San Francisco Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar (Part 4 Continued – Lake Tahoe And The Olympic Village)

Posted on December 26, 2010 by admin

To a spectacular backdrop of pristine white mountain and snow-dusted trees, the Rockstar zips, glides and gets dragged about by his parents on a bright orange toboggan bought from Save Mart in Tahoe City for about USD 15.

Just as nature intended.


On my iPhone, I record Kings dragging his son about – Rockstar will be watching the footage over and over when Kings hits the ground running with his new job in 2011.

When Kings is working, sometimes we don’t talk or enjoy more than a couple hours’ family time each week (or less). I really want Rockstar to remember family time – when dad isn’t constantly on the phone or blackberry…

We spot just 2 other toboggans among the hundreds of skis and snowboards – those are after all Olympic class slopes – but I still feel so fly in snow gear parking my wussy plastic tray among everyone’s professional looking skis and poles.

The girl in the resort green jacket is from Brisbane, Australia – she and her boyfriend (not in pic, he was stationed way up at the top of the slope) are working here for 3 months before they resume university back home

After tubing solo because Kings is in jeans (the tubes are seriously wet and the only waterproof pants he liked at North Face cost about USD 300) and Rockstar is allowed up only if he sits in a tube on his own (because it’s too small to fit 1 1/2 people safely)… Kings valiantly mushed the Rockstar back down the hill and snapped this before we left to get the toboggan

We stop for pictures at Lake Tahoe.

Those postcard and calendar scenery pictures will never look the same again. Suddenly they’re erm, more real to me. Now I understand why someone who heard we were coming up here said “It’s God’s country.” All the beautiful things He made. Not the higgledy-piggledy high rises “we” made.

The sunlight is really bright, and we arrive in time to see an older boy of about 10 just wrapping up diving into a snowman for his mum’s camera.

Footprints (in the sand – the imagery of when there are only one set of footprints it’s when God is carrying you) comes to mind.

My first snow angel. I am no longer a snow angel virgin <gasp>

Red border collie floating above the snow which is shoulder-deep for the dog.

I miss JD

And back to Olympic Village. There are many dogs here, play-biting each other outside Starbucks, digging in the snow drifts, catching snowballs – none of them are wearing anything in all that snow (except one lone white Maltese in a thin green jacket).

I remember Dog One Life and countless other stores all over Hong Kong (especially in Causeway Bay) that sell doggie clothing. I always knew some of that was for fashion, but I also thought some of the skinny little ones wearing quilted hoodies with – get this – fake fur trim, really felt the cold.

No wonder so many Westerners we meet think the tricked out Hannah Montana dogs of Hong Kong are just nuts.

The dogs might be au naturel, but many humans are in bright snow gear

Some of the kids in particular look so awesome. I like observing the older boys (harboring secret hope Rockstar grows into one of the strapping 6-8 year olds clomping about in ski boots toting poles or boards). I note some of the shoulder-length wavy blonde locks peeking out from under safety helmets or brightly colored “jester” and “mohawk” snow caps with a tiny hint of envy – I tried that one, much to Kings’ dismay, but Rockstar has stick-straight hair that refuses to be brushed out of his eyes.

(He wants to wear this cap all the time when it’s cold. With the Adidas logo just so.)

Replete from a busy day of cafeteria tray-sitting and snowball-throwing, Rockstar passes out without a peep…

Everyone should drag their child around on a toboggan.

(Though we have seriously keep an eye out for all the skiers and snowboarders of all sizes swooping by at warp speed)

Next morning, we take a cable car up to one of the mountain cafes for brunch…

(Why’m I not surprised the only “act cute” hat we see in the whole place (left – it’s a lamb hat trimmed with red ribbon and pockets at the ends of the long ear covers) is worn by one of the relatively few Asians we see during our stay here?)

Up, up we go…

Someone groans at the (thankfully brief) pitching as the cable car swoops and jerks…

It’s about 8,000 feet up…

As we alight from the cable car, a lone dad catches my eye – he has a snow board under one arm and a toddler younger than Rockstar under the other.

Not just is the cafe bathed in strong sunlight, it’s very warm, and even after peeling off some layers we feel hot. (We soon realize why – right outside when we try to take some photos, it’s windy and very cold)

Strange meal and an awesome view – plain tofu drizzled with some sweet and sour sauce, whipped potato, veggies, hard boiled eggs (currently one of Rockstar’s staples), fortune cookies, baked potato.

 

Kings pops a whole fortune cookie in his mouth and crunches. Belatedly he tries to retrieve the paper inside, to my “I thought fortune cookies in Ang Moh places have actual fortunes in them?”

He will never know what his fortune was. Rockstar greatly benefits though – there are some kind of “lucky numbers” on the back of each slip of paper and he reads them with interest. I totally milk it – it’s the first time he reads double digit numbers greater than 20 – 26, 43, 37…

At the next table, a dad with a long shaggy beard and 2 kids several years older (there are lots and lots of >5 year olds everywhere – next to Squaw Valley is the Papoose with all kinds of winter sports workshops for children) smiles indulgently as Rockstar gabbles off numbers.

Fortune Reading Rockstar

Kings gets a second helping of fortune cookies and I save all the papers for Rockstar to revies. Whatever works, baby.

Then back down, down we go.

To snowballs and toboggans.

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Season’s Greetings 2010

Posted on December 25, 2010 by admin

Me: This present is for your birthday, and this will be for Christmas.

Christmas is whose birthday?

Rockstar: <pause for thought> Bay-bee Jesus!

Merry Christmas, Joy To The World, and Peace On Earth To One And All

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San Francisco Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar (Part 4 – Lake Tahoe And The Olympic Village)

Posted on December 25, 2010 by admin

Not long after we get here, it begins to get dark…

The sun sets at like, 5pm around here…

(Hey, sometimes Hong Kong’s like that)

I realize my hat has shrunk and I can’t get it on comfortably anymore, so it’s over to Northface for a new one… On the way in we pass an indignant shopper barking outside. (There are a lot of dogs here and some of the other shops allow them in. I miss JD. I feel like I’m cheating on her – she loves the cold)

It starts snowing, and we duck into Mamasake restaurant – it’s not even 6pm but almost full, and shortly after, people start crowding in the doorway waiting for a table…

Sushi is served on a real snowboard (that’s longer than our table)

My lime-grilled shrimp and brown rice (bott right corner) is outstanding and Asian-sized. And USD 16.50.

Rockstar decides to ruin any efforts to take pictures by closing his eyes (seriously – we have umpteen pictures of him in the next few hours eyes wide shut)

Then out into the snow and dark we go…

I love our little apartment – fireplace, cozy bedroom (with ceiling fan?? What’s that about?), two closet spaces – one for outerwear and the other for everything else, kitchen with microwave and complimentary Starbucks coffee, bathroom with rough grey concrete tiles trimming the walls and on the floor – they don’t get very cold even when it’s snowing out!

(I blame livling in Hong Kong for my taste in smallish-but-efficient living spaces)

It’s still snowing the next morning…

(In case you’re wondering, Rockstar isn’t wearing any hi-performance snow gear aside from cheapie mittens we got in Melbourne (we later realize many of the other kids are in really cool snow outfits) as he starts making snowballs along the side of the road even as it’s snowing – he has on a heavy duty Paul n Shark wind and water proof jacket actually meant for yachting I bought heavily discounted from the Ap Lei Chau warehouses – meant for a 4 year old. But I couldn’t resist, it just looked so fabulous and was really good quality for the price.

We picked up a pair of water-resistant Adidas pants from an outlet along the way for about USD 18 and I slipped those over his normal pants before we went out… He’s been holding up pretty well with layers of normal cotton stuff under the water resistant outer layer, but I have to remember to tuck all the layers into 18 Dollar Adidas Pants to keep the snow out when he sits down so bathroom breaks take uh, a little longer)

And I have to keep him from stamping in the snow and wet with his Pumas til we rent boots)

No outdoor seating for breakfast…

Ta-daa the Olympic rings

(To be continued, the Rockstar is now awake)

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San Francisco Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar (Part 3 – Drive To Squaw Valley)

Posted on December 23, 2010 by admin

We’re leaving the apartment we rented in town

Rockstar’s all geared up…

Mr Men books in new Kipling bag (45% off, and sans dangling monkey that his mum can’t stand): Check!

2 under layers of cotton clothes, a jacket and a cardi before he even puts his raincoat on (because his mum feels cold): Check!


View Larger Map

It’s about a 3 hour drive (in good weather) to Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe this morning.

Oh hey they have pollution here too?

The wide, sprawling landscape of low flat buildings strikes us, after the often “Jenga-ish” piling of storey upon storey of Hong Kong’s high rises… It actually feels weird to not climb more escalators or enter lifts with more floor buttons… Or to walk thru a sprawling car park…

7 traffic lanes. Monster trucks with “If you can’t see my rear view mirrors, I can’t see you!” on their bum.

We pass a well-kept billboard proclaiming Rolling Hills Cemetery and Crematorium. It’s a good name.

We stop at Black Oak restaurant. The “USD 4.99 children’s dollar-sized pancakes”… have full servings of scrambled eggs and bacon that come with. (And “dollar-sized” in supersize land = 4-inch pancakes)

I catch sight of the child at the next table (white sweater on the right) holding a giant rasher of bacon and chewing on it.

Here’s a closer view of the bacon

We can hear bacon eating little boy from where we sit… He can’t be more than a year older than Rockstar (who just turned 3), if at all. (In fact, guessing Caucasian kids’ ages I usually err on the older side because of their size, especially when Rockstar is quite small even by Asian standards)

Little Boy With Bacon stands a full head taller than Rockstar.

It’s just a little funny (as in haha) to us – Rockstar usually needs some persuasion to eat meat – Carnivorous toddler vs Herbivorous toddler.

(But seriously, all the grownups at the table are way bigger and taller than Rockstar’s parents so what can you expect?)

It still were a good brekkie (Rockstar had like, one “dollar-sized pancake,” some scrambled eggs and most of the fruit bowl – not bad, they have fruit on the menu, several other restaurants we went to, including Rainforest cafe, didn’t.)

We make a pit-stop at the outlets along the way for snowchains, and waterproof pants for Rockstar (I forgot to pack his one lone pair and we figure the outlets will be cheaper than if we have to buy stuff up at the ski resort).

Those are from Walmart – and if we don’t use them we can get our money back coming down from Squaw Valley (but we were told not to attempt to drive up to “Big Snow Area” without snow chains in case we get stopped)

Then off we go again…

Oh tee hee that billboard says “Wanna go home with me tonight?”

(I’m the designated driver)

Beer ad for the holidays…

Love this spot we passed…

Then we’re behind a car that has the word “Sheriff” on the rear.

Kings: Sheriff! Take a picture!

Me: It says “Pla-something Sheriff” in plain letters. No badge. Maybe it’s a name for something, not literally “Sheriff”

Kings: (Going just past the car, which is in the fast lane) See? Badge (on the side of the car). Take a picture!

I’m still eating my pizza. But I look obligingly. The driver is in that short-sleeved style Sheriff’s shirt and aviators we usually see on tv.

And he’s on his cellphone without an earpiece.

He starts at me peering straight at him and I jump and swivel my head theatrically forward.

Me: You see lah darling fortunately I didn’t take a pic. What if he gets mad and pulls us over to give us a ticket or something? (thinking: don’t look at the Sheriff, don’t look at the Sheriff)

Kings: What is he going to give us a ticket for

Me: He’ll think of something! He’s a sheriff! Drive!

And then…

I have never seen the Golden Arches with snow.

Snowflakes hit the windscreen in the last 20 minutes of our drive. I’ve never seen real snowflakes.

It’s unbelievable – they look just like the fake ones.

And so we arrive in one piece.

Kudos to Kings who’s doing all the driving since

1) I can’t drive (haven’t driven since I got my license after SPM)

2) Even if I did he would never trust his only child to my driving.

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San Francisco Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar – Part 2 (Sausalito)

Posted on December 21, 2010 by admin

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWnGsBvFQSI]

Our first experience with the famed Golden Gate Bridge…

Is a zzz-fest.

Unfortunately, sometimes when a Rockstar’s gotta go, a Rockstar’s gotta go… We’re gonna have to come back, he didn’t even know we crossed A Bridge…

We go grocery shopping in Sausalito, and hope to find Rockstar a haircut when he wakes…

(It’s the holidays. Rockstar is 3. Next year he will be the grand old age of 4 and it won’t be long before parents are uncool to travel with. So We. Will. Get lots of cute holiday pictures where I still have a say in whether he gets a haircut. And a nice one I didn’t mess up myself.)

The old sign says no parking before 4pm… It’s a few minutes after…

Kings parks the car and leaves the engine running with the heat on. It’s drizzling out, but not super duper cold. Rockstar’s still asleep with his mouth open. I glance anxiously around. Will people yell at you here for leaving the engine running like we sometimes get in Hong Kong (because of the pollution)?

20 feet away a mum with a boy who looks to be about 8 has done the same. But I continue to feel nervous especially when the occupant of the house we’ve parked in front of returns from walking his yellow lab. But both occupants disappear with a final flash of grizzly beard and waggly tail – but not a word about the engine running.

We drive around a bit more before heading back to Fisherman’s Wharf – Rockstar wakes in time for dinner at Rainforest Cafe (don’t think they have one in Hong Kong yet, but Kings has been to the one in Singapore) – and seems to OD on MSG after having some peppered pasta thing with chicken and shrimp – he keeps drinking water for the next few hours, and can’t fall asleep til past midnight, despite a full evening browsing the restaurant shop barrel of rubber snakes, and staying away from the giant moving elephants with the motion sensors which make them turn their heads and flap their ears at you when you get near…

Then out into the night, and a freezing walk where we give a dancing skeleton and a “fireman” moonwalking on the street to a boom box a wide berth…

And the next morning we’re back at Sausalito

 

I had the avocado and bacon omelette, Kings had the Lighthouse omelette. They were both outstanding. And gigantic.

Even with Rockstar’s help I have to sit there awhile to finish (and at the next table I hear an uncle with a salt-and-pepper bushy moustache remark “That little girl ate a third of her breakfast…” There are no little girls in the restaurant. Just in case, this un-little girl struggles to eat as much as she can – I feel bad about wasting a lot of food anyway and it’s delicious. But so huge.)

Rockstar gets a coffee so he doesn’t fall asleep and miss things again

(No, not really – he doesn’t even take juice regularly, but he is in charge of stirring the milk and sugar in our coffee – which is as close as he’ll get to Yucky Grownup Drinks… Beer and Wine have also received this accolade…)

We look up, as about 8 young boy scouts and their teacher troop in… The boys debate for awhile, but then they leave – we overhear, “Hey we can’t afford that, everything is like, 10 dollars!” N-ot completely true, but quite a few (humongous-sized) items were about USD 10…

Then Rockstar finally gets that haircut. Only his Second Proper Haircut Ever (first was in Lam Tin) …As someone holds their dog up in the window to get a better look (yes really).

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Significant Conversation #102

Posted on December 20, 2010 by admin

“Just One Time” with my phone (it’s always “Just One”…)

Rockstar: I want your iPhone.

Me: No darling, you’ve had it the whole day

(In fact I took a lot less pictures because he was watching his previous day’s antics on my iPhone)

Rockstar: I want it, I need it. Pleeeeease.

Me: It’s bedtime, why don’t I read you your Mr Men books in the room?

Rockstar: I don’t have a choice.

We had a quiet night… Yumsome home-made pasta by Kings and Whatever Was On TV… (While Rockstar wandered around the apartment and ran rings round an armchair – he doesn’t TV for long stretches at a time Praise the Lord)

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San Francisco Through The Eyes Of A Rockstar ( Part 1 – Fisherman’s Wharf and Aquarium Of The Bay)

Posted on December 19, 2010 by admin

Self Portrait Out Of Boredom

Bright yellow (not blonde) mohawk with suit will always get Mom’s attention…

We feel like dancing as someone plays in front of the Christmas tree at Fisherman’s Wharf for tips…

Money can’t buy happiness, but USD 4.95 can get you pretty darn close…

(As your Mummy finds you and gasps at the Giant Lunch Spoiler, a passing auntie chuckles… She must be a grandmum…)

Not that it keeps us from enjoying a great seafood lunch… Rockstar exchanges niceties with a little Latin American girl clutching a Barbie at the next table…

In another store, the middle-aged Asian shopkeeper asks, “Are you Chinese?”

We’re Malaysians who’ve also lived in Singapore and then spent almost 7 years in Hong Kong.

“I’m from Hong Kong!” She immediately switches to Cantonese. Her Caucasian colleague doesn’t understand a word. I respond half in English (most of the time that’s what my Cantonese is like anyway)

“Does everyone learn Putonghua nowadays? What with China’s influence…”

Umm, did you say you were from Hong Kong or China, do you speak Putonghua? (We ask because her Cantonese is heavily accented, though she doesn’t speak it like most Mainlanders or Taiwanese we’ve met)

She blinks with a mild flicker of annoyance, “Hong Kong.”

Rockstar is taking one-on-one Putonghua classes twice a week, but while many Hongkies can also speak Putonghua (with varying degrees of fluency and accuracy in terms of the accent), it’s still a pretty Canton plac, I answer cautiously

She looks sufficiently mollified. But then she chatters on in Cantonese – so much so it’s a little hard to actually shop in her store and we’re a little uncomfy about her companion who doesn’t understand the conversation, so we beat a quick retreat

It wasn’t that uncommon for people to yell at the pigeons…

(In Hong Kong, they don’t say anything to them – but then they impose a HKD 1,500 fine for feeding them like so…)

Then into Aquarium Of The Bay… It’s not bad, with two underground tunnels, beautiful jellies, informative guides who walk us quickly through the different areas… Though Rockstar balks at touching one of the rayfish in the petting tank “too cold!”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wjKBaQNh1k]

Rockstar meets rude sea star…

(At feeding time, we learn not to call them “Starfish”… And did you know they push their guts out to digest food before sucking everything back into themselves?)

Some of the best things in life (like chasing seagulls off the pier) are still free… After Daddy bought the air ticket, that is…

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On The Eve Of Yet Another Great Expedition

Posted on December 18, 2010 by admin

On The Eve Of Yet Another Great Expedition, Mum of Rockstar (kinda like Bride of Frankenstein) re-discovers her bizarre dependency on Ziploc bags…

(She Ziplocs everything, from ultra-low alcohol Mucky Pups hand foam from Bumps to Babes, to industrial strength disinfectant in dispenser bottles for spraying coffee shop tables, to extra change of clothes and a blanket/ towel for Rockstar for the 11 1/4 hour long-haul flight)

AIrports and planes and pretty much anywhere lotsa travellers congregate bring out Mum of Rockstar’s crazy in the worst way… Because she remembers ex-colleagues from London (she spent quite a bit of her work life in British banks) dropping by with a mild sniffle that would floor the Hong Kong office, British bugs being different from Hongkie bugs we hadn’t built resistance to…

Also cafeteria tables as she watches chicken skin, pork bones and all manner of gristly remnants of an asian meal get spit on the table the auntie/uncle then wipes with the damp dingy rag that then also gets dragged across every other “clean” table top in the place…

And because Rockstar’s pediatrician assures us the chance of catching something in the recycled plane air is always going to be higher and we may as well be resigned to it…

Into yet another Ziploc goes baby panadol, cough syrup, cold medicine, medicated skin cream, insect bite medication… Not because we think we are flying to an unhabited part of Siberia but because we don’t want the inconvenience of driving around looking for the right medication during the holiday season if we can help it…

(So Accidental Tourist right…)

(But in case you think Mum of Rockstar has gone completely round the bend, she should point out JD the border collie sleeps in our bedroom and is often found fighting for toys with Rockstar… Or accepting dog treats and snacks from his fingers – she draws the line at potential flus that can ruin Yet Another Great Expedition… or kill people)

Doesn’t this look at least a bit like KLIA? Except with chinese words…

Oh. Reproachful look from the mens… She has to put her iPhone away now… But not for long…

We fly around 2pm Hong Kong time, and will land around 10am San Francisco time… Jetlag City. So we start moving Rockstar’s clock from the morning before we fly:

9am: Leave Rockstar to sleep in while we pack; I intend to do away with his mid-day nap

2.15pm: Keep him occupied so he doesn’t fall asleep the moment the plane is in the air (he loves the humming and is due for a nap)

3.45pm: Put Rockstar down for a sleep – only instead of a nap, it’s going to be his “all-night” sleep. With about 91/2 hours left on the flight, Rockstar should wake 10am San Fran time as though he’s slept the whole previous night in San Fran.

And finally we reached San Francisco (the beautiful city of California)….

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKr8TN5qqtg]

He does.

(Unfortunately, Kings doesn’t)

After camping out in a Starbucks to get our bearings…

We finally find our way to the building… Lotsa bicycles…

What on earth is this scary thing in the lift lobby?

And into the apartment…

Look out the window…

And miss JD…

Some coincidence there’s a picture of a border collie in this place…

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Bowl Of Noodles At Regal Hotel

Posted on December 17, 2010 by admin

Kings’ friends and business partners have actually stayed here quite happily before, but this is my first time stepping into the lobby… on erm, a stealth mission <cue music>

We’re considering changing helpers, because our current one can’t seem to stop feeding the family expired/ bad food among other things and has to be very heavily supervised at all times…

(We didn’t fire her because that we know of she doesn’t steal – though she still cost me a medical bill for food poisoning before we realized she had been lying about being able to read expiry dates, all the many months and several times we had taught her to do the grocery shopping and she had said she understood…)

Christmas decorations are in…

We’re not sure, and risk current helper ‘tude, hence the need for discretion while we have a think… I wouldn’t mind just a day help to come in and clean or cook actually, but Kings wants someone else in the house when he does his travelling for work, because his only child might be stuck alone in an apartment with a wife who is incapacitated with say, food poisoning or something (touch wood)…

Umm, maybe there might be some concern in there for his only wife too…

Regal Hotel in the Causeway Bay area has a nice lobby/ cafe near the maid agency, so Rockstar could hang out after church last Sunday with Wantan noodles while we interviewed at the next table…

A common sight on Sunday, this one thru the hotel windows, as helpers have picnics under or on overhead bridges…

And by the roads…

The main HSBC in Central (closed on a Sunday) would be way more crowded, and as far as I know, there aren’t maid agencies near there…

The agency won’t allow us to meet helpers outside their offices without supervision, so the very few (since it’s a hotel cafe and we’re obviously interviewing we try to keep it at a minimum) helpers we meet must be chaperoned.

Views from the random car park we swing into on our stealth mission

We find Hong Kong, touch wood, pretty safe – otherwise we would be quite worried about our helper unsupervised in our home. But we did notify building security…

Where we live has close circuit camera surveillance so tight, a friend’s son whose red “ferrari” pedal car disappeared at one of the indoor playgrounds was retrieved, despite the playground being frequented by residents of maybe thousands of units in our development.

When they found the pedal car missing, my friend sat for several hours watching the surveillance tapes. The 6-ish year old Aussie boy who had walked in by himself and left with the car was tracked to the exact (of the maybe thousands of) unit(s) and the guard knocked on the door to ask for the car back.

Bully for cameras, because the boy who took the car was convincing. His parents, who were at work, were really sorry.

Unrelated to any of the above, one of my ex-colleague’s helpers didn’t come home one Sunday after packing her bags and taking about HKD 8,000 in jewelry, for which my ex-colleague made a police report. The helper was caught and jailed several months, by her employer’s water cooler account…

I guess some do get away with it, but it’s nice to hear stories where they get caught.

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How To Buy Yourself 5 Extra Minutes Of Almost-Peace When Your Rockstar Is Around

Posted on December 16, 2010 by admin

You will need:

Balloon, string, banister or something else to attach balloon and string to so your child can chase it around safely

Directions:

1. Blow up balloon (I used to carry one of those beach balls sold in Wellcome in my handbag but leftover Christmas party balloon and tinsel (or in this case something from Zaia) are better, can attach it so child and balloon stay in one place)

2. Attach balloon + string

3. Apply as needed*

*May work even better with more than 1 rockstar.

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