Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces

june already!

what a great time of year it is. the kids are racing around in their summer pajamas, all except jasper who clings to his dorothy the dinosaur pajamas, which now end several inches before his wrist begins. they are so short. he digs past all his summer short pajamas to his flannel dorothys and wears them, smiling happily and sweating muchly. little jasper.

tomorrow jasper is seeing a doctor about his lungs. last month the doctor was really concerned about the state of jasper's lungs and his harrison's sulcus, noting that jasper wheezes even after a short walk. he doubled up on his drugs and tomorrow we will see if the steroids have had any effect and if not, what he recommends.

last visit, i touched on the possibility of leaving hong kong. might that be best for jasper? and then the doctor asked me if jasper has ever needed his nebuliser anywhere else. and i said he had. interestingly, when we were in toronto and edmonton, of all places.

not for one moment do i believe it was pollution that caused that reaction, instead it was the cross pollination of trees. apparently it is a real problem. so the doctor didn't think an immediate exodus from hong kong was necessary, but then again, we never know what God has planned, do we.

hopefully tomorrow the doctor will say there is improvement in the wheezing. that would be really nice. as for the blonde man himself, right now he is curled up asleep, wearing his new (yes, i am trying to bribe him away from dorothy) power rangers pajamas. also a nice change, not to see him in sky blue and pink. do you think i should tell jasper i am about to throw away his favourite pajamas and let him say goodbye, or should they just not be here at the end of the summer when we return from vacation?

my parents have sold their house.

i am thrilled for them.

i am not so thrilled about the four boxes of books i need to sort through, but i can manage that. no big deal.

charles was very tender when he heard the house was sold.

"oh tess," followed by a big hug.

one eyebrow went up quite high.

"what's up, charles?" i am not nearly as sentimental as my lovely husband is, and i sometimes need to get my queues from him as to how normal people are reacting to a situation.

"your house, your childhood.,.your HOUSE!"

oh right.

it's funny, our old house in edmonton, thinking about that house makes me sentimental. i loved living in edmonton, and ideally, we left there when i was just 10, right before hormones and all that sort of stuff kicked in.

but our old house in yellowknife,..right now i don't get sentimental realising it is no longer my parents'. i am relieved that they no longer have to shovel the driveway, water the lawns and walk up those icy steps. this is all good news.

i have been gone for so many years. i don't see it as my home, although i remember so many of its details so well.

i remember memories, events that happened in that house, and those make me smile a bit widely and blink very carefully, i remember reunions, parties, lessons learned, hours standing at the window waiting for people to appear over the crest of the road, i remember many things of that home.

i don't miss the house. i did love the home, though.

the triumverate and i saw something very sad today.

we were driving to school, and became aware that traffic was stalling in an area of town (kennedy town) along the waterfront where there are no traffic jams normally. i looked around and saw a police car and a firetruck. without thinking anything ominous, i called the kids attention to it. as always, they were riveted by the police car and immediately began thinking of scenarios. a fire, baddies captured, treasures found...all options briefly discussed then discarded.

and then.

i saw an ambulance.

and a big boat in the water, and a bigger boat beside it. and crowds lined up along the waterfront, looking into the water.

the kids looked too.

and saw a man being hoisted out of the water. face down. definitely dead.

immediately the questions started. why did he fall, how did he get there is he cold why isn't he crying where is his mummy, mummy?

and did i get creative.

"well you know how when we walk along the side of the pool how slippery it is and how the lifeguard always says dont run and sometimes you do and you don't know why he gets so upset with you? because it is easy to fall in! and when you're balancing it is easy to lose your balance and fall, like when you are losing your balance on a log at small world."

they were skeptical. why wasn't he moving? thank goodness the car was and they couldn't see the body anymore. "well, after swimming he is probably quite tired!"

there have been times in my life when i have been horrified. dismayed. looked to escape. today when i saw that body i wondered how far away from that despair i have known this person was. and if he tried to reach out, and could only find what he thought were answers in the cold water.

matters american and political

i don't understand why people are getting their knickers in a twist about hillary clinton's comment regarding RFK's assassination.

she was listing primaries that lasted into june. rfk had just won the california primary when he was assassinated.

granted, she could have worded it better. "and the 1968 democratic primary wasn't over until july..." might have been a more diplomatic way of wording things.

but hillary, who definitely needs to borrow bill's silver tongue, is not wording things as carefully as she might these days. her comment likening the primaries to the elections in zimbabwe was lamentable.

i think i might be swinging over to obama. i was very iffy for many months. i thought hillary's health care plan might be better. however, then i listened to her speeches and how she is promoting herself and her experience in the white house. she believes her time in the white house makes her the more capable candidate. she had eight years in the white house to try and create a health care plan, and the one she came up with was so unachievable for the majority of americans it was quickly abandoned. it was obviously not a passion.

i was completely unimpressed when both democratic candidates started complaining about nato. give me a break. workers in canada taking american jobs? are you kidding? canadians aren;t the ones taking american jobs, kiddies. and please, nato benefitted the usa for many decades. just because the canadian economy is currently enjoying an upswing, does not mean you should be able to re-write it. seriously. share the toys in the sandbox, and the sand for that matter.

i would have liked for there to be a women president. but i don't believe you should vote for a person along gender lines. thankfully, if you look at the breakdown of hillary's supporters, she has a lot of men who recognise her intelligence and power, as well as women. that is important. just like it is good that she has black supporters. i don't like the idea of voting for someone just because you are both the same race.

despite admiring her mind and tenacity, although being disappointed with her campaign, i was  disappointed when hillary pulled that bosnia/sniper fire thingie. yes, obama did do that "parents met at a march snafu" showing he is not above re-writing history as well. but when i heard hillary's version of the events, and later, her justification .. it just reminded me that the clinton's have a problem with straight answers. and it was around that time that i said i was pro-o.

my vote on the first tuesday following the first monday of november won't happen. i am not american. but finally, i have a candidate. for now. hillary isn't dropping out anytime soon, apparently, so i have quite a bit of time to change my mind.

tasted familiar

i am loving the new typepad.

last week's impulsive trip to macau was good for me. it was also good for the kids.

but it reminded me of dormant tess - who travelled to nepal while barely pregnant and headed off to vietnam at 34 weeks pregnant.

there are times and seasons to everything, i know that Lord, but when travelling tess comes back, i will rejoice. of course, i will also be mourning a bit inside, because other aspects in my life will have altered - my nest might be empty - or the kids might be making their own lunches.

but travelling. i miss the smell of indian rupee, the wet smell of the dollars, i miss exiting an airport and leaving behind air conditioning and being greeted with faces offering you various modes of transportation, the scent of flowers, new pollution, and the feel of damp heat on my face. i miss seeing "coke" written in other languages. i miss hearing a beep of a horn in a different tone, and gasping as a traffic accident is mysteriously averted. i miss many things.

i love unpacking my suitcase and pulling out my sweater and knowing whenever i get a bit surprised that my life seems so mediocre, i can put on the jumper and be reminded that we were together somewhere fantastic.

macau was a good trip.

i was hesitant about posting about entertainment for two days straight, fearing that my flakiness might be overly apparent, but if you haven't picked up on it by now, then really, i need to be a bit more obvious or you are being too kind and giving me credit i do NOT deserve. so without further ado, can i tell you how excited i am about this summers BOUND to be smash hit

MAMMA MIA?

i mean REALLY. let's list the reasons.

1) abba music

2) filmed in greece

3) colin firth

4) meryl streep

5) pierce brosnan

these are big reasons people. i am very pleased.

there are three groups of people i have started making plans to see this flick with. can't wait can't wait can't wait..

when tv was good for you

although there are great advantages to being on the cusp of young adulthood in this no longer brand new millenium era - i do feel sorry that young adults have missed out on great television. not to diminish what HBO has brought to our screens the last few years and the magic that is 30 rock - but here are some shows that kids today can still see on re-runs, but really, remember their heyday?

in no particular order...

10. LAW & ORDER - yes, still ongoing, but those early years were something else.

9. NYPD BLUE bobby's death scene? big sniff.

8. ER - see number 10.

7. MASH. not so much the later years, but the earlier years.  it was on at 6.30pm.

6. CHEERS. absolutely brilliant dialogue. heck, i'm going to add FRASIER in the mix as well.

5. NORTHERN EXPOSURE. it made our southern friends stop laughing at us for living north of sixty. for a while, anyway.

4. SEINFELD. there's a little bit of george in all of us, and that's what kept us watching.

3. the x-files. cannot be duplicated. goodness knows there have been many attempts.

2. MAD ABOUT YOU/SPIN CITY/FRIENDS - is everyone in new york good looking and witty?

1. PICKET FENCES. brilliant.

thank goodness that television networks had the avarice to know that people like me would jump to buy boxed sets of erstwhile series. the other day charles and i were nearly an hour late getting to bed because we were engrossed in an episode of THE PRACTISE. (which also could be on this list).

what is there today for young peeps to watch? thank goodness for hbo and reruns.

what shows am i missing and should i add? the simpsons? the tracey ullman show? saturday night live?

young and old

brangelina having twins! and the always subtle jack black breaking the news to the world -- i love that part.

our book club discussed WATER FOR ELEPHANTS last night - a book by canadian sara gruen. the opening sentence of the book is, "i am either 90 or 93. I forget". compounded by the fact that i recently saw THE SAVAGES (yay laura linney and philip seymour hoffman) - these past couple of weeks have made me very aware that one day, God willing, i am going to be very old. and the indignities that come with it. people thinking that they know better than you do what is better for you. (and they might, but still, that is frustrating also).

if a young, gorgeous, confident girl with flashy hair and mac lip glass announces, "the scent of poison and obsession perfume makes me ill. those heavy topnotes." people accept it. i drink coke but hate pepsi. oh i understand., mee tooo!! i thought i was the only one....

if a senior were to declare that, what is to say that they would be written off as truculent? overly particular?

truthfully, i loved the research & historical aspect of the book, but i felt the characters were poorly developed. everything but the story was great. the others seemed to agree, but we did talk alot about aging, how it is so tough unless you have the money to do it right. we also discussed why wages are so low for health care providers working in senior citizens homes.

in the character, protagonist jacob is upset that one of his children didn't take him in. we discussed how we would feel. all of us living so far away from our parents, if we were asked to come home and care for a remaining parent. oh, it was a tough discussion at times.

one thing i did have a clear conscience about is that i have always been interested in my grandparents lives. my gran is the only remaining grandparent i have, and she is blessed with a clear memory. she lived in challenging times, she was a war bride, but has wonderful stories of life before the war, living with sisters and a lovely younger brother, my adorable uncle miles, how she and grandad met, courted and wed, life during those lonely and uncertain war years, and then the homecoming. and the following years, which are always good for blackmail purposes. so i do listen to her stories, unless she starts talking about how nice my sister pam is, and then i have to change the subject, because really, who needs to hear about how great pam is !!! it's not like she's a neuro surgery nurse or anything.

(i digress).

one day i hope i will be very old. when i imagine myself as very old, i don't imagine any of the indignities. i just imagine no children asking me to wipe their bottoms and charles and i living somewhere near the water so he can make boats and i can read near it. it is unrealistic.

final statement: i recommend water for elephants. next month we're reading the handmaid's tale. anyone with insight into that, please send intelligent questions and answers.

we had a fantastic time.

(some of us more fantastic than others).

charles and dale had taken care of everything. i literally just had to decide which books i would bring and which clothes and we were off.

we travelled first class by hydrafoil to macau. all eight kids were so well behaved. stephanie assigned her two oldest boys to hold hands with our girls, and carys was just fine with that but sela decided she was going to be a cow. so poor cade is trailing her, sela with her little bum wig-wagging back and forth, hands tucked under her armpits, looking at his mother imploringly, "muumm???" but eventually sela thawed. jasper and grant chatted and all was well. dale and steph brought their brilliant helper as well. her name is sonia. she has known all our kids since they were tiny, as she is the manager of the creche at church. needless to say, we have COMPLETE confidence in her.

on the hydrafoil, sonia got a seat to herself, charles, sebastian and ian (steph and dale's 6y.o.) in one row, then sela, carys and grant, steph, me, jasper, and cade, tre, and dale. perfect.

steph and i are much better with things if we don't know the price. i loved travelling first class on the hydrafoil, but 266 per ticket? i liked it more before i knew the cost.

our rooms were fantastic, but the beds were twins! gah! sonia was to share a room with two boys and have one on the floor, charles and i were to have three kids in with us, and steph and dale were meant to have jasper and grant in their room.

but first we swam, and played in the hottub, and then had a fantastic massage.

but of course, being me, i had to get tetchy about something. here's this. most resorts have a lending library of sorts. you know, you leave what you're reading, and can pick up a book to read and return it. believe me, i can read a book in 24 hours. to be on the safe side, when i found their lending library, i selected a danielle steel. cut that down to 4 hours. max.

our room was on the top floor, furthest from the lift. and this lending library was UNDER LOCK AND KEY. seriously. i have never experienced that before. and when i told the girl i wanted to get a book, she agreed and asked for a 100hkd deposit, which would be returned with the book. seriously!

this is a lending library, not the thicker than my duvet bathrobe!

so i told her forget it, and walked away. but i mean really.

at dinner time, carys announced she was tired and wanted to put on her pajamas and go to sleep. sela said, "me too!". easy enough. the boys (6) went into sonia's room to watch a dvd. "underdog". steph and i had baths to calm down our massage oils in hair head and apparently, as steph was coming up from a rise, she opened her eyes to find all six boys in the bathroom staring down at her.

tragedy! the dvd wasn't working.

steph hustled them out of there, but not before sebastian could ask, "where's my dad?" and steph, being angelic, didn't answer any of the things i would have, just said, "he's not in here!"

she got the dvd working (she is v. handy), the men smoked cigars, we ordered dessert, the dvd finished, seb came to our room and we put him down for the night. jasper fell asleep in sonia's bed, after happily announcing, "i'm wearing pullups!".

at sparrow's fart and song, sebastian awoke. he was sleeping right next to the terrace, so first light hit him strong. and suddenly charles and i heard, "mummy, daddy, i'm hungry." we threw a granola bar at him and an apple but the damage was done. it was 5.20am.

by 6am sela was awake. 6.30, carys. at 6.45 my husband took the kids for breakfast. (i had moved sebastian on to the bed by this point in hopes he would fall back asleep. i slept on the floor until around 8am. went to find my family. learned that jasper had woken up at 6am, and had said to sonia, "where's grant?" and then when she said, "jj, it is still bed time!" he had gone back to sleep. glad that it worked for her.

more sun, more pool, lots of splashing, torpedos, submarines, and then it was time to come home. it felt like we were gone for much longer than 24 hours. it was fantastico!

MACAU!

i wsa just awakened by the wonderful news that we are going to macau today to spend the night at the westin family resort.

i am very thrilled.

all the family is going, and why not. it is mother's day, not couple's day.

in going, sela and jasper will have to miss radhika's birthday party tomorrow. i explained this news to them and they reacted with rather stony faces, and i think a "hmmpn!" from sela. jasper was preoccupied with spinning around and looking at himself in the full length mirror. i promised to make them both party bags and they were appeased.

dale and stephanie are going as well and steph and i have spa appointments today at 4.

it's a great gift. i am very pleased with my thoughtful husband. and children.