The past weekend... what a blast!
It really feels like I've cramped a couple of weekends into the last 2 days! I was absolutely BEAT! And today I'm back at work... thank goodness it's a public holiday tomorrow; something like a Chinese All Soul's Day or a Japanese o-Bon Festival... so at least I get to take a rest after this... eventful weekend!
It starts with Friday Night. We went to watch Frankenweenie! It didn't feel all so 3D so I have no idea why Tim Burton was so intent with making this a 3D film.
Although I did amuse myself with one of the character's accent, which was a classic Japanese accent (when speaking in English).
And then it was Saturday Morning.
As reliable as the Sun rising from the East, Saturday morning came, and we woke up a little after 6am to take the dogs out hiking. This time, we went on a new trail - which, the Map at the start of trail is totally wrong and misleading. We ended up passing through the local Meteorological Observatory's entrance and then had to hunt for the continuation of the trail.
After the ordeal, we went back home, I took a short rest, and soon left for my Primary School (the building).
A brief history of my school...
I studied at the Santa Rosa de Lima (under the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary [FMM]), and at that time, the Portuguese, Chinese and English (primary/elementary) sections were just a cluster of buildings. The kids in the English section, when they get promoted to Secondary, or Form, school, have to go to another building at another location, and the kids at the Portuguese section will have to go to one of the 3 Portuguese-language Secondary schools.
Anyway, so after a time, the English and the Portuguese section got evicted asked to get their business moved elsewhere, and the Chinese section took over the 2 buildings.
Now, what was the English Primary building, will be demolished, for further development of the Chinese section. And so, some of the alumni and teachers got together to make one final "Assembly" and so I went there too.
Everything was one big nostalgic trip for me!
However, the current building, as it is, had already changed a lot. If I try to think about it, I could actually get snippets of memories from my first day at pre-kindergarten (I was crying like hell when my Mom dropped me off with the teacher, I think her name is Ms. Carmen), but that classroom was gone already. We tried to look for the famous haunted toiled (a must for any school with a history, I believe) but that was gone too.
At that time, from Primary 1-4 (Grades 1-4) we also had boys in our school too (it's a predominently Girl's school but for some reading the lower grades had boys), and the boys that went back on that day started talking about a "Dark Room". I was scratching my head as I had no idea what the "Dark Room" was. Apparently, that was a broom closet and naughty kids would be sent to stand in there if they were particularly naughty. APPARENTLY, I was a saint of a kid back then so I never heard nor knew of its existence.
Our "school priest" Rev. Fr. Conroy led the last prayer, Sr. Catherine (the then-vice-principal) gave us a really touching speech, and our "school music teacher" Ms. Shelly Grace led the last school song "Alive, alive." We sang the entire school song whereas usually we only sing the first 2 verses. And then they showed a video from our then principal, Sr. Marie Lawson. I actually missed that video, but I heard there are plans to post that on YouTube, so I'm waiting.
With a final "Group photo" with a few of the closer friends, against the nostalgic floor tiles, we bid farewell to the school building...
... and headed to the Mandarin Oriental Afternoon Tea Buffet.
The food was sinfully good. I chose to go for both the Tapas and Dessert buffet... I had skipped breakfast and lunch just for this! But the tapas buffet KO'ed me and I was only able to nibble at a bit of the Molten cake from the dessert line. The Chef on the Tapas line was super-friendly. I think maybe he was just bored that there is never much to do (they have a surprisingly small clientele, for being THE Mandarin Oriental), so he was extra generous when he was serving us.
We asked for a bit of cheese and parma ham, and the guy told us to "sit at your table and wait" and then he presented us with a beautifully arranged parma ham, cold cuts and fruit platter, and a SUPREMELY beautiful cheese platter. So we ordered a glass of red wine each and just tried to savour the... I dunno... chic-ness of it all. Yum.
As usual, I had to rush home after that to take the dogs out, and then headed out to the Macau Cultural Centre for another movie, Sunny, 써니 (2011, Korea) (Wiki Link). Apparently we've got an Asian View Finder thing going on... a friend had to cancel on another friend, and so with an extra ticket, this friend asked me to accompany her. The subtitles were a bit inconsiderate (white subtitles on a white background... come on...) but it was generally an interesting and light-hearted movie.
That's Saturday for ya~ I then went home and just dropped down dead on my bed...
Then came Sunday Morning.
After the usual outing with the dogs, I went to the Government Palace for a visit. It was the yearly open-day for the Government Palace. Or now I think it's called the Government Headquarters.
I remember going there once before the hand-over and they had a room where they hung portraits of all the different past governors of Macau. Seems that the room is now gone. Just kind of feels sad as, it is part of the local history
With that out of the list, it was time for lunch, and after the obligatory Sunday Family Lunch, got a refill of my dogs' medication at the vet, and went home and started the laboring process of washing the dogs.
Once again, after walking them in the evening, I headed out to find a couple of friends and went to have a look at this year's Lusofonia, and there wasn't anything much new anyway...
And thus, soon after, we just left and headed off to Galaxy to try a Korean BBQ restaurant they had there, as we heard lots of good reviews... but the food wasn't so spectacular like we expected...
And we finished our weekend with a Froyo from Red Mango!!
My friend also gave me a Nara Yoshimoto pin :D
And THAT was my eventful weekend, my friends!
It starts with Friday Night. We went to watch Frankenweenie! It didn't feel all so 3D so I have no idea why Tim Burton was so intent with making this a 3D film.
Although I did amuse myself with one of the character's accent, which was a classic Japanese accent (when speaking in English).
And then it was Saturday Morning.
As reliable as the Sun rising from the East, Saturday morning came, and we woke up a little after 6am to take the dogs out hiking. This time, we went on a new trail - which, the Map at the start of trail is totally wrong and misleading. We ended up passing through the local Meteorological Observatory's entrance and then had to hunt for the continuation of the trail.
After the ordeal, we went back home, I took a short rest, and soon left for my Primary School (the building).
A brief history of my school...
I studied at the Santa Rosa de Lima (under the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary [FMM]), and at that time, the Portuguese, Chinese and English (primary/elementary) sections were just a cluster of buildings. The kids in the English section, when they get promoted to Secondary, or Form, school, have to go to another building at another location, and the kids at the Portuguese section will have to go to one of the 3 Portuguese-language Secondary schools.
Anyway, so after a time, the English and the Portuguese section got evicted asked to get their business moved elsewhere, and the Chinese section took over the 2 buildings.
Now, what was the English Primary building, will be demolished, for further development of the Chinese section. And so, some of the alumni and teachers got together to make one final "Assembly" and so I went there too.
Everything was one big nostalgic trip for me!
However, the current building, as it is, had already changed a lot. If I try to think about it, I could actually get snippets of memories from my first day at pre-kindergarten (I was crying like hell when my Mom dropped me off with the teacher, I think her name is Ms. Carmen), but that classroom was gone already. We tried to look for the famous haunted toiled (a must for any school with a history, I believe) but that was gone too.
At that time, from Primary 1-4 (Grades 1-4) we also had boys in our school too (it's a predominently Girl's school but for some reading the lower grades had boys), and the boys that went back on that day started talking about a "Dark Room". I was scratching my head as I had no idea what the "Dark Room" was. Apparently, that was a broom closet and naughty kids would be sent to stand in there if they were particularly naughty. APPARENTLY, I was a saint of a kid back then so I never heard nor knew of its existence.
Our "school priest" Rev. Fr. Conroy led the last prayer, Sr. Catherine (the then-vice-principal) gave us a really touching speech, and our "school music teacher" Ms. Shelly Grace led the last school song "Alive, alive." We sang the entire school song whereas usually we only sing the first 2 verses. And then they showed a video from our then principal, Sr. Marie Lawson. I actually missed that video, but I heard there are plans to post that on YouTube, so I'm waiting.
With a final "Group photo" with a few of the closer friends, against the nostalgic floor tiles, we bid farewell to the school building...
... and headed to the Mandarin Oriental Afternoon Tea Buffet.
The food was sinfully good. I chose to go for both the Tapas and Dessert buffet... I had skipped breakfast and lunch just for this! But the tapas buffet KO'ed me and I was only able to nibble at a bit of the Molten cake from the dessert line. The Chef on the Tapas line was super-friendly. I think maybe he was just bored that there is never much to do (they have a surprisingly small clientele, for being THE Mandarin Oriental), so he was extra generous when he was serving us.
We asked for a bit of cheese and parma ham, and the guy told us to "sit at your table and wait" and then he presented us with a beautifully arranged parma ham, cold cuts and fruit platter, and a SUPREMELY beautiful cheese platter. So we ordered a glass of red wine each and just tried to savour the... I dunno... chic-ness of it all. Yum.
As usual, I had to rush home after that to take the dogs out, and then headed out to the Macau Cultural Centre for another movie, Sunny, 써니 (2011, Korea) (Wiki Link). Apparently we've got an Asian View Finder thing going on... a friend had to cancel on another friend, and so with an extra ticket, this friend asked me to accompany her. The subtitles were a bit inconsiderate (white subtitles on a white background... come on...) but it was generally an interesting and light-hearted movie.
That's Saturday for ya~ I then went home and just dropped down dead on my bed...
Then came Sunday Morning.
After the usual outing with the dogs, I went to the Government Palace for a visit. It was the yearly open-day for the Government Palace. Or now I think it's called the Government Headquarters.
I remember going there once before the hand-over and they had a room where they hung portraits of all the different past governors of Macau. Seems that the room is now gone. Just kind of feels sad as, it is part of the local history
With that out of the list, it was time for lunch, and after the obligatory Sunday Family Lunch, got a refill of my dogs' medication at the vet, and went home and started the laboring process of washing the dogs.
Once again, after walking them in the evening, I headed out to find a couple of friends and went to have a look at this year's Lusofonia, and there wasn't anything much new anyway...
And thus, soon after, we just left and headed off to Galaxy to try a Korean BBQ restaurant they had there, as we heard lots of good reviews... but the food wasn't so spectacular like we expected...
And we finished our weekend with a Froyo from Red Mango!!
My friend also gave me a Nara Yoshimoto pin :D
And THAT was my eventful weekend, my friends!