Ms pinky piggy can send smoke through her pointy ears. 弟弟 prefers to see more of it from her stomach. Such things never fail to intrigue and entertain children.

The smell was lingering out there but the source was nowhere to be found.

It was quite sometime later when I noticed 弟弟 fidgeting with something in his warm comfy bodysuit that I realised I was in for some dirty job. That thing actually fell out from his diaper, yikeeesss.

People might wonder what can keep us mothers busy all the time. Well, such unexpected, dirty, messy, icky happenings which take place every now and then never fail to destroy our brief moments of peace.

We shipped the minimum volume of stuff here since we have to bare the cost, and we could almost find everything we need here in Shanghai. It started of with only 1+cubic metre of items and I managed to load it to 3cubic metre adding lots of comfort items, which are really quite redundant, in order to meet the minimum volume allowed.

I called up a few shipping company. Quotation from those companies mostly range around $3000 for a 3cm volume. I wouldn’t spend $3000 for comfort stuff. My sis used this company which offer a really low price. I decided to give it a try and called Nicks, the manager in charged (seems like a one man company, he took care of everything). He gave an initial quote of $1500. That was almost like 50% cheaper then the rest! Decided to take the risk and took the offer, despite my sis’s warning of his bad attitude, cost increment and delay in arrival of shipment.

We have everything packed and loaded in less then an hour on 7th of December. I was told my things will arrive in about 3 weeks time.  Alright, I will give it another 2 weeks allowance since Nicks company is prone to delay. I have been waiting patiently….anxiously now.

I finally received a phone call last night. It was the looooonnnng anticipated call from the shipping company. Oh man, finally!. Not from Nicks, haven’t heard a word from him since, but from the China side. I thought my things are here,  until the lady on the phone clarified that the ship had just left Singapore. . Hhhaaaarrrrrr???? Just left Singapore??????????? The lady was equally baffled.

Sigh!!!! Anyway, she told me the shipment will probably arrive in 2-3 weeks time (that was as Nicks promised, wasn’t it). So it will probably take me 1.5 to 2 months for me to receive my items. Geez, we could have bring them on our own if we are returning for Lunar New Year holiday.  The consolation is, the shipment is still intact and we will be getting it later.

Can’t complain much I guess. Budget shipping probably will take time to group all crates into a sizeable volume. However, I would appreciate if Nicks explained to us about the delay. Luckily I didn’t packed the important documents or winter clothings into the shippment, else it might already be spring or summer time when I recieve them.

I haven’t mention that I partially bid goodbye to my previous lifestyle of not having to prepare meals, have I? It was an almost immediate surrender after I tried cooking our first lunch and dinner here. Yah, I know my skills are mediocre and rusty, but the food were still consumable. It was 弟弟 that made me quit so soon. He simply refused to let me cook in peace by crying out loud, demanding to be carried and trying to drag me out of the kitchen. So the next day, arrangement was made to have the part time ayi cook dinner.

Preparing lunch for two person is easier. Anyway, I was in my usual lazy mode today, didn’t even feel like making lunch if not for the sake of little 弟弟. Thanks to my sister’s crepe recipe, we end up having crepe for lunch and I must say that was the easiest, quickest and yummiest lunch I have made.

Now, I have a new entry in my wish list. To get those portable eclectic cooker with double heating plates, 2 more smaller size skillets and have crepe party as often as we can.

Chinese kids are usually toilet train young. I guess those L, XL, XXL sizes diapers are mostly targeting the foreigners or lazy-to-wipe-up-those-peepee-on-the-floor parents.

I found out this around November when the weather was still mild, and little children were still running wild in the playground. Suddenly, I saw this little toddler with a big hole on his pants, showing off his bums as he tried to climb up the slide. Ah, so that was the 开裆裤(kai dang ku) that I have heard of but never seen before.

The suakoo-ness in me made my senses ultra sensitive and my sight started aiming for the bums of the little children to satisfy my curiosity how this open bottom pants work. It is a really convenient piece of gear. Every now and then, I started to notice the ayi (the domestic helper) bringing their children to the grass patch and the kids would just stand or squat there. Well, you know what business their are into.

It is a very common sight to see children peeing on grass patch, road side.  I was quite cool about seeing that since it was common among my generation while I was a kid, though it is now rare to see parents/maids allowing children to pee in the public back home. Personally, I won’t let my kids do it. It is not just a hygiene issue, I believe it is also about being civic minded and inculcating the idea of not showing off their private parts/business to the public.

My ultimate shocker came one day while we were having lunch at Ajisen Ramen. As we were enjoying our favorite ramen, my eyes caught a mom bringing her toddler son to a wash basin (which is within easy reach at the dinning area). The mom positioned the son properly and started yelling at the boy to pee pee into the wash basin. Oh my god, imagine seeing a kid urinating into the wash basin where we try to clean our hands at. Hey, perhaps I was wrong, that basin might be there for that purpose, who knows!

As we enter the chillier winter, kids started gathering up in the indoor playground. It was a really big, well equipped and safe area for younger children to play with. This time, an older 5yr old boy needs to take a leak, so he conveniently opened the side door (which leads to a side garden) and just peed there. Woo, good aiming, he didn’t wet the glass door or the floor of the playground. The playground caretaker didn’t complained, he just got himself a pail of water, flushed floor and dried it with a mop. Must be an everyday routine.

That was only episode 1. Then episode 2 began. Another ayi brought her ward to a litter bin nearby and urged her to do it there. Hmm…not so good aiming this time, she wet the floor as well as the ayi’s pants, everyone else had a good laugh at the mess they made.

Maybe I was just being retarded to be so horrified, but those were real cultural shocks to me.

It set me wondering about the idea of allowing kids to pee in less obvious but equally public area too. If we get so used to letting kids pee in grass turfs, side roads, it probably will become another easy and acceptable option to let the kids pee in wash basin, lift, lobby, shopping malls or any other places.

It is Sunday today. I was confused earlier when James told me “they” switched Sunday with Friday, so Friday will be a holiday. Didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me, didn’t bother to clarify and he didn’t bother to explain further too.

I was baffled when the school bus auntie said she will see us again on Sunday. Huh, what was going on which Sunday being a school day. I thought she had the dates mixed up until another parent explained to me that Sunday is a school day due to the “switch”.

I began to realise what it meant. So the government made Friday a public holiday and compensated it on Sunday so the public could have a longer weekend. Well, it is nice to have 3 rest days, but i guess for the next week, it would be a really long week of 7 work days if you don’t have Saturday off.

We have finally made the decision to relocate to Shanghai and made the move about 3 weeks ago.

James has found an exciting job in Shanghai and has since been shuttling between Shanghai and Singapore. I am used to no not having him around, however the kids seems to be missing the daddy a lot. When we saw how their eyes lit up as the father was walking out of custom clearing area in Changi Airport and how Zee Yau kept saying that she missed the father, I seriously started considering the move here.

Making the decision to move here wasn’t difficult, but breaking the news to my father was the tough part. I guess it was a sort of bad timing. My brother was posted to Sweden and his family relocated in February last year. Then Remi found an equally exciting job in Weta (though I thought it would have been cool if he accepted his offer at Blizzard). So together with my sis, they set off to New Zealand in July last year too. With two of my siblings going away one after another, it would have been devastating if I am to leave to.

Well, keeping the family intact is what people have been telling me and adviced me not to worry too much since Shanghai is just 5+ hours of flight away and we can check out each another another though skpye anytime.

So here we are, and will probably stay put for at least a year or two. And I hope moving here will provide me new inspiration to reopen this little space for recording of the weird and interest things I encounter in this part of the world.