Not the most bloodied battle compared to other sacredly divine schools, but with 102 applicants fighting for 70 places in phase 2C for Bukit Panjang Primary School, and every single one of those 102 live within 1km, I was slightly regretting not registering Zeeyau with CHIJ, Our Lady Queen of Peace to secure a placement. Oh well, but that would mean I have to go through the same ordeal again 3 years later when it is Didi’s turn for P1 registration. I was hoping the extra ballot slip Singaporeans get will give us a higher chance.

Ok, the grandfather wasn’t keen to visit the school to check the balloting outcome. Having fulfilled his mission of handing in the registration forms 2 weeks ago, he just wanted to go sip kopi with his kakis and didn’t show any intention of checking the result. Anyway, after several failed attempts calling the school late on Friday and on Saturday morning, I finally got someone to pick up the phone on Monday.

Well, we were successful! MOE claimed that a letter will be sent to the parents informing them of the application outcome. We have not receive anything yet. I wonder where they have sent the letter to! I hope the school didn’t make any mistake and told me the wrong result since the phase 2C supplementary has just closed.

With a secure placement back home for Zeeyau, our retreat plan has been put in place should we decide to go back home.

Happy Birthday, Singapore! You start to miss Singapore when you are away from it. Even though the yearly NDP seems so uninteresting, I miss going through the ordeal of watching it on TV like what I always did.

Primary 1 enrollment here in Shanghai is as crazy as Singapore if not more. Parents here buy property near key primary school （重点小学）, find connections, pull strings, seek backdoor, donate money or whatever within their means to secure a placement.

From what i have known, public schools here aren’t allow to conduct Primary 1 pre-enrollment interviews, unless approved by the state. However, private schools （民办小学）, international schools or international division （国际部) of public/private schools are free to do so.

While the interview is like one of the standard procedure when applying for international schools and international divisions, it is a really competitive and serious affair for students seeking a place in the mainstream education （中文班，local stream, local school）. Parents start preparing their kids by sending them to Maths, English, Pinyin classes to make sure they are able to handle the interview (and written test as well!).

Zeeyau’s class teacher also started preparing them from early this year. They have a short practice sessions in the morning where the teacher will ask questions like : Where are you from? What is your favourite food? Name 10 colours. Name 20 fruits. Name 20 countries. I had a shocked when I first learned about that. Can applying for primary 1 be so stressful and demanding!? Are the schools really going to reject the students if they can’t name fruits or tell you who their favourite author is!?

Took me some time to calm my nerves. I am sure the questioned posed will be simple enough for the kids to handle. However, I have heard from some parents that some extremely competitive school asked questions like “北极熊为什么不吃企鹅？”(why doesn’t the polar bear eat penguin) and also expect the 6years old to know additional/subtraction within 30. Well, that sounds demanding, but nothing surprising when you know that some schools recieved 800 applications for their limited 60 places.

As for Zeeyau’s case, she was asked questions like:
你叫什么名字？
你是哪里的人？
你在学校学习了什么？最喜欢学习什么？
11－3＝？
3＋4＝？
你愿意不愿意到芳草地念书？

Luckily this kiasu mom has been practicing basic additional and subtraction with her at home, else she would be stumped by those two maths questions. Anyway, I felt as long as the student is decent enough, can hold simple conversation and doesn’t require special attention/care, they will accept whoever applied. Well, all her classmates who applied to international schools or international divisions have been accepted by their choice school.

It wasn’t the imperial exam, but Zeeyau had to 上京赴考. Most of the private and international schools here (including some popular public schools) requires an interview before admission. We have registered Zeeyau with 芳草地小学 in Bejing. It is one of the more popular public primary school in the capital city, but we are applying for the international division, so getting a place would not be ridiculously difficult. Nevertheless, we still need to bring the kid for an interview.

The interview process was well organised. As we enter the school lobby, there was 2 staff manning a little reception table, ticking off interviewee’s name and informing us to proceed to the second floor. We were handed a formal application form at the next stop and directed to a classroom to have it filled up. After that, we have to go to the next classroom to submit the form, have the documents (passport, visas, etc) verified and also paid the 500rmb application fee (which really isn’t too much compared to the 1000-6000rmb+ elsewhere).

After that, the kids will be lead by a teacher to the 3rd floor for the interview. Parents weren’t allowed to follow, but the school kept us occupied with information with regard to PTA and school bus routes.

Anyway, Zeeyau came back like 10min later. The interview went smoothly and she has passed. So we handed the result slip back to the teacher in charge and were done with the process.

We were then given another piece of paper informing us to set up a bank account (within 4 days), have the school fee deposited into the account and leave the ATM card with the school, the school will deduct school fees from it in future. This method is so much better then having to bring a whole big stack of cash to school for school fees payment (we don’t have cheque here!). This step finalised the whole application and acceptance process and confirmed a placement in the school.

到上海来，都一年好几个月了，直到上个星期，我才终于体验了这个城市的公共交通工具。那还得多亏两位热心的阿姨，非得大老远地把我从浦东，又是搭公交车（巴士也）又是乘地铁的，带到浦西某处拜会一位书法老师。

朋友都快笑我，到上海那么久，连地铁都没见过，真不像话。噢，现在巴士和地铁我都搭过了，我也可以算是像话了，长进了。

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

我今天又长进了，是自己独个儿搭地铁到浦西去找老师。回程到科技馆站，出了闸门后，地下商场某处闹哄哄的，准是又有人在骂架。嚷嚷声很响，定是有人发火了。只见商场内的店主扔下店面不管，路人甲乙丙丁和其他闲杂人等都部落人后纷纷涌向事发地点。噢，不，大家更像是在进行百米冲线，怕错过了夺标机会。

谁说只有中国人爱看热闹。周围的老外们也都纷纷向前争看好戏。不看白不看，有一个还怕他朋友错过精彩的那一幕，马上喊道：”Hey, Brian, come over here and look at this!“，还边看边笑呢，肯定是了坏了，哈哈。

Stubborn, bad temper, a tendency to hit people when he got agitated, plus high school fees, we decided to keep didi at home though the school informed us that he could attend Okiki’s nursery 1 class (托班）last July. What if he throws tantrum in class, fights with the other boys, bullies the girls and refuses to take instructions from teachers? So no school for him until I am convinced that he is ready to behave.

After months of 悉心调教，Didi finally started his nursery 1 class on 1st of March after delaying it for a semester. He thoroughly enjoys his playschool and looks forward to it everyday, and no complaints from the teachers so far!

Didn’t know about the total solar eclipse we will be experiencing here in Shanghai until Zeeyau told me about it yesterday.

Anyway, this is our first such experience and so forth the excitement. The moment had arrived, we were experiencing night during daytime, but where was the sun and where was the diamond ring!? The Sun was supposed to be right at the middle of the picture, but I only saw the sky of Mordor. Right location but wrong weather, the sky was overcast and it was raining outside.

I wonder if the kids in the Kindergarten were disappointed not being able to witness it to the fullest scale. Well, at least didi had fun running in and out of the balcony trying to catch the phenomena.

We visited a dermatologist today for a second opinion on Zee Yau’s nail. Her nail on her middle finger lacks lustre and is becoming very rough. Initially, I thought it was due to abrasion resulting from playing with sand. However, I realised that it has gotten worse lately. I had a GP seen her last week, he didn’t say much about it except telling me to keep her hands dry and said it will take a long time to recover. Zeeyau was prescribed a cream to apply. My guess is the GP himself wasn’t too sure what was wrong.

I wasn’t very confident about the GP’s diagnosis (or no diagnosis). My brother then recommended me to visit Dr Goh S.K. clinic at Paragon, saying that he is very experienced and charges very reasonably. We made an appointment to see him very quickly. True to what my bro. said, his clinic is really those no frill kind compared to the other clinics around that look expensive, posh, tendy, high class or whatever decor.

Dr Goh diagnosed Zeeyau condition to be the Twenty-nail Dystrophy. Following the diagnosis, he gave me a little education on the condition, showing me books and asked me to read the description of that condition.

He said such condition usually occur in childhood. Early symptoms are small spots on the nails, which will slowly join together to form longitudinal ridges that makes the nails look rough. He found small spots of Zeeyau’s nails and the badly affected nails fits the description of the condition. The cause of such condition is unknown, and there is no known medical treatment. Well, the good news is, it is not fatal and would not affect her health in any way. It might go away when she grows older, hopefully that wouldn’t take too many years.

I was told to stop applying the cream since it has nothing to do with fungus infection. However, Zeeyau wants to continue with it, believing that it will help her nails recover by Christmas. I told her it might take 2 or more Christmas before it will return to normal.

We have been back in Singapore for a week and can safely declared ourselves to be free from the swine flu bug.

The kids have a blast of their time. Constantly eating all sort of junkie the grandfather bought to indulge them and then spend the rest of their time watching TV or playing with the neighbours until 11pm everyday.

And I finally had my four wisdom teeth rid off this morning. It is a big relieve to get these four stupid teeth off my mind, butI guess our plan for the father’s day feast tomorrow has to be shelved until I can eat properly.

Hopefully the pain and swell will go away very quickly, so I could enjoy myself a bit for the next two weeks before heading back to Shanghai.

Two important reminders.

1. always bring the child to consult a doctor to get a more through checkup during emergency even if everything seems alright.

2. avoid letting young kids handle glass.

It was really quite a freak accident. 弟弟 and I were enjoying a bottle of juice and he accidentally dropped the glass bottle. The bottle broke upon hitting the hard concert pathway. Then he rubbed his right eye with his hand and begun crying in pain. I thought he was terrified by the shattering sound of the glass. As I dried his tears with a piece of tissue paper, I saw a faint stain of blood on the white tissue.

Damn shit happened. My immediate reaction was to send him to the hospital right away and then warned him not to rub his eyes any more . He stopped crying after a minute or so and I started wondering if his tears had successfully flushed out any glass fragments that had gotten into his eye. Should I just go home since he wasn’t in pain anymore?

Better be safe then sorry and always trust our ultra kiasu motherly instinct. We went to the nearby Ruidong Hospital and was directed to see an eye specialist straight away. The initial checkup didn’t show any sign of foreign objects in his eye. However, closer examination with proper equipment found a stray piece of glass .

She had it remove quickly and his corneas wasn’t injured in any way, just a little cut on the minor eye area. Thank goodness the little lad was sensible enough to heed my warning not to rub his eyes. The amazing thing was, the kid was in total compliance during the whole process. No crying, no fighting. He followed the doctor’s instruction to look to left, right, up down and could even keep himself steady while the doctor was removing the glass fragment. Imagine someone holding a cotton bud and tried to swab it on your eye. I think he was quite brave.

Anyway, that was our little emergency last Thursday.