Posted on 24 February 2010 @ 09:00 in Family, Memories
On the third day of this Chinese New Year (16 February), Jen my sister went visiting. This was a rare occurrence because previous years, she and family would be away (a lot of people go away during festive holidays), but this year, they couldn’t find anywhere interesting so they went back to my brother-in-law’s hometown for a couple of days.
It was such a rare occurrence that when we arrived at our 3rd aunt’s house (the first relative we visited), the old lady exclaimed “Which wind blew you here – north, south, east or west?”
Yes, “we” visited because I went along, partly as navigator and partly for company (I’d already visited on the first day with my brother). This really shows how long since Jen last visited our various uncles and aunts – she’s mostly forgotten the way, and this was not helped by the fact that the roads have changed and also the familiar scenery along them.
We visited three houses that day – 3rd aunt’s, 2nd uncle’s, and Sai Goo’s (she is father’s youngest sister; sai means “little” or “youngest”, while goo is the word for aunt on father’s side).
Jen managed to meet up with two cousins of her age that day. This was a treat because the rest of the year, everyone would be too busy to keep in touch, except over the phone. Meeting up with cousin Kat, Sai Goo’s eldest daughter, was probably the highlight as she and her family live in Brunei so the chances of meeting up at other times were really rare. This was why we waited for her after Jen spoke with her on the phone while at her mother’s house.
As kids, the older cousins used to hang out with one another a lot. Maybe because they hadn’t met for so long, but cousin Kat started asking my sister “do you remember?” questions when they sat down to chat after she eventually returned from lunch (as it turned out, with another cousin and her family).
“Do you remember grandfather’s big black car?” she asked my sister. “The driver would fetch me in the evenings to the main shop and we would all go to play at the roundabout.”
My sister said yes, but after comparing descriptions, it turned out she was remembering the wrong car.
“Do you remember cousin Jimmy used to stage talentime shows on Grandma’s 4-poster bed? He was our ringleader!”
My ears perked up. Grandma’s 4-poster bed? Talentime shows? My mind pictured all these little kids running on top of its mattress and pretending to sing.
Grandma’s 4-poster bed had a special place in my childhood. It was the bed that I shared with my nanny when I was under her care.
The bed was big. How big? I remember nights when I couldn’t sleep and I would get up, tie the corners of my little blanket into a “bag” (the way I’d seen it done in Chinese sword-fighting movies) and walk on the bed, pretending I was travelling, going from one village to another (the way the heroes in those Chinese sword-fighting movies used to do).
The bed was high, too. How high? Nanny used to store boxes of stuff beneath it, and I had my little secret place there, hiding my little notebooks (paper) in a box way inside the underside of the bed. It was especially cooling for naps on hot afternoons.
I remember being told Grandma had given the bed to Nanny when Nanny came to work for us. For a long time, I thought they were friends. It was only recently that I realised it couldn’t have been. Grandma had died when father was just 8 years old, and Nanny had come to work for us soon after Jen was born, when father was around 22. Grandma and Nanny couldn’t have been friends. A piece of family history has now been rewritten – well, not rewritten, but set in its proper time frame.
My guess is that Grandma’s 4-poster bed remained after she passed away. None of father’s siblings took it because its size made it difficult to dismantle and move (it was also heavy, made of brass.) Some of them were living away from the shop. The more modern ones preferred, well, more modern furniture. So, when Nanny came to work for us, and our family was living under the same roof as the bed, she was given the bed to share with the baby (my sister), and later with my brother, and then with me.
When we moved out of the shop in the early 90s, it was to a house with rooms that would not fit the bed. I asked around and a friend from my schooldays asked if she could have it. She had seen the bed before when she used to visit and always thought it would be a neat bed to own. She didn’t mind the trouble of dismantling the bed and moving it. She later told me her niece and nephews really enjoyed sleeping on the bed – they had never seen or slept in such a big bed before!
It’s years since I’ve asked about the bed, and I hope it’s still providing rest for someone somewhere. Not sure about talentime shows, tho.
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Posted on 20 February 2010 @ 12:05 in Notebooks
It only took 50 days (all of January and 19 days of February), but I finally figured out what to do with the “Notes” section of my home-made 2010 planner (a “converted” large Quo Vadis Habana notebook).
There was a slight problem with using that section. Well, two, actually. The first – its smooth white pages were too nice to be written on – has been solved. It was the second that took the previously mentioned 50 days to figure out.
After allocating pages for the dividers, monthly and weekly sections, the planner only has 10 sheets or 20 pages for the “Notes” section. My previous planners (Moleskine) had 90 pages which I never filled up. Now that I only have 20 pages in my 2010 planner, I didn’t want to waste them with to-do lists, etc.
After solving the first problem, I’d actually written in the “Notes” section. So far, I’ve written on three pages – one page of notes from a particular “Every Day With Jesus” reading, one page of my 2010 “big rocks” and less than half a page of (two) quotable quotes.
Yesterday, while going through … can’t remember if it was a blog on my Google Reader or a twitter link – I came upon a post about printing and making a small goals booklet to go in the wallet. I printed it out but couldn’t get it to fold as per instructions. It was while looking at the various pages that I realised what I could do with my 2010 planner’s “Notes” section.
I would use the “Notes” pages for each of the goal areas from the booklet. More than that, I would use a 2-page spread for each goal area.
The booklet has five defined goal pages for “Education & Training”, “Family & Relationship”, “Financial”, “Health & Fitness”, “Recreation & Leisure”, and a blank page to be filled in with a goal of the user’s choice. I decided to use it for “Writing”. There was, however, something missing from the booklet. What about “Work”? So I added a seventh for “Work” – this might apply more for freelancers who need to set goals for adding more clients and projects.
So there was my “Notes” section mostly filled.
The layout of the booklet gave me another idea. Instead of just writing out the goal areas at the top of their designated pages, I decided to paste their respective page layouts from the booklet. This would give a little colour to the pages, too.
I decided to start from the back, so that the left-over blank pages would continue from the last (half-filled) written page. I counted off the pages, and then encountered another problem – which goal area goes first? Whichever I chose, it would imply a hierarchy of importance. To save myself the headache, I decide to put them in alphabetical order. Problem solved.
Here’s the page for my “Recreation & Leisure” goal page:
Right off the top of my head, I have three goals for this page, all of them travel related. I’m already fulfilling the first goal – I’ll be going to the Bifengxia Panda Base in early March. *big grin*
Besides writing down the goals, I plan to write down the progress of meeting those goals. Which would make the “Notes” section a log of sorts.
And there we have it – my 2010 planner complete with planner in front and progress log at the back.
Mission accomplished. Now to use the planner efficiently and effectively for the rest of the year.
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Posted on 5 February 2010 @ 15:16 in Stress Busters
As I write this, FedEx Panda Express is less than two hours from its destination at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. On board are two VIPs (very important pandas) – Tai Shan, a 4½ year old giant panda male sub-adult from the National Zoo, Washington, DC, and Mei Lan, a 3½ year old giant panda female sub-adult from Zoo Atlanta in Georgia.
Mei Lan’s final destination is the Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre, while Tai Shan’s another 2½ hours away at the Bifengxia Panda Base.
Both were born in the United States, but under the panda loan agreements signed by their respective zoos, they have to return to China after they turned 2. Tai Shan’s already had his time in the States extended by 2 years, and Mei Lan’s was possibly delayed by the May 12 earthquake in 2008.
For me, their return to China is actually good news as they will be closer to me and easier for me to visit. We are now in the same continent (hence the title of this blog post, because they’re almost here … well, okay, they’re already in Asian air space, but I digress).
For my panda pals in the States, especially the ones in the DC area, it’s a different story. Many of them have known Tai Shan since the day he was born, and some of them have visited the zoo almost every weekend, and possibly public holidays, to see him and his parents. With his return, many of them will never see him again.
The farewells began in early January, with a 4½ birthday party for Tai Shan on 9 January (he was born on 9 July 2005), and officially ended with another party on 30 January. It was on that day, or maybe a day earlier, that the Zoo announced his departure date. It was only 4 days away! The Zoo also announced his last public viewing day would be Wednesday, 3 February. Many of my friends made it a point to visit him as much as possible on those remaining days.
The travel itinerary included flying FedEx Panda Express to Atlanta, Georgia, to pick up Mei Lan, and then continuing to Washington, DC, to pick up Tai Shan.
Due to his immense celebrity status in the DC area, the Washington Post provided “live” online coverage of the departure from the Zoo, which included a police escort to the airport. I hadn’t planned on watching, but I did. I was also “chatting” with my panda pals on the Pandas Unlimited forum. Pandas Unlimited, which was started in 2006 on the Flickr site to share all things pandas, has evolved to become Tai Shan’s fan club.
I started watching after he’d been moved into his transport carrier. But I saw the carrier being loaded on the FedEx truck and the truck driving off to go to Dulles International Airport. There were close-ups of him in the transport carrier, and I was impressed by how calm he was. The National Zoo’s panda team had trained him well. Of course, it also helped that there were lots of treats to keep him occupied. Food is always so comforting, especially when you’re travelling.
With the FedEx truck pulling out of the Zoo, the Washington Post “live” coverage ended but picked up about 45 minutes later at the airport. By now, one of the PU members had discovered that CNN was also covering the departure from the airport “live” on its website. I continued watching on CNN for the rest of the “live” coverage.
Emotions ran very high on the PU forum. Many of my pals were distraught over his departure, and were comforted that the forum provided a place with others who understood and did not laugh at them.
I found myself affected by the coverage and the discussion on the forum. It really was so emotional. Even after the plane took off (the moment the front wheels lifted off the ground will always remain in my mind), my pals hung around to chat and share about their memories of Tai Shan. Then someone posted that they saw in an online news article that we’d lost the adoption bid for Tai Shan.
Soon after the announcement that Tai Shan would be leaving for China, the group had decided to adopt him through Pandas International. In less than a week, group members had donated sufficient funds for a one-year exclusive adoption (US$5,000/-). By the time of his departure yesterday, the group had raised more than US$15,000/- for three years’ exclusive adoption. The group admin team has been talking to Pandas International on the possibility of a lifetime adoption (US$50,000/-) and seeking a timeline to complete the collection of the necessary funds. But always, at the back of our minds, we knew a big corporation can adopt him for life. And now one has.
So on top of his departure, here was the disappointment that we wouldn’t get to adopt Tai Shan. Fortunately, there’s a Plan B. The funds collected will be used towards some form of enrichment for Tai Shan at his new home.
And now the plane’s about an hour away from Chengdu. I’m getting goosebumps on my arms!
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Posted on 29 January 2010 @ 12:37 in Gadgets, Health
Except in this case, it wouldn’t have helped. The manufacturer had expected the buyers to buy the complete kit, so that everything would work together.
About a week ago, I’d bought a Nike+ Sportband to help with my morning walks. While it won’t help me walk better or more often, it is a cool gadget that’s a few steps up from my previous pedometer and handphone.
The Sportband is one part of a two-piece kit that is worn on the wrist and has a detachable electronic counter (like a pendrive). The other part of the kit is a tiny sensor (Nazley describes it as the height of a stack of three 50 sen coins) which goes inside one of the shoes. After calibration, the sensor communicates information to the counter on the wrist (the most important being distance) which is unplugged after each workout and plugged into the computer to send the information to the Nike Running site where the user has previously set up an account.
There is actually a third part to the two-piece kit. Actually, it’s more like an accessory. It’s a pair of Nike+ shoes that has a slot in the inside sole of one of the shoes to place the sensor during workout.
Before buying, I’d checked with my cousin’s son who has been using the gadget for a while. He said the shoes were not compulsory, the sensor works fine with any workout shoes, just slip it inside one of the shoes. And that was where the problem laid.
Because Nike expected everyone to buy the special Nike+ shoes to complete the kit, they did not include information on how to place the sensor inside a regular pair of shoes. The first time I used the Sportband and sensor, it showed I’d walked a measly 0.34 km. I knew that was not right, as I’d previously mapped the route online and saw that it was 0.7km, which I walk 4 times. The second time was even worse – 0.02km!!
Had I purchased a faulty sensor?
So I went to the Nike forums and did a search. And found that I was not the only user with a “faulty” sensor. I found that it was not the sensor that was faulty. The problem was in the way the sensor is placed in the shoe.
Apparently, this was a problem Nike had not anticipated because someone from Nike participated in one of the discussions (yes, there was more than one discussion) at the Nike forums and helped to figure out what was wrong.
This is how the sensor should be placed in a non Nike+ shoe:
parallel to the road and face up, with the Nike Swoosh logo “facing the sky”
I’m guessing that this placement problem never came up with the proper Nike+ shoes. I’m guessing if a user had placed the sensor “upside down” in the slot, it would not have been a perfect fit, so the user would’ve simply taken it out and placed it correctly. After all, there are only two ways to place the sensor in the slot – the logo side facing upward or inside the slot.
So, after finding the solution on the Nike forums, I placed the sensor correctly this morning and recalibrated it with the recommended 0.4km walk. I then did my usual walk and was glad to see the distance toting up nicely as I walked. By the end of my walk, the distance shown was an encouraging 3.94km.
To stop the sensor from slipping and sliding inside the sock, I’d placed a bit of Blu Tack on the bottom of the sensor and stuck it to the top of my right foot before putting on the sock.
No more problems. Well, not exactly. I’d like to get a holder for the sensor. Nazley has a DIY holder, but I’m a lousy DIYer so I googled and found various products. All well and good, except they’re not available in Malaysia. I know, because I’d gone into four sports shops (including Nike Women) at a shopping mall to ask, and all I got in return were funny stares like I’m not from this planet.
Now I need to figure out how to get one from the States.
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Posted on 19 January 2010 @ 21:44 in Stress Busters
Wolong Panda Centre
12 September 2007
During my first panda volunteer trip – Wolong in September 2007 – I had gone into the Kindergarten Yard 1 to meet my adopted panda cub, Yoong Ping aka Feng Yi*. After playing with her (more like chasing her and trying to get her to pay some attention to me), I was told my visit was over. I asked to have my picture taken with her. This was an “official” portrait taken on a bench, either side-by-side with the cub, or with the cub on my lap. I’d seen such pictures on flickr and wanted one with her, even though there were already all these “play” pictures of me trying to hold onto her while she tried to crawl or run from me.
I was told I couldn’t have that “official” portrait with her because she was not allowed to leave the yard. I was told if she was let out, she would continue to crawl away from the door, resist all attempts to stop her, and literally not look back. Instead, I was offered another cub to sit on the bench with me.
This other cub, named Lang Lang, was the exact opposite of my adopted cub. While she had kept trying to crawl away from me, he just sat next to me on the bench, hardly moving except for his paw and mouth. What kept him quiet was the piece of wowotou (special steamed bread made with a mix of flour, including bamboo, and other nutrients) in his paw that he kept putting in his mouth. He just sat there, munching and dropping crumbs all over his belly while I cuddled him, played with his ears and even held his paws. This close-up of my gloved hands cupping his paw came out of that photo session.
*I’d named her Yoong Ping in memory of my parents and niece, while her official name is Feng Yi. Read more about my first visit with her here.
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