[Tea for the day] Simplylife Cafe at Festival Walk

Time to escape from home for some adult time. Today we had a relaxing girls' high tea at my favorite cafe, Simplylife.

Love the way they display the cake.
Aren't they like pieces of art inside the display box?

Unrefined sugar. A choice of brown or white.

Smiley face and two thumb ups to knick off the year.

Mushroom and spinach on toast with crispy seasoned chips. Yummmm....

[Veggie Kitchen] Spinach Sushi Roll

Try my girl's favorite dish. This dish is vegetarian with spinach, sesame sauce, egg and mock crab stick. If you don't like this combination, you may also try avocado, egg, cucumber and mayo or simply any veggies at your preference.

Pearl rice with rice vinegar. 

Water boiled Asian spinach drained with splash of sesame sauce

Spread rice and filling evenly with a strip of Japanese mayo.

Enjoy the sunset 

[Family] The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Before Daddy goes away, we decided to have a family hiking day to the monastery for new year blessings.

The cheeky father and daughter pair were role playing as pirates right before we headed out.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is a big monastery located on the mountain within 15 minutes walking distance from Shatin Station in HK. The monastery is consisted of five temples, four pavilions, one veranda and one pagoda. It's quite big and worth a visit. It was very peaceful by offering a pythoncidere bath and creating atmosphere of one's buddha land. There are statues for different goddess including traditional buddhist goddess such as Sakyamuni, Guanyi and folk Taoist goddess like TaiShui (Simplified Chinese: 太岁; Traditional Chinese: 太歲; pinyin: Tàisuì) are stars directly opposite of Jupiter. They influence the Chinese zodiac, and are also a theory in Taoism and Feng Shui. 

As part of Chinese New Year tradition, most people go to temples during the festive period ( From the first 15 days of the new year. There is also a ritual to be done to avoid bad luck if your Chinese Zodiac is in conjunction with the TaiShui star. If you have Tai Shui this year it usually predicts the year will be restless and full of obstacles.

View from pagoda

Happy Snake Year

Work by H.H. 17th Karmapa.

Hello everyone! We spent our annual CNY family gathering this year at Macau. The hotel this time is the newly opened Sheraton at the Sands.

A very nice and clean hotel with airy space which doesnt recall the bad impression of traditional Chinese casinos. The smell of money and lust are less obvious there so it's perfect for the kids. With the connected bridge to four seasons and the venetians make it super easy to the shoppes and shows.

One hr away by ferry, during my girl's sweet nap we were in a complete different world. Delicious buffet at 'grand orbit' offered a great variety of food. It's worth the price especially for their desert selections. Italian and Portuguese food are very tasty and impressive there at an affordable price.

They also provide the kids playing area now with large jumping castles at the Sands and the Venetian. So parents do not worry where to keep the kids while playing a few bets.

Shoppes of the four season. love the lights.

Snapshot from La Bene 

Deserts from the Grand Orbit @ Sheraton Macau

Our special gift from France

Here is our special gift from France for Chinese New Year, La Maison Du Chocolat.

[Quote] by Life of Pi

Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.
– life of Pi