Remember when Ross on Friends dressed for Halloween as The First Russian Satellite + A Potato? (Sputnik + potato spud = Spudnik? Come On, Sympathy Laugh? Anyone?)
pic transposters.tumblr.com
It was Dress Up As A Book Character Day in school recently, and so colourful pictures of numerous wonderful personalities our kids read about abound. And then there’s the other stuff: When kids want to wear what they want to wear instead, they’re gonna find the most wonderful arguments for why. Rockstar’s one of ’em.
Guess which “book character” Rockstar was?
Gameknight999. *crickets chirping*
He argues this is very different from diamondranger-whatever-number who graced his school Halloween, because one is a book character, while the other is a gamer tag.
Wait, what?
pic from goodreads.com
Gameknight is the character from a series of – yes, really – gaming novels that people write in yet another exploitation manifestation of gaming fever, our kids’ generation. There are a. lot. of these things. Writers of tween and young adult stories caught on to the rabid world of gaming trend, even as popular gaming Youtubers also branch off into writing novels. We’ve got gaming-inspired playing cards, gaming-themed birthdays (and THEN some, because God forbid you organise something that makes your kid look uncool), an army of rockstar-esque gaming Youtubers that would usurp Middle Earth based on numbers alone, collectible vinyl figurines, wrapping paper, clothing, lunch bags, back packs… why not the books?
pic from amazon.com
Stampy for e.g., is at least as popular as a Youtuber as he is in the book series. (We haven’t read this particular series because Rockstar is so-so about the character.) Anyway, you will find gazillions of these on fishpond.com and amazon.com. Headsup, don’t just buy the books cos your kid loves the gaming characters and it is. A. Book. (We almost did. And then I skimmed through a couple. Some are churned out so quickly that they’re rife with grammatical mistakes and typos.)
So anyway this is Gameknight boarding the bus. (Note he’s not carrying weaponry).
Why yes, around him are Antman, Darth Vader, a fireman…. Rockstar says Horrid Henry was particularly popular because…. yes. He carries Nerf guns. The “no props” rule covered light sabers, regular as well as water Nerfs (apparently Water-Nerf Kid had his gear confiscated before you could say Dennis The Menace), though Harry Potters were mostly allowed to keep their wands “Because they don’t do anything except light up.”
Still don’t understand how come no one went as a Hobbit <facepalms>…
Rockstar: …there was also Iron Man….
Me: Isn’t that from a comic? (Not serious; like the gamer novels, they have Avengers, Transformers, Ninjago etc readers nowadays)
Rockstar: <ignores> and Batman…
Me: Also a comic.
Rockstar: <ignores> Think I saw Captain America…
Miss: <happily, automatically> Issa comic!
Me: They’re all comics! You guys’ll exploit any chance to try and get away with whatever you want to wear anyway. (Rockstar had badly wanted to wear his diamond ore t-shirt to school.) And did anyone even know who you were? (Rockstar brought one of the books along in case he was asked).
Rockstar: No one asked. Everyone just called me “Crafting Table.”(His t-shirt has a crafting recipe on it. And don’t get me started about how his friends all recognise this like it’s…. normal.)
Me: Which is technically not a book character either.
The Miss has a large menagerie and exotic zoo of stuffed animals, not to mention a collection of stuffed toy cats named “Cat”. This one however is named “Wan Chai” after a friend’s rescued cat (yes, from Wan Chai) who goes by the same name, just because the real cat really does look like this toy.
The Miss has a current habit of taking her stuff out of their storage places and well, leaving things around – which is how Wan Chai got left in Margaret River in a swathe of blankets. He’s quite easily replaceable, as most kiddie items should be (because otherwise you are really setting yourself up for heartbreak and heartburn.) However, the nice people who rented us the place (yes, and who have Hongkie neighbours in the next ulu holiday home) emailed wanting to send the cat back.
And so we told the Miss what really happened (because otherwise we’d just leave her to forget haha) This had the unexpected effect, bearing in mind the Miss can say just about anything, of Wan Chai finding its way into conversations:
Miss: Mum! <running around brandishing air pistols> Ko-ko and I shot all the aliens! Wan Chai was watching from Heaven!
“Every time I step on the field, I know people are saying ‘that is David Beckham’s son’, and if I’m not as good as you, then I’m not good enough.” -son to dad.
Been absolutely ages since I did one-a these – write a themed linkie with views about what’s popular in the world today…
Also as an ode to the people I wish had stayed in the market (whom, if they read this, would say “Huh. Why you wish this on mee.” 😀 One of my most beloved seniors quit the industry while I was at a bank in Singapore, showing me the resignation letter he was about to submit to the bosses. I put it in the shredder. (So many people out there from 6-7 banks thanks to 3 mergers in my previous work lifetime – I have shredded one resignation letter so Yes, You Should Feel Special. 😉
My senior let me do it that time, but eventually reprinted a copy. His dad at the time was a very well-respected high-achieving securities trader/investor at another investment house, and so my senior told me he himself spent a lot of effort trying not to be one,despite a fair amount of natural talent in forex and equity trading – his is still the best, most effective reasoning I use for equity flow derivatives, years later in HK. And then he had to run as fast and as hard as he could in any other direction, because Beckham’s Son Phenomenon. “If you do well, people say it’s because of your dad. If you don’t do well, people say……………….. <trails off> You can’t win.”
My senior had such a loyalty and integrity that was as tough as nails – the market is poorer, for his choice of another career path. Yet sometimes it can have very little to do with actual ability –technically if you’re high-achieving, your kids would likely be predisposed to inherit a little of it right, IQ is at least partially hereditary… However personality can play a much bigger role.
Some kids follow in their parents’ footsteps and are happy and fulfilled doing so… and then for other kids it’s like pulling teeth. And while nurture can do so much, it can only do so much. Some kids are naturally resilient to certain pressures. Some might not even seethe social pressures that for others can be devastating.
Do you tell kids, growing up, their dad is Ultimate Soccer Dad? Or do you let them find out someday in the papers after they’re Awesome Soccer Newcomer? Social Media makes that choice nearly impossible, in some fields, today. For e.g., there is just no way you can grow up being David Beckham’s kid and not know it.
Nowadays, you have more articles about the additional pressures on the kids of high-achieving parents – not because the parents actually have unreasonable expectations, but simply because the parents are high-achieving. (In December 2015 when asked again about his son’s decision to quit soccer, David Beckham was quoted, “Part of me was devastated but part of me was relieved, too.”)
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2) Know what Peter Buffet, son of Warren Buffet’s chosen career path is? Musician. Composer. (And of course also philanthropist 🙂
pic from amazon.com
Son of billionaire investor dad in Life Is What You Make It describes true privilege as being given the chance to choose his calling – HOLD ON DON’T SCREAM AT ME – with nurturing guidance along the way. (Ok now you can scream :D) True privilege is yes, freedom of choice but NOT foolish choices. One of my friends encouraged her niece (she doesn’t have kids of her own) to pursue the career in music that she wanted (which my friend supports financially as well) BUT not to focus on being a performer. Her niece also takes modules towards the study of music as therapy for special needs kids. Because parents will always strive to give their kids the best – in any market and economy. Because however you may not invest or buy property or etc during say, a bad economy, your kids reach college-age regardless how the economy is doing and you’re always going to strive to give them the best education opportunities you can.
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3) Mr Gump wasn’t kidding about them Chocolates In Life – You never know what you’re gonna get. That includes um, kids 🙂 Their personalities. Their strengths and weaknesses (and well, they’re kinda stuck with yours too.)
pic from wikipedia.org
Love Forrest Gump – I find it an incredibly inspiring story about a child who tests a few points shy of the minimum IQ requirements to attend a normal school. (i.e., “nature”.) Despite the initially icky way he gets into normal school (it is, after all, a comedy), “surviving” in that school environment and later on in the rest of the world particularly has a lot to do with the attitude he is raised with (hence, “nurture.”)
I linkie-ed him before, he’s a Thalidomide baby – back then I wrote how he described how the doctors don’t initially bring him to his mother because they don’t know what to do or what she will: “5 hours.. She’s convinced I’m dead.” His mother’s first reaction to seeing him, “…Open, open, open (the blankets) …she looked at me and said she looked into the eyes of… an old friend..”
At a time when your child is vulnerable, needs a parent’s unconditional love, your attitude towards things in life can really affect how your child turns out (PUH-RESSURE!!)
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4) Cringeworthy, risky…. extremely courageous. NOT advocating this (moot for me anyway since Rockstar really, really hates anything remotely “girly”) – but respecting the guts behind it anyway: 8 Year Old Wanted To Learn Makeup And His Mum Bought Him A Lesson.
Can you tell which half of his face is done by the professional makeup artist and which half is done by 8 year old him?
A thing about Life Is What You Make It comes to mind; Peter Buffet described an incredibly involved (who was still discreet) mum during his schooling, even as his dad went on to achieve investment greatness – this makeup kid’s got talent, it’s how you nurture it. See beyond the 8-year-old-boy-wearing-beautifying-makeup to the ability to mimic an adult professional makeup artist’s brush strokes and colours. Because I don’t think I can do this. And I did stage makeup as an extracurricular in uni (I know hard to tell, looking at me 😀 I just wanted the ECA points towards securing a good hostel room back then) – and more than half the stage makeup team were straight, macho, ball-sports-playing guys who were nonetheless really good at learning stage makeup. (I was in a three-quarters-male sports hall and yeah the guys wanted the ECA points too))
Ethan and mum
Ethan’s mum writes, “This does not define his gender identity nor his sexual preference. He’s just exploring and being a kid! We as parents should be our children’s greatest cheerleaders.”
It takes a lot more guts and character to be the parent of the Forrest Gumps and Makeup Ethans and Mat Frasers of the world than it does to be the parent of some high-achieving, straight-A-scoring, fits-all-the-socially-desirable-standards individual-who-is-some-“boon”-to-our-flawed-society…. and who is just an absolute competitive @sshole.
Uh… thought for the week ahead?
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5) Ok not really, more like my shout out and mild surprise that that there exists a Longreads article titled The League of Extraordinary @ssholes that opens with a reference to the Korean heiress daughter of the airline chairman behaving badly and serving 10 months, also makes references to @ssholes: A Theory by Aaron James. I disagree with a large part of the article, where bad behaviour comes with privilege. Rather, there are a lot more average/ less-privileged, who do behave badly and can write about the relatively much fewer privileged who still fail spectacularly at considerate behaviour.
Also, the risk of raising a child spoiled by privilege is something many are already all too aware of; but less so the risk of raising a child who sees incredibly big shoes they fear never being able to fill.
Being a jerk itself is catching, and as simple (and very easy in Hong Kong) as say, crossing the street – whether you are pedestrian or driver of big car (I realise Monday morning work crush happening in a few more hours).
And so Rockstar skit is How To Catch A Star. I love animals for kids because of the simplicity of it – treat another living thing well, for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do.
Twinkle twinkle little starfish
Find your starfish, go out in to the world a changed person this week 😉
Was asked what the Miss’ reaction was to being bitten by that parrot in one of the petting zoos in Margaret River…
This would be it. (Not one tear. Or word. For once.)
What’s the Miss thinking?
a) Fry the thing – Kentucky Fried Parrot for lunch!
b) Can’t believe that really happened.
c) I still want one!
Here’s the cut:
After maybe an hour (and Dettol antiseptic cream)
And here’s the culprit:
Petting zoo attendant called him “The Ratbag”
He wasn’t very interested in carrots. But then the Miss offered him a cabbage leaf and he suddenly pecked at it much harder. Then as we rushed her off with the bleeding finger he kept going, “Hello. Hello…. Hello…” After we cleaned the wound, both kids came back to look at the bird
Rockstar: Why does he keep saying ‘Hello’?
Me: I don’t think he knows ‘Sorry’.
Epilogue:
Rockstar: <snorts and refuses to feed any more birds>
Miss: <carries on feeding everything with her other hand but petting zoo lady discourages her from trying to feed “Ratbag” again>
..and then Rockstar’s horse bit me. She didn’t mean to, you understand, she was trying to bite the Miss’ horse.
My favourite memory of the trip thus far. NO IRONY. This one’ll go down along with the Trying Not To Die On Skis one where I’m pretty sure the ski instructor gave up on me <proud> 😀 But first to the ponies, and then to a convoluted point.
It turned out, according to the proprietor, the two ponies “bicker like children” (NOW he tells us) and so while passing each other they exchanged snappy jaw movements just when my leg was in the way. Fortunately I was wearing jeans, and so this is the initial bite mark:
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (Ok maybe a little smaller :D)
I didn’t even take a pic of the 1-2 inch purple bruising after a few days – beyond the initial feeling of being pinched in hedge cutters which happens so fast, it’s like any other big purple bruise. Just very happy that through the jeans there was no broken skin.
This riding school btw gets school trip visits from as far away as Singapore – the proprietor names a well-known international school who recently had their 14-15 year olds here on camp. Some of Rockstar’s friends and classmates back in HK also ride, in nearby Pok Fu Lam, and apart from that I heard it’s also a SEN (Special Education Needs) activity. For both Rockstars however, this one’s a first – we hadn’t been able to make riding playdates during busy school weeks.
I love animals very much. As an only child whose family moved from Sandakan to Penang after primary school, the constant parade of animals through our home was a lifesaver. I believe in the therapeutic ability of animals. It’s why a Golden Retriever/ Lab trained to sniff out cancer cells is a far more user-friendly detector than some of the heaps of expensive medical equipment. Technology is one thing, people terrified of a terrible disease choosing to get tested is quite another. When early detection is one of the biggest factors to survival, getting someone to agree to have tests regularly is vital. When science continues to struggle with curing cancer particularly in advance stages, it can surely devote some resources also to early detection. But I digress.
Leaning against those ponies was the most wonderful, therapeutic feeling. My best friend in secondary school used to ride, but well we always had different favourite animals and I only watched her riding from afar. When I visited her one Raya, she brought me also to the home of one of the attendants who took care of her horses. We were served horsemeat because an old animal had had to be put down. It was the kinder thing to do and they didn’t want to then waste the meat. Old Horse is incredibly tough and tasteless, even with rendang sauces, it is not… a young baby animal whose meat has been tenderised.
Growing up, I had wanted to be a vet for the longest time – me and this other Chindian friend of mine who boasted two vet parents. Neither of us became vets because I couldn’t imagine a bad day at work being unable to save abused animals, seeing first hand how ugly some human beings could be; her because…. I don’t know, I didn’t ask her, but she’s a surgeon-in-training for human patients now. I don’t know if she specialises in non-life-threatening stuff, I don’t think I can handle a bad day at work telling someone’s family I couldn’t save their loved one either. Plastic surgery, hey now that’s a thought 😀
You might wonder why I’m fine with the Horse Who Accidentally Bit Me. It was because in the past I never really got to know horses that well. The erm, reaction of the horse after realising she bit the wrong party was….. Whoops. (Fine, more like Oh Cr*p I’m In Deep Sh*t Now) I Shall Pretend I Didn’t Do That. Neither horse snapped at each other at all, after that.
A ship in the harbour is safe, I used to write in commentary to RMs… But…. It’s not what ships are built for. (In other words, so too investments.) Yet neither do ships leave the harbour without checking the weather forecast first. (Research!)
Or, nowadays, handle animals for the benefits, be aware of ornery ones who bite – but do your best to avoid it?
The Miss got bitten by a parrot. That one drew blood, even from a tiny cut. Though there was a sign saying “be careful, I bite,” the Miss that time WASN’T messing with the bird, she was feeding it. I’d trolled the holidays-half-opened pharmacies for Dettol Antiseptic Cream. They didn’t even have that in the first aid box of the petting zoo where she got bitten, “The birds don’t have any diseases,” …but we were carrying our own disinfectants and creams. It should also be noted that we were repeatedly encouraged at the farms to have the kids feed the animals from their fingers, not from the buckets, not by throwing the food on the ground. (But honestly I don’t trust beaks <sheepish>)
2 of our family members have been bitten by animals this trip; 1 of em is in this picture. (So too the animal). Who, what, where, why? Stay tuned 🙂
Happy New Year, everyone. May 2016 be filled with fun, fortune… and fascinations. May we never stop finding new things to be intrigued by, new skills to learn.
We drive up to an ulu cabin-looking place in the middle of field up field, for Christmas 2015. The Miss… misses a first view of the house. There are no fences around any of the properties we pass, this one included, even as we drive for hours along the way. Maybe just a couple low ones to keep the cows and horses from wandering.
We park the Miss on a random sofa and proceed to unpack the 10 thousand things that come with travelling with two little kids. I never engage a helper, and we have no cleaning service for the duration of the stay. Some people would consider this mild insanity for the holidays. I consider it not a holiday <shrugs>. (Let’s call it instead Christmas Season 🙂
I once watched this mum in Hong Kong finish parking a large family-sized vehicle, then hop out seemingly effortlessly in workout gear, with a car-safe baby basket on one arm and a younger pacifier-ed toddler clutching a bear and holding her other hand. Capes must simply not be in fashion with tank top and yoga pants.
Not like we are without help, the Miss soon wakes, and after the prerequisite loud fussing mourning the end of yet another deep narcoleptic sleep, she takes charge of a Christmas tree our landlords have very thoughtfully put up.
(We brought just a couple gifts especially for the kids – Rockstar won one of the most coveted prizes in his school PTA Fundraiser draw just before the holidays, and we kinda didn’t need to get him much else by way of gifts after that, haha. Just as well, because Kings initially brought back one of those motorised skateboard-looking things you stand and “float” about on, and then there was all that press about one of them made in China ones (ok fine loads of these things are going to be cheaply made in China) setting an apartment on fire, gutting the entire place, because of a faulty charger. Made headlines.)
Other than that, Nerf Fight Selfie.
In the distance is another cabin-house which the landlord has told us is the holiday home of a Hongkie couple. We attempt one walk around the property, during which the Miss points out, “poop!” I remember just once seeing an Asian lady with her little dog and figure Ah, must be the dog. Except, 50 feet and more poop later, a bunch of wild kangaroos hop by.
Except, they soon spot us, kids and all, and eventually all of them have turned as one, and are motionlessly staring at us.
That’s when we turn back and watch them hop on their merry way – from the deck.
