Child’s backpack, dictionary and crushed soccer ball recovered from the earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan Province on 12 May 2008, and on display at a mini memorial in the Visitors’ Centre in Shuimo Town.

From the display, I think all three objects might have been recovered near one another, and belonged to the same child. I said a prayer for the child’s family when I got back to my hotel room.

Shuimo, one of many towns destroyed by the earthquake, was reconstructed only two years later, and is now held as a model of earthquake reconstruction. Participants of Wolong Panda Club’s 7th Hug My Baby event were taken there for a visit on 19 September 2011.

This is my second close-up encounter with the earthquake. While flying home from my September 2010 trip, I sat in the same row with an earthquake survivor, and had a brief chat with him. I wrote about it here.

Since there would be no access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube while in China, I thought I would be updating via my blog. But just before I left for the trip, I learned about a Facebook feature that allows photos or videos to be emailed to a Facebook user’s account. So I activated the feature and used it to email in some photos. As a result, I did not use my blog to update about the trip.

Mollie finally got to see her babies again – Hua Mei after 7 years, Mei Sheng after 4 years and Zhen Zhen after nearly a year. Her fourth baby, Su Lin, is in old Wolong with her own newborn cub.

I got to see my adopted daughter, Gong Zhu, and her 2010 cub (from a distance, he was up in the trees).

We also got to see the usual Bifengxia attractions, including the cubbies. Usual for me, but Mollie’s very first time.

We also participated in the 1st Joint Birthday Celebration of Wolong’s Overseas-born Pandas on 21 August. 21 August was also Hua Mei’s 12th birthday; it was the reason Mollie visited Bifengxia at this time of year – to celebrate Hua Mei’s birthday.

There were 6 birthday cakes for each of the 6 overseas-born pandas – Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Fu Long, Tai Shan, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen. A total of 6 keepers and 18 volunteers participated in the event, with 1 keeper and 3 volunteers per cake (decorating and presenting to the panda). Each of the 5 pandas in Bifengxia got their cakes while Su Lin’s cake went to the four cubs in the same “neighbourhood”. I asked for Mollie and I to be allowed to do Hua Mei’s cake. And so we got to deliver the cake into her enclosure and to watch her come in and … reject the cake. Instead, she was more interested in the bamboo platform that supported the cake.

More photos here.

The celebration was covered by the local media, and we appeared on the local TV news, becoming “international media stars”. Here’s the coverage.

We’re off to Chengdu very early in the morning to try and see Atlanta-born Mei Lan at the Chengdu Panda Reserve. And then, it’s homeward-bound, me to Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, and Mollie to San Diego, California.

She’ll be visiting Basi and gang at Fuzhou Panda World and her babies Hua Mei, Mei Sheng and Zhen Zhen in Bifengxia Panda Base.

And yes, I’m here, too, arrived around 10:45 p.m. yesterday night. I have to be here, or I wouldn’t be posting this.

I’d bought this red mug during my first trip to England in 1985. We (aunt, cousin and cousin’s family) were driving up to Manchester to visit cousin’s husband’s cousin and aunt, and at a rest stop somewhere between London and Manchester (a cafe with a pottery store), I saw and fell in love with this mug.

Its pristine condition shows that I’ve not used it much over the years. I didn’t want to risk breaking, or even just chipping, it, so I’d kept it away all these years.

There was another reason – tea stains that clung on and refused to be washed off. But recently, I tried a tip I’d read online – I soaked the mug with water “laced” with a denture cleansing tablet and the stains came off but not 100%. Maybe I’ll soak it again. But will I use the mug? Nope. I still don’t want to risk breaking, or even chipping, it.

That 1985 trip was a turning point in my life. I fell in love with England, having experienced it first-hand and not just through books and magazines. I told myself I would return and stay longer, but I knew the only valid reason to stay longer was if I returned as a student.

A year later, I was retrenched (laid off from work). It was the start of the 80s recession. Instead of looking for another job just to get by, I told myself it was time to go back to school. I spoke to my parents about it, and my mother said “good idea, we support you but we don’t have the money to help you.” She spoke to my sister who said I should’ve thought about it earlier (literal translation from what she said in Cantonese).

So I got to return to England, thanks to my sister’s generous financial support. I got to stay there longer (3 years) and legally as a full-time student.

Oh, I’ve digressed from the story of this 25-year-old mug …