Last January, in the dead of winter, E and I spent one week in Hokkaido. It was a sort-of farewell trip before we left Japan for good.

It was about -20 degrees everyday and the entire city was blanketed in snow. Too cold to look fashionable, E convinced me to pack my track shoes (I would never wear them otherwise!) instead of my knee-high heeled leather boots. For some reason beyond me now, I also forgot to pack my contact lens solution and decided to go without make-up, so I spent the entire trip feeling like a frump. How the girls there can walk about in mini-skirts sans leggings I would never understand!

I took over a hundred photos but left them sitting in my memory card for ages and finally decided to look at them yesterday.

E and I wanted to do something different for my first New Year's Eve in Melbourne, so we got tickets to watch "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Botanical Gardens.

The weather that day was as hot as summer days come, and we were both eager to sit in the sun and do nothing.

I had to teach as usual, but I met E after work and he had packed us an elaborate picnic with garlic and chilli chicken, salami and ham, cheese, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, stuffed capsicums, dolmades, salad, bread rolls, crackers and dips and a bottle of sparking red!

We found a shady spot under a giant tree, laid out our picnic mat and wined and dined the afternoon away.

And then the lights went off.

Unbeknownst to me, his parents had bought a tiramisu cake for my birthday, and his mum came out of the kitchen holding it in her hands with lighted candles. Awwwww ;)

And that was how we spent our New Year's Eve.

In short, I had a wonderful time with Daddy over the last weekend.

I got to bond with Daddy like I have always secretly hoped for. Seated in Kodaki-san's car, with him on my right and his hand placed carefully but purposefully on my knee, I have never felt more loved and complete in my life. When I saw the liver spots on his arms, I realized that he was growing old and there might come a day when he would not be around any more. He had come all the way from Singapore to visit me, his oldest girl and apple of his eye, he who has not taken a vacation in years.

You should have seen how he beamed as E and I greeted him at the hotel door. We were too shy to hug, but shoke hands instead like proper adults. He wasn't big on sightseeing but I knew he was just happy to be around me. When he came to stay over at our place for a night, I busied myself with making coffee and cooking rice and all the domestic chores I never bothered with in Singapore, and he watched on silently. I imagined how weird it must be to see his daughter all grown up, living on her own in a foreign land.

I remember when I was still in school, I would often wake up late and have to knock on my parents' door. Heart pounding and full of shame and guilt, I would ask him in the nicest way possible if he could drive me. (I now know how terribly annoying and inconsiderate it was of me, especially when he had a full day of work before him.) He would often be grumpy and chide me for being lazy, but he always got up. On Saturday, I woke up extra early just to make him breakfast, and I realized this was time to pay him back.

Last night, finally alone and with time to think, I realized how little I knew of him and found myself overwhelmed by his love for me and at the same time grieved over the many years we've lost as father and daughter. I looked at the photos taken over the last few days and began to cry.

Relationships can be so complicated.

I got my return ticket to Tokyo yesterday. Arriving the evening of Friday the 6th and coming back the night of Sunday the 15th.

There was a slight panic because it's just 2 weeks to the trip and Joe had bailed out on me the last minute, and the agency I called and sites I checked were quoting me ridiculous prices.

In the end I took the cheapest I could find, although it was still pricier than budgeted. It also involves having to transit in KL for 4 hours each there and back, so I hope I don't get lost or miss my flight.

It's going to be colder in Tokyo than it was in Hong Kong, and mostly I'm scared of falling sick again. But it's one of those crazy things you do when you're young and at the money.

Kimi wa sugoku daiji, but where do we go from here?

We then met up with Jeff and the rest for dinner at Crystal Jade IFC and walked to Lan Kwai Fong for dessert at Haagen Daaz. It was about midnight when we made our way to Hei Hei for our last major night out in Hong Kong.

The only thing was that the Peter and I were so tired out from our long day that we both fell asleep at the couch, much to the annoyance of Jeff who tried to wake us up but to no avail. He left at 4 with Toby and Kitty for supper while the Peter and I were concussed at the couch. We woke up around 430 and boogied a bit before heading back to the couch for a quick snooze again... and only awoke at near 6 to find that almost everyone had left.

We ended up walking in a drizzle trying to find an open Macdonald's to grab some brekkie before we head home.

Definitely a night to remember. ;)

More photos here

It really doesn't feel like I'm on holiday- this feels like it could fast become my home, and it's only day two.

I was awoken by Jeff at noon today, and I got changed to meet him and Mich at Central for lunch. Edna wasn't feeling too good so I took the MTR downtown alone, and it felt amazing to be able to navigate around a foreign city on my own.

At my insistence, we had lunch at Watami before heading to the carnival near Admiralty. Celine came all the way down from her place at Taipo, and it was so good to see her again. It was slightly drizzling but the rides were still on and we figured we should go ahead anyways. It cost us HKD150 per person with unlimited rides and a big bag of games coupon.

Jeff did not want to get on any of the "scary" rides, so I only tried the Ferris wheel, the rollercoaster and the drop. I really wanted to get on the G-Force but didn't want to spend 2 hours queueing just to get on as well.

The saddest thing was that we used up all our tokens and never won a big prize- there were all these people walking around with human-sized stuffed toys won from the games booth and all I had were 3 tiny ones, one of which was purchased. I know. We're a joke.

We hung around till about 630 before going down to Causeway Bay for dinner. I wanted to try something ghetto, so we literally wandered around until we saw a bao zhai fan place and was ushered into the third storey of an old building, and the inside of the shop was so quiet it felt like we were in a funeral parlour. The food was really good though. The Peter, Maria and Mary joined us soon after.

We went to Times Square to scout for a work suit for the Peter, but it was pretty posh nosh and we decided it would serve him better to visit a tailor. So we walked towards Fashion Street and had desserts at Moon House (or something) instead, and the Peter decided to order a tofu pudding with durian paste which stank up the table.

It took me forever to get to Hong Kong.

My flight was at 345 but my mum had to run some errands so she dropped me off at the airport 1230, which left me with plenty of time wandering around with my luggage, and when check-in time finally came, the queue was incredible.

More waiting ensured when my flight was delayed and by then my excitement was withering into impatience and anger, and it was 430 before the plane eventually took off.

I slept most of the way in the plane, conserving energy for my night out with the Hong Kong folks.

I called Edna and told her to pick me up from Central station at 9 but I had the good fortune of selecting the slowest aisle in the entire airport- while the visitors in the other aisles were breezing through, it took me an incredulous 45 minutes before I got my passport stamped, luggage taken and Octopus travel card topped up.

Needless to say, poor Edna had to wait half an hour for me and we cabbed to her place at North Point. Poked around her room, saw some photos and made some phone calls before we headed back out to Central for a late dinner and a night out.

Jeff arrived fashionably late right after Edna and I ate our sandwiches and we decided to check out Club 9. It was too early for the party to begin and we hung around doing nothing much- I lounged on the beach chairs at the open air rooftop balcony.

I was feeling pretty anti-social and didn't bother to chat up new people, so it was pretty boring until Jeff and Mich decided to drag me out for supper at this yum cha place in Lan Kwai Fong.

Meanwhile, plans to meet up the Peter seemed futile because he was stuck at this BU alumni dinner and eventually ended up at Hei Hei, this popular club notorious for their snotty bouncers and people queueing for hours dying to get in.

We decided to walk over and try our luck any way. GUESS WHO I SAW SITTING ON THE RAILING BY THE ROAD?

"Oh my God, T?" I heard someone exclaimed and lo and behold, the Peter was right before me and we hugged for the longest time, not quite believing we finally got to meet.

"You look exactly as you do on FON!" he remarked and laughed, at least there was no shock. For the record, he looks exactly the same as on IB Video too.

More photos here