What Planet Am I On?
Today was one of those surreal days… as if today is different from any other day, though… I don’t think so. Since returning from the Gold Coast I have orbited through Hong Kong for eight days and tomorrow I leave again. Orbit is exactly how it feels, coming close to the planet/home base but knowing that soon some type of gravitational force will shortly pull me away. Things are moving pretty quickly and all those plans I had to clean up my clutter, spend more time with the kids and family… well it’s happening and it isn’t.
Today was actually a pretty extraordinary day. Right now it’s 9:45 pm in Hong Kong… the trips went to bed an hour late and Sebastian is watching Veggie Tales… he should have been in bed 1.5 hours ago but you know what… I don’t care… tonight I’m gonna let him have his way and fall asleep watching TV. I’ve Mr. Drill Sergeant today and need to let up a little. Tess is quite tired and currently sleeping. (Ed note: Seb ended up volunteering to go to bed – with NO toy – at 10 pm.)
My HR team had a guest in from US HR this week and she’s very, very good at her job. We have this list in HK called the Pain Reduction Matrix… it’s a list of more than two dozen horrible time wasters… monkeys that we just can’t get off our back. Well, our US guest, being so good at her HR systems job, has found a way to eliminate most if not all of the Pain Reduction Matrix. BTW, my boss hates when I call it the Pain Reduction Matrix… he wants me to call it the Task Reduction Matrix! Sure… no problem… I’ll do that at work but not on my blog. (Note small print in profile!) Anyway, this morning some of the team arranged to meet at The Peak to go for a walk… something that I’ve wanted to do for a while with the Kettler Trike but we’ve just never quite made it past Bowen Road. Tess and I talked and decided to go for it.
We had a terrific time… took a little longer than we expected but fun nonetheless. Friend and colleague Paul brought Isabella who is somewhat of a “girlfriend” for Sebastian. At one point Sebastian and Isabella decided to run ahead together as opposed to riding trikes, and Sela actually piloted the Kettler for a good half hour. Amazing! Jasper had a hand at driving when Sela and Carys decided to run for a while and he did quite well. We wrapped up the two-hour walk/ride with wee wees and a quick snack. Tess left us halfway through to join a friend (Stephay for some online Amazing Race fun so on our way home we picked Tess up. The kids had leftover pizza for lunch and then raised havoc when they were supposed to be napping. Tess was wiped after naptime… not that the little rascals did any napping… so I did something I never thought I would do with the kids at this age… I took four kids grocery shopping by myself.
We had a little pow wow beforehand where all parties involved were forewarned that good behaviour, plus eating all their dinner, would be rewarded with ice cream for dessert. We drove to PNS (Park ‘N Shop) where Sela metled down in the parking lot because she couldn’t sit in her chosen spot. (This was not a big shop so I planned on all three in a shopping cart and Seb helping to push.) I said, “Sela, you either sit here or we go home.” This went on for two minutes.
Sela dug her heals in. “Okay then,” I replied, “we go home.” I put her back in her car seat, and Carys, too, which set her off. I explained to Sebastian that we had to go home and he started to cry. Jasper sat in the shopping cart bewildered. Somewhere in the middle of all the screaming Sela conceded, sat where I asked her to and we were on our way. I think Sela was a little miffed I was willing to Abort Mission so close to the store. Sebastian, however, is well accustomed to that practise.
The most important prop for this mission was The Lollipop. Once out of the parking lot (called a "car park" in Hong Kong) I pulled out the lollies. Everyone was happy but Seb was the first one to ask for the pink lolly. Therefore, I gave it to him. Sela went into orbit with anger and refused to eat her lolly. Finally I said to Sebastian, “Seb, forget it, we have to go home. Sela won’t eat her lolly because she doesnt have the pink one. She’s just going to cry the whole time and be uncooperative so we are going back.” We were 20 steps from the store front at this point with Seb just ahead of us. I pulled the shopping cart to a halt and started in reverse.
Then Seb did the most amazing thing. Unprompted he surrendered his pink lolly. “NO! No… no…” said Sebastian soothingly running back to the cart, “Here Sela!” and instantly traded lollies with her. Sela stopped crying, thanked Seb who muttered, “that’s ok” and we were on our way.
The kids were incredibly well behaved in the store – duh, no surprise with lollies in their hands! Thirty minutes later we loaded the grocery bags into the back of the car when there was a shattering pop… a bottle of sparkling San Pelligrono dropped through the bottom of a shopping bag and bounced on the pavement. On the second bounce glass and sparkling water exploded – in slow motion no less – all over the ground and my brand new MBT shoes.
I received my free MBT shoes on Friday after going to MBT’s Hong Kong office and receiving a lesson in how to walk with the curved sole. I opted for the leather business casual style since most of the walking I do surrounds work. I also didn’t want to get new and expensive running shoes muddy on HK trails where I do most of my running. You can imagine my reaction to see my new shoes covered in broken glass and water. Actually you probably can’t… I didn’t really react at all. After all… the shoes were free, it was only water, and any scratches from the glass would probably come from normal wear and tear in a few months anyway.
The kids were amazed at the science of glass and water splattered across the carpark pavement behind the car. This kept them quite distracted as I seated everyone back into the car. At home they had spaghetti and sausages for dinner and yes, ice cream, too, once Jasper accepted he had to finish dinner to get dessert. The triplets fell asleep in a moment and I let Sebastian watch TV while I tried to bring some normalcy back into my life by writing a blog. It’s also Remembrance Day today, too.
