Being Momma G: Day 111

As was the tradition, we went to visit our elders to pay our respects today.

Every time we went to Hong Kong, one of the first things we would do was to visit the elders and pay our respects. My paternal grandparents' final resting place was in a cemetery on one side of Kowloon, and my maternal grandparents were in a different in another part of Kowloon. The "normal" programming would see us pay our respects to Dad's parents first, and then visit Mum's parents. It was very important to my folks, especially Dad, that we set aside one morning of our visit to do this. And we had no problem complying with this request.

This morning, we piled into 2 taxis - Dad and Grace and her girls in one taxi, and Mum, Jonathan, me, Kiran and Sean in the other. We needed Dad and Mum to be in separate taxis, as we had no idea where we were going. The taxis took us to the cemetery where my paternal grandparents were, and we piled out of the taxi and walked down to their gravestone. Together, we bowed three times to show our respect, and Dad spoke to introduce Sean to his great grandparents. Dad always got a little bit emotional on these visits - even though he was nearly 80, and his parents had been gone for a long time, I think he still misses them and wishes they were still alive to see how well he was doing, and how happy he was to have 6 gorgeous grandchildren.

After a short stay and a few photos, we piled into the taxis again and headed over to the cemetery where Mum's parents were. Their faces looked down on us from their place in one of the walls of the building, and we bowed three times, took some more photos and headed back to our waiting taxis. My Gong Gong (Mum's father) has been gone for 20 years, but I still miss him every day and wish he was still alive. He would have so much fun with Sean, and vice versa.

For lunch, as a way of thanking us for spending the morning with him, Dad took us to this special restaurant that was famous for their shark fin soup. And before you attack me for eating something so endangered and obtained in such an inhumane manner, let me tell you it was delicious, spectacularly so, and I enjoyed every bite, and Jonathan's serving as well!

Jonathan and I did a bit more shopping in the afternoon. We'd see posters advertising this Toys Bazaar in a shopping centre near our hotel, so we went in search of this wondrous Toys Bazaar. After wandering around for what seemed like an eternity, and having already asked for directions 3 times, we finally found the secret lift that took us to the secret location of this Toys Bazaar. And we were really impressed when we walked in.

There were so many toys!!! It was hard not to go too crazy, as there were so many things on display, at a greatly reduced cost. We spent just under 2 hours in this huge room where all the toys lived, and ended up walking out with many, many things. Considering how many birthdays were coming up, and Christmas really wasn't that far away, we stocked up big time and hoped everything would fit into our luggage!

Dad had arranged for us to have dinner together at a restaurant close to the hotel, so we didn't have to think about where to find a meal. Dinner, as always, was a happy, rowdy affair, one that Sean was learning to nap through! While Sean napped, we enjoyed our meal in peace.

We get to spend all day with Carolyn tomorrow - yippee!!! Looking very much forward to hanging with my little cousin!