Shoes

A pair of Crocodile walking shoes that has been loyally travelling with me to many places from Tokyo to Malaysia and Melbourne, that has been unselfishly protecting my feet from pain and dirt, has finally being taken away from me.

Someone swtiched my shoes, right outside my very own home, one night 2 weeks ago, leaving behind a pair of really stinky runners about 2 sizes bigger. For months, we had no problems with leaving our shoes outside our front door. Then I sent my shoes to a neighbourhood cobbler for 'servicing' about 2 months ago. It looked new. I believe my Crocks did put up big fights against that night stalker. No self-respecting shoes will ever put up with feet that stink so bad!

Last Sunday, Grace took me to roam a mall near Fu Li Cheng where Kristine and Kimberley spent the afternoon at their friend's. A pair of Hush Puppies suedes was reduced 50%, and another 2.5% on top. The final price was still Y499.

I miss Woodbury Commons of our White Plains days!
Remembering those HushPuppies, Merrell shoes at 50-70% off on top of clearance.

110 (Beijing Emergency Number)

After Kristine's stationery shopping at 东郊市场, we decided to walk home instead of the two stops bus ride. As we approach home, we caught up with a slow-walking old man with deeply stooped back in front of us. He wore a brown fisherman winter hat, dark colour jacket (as per top of a suit), white colour wrap-around apron, and soft fabric domestic slippers.

Kristine asked me why that man walked the way he did, with his back stooped low. No sooner after her question, the man fell forward, with his knees curled up and forehead on the ground. Grace and I froze for a few seconds as the man stayed stationary on the ground. No passers by stopped to take a look. This is a busy road under the mid-section of East 4th Ring Road. I went over, knelt down and looked at him. His face was dark tanned and heavily wrinkled. He was still breathing. Sigh of relief. I then asked "Whats wrong?" (你怎么啦？). After a few heavy breath, he spoke out. I could manage just two msgs:

1. I am ill
2. They (presumably his relatives or caretakers) don't care anymore
3. gibberish and gibberish that I could not decipher.

I then ask him if I should call the police over to help him. He replied very clearly agreeing to call the local police for help. I was half expecting him to say he was hungry and homeless and asked me for money. He didn't.

Grace then call 110. Call was swiftly connected. Grace was asked about the problem and the location. The operator was very familiar with the location vicinity. Either the operator was nearby in the same locale, or she could track the mobile phone call location on her Beijing map. She told Grace the local police will be contacted to pick up the old man. Roughly 10 minutes later, a police officer called Grace's mobile to verify the situation and location. Another 9 minutes later, 3 police in a patrol car came. The lead officer asked Grace if she was the one who called. After a brief Q&A, they picked the old man up and drove off.

19 minutes from time of lodging an emergency call to arrival of emergency personnel. I thought that was rather fast. I once had to call for an ambulance for a friend in Melbourne. I recall it took about the same time for the ambulance to arrive.

No camera, thus no photos attached.

Wall Painting

When both Kristine and Kimberley were both grounded at home early November for high fever. I tried several options to keep them away from excessive TV and computer games each day , but there weren't many choices during winter.

I finally settled on repainting the apartment afresh, with two 'helpers', actually creating more hassles for me than helping, but they were eager 'helpers'.

Painting itself was fast, but to air each room after painting took several days. The place now looks like new!

Homework

Add Chinese writing and simple mathematics to Kimberley's kindergarten homewrok now.

She is better with single digit addition than subtraction. When it comes to subtraction questions, she just add a vertical stroke to turn the subtraction sign to addtion sign and answer the questions as additon questions.

The pencils in photos are her calculation aid. Kristine is often her tutor, correcting her homework, with frequent scolding towards Kimmie;s mistakes.

Flu Vaccine

Kimberley joined a few of previous kinder-mates yesterday to a local hospital for their flu shots. 15 kids cramped into a small passenger van.

She promised she wouldnt cry, and she didnt.

When one of her ex- female classmates starting crying before taking the shot, Kimmie started to feel nervous and refused to take her jacket and cardigan off. She fought tooth and nail, but eventually losing to the stornger father's arms. As she struggled within my locking embrace, she insisted on looking the needle poking into her left arm, contrary to advice given. BUT SHE DID NOT CRY!

A Mini Mouse chocolate bar as reward, imported by Xiaogugu from Tokyo.
We walked 1.5km home, instead of taking the kindergarten van with the other kids.

Attached photo taken with Kimmie's previous kinder teacher Ms Liu.

More Snow Photos

Photo taken after heavy snow last week. Jason asked if the snow was 'artificial'. Kristine's Japanese tutor mentioned her lecturer told her it was artificial induced, but I could not find any report in Beijing Meteorological Bureau website. They declared that after the heavy snow fall in february 2009, stating it was needed for winter crops to germinate. Not this time.

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New Kinder

Kimmie bid farewell to Hui Jia Kids Kinder last week and joins Little Squirts. Hui Jia is an excellent kinder with qualified staff but it was too big for Kimmie to take advantage of.

Her new kinder is operated by a Canadian guy and her Chinese wife, assisted by a full time Chinese teacher and a part time Filipina (English) teacher. Maximum class size is limited to 12 but it currently has just 8 kids of various ages.

Maybe it is still fresh but Kimmie is eager to goto kinder early each morning. However, she still clings to a teacher during playtime outdoor. We shall see if the small class size will make Kimmie more relaxed and outgoing. Morgan managed to squeeze a loud answer from Kimmie yesterday duing playtime. That is a good start.

We can see Little Squirts play, twice a day, in the open from our windows. Two days ago, while Kimmie stayed detached watching other kids play, she slolwly walked towards our apartment entry hallway (I wanted to go home!). The Chinese assistant ran to grab her back.

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Flu Injection Ineffective against Swine Flu

Kristine had her flu injection on Wednesday, her first day of school after 7-day home (and super happy) quanrantine due to a mild fever.

These are our conversation after school on Wednesday:
"Did nurses come to your school (to adminster the injections)?"
"No, that was done in a hospital."
"How did you goto the hospital?"
"In the same school bus that took me to school."
"Whats the name of the hospital?"
"I dont know. It looked old and '烂' (decrepit)."
"Did any of classmates cry?"
"4 cried before the injection because they were nervous, but nobody cried after that".
"Did you distribute your chocolate bars to your friends who didnt cry?"
"Yes. None of them cry."

This article came from Bloomberg today:

"Seasonal flu shots didn't protect against the new swine flu strain that's now responsible for 99.6 percent of U.S. infections, according to a federal study".

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a.HdTk60eNz0

For Kristine (and soon Kimberley as well), her next flu reaction should not be ordinary seasonal flu.

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H1N1

The bad cold and nasty coughs I got from last Sunday's heavy snow made its round within the house to Kristine and Kimberley. Kristine's reaction was not as bad as mine, and Kimberley's was even milder.

Nevertheless, because Kristine's temp went to 37.5degC (up to 38 the next day), she had to take the mandatory '8-count' and stayed home for 7 days (Cut off is 37.3degC for all school kids). Both are now back to normal. They will return to school and kinder on Wednesday.

Both have registered for flu shots at schools. Kristine will get hers on Wednesday, and Kimberley a few days later. Both have stuffed their school bags with candies and chocs for classmates who are brave for the injections. I suspect they will have the lion shares of the goodies, even before the injection just to calm their own nerves.

Since mid October, after returning from the week long National Day holidays, Kimberley's class was closed for two weeks, and a class in Kristine;s grade was closed for a week.

More face masks are now spotted in public. The flu season is kicking into high gear. Flu vaccine manufacturers listed on local stock exchanges went up some 30-50% last week.

1st Snow of the Season

The heavy snow early Sunday (Nov1) was a surprise. It was a bit too early for snow yet. Central heating is still a few days away, but a cold front brought temp plunging below freezing overnight. Expecting just a small flurry, I must be at my wit's end to venture out to the vegie market. It was just a small flurry as I departed. On way home, it got heavy, backpack full of fresh vegetables and head full of snow!!!!

Pandas @ Beijing Zoo

Saying hellos to Pandas at Beijing Zoo, adjacent to the Planetarium which the kids visited the week before.

Kimmie is still very devoted to animal watching but Kristine is pass that age.

Kimmie's Sports Day

Last friday morning was Kimmie's kinder sports day for K4 classes.
Kimmie was the ONLY one not wearing kinder uniform (she refused), and Kimmie was the ONLY one not taking any part in the ceremonial or competitive activities, choosing to stick around us, claiming she was shy. Despite coaxing and persuasion by grace and myself, and all her kinder teachers, nurses and nannies, she refused to join in.

Kimmie's class, having being barred from kinder last two weeks to prevent spread of foot and mouth, and not having much practice, came in last of three classes, a distant last....

H1N1

Kimberley returned to kinder after 2 weeks segragation due to a classmate contracting 'foot and mouth'.

Parents are still not allowed into the kinder. The front gate acts as the natural barrier. The gate and the fence have a fresh layer of paint so at least they look cleaner.

Attached a WHO chart comparing fatality rate of various contagious deseases. While H1N1 is 5 times more potent than seasonal flus, SARS is 19 times more deadly than H1N1, and Bird Flu is 120 times above.

Hot Water Supply

Utility supplies in Beijing, at least in our apartment have been good (consistent). There was never a power trip or any supply interuption, until yesterday.

As Kristine went to take a shower yesterday evening, she screamed out there was no hot water supply. She then tried to wash her hair with cold water in the basin which I told her not to and then I rushed down to the management office to recharge our hot water supply card.

Gas, electricity, hot water, and recycled water for toilets are prepaid onto smart cards, to be loaded into utility meters at home. When the prepayment runs out, the meters stop the flow. Twice we ran out of recycled water, and once we ran out of electricity. Hot and Recycled Water credits are purchased from our local property mgt office, cold water is billed monthly by local water board, electricty can be purchased from our local milkbar or banks, but gas can only be purchased from Bank of Beijing. Sounds fun? It is!

Upon reaching the property management office, the guy at front desk asked if it was hot water I came for. I replied yes but how do you know? He said the entire complex is affected due to major hot water piping repair, not because our meter has ran out of credit. It would last three days.

So until tomorrow, our usual hot showers come from boiling water in soup pots on stove and then mix with cold in big bucket. Though a bit inconvenient, I think we use less water this way.....

Kristine's View of MuTianYu Great Wall

When Adele visited beijing last week and went to the Great wall, kristine and Kimberley skipped schools to tag along.

Attached a photo of the Great Wall sandwiched by autumn foliage taken by Kristine.

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Kristine's 1st Earning

Kristine earned RMb100 today for a 6-min recording of English reading to form a part of English teaching material for local students.

She was selected by her English teacher as 1 of 4 students from her school for the task. The recording was done at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

After lunch near the Uni, the kids got a treat to the Beijing Planetarium. The show we chose was a documentary on how the Sun will eventually 'die'. I fell asleep in my reclining seat.

Kristine School

On way to her school bus pick up point this morning, I asked Kristine what she got to do for those 30 minutes between her arrival at school and class begins. She said the students all have to stay inside their classes in their seats. They can leave their classrooms only to toilets, or to the drinking water fountain.

They dont get to play in the compaound. The teachers do not want them to run around. It sounds so regimented compared to her Melbourne school, where school is FUN!!!! I asked her if she liked her Beijing school. To my surprise, she said yes. I asked her why. She said she gets to learn different things.

Thats the spirit!

Back to School

The National Day break of 8 days ended on October 9, but not for Kimberley.
Kristine did a mandatory 7 count of home quarantine after returning from MDJ. She stayed home until October 12. Kimberley should have started her kinder on the same day. Her kinder teacher called on October 9 saying two of Kimberley's classmates have contracted 'Mouth and Foot' desease and her class has been closed for 2 weeks.

Her days with me at home vacillates from LeapPad to computer games (www.51mole.com is her fav now) to drawing to Cartoon Network. Early on she would go with me to pick Kristine from her school bus stop and proceeeded to piano practice. The latter part of the week she decided to just stay at home by herself. Her first!

Siberian Tigers

Greetings from North East China.

On day of arrival in Mudanjiang, Kristine scared us with a 37.4degC temp. She is now back to her bubbly self so we took her, Kimmie and their cousin to visit a Siberian Tiger sanctuary in Heng Dao He Zi (横道河子)，about 44km from Mudanjiang toward Haerbin direction.

The Sanctuary is the largest of its kind with about 100 Siberian Tigers for public viewing, and another 300 behind the scene.
Basic daily sustenance for each tiger costs Y200, consisting of 8.5kg of beef and a duck, plus whatever they get from tourists feeding them through fences (duck fillets for Y10), or in open safari (live ducks for Y40, or live cows for Y1500). Kristine, Kimmie and their cousin each fed a tiger a piece of duck fillet held on a bamboo stick. We saw a pack of tigers chasing after two ducks in the safari. Rather cruel, but how else to maintain their hunting instinct in captivity. The option of releasing them into the 'wild' will just hasten their extinction, just like the more affadable pandas.

Autumn foliage along the way is beautiful, rivalling the New England states in the US.

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Train Station Mad Rush

On the day of departure by train to MDJ to visit the grandparents, both Kristine and Kimberley insisted on attending schools for just 2 hours. Tight schedule to meet for train departing at 1138am.

The scheduled timeline for the morning was

0950am Pick Kimberley from kinder
(1000am actual)
1000am taxi to Kristine school
(1025am actual (no taxi outside main gate)
1025am arrive Kristine school,
(1048am actual)
1030am head for train station
(1055am actual)

Taxi driver did an Indy500 race from Kristine school to train station, dropping us just outside train station to save us some long walk from the normal dropoff point across a busy road linked by a long pedestrian overpass.

25mins to train departure time. 100m walk to the main entrance. We should be able to make it. Not wanting to miss the train after all the trouble HT went through to get us those precious tickets.

10 steps off the taxi, stopped by armed police by roadside, wanting to check ID. Off came my backpack onto ground, unzip back pocket, took out folder, unzip folder to retrive 4 passports. Passport photos, other ID fell off folder.

Armed police saw the passport covers, and waved us on.

5 more quickened steps and another armed police stopped me, wanting to check my backpack.

Found my fruit knife on side pocket. Armed police was beaming with delight. He had picked the right target for further search. He tried explain why that knife couldnt be brought onto train. I cut him short and replied 'keep it!' and we rushed off.

A rush to the main entrance. What else to expect other than a long queue in front of security xrays. Luckily the line moved well, and we were lucky not to have our bags searched again.

Reached waiting hall inside at 1118am. Gambled I could afford 5 minutes to get two McDonalds Happy Meals. No hassle there. I returned with the treasured lunch at 1123am. Just 15 minutes to spare. Hopefully our train car is not far off the ticket checkpoint. Still no call for boarding.

Then we saw the MDJ train sign saying departure at 1238am. Grace thought was train was delayed. That would be a first. Service attitude on train is bad compared to airplanes, but train service is not known for delays.

Looked at the tickets again.

Deprature time printed 1238am........................

Kristine and Kimberley had time for their HAPPY MEALS!!!!!!