 excuse the weird angle, as it was hard to take a picture of, being sparkly and all xD it's leaning against the lovely lovely coffee grinder fishy got me in taiwan. i need to find a chance and take pics of it alone as it's super lovely, and very steampunk-ish, laputa-world-y~

and finally, the book came :D it's written by 彎彎, a taiwanese girl who's known for her simple drawings and funny, down to earth humour on her day-to-day life :D this book wasn't available in any of the bookstores in HK since it's release last last week so i had to order it from taiwan.. it's super cute xD i highly recommend her other books!
and.. a "bonus".. fishy recently (OMG FINALLY, after TWO MONTHS) sent me pics from my birthday dinner, and i found that he captured a perfect scowl on my face... i had to upload this for the hilarious factor and because i remember how ugly i felt that day (i looked so weird in every single picture i took =__=) and none of the pictures were turning out well, and ppl were walking around etc etc and i got pissed xD and no.. unfortunately i'm not really faking this scowl haha...

a scowling 利是封 xD
(however, it does fit my current mood in a way =___= aughhhh)

on a side note, sooo looking forward to iphone 3.0 XD copy and paste yay ~~

on another side note, super thanks to mr. tuna, who is one of the several superheroes of mine who volunteered to drive me home from the airport as i needed a ride in june when i fly to toronto :D (thanks jay and silly & keith as well!! you guys are awesome too xD) his fast "i'll be there" before i had even asked him if he could do it was sooo sweet as it was a working day and i'm arriving in toronto at 5:45am with a big suitcase, carry-on bag and a bad case of airplane smell =__=;

however, i just learnt about 2 mins ago some BIG CHANGES to my schedule.. apparently my trip to toronto is not gonna be what it seems to be...

current mood: sigh...

temporary miss 雪糕妹~

i hate wearing this mask =__= it annoys the hell out of me cuz i can barely breathe even though fishy helped me cut a really nice and invisible 'gap' for me to breathe out of ... hopefully i can take this stupid thing off and destroy by friday.. in case anyone's curious, i'm wearing those SARS-like masks...

one of my lovely colleagues at work told me i look like a 公仔 (doll) and resemble '雪糕妹' . at first i was thinking "hmm who is that @.@" and realized it was an 80s doll that resembles raggedy ann type of doll with yarn for hair... and the main thing was her face: her freckles.

after googling her this is what i found:

haha...at least they say it's not a bad thing and i look "得意" and "可愛" because my face looks really 'fake' ... -.-;;

at least 雪糕妹 has a friend :D (fishy? haha..)

a few more dayssss ~ what girls will do for beauty.... haha...

current mood: oxygen deprived...i hate wearing this massssssssssssskkkkkkkkk T__T

'yeah' show~ :D

a short post to write about the 2009 'yeah show' that i went to on saturday with fishy, my sis and her friend (as my bro in law couldn't make it back in time). for those who haven't heard of it, it's a great big 佈道會 where famous stars/singers work together to worship God and provide testimonials and perform etc etc. some of the famous guests this year include 孫耀威, 關心妍 (who both had testimonials), and 森美 and the main speaker was, of course, the pastor 林以諾牧師.

my sis somehow managed to get first row, RIGHT in the middle seats so it was a great view with no obstructions :D however, it was hard to take pics cuz the lights were super bright and i only bought my normal point and shoot ... so excuse the 'blown out' fuzzy-ish faces xD

關心妍's (Jade) testimonial was very touching and i think it helped a lot that she discussed and described in detail about the most current and embarassing event that circulated youtube for weeks (for those who dont' know, she went on stage and took the award from the person who just received it because she thought she won it @.@). HK is a place where ppl JUMP on any small misatkes famous ppl make and i can imagine how it felt that moment @.@ the song she sung afterwards was also very very touching and i was glad to hear her testimonial, especially as i hadn't really paid much attention to her beforehand and, to be honest, didnt' care much for her.

it was really nice to see 孫耀威 on stage, although i wasn't sure what his testimonial really was about @.@ i've always liked his voice (i used to be a fan of his in elementary school hahaha...) and i really loved the song he wrote for God.. so beautiful and touching and hearing him sing the song he wrote live actually said much more than his actual testimonial.

森美 performed this magic show.. and it turned out that his volunteer was the actual magician! (he was sitting behind us too lol).. it was very entertaining and fishy told me i was like a little kid .. XD (i'm a sucker for 'magic shows' hahah...)

林以諾牧師 was hilarious.. i liked his dvds and i was glad to see he didn't let me down in this show XD i just kept laughing and laughing with fishy (especially the part about wives/gfs before and after... hahaha and the whole thing about 'owning husband's head'... XD)

i highly recommend ppl to watch this :D especially my dear friends in toronto when it'll show sometime in june~

currently it's quite cold in HK for march.. i hope everyone takes care and doesn't get sick~ (especially those in super cold canada D:)
current mood: happy :D

ara~ i love every single art thing you made!! please make more and take pics of yourself as well :D miss you tons my dear~~

raven~ i hope you're doing ok in japan and not getting sick :D miss you tons~~

korea + ray's wedding :D

i'm back xD (for nearly a week actually haha)...

i've been super super lazy in uploading photos and such this week because i got sick (yet again) from Korea and needed time to rest and practice my beloved instrument so decided not to write/upload things till i was free-er~ my mom also left on saturday (D:) and my dear brother ray's wedding was tonight so i was VERY busy~

to summarise my trip, it was a LOT of fun... i'm glad i had a chance to travel with my darling sister and do a girly shopping trip with her (and i mean PURE shopping) :D we normally dont' get too much time to see each back in HK as she has to study/work and i have work/practice/friends/etc and so we actually only see each other most on sundays when we attend church and have lunch and such.

korea is a great place to go shopping, especially since their Won fell to super lows against the HKD when we went (i think it's still falling D:) and it made EVERYTHING super super cheap :D i got tons of la neige products for my friends/family/myself and also got a lot of really nice clothing at MK prices xD (cheaper than MK even..)

however, looking back, i realised i didn't take too many pictures as we didn't really go sightseeing and i had left my dslr in hk as i knew this would be a shopping-only trip~ so, not too many pics to share unfortunately :(

some of the stuff i got :D.. clothing (i love every single article of clothing i have here):

and stuff from kosney.. i love this place :D

some yummmmy korean gaozi place with yummy noodles :D

random picture next to some random bus stop haha... (it was quite cold.. and as i was sick already, i actually wore more than i would wear in colder weather in toronto @.@)

my sis already wants to go again haha.. but i'm hoping the yen will drop by year end so i can go to japan again =__=

second happy thing, my dear god brother raymond got married today! i just got home from the wedding banquet which was very lovely and successful :D i was so glad that i had a chance to witness my dear dear friend + brother get married! :D

me and irene:
me and the handsome groom in white :D

congrats to the lovely, lovely couple! :D

current mood: i'm back~

arrived in Korea~ :D

i've arrived in Seoul, Korea! :D

it's really nice here because it's cold yet it's not like canada's -20 degrees. it just started snowing earlier this evening and it was sooo nice.. i haven't seen snow in ages and i won't go back to toronto during wintertime (don't want to be stuck in the snow~) so it's really nice to be able to walk the streets while it's snowing and in a place i haven't been to before!

i'm just relaxing in my hotel now, after half a long day of walking, and looking over the goodies i got :D i just realized i left my memory card adapter at home or else i'd be able to upload pics right away to show what everything looks like ~_~

we walked only a small area today, with lots of tiny shops and such, and will wake up earlier tomorrow to take a look at more things.. i can't wait XD

i've got a bit of a 'itchy' throat (the type that makes me cough =_=;) which i hope will go away soon~

current mood: relaaaaxinggg :D

raven~ i'm so sorry to hear you're sick when you came.. but don't worry about it, we will get lots of chances to see each other again :D most important thing is to take care and get well soon! i had a fever too last few days before i came on this trip but luckily it's gone =__= *HUGs* we both must work hard to be healthier this year!!

happy valentines day :D

as i've been very busy the past few days (work, was sick etc ~_~), i hadn't had a chance to update with pictures of stuff i got over my bday (as my actual bday pics were already uploaded onto fb and flickr)... well, since one of my birthday gifts was something that encouraged me to take brighter pictures, i thought, why not take use it to show off some of the fabulous things ppl have sent me :D

but.. i've yet to do that (sorry mr. tuna, i was busy T_T) but will do that soon, i promise!

in the meanwhile, enjoy some valentines day chocolates i made for some dears of mine (they tasted OK but i wasn't sure if my taste was off due to my fever lol)~ it has more of a swiss chocolate, melty type feeling to it, which i hope everyone is ok with...

a not too clear shot on purpose hahaha...

and thanks for the lovely surprise today xD

hk is a very commercialized place, so for people to not have a date on vday is *GASP* OMGGG-worthy...... which i think is total BS, seeing as people should love each other every day the same regardless which day of the year it is =__=; so.. happy valentines day, in the sense that it should be a day when you should tell whoever you care about that you care about them, a day to say hi to some old friends and to have fun no matter what you're doing.

i hope my chocolates taste ok D:

current mood: currently very very sick lol.. =__=;; i had yet another fever last night~ how awesome my timing is with getting sick and holidays or special days =__=;;

2009 Chinese New Year Celebration :D

Happy New Year of the Ox to everyone :D like i've said previously, I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

i wanted to post pics to give a quick recap of my wonderful longggg week off (i can't believe it's over already!!!)

it started on 年三十晚 (Jan 25), where we had the traditional family dinner together at my mom's place. i have to give it to her, as she prepared the feast below single-handedly and using only TWO stove tops (that's how limited it is in HK haha..) and also having gotten off the plane from toronto two days ago!

we had the usual MJ and 湯圓 afterwards (the super delicious ones from this store near times sq)~

micsis and i decided that since the camera made us look kind of 'round anyways, we might as well emphasize it XD
on 年初一, we went to my mom's place for lunch and then went out to the supermarket in festival walk to rush and buy whatever we could to prepare dinner that night at my sis' place!

as the tradition each year on the first two or three days of Chinese New year is the wear the brightest jacket we have, we realized how 'dazzling' we looked standing next to each other and couldn't resist taking this picture:

(on a side note, many ppl pointed out my sis and i resemble the miffys sitting on the chair behind us XD)

on 年初二, i had a lovely birthday lunch with timmy and jon, who both took time out just to see me before my bday~

afterwards, we had our usual yearly dinner with micsis' family and finally had some full family pics taken of us:

bright clothing part 2 (i'm so short =__=;;):

on 年初三, no pics were taken (i didn't bring my camera out for the day), but i went to drink tea with family, then went out to shop :D i FINALLY bought the down pillow and black turtle neck i've always wanted ~ however, the pillow was so comfy that when i went back to work on Jan 29 for half day, i could barely get myself to wake up in time =__=;;

my red pockets for 2009 :D the golden, long envelope is the look this year (aside from the beautiful purple one, courtesy of my lovely sister), and seem to be more popular than red! there are a few more that i got after i took this photo but i didn't want to retake this photo so here you go :D


will post pics of my lovely birthday celebrations soon as well :D my pics are allll posted in my photo album so please go take a look if you're curious!

thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes! i'm so so thankful that even after all this time, my friends all over the world took time to call/sms/msg/email me to say happy birthday :D i really am touched and love you all!

current mood: very very 辛福!!

mr. tuna~ thanks for the call XD i'm so glad i had so much time to chat with you this year (i recall that i was rushing out the year before, and couldn't talk to you for too long!)~ thanks so much for your gift too.. looking foward to receiving it XD i'll let you know my first reaction haha..

silly dearest~ my dearest silly i hope you get better soon.. thanks for calling me, the small update chat was wonderful and i miss you more and more.. take care and hug/say hi to vicky for me!! :D

fishy~ thanks for 陪-ing me right after coming back.. haha those four days were SO LONG but i managed to get through it and had a great time XD 乖乖ponyo haha...

to quote hyde...

happy year of the ox to everyone!

I wish everyone a prosperous, happy, healthy and relaxing year of the ox! last year was filled with ups and downs for everyone around the world, so i wish the best for everyone this year :D i thank everyone for the support i received during the past year.. last year at this time, i was totally different and, looking back, i'm glad i went thru what i did, because i see things a lot different now, and i'm happy to say i'm 10000% much better now :D

our flat was tidied up on friday night in preparation for chinese new year, as you can see in this pic below (taken with one of my brand new bday gifts!! thanks seeb XD i will post re: my bday later :D):

this is probably the tidiest it'll ever be, as my sis has banned our laptops (still here for now, will disappear tonight lol), junk under the coffee table and on the "貴妃椅", and also forced us to hide all the wires for the ps3/xbox/wii/misc machines. so.. i've taken a picture to commemorate this before this turns back to it's normal look after the holidays XD (i love the wide angle on this digicam T_T it's love~)

i will post pics of my cny stuff soon, as i'll be going to 年三十晚 dinner soon at my mom's place and will take pics (finally get to showcase the new camera bag i got yay lol)~ hope everyone will have a nice holiday as well :D i love cny tons as there's a real fresh start feeling to it (everyone gets new clothes, gets new haircuts, lots of nice gatherings etc.).. i love celebrating it in hk! :D

on a side note,

"an artist without a brush,
can't upon the canvas..
without you here,
there is no colour...
a colourless landscape..."

four more days T_T thanks for bringing me my happiness back :D come back soon T_T

current mood: 恭喜發財 to all XD (feeling thankful XD)

Ponyo on a cliff (崖の上のポニョ)~

i wanted to write a short note to say that i watched the latest Studio Ghibli movie, 崖の上のポニョ or "Ponyo on a Cliff". After the disappointing "tales of earthsea" directed by his son, i was glad (actually eager haha) to see the latest movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself! i went with fishy today and was enjoyed it a lot :D

I went into the theatre not knowing what the movie was about at all, and i always think it's better to do that so you dont' have any expectations :D so... I won't write out a full summary, but for those who do want to know, they can click here for the wiki site :D

after watching the movie, fishy agreed that i was a lot like ponyo haha.... and that if we met as kids, we'd probably be acting like sousuke and ponyo XD;;
i feel very 辛福 and glad to be able to see this with him :D

i also wanted to mention that last weekend fishy helped me find a place that sold 炒栗子 (so delicious, i haven't had it in awhile ) and also a store that sold 天野喜孝 puzzles! i had been looking for his puzzles for forever (ever since i had passed on the chance to buy one that came with a free frame because i was going back to toronto and had no space in luggage :( i so so so regret it that time...) and they were out of print and not making them anymore. So, when he brought me to the store, i was SOOOOOOOOOOOO touched that he helped me find a place with it.. the store owner told me that they had gotten a collector to sell their collection and that the price was set by them.. and SOOO expensive.. /cry but... i ended up buying the one that i fell in love with the moment i walked in (and there's another one i also like =_= ) although it was the most expensive one =__= i'm deciding whether or not to put it together yet, as it's picture is one that i want to hang up in my future home but... i'll see XD i may post a pic here later since i love it so much XD

thanks fishy :heart:!!

current mood: super super happy :D

raven~ raven can't wait till you come! thanks for your post card XD i hope we both have good health for 2009 :D remember to call me!

silly~ i'll mail you some later :D miss you tons my dear~

Happy New Year!!! :D

happy new year!! :D
hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday, a fun/relaxing countdown, and will have a fantastic 2009!

i haven't updated in a long while as i got really sick since my last entry and hadn't gotten well.. it was basically:

Dec 18 - fever - western dr
Ddec 22 - not better still - western dr

then i was so drugged up during the holidays and STILL sick ... the western medicine they give here really sucks and my body i s so weak from it! so:

Dec 27 - fever (still) - chinese dr
Dec 29 - cough (terrible one) - chinese dr
Jan 2 - cough part 2 - chinese dr

and thank goodness im getting better after seeing the chinese dr~ i haven't slept since dec 24 since i kept coughing if i lean even SLIGHTLY back.. so i've been coughing myself awake every night.. (like fishy says, it's like i'm trying to 成仙 hahaha) hopefully i'll get better soon.. the chinese medicine is very good for me and helps keep me very 精神 ~

new year's TOP resolution: be healthy

anyway.. on to some fun stuff!

i've taken a ton of pics over the holidays, all posted in my photo album and facebook. and today, i bought a really cute thing... jelly lenses for cell phone cameras!!

what they are are a bunch of different lenses with different effects (it was HK$100 for four so i chose the four i liked best) and you stick them with this silicon-like adhesive onto your cell phone (removable and restickable) and it turns your normal photos into interesting images!

this is the lens packaging:
the 'motion' focus lens (LOVE this one), lovely cup a gift from my micsis:'star lights' lens (my favorite one), taken at mong kok (blurry but i wanted to just quickly test it after i bought it XD):star light lens again, because i love it, of our chandelier (interesting thing is, normally i cannot take a pic dead on of lights or it turns really bright and overexposed, but this lens makes it pretty and sharp too):macro lens (VERY cool, this is my laptop "K" key):

my fourth lens is a fish eye one, but it doens't fit properly on my iphone =__= because the iphone has a curved body near the camera's lens, it doens't fit properly with the curved fish eye and it messes it up :( i'll have to see if i can switch for a new lens tomorrow~

sooo much fun! i'm still contemplating whether or not to get a set for mr. tuna as part of his bday gift but 1. his bday is in september (not a problem though, i always plan early), 2. he'll hear about this from me, 3. i dunno how often he takes cell phone pics (knowing which phones he uses.. hahaha)

anyway i wanted to post this to show off my 'hot out of the oven' new toy XD.. so much to look forward to so i'm not letting my coughing get to me :D

current mood: very very 辛福 :D

ps: thanks for everyone's merry christmas/happy new year msgs and cards and calls etc :D love you all so much!!!