2010 - A Space Mountain Year

Saying 2010 was eventful doesn't give the depth of what happened. For once, I cannot think of a smart one liner to sum up 2010. I know for sure though, I want to say I am very lucky for being able to sit here to write this note in late December 2010. There was a real possibility of not being able to do so...

January - the year did not start out as a nice one for me work-wise. People talk about being at the right place at the right time as the right person. I had to substitute some of the "rights" with "wrongs"

Into Feburary - Grandma had her physical. Mostly well and found out the reason of her tendency of fainting without any warning sign. The mammogram wasn't good news

March to April - Biopsy only confirmed our fear. I remember the day when we had the reports; Grandma and I were on the rooftop staring at the lettuce but I couldn't see anything. A week later, I passed my driving test and on the same day, I got the offer from my new firm. Yes, my work-stress is gone but I was only having a taste of domestic stress.

April onwards - When most people thought I was having a blissful 3 months gardening leave, the family started travelling to and from Korea. The day sitting in the waiting room whilst the doctors operated on Grandma was one of the longest days I've ever experienced. The Severance Hospital in Seoul was big and factory like. Big screens on the wall flashed the name of patients, the operating theatre number, the start time and the status (started, recovering, finished). There was no one we could talk to. The surgeon was supposed to inform us of the type of procedures required upon the completion of the frozen section biopsy. Grandma's name was never called. "Recovering" blinked after almost five hours.

To November - Chemotherapy and radiotherapy... Technology might have advanced but the effect on Grandma was not pretty. I don't know what kind of scale they use in Korea but something gotta be very wrong when the white blood cell count was 50 when other chemo-patients should be at 500. The fever, throwing up, feeling very sick "standard" symptoms are simply too trivial. When I found out that the hospital missed some of the medication for Grandma and that attributed to her low white blood cell count, I was furious and started interviewing oncologists in Hong Kong.

November - Grandma returned, looking better than before. Face was round and have a nice glow with pink cheeks. We couldn't asked for more.

On the work front, I eased into the new job. The technical part wasn't hard. Having to deal with a new set up and without the infrastructure was tough. I was back to the 16 hours day that I went through in the first three years in my career.

Late November, I wasn't feeling well. So bloated that I lacked energy to move around. Went to the Adventist Hospital in HK and had MRI, CT Scan, blood test... I had flash back and started to wonder if I could celebrate Changster's fourth birthday. I wasn't really myself for that few days.Decision was made two days after all the tests result to go for surgery. I cried so much in the moring of the day of the surgery. All the what ifs filled my head and I didn't want to leave the Changster and daddy behind. The mass was removed, measuring 25cm and weighted in at 4.05 kg (without blood?). I had immediate weight loss of almost 12 kg. Frozen section said no malignancy and the surgery went really well. When I opened my eyes in the recovery room, I distinctly remember asking the nurse for the time and was relieved that it was 1:02pm.

So here I am typing away. I can see the scar on my tummy (now I have a reversed T from the cesarean and the surgery) and I can still feel the pull inside. Am I happy? Yes. I am happy that I have my family and friends around me through good times and bad times. I am happy that I was pulled back from the other end of the tunnel.

Tell people you love how much you love them. Be grateful and gracious of what you have. Don't just sit on your plan. Execute it! You may think there is always tomorrow. The truth is, you never know if you will wake up to tomorrow. A very good friend of mine has just lost her father this afternoon.

To our family and friends, thank you for being there for us! We wish you and your family to have a very healthy and blessed year in 2011!

Silence is Golden - Happy Anniversary

First and foremost, allow me to declare that we got married when we were VERY young and innocent!

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary and.... we did nothing. In fact, we didn't even exchange more than 20 words.

No no! It's not that we are having problems or anything. Changunnie daddy has been suffering from a really bad case of sore throat and still can't speak. He has been drinking yogurt fruit shake. Our plan for a late night movie yesterday was canceled as he fell asleep under the influence of his medicine and I was tired from watching You Tube (I found this really funny Korean drama with English subtitles - Queen of Housewives)

We looked at each other most of yesterday without saying much (thanks to his sore throat, nothing remotely romantic at all). I think silence at the right time is indeed golden and helps to have a healthy relationship with your spouse. From my experience for all my friends, next time....

... when you are about to say something mean in order to win a fight over mostly trivial things, remain silent. It's easy to be verbally abusive but the cost to repair the damage is hefty

... when you are about to say something "funny" at the expense of your spouse, remain silent. If you think the pen is mightier than the sword, words from your mouth can be as potent as an a-bomb

... when you want to complain about your spouse for ignoring you, remain silent. Is he/she really ignoring you or just worn out after a long and bad day at work?

This year's note is a short one. Whilst I believe Silence is Golden, I also am a believer of Less is More. Changunnie daddy, don't complain if I eat most of your food and give you the "lady" portion. Less is more.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Halloween (or what's so happy about it?)

Gomo kindly picked a very cute Cinderella dress for the Changster. We all thought she would happily wear the gown but she said one gotta look scary for Halloween and so her decision was to pull out the 3D pumpkin suit that we bought her when she was 18 months old. Erhh... a plump orange Pumpkin itself wasn't scary. The entourage that accompanied the Changster was.

Who would dare to take Changster's candy when Grandpa was walking 15 yards behind with the ever hyper Bear. Daddy was 10 feet away with an abnormally big face/chin/neck because of his sore throat and mummy was dressed as a witch (fits my personality much better than Kick Buttowski according to my BFFs at work. I take it as a compliment) right next to her. We knocked on doors, Changster repeated the same three steps:

1) Happy Halloween (what's so happy about it? In fact, why do we need to go around to do T&T on Oct 31??)
2) pick one, nothing more nothing less, candy from each basket (call me the ultimate smug parent but I was very proud of the Changster for being able to demonstrate self-discipline when adults were saying "take more!")
3) Thank you.

Some kids eyed the Changster up and down and focused on her candy bag but the moment they wanted to make a move, they were met with the deadly stare of Dyson 2000.

What prompted me to write this is the behaviour of other children who came to our place for Trick or Treat and those we met at other houses.

Do parents teach children the true meaning of value anymore? The behaviour of those childen seem to scream value means how much candy you can grab in two seconds or selecting the house with the best treat or better yet, put on a new hat and hit the same house again because of the quality of treats. Those children moved in like sharks dancing around a pool of blood when the door opened and appeared a basket of candy. They elbowed each other out of the way and greedily stuffed candies into their big trash bag.

In case you are reading this and your parents didn't teach you or you want to teach your kids. Here's my penny worth:

-Don't get overly excited when someone is handing out free candies. I checked the packages, there are some pretty nice ones and some about to expire ones too

-Don't judge a book by the cover. You may be picking on the youngest one in the crowd, the big scary one might jump out from behind to give you a real lesson. The same principal applies when you go to school, go to work... just learn to be nice and fair

- Candies may give you the instant pleasure from sugar rush, you will suffer from depression and unnecessary weight gain which will take some pretty extreme measure to loose

- Just because you wear a Halloween outfit doesn't mean I don't know which house you live in. You will have to pay for your rudeness and trust me on this one

Happy Halloween!

I love Panda Express

Some say I may have Alzheimer's Disease. Or is it Parkinson's? Whatever it is, this is how the story goes.

We drove Grandpa to Sai Kung for golf and decided to eat some good Cha Chaan Tang (HK style cafe) food while we were there. Changster being Changster, the swings and slides are like magnets to her little buns of iron; no one can peel her off that plastic seat until she's done with at least 20 rounds. Naturally, we stayed.

My "BFF" from work called at 1pm when I was monitoring Changster like a hawk on the side. She didn't even asked if I had lunch or was free to talk. She was thinking out loud about something which made absolutely zero sense. My train of thought had a train wreck from talking to my BFF and when I managed to push the "End Call" button, I was exhausted and felt lost. At that particular fateful moment, some other mother asked me which school did Changster go to when she was little, I had a brain freeze and said "Panda Express".

You can probably imagine what I got from the proper HK and expat mothers. "Total negligence" was already one of the milder comments. I violated every single protocol that a "good HK mother" would follow. I was considered as rude and crude by making a bad "joke" (Sorry Dyson 3000, I am not a good wife). I didn't care about my daughter (which is so untrue! I am always ready to move in should a little brat dare to harm my Changster). I sent my daughter to some unheard of crappy school and would let my daughter be a loser by not paying for any private tutorial to make way to some ivy league schools.

I rarely make conscious effort to do things that I don't give a damn about but this time, I thought hard during the drive home and came to a conclusion:

1. Everyone has a BFF at work. They are the one who drives you crazy and regardless of how hard you try, they stalk you. So, don't get upset. Once in a while, let the BFF to have a taste of his/her own medicine (以夷制夷)

2. Panda Express represented a day of freedom, of extravaganze when I was in college. It was my once a quarter day in the mall (in which Banana Republic was a god sent). My reference back to Panda Express is only me talking to my inner teenager.

3. I probably was hungry and thus thinking of General Tsao chicken and Lo Mein. The cha chaan tan Breakfast set was tiny. Not going back

It does pay off to listen to other people once in a while, just need to be careful in filtering out all the nonsense. I love Panda Express!

A cliff, a canyon

Changster sleeps with me on the weekend for our bonding. It's pretty much my only chance to read to her in Chinese but I often have to read the same story three times as she wants to have the English translation and one uninterrupted one before she sleeps.

We picked 羞怯的副櫛龍 ( The Shy Parasaurolophus) tonight and we got to a page where a friend of the main character said, " 我的家就在那邊的懸崖上" I read it as "I live on top of the cliff over there". Changster stopped me and said, "but mummy, there's a crack in the picture. It's not a cliff!" I waited for her to say something like a rock but she said it's a canyon. She's actually correct. According to the picture, it was "A long, deep, narrow valley with steep cliff walls, cut into the Earth by running water and often having a stream at the bottom."

That left me pretty speechless. When we were done with reading, she asked for her water cup and I told her to grab it as it's on the bedside table on her side. She then said, "mummy, pretty please, can you get it? It's beyond my reach" ( as the bed side table is about a foot away)

I don't know if I'm capable of helping her with her development at all at this rate. What type of 3 year 8 month old child talks like that? I feel like the only choice I have is to quit and go back to school. Will I be the type of stalker mum who over protects the child? What should I do?

Wild boar!?

One of my favourite restaurants was closing down as the owner decided to open a bigger and glammer outpost. A friend booked a table for a last meal there and I happily signed up when she asked if anyone wanted to join her.

I was so looking forward to getting my favorite wild boar ragout. I was thinking if I should get a 1.5x ALC portion since it'd be a long time before I could taste it again on my way to the restaurant. Wasn't I glad that I weren't driving as all I could see in my head was a dish of wild boar ragout tagliatelle with a wobbly soft egg sitting on top.

When we arrived, the waitress dutifully reported that some of the signature dishes weren't available. Hmm... My dish wasn't named and I smugly said, "well, MY wild boar ragout isn't on the ..." and the waitress chirped in, "sorry but the wild boar ragout is not available either". My friends joked about where the restaurant got the supply of wild boar and whether we should call in the Agriculture and Fishery Department to hunt some wild boars roaming around town in HK in order to get our prized ragout.

What a bummer and despite the very attractive special on the board, my heart sank. I was there for my piggy. In the end, i got tagliatelle with lots of porcini and a wobbly egg on top. I left the restaurant as a happy customer but something was missing....

Got home after a painful and unsuccessful search for a kid friendly camera. I heard a story about wild boar (why oh why to torture me like that?) from Grandpa.

Changster was telling us the story of Goldilock and the three bears after I unplugged the TV, Grandpa asked me if I think there are bears around in HK. I said, " there shouldn't be but I know there are wild boars in town. In fact, they got so close to residential area that they became headline news awhile ago."

Grandpa then told me that the other day when he took Bear (our puppy) for a walk, crazy boy (my nickname for Bear) started barking furiously at the bush on the slope behind our compound. When Grandpa was wondering why, he saw a big brown creature running back into the mountain. My guess is they were less than 20 meters away from a wild boar.....

If I report the case to the A&FD and they successfully hunt it down, can I get some meat?

I love couch potato

Not!

I'm really struggling if I should quit or continue working. There're pros and cons in both cases. I get a pretty decent income considering how much value I'm bringing to mankind. That number is infinity given it's positive over zero... I do enjoy my interaction with people outside of home and there's no need to use censored language at all time. I can even unleash some mean comments to adults who can take it once in a while. I also don't want daddy to take up the pressure of being the sole breadwinner at home. However, I don't get to spend time with the Changster during the week at all. She's still attached to me but I feel like a gap is widening. Also, I feel like the Changster is leading a double life and I need to correct that.

At school, she's her teachers' darling. She's the attentive one, always helpful and display a strong sense of discipline. At home though, she loves watching TV to a point she looks like a statue in front of the TV. She snacks a lot and even at night before bedtime and after brushing her teeth. I have to correct that every Saturday and Sunday night. That's not cool (using her vocabulary)

It's so difficult to discipline her when I'm not at home and I feel really bad telling everyone off. I am working hard but I feel like I don't have the wisdom of doing it right. Like tonighht, I told the Changster eating at night before bed would give her bad teeth and bad health over the long run. Plus, she should wait till breakfast since she had dinner. If she didn't have enough for dinner, she still had to wait because it's her choice of not finishing her food (I must say the food prepared by my maid isn't something I would eat either but when you are three, there's no choice!). Grandpa didn't say much but I knew he wanted to help her and the Changster knew that too as she kept looking his way.

What should I do?

Groundhog Day

Hmm... Where to start? Five months since the last post. Have I been busy? Yes I have been. I started at the new place (where I started as a trainee more than 10 years ago and left 10 years ago), caught more remy at home, ate more food than I should have, got my braces... And the absence is due to.... A combination of lost and laziness

I started working at the new place with a very positive attitude. I like most of the people (c'mon, you can't make me like everyone!) but slowly, I feel like it's groundhog day again. I deal with dodos who have similar problems in slightly different wrappers. Some of them have quite an attitude. Some vocabularies that I tried hard to lose creep back into my head and came flowing out of my mouth in some most inappropriate (politically) moment. I wake up in the morning and mechanically change and drive to the office. I am all exhausted at the end of the day after 14 to 15 hours at work. On the weekend, when I get a moment with the Changster, I don't know what I did the week before.

This is getting a little scary. Am I too jaded or something is wrong with my brain?

Ferrari Vs Station Wagon

Went to Changster's kindie orientation yesterday with Grandpa. We picked that kindie because it's in the boonies and so we don't need to wake up at 5:30 am every morning to send the Changster to her school bus to make it to school for 7:30am start. Whilst there is no guaranteed placement, being a Category 1 kindie candidate means Changster has a pretty high chance to make it the primary school of the same group. Also, we though people living in our boonies should be pretty diversed and we don't need to face the investment banking type....

How wrong we have been on the last point!

We parked our standard football mum car and the first thing I saw, or more accurately the first thing that BLINDED me was a white Ferrari. I was like who drives that in our boonies? Lots of cars, some pretty nice ones but most of the cars I have seen are station wagon or SUV. A Ferrari?

All along, I want Changster to hang out with kids from different background so that she can be see the world as it is. I do not know the owner of the white Ferrari and I have been telling myself not to stereotype people but going to school orientation, shouldn't the parents drive a not so flashy car? I assume that they went because their kid is attending that school in September and a Ferrari doesn't really have the third seat so there should be a "family" car.... Call me strange, call me stupid, but driving a Ferrari to kindie orientation is like driving a convertible with the top off on snow day!

The orientation lasted for about an hour and I could feel the shape of the seat of the kiddie chair indented on my butt towards the end of the session (we sat on the front row and the projector screen was about four feet away from my nose). Someone asked if being in the boonies kindie guarantees entrance to the boonies primary school (in the same group) and the principal said no and for any category 2 kids (can speak Cantonese and can survive in the local school system in terms of language skill), the chance of school interview is next to nothing. I secretly hope that the question was asked by the Ferrari owner......

Road Rage

I've been driving around in Daddy's car since I got my license. The mechanical bit isn't difficult. Being able to respond to the crazy drivers on the road in HK is the tough part which I think requires special agent level driving skills to handle. And I mean the 007 played by Sean Connery when everything was under control and cool, not the clumsy one by Daniel Craig (even though I think he's not bad to look at)

Why do people hate signalling when they switch lane and why do they think they are driving a Smartfortwo when in fact their big arse cars can actually scratch mine when there's obviously no space for them to switch into my lane? I drive at around the speed limit and can follow the car ahead of me. Just because I have the probational "P" stuck on the window doesn't mean I do not know my rights or can be bullied. There are so many Stig wannabe on the street and they totally lack safe driving skill makes me wonder what is the standard of the driving test in Hong Kong.

Have I been angry when I am on the road? Not really. I have the entire family in the car and some of them sleep whenever I drive. I can't afford to get angry and chase after those crazy drivers. Plus, I am not breaking the law, they can only honk at me at best and I kinda enjoy annoying them. It's just not easy to drive in HK. Road rage? Their problem. Kekeke

Liberation!

It's been another long absence but this time it's not due to pain! I finally managed to leave the zoo for good and has been on holiday. The few things that I learnt / noticed through out the last three years in the zoo:

- Don't trust people with shifty eyes. Chances are they are really shifty in characters

- People who put on a big smile in front of you right after they stroll around the zoo screaming their heads off on the mobile? RUN! They want something and they probably want more than what you can offer

- If I am buying drinks on my own account, it means I want to drink with people I am friend with. No invitation means I don't consider them friends. The cost for me, they badmouth and spread untrue story. What puzzles me is it's not like we will enjoy each other's company at a drinks. Why do they want the freaking invite?

- The lack of decency is not something extraordinary in the zoo. In fact, it's the norm and don't get upset if you cannot find decency in some people.

- If you happen to be in a zoo, just being good at what you do won't get you far. You need to know how to entertain the people who matter. That includes drinking till 4am with people you cannot care less

What am I doing now? I am enjoying my time off to complete all the little projects I have in mind but got no time to execute in the past. I am attending a Korean course to get my certificate in Korean, I am finally cleaning up the storage room since we moved almost two years ago. Refiled all my bank, pension fund statement. Got my HK driver's license. Eating well and meeting friends. Life is great at the moment and I am quite happy to know that I will be back to work in mid July before I driver everyone at home crazy!

Sound of Silence

It's been a long time since the last post. I didn't disappear from this world. I simply lived in another world, a parallel universe for over a month and then one thing leads to another, it took me another month to log on again. Call me the Oracle.

I suffered from minor flu around Changunnie's birthday and didn't really think too much about it. The virus got the better of me and I started to have secondary infection in my sinus. The long and dark journey of taking antibiotics started. I was still blowing brown stuff out from my nose and one day, I lost my balance. I knew that I couldn't have blown my brain out. The colour wasn't right. Grey matter and the inside is white, right? From that day on (around Chinese New Year), my right ear was blocked. I could hear other people clearly but I couldn't hear myself well at all. It was like talking to myself in a fish tank. I talked loudly and got impatient with almost lots of people. I am usually the talkative one but during that one month, talking was painful. The antibiotics plus a bunch of antihistamine was always in my bag and I had to spray my nose with this steroid spray that stinks the membrane of my nose....

Was it all pain no gain? Of course not.

- Selective hearing keeps you sane

- Hearing other people but not yourself is painful. So, ignore them too

- Shouting doesn't mean I am rude

Joking aside, I wish you don't get sinusitis. It was just bloody awful!

Happy Birthday!

Changunnie turned three yesterday and she had her first birthday party. We invited her unnis and oppas and the house was packed. She had lots of fun and not sure where she got the idea from but she took off the first two layers of her hanbook (the vest and the shirt) and ran around in her dress only. I wonder what she would do when she's 16 and hanging out with friends during her summer holiday!

We were very blessed to have friends over and it was a fun day. Perhaps it's for me (read aging mother), I want to spend more time at home and be with the Changster and to see more of my friends.

Just want to say thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes and joining us to celebrate the Changster's party. More pictures to come after I clean up the house. Seriously, when you have more than 10 kids for a party, the house is in worst shape than Hiroshima.....

Phew! School sorted

Daddy and I took half a day off to take Changunnie to school assessment at an English Kindergarten. It is one of the four kindergarten for a network of English Schools. Whilst there's no guarantee of placement at one of the network's primary school, you do get priority if you attended the network's kindergarten and first language isn't Chinese.

Knowing Changunnie is Ms Opposite Froggie (Chung Gae Goo Ri in Korean, the story goes: little froggie that always says the opposite to what mummy froggie said. When mummy froggie was really sick, mummy froggie told little froggie to bury her in the river, thinking little froggie would do the exact opposite and bury mummy froggie in the mountain, the preferred burial ground. When mummy froggie died, little froggie thought he would do what mummy froggie told him to do for once and buried mummy froggie in the river.... So, when little froggie found out, he became really sad and cried whenever it rained), we didn't say anything about the assessment. We told her that it's a playdates with old friends and new friends at a big playground.

It all went well when she got to the school and she was hanging out with everyone and when she met kids from her pre-school, she ran up to hold their hands. Just when we were very happy with our little scheme, it backfired. Couple of her friends were done with the assessment at an earlier time slot and Changunnie decided that since it was a playdate, she should hang out with everyone instead of going into the classroom. Daddy was at the presentation and I tried everything I could to get Changunnie into the classroom but to no avail. To make it worse, a little boy arrived for a session after Changunnie's. The two got along so well that he too decided to hang out by the sand box! The other mother was more prepared and managed to ask a teacher to come out to check them out for the assessment (I think they have been to other assessments).

When we left, I was very convinced that we had to send couple more applications for other schools. Then the letter arrived on Saturday that Changunnie got in. Phew! One less thing to worry about

Comfort Food - big lotus seed paste bun

I don't have an old Teddy bear without an eye or a square of what was a blanket. Whenever I go through a tough time, I think of those old style lotus seed paste bun.

Before my mum passed away, she would take me to a dim sum restaurant in the neighbourhood. It wasn't a fancy place but it was my day out to see the world outside of our home and I knew if I behaved, I would get my lotus seed paste bun. The bun that I remember was about the size of two fists together. So big that the restaurant steamed 12 of them in a big bamboo basket and the old lady put the bun on a saucer to serve. The bread was soft. The lotus seed paste was like soft butter and wasn't overly sweet but I could taste the lotus seed in my mouth even after chowing down the bun. Steam came out and blurred my vision when I cracked open the bun to find the duck egg yolk inside. The bun was warm and so was the way I felt. I felt like the most fortunate person in the world, with a warm bun in my hand, sitting next to my mother.

It all stopped when my mum passed away. My father stopped cooking all the special dishes and we didn't go for dim sum that much. Each time we went, I wanted my bun.

I know that if I'm upset about something, I can get a bun and I could feel the comfort of having my mother by my side.

Buns these days don't taste the same as the ones I remember. I'm going to go to different places to try out the buns and I'll record each tasting in search of my perfect bun and to relive the moment I had with my mother

A new year resolution

I know I'm slow to talk about new year resolution in the second week but hey! It's better be late than sorry.

It all started with a wonderful galette des rois that my french colleague shared with us. He told us about the history and brought two galette to demonstrate the difference in different region. That got me into my Chinese mode and I want to cook according to the twenty four dates in the Chinese Lunar calendar (二十四氣節). There's already certain things that you eat according to traditions but that also means the use of some medicinal herbs that isn't that easy to find/handle. So, my to do list this year

- study the lunar calendar and get a better understanding of how it works and what it means

- study the 本草綱目 to learn about the characteristic of food/herbs and the effect on human

- come up with a menu for each day and try to cook at least some of the dishes

Bring your passport the next time you go to Yuen Long

We took Changunnie and Bear to join some friends for food crawl and photo shoot in Yuen Long. We were pretty well prepared for Bear's first outing since he completed his vaccination. Got a big piece of bone the night before (It's a Jamon Iberico!), cleaned the cage, packed the bowl, lunch, water...etc. In fact, we almost forgot to pack Changunnie's bag. It was quite easy to get to Yuen Long and the eating began. Changunnie wasn't impressed by the look of egg noodle toasted with shrimp roe but one bite of it (and I think it was also the taste of lard), there was no turning back. Every chopstickful of noodle went to her mouth instead of mine.

Next, we got Chinese pastry from a local bakery. It was different from the more famous Yuen Long bakery (which made its footprint all over Hong Kong). The winter melon and sugar filling was soft, fragrant, moist without being overly gluey. The answer is 30% lard. No wonder Yuen Long was the key farming settlement and supported all of Hong Kong for a long time. No one in the city would dare to use lard anymore. Changunnie of course had couple bites of my cake. (I will find the shortest way to go back for some takeout!)

It wasn't easy to drag a puppy and a toddler around town but we made it to the small shop for some beef brisket. The variety was impressive but the food a little too salty. I couldn't taste if the radish had the sweetness only found in the Winter. The good thing was we were able to feed Bear as there's a table outside of the shop by a small resting area under a tree.

After that, we went over to a Chinese restaurant for some Chinese steamed cake. It was nice and soft and I wouldn't ask if there was any lark in it. We then set off to look for cholesterol sandwich (Gold Coin Chicken... http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2009/12/going-for-gold.html ) but didn't find it and so we settled for ice-cream from Arce Dairy from the Philippines. Despite the funny sounding name, the ice-cream was very rich and the Ube Supreme and Maize were fantastic. At that point, we were driving to the wetland for the photo shooting session and so everyone except the driver and co-driver happily dug in. At a red light, I tried to pass the tin to the front for the co-driver and a little hand pulled my arm back with a not too little voice saying "My ice-cream!"

A bumpy ride through the fish ponds and we got to the border. Without knowing better, we drove along despite people gave us the "these people gotta be brain dead" look along the way. It turned out that we drove into the restricted area (close to the Chinese border and if it's not the restricted area, what is? Duh!) without a permit which, not being a local, would not be possible for us anyway. A police patrol car came by and asked us why we drove to the area. It was a bit tense at first as it could have been a traffic AND criminal offense. When the policeman found out we drove in from the pond side, we earned respect and he just urged us to leave asap.

It was a fun day and I want to go out more with Changunnie and Bear. Next time though, I need to make sure Bear is better trained as he almost shot into a Chinese cured meat shop when he smelled the cured duck!

Back to school

I remember the day I received my diploma. I was happy that I could move on to the next stage, just like when you were nine, you eagerly waited for your tenth birthday so that your age became double digit. I was in my new home in Boston by mid afternoon on the day of the commencement and I thought that marked the end of school life and the beginning of my life as a working adult. My working life didn't really have anything to do with school in the first 10 years or so. When everyone was talking about going back to school to get an MBA, I was like "They gotta be crazy!"

Just when I was totally convinced that I didn't have to deal with schools anymore. I got thrown back into the whole school scene again and I was shocked.

Changunnie will be turning three in about a month. In Hong Kong, it means she can go to K1 in September this year. Schools don't go knock on your door to offer you a place. In fact, parents are supposed to run around like headless chicken, read up all the "About Our School" and "Our Philosophy" on each school's website and write long winded essays to talk about how great their children are. We have done round 1 for those schools that accept kids below age 4 to start K1 and we will need to do it again for schools that only accept kids who turned 4 when the start K1 in couple months. I thought the tough part was done. I was so wrong about it.

The first school (let's just call it the Pretzel School) held a parents information day yesterday morning. It's a school that takes in about 60 kids each year and about 75% go there with a corporate debenture. We got to the school hall about 10 minutes late but there were over 300 parents already. The presentation had already started but I managed to get the key message "Your children will be assessed based on how good their English is. We need to work with children who can understand us. Parents are strongly recommended to speak to your children in English in the next few weeks leading up to the assessment day. You should read story with them." So, it'll be bootcamp for Changunnie in the next few weeks. If there's a language problem at home, it's not her English but rather her reluctance to use any non-English language. What do they want from kids who are barely 3? Are they supposed to play scrabbles and know how to score higher points by using double word and triple word? Or they should be so evolved that they need to know how to block someone from using double word in the last round??

Parents were very enthusiastic during the Q&A session and everyone got a question except us. The only thing I wanted to ask was whether there's enough sports facility for the kids as the school will operate on other premises in the new few years due to renovation of the campus. And I wasn't exactly thrilled at the 7:30am - 12:30 pm schedule. It means Changunnie has to wake up at 5:30 every day for school.

There will be an assessment in March and we will also be there to meet the teachers. I just have a strong feeling that it will be a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode....

An eye for an eye

Remember I talked about the break-in attempts in the neighbourhood? The weirdest thing happened to us on New Year's Day.

We may not have the entire family at home on that day but we definitely have at least one person around at any point of time and it was full house at night as we cooked at home. We were very surprised to find out the heavy plastic canopy we use to protect our chili pepper plant went missing on Jan 2.

It is crucial to protect the little white flowers on a chili pepper plant in order to harvest chili pepper. In our case, we were especially careful with the Jalapeno as the first two trials failed and we went from scratch (seeds were stored in the fridge, many early mornings to check if there is any seedlings in the flower bed...etc). When the flowers appeared, we were ecstatic. Not only it was the first success, it meant we would have a reliable supply of Jalapeno. It's not easy to buy fresh good ones in Hong Kong!

In order to protect the precious flowers from rain, strong wind and bugs, we spent hours looking for big strong plastic sheets that we can use to make a canopy.

Then, on Jan 2, the biggest sheet above the chili pepper plants went missing. The Knots of the strings to the lamp post were undone. There were evidence that whoever borrowed the plasic sheets tried to take the sheets for the other flower racks but found it too difficult and gave up half way through. We went to the refuse collection station. Interviewed everyone at home and at the management office and finally found the cleaning lady who gave us the most clue. She saw the sheet in front of our garage and looked dirty. So, she threw it away with the other rubbish.

The cleaning lady said the sheet must have been blown away from the roof top. Ok, the sheet is the thick clear plastic type. Given the size ( 25 ft across and 10 ft wide), it would be at least 20 lbs. Unless you flip it, it's not something that "floats". Plus with the knots undone??

Someone must have borrowed it for reason unknown and decided to chuck it in front of our house after his/her deed was done. I was angry because it was a clear intrusion and if that person really needed to use the sheet, it' very easy to ring the door bell.

I looked at my Jalapeno and decided if I ever find out who did it, I'll make sure that person will have some thing being pulled away from his/her body just like how the white flowers got tormented by the wind a rain!

Food and More Food

When I say everyone in our family loves food, I mean we care about what we eat and we are always willing to learn more about our food. Min, an accomplished amateur cook, was with us for the Christmas/New Year week and we had lots of cooking sessions and interesting discussions.

As a Christmas present, Min bought me a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma (by Michael Pollan). The author wrote about corn in our diet, whether products with the organic label really follow real organic farming theory and the meal that uses only local produce (hunted, gathered or grown by the author himself). I have not finished reading but would be very interested to read about the Organic farming part.

We experimented with various ways to cook our food. We came up with two versions of macaroni and cheese. And we had two roast days! Cookies baked, vanilla french toast served... I can still taste the steak with blue cheese melt in my mouth.

We spent a long time to analyse the diet for Bear, the family dog. What he can eat and what he should eat. Where to get the bone for him to chew on. I gotta make sure there's NO onion or grapes in Bear's dish.

And of course we went out to restaurants to try out food that are not easy to re-create at home.

Everyone at home got REALLY upset when one of the protective rain gear we made for the chili pepper plants was "borrowed" by someone else (and later left on the driveway and the cleaning lady put it in the trash collection station). We didn't care about the cost and time to remake the rain gear. We worried about the rain killing the budding chili plants! One of them is a Jalapeno and took us two trials to have fruit!

If there is one thing that makes everyone at home happy and united, it is food. We don't need to go to expensive restaurants at all. We just want to know where our food is form, how it is prepared, when is the best time to eat and how to improve the taste and texture.

I feel sad when I see people paying a premium to stuff their face with sub-par food. Just remember one thing, the amount of food we can take is subject to our metabolic rate. Some people may have a bigger appetite than the others but there is a limit. Why be stupid in using such precious quota???

My kid vs your kid

We didn't go anywhere this Christmas and New Year. Partly because both Daddy and I stayed back whilst the rest of the team took time off, partly because we have relatives visiting Hong Kong.

Min (Daddy's younger sister) stopped by Hong Kong for a week on her way to Seoul for her research (the difference between a banker's business trip and that of a professor? Bankers travel for "important" meetings which are dominated by unsubstantial conversations that no one would remember after a week whilst Professors talk to real people about their specific field and publish paper afterwards). Hyunjo, Daddy's cousin's youngest Daughter (11 year old) also came here to spend time with us (read Changunnie!) It was nice to see them both. It's been a long time since Min's last visit and it was Hyunjo's first time to Hong Kong (as an accompanied minor which was pretty impressive). Lots of plans were made but we ended up staying home a lot because of the awful weather. Well, no 12 inches snow but it was rainy and cold and killed any incentive to leave the front gate.

Anyway, we ended up spending lots of time at home and that really got me thinking about how to deal with children, especially someone else's children.

Those of you who have children would understand it. So long as the child is yours, you will not see any flaw in him/her. You can be holding a wrinkly monkey-like child and still call him/her the most beautiful angel because he/she is your child. Parents are pretty blind when it comes to anything about their own flesh and blood. I am sure there are times when I talk about nothing but how wonderful my Changunnie is in front of other people. To make it worse, parents can get competitive and be critical at other children (thus, I won't be surprise if I am labelled as a Smug Parent!)

Hyunjo was a joyous girl when I first met her as a toddler. She was outgoing and loved dancing and singing. This time, she was still playful when she was with Changunnie but was very quiet when she was with us. With two children around, there were times when it could be a little rough and instinctively, I tried to protect Changunnie. There were also couple times when I got critical about her eating habit (preference of chocolate over other healthier snack), TV marathon (Is Ben 10 really such a must watch show?) and desire to go to DisneyLand (ok, I am quite against all things Disney...)

Children are very sensitive little human beings. They can smell fear and bias from miles away. I kept reminding myself not to appear to be Changunnie-biased in front of Hyunjo but I am not sure if I was that successful. Hyunjo is still a young girl and has the potentially to grow into a wonderful person. Did I kill her desire to reach out?

It is not an easy thing to do but I gotta learn to help other children as well as my own to grow into a happy and healthy person. A little encouragement here and there, a supportive word when there is a job well done mean a lot to children. And it is also important for Changunnie. She has to realize she is not the centre of the world. Otherwise, she will suffer from princess syndrome as a grown up.