China & Hong Kong: Trip Tips

China

Things I learned from doing this trip. This is only for a leisure trip from an U.S. national point of view.

China & Hong Kong: Travel Agencies

I was suppose to go to China in 2014. I had the plane ticket and even the hotel room booked. You had to or else you could not get a China visa.

With booked plane and hotel for China, I decided to use a friend who was a travel agent to do the rest, namely book some tours.

China & Hong Kong: Bucklet List Checked

I really don't do lists, but if I did, visiting China and Hong Kong will be on it. Why? I have to see the homeland of pandas. Plus, I need to visit all the Disney playgrounds. Some might think I need to visit the land I was born in. Nope, pandas and Disney were the main reasons for this trip.

The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights - Final Year

This will the last year that Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studio will have the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, presented by Siemens. The over 5 million lights were turned on Friday, November 6, 2015 and will be turned off Sunday, January 3, 2016. Hollywood Studios will undergo some major enhancements as Disney takes away and adds new "lands" to this park, like Cars Land and Star Wars.

The House Knows

First it was the refrigerator. Yep, it decided that it no longer want to be cold. It got replaced and the old one acts as extra space in the garage when I can get it to maintain a freeze for 3-4 months. It seems the oldie wants to be defrosted periodically. One of these days, it will be kicked out the door.

Then the AC unit went. The service guy said he could patch it up and it should last for the rest of the season. As for the next summer, that's a coin toss.

Next the water heater wanted to try to flood my basement. Lucky me, I caught it in time so I only had a wading pool in one corner. A water heater rated to last 10 years served me well for 16 years. Maybe I should have done what my sister did and just replace it before it went. Oh well, I did not think of it soon enough.

Yes, the house knew I was getting close to my last mortgage payment. I now have 100% equity on my place. A place I plan on spending the rest of my life with or possibly part ways when I can no longer deal with the stairs.

The house's gift to me... the AC died. The coin toss was not in my favor. It went on one of the most humid days ever. Thank goodness the next several days were spring like while I went seeking estimates and getting the work done.

Central air is a costly replacement expenditure. However, it's something I've always had since I moved out of New York City over 20 years ago. I guess the mortgage money needs to go somewhere. I just calculated my monthly payment...at least it's a lot smaller than my mortgage.

I get to look forward to more appliances and siding and roof reaching its life expectancy.

Another Desktop

My almost 5 year old laptop was slowing down. The last year or so I started recording and editing videos. The laptop just took too long to do all I need to create a finish product for upload to my Youtube account.