Back home

We checked out of the hotel at the latest possible time: noon 😂 A late check-out time is one thing that I definitely like in Asia! In Australia, it tends to be 10-11am, and obviously 10am was very difficult for us. 12pm is sooo much better 😆

We went and had lunch at a nearby shopping mall, and then wandered around Tuen Mun Park for a while afterwards. They have a small reptile house in the park, which of course we had to go check out. Some of the enclosures were a bit too small for the animal living in it, which always makes me sad to see. It’s the same at HK Zoo 😔 I always wonder why the size of the enclosure can’t always match the animal living in it and if something can be done about this.

Tuen Mun Park, New Territories, HK

We then just made our way home, and I went to go check out my plants. The kale and the lettuce are growing like crazy! 😱 And the coriander is looking more like coriander. And the others are slowly growing nicely too 😊 I think I still have to wait around 2 weeks before we can start thinking about harvesting anything, but that’ll be just in time for my 21-day sugar detox, so that’ll be perfect. So exciting! 😁

I also started reading a new book: Stephen King’s 11/22/63. I think it’s going to take me all winter to read it, it’s sooo longgg! 😆I have decided that I am going to extend my autumn theme into winter, since I didn’t really give it much of a chance in autumn. I haven’t actually read any Stephen King novels before. He writes a lot of horror books, which I’m totally not interested in, so I’d like to try reading some of his non-horror stuff, since he’s such a good writer. And I had to start with this mega-long book! 😆

I didn’t realise that tomorrow is actually a public holiday. I think I would’ve stayed in Tuen Mun for one more night if I had known, and just explored the area a bit more. It’s not exactly a tourist destination, it’s probably like any other typical neighbourhood in HK. But it’s different to a typical neighbourhood in our neck of the woods, and that’s a good enough reason for me to explore the area 😊 So much more space out there, for one!

But this weekend might be our last time in Tuen Mun. There are other places in HK to explore, and if travel resumes again next year, the rest of the world beckons. So I’m glad we managed to spend a few days there, at least 😊

My first 30-day challenge

I decided to stay at home today for three reasons:

• Partly because of 🦠;
• Partly to save money; and
• Partly because it’s still so cold right now! 🥶

So we just watched TV. We finally finished Modern Family; and we also finished the Matrix trilogy, watching The Matrix Revolutions today 👍🏻

I have also been thinking about what things I should work on for 30 days straight. It’s the New Year, and I always try and change for the better whenever January 1st rolls around. And one of the things that I always have problems with is consistency. So I figured, what better way to start the new year than with a 30-day challenge?? 😆

So for the next 30 days, I have decided to do stretches specifically for the splits. I have been doing yoga quite consistently for about a month or two now, so instead of just general yoga, for the next 30 days, I’m going to concentrate on poses that will target the muscles that will help me get as close as possible to the splits. Today was day 1. Wish me luck! 😆

I’m not sure what I’ll do after the 30 days, though. I’m really just focused on the 30 days right now and making sure that I get through them! I might just go back to general yoga after that, as I’m sure I’ll miss all the other poses after a while. But who knows, I may have built up a new habit after this period?? 🤷‍♂️

I have also considered doing other 30-day challenges this year, but 12 other challenges may be a bit too much. Plus I don’t know if I want to tackle 12 different things in one year?! So I might just focus on this one first, and if anything else strikes my fancy during this 30-day period, then I might consider it as my next challenge. Otherwise, I might just repeat the challenge again.

I can also just try something for 30 days, and if I don’t like it, then I can abandon it and just learn from the experience. Or maybe change the criteria or the conditions if something isn’t working. That’s part of the fun, right, just to try.

And this 30-day challenge idea ties in with my one-word theme for the year: to DO. So I’m pumped and ready to give this a go! 💪

Still tired 😔

Kitty woke me up a bajillion times again last night 😒 She finished her food from last night and wanted a top up. I gave it to her at around 4:30am, and figured that I’d be good for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Two hours later, though, she woke me up again. She had demolished her 4:30am food and needed another top-up! 😱 How is that possible?!? And of course she was miaowing between all this eating to announce that she was about to drink water. I still don’t understand why she does this! 🙄

I took a quick nap in the early evening, which recharged my batteries and I managed to film another YouTube video 👍 It’d be nice if I could just get a decent night’s sleep so that I didn’t need this nap to get me through the day 😔

And then we finished season six of Modern Family. We like ending the evening with this show. It’s lighthearted and funny, and we can just relax in front of the TV for an episode or two before getting ready for bed 😊

One highlight of the day

We went shopping for a little while this afternoon, it was nice to get out of the house for even just a few hours. We just bought some snacks from Muji and from a few other Asian stores, and then we went home. It’s our life nowadays 😔

And then we spent the evening just watching TV. Bondi Rescue, of course, and also a few episodes of Modern Family. A pretty quiet day, much like most other days in 2020. We’re all just plodding along, hoping for a better 2021 🤞

Bondi / Sydney / Australia

It was quite a nice, relaxing day. We quickly went and bought some groceries, and then spent the rest of the afternoon just watching Bondi Rescue, Modern Family and The Umbrella Academy, flicking through the shows so we didn’t get too bored with any one show!

I’m actually a bit addicted to Bondi Rescue. It sorta even makes me want to be a lifeguard! 🤣🤣 It ain’t happening in this lifetime, but they do make the job look quite appealing 😊 I’m watching from season one. I used to watch it in Oz when it first came out, but I haven’t watched it for yeeears, and definitely not since we moved to Asia. But now I’m back onto it again, and I reckon I like it even more now than I did back then!

I think it’s because it makes me miss Oz. Bondi isn’t my favourite beach – there are too many tourists, as this show clearly shows 😂 – but it still shows a part of Sydney that we still visit every now and then. And it also gives you an idea of the Aussie culture. I miss that too. So it’s nice to see all of this in the show 😊

Anniversary weekend – day 1

I’ve sorta labelled this weekend as our anniversary weekend. If you recall, I was thinking of doing a staycation this weekend, since we can’t travel anywhere at the moment. But I’m glad I didn’t, because the virus numbers are still going bonkers 😔 There were 64 new cases today! And the total number of cases has now apparently surpassed the total number of SARS cases back in 2003. Sighhh….

So we just stayed home again. And since it’s our anniversary weekend, I just wanted to relax and enjoy this weekend 😌 So I just read more of Bad Blood and finished watching season one of Modern Family. You can’t get any more relaxed than that! 😉

TV nostalgia

For some reason, the Australian teen show Dance Academy came to mind today, and so I felt the urge to watch the series again. The whole series is actually on YouTube, so now I’m making my way through the show 😂 I actually don’t think I watched the entire series when it first aired, so this is as good a time as any to watch it from start to finish 😆 There are only three seasons, so it shouldn’t take too long to get through 😊

We also started watching The Breakfast Club today 😊 This one was because of Modern Family 🤪 They mentioned the song If You Leave by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark , which I think was from The Breakfast Club. But now that I think about it, it might be from a movie with Andrew McCarthy, probably Pretty in Pink…

Yep, it was from Pretty in Pink. Too late, we’re halfway through The Breakfast Club now 😂 That’s ok, that movie is such a classic anyway.

We didn’t finish it, though, because N had to go to karate, so we’ll have to finish it another day. We might watch Pretty in Pink afterwards. I haven’t seen that movie in decades either anyway 😊

More tech gear 😂 and TV

Little Miss woke us both up a number of times last night, so needless to say, we were both very tired this morning 😒

We went to Times Square in Causeway Bay to pick up the tripod that I bought with my camera last week. They were out of stock so they had to order it in.

Times Square is one of the shopping malls in Causeway Bay. They have a promotion again where they give you HK$X in vouchers for every HK$Y that you spend in one day, with a minimum purchase of HK$Z. Sorry for the algebra, I just don’t remember the actual dollar amounts. All I know is that the promotion is good 😂 We got some vouchers during their first promotional period during April-June, and now we got some vouchers again during this second promotional period, July-September. It’s definitely a good way to get more foot traffic into their mall! We definitely wouldn’t be going there as often as we have been these past few months if it wasn’t for these vouchers 😄

We were both pretty tired (thanks to Little Miss 😒) so we didn’t really hang around at the mall for too long. We just picked up some groceries on the way back home and then just chillaxed for the rest of the evening.

Oh, we’ve started watching Modern Family! We both just want something really easy to watch, a modern version of Friends, if you will. And this is the closest thing I could find. We watched a few episodes of Grace and Frankie, but I couldn’t really get into it, so we abandoned that about four episodes in. But Modern Family is going strong so far, seven episodes in 👍 Apparently they had eleven seasons, so they must’ve been doing something right!