Leasted through.

I got a brain-hand disconnect!
Yesterday, I wrote: This is through.
Today, I wrote: These 2 were leasted as .....

I meant
This is true.
These 2 were listed as....

I realise it's wrong only when I see it. It's all very strange....

Spring is here!

人民广场 Ren Min Guang Chang ( People's Park)
The rides were closed for a period during Winter. This is one of the boy's favourite place. They have rides which he can and does go on by himself - the Dragon roller coaster, the pirate ship (viking) and the bumper car. Each ride costs between RMB5-10 (S$1-2). On Sunday, for RMB50/S$10, we got him 6 tickets. He was over the moon happy.


梧桐树 Wu Tong Shu ( Phoenix Tree / Chinese Parasol)
They line the streets where we live, where his school is and where I work. Their leaves look like maple tree leaves and can grow quite big. Around 20cm or more in length / 25cm in width. About a week ago, leave buds started to sprout and now tiny baby leaves are growing... and very quickly too they are filling up the not too long ago bare trees. I find it amazing to witness these changes. In about a week, they'll start to flower and release pollen into the air. My colleagues tell me our street will soon be covered with a layer of cotton-like fluff. We'd see.

Music@home

Am excited. Bought a digital piano. After months of dragging my feet and 2 failed attempts at buying a 2nd hand piano piano, we will finally have something to play with. Better still, it wouldn't cost me usd2K to crate and ship it back home when the time comes. The reason why we left our piano in Singapore.

April Fools' Day

Played a trick on my colleagues yesterday....

(Official company email banner)

Dear Colleagues,

We are proud to unveil our new logo for MIPS. This new and contemporary logo more accurately reflects the dynamic and professional team at MIPS .

This logo will be launched officially on 1st May. Our entire line of collateral materials will be revised to include this logo. To make the shift effective, please make sure that this logo is included in all presentation and marketing materials from 1st May onwards and that the new logo is properly used in terms of color, placement and other graphic standards.

To view and download the logo guidelines and associated files, please click HERE

>>> And if they did click through, they get to see this:

• My boss basically went, "What the hell! ............"
• Another colleague asked if she is to send her materials through to my team for updating.... so I told her, "No, I am quitting. Please DIY."
• A couple more asked why I am "so free" and "jia pah eng ah" .....

 .... but yep. Haven't had quite that much fun in a while.


The boy was fooled in school too. He told me his teacher gave them a spelling test. After sheets of paper were distributed to the entire class, the teacher walked up to one of them and tore the paper up.... and that they too started tearing their own papers. He then told me he didn't get to fool anybody and I told him he had to wait till next year. Come to think about it, he will have to wait two years... next year's April Fools' Day falls on a Sunday.

I want to be ..... when I grow up.

Asked him several times before.... and again last night.
The answer is the same.

"I want to be a fireman when I grow up!"

Told him it's going to be hot!
He says, "I have a suit."
Told him he'd have to carry people on his shoulders.
He says, "I am strong."

Don't know where he got his career ambition from. There is nobody in my family who's a firefighter. We've only ever brought him to a Fire Station open house, once. There might be one book he owns ( which I don't recall him obsessing over) about Firefighters.

In any case, quite interesting to note that a survey by Reader's Digest Singapore last year showed that firefighters topped the 'Most trusted jobs' list:  Ref: http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20100226-201009.html

1 Firefighter
2 Doctor
3 Judge
4 Teacher
5 Surgeon
6 Pilot
7 Paramedic
8 Nurse
9 Pharmacist
10 Dentist

And suddenly inspired, I asked him.... There are 2 men in the house. One's blind and the other's crippled. Both were caught in a fire. How do they get out? He thought about it... then told me the blind man should carry the cripple and the cripple can tell the blind man the directions.
.............................. me wonders why a particular firefighter didn't turn up.

Chinese as a first language

The boy kept  his test paper again. Reason: 我还在做！(I'm still working on it!) I made him hand it to his teacher the next day, as-is. It came back with a "C".

His Chinese grades vary according to some unknown elements. Some days he gets it, some days, he just doesn't. Some days, he comes back with 83% for spelling and other days 95% ( I think the lowest you can get is 56%-60% since the teacher normally gives them 20 phrases / 40-44 characters and takes away 1% for each wrong character).

The thing is, these spelling tests doesn't happen on a fixed day, and there are no spelling lists. The only clue I get is when he writes 'Revise chapter 3-5' on his note book. Last Friday, his notes read: Revise chapter 11-15.

The boy was not at all concerned or emotional about it. I SO WAS! That's 5 chapters / ~ 50 phrases / at least 100 characters !!!! Here's a sample.....

以后，小巷，孩子，前脚，尾巴，几乎，江河，一枝，已经，闪闪发光，一团，做客，。。。

We worked on it Sunday evening... wonder who the bigger procrastinator? By 9:30pm, his eyes glazed over and I called it quits.

Sluorping

Had a conference call which took me way over lunch time... 1 hour 22 minutes over to be exact. Lunch hour starts at noon and over here, there is no reason not to eat. At around 11:45am, the chatter from my colleagues begins, "Where to eat?" and by 11:59am, everyone leaves to go eat at their chosen place.

Anyway, I went to get lunch after that call at a nearby eatery. It was not crowded anymore. Lunch time is over. Was eating my food, when I became aware that somebody else was chomping away loudly. I turned to look... a lady, enjoying her food with relish.

I smiled. I did.

Must be something to do with living in China for what? Almost seven months now? I actually think this loud 'sluorping' of food is totally acceptable. Where before I would have frowned and think it is unacceptable, un-cultured and rude, like the culturally acceptable way of slurping up your noodles in Japan, 'sluorping' up a plate of rice is now ok!

I like the way people here tuck into their food. Food comes to the table, you eat it while it's hot, in any way you want. No pretense, no nonsense. Eat.

And I like it, because I think you are suppose to eat this way - get food into your mouth and enjoy it without worrying about drips, making no sound or not being able to spit out the wrong bits.

Nice!

Art appreciation

I finished a sketch of the boy playing with his firecrackers and showed it to him.
He liked it so much, he used it to make a boat.

Last week

DOOR

Broke the door to our home last week. The small one and his Grandmother were uncontactable for 3 hours. When I got home, all was dark and the door was latched from the inside. I shouted for them, banged the door, ... nothing. So I crashed through, and that caught the attention of the Grandma, who walked out of the bedroom in a daze. They were sleeping. She saw the door and exclaimed, "WHY DID YOU BREAK THE DOOR?!? HOW DID YOU BREAK IT?" I was too exhausted from all my excitement to give her a logical response. Was simply just happy she was fine, they were fine.

We slept through that night with a broken main door. Piled all the dining chairs we had behing that door and locked ourselves in the bedroom. Got the handyman to come look at it the next morning. He shook his head when he saw it, and recommended we get the property management guys to come take a look at it instead. I didn't want to deal with those guys (long story) ... so I tried DIY. Managed to 'repair' it by removing the broken hinge. Door can close now.
WHY DID I BREAK THE DOOR? HOW DID I BREAK IT?

VIOLIN

Upgraded the boy's violin. 3 were offered to him. He had to pick and insist on this one. It's now on loan to us for an obscene amount. I don't allow him to carry it himself (except when he's practising of course) and I don't even dare walk too fast when carrying it. We call it his "Lao Lao Ye Ye".

FIRECRACKERS

It's legal in China over Chinese New Year. The boy played with a bunch of them. It was fun watching him. Reminds me of those old chinese painting protraying kids playing with firecrackers. His posture is exactly the same. I'd try to sketch that this weekend and post it here.

BACK TO SCHOOL

A new set of books!
The chinese one is jaw-dropping!
Again I enjoyed looking through his art &craft textbook. Nice!
He also has a new foreign-English teacher.  Maybe this one won't allow him to pass up blank papers.

Condensed

That is the only word I can think of to describe how I feel. 
I am now denser and thicker.
Wow. 

Learnt

3 new phrases today:

Hobson's choice: when there is only one choice or none.

Buridan's ass: example of one who makes no move because he is hungry as he is thirsty and is positioned exactly between food and drink.

Morton's fork: a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives.

... all part of a day's work!

On the day snow blanketed Shanghai

I wake up and looked out of the window.
Hey! It's snowing heavily and the ground's covered with a thick blanket of snow!
I wake the boy up and we both looked out of the window, mesmerized by the sheets of tiny frozen capsules, floating down from the skies above.

The boy went to school and came back with A, A and A+10 ... and a B (B for blank!?!)

Am happy he's doing well.

Shanghai Zoo - for grass you can walk on

We decided to go to the zoo yesterday. Not sure what to expect. The 'arctic zoo' we visited in our recent trip to Harbin was depressing so I was semi-prepared to be similarly affected.

We bought the tickets and walked towards the entrance, passing an old man who jiggled his can when we neared him. A signal for loose change. The boy asked, "Why are there so many people asking for money?" I had no answer and did not respond.

But my mood was immediately lifted upon entering the zoo. What greeted me was a nice huge lawn and better yet, no signs warning us against putting our feet on the grass! There weren't many people too! I can almost call it deserted. A very rare thing here in crowded Shanghai.

It must have been crazy for most locals to consider going to the zoo that day. The temperature range was between -2 to 2degrees Celsius. But it turned out to be a not too crazy decision. It wasn't a miserably cold day to be out and about. The sun was shinning and there wasn't much wind.

On looking at this satellite map taken off Google (area where the zoo is circled), I realized why I was so happy. The zoo is one of the few pockets of green in Shanghai! I must have been like the animal released into the wild! No more concrete jungle! Grass you can walk on!

The first exhibit we saw was a man sweeping an empty cage. The boy asked, "What is this?" I replied, "This is a man," in the same tone as I would have said, "This is a monkey." He paused and then laughed. My dear boy.

And then we saw the giant panda ( there was just one) who did nothing but ate bamboo leaves, several 'lesser/red pandas' ( which seemed to be the happiest mammals we saw at the zoo), a gorilla who did nothing but ate, regurgitate, eat the regurgitated food, regurgitate, the whole 3-4 minutes we were there and bears who stood on their hind legs, clasped their paws and grunted for food.

Arh, visitors here bring their own entertainment kits - corn for the birds, peanuts for the primates and toss-able pieces of food for the bigger animals. There are signs prohibiting this but no one around to enforce it.

The environment/enclosures for the birds are really nice - they have nice ponds and waterways. I guess they are better off than the mammals (but the price they pay for that is clipped wings).

Alright. I'd stop. Putting compassion for the animals aside, it's a nice place to visit if you have been trapped in the city for a while.

How to get there: The easiest is to hop on the Metro Line 10 and get off at the Shanghai zoo （上海动物园). The station is right below the zoo's entrance. Tickets costs RMB40 and each adult can bring a child below 1.2m for free. Opening hours depends and is normally shorter during Winter. I think it would be safe to assume the zoo is open daily from 10am-4:30pm.

Exams over.

He should be done with his last paper by now.

Chinese paper: He said he didn't know how to write 1 or 2 characters.
Maths paper: He says he will score 110 marks. ( The paper is 100% + 20% (optional section with more challenging questions) He said he didn't know how to solve this optional question: 20+x=5. What is x?
English (as a first language / taught by foreign teacher): His 1st paper/ written one = ZERO. We all know why. Subsequent MCQ paper (he filled up everything) + Aural exam should be ok.
English ( local syllables): If he's not careless, should be able do very well.

He doesn't need to go to school until the 20th, and even then, only for a couple of hours to collect his results. Then it's winter vacation! 21 Jan - 13 Feb

Better!

Paper II: He came back annoucing that he had a MCQ (Multiple Choice) paper and filled up everything, including his name.

Horrors

Am told that the boy handed in an EMPTY, UNFILLED, BLANK English exam paper this morning. Blank to the extent that he didn't even write his name on it .....








.....It can't get worse than this can it?

Weather report

Was looking at my feet.... they haven't been this WHITE in a long time - but then so are most of me, and us. we've been wrapping ourselves since October. The weather has since turned even colder, with the highest daily temperature below 10 degree Celsius.

I send the boy to school with 3 tops (2 cotton ones sandwiching the woollen sweater- because he hates to have any skin contact with the woolly) + his school jacket, long johns and lined pants, thick socks and winter boots to school.

Layering remains key to attaining a balanced body temperature. This gives me a headache. I not only have to decide what I need to wear to work, but how to keep warm and still have these 2 groups of clothing match! This reminds me of what the boy said the other day in exasperation,

"I don't want to feel cold. I don't want to feel hot. I just want to feel normal!"

Recent

Marriage
Who do you want to marry when you grow up?
> I don't know.
Auntie M asked A and A said she wants to marry you.
> OK OK!!! *nodding vigorously* I marry her!
*Hahhahaa*
Why not QQ?
> Too many.
What do you mean by "too many?"
> She has twins already!!!

Exhausted
Do you want to drink Milo?
> No.
What do you want to drink?
> Milo.
*I raise my eyebrows... the Big one started wheezing from trying to contain his explosive laughter.... the exhausted boy slowly realized what happened.... and laughed tears.

Entertainment
On the road, he plays the games we downloaded on the iPhone, Uno, blackjack and 4 different types of hand games.

Hand Game 1: Players stick out 1 finger on each hand. You start swiping your opponents fingers. 1st one to add up to 10 wins. Player with 2 on one hand and 8 on another can placed the 8 (shaped like a gun) on the 2 (shaped like a V and looks like a stand) to shoot your opponent down.

Hand Game 2: (2 players) Scissors paper stone - winner gets to swipe a finger on the loser's head... loser makes a guess which finger was used. If loser guessed right on the 1st try, loser gets to pull the other party's ear. If the guess is wrong, the other party gets to pull. ( 3 players)... Determine who is the loser by playing "black or white"... Odd one out is the loser. Remaining 2 player plays scissors paper stone... winner gets to play with the loser.

Hand Game 3: "Chee-koo-pak" (variation of scissors paper stone). Players show their chosen scissors, paper or stone sign(s) on both hands. On the players call, he/she gets to shout out the sign(s). The idea is to switch your signs such that it is not the one(s) being called out. Otherwise, the hand 'dies'.

Hand Game 4: Clapping sequence... determine and agree on a pattern  from the start. Start from 1 and increase the cycle to 2, 3, 4X etc. For example, if the pattern is
Clap both hands, clap right hands, clap front & back.
Then 2X will be clap both hands twice, clap right hands twice,  clap front & back twice... and so forth.

We were on a train for 18 hours at a stretch on one leg of our recent trip...these games, especially the hand games, helped us passed time joyfully.

Laundry
Been doing laundry non stop for 2 days now. We wore every single piece of clothing we brought along plus more that we bought along the way during out recent trip and wore them all for 5 days straight. The boy's record was wearing 8 layers on top, 5 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of socks, heat pads, hat under his multiple hoods, mask, scarf, 2 pairs of gloves and woolly boots.

Trip
We travelled from Shanghai - Harbin - 长白山(ChangBai  Mountain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekdu_Mountain) - Shenyang  - and back to Shanghai.

Wouldn't recommend anyone make this crazy trip. It was sooo cold! The temperature at the mountain peak was minus 40 degrees Celsius...and the winds was so strong, I felt like I was being lifted every time I took one feet off the ground. The cold was so bad, my head hurt madly from skull-freeze. I think the boy could easily have been blown away had he not thankfully refused to wake up - he stayed in the car while we attempted to make the short climb to the lookout - to see the caldera. I didn't make it... Hah!

Unesco
The old imperial palace in Shenyang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Palace is the 4th Unesco World Heritage Site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_List the boy has visited - after Halong Bay (Vietnam), Angkor (Cambodia) & Kakadu National Park (Australia).

Bad
Too bad we were only given an hour at the site before being rushed to shop ( guide gets 5% commission - a very maddening culture!)

Good
The meal specification on the tour is 8 dishes and 1 soup- a great way to learn how to dish up a 9-course Chinese meal!

Finally
2010 is coming to an end. It's been quite a journey!

今天下雪了!

He wasn't too keen on leaving his pre-school in August to come here to Shanghai with me. He wanted to stay in Singapore till December.

I told him that there is Autumn, and Winter, and 4 seasons here in Shanghai. He wanted to know if it'd snow in Shanghai. I said, "Yes." ( I didn't think then that it would not) So he said, 'Ok. I want to eat snow."

Found out after we got here that snow rarely makes its appearance in Shanghai. *Oh s**t!*

And so, you can imagine how happy and thrilled I was when I found out this morning on the news that it was going to snow... and it did! I shot this photo at 3pm:

Spoke to the boy on the phone.... the first thing he said was, "今天下雪了 ". I asked him if he'd tasted it... and he said, almost shyly, "Yes, it's very nice."

I am grateful.
I managed not to lie.
Thank you.

He did.

They had an Arts competition in school. He could submit a drawing or play the piano... or any other instrument. His drawings are .... nicely terrible. He just started learning the piano and have not yet progressed beyond playing the C-major scale. So, I suggested he play a piece on his violin. He wanted to play '童话' and I was fine with whatever he prefers.

But his violin teacher wasn't and wanted him to play "春天来了" & "茉莉花" instead. I thought the competition proper was to happen later this month so we all thought there would be plenty of time for him to prep. But no. I received a notification on a Monday that he is to bring his violin to school that Wednesday for the competition.

Right, out the window went the 2 pieces he was to prepare. He practiced his '童话' about 20X that Tuesday evening and went to school with his violin the next day. I took some time off to go to his school to play the piano part. 

While we were rehearsing, a teacher walked in... I did not know he was going to be the judge. So I was unprepared when he closed the door and said, "Let's start!".

Was quite disheartened. Since the Judge had already heard most of it. The whole thing was not quite what I had pictured in my mind.

The boy played his piece (again). But this time, the kids who were shut out of the room started jumping up and down outside, trying their darnest to peep in through the window...and he was very distracted by them, giggling at one point while playing his violin and eventually forgetting which line he was on midway through... Horrors!!! I continued the accompaniment solo while urging him to come back in at the next section. ... he gave up and put his violin down... the Judge encouraged him to continue. He did eventually.

This was not my idea of a reasonable/ fair/ ok performance and so I didn't think more of it.

Until this morning, when I was notified to send his teacher a photo of him because he had won a prize in the competition.

He won what?!?

阿姨一号

I think I should write about 阿姨No.1
Day 1 She's not someone who has to work and told me so.
Day 2 She didn't want to work past 6:30pm ( which would be a big rush for me) - fine.
Day 3 She didn't know how to use the vacumn machine - taught her.
Day 4 She didn't know how to iron - wanted to teach her but she said she sends her own clothes to the laundry to be pressed.
No Day 5.