"Where Has My Summer Gone?"

For the past week, the question I have been asking my friends --- “where has my summer gone?”

A: DOWN THE DRAIN!

Still remember in May after my exams, I was slightly worried about the length of my summer holiday. 3.5 months! Will it be boring? What activities/productive things can I do? But I should have known better... This summer is just like any other summers, I did nothing apart from wasting my life away.

PHOTO SPAM TIME (warning: image heavy!)
click to enlarge

27 May 2013 The first official day of my long hot summer vacay. We went sing karaoke, duh. High school kids were still in school then, so the place was pretty empty. We were given a massive party room. By massive I mean MASSIVE. There was even a Xbox Kinect in our room. (We continued with Kinect in the waiting area... who knew you would get extremely sore arms and legs from Kinect?)

29 May 2013 I visited the giant Rubber Duck (which wasn't very big). This is so out of my character, I know I know... but I'm from Hong Kong, what do you expect? (To be quite honest with you I didn't want to go...) For lunch/tea we had Butao Ramen, it was Yoyo's first time and my n-th time. I could only say the quality was deteriorating.

31 May 2013 The Great Gatsby movie date avec ma belle amie Theodora. We were let down by the movie but not by the food we ate afterwards. We had Shun Hing 順興車仔麵茶餐廳 in Tai Hang and our all-time favourite Kasho Chaya (which we chose over Lab Made because "if I want to eat custard buns, why don't I eat an actual custard bun?". But I was a hypocrite as I had Lab Made for the second time in July... and I really did have custard bun ice-cream).

(This is getting a bit long... from now on I'm only going to list really interesting things)

8 June 2013 Tracy, an exchange student from Toronto who is super awesome, took me to the Peak with her friends! I hadn't been there for almost 10 years. It was my first time hiking up to the Peak. The view from Lugard Road was mesmerising!

12 - 17 June 2013 KOREA TRIP. Annyeong haseyo! Before the trip I was disappointed we weren't going to England this summer (my "busy" mother had to work)... but it turned out Korea was GREAT! It was a 6-day trip so I had spent quite a bit of time planning -- looking at maps, organising various things... A tricky thing was that maps in Korea are in Korean (as opposed to HK maps which can be searched in both English and Chinese), but we had GPS in Jeju and I made use of Konest when in Seoul. I'm still happy that my family loved the places and the food that I had included in the trip :) (more and better photos were taken with my DSLR, but I still haven't imported them to my computer...)

Our car in Jeju

Ugly me but I want to show you readers that Koreans love to wrap their meat in sesame leaves

"Is this the boarding pass?"

I love this graphic but it's outside a smoking room... Thought that was weird

very cute logo of Jeju Air

My sister and me have dirty minds... when we were younger we heard there was correlation between the size of one's nose and the size of one's _____, so when we saw the logo that was the first thing that came to mind

First thing that greeted me in Seoul, reminded me of Mei Tu Xiu Xiu 美圖秀秀

From some building in Myeongdong

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Mukshidonna, one of the best meals in Korea

Also one of the best meals in Korea - Sinseon Seolnongtang, it's a chain restaurant but it's so good

Definitely visiting Seoul again soon!


29 June 2013 Went to the Peak again, this time with high school buddies!

July was spent having fun with my buddies, seeing old friends and building friendships... and ahem, working.


4 July 2013 Music Rocks the Valley! Had lots of beer and fun. Got lots of freebies. Awesome night.

6 July 2013 Eason's Life concert. I like Eason Chan's songs but is never a big fan of him... after the concert I understand why he's the King of Pop. Man, he's SO good live.

9 July 2013 First day of work! Visited the Poho area finally... even the air there was artsy~ (mainly because it was quiet I guess, or "tranquil" as pretentious people would say)

14 July 2013 This summer I've gotten into hiking... Thank god I have friends who are already into hiking or enjoy being healthy in general. Laetitia, Simmy, Yoyo and me went to Dragon's Back. Gloomy weather, but still a good hike nonetheless!

27 July 2013 Mahjong with my buddies. Hadn't played actual mahjong in almost two years? That day was a perfect example of how good people in life could always lift your mood and spirits.

28 July 2013 Went hiking again. Hong Kong Trail Part 5... the endless flights of stairs and the heights! It wasn't so positive that the weather would be good that day, but that morning I woke up -- I knew that God wanted me to be healthy and hike! Haha :P

6 August 2013 Dragon's Back on a good day! It was even more beautiful than the photoshopped photos on the Hong Kong Tourism Board website.

Photo courtesy of Elsie

9 August 2013 Went to the Peak again with two fun/cool/inspiring people. I know I always go to the Peak, but I would never get bored of the views!

Hiking is a great activity because it's a fun exercise, unlike going to the cinema it allows for quality chatting times and the views are always great (well, the air is always fresher)! Once I've gone to enough new places I'll write a separate post on hiking,

Seems that this summer isn't so bad after all. Less than three weeks left!