Everything about our rented apartment seems so perfect until our door bell goes “ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong”. I am not exaggerating, it really goes “dingdong-ing” non stop for at least a minute or two if we decide not to answer the door.

Our neighbour downstairs has a serious problem with us. The very first day we arrived in Shanghai and stepped into this home, the two kids were very excited and started checking out the place. In less then 5min, our neighbour was at the door, asking us to lower our volume as we were disturbing them. Well, we were apologetic and got the kids to control themselves (which is an extremely difficult task). I was told that he had earlier paid James a visit too because James was walking about too loudly and had disturbed them. Oh man, maybe he thought we had an elephant kept in the house.

So that was the beginning of the daily complaints. He probably gotten tired of coming up to report to us after a few days and get the management office to dial us or had the security guards to visit us instead. Soon after, the resident committee member paid us a visit to try to mediate (whats there to mediate, we aren’t the complaining side). We were advised to carpet our place, buy those foam mats and wear slippers at home so as to reduce the noise. We were also advised to minimise the children running at home or bring them to the playground.

We had carpets, mats, rugs and slippers all geared up to reduce the sound. However, that didn’t stop our “friendly” neighbour from complaining again and again whenever didi did a little jog or run in the house. After a while of feeling paiseh for disturbing them, we begin to get irritated and annoyed.

Because of our neighbour’s super high sensitivity and ultra low tolerance level to sound, we became very paranoid of making any sound. We even lost our temper and reprimanded the children when they play around in the house. The kids were the ultimate victim as what they were just behaving like what they should be. Thanks goodness we realised that pretty soon and stopped getting angry with the children.

What the hell is wrong with children playing in the house? And how do I go about controlling the kids? Really, telling a toddler who is less then 2yrs old to stop running is impossible, unless I chop off his legs. So the other day, when our neighbour came visiting again (he was mad and furious), I showed him all the tonnes of (ugly) flooring items in the house. I told him I have done everything as suggested. I told him I have brought the boy to the playground to burn his energy but we can’t stay there all the time.  I also told him I have to cook, do my work, do housework and can’t carry 弟弟 in my arms all the time. I asked him to talk to 弟弟 himself. I also told him we are looking for a new place.

That probably knocked some sense into him as he cooled down after that and realised there isn’t anything else we could do.

I have spoken to many moms, grannies and ayis  and asked if their kids run about at home too. That seems to be the only normal behaviour, but only our household is getting all these crap from downstairs.

He is coming up less nowadays. Not because he has realised he has been redicoulous, but because 弟弟 has grown more sensible. Give 弟弟 a few more months, I am sure he will be like the other big kids and stop stomping around like a baby.

We are still looking for a ground floor unit in this estate, but no luck so far. Hopefully we can find one soon and the children can jump, hop, run, knock and do whatever they like. We just want them to play freely like a normal kid, and isn’t that what childhood is all about!?

Got this set of ultra scale world of warcraft action figures from Pacific Square Mall yesterday.  The shop was asking for 450rmb for the set of 3. We managed to seal the deal at 300rmb, though I think it could go lower. Anyway, I was extremely happy with my new toys and asked the shop to keep me updated on the other action figures the next time they go to the factory to source for goods.

The figurines were from SOTA and should already have been discontinued. But I guess the factory here still continue churning out these 9″ tall action figures since there is demand out there.

Though these figures looks much sturdier, I am not going to let the children play or touch them freely anymore. 弟弟 has already broken the leg of my Valeera Sanguinar collector figure.

Zeeyau listened to more songs and music compared to 弟弟 when she was younger, however, 弟弟 seems to be more interested in singing then the elder sis. He often self entertain by singing to himself. Though the wordings, rhythm, tuning are grossly off, we could recognised that “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “咏鹅”, “Old Mcdonald”, “Doe Re Mi” to be his selected favourites.

Ever since we started watching 海绵宝宝 (SpongeBob SquarePants, this guy is annoyingly noisy) on 东森幼幼, he has added the four wordings songs to his favorite list. We could always hear him singing “阿里宝宝，阿里宝宝，阿里宝宝，阿里～～～宝宝～～～”, especially when he sees a SpongeBob.

He had a new song this morning, just a while ago. He was singing “you ah ben you ah ben you ah ben” non stop happily while shaking his butts. Ah! I forgot to change his diaper. He was actually singing  “有阿便有阿便”， 阿便being the term for poo poo in our household. This boy can really be a clown.

I wanted to cook chicken rice last Friday and asked our ayi to get me a chicken when she goes to do marketing for us. I wasn’t aware she had already bought the chicken until I heard chopping sound coming from the kitchen. I made a mad rush into the kitchen to save the chicken so as it could have a 全尸 before being cooked and eaten. I wasn’t fast enough and hence no chicken rice.

This week, I decided to try out pineapple rice and asked our friendly fruit supplier to find me a nice pineapple. He promptly delivered one, with all skin cleanly removed, the eyelets skillfully curved out and amazingly, the leaves on top still beautifully intact! Well, I was supposed to make a fancy pineapple container from the whole fruit with those thick skin! Fortunately, I could still use the fruit and managed to have our pineapple rice tonight. We all thought it taste yummy, because we don’t remember eating pineapple rice before, so couldn’t make any comparison or comment.

I hardly cook after getting married, but have cooked more meals then before since our move here. It might be because we are having a bigger refrigerator, or because we miss singapore food, or perhaps our ayi has been cooking the same few dishes over and over again. Sometimes I wonder if it is because oversea wives/mothers like me have lesser social activities or extended family commitments and therefore have more opportunities to find pleasure in feeding the stomach of our children and husbands.

Whatever the reason, I am sure our stint here will make me a better cook. Argh, I just hope I have a properly equipped kitchen.

Zeeyau had her first ballet and Chinese dance class yesterday. Most of the kids arrived early, and lo and behold, they were all there warming up, doing stretching and practicing 劈腿, opps, 一字马 is more appropriate.

Back in Singapore, most of the preschool ballet classes don’t train kids to practice such things so early, more of incorporating little dance style, techniques in a fun curriculum. Before I signed her up, the centre already informed me that the ballet class will be drier and less fun (compared to the Chinese dance class) as they put more emphasis on building up the children foundation. True enough, the class started with revising/practicing the 7 placement of hands, then they do petit jeté (I am no ballerina nor do I understand french, I know this term because I watch Peppa Pig), 4 placements of the feet, many other actions that I am clueless with, and threw in all sorts of stretching exercises in between. Looks like they really are fixed on building a foundation that even the strongest earthquake will not weaken it.

The Chinese Dance session was indeed more interesting. First, the session was conducted with 儿歌 and not classical music (western), secondly, they were given props to handle. Chinese dance has more cute cute actions (think those funny chinese children songs mtvs that give you goose pimples and those certainly appeal to the children. Most important of all, being the Chinese national art, they must have all the proper resource and curriculum developed to train the traditional dancers of tomorrow.

Let’s see when Zeeyau can do the split.

Zeeyau has started her dance class in a dance centre near our place. We went to the centre to take a look at their 少儿芭蕾 and 少儿民族舞 last Saturaday, and she said she wanted to join the class. The fees is 3200rmb for one class, or 4800rmb if we signed up for both sessions (2hrs every Saturday for 1yr). The charges is comparable to what we paid for back in Singapore, but somehow I think it is expensive.

The 4.8k amount is membership for 2hours session for 1 year to be paid upfront. Though Zeeyau has always shown enthusiasim in dancing (well, she is interested in everything), I am worried that 2hrs dance session might be too taxing and what if she grow tired of it after a few months. The ladies at the dance centre then told me not to worry, if she decides to drop one of the session in future, it can be transfered to me to do yoga or perhaps pick up some dance. I thought that is resonable and hence parted with the money.

I announed to James that I have signed up for the class and told him about the fexibility of using Zeeyau membership if she does decide to stop. James said never trust the Chinese marketing strategy, they will promise you anything to get the deal done. Well, sorry hor, I already paid the money already, too late.

I was chatting on skype with Rene (my dear long time friend) the other day and she popped a question “So you made many friends already?” It then came to me that after like 2 months here, I haven’t really get to know anybody or made any friends yet.

With the cold weather, getting out of the house is already troublesome enough (changing into and out of the winter clothings is a tedious chore), the need to bring 弟弟with me and aniticipating him to fight and throw tantrums during a trip out is even more discouraging. The furthest I would go is to do basic grocery shopping at Carrefour which is a 10min walk away.

“I can survive as a hermit”, and that was what I replied.

I am still “impatiently” waiting for 弟弟 to outgrow his terrible two stage, and maybe he could start attending nursery class in the 3rd or 4th quarter of the year. Until then, I will stay at home and entertain myself with the computer and live up to the name of the ultimate “stay at home mom” till the long awaited freedom is bestowed upon myself.

Oh, by the way, I made my first friend, or acquaintance, this morning while sending Zeeyau to the school bus. Another Singapore mom who just came here in Dec 08, and his son is attending K2 at Zeeyau school. Thats number one, and maybe more in future.

One of the super time wasting activity that I engage in is browsing through the online shopping site. I haven’t get my internet banking working properly yet and haven’t started figuring out how to make payments, but I have already bookmarked tonnes of merchandises on 淘宝 so I could start shopping once the online transaction problem is solved。

I was really amazed by the huge varieties of items i could find over at taobao. So far, I have only step foot on the fashion section. As we know China is the factory of the world, and also famous for things like factory rejects, imitation, pirates and whatever (you name it, they have it), the range of design is incredibly huge and the prices are unbelievably low.  Of course, there are risk of inferior quality or 货不对办，but the pretty models, attractive product photos, well designed online shops sites and tempting bargains seem pretty much took away the worries and reassures you to shop.

Here is one interesting item I found yesterday - maternity clothing that are supposed to protect the expecting mom from harmful UV rays and radiation (防辐射孕妇装). The special protective fabric is supposed to sheild/minimise harmful radiation from electronic gadgets and devices, electronic medical equipments, telecommunications equipments and etc.They also provide infomation on how to test out the effectiveness of their products. Well, children and expecting moms are both well protected in here.

Oh, if you have more time to spare or waste, taobao’s 女人频道 is also an alternative place to explore.

Happy Birthday Zee Yau!! No Beauty and the Beast theme party that she wished for (yes, she is beauty and 弟弟 will be beast), but we got her a Hello Kitty cake which she is very pleased with.

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Ok, its Friday the 13th today, no wonder the unlucky misfortune I encounter from the damn online banking service.

But being the 13th of Feb means it is Zeeyau’s birthday tomorrow. I know she always wanted a birthday party and has planned for one before our move here, so I have to prepare some little snack for her to bring to school for a mini party with her classmates.

I found this site with very delicious looking kid’s party food suggestion and made the strawberry sticks and freckle sandwiches. Check the other recipes, they all look so pretty and are easy to make.