Thursday, August 29, 2013

Obsessed with Dandelion



There is no flower that attracts both Chenya and Ryan like the common Dandelion. After the harsh winter this year which ended sometime in February and when spring kicked in, there were so many little white tiny fluffy star burst like flower popping up everywhere – the dandelion.


Both Chenya and Ryan were having a blast, picking them up and blowing them into the wind. 

 
I enjoyed watching them having simple fun like this and being back to the nature, running wild in the park (although it would have been much better if they were in a real natural park somewhere with clear blue skies with little air pollution, unlike the severe ones that we get in Beijing).

 
The laughter, the squeals (especially from Chenya) and the screams from Ryan as the light tiny white dandelion seeds float in the air, being carried by the wind, landing we know not where, but with a possibility of a new beginning and starting the next life cycle was something precious and memorable to me.

I can’t really recall whether I had such fun when I was younger but from the look of both my children, I can sense the true, deep and uninhibited joy of simply blowing the dandelion flowers and chasing after the seed all over the place.

 
We just went through some hot and humid summer here in Beijing, reportedly one of the hottest that most Beijingers would attest to. Autumn has arrived and the weather is slowly cooling down a little and we can see more clear blue skies in the recent weeks as compared to the hot polluted summer days.

Days are shorter now as compared to summer and soon the sun would set by 4:30 in the evening, as winter arrives. Honestly speaking, I am looking forward to the winter although it can be very cold and harsh at times, but I am looking forward to snowfall and another round of snowball fights with my son and this year, I am sure Chenya would be able to join in as well.

 
For now, with this post, I just hope and wish (if I could) remind my children when they do grow up, that the best fun and laughter and true joy sometimes comes from the simplest of things in life, such as a tiny white dandelion.

So, if you are ever depressed and frustrated anytime in the future, try picking up a dandelion and blow it into the wind, sit back and watch them float without care nor worries, wherever the wind takes them, knowing that a new beginning for them has just started.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

To Fight or Not To Fight

“There was this older kid at the slide and he just pushed my son. Normally, my son would walk away but that day, he was absolutely furious. He pushed the older kid back. I had to tell him not to and get him out from the playground.” this mommy friend was sharing with us over breakfast on Sunday.

That sounds rather familiar. Incidents like this have happened so many times when Ryan was playing at the playground where other kids, especially the older ones just pushed him around. Most of the time, I would quickly stepped in and asked Ryan to politely walk away and play something else.


I am not quite sure why I always do that. Thinking back, I guessed firstly, I really do not want Ryan to get hurt and secondly I don’t want him to get into fight. Ryan would obediently walk away but mostly with a look that shouts “WHY? WHY ME? I WAS THERE FIRST! THIS ISN’T FAIR!”

Herein, is my dilemma, just as this friend later shared. We have dreamed and wanted our children to grow up to be go-getters, not afraid to go after the things that they want in life, to be motivated and to be strong enough to defend themselves in the real world when they grow up. Yet, here we are, telling them to walk way despite being bullied, to give up their rights just because they are being pushed around. So, what message are we sending to our kids exactly?  Instead of fortifying our teachings at home, I am contradicting myself when the test of courage is before him.

Should he fight back? Should he stand his ground and defend what is rightly his? Should he risk the possibilities of being beaten up, defending what is right and just? Or should he simply walk away from a fight, not wanting to create a scene and just want to be the MR NICE GUY?

I am not quite sure. Honestly, I have been taught to walk away and back off so many times as far as I could remember when I was younger, and that has grown into an adverse effect on me, where I would back off from many arguments even though I know deep in my heart that I am right. For the same of so-called diplomacy, I have many times held my tongue and allow others to occasionally step all over me, only to feel frustrated later. Maybe, it is our Asian, in particular MALAYSIAN culture, to be always polite, seen by others as a sign of weakness to a point of being exploited.

I have seen very aggressive Caucasian children and mainland Chinese kids are no different when it comes to aggression in getting what they want. Is it time for Ryan to learn to step up and to be equally aggressive to defend what is rightly his?


What do you think? Maybe, that is one reason why I started him on his Shaolin kung fu classes, not only to build discipline but also to build self confidence, knowing that he will be able to defend himself adequately.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

My Shaolin Master

Ever since Ryan was a young boy around 2, he has always been interested in `fighting’ and keen to demonstrate his `kung fu moves’ that he picked up from his favourite Ultraman movies. There are so many of his photographs that he strikes up a pretty impressive pose with his kung fu stance.

I, for one, have always been interested in kung fu although I don’t have the opportunity to learn when I was young. I remembered that I wanted to learn tae kwan do but was not allowed by my parents because they feared that I would be using those skills to fight even more, not that I fought a lot. I guessed parenting mindset then and now are significantly different. Modern parents nowadays would want their child to learn as much skill set as possible to equip them for hopefully a brighter and better future. Moreover, such opportunities or classes were not so easily available then and even if they were available, were rather expensive.

I am always impressed with my dear doctor friend, Dr Liew (our children’s paediatrician and also my long time class mate) who practised wushu. I remembered him demonstrated his wushu moves during one of our class parties back in ACS Ipoh when we were in Form Four and I had been mesmerized since then. I wanted Ryan to pick wushu as much as possible, knowing that it would do him a world of good, not only learning a skill to fight, but some form of discipline and to channel his interest in fighting in a positive way. Unfortunately, I was told that he can’t be practising till he was four. Hence, we have to wait.


Now that he has turned five, we started immediately to find out where and how we could enrol him for some classes to start him off. We were originally thinking of either starting him on junior golfing lessons or kung fu. However, I still think that at his age, kung fu would be a better choice since he is much more flexible now and is a skill set that would instil better discipline and self confidence.


While looking around, we were informed by one of our new neighbour who has also become a good friend and their son, Slevin, Ryan’s best friend is taking Shaolin kung fu lessons. We wasted no time to get Ryan there for a trial class and he is hooked. He loves it and from what we observed, he is totally focus and agile for this particular sport.


It was his third lesson yesterday after missing several weeks due to our travelling. We were happy and glad that the trainer actually came over and commented that he was totally impressed with Ryan’s commitment and focus during his lessons and training and is of the opinion that he has the talent to pick up this sport.



It seemed that my son is living my dreams. I am not looking forward for him to become another Jet Lee but I would be contended that this discipline would mould him into a better person.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Childhood Friend

Childhood friendship is one of the most interesting parts and parcel of our lives as we grow up. I grew out of those childhood friendship unfortunately, as I got busy with my college life and corporate life and have not touch base with many of those playmates that I grew up with. There are many of us who still keep in touch with our childhood friends and have remained close.

As I grow older, there are nights, digging deep into my fading memories, trying hard to remember their names. As each of their name came up, fond memories followed, of the laughter we had, the mischief we got ourselves into, the secrets and adventures we shared. I always ended wishing I know where they are now and if only we could just sit down for a cup of coffee and relive those little precious moments together.


Ryan has got a new friend here in Beijing and they have become very close over the last couple of months. Just a couple of months younger, Slevin and Ryan have grown almost inseparable. They are constantly asking for each other and always looking forward to meet up whenever they can and have a good time.

They have grown so close that they are each asking whether they could move into each other houses and live together. Kids!!

And Chenya has grown fond of Slevin too. There was a day when she woke up from her nap and the first person she asked for was “Where is SLEVIN?” This girl is having her first crush on a BOY at 2 years old!

The parents of Slevin are probably the closest pals we have now in Beijing and rightly so, because they are also simply nice people to start with. In fact, they have volunteered to take Ryan out with Slevin a couple of times, including the latest Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour concert.


I just want to write this down as a way to remember this great family and remind Ryan that he once had a good childhood friend by the name of Slevin if they should ever part and go their separate ways, that somehow, their lives have touched somewhat and left a little something behind, pleasant and happy memories of a growing childhood.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

New CEO at Home

My other half have been working from home whenever possible. With today's technology, office can literally be anywhere as long as you have a good or reasonably good internet connection. Well, this technology is a double edged sword. While on one hand, one can be almost be kept updated with the rhythm and pulse of the business, on the down side is that, it is extremely difficult to segregate or differentiate home life and work life. One can actually be working almost round the clock if you are working and reporting to different bosses globally with different time zones or bosses who do not seemed to bloody understand that it is actually midnight half way around the world from where they are.

The challenge for me of course is how to keep two hyper active `monsters' who are now constantly bickering and fighting and yelling over who get which toy, as quiet as I positively can, while my `CEO' at home is having her conference call with her colleagues. Or, how to you prevent especially Chenya from climbing all over her mommy while she is half way, presenting a proposal to her bosses. Wifi at home in the rooms are far from fair and hence, getting her to work in the rooms is still `work in progress' until I find a solution to boost up the signals. Meanwhile, everytime, she has conference call at home, me, the `personal assistant' get stressed to the max, trying to ensure that both the little ones are kept in check.


Today, I have an extra CEO `working' from home. Chenya has started imitating her mommy to set up her work desk at the dining table to `work', complete with her bag, laptop, handphone, notepad and pen, pretending to be making calls and replying emails.


Now, I have two CEOs at home working and I must said that I have my work cut out for me as their `personal assistant'. Now I have two bosses at home and both equally demanding, fiery and a perfectionist in every sense of the word.



I seriously need to hire a assistant to this assistant!

Monday, August 12, 2013

OMG


"Ohhh...my...GODDDDDDDDDDD......!"

This is Chenya's latest favorite phrase.

She knocks her head and she would put her hand on the spot on her head and go "Ohh..my..GODDDDDDD...knock knock!"

She sees something scary or exciting on TV and she would go "Ohh..my...GODDDDDDDD....!"

She sees anything exciting, she would go "Oh my God! oh my God!"

The best is when she has dirtied her diapers and believe me, you can smell her poo poo a mile away and when I changed for her, she would cover her own nose and go "OOHHHH..MY..GODDDDDDDDD...smelly!"

This girl is really "Ohhhh...my...Godddddd" now....

Thursday, August 8, 2013

We had to be towed

Our very first boating outing turned out to be a rather interesting and frustrating one at the same time. We wanted to take the children out for some activities over the weekend, as they have been in the apartment over the entire week due to rainy weather forecast in Beijing. We decided to go for boating since Beijing has several nice public parks with sizable lakes. So, it was either Beihai, Chaoyang Park (which is just across the place we lived) and the Summer Palace, the lake of all lakes in Beijing.

After some checks with our driver, we decided to go to Summer Palace early to avoid the crowd and the severe heat in the afternoon.

 

On arrival, we made a beeline to the pier where tickets were sold. The crowd was thin and the weather was perfect. We went ahead and got ourselves a paddle boat. We had to pay a deposit of RMB300 and every hour is RMB60. Everybody walked excitedly to the pier and we got ushered into our boat. There were no instruction given and before we could ask, the helpers at the pier had already pushed us off.

I knew that we had to paddle to make it go forward and backward and the little lever in the middle, besides me, I reckoned must be to steer the rudder. As we paddled it out into the lake, the breeze was blowing gently and everything seemed perfect until of course when we tried to turn the boat. No matter, which direction I turned the lever, the boat just refused to turn. It just kept on turning into the direction where the waves are going. Suddenly, it dawned on us that we have absolutely no control over the boat. It is kind of scary as there are bigger tourist boats that go right across the lake and we are `floating’ dangerously into their paths. We tried everything we could think of, from reversing and going forward and reversing to slowly turned the boat around and even resorted to paddling as fast and as hard as we could to move the boat forward back to the pier. It was a better workout than going to the gym for sure.

After a good 30 minutes, we managed to get our boat nearer to the pier and frantically shouted to the helpers that we need help. They shouted back for us to call the number written on one panel on the boat. We called and 5 minutes later, we were towed back to the pier. On closer inspection of the boat we took, we noticed that the rudder has actually broken off and there was absolutely no way that we could move it in any direction that we want.


 We went back to the ticketing office to claim our refund and were told that we need the confirmation from the helpers from the pier. Upon approaching the pier, NONE of the helpers were `helping’. Some even suggested that we pay for 30 minutes ride. Undeterred, my wife argued and finally got one kind soul who came forward to walk over to the ticketing office to verify for us. We got our refund but that left a bad taste in the mouth.

I was almost ready to throw in the towel and go home at this point in time, but a promise is a promise. We promised the little ones that they will go boating. So, we took a break and had a cup of coffee before we proceeded to queue for tickets for the motorized boats. (We didn't know that such exist until we were out in the lake…hehehe). We had to pay a deposit of RMB400. The charges were RMB100 per hour for a 6 seater boat. We could not wait for the 4 seater ones as all of those have been taken.

Steering the motorized one was definitely much easier and once we got to open waters with less traffic, both Ryan and Chenya took turns to steer the boat, which was a lot of fun.


Taking a boat ride to see Summer Palace is definitely the way to go, as the lake is so huge and walking around it will definitely take too long a time and too much an effort both with two little ones among the swelling crowd of local Chinese tourists.



If you are ever here at the Summer Palace, I would strongly recommend that you try this although this would very unlikely be in your itinerary if you are following a tour.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

42 seconds


Ryan finally completed his first 36 hours of swimming lessons with his coach yesterday and he is on to the next 36 hours that we have signed up.

Over the last couple of months, from not knowing how to swim, he has made tremendous progress that we can only be proud of. For one, as I have posted earlier, we had registered him in a swimming competition 2 months ago, and he did his first 100 meters breaststroke in an impressive 2 minutes 22 second (1 minute 11 seconds for 50 meters). That was not his best time then as he has done 55 seconds for 50 meters before during his lessons.

From then, the coach has also started him on freestyle. 

With the completion of the first 36 hours of lessons, his best time for 50 meters breaststroke is 48 seconds while he did an impressive 42 seconds for his 50 meters freestyle.

Not bad for a 5 year old boy considering that both his mommy and daddy are NOT good swimmers at all.

The lessons have not only taught him a lifetime skill set but also the encouragement given by his coach and his determination to do better, has motivated him to eat better and develop a keen interest in food and building more muscles, so that he can swim better and `fight' better in his weekly kungfu classes. (More on that in the future)

We are proud of you son...Keep it up. Soon, we hope to see you doing butterfly too .....:)

Pediasure IMMITATION?

The one core and serious concern among parents in mainland China is milk powder. The recent contamination detected by Fonterra, one of the largest exporters of raw materials to many manufacturers of dairy products in the world only deepened the concern and sent many parents here frantically searching for an alternative.

We have the same problems here and it was one of our major concerns before we even finalised our move and relocation over to Beijing. After our initial market survey and from the advice and `stories’ we heard, we were determined to bring in our milk powder for both Ryan and Chenya from Malaysia every time we go back for our holidays. We have been buying Pediasure by the cartons when we are back home and bring them over in our suitcases.

With the volume that we are stocking up, we noticed that there is a mark difference in the Pediasure milk powder that we have been buying. From the stock that we have, we discovered that they are actually manufactured by two different companies. One is reportedly manufactured by Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories North Chicago. The other is labelled as manufactured by Holland Beilen Factory FOR Abbott Laboratories North Chicago. Both are labelled as imported and distributed by Abbott Laboratories (M) Sdn Bhd.


We have noticed the different texture of the milk powder from the different batches of Pediasure that we have bought before but never really took any serious notice or attention till now.

From the packaging perspective, although they looked almost similar, we noticed the following differences:-

  • The colour of the can is different. The one manufactured in Singapore has brighter colours as compared to the one manufactured in Netherlands.
  • The Halal logo is different between the two
  • The scope that came with the one manufactured in Netherlands is longer than that the came with the one manufactured in Singapore.

Besides the packaging, the one important difference that we noticed was the texture of the milk powder itself.

The one manufactured in Singapore is more fluffy, compact and `sticky’. The colour too is more yellowish. The one manufactured in Netherlands however, is clearly dryer and looser.

We have fed our children with both and so far, we have not detected any significant problems with both (although I have read in a blog in Singapore updated by another concerned mother that her child had diarrhoea after consuming that manufactured in Netherlands.)

We have yet to write to Abbot in Malaysia to check it out and we are determined to. Apparently, the mother who detected this in Singapore was told that the one manufactured in Netherlands could be parallel imports which Abbott could not control. However, the scary thing is that checks from the internet could not find any company by the name of HOLLAND BEILEN FACTORY!


We just hope that we have not bought another brilliant imitation manufactured somewhere and the thoughts of feeding that to our children is scary. For now, I think I would only feed my two little ones with those manufactured in Singapore until we can get some form of satisfactory answer from either Abbott Malaysia or Abbott in Chicago.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Milk Powder Scandals

I started off this blog way back in 2008 when the world was shocked with the issue of milk powder in China being contaminated by melamine which took the lives of reported 6 children and affected the lives of over 300,000. Subsequently, we were also informed that the contaminated milk was used to produce a variety of dairy products such as chocolate bars, biscuits and candies. Fonterra, the largest milk producer in New Zealand was embroiled right in the thick of things as their associate company in China, Sanlu Group was reported to be the major culprit with the contaminated milk sold.


5 years later, milk powder has become the one single major issue and concern of most new parents today in China, in particular in larger cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Imported milk powders in China are extremely expensive and beyond the reach of many, except the rich and super rich. A can of Pediasure 800g for example is sold for over RMB240 (RM120). That is almost the price of a can of 1.8kg Pediasure sold back home in Malaysia, where we could get around RM136 to RM146 per can. (Differences in Pediasure milk powder detected in the following post – stay tuned)

Before Hong Kong imposed a ban, most mainland China nationals have resorted to buying huge quantity of imported milk powder from Hong Kong. With the ban, many have  depended on friends to bring them in from overseas or buying them online. China Chinese are mostly very enterprising and hence, dozens of websites or online stores have sprung up selling and fuelling the demand and need. So bad was the demand that fake imported milk powder and expired products were detected. There were even reports that accused a certain local partner of a Swiss baby formula of deliberately mislabelling milk powder in March. They were accused of changing expiration dates of older children milk powder, and re-labelling them as pricier ones for younger babies!

Another report accused Heitiki, a milk powder brand which its distributor in Shenzhen claimed as a “top brand” in New Zealand, was discovered in 2011 to be registered by Chinese businessman and unknown to New Zealanders!

Another interesting instance (if I remembered correctly seeing it on TV a couple of months back) was where a check of the manufacturer of a particular brand of New Zealand milk powder reported by a local importer was traced back to a mechanic shop in New Zealand.

Everyone is telling me to look into the possibilities of bringing in milk powder into China and make big bucks. Well, any idiot (so to speak) would know that but to do it legally would be almost be impossible considering the level of red tapes and ‘connections’ one has to have to bring this lucrative goldmine into China.

We are having the same problems with milk powder too and we have resorted to bringing in as many cans as we can possibly carry with us back to Beijing every time we go back to Malaysia. At the rate of which both Ryan and Chenya are drinking milk powder, we are currently consuming one 1.8kg can a week! And the most we could carry at any one time were probably 10 to 12 cans!

China Daily headlined today there have been a major recall of dairy products contaminated with Clostridium botulinum in whey protein, a deadly bacteria which could kill if consumed. Dumex is apparently one of the many major brands affected. It was reported that a total of 900 tonnes of the contaminated raw materials were exported to countries such as China, Malaysia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia although no specific companies have been named.

It was reported that China has already imposed a ban on the import of all milk powder from New Zealand with immediate effect.

So, where does all this take us in China?

I believe all these will fuel the demand for imported milk powder even further and trust the `enterprising’ individuals in this competitive part of the world to think of ways and means to convert this into another opportunity to generate another quick dollar from unsuspecting parents who are more than willing to folk out more money to get that extra can of `imported’ milk powder for their `emperor’ or `princess’ at home.

Before too long, we could probably hear news of New Zealand milk powder or even local milk powder being re-branded or relabelled as those imported from Netherlands or USA being marketed or sold online.


After all, CHINA is a world of opportunities!