It has been a hectic week. Arrived in KL on Saturday morning. Parents held a belated open house to celebrate the Eid on Sunday. Sunday night was spent with friends celebrating a union. Monday onwards, lunches and dinners out with friends and family, enjoying the food, the company, and the gossip. D and I are heading out to Delhi this evening, and we are still not over our jet lag. Our little unit is following S's lead, who unfortunately falls asleep at 6pm and wakes at 2.30am to play. We quickly realised that it is much better to just remain jet lagged until S gets over hers. My poor parents (or should I say the poor maid) will soon realise that the grandot's smile may not be as adorable at 3am. It will be our first seperation. While we look forward to the adventure, we know that we will miss her terribly. I wonder if she will miss us. I hope my parents realise that S does not like to be rocked to sleep as she prefers to lie flat in bed. I hope they remember that if she does not like food, she projectile vomits...but will smile as we clean her and surrounding area. I have a feeling that the next 10 days will feel like a lifetime.

Good neighbours

Last year, on December 2, D and I bought our first home together. The day after we closed, we went away to Rome and Tunisia for 3 weeks. We came back, celebrated Christmas, then we were off again somewhere. I forget where. Then I was forced to hybernate until S was delivered. Then we were off to KL and Madrid for a month. Since we have lived here, we have not stayed home for more than 3 weekends in a row, so it has been difficult cultivating friendships. We have been extremely lucky though as we have the best neighbours. Our immediate neighbours, D and C have two grown boys, A and L. A is a sophmore in college down south and L is in a boarding school in New England. They have two dogs. They have lived on this street for 15 years so know all the dirt on everyone...current and past residents included. Their immediate neighbours, J and S, also have 2 kids, A who is the most adorable 3 year old and L, the most charming 5 month old you will ever meet. J and S are closer to us in age, and very generous with parenting advice. They are also our Desperate Housewives buddies. We go over to theirs on Sunday with a bottle of wine, order Chinese and watch DH. They also very kindly DVR (like Tivo) our shows when we are away. We leave them our keys when we are away. D and C watch our house for us, and S comes in the day we get home to turn up our heat. Between the 3 households we have shared dozens of bottles of Sam Adams Ale and Pinot Noir, and tried every sushi/chinese takeaway within a 20 mile radius. When you have a baby, and drink, the home is where you socialise. When you don't have the time to cultivate friendships (and as you get older it does get much harder), having great neighbours is a blessing. When you don't have family in the city/state/country/continent....neighbours are your new family.

This time last year

Life is fleeting, that I know. Time flies, I know. It is the what seems to be super-sonic speed at which time flies and life fleets that amazes me. December last year I was preggers, on a "last hurrah" trip with D before I was to be grounded by my Ob/Gyn. December last year I was doing this...



With him...



Sleeping in this...



5 months preggers, having to pee here...



While I look back fondly (and sometimes longingly) at December 2005, I can't wait for December 2006. What adventures lie ahead..

S (44 days old) and D in Martha's Vineyard

D works at home most of the time, and I work at home all of the time. At home, our computers are on 24/7. We take our computers everywhere. We are both addicted to email and have been to the most obscure internet cafes in the world to get our fix. We realised our attachment to our computers was unnatural when we were camping in an oasis in the Sahara. We needed some light as we were in absolute darkness and needed to pee. It took us five minutes to agree on whose computer would be used to illuminate our way..battery power was precious. I lost out as D had a paper to finish...which he did... in the tent, in the middle of the Sahara (did I mention that he is a workaholic?).

S is getting quite jealous of our computers. She is fascinated by them, yet realises that they take our attention away from her. We may have to get her one of her own soon.

What I have have have to do every day is check my email and check my downloads. By this I mean I go to this site. With every new download, I feel like my existence has been affirmed. My work has been recognised, therefore I am.

Motherhood has changed me. Motherhood has changed my life. How much I have changed, and how much my life has changed will be shared in due time. In the meantime, Will Farrell has summed it up well.

"No one tells you how much attention these little children need. They can't do anything for themselves. They can't clean, they can't make money for you. They just sit around and break stuff. I'm waiting for it to get better."

If Sash were a Bond Girl, her name would be Pissy Galore. I marvel at how heavy her diaper gets sometimes. Does not make me want to change her more often. Just makes me greatful for the wonders of new diaper technology. What did parents do before the discovery of that marvelous gel in diapers?

It's raining outside. There was a tsunami warning on the west coast. Up to 200,000 people in Vancouver without power. Luckily it isn't that cold (for November). Back home, D and I have stocked up on firewood and flashlights in the event of such a disaster. I used to think that if you had gas powered furnaces, only the lights would be affected in the event of a power outage. Then someone pointed out that electricity is needed to "trigger" the furnace. So now we have firewood at home, just in case. I sometimes wonder what I would do in a War of the Worlds situation. Would I be strong and do whatever it takes to survive, or would I just shrivel up and wait for the aliens to nuke me?

Spent the morning in Yorkville...again. Yesterday was "Culture day" and today, as I have told S, is "Handbag day". I have been on the hunt for that transition handbag, which is smaller than a diaper bag, yet large enough to stuff in a bottle and a diaper, maybe even a small bottle of strained organic mangoes and pears. Not an easy task for many reasons. It has to be durable enough for those milk spills. It cannot be too "precious" due to those same milk spills. I am short hence for me, there is a fine line between handbag and handluggage. It needs to be roomy, yet small-ish. It needs to be zipped up as am wary of pick-pockets and things falling out as handbag is stuffed under plane seat. It is to be my Christmas pressie from D. He doesn't know this yet. We have an arrangement where we buy birthday and Christmas presents in advance, whenever something catches our eye (preferably somewhere we can claim back taxes paid). My birthday is after Christmas, but D bought my present last July. I will probably get him his Christmes present in India, where he will fall in love with some ridiculously ugly and ornate sculpture/painting/piece of furniture that I will hate (ok, detest), but will also love (ok, tolerate) because of his enthusiasm. My compromise will be my Christmas present. My buying said ugly souvenir will be his birthday present 2007. My having to put up with his "Isn't that (insert ornate sculpture/painting/piece of furniture) just awesome!!" ev-e-ry-time he looks at it is priceless.

Dirty Laundry

S is watching a children's show. The cartoon characters are speaking French, well, Canadian French. She seems to be enjoying the show. Yes, she watches alot of TV. When I was preggers I swore to myself that she would not watch TV as a child. That lasted for about 2 months, as she became more active and slept less. I needed to keep her entertained and she had not yet learned how to enjoy toys. So in came the Baby Einstein DVDs. She enjoys the colours, the music, and the scenes of toys in action. I feel less guilty when I have to ignore her for hours as I do my work. I am lucky though, as I notice she is enjoying her toys more by the day (and her Daddy keeps adding to her collection every day) and she is not fussed when there is no TV. She is read to every day, although it is getting more difficult for us to keep her from wanting to shove the pages into her mouth. Ah well, at least she enjoys books...eating them for now, and hopefully reading them later.

The sheets are covered with organic sweet potato and chicken casserole. One drawback of travelling with a baby is having to leave behind the bulky equipment such as high chairs and jolly jumpers. We use the jolly jumper to tire her out and it is much easier to feed her in her high chair. But on the bright side, sheets are changed every day in hotels. Hope the maids realise that the orange stains aren't skid marks..hmmmm.

Off to the Royal Ontario Museum to catch the Italian Arts and Design: The 20th Century Exhibition. Then maybe lunch in a nice cafe in Yorkville.

The family reunion went extremely well. Dr C was in a jovial, and more importantly, flush mood, so dinner for 10 was had at a landmark (ie overpriced but with ambience) prime rib restaurant…only seafood option…lobster. Wine flowed as we chatted, caught up with gossip and made plans for Christmas 06/Summer 07. D’s nieces had only just arrived as their flights were delayed and cancelled. Just like ours were as we headed to Toronto on Sunday afternoon. One gripe I have about US airlines, is the extremely bad service. The ground crew service is excellent most of the time, and I can understand their cheap, or rather non-existent on-flight service where food/drink has to be bought ala budget airlines. What I hate hate hate are the delays and cancellations. We only found out our flight to Toronto was cancelled after we were comfortably seated watching CNN in the lounge, with 30 minutes to go before boarding. No announcements….silence. I only discovered the problem on my way to top up my shortbread supply…ah yes, the rations in the lounges are equally dire. As we scrambled to get on an alternative flight we were told to rush to another terminal, to confirm our seats on another flight operated by another airline leaving 4 hours later than our original flight. This has happened to us many many times on United…lets not talk about missing luggage (which is hell when I have S’s diapers, formula and food packed in said missing luggage)…that we don’t even get angry anymore. We are resigned to, and have expected, atrocious service from US airlines for some time now. (I do acknowledge that I have not flown internally in ex Soviet Union, Africa or South America so I am sure there may be even worse airlines). Luckily we got our seat and waited it out in yet another lounge..this time they had carrot sticks…yay.

During our wait, D decided to change S’s diapers in the men’s loo. As I was reading my Sunday edition of the New York Times, I heard a blood curdling cry…which went on for quite a while (there were curious stares directed at men’s loo door) . I thought of checking up on D, but just as I was about to take a break from reading an extremely interesting article about tourism in Zimbabwe…a nice man came up to me and said “There is a lot of screaming, but everything is under control”. I continued reading and D and S came out a few minutes later…slightly teary, but diapered up. I would like to say that I had full confidence in D handling the situation…which I did, but I have to admit that I continued reading because I was more confident that had there been a problem, he would have been out of there is a flash seeking back-up support. And it was an interesting article…

Cloud Gate

It is nearly midnight. I am in a hotel room in Chicago, starving and trying to figure out where the room service menu is. As much as I would like to walk outside on the Magnificent Mile to locate a deep dish pizza or two, it is raining cats and dogs out and snow is expected later. This is my second time in the Windy City and Sasha's first (well, she was a foetus the last time we were here). My favourite thing to do in Chicago? Just walking around the Cloud Gate...wishing I had one at home. If I win the lottery, I would buy it (commissioning Anish Kapoor would be too easy) and put it in my garden. It would be mother of all garden ornaments non? In line with my "what would I buy if I am richer than Oprah" train of thought, I sometimes also ask myself where I would choose to live if I were this power hungry superpower who somehow ran the world. The last time it was Medici Palace I think...with the David as my bedside sculpture. When I dream, I dream big.

We are here to have a sort of family reunion. Dr C is here for the American Heart Association meetings. I will be meeting D's half brother and his two daughters for the first time ever, and D's sister will also be here with her family. We are spending the day together tomorrow then back our seperate ways. Should be an interesting day.

Testing the waters

Has it been nearly a year and a half?? On a whim, I woke up this morning and decided to look at this blog. Ok, not really a whim. D woke up early (for us, 8am is dead early), kept pestering me to join him for breakfast (ie cook him breakfast), and so here I am at 10am reading about my past life. Funny, it seems like a lifetime ago when I was so upset that I could not find accomodation in Dublin, when I went shopping in Milan with my fuddies (fag buddies to those not in the know..and before I am accused of being horribly politically incorrect...they came up with the term themselves...so there!), when I spent ages haggling in Shanghai. And so...here I am, a lifetime later. Or should I say a life later.

In brief, from Milan, D and I moved to Troy, NY. We are still here. We had a baby. S is the most adorable baby in the world, but then look at her parents. I submitted my thesis. Still waiting for a defense date, but I FINISHED MY THESIS!!

I think I shall maintain this blog. I have of course lost all my blogfriends...wonder what happened to them?? I am not really a nomad anymore...well, at heart at least. We still travel loads, but for me, home is where D and S are. I am still wondering...so yes, I shall maintain this blog. And now, I introduce to you...S.



Note: While very much a princess, we do not normally dress her as Princess Leia. Only for Halloween...

Milano...non

I have been here 3 days and have not seen a single Milano sight!! Am getting itchy feet...Good news is the presentations went well..again, if I do say so myself. Yesterday was hectic as had back to back presentations and after a lunch spent having yummy roasted vegetables and light pasta while trying to look interested and charmed as others around me discussed data sets, variables, chow tests and ordered logit models, I discussed a paper presented by a rather yummy Italian academic (of course this is an objective observation as am a married woman).

I am in love with the words Prego, Allora and Grazie. I use them liberally...then have to apologise when others think I am Italian and start conversing in the beautiful language. I want to die and be reborn in this glorious country!!

I have one more discussion this evening. Tonight, my good fuddy (this is not a typo) will be driving down to Milan with another fuddy of ours and we are hitting Milan tomorrow..big time. Shopping with them will be fun as they WILL tell me that my ass looks hideous in a pair of jeans and they will do their best to persuade me to part with hard earned bag to get that adorable purse. And we will ogle Italian men over a huge bottle of vino...

Dublin airport

Take note, gate A5 of Dublin airport has free wireless access. Also take note that checking in is a nightmare and if you are flying out of here today, almost all the flights are delayed. My flight to Milano sure is.

No time to write much as the opportunity cost of this update is getting ready for the next leg of the conference marathon. My 2 presentations at the conference at Trinity College went well. Even if I do say so myself. I have 2 presentations and one discussion tomorrow, and the final presentation on the 1st. Will write more about my amazing 3 day tour of Southern Ireland with the zanniest group of 14 PaddyWagon-ers. Now back to my slides.....

At last, I can actually access my site. Now no excuses for spelling errors.

The last few days with Dr C have been quite fun. I think the Scot in him likes my feeble attempts at haggling. We had our first month anniversary dinner at M on the Bund...Dr C included. The weather was fabulous, smog levels low so you could actually see the buildings across the river, even the masses on the Bund, the food delicious and the conversation was flowing as easily as the wine. On Saturday, my last day, we took a cruise down the river. I bought the wrong tickets so we ended up on the peasant boat...no air-conditioning. But the crew were kind enough to drag out a few plastic chairs so we sat up on the bow. Turned out great actually, and 3 times cheaper. We went to the antique market again as Dr C wanted to get a couple of 5 feet cranes for his garden. He likes his garden ornaments. We ended the day with a rather overpriced chinese dinner at the Peace hotel and drinks at the Jazz bar. I gave Dr C a huge hug as I would not be seeing him until end July.

Arrive in NL yesterday evening. As we were landing, although the air was clean and refreshing, and the weather glorious, I felt quite sad and wished I was back in smoggy Shanghai. The seperations are getting harder and I felt awful knowing that Dr C would be touring Beijing on his own. We did not know how to keep him entertained, what with D working such long hours, so we arranged a private 4 day guided tour of Beijing. How would he find the guide at the airport?? What if he didn't? Did he remember to take the list of phone numbers I had jotted down? Would the guide understand his need to rest? Maybe I should have insisted that D lend him his mobile..

And so, I land, and what do I find?..hundreds of passengers stranded as there was a power failure and the trains were not running. I considered getting a hotel room, but decided to trust the Dutch. The trains were on track within an hour (they are very good at this sort of thing the Dutch) and I was off. On the train, I began thinking about how ridiculous this commute is. I made a decision. I would let go of my room and just do what I have been doing for the past 18 months, do my thesis while on the road.

I got home last night and told my landlady and she was surprisingly very supportive (as if it mattered). So supportive that we spent the whole day today getting boxes, me packing, and transporting 9 boxes to the post office to be mailed to Canada (her support mattered..heh). Funny how your whole world can be reduced to 9 boxes approximately 15 kilos each. I am really a nomad now...

A nomad who is freaking out. I have to give 4 presentations on Monday, I have not prepared the slides, I cannot get accomodation in Dublin (bloody Coldplay and U2 just have to have concerts in Dublin next week) and so decided to sign up for a tour...but the tour ends on the 24th while my conference accomodation is only provided from 26 June onwards...the pubs there had better be good as I may need to cheer myself up a bit...

DrC and I set off this morning to explore Shanghai. Last night was "globalisation night". A Malaysian chick takes her Canadian dad-in-law to the French quarter in Shanghai to watch the State of the Origin match (Aussie Rules) at the British Bulldog Pub. Which is located opposite the American Embassy. We Quesidillas and bangers and mash.

This morning, we viewed Shanghai from the upper most observation deck of the Oriental Pearl Tower. As we had not had breakfast, we had brunch at the revolving restaurant. DrC has trouble walking, but he has a mean independant streak, so these little breaks had to be made inconspicuously. Our next stop was the Yu Yuan gardens, where we sat in the pavillions at discrete intervals to admire each section of the amazing garden. We finished our day tour at the Starbucks which faces the famous tea house. DrC was dripping in sweat and in obvious need of rest. I introduced him to the Iced Mocha grande while he regaled me with stories of his childhood and his courtship of D's mum.

We might actually go for some Chinese food tonight. I want him to try duck's tongue. Yummm..

I am off to the airport to pick up DrC, D's dad. He is visiting us for a week, then hopefully off to Beijing next week. We have insisted that he walk on the wall, stand in the middle of Tian Amen and explore the Summer Palace. He is 78...this is the time to do we say.

I suspect he is afraid that he may not recognise me, what with this being China and all. He lives in the prairies, so I totally understand. He jokingly suggested that I hold up a sign at the arrival hall. I have made one...It reads "Dr C: President of Celine Dion Fanclub."

Reminds me of the time a friend held one up for me at Heathrow, except that read "SJ: Alcoholics Anonymous."

Mahjong in the shade

Antique market in Shanghai

What did we expect

Michael Jackson has been acquited. What did we expect? It seems that his mother began to cry, Randy and LaToya were jubilant. M daintily dabbed his eyes and hugged his lawyers. The jurors deliberated over 7 days and took only 2 votes. They found there was insufficient evidence, and they didn't like the mother. Was it weak prosecution or masterful defence?

Shenzhen

Shenzhen is not what I expected it to be. From the rather daunting pieces of random cautionary advice given by D's Shenzhen-based project mates, I thought it would be more of a cowboy town, like Tijuana or Johore Baru. You know, those towns that seem to thrive only by the grace of a much more cosmopolitan and expensive city nearby. The place to get cheap beers and a decent meal at halfway decent prices. Shenzhen however is so very much a city alive. While it's topography is very similar to that of Hong Kong, but without being surrounded by water, it has its own charm, and quite unique from Beijing or Shanghai.

We arrived at the airport very late at night on Friday, and at the hotel very very early on Saturday morning. I hate arriving at night because I prefer to get my bearings when I first arrive. We slept a bit and woke up again at a more decent hour (noon...heh) to grab a bite to eat before wandering about. D had the weekend off...yay! Emerging from the hotel, armed with a trusty map, we looked for a coffee shop. We found one round the corner from the hotel that serves THE BEST French toast. Fluffy crustless egg drenched triangles with a thin layer of tahini in the middle. We had Blue Mountain coffee on Saturday and Hawaiian Kuona yesterday. What can I say, we really like the French toast.

After breakfast, we hopped into a taxi and pointed to the Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden. We wanted to see the famous petrified forest and the Paleontological Museum. Of course once we got there all the maps of the 8000 mu park were only in Chinese. We find that unlike Shanghai and Beijing, tourist spots in Shenzhen mainly cater for Chinese tourists. We finally managed to get to the museum by hopping on a bus and another open air tram at the Hongfa Buddhism temple. After exploring the museum and cooling ourselves down with a nice cold drink in the petrified forest, we found our way back to the entrance of the park and found a cab to take us to Dapeng Ancient Village, which is 45 minutes away.

Dapeng is located in the eastern part of Shenzhen and is said to have been built during the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Japanese invaders. The village is surrounded by a wall, and you enter through a rather imposing imperial like gate. Once you enter, you find yourself in what can only be said to be a rather dilapidated housing area. We walked along the little alleys, looking into people's houses, wondering how they lived in such conditions. Mind you, this was not a recreation. Trash was just left laying about, and you could smell the lack of proper sanitation. After a nice stroll, wandering into several residences that had been remodeled in a museum-like way, and throwing oranges into a wish tree (D found this to be the second most enjoyable part of the day), we decided to call it a day. We had not counted on there being no cabs in such a remote area. After unsuccessfully trying to flag a cab/hitch a ride on the main road, we were approached by a man who kept pointing towards the direction we wanted to go and to the back of his motorcycle. We kept repeating the words "taxi". He kept on nodding and finally we figured he wanted to give us a ride. As we were up sh*t creek anyway, we both hopped on the motorbike and whizzed down the highway..helmetless and destination unknown. After 5 minutes, we found ourselves in a larger village, at the bus station. We were so touched by his kindness, especially when he refused payment and D had to practically shove cash into his pocket (This dangerous motobike ride was by far D's favourite part of the day...what can I say, he is just a boy). We took a taxi back to the hotel, freshened up, and met up with J at the Hilton Bar for a few G&Ts on the 56th floor.

On Sunday, after our French toast, we took a taxi to Minsk World. The Minsk is an anti-submarine and anti-aircraft USSR aircraft carrier which has been refurbished to become a sort of theme park. It is said to be the "first large military park of the world combining the functions of sight seeing, recreation and popular science and national defence education together". We just wanted to go because it provided us an opportunity to stand on the decks of an aircraft carrier. We found the Russian dancers performing on stage in the middle of the plane "garage" quite funny, but the Chinese "soldiers" in camouflage tight trousers and halter neck shirts doing "military maneuvers" in ballet slippers had us rolling on the floor. The size of the ship, the 48 missiles primed and ready for action, the armoury next to the recreation room...now that was nothing to laugh about.

After sweating half a day on the Minsk, I persuaded D to get a haircut with me, Thai style, at the hotel. This means that instead of sitting in chairs, we lie down on a special modified beds which have a sink at one end. Our heads are suspended on padded head supports while our hair is being washed. After the hair/head massage, the shampoo girl then proceeds to massage our arms and hands, and our shoulders. Once that is done, only then are we moved to the chairs to get our hair cut. All this for RMB60 each.

We had roast goose for dinner. A perfect end to a great weekend.

It really is quite funny. I can update my blog through "blogger" but cannot view it as "blogspot.com" is unavailable.

I am multitasking here. Typing, trying to search for CNN on the hotel tele, and waiting for the water to boil as in desperate need of some hot tea. It has been a long day. With map in hand, I sought out sights I missed last December. I decided to walk it but did not count on poor orientation skills and locals pointing me in the opposite direction. After walking in circles, finally found a gaggle of aunts who provided me with pretty detailed directions, in Mandarin of course, but I found what I was looking for (sweet they were). Which was Beihan Park, a lovely little park behind the Forbidden Palace. Strolled around for a bit, enjoying the good weather, (dammit, 90 channels and still no CNN) people watching,before making my way toTien Amen Square. I stand under Mao's portrait, trying to visualise the chaos and carnage on that fateful day. It disturbs me so I head in the direction of Jiongua Lu, towards the silk market. On my quest to find a carpet.

After walking for 45 minutes I finally find the new site of Silk Street Market. The one D and I went to in December is no more and in place of the open market stalls, a brand spanking new mall. I am on a mission with no time to lose. I locate a carpet I like and steel myself for the game we are about to play. A price is quoted, I gasp in horror, and get ready to walk out. Another price is then given, I hesitate at the exit and without counter-offering, walk back showing slightly more interest in the carpet. After being shown a few more carpets, I name a ridiculously low figure. They gasp in shock horror but show me what I can afford. I hesitate. This goes on for another 2 and a half hours. After an 80% discount, I come out of the market with a divine silk carpet. Paying less than what I anticipated.