Ryan's Farewell Speech

"Good morning children" Ms Mary greeted the children in Ryan's class.

"This morning we are here because Ryan Looi leaving you and will be going to China already. And he wants to say Good bye to all of you.." she continued.

 

We were having a small farewell gathering for Ryan Looi at his school before he flies off to Beijing to start his new adventure. Over the last two years, he has made quite a number of friends and he has several favourite teachers who in turn adores him.

 

As the day to leave drew near, we were told by the teachers that he has been going around telling his friends and teachers that he will be leaving soon and that he loves them. They were obviously very touched.

"Let's get Ryan Looi up here to say to few words, ok." Ms Mary, his class teacher went on.

"Come Ryan Looi..." she gestured Ryan to come forward.

 

In my heart, I was apprehensive as to what this hyper active and talkative son of mine would say. After all, this is going to be his first farewell speech in front of his class of about 20 other children.

 

"Now..what is he going to say?" I thought to myself.

"Is he going to say something totally stupid and make a fool of himself?"

 

As parents, we always wanted them to make us proud and I was just hoping that he would not go on rambling something about dinosaurs and Ultraman saving the world.

 

He got up the front of the class, stood there, looking very serious and composed. There was not a single iota of the ever playful and unfocused Ryan that he is.

 

He looked at his class for a second and two and said the most appropriate, beautiful and meaningful words that could come out from a 4 year old boy, saying farewell for the very first time to his classmates, words that totally knocked me off my senses and for one moment, he is a very mature, grown up boy.

 

"I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH!" he said and bowed.

 

With these words, he left behind his pre-school days chapter in Malaysia and embarks on a new chapter, new adventures, new friends, teachers, culture and environment in Beijing China.

 

We are so proud of him.

First day to school in Beijing

The weather is 3 degrees outside but the sun is shining brightly and the skies blue and clear.

This is the day. This is the day that Ryan starts his first day at Ivy Academy at Beijing China. This is also his big adventure. This is also his next milestone, just like us, who are starting our life from scratch in this new land, new culture, new faces and un-chartered with unexplored territories.

Honestly, we were rather fearful that Ryan would not want to go to his new school as he was very very comfortable with his school back home in Malaysia. He said that he only want to go the school for only ONE day and he would want to return to his school back home in Malaysia.

But he got up without a fuss. We changed him and got him to wear so many clothes that he has never worn before. He was excited.

We were not quite sure what to pack for him today. We just packed what we thought was necessary. He looked dashing in his blue winter jacket.

While waiting for our rented apartment to be ready, we are currently staying at a service apartment which is just 10 minutes walk away from the school. Since, we have not arranged for the school bus to pick him up for this first day, we have to walk him to school and the experience was nothing short of memorable ….walking in freezing temperature in a country we hardly know, in winter clothing so thick that we all looked bloated up but surprising, pleasing to the eyes.

 

We were glad that he took to his new teachers rather well and was soon off to his class on his own while we wait at the administration office to settle all the necessary documentations and payments.

We are slowly settling down with our life in Beijing and getting Ryan to his school is just another step forward.

A New Chapter Begins in Beijing

The phone finally rang at approximately 9pm.

“Hello. I am your pet relocation agent. Your Zoewe has arrived. We are now downstairs at your service apartment.” the voice on the other side of the line said.

“OK OK.” We jumped to change and put on some thick clothing and rushed down to the lobby.

After all, we have been worried sick since she was taken from us 2 days ago by the agent in Malaysia to prepare her for her flight to Hong Kong, then to Shenzhen and from there, ultimately to Beijing, her new home for the next two years.

After all the formalities, there she was, finally with us in the living room, clinging on to us. I guessed she was fearful that she could be taken away again.

With her joining us, our family is now complete in Beijing, our new home for the next two years. The thought is only slowly sinking in that we have left Malaysia for our two years adventure in this land of the Dragon.

Events leading up to this week has been rather dramatic and stressful to say the least. With so much to pack  and not knowing what to pack, the discovery of our maid stealing from us and her sacking at the last hour, just before we proceed to process her visa to China, and arranging for my mother in law to step in for the next three months at least to help out in our new home, have certainly been a contributing factor to the additional few strands of white hair.

 

We thought that we would have little to pack. After all, we are only shifting our master bedroom king size mattress, a sofa bed and a single bed over. How much could that be? Right? WRONG!

Wrong for the two reasons. Firstly, we are shifting with two toddlers. Their clothes, winter clothing, toys, milk powder and diapers have already taken up several boxes.

Secondly, we might be shifting for good. Although we are expected to be here for the next two years, there is every possibility that we might either stay longer or move on to our next destination. Hence, if we do not pack those stuff now, what if we do not come back after two years. And we still have to pack the pots, pans, cutlery, pillows etc over, right? I am not going to spent money buying all these and leave them behind when we leave Beijing.

In the end, the final count was a STAGGERING 113 BOXES! But, we were glad that we got that done. The professional movers were a great motivating factor. They were literally behind our back, pushing us almost every minute to decide what to take and what to leave behind.

We were still packing our luggage just 3 hours before we left for the airport and my wife was so stressed out! Being a meticulous lady and a self claimed perfectionist, this move was ANYTHING but perfect and meticulous so to speak. I thought that at one point in time, she almost burst out in tears and that was when a totally random, careless and last minute guy, yours truly, stood in and took charge. I just told her to pack what she can remember, take it as a adventure, part and parcel of an experience and anything that we have forgotten to pack, we would just either have to make do in Beijing or buy them. After all, we are not moving to the Sahara desert or the interior jungles of the Amazon. We did just that!

We were glad that our flight into Beijing was only half full, and hence, we could have the entire row of seats to ourselves. Ryan was his usual irritating self, switching from games to movies to TV shows on board and wanting attention. Chenya, being her first flight was just as curious and refused to sit still for a good 2 hours!

They finally settled in half way through the flight and slept which gave us all, a time to rest and me, to enjoy my beers and wine.

We are fortunate that we still have the service apartment provided by the company till the 24^th Nov and hence, we do not have to worry about going straight into our rented apartment (although fully furnished) with no pillows and no cutlery. We still have the next 2 weeks to wait for our air shipment to arrive and prepare ourselves to shift into our new apartment.

Ryan will be going to his new school on the 12^th Nov which is next week and I will have to work out my new daily routine, but I am excited of the new uncharted path ahead. It’s not going to be rather that easy for a 50 years old man like me, but nothing is impossible and insurmountable. I am not a perfectionist and neither am I meticulous but I guess that those traits are playing to my advantage now.

To get myself right at home and to help everyone settling in into this new chapter of our lives, I do what I do best….I cooked our very first home cooked meal for dinner. A simple meal of Chicken Drumstick marinated with soy sauce and black pepper, fried with shallots, garlic, ginger slices and broccoli....that is the least I could do at this moment in time....

The start of another Great Learning Experience

We just got back over the weekend from our one week scouting trip at Beijing. It was a tiring yet exciting and eye opening trip for the both of us and it certainly was a great learning experience for us.

For the uninitiated, we will be relocating to Beijing very likely in October this year for at least 2 years. For someone like me (well into my forties and well on the way to fifty) who have grown up with my roots well entrenched here in Malaysia, this is definitely going to be challenging. Of all the countries that I have visited so far, China is one of the country I least favoured. After having been to Kunming for a business golf trip and another one to Shenzhen on a holiday, where I was totally unimpressed, visiting China is clearly not one of the top destination I would consider, let alone living there.

We have been toying with the idea of relocating to another country for quite some time now but have not really work on it. Anyway, of all the countries in the world, China has never even come up in our list of countries we want to stay in. So, when my wife was offered this exciting and challenging role in Beijing, China, it certainly caught us by surprise.

But we took it with good faith, and thanks to some very sound advice from some of our friends who have moved from country to country for work purposes, we braced ourselves for the journey ahead, with an attitude that nothing is impossible and nothing is bad if taken positively and at the end of the day, our stay in Beijing would be another GREAT LEARNING experience for the whole family.

With that, our process to relocate was set in motion with our first visit to this HUGE city.

Well, Beijing is certainly a culture shock to us and, the first few days, I must say was exceptionally difficult for me at least to get used to.

Starting off with the negative, Beijing is definitely a polluted city with a perpetual haze the entire week we were there and talking to the locals confirmed that these happened rather often. Air filters are strongly recommended.

The sight of people sitting by the side of a busy street in the city center with their shirt half rolled up, revealing their belly can be rather shocking. Of course, then there is this local practice of the need to perpetually spit anywhere they find it convenient, which is ANYWHERE. On the humour side, we were visiting a bookstore and they have this little corner when visitors are encouraged to write something about Beijing in six words. This one caught my attention, "You spitted, I dodged, You missed!"

For a banana like me, framing up words to form a sentence to get around is a real challenge, especially since I hardly need to use my very limited vocabulary back here in Malaysia. I think that the two words I am so used to hearing and using during my trip there this round was "什麼?" (What?)

If you think that driving in KL is horrific, wait till you got onto the roads in Beijing. They are all right hand drive which is already something different from us but it is not which side of the road you should be driving that scares you, it is the attitude and the manner of which they drive. Basically, it seemed that everyone has the right of way and everyone is right at some point. So, it is all about how daring and stubborn you are on the road. It is certainly nerve wracking even for a seasoned driver like me.....

And the locals seemed to have this need to gamble. You can literally see people gambling by the road side almost anytime anywhere. While on a apartment scouting trip, I could see a couple of cars, vans or lorries parked by the roadside and a group of four or five people sitting there, playing cards, men and women alike. Simply unbelievable. When I was at Temple of Heaven, a popular tourist site, there was this walkway packed with locals gambling!

The local crowd, both man and woman, young and old, happily gambling away at the Temple of Heaven, Beijing.

The standard of living in Beijing is certainly exorbitant, not only to the locals but all the more so for foreigners like ourselves. Anything imported is unbelievably EXPENSIVE! An advice to those thinking about relocating to Beijing, negotiate and re-negotiate your package.

A decent 2 rooms apartment among the affluent locals or foreigners starts anything from RMB12000 (RM6000!) and a 3 rooms apartment could easily sets you back anything between RMB15000 to RMB22000 (RM7500 to RM11000). Unlike in Malaysia, where your apartment would already comes with full facilities such as the gym and swimming pool, these facilities are normally offered by a privately owned club where membership fees alone sets up back another RM3000 to RM5000 a year.

Our biggest challenge would be stuff related to our children. Sourcing for Pedisure mild powder in Beijing was certainly challenging. Of all the supermarkets and stores we went to, we only found one that have Pedisure and the price for their small can is the price of the big one we are getting here! A box of Kellog cornflakes is close to RM20 and Kraft cheese single pack is RM25!

Children education here is expensive for foreigners unlike the locals. Of the all the pre-schools that we visited, the cheapest and the least impressive is still RMB80,000 (RM40,000) a year or RM3300 a month excluding transportation and lunch. The more decent international ones that we were interested in cost between RMB140,000 to RMB160,000 annually (RM70,000 to RM80,000) or RM5800 to RM6700 a month, and that is only for children between 4 and 5.

But after spending an entire week in Beijing, are there anything positive about staying here? Well, there certainly is.

Beijingers are a friendly lot (if you can understand them or get them to understand you). We have made a number of friends during our week there. 

Although imported stuff are normally expensive (with the exception of beer), there are several very popular online stores that offers good quality stuff at reasonable prices with free delivery, trusted by both the affluent locals and expats alike.

Taxis are easily available and not exactly expensive. Cars are definitely much more affordable here. You don't see many local cars like the Cherry in Beijing. Beijing is packed with VW, BMWs and Mercs. Even Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans are a minority. A brand new 2.4 litre VW Passat Turbo is only around RM140K while a brand new Merc C class apparently cost a little more than RM150K. Fuel however are expensive at RM4 per litre.

Food is not unreasonably expensive and plenty of variety as in KL. The only advice of course is not to be overly adventurous while attempting street side delights.

Being a metropolitan city with an increasing influx of foreigners working and staying in Beijing, the government has done exceptionally well in making sure that the foreigners are well taken care of. There are two special, well equipped clinics set up to cater mostly for foreigners. The SOS clinic for example even have a 24 hour call center that one could call anytime and to ask for anything if assistance is required. For us, that is another one of our top priority need that we have to address, not so much for ourselves but more so, for both Ryan and Chenya when we are there.

Beijing offers a great diversity of attractions from lavish shopping malls offering the best and most expensive there is to historically rich relics and structures that will greatly enhance one's understanding of a proud civilization. 

There are certainly some mega rich citizens in Beijing but majority are still average income earners like ourselves trying to make a decent living.

After one week there, as we got ourselves more familiarized with this new city of which we will soon call HOME, we began to feel more at ease and comfortable dealing with the changes, preparing ourselves for our next trip in August where we would have to decide on the school and hopefully a reasonably priced and decent home.

After all, we are taking this as our NEXT GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE that will greatly enhance our knowledge and experience in life and widen our perspective on how we look at other cultures, appreciate them and at the same time, appreciate what we have been having here in Malaysia.

Why God did not give us a crystal ball...

It's 11:04am. It was also a Saturday exactly FIVE years ago. And what was I doing at this time five years ago?

I WAS GETTING MARRIED !!

Oh yes. Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. I just can not believe that we have been married for only five years. Please don't get me wrong here. It is not that these five years have been difficult to get through. Far from that, with her by my side, these five years have flew past just like that and it is as if I have known her all my life.

Just last night, as I was sitting with her on the floor, entertaining Chenya as she was crawling all over the place, with Ryan being his super hyper active self, jumping and shouting and with Zoewe, our ever jovial toy poodle wanting equal attention by constantly bringing her little yellow rubber duckie for us to play with her, I asked her, that if God is to give us a crystal ball, would she have ever thought that life 5 years later would be as such.

She said, "No. I can not imagine that I would be brave enough to bear children ...but this is what I have always wanted it to be."

I guessed that is the reason why GOD would never give us a crystal ball. Without never really knowing what the future beholds, therein lays the need for fragile humans like us to continue to have HOPE and above all FAITH. Hope that as long as we work on our life, our issues, our relationships, we would be able to achieve what we would aspire to be. FAITH that there is someone up in the heavens (no matter what your religion might be) who is constantly looking out for us, guiding us and admonishing us to the right path. Many at times, our life might not turn out exactly what we hope for but if we sit back, look back and start counting our blessings, then we would not have it any other way.

Sure, if we have a crystal ball, many of us would love to see ourselves having a happy and loving family, a high flying career and above all, filthy rich. And when we do not see that in that crystal ball, we could so disappointed, disillusioned and probably give up all hope to even try to make something out of our lives.

I have received the best blessing five years ago ! My wife...my soul mate and my life long partner who have seen through thick and thin these five years, and believe me, we went through some pretty rough patches especially when it came to my career. I have learnt to look beyond and learnt to treasure what I have with whatever time I have.

Now, let's see what we have done in the last five years...emmmm..

• Five years ago, the renovation of the current house was just completed for the wedding. The LCD TVs were all just delivered the night before the wedding. Some of the furniture were not even in. Five years later, we are running out of space, thanks to the all the toys and kiddie's stuff that we have bought over the last couple of years. 
• Five years ago, this house have only two occupants. Today, we have two super hyper active co-owners, Ryan who have just turned 4 and Chenya who is 10 months old, and not to forget, our very first `daughter', the ever jovial and loving Zoewe.
• Five years ago, we have no maids and only a part time helper who came in twice a week to help clean the house. Five years on, we have already changed three maids!
• We always wanted to travel together. 5 years forward, we have been Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Club Med Cherating, Club Med Bali, Club Med Bintan, Seoul, Jeju Island and Amsterdam. 
• Five years ago, I can hardly cooked an egg. I can never imagine me cooking or have anything remotely to do with the kitchen. But God do work in mysterious ways. With two confinement recipe books during Ryan's arrival, I started cooking and have learnt not only to enjoy it but takes great pride in making sure that the food looks as good as it taste. Today I have gone beyond frying an egg or the occasional fried rice. My wife has always been my biggest fan!
• Five years ago, I do not have any particular passion or hobby. My wife bought me a Nikon d90 as my birthday gift and she brings back to me, a passion that I have long forgotten ...photography! Today, I see people, places, scenes and food from a different angle and to forget, tonnes of pictures of all my angels at home ...

The list goes on and if I were to really list them all down, this post would probably go on forever.

Our theme song for our wedding was "IF WE HOLD ON TOGETHER" by Diana Ross. And till today, that lyrics still meant a lot to both of us.

We have chosen "OUR JOURNEY" as the tag line for our wedding. We have come a long way, going through some rather bumpy rides before walking down the aisle. And I believe that our wedding is but just another milestone and our journey has a long long way to go...and as long as we are at it, it is imperative that we must know and learnt how to enjoy the journey together ....

So what is next...?

Definitely no more little Ryan's or Chenya's. Two is definitely enough and a handful. No more another Zoewe either. Having her is all we need and I do not believe that I could ever find another one to replace her. Travelling? Oh yes, of course....Club Med Maldives, Atlanta, San Francisco and Beijing in the pipeline....

Oh yes, and the next biggest milestone in our journey .....we will be relocating to Beijing, China from October this year for at least 2 years! Now, how could we ever imagine that 5 years ago when we said "I DO"...

Life is looking good and it is good because GOD has blessed it so and above all, life is good because I have been blessed with all that I already need and want .....So, why would I need a crystal ball to see what is installed for me in the next 5 years.

I believe that is the reason why GOD did not give us a crystal ball. HE does not want to spoil our fun finding out and living life as it should be lived ...with HOPE, LOVE and FAITH...

Happy Anniversary my dearest...looking forward to many more to come ..

Signing off with some of our wedding pictures five years ago, and thanks for visiting and reading ...

Getting ready for the big day ......

The gate keepers that I have go through ......

The victims ....from having the wear bananas, female bra and panties, eating fear factor styled crickets with wasabi accompanied with carlsberg mixed with God knows what and the best of all, the bride groom having to kiss all his `brothers'...Yes..you heard me right..I kissed ALL of them !

Finally ......

Our little ballerinas dancing to the tune of "If we hold on together ..."

Our relatives, friends and guests at our dinner at Saujana Resort ....

Clap Clap Clap ....:)

16th April 2012
Chenya is almost nine months old now. She is one cheerful baby and it has been such a joy just playing and looking at her. As compared to Ryan when he was younger, it is definitely easier to handle her. Probably the fact that Chenya is a full term baby as compared to Ryan who was born pre-maturely has something to do with it. It is definitely much easier to feed her.

In fact, she is consuming 6 to 7 oz of breast milk every 3 to 4 hours as compared to Ryan who is still consuming only 6 oz every feed NOW (besides his normal solid meals).

We have already started Chenya on solids 3 months ago and she is taking rice cereals mixed with breast milk and a combination of different fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins, peach, apples and pears.

Making faces is one of her favourite past time and we had such a wonderful time laughing at all the types of faces she made.

And we discovered just a day ago, when she has learnt how to clap and laughed cheekily at the same time whenever she is happy and excited. The feeling is totally out of this world ....simply awesome ...another milestone to be captured and to be remembered by .....

Chenya - 3 months old now!

Chenya is now three months old. How time flies. It is like yesterday that we were preparing for her arrival, the time we were in the hospital and watching her arrival. It is like just yesterday that we had a one month nightmare with our confinement lady, the headache we have to endure.

Just some pictures of her for all the uncles, aunties, kor kor and jie jie to see ...

Chenya when she was 2.5 months old ......

Chenya with 4 more days to 3 months old ..taken when she was having her holiday with us at the Golden Palm Tree Resort at Sepang Gold Coast ......

Chenya at 3 months and 2 days old ..taken at home today .....

Baby Chenya Has ARRIVED!

Announcing the arrival of baby Chenya on the 20th July 2011 at 13:43 at Damansara Specialist Hospital.

I’m typing this as I watched over her while tired mommy is sleeping. She is one cute baby and a pretty fierce one at that. Yelling at the top of her lungs when she came out and when the nurses took her away from her mommy to be cleaned up…



I believe that she is going to be a handful soon….hahahaha….

A bit of a drama too when we check in 2 nights ago …but more of that later….too tired now to write another line…..

Some pictures of her for the dear uncles and aunties, kor kor and che che here who have been praying for her safe arrival…Thank you very much. Truly appreciate every wish and prayer….

3 years old Party - Third Wave !

This is will be his third 3 years old small celebration with several people who have grown to love him very much and have literally watched him grow up.

There is this Chinese restaurant where we stay and we have been frequenting it for almost 50% of our dinners. The lady supervisor, the chef to the kakak who brings us our drinks have grown to adore Ryan over the last 3 years.

Every now and then, they will buy toys for Ryan or take him to the 7-Eleven located a couple of shops away. Ryan absolutely adores them and even called the lady supervisor, 'Kai Ma' (god mum). She is of course absolutely delighted.

For his birthday this year, they bought him a cart that he could ride at home.


So, it is only a reasonable thing to do when we bought a small birthday cake and make it a point for Ryan to celebrate his birthday with them and get them to blow out his birthday candles. We wanted Ryan to remember (I certainly hope that he does and if not, I hope that this blog will remind him) of the people who have watched him grow, who have become part of his life as he journey through life and the people who have loved and adored him. We wanted him to learn to be thankful and grateful and know from a very young age that he is indeed a lucky boy with so many people around him that loves him.

3 years old Party - Second Wave!!

Ryan's birthday has always been celebrated in waves....lucky boy. The first wave was with his mommy's best and close friends and colleagues who all have almost watched him grow from a tiny baby to a cheeky, jumpy and super active boy today ....

Since he has been attending a daycare school for the last couple of months, we thought it would be a fantastic idea to have him celebrate his birthday with his classmates, and his school encourages it.

On Friday, which was the last Friday before they closed for the school holidays, the school planned for a costume party with the `Superhero' theme. We thought it would be an excellent idea to have his little birthday party with his classmates then.

The challenge was of course to find him his superhero costume. We were informed on Monday and we had to get him his costume by Friday which does not leave us much time to hunt or make one within 4 days, considering that most of us are working parents. I had wanted to make him a Iron Man costume but after checking out on the web, the efforts needed are just too much to complete within 4 days. At the same time, we really wanted him to be proud when he walked into school on Friday.

After some frantic last minute check searching through Google, I finally managed to call one shop located near Cold Storage at Jaya One who do have superhero costume for a 3 year old. The choices were rather limited ..and I have made up my mind on what Ryan would wear...and I was pretty sure that he would look absolutely charming in it... AND I WAS RIGHT!

For one morning he was BATMAN!!!! And he enjoyed every minute of it...
I was totally impressed with the school and the teachers because they too, went all out to make sure that the party was a success. The teachers and helpers were also in various superhero costumes. There were Spiderman, Superman, Robin and Ryan's class gorgeous class teacher was Optimus Prime (my favorite Transformer!!!)
He did have his chance to blow his birthday cupcakes candles with his classmates and I hope that he will remembers it...if not, I hope that this entry in this blog will ....

3 years old Party - First Wave !!

It's May again and Ryan will turn 3 end of the month. We just had our first wave of parties to celebrate his 3 years old birthday. The first wave was held at home with some of my wife's close friends and colleagues, many of whom has literally watched him grow as well as those whom we have assigned the roles of `nannies' when they come visiting .....

For this celebration, we scout through the Internet and found this lovely lady who was very kind and gracious to rush us this beautiful Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse Club House cake complete with 32 individual cup cakes. We were thoroughly happy and thrilled with the cake and so were the guests.....




This year unlike last year where we invited over 50 friends, we have only invited only 16 very close friends and instead of catering like last year, I have decided to make some simple finger food and turned it into a wine and cocktail dinner party. Was rather busy cooking and preparing and hence only managed to grab only a few pictures of some of the finger food served for the night.....

Chicken Liver Pate served with tortilla chips ...
Smoked Salmon Dip served with tortilla chips ...
Pan Seared Tuna served on a piece of fresh lettuce with ebiko topping and wasabi sauce .....
Shrimp with bacon wrap served with Mango salsa in a fresh tomato .....
Mash potato with corned beef served in a oven baked potato skin ....

The night went well. A good friend even tried to surprise Ryan by purposely hiring a green dragon suit and came all dressed up (poor guy actually walked into the wrong house along the same road that was also having a birthday party and have to `run' away from the children of the wrong house). Unfortunately, our ever brave Ryan turned out to be totally horrified of the green dragon and decided to have absolutely nothing to do with it...a sincere effort went wasted but we as parents were absolutely delighted and grateful to this friend of ours who went through all the trouble ....:)