Gardening project...

Headed to a seedling farm and a place that sells seeds, amazing rows and rows of seedlings and bags and bags of seeds.

Here aer 2 pics from a home that houses teenaged boys, about 36 of them in a huge rambling house. Three months ago the boys were living in probably a shack with no parents. The house is provided by a pastor and although the house needs alot of touch up, many of the boys are attending mechanic school and will work for the BMW workshop. A number of people donate food and Mr. Goldstuck who wants to see how much it costs to build them a vege garden (labour and responsibility for maintainence will come from them). They could learn to garden and sell the access veges to people around them.

At the end of the garden was a shed that would make a perfect mushroom farm but the weather is too dry here for that, still it could be a good worm farm, for some reason the shed has alot of discarded crates that are perfect for worm farming. Now to figure out how to contain these crates.

Some photos

Here is nate holding hands with Emma Jane a girl in his class, the little routine we have is that we go to Nate's class then Ike's class then we say bye to Ike, and head off to say buy to Nate and drop him off at the Senior section. Emma Jane is Ike's teacher's daughter, so she is at Ike's class most of the times.

nate really likes his orange roots jacket from Zeda, although he looks like a rapper, he thinks he is wolverine. Nate, Riley and friends posing with big robot.

Here is Ike being monopolistic about his two bikes. We have a new neighbour, who's son, marcus goes to Ike's class. How is this for coincidence, Marcus' dad, Sean works for Nokia and today i got a call from Phil who said he won't make it to a friend's wedding in HK, the bride turns out to be Sean's sister.

4 days till beijing and hong kong!

Dada there is a ball in my ear...

Well, apparently a piece of ear stuff got loose and was rolling about nate's ear. For a long time, much into my twenties, I did not understand the need for ear wax cleaners or the concept of ear wax, asian's as far as I know had clumpy ear stuff, not some waxy thing that somehow comes out from one's ear.

My mom said the nicest time spent with her mom is to lay on her lap and she slowly and carefully digs out these clumps from ones ear. In China or asia, we have little bamboo sticks with a teeny tiny spoon at the end that assists in the digging. My mom even has a piece of gold jewelry that has a gold toothpick on one side and a gold ear digger on the other side.

So to my greatest amazement, an australian caucasian friend tells me that one of his children has asian ear wax and the other has western ear wax. I had no clue what he was referring to. Sometime this year, the kid's pediatrician, Dr. Ahmed who is of Indian origin said to me that nate's earwax has hardened and all I had to was to add a few drops of olive oil... so I asked him if he knew that its "normal" to have clumpy ear wax... and he had never heard of it before! he has waxy stuff, so somewhere along the evolution chain... must be the cold and harsh mongolian gobi dessert that the waxy stuff turned clumpy?

So nate has the clumpy stuff and Ike has the waxy stuff. Poor Ike, dada has to clean his ears often because none of us remember to, since we don't have wax flowing out of our ears, I must remember to go ask Mabo and see what the black population has...

Here's Nate and Ike on kiddy gym exercising equipment, its amazingly only US$12 per machine. Ike with broom at Kindermusik which he did very well at today and was totally exhausted.

I plan to start Nate finally on night diaper training, I have probably left it for too long but the temptation of sleeping entire nights and not having to wake up at 430am on a brrr brrr winter morning is my excuse (so much for my environmentalism). I have now bought a absorbent sheet for his bed and we have discussed that after his 4th birthday we will "go for it"... he has once or twice forgotten to put on his diaper and woke up at 430am. He is quite keen to go to move his room tot he spare room so he has access to his own bathroom.

Back to reality...

So apparently the kids were like angels. Here is bubbi still alive after that... and a big bloom rose in Woon's house. I had only seen this in fake silk flowers, never a real bloom!

Christine was so nice to lend me her driver and he took the boys to school and marcia to unity college. Oh the other great mini adventure I had in Stockholm was trying to find the "bukowski" rabbit for her daughter helen. I did find the rabbit but not the exact same one.

Stockholm is great.

I met with the famous sinologist, Cecilia Lindqvist (check out her book China: Empire of Livingn Symbols), she took me out for dinner and almost drank me under. We talked about her latest book the Qin and all her speaking assignments. Also how tough it is to find a good agent, she had to tell her agent that she won the best book award in Taiwan 2007 and they don't seem like they are active or know how to promote her stuff. Sounds like a niche is there for a McCormack for writers too.

She is also a keen gardener and told me to head out to the University's botanical garden, magnificent place! a walk away from my lecture as well.

I also got to meet Prof. Lent and his wife again and I think I will be speaking at Guiyang next year. Got a few more good contacts on the cartoon scholars and got to attend a number of lectures on media type stuff. I can't believe its 17 years since I left University.

Its good to get away from the kids! Thanks Marcia!!!

Stockholm!!

It was a really nice trip, I went by myself to speak at a Media conference and had a great time. The first day I woke up in Stockholm, I realised I had not woken up a single time the night before, wow it was like reliving my life before the kids.

My 3 gfs and I used to choose a city and meet there... one would take care of our museum itinerary, the other food and the last on shopping and we would discover a city together like that, this would have been an ideal one. I wonder why we did not come here?

I went to quite a number of museums, sat on a boat to look at stockholm on a rainy day, listened to my ipod, slept well, had an unbelievable amount of enerqy (was it the weather or the fact that I did not hear a single whine the whole day?). I walked alot... and it was the summer sale!! 50% off and then 25% tax back! Its quite close to heaven.

Now REA means sale in Swedish (I think) am not sure what the SLUT means yet...

On the one or two rainy days, I watched birds pick earthworms. This city has alot of great stuff, an old city, a modern part, gardens, a viking ship, water, boats, museums.... highly recommended. Even with kids.

This rack of bikes you can get a ticket from the tourist office and take off with a bike!

More compost pictures

This is Cora's bakkie... first time I sat in one, its nice to have her drive and I can look at the scenery of places I would normally not go to or know about.

Look at the mountains of rich and beautiful compost!!

Cora sells another model of worm farm... oh its like addiction, some people buy gucci handbags, I want to get my fourth worm farm!!!!

Roodeport Compost center

On my weekly part time job as a vege gardener (again before stockholm), Cora took me to the government compost making area. It was lovely, big big mountains of compost and mulch, the whole place smelled so wonderful, like oak and mint and fresh dirt. If I could bottle that scent, that would be my perfume (and I don't use any).

They had loads of big machinery there and I think i should maybe take the boys there to go see the different types. A white guy (the supervisor of the facility?) there had a family of chickens and I couldn't believe Cora just went up to him to ask for a mid aged chick. She had 3 chicks but 2 got eaten by her dog and the remaining one doesn't seem to get along with the other chickens.

The "go away" grey bird in her garden, munching on the aloe flowers!

To Pretoria again... and again...

Before I left for Sweden I headed out to the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria to get my visa for the olympic games in Beijing. My visa had been rejected twice (in both the Chinese embassy in Sandton and Pretoria) because... when I renewed my passport in the Malaysian embassy in Taiwan, they put my issued at as "Taiwan" and as there are no 2 China's according to China, they say I have an invalid passport. Great just great, small person caught in political man made issues...

So I got my friend Christine to speak to someone in the embassy and so I headed out to get my visa, unfortunately the visa takes four working days and as I was leaving for Stockholm the next day I could not hand over my passport.

Yesterday I headed out to Pretoria yet again... got an earful about how I should either change my passport or tell my embassy and government that only one China exists. They took my passport in... lets see if I get the visa on Friday.

So bubs and I visited the art museum 10 days ago... it was quite nice... sculpture in pic here used as a utility, ie coat hanger... and a painting of my favorite tree, the baobab. Yesterday we went to the cultural and history museum, very sad and quiet place and not so great exhibits, after sweden and its great museums, the pretoria one felt very sad and not really worth visiting. I must however try to get to the Wits University museum where they have better human bones and paleontology type exhibits, apparently better than Maropeng.

Finger crossed for my visa!! btw here is bubby with Ellie our new neighbours dog, she is virtually a dog whisperer soon!

Unity College

On the first day that Bubbi arrives, she had to attend an interview, to volunteer at Unity College, it is a school for 6 year olds up to 17 years old. The children that come here have some type of learning disability. Some have Down Syndrome, some have ADHD and other conditions such as uncontrollable muscle twitches. We had a look around the place, its not far from Dainfern, even before the Fourways hospital, tucked away.

It sits on quite a big plot of land, thought they are likely to move next year closer to the lion park. They have occupational therapists at the school and they teach the kids skills that they can use. The kids will not be able to pass their Matric but learn cooking, on tues they have work days and unpack at supermarkets or work at other stores such as Mr. Price. Many of them can type well and I wonder if they could work on for one of those internet based companies that hire out typing.

Here are some pics of the buildings of their school, the rooms are not heated so they are a bit chilly, the kids are sorted according to age but the classes usually have kids of a few years together in order to make up a class. When we went to each classroom, they all stood up and greeted us with "good morning teacher and visitors". I didn't take any pictures of the kids as many of them would come up to us and shake our hands and say hello or enjoy just having visitors.

The guide that took us around also asked about Nate's school, I do home maybe the younger kids can visit Nate's school so that the normal kids can play along side kids from Unity college. I remember in Taipei, Nate once went up to a person in a wheelchair and said hello, they had kind of a good conversation in mandarin and the guy left with such a happy face.

Today, Marcia did her first day. The first thing she said when i picked her up was that, we should hug our kids as we are so fortunate. I am so impatient with the kids especially when they are whiny (usually when sick) or the terrible twos and the difficulty in communicating but I can't imagine how one can cope with a child constantly in need.

In a country where normal kids have a hard time getting an education, this place is quite unique.

Nate in batman towel... and ike napping in school. Yes the mass mats where kids will pass stuff to other kids! Nate's nose seems to have taken a turn for the worse. It now must be like 15 weeks of constant snottiness. It isn't as bad as some kids with like yo-yo snot but still as the dr says, its really bunged up.

The weekend

started off really nice, nate did his karate in the morning with dada really well, dada takes both boys while I get to go to yoga. Nate was also well behaved at lunch and they watched Wall-E together, while Ike napped at home, I also got to nap, what is more blissful than this? The afternoon goes quite smoothly as well and at night we are having tapas at Woon's new place.

The next morning, I wake up aching... ooooh... I had not done ashtanga in so long, today lifting my arms still hurt! I was lucky for a second day... Nate wanted to take a nap and so with Ike asleep, I got in a 1.5 hour nap, thinking this is unbelievable great, one of these deep deep numbing sleeps. When Nate wakes up 2 hours later, he has a high burning fever and his rash has spread to alot more spots and he was scratching and it was just itchy everywhere.

I apply antihistamine and bundle him off to the dr. Dr says some oral and cream antihistamine should do the trick, his nose though is still all bunged up. He did not have appetite for lunch but not bad for dinner (pizza place). We had quite a nice family council, a music one... and nate put in two sentences this week.

Well... at night I could not sleep! and just as I did, Nate wakes up, "Is Bubby coming tonight??". After he falls back asleep I hear all sorts of noises, like every 30 mins the humidifier bubbling as the water travels downwards. Then 2 am some bird or insect... then my own head with my brother's voice... it gets later and later and soon you will have to wake up for the normal day... aaargh. I can't switch on the lights as Loren is sleeping. torture torture! In the end I get a few hours in.

Nate wakes up at 7:30, has a fever, does not want to get out of bed and falls back asleep at 8 going till about 9:30am and then gets to watch TV the whole day. Ike went off to school and in the afternoon, I even took him to his first Kindermusik class. I hope Ike can talk soon, sometimes he gets so frustrated pointing at all sorts of stuff but we don't know what he wants. He's quite "sauce" adventurous and like trying all sorts of sauces, insisting on a platter of types for his steam vege's to be dipped in.

Bubby will be here in about 3 hours. Tomorrow I have an interview already set up for her at Unity College, which is an institution for children who have learning disabilities, its quite close to our house. I wonder if she will get the courage to drive this time while in S. Africa? I wonder if she will go gardening with me and I am not sure I should take her to yoga.

Loren is off to Ghana today then Nigeria and back on Saturday. On Saturday I will be off to Stockholm to an international conference, I will speak on my granddad.

Pretoria

Son on Friday after dropping the kids off I head to Pretoria which is some 60+ km away. I am there to visit the Malaysian embassy so that the consulate can witness my signature. Here are some shots of a (rare) and cloudy day in joburg, I took the back route heading north via diepsloot, here is their new mall. Diepsloot is one of those "slums" where many of the fourway's workers live, its about 10km from where we live and is one of the places where alot of other black african immigrants got attacked during the xenophobic attacks.

The slums by the way are a lot nicer than the ones in Indonesia or India, there are toilet facilities, tho outdoors and water and elec. Was reading an article of an interview of Mr. Maponya (the guy that built the big mall in soweto), he said he was most disappointed about how in the last 15 years, not much has been done about low cost housing or even stack housing or apartments.

Anyway, I get to the embassy (last pic is of pretoria embassy row), its freezing, of all the malaysian embassies I have visited, this was the most quiet. I submit the papers, expecting to meet a human being, an hour later, they come back all signed (ie the witness has signed that he/she has witnessed my signature) but I had not signed on the spot yet! Worse I didn't get to ask him questions like should I not register as a citizen that I am now living here so the embassy knows of my "whereabouts" as the other malaysian embassies have done? Nor did I meet a human being to ask where the malaysian pot luck food parties were held. Speaking of food, its so cold I have just been hungry all the time.

So on this cold, cold day I head back to Loren's office to get the doc's couriered out and decide on a hot bowl of Japanese noodles at the restaurant downstairs... well its run by a Shanghainese guy who has lived here for 25 years. He is selling his businesses to move back to Shanghai. All three kids born here, the two older ones are headed to Harvard and it was a really nice conversation, esp. since his chinese accent was quite easy to listen to. I think I may ask him to be my Chinese tutor and help translate the rest of the recent books we found that my granddad did in the 1930s.

Room To Grow

I started the first day of my job as a vege produce gardener... I work with Cora who owns room to grow (www.room-to-grow.co.za), better than any class or gardening course I get a professional instructor free of charge, in fact she wanted to pay me! Is it my lucky day or what?

Today I met her in a neighborhood called Linden. Her guys had already dug the trenches, layered it with manure, soil, compost and then the grass like stuff you see here is mulch. She see's possibilities in stuff people would throw away. For example the owner wanted to rid the small fence that she has reused to keep the dogs out. There is also a large crate that would have been tossed out she will remodel that to be used as a compost bin.

We did planting today, first by going thru her very messy seed box which she reorganises once a week. I really should have taken more pics, by the time I left, there were trelises up for the peas. She knew what veges can be planted now and so we sorted the seeds accordingly then drew a map of the trenches and then looked thru companion planting, I should have taken a pic of the map we made as well.

Today formally i learnt how to seed properly as well. It was just a really nice perfect day where I got my hands dirty and with nature and to grow something. I will return to this garden in 3 months to put in the plants we did not put in yet, like strawberries and tomatoes but this family will not need to buy any veges.

Then the frustrating this is my mac mail is down! a paid service! no access and I have no idea when it will be up again. If you need to contact me, do singaporecarolyn at yahoo dot com. grrrr.

Elf's Hill

The first picture from the last post... that is not a big booger hanging out of Ike's nose. He fell and mildly scraped the skin under his nose about 2 weeks ago, the first scab was quite "light" but he managed to tear that off, the second scab is this pictured one, thick and menacing looking like a big fall. The scab fell of yesterday so he's all handsome again, of course assuming I bring wet wipes with me all the time to take the constant grime that seems to stick to his face like iron to a magnet.

After school today we go to Elf's HIll, its a party venue close to our home and open to the public on weds. Where we spent the most time actually is on the trampoline, which of course I took no pics! Nate was enthralled at watching the older boys bounce, do somersaults and jump off a 5 step staircase, which he proceeded to follow and do.

I think I must have held my breath... but then even I felt like jumping from that height myself so all I did was watch, he did quite well and was happily practicing the jump over and over again. Later Ike and I held hands and bounced around the trampoline. Here's shots of Nate climbing up and in an "airplane". It was a nice "winter" day, the am's are about 6 degrees and the pm's we get up to 22 deg. This weekend tho a cold front is creeping in and 30% chance of rain.

Here's pistol enjoying his sun tanning session with good reflection to ensure he has an even tan!

Apparently these panels are solar panels that will power the traffic lights (or robots as they call them here). Nate gave a long speech about robots shooting and doing the baddie robot thing to one of the people in school when they asked "what is a robot".

Loren is back from Hong Kong tomorrow morning. Five more sleeps till bubbi gets here. She tells me her bag is bulging in the severely overweight category again, thanks in advance for all the goodies.