Sudden Shock

Yesterday, 8 left for Lake Tahoe. You won't believe the hassle it takes to get 4 teenage girls ready for the trip. Despite reminders over the past days to pack and travel light because there is so much to carry up there, they still ended up having to offload some of their stuff. And Nic of course totally forgot about her new ski pants we bought two nights ago at Big 5. Poor UJ and Bert worked the hardest, loading up the food and luggages. Well they arrived safe and sound - they left slightly after 10 am and we got a call from them at 3 pm, longer than I had expected but they made a couple of stops and had slight traffic delays.

Today, it is the rest of us. UJ was the lone thorn among all the roses yesterday. Today, I am the rose among all the thorns - 2 regular and 2 pint sized men. I am so going to be bombarded with chatter from the latter.

We'll have to get Ryan out of school early. There is a "check out" window where I can sign him out at about 11 am and we will go straight to Tahoe.

And Bert and I were taken aback last evening by the generosity of the siblings. D suggested going to an electronic shops to look-see. So we went to Fry's at Durham. And carted home a Garmin GPS which he said was a gift to us. Holy zmollie. I was flabbergasted at the value of our Christmas gift. And the better half then immediately put the load on me to immediately buy something in return. But I cannot handle these sorts of sudden pressure to come up with meaningful gifts. So I could not.

We'll have to figure out what to do before they leave. Well, maybe even after they have all trooped back to Singapore. As they say, giving back is timeless. Well, maybe no one said that but it sure makes sense to me. Don't you agree?

Tumultuous Thirteen

The lucky 13 are complete. After much delay while folks catch up with the financial markets, check email, make urgent calls back home, etc, the troop minus moi and Ryan set off for SFO to pick up the 2 vancouverites. A few phone calls back here to ask for help in connecting missing persons and they managed to connect at Terminal 1. One would think it would have been a simple thing to do but I am too harsh.

With nothing much on hand and all alone in the house, what else but do a load of laundry, vacuum the carpet, wash the toilets and trim my own fringe and the crooked hair at the nape? And then blog of course. While they are headed to Pier 39 to get some good ol' dunganese crabs, I am munching the last of the bananas, wondering if I should go ahead and book a dental appointment. How pathetic can one get? I did try to book a dental appointment only to back out because the receptionist said there is a 48 hour notice period for any change and with the schedule so uncertain, I am not sure it is wise to do it this week. Ryan does not get out from school till 4 pm today and I cannot stand to have time on my hand with nothing planned. Drives me nuts - what my mom would call pai mia, must always do something.

Tonite will be even more crowded and noisy. Very re nao. I am beginning to dread everyone's departure.

So Sad

While the siblings and their families along with Nic go to Muir Woods, Larkspur, Sausolito and who know where else, I am taking a break from housework and feeling a little depressed. It seems to be a universal value that being longsuffering is a virtue and to grit and bear with what life throws at you is good for character building. But how much before it becomes too much?

I hesitated to put this up and I really really should not engage in such silly thoughts but life has never been a bed of roses for me and having to silently take emotional and verbal punches so as to keep the peace in the home takes its toll over time. I just need an outlet even if it gets me into more trouble. My distressed mom and even my colleagues have asked me to put on weight in the mistaken belief that I would look less timeworn if there is a little more chubbiness to my frame. Having less emotional burden and abuse would do more for my looks and health than any amount of nutrients...

But I will end my nonsense here. I still have 4 children to put through school and college. All I need are 10 more years of nerves and my duty will be done.

Check-in Cheers

And we are almost complete save for Bean and V. Both are scheduled to arrive Dec 19 and then there'll be lucky 13 of us. Last night was a bit of an adventure - exciting start to the holidays. Better half and I arrive at SFO just 2 mins after the scheduled ETA of SQ002 (caught in traffic on Highway 101 but luckily that stretch to SFO is relatively short). Bert drove Ming and his family straight home while I went with the Gohs to pick up what turned out to be a large 7-seater SUV instead of a 5-seater that we expected. And so we all had dinner at my humble abode, sat around and chatted like old times and then went to check into apartment Yeeyee had booked. But no key or keylock - some paperwork issue. So after hovering around the Waterford apartment complex in Dublin at Tassajara with the kids and a couple of adults hopping up and down to fight the cold, we all trundled back to San Ramon to check the new arrivals into Courtyard where fortunately the weekend rates were fairly reasonable. Of course, we could all have spent the night at the house if needed. That too would have been fun but maybe a tad uncomfortable for those not used to crowded sleeping quarters.

This morning 'cept for BYY,ah girl and I, everyone's gone to Ryan's golf academy. Probably at the driving range now, whacking a few hundred balls between them for some fun.

Have no plans yet for the rest of the day or week for that matter. That's what's fun about this holiday - loosey goosey footloose and fancy free. Yes!

Almost All

This evening the better half and I will be going to pick up the 5some. On Dec 19 when Bean and Vera come, the contingent will be complete. And what a noisy bunch we will be - at long last after months of being without our normal social anchors.

First Fun

The BYY and her ah girl are here. Bert and Nic went too early to SFO because (1) he was not familiar with the route and wanted to be in plenty of time (2) she had fretted about getting lost in SFO (duh!) on disembarkation. So the one father and daughter pair waited 2 hours for the other mother and daughter pair to come out - haha. Like the Chinese say, good things come in pairs.

And as predicted, the new arrivals have been drifting in and out of slumber, taking turns between them to visit dreamland. Not wise to do anything right now - just let them get adjusted. In any case, I still had to go to work and the rest are not here till tomorrow.

But we did bring them to Ryan's first school band concert at IHMS's multi-purpose hall. 'Cept, of course, ah girl succumbed to jet lag and slept through almost all of it, waking up in time for the finale and then proceeded to debate with the rest in the car going home about the musical qualities of the performers, especially, of the "solo" players in the jazz band. Interesting ya?

Here are some pictures of the concert. Because he is a keyboardist and therefore sitting low down way in the back of the stage, you won't see Ryan. At the dinner table, before we left for the school, he moaned, "I have butterflies in my stomach." But I think he really enjoyed the experience. The kids had been practising for many months for this night and they did good, especially the jazz band. But the poor things were so anxious that Mrs Brown had to comment that they forgot to have fun. But to us parents that night, they were all fabulous and clearly all winners.

And so BYY and ah girl had their first experience of activities (even if it was only for an hour and a half) in an American school.

Anticipating Already

And tomorrow morning, the first visitors arrive. They should already be boarding the plane if not already in the air. The rains have just started - the week before had some but generally the days were still sunny and dry but these past days have been rainy. Still nothing like the short stormy pelts we get in Singapore, just light rain that lasts hours. Vancouver's rains are more long-lived, lasting days and weeks.

By this time next week, it will be pretty crowded, boisterous and homey - 13 people getting in each other's ways and making a mess of my nice clean home. Yay!

Weekend Work

This blog is about prep. Preparing for events to come - high school and for our esteemed and dearly loved visitors.

For the first few days after Nic arrived, she drifted in and out of sleep - a very normal phenomenon. At least she did not have to go to work like moi or worry about school for now. And of course, the family must wait until I am off work before we can start enrolling her in school. Methinks it is just an excuse to load more of the responsibilities but nvm, it is all for the good of the family. Brought her to Cal High to start enrolment yesterday on my 980 day off, after cleaning up the house (seems the bathrooms are my designated chores, sigh!). Took back two packages she would need to study to figure out what courses she would like to take. Since we do not know whether she is going to be admitted to Grade 11 or 12, we were given both packages for her to ponder. Likely we would get a call from the school counselor on Monday to go get her assessed on her standards. I hope she is good enough for Grade 12 - would shave almost a year off, just like Bean.

Looks like there is a whole menu of classes she can sign up for. Pretty different from Singapore's junior colleges. Interesting courses too. We have been encouraging her to browse the universities' entrance requirements so she can make better decisions.

We have been loading up in anticipation of the siblings' arrivals. Got a queen size air bed and two twins air beds. For BYY, Hui, Bean and Vera. Hope they are comfortable enough. Will be cramped but hey, lodging's free so no complaints department will be open for business. They can also be brought along to Tahoe since there is a possibility there won't be enough beds there for the contingent we have. And loading up on essentials so they will be comfortable and well fed. But we have not bought a Christmas tree yet. Since two weeks ago, you can see yards with Christmas trees popping up and people hauling off their purchases on racks above their cars or in their trucks. And Christmas wreaths are now on sale at Costco for about $15.

And we went and got ourselves a Honda CRV - the new very cool model. Looks like the BMW SUV. Drool all of you reading this nothingmuchtosayblog:

And Yeeyee if you are reading this, please save yourself a lot of worries. The CRV is 4WD with S+M tires. So it will eat snow and bring us safe to Tahoe and home again. It even has a very nice moon roof that brings in lots of sunlight and fresh cool air to keep us cheerful. We got this model so we can go to places like Tahoe without worries about snow chains and climbing steep slopes. So take a deep breath and just look forward to a wonderful time here. We will bring you to buy snow shoes and good warm gloves at very reasonable prices. You see, we have been preparing for your arrival.

Nic Nests

And the Nic has landed. We went to pick her up from SFO after a morning of tennis and spending a couple of hours in Chinatown picking up tong kuai, ginseng, dates, and miscellaneous quinessentially Chinese cooking must-have's of the like of a kuali and a clay pot.

Since she appeared with an SIA person from the gate, the small man and the Nic have not stopped yakkity yakkity yak. Aiyo, like they haven't seen each other for ages. I cannot get Ryan to get ready for bed and it is almost 9 pm already. It will be curious to see how long this chumminess lasts. Cynical, sceptical mom. But I have been through too many of these episodes to feel anything but...

But I am glad she has arrived safe and sound. The house should now be more lively and the better half would have one more person to keep him company on the driving range and everywhere else. So now, the whole Tey family is resident in North America. Funny how this has happened just over the past 3 months. Wow!

Nic Nocks

Nic is coming, Nic is coming, Nic is coming! The weekend is almost on us and we have to prepare for her arrival. Her bedroom has no built in ceiling light for some strange reason (note to self: call landlady and ask why and what can be done about it). We will go get her a reading light to place by her bedside, some air beds for the guests who will be descending on us en masse in two weeks' time and some good snow shoes for Brynn so she can walk on snow and ice and air(?) and spare us the agony of reading about her spilling her guts out all over UBC.

There has been a cold snap all week and the evening temperature has dropped to near zero celsius. Hee hee, be good to see the tropical citizens hudder around trying to keep from keeling over in suspended animation or hibernation mode. But the cold snap may not last till then. Pity. The better half has been moaning and groaning about the cold but at least for the last month, he has stopped insinuating about going to Vietnam. He developed a fetish for fleece jackets because fleece keeps him warmer than anything else and so he now has a bundle of fleece jackets which he wears everyday. I could not stop him - it was almost like an obsession. This place is nowhere near as cold as Hamilton, not by any measure, when we sent Brynn to high school there but then he has not lived in a cold climate for more than a couple of weeks at a time before. And my basement unit in Vancouver was definitely much colder too but he said we were young then. Sic!

I have not posted up the pics from the trip south. No time lah. Got to catch up on office work and the stomach flu took away all my energy for a while. Will try and do it this weekend. But Nic is coming, Nic is coming, Nic is coming. On Sunday.

Tis a silly post but I am delirious right now.

So Sick

I am home today instead of in the office, trying to recover from a bout of whoknowswhat. It was terrible yesterday - humongous headache that refused to vanish into neverland and constant feeling of blottedness and nausea. And no, I am not pregnant again - the factory floor shut down long ago (4 is enough!). Ate bare minimum to keep alive so today, I am like full of wind. Drifting in and out of a hugely unrestful sleep all day long and into the night. And Ryan was a naughty boy all day yesterday, refusing to do chores and carry out requests. He is growing into a teen too fast and memories of what my other teens were like make me apprehensive. I am sure this will bring on tirades from youknowho.

The better half was also sick but not as bad and he has just made me chicken soup! With lots of pepper to drive out the wind. We think it has something to do with the lunch we had at Oakland Chinatown. We decided to take a look at this other Chinatown after Ryan's golf lesson and managed to buy some groceries. But methinks the price of that lunch is wee bit too high.

Nic will be here soon. I cannot thank all the siblings enough for all the love and care they showered on her in our absence. I could not have asked for a better family. So thank you all from the Teys.

I am going to post all the photos from San Diego onto a site like flickr instead of this blog. It just takes too long and the site is flaky so I often have to reload and with the number of pictures, it will take me a long time. Suffice to say, Ryan enjoyed himself and we are all looking forward to December when we will have a family reunion of sorts.

I am a little worried about my job - it has been 3 months since we arrived and expectations are that I am going to start making changes and I am not sure I am all that prepared to do that just yet. The people here work so differently from what I am used to in Asia and Africa. Wish me luck.

Preview Pics

Yes, we are in San Diego. Yesterday was a short trip to the world famous Torrey Pines Golf Course early in the morning followed by Sea World. Today, we did the tour of the famous zoo followed by a short trip to Old Town for a Mexican dinner. When I have more time, I will write more but here are some tid bits to whet the appetite.

Happy Holidays

Yep, San Diego it is. Booked a package this morning for hotel plus tickets to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo for the 3 of us from Monday to Friday. Will be leaving early tomorrow morning, returning Friday. Weather there seems better than here - high 70's during the day and mid-40's at the lowest (when we should be snug in bed).

Maybe we will drive back through Santa Barbara just to see why people keep saying it is a beautiful place. Or maybe we won't - depends on whether we remain in a good mood through the holidays or not. This is a very grouchy family :-). Printed out a whole bunch of driving instructions and some information about Santa Barbara. Be in touch when we return. Meanwhile, happy thanksgiving (as if it means anything to us) but when in Rome, ...

Which Way?

How time flies. Another Saturday is waning and I can barely recall what I have done all week. There is a whole week before us because school is out for the Thanksgiving break and I have to consume my vacation days or lose them. It has been difficult trying to get consensus on what we should be doing. Planning vacations seems to be such a challenge with youknowwho and it gets worse year on year. They say M is all about give and take. Yes, but... did the wisemen say which in which direction?

We may just drive down to San Diego. It is over 530 miles or 9 hours' drive south going through Santa Barbara. Much shorter - 470 miles or so and somewhat over 7 hours going straight using I-5. Because the boy has not been to Sea World. We will probably just pass through LA - he has been to Disneyland though not Knotts Berry Farm or Universal Studio. Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon were on the cards but we think we will hold that for when Nic is here. By then, the fantastic circular glass walkway over the canyon should also be ready. Won't be cheap I suspect but then, which park here is?

Morning was golf lesson again but with a different coach. Took some shots from the golf school of the mist-enveloped hills against which our house nestles and of the San Ramon golf course while the one and a half men were practising. San Ramon is very pretty and I wanted to capture some of the fall colors before they all disappear into the cold of winter. For memory's sake.

And here are some pictures of some male bonding moments...

And just some miscellaneous shots of no particular significance.

Birthday Bash?

Happy Birthday to Ming and Siew Mun. We wish you every happiness and may joy and cheer follow you everywhere.

Love from the Teys!

And I can smell the spices from the man cooking downstairs. He wanted to make sure the curry would come out right before he cooks for the office potluck. Hee hee. After this, we are bringing the little man to the library. He has been on a reading frenzy since we arrived. Must have read some 50 books so far. If he wants to go to the library, we pretty much have to bring him there if we are to have some peace. Whining is so aggravating to the soul, don't you agree?

Street Signs

The trip to Chinatown was smoother than I had anticipated. I had printed off driving directions from maps google and spent Ryan's golf lesson hour in the car pouring over the street directory to make sure I knew the way well. And except for a little bit of confusion over finding the public car park because while I had researched the car parks and rates, I had just looked for one of the public car parks and neglected to have a backup. Complicated, isn't it? Almost like planning for disaster recovery in the IT world.

The first restaurant we saw as we walked away from the car park to Grant Street was - a Singapore restaurant. In a fit of nostalgia, we went in and ordered Hainanese chicken rice for Ryan, char kway teow for Bert and prawn noodle soup for moi. Not quite what you get in the hawker centers and definitely a lot more costly, but we were satisfied. Rather pathetic on hindsight.

So we picked up some ingredients for me to bring for a potluck event in the office on Nov 16 (date sounds familiar?!) but we could not find good curry powder, lime leaves or blue ginger. We toyed with the idea of cooking bubu cha cha but it was hard finding yam and sago - except today, we found sago at a Chinese grocery store near Stoneridge Mall and found it to be tapioca pearls which were so plentiful in Chinatown. Bert thought sago was made from some kind of palm! So even the best cook can make mistakes :D.

So here are some shots of us in Chinatown. One of them is obviously of someone in shock :).

After Chinatown, it was off to the party but guess what. Although I had planned the exit from Chinatown to the bd boy's house, navigating the way I had planned was not done well courtesy of passenger seat driver. Circled round Chinatown couple of times before we found Market Street and was on our way. Driving on Market Street is challenging as well because the road is also used by the muni whose tracks use one of the two lanes. Plus there were hordes of people, especially at and around Union Square where the tourists congregate. Hard to see the traffic lights too.

There were tonnes of people at the party. To my immense relief, the one and a half men were not bored or uncomfortable mixing with people they don't know in a culture so different from our own. The smaller man found amusement playing with Rufus, the dog. Whether Rufus found him amusing is another matter. I think the expressions on Rufus' long snouted face tended to portray long suffering and tolerance of a pesky little fella. There were some colleagues at the party and they were quite willing to engage Bert in conversation so the party turned out to be enjoyable for him. We had always been critical of our expats in Singapore who kept to the American club and their own society and I did not want us to be like that. We should take the opportunity to immense in local culture and society to get the most out of the time here.

When we first arrived at the house, I would not let anyone out of the car until we knew how to go home. Well, the best planning can always go wrong. So while we were clever about hitting Highway 280, we got confused by the road signs on reaching San Francisco downtown looking for Bay Bridge. So round and round again we go, till we finally figured out how to read the street signs.

And this is why I had always dreaded going into town.

Trip to Town

Fall is here and there are some fall colors in California but nothing like what I recall to be the fall colors of Vancouver. Still it is pretty in many places. San Ramon has many parks and the area has a lot of trees, albeit fairly short ones with smaller crowns compared to what we have in Singapore. But the mix of green, red, orange and yellow is something you will never find in Singapore. The hills are still brown but the first rains are here and I expect the hills will turn green soon. Today is a rather cool day. The weatherman is predicting rain towards morning. Ryan's golf school called to say check with them before coming in case the class is postponed because of rain. You can already feel the chill in the air. I had to climb out of bed at 4:30am early this morning to turn on the central heating because the cold was getting to me.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Chinatown in Frisco after the golf class. This will be our first trip to town since we arrived over two months ago. We need to get spices, herbs and stuff to cook. Although you can find Asian foodstuff here and there like at Ranch 99 in Fremont, the choices are limited. I generally don't like to go into town because SF is so hard to drive around and park in. The roads are narrow and confusing and most times there is no left turn so for people like me who don't know the city that well, it becomes quite a navigation nightmare. Still for nightlife, great food and Asian groceries, you don't get the variety elsewhere in the Bay Area. I cannot even begin to count how many times I have been lost cruising up and down the narrow and crowded streets of San Francisco over the past 13 years. And the parking is such a challenge and so expensive.

Then in the evening, we go to my friend's birthday party. My friend and his partner, Dan, live in San Francisco and he invited me to his 50th bd bash months ago. The last time I was invited to his house was 3 years ago almost to the month when he asked a group of close friends over for a crab dinner. It was my first experience with the gay fraternity and truth be told, I found it very interesting. They were really very intellectual, all well read professionals, funny and unanimously anti-Bush. The introvert that I am, I was very nervous and uncomfortable at first and almost wanted to bail out of the dinner. In the end I was glad I went. It gave me a new experience and showed me the side of San Francisco that someone like me only sees on the big screen.

I cannot wait to see how the one and a half men will enjoy their first brush with what San Francisco is also famous for. I think it will be fun.

Going Golfing

Took the one and a half men to Vacaville yesterday to do more outlet shopping. After Ryan's first golf lesson and after lunch at Country Waffles near our home. Men are very taxing and vexing - the one hates shopping and whines constantly and the other is very sensitive to the slightest hint of non-respect, real or imagined, almost all imagined. Then sinks into days of cold war. Urggghhh.
Anyway, the coach was somewhat impressed with Ryan - said he has good balance and nice swing.

Happy Halloween

Tonight is Halloween and beginning at about 6:00 pm, they started ringing our door bell. I thought we had bought enough candies so encouraged them to help themselves. Most of them were quite shy, taking only one piece each. So through dinner and after, it was either Ryan or I running to and fro and up and down the stairs, opening the door to cries of trick or treating.

We just about ran out of candies after an hour and a half. So quietly, we turned off the porch and living room lights and the door bell immediately stopped ringing. Reminder to self: get more candies next year. On my request, the better half had bought some candies but it was, like, 2 packets of chocolate nuggets to my utter amazement. So last week at WalMart, Ryan and I threw a lot more bags of all kinds of candies in the trolley and even these were not enough. Amazing. But so fun to see the kids all dressed up and eagerly adding to their hauls. Wish I had taken some pictures, but alas, the thought did not enter my mind.

The young ones were really cute and there were some big kids. I could tell some of them were looking quizzically at Ryan, wondering why he was at the door handing out candies instead of being out with them getting candies. But the boy was shy about this and I suspect would not have objected if Nic was here to accompany him. Still he was happy handing out the goodies and enjoyed the experience. So as the big and small monsters and super-heros who were turning up in droves at our door not so many minutes ago would say:
Thank you and Happy Halloween.

Knick Knacks

The irony of it all. Went for a flu jab on Wednesday (free for employees). Came down with a head cold on Friday. The nose keeps trying to run away and the throat makes these dry raspy noises they call coughs. Better half went for the same jab (must pay for family members) and is fit as a fiddle. No fair. So I skipped today's tennis with our Mainland Chinese friends and had a 10 lap walk (actually one lap jog) around the Amador Valley High school tracks. Here are pictures of the tennis game:

We found a piano teacher for Ryan. Teacher came for trial yesterday and lessons will start this coming Wednesday. Costs like US$35 for 45 mins. Teacher seems to be of Eastern Europe origins, I cannot really tell. But he plays beautifully. I hope he will be able to motivate Ryan. I was surprised to learn they also follow ABRSM here so the boy will be picking up Grade 4 from where he left off in Singapore. We missed the September exams so wasted a year but never mind. I think the environment and style of teaching here will be quite different. Plus the teacher really plays well. Bean will be thrilled to hear him. He tested the piano and said it was a little out of tune but not worth fixing right now.

We signed Ryan up for golf lessons also yesterday. Today we bought him a golf set from Target and he and daddy went for some practice shots at the San Ramon golf club. But unfortunately, I was wheezing and sneezing in the slight wind so sat in the car instead and forgot to take some pictures. Next time...