China National Day

Other than the traffic chaos during the weekly rehearsals, the preparation for the 60th National Day is reaching a crescendo this week, with real reheasals at real time.

Scarlet had to present herself for her rehearsals at 9pm, on her birthday, for rehearsal that lasted until 1am.

The airforce also had their rehearsal, with flight paths directly above our home, Kristine's school and Grace's office. Quite a spectacle, especially a refueling plane followed by two fighter jets in refueling formation at low level. I didnt get to watch the fighter jets with tailing colourful smokes but they did that for Kristine and Grace.

We went to Chang An Street last Friday to help Grace prepare her office for the National Day closure. Every street corner was manned by several police. All decorative fixtures on the street were cordoned off and guarded by police.

All offices facing Chang An Street where the parade will pass through will be closed/sealed. All office doors must be left opened, as with all drawers, and cabinets, including safes. All liquid of any form must be placed on desks. The offices will inspected and sealed by 12noon on Sept 30, and nobody can enter the rpemsie again until the police remove the seals at 2am on October 2. The hotels on Chang An Street will be, must be, closed for business those two days too.

If this is the scale for 60th, I cannot wait for the Centennial in 2049!!!!!

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Flu Shot

After registering Kimberley to have flu shot at her kinder, despite all the signatures and waiver declarations (who says China is not getting legalistic?), and payment of Y69.50, the inhouse nurse told us Kimberley must goto a designated hospital for her flu shot. The kinder cannot administer flu shot for Kimmie because she being a foreigner 'does not have the Beijing health record book'.

Kimmie's kinder fee is 50% higher than her local kinder mates. The flu shot episode does categorise her differently. Maybe that is the priviledge of paying a higher fee. This 'higher fees for foreigners' is not a standard for kindergartens in Beijing. The kinder we visited in Fu Li Cheng, when we almost moved to last month, charges the same fees for all kids.
China has come a long way since the days when airfares for foreigners were twice as much as for locals, but some hard habits still exist deep down.

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Fresh Milk

The supply and demand of fresh milk delivered daily to our doorstep is finely balanced. There is always a need for a carton from supermarket about once a week to supplement our delivered milk.

Last week when Grace was away for 4 days on business, I felt it was a good idea to freeze 4 bottles of excess milk for later use. About 4 hrs later when I opened the freezer to get something else, I noticed the frozen milk had expanded and popped the covers off the bottles. Out they came from the freezer and back to the fridge.

Next morning, as I grabbed a bottle to warm up for Kristine, the while bottom fell off, the round glass base and all of semi-frozen milk, shaped as the glass bottle. Glass splinters and milk all over the kitchen floor.

The frozen milk cracked the bottle, neatly around the base. 2 out of 4 were therefore rendered undrinkable.

Not intended that way but our milk inventory balance was restored!

They have found me!

I received a recorded message this morning, purportedly from China Telecom (中国电讯) saying I owe them Y3816 and thus our phone service was about to be terminated.

After repeating the msg, I pressed '9' which turned my incoming call into an outgoing call, apparently to China Telecom. The lady asked for my name, which I gave, not suspecting anything yet. After confirming my Chinese name, she put me on hold. I could hear she was just covering her mouthpiece and mumbled something to someone else before she came back saying my Beijing telephone was up to date with payments but several months ago I went to their Wuhan office to open a new line (027-53302021) with bills attached to this Beijing number. Now I owe them Y3816. She asked could it be that that amount was expensed by my business office in Wuhan.

That throw me off quite a bit.

She then said I went there (to open that account) using my identity card (身份证).

I DONT OWN ONE!!!!!!

By now, I was suspicious, so I ask her for her number so I could check and then call her back. Her tel is 10000. Her tag number is 0127. She said she was calling from Bai Yu Shan (白玉山) near Wuhan, with very deep southern accent.....

I am now convinced if I were to call back, she will ask me to deposit Y3816 into a specific account somewhere.

Postal Envelop

In the last year, I have visited our local post office 5 times. Once to collect a parcel of dried mushrooms from a Dongbei friend. Today is the 4th time I went to post a letter oversea.

Collecting a parcel was easy. Just bring an ID (local identity card, or passport) of the recipient and anyone can collect the parcel on behalf.

Sending a letter is also easy. Just show the postal lady the letter and she will inform the postage needed after weighing the letter, except if it is a registered letter. The first time I went to post a letter oversea, I was told the envelop I used was not acceptable, that I had to buy an envelop from another counter, which I did, for just RMB0.10. It was the same size as my envelop, except it was thicker in brown colour. Tore off the envelop from home and rewrite address on new envelop and off it went.

The same happened on my second visit to post another letter oversea, so on my third visit I decided to bring just the letter without envelop, bought the brown envelop upon reaching the post office before fronting the postage lady. On way out, I decided to buy 5 envelops for future use.

Today I thought my letter was perfect when I presented the brown envelop to the postage lady. She said my envelop was not acceptable to send as a registered letter (but thats the envelop you guys wanted me to buy to send my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd registered letters!!!!). She wanted me to buy another envelop from another counter with "AIR MAIL" printed, but the brown envelop was okay to be sent as 'ordinary' letter.
'Ordinary as in Air Mail?' (普通是空邮吗？）
'Yes'.
'Okay, send it as ordinary letter' （那就寄普通信）
'okay. RMB7.00'
'Thank you very much'
'You are welcomed'

H1N1 Update

Measures taken to 'control' H1N1 in Beijing during the upcoming flu (winter) season are much stricter than the last school year.

Kristine and Kimberley both have to report their daily body temperature each day, even weekends by SMS to Kristine's home class teacher. I received a call from her on Sunday checking if Kristine was having a fever because the sms Kristine sent her stated 37.9degC (it should have been 37.0).

She called during the week (apparently to each parent, one after another), explaining the severity of H1N1 in China this season, and why we should keep Kristine home for observation if her temp is above 37.1. That is a 0.2degC lower than stipulated 37.3degC that is considered fever threshhold. We parents have to sign an acknowledgement of our duties at home, in reporting any fever, maintain clean habits at home, and to stay home if body temp is high.

While the schools are taking stronger tracking measures, I dont see as many face masks publicly these days compared to last year.

Kimmie's Kinder Homework

I still cannot get over Kimmie now having to bring exercises back from kinder as homework! Homework at that young age! Photo attached shows how Kristine is coaching Kimmie on writing her first homework page, repetitive writing of alphabetical vowels and numbers.

Kimmie was good for this inaugural homework, obeying Kirstine's coaching well. Yesterday at Yamaha, Kimmie steadfastly refused to heed advice on her piano practice by Kristine, and ended up getting a big scolding from me right there, making a scene at Yamaha lobby and down the elevator packed with piano aspirant mothers.

Combat Saturday

Kristine's first combat game with Grace and friends on a cool overcast Saturday out in MiYun, some 90mins drive away. A 39seater bus was hired for the day, but several participants decided it was a nice day for a drive and 4 cars followed the bus to Miyun.

Lunch was at one of those farmers restaurants in Miyun, serving exotic wild vegies and a fish which I didnt even like the look of, much less digging through the numerous bones to get to the meat. The vegies were nice and lunch was enjoyable.
It was then 4 hrs of combat games between the green and blue teams. Weapons were laser beam guided. Each combatant wore a suit with several laser beam receptor targets on the vest, 4 on helmet and 2 on front vest and 2 more on back vest. Once a laser beam from enemy (or friendly idiots) lined up with the receptors, it is considered a 'kill' and an electronic pouch behind the vest will shake to register the kill.

Kristine was more conservative and liked to hide deep while Grace liked to charge (and got killed early)

The bus dropped us along 3rd Ring Road near the embassies. We walked all the way south to BaiJiaZhuang to have dinner at JingDingXuan. That was an enjoyable meal for the evening. Each main dish is around Y30-40, while the Dianxin dishes were around Y6-10. The small serves fit our family size adequately. Nice quality food too. Worth revisitng.

New School Year

Kristine is now in Yr 3 and Kimmie is in K4. It was Kimmie's wish to stat piano lesson at Yamaha. Same teacher but different time slot to Kristine's.

Both are now more active with extracurricular activities. Kristine is doing caligraphy, badminton and table tennis, while kimmie is doing painting. Maybe it is still early but they seem to be enjoying their extra classes after school.

Kristine is also improving on her ability to wake up early at 630am to catch her school bus at 706am. Much easier for her now than last school year.

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A Nanny: Real or Fake

We have a new cleaning lady who came to clean the public areas in our apartment block. One morning, to strike up a conversation beyong the usual morning pleasantries, she said to me,
"Mummy is off to work early this morning so it is your turn to send the kids to schools.（今天妈妈早上班。你送孩子。）"

"yes" I replied.

"You dont go to work today(你今天不上班）?" she probed further.

"No, I am a full time nanny (我是全职保姆）"。

She stared at me for like 5 seconds. I thought she was going to throw me a question like 'You are joking!' or 'You dont look like a fulltime nanny', but not to be the case.

"How much（多少钱）?" she wanted to know.

Kristine's Weekly Essay 2009.8.30

Yesterday, I learnt how to play badminton. Today in the morning I practaced with my Mom, and kimmy went too! first, it feels very hard. Then it feels better. 3rd, now I can play it very well. Well not very well, but good.

then when I came back, Daddy told me that Jessie called me. Then I called her back.

after that kimmy went to the tolet and then mummy went in, she saw kimmy and trying to roll up the tolet paper! (Kimmy claimed the toilet roll was 'huaihuai' (naughty) because it just rolled out by itself. So Mommy had to help her roll the paper back)

Kristine's Weekly Essay 2009.8.27

The day before yesterday was: kimmy's birthday!
we ate chips, yellow rice (Malaytian),chicken wings and birthday cake! Today we went to Ito yokado to see some pesents, kimmy wanted a hello Kitty supermarket toy.

Kristine's Weekly Eassay 2009.8.22

My dream was:
That we were back at Australia and a Egept coffin was on our table!! Then we just egnored it. After a while, the Mummy came to LIFE,I pointed at it then the whole family started to fight it. Kimmy bit it, I punched it and Daddy held him/her.

Then i just opened my eyes......

and relaxed.!.

Kristine's weekly essay 2009.07.24

昨天我上钢琴课时（4：00）就天一下子很'an'（暗）。爸爸刚刚下楼的时后（候），他'gan jin'（赶紧）跑回家。我告诉我的老师了，然后她哈哈笑了，我也笑了。

还有呢，今天，我们一家和'Peng'佳棋一家要去看马戏！ 妈妈说要早一点吃饭，早一点去马戏完跟'Peng'佳棋玩。

噢！我忘记告诉你一件事，在（再）过三天就去日本了！（东京),

还有呢，我和去看爸爸剪头发，我'na'（拿）着我的本子写周记。爸爸也'ran'（染）头发。一共'cai'(才)50元我'绝'（觉）得很'pian'（便）宜。我也看到一位女生的'xiang'（相）片她的头发是粉'zi'（紫）'xiang'（相）间

Public Transport on Rehersal Evening.

Sunday was Wayne's BBQ on his rooftop balcony. It also was one of several evenings leading up to National Day for parade rehersal. The rain was not planned though it had been raining whole day. It stopped just enough for us to start the charcoal fire, cooked and finished the food.

As soon as we bid LY and SS goodbye, I regreted not taking LY's offer to send us home. No taxis to be found anywhere. Some key roads were closed for the National Day parade rehersal. The main subway line we needed to take was shut down too. So we walked to the nearest bus station and waited.

The first bus that came by was sardine-packed. Luckily another less crowded bus arrived immediately after and we hopped on. We knew it was going towards Carrefour direction, at least bringing us closer to home. Asked the lady conductor where we should get off to change into Bus 605. Right in front of Carrefour.

Another 300m walk to the another bus stop (珠江帝景）and another 15mins wait and we got on Bus 605. Hurray!

Congested traffic all the way, but it got worse as soon as the bus turned into Chaoyang Lu. The traffic was at a stanstill. Our bus driver turned off the bus engine. We opted to get off and walk. No more rain then. The traffic lights under CiYunSi Qiao were altered to ease traffic along 4th Ring Road, at the expense of all traffic on Chaoyang Lu. Took 90mins to get home instead of the usual 15.

Disney Land -- Kristine

on Monday (17th), we just came back from Japan. On Aug 3rd, Daddy, Kimmie, Adele(my cousin) and I went to Disney Land!
We played "Splash Mountain", "It's a Small World", "Spinning Cup" and a lot more.
I ate 3 Mickey Mouse pizzas and 2 boxes of popcorn! I shaed a box of popcorn with Kimmy. we took pictures with:
1. Daisy Duck, 2. Pluto (in snoggling suit), 3. Mickey Mouse!!!!!

8.22.2009 (sat)

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Is Kimmie Really Who I Claim She is to be? - Part 2

Episode 1 highlighted how our local bank considered Kimmie and Kristine without their middle names as different persons, initially refusing to credit their accounts with foreign funds from a wire transfer.

Episode 2 continues here:
After her foreign fund was finally credited, the next task was to apply for Kimmie's replacement card. We just could not find Kimmie's card. Kristine's was found where it was supposed to be, and kimmie's was supposed to be together.

Searched through all drawers, all folders, and anywhere and everywhere cards and important docs are usually kept, the kids' toy boxes, their bags and wallets.... Did find a Beijing public transport card that we thought we lost, but not Kimmie's bank card. Did discover Grace has 16 handbags in Beijing (more in Melbourne!!)

It was a long 90 minutes wait while the bank manager called to seek advice. Something was wrong. It took too long. He eventually emerged at 530pm from his office, came out to be waiting lobby, greeted us with big smiles, and then apologised profusely he could not 'yet' (dare not is more correct) approve my application for Kimmie's replacement card, because
1. Kimmie now looks different to the photo in her passport,
2. The amount of money just received in her acccount was a lot for a 5 yr old,
3. The bank had no such precedent (replacing a lost card to a alien resident minor whose account suddenly received a sizeable foreign fund)
4. The birth certificate was not familiar to him because local birth certs show parental ID (身份证）numbers as well, whereas Kimmie's cert shows just parental names and places of birth.

Using hand gestures to plead, the manager begged that I 'worked harder' to find the 'lost' card instead. A very constructive innovative suggestion indeed. But that meant he was not suspicious of any plot to swindle the bank, he just didnt want to stick his neck out issuing a replacement card in case Kimmie is not Kimmie. If this Kimmie found her card, his problem solved, no more need to know if Kimmie is indeed Kimmie!!!

Showing up in a bank in t-shirt, shorts, and thongs with long hair does not render my appearance as 'safe-to-stick-my-neck-out-and-issue-new-card-to-his-daughter-who-looks-so-different-to-the-passport-photo' to the manager.

I asked him what I needed to do to prove Kimmie is indeed that Kimmie in her passport and birth cert. He was honest to confess he did not know, as there was no precedent. He suggested getting a local Notary Public (公证，a govt certification bureau) to certify Kimmie's identity and our relationship. My feel is that Notary Public needs to be a DNA expert as well.

I counter suggested getting the Embassy to certify true copies but that didnt fly  because he was not sure if that was good enough. It will be funny asking the embassy consular officers to certify that Kimmie's passport is 'real'..... However, I do  need to call them and ask how Kimmie's passport photo can be updated.

The bank manager wanted something familiar like a local birth cert, local ID, or something similar that a local notary public cab certify. If the fakes look like real (a counterfeit RMB100 bill we saw at a retail shop looked real, and what about 99% of LV bags out there), and the real look fake (kimmie's passport, birth cert), it will be a daunting task proving real from fake and fake from real. I suppose I can just keep trying different Notary Public until I find one who doesnt care, someone who says 'just pay my fees upfront'.... Or I can try calling one of those mobile numbers peppering public pavements and walls touting 'Needing Certificates （办证） or Proof of Residential Identity (户口）?'。

He promised to find out what other proofs (Kimmie's passport and birth cert are useless by now) he needed from me, and suggested the mother comes along the next visit to the bank branch (maybe I should simply drag a Notary Public along too!). For now, my plan is to ask him to reverse the money out, back to the sender in that foreign bank. Not confident I can get my image erased in his eyes no matter how I dress for the next ocassion. Certainly will not run around town begging for certifications and DNA tests!

That is Another Day of Living in Beijing!
Never a dull moment.

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Is Kimmie really Who I Claim She is to Be? - Part 1

Our local bank would not credit Kimmie's account with some foreign fund I transferred to her from abroad because in the wire transfer manifest, her middle name was missing.

The lady teller explained that 'in China that (mismatched by a middle name) would constitute a different person'. Maybe so, but what are the chances of another person sharing the same first and surname to have the same account number, at the same bank branch, receiving the exactly same amount of foreign funds on the same day, sent from the same person????????

I am sure she can do complex multiplications faster than a calculator, but can not and will not think outside the 9-dots.

The lady teller insisted on receiving a letter from our foreign bank clarifying that the Kimmie in the wire transfer was indeed the same Kimmie in front of her at the local bank branch.

If I was the person sending the money (surely she wasnt doubting that), why could I not just clarifying that to her, there and then, without msgs flying around the globe. No deal, her work situation would become untenable if she accepted my suggestion!

That same evening I sent a msg to the local bank manager via their online website, asking how it was possible for Kimmie without her middle name to be a different person to Kimmie with her middle name, if her account numbers matched and her account password matched.

I received a reply from the portal coordinator within 2 hours saying she had re-directed my grievance to the Branch Manager. Pretty efficient.
The next morning, I received a call from the local bank branch asking me to bring all proofs of IDs for myself and Kimmie, and proof of our relationship.

End of this episode.

Part 2 to follow.

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