Ikea in Sha Tin plus Fairwood

Can you imagine the Ikea food court to be so full with people eating Swedish meatballs? Yes! And seems like a main attraction in Hong Kong, people would go to enjoy their meal at an Ikea store. And during the weekend forget about going to Ikea cause it is going to be packed. During the weekdays, even the kids visit Ikea after school to enjoy themselves.

I went to the closest one from Kowloon Tong and it is just walking distance off the metro to Home Square. Sha Tin is sorta boony. And with the Home Square next to the shack with PIZZA written huge across the building made everything just a bit out of place.

Home Square is super nice and filled with all home use goodies. From kitchen layouts, large appliances like washers and dryers to lighting fixtures, you can probably find something for your home. Ikea took up 2 floors and of course you have to start all the way at the top and walk all the way around and down. I just needed to get me several Skubb for my closet.

Great product so far I hope it doesn't rip.

We also stopped by Fairwood (大快活) to have lunch before headed to shop. The curry beef meal was pretty good. I don't know about the orange color decor or the orange main theme. It is obnoxious to me to have this semi bright orange color stared at me.

10 busy days!

Almost 10 days without an entry and I am pulling my hairs out already. But it has been a busy 10 days and I shall back track ...

June 15th - I visited Watchdog Early Education Centre located in Jordan. I spoke with Jessie Yee who is runs all the projects at the Jordan center. What a lovely lady. She went to school in New Zealand and she went in as a graphic design art major, but decided to change her path because she was the only female in the class. I guess I am glad she did. My children need help. My son has speech delay and both my son and daughter needs occupational therapy in sensory processing disorder.

The Jordan Center was established because parents on the Kowloon sides are seeking help and it is only two years old. The center is using part of the Kowloon Union Church premise. And they remodeled the center a bit, but they still need a lot of work. I like the fact that their class room are made from separating compartments and they can easily reconfigure the space without doing any major reconstruction. You just need a large open space. And they have fish bowl windows to see how your child is doing which is a plus. And they also have a parents lounge room area with video monitors of the rooms to see how your child is doing with sight and sound. They are pretty high tech.

My children are starting their OT sessions next Thursday (June 30th). Let see how that goes.

June 16th - I met with C today to visit Hong Lok Yuen International School. The school is located all the way out in Tai Po, New Territories. It was raining hard, but the drive out was not too bad considering the weather. Hong Lok Yuen itself is a gated community and the school served the community and also near by areas. My friend have to show her HKID in order to get in and states why she wants to come in for. I love the security. C told me that security was a problem and that is why the check in station was added to insure safety. It is definitely a suburban community, no high rises, but stand alone houses. I miss my house back in the states. Of course in Hong Kong living in a community like that as its drawback which means you really need a car and going to the supermarket is really a chore.

I wanted to visit the school because this school has an integrated program for children who seeks special needs. Of course, I was on a quest of the impossible since all the classes are full. I placed my children on the wait list.

June 17th - I was really desperate to get my children enrolled to a school ... any school at this point of time. I finally spoke to Belinda at Beacon Hill School part of the English Schools Foundation. She is with the special needs section and I was hoping to get some guidance from her. She has been a tremendous help in answering all my questions and where to seek help. After talking to her I contacted two ESF kindergarten schools that are close to where I live,  Tsing Yi and Wu Kai Sha. Tsing Yi unfortunately has no space and Wu Kai Sha contacted us and invited us to visit the school and to speak with one of their special needs teacher.

At this point of time I felt a burden lifted off my shoulders, but we are not near the finish line.

June 18th - We took a tour at The Kowloon Tong Tsai Home Owners Association after receiving an ad in the mail. The facilities are not that great as other clubs that we visited. But it is okay for tennis, swimming and gym. We joined the club. It is a lifetime family membership for HKD 60,000 and monthly fee of HKD 550 + facilities usage fee or tariffs (for family monthly plan is HKD 250). And they are giving away HKD 10,000 worth of food services. Our memberships starts June 26th. Overall I like the friendly people. But waiting for the so called interview as a bitch. We went there at noon and got out almost 3 hours later and had lunch at McD.

June 19th - Sportful Garden again ... I really love to try another dim sum place not that this place is bad. I really like their braised chicken feet. I wrote a review of it couple weeks back on Open Rice.

June 20th - I went to Tutor Time again for a second visit to speak with Mandy. She called in regards to their school program for September. I told her to speak in Cantonese just to be polite because I really don't understand her at all over the phone.

June 21st - I stayed home with Clem all day awhile JP took Theo and head out to the jungle to get Theo's schooling straighten out in regarding to admission fee and debenture fee. Apparently French International School do not accept any corporate checks for personal debenture since they have to reimburse to the owner of the check. So we made a mistake. He will have to go back to pay that before the end of June.

June 22nd - Shipment came in ... YEA! And nay for rain. So much to do and so much to unpack ... it is insane how much stuff I have that I probably have to throw out since real estate is expensive even for storage. The four movers were super fast. We have 300 boxes give or take and it took them about 2 hours to get them all up to the apartment and then they took a lunch break. And they came back and help us open most of the boxes and basically dump all our clothes on the bed. Then lay the carpet down in the living area and move the coffee table. One of the movers was sad that my paintings got damaged because of how Northstar packaged the paintings and the packaging papers literally melted into my paintings and the paint came off the canvases. The mover said they should have used waxed paper instead of just the gray paper stock. Now I know who to move with next time.

June 23rd - We were scrambling to cut checks for the intense French summer program at Petits Lascars and my parents are stuck in Macau ... storm and wind.

Visiting French International School

The campus is far away from where we live. You really can't get any transportation back down once you get up there.  But the campus is really huge and it gave me a breathe of fresh air. The admission people are really friendly. My friend's son is starting school there this fall and he is going into the French section. The best thing about this school is that if you have a French passport you are automatically in. And my son has a French passport. But I am not sure if the French section would be best for him since he never spoken a word of French in his life. My hubby started for the first two years of his life just speaking to him in French and I spoke to him in Cantonese, but when we found out that he has speech delay we just spoke plain English.

The French school has 3 different sections: French, Bilingual and International. And they have several campus and also expanding as we speak. My friend's son is going to start at a brand new campus.

Over all I say it is better than the American International School by the way side hands down. Like I have mentioned before in my previous post. American doesn't mean they cater to the Americans expats they are just a bunch of money grubbing business men running from the top. So don't really expect much to have them help you even if you have an American passport. AIS campus is so run down it is really a disgrace. And did I mention they charge you HKD 10,000 for admission fee as oppose to the FIS HKD 500.

Tutor Time and house hunting

A gloomy Monday morning today and I had a tour scheduled with Tutor Time at their Dorset Crescent campus. They also have another campus in proximity at Suffolk, but they do not have the summer program there. I met Mandy Wong who is in charge of admission and tour. She is a very lovely lady. She explained the yearly schedule and curriculum and summer program.

The school is sparkly clean. I have never seen such a clean school environment in my life. It is almost intoxicating how much disinfectant they maybe be using and mirroring the clean metro of Hong Kong.

Tutor Time summer program is pricey. I was calculating with conversion to USD is about USD 14.50 an hour. In the States at an expensive school my kiddies go to that is preschool and day care from 7:30am to 6:30pm is about USD 50. And at Tutor Time is only 3 hours from 9 to noon. No wonder people would open school left and right here because first of all it is profitable and second of all especially catering to a niche market with endless clients.

The admission fee per child is HKD 600. And the summer program K1 and K2 are HKD 6,800 a pop and with 10% discount for the second kid's tuition. My total fee is HKD 14,120 = USD 1,800 for two kiddies in a 4 weeks summer program, 3 hours a day from Monday to Friday starting July 25th to August 19th.

After visiting the school, I walked around to familiarize myself with the street in that area. I also went to Taste to shop for food and other stuff. Thank goodness for google maps on iphone! And, I finally figured out my mini bus route number 29 b! It is just all too silly, but I am thrilled to figure out those little things to get around town. Now I got to figure out how to get the kiddies to school. Maybe a taxi ride would be faster than the mini bus.

C and P came out to visit us. They rented a car and a driver to drive them around town for house hunting so JP and I tagged long. We stopped by to grab some lunch at Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun shop in Happy Valley shop: 21 king Kwong Street, Happy Valley (metor exit Time Square according to my dad). We met our parents' old friend what a coincidence?! It is not surprising at all to run into people you know in Hong Kong day in and day out.

They also have another location at Hung Hom shop: Shop 111, 1/F, Whampoa Gourmet Place, Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa, Hung Hom.
 
3 hours of house hunting looking at 12 apartments old and new in Hong Kong Island is a fleet. I will not suggest house hunting during the summer. It is very daunting task unless you want to loose some weight.

Some apartments complex we visited:

Jolly villa 8, 23f

Gardenview

Ronsdale

Ming Mun

Comparing Kowloon side to Hong Kong side is the school. There are better schools catered to the expats.

International Schools vs Public Schools in Hong Kong

I spoke to a mom (C) today who send her 3 kids to the international school system. Her 2 girls started in the Hong Kong public school system and she said it was hell. Her girls didn't have a life and as a mother she didn't have a life neither. The family focus on school, school, school and homework and more homework. The girls didn't have time to play and she became a driver to run from home and school then back home then school again. She helped them with their homework by just filling out the answers for them awhile they sleep.

She plead to me do not take that route. And one of her friend came by and told her similar stories with her 2 boys. I do not want my child to work to death for what? His son got in to Brown University without any insider connections.

Apparently whom you know and what information you know are of privilege. C knows a lot of people in her circle and being close to the teachers and knowing them well is a must because you never know if they will climb up to be the director of the school one day. And even after your children graduate, you still need to keep those ties for the next generation.

C was very upset when I told her that my kiddies were rejected from American International School. I was relieved they were not accepted because of their failure, but because they simply have no room left. But then in a matter of decency they should have told us to put our interview on hold for next year instead. Most of the ESF schools here does that their admission procedure. As for AIS they just want to generate the money. They are a private institution with no government funding nor support because according to C it is a family run school and the family has the land of the school and it is a business venture and stayed as the board of director of the school. In order to get any government subsidies from the Hong Kong government or the United States government the family member has to step down from the board. And of course they do not wish to do that and wants as much control and as much money then can devour from this illusion of a school from the general public. They do not have any special needs program nor gifted program.

So most sane parents do want their kids to have a life and international schools are the route to go. I guess that debunk the Tiger Moms. C's 2 girls also has dyslexia and unless you have great teachers who can see a child and know that she needs special help, those children who doesn't get help are washed under the system. And also the mentally of most parents in Hong Kong are in the deniable zone of their child having problems and we can fixed it later, but later means it is too late by the time help is needed. The crucial moment is when the child is young and his brain malleable to change.

And school is a great business here and especially special needs school. Most international school has integrated programs, but not all of them have funding to keep the program up. C said the Australian International School and ESF has integrated programs for autistic children and speech therapy or occupational therapy and also behavior assessment to ensure success of the child.

I am still in the search of the prefect school for my children since they both have special needs.

Swarm of people and Shanghainese food

Moving in continues. And a swarm of people came in today from cable guy to contractor trying to finish up where they left off. My mom hates working with contractor cause they never deliver on time as promised. The remodeling started 6 months ago and the final stretch is the snail that got lost and never made it home. Then blaming occurs with delay of goods and wrong tools to put the furniture together.

And they never go away just like my hacking cough that pester me since I got here. It gets worst at night coughing out goop of yellowish blob. Water helps, but not always.

For dinner, we are on our food adventure again at Festival Walk. This time we headed to northern China to savor Shanghainese dishes at Wang Jia Sha (王家沙). I was not disappointed at all. I haven't had Shanghainese food for so long and this restau isn't bad, but the location is an odd ball. It is not an enclosed restau, it opens up into the mall space and embraces by flanking escalators. It has a decor of retro modern vernacular. I find the table ultra small for seating 5, especially when the food were served, they come out in hoards.

Typical Shanghainese dish are sweet, saucy and very oily.

I like the logo design of the restau, it is simple and organic reminds me of a bun.

The following dishes are typically what we order in any Shanghainese restaurant. Even in the States I order the exact same signature dish.

Appetizer cold dish. Cured pork with stock that turns into gelatin. Dipping sauce of vinegar and ginger.

Mini freshwater shrimp. Lightly salted cooked with soup stock or starch stock. Very simple and tasty.

Rice cake slices with preserved veggies and bamboo shoots.

Scallions cake. It is pan fried and topped with sesame. It got a crunch to it.

Saucy Shanghainese noodles. The noodles are thick and mixed with meat and veggies.

Sheng jian bao (生煎包) literally means raw pan-fried bun. Inside is pork filled with juicy stock.
Very tasty. You can eat it just as it is or dip in vinegar and ginger sauce.

 

Shao long bao (小籠包) literally means little dragon bun. These are steamed dumplings with pork fillings and each one is ultra juicy. Dip them in vinegar and ginger sauce. Taste heavenly.

Moved in and Rice Paper

Yea! We finally moved in. My mom is superstitious when it comes to Chinese fung shui. We were suppose to move in on the third, but the contractor were still working and the place really need some good scrubbing.

Move in time was between 9am to 11am and Aunt B and cousin K came out with their mini suv to help us load as much luggages as possible. At last we made two round trips and got everything we have from my parents into the new place.

The kiddies were overwhelmed and spent most of their day exploring and just plain running around. I hope our downstairs neighbor will not hate us more as damaged was done to their ceiling during the remodel. The vibration of the jackhammer collapsed part of their ceiling.

Eating out tonight. We decided to go to a sit down restaurant outside of fast-food world for a change.

We headed out to Rice Paper a modernized Vietnamese restau in Festival Walk. We sat overlooking the ice rink. We actually ordered a lot of food to try, good that the portions were small compared to the states. Overall the food is good.

I was bummed they ran out of the sugar cane shrimp. We ordered shrimp cakes instead. The shrimp cake itself is bland, but it dipping sauce is super spicy. The only thing that wasn't a wow factor is the soup noodle that my dad ordered with slices of raw meat. I like the French beef cubes with red rice. The beef cubes has a touch of spicy just enough to wake you up, but not bad enough to make you stay away from eating it.

Overall the price is okay and the food is good.

Shop til you drop Sunday!

Well, moving day is tomorrow and there is just a lot to do today. In order to get all the household things to deliver promptly we have to shop today! We went to the Festival Walk and had lunch at McD then headed to Fortress for all the household small appliances and Taste for more stuff and food.

I like the fact that if you spent HKD 500 + your stuff may deliver for free to your door. Is it better than shopping online?

We also head to Lok Fu Plaza and shopped at UNY, a household department store. This place has all the household goods you can imagine. The best deal we found was for the twin dolly 2 knife set with sharpener, 2 cutting boards set large and small and a pot for HKD 999. We purchased 8000 worth of stuff for the home. We were exhausted.

From Kowloon Tong to Mei Foo

We took a mini van ride. This time we got it down without the driver hawking at us. I actually yelled out I am paying for two kiddies HKD 8. Then everyone swiped their octopus card for their own fare. We got out at the Kowloon Tong metro entrance. Today, there were a bunch of solicitors hanging out at the metro entrance begging for passerby to purchase their stickers. One of the ladies gave Clemmie one and placed the sticker on her dress. Clemmie took it off and stuck it to my arm. Apparently, they were not allow to beg for charity even if they are a non profit church group.

The large logo of the word fortune with a cross symbol.

We headed out to Mei Foo to visit grand uncle again. I wanted to take the kiddies to the playground under the freeway overpass where I used to play when I was their age, but the playground was long gone. And we ended up at a cake shop. Everywhere you go you will end up at a bakery shop! Too much carb and more carb for the day.

Saint Honore Cake Shop is one of Hong Kong largest cake chain.

Enjoying her black sesame cake ... salty and sweet!

I head out to find Clemmie a playground and ended up in Lai Chi Kok Park (荔枝角公園) with a playground! It is a very large park. A lot of people where out with their kiddies to play even in 30 degree C weather. I was dying after an hour with Clemmie running around.

Dose of swings!

Yo! Ho! Yo! Ho! a pirates' life for me!

Later in the day, my mom and I went shopping at the local stores to get some household goodies. My mom knows only two area in Hong Kong to shop Kowloon Tong and Mei Foo. She sometimes come all the way out to Mei Foo to get fresh chicken for making chicken soup.

At the end of the day ... I celebrated my birthday with a slice of black forest cake.

Cornwall Street Playground and Festival Walk

We finally found the closes park from grandparents' place Cornwall Street Playground
(歌和老街兒童遊樂場).The palm trees reminds me of California, but not the weather. This park has lots of swings, two play slides on opposite side and a bunch of sit and rock or bounce play structures. Walking down hill is better than walking up. And my kiddies concurred.

I really miss the weather in SoCal!

 I love the padded area, the grassy patch parts are filled with rocks and sand so I do not recommend shoes off for the kiddies. I also like the fact the play area is surrounded by thick bushes and hedges so the kiddies don't run out to the heavy traffic street. This playground is pretty much empty on a weekday. We did see younger toddlers with their parents.

My mom and I headed out to Festival Walk (又一城 :: 80 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong) to grab lunch for everyone. HKD 20 taxi ride. This mall is huge! They have a good size ice skating rink Glacier on the ground floor. I really love to take the kiddies for some ice skating lessons =) Brand name shops from top to bottom ... am I glad to find my fave Juicy Couture. Anyways so the food court is located on the top floor overlooking the ice skating rink. What are at the food court? McD, several noodle places, korean, KFC, etc They also have a large supermarket on the opposite called Taste. I am sure I will be back more often then I need to explore what they have to offer.

Location:Kowloon Tong

Sportful Garden Restaurant and Mei Foo

A dim sum and restu located in Mei Foo Sun Chuen (美孚新邨), Kowloon. There are several franchise local of the restau.

Really great food and presentation. We actually went early at 10:30. And the restu was pretty much empty on a weekday. My mom said this place has better dim sum than the one I used to go to on the opposite end of this restau called Good World in Chinese.

We were too hungry and I forgot to take pictures of the yummy food ;D

We ordered the usual of shrimp dumplings, BBQ pork buns and sticky rice chicken lotus wraps.
We also had some sweet custard buns and egg tarts. The egg tarts are always great when eaten hot and toasty, but do becareful of scorching your tongue. We ordered a few more portions to go cause the kiddies love those.

Mei Foo hasn't changed much. My grand uncle lives there. I used to spend my teen summer every year in this part of town. The Door Door Bakery shop is still there. The metro station was built when I was living there 30 years ago. And my uncle worked as an engineer who helped built the metro system.

Location:Mei Foo

Walk, playground, van and metro ride

Walking a very steep uphill in Hong Kong in 26 degree heat plus 65% humidity is a fleeting task more than any workout my two kiddies had done in the past. We walked up Ede road to Beacon Hill Road and ended up at the Lung Cheung Road playground (龍翔道遊樂場). It is a cute little park with a mini playground, but no swings. I wondered why no swings? It takes up too much room? Land is expensive.

What you see is what you get here.

We walked down hill from the park to a mini green van stop and took a ride to the Kowloon Tong metro station. My dad paid for everyone, but the stupid van driver accused some of us for not paying for the ride. HKD 19.50 for 5 of us which my dad placed a 20 bill plus he used his octopus card to pay for his ride. That dude made 50 cents! What a rude man?!?

Anyways, we head out to the metro and purchased our Octopus card. The card is very convenient to use as a public transportation debit card and also at stores if they accept the card.

Location:Kowloon Tong