I hate cold calls!

I really hate cold calls. Especially when they start off with a chirpy GOOD MORNING! HOW ARE YOU? in a Filipino accent. So I usually don't answer the phone when I don't recognise the number.

Yesterday my phone rang when K was in school. Thinking it might be from the school, I answered.

Caller: (China Accent) 你好！我们是艺全语文学校。
Me: What?
Caller: (sounding annoyed) 我说我这里是艺全语文学校。
Me: Yes?
Caller: 我们学校。。。
Me: 我的儿子还小，还不到上学的年龄。
Caller: Oh 我们也有CHAR CARE。。。
Me: 我们不上childcare。
Caller: 那我们也有 Kindergarten。
Me: 他才1岁半！！！
Caller: 18个月吗？
Me: Yes
Caller: 那我们有CHAR CARE!
Me: (damn annoyed) 我们不上Childcare!!!

Playschool

Ever since Keston's very traumatic and very short stint in Infantcare a year ago, school became a forbidden word in the household. I don't talk about it cos I know the pils will jump at the chance to dumpput him in childcare. We don't even talk about nursery or kindergarten!!

But as Keston turned 18mths, with no improvement to his oral communications...and with the added pressure of reading about other kids going to playgroups, we talked about it again. There were 3 main choices for us-- the cheap 2 hrs type that are held in childcare centres, Montessori types and BJG where Keston once attended weekend classes.

Our main aims for sending him to playgroup are:
(a) Socializing with other kids
(b) Learn something...anything
(c) Be abit more independent

Childcare Centre Playgroup
Pros:
Cheap
2 hours only (so if he spends the whole time crying, it's not thaaaat long)

Cons:
Combined with childcare, so much more sick bugs about
Not really learning-based
If he spends 2 hours crying, there wouldn't be any time left to socialise/learn/interact!

Montessori Playgroup
Pros:
Usually 1.5-2 hours (again, if he were to spend the whole time crying..it's not so bad)
Learning through play sounds interesting
Not attached to childcare, less viruses

Cons:
Got the impression that there may be too much independence since each kid basically plays what he/she wants to. Defeats the purpose of socializing.
Not cheap
What exactly do you learn? He already does alot of those building, matching games at home.

BJG
Pros:
4 hours programme (after spending some time crying, still got leftover time to do stuff!)
We like the programme they offer-- wholebrain stimulation
Not attached to childcare, less viruses

Cons:
Not cheap
It's 4 hours! Does he really need to be in school for 4 hours at this age?? Even nursery's only 2-3 hours! What if he spends all 4 hours wailing?


So, in the end we decided on BJG as we feel they have a good wholesome learning programme. The 4 hours was our only vice as it does seem a tad too long. Playgroup, or rather, Playschool starts 19th April 2010.

My possessive boy

When K was just a little baby, I witnessed HW's nephew protesting when his mummy was carrying K. I was amused and confident that Keston wouldn't be so possessive. Afterall, he was perfectly fine with me playing with the other kids during his babyjumpergym classes.

Boy was I wrong. Fast forward a few months. The first time I witnessed his possessive-maniac streak was when I met up with Shimin and baby Ryan when K was just over 18months. As baby Ryan was learning to cruise, he'd hold on to his mummy's knees for support and cos my knees were nearby, he accidentally/occasionally cruised over to my knees. K immediately displayed territorial aggression by roughly shoving Ryan's hands away from me. I was amused but also pai sey by his rude gesture.

A while later, I was in the library browsing for books to borrow and another toddler came and stood very close to me. He was probably curious about the book I was holding since K was happily running all over the place. K's antennas immediately stood up and immediately came over to stand in between us. He looked at the boy with animosity and a short while later, snatched the book that the poor kid was holding.

During our trip to Taiwan, we met up with an acquaintance who has a daughter a few months older than K. The girl, S, was rather keen on K and would keep calling out '弟弟来!' whenever he ran out of her range of view. And when we were back in her father's office, she was watching a cartoon on the computer when she pushed a chair beside her and said ‘弟弟坐!' She was rather aggressive though and K seemed abit afraid of her. But when I tried to take photos of the 2 little tykes, S came close to me to look at herself in my camera. K turned into a green monster yet again and charged at her to grab her shoulders. HW and I thought he was bring affectionate and just smiled, while to our horror we saw him holding her still by the shoulders and then trying to headbutt her. Thankfully we were close enough and managed to stop him in time. S, on the other hand, thought he was playing with her and giggled gregariously.

During this trip, we'd occasionally hear Keston whining/protesting about something unknowingly. Somehow we discovered it always happened when he sees us holding hands. He'd get very angry and pry away HW's fingers, then entwine his fingers with mine or hug my hand. He also gets mad when he sees that I'm not the one pushing his stroller, he'd then insist that I hold his hand whenever HW's pushing him. Wah lau eh, my hands no longer belong to me!

Not that we have any plans, but should we have a #2, I'm afraid he'll strangle him/her in the middle of the night.

6D5N Taiwan trip

Before I got pregnant with Keston, we'd booked a skiing holiday to Korea. However, a short while later we discovered the pregnancy and decided to cancel the trip. Thus we were stuck with $1600 deposit with Chan Brothers . The expiry date for the deposit to be utilised was supposed to be when Keston was a few months old. We then asked for it to be extended till Keston was abit older...March was the last extension date given to us. While it meant that we had to utilise the amount by 31st of March, HW insisted that we travelled before 31st March in case of any complications in the terms and conditions.Our initial plan was to do a self-drive in Australia. But it's supposed to be pretty hot now and we were afraid Keston would get even tanner than he is. So the plan was scrapped and we decided on Taiwan.
I was supposed to plan the itinerary since we were going F&E...but I'm such a procrastinator that the whole itinerary actually came out only a day before we departed!!! The hotel in Taipei was booked a month before and the accomodations in Taichung, less than 2 weeks before we arrived! Please don't leave any organising to me. I suck!

DAY 1:

Keston fell asleep when the plane was taxiing off. We were silently celebrating and hoping he'd sleep through the meal time at least. Alas, he woke up after only 1 hour! 1 HOUR!? I'd expected him to nap for 3 hours! Aghh..the rest of the journey was a mild nightmare as he insisted on climbing up my lap, pulling out all the reading materials in the pocket in front of us and our neighbour. The SQ toy was a Ben10 felt figurine and a stencil set. He wasn't interested in either. His toy cars kept him occupied for like 10 seconds...we'd brought along a bowl of his porridge but he still wanted our bun and ice-cream. Tried to let him watch the cartoons on the in-flight entertainment but he wasn't interested. Finally whipped out the netbook and let him watch Mickey Mouse, which did the trick. By that time though, it was nearly time to start the descend and we had to switch off all electronics. Thankfully he didn't kick up a fuss when we kept the netbook away.At the airport, the Freego counter told us the last bus that transfers to our hotel has departed already and that their bus will only send us to 庆泰饭店, after which we had to cab it to our hotel at approx NT100. At that moment, it didn't even occur to me to take the Guoguang bus instead which would get us to Taipei main, which is not that far. We went up the Freego, plenty of space. Along the 1 hour journey, the little one was climbing and standing on the chair and playing/disturbing the couple behind us. Finally, I gave him a bun to munch on..and he fell asleep while eating. The transfer cab, btw, took us almost NT200. So it really wasn't worth it to take the Freego.The weather was fantastically cold...like being in a small room with the aircon on at 16 degrees and high fan speed. We were abit worried that we were under-dressed as HW was in berms and ts, I was in jeans..the little one was dressed in the most clothes, with berms, tee, leg socks and a pullover. Still his hands were very cold. The locals, on the other hand, appeared to be over-dressed in fur coats, bomber jackets, scarves, boots...basically winter wear!

Our hotel, 内江商旅 was diagonally across from the main Ximending square. Our room was in the new wing and it was quiet, clean, spacious and new! Quite impressed, especially since our first choice was Rainbow hotel (which is smack in the middle of XMD) but Rainbow is much smaller and older and slightly more expensive.

Asked the hotel recep for directions to 桃源街 to try their famed Beef Noodles but she recommended us to a nearer place called 牛店。The beef was really very tender and succulent and the soup was very tasty. Not cheap though, a small bowl costs NT150.

DAY 2:

Keston decided to wake up late..by 9+ he was still sound asleep so we had to wake him up for his milk and bath. Then we set out on our journey to Bitan and Wulai. The weather was still pretty cold.

Bitan basically looks like a reservoir....I'm not sure what it is supposed to be or symbolise. But it's just a nice nature-type place.

We took the bus up to Wulai. There were very few seats on the bus and most were occupied by elderly people from 50-80?? So I hadn't expected to be offered any seats though I was carrying Keston in the ergo. I was surprised that a 60ish uncle ushered me to his seat. The little boy fell asleep soon as the journey was a very rocky ride up the mountainous area. The boy continued sleeping as we walked through Wulai old street and had a stick of Taiwanese sausage made of wild boar. Tasty. Then when we sat down in a restaurant for lunch, he got awaken and bawled loud enough for the whole street to hear! I quickly brought him outside for a walk and came back for our meal. The food was nondescript. Expensive and nothing to shout about. The little monkey decided to take a dump halfway through the meal and we tried to finish up our meal before finding a place to change him. BIG mistake. It was a huge poop and had leaked out to his jeans by the time we changed him. Luckily we'd brought an extra change along, even though HW packed his pj pants (instead of the track pants that I prepared), which was v thin!! But still, better than nothing lah. HW's face turned black when his hand accidentally touched the poo and he was fussing about K's poo stained jeans. Luckily when he came back from the loo, Keston flashed him a big mega smile and called out Dada! And his mood changed for the better again.The Wulai waterfall is abit of a waste of time. But since we were there, just go and see lor. Basically, go Wulai once enough already...won't go again.Our attempts to find Gong Guan and Shida night market was pretty dreadful. Walked about everywhere but somehow didn't seem to be in the correct place. Had our dinner at some shop in Shida area. HW's mood turned black again cos we'd spent a whole hour in 7-11 @ Wulai applying for a prepaid SIM card. And the line was to be activated in 2-3 hours, but it wasn't still yet activated and the operator told him that he didn't submit his IC to the lady at 7-11! We were hopping mad cos he gave his IC and passport to the woman and somehow she photocopied his passport and customs declaration card, instead of the IC!! And she spent 1 hour just doing the photocopying!! She was so damn slow and yet, still can miss things out! The operator wanted us to go back to Wulai, which was impossible since we're so far away already and it's nighttime. HW's chinese isn't very good either, so he got v frustrated. In the end, we came to a compromise to go to a nearby 7-11 and have them fax his IC over to the Wulai 7-11. We had to pay for the fax but the lady here was very efficient and helpful and called Wulai to check if they got everything and if they'd fax his details straightaway to the call centre, blah blah. His mood got so horrendous that he started screaming at the operator when he was told that his line would be activated in another 8 hours. So I had to take over the call and calm things down..it was a very long phone call but I managed to get them to activate the line straightaway. So all was well again. Why we needed the sim card was cos we had to arrange a meet up the next day and confirm our daytour on the following day. Plus, his parents will nag for the whole nation when they can't contact us.

DAY 3:

We'd arranged to meet a business acquaintance for lunch at 12noon...so we let Keston wake up late again. We had to check out of the hotel as we were going to Taichung in the evening. Spent the morning just strolling about Ximending as we didn't want to have to rush back. All the shops were closed so it was very boring. Friend arrived with his whole family only at 12.30.

There seemed to be a jam everywhere and we reached our lunch venue close to 2. It was a fabulous lunch though, at 泰市场, in the Eslite building. It's got a fabulous international seafood buffet spread, not just Thai food. By the time we were done with the meet up, it was already evening time so we had no chance to go to Wufenpu. We were only just on time to hop on the 7.06pm train. Again, we had the netbook to keep Keston entertained through the 1hr train ride. I must say the HSR train is really very nice and comfy. Loads of leg room and its clean, quiet and smooth.

From the train station, there was a free shuttle bus to where our 民宿was located. There was supposedly a bus at 8.25pm so we rushed to the waiting area....and waited..and waited...and waited!!! The bus only came at 8.45pm!! The bus journey was another 30mins to Fengjia University. The owner of Tomato Rooms came to meet us and gave us directions to get to the building. Prior to the trip, we'd book their cheapest double room at NT1050/night. When we checked in, Tweety the owner told us she'd upgraded us to the suite so we'd be more comfy with the little one! So sweet right? The suite is supposed to be NT1680/night. In the end, she only charged us NT2000 total for the 2 nights. Don't understand and didn't question her calculation :P

The room is located in an apartment building with a security guard up front. You need your key to scan through the door to the lift as well as to actually use the lift. Very safe! And the room was seriously fantastic! It's basically a studio apartment and is very tastefully done up with a 360 degrees flat screen tv, living room, kitchenette, balcony, king size bed, etc. And when we asked them if there was wireless there, they promptly set up a wireless modem in the room for us. Talk about service!

DAY 4:

The reason why we'd travelled down to Taichung was cos we wanted to visit the farms in Miaoli. I'd wanted to organise a stay at the farm, but transport was getting to be such a headache that I searched for a day tour instead. I found a local company, Marshal Tour that picked us up from our apartment and brought us on a day tour to the animal farm and various spots in Miaoli.

It was a private tour so it was pretty much own time own target. The driver doubled as the guide, who was informative and polite. We had fun being tourists and it was relaxing not having to fret about our bags, transport, food, etc.

On our way back to the apartment, we asked the driver to bring us to 太阳堂 as I'd heard this was the famous shop to get 太阳饼 in Taichung. This has got to be the biggest joke of the trip. The driver/guide promptly informed us there are alot of 太阳堂 and did we have a particular one in mind. I thought he meant they had alot of branches and so I said any branch will do. Only when he brought us the the row of shops, did I know what he meant. Because 太阳堂 is so famous, many other shops also named themselves 太阳堂 -- so there was 太阳堂老店，太阳堂总店，太阳堂自由路，etc!!! He told us how at first 太阳堂 differentiated themself by placing sunflowers outside their shop. But when the tourists came, every other shop also started placing sunflowers outside. Then the real shop painted sunflowers on their walls...and every other shop did the same! I totally forgot I wrote down the address of the real 太阳堂 so we randomly went into 3 different shops to buy a box each. The 1st shop kept asking us to buy more but HW refused cos we wanted to try other shops. The 2nd shop kept bitching to us about the 1st shop and how they are fake, etc...and the 3rd shop's plastic bag was from some convenience shop. All in all, after I got back to the apartment I found the address and realised non of the 3 shops was the real shop! Haha! And we still prefer 李义饼店 at Jiufen.

DAY 5:

Keston didn't want to wake up in the morning again so we had to wake him up after we packed up to check out. The plan was to visit 纸箱王 before we go back to Taipei. When we asked Tweety for directions the previous day, she told us we could book a cab for NT1000...and if we wanted the cab to wait for us and then send us to the train station, it would be NT1800. She then suggested we take the bus instead, which would cost less than NT50. Since Cartonking opens at 11am and we were ready and out by 10am, we decided to try the bus since it's a good 40mins away. We found the bus stop and sat there waiting for half an hour and still no bus came! So we gave up and flagged a cab. The cabbie was a very nice and friendly man who chatted endlessly and told us Cartonking is in a v ulu location and we may have difficulty getting another cab out. At this point, I was thinking 'Uh-oh! He's gonna charge us an exhorbitant rate and convince us to book his cab.' But when HW asked him 'Then how?'...he just said 'Ermm...u wait patiently, should be able to find a cab.'....after a few minutes, he asked us how long we'd be there and we said we didn't know, probably an hour or so. He suggested that he'll have lunch somewhere nearby and when we're done, just give him a call and he'll come back for us. I was still thinking 'Hmm..got any surcharge or not?' But when we reached the destination, he only accepted payment for our journey there and did not mention anything else. When we were done, he sent us back to the apartment to get our luggage and then to the train station...when HW paid him a little extra, he still wanted to give us back the change (really just loose change)! See? Nice guy! And the whole journey was like NT500 or something like that!! Nowhere near NT1800!!!

Anyway, because Cartonking was so far away and Keston generally loves sleeping in cars, he was just dozing off when we reached Cartonking so he was jolted awake. And because he'd just missed his nap, he was so very cranky. Cartonking looks like a nice place for photography..loads of interesting structures made of paper. I'd wanted to have lunch at the restaurant cos their table and chairs were made of paper. But the little one was too cranky and couldn't keep still. He didn't want to be carried, didn't want to sit in the stroller and wasn't happy walking on the uneven ground either. So after a quick browse-- we were there for less than 30mins, we left the place. I was abit annoyed to have come so far and not get to enjoy the place!! On the cab back, Keston slept and slept all the way till we got to the train station.

Paid the peak hour rates for the 1pm train to Taipei...arrived back at 2pm and made our way back to the hotel by 3pm. We spent the afternoon shopping at the 2nd hand cd shops in Ximending while Keston snoozed away in the carrier. Then finally went to Shilin night market that night.

DAY 6:

Couldn't do much as we had to take the 10.50am Freego bus to the airport.

I'd wanted to post my intended itinerary with notes here but realised I need to use html codes and I really can't be bothered...so if you want to see my itinerary, just leave a comment.