Sunday Afternoon With The Rockstars

Posted on March 3, 2013 by admin

Sometimes in life we are faced with hard choices… Do I write the lengthy, soul-searching angsty post about some imagined slight or crappy childhood incident, or do I post a bunch of cute kiddie pics. This is hard.

Yeah actually I didn’t have time to write anything – Kings is on a long weekend business trip and Rockstar wasn’t in school Friday because of “3-way conference,” which is basically parent-teacher conference where the child is also involved (no, I wouldn’t mention performance on the blog even if/when I talk about it – Rockstar’s getting older and I know I initially said don’t care about waiving that particular privacy, but then we were in San Fran that Christmas and there was a big bullying story in The States and that’s when we went back and scrubbed things off the blog). In other words I haven’t actually written anything since last Thursday, a situation about to be prolonged by a further day as I exploit pictures of my children in lieu of a post until I can pack the older one off to school come Monday Wheeee! Hope Springs Eternal the other will be on a Good Nap Day tomorrow.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon with the Rockstars. This btw, was all Rockstar’s idea. She likes to pull his hair or t-shirt and he hates it, but every once in awhile I’ll look at these two and think How Did I Get So Blessed?

Rockstar: Look, Ms Rockstar! Purple cup, blue cup! Which is the purple cup?

Ms Rockstar: PPFFFFFFFTTTTT! 

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Friday Facts And Fiction

Posted on March 1, 2013 by admin

Believe it or not, dis is not photoshopped

1) Wanna find out how they did it? Read Raccoon Photo’s comments in Flickr.

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Dis is a corn husk dress from Project Runway's Dress From $50 At Grocery Store challenge

2) 10 Best/Worst Reality TV Fashion Challenges. (Pic from tieba.baidu.com)

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3) My favorite this week:

“After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. …….You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that.”

Arguably the most respectable memo from a canned CEO ever. If there was ever a better way for Andrew Mason, former Groupon CEO to make people feel a little NOOOO GET HIM BACK!!

Or, Someone Get The Cat Off His Head. pic from vanityfair.com

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4) Contrast that with Michael Moynihan’s Our Insincere, Pointless Cult Of Apology. He did not mention Lance Armstrong, so I’m not sure what this is really about (like, how can you write an article about this without mentioning the guy), except there’s something about another journalist. But there, the words Insincere and Pointless.

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On another note,

5) The Daily Beast’s (reader-nominated) 25 Most Overlooked Colleges. Thought some of the efforts were interesting and unusual.

6) Because college money is always well spent – Spiderman’s web really could stop a car. 3 UK physicists researched the Darwin’s Bark Spider based on the proportions in the Spiderman 2 movie. I mention because Rockstar wants to know how much of these movies can be real.

Dat is not a car Toby Maguire is stopping. See? College education... (pic from geekosystem.com)

(The radioactive spider in Spiderman, Tony Stark’s inventing genius in Iron Man, Superman’s super powers, the aliens and Jedi in Star Wars… Once, it was the real purpose of Captain America (did you guys know he was at some of his most popular at wartimes? For obvious reasons, but it’s a good illustration and some interesting conversations with kids, how current conditions in society (fact) create certain kinds of fiction…)

7) Speaking of which, 11 health dilemmas and experts’ suggestions. Not just your average olive-oil-is-a-good-fat article, this one addresses questions like “If your only choice of protein is also high in saturated fats, do you eat it, skip it, eat a bit?” and “If you had a late night, do you catch up on sleep or push on with your early morning workout?” (Oh, and almonds are mentioned in several answers – totally recommend!) AND “Should you Google your symptoms?”

Darn I don’t have enough pictures. Ok here goes:

  

Fact: The water baby finding endless pleasure with Shower and Bath. I’m still surprised she wasn’t born with actual gills.

Good weekend…

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Rockstarism #251 – We Do Times Since We Want To Do Crimes

Posted on February 28, 2013 by admin

#251

Me: One of your friends told me you got benched in PE. What was that about?

Rockstar: I don’t remember.

Me: I know you do. Come on, tell me, what did you do?

Rockstar: I was talking to (classmate).

Me: You guys were benched for talking when you weren’t supposed to be talking?

Rockstar: No, only me.

Me: How come?

Rockstar: I was talking more.

Me: <stifling a snort> More good news for me. And why was that?

Rockstar: I really, really wanted to know if it was Germany or London that he said he was going to at Easter. So I kept asking him.

Me: And I suppose he knew to stop talking when you guys were supposed to stop, and you didn’t. And you were just asking and asking until you got caught for talking.

Rockstar: No, I know we’re not supposed to talk. But I really, really wanted to know if it was Germany or London.

Me: So you got benched.

Rockstar: <sheepish> Yeah.

Me: <?? fishing for contrition> Which is what happens if you don’t follow instructions.

Rockstar: Yeah. Fine. <shrugs> I really really wanted to know –

Me: <mild dismay> No. No, it’s not fine. The punishment is there so you don’t do the crime, they don’t want you to talk. It’s not like you exchange punishment for getting to talk. Burglars don’t go up to policemen and say “Ok, I want to steal a few things now, so you can just jail me after.” You’re just not supposed to steal.

(Rockstar looks dubious. Maybe my analogy. Burglars actually don’t do that because they lie about it. Ok, bad analogy.)

Me: You didn’t get an answer anyway right, because your friend knew to stop talking? So you may as well not talk?

Rockstar: Oh. Yeah. Hee.

Me: And anyway I don’t want to get into trouble with your friend’s mum because I have The Boy Who Got Her Child In Trouble. No one else might want to get benched except you.

Rockstar: <like I’m stupid> Which is wh-y, he-didn’t-talk. 

Me: Y-eah. Ok. Can you please. Work. On. NOT talking. When you are not. Supposed. To be talking.

Rockstar: Hee hee hee. 

Me: I’m serious... I’ll add something to it if I hear any more – we can always cut Youtube time if you need help remembering.

Rockstar: Oh, yeah. O-kayyy… 

Smartypants in new favorite Gangnam Style t-shirt one of his friends gave him from Phuket

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Living And Dying By The Breast Pump

Posted on February 26, 2013 by admin

Stick em up (pic from product review.com.au)

Several days ago, having checked on the kids in the living room and given the helper feeding instructions for the baby, I went into the bedroom with my breastpump. About 10 minutes later, a little thump on the floor, which I can just make out through the closed door. At first I think it’s a toy, but as the baby cries and cries, that sickening feeling of fear creeps in and I rush out.

Our helper had failed to secure the seatbelt on the feeding chair before turning her back on the baby to mix her rice cereal. In what was probably her first attempt at a jailbreak, Little Miss was successful. (I can imagine everyone making a mental note to put all the buckles on now, even if they’ve never seen their baby trying to climb out of the chair either. You totally should.)

First off: baby’s fine. The helper says she fell on her head, which of course terrified the hell out of us – that Baby Bjorn feeding chair is high and the floor hard – but aside from a little redness that I couldn’t even see but Kings said was there when he first held her, before it disappeared soon after, we couldn’t find any other marks on her head to indicate a fall. In retrospect I think her first point of contact with the floor was not her head after all, thank God. The helper’s back had been turned, she must have only seen the baby already on the floor.

After the “expected” stuff happened – helper crying hysterically, me yelling but not losing it at first, calmly telling the helper no tears can fix it if something happens so she really has to not be careless, then totally losing it when the helper, having calmed down, starts with the excuses, “only left her for a few minutes,” and “it happened so fast” – I couldn’t get over the sick, weak-kneed feeling. I was weak-kneed for a long time.

I was home. It’s not even like I go in to work anymore. It was 10 minutes in the next room. And my baby still fell off that chair.

So heartsick.

Especially when the helper went on to say she “never” dropped any of the 4 kids she cared for in Singapore. All I could think was (you never dropped any of those kids and you complain all the time they were ill-behaved and you never got to go out on Sundays and here you dropped my precious baby???)

That night was when the depression started. I’ve just been riding it out, I’m pretty sure it’s heavily hormone-related because I got so freaked out I couldn’t get the milk out even after 2.5 hours pumping non-stop into the night, alternating ice packs and hot towels Kings would hand me from the microwave in between Jet Li/ Stephen Chow/ Jackie Chan channel hopping, til my skin burned red.

Boy, it’s like you live and die by the breast pump. You know that has to be it, and yet you’re all We All Die In The End What’s The Point. That little lump that hurts so bad… is just…. there. A little hunk of pain and misery in your flesh. The stress of knowing if it doesn’t come out it’s going to come out – in a needle. And it’s simply not unclogging because first, you have to unclog your mind. I learned that from The Night Of Hot Towels, Ice Packs And Channel Hopping By Kings.

I went online to our church website and listened to a sermon. I shit you not, that is how I got myself unclogged. I was desperate, it was that or That Time One Of My Beloved Friends And Breastfeeding Champions Had To Have A Needle Inserted To Draw The Milk Out. Or That Other Time One Of My Other Beloved Friends And Breastfeeding Champions Got That Blister Thing.

Oh, and I’m not linking the sermon because I’m not sure how the pastor is going to feel about me unclogging myself by listening to his sermon. (But for the record it was not something related to breastfeeding or unclogging one’s self.) But it will tell you a thing or two about how powerful the mind is. (And a thing or two about good sermons <shrugs>.)

So I’m unclogged. For now. Obviously I don’t ever want to be that clogged up again, which is scary, when I’m wondering about beginning to wind down my pumping – Little Miss just loooooves solid food (but is way more picky than the bro – you can’t serve her the same meal twice and so it’s a juggle of baby food jars and huge reliance on her meals diary whereas we didn’t even keep one for the bro and even now he can eat the same thing for dinner day in, day out, 5 days a week, no problem) but interestingly has also made the connection between Walking Milk Machine (a.k.a. Mummee) and breast pump and her bottles, so every time she sees me pumping she wants a taste. Which is kinda cute because she’ll roll her way up to me on the bed, into my lap, (still no crawling yet but she can support herself standing quite well) and try to chomp on the bottle until she gets a taste.

But at some point it occurred to me the pumping was taking me away from my kids (oh, the irony!)

Little Miss about to kick her way out of the little space in between the mattress and bay window which we put her in to keep her from rolling everywhere

And so we ran a distraction...

 

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50 kg

Posted on February 26, 2013 by admin

It’s after CNY, umpteen Penang goodies later, and then I remembered I forgot to keep up the weight updates. Remember posts like Not Quite The Biggest Loser? And this:

Pre baby weight: 53kg

Pregnancy weight: 73.1kg

When I first got back from hospital: 67kg

(That’s for Little Miss – for Rockstar I put on even more – like, 25kg because him I carried couple weeks longer, with Little Miss we just barely made it to 37 weeks.)

So anyway a quick update that I’m around 50-1 kg now. I first hit pre-baby weight when Little Miss was around 5 1/2 months, and then a few bouts of coughs/colds later realized I’d overtaken that. I am now trying to maintain my weight around 52-53kg; it’s not a good sign for me when my weight keeps dropping, it means I’m getting rundown.

I’d be happy to take on a few of your pounds if there was some way we could swing it, rather than eat more cookies. I actually hate butter cookies. (I only like the pineapple filling in the traditional CNY ones). Am embarrassed to say the whole time I’m finishing up the remaining Penang goodies, the anal in me is saying “HOW bad is the oil/ butter/ whatever they use to make the pastry?” this is the really junky stuff they traditionally use to make these things right, which is why I usually don’t like to take more than a couple, the entire new year. And as for “sweets”, I only buy dark chocolate. (Y-eah not sure it counts, it’s not really sweet).

Never really had an “eating habit”, and then I got another idea ages ago from my unc and aunt who, being doctors, eat incredibly healthy – one day they remarked they couldn’t walk by a KFC without feeling nauseated. That got me thinking, because I have always thought the smell was quite yummy. But their remark really drove home how you can train your body not to want the bad stuff. Not wanting what you shouldn’t have too much of sounded like a great idea. Better than limiting yourself.

The other part is genetic – my mum at 66 and just under 5 ft 8 inches (yes the nickname my parents gave me, at just under 5 ft 7 inches, is “Shorty”) still drinks mostly full-fat milk several times a day and eats quite a few cookies because periodically she thinks losing too much weight makes her look gaunt. She had a metabolic rate so high when she was a teenager that her hands would shake from hunger in between meals, during growth spurts. Mine is not so bad (dad used to struggle with weight gain so it’s not like I only have “thin genes” in me, but ever since he turned my old room into his gym he’s quite the fitness nut) – if I wanted to put on, I’d just go eat KFC. (And so to this day I recommend NOT eating fast food esp KFC if you are trying to lose weight; btw soft drinks are probably an even bigger culprit… and um, I’ve never liked soft drinks either.) Except I really don’t think it’s healthy.

Therein lies the thing – I don’t like the majority of sweet things, nor do I like rich sauces (my KFC order is Zinger burger, no mayo. All my life I’ve loathed mayo. Decided that was a plus when I first learned it wasn’t good for you, so made a point to carry on hating it.) My only real vice is french fries/ potato chips, which I can still do without for months at a time without really noticing, and the occasional beer.

I should probably also mention in my late 20s I had my diet checked out (actually I might have mentioned this before). Back then I was a real Steak Girl – I grew up on steak and various other meats – and was also taking lotsa full-fat milk like my mum does. I went to see a dietician because I was still getting hunger pangs all the time. Planet Smoothie peanut butter shakes in between meals didn’t help. My weight? 54kg thereabouts. Finally I had my diet checked, and this is what they came up with:

No sugar (well d-uh, as little as possible – not too difficult for me but I insist on half a teaspoon with coffee; no Sweet n Low n what-not)

No dairy (this is a problem because I worry about Osteoporosis and love cheese but do limit intake)

No meat (to a former steak and burgers girl this was the toughest)

As many eggs as I want

As much seafood as I want (including oysters, shrimp)

This has something to do with my body specifically being able to handle foods that normally make your cholesterol shoot through the roof, but not being able to digest meat that efficiently.

So when I feel rundown/ tired, I inhale eggs. Lotsa eggs. NOT egg-whites, actual eggs. I can take like, 10 eggs a week, no problem. Yes I’ve had the blood tests done post-pregnancy and also for insurance purposes, results are alright (touch wood), eggs and all. Come to think of it my mum added 6 eggs and a very large glass of milk a day to her diet when she was pregnant with me. She was still underweight and I was a small baby.

Anyway the point (besides an update I promised ages ago about my baby weight) was, I totally recommend getting your diet habits checked out. I probably take in fewer calories today than I used to (except for the eggs) and I still don’t get hunger pangs. They don’t always tell you you can’t have anything. And they might tell you something very surprising about how your body metabolizes certain “no-nos” much better than others.

And don’t hate me, please – I’m married to someone who said to me during Rockstar’s pregnancy:

“Yes you are fat. How? Don’t want you loh. I go China find another one.”

(I know. You guys understand it just never occurred to Kings how that remark could be taken right… It’s like we have to be together, because if he’d married someone else, charmer that he is, by now he would, quite simply, be dead :D)

Random pic of 5.75lbs worth of weight loss at delivery

ps: My reaction to such weight-related comments is Wow. You Are In So Much Trouble If You Put On Weight, My Dear Husband. And last I remembered, you put on way easier than I do.

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Rockstarism #249 – Tiger Brother Chillin’ Miss

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

#249

Me: Look, Ms Rockstar, circle! A blue circle!

Rockstar: That’s not a circle. It’s a cylinder.

Me: Y-es, but how old were you when you learnt that? To her it’s a circle.

Rockstar: So why don’t you just teach her circles AND cylinders now?

Me: I thought I’d start with circles. How’m I supposed to explain the difference between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes to a baby? You just learnt, and you’re how old?

Rockstar makes no comment.

Me (carrying on with baby): Can we fit the circle in the right hole?

Rockstar (without looking up from what he’s doing): Cylinder.

Me (ignoring him): <encouragingly> Yes, that hole! Can we put the circle in?

Rockstar: Cylinder.

Me: <irritated – how come when I talk to him he doesn’t pay attention and then here he’s supposed to be playing with his own stuff and he’s butting in> Are you going to do that every time I say “circle”?

Rockstar: <shrugs> Maybe. If it’s a cylinder.

Me: Fine, how would you teach her shapes?

Rockstar (takes cylinder shape from me): <authoritatively> Ms Rockstar, this is a circle… AND A CYLINDER. Yes! A. Cylinder!

Chillin' Little Miss

Oh wait I chopped the tip of her tail off in that pic:

Here we go

 

ps: And I think he’s just gonna confuse her with “cylinder” <humph>.

 

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The Friday Inspiration Post

Posted on February 22, 2013 by admin

1) Harpers Bazaar US is my monthly fashion read of choice, because they have some erm, interesting photoshoots. This however………

Just so

The Monsters Of Fashion Exhibition In Paris

There was some mention after New York Fashion Week, about how some fashion bloggers deliberately dress to shock, post the photos. And then there are those considered “the real thing.” Heck, I just wanted an excuse to link Tavi Gevinson‘s blog. (She’s 15 now, started a magazine, but I first read a short article about her when she was 12 (some reports say 11. Whatever, same difference. Young, when she first was discovered as fashion blogger extraordinaire. (And really, the kid can write.)) Her parents only understood the extent of what she was doing up in her room on the internet when she asked for permission to be interviewed by The New York Times.

Says a lot about kids and the internet and a child’s hobby and talent.

Here’s another Cool Hobby By A Kid Which I Think Your Kid Might Love Too, that I’ve been meaning to link for some time:

Evantube. Rockstar used to love watching him but has currently run out of videos. Evan in the video above is 6; what I found cute were the Happy Birthday I Love Your Videos messages from other kids in the comments… And in case you’re wondering, he has a lotta Angry Birds videos that are wayyy more popular 😀

(Also, Rockstar insists on “liking” these things with my/Kings account, we really should get him his own account. In fact, he does his own videos too but wayy nothing that pro and I haven’t had the time to edit, upload or even create his own login yet <sheepish – I really should, he’d been asking for awhile…>)

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2) They climbed a dinosaur? Wesleyan University seniors kicked out of Connecticut Science Center after 2 hours of seriously bad behavior. First thing I think is idiots. Linked it after scrolling through some of the comments – from barely human (have no idea what they are saying) Wesleyans to polite ones trying to defend that not everyone there is like that…

But yeah, here you have little kids being a lot more productive with Angry Birds and various other toys and fashion blog hobbies, and then you have some older ones seen to be messing up a college education… Rotan them.

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3) And I wish for the dedication to try and do this with the kids:

Artist shows the progression of his work from age 2 to 25.

From this (aged 2)...

To this (5)... (I wanted to be a veterinarian. WHAT'S WRONG WITH VETERINARIANS? At 5 he could spell "veterinarian"!)

To this (10)...

To this (17)...

And onward...

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4) On another topic, a visual of what 200 calories looks like.

Of COURSE dis..

And dis...

And dis...

…are all 200 calories each.

5) This one…. so-so lah. But, 86 pictures of animals de-stressing surely there are one or two gems.

Dis is a beagle with an eye mask on. Of course.

Dis is... a westie? Some terrier thing? on the sofa.

Dis is a cat almost not on a table.

Dis is a mutt who has been made to fly coach. Tragic. I don't even see the peanuts.

Dis is just tragic. (Yes that's mud).

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6) Now, this one I really like. Huffpost’s compilation of videos of dads (scroll to bottom of page in link) – these include Bohemian Rhapsody Dad (he has 3 little kids including one toddler singing Bohemian Rhapsody with him when they are stuck in traffic), Flyball Dad (he caught a stray baseball that flew his way with one hand while dangling a toddler from the other arm), and a couple dancing dads (stick it out for the first 30 seconds thereabouts to get to the good part – if you only watch one, make it Dancing Bar Mitzvah Dad – how many hours did he practice that with his little girl?!)

Bonus points for bravery because the dads are erm, not John Travolta. Your kid doesn’t care you look goofy but you and the rest of the internet world might, when it gets uploaded to Youtube. What better way to say I Love You? (Oh yeah, spend hours with your kid practicing and shake your bon bon to Lady Ga Ga and various other selections obviously chosen by your little girl.)

What an inspiration. And a good weekend.

One small step... My offspring neither keeping on opposite ends of the bed nor hiding from each other behind a barricade of pillows... Think that's a first pic of them doing that...

 

 

 

 

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Rockstarism #248 – Caning Is Done By Aliens (And CNY Part 3)

Posted on February 21, 2013 by admin

**Updated at bottom – found a pic of Ms Rockstar’s booties with the cheongsam

#248

Before the hols… And a little illustration of how parenting has changed since our childhood… 

Rockstar: Mum. Classmate A and classmate B are leaving Hong Kong. We got candy.

Me: Oh. Really?? Classmate B is leaving? (Rockstar nods) I didn’t get that impression when I saw his mum. Ok, lemme say goodbye.

I proceed to text a Nice Meeting You, Goodbye And All The Best message. Awhile later my phone buzzes with a reply that they are not going anywhere…

Me: Hey your friend’s mum says they aren’t leaving. Why did you think they were?

Rockstar: <shrugs> Classmate A and Classmate B both gave us candy. Classmate A said it was because he was leaving. So I asked Classmate B if he was leaving too and he said yes.

Me: Well why would he say yes??

Rockstar: He probably wasn’t really listening.

Me: <mildly annoyed> If you knew that then why didn’t you say, when I asked if you were sure, before I messaged his mum??

Rockstar: I wasn’t really listening.

Me: You don’t think that kind of answer is going to get you in trouble?

Rockstar: <raises eyebrows> Umm… No?

Me: Rotan you. Bring back the cane then you know…

Rockstar: What’s that? 

Me: <incredulous, and realizing he really has never come across the concept of caning> It’s a kind of punishment that was a lot more common when your parents were kids and your grandparents were parents. Like spanking but with a cane. (Brief explanation of caning.)

Rockstar: <amazed> REALLY?? People did this?

Me: It’s not that hard to believe, some people still do this.

Rockstar: REALLY?? But that’s like something aliens do.

Me: You think aliens cane people???

Rockstar: <shrugs> Aliens do weird things.

Like apparently abduct people in order to cane them.

…And a few more CNY pics…

What Apps have YOU got?

These were taken at a recent big lunch party in Central, many of the guests are familiar faces from our former banking lives. There were at least 3 more kids with tech, out on the balcony or seated elsewhere, this is what gatherings with kids are like nowadays. At which point you catch yourself realizing it isn’t that weird he’s never seen a cane and finds such punishment bizarre. (He rarely gets punished because he hates it and so is fairly anal about not needing it, but usually his punishment would be grounding, a lecture, fewer Youtubes, or one less toy purchase (the last is not very effective because he will simply say, “Fine. I don’t need it.” More often I bark at him before he’s done something or to stop. it. right. now. instead…)

Here’s my favorite Little Miss outfit of the season:

 

Unfortunately I realized later I didn’t get the Portolano brown cashmere knee-length booties she wears with everything when it’s cold, in the pic. Long cheongsam with knee-booties and matching butterfly clip. Quite the fashionista. Even better, she was fast asleep in Room, wearing the (un-done-up) cheongsam right up until it was time to go out the door, and then I zipped the dress back up, did the buttons and put on the booties and clipped her hair back while we were in the car. This is one of those too-rare moments when you feel (misguidedly) that you are a good mother.

The butterfly clip from City Super is old, but love that it really matches her cheongsam (HKD 85 from Stanley!)

As they enjoyed drinks by the bar… (I think it’s a fairly new restaurant opened by one of our friends’ friends, Rockstar was mildly annoyed to discover they didn’t serve juice, because he only gets it in restaurants, but would later settle for ice cold milk…)

Aforementioned Rockstar in da almost empty place before it quickly filled (darn I forgot to take a pic of the art on the walls)

This pose looks like Rockstar is the sushi chef of this restaurant… Which I don’t think serves sushi 😛

Daddy and date, sharing private joke

The two of them sharing a private joke… and apparently a chin shape. Hmm, never noticed before. (Is it too soon to tell, or does neither child have my thin, oval face shape?)

Rockstar enjoying basil and meatball spaghetti

 ….. Before we’re off again into the streets and home…

The Mens...

And The Girls (is that Jaded Not Another Self Pic Face?)

ps: Oh look found the (blurry) pic of what Ms Rockstar would be wearing, that I sent to Kings back when she was trying on her new clothes:

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Here We Go CNY (Part 2)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by admin

Goal: Happiness

Think we nailed it?

Outfit-wise, there were few Stanley Market finds that fit The Little Miss. Half-heartedly I tried to bargain on an otherwise too-big cheongsam in an unusual light aqua-green color but the little old lady selling them politely says “it’s alright, don’t buy it, it’s too big for your baby anyway,” then takes it out of my hands (?!) She was asking for HKD 165. I thought that was steep for a market find that Little Miss can’t wear this year anyway (no discount, may as well wait to see next year’s offerings…) The pink “Samfu” set she’s wearing in the pics here and last post was HKD 115; I then scored the full-length cheongsam in subsequent pics (future post) for HKD 85…

I briefly checked out the Shanghai Tang ones in velvet, but a) couldn’t find anything in her size and b) anyway could only find very dark colors for e.g. navy that looked almost black, with very subtle colorful piping at collar and buttons – we would later see an older little girl wearing it with bright pink tights (looked fabulous) but for Little Miss I rarely put her in dark or very bright colors not to mention thought that on Skype with the grandparents we would get a lot of OMG Did You Dress The Baby In Black? type comments, so…. (Though now I recall one CNY my mum bought me a black t-shirt embellished with chains, but anyway…)

  

So instead, I started with this (also new) dress from Zara I saved up ages ago. Not to be confused with the ballerina-ish poufy skirt that flares from a fitted waistband, this is actually “Christmas tree-shaped,” flaring out from the neckline, and almost ankle-length. We also have a similar white one from Baby Gap that a girlfriend gave us, which comes with a matching cardigan, but I thought grey matched the pink “Samfu” top better. (In the previous post Ms Rockstar is wearing the whole “Samfu,” of the kind which btw I used to wear in pink or red as a little girl, but initially I thought Kings would prefer her in a pretty skirt… He’s also on my back to cut her hair because “it’s messy” but I need the bangs for hair clips :D)

  

 

(We were on a “good eye and hair day”…)

Anyway my parents had an old friend here (ex-Penang Free School-mate – yes my parents are both old Frees who met on the debate team and btw third speaker on said debate team married my dad’s late sis Wow like, wouldn’t you like to be the fly on that wall of a family fight – kidding!) whom we recently got acquainted with, and who pointed us to the only Yee Sang we know of in HK:

Lo Yee Sang complete with banana flavored Gerber puffs - so our kind of Yee Sang nowadays

Maxim’s Fortune Toss. Rumor has it they sent some chefs to Malaysia to learn this 2 years ago, but til now it hasn’t really taken off though they continue to serve the dish complete with authentic auspicious Cantonese sayings as they prepare all the condiments and squeeze lemon over it at your table. As in, in the very large and crowded restaurant I saw the waiter go by with a total of just 4 of those hot pink Fortune Toss table coverings… Price was HKD 600-something for 4-6 people which was their only portion size (I think – Kings did the ordering while I was busy cleaning the baby chair), but Rockstar, Kings and I can still finish quite easily…

The Mens seeing about our Yee Sang date outside the Maxim's in Tai Koo Sing

We used to live in the Tai Koo Sing area which is 45 mins across HK from where we now live… My close Korean girlfriend tells me Tai Koo Sing is very popular among the Korean community – but while the Korean International School is around here, apparently the Absolute Biggest Reason is because of an awesomely well-stocked Apita. I can believe it, we still love to come back here for grocery shopping, cooking pot replacing, and my parents actually spend about HKD 200 to cab here and back so they can shop for friends…

Some of the decor in the huge Tai Koo Sing (City Plaza) mall

More decor...

And more decor - sadly I wasn't fast enough on the escalator to capture the bunch of old folks taking pictures of each other on iPads/ Galaxies/ something else about the size of an iPad mini

That’s not all that’s attractive here – apparently the Tom Lee Music branch here is one of the few that has some kind of “accelerated” music class for the top students in all the various Tom Lee Music classes. You can tell from my vagueness I paid close attention when they were talking about it in class. (Tom Lee Music is that fun Cantonese thing using Yamaha music materials that Rockstar and I attend, and it seems lots and lots and lots of local kids will by default attend this as part of their outside extra-curriculars)

To be exact, I committed the mild faux pas, as the teacher explained the existence of an “accelerated” class, of saying in my clumsy Cantonese, “But is it near our area?” Think I got a mild slap on the wrist for my ‘tude, something along the lines of “Your kid makes it into that class you had better make the trip across town.”

Y-eah, I don’t think so. (In case you’re wondering, Rockstar does quite well in that class, maybe around the top few without much practice <sheepish>, which I think is just because he’s one of the older kids – there are local kids his age who have already finished the book he’s on because they enrolled earlier… We don’t have a family history of particular musical talent, in fact to get out of practicing my aural because I don’t have anything close to “perfect pitch” and needed the time for other activities I did the “riskier” on-the-spot accompaniment/ composition or whatever it is they call it nowadays to get thru my Grade 8. Some might call it “cheating” because I really didn’t have time to put in all those hours of practice and til today still prefer anything other than playing classical once the exam was over <ducks head>) The other reason is because I felt he was already one of the youngest in Year 1 at primary school which might already be challenging enough without then also piling on the extra curriculars…

Anyway more pics –

Kings and Rockstar...

(Dese are actually not the only clothes Rockstar owns – he insisted on wearing that outfit for every CNY-ey thing we attended because he thinks it looks vaguely like what Ninjagos wear…)

Me and Rockstar...

And our family pic - yay!

But the music story isn’t quite over yet…

Later, at one of Kings’ client lunch parties we would meet a local child Rockstar’s age who is one book ahead in the same Tom Lee Course – and also enrolled in extra piano and violin classes. (Rockstar does neither for extracurriculars, just this one class for “fun and Cantonese exposure.” He is yet to decide on an instrument, if at all. I’m taking feedback hint! hint!) His new friend’s mum, who turns out to be one of my ex market counterparts, would later explain that for local school applications, piano is kind of a “default ECA” – “practically all” the local kids are gonna know piano – you need to also enroll in violin at least, if you want to stand out. “Besides, think about it – in an orchestra you’re only going to have one or two pianos. Think of the competition to get a spot.”

Oh yeah and “desert” arrived – we get home to find, by registered post….

<drrrrrum rolllll…..>

Third installment of kuih from Penang! (ex the M&Ms and Frutips from Halloween that no one's gonna eat and I have to find someone to give them to)

You see you see how my "kiasu" mum packed the pineapple tarts so they wouldn't be crushed

Few more pics in a bit…

Posted in Rockstar Thoughts, School For Rockstar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Here We Go CNY 2013 (Part 1)

Posted on February 18, 2013 by admin

Ok finally, some of our CNY pics. There was a sign in our development that there would be lion dance over the weekend so I was hoping to get some lion dance pics. We came away with way more than that, it was like, one of the most enjoyable lion dance-y experiences we’ve ever had.

We had the perfect Goldilocks weather (not too hot not too cold), and not too crowded or loud either, the 2 lions and 1 dragon were happily mingling in the crowd being petted by all the little kids – but here’s my surprise – for what I expected to be a simple prancing about since its “just” the lion dance in our housing development, it was not – it was freaking AWESOME!!! 

Sexy Lion - serious acrobatic pole dancing

Best lion dance I’ve seen upclose, can compete with all the acrobatic ones you see on tv. Only prob was the very bright sunlight making pics hard because of the shadow…

Like so... (Also, Rockstar habitually likes to pull his fedora down low and sometimes we forget to tell him to push it back up for pics)

And so...

Anyway it was still really, really great to have such an elaborate lion dance simply right there at the bottom of all the apartments (and not very crowded at all, all the kids got their Lion Fix).

Dis lion was actually jumping between alternate poles back and forth (not say, walking on each pole) but later I realized I didn't manage to catch him in mid-air

"My butt is cuter than your butt"

Ta-ra ta-ra

The funny thing is the relatively high number of non-Asians who were really enjoying this (building management of course is pretty local with also a very high Mainland clientele), I think many locals and Mainlanders instead went on vacation or else were so used to this as to not stick around for most of the 2-hour event (later when we went into the clubhouse we could see a lot more Asians eating in the restaurant or reading/ playing table tennis/ badminton in the games rooms etc).

Local ex-colleagues used to tell me that’s their preferred mode of celebration nowadays to cut hassle from home meal prep (possibly also less risk of tempers flaring) et al, instead, they alternate trips and eating out, some of which they will bring along all the old folk to – it’s why in the previous post I commented the “Long One Short One” video was “very Malaysian” – because of scenes like 1) all the old folk “eating sotong (dried squid)/ playing mahjong” and the young folk vegging out on iPad/ Galaxy/ iPhone etc, some dressed in the obligatory red, and 2) Yee Sang Lo Hei (almost non-existent in HK – more on that later…)

You are supposed to touch the tongue or beard or something for luck... you see lah I don't even know which 😛

Not that easy to reach the tongue right? But the dragon dancers are seriously sporting if you have a child trying to pet it

Even our dealing room lion dances entailed a lot more simple prancing about between desks, though in retrospect I think partly because it wasn’t outdoors (also, one very grouchy British dealer got told off for totally ignoring the lion, who tried its very furry best to get his attention – I couldn’t tell how much of it was because they were afraid it would mess with the juju of the dealing room (I remember an emcee painstakingly telling one of our obviously non-Chinese ex-bosses a roast pig must be cleaved completely from top to bottom in ONE motion – in fact it’s probably safer to look obviously non-Chinese because then they will warn you about faux pas instead of assuming you know and then getting unhappy when you accidentally mess up juju) and how much was simply because of what his sulking at the festivities might do for morale)… 

Bragging rights - Rockstar's petted a lion

And another...

Should’ve realized this is HK, their default “Cina-cina” stuff gonna be quite “high standard.” (Later Rockstar would tell me his school lion dance also had acrobatics. I’m still What Gives, So Nowadays Anyone Can Hop About On Each Others Shoulders While Wiggling A Cute Furry Tail? Did you do your hopping and tail wiggling this morning before heading to the office darling?)

Rockstar makes a Friend in a High Place – who was handing out lai sees with chocolate coins in them to the kids – when asked, Rockstar says he has no preference between chocolate coin lai sees and cash

The lions were giving out snake soft toys and other “lucky charms” and Rockstar initially wanted one (Freebie Thrown By Lion On Pole who doesn’t want?), though we didn’t catch any of the ones flung into the audience they had plenty leftovers that we could queue for but instead I had palmed a spare favorite seaweed snack of his that I’d kept in the baby bag for just such an emergency (it after all not being out of the realm of possibility a lion runs out of the snakes your child wants), disappeared into the crowd around the dragon, and came back with Oh Look! The “Salad” They’re Sharing Is Just The Kind Of Seaweed Snack You Love! You Guys Have Similar Tastes In Snacks!

The Mens about to go in for eats

Rockstar and seaweed - I wonder how many times my mum pulled this one on me as a child

(There was much veg-shredding earlier when they “fed” the lions in that decades-old lai see-laced lettuce-feeding I even remember from my own childhood – over here my RMs would make a point to keep a bit of that veg in their wallet for luck. I did not ask to see what it looked like at the end of the year.)

Then we ate at the residents’ club house and watched the festivities through the floor-to-ceiling windows… They had chinese wayang stage performance too…

At the club house tree inside....

Mostly, it were a good day. Little Miss finally fell asleep for a bit, and so as not to wake her by getting in the car, I walked home (our apartment is a little further, this is actually not the clubhouse for our own development btw). Cuddled her for a good half hour before trying to put her down in her bed. Whereupon she woke up, all raring to go again.

Epilogue: A waitress comes over to play with Little Miss. I’m uncomfortable. Previously she was so-so with the baby when I first brought her over, which I’d done only because she’d observed my growing bump during pregnancy and so it was kind of Meet The Bump, Here She Is. Then other waiters start to make eye contact and smile/nod (and I’m ?? don’t recognize them at all) and then I realize I had put the lai see for when we leave on the table in full view. In fact, then I also realize today there are 7-8 waiters to serve this half-filled club house restaurant – that’s like, a waiter per table-and-a-half, two tables, at most. Usually it’s just 3-4 waiters for the whole place. A waiter I don’t recognize comes over with toothpicks. Comes back with even more toothpicks. Sigh.

It’s a fine line between politeness and Get Your Pushiness Out Of My Face. It’s not the money, it’s the feeling of being put upon. (Even our American pastor will good-naturedly mention his doorman who doesn’t open the door for you all year round until it’s CNY.) I would like to remember our regular servers, certainly if they had been remarkably helpful I would’ve remembered at some point other than CNY. They didn’t have to do that, be that pushy. But it says something about the general culture of living here, that they all believe they have to. 

Posted in aileensml, Traveling With Rockstar | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments