It’s Monday, and we’re still coming down from the high that was yesterday’s lunch extravaganza. It’s back to a “boring” breakfast of toast and eggs, and it’s back to school… But Monday’s are Social Studies, so the girls actually enjoy it. I wonder if I realized the pattern back in August when I made their calendars, and purposedly designed their work weeks with the bulk of English and Math mid week? In any case, I’m clearly a genius, and my daughters don’t dread Mondays!
We get school work over and done with fairly early, and decide to do lunch out. Joe and I have a clear agenda this morning, and the girls are just happy to follow along on or adventures. We have decided we need to go back to Festival Walk, which isn’t too far away, and so we take the bus to get there today. Walking down to our nearby bus terminus, the girls are in a giddy mood, and ask to take a selfie while we wait for the bus.
We take the bus to a stop near the Festival Walk mall, and have to walk through construction to get to the right road. On the way, we pass this interesting looking building, which is actually the City University of Hong Kong, and we start noticing more and more students milling about.
We are here for electronics today, but first – we need lunch. We decide on the food court today, as it gives us the option of pleasing the girls with their favourite fast food, while we get to choose something altogether different. The girls squeal with anticipation, they get to have KFC! But first, we have to try to find a table, and that is almost like Where’s Waldo in this massive space.
In such a densely populated city and country, every space encourages sharing tables. Singles share tables for four by sitting diagonally across from each other. There are dividers every so often along the counter seats. Restaurants also provide dividers when busy, so they’ll split a booth down the middle, having a party of two sitting on one couch, sharing the half table the long way, with another party on the other side of the dividers.
We finally find a spot, and we have to ensure we leave belongings on all the chairs, even if I’m sitting there to keep our spots. That way, table hunters can tell from afar that there are no available seats, otherwise they’d all be lining up to ask if they could share my table.
The girls are all smiles when they hop, skip and giggle their way back to the table. KFC has their favourite fast food poutine at home in Canada, so they’re always hopeful for at least some decent potatoes and gravy when they find them worldwide. BUT! This KFC doesn’t even have FRIES? What is the world coming to?
While the girls dig in, Joe and I go order our own food. We find a place called Satay King, and choose a beef satay over rice. Joe adds an order of fried chicken pieces, just in case there’s not enough food.
After lunch, we get down to business. The Apple Store sells the Cheng Family our first iPad, and now we get excited to try it out! The girls have decided to combine some of their New Years money to buy the pen that goes with the iPad, because it allows them to do art in a whole different way. When we are on the road, and seeing as we didn’t bring a suitcase full of art supplies, we can now paint and draw and do all sorts of magic – electronically. Téa has been cutting up some of her origami papers to similate candy and creating miniature bags of treats for their stuffies, and she is looking forward to all the exploring all the creative options that the iPad holds.
First things first – we have to protect this thing, so now we scour the mall for the electronics stores, to find a cover. The ones at the Apple Store come with keyboards, which we don’t need at the moment, so we look elsewhere.
We have no luck at Festival Walk. Luckily, Hong Kong has a specific market that specializes in just about everything, and there’s no lack of electronics markets! Joe leads us down to Mong Kok to find Sim City, a very tight and super crowded building, housing lots of small vendors, stocking everything electronic you could ever need. Maylin and I follow Joe and Téa into Sim City, and promptly go back out. Too much, too many, too tight, too loud! My backpack is carrying a water bottle on each side, and I feel like I’m knocking into either things or people for each step I take.
Back out on the street, we spot something idling, directly across from where we are… It’s a Mister Softee! Quick, while the others are shopping, let’s go have ice cream! We splurge and get one cone each, which we’ll need after the chaos that is Sim City.
When Joe and Téa reemerge emptyhanded, we soon admit to our secret treat, and Téa gets one too. I mean, it’s only fair!
Seeing as even Sim City could not provide us with the necessary iPad accessories, we head home. There’s always tomorrow. Joe has a dinner in mind, and we stop by the market near home for the last few ingredients.
We are so lucky that Joe is such an excellent cook! The rice cooker prepares the delicious three grain blend that we buy here (and hope to find back at home in Canada), and while the choi is steaming, Joe’s marinating and cooking up meat and other vegetables in the wok. We’re soon seated and enjoying the same type of dinner his grandma used to make for us when we first visited 13 years ago. Then, when we brought baby Téa 9 years ago, she made sure we had fresh fish every day at her house, because fish is good for developing brains. I wish Canada knew this, too.
For now, we pop on a movie and settle in for the night. Tomorrow is Tuesday, wonder if we’ll find the cover we need then?
What is the three grain blend of rice that Joe found?