Hong Kong Life – Page 3 – The Searchlight of Insight

First day of 2007

January 1, 2007 5 Comments

I was right, last night was a bit tough. I was asleep by about 11 pm. Tess lay next to me watching "Love Actually." At midnight the neighbourhood exploded in cheers that lasted at least an hour. Throughout the night Sela woke-up crying every 30 – 60 minutes. Tess took the 11 pm to 3 AM watch. I took the 3:30 to 7 AM watch. Finally at 7:15 I got the kids up and made French Toast while they watched Dora the Explorer.

Sela has been in a nasty mood all morning. She still has a fever, too. In the middle of my cleaning up and doing some chores I heard screaming and exclamations emanating from the playroom. I walked in to find Sela standing with her legs apart as if she had something stuck up her rear. Funny that, she did… I could see from behind a little sack of sh*t bulging through her pyjamas.

"Daddy, I had to do a poopers!" Sela screamed.

"Well Sela, you don’t have to wait for me. You can always go to the toilet on your own!" I explained. (We have a little stool – no pun intended – that makes it easy for the kids to get on and off the toilet.)

The stinky mess is now cleaned up and the girls changed. Jasper was on, off, on, off, on, off blah blah the toilet but alas, finally did his business. Tess and I have full blown colds, as does Sela, and Sebastian is now starting to heat-up. You know you’re a parent with your hands full when you can’t wait for naptime and bedtime… and it’s still only 9:39 AM!

Happy New Year… good riddance holidays!

December 31, 2006 2 Comments

I am sitting at the dining room table – sipping a potent holiday Rum ‘N Egg Nog – while the kids eat a special treat of Kraft Dinner. Special because there are no peas or broccoli contained within. Also, special because Sebastian made tonight’s dinner! Yes, I managed the stove and heat but Seb poured in the noodles, stirred them, melted the butter, added the milk, then mixed in the cheese all by himself. (With some coaching and coaxing from yours truly – and Tess encouraging, of course.) For dessert the kids busted into one of the two gingerbread houses we made – thanks to Tess’ forethought – just before Christmas.

Now, why good riddance? For the last seven to eight days – not counting the mild colds of the last month – one or more of us has been sick. You’ll know from Tess’ blog it started with her, jumped to me (turbo charged by jet lag), then to the kids. Now the bug seems to have morphed into a cold that’s trying to take down Tess, Sela, Carys and me. JJ and Seb seem okay for the moment but that might only be because JJ has had such a bad case of the sniffles the last month that his nose goop finally turned dark British racing green. That’s when he went on antibiotics to rid him of whatever had a grip on him. Needless to say we – especially Tess and I – are very, very tired. De is in the Philippines. Yes, we could ask Lita or the fill-in helper to assist, but they desperately need rest so we’re coping on our own. And as for the Holiday Spirit, despite my sermon it’s been hard to be present to the true meaning of Christmas… focused on it, yes, present to it, no.

The kids have been spinning all holiday. Each one of the trips is nasty naughty in their own little way. Sela and Carys refuse to do poopers on the toilet, then within 2 – 3 minutes of being put down for their naps – like clockwork – they fill their nappies. We have a new routine… pull that trick at naptime = no stuffed animals at bedtime. Today they went into angry orbit upon filling their nappies and hearing the sentence. But at bedtime there was no complaining. They knew the writing was on the wall. We’ve had a few successes on the toilet, but not many other than wee wees.

Jasper on the other hand is about 99.9% reliable with the potty. Today, with Sela and Carys unwell, only he and Seb came to church with me… I didn’t even bother bringing any back-up clothes. I knew he’d be okay and sure enough he was. But JJ has a nasty little sassy attitude of (1) saying "NO" and (2) blatantly disregarding or ignoring authority. That created a number of clashes today and many other days, too.

As for Christmas, yes it was wonderful. The triplets are not quite there with understanding the "kids" excitement of the whole thing, but Sebastian certainly is. All in all, they were well behaved and in line. Hard to share on Christmas Day, though, when you’re a kid who knows a present is YOURS, but in the end everyone compromised and got along just fine. All the kids love to sing, and we had some fun moments during the holidays when Sebastian "put on a show" for Tess and I. Another time all four of the kids were singing and dancing as pictured here. Each one would take turns singing a different song then finally they all joined in to sing a cover version of "Little Rabbit Foo Foo Away in the Manger."

During the holidays there was lots of fun time with friends but not quite enough. Christmas Day we had three families over for dinner – including ourselves we totalled eight adults and eight kids. Yes, at times it was insane, especially when someone broke out the noise makers. An LCD machine projecting Buzz Lightyear and Veggie Tales 1.5 metres tall on a wall helped calm the second half of the night so it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately that was the day the GI bug hit me, so I wasn’t a very good host nor did I eat any of the Christmas dinner.

Tonight, despite being invited to a New Year’s Eve party, it will be a classic Tess & Charles NYE… kids in bed as we munch something while watching a movie on TV. Chances are we’ll be asleep before midnight. Alright, time for me to go… Sebastian is procrastinating going to bed. He THINKS he can put if off until next year. (Also Sela just woke-up crying. Me thinks it might be a long night if her cold gets worse.) We wish all our friends and family a Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Year. I promise that in the coming weeks I’ll post lots of pics and video from the holidays. Stay tuned.

Christmas Cantata

December 10, 2006 6 Comments

Saturday night Tess and I took the kids for dinner at Dan Ryan’s and then for a walk through Hong Kong Park and Central to see the various Christmas decorations adorning Hong Kong. Then today Union Church held its Christmas Cantata. That was quite amazing and the choir clearly worked long and hard to create that production. The last song, however, they were joined by the kids choir… and some young kids… starting at two years old! Funny story there… as the triplets walked in with the other children, Jasper saw me. Reportedly he’d just had a very minor accident in his pants. JJ didn’t think it was minor. At the top of his lungs he informed me – and the rest of the congregation – at least four or five times… “Daddy, I’m WET!” Too bad I didn’t get that on video… it was truly hilarious. But the tour of Hong Kong Christmas decorations and the last song of the Christmas Cantata can be found below. Enjoy.

The Froggy Hopper

November 30, 2006 5 Comments

Provided you read my blog just before Seb’s birthday party, you’ll know that The Froggy Hopper was one of the rides in Birthday Bingo. After the first wave of five or so kids arrived, a handful of parents and I started a small herd through the circuit. First stop: The Froggy Hopper. A small line resulted in waiting a few minutes for our turn. The dilemma: one of the kids was frightened of the ride and wanted an adult to accompany him. Let’s call him Josh. Our turn came… five kids and two adults ran to get onto the ride that can seat six kids and one adult. The other adult, a Chinese woman, was in front of our group and took the adult seat. Josh was left out.

The adult from our group, realising she’d made a mistake about where to sit, turned back but not before we successfully encouraged Josh to take the last remaining seat. The Chinese woman then insisted on having her picture, with OUR kids, taken by the ride operator. This took a few minutes during which Josh figured out he was without a familiar adult. Then the trouble began.

First, Josh wanted to be with someone he knew. Second, there was general consensus amongst the adults from our herd, that the adult on the ride with our kids should be from our herd, not someone else. We tried to explain this to the ride operator but her English was very poor. We then appealed to the other adult, would she mind trading with one of us? No… quite indignant she insisted that she was before us in the line and should therefore have first right of refusal to be on the ride. What was a simple debate or issue turned into a full blown argument. By the way, by this time a second Chinese woman was now in line and slipped ahead of us. This happened while our kids were on the ride and technically "not in line!"

While the argument developed steam, we tried to figure out the perspective of the first Chinese woman. The Chinese can be very superstitious… having your picture taken with six mostly blond kids is a sign of very, VERY good luck. Going on a ride with five mostly blondies would probably be the equivalent to winning the lottery in the luck department. We concluded that the woman never expected the possibility we might refuse to let our kids ride with her since everyone was already buckled in. But that’s what happened next.

Once the Chinese woman refused to move, we made the ride operator pull all our kids off… undo the buckle and strap at one end… then the other end… then raise the bar and everyone slides off. Remarkably none of them seemed too distraught at that idea. Everyone patiently lined up again and the Chinese woman – noticeably angered but trying to put on a happy face – went by herself on the empty ride. The ride ended, the Chinese woman left, and all the kids headed towards the empty seats. Not so fast…

Chinese woman #2 was now in the adult seat. Not sure what was going on with her… no happy face on that person and quite grumpy, too. I suspect there was some sort of cross cultural assessment going on… I.e. she had a not so favourable opinion of us and probably made some conclusions about the proceeding incident. Remarkably we stood there as this lady, clearly mad at us, rode on The Froggy Hopper that was once again empty but for one person. We all stood there in wonderment… this poor woman was not even enjoying the ride. She seemed to be more concerned at being right about not letting US ride!

Finally, our turn came and our six kids and adult filled The Froggy Hopper. However, it was just a bit much for Josh. The operator had to stop the ride, let him off by undoing the buckle and strap at one end… then the other end… then raising the bar and so on. Once again the ride began. Everyone had a great ride and we gave Josh a stamp for bravery and being on the ride even for a short time. Off we went to the next ride.

Not so fast…

At some point in the middle of this scene Jasper showed up and wanted to go on The Froggy Hopper. I had to get on with some party responsibilities, therefore delegated this task to De. But no way, JJ would have none of that – he wanted to ride with Daddy – so back we went onto The Froggy Hopper. A quick success when just at the end Sebastian showed up. BUSTED. When he saw me on The Froggy Hopper with JJ he snapped. I might have had a tougher stance on another day, but his birthday and everything… I quickly ran to Seb and convinced him that we should ride on the The Froggy Hopper right away. So back in the line we went.

Not so fast… JJ wanted in on the action. Sure kid, just jump the que… there ya go, welcome to the team. We finally got on the ride, along with a friend of Seb’s, who like Josh was a little frightened of the ride. So down we came, she got off, strapped the ride back up and UP we went. By this time I was starting to think, "I have GOT to get off this ride. I am going crazy!"

Not so fast… Sela showed up and immediately went into whinging/crying mode. Something we see a lot of in her these days. "Sorry, Princess, I’m done." She got over it. Needless to say, I didn’t get my Birthday Bingo Card filled up, but I did get about ten stamps for riding The Froggy Hopper! Below is some vid and pics thrown together from the party. Sorry, there isn’t much more than The Froggy Hopper. I think I’m done with that ride for a while. Aiya!

Someone’s come undone

October 21, 2006 10 Comments

I am so, so tired. Months ago, when writing about my exhaustion, I didn’t think it possible to become more tired. I was wrong. I am so tired, and life is so nutty right now, that I am becoming severed from my reality. I feel dislodged from all my anchors. It’s just weird, and I am tired.

It’s Saturday night, the kids are finally in bed… what a bunch of nasty little critters WE had today. Let’s see… hmmmm… the highlights…

Last night before going to bed Sebastian asked me to wake him up before I went to bed so he could do a wee wee because, "I had soooo much to drink." (He drank a lot of water between dinner and bedtime.) I forgot to do that. Turns out he didn’t wee the bed, but he did wake up at 6:25 AM to do a wee wee and wake-up the world… triplets, me… half the building. (But not Tess.) I was sooo, sooo tired that just after breakfast when Tess awoke she sent me to bed for a nap.
Halfway through that nap someone – I think it was Seb – announced a poopers on the kitchen floor. I shot out of bed to discover Jasper had whipped off his PJs to plant a big one on the kitchen floor. As calm as possible very firm words – not yelling – were had with JJ. I could see the adrenalin coursing through his eyeballs as he reverted to tears. We made him scoop it up with tissue and plop the offending matter in the toilet. Then together he and I cleaned the floor and mopped it, too.
Somewhere in the middle of all this a seriously stinky load wafted through the air. Carys! The payload in her nappy was soooo nasty, it started a case of nappy rash. Tess and I were stunned. Tess looked down, "THAT wasn’t there 12 hours ago." Remorseful Carys said, "thank you, Daddy" after I changed her diaper (as she always does.) I’m telling you, Carys is pure lady with manners but wow, she has toilet issues.
I don’t know about Tess because we’ve hardly had a moment to talk today, but I was sooo tired this morning that nothing happened according to plan. Ideally, Tess would have had a lazy morning sleeping and recovering, while I took the kids to Bowen Road for a run on the trike. That never happened. Tess got up and we plotted taking the kids out to lunch somewhere different. That never happened. Time slipped by and toddlers continued to either demand time or burn through toys (read: throw toys everywhere) while we tried to get our world organized. No such luck. Finally I said to Tess, "let’s start by getting them all in the car." That worked, and finally Tess said, "let’s just go to the ABC for lunch." This was a major concession for Tess – I love the place because it reminds me so much of sailing as a kid and I just love the whole thing – but Tess tires of it… same menu, same environment, blah blah blah. But a terrific compromise was to order something competely different for the kids… NOOOOO chicken nuggets, instead they had sweet and sour pork, Singapore noodles and fried rice. They did okay despite the nasty and beligerant behavior throughout. (And Sela loved Tess’ chicken tikka as always.)
Naptime… what nap? We arrived home to discover more poopers in nappies that we reacted to with various degrees of concocted poker faces. We warned the triplets that failing to nap – or any form of partying in their bedroom – would be met with confiscation of all bed toys. (Note Tess’ blog about what the kids love to take to bed.) One hour later none of the trips had any bed toys and Sela & Carys weren’t even wearing their Grobags. ARGH! The party continued until Sela & Carys stripped off their PJs and nappies. I stood above them in shock with every molecule inside me summoning a poker face.
Playground nasties… with no nap to keep their moods buoyant, the afternoon quickly digressed. In the playground JJ had multiple time-outs for various infractions, although he did impress me with his ability to drive the four seater trike. Sela was a basket case… any little thing set her off and she easily spent 50%+ of the time crying. (We were on the playground for almost two hours.) Carys was remarkably calm. Sebastian was all over the map. When it came time to go home, Tess was talking to a good friend of ours, Mark, so she stayed for an extra few minutes. Carys felt she needed to accompany mom and stayed, too. This sent Sela into orbit, and she spent the next 435 minutes screaming her head off (okay ~ it was only 45 minutes but I think you get the point.)
Dinner was on the edge but we got through it. Sebastian proudly shared his leftover ham and cheese panini from Friday night but the trips were not interested (other than Carys who will eat anything but we later had to check to make sure the thing wasn’t stored in her chipmunk cheeks.) The moment the trips throttled back on eating… "oh, all done??? Don’t want anymore… well then bedtime for you!!!" They went from nasty to sleep in above four seconds.
Despite the usual cautionary comments about being a bit bossy etc, Sebastian generally stayed clear of the trips’ trouble throughout the day. He’s had better days but came in for a very pleasant landing while Tess read him a book, and I talked to him about his first dental visit in a few weeks while helping him brush his teeth. He was asleep in about ten minutes.

I stop to look back at the last 12 hours and think, "what the heck was that?" Tomorrow De & Lita will be back on deck since I fly off to the US in the afternoon. I am on my second rum & coke. In a few minutes I am going to self medicate with prescription drugs found – without a prescription – in none other than India that I guarantee you will help me get the ten hours sleep I so desperately need. You don’t like that idea…? Go ahead, spank me. I dare ya.

Back on the road (trike video, too)

October 15, 2006 9 Comments

I am tapping this out on my Blackberry while flying from Hong Kong to Shanghai. I’ve been fortunate with a travel hiatus the last five weeks – that’s changing. Here is what the next few months look like… today flying to Shanghai then on to Beijing on Tuesday, back to HK on Wednesday. In HK four days then fly to US for six days. Arrive back Sat morning. Spend Sat/Sun/Mon in HK then fly to Australia (Sydney then Gold Coast) for the week, returning Nov 3. I am then in HK for eight days, after which I go on a whirlwind ten day trip across Asia with our CEO, starting Nov 12: HK -> Mumbai -> Bangalore -> Bangkok -> Tokyo -> Sydney -> Melbourne -> arriving back in HK on Nov 21.

Wait there’s more… after 11 days in HK I head back out for the first week in December, return for five days, then do a quick trip to India from Dec 12 to Dec 17. That’s it for three weeks until I do a ten day trip to Orlando, Florida the middle of January 2007.

Whooosh… knowing this impending travel, and the energy required sustaining the pace, my body has been winding itself up in preparation. Not unlike the whine of a jet or helicopter engine starting up from "off" to a full blown roar of "let’s take-off!" My back tensing up has been a side effect of this wind-up. I finally had to get a massage on Saturday night. I feel better today but am still very tired.

The weekend was a little more hectic with Tess rightfully being cautious post-surgery. I’ll write later about our weekend. I have some very funny stories to re-count. Meanwhile, I will tell you that on weekends we often take the kids to Bowen Road on the four-seater Kettler trike. (The BMW of tricycles… a gorgeous piece of German engineering!) Obviously not this past weekend, but a few weeks ago we put together the video below to demonstrate this rather hilarious exercise routine.

By the way, Action Asia magazine recently ran a contest asking people to write in ten words or less how they maintain an active lifestyle. I wrote, "I run Bowen Road with four kids on a trike!" I didn’t win first prize (two round trip tickets to New Zealand) but I DID win one of the runner-up prizes: a pair of MBT shoes valued at over HK$ 2500! (US$ 310 or C$ 360.) I’ve wanted a pair of these state-of-the-art shoes for a long, long time, too. Wooohooo!

To reward those who have read this far… here’s the Bowen Road video! Please take a moment to rate the video and leave a comment. Thanks!

Tess busted out

October 11, 2006 7 Comments

I picked Sebastian up from school at noon today (with his lunch in hand) and we went to the hospital to see Tess. That’s when I discovered that this morning the doctor granted Tess permission to go home, provided she goes home and "pretends" she is still in the hospital. Hmmm… I am not sure how that will work but it’s still a great thing that Tess is back at home. I am sure she will be blogging in no time and thanks to all the visitors who dropped by while she was out of communication. I am now back at work.

Errr… just about to push the publish button when Tess called… Sebastian was so excited to have Tess at home that he went into the bedroom to loudly announce her arrival to sleeping triplets. Chaos has once again arrived to our home! Aiya!

Meanwhile, we have a real live picture of the procedure taken with a mini-camera while inside Tess’ abdomen. Looks just like it does on the Discovery channel. I can’t post it without Tess’ permission but if you yell loud enough you might just get to see it. It’s pretty cool.

Tess is okay

October 9, 2006 7 Comments

A quick note before dashing off to sleep… Tess’ procedure took place today without incident. About fifteen minutes after returning to the Canossa I was sitting in Tess’ room when Dr. Chan called from the OR to say everything went according to plan. He had literally just finished and called me – amazing… that’s not something I expect from your average doctor. He told me he was still in his surgical gown and would join me in Tess’ room once cleaned up.

About ten minutes later Dr. Chan arrived in Tess’ room. He explained that everything was uneventful and Tess was recovering in the OR. After chatting for a few minutes he left and as he opened the door Tess was wheeled in on a stretcher. After settling her back in her bed she pretty much slept from noon until 7 PM, waking every few minutes to talk or drink some water. Tess is a very resilient person with a much higher pain threshold than her DH (blush!) and did very well post-op.

Normally, we would have prayed prior to her going into the OR but everything happened just too quickly for that to happen. (Lesson from Jesus: be more planful with your praying.) Tess told me afterwards that as she lay on the OR table about to go under she looked over to see a sign posted on the wall, "Hand all your burdens over to God, for He is with you now." (That’s about when I was sitting in Tess’ room praying and was awash with peace.) A few minutes later the anaesthetist, leaning over Tess’ arm, said to her, "I’m just going to give you a little gin and tonic…" and Tess was out like a light.

I spent the day in Tess’ hospital room getting caught-up on e-mails and finally left at 7:45. Just before leaving a nurse came rushing in to ask in excited Chinglish, "We R sending specimen to lab for testing need permission, want to see, OKAY?" Huh? Wait… Tess turned her head away as I asked, "Is that the fibroid?"

"Yes, the specimen," the nurse replied a little calmer but still excited.

To make a long story, the nurse and I disappeared into the private bathroom to look at the fibroid and I even took a picture. I know, gross, but eventually either Tess, Sebastian, Jasper, Sela or Carys will ask what a fibroid looks like and as their husband/father, I need to be ready with an answer. Observation reveals: a chopped up, cooked but pink italian sausage… and wow, yes it was huge. About the size of a large Fuji apple. Okay… TMI, I’ll stop now.

Amazingly, as I was leaving, Stephanie came to visit so Tess was not alone upon my departure. I am totally bagged and now heading off to sleep.

By the way, if you have not yet seen the video of Sebastian below, please take a moment to check it out!

Tess @ The Canossa

October 9, 2006 17 Comments

Hong Kong never ceases to amaze me! I accompanied Tess this morning to the Canossa Hospital – to remove the pesky tennis ball from her tummy – and everything started happening like clockwork. We arrived about 7:10 AM and were processed at Admitting in less than ten minutes. A nurse waited nearby who escorted us upstairs. As we stepped off the elevator another nurse was waiting for us, greeted us and took us to Tess’ room. (Pictured here!) The room has a fridge, TV, DVD player (4 – 5 English channels) and free Internet access. (But, I cannot promise that Tess will blog from the hospital.) After settling in for 20 minutes a nurse came in to start the paperwork, check the vitals and answer any questions. Another 20 minutes later Dr. Joe Chan came in for a visit. His wife, Dr. Cora Ngai, delivered the triplets and was part of the QMH NIC Chic Team! Cora and Joe went into private practise together about a year ago… I cannot say enough about how wonderful they are and Joe’s bedside manner is one of the best I have seen in Hong Kong. But his manner is an unusual manner – charming in an understated and humble way.

Some funny comments:

One of the nurses said, "Okay please get into the hospital smock now… you’ll like it, it’s VERY sexy!" (Said with an enthusiastic tone but the nurse knew full well she was fibbing!)

Tess, remembering back to being stoned from the "twilight anesthesia" days said, "I am sure by late this afternoon I’ll be feeling fine and cracking jokes." Dr. Chan replied dryly, "Nooooo… I don’t think you’re going to feel very well for the rest of today. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel okay."

Tess said to Dr. Chan, "You look so young and you and Cora make such a great couple." Dr. Chan replied with a blush, "I might look young but I am not that young… and to be honest it’s a curse. Everyone wants an old looking doctor who they think has more experience!"

After Dr. Chan left Tess looked at me and asked, "I like him so much… can we keep him?"

True to the clock, at 8:50 am Tess was wheeled out of her room and down the hall. I expected we would have to wind our way through the hospital to the OR but bang… it was right there in front of us within twenty paces. I hardly had a chance to say good-bye to Tess at all but I knew she was in good hands. She’s expected to be out of the OR by 11:30 – noon. Knowing Hong Kong, they will be true to their word so I am going to head back to the hospital asap. Stay tuned for details.

Bowen Road Spider

September 26, 2006 2 Comments

One thing that makes Tess a great mother is her ability to spot fascinating things on walks and hikes for kids. I am trying to learn from Tess and be more aware of the little details but still, I’m not very good at that. Tess on the other hand is extremely good at noticing the smallest things to show people… little snails crawling along fence rails, squirrels in the bushes, or as we discovered last Saturday while walking along Bowen Road… huge spiders! Tess wrote about this yesterday on her blog so please read her account of the encounter. We took the time to stop, video and snap pics of the gigantic critter. You can find this below for your viewing pleasure. I hope you like spiders! I think this one might be a distant cousin of the spider in Annie Hall!

First day of 2007

Happy New Year… good riddance holidays!

Christmas Cantata

The Froggy Hopper

Someone’s come undone

Back on the road (trike video, too)

Tess busted out

Tess is okay

Tess @ The Canossa

Bowen Road Spider

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