Chung Hock's Official Update

Carissa's update

2008-01-31T20:22:00.000+08:00

Some of Carissa's latest pictures :)

Qi Bao 七宝

2008-01-31T19:59:00.000+08:00

Qibao is an old town.... near the Shanghai snow city.... The place had lots of yummy snacks.... and was recommended in a local TV program. It is quite fun, but maybe should go in a bigger group so that we can try more of the snacks.... hehe... also due to winter, the night falls early and they close early .....

Mushland Park in Shanghai

2008-01-31T19:24:00.000+08:00

During the earlier part of the month, before we made a trip back to in-law's place... we actually came across this mushland park which was newly open. Located north of the Huang Pu River mouth, it is actually quite a distance to go... taking one of the mrt line nearing the terminal station.

Maybe Shanghai is so big, but there is their own taxi company in this area with a cheaper flag down fare.

I guessed we went at the wrong time... was quite chilly on that day ... Maybe summer would be a better time to go there, have a slow stroll and enjoy the sea breeze .... not freezing in the sea breeze haha...

their very own taxi company

Snow in Shanghai

2008-01-31T19:03:00.000+08:00

Guess by the time i publish this is already old news. News in Sin had already reported massive delays and energy shortage due to the snow storm... with another big one set to hit town next week. According to scientist, they think this could be caused by la lina effect .....

initially when the snow first started it causes a lot of excitement... it had been a long while since shanghai had a snow fall....never did we expect it to last so long to caused a whiteout in PVG...

Also coincidentally a group of us were also affected by the lina effect at Hooters...
haha

Lina the new waitress on the block at Hooters

Recently came across this picture.....

2008-01-31T18:57:00.001+08:00

I really wouldn't mind if thats my partner in the cockpit ..... ;-)

anybody guess which aircraft is this ??

Its Caviar Time !!!

2008-01-31T18:26:00.000+08:00

In Harbin, there are a lot of shops selling Russian stuffs. Items range from field bino to ladies pocket mirror that comes with exquisite casing... For me... is the caviar that caught my eye.... since coming to PVG, long time no chance to eat it til now.....

A group of us gather to savor the delicacy ....like the chinese saying 独乐乐不如众乐乐...is more fun to try the russian caviar together.

hows the presentation ?? can pass ?

yum seng !!

thanks to them ... we got a chance to taste don perignon

Happy New Year 2008 !!!

2008-01-29T23:29:00.000+08:00

Wow.....

End of Jan 2008 already .... Already only 11 months more before 2009... !! hehe.... A few more days gonna be Chinese New Year .... Doing my First flight of 2008 now... after this flight going to go back to my in-law's place for chinese new year .... looking forward for all the firecrackers and fireworks .... but dreading the cold....

this year the winter is quite cold as you can see from the news, the snowfall was quite heavy and a first since many years in Shanghai ...

Sorry if i am abit late in my postings... cause in PVG no time to just sit down and relax and think about what to write ... there are too many distractions hehe.... of course they are wonderful distractions like Carissa and Jessica haha....

Carissa is growing up well... She is 3 months now... She is very curious about her surroundings always looking at lights and aircon... sometimes she will try to talk to the air-con when she is alone... quite a funny sight to look... people say she see at this point of time, but sometimes i really doubt it as she will always smile back to you if you smile at her....

For the past month we had went to a few places around Shanghai for tour and I also head to Harbin to take a look at the Ice and Snow sculpture festival... of course carissa and jessica did not follow along ... is too cold... about -26 degrees c....

I am still sorting out the photos and will soon post them hopefully tomorrow.... for you all to see. For now gotta go for dinner and rest and see u all soon !!

Carissa

2007-12-23T23:09:00.000+08:00

Hehe enough grumblings... time to give an update on Carissa... She is doing really well ;)

Now when u call her name from the side, she will turn her head to your direction. Now she is smiling very often, also sometimes tried to engage us in a conversation with her "ehh ehh ehh" baby language haha.... dunno what she talking about la haha... Also she will also ehh ehh ehh when she wanna pee/poo. So nowadays nappies usage reduced quite a bit. Thanks to her granny for toilet training her. But her problem of burbing still exits after makan. Also now at night she is having milk powder to help her sleep longer.

Remember she had her hair cut ?? Well only the top of her head grow back the rest are in patches... sign... blame the forgetful daddy for not getting the martel he promised. This trip back to PVG i will get some martel for u to rub ok... Hope u get a full nice head of hair ;-)

30 hours delay

2007-12-23T23:00:00.000+08:00

My god.... finally reached AMS after a whopping 30 hours delay and a 22 hour duty period with 4 hours hotel stay in between... multiple engine defects plus apu and brakes problem. Never had an aircraft with so many critical problems.

I think i will be quiting soon if every flight is like this....grrr....

XMAS is coming to town.....

2007-12-17T20:59:00.001+08:00

Its the festive seasons once again... wishing everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year !!!

满江红

2007-12-17T19:56:00.000+08:00

In Singapore, when we see the stock market all red, guess most of us would be shaking their heads in dispair, but the reverse holds true in china. When the board is red everybody is happy as red indicate gains and green indicate loss.

So dun get a shock when you sea people cheering at a sea of red ;-)

First Haircut

2007-12-14T21:40:00.000+08:00

Hehe... again early in the morning, we made our way back to the regional hospital to get her jab done. She was soundly sleeping when the nurse put the jab into her hand. Her eyes opened big and wide when she felt the needle into her. And just after the nurse squeezed the contents in, she started wailing.... but she stopped less than 3 mins after our frantics efforts to calm her down....

Then we rushed home to get her first haircut done.....

This look like the standard hairstyle in china ;-p

This is my funky hairstyle hehe....;-)

yee.... i dun like my new hairstyle ... ;(

Carissa Baby Shower

2007-12-14T20:24:00.000+08:00

I know is a bit late but let me catch up on the significant events in the past few weeks. The most significant one was of course Carissa's 1 month celebration !! That day we went to the hospital to get Carissa her immunization jab. I know in SIN they had less jabs to go through, but over here, as I counted from the booklet got 14 jabs within the first 12 months. She had 2 after birth and this is the 3rd one.

We went to the hospital where she was delivered in the morning. But was told to go to a regional hospital. In the cold, we rushed to the regional hospital and during registration we were told to go to another regional hospital. Cause my address and Juan address falls into different region.

Anyway when we reached the jab station we were told we were 1 day too early for the jab and told to go home and come back again tomorrow with all the paperwork. Quite a hassle. Getting busy the whole morning but objective not done.

In the evening, carissa was all dressed up.

what u all doing ah ?

We went to a nearby restaurant for her big day.

Jessica's friends turns out in full strength... too bad my friends all flying or not in PVG... if not can like me bathe in a sea of beauties haha...

Falling asleep at the restaurant.

Delay in publication

2007-12-06T01:24:00.000+08:00

Wow, time really flies so fast that i had no time to catch my breathe. Before I know it, I had been in Sin for 4 days liao and i am going back 2 days time. Thought I can document Carissa 1 month in SIN, but looks like gotta work in the blind back in PVG, but then again I might be spending long lost time playing with Carissa.

Back to SIN, since I got back, there is a frantic preparation to look for someone to do a makeover for our parents' place... searching for raw materials to going to design houses. There is just so much to be done in such little time. Quotaion will have to be viewed and finally choose by this weekend so that work could proceed and be completed before CNY.

Guess friday gotta spend the whole day packing up my stuffs into boxes first...... coz will not be around when they finally start shifting out for the renovations !!! Oh my god is really such a mess .....

Can I have some PA to help me out ??? Haha.... well ..... gotta go zzz... tomorrow gotta go and visit some projects under the contractor to view their workmanship.

See ya soon

Why do you keep burbing ??

2007-11-13T18:45:00.000+08:00

According to reading material, babies on breastfeeding had a lower occurrence of burbling compared to bottle feeding. However, Carissa burbs after every breastfeeding meal, it does not go away even though you may had been patting her back for a long time. A case or wrong technique ?

Sometimes while patting, the air does comes out, but within 30 mins of lying in her bed she starts burbling again. This is affecting her sleep especially at night.

The solution so far we found is to bottle feed her warm water or breastfeed her again.
Yesterday's poo had a sour smell... overfeeding ?? Well gonna wait for tomorrow's poo to find out more.

God bless..

"I want it and I want it NOW !!!!"

2007-11-13T18:22:00.000+08:00

Til now Carissa is quite a nice baby. Not making much noise unless there is a need to. But on 1 subject, she will not accept any compromise. She will make some noise for toilet. If you dun respond to that, she will do her business in her nappies then she will cry on and off. After a long neglect, she will then only start howling for attention.

For food, is entirely different. She will make some noise to attract attention then she will turn left and right.. pointed lips or sticking out tongue looking for food. Within 5 mins of ignoring that, she will erupt into uncontrollable cries for food and does not stop til food is served into her mouth...and sometimes still crying when food is already in her mouth...

Guess she is a gal of strong principles or a gal of utter stubbornness when she comes to food ???

Hairy Crab season !!!

2007-11-13T15:18:00.000+08:00

Its hairy crab season again !!! You see them everywhere. People selling them from roadside makeshift stalls, wet market, supermarket.... everywhere you would get to see. The famous place to eat hairy crab is 阳陈湖 (yang cheng lake). Season starts in Oct but the best is in mid nov when the northern wind blows. It is rumored that the crab meat, eggs and roe is the best at this time.

But anyway we had a headstart last month... ;)

I don't need the spare parts....

2007-11-13T04:06:00.000+08:00

Recently went to the market to market to buy food for Jessica. They had live fish, prawns and also chicken. Chicken stores just like what we used to have in the wet market. Not sure how we weigh the chicken last time, but here the fold the wings of the chicken to the back and the chicken will lie quietly on the scale.

While waiting for my chicken to be killed and defeathered, I didn't had a chance to take a photo of the chicken on the scale, but just nice someone was buying pigeon and they fold its wings to the back as well. so next time to prevent chicken/bird from running around... fold their wings...

When I reached home to chop the chicken up, I found all the spare parts still inside the chicken. The last time I bought a black chicken from supermarket. Same thing, delivered with all the spare parts.

Also we bought live fish to make soup. Here 鲫鱼 (Ji yu) is a popular fish during the confinement period. So following the tradition here I went to get 1 life one. Told them to clear and clean up for me. When i reached home, the fished was scaled and the gills removed, but the stomach was still there.

So today spent quite a bit of time clearing spare parts... *yawn*

I have new shoes

2007-11-13T04:02:00.000+08:00

Auntie (Jessica's cousin) just knitted me a pair of shows... are they nice ??

my new shows

looked nice on me ??

Starting Work Soon.....

2007-11-13T00:58:00.000+08:00

Wow... time really flies, before you know it, it will soon be time to work (Can i dun work for now ?? haha). Past few weeks had been full of action, lots of changes, lots of adaption, lots of judgment, decisions to make and a lot of emotional upheaval .I would say it had been a trying period. There were a lot of joy of cause but with it there was also a large dosage of frustration ( dunno what the bb is crying about.

The first week was a good transition period. Carissa was behaving like a well written computer program. Shit, pee...change diapers eat, sleep for 2.5 to 3 hours...and the whole cycle runs again. During this time, the adults started trying to fill up the roles they were playing... washing the poo poo... cooking mommy's food .. helping with the baby feeding... of course some minor clashes along the way in the sense this is the better way to do things, no that is better.. but it was alright as things finally do get sorted out itself and we were finally settled into a comfortable routine.

Then Day 7
Carissa had a blocked nose... Mommy got worried...insisted on going to hospital, finally we ended up at a nearby children hospital. The queue was horrible.. I almost fainted looking at the queue..lucky Jessica went to the information counter to confirm which queue, looking at out baby (due to Carissa's age) we were referred to the A&E Dept where the queue is much much shorter.

We had a 10 min wait and we were in the doctor's room. She confirmed Carissa had a block nose but couldn't find anything else wrong. To confirm its not a virus attack, she called for a blood test. So poor little Carissa, sleeping soundly suddenly got a jab at her finger to draw blood for the test. Oh my god, she was wailing out of control. Must be a rude shock to be awaken with a nasty pain.... *hugs* dun cry ... and quickly the pain went away and she stopped sobbing and fall back to sleep.

Blood test results were quick, showing all normal, we were sent away with some medicines. Quickly we rushed back home hoping Carissa will not catch a cold from the cold weather. Back home , Jessica read the notes and it said safety not garunteed for baby below 1 month old. We decided not to give the medicine and Carissa's nose block so far is up and down. Some days good some days bad. Yesterday was quite bad but today was much better. Read on the net, apply Vicks to baby feet and chest helps to ease off the nose blocks. I had a friend coming over. Hope she don;t forget...

Carissa all dressed against the cold

Carissa looking better later in the day

Carissa having fun

Carissa having fun

Carissa finally falling asleep

Day 8
Carissa seemed to has diarrhea. Her poo seemed more watery then usual and her stomach makes lots of noise. Again, we were thinking if to send her to visit the doctor. After much talking around, and looking at forums and health articles from the net, I managed to convince Jessica on a wait and see approach.

Day 10
Carissa is feeding quite often <2 hour 3-4 times> and Jessica is feeling engorged, so we decided to express out some milk and feed through the bottle if she is feeling hungry after breastfeeding. We tried the manual pump which we got earlier but it was painful and of little effect. After a long while only a little milk is expressed. Luckily through Livia, she recommended us the Avent pump which works perfectly and comfortably.

So when Carissa expressed hunger not long after a breast feeding session, I took the bottle and started to feed her .. thats the first time Carissa feed from the bottle. Too bad no pictures on that ;-p

Just as when we thought her diarrhea was getting better, she started to cry very very loudly and intensely.. for the 3-4 hours that she was crying, we were all very worried. We were taking turns to carry her singing song... playing white noise sound all to no avail.

Finally she stopped and appeared to be normal again. Again phone calls were made, chat windows opened and again google became the most popular site. We suspect Carissa could be suffering from Colic based on the symptoms showed so far. Luckily (touch wood) there is no recurrence up til now. Also Simon, here on holiday managed to get the stomach oil(which i managed to get from him 1 day after the cries) which we applied to Carissa. Hopefully all this measures helped to prevent a recurrence.

After the day when she cried for hours, Carissa started to vomit milk when she burbed. She was not observed to do that before that day.

Day 17

Nowadays Carissa seemed to be very active and had long hours of wakefulness. Sometimes she spent the whole afternoon awake or worse at night. She feeds quite often and her poo is normal.If anybody got suggest do let us know. Thanks.

One good piece of news. Carissa is slightly toilet trained. For a few times before she actually pee/poo, she actually cries out. So if you read her body language accurately you can bring her to toilet to do her business. A few times after hearing her cries, I opened up her diaper to check the condition, it was dry. While I was wondering why she was crying all the stuff starts coming out. So far only grandma is ahead of the game. Once she checked she is cleaned she would bring her to toilet to poo. Success rate 70%. Well sometimes still dunno why she is crying ;-p

Lots of challenges, luckily we can manage it. Hopefully the coming days will be easier.. the latest challenge now will be to get the baby back into routine.

I am sleepy

Sound asleep ??

Nose blocked la...

I loved powder *wink*

Below is my latest photo... did I looked better ?? ;-)

Some of the articles that we read from the net :

NUH Article on Infant diarrhea
UK Baby Centre Article on baby poo
Colic Articles
Colic Articles
Colic Articles
KK Article on breastfeeding
Burbing babies
Burbing babies

Her first giggle

2007-11-03T00:27:00.000+08:00

Today Carissa caught us by surprise by her first audible smile... so when is she going to call daddy ??

nay nay nay nay nay

sleeping soundly

*yawn*

with papa

with mama

kua si mi ??

i'm cute right ??

si bay sianz..

ok... time to sleep..

Passport Photo

2007-11-03T00:23:00.000+08:00

Just went to the Consulate Shanghai today to apply for Carissa's citizenship and passport. She is effectively stateless at the moment as we did not register her for citizenship here.

As usual with all this paperwork, photo was needed for the application. Spent a long time trying to get a good shot, but alas I failed... sometimes face facing sideway, most times eyes are closed or hands are in the way ...finally took one ... though not so nice but the best that we can mangaged for now haha...

The final product :

Carissa Ong

Dosen't she looked cute ?? ;-) Anyway the processing will take 1-2 mths. Hopefully it will be ready in 1 mth's time then i can bring her back to singapore with me for a little tour haha...

First Shower at home

2007-11-02T23:43:00.000+08:00

It was afternoon, we were waiting for Carissa to wake up so that we can shower her for the first time ourselves. While waiting, we started to get all the gear ready ... so that we can get our act together once she wakes up. Checklist start running off... tower... shampoo.. hot water .. cold water .. thermometer....etc...

As usual with all this paperwork, photo was needed for the application. Spent a long time trying to get a good shot, but alas I failed... sometimes face facing sideway, most times eyes are closed or hands are in the way ...finally took one ... though not so nice but the best that we can mangaged for now haha...

Anyway, we were ready for a long time, but Carissa still remains in lala land.. enjoying herself and refusing to wake up and then the sun started to set.... We decided any later will be too cold to carry out the shower, we went to the room to wake her up... Just as we opened the room door she woke up.

Happily we carried her to the bath rooom and just as we were about to strip her... "broop broop broop" well thats the sound of waste dump...so happily we joked that we were a bit slow so we can avoid having shit spewing all around us haha...

Finally all undone , just before we put her into the tub, she started peeing sky high.. luckily i was the destinated photographer standing behind who got too busy laughing to take some photos haha...you can imagine what happened to the rest.

water is smelly .. must be from my pee.....

washing my beautiful hair....

i am done... are you guys ready yet ??

after shower shiok.... can sleep again....z.z.zzz

Finally Sunshine

2007-11-02T23:34:00.000+08:00

It had been gloomy and wet the past few days... and quite cold too.. especially in the night... looks like Autumn has firmly set in...

Today, finally is a sunny clear day with blue skies. The view totally misleading and you will find out the truth when you step out the warmth of your home and step into the cold air outside...well the sun does help to warm up a bit but... hehe... still cold la....so dun leave home in summer attire...

Making use of the sun today all our Carissa's nappies goes under the sun for a sun tan session... hopefully they would be dry at the end of the day ... if not , we gonna revert to pampers...

Also in need of a sun tan is Carissa herself... to prevent her from turning yellow... but cause of the cold environment... her mom made sure that she will not catch a cold while sun tanning...

also eyes must be protected from the direct sun.

To me is ... must well dun sun tan hahaha...

Supergal position

2007-11-02T22:30:00.000+08:00

1 interesting position we noted is that Carissa from born dun like her hands to be at her side. In the hospital, despite being binded , she always had her way to get at least one hand out, drawing much curiosity from the other moms and the nanny helpers.

Back home, since we dun restrain her, we found that her favorite sleep position is the super gal position haha...jokes aside, experienced daddy and mommys, your babies does similar things ??

we also had to put her gloves on to prevent her scratching her face...

From Angel to Terror....

2007-11-02T22:23:00.000+08:00

Like almost every legend... there is a terror haha... well Carissa had most of the time been a good gal... cry shit eat sleep... Just as we settle into the 3 hrly routine... (macham SAF guard duty)... things started to change. 2 nights before she started crying the whole night, despite doing all that we know best, changing nappy feeding her haha..and then wondering why she is still crying... nappies are dry, she refuses to drink milk...

Anyway it was a long night, 1 hour stretch to 2 to 3 before you know it, it is already day break... we were all so tired... finally she burbs out quite a bit of air and then she settles into her nice long sleep.. we too hit straight at the bed ... exhausted...

The only guess we have is probably the air in her stomach is keeping her awake.. otherwise... wa ma ming chai si mi (i also dunno)... haha

Instant food from supermarket

2007-10-28T17:16:00.000+08:00

found anything you like ?? hehe

Chinese Kebabs

2007-10-28T17:04:00.000+08:00

The other day at Puxi shopping, came across this shop selling kebabs and shroma with pork... guess this is the only place you can find pork kebabs and shroma ??

Shanghai Dai Pai Dong

2007-10-28T16:58:00.000+08:00

This is near Intercon hotel, if u are bored with the usual joints u can try here... but mostly the sell by 1/2 chicken/ duck or something like that .... quite yummy though the food...

My wine is sour :(

2007-10-28T16:42:00.000+08:00

I just filtered the hock chew red rice wine which i had done earlier in the month. As i was filtering the wine, i was looking at the color. Damm nice... red colour, guess the wine should be alright. But when i tasted, it was sour....

now gotta do it all over again.... grrr...

Sad Story

2007-10-28T16:33:00.000+08:00

Within the ward there is this lady who had a mid-term abortion. The baby was about 7 mths old when the abortion took place a few days back. In the ward we had 3 babies 3 mothers 3 mothers-to-be with problems, 1 unknown,1 overweight diabetes, 1 low blood pressure, 1 (with twins) ok just checked out today and her.

It was during one of the scan session where the doctor observed deformation of her baby's face and recommended that the pregnancy be stopped. So she went thru the whole process and was placed in this ward, filled with pregnant women and babies. I thought that was a bit cruel given what she had gone thru.

I saw her wiped tears away when one of the babies cried and family members talking about the baby. She was alone. Her husband in faraway Xinjiang and no family members in Shanghai.

So she had to go thru the whole process all alone. She was quite bubbly and cheerful when we talked to her. She said that she is independent and she is able to handle herself.She is strong.

This morning, she had packed her stuff and discharged. Hope she will be strong and life would be less cruel for her.

God bless.

Upgraded

2007-10-28T15:33:00.001+08:00

Luckily today someone from the mother-baby ward check out, so we managed to shift to that ward, and Carissa was brought up from the baby ward to join Jessica. Initially was quite good... poo/washed up/change/eat every 3 hrs... in between sleep... but at abt 1-3 am she waking up every 15min, every time i am dozing off shw would cry ... oh my god... no wonder got people tell me ...during the 9 mths you hope the baby faster come out after that you hope you can put the baby back into the stomach haha... luckily after that she or should say had a nice doze from 3-6am....

24hr helper helping to feed

common bed for babies.... dun grab the wrong cutie ;-p

In the wards, there are a few helpers for changing diapers, feeding, available 24 hr, but must try to grab one when the time comes, if not gotta wait for turn.
yesterday lazy to wait for turn so i changed the nappies quite a few times and when the helper arrived, she can directly help feed the hungry baby ...

This morning supposed to be her first shower, with much anticipation, i brought video cam, cameras waiting for the event to happen... when it really did happen, the nurse carried Carissa to another room , "Sorry no entry" and shower the baby and return the baby to us at the ward. I didn't know showering the baby is a top secret operation.

Anybody with experience can share with me how it is done with your baby ??

Intersting dishes ??

2007-10-27T16:33:00.000+08:00

Where to get coconut ???

2007-10-27T11:25:00.000+08:00

I still remember 1 buddy in Singapore who told me to get the wife to drink 1 coconut for 1 month til she delivers.It will helped to smoothen the process and the baby less heaty. But in PVG how to find coconut ?? Wild ideas came to life... shipping coconuts, ask friends coming to tapao, go back sin and buy haha....

Luckily we spotted some in supermarkets... but they don't look fresh and you wonder if there is water still left inside....then one day they was this thai coconut next to it. Cost about the same and looks the same... Since then we had went back every week to replenish the stock...

maybe that explains the fast final moments ?? or is thai coconut a good replacement ?? buddy maybe you can help ;)

Good Morning my love....

2007-10-27T10:36:00.000+08:00

Good morning my love, we had waited you patiently for 9 mths and you arrived right on schedule... surprised how medical science can be so accurate....

The arrival process was quite expeditious putting the doctors and nurses off guard... According to the doctor's estimate was 2-3 hours if everything was smooth. There i was clearing up the private care room (we had upgraded earlier in the day so that at least one of us could be with her til the final moments...if not, under normal procedures here, all family members will wait at the lift lobby while the patients in labour are put into the same ward monitored by the nurse there(beyond visual range). When someone is due for the delivery, she is then wheeled in to delivery room and the family members is informed. After delivery, then the mother will be warded and depending on luck, if the mother-child ward is full, then the child will remain in the baby's ward while the mother remained at the adult ward until such time the mother-child bed is available. If not, there will be no access to the baby, not even to look til the time you are discharged. Private care room allows 1 family member to accompany the patient til delivery and if everything goes on well then the baby and the mother will return to this room for further 2 hours before transferring to a normal ward, subjecting to the conditions stated above), stuffs were flying around trying to locate items which the doctors wanted before wheeling Jessica into the delivery room. I remembered it was here and there but I could not find any. In the end, almost every contents was almost emptied out(nurse at the side keep saying,''relax relax...slowly, slowly" before the required stuffs were found. **Sweat** Pre-delivery syndrome ?? or Post labour blurs...?? Being with Jessica thru the labour meaning witnessing her scream in pain with me unable to do much.... Luckily the doctor came and said she was ready...

After they left, a nurse came over for me to sign the endorsement form or consent form (dunno what u called it) I could hear Jessica' scream across the hallway..... then silence... guess she was finally pushed into the delivery ward (dunno where is it) . After packing the room, feeling hungry, i finished Jessica's untouched dinner and just when i settled comfortably into the couch, SMSing all the kins about the progress, the nurse came in with a baby in hand, "Congrats... it's a gal"

I was totally stunned....thought supposed to be 2-3 hrs ? It's just 45 mins or so since she last left.....The nurse started to joke, "Yeah she came in 20 mins... we were all caught in a mess... she already had her jabs done".... and then the nurse carried the baby back to the mother..

After that sms start buzzing out to all our folks announcing the arrival of our latest member into the family, Carissa Ong , 王卿雅.

Guessed I waited for another 20 mins before the mother and baby is wheeled in together. Finally I got the chance to take a close look at her, she was the centre of arguement between us for 9 mths... boy or gal. Coming to Shanghai for delivery means the sex of the baby is unknown to the parents til the baby is borned. For the past few months we had to get 2 sets of everything or we settle for neutral colours haha... Yes, we had a boy's name in mind and hope we get to use it on our number 2 if it materialise the right way. ;p

I managed to catch her yawn,sneeze, cry...and of course sleeping... she is still sleeping so soundly... lazily opening one eye to see who is carrying her occasionally....and then falling back into sleep.

So far so good.... hope she will not become the terror that I had heard of newborns in the next 1 mth or so haha...

Then came the unfortunate news is that all the wards are full, so baby is to remain at the baby ward while Jessica is transferred to the adult ward, but due to insufficient bed space in the ward, she would had to settle by the corridor.... *faint*

Luckily when we arrived at the ward, someone checked out early, so we managed to get a space in the ward, but still no mother-child ward yet. But at least we settle for some much needed rest while we wait for the bed to become available. Jessica is scheduled to stay til monday, if no beds became available... we will not be able to see our daughter til the day she discharged. ( si mi law lai ay ????!@#$%$#^%%$^^%&^#) so in the mean time crossed our fingers and hope the bed becomes available soon.

Here's some of Carissa's first few moments ...

Can someone tell me how singapore/malaysia system works ??

Guess what this is ??

2007-10-21T19:54:00.001+08:00

Make a guess what this is ....This is located in the backyard of a major ancient house . Ans in comments..

Is getting cold....

2007-10-17T19:16:00.000+08:00

Good bye Summer... welcome Autumn...

gone are the hot summer days and night, weather now is excellent... cool breeze at night and nice temperature of 20+- deg C in the day. The temperature had been cool since the second typhoon hit town. ..Pple are coming to the streets with varied clothing.. some in long sleeves, with jackets and some in short sleeves...

Soon.... winter will be here...already juan had kept all the summer clothing, now all the long sleeves hang in the wardrobe... guess this is the fun living in a 4 seasons place....

Wine Making 3 days later...

2007-10-02T13:31:00.000+08:00

So mom... what do you think ?? colour still ok ?? hee....

My first wine making

2007-09-30T19:16:00.000+08:00

My first time trying to make fuzhou hong jiu (chinese red wine) ... had a tough time trying to get the glass jar ... delayed the whole process for about a week. Finally everything gets going and all settling in the jar ... waiting for the whole fermentation process to complete in about a month's time. Liling remember to show mom, let her see if the colour is correct or not haha...

AH HOCK Restaurant

2007-09-30T18:46:00.000+08:00

Haha, armed with the chillie my mom prepared, now i can cook quite descent curry, though still need a bit of kanghu to fine tune it my mother's standard, coz it still taste a bit different someway haha....

but nevertheless, the diners still enjoyed the food that day and we finished up in no time... also with all the rice finished... sorry guys, no top up this time.... ;p

Thank You Dear

2007-09-30T18:31:00.000+08:00

After the beautiful view of shanghai, i went home tired after a long day at work, but feeling happy because of what i saw in the morning and also later in the day supposed to celebrate our belated anniversary.

In the room as i start to unpack my things, I saw this beautiful card on the table.

Hehe... Juan actually bought me an anniversary card, it is so nice of her. I like it really much. I told her not to buy new ones in future, but every year just add a line into the card and maybe we can see how her wishes evolved over the years....

Later that evening, i brought her to this restaurant in puxi, it is like those theme restaurant. the first floor was the bar/lounge area and dining on the 2nd floor. The setup was interesting, dark, with a spotlight on each table and the food was alright. We both enjoyed the night out.

It was a fantastic evening ... now gotta start getting ideas where to go next year haha... any interesting restaurant remember to mail me ok hehe....

Good Morning Shanghai

2007-09-30T18:00:00.000+08:00

Coming in on a lazy wednesday morning, the cloud cover was heavy as we made our final preparation coming into Shanghai Pudong airport. The view outside the cockpit was a sea of white. As we made our descend through the clouds near Hong Qiao airport, the clouds thin and we broke cloud, with full view of the city basking in the morning sun. It was really a beautiful sight. Oh man... I love flying...

Too bad it is not that clear ... hopefully next time can get a better shot...

Happy Anniversary Dear

2007-09-25T14:50:00.000+08:00

Time really flies and before you know it, 1 year had just gone past. I would like to thank you for your courage and trust to move from somewhere you were familiar to a totally strange land... Absorb the cultural difference and to face the unfamiliar system. It must had been tough on you, but I am always by your side, giving you the strength that you need as we trek along this path.

During this one year we had experienced a lot challenges and change together, but these challenges had strengthen our bond and reaffirm our commitment to each other. I thank you for your understanding and your willingness to walk this difficult path with me. I am really glad we have each other for you had long made a residence in my heart.

As life had its way with things, situation had changed such that now i am the one in unfamiliar land. Now it is your turn to show me how to get things done in Shanghai. Guiding me along so that i will not live like a tourist but like a local, fitting in to the environment ( just like what i was trying to do before ). Also i can now better understand your homesickness, thinking about home, missing home and family members for i am experiencing it myself.

Also for accepting the huge changes to your body that comes free with pregnancy, thank you. Since we do not know the gender as yet, we shall call baby mini ong instead of mini hock haha....

mini ong will see the real world in a month time.. this last 30 days is gonna be filled with excitement and anxiousnous. As the day comes closer, our new role getting spelled out for us clearer. Guessed we had got almost everything ready...

Sorry this day I cannot be with you as i still need to go and earn money for milk powder...but it gives me the chance to sit in front of the laptop, thinking about us , putting in down in this page, so that maybe 10 years or 50 years later when we revisit this page together, the feeling will be refreshing,enchanting, sweet memories that we shared... "thinking back about the good old days"

Sometimes you would asked me, "Would you still hold my hand when I am old and wrinkled?" I will reply as I always would, "I will hold your hand even when we are both old and greyed, I would loved to walk along the beach with you, enjoying the sun, the sea, hand in hand strolling, enjoying each others' company maybe also with our grandchildren around us...."

I love you Juan... Happy Anniversary and many more..

kiss

Bedroom Entertainment

2007-09-24T21:04:00.000+08:00

We just bought a tivoli ipod system for our bedroom. The sound is fantastic. Now there is some music entertainment when we are in the bedroom. The model name is quite cute ... is called iYiYi... anybody tell me how to pronounce ? my friend told is ai ya ai ya ai.... haha.... u managed to get it ??

Also for the ipod we uploaded some photos in the screen saver

Battle is lost .......

2007-09-23T21:12:00.000+08:00

The battle against the dust is a long and bitter one. We gathered all our gears and resources, from mops, brooms, finally upgraded to vacuum cleaner, to employing part time maid....

every week the whole unit needs to be cleaned a min 3 times to be bearable. The problem is Shanghai is a very dusty city, to make matter worse, my living room balcony faces a coal collection point which is abt 1 km away but full visual range. So when the wind blows,all the fine coal dust will start settling on the balcony and floor.

Since 3 mths since we moved in, finally we surrendered.... we will still do all the cleaning when we had time, but slippers need to be on once u are home, coz if not feet will become black black.. something that takes some getting used to ....

The other solution will be to keep all the doors and window closed. But we like the natural breeze that comes thru once in awhile, especially now when the weather is getting cooler .. rather than couping up in air-con all the time....

So if u are coming remember to put on slippers once in the house ;-)

Wireless Activated

2007-09-17T20:14:00.000+08:00

Yes... wireless in the house....managed to get a wireless router from a friend... now no need to hide in the room to get online and juan and me can both online at the same time now .. yippee...

OK....gotta work on 25th SEP

2007-09-17T20:11:00.000+08:00

Well.... looks like unable to swap flight to get off days ... din know trying to swap flights is so tough lay ... but is ok.. i got a week of stdby(if unactivated) to make the best of things...

cheers ;)

My Curry ...!!

2007-09-17T19:59:00.000+08:00

Hei... i just cooked my curry chicken here recently.... colour looked not too bad right ?? haha.... anybody wanna try ??

Wow... All on the same day .....

2007-09-06T17:03:00.000+08:00

Guess what...1st year anniversary= birthday=中秋节(mid autumn festival)=not at home working... haha... gonna get screwed neh... well trying hard to change flights and see how it goes.

wish me luck baby...

hugs

Value of 2RMB

2007-08-29T17:04:00.000+08:00

2 RMB is :

the cost of 1 air-con bus ride,

pay for your bank admin charge,

the cost of 1 bottle of mineral water,

the cost of 500g of vegetables,

the cost of 1 meat bun,

the cost of 1 bowl of dumpling,

the cost of 2 apples,

the cost of 1 stick of bbq lamb,

the cost of 1 ice-cream,

the cost of 1 nail cutter,

the cost of 1 nail polish,

the cost of 1 yellow light bulb,

the cost of 2 packet of tissue,

the cost of toilet entry,

the cost of 4 sticks of roses,

the cost of 1 roadside haircut,

the cost of 1 hair band,

anybody got more to add ?? let me know....

1 year Anniversary coming up...

2007-08-29T05:36:00.000+08:00

WOW...time flies.. before you know it, it is approaching the 1st anniversary of our wedding ....I was transferring photos from yahoo photos when i came across our ROM photos. Looking at the photos it just feels like yesterday...The sequence of events just ran through my brains and the feelings are still warm and sweet. I am glad we are together and a check with reality.. Sep is coming, probably a gentle reminder from up there..haha... i had almost forgot about it till yahoo photo is shutting down and the need to transfer the photo to a another site.

Next few days in DXB can make use of the time in the room to think how to celebrate ;)

In the meanwhile, I had created the link to the photos on the left panel if you wanna view what happen a year earlier.

Happy Viewing ;)

East meets West

2007-08-29T03:10:00.000+08:00

When we were in Hangzhou, along one of their walking streets, we came across this building that looks particularly interesting. Along the walking street the facade is of a western design while the adjoining building along the main road is an old chinese design. I wonder if the rooms on the western side is for real...

My first love.... planes..

2007-08-29T02:44:00.000+08:00

Due to recent flight disruptions and delays... some of the flights had from night become day flights.

Can you identify the aircraft type ?

Can you see the aircraft ??

Asiana B747-400 in ICN ...

This had given me the opportunity to take pictures of the aircraft in the busy airspace that we used. We always used to see their lights and hear their R/Ts, now you can not only see their aircraft clearly ... and also our own shadows....

Many other photos are posted in my photobucket website. Click the links on the left to access the categories...

东湖 East Lake

2007-08-29T01:40:00.000+08:00

Guess most of us would had been to 西湖 west lake...East Lake is located at 绍兴 , if you read chinese, more info can be found here : http://www.sxdh.com/

In brief, it is located near the city of shaoxing. Present day Shaoxing sits on the site of the ancient capital city of Kingdom of Yue from Spring and Autumn Period.

Many famous characters from the chinese history had set foot upon this place. You can choose to take a boat ride from to and fro throughout the lake or you can opt to drop off at the far end and walk back.

Basically the boat ride brings you close to the cliffs and have a closer look. some cliffs looks like a bell while another looks like a trumpet. Did not show those photos here as the photos could not bring out the effects.

Do u know why the original 雷峰塔 collapsed ?

2007-08-25T13:25:00.000+08:00

In Hangzhou there is this famous tourist place call 雷峰塔 , Thunder peak pagoda (translated literally) . Behind this place there is this famous folk lore which i think most of us would had heard or seen the movie. The story is 白蛇传。 In the story, lady white snake 白娘娘 was once trapped in the thunder peak pagoda.

Silk production is a major industry in Hangzhou and Suzhou, so a lot of farmers in the region grow mulberry trees and harvest silkworm for their silk. Stories goes that one of the farmer tired of the snakes eating up their precious silkworm, went to the temple, took a piece of stone from the wall and placed it in his plantation. The next year he had a bountiful harvest while others are suffering from the snakes. Other stories include bricks from the tower could repel illness or prevent miscarriage, many people stole bricks from the tower to grind into powder.

The story gets passed around and farmers started to grab stones/bricks/tiles from the pagoda. The pagoda finally collapse in the 1924 sep 25...

In October 1999, the city of Hangzhou decided to rebuild the pagoda anew to enhance the scenery of the lake. On 25th October 2002, the rebuilt pagoda opened, built above the ruins of the old one and with documents and exhibits on show for visitors.

Chasity Lock

2007-08-25T13:06:00.000+08:00

Well... heard of chastity belt.. now there is this chastity lock. Heard of it seen it ?? well ... thats the look of it !!

It was on display in the Lock Museum at Lock Island in Thousand Island Lake. Well... don't ask me how that lock work cause i really cannot figure that out. If u do, let me know ;)

Hor say liao...

2007-08-25T12:32:00.000+08:00

Wa say ... after much trouble finally we are home happily ;) What happened was the doctor said she was fine to discharge but there was one more bottle of drip, so have to finish before allowed to come back. tried to refund/cancel but cannot, so lan lan must stay there for another 12 hours to wait for the drip to finish ...

My friends organised dinner at indian restaurant.. supposed to join them but alas.. got to spend the time watching the drip drip....

Guess other than the experience from most of the nurses and doctors, the stay though quite chaotic it was quite pleasant, making friends with other roommates and hearing their experience. Intially when she was warded, they had no room and she was placed on a bed along the corrider , it was only the next day i heard before transferring to a ward. guess the place was designed for 6 beds, but 2 more were squeezed in the middle of the room, so it was a little cramp. We managed to get a window bed but not much view except seeing sombody's undies airing on the balcony....haha...so much for view...

On our right we had one couple who just gave birth to a boy and a gal (龙风胎）, though borned early both are healthy and now under intensive care as they are very under weight. The rest in the room are mom to be, approaching their due and waiting for the baby to be ready to come to the real world.

Hopefully all goes on well from here and the next time we stay in the hospital is to welcome our new member to the real world...

Jiak sala simi ???

2007-08-24T02:13:00.000+08:00

Juan juan in hospital for the past 2 days while i was away for work. She had diarrhea and when she went to hospital for treatment, they admitted her as they suspect the diarrhea might had caused some involuntary contractions. She is on drip the past 2 days. I went to see her after i came back, she was still on drip but feeling ok... just that sometimes the stomach very stiff. Any mothers there can offer some advice?

Went for a scan and baby supposed to be ok. She wanted to be discharge tomorrow, but doctor say see how.... so tomorrow morning i will be heading down again. Hopefully she can be certified safe to come home. God bless..

Update Address

2007-08-16T13:45:00.000+08:00

Wa say ..thats another thing you need to do when you finally settle down. You are supposed to update the information with the police station. And to do that you need to get a tempry resident permit from the condo you staying then you need to produce the permit together with passport, lease, and photocopy of owners' id at a designated police station or risk a fine...

si bay lay che.... i will try to get it done when i go back this time....

千岛湖 (Thousand Islands Lake)

2007-08-16T13:18:00.000+08:00

千岛湖 is a gigantic man make lake created when they buid the hydro power station 新安江水电站 in 1959. The river was damed up and the lake has an area of 574sqkm.. almost the size of singapore. As the water level rises, the peaks of the hills became many of the islands on the lake, thus its name 千岛湖 (Thousand Islands Lake). Since then, it had been developed as a tourist area and its natural habitat had been destinated as a natural reserve.

3 main produce from the area. 1. mineral water, as this is a major brand there.. there are actually fakes selling in the city and elsewhere. The packaging looks exactly the same but the taste is totally different. So beware....

2. Pearls. Fresh water oyster farming is very active in this region. This is how an oyster farm looks like. Picture was taken from another part of china.

The oysters are string up and laid into the water and each location is indicated by a float. OK .. i know is not very clear but this was taken on train during sunset ...

Impurities are introduced to the oysters so that pearls can be harvest.

3. Fish farming is also a very active industry.

From Hangzhou, it takes about 2 hours by bus to reach there. A few islands are developed into tourist attractions. They are 锁岛 (Lock Island), 鸟岛 (Bird Island), and a few others which i forgot liao. haha.. Other than the scenery ... not much fun in the islands la...

This is on the lock island... u can purchase the metal locks and carve your wish and lock it there. i wish for........

Back in Action !!

2007-08-16T12:35:00.000+08:00

Wow... times flies when you are enjoying... before you know it it is time to work again... of course getting called up to work earlier does not help ha ha. We had just spent 4 days in Hangzhou before we headed back to Shanghai. We had plans to visit Suzhou but well... that had to be postponed to a later date...

In Hangzhou we did a few sightseeing, joining the day tour. We visited 千岛湖 (Thousand Islands Lake), 绍兴 (Shaoxing) and of course the famous 西湖 (West Lake), 雷峰塔 (Thunder Peak Pagoda??).

From our experience....the advantage of joining a tour group is that the tour guide(if u meet a good one) can provide you with a lot of information about the place you gonna visit. Information like its history, major events that took place, the developments of the place, major produce, myths and facts and etc.

We had actually enjoyed the commentary along the way . The disadvantage will be... kena taken to souvenirs shops and force to spend some time there and also the limited time given at the place of interest.

So some places we visited on our own while others we hop on the tour. Slowly i will put some information which i still remembered up as and when times permits ;)

Don't miss me.....

2007-08-02T03:17:00.000+08:00

Thanks for all the feedback guys. It had been really helpful. So the information had been rearranged to provide ease of reference and the videos had been shifted to the bottom of the page, so that they are sized according to the original coding. I had resize the clips to fit to the side coloumn. Somehow it worked in firefox but not with IE. But i think now all works fine. So if u see something let me know.

Next 3 weeks i will be in China and that means I will not be able to update my blog for a while. Is there any other way to update it ? I think i should be able to access and publish the comments thru e-mail, i not very. I dunno what to do yet in the long off coming... will keep you posted once I am back to AMS.

Lucky thing is photos can be updated from PVG ... yeah yeah ...

Things are getting done ;)

2007-07-28T00:29:00.000+08:00

Great to be updating the whole day. I had include a lot of links to my photos and updated quite a few photos to my long neglected websites. So slowly i will include more. Come back and check it up.
See ya ;)

My Chinese Wedding

2007-07-21T21:20:00.000+08:00

So guess you had seen my china wedding photos ? The way they do it there is very different and is more interactive and fun and what we normally used to.

Just a short description on what went on those few days. Junbiao and Meiyan, thanks for the support !! Hope u guys enjoyed yourselves too :)

The first major difference we notice is the bridal car. The bridal car tends to be black in colour and most likely to be an Audi A4/A6, BMW, Honda Accord 2.4 or Hyundai Sonata. They use fresh flowers as decoration on the bonnet. The bigger the flowers arrangement the better it is. I wonder is it the same in other chinese cities ?

Trishaw is still very much active in her town where u pay 4-10rmb depending on the distance you run.

One interesting event was that we need to 拜天地 on the eve of our actual day . It was quite surprising to me.

The next surprise came was the wedding dinner. The amount of food was .......... so many!!! we had 8 cold dishes, 16 warm dishes, 2 soups, 2 desserts....and also fruits....It was amazing.....As the dinner was held at her house, the servers were her cousins helping out. Each time they send a dish up they were say some 吉祥的话 and u have to give a ang pao before they will place a dish on the table. The better they say it, the ang pao suppose to be bigger. It was kind of entertaining.

And of course after the dinner, we kena tekan, playing games for the crowd to see. U know... trying to ctach suspended apple, getting chopstick out of bottle without using hand, feeding each other 瓜子 without using hands.... and a lot more. Fun but quite pai say initially, but once the ice is break everybody enjoys...

After which we get to set off firecrackers and the next best thing was fireworks. They were beautiful.

Next time i sure come and set off fireworks....

Hope u enjoy reading as i typing....

肉饼真好吃：）

2007-07-21T21:06:00.000+08:00

Juan recently made some delicious 肉饼. Made with flour and some precook meat with long beans and slowed cook over a woodfired stove... it was absoultely yummy....

Juan .... when u cooking this again... use gas stove can or not ???

Shopping .....?

2007-07-21T20:40:00.000+08:00

This trip we went back via express train from the relatively new Shanghai South Station. The train was comfortable and fast. It moves at 160km/hr. The train left on the dot and within 2 hours (Usual 4 hours plus) we reached our initial desitination at Yiwu. This is the wholesaler city of china manufacturing market. There are several big scales "shopping centres" where shops showcase their stuffs for buyers from around the world.

It showcased so many items that there are catergorised according to types of goods. So if you are looking for soft toys they will be tons of shops selling soft toy at that category.

So if u like shopping u can hope on a train here. But be warned, they sell only in bulk .

Birth Permit APPROVED !!!

2007-07-21T20:00:00.000+08:00

After we first settled in, the first thing we did was to look for a hospital where our little Ong will first see the world. We ran thru quite a few hospitals and finally we settled on one that is not too far away. We set a date and happily we went to register for pre-natal check.

To our horror, we were asked to produce birth permit (准生证）si mi lay eh ???!!! Wa pianz... give birth also must have permit... f#$#$ need to get permit or not ??!!! As we move to other hospitals we were asked for the same thing. Finally we realised the implication of the matter after a kind nurse explained it to us. Without the permit, there will be no pre-natal checks, and after child birth, birth certificate will not be issued... he would be something like a wanderer without identity. Singapore embassy needs birth certificate to register for citizenship.

So as we moved around asking around how to get it done. We got one recommendation. Go back to Juan's hometown and apply from there. Should be the easiest way . So at the first possible moment we went to her hometown at the same time paid her family a visit. Hitting 2 birds with one stone. Happily we went back and went to their town council.

We went to the Birth Planing department where we were asked a few questions. Are you married ? Is your husband from here ? Well... we did not made thru the second question. Oh since you are married away, you should apply from your husband side. ??!! Husband from Singapore nay.. and singapore dun issue birth permit ??!! Well.. it is out of our jurdistiction. And we were sent away. What now ??

We stayed for a few more days before making our way back to shanghai and Juan starting to call all of her friends whom had gave birth in Shanghai before to ask them for clues. And finally we landed one important lead. There is this Non Shanghainese Birth Planning Department in Shanghai and we should make enquiries there. We found that before we can proceed further, we must apply for tempory resident permit for Juan, and to do that we must produce documents that justify her pressence in Shanghai. Once you get that approval, there is this big registration centre where your application is approved and an "ID card" will be issued to you. With that ID Card, we made our way to the Birth Planning Department.

There we got our Birth Permit approved after filling in several forms and answering several questions. We were then issued with a permit and a Pre-natal health check book. The book had to be initialised with an initial medical checkup at an authorised hospital. Purpose is that, armed with the book you can now go to any hospital of our choice for prenatal checks and with the permit, we are authorised legally to give birth and a birth certificate will be issued for the birth.

It had been a time consuming process trying to go thru all this legal web try to get all the documents in place. It feels like playing dungeon and dragon real life, getting all the clues to get the items and finally achieving the mission objective.

Glad all this is over. Now we look forward to a healthy pregnancy and child birth.

p.s. at the Shanghai Birth Control Department, we had a surprised after we went thru the main gate. There is this MIG21(if i am correct) on display. Maybe they are encouraging pple to join the air force ?? hehe...

谢谢你们!!

2007-07-16T01:12:00.000+08:00

Ok... i know is a little bit late (like a few months ago) but i would still like to express my thanks for being there at my wedding, to share my happiness and joy, and especially to those who had put aside their precious time to help me out. THANK YOU.

Heros shall not be unsung ...

Murphy, thanks for the videos, they are very good, though the final version came too late and most did not get to see, i will find a way to make it be viewable here. So guys if u know how give me a buzz.

Tiffany, Kou, Andy, Keith, Qiaoling and Murphy again thanks for roaming around with me in the sun and coordinating with the rest at night for the events to flow smoothly.

Alice, Michelle, Liling, Ann, my 4 beautiful receptionist for making my guests feeling comfortable and at home and of course the sacred mission of guarding my ang pao box haha ;-) Thanks

Tiffany and Cindy thanks for setting the mood, without the lovely voice of yours the atmosphere will certainly not be as hot as it would :)

A big thank you to all of you for the resourcefulness, the creativeness and all the fun that you helped to generate. It is really appreciated from the deepest end of my heart.

To all those who were there with me, I hoped that you had enjoy the dinner, had lots of fun, and bring back a wonderful memory. Thanks

The 3 Fiery Stoves in China

2007-07-16T01:02:00.000+08:00

In summer, 3 cities in China were dubbed the 3 fiery stoves (3大火炉）. They are 1. Wuhan, 2. Nanjing and 3. Chong Qing. Not sure how true is it, but the tales goes that this 3 cities feel the hottest in summer as if you are in a stove. So, the idea is plan to visit this 3 cities in other seasons except summer.

Just a little trivia

还是自己做的菜好吃：）

2007-07-11T21:35:00.000+08:00

Just had our first home cook meal recently.... As with all things they must be some hiccups. We were in the supermarket all there... getting all the stuffs that we would need. When we finally got back, we happily set out to cook our meal ...even though it was quite late in the evening. When we finally set up the table , getting ready for our meal, we realised we did not get any chopsticks. Ha ha.. anyway we had a fun day shopping, a good time cooking and an amusing time eating. Bon Appetite !!

新的家。。

2007-07-04T19:04:00.001+08:00

好不容易终於找到房子了！！！真是千心万苦。。。只是有一点贵。。还有许多芝麻绿豆的小问题。。。相信在过一段时间就能搞定：）

One thing i discover is that the dust is very powerful in PVG, just 3 days the whole place will be covered in dust and ur feet will be black from walking on it. No wonder they need to wear slippers at home... or .... get a maid to do constant cleaning........

The view from the unit is not bad... u get to see the 江。。the city and the estate landscaping..

The photos were taken early in the morning... so it is a little fog up...

haha... the layout seemed a bit funny ... but never mind la... can see can liao... so if u staying at intercon can walk over pay me a visit ..

see ya ;)

真气人.....

2007-06-21T14:54:00.000+08:00

真是受不了..搞了半天原来我在上海update不了...Actually quite a few blog sites is blocked in China... Initially i was so excited on setting up my own site..finally after being put aside for so long you know....guess i got no choice but to keep my excitement and feelings bottled up all the way til i am away then i can update... maybe by then the feelings 已经被时间冲淡, 心里的那毂冲动也已消失...

It is quite disappointing to face so many hurdles...it feels tiring at times overcoming one problem after another while others just happen to get to the goal post straight. Maybe some will say .. well thats life , some people just happen to get a better deal....what do you say ? Its not their fault you got a lousy deal... just happen you are at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Life is not just about that thing or this thing. Guess you must take every thing as a whole package, focus on the better things that happen. Feel good or feel bad is all depends on your brain.. on how u perceive the event/situation .....

Of course at first you will feel happy or upset... but time tones the feeling down. After some time when you revisit the issue, the feelings the views might be totally different. It might dosen't matters anymore... Or you might be able to take a more rational view on things...

Thats what i feel for now. But nevertheless i will still try to make every effort to keep this site updated :)

Blog Progress

2007-06-14T05:00:00.000+08:00

Wow... finally some form started to show .... took awhile as i am super lousy with my html. Tried reading the code to change the alignment or to rearrange the objects but to no avail...so gotta depend on the good old GUI to do it. So you might be laughing now... but after that if you know how to..... put 2 pics side by side..tell me ok.... haha...

新的地方 , 新的开始, 新的生活!!

2007-06-14T03:56:00.000+08:00

Hello Everyone !!!
We are in Shanghai now !! I miss all of you, so to keep everyone posted on our progress, I will start to update the stuff here :) So ... for a start we are staying at a service apartment 5 mins walk from my office. Rentals had jump 2-3000 RMB since I last search for a place here. It's not gonna be easy to find a cheap and good place anymore. But will try to keep looking and hopefully settle down near Yaohan, then next time u can just walk over to my place. Good right ??

Started work liao... posting my very first blog from the crew room in AMS. Lucky for this trip if not guess this blog will be started at a much later date. Also for those who had been chasing m for photos.. I will be slowly posting the photos up here when i know how to do it haha... in the meanwhile gotta go and explore around first.

Ok la... thats all for now... when u got time u can come back to check for updates.

See ya !!