Daddy's Birthday

Dear daddy celebrated another birthday with us in Bangkok last May 20 :)
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Aly with her gift for lolo Bernie.
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Ang gwapo ng tatay ko!
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It was a simple celebration, no fuss -- we just had dinner at his favorite Chinese restaurant at Central Rama 3. His birthday celebration was so typical of my dad, just like him: easygoing, no fuss, quiet...he can walk for hours and he won't complain. You can go back and forth in the mall and he will just follow quietly, happily listening to his ipod with Bose earphones (his pride and joy). Dad, or P Diddy as we sometimes call him (that's his name on my cellphone), is a music connoiseur. He has asked me time and again to try out the speakers so I can "feel" the superior sound of Bose technology for myself, but I was never really able to know the difference. Sorry dad! Hehe!
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Anyway, back to daddy's birthday. I tried my best to make his birthday more exciting, but it was quite difficult because we were together the whole day: after his daily morning walk (he probably knows our neighborhood more than I do know because of that), he accompanied me and my mom to the gym. Sort of making bantay just to make sure that mom and I are doing some excercise and not just making chika. Haha! After picking up Yan from school, we went to Emporium, where, instead of buying a gift for himself, he bought mom a new bag. Isn't dad the sweetest?
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From Emporium, we went to Central Rama 3 where Richard was waiting for us, then we had dinner at Hua Seng Hong. After dinner, we went back to the apartment, where we surprised him with a birthday cake.
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Daddy's birthday cake: Macadamia Cheesecake.
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aAly singing to lolo Bernie.
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aMake a wish, dad!
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I wonder what daddy wished for...anyway, here's our wish for our dear daddy: we wish you good health, more blessings and many, many more years to come. Dad, you have always been the #1 guy in my life -- until I married Richard. Hehe! But I know you understand that and you love him just as much. You will always be my idol, my P Diddy. We are lucky to have you as our dad, Aly is very lucky to have you as her lolo (you spoil her too much, dad, but let's talk about that some other time), and mom is very, very lucky to have you as her husband.
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We love you, dad!

Hong Kong - Macau: Jewelry Factory, Victoria Peak + Factory Outlet

From the Aberdeen Fishing Village, we were then herded to more tourist traps like the Jewelry Factory and a factory outlet for clothes.
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Let's talk about the jewelry factory first. From the bus pa lang, Mr. Lee was on full sales talk mode already. He discussed the merits of buying jewelry from this factory vs. buying from the shops outside. Kesyo it's an affiliate of the government daw, and they offer a 14-day money back guarantee, and they issue a receipt and a warranty of sorts...and all that stuff. I should know better; I should be able to smell a tourist trap from miles away but, whaddya know? We fell for this sales talk big time! Yes, I am ashamed to admit that we did a little jewelry shopping in this government affiliated jewelry factory. But if it's any consolation, hindi lang naman kami ang bumili, most of the other tourists that we came with did not leave empty-handed. Haha!
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So what did we see at the jewelry factory? I was expecting to witness the actual creation of pieces of jewelry, but there was none. We were first led to a room where a guy, who reminded me of Mr. Bean and who spoke with a chinese-british accent, gave a short talk on their bling. To motivate the tourists to listen, he said that at the end of the talk, he will be asking questions and whoever answers correctly will be given a prize. The words free, prize and jewelry were enough to make me really listen to Mr. Bean. And guess what?! It did pay off! I won a prize -- and so did my brother Jof! Yesss!! Hehe! Mick overheard my dad saying to another tourist that both of the winners were his children; his eldest and his youngest child. The tourist then said to my dad that his children are very good, and my dad said, "yes, especially when it's for free, they are also very fast." Hahaha!!
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Jof and I won a tiny piece of garnet, by the way and for an additional HKD150, you can get the garnet pendant set in silver. We both paid the additional HKD150 and mom was joking that we didn't really win anything because we had to pay for it. Hahaha!!!
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I think we stayed for two hours at the jewelry factory. After that, we were off to the mid-levels of Victoria Peak. Everyone was eager to go to Disneyland so we just drove by. We were also not allowed to take photos inside the jewelry factory (no surprise there) so let me just share with you photos that I took on the bus.
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Sorry for the blurry pic, but this caught our attention. Car Beautician. How catchy is that?
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aThe view from the mid-levels of Victoria Peak.
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More city shots.
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I almost forgot: we made one last stop at a factory outlet before heading to Disney pala. It was a quick stop because there was nothing interesting inside the shop.

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Mom and Richard crossing the street to the factory outlet.
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aThis photo was taken by Jof outside the factory outlet. Nice!
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With the compulsory Hong Kong city tour finally over, we can now go to Disneyland. Yey!

Daddy's Birthday

Yesterday, 20 May, was daddy's birthday and he celebrated it Bangkok style. Well, I don't really know how they celebrate birthdays here in BKK but what did I mean when I said Bangkok style? It's a whole day of shopping ofcourse with a nice dinner and ice cream cake!

After breakfast, dad and mom went to the gym for a little exercise, while Yan and I waited at the playground. Dad always starts his day with a morning jog and before he came here, he was worried that he won't be getting any exercise for two weeks so he was happy to know that we have a gym at the fourth floor. I wasn't able to take their photo in the gym so I took their photo by the pool instead.

When we got back to our apartment, Yan surprised her lolo with a birthday gift!

It's a new cap!

After lunch, we headed to MBK for pasalubong shopping. Dad bought himself a new pair of Rayban shades at 30%, and mom got Emporio Armani shades at 50% off! They also bought shirts for my brothers (they liked the vintage shirts that I bought for them during my last trip so they asked mom and dad to buy them more). My sister Angel's one and only bilin was a psp so we also looked around for the best deal that we can get. Most of the stalls in MBK will give the same price for most of the items there (shirts, bags, belts, watches, psp, etc.) so you really need to haggle. Buti na lang expert dad ko tumawad. Not only did we get big discounts but we also got lots of freebies! Galing talaga ni dad! Hehe!

We went back to the apartment for dinner. We had Mom's super yummy adobo, and ice cream cake for dessert.

Yan, lolo Bernie and lola Aple are wearing matching Lacoste shirts.

Happy birthday, dad! We love you!