Hello friends!
And a warm welcome to any listeners who came here from my recent interview on the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast! Feel free to leave a comment to say hello, or connect with me via any of my social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Yes we were on a podcast! Bryan and I had the opportunity to share about experiences as Americans living in Hong Kong, getting stuck in Europe, and living through this crazy time in history on Saverocity Observation Deck, a travel hacking podcast by one of my Boston friends Joe Cheung.
Here is the link to the podcast.
Joe is a travel and miles/points aficionado. It always amazes me how he is able to go on such incredible trips with his family (THREE kids!) all through his creative use of airline miles, hotel points, etc. Joe has a connection to Hong Kong because his family is from Hong Kong and he lived here for a few years. We also both studied chemistry in college, attended the same church in Boston, and have a shared love of food, travel, music, and Disney!
Aside from his podcast at Saverocity Observation Deck, which covers all sorts of travel hacking tips, Joe is also producer and co-host on another travel hacking site Miles to Memories, and a Disney planning podcast Disney Deciphered. Definitely check out his podcasts. He has excellent tips for travel, especially traveling with young children.
I'm Back to Blogging Again . . .
It's so nice to be back to blogging!
In fact, it's been a looooong time. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I was on such a roll, blogging frequently the first several months of this year working diligently through my backlog of Hong Kong restaurants and our trips to Paris, Tokyo, and Thailand. And then I hit a rut in mid-March, slowing my blogging down to a crawl (by my standards), eking out posts once every 2-4 weeks.
OK, I guess a few major things have been going on here. Not only did COVID-19 hit Hong Kong early (resulting in our crazy 6-week long unexpected detour in Europe earlier this year), we're in the midst of our third wave of the coronavirus right now. After tasting near freedom and normalcy for a few months, the world in Hong Kong has reverted back to the lockdown feel we had back in mid-March.
We're also dealing with a trade war between the US and China, a new security law, and political unrest on top of all that. Plus the US (where all of our family live), is going through insane times as well. Needless to say, life has been quite unprecedented and very, very different.
Compared to during the March lockdown (when we didn't know what we were doing), I now feel like I know how to manage this "shelter-in-place" thing. It's pretty clear that this thing won't go away so fast. I've figured out how to do delivery (Hello Din Tai Fung!), where to order organic HK vegetables and excellent meat/seafood, and how to meal plan for a pandemic when you're really trying to avoid going out.
I've gotten surprisingly good at whipping together a four-course meal in one hour. I guess practice makes perfect, and I have plenty of opportunities to practice. In fact, the days are starting to blend together . . .
Having an opportunity to do this podcast re-ignited my motivation to start blogging again. I've been working hard to organize all my photos from our six weeks in Europe. I've got tons of amazing food and travel stories from that surreal time, mostly in Brussels but also including side trips to Bruges, Ghent, Amsterdam, Paris, and London. For now, if you want the quick summary of what my time in Europe was like, check out this summary blog post or my social media accounts.
Stay tuned and stay safe! See you back on this blog!
(A sneak peek at photos from upcoming Belgium posts!)
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