It’s the day before the New Year, so traditionally today is a day of cleaning. Thou shall not clean on New Year, in fear of removing any luck, wealth or success that lies in hiding. That means, the girls do one last session of schoolwork while the adults clean, and then we leave for another day of exploring.
Joe aims for a mall called Festival Walk, and because he has an Uber coupon, we decide to take a car instead of public transport today. The minibus from grandma’s place to the subway costs us almost HK$20 every time, and today’s Uber ride cost a few dollars more than that, saving us the entire cost of the subway ride.
It’s time for lunch, and we find out that this mall has a Cha Chaan Teng, a “tea restaurant”, a traditional Hong Kong diner, so we aim for that, knowing there will be both yin yang and lai cha (milk tea) in our futures. We search the floors, look towards the food court, decide it’s not there, walk another floor, and then learn that in the hidden corner of the food court, no less than four restaurants hide. Back to the food court, traverse it, and enter the diner.
I think I’ve mentioned the “sets” before, the main dish that comes with toast, eggs, and in this case, a choice of protein. The girls both go for scrambled eggs and sausages, while Joe and I eat most of the main course. The girls enjoy a small bowl of pork macaroni soup (Maylin and I) and beef instant noodle soup (Téa and Joe), and Joe and I eat whatever is left over. Except he also usually has to finish my bowl of soup.
After lunch we browse the mall. Joe is itching for more New Year festivities, and at one point suggests we leave this mall to go explore a different mall. But there’s so much left to explore here! We end up staying here. Just look at all the photo ops!
While we are busy at the mall, Joe’s Da Gu Je, or big aunt, has been to our place! She has stocked us up on various foods, drinks and snacks. The fridge is now full of BBQ pork, vegetables, a home made apple pear juice drink, and so much more. We browse the basement grocery store for anything that we’re missing to cook dinner at home, and decide we’ll bus home first and then get any additional groceries closer to home.
Our local market is in the same complex as the bus depot, where many bus routes start and stop. This one however, does not end at our bus depot, but does stop just down the street. We just have to be aware enough to ring the bell… It worked well this time, but with me usually falling asleep on buses, I like it when we’re the end stop!
We get to the market and pick up a few things at the grocery store. Of course Joe’s already at the self checkout by the time Téa tells me he’s paying, and luckily I can hand him my basket full of snacks before he’s done… Snacks are important, ok?
The minute we get home, I pretend to have forgotten something at the store. The girls are changing into their PJs to settle in for the night, and I head back down to the market. We’d been talking about the girls getting McDonald’s once Maylin’s stomach was feeling better, and so today’s the day! The girls thought it was going to be for breakfast, but we ate lo bak go. The girls thought it was going to be for lunch, but we had the diner lunch instead. So tonight, I’m buying them Happy Meals, they just don’t know it yet!
I walk down to the market, and I need to get cash from the ATM at the plaza before I get the food. I think I know where the plaza is in general, but I’ve only ever taken one path to get there, and think I’m taking a shortcut. I’m not. Instead I discover where all the “temporarily unhoused” in our area hang out, with the warm mild weather and numerous benches, they all hang out on the top of this shopping centre. There’s also a path right through it, and I hurry down on the other side, where I finally find the plaza.
Cash withdrawn, I optimistically check the second grocery store for the New Year decorations, and of course the lines are snaking through the entire store, so I quickly turn back around. Over at McDonald’s, the server wishes I’d gone to the machine to order, but I need to pay by cash. For New Year’s, “kids” get red envelopes stuffed with money, and so we need certain denominations, and I’m one short. I need to break one of the HK$500 notes I just got out of the machine, it doesn’t give anything smaller. Through our language barrier, she’s finally able to understand what I want, and we navigate the options together. Happy Meals in hand, I can finally head home.
Téa does not believe her eyes when I tear her away from her game and ask her to come help me at the door. The joy was great when she understood that Mom had listened and she would actually be having her long awaited Happy Meal for dinner. Hong Kong McDonald’s does not have a cheeseburger option for Happy Meals, so tonight Téa is eating a Filet-o-Fish with fries and Maylin is having McNuggets and fries. I could have opted for warm buttered corn instead of the fries, but I know my children… The meal also came with apple juice boxes and Playmobile animal toys, panda for Téa and orca for Maylin.
After dinner comes dishes, blogging, games, Olympics, the usual… Tomorrow’s an exciting day, so we try to get to bed early, but it rarely works. These two girls like to push the limits at bedtime!
What do you think we’ll be up to tomorrow?