Ninja on a jetski!

leah through the ages

Ahh, the ageless trinity of Grandfather, Daughter, and Grand-daughter...

[Toronto-15-May-2012]

no family = very quiet round here

Phet and the kids extended their trip to Laos until after Lao new year (this coming Sunday) and it is super duper extra quiet here in Golf Links as a result. Iaimon's got cousins in town and I think they've gone out for the evening. Her one cousin had to get a heart operation but is luckily doing great and seems to be 100% healthy, which is pretty good news. She's from a family of 9 and her brother organized everything and paid for them to travel here and have the operation. Always good to hear kind sibling stories!

Speaking of siblings, a belated but very happy birthday to you Jake! Hope you enjoyed the gift Ji picked out for you. He wanted to get a 4-foot nerf auto fire machine gun (really) but it wouldn't fit in Mum's bag (also really true).

Back at school for two days now and of course it is BANANAS already. Gearing up for my final yearbook deadline, which is always a massive amount of work, and our play goes up in 15 days. Things are going well with the show, but there's just a lot to do to make sure all the ducks are in a row at the right time. - Ah, can hear Laree and Iaimon coming in the door. Laree's in her cute purple outfit from Gramma Margie.

Ok - must run, my secret lover (McNulty) is calling to me. "Thaba," he says, "Just watch two more episodes of The Wire tonight... I'm waiting up for you..." Curse you, McNulty, and your adorable smile, and curse you Tommy Carchetti with your hilarious use of the F word, and curse you, too, Lester, with your argyle sweater and slick pants.

In the meantime, here are some lovely photos for you from Leah's visit to school. Enjoy!

[Delhi-10-April-2012]

live from pakse!

Wow, sitting right here at Phet's Mom's house, in the little covered spot between the kitchen and the rest of the house, and I am ONLINE. It's unheard of. Ji is using a sharp trowel to carve rocks, and Phet and Seung Yi are out buying vietnamese subs for lunch. In other words, everyone is doing exactly what they should be doing. Ing's little girl, Gin Geo, and Seung Yi got taken by their gramma to go get fancy french braiding this morning so they look super duper cute. They've spent the morning playing with sand. I went out with Phet for a whirl around town. It's looking good here; the Mekong is breezing along prettily, the yellow flower trees are in bloom, there are some new shops and houses but not so many that things feel unfamiliar, and there was that huge torrential rainstorm last night, so everything is all freshy-greeny. It's just a week until Lao New Year, so all the kids are writing exams. We saw Phet's Dad's grandkids from the other side of the family this morning - Bo Be who must now be about 12 or so, and Ketey who is maybe 11, and then Ping's younger daughter who is quite chubby (very much unlike her mom, but similar to her grandma on that side - not Phet's Mom, I mean) and whose name I forgot but I'll remember next time.

Very odd to feel so connected to the outside world (ie the INTERNET) sitting here. The deal is that you just have a little USB that you attach to your computer and it connects you by SATELLITE. I feel like I'm in some crazy future world TODAY. And best of all the USBs only cost, like, 5000 kip! Whoot!

[Laos-10-April-2012]

wherein I eat my way through Bangkok

Arrival snack: sticky rice and pork skewers

So, when we exited from our hideously gross flight (departed at 2:30 am, lasted only 3 hours, arrived in Bangkok at 8:00 am, thus allowing for absolutely zero sleeping time and yet requiring full consciousness at destination point - and WHY does a 3 hour long flight need to depart at 2:30 am, oh tell me that INTERNET: WHY?? In fact, internet, tell me - because I am too lazy to google this myself - why do 90% of Delhi flights leave at 2, 3, or 4 am? What gives? Why can't we ever start a journey feeling just even normal?? Oh, and internet, while you're at it, can you publicize the fact that JET AIRWAYS CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS. If you don't think the right people will google it that way, let me try it this way and put it in a new paragraph so it would catch any random reader's eyes:

JET AIRWAYS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TRULY AWFUL

Mum calls Jet two weeks before leaving to make sure she can book a bassinette for Leah. She is kept on hold off and on for (honestly, no exaggeration) TWO AND A HALF HOURS. But she perseveres. Because she is A Grandmother and they Do Stuff Like That. Jet calls back to confirm that their seats are confirmed and the bassinette is booked. Em and Mum go to check in and - SURPRISE!!! - no bassinette. Now, I was in line at immigration at the time, so I missed most of the anger and horribleness and bastardly lack of customer service, but at the moment that Seung Yi and I pulled up at the Jet counter, Mum AND Emma AND Phet had all just explained (again) that they had received a call from Jet confirming the bassinette and the lady (WHO IS EMPLOYED BY JET!!!) said, and I quote:

"Well, anyone could have called and told you that!"

Right. Because, you know, frequently people take the time to make CRANK CALLS ABOUT BASSINETTES. Oh, the youths of today and their crazy antics.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CRAZY JET LADY?????

Long story short: bastards at the check in said they would leave an empty seat beside Mum and Emma for Leah. AND WAS THERE ONE? I'll give you one guess, and your guess can't be yes. Oh, you guessed NO? Well correct you are. No extra seat! Horrible service! JET!

And now back to Bangkok...

So, we got off our gross flight and the kids were ravenous (of course) and had sadly missed the nice Cathay Pacific meal (no crazy nasties on THAT airline), so we picked up a bag of sticky rice (aww!) and some grilled pork skewers and ate them on the taxi ride to the hotel.

bowl of noodles with bitter gourd

Unfortunately our room wasn't ready immediately - we had to wait 15 minutes - so we went and had a bowl of noodles from a vendor at the side of the road. They were tasty and gave me the opportunity to introduce Ji and Seung Yi to bitter gourd. Ji: "What does it taste like?" Me: "Well, it's called BITTER GOURD. You guess."

sticky rice and more skewers at the weekend market

We all keeled over into bed at our usual pied a terre in Bangkok, the reasonably-priced and well-appointed and having-a-free-washing-machine-in-each-suite President Park near Emporium, but then got up at 3pm to go out to the weekend market since it was our only weekend day in town. I can't even remember ever going to the weekend market in the afternoon - I have always had a strict first-thing-in-the-morning policy for Chatuchak (or "JJ" as some people call it) and it was quite different hitting it late on a Sunday. Luckily the weather was pretty decent - a little overcast, a tiny breeze. We got off the BTS and were in a solid wall of people all the way down to the park near the market. We made our way through the first sets of food stalls, but then got tempted by the grilled meat and sticky rice as we entered the market.

Chrysanthemum Juice and Coconut Juice

Right inside the market we stopped and picked up huge plastic cups of juice to assuage our thirst. I have to say I feel kind of guilty after just a few days here; I've gone through, like, 6 giant plastic cups a day. And on top of that I have noticed that there has been a serious change since we lived here, and that is the appearance of STYROFOAM bowls for snacks and noodles which used to be served in reuseable plastic bowls. Today I saw a bunch of these styro bowls floating in the Chao Praya river, and mark my words: they are EVIL.

We wandered along through the market and there was a wild stream of humanity alongside us. We don't really see that many tourists in Delhi - most of the expats are at school - and wow, is Bangkok ever full of tourists, and they really are often very FOB looking tourists - fresh off the tourist boat. Y'know, like really sunburnt and sweaty and wearing inappropriate stuff and drinking beer everywhere, and lots of them looking about 17 - which sort of reminds me that it's been almost 20 years since Phet and I first came here to Bangkok but we didn't wear inappropriate stuff, though I did get sunburnt (badness).

pork leg and egg, thai iced tea

I was trying to find the old food area for Ji at the market so he could go eat some salty crickets for old times' sake, but to no avail - has it been shut down, internet? Also couldn't find the animal section - what about that? Finally gave up and got sucked into ordering some pork leg and egg - probably my favourite Bangkok dish - from a stall we were passing. It wasn't stellar in terms of its sauce - a little mild on the flavours for our tastes - but perfectly decent. And the very nice elderly server brought us a great (big, plastic) cup of Thai iced tea. That might sound refreshing to you (perhaps you imagine a light jasmine tea, or something lemongrassy) but it is actually more like a dessert than a drink. It's very, very sweet milk tea with a slightly orangey carmely colour, and the milk involved is usually that carnation evaporated milk, and then the tea is served on a ton of ice chunks and chips. Sometimes it's so sweet that you can only take little teeny sips until some ice has melted (which of course in Bangkok does not take long) but it has a very distinctive and memorable flavour that makes you want to order it again and again even though it is so tooth-curlingly sweet. Mind you, this particular iteration of the tea was sweet but just ever so slightly restrained and pleasant. Veddy nice.

frozen banana covered in chocolate and rolled in peanuts

I didn't really plan to buy much in the market; I figured we wouldn't have long, so I was really just going for the fun of it. Usually, when I'd go, I'd have very specific plans and destinations (ex: mangosteen soap dish aisle; pregnant ladies cute dresses aisle) but this time we just wandered along. Phet of course tried on some sunglasses and Ji bought a pair of mirrored John Lennon ones. Seung Yi picked up some cute lights for herself and Laree. We got (shh, don't tell him!) Adam a shirt that will hopefully fit as it is XXL and were tempted to get Leah some cut off jean shorts. Then we saw a cart selling chocolate-dipped bananas and had to stop to take a look. It was hard to decide to buy one because for their display the sellers had dipped bananas WITH skins into the chocolate, so they were strangely MASSIVE. I couldn't figure it out for a while and just stood their trying to understand what the deal was. Then my brain processed it all and Ji convinced me to let him get one. Turned out it was deeeelicious! One super frozen banana, like ICE frozen solid, dunked in very nice chocolate and rolled in crispy fresh peanuts. I could eat one daily - though I really don't need to. We sat and ate it and had fun watching the tourists stream by.

thai iced coffee #1

...and also ordered a very nice iced coffee. Nothing beats jetlag or just the normal afternoon snoozies in the tropics like outrageously dark thai coffee with a bunch of sugar and (more) carnation milk poured over a big plastic cup full of ice chunks. Mmm mmm! That carried us through play time at the park and the return trip home on the BTS metro.

pork leg and egg #2 and ???

I think that night we ended up going to eat at the food court at Emporium but I was so jet lagged I can't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was good.

sub-par breakfast buffet at our hotel

The next morning we got up for hotel breakfast, but it wasn't much to write home about. HA! Or was it?? Since I'm - see - WRITING HOME RIGHT NOW?

I had some "brown" bread with bad butter (one thing India sure does right is BUTTER) and marmalade and no peanut butter or cream cheese, boo hoo, but with some truly excellent papaya on the side. Ji was very unimpressed with the buffet (he's like a Warbucks in terms of his hotel buffet expectations).

burger king burger

After breakfast we headed over to Siam Paragon to check out which movies were on. I had hoped to see something at the Imax theatre, but the only thing playing there was Wrath of the Titans. Instead, Phet and Seung Yi got tickets for the Lorax in 3D and Ji and I got - get this! - tickets for Hunger Games in FOUR D. After buying our tickets, we went down to the food court for lunch - and yes, it was burger time. My burger was very fresh and had nice tomatoes on it. Ji had a double cheeseburger that he wolfed down and then he had about a quarter of my burger as well.

mango on sticky rice with sweet but just a tiny bit salty coconut sauce

For dessert, I went to the grocery-ish area and bought us our first and much-looked-forward-to mango with sticky rice. It was excellent.

Salmon teriyaki popcorn

Yes, the theatre WAS selling salmon teriyaki popcorn. Ai ai ai!!! Dios mio!!! But thank god we didn't buy any.

The movie turned out to be quite the trip. 4D is not 3D; you don't have a 3D movie or glasses. But you DO have moving seats, whaps from behind, air and wind, and smellovision. Interesting mix with Hunger Games. So as Katniss kicks ass, you kind of kick ass alongside her. When she gets pummeled, your chair pummels you. When she runs through the fields and forests of District 12, you get misted with cheese-popcorn-grass smell. When she blows shit up, you smell cheesy grassy again! When she bleeds - yup, you guessed it, you smell cheesy grass. The coolest effect aside from the moving chairs was that when someone loosed a bow from their arrow, there would be a corresponding shot of air from behind one side of your head. That was pretty awesome. On the bad side, the audio was off just by about a half second for the whole movie, which drove me nuts. Luckily I was mostly getting jolted and misted a lot of the time so I didn't stay mad. Overall, very much liked the film and thought the acting was good - but I did not like the costuming. Didn't like it from the first time I saw the photos they had released during filming. Why do the poor folks have to dress like they're stuck in the 40s?? Is that the only poorness Americans can imagine? Just because they're poor and miners, that's the best you can come up with? COME ON, Hollywood! In my imagination, the clothes were WAY better. And that's not even getting to the Capital and Cinna!

Also had fun checking out the Paragon stationary department, though I am not as crazy about buying stuff there as I once was - I think there needs to be a constant supply of new and never-before-seen random plastic stuff to keep me shopping. If I've seen it before, it lacks freshness and I don't need to buy it. I think I need to go to Japan on my next holiday.

sub-par breakfast again

On Tuesday, Ji decided against the buffet breakfast, so I went down with Phet and had some toast and fruit. Then we gathered up the kids and went to check out the new mall that Malai had mentioned, Pier 21 at Asok. It's a nice mall with a cute theme: each floor is a different city (starts with tropical caribean on the bottom, then Rome, then Paris, then Tokyo, and the last two I don't remember) and the signage all looks like the kind you see in airports - so as you go up and down the escalators, you can see the signs saying "arriving in Paris" and so on. I thought it was cute, but I have to say that most of the time malls are overly expensive for my tastes, even in Bangkok.

pork snacks

I think the only thing we ate at Pier 21 was a pack of pork snacks. Not pork rinds, which would have been tastier, but these kind of super packaged tubular, 5" long 1/2" wide sticks of crispy pork-flavoured snackage. Oh dang, I forgot --

sticky rice with teeny pieces of deep fried crispy pork

Before we went into the mall, we picked up some sticky rice and pork from a street seller outside. It's interesting: usually Seung Yi is pretty avowedly vegetarian. NOT SO IN THAILAND! She has been eating enough pork to feed a small village in the hinterlands. So I think she is a discerning vegetarian. Normal chicken? Nah. Crispy pork? Yes, Ma'am!

We were really on the lookout for a good bowl of noodles, but didn't want to eat at the mall - kind of was overwhelmingly filled with restaurants, none of which were full because it was early and also because there were just so many. I was thinking the other night that my favourite place to eat is a restaurant that is almost full, with about 2 tables available. I like to eat in places that are obviously popular and busy because then they seem cheerful (and of course you figure the food must be good) but I hate waiting pretentiously in line for a table. So: full except for 2 tables = best of both worlds.

Our quest for noodles took us all the way down Sukhumvit from Asoke to Soi 1 - and beyond to Central. There were NO noodle vendors whatsoever - plenty of sellers, just no noodles. The stretch we walked along is really our old traditional area where we always used to stay in Bangkok, but it feels to me like it's gotten just a teeny bit skankier. I mean, the spots from Nana to Soi 1 have never been tidy - Nana is a big bar and ladies area - but it just seems it has headed a little further in that direction. For example, there have always been carved wooden phalluses for sale at the stalls along Sukhumvit and stacks of porn CDs, but now there are full stalls filled with viagra and far more humanoid looking phalluses and signs noting "NEW PORN!!! XXX!!!" and shirts for sale with the delightful slogan (which might be funny if you wore it, say, to Disneyland or maybe to a bird watching retreat) "Sex Tourist". You know, classy stuff like that.

We crossed under the expressway after Soi 1 and Seung Yi was so hot she was about to topple over. I have been working on getting her to follow the No Complaints form of travel that I prefer: the deal is that you can't complain while you're traveling, but you can tell really epic stories about how awful everything was later when you have a captive audience. So, we told ourselves the story about how she had walked for 45 blocks and her mother kept saying "Just 5 more minutes" until she ALMOST DIED and then we found the blessed air con of Central Department store. She was a great sport, and was killing herself laughing hearing the story of her own self while she was still in the story at that very moment.

Truly awful duck noodles, very vinegary salad with smoked salmon, and a bowl of pho

We were so hot that we went up to eat at the Loft food court, even though we have not had tasty experiences there in the past. But SY was ready to DIE so we ate there. Cause we're good parents. Ji really liked Loft because he got a swipe card and could then go buy anything he wanted. I thought I'd get some nice, simple wheat noodles with roast duck, but instead I got the worst dish I ate in Bangkok. The noodles were cold and stuck together, the duck was cold also, the broth served on the side was flavourless, and then to top it all off, the three little rice dumpling wontons that were served with the meal were MUSH! Yech! We did get some cold water (whew!) and some more Thai iced tea, and the meal gave Seung Yi the strength to carry on so that was a bonus.

After the sad lunch, we split up and Phet and Ji went to Pantip Plaza (aka TECH HELL) and Seung Yi and I went to Isetan (Japanese toy heaven!) and Big C (Cheap Stuff Heaven!) We wandered through Isetan and tried out these very cool Japanese flat construction bricks, of the semi-lego-ish type...like, lego-ish because they were things you could put together to make stuff, but they weren't bricks and so on, they were flat squares and triangles and connecty bits that could create different items and shapes. I found them to be sort of meditational and Seung Yi liked them alot because she is a sorting and organizing freak who is also good at geometry. We sat for almost half an hour playing in the free play zone. I totally would've bought a huge set for her (us), but the decent-looking one was five THOUSAND baht, or more than a hundred bucks for a bunch of plastic pieces. Nay, said I. Seung Yi and I went up to look at the ultra-pretty Japanese sweets on the top level of Isetan, and then booted over to Big C.

bottle of water and a tray of pomelo

At Big C we picked up a couple of pairs of shorts for Ji (he is too huge for the ones he's got - dang these growing kids - and I hate paying more than rock bottom prices for kid's clothes unless they are for my perfect niece, in which case no price is too high as long as the outfit is really, really cute. We went to the lower level to get some snacks and picked up mini-sized Milo box drinks, a bottle of water because we were really, really thirsty, a giant-sized Yakult that blew SY's mind, some babybel cheese, some watermelon seeds for Phet, and a tray of pomelo and two trays of DURIAN. Yes! The pomelo I ate while we waited to meet up with Phet and Ji. The durian got to stay in my bag until I got home to the hotel.

giant iced thai coffee and gelato for the kids

Had some extra excellent thai iced coffee (same set up as the Thai iced tea, only with coffee, duh) at the Phrom Phong BTS station - devastatingly dark coffee, lightly sweetened. Ji had some rum raisin gelato that was low on rum and high on raisins, Seung Yi had mint chocolate chip, my least favourite flavour of all time, and Phet got chocolate. We had to go inside the mall to eat the gelato lest it melt right into our hands. Once we were inside, of course we got sucked into going to buy some more books and tech gadgets, but finally headed out towards the hotel.

two trays of durian

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha totally smelled up the hotel room eating durian! It was DELICIOUS! Hm, can't remember what we had for dinner that night...let's see... ah yes...

sushi

On Ji and Seung Yi's request, we went for sushi that night at the familiar olde tyme Fuji restaurant. It was quieter than it used to be. They had run out of avocado, which was a bummer, but we did manage to get some salmon sushi and some nice spicy-tuna-with-green-onion maki, and SY ordered a huge maki set as well. We all treated ourselves to big giant scoops of green tea ice cream at the end of the meal - nice to have all of this for about 1/10th the price we'd pay in Delhi. Ah, Bangkok.

crab in curry sauce, grilled crab, oysters, stir-fried pea shoots, tom yum, and fried rice

The next day is a blur, but dinner remains very clear: after we had a full family massage (me, SY and Ji went for Thai-style with pajamas while Phet had his almost-naked oil massage) we grabbed a taxi and headed over to Chinatown for some cheap cheap seafood. We sat out on the side of the road at our favourite spot, with about 100 other hungry diners and sweated and stuffed ourselves silly. Seung Yi was the champion of the evening, eating three bowls of very, very spicy but very, very yummy tom yum. Ji is continuing to love fresh oysters after being introduced to them by his grandparents and he sucked down three on the half-shell. The whole meal cost about 20 bucks. Whoot! We took a tuk tuk home, which was good fun - nice breeze running through our hair as we zoomed through the near-the-docks area.

On our last full day in town, I lazed around in bed while Phet took the kids out for breakfast at the food court. I think they had a bunch of pork leg and egg.

two cha siu bao and a croissant and some super good coconut yogurt

They brought me back two lovely chinese barbeque pork steamy buns and a fresh croissant - nice! Then we went out on our big cultural excursion to show Ji and SY the reclining Buddha. We started out by going on the BTS to Saphan Taksin station, and then caught the Chao Phraya express river boat all the way up to stop N8. I figured SY would really like the boat trip, and she did. She was really enjoying watching the undulating waves and picked out all the pagodas and temples on the banks of the river. When we got off the boat there were loads of tourists, and it was just a 100 m walk (but a very hot walk!) to the temple complex. The reclining Buddha remains awesome, and the sun was just hitting the very picturesque angle of later afternoon when we wandered through all the different outdoor galleries filled with Buddhas. The kids were troopers about the sweatiness, and it was so beautiful. Nothing like sparkling gold and red and white temples and multitudinous Buddhas to get the aesthetic juices flowing!

After the temple visit we went back to the mall at Siam - but on the way there enjoyed the loudest most chattingest taxi driver in the ENTIRE history of taxi drivers. I swear, he could be heard in Mukhdahan he was so loud. And he kept grabbing Phet by the shoulder when he was making an important point. It was like "SO YOU'RE FROM LAOS!!! ME TOO!!! YOUR DAUGHTER LOOKS LIKE YOU!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!!" Shoulder grab, shoulder grab!

passable noodles and pork, pork leg and egg, more sushi, more pho, more thai iced tea

We were ridiculously hungry by the time we finally got to the mall. We went to the food court and got a huge feast and chomped it all down in record time. But I wasn't done yet.

peanut butter toast and thai iced coffee

One of the all-time-greatest inventions of the Thai is that they sell snack toast on the street. Like the first time we went to Bangkok, there we were staying at the nasty Empire Hotel in Chinatown, and at dinner time we're walking down the street, and there's a seller with their cart selling TOAST with butter and condensed milk! Well, any child of Randy's would be happy with that turn of events. Even better, now they have fancy toast shops at the mall that have things like peanut butter. So for 50 cents I got a big slice of thick white toast topped with a ton of peanut butter and then cleavered into bite size pieces and served in a toast-sized cardboard plate with 1" sides (so the toast won't slide off!) and a specially formulated toast toothpick. And of course peanut butter toast must be accompanied by a big cup of Thai iced coffee!

It was getting to be evening and we decided to squeeze in one last movie. Phet took Ji to see Wrath of the Titans in 3D and Seung Yi and I went to see Mirror, Mirror, which was much better than the reviews had led me to believe it would be. It was cute, funny, entertaining, the actors seemed to be enjoying themselves, and there was a completely unexpected slightly Bollywoodish singing and dancing scene at the end. While we were watching the movie we had...

drinking box of full fat milk and a bag of butter toast snacks

I guess I was on a breakfast kick. But how great is that, a theatre that sells boxes of milk at the kiosk?

Today we finished off the visit with some breakfast at the hotel followed by burgers at the airport Burger King. Then, nothing in Ubon. Met up with Phet's Dad who is very well indeed and drove through the most ridiculous wind, rain, dust, and HAIL storm to get to Pakse! Everyone here is doing fine. Suki is as tall as Phet and so cute, Yaki has gotten really chubby and is also super cute, Fuji basically looks the same but is thankfully more restrained than before, Ing's older daughter Gin Geo is cute but hide-y, her littler daughter Nga (named after Nga Gu) is baby cute, and Ming's son is very sweet and smiley and about a year old. Baby madness! But more importantly, what's on the menu tomorrow?

[On The Road-5-April-2012]

welcome to leah*

*and Emma and Mom and Dad

So, two weeks ago while I was in Beijing the entire family came to visit. Which goes a long way towards explaining why I haven't written anything while I've been in Delhi! It was such a treat to come home to a full house. Dad had a great first few days until he got struck by the tragic stomach bug that Ji had, then Emma got hit, then me and Mum, and now Phet and Seung Yi, and I think it's back to Ji since this morning. In case you're wondering, yes we DO wash our hands. I personally blame the weather. I don't think it's (just) food because it's going around all over. This often happens around this time of year when it starts to get hot; not sure why. Anyways, it's been a little bit of a trying-to-put-out-fires kind of visit. As soon as one thing's gotten solved, there's something else. BUT the good news is that since we've been so busy dealing with little health problems and Leah's utter disinterest in sleep, we have had very little time to get on each other's nerves! So there's that to be thankful for!

But no, really, it has been wonderful having everyone in town. I am so grateful to Emma that she was willing to go on such a crazy trip with her perfect wee 6 month old ball of perfection, and that Mum and Dad also came and helped her so much. Leah is an absolute delight. She has a deep and thoughtful side to her personality, and she spends a lot of time thinking and absorbing what's going on around her. She also has a very fun and playful side and she loves games and laughing and makes all kinds of inventive sounds and noises - but only when she's in her talkative mood. She's such an adult kind of baby in some ways; like, she doesn't flail herself around all the time, she's got these certain periods of time when she kicks and boots around. And she doesn't blabber all the time, only when she really has something to say. And her eyes they are so cute! And her little tuft of blondish hair! And her pudgy thighs! Yummy!

The kids are having a good time with her and have been giving her 110% attention. It's a bit of a madhouse with us, and Em and Mum and Leah and Iaimon and Laree...and of course often Malai too...we keep saying it would make good sitcom material. Anyone know a writer I could pitch it to?

Other than family stuff, things at school have been BONKERS. Coming back to class after Beijing felt like being Tom Cruise hitting the top of a train and starting to run full speed. This weekend we hosted a major dance event with 3 schools coming in for 3 days of workshops and performances, and it was wonderful but - PHEW! - it is nice to have a quote-unquote slow day today. And only 4 more days till SPRING BREAK. Whoo hoo! We are off to Bangkok (triple WHOO HOO) for a few days and then we go to Pakse to see the fam. Phet is staying an extra few days with the kids, and I'll head back to work. Also currently in rehearsals for our spring show which is shaping up nicely. Hilarious - and Canadian - script.

[Delhi-26-March-2012]

beijing!

Here are the emails I sent the parents of the kids I travelled with last week. Enjoy! (Names removed for internetal purposes)

Dear All -

Our trip got off to a great start last night, with all the kids arriving
on time, and even those who had gone to play Holi were packed up and ready
to go with us as planned. I don't know about you, but I thought they
looked super cute in their matching denim overalls! The bus ride to the
airport was happily cheerful and relaxed. At the airport, Ms. P helpfully
got us all checked in together in the business class line. Seemed like
everything was going perfectly...UNTIL we hit the immigration line. We
knew it wasn't going to be fun because the line ups were well out the
entrance doors, but - as you know - the airport has been running quite
smoothly lately, so we had high hopes for a quick zip through the line.
Sadly, those hopes were dashed. Although half the group went through in
about 30 minutes, the other half (MY half - boo!) took a full HOUR to get
through. Ok, the kids were good spirited, and luckily we weren't
traveling with fussy infants, but by the time we'd been in line for 40
minutes, the crowd started getting irate as people starting jumping the
queue. I tried to get us jumped ahead as it was now past our original
boarding time, but absolutely no go. FINALLY got through after an hour,
ran to our gate, and lo and behold, they had changed the departure time by
45 minutes. Once we got onto the flight, everyone fell exhaustedly
asleep, and most of the kids didn't wake up until we hit Beijing.
Thankfully, we zoomed through the money exchange process with the help of
Leo and were met right away by our hosts. They brought us to Dulwich, and
seeing our ravenous looks, made sure they fed us right away.

Most of the kids had pizza, but a few, like A, ordered Chinese food -
as he said, "Guys, we're in China! Order CHINESE food!". Then
they discovered there was a candy shop next door and the following 30
minutes were a flurry of gummi-buying and gummi-eating activity. E
found lichee gummies, which were super tasty, and Katherine found cherry
ones - very good for a not-actually-food food. Our kind hosts then toured
us around the school and then had the kids hang out in a big common room
area where they ran around and played football with our giant minion, and
gossiped, and met some of the Dulwich kids. At 5:00, all the kids were
picked up by the host families - including by one Mom who was brave enough
to host not only E, B, A, and L, but also 2 girls from
the American School of London! (Have to note the Mom also has a tiny
crocodile, and several pets, along with her own kids at the house - so
clearly, she is someone who is up for a challenge!)

This morning all the kids looked well-fed and well-rested. P's
host family had given her hot chocolate for breakfast; A's had taken
her for sushi the night before; Z stayed with our lovely high school
host, Grace; and pretty much everyone else said they had gotten a
comfortable night's sleep. Bright and early we headed off to visit the
inspiring 798 arts district - you'll be happy to hear the kids were
(fairly) warmly dressed. I forced C to put on his red fuzzy fleece,
and A said he did indeed wear his double pants. The tour was very
cool, and the kids started working on their performance pieces right there
in the middle of all these incredible art works and outdoor sculptures.
When we got back an hour ago, all the kids had lunch, and they ate a ton
of food - E tucked into veg and tofu and these beautiful little oranges
with the leaves still on, L liked the bruschetta, and L and T
had double helpings of the spaghetti.

They're all off in ensembles now, having fun, and we're doing workshops.
More tomorrow!

Thaba

*

Dear All,

It was a chilly and very windy day in Beijing today. For those of us coming from springtime weather or the tropics, it has been a bit of a shock. To me, with the dryness here, it feels like rocky mountain air in November. I think it had to have been about -2' c this evening, probably colder with the wind chill. Brr!

Last night we saw the kids off to their host families at 5:30, and it sounds like everyone had enjoyable evenings with their hosts. When we checked in with everyone this morning, we heard resoundingly enthusiastic tales of beef eating from the carnivores and pizza munching from the vegetarians. C had us captivated with his description of not just a burger, but a double burger, and not just a double burger, but a BACON double cheeseburger. A and a few other girls had Papa John's, and her host family took her out to a nearby mall, which she reported "had everything - Zara, Mango, a place like Top Shop - but no H&M". Z enjoyed dinner with a group of high school associates, and although she is just with one student from Dulwich (and doesn't have an AES buddy), she says she's been very happy at Sam's house. H said her host gave them dresses right out of her close - man, wish I got to stay with that host family! Oh yes, and P told a hilarious story about how at their hosts' place, she watched a movie about Beatrix Potter with three of the girls in the family, while K watched Star Wars in a different TV room with the 4-year-old! Of course, everyone was happy with that situation, although K is encouraging me to make Star Wars mandatory viewing in Robotics class. Sounded like B, E, N, and L had late night chat sessions - they looked a little snoozy this morning, but are doing well.

This morning at the festival, the kids got to sign up for particular workshops that they wanted to do. N, P, A and K did a very cool face painting workshop with a professional makeup artist. Although Patricia and I have been learning about makeup for a few years now, even we learned some new tricks, like how to make those cute butterflies that little girls always want (the trick is having the "butterfly brush"!) and a great trick of using little spray bottles for water instead of having big tip-able glasses of water for dipping brushes into. They also got to try making these wonderfully grotesque wounds - gunshots and stabs and so on - out of vaseline, tissue, coloured corn syrup, and body paint. Very nasty and impressive. A, A, and H did a mask workshop with a drama teacher who used to work at AES and who we love dearly. E, A, A, and E did a dance workshop (even though A really wanted to escape from it). There were also workshops on speech and pronunciation; re-creating a Shakespearean-era rehearsal; using found objects and props as inspiration for developing characters; devising and improvising news stories; and a tech workshop.

I was lucky enough to get to watch a terrific stage combat workshop that T, A, A, and H signed up for. It was just brilliant. The teacher, who was at ASB until this year (moving from Mumbai to Missoula - wow, now if that's not a good base for a story, I don't know what is) did a series of activities, teaching the kids how to safely and very impressively stage fake slaps, punches, kicks, and pulls. A was teamed up with this teeny little blonde kid in gr 6 and watching them beat the socks off of each other was hilarious. T was teamed up with a high schooler - very funny to see him looking short for a change! A was completely believable as she swung her partner round by the hair, and H was completely over the top in this battle she choreographed with her partner over who would get the (invisible, of course) banana. It's always so nice to see how engaged and talented our kids are!

At lunch the kids had a good hour-long break and some of them hung out with new friends, while a few others found quiet spots to nap in. In the afternoon, they worked long and hard with their ensembles to work on the performance that they will be sharing with everyone tomorrow afternoon. (At an ISTA festival, there are the workshops I mentioned, but the bulk of the time is spent creating a performance absolutely from scratch, which will end up involving every kid onstage - takes a great deal of energy and focus from both the leaders and the students!) Meanwhile, Patricia and I led our first ISTA workshop. I really wanted to do this since (sadness!) she is heading to KL next year, and this is our last ISTA festival as a team. Our topic was "Maximizing Student Involvement" and we shared some of the success stories we've had at AES scripting our own shows, getting kids to do all our tech, promos, costume design, stage management, etc.

In the evening, the kids enjoyed a well-organized night of fun - dinner, a talent show, some limbo-ing, all topped off by a short dance (or "disco" as our British colleagues call it).

Tomorrow the kids will reherase all morning and some of the afternoon, share their show, and then at 5:30 we are off for an adventure - wish us luck!! - downtown. We'll be staying at the Beijing Traditional View Hotel, and hopefully we'll be able to give the kids a chance to see the busier side of Beijing. I'm looking forward to buying some crazy trinkets and eating some tasty fried noodles and grilled meats - and I think the kids are too.

I am sure they are missing you all a lot, but be assured they are representing AES incredibly well, and we are so proud of their participation in ISTA, and we feel so lucky to get to spend this time with them.

More tomorrow - Thaba

*

Dear All -

It's 7:50 am, and I'm sitting in the lobby of the Beijing Traditional View
Hotel in my panda suit, waiting for a few minutes before I go wake up the
kids. The panda suit is AWESOME! It's fuzzy and warm, and even has a
hoodie with a panda face on it! It's like a snuggie with a personality.
But let's go back in time to yesterday to find out how things went before
I ended up relaxing here comfortably in my panda suit...

The last day of the festival went very smoothly. All the kids got in
right on time in the morning and spent most of the day prepping in their
ensembles for the final performance. For once, all them actually looked
well-rested, which was great. There were a few minor complaints (chapped
lips, sleepiness) but otherwise everything was fine. We spent our morning
in workshops, and then met up with the kids over lunch. Z taught us
a great new game that she had played with her high school associates, and
then the half of the table that was kicking around played it for awhile -
ok, you can try at home: get in a circle, pat on your knees to a beat and
say "Kun Ja! Kun Ja! Kun Ja!", then one person puts their hands
together at themselves and says "Bunny! Bunny!" and then does
the same thing, but sends the bunny to someone else, and whoever gets the
bunny is the new bunny and the people on either side have to wave around
their arms and say "Chalky! Chalky!". Trust me, it's hilarious, and competitive!

In the afternoon, the kids performed their show, and I have to tell you
that both Patricia and I felt it was one of the best we'd seen, especially
in terms of the coherence and beauty in the story. The ISTA leaders had
taken a myth about Beijing and woven it through the piece: the emperor
commands that a massive bell be made, but the workers cannot unite gold,
silver, and brass. A beautiful young woman named Ga Ai sacrifices herself
so that the bell can be made successfully. It was just beautiful. The
first group started with exploring the commanding emperor (the kids
created the emperor's throne with their own bodies) and the failure of the
metals to meld when the workers heated them. There was an interesting
section in which the kids were playing the metals, dancing and moving 'in
character' as gold, silver, or brass. The way they developed the fires
was amazing! When Ga Ai went on her journey, she travelled through
waterfalls made of silver fabric, and then when she climbed the pyre to
sacrifice herself, the kids created the 'steps' out of hand-held bamboo
sticks. There was an actual gasp from the audience when Ga Ai threw
herself off (landing, of course, safely in the arms of her fellow
actors!). The performance concluded with a haunting song that had the
beginning line, "Listen more often to things and to people..."
and ended "It's the ancestor's prayer..." It was just lovely!
You would have been so proud of your kids!

Of course, after the show, it was time to gather our stuff and head to the
bus for our adventure! We had our traditional squishy time on the bus
(everyone has to sit together as closely as possible, my theory being that
this makes everyone get happy as a group and start to bond more than if
they are all spread out and quiet - don't worry, nobody gets actually
squished...or at least not too much!) By the time we were near the city,
they were all singing Adele songs in unison, having a fine time. We got
off right at the entrance to our Hutong, or alley, and got all the kids
and their bags safely into the hotel. We made sure all the rooms were ok
- funnily enough Patricia and I got the smallest, and least pretty room,
while a bunch of the kids had suites and lounging couches! What the heck
kind of justice is that?? We then got them all bundled up and hustled
them over to a restaurant at the end of the Hutong. It turned out to be
not only fantastic food (thanks to Patricia for ordering everything!) but
just a delightful meal. I thought I'd fall off my chair I was laughing so hard. T and
Z were absolutely devastatingly funny; we all decided he should get
his own TV show, and many of us have already paid for our subscriptions.

After dinner, we headed back up the Hutong to finally let the kids go
shopping - and boy, were they ready! A was very into the brass
charms on leather chains (at a great price, but I won't tell you in case
they're gifts!), A bought a full body pikachu suit in pink, E and I
got panda suits, a bunch of kids got panda hats, E and B got
sacks of sponge toffy, and by the end of the hour and a half, everyone was
carrying huge sacks and had big grins on their faces. Patricia very
smartly let them stop for snacks just before our hotel, and the night was
complete! We tucked them into bed at 11:00 and lights were (supposedly)
off by 11:30.

Sorry for fewer details on the kids - my battery is at 9% and I've got to
go wake the kids up!

More tonight,

Thaba

*

Well, you have all got your wonderful children back safe and (mostly!) sound, and you've probably heard lots of stories from them, but let me tell you how much fun we had on our last day in Beijing...

The last time I wrote, I was in my panda suit in the lobby. After I sent my email, I went to do wake up calls for the kids. It was funny seeing each room - in some, the kids were super organized and all their bags were neatly sorted out, and in others it looked like there had been candy and clothes explosions on a nuclear level. We had let the kids sleep in longer than they had at the festival, though, so most of them were ok to get up and head towards the breakfast room. Most of them put on their minion costumes and looked adorable munching away at the toast and eggs and fried noodles that they'd gotten from the buffet. After they'd had a decent breakfast, we made them bundle up in multiple layers - it had been about minus 5' c the night before - and headed off on our morning adventure.

We weren't entirely sure if it would all work out, but miraculously enough (thanks to Patricia!) everything went as smoothly as could be dreamed of. We walked about 4 blocks through our picturesque neighbourhood, crossed one big street, and - ta da! - found ourselves in front of a massive tower that was part of the extended complex branching out from the Forbidden City. We were hunting for the bell tower, but we found the drum tower instead. But no problem! Turned out that the bell tower was about half a block away, directly across a public square! Can't remember how much I explained about the ISTA performance, but the whole story was about the myth based on the very bell that was in that very bell tower! It was really a nice way to kind of round out the trip by getting to see the bell itself. We quickly got our tickets for 15 rmb, and then walked up a very, very, very steep set of stairs, and then beheld the bell and enjoyed the views all around us. We taped the kids singing the beautiful song from the end of the show in the tower - I'll try to get that and the performance video up on youtube for you tonight. It was beautiful. Truly.

Of course, we also had silly fun - sang this hilarious beaver song on the way up ("Beaver Two! Beaver Three! Let's go climb the beaver tree! Beaver Four, Beaver Five, let's all do the beaver jive!") the tower, and then when we got back down, Patricia bought these very colourful giant-sized badminton birdie things that a group of local men were kicking around like hacky sacks or ta-kraw balls from Thailand, and she had the kids test out their skills. L was able to count in Mandarin, and my team made it up to 11 hits without touching the ground! The other group tried to play the real way, with no hands, and they got up to 4 or 5.

Then we walked back to our alley, on the way stopping briefly for L to buy a wooden ukelele, which he serenaded us with for the rest of the day. Patricia knew exactly the place to stop and get snacks for the kids: an incredible dumpling shop, where she went right ahead and ordered bag after bag of extraordinarily tasty dumplings - puffy little baos stuffed with a handful of veg or some pork, and then killer momo type dumplings with salty minced pork filling. All the kids clustered around and stuffed themselves silly. They'd all been begging for more shopping time, so we then let them spend a scant 30 minutes buying stuff in our alley. I was buying a couple of t-shirts, and the seller packed them up in the cutest zippered cotton bag - and then gave one to E free! Bonus! The other kids bought all kind of goodies, and I think most of them even managed to pick up gifts for their siblings. A's choice of Angry Birds chopsticks for her younger brothers seemed like a great choice! We had a little trouble dragging the kids away from the shops, but somehow pulled them away eventually and they packed their bags in record time, and before we knew it we were trooping down our alley, following our tour guide Fiona to our bus (thanks again to Patricia for arranging this!).

The bus ride was just an hour and a bit out to the Great Wall, and the kids were pleasantly relaxed. K shared wafer cookies with everyone, while A handed out dinosaur-shaped gummies and P passed around Pringles flavoured like spicy instant noodles. When we got to the Great Wall, Fiona our tour guide sorted out all the ticketing, we collected all the money, and forced the kids to use the facilities before we headed up. They got accosted by touts, and wanted to spend all their time shopping, but we herded them up to the chair lift instead. The ride up the mountain (small mountain, ok) was spectacular - gorgeous views of dry, hay-coloured and greyish mountains all around, and then the countryside spreading out in the opposite direction. The air was crisp, the sky was blue, the sun was shining. At the top of the lift, we were finally at the Great Wall - and it is a bit like the Taj Mahal: it really IS as cool as it is cracked up to be. We hiked up a couple of sets of stairs, all the kids snapped pictures with a Coke seller who posed as a Chinese Army Kung Fu Expert (interesting job if you can get it I guess!) and then we shot all sorts of video for the Despicable-Me themed movie we'll edit together in the next little while. A and C tried to sneak snow down my neck, but I foiled them. Z snuck around in character as Vector. N helpfully led our minion dancing. We all sang the BANANA song. Basically, a good time was had by all.

AND THEN WE GOT TO LUGE DOWN A GIANT SLIDE ON THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. That was SO MUCH FUN. We had T film Z chasing Ms. P down (in character)...B created a huge (but not dangerous, don't worry) pile up that then went super fast and made all the guards do double takes...everyone had a blast. At the bottom we sang the best version of the "this is how we get down" ISTA song ever, and then the kids shopped EVEN MORE. H helped me buy a lovely piece of embroidery, and Katherine realized her dream of getting her own set of nunchuks. I bought some overpriced but super tasty walnuts in sugar and sesame, and then we all picked up Subway sandwiches to take on the bus - yum, yum, roast beef!

At the airport, Patricia speedily checked us in (you can see why I'm going to miss her, right??) and all the kids filled in their immigration forms - from now on, they can do them themselves, we have trained them effectively! We zipped through security and immigration, and sped into the departure gates area. Then, bonus of all bonuses, I let the kids have an hour to go stuff themselves and spend the last of their money. I had a farewell plate of sushi, while a big gang had Starbucks and Pizza Hut. We all met up at 7:30, trooped to our gate, scared the other passengers with our party tooters and general aura of madness, and then boarded.

The flight was pretty low-key. T and I filmed Z doing silly things in character as Vector. H played text-based truth or dare with her friends so we couldn't hear what they were saying. C and A tried to annoy me. Patricia marked papers. A got us to listen to channel 14 on the music station - yay, Footloose! B, L, N, and E turned themselves into a heap of girl spaghetti and slept entwined for the entire flight. K and A and A and E gossiped too quietly for me to eavesdrop. And then they all slept.

We were shocked to be greeted by a thunder and lightning and rainstorm when we got to Delhi - wow, were we amazed that we got to land! Then, onto the bus, and back into the welcoming arms of Moms and Dads!

Hope you enjoyed hearing the stories from their perspective, and thanks for entrusting your kids with us! We had a memorable time.

Thaba

[On The Road-15-March-2012]

...and about the dogs...

Right: so, they are not as bad as they were. But they still bark. Em, prepare yourself and bring some earplugs, and also some added zen calmness. Dad, there is a bamboo stick right outside of Mr. Singh's front door (at the bottom of the door that doesn't open, beside the door that DOES open). You can absolutely go out and shake the stick at the barking dogs - I won't condone beating them here on the internet but you can go ahead and do that too, just don't tell anybody I said it was ok. Just don't get too worked up about them! And the light brown one never barks, he just hangs out in front of our house. If he goes in the gate, shoo him out. The barky black dog is a pain; if he gets in you can yell at him or throw rocks at him.

[Delhi-5-March-2012]

info for visitors

I was going to write an email, but then I figured I'd just post here, that way I'd not only have posted for today, but everyone can keep up with what my expected-visitors will be doing while they're here.

So, let's start things off. Mum, Dad, Em, Leah, can't wait to see you! Here are some notes that you will need to review before you come (they're not really funny...that sort of sounded like they'd be funny, but they aren't. Sorry. I'll try and add some entertaining ones later). Ok.

MOM - You are arriving first. John will meet you at the airport. Phet and I are both out of the country when you arrive - HA! - so you are the boss of everyone as soon as you set foot on Indian soil. Enjoy it while you can, cause I'll be back on Monday night. You can set up shop in the guest room - just make sure you check the bed legs in case I forget to wrap them up. There are lots of extra blankies; help yourself. Good news: there are new lights in the green bathroom! So, hopefully they won't be all burnt out for you. I recommend you shower in our bathroom, but you could give the green bathroom a try if you like. I had Iaimon tidy up the outside of the window so it would look nice(r) for you. Please note that I have bought TEN tissue boxes in anticipation of your arrival. Enjoy! My secret mission for you while you are here is to convince Iaimon to go get her sore hand checked by the doctor at Max clinic. She keeps evading me, but she can't evade you - you are the BOSS of HER BOSS which makes you the BIG BOSS. Just throw her in the car and whip her over there, will you? Also, your towel colour is WHITE. FYI.

DAD - You are in charge of making sure Emma gets here in one piece. I'm sure Leah will be fine, but I know Emma will be seriously cuckoo. Please slip a valium in her plane food - one won't hurt Leah, but it'll do Em a world of good. Remember to bring a white tshirt or undershirt, and white briefs to go under your crazy-fancy white cotton suit with Big Blue Sparkles on the Collar for Night Under the Stars. It is getting warm here during the day, so bring your summer duds. Remember, it is Holi on Sunday. It is a combination of your favourite and least favourite things: lots of stupid projectiles; but also a lot of getting wet by surprise.

**THE HOLI PARTY** Allow me to digress: So, you guys are hosting my annual Holi Party on Sunday. With Phet. While I'm in China. Ha! It's just like my wedding, only this time I won't show up, even right at the last minute. So, for the party, Phet does all kinds of work, but just a few things to let you know about:

- Food and drinks. You could buy some gin and vodka on your way in. We usually serve G&Ts, beer, and wine. John can go buy the beer and wine, the ice, and he also goes to get the samosas and the KFC. I usually make a salad or two - Dad, there's a job you can coordinate, and get help from Iaimon and her friend Juliana who will help out. People are usually too full for dessert, but you could get something if you feel like it.

- Set up: Phet usually orders some chairs from the chair dude. Then, we fill up kiddie pools with clean water, last year worked well to do this at the park across the road. Then, put out the ORGANIC Holi colours and let the kids have fun. Line the hallways with the shower mats - no problem if those get dye on them. Have a bunch of towels around if possible. Expect people to want to shower, keep the hot water on.

DAD - Ok, back to you. Your towel colour is BROWN.

EMMA - Take care, don't worry too much. Everything will be fine. Your towel colour is BLUE AND GREEN. I've got all the baby stuff: crib, pack and play, play mat, washing stuff, almond oil, soft butt wipes, mosquito netting for crib and also stroller and also your bed, toys, etc etc. I even have a BABY MONITOR thanks to Jeni!

OTHER STUFF - So, the Holi party is Sunday at 2:00, then I get home on Monday night. I think Tues or Wed is Ji's arts show, and there is also a display of his work in the gallery - don't miss it! The following Sat is the NUTS gala - Mum, we'll get your suit; Em, your sari is in the works. DAD: Important: When you first arrive, TRY YOUR OUTFIT ON AND CALL MR BAGGA AT 9818 729 723 and have him come over to the house to fit it for you. He can add extra white fabric, no problem. If it's not improveable, we'll buy something else, no problem.

Ok, that has got to be it for today. Love yaz,

T

[Delhi-4-March-2012]

the artist

Went to see The Artist with Ji after school yesterday - Phet had a conference that ended with a social event at the mall in the bowling alley (nice work if you can get it) and so I decided to try and get out to see the movie. I watched the Academy Awards on Monday night at a very sweet colleagues house after I had kind of invited anyone with a TV to host an Oscars party, and after seeing The Artist win a billion awards I figured I'd better go see it. I am not sure why - bad marketing? uncaptivating posters? - but I hadn't been compelled to go see The Artist at Christmas. Just didn't grab me. And even after the Oscars I was kind of like, meh. I don't get all the hype. But after seeing it last night, I can safely say: that is a terrific movie, definitely the kind that wins (and in this case should win) an award like Best Picture. Very impressive. Loved the actors, and I kept thinking and thinking about them and particular scenes after the film was over. Dad, I bet you would really enjoy the movie if you haven't already seen it. But try and get to see it on the big screen! And I wonder if it's old-school style of filming would mean Mum would be able to watch it... Thinking more, I don't know if I really got the idea that it wasn't a French movie at all from what I heard before I saw it. If you hadn't heard that the director and main actors were French, you'd have no idea from the film. I didn't even know it was set in Hollywood! And then, there are supporting actors who everyone already knows and loves - Walter Sobchak for one; and then the actor who played Dr. Lanning in IRobot and Ruth's second husband in Six Feet Under and Jack Bauer's Dad in 24; and Penelope Ann Miller. So, it feels totally American. Ji says, "It was good. There was a cute little dog in the movie who continuously imitated the main character and was hilarious. I think, like, it had to be black and white because it was soundless...but the black and white didn't add any special touch. But the soundlessness was very cool and allowed them to do cool effects with adding sound. I recommend this movie!"

[3-March-2012]

football!

Sorry for the delays in writing this week - I blame technology. I got a CD of photos from one of the parents from the girls' football team, and then the CD didn't work for ages and then I got frustrated and then I procrastinated and then I forgot to test again and then finally I tried it and managed to get some of the photos, and I have finally put these into an album for you. Huzzah!

We spent most of the weekend doing football related activities like playing football and watching football and going to football. The girls and Ji have been on DIFL teams this year - the girls for the first time, and Ji for about the 4th. Ji has finally taken off as a football player and was an aggressive little midfielder this season. He's gotten the knack of taking headers, he finally actually watches where the ball is going, and he runs hard to get to it. He is still not great at big kicks, but he can work on that. He also managed to take a bunch of balls to the face and kept playing while crying, which is always the sign of a good tough ass, and of course we like that in our boy!

The girls....well, the girls have enjoyed the whole team-spirit thing, and have gotten better with their basic skills, but honestly their favourite part of the whole endeavour has been snack time. They compare who got the best treats, and try to hoard extra snacks for the upcoming school week. Laree actually won the award for "Most Improved (and hungriest!) Player"! Seung Yi is quite intent when she's playing (as usual) and likes to spend a lot of time planning what should be done, though not necessarily just getting out there and doing it. They had a delightful team this year; really, really nice parents and cheerful coaches and a truly excellent manager. They made some new friends, too: the very-handsome and extremely talented half-Japanese half-French Oscar, the super cute and sporty half-Indian half-French Rafael, the adorably buzz-cut Zubin, and SY's classmate Nushka was also on the team.

This weekend was the big championship: SY and Laree's team had an unbeaten season and went into the match ranked first. They played Electric Kids team, and it was a great match. First half - Electric Kids were really well balanced and pretty tough, and Olympus (the girls' team) has a bit more of a mixed bag in terms of skill. Second half ended with 0-0 as their strong defence prevented Oscar from scoring, but Oscar and the gang stopped them from scoring as well. We went into overtime. 5 min, another 5 min, still 0-0! By this time, the entire field was surrounded by cheering onlookers and parents and older kids. It was pretty cool. Then, penalty kicks. For five-year-olds! Oscar missed, Rafael scored, one of our other players scored. By the end, 2-2. What to do? They decided to do single goal penalty kicks. Three MORE kids from each side gave it a go. Still 2-2. Then all the coaches had a pow wow with the refs, we all sat and waited on the sidelines, and then WONDERFULLY they finally declared a tie and we decided to share the trophies! What a good way to end the season: no one crying, but everyone feeling like they'd played well.

Check out the album and enjoy the mighty Olympus '12 team!

[Delhi-28-February-2012]

what might I be doing with these Carrefour items?

My recent bill from Carrefour in Doha:

Sounds like a night of fun to me, how about you?

[On The Road-22-February-2012]

tuesday night, whoot

Just sorted out some of my travel plans for going to Beijing for our upcoming drama festival - whee! Haven't ever never been there, so I'm looking forward to it. We've got two days to check out the city, and aside from the usual awesomeness of the festival, we've got a night at a hotel downtown with the kids at a place Patricia stayed that apparently is in a busy and fun area with lots of little alleys and excellent street food. Sold! It is Patricia's last year at our school (sadness!) and therefore her last year going on this trip with me (extra sadness!) so it had best be fun. We've got this whole Despicable Me theme going for the team, so they will all be dressed as minions with denim coveralls and yellow shirts while travelling, heh heh.

In other drama-related news, I've been re-organizing the costumes in my room at school, and I've embarked on a plan to photograph all of them and hopefully create some kind of database of the pictures, maybe with Evernote. I'll share a link if I get it sorted out. And speaking of school, I've been meaning to link to this for ages: click here to watch a really nicely put-together video all about our school (in 7 minutes and 47 seconds). Keep your eyes peeled for the still photos from our MS play - those are the ones with the blue and white cheerleaders, and then the dancers covered in dust.

We had a lovely weekend (sorry, I can't figure out how to make this sentence un-redundant, so here it finishes...) last weekend. On Saturday, the kids had their last official regular games of the football season. Ji had a great match and did really well - and saved his team from getting scored on after a handball when he took a hard ball to the face while he was in a wall. He's decided it might be better to keep facing away from the kicker next time. Seung Yi and Laree made brick dust with their friend Nushka while Ji played, and then they played well in their match. A couple of the kids were late, so the girls got put on as fowards - which they would actually be pretty decent at given the chance - but then the latecomers showed up and they got benched-slash-returned-to-defence. On our way back into town, I hopped off at school to go work on yearbook stuff, and the kids went to a party for their friend Edvard with Iaimon. On my way home from school, I stopped off to pick up a crib for Leah from my lovely friend Karin, and then accidentally went shopping at GK for a new shirt. Ooops!

On Sunday, Ji and I slept in while Phet took the girls to their championship showdown at football. Apparently their cute buddy Oscar scored lots of goals, and while they weren't really sure who had won, Phet told me their team won all of their matches. Meanwhile, Ji and I then woke up and spent a few hours cleaning his room so it will be ready for baby Leah. It was very satisfying to get the room in shape. For lunch, we were invited to my colleague Gagan's place - sort of an early goodbye to Patricia - and we stuffed ourselves silly. There were roasted nuts to start, then home-cooked spring rolls (!!) and extraordinary potato croquettes with crispy exteriors and creamy interiors, served with 4 choices of dipping sauce. THEN we had lunch: veg rice, lemon rice with really subtle and perfect flavours, paneer with tomato and green peppers, black pepper chicken, home-made (excellent in both texture AND taste) iddlies, naan, pineapple raita, and a few other dishes!! When it was time to go, we decided to walk home - very, very nice walk on what was basically the last day of winter. We stopped at Lodhi Sports on the way and - get this! - bought a treadmill! (They delivered it later, we didn't have to carry it home, silly!) Then we wandered through Khanna Market, checking out some cute new shops, and admiring the beautifulness of the warm orangey sunset on everyone's faces.

And today: the first day of not-winter. Dang. It is suddenly not cool outside. Ji got a wee sunburn on his nose at football. The drama room was too hot today. I didn't need a jacket at lunch. HELP! THE FOURTH RING OF PURGATORY (AKA DELHI SUMMER) IS ON ITS WAY!!! Mind you, for the moment, the weather is the most utterly perfect Delhi weather imaginable: blue skies, cool in the evening, warm sun to your skin during the day, still just slightly breezy. Basically, Calgary during a raging heat wave.

Ok - must run - it's 10:26 and I need to sleep. It's only Wednesday tomorrow, yarg. Last couple of weeks have felt like they required some holidays - might be because I worked through the previous weekend in Doha, and then this Monday WAS a holiday for everyone in Delhi, even Phet, except not for us. Boo hoo, waah waah...

[Delhi- 21-February-2012]

worst. salad. ever.

Yesterday, my eyes were really, really tired after school. I don't know if it's actual tiredness, or some dust-related non-watery eye allergy, or old fashioned OLDNESS, but I have had tired eyes a few times this winter. They're just, like, done. Ready to close. I'm not actually that tired or anything, but my eyes are. Weird, huh? At any rate, my eyes were tired, but Seung Yi and Laree had gone to a friend's house for a playdate, and Ji and I were going home alone, and Phet was still in Bangalore, so I decided we'd go over to Khan Market for dinner. Despite the tired eyes. Which was probably a good idea, because as it was, I got into bed at 8 with Seung Yi, and if I'd just gone home, I would've gone to bed at 5:15.

At Khan Market, Ji decided we should go to Chokola, a nice cafe that we hadn't been to for a long time. They have lots of chocolate specialities (duh) and a small menu of lunch-type items. I hadn't had much in the way of fresh veg that day, so I ordered a salad and Ji ordered a caprese sandwich. Now, I know I've spoiled the surprise about how my salad turned out, what with the post's title up above and all, but let me weave the tale for you...

They had Greek salad on the menu, but I rarely order that at a restaurant because I don't eat cucumber or raw onions (sadly, give me indigestion). I just make them at home, with feta and tomotoes and lettuce. The other salad they had was a Caesar, which I love, but again usually eat only at home because I need to go easy on raw garlic (same reason, so boring, I know, but what can I do? I seem to have inherited Gramma Stella's stomach...although at least I don't think people are crazy for eating raw garlic...I'm just jealous that they can do it). So I decided to have the warm veg salad with Thai dressing. Sounds...ok, right? Wrong!

The veg components of the salad were not bad: stir-fried spinach, mushrooms, and asparagas (so far, kind of Asian-esque)...with artichokes...which seemed kind of weird, but whatever. But then, mixed in with the veg were raisins...(yes, Jake, you would NOT like this salad)...and dates. But not nice little bits of dates, or even single dates. They had sliced up 1"x3" slices of this kind of dates-pressed-into-a-loaf thing that you can get here and stir-fried that up with the veg and raisins. So, yeah, heavy on the sweet and dried fruits.

Again, this all could kind of be alright, in a strangely veg-and-sweet sort of way, but then there was the DRESSING. For the dressing, they had taken - and I am truly not exaggerating here - about four tablespoons of pure tom yum soup paste, and used that to stir fry the veg. So, you know that intense sour/spicy flavour you get with your tom yum soup, right? Well, think about that flavour MINUS about 4 litres of water, and you'll have an idea of what this salad tasted like. It's like 30% chilli oil, 20% tamarind, 40% actual chillis, and about 10% other spices like garlic, ginger, galangal, and lemongrass. I really, really wanted to eat those veg, and even so I only managed to eat half the bowl due to not so much the spiciness of the dish - because I can manage spiciness alright - but more due to the straight-out overpowering intensity of the FLAVOUR in the sauce. It was NUTS. I felt like I'd been through a painful new sauna and spice treatment by the time I'd eaten a few leaves of spinach and a handful of mushrooms.

Note to self and any guests: DON'T eat salad at Chokola. Drink some damned hot chocolate and go home for a bowl of instant noodles afterwards.

[Delhi-17-February-2012]

doha

Ahhh...spent a chunk of time after school yesterday and then part of this morning cleaning up my classroom. So satisfying! The wigs, lego balls, pliers, tape, clothes pegs, LEDs, towels, and papers are all in their correct places. As an added bonus, I *also* got a new extension cord and rewired my computer and components so that I can now stretch it all the way out along my very long desk and my second monitor's cable doesn't keep popping out. Aaaand I put away my document projector (until I need it again) and got rid of three cables as a result, and so now I am down to a tidy three off the side of my desk, and five off the backside. A satisfying wealth of accomplishments for a couple of days' work, I'd say.

My room was in a - phone ring! hey, it's a guy at school who will come to see me about my problem with stray dogs!!! will keep you updated - anyways, my room was in a tizzy because I went to Doha from Thurs - Mon for a fine arts festival. Always crazy getting not only my own stuff done, but also prepping for someone else to take over my classes, and as a result, things were (according to my very high standards, at least) a bit messy.

The trip to Doha was pleasant, if a little long in terms of travel time. We didn't have a direct flight, so we met at school at 7, left, then the flight departed at 11 or so, then we had a three hour flight to Dubai, a three hour stop over, a one hour flight to Doha, and then by the time we dropped our kids off and got to our hotel, it was 9 pm. So... a 14-hour travel day for what is really about a four hour flight. Luckily, our group of kids was delightful, the travel was smooth, and the movie selection was excellent. I watched something I forget but that was good, and then Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was good but very hard to pay close attention to given the noise of the plane and the darkness of the screen --

Ok, dog investigation guy just came by. He says he checked into the situation and even went to our house (!) and spoke to Mr. Singh and found out the exact same information: we have activitists in our neighbourhood who catalog every stray dog who moves in and prevent the municipality from doing anything about the dogs, even when they are aggressive and bark all the time and frighten our kids. But he is willing to try to find out more, and could possibly help us get our mean barky black dog that lives outside our house sent to a shelter, which would be a massive bonus. The people in our neighbourhood defy my comprehension...you've got multi-million dollar homes in the most prime spot of real estate in the ENTIRE CITY and you've got four untrained wild dogs on every corner. I mean, really? Really? I'm not anti-dog, but there are good places and good homes for dogs, and there are bad places that are not homes for dogs. And random street corners are on the bad side, trust me. They fight all day, get whacked around by angry householders, and have absolutely zero training. CRAZINESS.

Hang on - more later...

Alright, at home now. Girls are brushing their teeth, Ji is seeing his friend Jai Hoo to his car after a play-over. I'm kind of tired out from referring all night and from the sheer VOLUME of these kids. I'm constantly saying "I'm standing right beside you. I can hear you just fine." I know I miss them when I'm not around them, but just, like, a 40% decrease in the volume levels would be delightful. Just went outside because Black Bark outside was barking up a storm. Mr. Singh went out and flung a bamboo stick at him.

So, the title of this post was 'Doha', let's talk about Doha!

I went to Doha for a drama festival, and as I said, the travel was a bit slow. Dubai was fine - though since Phet started making burgers with Malai's delcious US commissary beef, I have much less of a craving for fast food than I used to. In the fall, I had a DOUBLE cheeseburger at Burger King the first day I was in town, and when I left, I had not only a Big Mac but also an apple pie (!) at McDonald's at the airport. Maybe that's why my pants are getting snug. Anyways, this time, I felt less compelled to eat beef, and I had already bought one pair of earrings at the duty free gold shop the previous year, so mostly I just wandered around chatting with my colleague. When we got to Doha it was chillier than I'd expected - something like 15-17' degrees or so...like cool enough to want a sweater. At our hotel - The Ramada - I had a bath (best thing to do at hotel!) and read my book and then keeled into the bed.

The next three days passed in a blur of rehearsals and snack-slash-meal-times. I was in charge of a puppetry group, so we had to make puppets, figure out a story, rehearse, and then present to the whole school and group of visitors by lunch time on day three. I had a good time; always fun but a bit scary to try to work with a new group in this kind of situation. I started them out with these easy-to-make bunraku type puppets made of newspaper that I had made at a workshop with a great puppeteer in Delhi - well, actually, I started them out with them having to improv tell the story of our myth (Narcissus and Echo) using only random items in the room, like garbage can lids and our shoes and so on. THEN we made some puppets. I had thought we'd do some really big ones too, but they had the idea of working with shadows as well, so we mixed together the puppets, the shadows of the puppets, human actors, and the shadows of the actors. It turned out pretty well, and I liked the fact that we had a kind of fun take on the myth. The band, choir, and art kids did great stuff too. The highlight for me was hearing the mega band play that classical piece from - ah dang it, just went to check the internet and it seems I have mis-remembered the music. I thought it was the music from the scene in Big Lebowski when the landlord does the crazy interpretive dance, but it isn't! I'll have to ask the music teacher. Cause it was really good.

In the evening, we went to the mall and I did a round at Carrefour, as is my habit. Didn't buy that much, but did get - whoo hoo - cocoa butter smelling vaseline. Sniffy goodness! Also got a couple of scarves at H&M and looked at all the windows in the boutique section. Usually like photos of Marc Jacobs' stuff but up close some items were terrible. Did like the Alberta Ferretti (sp?), Louis Vuitton had a very cute red cherry purse display going on, mostly felt like the thousands-of-dollars bags were basically a waste of time. I get the idea of a good bag, like handsome and well-made, but most of the really expensive ones are actually hideous. Interesting, also, to people watch. Lots of folks from all over, and lots of ladies floating by in full but sheer chiffony black burkas. One night we went to the souk, which sounds cool, and is ok, but is actually a Disney-esque souk, similar to the souk in Dubai. Basically, both cities have created fake-old markets with fake beams and fake mortar and small stalls and nice restaurants. It's all very pleasant, but fake. Strangely, there was also a PONDEROSA restaurant in Doha... At the souk we checked out the handicrafts, and I was tempted to buy these fantastic brightly-decorated enamel pots and dishes, but didn't quite make the actual decision to buy quickly enough. Then we had a relaxing dinner at a place called Tagine, and then headed home to bed. Overall, like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, I would say Doha is a fine place to visit. Once.

PS: Happy Valentine's Day! Love to you all!

[On The Road-15-February-2012]

let me make your day...

Maybe Emma sent this to you already, but allow me to post it here, too, for everyone's viewing pleasure. Ok, get ready for premium happiness. Ready? Are you sure? Actually, come to think of it, let's make this into a challenge. A contest of sorts. Check this out: I am willing to bet a hundred bucks that my niece is cuter than any of the other top four cute things in the world. Put your crisp, brown bill on the table, my friend, and sit back as I PROVE I AM RIGHT (not that I need to prove it; I AM always right - right, Emma? Right, Mum? Right, Phet? Right, Ji Hong?) ONCE AGAIN.

Behold. Leah vs Number 4 ranked cute thing in the world: Cute Graphic:

...and the winner is? LEAH. Yes! I'm up on you one nothing! Take that!

Let's go for Leah vs Number 3 ranked Cutest Thing In The World: Cute Puppy In An Internet Photo:

Sure, that puppy is cute. But is it as cute as Leah? NO! A thousand times NO! I win again!! That's 2-0 for me. I rule! You don't! Oh ho ho, so you want to go double or nothing??? Fine, I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!! Leah vs Number 2 ranked Cutest Thing In The World (and yes, the people who were surveyed WERE mostly over-eager sixth grade girls...so what!): RAINBOW:

Whoooooo hooooooooooooooo! Leah wins AGAIN!!!!

I am so rich. R-I-C-H, rich! My niece is the cutest and I am the richest, looo hoo hoo hoo hoo! So. Much. Cuteness. How can you even stand to keep looking at this screen? If you aren't smiling your face right off of your head then YOU MUST BE BLIND, brother.

What's that you say?

You say you want to take this battle to the ring? You want to get UFC on me? You want to make this into the battle of all battles? Bigger than Troy? Bigger than one of those really big battles in World War Two, where like, they landed those boats with tanks on beaches all day and troops poured through the water for night after night and still the battle raged? You want to battle like in Battlestar Galactica?

Ok, fine. Here we go. Leah vs the Number One Ranked Cutest Things In The ENTIRE Universe - actually including ALL UNIVERSES, included those parallel and those alternate universes. Yes, indeed, here it is: LEAH VS BABY PANDAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD - LEAH WINS AGAIN!!!! She is the ultimate champion of the entire existence of every thing! Yessssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Toronto-12-February-2012]

could i please just run the world - or at least my part of it?

Feeling a combination of knowing what should be done but not wanting to seem like a crank by telling people to do it. Not trying to be obscure, just can't get detailed about work stuff, but it all boils down to my usual opinion: I know how everything should work, do it my way! Come on! And then boils down to: I told you I knew how to do it, and now I have to complain about it when you do it your way and it's not as good as my way!

The truly excellent news, though, is that I feel very well listened-to at work, and as all of you know, that is the BEST way to keep me happy. And if I'm happy, I work my a-- off. Just, y'know, a couple of minor things, and tonight I'm a bit cranky. Call me if you want the details!

Ok, enough obfustication. Things here are good; the girls are currently playing with the huge sack of dress up clothes that Patricia donated to them...right now, they're doing their usual thing: Seung Yi's in all the girlie bride stuff, and Laree is dressed like a pirate. Patricia passed on just a ton of great costumes...Oh now - SY's crying, she stubbed her toe - no smashed her cheek on a chair. Aw, crying child bride. How picturesque. Ji has been in his room studying his 6 and 9 times tables - we are still on a strict math diet after his test results (think I mentioned - 89% on math comprehension, 24% on computation). Interestingly enough, Patricia's son had the exact same type of results (and his Dad's a math teacher), so he is also on the same diet.

We had a lovely weekend - on Friday I went over to Nehru Place to pick up fabric for the denim coveralls our ISTA drama festival team are going to wear for the trip - they're supposed to look like minions from Despicable Me. So, I got TWENTY SEVEN metres of denim, plus fabric for Patricia's Gru scarf and jacket, and ordered orange fleece for our high school assistant's Vector costume. Nehru Place sounds kind of cool - it's a shopping area with a bunch of high rises, and no cars on the inside lanes, and they're known for fabric and tech supplies - but it's really pretty unattractive. The buildings all look like they're falling apart, everything's covered in dust and the streets and filled with crud. At least if you go to Bangkok's evil Pantip plaza to buy tech stuff, you can get a good bowl of noodles and then go eat fresh lobster at the corner - no such luck at Nehru. After I got the fabric, I met up with Phet who was at a conference at Nehru, and we had a nice buffet dinner with some of his colleagues. Nothing like free biryani and gulab jamun!

On Saturday, I was on for the full day with the kids since Phet was still at the conference. First we left at 10 for the football pitch. The girls had a good match - SY kicked the ball for the first time in a game! - and won something like 2-0. Then they played a pick up game with their extremely talented buddy Oscar and his adorable wee baby sister, and then at 1 it was time for Ji's game. Evan was playing against Ji, so Patricia and I sat and gabbed while the girls made a bunch a red dust by grinding bricks. Ji's team lost about 4-2 - and Ji took a big ball hit to the face and got a big puffy, bloody lip. Then, we ran over to a birthday party for SY's friend, Alex. Ji and I left the girls and went to eat some healthy-ish food at Yo China! and then picked the girls up and we all drove out to Gurgaon for a party for Ji's friend at the fancy bowling alley! We left Ji and I took the GIRLS to go eat healthy food and walk around the mall, and then finally at 6:30 we headed home. But...on the way back, Phet called and said he was heading to a concert with his colleagues, so I dropped Ji off and they went to the concert, while I went home with the girls and watched the last 3 episodes of Season 3 of The Wire (so good! America's war on drugs IS so messed up! I love Omar! Stringer was so admirable despite his backstabbingness! I don't believe Greggs can not love her baby! MmmmmmcNulty!). On Sunday, I hung out with Seung Yi, went to work to mess around with yearbook pages, took SY out for pizza, and then chillaxed at home in the evening.

And luckily - now it is tomorrow already - I think my cold is clearing up, and I had a tough and confrontational meeting with someone but it has really cleared the air and I feel better. I'll leave you with a special poster to entertain the Dwyer side of the family - Ji and I saw a huge monster poster for this movie at the mall on Saturday, and boy do I wish I'd had the guts to steal it:

[Delhi-7-February-2012]

recent photos

Ok, trying to take a few more photos to share with you as part of my effort to keep this site more current. Here are some from our January in Delhi - you'll see that there were lots of warm sweaters, football, big burgers, and fun times. Stay tuned for more!

In other news, lovely day here today - sunny and cool, perfect. I subbed for Briar's HS dance class today! It was like a nightmare come true; me teaching a dance class! Luckily everything was ready for me and the kids were awesome and knew everything I had to do, and I mostly got to join in their workout. Nightmare vanquished!

We're up for a busy weekend - Friday Phet has late meetings, Saturday Ji has an all-day football tournament, the girls have a game, and both Ji and the girls have separate birthday parties to attend, and then on Sunday I think Phet has another full day of conferencing. Phew! You know what would make it all go down a lot smoother? Seeing my baby niece on Skype!! Hint, hint.

Alright, here's the album of photos for Delhi in the winter 2012.

If you're wondering why there's a photo of Iaimon and Laree and Seung Yi with an empty laundry basket, it's because we took the photo to send to Iaimon's Dad, who makes baskets himself so he could make us a new one. And if you're wondering where the world's cutest Bee Blanket came from - the one SY is wearing in that incredibly adorable picture - well, the answer is COSTCO and they also have dinosaur and bear ones. Go buy one for the grandbaby or niece or nephew in YOUR life!!

[Delhi-2-February-2012]

grampa paul

Woke up on Sunday morning crying in real life because I'd been crying in my dream. The dream was actually wonderful, it's just that while I was in the dream I realized I was in a dream. In the dream, I was hanging out with Grampa Paul and I can't remember all the details, but at first I thought he was acting all looney tunes, but it turned out that he was totally on the ball and that he was just listening to and kind of responding to his radio, which was on a sort of business-card sized plastic rectangle. In the dream, out of nowhere (like, out of nowhere from my subconscious because I hadn't been thinking of her recently), my Auntie Mary showed up, and she was all dressed up and wearing makeup and rolling around in a fancy new wheelchair and I was telling her how great she looked. And my Gramma was also there, kind of in the background, doing well herself.

Then I realized in the dream that Grampa was no longer alive, and neither were Gramma and Auntie Mary. Sadness. But also really good to have dreamt about them. That doesn't happen too often, but when it does it is a real treat.

When I woke up I was all teary, but I was also happy to have seen my dear family members, and I also thought a lot about how things went very well, in most ways, for Grampa at the end of his life. It was very sad for all of this summer when we could see his time was coming; we'd all been really wrapped up in his life, especially Mum and Dad, who were out to see him all the time, and he was always brought out for christmas and summer holidays, and I think we were all planning on enjoying several more years of good times with him. And then suddenly, almost overnight, he got diagnosed with cancer and was in the hospital. Mum and Adam were with him for that first week, and took excellent care of him as he went in to the hospital. They were with him all the time, negotiating all the meetings with doctors and nurses, and trying to figure out what was going to happen. Then all the rest of us showed up - pregnant Emma, me and the kids from Delhi, Jake, eventually Phet, and of course Dad, and we were all rushing back and forth from Shirley's to the hospital, and picking up donuts, and coffee, and taking the kids out to play, and trying to get Grampa to drink and eat, and it was in some ways so great because we were all there together, and of course also really hard because things were not going well for Grampa, and we had to get used to that idea.

Then the idiots at the hospital didn't have a good enough plan for taking care of Grampa, and he fell in the middle of the night and broke his hip. The days after that were really pretty tough. He was really delirious, and just could not sleep. I think I am not so bad at dealing with pain or clear-headed sadness or depression, but I get really, really anxious when people are delirious or crazy sounding. It freaks me right out. We kept telling Grampa where he was and what was happening, and kept trying to reassure him that the things he felt he needed to do - can't remember what they were, but basically get up and take care of business - didn't need to be done. I think they were keeping him on low doses of pain meds, so he didn't sleep well, and the delirium got worse. After he broke his hip, it did help focus our understanding that treating the cancer would not be the best thing to do, and that a hospice would probably be a better place for Grampa.

It made an extraordinary difference getting to the hospice. It was super sad in the sense that first of all we admitted we were saying goodbye to Grampa, and also because the other people at the hospice were dying also - all of them younger than Grampa from what we could tell. But on the other hand, the place was just very calm and quiet and relaxing compared to the hospital. There weren't forty three hundred people walking through every hour, there were no beepy machines and loud PA system announcements. Instead, the place felt like a very comfortable, sedate living room. There was a central area with a kitchen so you could fix yourself a cup of coffee or tea anytime, and the fridge had simple things for the patients to eat if they were eating, like soup and pudding and cheese and a variety of different juices. They had a toaster and many varieties of bread available - round the clock! Then, there were several couch and armchair areas and a big dining room table. They had a very nice tradition of hosting a weekly tea, and we were there for two or three, and at tea they brought out all kinds of fancy tea cups, made many different kinds of tea, and guests and old patients' families and nurses brought treats like home-made baklava. The hospice rooms were just fine - all ground floor, clean and fresh, with room for a single bed, a nice La-Z-Boy recliner, and a pull-out couch. There was a TV and free wireless and convenient phones. Best of all, the staff were just fine with having families sleep over, so instead of keeling over painfully on Grampa's hospital bed rungs, we were able to do shifts of napping in the recliner and on the sofa. Delightfully, there was a window in every room, and they were all open-able. There was also a nice kids play room / guest sleeping room, which was full of books and toys. So: great hospice. But a little bit too bad that the calm and relaxed and homey feeling couldn't be shared to hospitals as well - surely recovery rates would improve drastically?

We spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the hospice to relieve each other, but I don't think any of us thought it was anything other than time very well spent. Grampa was very clear and comfortable once he got into the hospice, and joked around with us and the staff, and had a good philosophical talk with the preist when he came by. We fussed and worried about Grampa's drinking and eating, and all worked to coax him into staying hydrated. The nurses were terrific about changing him or cleaning him whenever we asked, and were very responsive about getting pain meds into him when he seemed uncomfortable.

Very luckily, Grampa had a number of other friends and family who came by to see him, including his neice, Uncle Rob, his friends from Balzac, and also his brother Adam's family from down in the States. When we weren't at the hospice, we ate a lot of steak and visited with each other, and saw a few shows, and played with Shirley's wonderful grand-kids.

In the end, I have to say that I would like to go the way Grampa went. I would like to live to be 90. I would like to have lived independently until I was 87. I would like to be fully mobile until a month before I died. I'd like to go bowling with my great-grandchildren. I'd like to be completely sensible till about the last week before I died - but that last week of haziness would be ok because it would cushion the sadness of having to leave the universe. And most of all, I would like to die with my family taking care of me, and making sure that I am not alone for even a moment when I'm facing death. I'd like to die with my child beside me, wishing me well and thinking about how much they've loved me.

[Balzac-31-January-2012]

happy republic day, everyone

Everyone, that is, except the godforsaken barking damned dogs that woke me up at 7 am on a national holiday.

I have reached the point of going beyond an angrily worded mental letter with these dogs, my friends. Actually, I reached that point last year. I wrote an actual strongly worded letter to the President of Golf Links (who is not Mr. Singh, my landlord, anymore but someone else entirely) last year when the barking dogs took me to the breaking point. I even dolled it up on fancy letterhead and everything, and he wrote me back on fancy letterhead, but the point he made was this: yes, there are dogs that live on the streets of Golf Links. In fact, there are 23 and they have been carefully catalogued by animal rights proponents in the community. Said activists have ensured that if any dog goes missing or is harmed, the police will rain down upon the perpertrator with fiery anger and great vengeance. So, he wrote, his hands are tied.

The basic deal here is that there are plenty of people in Golf Links who have pet dogs. For the most part they take care of them and the dogs are relatively well-behaved. This is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Delhi, and so most people not only walk their dogs regularly, they also have their servants take them out for walks. These dogs are kept on leashes and while they do pooh on the street, they are otherwise not a nuisance. THEN there are the street dogs. But these aren't street dogs in the real sense. They don't scavenge for food and wander around. Oh no. These dogs live on the street, but are fed and watered by specific residents so that they always stick around that particular house. They sit out on the street all day and all night protecting their territory. Which means, ERGO, that they spend all day and all night barking at:

- the nice dogs going for their walks

- any unusual vehicle driving by

- each other

The crazy people who feed the dogs (including my upstairs and three-doors-down neighbours!!!) think that feeding them is a great idea, but they don't seem to think they have any responsibility to train the dogs to be quiet. In addition, they take no responsibility for making sure that the dogs don't frighten or bite people or other dogs. Mr. Singh was talking to me tonight after I called him at 7 am yelling about the barking dogs, and he was saying that his friend took his dog for a walk and the dog got his ear bitten off by one of the street dogs, and he threw a rock at the street dog, and then one of the animal rights people threatened to call the cops on him for throwing the rock!!!

In many ways I love this city, but there are some ways in which it is entirely just off-kilter. You're willing to coddle street dogs, but won't take any responsibility for making your community a safer, happier place by making sure that the dogs are well-behaved? It's crazy - one of the people who is part of the 3-person activist group was asked to feed the dogs in the (very pleasant) alley so that it would create a central spot for them and keep them off the main road, and you know what her response was? She wouldn't dream of doing that because the servants use the alley. !!!!!!!!!.

Under the influence of The Wire, I am starting my own surveillance of the dogs which I then plan to use in some kind of make-shit-happen kind of way. I've already mentally crafted posters ("If You Feed Street Dogs, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! Train the dogs to be quiet and calm!" - Golf Links Residents for A More Peaceful Community) and mug shots and I'm working on my door-to-door handouts. Of course, you know like in The Wire if I actually succeed at bringing these dogs' crimes to justice, it won't be happy justice, they'll probably all get taken down cold bloodedly. Kind of ironic and all cause today I watched the episode in which Cheese gets brought in and the wire gets given up because they think they've got him on a murder, but it turns out when he says he shot 'that dog', he actually meant he shot his dog. Like, his pit bull. Lotta egg on a lot of faces down at the precinct after that. [Oh, and on a side note, my favourite line from the series thus far has got to be Bunk's line, after McNulty asks him who he is (like kind of on a philisophical level, cause they are old friends), and Bunk says, "I'm just a humble motherf----r with a big d--k."]

I say give me a damn dog catcher and send him after my idiot neighbours and that will take care of that.

Yours Irately - T. Niedzwiecki

[Delhi-26-January-2012]

wednesday afternoon

Yo yo yo... Here at school waiting for my 5 o'clock rehearsal of Beauty and the Beast. I'm running lights, and have finally figured out how to program the light board, very exciting because I have been forcing the kids and the lighting technician to do that for me for the past couple of months. Self empowerment is a good thing, right?

Busy day today, but luckily it started off with Seung Yi not being a complete s--- in the morning. She has been a disaster lately, but today she was ready in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Laree is good, got in trouble last night for snacking on chips and hiding them in Ji's room - think she was mad at Iaimon cause Iaimon fed her before we got home. Ji is doing well - he is on a diet of getting better at basic mathematics. At our school they do a yearly standard test to see how the kids are doing compared to students in the US. Ji scored in the 99th percentile for basically everything except punctuation and spelling and simple math computation. Reading, writing, math problem solving and understanding, all 99th percentile. Basic math computation 24th percentile!!!! Slack ass. So: math diet! The good news is that he has Phet to work with him and Phet LIKES math, which is a big bonus compared to me. All the kids are also working on learning how to play Chinese Chess (yes, in China they just call it chess, Seung Yi) and are continuing on with their football games. Laree actually got her foot on the ball at the last match, but Seung Yi has yet to actually kick a ball during a game. Ji's team is not doing well in the standings, but he personally has done great this season and is an aggressive little defensive player.

We had a nice celebration for Chinese New Year on Sunday - took out Iaimon and her 2 friends and the 11-year-old son of one of the friends, and Malai, and went for Korean food at the great Gung Palace in Green Park. It's family-run and full of guests all the time and has a very cheerful atmosphere and is not that expensive. We stuffed ourselves with 2 plates of grilled beef, 1 huge platter of 3-layer pork, a fried fish with sweet sauce, 2 huge bowls of bim bim bap, all the introductory kim chi fixings, and whole bunch of beer, and some fruit to finish things off. I was a little "tired" on Monday morning, but I think the massive meat intake helped to balance out the beer.

In other exciting news, I went to the Canadian Embassy - heh heh, the "High" commission, not embassy - yesterday. I'm supposed to travel to Doha, Qatar, on Feb 9th, but my passport doesn't have 6 months validity to I had to apply for a new one. I was really scrambling around the day before. First, we took photos on Sunday at the mall, but they turned out to be the wrong size. So John took them in to the photo shop to get the correct size, but they made our heads too big. In the meantime I filled in the kids forms (they need passports, too) but the pdfs didn't save so I had to re-do all the forms. Then we had to go get more pictures taken so the heads would be the right size, and I went to buy a little gift for the kids' lovely doctor, Dr. Gupta, because I had to get her to be our guarantor because we haven't known any other doctors or lawyers or what-have-yous for 2 years here other than her, and then I had to go out to her clinic at 8pm to see her, and then the receptionist thought I was waiting to see her husband, the diabetes doctor, because I didn't have any kids with me and so she let another person (with a kid) go ahead of me and they took, like 40 minutes with the doctor, and I finally got home at 9pm. Then yesterday had to sneak out (not really) after a class and run over the the embassy and got to enjoy their super bomb-proof waiting room and viewing capsule. Phew!

Tomorrow we've got a day off for Republic Day, but I'll be at school for the big show rehearsal most of the day...

Hear from Toronto that Mum has gotten our furnace fixed - thanks, Mum! Hope all is well with everyone else!

[Delhi-25-January-2012]

from the mixed-up files of ji hong randall sayo

Found Ji's old notebook from last year in the cabinet and thought I'd share some choice entries with you. I think the teachers made them start writing it after recess because the kids were battling at their break or something. Anyways, good reading!

8/9/10

Well Here comes another year, been hear long enufe to understand conflict, new kids might be righting all about (fine by me) it but really it's not going to make a Difrence.

8/10/10

at reces we played tag around the slide. As ushuawal mathew was realy fussy about exsactly HOW many pepole played and stopt playing but he came back eventuly (normel).

8/11/01

I found the best spot on the slide was sitting rigt on top of it. Heres why: easy to doge atagc if theer is any chance at all and it's realy easy to tag somone. the only real danger is climders and peapole want to get you back.

8/23/10 [Ed Note: not quite sure how Ji's dating system works; see previous entry]

Today at lunch I started the booger touch and as we speek my fingers are crosed protecting me from Manas who carries the horor to ESL this minute! The way it started was Mathew tickeld me in the lunnc room wich made me spew snot on to my hand and nose! I dicided to have a litel fun and chase them and later ivolve into a carier and give the chase rules (I evutuly pasd it down to evan).

8/24/10

Today all was ell, we played four sqare in short nothing hapinde (I'm totally going to destroy Joanathan and mathew by the way). I teamed up with Joanathan forever (so did almoust everyone else). Listin I'll put it down flat, I've got NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT!

8/30/10

Today i got realy mad at Mathew for cheeting and started to play with other peapole and other that that nothing much but let me tell you playing with fifth graders is way more fun than playing with mathew.

31 Aug 2010 [Date stamped in ink]

Today I got a call rihgt as I was playing four sqare (I still don't know who called). Nothing else realy happend thou I did let the asistant teache in on how lunch is better than reces.

9/15/10

today we biult the longest canals ever! To bad we had block them up because we weren't alowd to.

9/10/10

Today I dug a super long cannal with a spoon all by my self.

9/27/10

These anoying fourth graders were gogging the slide today and were all like "oh we're the boss" and clogged it up so we couldn't play tag.

Teachers note: Think about how you can make a plan to fix this problem.

On the next page, pencil drawing showing an x-ray of the slide after Ji did his "plan" on it, in which all the 4th graders are getting hit inside the slide, and are shouting "Gah!" "Akk!" "Eek!" "Oh no no no no...NO!" "Aaah!" and at the end of the slide a dead fourth grader has fallen out, and is labelled: "Result".

9/30/10

Today I made up a new kind of four square called dubble dubble. Here's the rules: 4 everything king can say airballs or no airballs, king can say normel, Header, or wenier, in normel you can only hold the ball for four seconds but you can throw the ball and cach it if you want to avoid running out of time, in wienyr you can do everything the same except youcan only use your wenie.

10/7/10

Today I played on the tire swing the first recess. I got so dizzy that you can give it to luck I didn't puke on my art project.

[Ed Note: I think we've all been in that situation, haven't we?]

10/20/10

ROCK ON! you call playing tag old fasion? I love it every day more peaple come from all over the playground to play our now Playground-famous tag game and those who come almoust always stay.

11/15/10

I discovered something new to do at recess: I found some rocks that you can use to make colored powder.

11/18/10

I spent the recess diging in the new sand pile. There are holes all over it now.

11/18/10

I found it hard to work as a teem but I thought it was realy fun when you had to be resorsful like in the bridge making or flipping over the carpet. I learned from watching another teem that sometimes you need to use teem work.

12/1/10

I was sopposed to have time-out but Miss Saburwall wasn't there so I spent the recess running away.

12/2/10

I spent the recess running away from O. and her horsey girlfriend shes after me for a reason no one knows. She won't leave me be!!! I'm going to raise an armie aganst her she will soon meet her DOOM!

This recess I spent running from, hiding from, and fighting with O. and her gang. But she better wach out 'cause I'm building a bulky armie of boys and w'll soon out number them. But realy I'm not sure I need them. I was doing fine even as her club started to grow but now with extra help I'm going to chase her off the playground she'll beg for mercy Ha-ha-ha! I've already outsmarted her and out manuvered her now it's time to outnumber her! I call it the uncivil war!

12/6/10

I was sooooooo tiiiiiiirrreddd that I didn't chase O. and instead slept on a rock and now that I have it all set up to sleep this recess will be a great big ZZZZZ...

1/4/11

Happy New Year!!! hey I got home real early yesterday so don't mind if the pencil goes off like thisss O.K.? good now today at recess I played tag today (I did take short rests behind rocks) we were reading this book called ruby holler and I was realy disapointed I missed the ending.

1/5/11

Today I played tag but the main event was while we were in line Mrs. Saburwall brougt over a chest (and when I say chest I mean smaller carbon coppie of the triditionell metal and wood piaret bootie) full of cookies!

February 8, 2011 [Script now is cursive, suddenly]

I'm having trouble getting stuff done for two reasons: 1: I talk alot with my friends. 2: I kind of work at a slow pace. I realy far behind on hand writing mostly because I wasn't writing fast enogh and I was sick. But as for my map it was probablly mostly because I was talking alot.

March 7, 2011

I spent most of resses digging tunnels in a HUGE pile of sand that appeared out of Nowhere.

March 16, 2011

I've made a forumulla for face paint (I might want to try making normall paint soon at recess. I'd also like to talk about the show were doing, Where the Wild Things Are, I think I'm fairly important witch is nice to think.

March 18, 2011

I can't believe the play is over! It was so fast! As for new gossip I'm reading this great book called "The Amber spy glass".

March 29, 2011

We're doing a unit on writing persuasive writing me and my partner chose two topics and can you guess what we wrote about? Soccer? Pah! Caffetirie food? Puh-lees! We got past the level of kid intrest and beyond to the level of super-adult super-serious hyper-important-zone or at least we must have to think of these titels: "No Capital Punishment" and "Homosexualaty Is Not A Crime". See what I mean??! the auther of "To Kill a moking bird" would be Jealouse!!!

[Ji Hong-21-January-2012]

fire burning, fire burning...in the community center?

Ok, don't worry, it wasn't a big one. But while Phet was on the treadmill a couple of days ago, an electrical fire started up in the community center from the fuse box. He's got his earphones on, and all of a sudden all the badminton guys are shouting at him to go out the window because sparks and flames are shooting out and covering the entrance door. THEN, the next day Phet goes to work and he's sitting at his desk and suddenly someone goes by shouting, "Fire!" and he goes to investigate and there is an electrical fire that started from the heater IN HIS OLD OFFICE. His ex-assistant grabbed a potted plant and smashed it all over the fire and then his other colleague came in with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it all over. Phet came home and was like, "Maybe we should get a fire alarm...and an extinguisher...what do you think?" I'm like, "YES."

And this after one of our students suffered serious electrical burns at a hotel from an un-fenced electricized thing of awfulness.

India: where we could use a little sampling of electrical safety and security!

[Delhi-20-January-2012]

rain in delhi in january? preposterous!

So, for the second day in the past two weeks: rain! Very unusual for our climate, which is normally incredibly dry at this time of year. It's been a funny January; very cold for a week, then two days ago it warmed up so we didn't feel cold in the morning - still cool, but not cold, and then this rain. Kind of good, though, as it's kept the sky fresh and clean when there is alot of smoke going up from warming-people-up fires.

I am really, really sleepy this evening. It's 8:07 pm and my eyeballs are rolling back into my head. Not sure why since I went to bed last night at about 9:15...maybe it's because today was my rilly busy day. Three classes back to back, running around to check on my yearbook photographers at lunch, had to go see the cashier to deposit money from our big sleepover, had to write a bunch of emails, went to pick up Seung Yi, had our first ISTA meeting and watched Despicable Me in the theatre (we are going to get the kids to be minions and then do a bunch of silly stuff and film it while we travel to Bejing. Watch out for stories about our squid gun! Also had the tailor drop in to measure kids for their minion overalls, and then spent an hour setting lights for the faculty musical. Got home at 6:30 done in and had a nice dinner of egg sandwiches and fancy salad. Ji immediately sussed out my inspiration, "Oh, so you're trying to replicate Auntie Cathie's salad recipie, aren't you?" Sadly no bacon here... Mind you, the lack of bacon is also probably good for our hearts and bellies. Sorry, in reality there is bacon available in Delhi, it's just not yummy bacon. It is - if you can imagine - too salty.

The girls are doing well - Laree is talking stuff and nonsense as always, and Seung Yi is a sassy little sass-o-matic. This morning by the time she finally freaking walked out the door Phet and I were at DefCon a billion and were like "JUST DON'T TALK." It's this endless teenagery backtalk with that girl, or yawningly endless ignoring. I think I need to start drinking laudanum to deal with it all. Anyone know a good source?

Speaking of drugs, I'm onto season two of The Wire. I think I kind of love McNulty. Has anyone else noticed how he says his letter Ds closer to his teeth than the front palate of his mouth? It's very adorable. Also, his twinkly-eyed smile. And speaking of The Wire, methinks it is time for my nightly hit. Stand back while I open the vial and fire things up...

[Delhi-17-January-2012]

wherein I meet a Korean pop superstar

So, check this out: today my Vice Principal calls me up and tells me that one of our students has a brother who just won the Korean version of American Idol for acting and he's willing to come in to talk to my drama class - do we want to meet him? Hells yes! So, delightfully, he came and joined us and told us about the process he went through in order to beat 20 000 other actors who auditioned for the show. TWENTY THOUSAND, yes, that is correct. And he had a pretty fascinating back story, too: brain tumor when he was a kid, major surgery, 3 additional surgeries to fix his eyes, and even now - even now! - he has to train himself to look like he's seeing properly on camera when in fact his eyes don't actually focus together properly (though they look like they do). If you want to check him out, go to youtube and you can watch: his impression of Heath Ledger's Joker; his dramatic and emotional monologue; his 8-year-old-kid scene followed by his drunken police officer beating on a gangster scene; or his very cute Hyundai car commercial that he was cast for after winning the show.

[Meeting Famous People-16-January-2012]

sunday morning / sunday evening

Just got off Skype with Mum and Dad, nice to see them and talk to them after a week of radio silence. Heard that Doris is back at home after just a few days in the hospital (which is kind of good, since she wants to be at home, and kind of bad, because she probably shouldn't be at home. The nieghbours are getting food to her, but she is terribly frail. We were there the day Mum took her in to the hospital - she hadn't gone for nearly a WEEK after getting a compound spine fracture! Ai ai ai, these older folks are HARD CORE. Also heard that my Grampa's brother, blue-eyed Stan, is surprisingly not well. He was on a bus to Vegas, had a small fall, got taken to the doctor by his wife, and he has all kinds of cancer! Have to say, though, for a tough old Niedzwiecki, that's probably about the ratio of pain and suffering to medical care that he would prefer to receive, which is to say: zero to zero.

Around here, things are good. We finally got over our jetlag, at very long last. The kids had a good week at school; SY was loving seeing her friends and teachers, and Ji seemed pretty happy also. He had his buddies over one night, think I mentioned that. Phet is trucking along at work, wearing his excellent variety of cashmere sweaters, Fabindia shirts, and all his new MEC swag. Yesterday, I was at school ALL NIGHT LONG for our annual sleepover in the theatre. For a few years the highschoolers did drama workshops for our kids, and now it has morphed into dance workshops, which I think work better because the kids are up and running (ha - or dancing) really quickly in that time span, and it's good and active for a Friday night when they are both hepped up on end-of-the-week goofballs, but also kind of tired from all their classes. Before the sleepover, Patricia hosted one of her famous Friday Happy (Several) Hours. I caffeinated myself with Diet Coke and Ji and I stuffed ourselves with delcicious appetizers so we wouldn't be hungry in the evening. At 6, I went over to the theatre to get ready with Briar, and her lovely high school students came to set up as well. They were a truly delightful bunch - and can you imagine being a HS kid and GIVING UP your Friday night to hang out with middle schoolers? We're talking service to humanity types, here.

The kids came to the theatre at 7 with all their sleeping bags, and then rotated through half hour workshops and then breaks till about 9. I lucked into getting put on audio duty, and got to chill out up in the booth while the HS kids ran their modern dance workshop. Meanwhile, over in the dance studio we had a guest teacher running a fun Bollywood piece, and our other high schoolers did a hip hop routine. I asked Ji if he wanted to come to the sleepover, and he did, so he joined up with one of the groups and he did a great job dancing - so cute! In the evening we ate a bunch of junk food and then settled down to watch Step Up 3 in our pajamas. Great fun as a dance movie, super catchy music - we used Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork" in After Juliet last year, and Briar used "I Won't Dance" in her Baggage show. It was an awful film in terms of plot and so forth, but whatevah... good moves, good message. We made the kids settle down awhile after 11 and luckily I only had to do one cranky-voiced "now, girls..." before they mostly went to sleep. They started stirring again at 7 am, at which point I got up and put some music on the sound system, washed my face, and went to make Briar and I some instant coffee in the staff room. After the kids all got up and ate leftover cake, we had them rehearse their dances, and then came together as a huge group of 50 to do them all together - it looked great! Then, off to eggs and toast in the canteen, and said farewell to the kids and went home to shower before going BACK to school to set lights for our upcoming staff musical, Beauty and the Beast.

I think I'm starting to get the knack a little better for lights after doing my workshop at RADA over the summer. I'm more confident in moving the lights and more articulate in asking the lighting technician to do what I want him to do. Our theatre is sort of weird in that most of our lights are permanently placed and rarely moved, so instead of changing lights for each show, we kind of stick with what's there. We had some challenges last year because our stage changed but our lights didn't, so it was getting really hard to light certain areas effectively. Also, our light board seemed to not be working properly with our LEDs. To fix these problems, first I asked to get some new lights put in at the sides in front of the stage, which has helped. Then, we got a new light board and some training from the board dudes, and now our programming is working properly. On Saturday, I had 2 tech kids and 3 moving-around-bodies kids and we were able to move the lights to suit our set, we got some coloured gels on key lights, and then we were able to at least get basic settings for our 3 main places - the village, the creepy forest, and the castle. Hopefully on Tuesday we'll get in and finish up the rough work, test it out at rehearsal on Wednesday, and then fine-tune on the weekend. Overall, it's a nice time to be doing this work as I don't have a show underway, and I am just pleasantly, normally busy and not run off my skull with rehearals.

Now, it's Sunday night - Phet is cooking a beef tenderloin and Malai's coming by for dinner. We had a lazy morning at home, tidying a little and watching some Futurama. My fiesta of watching The Wire continue unabated - now at about episode 9 (still season one, mind you). Had a nice chat with Mum and Dad on skype this morning and am thrilled that Dad will be coming in March - yay, Dad! Still waiting to hear from my baby neice, who is up in Mulmur living the sweet life of multiple couches and in-house grandparents and snowy views on all sides.

This afternoon we went out to the mall at Vasant Kunj to pick up some clothes for the kids - Ji had recently outgrown basically ALL of his pants, and we are still waiting for SY's wardrobe to arrive with the missing bag...I'm hoping that I've skewed karma and now that I've bought her 7 new outfits, the bag will miraculously show up. We started out at the mall with a mega feast at the food court - Delhi style snack food (puris with chick peas, fried paratha with chicken curry, giant hollow ball of deep fried yummy crunchy exterior filled with potatoes and yogurt and coriander sauce and tamarind sauce and other goodies) plus some naan and chicken tikka, and a "chinese" thali with noodles and spicy chicken. Phew! We were stuffed by the end of the meal - that's the problem with going to eat when you're ravenous - you end up ordering way too much! Then we dropped by Mothercare and got a bunch of stuff on sale for SY, and then stopped by Pantaloons (a department store here - great name, eh?) and found a pair of jeans for Ji and then went to my favourite cheapo store, Big Bazaar, and picked up 5 more pairs of pants for Ji and one pair of sporty Addidas-type pants for SY. Then the kids had a gelato and we headed home.

The weather here is drop-dead gorgeous at the moment: clear blue skies, sunshine, cool in the evening and warm and pleasant during the day. Kind of like October in Hanoi or a really nice June in Toronto, or maybe August in Calgary. Wish youse were all here!

Coming up this week: more work! More time with my really very nice new students! Football! Dinners! Shopping! Ah, life.

[Delhi-15-January-2012]

the wire

We got the full, all-seasons compilation of The Wire last year, must've been from Dad. Or maybe Adam? Either way, we love you both even if we are ungrateful gift-giver-forgetters. On the way back to Delhi I picked up the latest copy of Rolling Stone and then the other day I read about an actress from The Wire while I was brushing my teeth. The person they did a story on is someone who grew up in Baltimore, who was convicted of killing another girl when she was 15, who has been in and out of the drug trade even after being in the show. Well, that sounded pretty interesting and all, but the thing that made me actually want to watch an episode was that they mentioned a couple of times in the article how she had a super heavy Baltimore accent, that the accent crushes down vowels so that they are all held very close in the mouth. Now that made me want to watch The Wire, I'm not kidding. Plus I was also trying to evade the deathly error of going to bed too early due to jetlag...and it is really difficult not to fall prey to napping if you don't have a TV, especially when it's winter time. Why? Let's see... um, would you like to WORK when you're excrutiatingly tired? Nope. Can you read a book? Probably not, sucker. How about cook dinner or clean the house? Yah, right. Say, it's cold out right? So, actually, you're probably all wrapped up in blankets. You don't have the heater on, so the room is really cold, and you're warm and cozy, and you're trying NOT to sleep when your eyes are so wrung out and red that you look like you are remarkably high, well that's a great strategy, right? Zzzzzzzzzz...zzz...zzz.z...zz... No, the only thing that will help is television. You don't have to talk or focus or interact with anyone, you can do it while you are in bed, you don't have to move, and YET - AND YET: your brain will stay awake.

So, I ended up popping in the first DVD for The Wire and really enjoyed it. I'm now on episode 6. My favourite scene was in the last episode, when McNulty and his partner solved a murder scene in the course of five minutes of film using only the F-word, or the M-F-word, or the F-ity, F-, F-, F combo. It was INSPIRED scriptwriting, acting, and filming. I wish I'd been the director who came up with that. Overall, the show is simple and good. I guess everyone else already knows about it because it has been out for ages, but I'd never really heard of it. Or, I'd heard of it, but I sort of collapsed it with that Kiefer Sutherland show in my mind. It's one of those nice HBO shows that really let actors sink into the characters and let the stories rollingly, slowly develop over the course of several seasons. McNulty's terrific - must google him and find out what else he's been in. His new boss has an amazing snappy my-jaws-are-pulled-together-by-tight-rubber-bands and also I'm-simmeringly-angry-all-the-time kind of way of talking. I like Keema, though I was pretty surprised when she joined in and beat up Bootie after he punched a cop in the face. Deangelo Barksdale is pretty awesome with his subtle tiny-movements-on-his-face acting style. Freamon, the quietly-polishing-furniture, old-schooley detective is great. It's all pretty engaging - but I still haven't gotten to meet Snoop with her incredible Baltimore accent yet. I guess I will have to carry on and watch ALL THE OTHER FIVE SEASONS. Feel sorry for my kids and husband, y'all.

[Delhi-12-January-2012... ooooh, check that out, it's 12/1/2012...looks cool!]

no pics, why dreamweaver, why?

After all my hard work at work the other day, not doing work and writing on here instead, and after taking nice photos of my class to show you, there is nothing coming up online for the photos! How annoying. I've tried 4 different ideas on how to fix this, but nothing works. So I will be forced to ask my husband for help. Phet, you've been warned.

[Delhi-12-January-2012]

work!

Currently sitting at my desk back at work - and no, I don't have a class right now, so you can't send my boss an annonymous email and get me fired for slacking off. Today's my easier day, two classes instead of three, so I've got a few minutes to write in between running around and doing stuff (yes, that is my official job description) and teaching (which is also often running around and doing stuff).

It is a gorgeous winter day here in Delhi. The sun is shining like crazy, and after the rain on the night we got in, the air has been nice and clear. It's cool for Delhi (cold enough outside even in the sun to want at least a light sweater, cold enough at night to have 3 blankies and to use my son as a hot water bottle) and apparently there was a heap of snow up in Shimla over the weekend. We have almost gotten back on track from our jetlag - last night was the first night I pretty much almost slept through, though I did fall droolingly hard asleep at 9 pm on the dot. Seung Yi had football practice after school yesterday, and she successfully managed to wake up after napping in the car on the way home and then played like a maniac in the evening with Laree, setting up a "dance studeo" and playing ukelele and drums while wearing a blonde mega wig and a Chinese suit while Laree sang into the sparkle mic from Uncle Jake, wearing the purple wig. Good times! Ji had two buddies, Jeffrey and Tony (ho ho ho, they have Korean names that sound like Ji's, but Ji is the only one who uses a non-English name! What a hoot!) over to play and they are very huge kids and they reminded me Ji is slowly turning into a teenager! Ai ai ai. They stayed to eat biryani and got lured into trying the really spicy chilli peppers Iaimon had in the fridge and then their faces turned red and one of them almost cried. Niiiice family to visit, us.

Thought I'd share my view here at my desk with you today:

Note my awesome double monitor and my most excellent long wooden desk. You can also see, Mum, the paper garland you bought - it's hanging along the wire at the top of the room. If I turn to my right I can see all my desks and my costume closet at the back of the room and my nice blue paint:

As my swivel chair turns even further right, you can see my double decker costume hanging racks (designed by ME) and some play posters:

And here's my plant supply, my giant robot, my anchor, and hiding at the back you can see my ship's wheel, and behind that is a wee metal elephant from Zambia that my colleague brought back for me after the summer. Lastly, my cool secret office that is full of all the drama and makeup supplies and books and other goodies:

[Delhi-10-January-2012]

flights back to delhi

Currently 5pm-ish here in Delhi - yes, Delhi! Home again, home again. I'm hanging out in the living room, and from where I'm sitting, the funniest thing is SY's whiteboard 'n markers drawing of the (each letter backwards): DEVIL. It's the cute triangley headed devil from Futurama, holding a perfect trident, looking all adorable. Way to go, Seung Yi. I just woke up an hour ago from a good and luckily not too delirious nap. Everyone else is currently out at the park trying to stay awake. The weather here is strangely Vancouveresque. When we got in it was raining (in January! in Delhi!) and today it was about 13', overcast, sort of humid and chilly, but of course compared to Toronto everything is very green. And the rain has cleared the air up, which is good. I always used to be a secret fan of the smell of Delhi's smoky air, but this fall we had such heavy air pollution, I'm starting to not be such a fan after all. Apparently and sadly we now have more pollution than Beijing.

The flights back to Delhi were ok, and the timings were great. Unlike here, where we have to always leave at 3 am and then it takes daaaaays to recover from traveling, coming out of Toronto the flight leaves at a very manageable 6pm, then a couple of hours in Brussels when it is midnight-feeling, and then you get on the second flight and arrive in Delhi at Delhi-midnight. All very conducive to a faster recovery. We flew Jet, and they are ok (and well-priced). The first flight, though, seemed super warm to me and that made it seem kind of claustrophobic (sp?). I had watched almost every single movie on the system, and ended up watching the ones that I had left behind for being too glum (North Country, which was actually quite good, if predictable) and too old (Marley & Me, which just made me - no offence Anne and Robin - think that dog ownership is generally a poor idea...man, I don't know if dog trainers were up in arms about that film, but I have to say I didn't find it cute that Marley was so unmanageable and that they only gave him one try at obedience school, I thought he was horrible! I'm already not too fond of regular, nice dogs, let alone massively huge and untrained behemoths... could have something to do with the latter-day dogs on my uncle's farm, though Lady and Sally were sweethearts).

In Brussels, we bought our usual pork sausage snack balls and laid ourselves flat on a 4-seater. We boarded pretty quickly, and I ended up having good results when I got cranky about getting Ji seated near SY and I. They had put us not just apart, but in two different sections so that I couldn't even see him, and he had already been apart from us on the first flight. Could it have something to do with the fact that they don't allow web check in for people with kids??? Anyways, I made a fuss and held my ground, and in the end the flight attendant got us seated across from each other at the back of the plane. Then, the really good news is that a Mom switched *3* seats for my seat and SY's seat because she wanted to let her kid sit by the window, so we ended up with a sprawling 3 seater, which has been unheard of for us travelling to and from Delhi in ages - the flights are just always booked solid. And in the meantime, Ji already had one extra seat as well, so those two conked out comfortably for almost the whole flight, and I got a blessed 4 hours of sleep. I checked out the new Footloose when I woke up - not bad in some ways (cuteness, decent acting, sweet redneck sidekick for Ren), but bad in others (JULIANNE HOUGH! Yech! She is like an exact replica of Jennifer Aniston, the way her eyelashes go upwards and her eyebrows lift when she's "acting". And also? She's way too freaking skinny - looks ok in jeans, but then in her (incredibly ugly and cheap looking) prom dress, she looks like a skinned rat with 80s hair; oh, and also, I HATED the weird blocky grey vest they put Ren in for his big speech scene).

We got through customs super easily in Delhi, but then had the big setback to the trip: one bag didn't make it to Delhi. Of course it was the one with all of SY's clothes and her baby doll in it and my school books. Grr... Well, let's hope Jet finds it. I had pretty much had it with them - they were nice enough, but not managing the missing bag reports very well, and it took about an hour just to make sure the bag wasn't there (they kept making me wait when that was clear to me already) and then they had to go get missing back report sheets because they didn't have any (!) and yadda yadda and while all this annoying boringness was going on, Seung Yi and Ji swapped sitting spots of a baggage cart and it tipped over and squashed Seung Yi's wee little hand! I was so scared she might've broken her arm, but aside from some swelling and sad bruising, it is ok and she can flex, but she looks sooo sad testing it! So, bad end to a good trip.

Hope the new year is treating everyone well!

[On The Road-7-January-2012]

sneeze, cough, shiver, repeat

Bleh, have now spent both the first and last thirds of my holiday being sick. What a drag. Not stuck in London? Great! Still stuck in misery? Bad! It's been a weird one this time - aches and fever on New Year's Eve, quiet tired day on the 1st, then snuffles and cough on the 2nd, and wretched fever and queasiness back on the 3rd, and now perhaps winding down ever so slightly on the 4th - and HAVE TO FLY tomorrow! Yargh.

Good news: managed to get myself and the kids in to the dentist yesterday and we are all looking very sparkly-shiny in the tooth department.

Truly excellent news: Leah got off her leg braces yesterday! She had to wear them because her hips were out of joint (not her nose) after being in breech position. In some ways, the brace was handy because it made her feel very solid and tough, well and of course it was extremely handy because it fixed her legs, but in other ways it was a pain - hard to diaper around, hard to put back on, hard to give her a bath, lots of worries in case things weren't getting fixed by the brace. But now: brace free! Best of all, Leah can now wear fancy dresses, tights, shoes, and all kinds of other adorable acoutrements that were previously verboten. Cuteness alert rising to level BABY POLAR BEAR!

[Toronto-4-January-2012]

the cheese review

There are lots of year end reviews in the papers and online, as we finish up with 2011 (good year, in lots of ways, as far as I was concerned) and begin 2012 (hopefully gooder!). I thought I'd add in my thoughts on an important concern of mine, namely: cheese. I love cheese. I've been asked by my kids what my favourite meal is, and also what foods I could live on forever if I had to, and I have narrowed it down to bread and cheese. It would be great if I could get butter, too, but there are plenty of buttery cheeses that would do in a pinch. As for the bread, I would prefer it to be of great and wonderous variety - everything from challah, to pumpernickle, to sourdough, to baguettes, to anything wheaty and nutty and grainy, and everything in between. But now! Onto the cheese review!

Best Standard Cheese

Cheddar, duh. Cut into those little cubes on an inexpensive cheese and veg tray, who can resist cheddar? Or grilled between slices of wonder bread to a gluey, perfect consistency matched by the crispy-chewy fried bread, yum. A nice, ancient and crumbly variety beside Uncle Pat's apple pie. Works just fine with a sandwich, or on an English style ploughman's lunch platter. I will admit it: I even like single-package string cheeses with cartoon characters on the outside.

Best Grown Up Cheese

Manchego. It's got a classy looking exterior, with the charcoal grey ashy bit pressed in with the mold to create attractively decorative lines on the outside. Inside, it's like parmesan's creamier more sociable cousin. We only eat it when Tara buys it, which is lucky, because I find it very hard indeed to stop eating manchego once I've started. And I was only introduced to it a few years ago (by Tara of course) which is also good for the same reason. Stands up nicely in a salad, works well alongside other appetizers, doesn't compete for attention, but makes me keep strolling by the cheese tray to casually slice off another bite of excellence.

Best In Show

Riopelle. We grew up eating a good variety of brie and other creamy cheeses. I like a nice brie, but sometimes it's hard to remember which one is particularly good, and occasionally you run into a brie that is not pleasing at all. I do love a kilo or twelve of St. Andre, but that's basically a plain old butterfat kind of love. If it were socially acceptable for me to eat sticks of butter, I'd probably do that, but since I can't at least there's St. Andre. But Riopelle is truly in a class of its own. It is actually officially called "Le Riopelle de L'Isle" and was named for the famous Quebecois painter, Jean Paul Riopelle who agreed, just before he died, to have the cheese named after him and to have one of his artworks grace the label for the cheese. Riopelle is made on an island near the town of Montmagny, where our dear friend Alex grew up. Also awesome: it was Alex who introduced us to this cheese. For a long time, we had to wait to get it from her. I remember being quite decidedly pregnant with Seung Yi (must've been 8 months or so, because I was back in Toronto) and we were waiting at the Ethiopian restaurant on Queen West to have dinner, but it took about an hour and a half for our injera to be ready, and I was just about to keel over in a big pregnant heap from lack of food, when Alex showed up with a big chunk of triple cream Riopelle. It was unbelievably delcicious. Riopelle looks like a very tall brie - about 2 1/2, 3 inches high, it has a nice soft exterior, and then the cheese inside is intriguingly slightly creamier on the top and the bottom, and a tiny bit drier in the middle. It has a taste that is both intensely buttery but also a little bit nicely sharp in spots. If you get it straight out of the fridge, the dry sharpness sometimes prevails, and if you've left it out to soften for awhile you get an increased creaminess. Truly a cheese for all seasons!

Honourable Mentions

Havarti. Reliable ol' Havarti. Rich, easy to buy in sandwich slices, tasty and filling. Good with some hearty wintery soup - on the side, with some bread - not in the soup, silly.

Cream cheese. Uh, hello - cheese cake? My favourite dessert of all time? Yes, this is Thaba calling. I love you. I would like to have you on my plate every single day. What's that, cheesecake? My Dad won't bake you daily? You mean he only bakes you, like, every 3 months or so? Fine, then, I will eat your non-sweetened base on bagels for breakfast until I can see you again, mon amour.

Chevre. You see, I grew up with goats. Everyday I'd go out to the barn with my Grampa and he's milk the goats and sometimes he'd squirt the milk at me instead of into the tin pail. I even had my "own" goat, Snowball. When Grampa sold Snowball for a hundred bucks, he bought me a Canada Savings Bond with the money. So, me and goats go way back... we're, like, homies. But you know how that goes: you don't always want to eat cheese that smells like your homies. For a long time I was not a fan of chevre. I'd be like, yes great that is the smell of goat encapsulated in what looks to be like a tasty cheese, yech. But then - ah how wonderful the human ability to start to like stuff that you once hated is - I suddenly started to think chevre smelled great. I can remember exactly the moment when it happened: I was in Paris, with Phet (and maybe with Emma and maybe with Mum) and we stopped at a creperie near the Gare du Nord. It might have been by accident that I ordered the crepe stuffed with chevre, but it was a happy accident. Standing there in the freezing winter weather, surrounded by beautiful old grey Parisian buildings, eating a fresh-off-the-crepe-pan crepe - well, right then I decided chevre was yummy, and I haven't looked back since.

Oh, honey, no

Swiss cheese. I loathe swiss cheese. I can't explain it. I just hate it. It tastes wrong. Blagh!

Velveeta. Not actually cheese.

[Toronto-2-January-2012]

happy n-n-n-new year

Had Dad's famous Lamb Of Three Provenances last night for new year's dinner and then headed over to Anne and Robin's. Enjoyed some Frangelico (yes, I have a hobo's prediliction for sweet liquors - very much enjoy myself some Dubonnet, red vermouth, port, ice wine and the like. Do NOT like creamy sweet drinks like Bailey's or Kahlua, just in case you are wondering) while everyone else had champage. Tara was in fine form, Erin's hair is getting to be very long indeed, their friend Brian looked very charming in green checks and had acres of time to chat with the kids, Emma, Mum, Dad, and Leah showed up, and then we had our second annual Ten O'Clock New Year's Eve. The basic deal is that you just pick a random time at which you are starting to feel tired or when the kids need to go home and - ta dah! It's New Year's! Then you have a countdown, and no one feels guilty going home after that. Phet and I were both feeling kind of just slightly unwell and on the verge of actually not well, and Em was pretty much ready for bed after a long day with Leah. As we were leaving, Ji invited himself to sleep over, and Anne was happy with that, so in the end our 10 year old son kept the party going and represented us at the actual countdown. Apparently he was up past 2 and got everyone to watch his favourite youtube videos, like 'Rustin Biever' and 'How to be Ninja'.... haven't heard from Anne about how all this went down, but I guess better than the drink Ji made for Brian. That curdled. Yergh - please, someone, buy that kid a mixology book so he can do us proud whipping up manhattans and martinis, not toxic sludge.

When we got back to aunts' I was feeling really achey and not so good, and it turned into an actual fevery shakes deal, chattering teeth and uncontrollable shivering and all. H-h-h-h-happy new year. I woke up twice more with the shivers, but just kept dropping tylenol down the hatch, and it seems to have done the trick. I have a little cough, but otherwise have felt just tired and not full on sick today, luckily. I am trying to sleep and laze around as much as possible so that I will be well enough tomorrow to see Leah, my wonderful neice. Wish me luck!

[Toronto-1-January-2012]

shame

Thought it would be funny to go see a double bill of Shame and Carnage, but couldn't manage and only got to see Shame. Dang. Phet and I checked it out at the Scotiabank theatre at John and Richmond yesterday. Overall opinon? Ok, Michael Fassbender is willing to show everything in a mainstream film. Yes, he pees on camera and much much more. Sounds audacious, and it is... in some ways. The basic story is that he's a sex addict who is walking a very fine line trying to manage a superficially capable exterior personality with a very unweildy interior personality that deals with the challenges of life (ennui, ineffectuality, inability to naviagate close relationships, possibly crazy and damaging upbringing) with seemingly-thrilling-yet-actually-empty casual and paid-for sex. So far so good, right? Yeah, I know - I had you at Michael Fassbender and naked in the same sentence. Then there's the added complication of his messed-up sister, Carey Mulligan, coming to crash on his couch. Now, my theory is that if you stuck with the story and focused on the addiction side and his shame at being unable, at heart, to control himself - which he clearly thinks is important; his apartment could be featured in American Psycho Designer Monthly - it would have been a cutting-deep kind of movie. However, Steve McQueen murks things up unnecessarily in a few ways:

- we never really buy the shame MF is supposedly feeling.

- if the real point of the movie is to explore sex addiction, it seems almost contradictory to show so much very lovely skin and make the whole thing seem so attractive... I know that sounds weird, but what I mean is that the audience should get some kind of a freaked-out-by-the-compulsivity, shame-by-proxy kind of a feeling, but I don't think they do.

- there are some really bizarre bits that aren't meant to be bizarre, like when MF's skanky, skeevy, philandering boss finds all kinds of (not that bad) bad stuff on MF's hard drive, and acts all grossed out and is like, 'oh, do you think your intern left that on here?' - when the character they've built up as the boss would clearly have said either, 'hey bro, pass that on to me' or 'yo dude, don't surf the sexy stuff at work'. The director also seemed to think that he was really showing MF hit ROCK BOTTOM when he (in one - rather long - night): got together too speedily with his proto-girlfriend; got together energetically with a call-in friend; tried to get together with a woman at a bar but got punched in the head by her boyfriend outside instead; got together with a gentleman at a bath house; and then called in a couple more ladies du nuit for a final chasing-the-dragon sad-rictus-face finale. Ok, yeah, that's alot - but c'mon, it's not ROCK BOTTOM. They were all perfectly lovely looking, everyone was being basically nice (except the face-punching boyfriend), I dunno it was like the audience was expected to be like BATH HOUSE??? DOUBLE DATE SOUFFLE??? OMG! There is nowhere further down than that in our limited imaginations!

- and then there was the whole brother sister thing which was pretty well played but had this unnecessary creepy sexual overtone...now, of course, maybe one of the secret points of the movie (we don't know for sure, so this is not a spoiler) is that they were abused as kids, or had some very disturbing past family life, but it still just rang wrong notes, like the director wanted to elicit a particular response from the audience, but it just ended up being confusing and distracting from their real emotional connection and also from their battling. In the first scene they are in together, MF comes home and hears a record on and can tell someone is in his shower. He immediately decides it must be an intruder (yeah, cause you know intruders usually like to put on mellow jazz records before they STEAL ALL YOUR STUFF AND POOP ON YOUR FLOOR) and picks up a baseball bat and goes screaming into the bathroom, and then the rest of the scene plays out with Carey Mulligan (yes, his sister) stark naked. Hm. There are 3 other scenes with the same kind of weird vibe. Like, couldn't MF just get to be a messed up sex addict who has a crazy sister without there having to be sexual overtones to their relatioship too? In the end, I think even that could have been interesting if it was handled the right way, but in this film it wasn't, it was just kind of like - wha?

Anyways, as you can tell, the good news is that the movie made me think! And it was well worth watching for the nice, quiet, allowed-to-be-drawn-out scenes with minimal dialogue. Although I have to say I HATED it that they kept overlaying 'meaningful' classical music overtop of every nice, long, quiet scene. At home alone peeing? CLASSICAL MUSIC! Conflicted about your psycho sister and going for a jog? CLASSICAL MUSIC! Heterosexual but visiting the bath house just for kicks? DRAMATIC CLASSICAL MUSIC! Ok, ok, ok... could we just get a little bloody variety in the soundtrack, huh? Give Irvine Welsh a ring, I bet he could hook you up with a shame-full playlist.

[Toronto-30-December-2011]

sherlock holmes, part the second

Went to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie with Jake, Dad, Ji and Phet this afternoon. Good fun! Guy Ritchie gives it a go with some cool slow-it-down, speed-it-up battle shots (loved the exploding black dirt against the white winter trees). Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are delightful; Lane Price (yes, I know that's not his real name...on a side note OH PLEASE COULD MAD MEN COME BACK AND SOON? Lane Price...with his sassy Playboy bunny girlfriend, cane-beating-inflicting ruthless British father, and his enviable getting-to-go-on-a-mega-bender-with-Don-Draper luck...how I miss him...) is good as Moriarity. The story was a little confusing but it wasn't really the point at all, of course. It's really about the Holmes and Watson chemistry. I don't really get why there needs to be a threat to world peace every time - might be more fun to just have some local crime get solved, but whatever...it's a good excuse to put these two together onscreen and to enjoy some snappy 3 piece wool suits which are always worth the price of admission.

[Toronto-27-December-2011]

why yes, I did have an excellent christmas

What made Christmas great this year, you ask? Well thanks for asking, let me tell you!

1. Jake and Emma were both a) in town; b) able to come to not only christmas eve dinner, but also christmas morning stocking-enjoying and present opening, AND christmas dinner. What a treat! Next year Em will be back on call at work so we have to enjoy every moment of her luxuriant mat leave. As for Jake, must say that this was the one bright side to the divorce!

2. Leah! She was so unbearable cute and adorable for the whole day. She and Emma walked over in the freezing cold at 8 am, and then she was just little ball of christmas pudding for there on afterward. In the morning she had this long and happy wakeful period, then later when I was changing her she was smiling like crazy and kind of laughing, making these "ha!" (like, literally 'ha', not like a laugh) sounds. Her little sausage roll leggies are the squnchiest things ever. And then she often just sits straight upright and opens her eyes real big and observes what's going on. Or, observes the curtains. You know, whichever is more interesting. She's this super zen little being. And perfect!

3. ...oh, okay, and the rest of the family! Mum and Dad cooking, cleaning, and prepping like mad and being remarkably calm. Mum even let us try the chocolate mousse at tea time instead of having to wait until after dinner!!! Nice! Also got to see Pat, Cathie and Nick, Jodi and Brad and their friend Chris, and Brad's lovely Mom Cheryl, John, Katy and Tim, all Phet's aunts, Pheuy and Betsy and Jenny, and Anne and Sally dropped by, and Tara gave us a call, and so did Sing and -- just so wonderful to see everyone. We spend a lot of days with no family around except for ourselves, and while we've kind of made peace with that, we really do miss being around our crazy families and we are so happy we get to be here on our holidays.

4. FOOD.

5. Allow me to expand on that - Christmas Eve dinner was brilliant, as always, but I would like to offer special acknowledgement for Dad's restraint in the amount he cooked this year. Not only did he have fewer leftovers, he was also able to cut the fish course entirely. Well done, Dad! (Of course, that did leave the menu down to 46 types of appetizers including 7 varieties of kolbasa, pierogies with onions in butter and mushrooms in cream, sauerkraut and sausage bigos / choucrout garni, sour cherry soup, nutty kutya (say, did you know kutya also means 'dog' in Hungarian? Sounds so cute, it would be a great name for a puppy!), and then dessert with homemade shortbread cookies, chocolate mousse and marshmallow peanut butter bars.) For breakfast on Christmas we had not only the traditional crepes with smoked salmon or leftover chocolate mousse, but Jake also whipped up some truly amazing waffles. Yummy! Yesterday's Christmas dinner did NOT disappoint - Uncle Pat had a massive and beautifully browned turkey with all - and I mean all - the fixings. Mm, mm!

6. Presents! We all got terrific presents this year. Every one of them was just, I don't know, really nice and exactly something that we would like. I got a new watch that is beautiful, new earrings that I love, a long-wished-for cashmere sweater, and a sack full of fancy new makeup! The kids got a huge array of well-chosen gifts - new books, building blocks, DVDs, cute hats, their very own tool boxes with their names on them, science and crafts kits, just a massive haul. Thanks!!!

7. Cold but no snow, thus allowing for maximum enjoyment of Toronto walking, and reducing my fear of driving through blizzards.

[Toronto-26-December-2011]

young adult

Went to see Young Adult with Phet yesterday. Verdict is: very well acted by Charlize Theron; lovely restraint in the not-using-unnecessary-soundtrack-audio and allowing moments to just be quiet and thoughtful, especially the opening sequence; effective use of the Pizza Hut / KFC / Taco Bell at a strip mall and two different cheesy bars of the fake-pub variety as settings (refreshing, rather than the usual beautiful NYC restaurants kind of thing); not entirely sure that I liked the ending, but basically good and well worth watching. Coming up in our pop culture holiday: Singalong Sound of Music at the TIFF theatre on the 30th. Join us!

[Toronto-24-December-2011]

coldness

It is a beautiful, freezing Toronto winter morning. The sky is crisp light blue, the sun is on an angle, as usual, and there is crystalline frost all over the roof of my car. Just went into the kitchen at aunts' house to get a mug and the floor is fah-reezing. Phet took my socks (yes, we only have one pair, please sir may we have some more) to go buy his regular coffee and Jamaican patty for breakfast and so my feet are bare. Very artistically, the clothes dryer vent is puffing white wafts of steam past my window, and I'm glad that I'm now wrapped up in the big flannel duvet that aunt made. Winter is not so bad if there's a blue sky and no slush on the ground - and if you can stay warm. On a grey, slushy, feet-wet, hands-cold kind of day - no thanks. We had most excellent walks downtown yesterday - first up Yonge from Queen to Bloor, and then across Bloor and Danforth over to Mum and Dad's at Greenwood. We crossed the viaduct at 4:30 and the light was so extremely clear and pastel-tinted. Thickets of brown trees and brown ground and grey shadows in the ravine, pale icy blue sky, peach and pink touching the edges of the apartment buildings on the opposite side of the Don Valley along Broadview. It was cold - the kind of cold where it is possible to still carry on outdoors-doings, but you have to be well-bundled up to feel comfortable. I can't comprehend people who go out without hats and mitts, but even weirder are people who have most of the required winter items - hat, scarf, warm jacket, etc - but then FAIL to wear one elemental component, like mittens. So they look kind of warm-ish, but then have a sort of suffering face and one extremity that looks like it is about to fall off and become food for the next windigo that happens by. Anyways, I was happy with my newly invented winter ensemble: I bought a MEC rainjacket and a grey fuzzy-necked and fuzzy-wristed but not fuzzy-lined jacket this summer, and on their own they are great for spring and fall, but then the other day I put them on together and ta-da, they are perfect for winter. They have the exact same cut and the combined power of warmness and wind cutting-ness are amazing. With my wear-your-indian-churridar-leggings-under-your-jeans plan going on for my legs, my double jacket on the top, and my mega scarf wrapped around my face, I was basically impervious to the cold. Yes, yes, I AM accepting pats on the back - feel free to give me one in person the next time you see me.

[Toronto-24-December-2011]

two days till christmas

Currently 8:13 pm on Dec 23, here in the basement at Phet's aunts' house. Seung Yi is going wild playing with a resistance stretch exercize thingy from the dollar store, Ji is reading new comic books, Jenny's playing with her new iPad keyboard that we gave her. I'm tired and sleepy but finally not delirious in the evenings - have to say this round of jet lag was really tiresome with this rotten cold. The cold has sort of run its course but I'm still waking up with sandpaper throat and end the evening coughing. Happily, though, I got to hold Perfect Leah today!!!!!!!! She is as gorgeous as can be, just a little alert jellybean of a baby - cute perfectly chubby cheeks - not too chubby, just the right amount of chub - these big watchful (still) blue eyes, and she's starting to move her hands thoughtfully, so they kind of reach out and touch things just a little bit on purpose now. She has Adam's long fingers, and they are lovely and delicate, and when she's nursing the curl around super cutely. She has very strong neck muscles and seems to hold up and move her head easily. She's very attentive and aware and seems to just take everything in slowly and carefully. Love her!

We had a great afternoon - went and watched (thanks, Mum!) the play version of Mary Poppins at the Princess of Wales theatre. The kids loved the show - Seung Yi very intent on absolutely everything, and especially interested in the 'notes' of the music and the special effects for flying. The sets were fascinating and inventive, the parts of the story that stuck closely to the original story in the movie were good, the new parts were kind of jarring and seemed unnecessary (did they REALLY need to create an evil nanny who made the kids sip brimstone and treacle, and who had to be magically sucked away into a green-glowing cage below the basement by Mary Poppins??), Step In Time done with tap shoes was great, Jane Banks was absolutely awful in every way (sounded mean and nasty, had a spectacularly bad "British" accent, the flying effects were pretty awesome (Bert literally danced up the side of the stage, across the ceiling, and down the other side), and the audience was tickled by the whole show. Always good to see shows and get inspired, much appreciated Mum!

Here's what Seung Yi has to say about the show:

'Hm, hm, hm hm hm. It's hard to decide. I liked - I mean - my favourite character is Mary Poppins because she is the main character and most people like the main characters best. Usually. I was right that there were strings hanging down for the people. I really liked the show but there was not lots of parts of it that was in the movie. But why? Alot were missing. When Mary Poppins holds the bird, and when the nanny says "Shut up, you're making the master a headache", oh and also when they went to his house and he was laughing, the guy couldn't stop laughing and they had a party up there with a table and tea. I liked - I can't choose which scene was my favourite. Hm. When Mary - when they sing the song "When Mary holds your hand you feel so grand your heart starts beating like a big brass bart!" I think they said that. Oh yeah, big brass band. And "It's a jolly holiday with Mary, Mary makes the sun shine bright!" and they didn't do the one where they jumped into the drawing of Bert's. "When the day is grey and ordinary, Mary makes the sun shine bright!"

[Toronto-23-December-2011]

girl with the dragon tattoo

Ha - started writing 'Grill with the dragon tattoo' - now that's a movie I'd like to see! Went to catch the show last night with not only Phet, but also Jake, and Katy and Cathie and Dad - what a treat. We all met up at the Starbucks next to the Scotiabank theatre at John St and we were sitting having a coffee and who should show up but JODI! Then, off to see the feel-bad movie of the season.

I was confused at first: I thought that the film was being re-made so it could be set in the States. But no, apparently not. It's still set in Sweden...but this time it features American and British actors with slightly "Swedish" accents that come and go. It also looks very similar to the first film. Like, ok, the office room of Lisbeth's evil new guardian: same kind of wood panelling in both films. Why?? If you're going to do a re-make, shouldn't it be more REmade? On the other hand, Fincher has put together a pretty great film. It's just not that different from the Swedish one.

Incidentally, HATED the bizarre tar-and-CGI intro to the film - what was up with that?? Did like Rooney Mara, loved Daniel Craig, appreciated the fact that Robin Wright has kept her face looking basically normal and looks like a gorgeous humanoid and not a freaky alien, enjoyed seeing Captain Von Trapp play Henrik Vanger, thought Martin was well played, really wished as I did with the original movie that they had time to really give some time to the relationship between Lisbeth and her employer, and could not watch the disturbing scenes at all or look at the gruesome computer photographs of the unsolved murders.

Finished the film feeling the same way I did after reading the first book: give me more!

[Toronto-23-December-2011]

looking for good pirate music? search no more!

One of the plays I directed last year had a piratical theme, and of course for the shows I put together playlists for before and afterwards to entertain the audience. I've been meaning to put this list up for ages - best of the best piratey music, enjoy! (You can save these if you right click on them and click on 'save link as').

Talk Like A Pirate Day
Captain Kidd
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate This song is *THE* greatest!
Whiskey In The Jar
Seven Deadly Sins
A Drop of Nelson's Blood Absolutely fantastic drinking and carousing song.
Scurvy!
A Pirate's Life Is Peaceful (Till someone cuts you up)
What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor
The Mariner's Revenge Song
Barrett's Privateers
Pirate Joke Song This is now the only joke I can tell properly. Thanks, Ben Folds!
Pirate Jenny Nina Simone and one kick-ass pirate wench

...and just for kicks, the brilliant sound clip from the Beasties that Seung Yi loves to quote:

"Why professor, what's another word for pirate treasure?" "Why I think it's booty! Booty! Booty!"

seung yi and laree as princess lisa and prince david

The girls wanted me to film their pretend royal wedding a few weeks ago:

"Our pretend wedding!"

[Delhi-21-December-2011]

happy 40th anniversary, Mom & Dad

Last night we had a low key and cheerful dinner in honour of Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary on December 15th. Originally, there had been plans afoot to have a bigger fiesta, but it was a challenge to plan for the Christmas season - we weren't getting in until after the actual date, many friends have holiday plans on the weekends, and times had just been a little crazy around the Niedzwiecki household for a couple of months. So, in the end, the decision was made to have a small dinner now and a big party in the summer. Will let you know the when and where!

Dinner was very pleasant - we met up at Tommasso's restaurant on Eastern near Broadview. From what I've heard from Dad it used to mostly be a cafe catering to hungry men looking for Italian lunches near the TTC, post office, and film studio buildings down on Eastern. They've now expanded and have a pretty well-sized two-section restaurant along with a shop. The warehouse-y type of building it is located in was (famously) painted by Phet back in, oh, '96 when he got back from Carolina and worked in Toronto casting faux stone and doing home renovations. The food was pretty standard, but it was great to be able to all fit at one big table, and have the place mostly to ourselves. It was nice and calm and quiet so we didn't have to shout to hear each other; the wait staff were pleasant and attentive and brought us multiple salt shakes so Mum, Em, Jake, Cathie and I could each have our own; and there was no problem with Seung Yi scooting around and tickling people or with Em walking Leah around while she - Em, that is - nibbled on lamb chops. Kind of like a borrowed dining room at someone's house, and we didn't have to do any of the cleanup, so AWESOME.

Great, of course, to see Pat and Cathie - he regaled us with tales from Rome, and has a new-city strategy I highly approve of and follow myself: found a good restaurant where the staff are welcoming? Eat there every night! John and Kate were with us as well - John with a car stuffed with truffles (of the underground variety), awaiting his magical cooking expertise. Jake showed up only a tiny bit late (good job, Jake!) looking handsome as ever with shiny new red and yellow laces in his winter boots. Lovely to sit at the table and enjoy the whole family, and many warm congratulations to Mum and Dad on reaching this milestone!

[Toronto-21-December-2011]

42% power remaining!

...and I have no adapter for my power cord, oh no. Must type quickly.

Yesterday we woke up at 3 am, slept for about an hour between 7 and 8 am, and then got up for the day. I'm still in a fog at the moment and I can't really remember how, but we got up to Mum and Dad's during the day. Let's see, ok, Dad must have picked us up. Yes, he did because I remember him asking if I wanted to drive. Then we bought a Christmas tree at Queen and Greenwood, from the place across from Queen Margherita Pizza (yummy but expensive) and the streetcar yards (not yummy...but very clickety clackety all night long). I was kind of cold so I sacked out and stayed in the car while Dad, Phet and the kids picked out the tree. Up at Mum's we had a nice time putzing around - Dad's got great new Ikea bookshelves in his room, thanks Jake; the new bathroom has very silently closing drawers; there are many exciting new novels on Dad's desk - I was tempted by the new Jack Reacher (oh, and FYI: Tom Cruise is NO Jack Reacher. Give me a break. What a loser. Seriously: in every novel Reacher is described first and foremost as being huge. Every book: "Reacher's 6-foot-4 frame was packed with muscle...he could never find pants that fit him properly because he was so very large and massive..." NOT Tom Cruise.) but ended up going for what has got to be the best combination EVER: PD James + Jane Austen + Murder Mystery = purpose-written to make Thaba Niedzwiecki buy this book. Will let you know how good it is but so far the first 30 pages have been very satisfying.

In the late afternoon, we dropped Seung Yi and Mum off to meet up with Jake to go see the Nutcracker, thanks Mum and Jake! SY had spent a loooong time up at Gramma's showing us all her many new outfits: first up, the truly extraordinary princess dress from Cathie that makes her look like a (cute, not weird) 5-year-old beauty queen. It is to die for: something like 6 layers of skirt, so it poufs out, and then a pearl-beaded bodice and off-the-shoulder rosette demi-sleeves. SY then had to get out her pearl necklace, and then her shiny new silver sparkle shoes to go with the dress. Then she remembered her new football cleats, and raced off to get those on. She came back wearing her shirt, the pearl necklace, her underwear, her shinguards, and her cleats - and her orange and purple striped knee socks. Adorableness! She went outside and had to put on all her outdoor clothes, and then when she came back in she got on her ballet-going costume: the most gorgeous dress with a black velvet bodice and a white skirt with black velvet polka dots - from Gramma, naturally, and Leah has a matching one!! Death by cuteness, I tell you. This morning she told me that ballet was great. She liked the sugar plum fairy the best, the other little girls were all dressed up in party dresses too, there was another girl in the same dress as her, the dancing bears were cool, and the under-the-bed hiding place contraption was notably well-designed.

While the balletomanes luxuriated in their show, I forced myself to stay awake so I could take Dad and Phet to go see The Guard up at Canada Square. I had accidentally started watching the movie - which I had never heard of - while I was on Emirates flying to Dubai. It was so well-written I actually found myself laughing out loud on the flight. The combination of dry humour, philosophical musings by international drug traffickers, the fluent f-word Irishese, and a brilliant performance by the main actor was remarkable. And I knew that I would get a kick out of watching Dad and Phet laugh. It was a little sassy for Ji - actually, I think the two ladies in front of us were giving me dirty looks for bringing a kid to a show that had a bunch of murders and swearing and a scene with a police seargent (dang, how to spell that?) hooking up with two ladies from an escort agency - but in my defence it was really well written, and Ji and I had just had a long winter's chat that very morning about escort agencies after he read the Now Magazine I handed him at Bonjour Brioche while we were waiting for our quiche and jambon fumee, so it was kind of timely. Anyways, Dad and Phet did indeed laugh, and I recommend that you get out to see The Guard, or rent it, or download it for free as soon as you can. Oh, and Canada Square is a retro kick indeed. Totally has not been touched since we were in high school. Has a very mellowed out feel compared to today's wildly retina-destroying theatre lobbies.

On our way back home we stopped for burgers at South Street Burgers at Laird - very nice set up. Tasty buns, nice meat, and a host of delicious toppings. Phet had blue cheese and Ji had guacamole - very good. The fries were not entirely up to par, but the burgers were worth the drive to the Calgary-style mall with its potemkiny storefronts.

Today I was totally wrung out from coughing and lack of sleep - my cold is coming to an end but not very nicely. I've had this annoying hacky cough and (for me, anyways, since I never get them) bad headaches. I hate that when I'm sick and I finally sleep, and when I wake up I'm like, yes! I must be better now! ...and I STILL have a headache. I got up at 3 again - yechh - and eventually Ji and Phet got up too and we tried to watch TV but there was only garbage morning news shows on and every channel we actually wanted to watch cost money to open. TV is so dumb! After SY got up, we had baths and then I keeled back into bed until lunchtime when we went for sushi with Mum and Emma.

I am very bitter at my cold also because I can't snuggle Perfect Leah. She is so incredibly cute and amazing and perfect, and - dang it - healthy. Her little head fuzz is getting so long! Her eyes are so focusy! Her skin has not even one tiny blemish! She smiles! But I can't snuggle her. It sucks. Emma looks amazing, and she is such a good Mom. I know she doesn't necessarily sleep so well all the time, but she is just doing great and she is very calm and so good with Leah. And she still has the time and energy to make my kids kill themselves laughing. Yay Auntie Emma / Mommie Emma!

Currently back at aunts', in bed, staying warm on this grey afternoon. Tomorrow we are off to see Santa with the kids in their matching costumes, and I think there is some cookie baking afoot, and then dinner in honour of Mum and Dad's FORTIETH anniversary! Whoot whoot!

[Toronto-20-December-2011]

holiday post quest

It's boring to read posts about not posting, so I'll keep the intro short: after many months of dormancy due to long months of updating problems, I'm challenging myself to post daily over the holidays so that I get back into the habit of regular posts. I was looking back at an old one about Ji's crazy science inventions when he was 4 years old because this morning he was drawing a wild diagram of a solar death ray, and I'm like - hey Ji, check it out, this is exactly the kind of thing you were drawing six years ago, only now you can write your own captions! He had a laugh and a half reading the old post. I've been kicking myself to post for awhile now, so while I have both the impetus and the time on hand, I'm gonna do it!

We just arrived in Toronto for the holidays yesterday. Seung Yi had gone ahead with Mum at the begining of December, so it was just me and Phet and Ji. Man, it just gets easier and easier to travel with these kids of ours. After many years of hard work entertaining wee ones, making sure we had every single baby need met (diapers... butt cream... bottles... wipes... clean water... sixteen changes of clothing) it has been such a treat to mature into a family that can basically travel with just their passports. Of course, we did spend last year suffering through the annulis travellus horribilis, during which we were - oh joy! - stuck in London for a week with no luggage in the winter, among many other delightful travel mishaps, so there was that too. I don't want to say too much and tempt the travel gods, but I would like to thank them for their recent kindnesses. And to mention that we have suffered greatly for them in the past, and please we would not like to do so again in the future.

The flights were fine, but Ji and I were wrecking through the tail ends of miserable colds, so we weren't feeling very good and we didn't sleep well on the planes. He was off Mon-Thurs for the last week of school with fevers and coughing, and I took off Wednesday with the same kind of thing and slept quite literally all day long. On the night of the flights I was super stuffed up, headachey, and had a very irritating niggly dry cough. So instead of sleeping, I watched a bunch of shows, but Jet Airways hadn't changed the films since our flights in October to go back and see Perfect Leah, so they were kind of a yawn. I watched Food Inc and it made me sadly not want to eat mass-produced burgers... I watched Monte Carlo and enjoyed seeing the hot French dude fall for Selena Gomez' totally ridiculous British accent... I watched the Usual Suspects for the second time - Phet and I still totally mock Dad for asking, "So who was Kaiser Shoze?" at the end of the movie when we saw it together - and enjoyed Kevin Spacey. He is so ridiculously interesting to watch, he's like on another plane of acting existence. I also watched 6 episodes of Modern Family - pretty entertaining show. I hadn't really seen it before but the writing is good fun. My favourite line was when Mitchell got stuck inside the Princess castle treehouse thingy he had not-very-handy-manily built for his daughter, and then he's like, "Who's the bitch now, bitches??" to his Dad and boyfriend with his head poking out through the castle window. Heh heh... must find a good opportunity to use that line DAILY over the holidays! Uh, and I watched an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine that was terrible, and one of - oh dang, what's that show with Darlene's old boyfriend... ah yes, the Big Bang Theory - terrible times two! It got one laugh out of me, though, when one guys said to the other something like, "you were being such a bossy dictator!", and his other friend said he shouldn't say such mean stuff, and he was like, "yeah, that's why I added the 'tater' on the end." Geddit? Clearly, all this demonstrates about me is that I have VERY LOW standards for comedy. Sassy swearing jokes? HA HA HA. Yet another reason why I can empathize so well with my 13-year-old students: we have the same sense of humour!

Getting into Toronto was easy but we all felt a little like we'd been crushed in revolving door time machines. I could barely talk to Mum when she picked us up, I was so delirious. It was minus five here - yechhh, and today it has been very overcast. Feels like snow is on the way. I had better go get my excellent boots back from Emma - they were my most favourite thing I bought last winter. We were stuck in London and had no warm clothes and we were SO COLD and the night before we had had to wait 3 HOURS for a taxi from the airport, in SLUSH and with NO COATS (cause I'm an idiot and I packed them into our luggage, which I will NEVER DO AGAIN) and then the next day we had to go and buy new winter clothes, and so we went to Primark and bought basically the whole store and it was so amazing to be finally warm and then we went walking through this market section and found a shoeshop and I got these boots that have fake fur on the inside and the go all the way up to my knees, and snuggle my entire bottom half of my leg in warmth and they are SO EXCELLENT you have no idea.

We are also hoping to see Perfect Leah this afternoon - yet another reason for ongoing lack of posting guilt has been that I haven't even EVER put up a photo of my brilliant neice, and that must change TODAY. Will get photos. Will post.

More later!

[Toronto-18-Dec-2011]

kathmandu whoo hoo

So, I went to Kathmandu for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago. Before and after the trip I I kept humming lyrics from some song about Kathmandu...I'd be like...Kathmandu...K K K Kathmandu...but then the song kept turning from that song into Back in the USSR. So: K K K kathmandu...you don't know how lucky you are...back in the...uh...Kathmandu? Ok, fine so I just googled the lyrics and of course it is BOB SEGER who sang the infamous song about Kathmandu - tho' of course he spelled it Katmandu. Go play it on youtube while you read my post. Be forewarned that the accompanying video is the ultimately lamest video representation of the song possible. But the song sounds great!

Why Kathmandu? Well, last year we went to Bangkok for Patricia's 40th birthday and had an excellent time. That was the trip that ended up being a big fiesta of 10 really loud ladies, Phet and Phet's Dad. Lots of feasting and shopping and drinking and dancing and wild late night taxi rides and malls and foot massages and buffet breakfasts and pork leg and egg, y'know, just a typical trip to Bangkok (I HAVE GOT TO GO AGAIN SOON!). We had come up with the idea for that trip when we were at the South African embassy's pre-World Cup party, and were stuffing ourselves with grilled meat and fine SA wines and dancing to the excellent SA band under a glittery haze of the lightest rain and were like LET'S CELEBRATE YOUR 40th IN STYLE! At the end of last school year, I figured out that it would be my friend Briar's 50th birthday in August, and thus was born a new reason to go away for fun lady times. Once again we rallied together a very loud and effervescent group for the event, booked our tickets way back in the spring, and then were all set to hit the road come August.

It was a little dicey getting away from school - all of us are ridiculously embedded in our work (much, usually, to our delight) and so heading off all of a sudden seemed very challenging. What about our marking? Our prep time? (And those pesky families?) Still and all we managed to make it to our van on time and took off for the airport. It was a couple of days into some major strikes and anti-corruption protests in Delhi, and we were worried about the traffic, but it turned out to be no worry at all.

[And now, for a short digression: so, there have been MAJOR efforts to draw attention to the anti-corruption cause here in India, highlighted by the recent hunger strike by political leader Mr. Anna Hazare. Which is good in my books, this is a huge issue and is an excellent point for people to rally behind. Case in point: Iaimon has recently applied to have her passport renewed, as it is now 10 years old. She's not planning to travel, but it's good to have the passport just in case and also as a backup for of ID. Ok, fine. So, she has had to go to the main office (very close to the high courts where there was a major bomb blast that killed something like 13 people last week - very scary!) something like 6 times to get her application and Laree's application settled. Every time there was some new form or piece of something missing that she had to go and get a bring back (this included 3 trips to the notary to finally get the correctly-worded document stating that Laree's Dad is not involved with her upbringing at all). So after all of this, she is also visited by this policeman while we're gone in July, and he says she needs various other things, yadda yadda, and she has to give him some money, and fine, she gives him 300 rupees, which he sniffs at. Then, more recently he's come by another THREE times demanding various other paperwork (her bank account statements, her phone bills, Phet's house lease agreement, Phet's business card, etc etc) and has - get this! - refused to give his name or station number!! - and Iaimon has had to give him 1000 rupees and he keeps bugging her about things like she should pay for his petrol and we should go visit his son in Canada (!!) and so on and so on. 1000 rupees, just for the record is a full TENTH of Iaimon's monthly salary!! Insanity. So keep up the protests, anti-corruption, folks. I'm right behind you.]

Now back to the Delhi airport: so, we all check in and go through customs (very funny - YOU try travelling with a group of TEN bossy Moms who are frequent international travellers. It's like, "Has everybody got their passports?" "Boarding passes?" "Who wants cashews?" "I've got mints!" "Don't forget to take a piece of gum!" The absolute best moment was when a bunch of us went through the gate security right before boarding the plane, talking very loudly and North Americanly and the gate ticket-taker actually SHUSHED us!!! Shockingness. On the plane I sat next to my friend who was knitting some gorgeous grey-blue socks and Briar and we chatted and chatted and chatted and the scarfed down some excellent chicken biryani - we flew the cheapo SpiceJet, so we had to pay for the meal, but it was only 200 rupees (about 4 bucks) and included a drink, yogurt, rotis, AND a Kit Kat bar along with the biryani.

I was sort of surprised by the airport in Katmandu. It was quite small, all brick, quite pleasant but sort of late 70s era-ish, kind of like the size of the old Vientiane airport with the yellow signs from the old Bangkok airport. The arrivals lounge was sort of crappy-ish but not really so terrible, kind of like the old Delhi airport. Definitely a more provincial vibe than I had thought. We found our tourguide, and spurned the dudes who had put our bags on the top of our van - we'd thought they were organized by our tourguide, but they were just opportunistic bag throwers, who were probably pretty surprised by such a huge group North American ladies who were definitely unwilling to give them US DOLLARS for lifting their bags. Someone gave them a very reasonable few rupees, and we were all motioning, "Like, we could've lifted these ourselves, look how strong we are, now go away!" They're like, wow, not quite fresh off the boat, are these ladies.

The ride into "town" was interesting. Kathmandu looks quite similar to a more provincial town in India, still pretty grimy and rickety, particularly the streets, but of course lots more Nepalese folks on the street! The overall vibe seemed to be pretty relaxed (at least a little moreso than Delhi) but busy, and the overall aesthetic was crazy Asia with a very minimum level of central planning. Our guesthouse ("Kathmandu Guest House", where the Beatles once stayed!) was lovely - right smack-dab in the middle of the backpacker area, which was fun - and it had a gorgeous central set of gardens and lovely trees including a few epic pomelo trees, which I'd never seen growing live before. It was definitely not the Shangri-La on the banks of the Chao Praya river in Bangkok, but it was a super location and the rooms were absolutely serviceable.

In the evening we met up for beverages and sacks o' snacks in the garden and chatted and chatted and chatted (perhaps you are begining to notice a theme here?). After several hours of snacks and chats and drinks, we headed across the street (absolutely literally, directly across the street) for some excellent Italian food. We were all ravenous and ordered way to much bacon and spinach pizza and then couldn't finish our gorgonzola and arugula ravioli. Heh heh, go to Nepal for the bacon!! On our way out, I was sacked and headed home, but our friends managed to close down THREE CLUBS (maybe not so surprising given that there are very, very early closing times in Kathmandu and the police enforce them rigorously, so that although they closed the three clubs they were safe at home in bed by midnight...really quite a great accomplishment all together!)

In the morning we feasted on a nice buffet breakfast, and then headed off on separate group adventures. Patricia and I and our lovely sock-knitting friend Adele went wandering through the nearby streets on a Lonely Planet walking tour led by Patricia. Our friends split into two groups: one went shopping, and the other went driving and sightseeing and shopping. Our walking tour was lovely. The area near the guesthouse was very busy, but full of not only tourists but also PLENTY of regular folks going about their business. The guidebook was nice because it pointed out some cool temples and holy spots along our way - we saw some incredible places, like a shrine to the tooth god covered in coins, an 800-year old Ganesh statue, extraordinarily beautifully carved wooden temples, and when we went into one temple complex, we were followed by a roving band of musicians, who played TRUMPETS and ANTLERS as they circled the temple and spun prayer wheels. We wandered through the dentistry street, had a coke, continued on to a main confluence where a tobacco seller let us use her phone to call a friend of Patricia's, and then headed to the main area of town where there is an old and epic palace complex that is a UNESCO designated heritage site. We had to buy tickets to enter the area (despite everyone else just walking along the street - pah!) but it was worth it and the palaces were beautiful. We wandered down some side streets and ended up having some refreshments at a place called something like Beer and Nuts. We had milky "iced" tea and poorly flavoured momo dumplings, and CHATTED some more.

We had arranged to go visit Patricia's friend who had recently moved to Kathmandu, so we hopped into a taxi and went up hill and down dale to find her house. The instructions were, by necessity, of the "go past the police station, look for the small pine forest, turn left and then keep your eyes open for the green gate" variety. We finally found the house and spent a delightful afternoon hanging out with her friends and their gorgeous 1-year-old daughter. I got hit by some cold-ish allergy-ish attack, and was just like SNEEZE BLOW the whole time, which was a bummer, but it was still really cool to see their house and to get the feel for what regular life (for a foreigner, of course) would be like in Nepal. The house was right at the side of a ridge, and overlooked a stream, and had an amazing garden and football-sized field, and an amazing rooftop terrace, and was just lovely. P's friend's husband had just gotten back from Europe and he served four HUGE chunks of truly extraordinary cheese with a side of chunky, grainy, fresh-cooked bread. Yum!

That evening we went out for the birthday celebration proper and had dinner at a delightful French restaurant called Chez Caroline. We were the very loud and noisy North American ladies who were all wearing feather boas and party hats, and who spent an inordinate amount of time tooting on those party blowers. Whee! All of us but the one vegetarian ordered MEAT with a capital M, and I think there were 8 steaks on the table when we were all served. The steak - BEEF! - was soooo delicious and was served with a side of blue cheese sauce and some fries. Me and Beef = BFFs.

The next morning Patricia's lovely friend picked us up and drove us to see a very beautiful temple complex with a massive central stupa (low towerish type of thing) called Pathan. It was really quite hot and sharply sunny - that kind of mountainy hotness where when it is hot it is really HOT, so I was a little whew-ed out, but it was absolutely worthwhile going to see. We had a great coffee on a rooftop cafe seated next to a crazy (like, actually talking-to-herself-crazy Scandinavian lady) and chatted and chatted. After we got back to our guesthouse, I did some serious shopping - dress for SY, lots of knock off DVDs for the kids, the cutest felt bags with little felt finger puppets in heart-shaped pockets on the front for the girls, felt vines for my classroom, a jacket, um a huge whack of calendars to give away as party favours for SY and Laree's party, and maybe some white rabbit candies. We hauled away just after lunch and got back to Delhi in the evening. Another great trip, but one that begged the question: WHERE DO WE GO NEXT YEAR?

Enjoy a small photo gallery of Kathmandu 2011 here.

[On The Road-10-September-2011]

Home Stretch!

It's May 4th, just about another 23 days left in our school year, but about eight billion things for me to finish before I am actually done. Almost all of the things-that-need-to-be-done are good things, but they are things, nonetheless, and THEY MUST BE DONE. I've got my mental checklists of 62 things per day, and I just keep on trucking though and doing 'em. Let's see what was on my list for today, ok?

1. Wake up. This was somewhat more difficult than usual because we turned on the air con for the first time last night. This meant that the windows needed to be closed, which in turn meant that the sound of the birds was muffled, and which also meant that the hum of the air con also added to the aural numbity of the atmosphere, all of which meant that I woke up later (but cooler!) than usual.

2. Get ready for school. Ok, Seung Yi is sort of sick, so I let her sleep in, but had to get Ji up and had to spend SEVERAL minutes of my quiet tea-drinking time talking to him and Laree. Laree has had ridiculously hard homework since she started KG (we're talking, like, 3 pages of writing practice EVERY NIGHT) but she was on the ball this morning and had everything done. After my conversation with the kids I had to shower (yawn) and get dressed. Since we just got our shirts for our upcoming show, I had to put together an outfit around this grey, v-neck tshirt...anyways, our theme for the show is black, silver and gold, so I wore the shirt tucked in (!!) with grey pin-striped pants and a silver belt. Phet made fun of me for looking super 80s.

3. Go to school. Ok, this one's easy: John does all the work. Interestingly enough, once we got to school there were about 6 rifle-armed guards at our school gate, guess they've been put on since the Bin Laden assassination.

4. Deal with stuff before class starts. First, had to run to the theatre to get the glitter eyeliner because I needed to get John to go buy more. On the way there, had to take money from a bunch of kids who wanted to pay for their tshirts. Talked to the tech dude in the theatre to make sure we were good to go for the day. Took the eyeliner to John. Went up to my class. Checked emails. Answered emails. Got stuff ready for my first class. Took more money from kids for their shirts. Cleaned up my room. Went to first class.

5. Had classes! First up was drama. We did a warm up and then the first act of a slightly shortened version of Romeo and Juliet. Then, since our play goes up TOMORROW, I had a couple of the actors run their scene to test our sightlines and the lighting. At the end of class I had to run off early to get to...

6. Assembly! We had our play promo today, and since my Principal encouraged me to have the kids come up, live, rather than do a video, I did just that. She's pretty smart, I'd say, because it was much easier to set up and seemed to go just as well. I tried to set up a little of Q & A plus a very short part of one scene just to give the kids an idea of what the play is all about (basically: In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo was actually in love with a girl called Rosaline for the entire first act...in the play we're doing, After Juliet, Rosaline is dealing with her anger and grief after R & J die, and Romeo's old buddy, Benvolio, is trying to get her to like him instead, and all the Capulets and Montagues are still at loggerheads).

7. Oops, forgot: before assembly I got a cup of tea.

8. Then, I had a blessed free period. I went and talked to the theatre tech guy again, picked up a box of leftover tshirts, also talked to the theatre manager about all the plans for the show, then went and wrote and answered more emails, planned for Robotics class, and got everything in order for the rehearsal that afternoon.

9. Lunch. My usual rice and veg and raita, but with the special bonus of Wednesday's famous chicken curry. Plus tea. Chatted with the tech admin head, the music teacher, and a lovely ESL colleague. Ate outside - we had a funny drop in temperature from 44 down to about 34, so it seemed like a good idea.

10. Back-to-back classes in the afternoon. First, Robotics. I had the kids work on a computer project ("Which pop culture robot would be if you could be any pop culture robot?" - 1 page essay, 3 power point slides, plus video clip) which was great because it gave me the chance to multi-task and finish up half of the editing work I needed to do on yearbook. Oh, did I mention today was also my final yearbook deadline day?

11. The next class was yearbook. Yay! I rampaged the kids through their last few pages so we could meet our deadline, and also coordinated kids making posters for the play tomorrow (we're selling DVDs and these super cool awesome bags made out of our recycled play banners from our fall show, "It's a Pirate's Life for Me!") and had another kid working on a video, and then there were 4 of my kids working on the final deadline of our school's literary journal, and I had to finally make sure all our pages were printed and the tech helper could deliver them to the gate along with a DVD, and then I had to send 3 kids down to get play tickets so that I could...

12. Set up kids to sell play tickets after school and then I had...

13. Play rehearsal! This was a lovely rehearsal. I've got 14 kids in the cast, 12 in dance crew, about 12 choir kids, and something like 20 musicians, 12 makeup artists, 4 tech crew, 2 stage managers, and all the attendant adults, but today I had just 3 actors. It was such a treat. I love ending up with many kids onstage, but it was so nice to just get to work with things on a small scale; having the main actors try to melt into being more naturalistic, getting rid of a part of a scene that we didn't like and had never worked, rehearsing our awesome sword fight - got real swords this time (ok, well fencing swords, but they make a very concvincing cha-ching when the kids attack each other), and then finishing off with our final scene, in which the two main characters, Rosaline and Benvolio, end up having to (awwwww!) hold hands with each other. I think we've almost got things the way I want them. Yay!

14. After the kids left, I cleaned up and checked in with our amazing student prop manager who was tidying up backstage.

15. Had to go pick up Ji Hong at Patricia's, where he was playing with Evan.

16. Four friends were over playing bridge at Patricia's! So, I chatted for awhile with Mike and Elena, and then played two hands of bridge! First time, in, like, 16 years. Good fun. Made me think of the time when I was in grade seven and took a night school bridge class at Danforth. Weird!

17. Finally, had to get off campus at 7:30 after a long, good gossip with P and another friend. Dropped friend off at the Bulgarian embassy housing compound and headed hom.

18. Said hello to the kids at home, ate a slice of pizza, had a shower, said hi to Phet, had some tea, put on Robots for the kids, and sat down to write a quick update here.

19. WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL COME NEXT!!!

[Delhi-4-May-2011]

Rafting on the Ganges

Thought I'd reminisce a little about the trip up to Rishikesh last week, but first: some griping about Dreamweaver, and some quotes from Seung Yi. So, Dreamweaver. As you may already know, it drives me crazy and yet I don't have the energy to try to move over to any other program so I continue to deal with the stupid things that happen with Dreamweaver. Last week I was trying to shovel myself out of the two year pile-up of posts on this front page and I was mostly successful with that task. However, this weird thing happened: Dreamweaver just doesn't seem to like some of my files, especially somewhat recent video and images. For example, I wanted to put my ninja-on-a-jetski logo up at the top, there --> So I found my logo, saved it as a jpeg, and then inserted it into the file. Nope, nothing. It can see the file outside of Dreamweaver, but not in it. I just gave up last week, but then I was experimenting again tonight. It turns out that if I take some old image file that is already working in Dreamweaver, and I paste in the ninja logo and save it with the old name, it will come up alright. However, if I rename the file so that it actually has the correct name, the image suddenly is broken and won't show up. WHY DO I HAVE TO USE A PROGRAM THAT MAKES NO SENSE?

Ok,in non-rant news, a few quotes from Seung Yi, all from today:

This morning, I'm sitting at the computer, checking on email before I head off to work (yes, I am working for the break - this is me we're talking about, after all. I'm getting my next big yearbook deadline finished up and I'm editing this video about me learning how to dance that is my contribution to this upcoming faculty performance thingy at school - all good fun, today worked on this bit that is a most excellent copy of "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifinakis" - will post the whole thing here if Dreamweaver ever accepts new files again) and Seung Yi runs up to me in her normal summer pajama suit of nothing but underwear.

SY: "Mom! Smell my butt! Ha ha ha, too late, I farted already!"

She's such a delicate young lady, that girl. And later this evening, after watching Anne of Green Gables (we're up to the part where Anne takes a short ride with Gilbert in his buggy and they are just about to finally become friends -- and MAYBE MORE!!! -- when Marilla decides that Anne is too young to be out a-wagonning with young fellas and puts a stop to her even peeping at Gil) Seung Yi came all droopy into the kitchen.

SY: "Mom! I am so thirsty! I am so thirsty, my EARS are thirsty!"

Heh heh heh.

So, about that rafting trip...

We left on Monday morning last week. The trip had been postponed from October due to insane monsoons that had left all the camps completely water logged, and the tiger park destination for the grade sixes completely inaccessible and water-ringed, like an island. An unreachable island. So, I was happy to be going, but it did feel like an odd time to be taking the trip. Usually we go as an early-in-the-year get-to-know-everyone group-bonding kind of deal. At this point, the kids are pretty settled in their friendships, and of course we're quite familiar with all of the students, so it was more of a chill-and-relax and get to know some of the not-so-well-known-to-me kids better sort of trip.

We met at school at 4:45 am - I was 15 minutes late because, well, I just had a bunch of stuff to finish packing, and it is literally impossible for me to leave the house without having breakfast and tea. But luckily I squeaked in under the tardy radar and hopped on my assigned bus. We headed out to the railway station in the dark. And this is a sad statement on my lack of travel in the region, but it was just the third time I'd been to the train station in Delhi - the other two times also being for WOW. Lameness! Ah, how I fondly recall all those trips up to Sapa (and how I less fondly recall our unsuccessful train trip to central Viet Nam, trying to cross the border over to Pakse...). So, quick wait at the train station, and then onto the pleasant Shatabdi Express train to Haridwar. I sat with Patricia and chatted for a chunk of time, then read my book next to a kid for awhile, and by then we were almost in Haridwar. I had chosen excellently well with my reading material - third and fourth books in the four-book series that began with Ender's Game. Read Ender's Game and it's sequel back in the fall, and then had read two side-related books in the winter, and had saved up the final two, Xenocide and Children of the Mind, for the spring. Seriously delicious and dense and eventful and epic sci fi. Multiple sentient species! Intergalactic moral dillemas! Talking trees! Piggies and buggers and Japanese philosophers, oh my!

In Haridwar, we jumped onto buses that drove us out past Rishikesh and onwards to the camps on the banks of the Ganges. We had a quick tea stop at our camp, Himalayan River Runners, and then went off hiking to a nearby village. The hike was surprisingly lovely, though I think I got a dehydration headache...very easy and no uphill bits, wandered through terraced potato fields, fields of wildflowers, past nicely animally-smelling little barns, and ended up splashing around in a little river tributary for almost an hour. One super funny student picked up a skipping rock and started talking into it, thus inventing the istone. Heh. Back at camp we had a big, fat dinner, a campfire, and then tucked into our tents.

The next day was our leisurely rafting day. No major rapids, just long, relaxing paddles and swims along the river. Unfortunately, we had to take a 2 hour bus ride to get to the starting point for our rafting - unfortunately because the ride was super duper jouncy bouncy and I don't think I have ever had to pee so badly before ever ever ever in my life. It started an hour into the trip, suddenly I couldn't read anymore, I couldn't think about anything other than my paining bladder. I'll admit it: I have a super teeny tiny bladder. In my regular everyday life, aside from occasionally getting teased by Emma (who can last without breaking the seal for an inhuman amount of time), my handicap can pass unnoticed. I just go to the bathroom, like, every hour. It's so boring. On planes, I always have to sit in the aisle seat so I can get up all the time. Yawn. And when I know I'm going to have no bathroom access, I basically can't drink. Like, there was this time that Phet and I took a bus from Pakse up to Vientiane, and I think I was about 4 months pregnant, and I didn't drink anything the whole bus ride. Yeah. So, even though I had only had one teeny tiny cup of tea, suddenly I couldn't stand another moment on the bus. But then my urge to go pee was countered by my other stupid inherently annoying defect, which is not wanting anyone to notice me in certain circumstances. So I'm sitting there, with my bladder going OW OW OW and my brain going PAY NO ATTENTION WAIT TILL YOU GET TO THE RAFTING LAUNCH and I thought I might just die right then and there, when we suddenly rounded a treacherous turn in the road, passed a massive statue of Shiva, and our driver got word by walkie-talkie that one of the buses had gotten a flat tire, and we'd all have to stop. Thanks be to Lord Shiva!!! Not only did we get to stop, but we were actually right next to a road-side snack shop with a toilet round back, and despite the nastiness (like SERIOUSLY nasty! like, can't even describe it online nasty) of the toilet, it was the most relieving trip to the bathroom I had ever had. I literally could not stop telling my colleague how happy I was that we had stopped. She probably thinks (now, moreso than ever) I'm a complete freak - but it was true, I was SOOOO happy.

Anyways, in non-pee related notes, I spent the pre-rafting time trying to make sure all the kids had enough sunscreen on (I did reasonably well, but out of the 120 kids the next day there were still about 15 sets of sunburned knees), and then on the river I just had fun dip-dip and swinging my paddle. The water was super C-O-L-D cold, so I didn't swim the first day, but we did lots of water tossing with buckets. The group of kids in my camp was extraordinarily mellow, so everything just went smoothly and easily. Super low on the drama, everyone just taking it very, very easy. The only terribly exciting thing that happened on the trip (aside from hitting the awesome big rapids the next two days, of course, that is) was that we had a big sandstorm one night! Not like a desert sandstorm with no rain, but a river valley sandstorm with some rain, biiiig gusts of wind, and a lot of whipping sand and freaky flapping tent noises. I woke up in a major panic, with the wind whistling in a very scary way through my tent. We had been told that if there was a storm and it got bad that we'd have to get the kids and take shelter in the big kitchen tent, so for the next 3 hours I lay in my cot, listened to the wild wind and shifting, slithery sand whip around, and planned what steps I'd take if, indeed, we did have to rally the kids and get them to safety. Scary!

Other than that, the week was just full of pleasant happinesses: steep hikes, white sand, body surfing, kayaking, morning yoga (and get this - we'd start in the shade and just two minutes before we'd finish, the sun would break over the mountains and hit our bodies), cookies, smores, sing-a-longs, outdoor showers (so great to be shampooing in a forest, and able to see out to the beach and the Ganges), gossip, body painting, football, volleyball, cricket / baseball, and sand castle-building.

My job is a hard one, but, y'know, somebody's got to do it!

[On The Road-6-April-2011]

Spring break 2011

It's 10:52 – no, make that 10:53 – here in Golf Links. There is a miraculously cool breeze drifting along outside the door. It is unheard of to have non-freaking-hot weather in Delhi at this time of the year. Every time I step outside without breaking into a full sweat, every night I go to sleep without the air con on, I count my blessings.

Speaking of going to sleep, it was pretty exciting last night. Why, you ask? Well because INDIA WON THE WORLD CUP OF CRICKET (“The Cup That Counts!”), duh! I gave John the day off so he could watch the game, and while we didn't watch much of it, we did catch a little when we went out for dinner at Khan Market. Ji and I picked up groceries and had some Italian food at Amici, and it was pretty cool – all the staff, even the cooks and cleaners, were hanging out watching the game. Outside, every shop that had a TV in its window was surrounded by 20-25 people standing and watching said TV, entranced. While we were watching, things were not looking so hot for India, but apparently there was quite the come back (y'know, wickets and maidens and all that) and after something like a 9 hour game India beat Sri Lanka. It was great (really, honestly great!) I had just dozed off to sleep when I started hearing this massive and growing cheering coming from all around the house. Kind of far-off-ish, but just from everywhere, and that came and went and came and went and then the fireworks started going off, and then there was more cheering, and I was happy and half awake and it sort of felt like they were cheering IN my dreams.

Today we woke up at 8. Seung Yi popped her eyes open suddenly and said her usual “Dood morning!” Wonder when her adorable funky accent will disappear? So far she is still saying everything at the front of her tongue: ‘g's sound like ‘d's and ‘k's sound like ‘t's. So we still get confusing requests like, “Tan I have some more tate?” which must be interpreted as “Can I have some more cake?” or there is hell to pay. Seung Yi and I chilled out for awhile, chatting in bed (Phet's in Ottawa) and then finally got up to get some cereal for breakfast. The girls are on a strawberry cereal kick, and they will deign to eat the strawberry-flavoured local brand of cornflakes, but they really prefer the imported Special K Red Berries that costs almost ten bucks a (small) box. After breakfast, we did some puttering and cleaning. We recently had our walls repainted – this, after 7 months of trying to get the job done but being rejected time and again because one wall was still damp from the monsoon and kept sprouting mold no matter what – and the house is generally looking pretty good, aside from the usual kid mess and Delhi dust. Ji cleaned up a pile of blocks in his room, the girls tidied up the toys, and I put away a stack of dry cleaning. Last week we had to completely overhaul everything in Phet's closet because a stack of tshirts went mouldy (you see a continuing theme, yes?). He got rid of about half of his shirts (mostly cause he didn't need them, only a few were actually mouldy) and then Iaimon washed everything else aside from the dry cleany stuff. Mr. Singh's old Mom gave her hell for doing too many loads of laundry…it's always good to know there's someone keeping an eye on things, right?

For lunch, we went out to the mall. I had thought we'd go see this kids' movie, but it turned out to have only a Hindi soundtrack and Ji decided he'd rather just wander the mall than see the show. He got to be in charge of lunch ordering at the food court, and fed us well with a Subway sandwich, a non-veg (aka “Meat”) thali, a lassi, and a tray of momos (aka dumplings). Then we went to find the arts and crafts stall that I had been telling Ji I wouldn't stop at for about 2 years. He decided to paint his own plastic squeaky gecko, and Seung Yi chose to decorate a photo frame with shells. The shop assistants nearly drove me out of my tree trying to get us to stick the shells on in the exactly correct manner, but finally after about 7 times of me saying, “It's ok, thanks!” and smiling, they took a hint and let us proceed in our own way, with Seung Yi making lovely ‘pattrins' with a variety of shells.

When we got back home, Laree and Iaimon had returned from church, and the kids did a fashion show for me – we'd bought Ji 4 new pairs of shorts, so we started with those, but it expanded greatly from there. I cooked some couscous and veg for dinner, and in the evening the kids watched Mary Poppins for the 17 th time, and I cleared up this site. Then, it was time for Seung Yi to brush her teeth, and even though she had just had a snack (like, literally 3 minutes before) she set up a fuss about needing another snack, which I vetoed, and then she decided she was going into a big grump, refused to brush her teeth, got in trouble, had a big crying cry, threw herself down on the bed with unbrushed teeth and promptly fell asleep. I spent the exciting free time that followed checking out ridiculous stuff online (starting with the INSANE Rebecca Black video for ‘Friday' – OMG!!!! – and then watching her get interviewed on Good Morning America, and then watching – DOUBLE OMG – Stephen Colbert perform ‘Friday' accompanied by the Roots and an American Idol finalist and (I think) the Dallas Cowgirls. Ho ho ho.

Great start to the holidays!!!

[Delhi-3-April-2011]

rishikesh in springtime

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Rishikesh for my third - or is it fourth? - week without walls trip for school. I've packed my sack and sent it ahead with the school van so that tomorrow when we get on the train with our 120 kids I've got my hands free to shove them in like ipod-wearing sardines.

Great day today - gorgeous weather, though it is getting hotsie patotsie; tasty buffet lunch at the one good Japanese restaurant in town; a nap; started a new book; made dinner. Can you tell I feel like I'm on vacation? Yup, that's right, two weeks of no classes. Whee!

[On The Road-27-March-2011]

happy 30th birthday, emma!

It's Saturday, March 12, which means it is Emma's birthday! I wish I were in Toronto so I could fest her properly, but since I'm not and I can't, I will at least write a proper post for her. Last week, I had a rotten day and I was feeling really glum until the evening when Emma called and we talked for 38 minutes (I've got a phone that is super dysfunctional except for the fact it records the amount of time I talk for) and I was in a completely new mood when I got off the phone. I was suddenly really, really happy, and felt like myself again. And that, my friends, is what sisters are all about - or at least what my sister is all about. She is so awesome and funny and beautiful and wonderful, and she makes the people around her really thankful that they know her and get to enjoy her amazing Emmaness.

I remember that just before Em was born, I kept thinking how fantastic it would be to have a sibling. 'Wow,' I thought, 'I am finally going to have someone who will climb on the jungle gym at school with me!' I was more than a little surprised when it turned out that a baby sister was not - at least not instantaneously - a great climbing companion. In fact, it turned out that I had made a pretty serious miscalculation, and she wouldn't be much good at climbing until she was, oh, eight months old. At which point she began to eclipse tree-hanging monkeys of all varieties in their skill at swinging to and from stuff, and scaling scary, large things. It's interesting, when you hear our parents talking about Emma's infancy, they're always like, 'Oh, she never stopped crying. For two years.' And apparently, that's actually true. She was a super crying baby. But the weird thing is, I really don't remember that at all. Could be my parents sheilded me from the endless crying, could be I just ignored it, but I like to think that I just thought Emma was so great, and having a sibling was so great, that it just didn't bug me. I'd waited a long time, you know, for her.

I can't imagine having a better sister than Emma. She is unfailingly generous of her time and attention. She is brillaint, and best of all she is super funny. She goes out of her way to relish time with my kids and gives an intensity of focus to her attention to them that I wish I could emulate more often. When Ji is having trouble with Seung Yi or Laree, I frequently ask him, 'What would Auntie Emma do in this situation? How would she figure out how to solve this problem in a fun way that would make the girls do what she wanted, but that they would also enjoy?' (I also ask myself that question on a regular basis). I love the fact that Emma and Adam live 2 blocks away from Mum and Dad. I love that I've got annual invites to her in-laws home. I love that she goes for the family-entourage approach to life that I like so much too. (I mean, really, why complain about random strangers or weirdos on your bus tour you've never met before when you can complain about people you know really, really well? JK LOL MUM).

Although I harass Emma about her prodigious (ridiculous!) pantyhose collection, despite the fact that I probably make her crazy with my strict rules and regulations and need to be a psycho bossy older sister who decides everything, she still puts up with me. She is totally the greatest sister and I love, love, love her so much. I wish my house were beside hers (though that might drive Adam around the bend just a leeeeetle...maybe I could have the house that's between hers and Mum's just so he has a tiny bit of sanctuary), and I wish I could see her every day. I'm really proud of her (though I do miss her drunken escapades - hey Em, how bout that time, what was it, a couple of years ago, when you drank your socks off at a MOVIE and were delirious down on King Street? That was a gas!) and I know she is going to have a great time in her 30s. It's a pretty excellent age to be, Em!

Love love love you, T

[Toronto-12-March-2010]

the surreal life

I wish that Dreamweaver (the program I use for this site) typed faster. There's a weird lag on the typing that makes me make extra spelling mistakes. Annoying! But ever onwards, ever upwards...

It's day two of back to school, back to Delhi, back to work, back to this particular life of ours. I'm currently sitting in my lovely classroom, looking out at the trees as the sun sets. It's really cold in Delhi - like, actually cold when I step outside. And really cold at night. We don't get snow, but 8' inside and out is freezing. Luckily there's toasty heating at school and at home we have a couple of those oil heaters that look like radiators on wheels that we can move around to whichever room we're hanging out in.

It's always weird to shift to a different city, but it is especially weird for us to move not only between cities, but also between universes. For the first few days, life always seems very surreal. Here in Delhi we've got our small family life that includes Iaimon and Laree, our big house, our crazy neighbourhood. We've got our work lives on the go, me with my middle schoolers, colleagues, crazy after school committments, and long nights of planning while Phet's got his own sphere of office, Ottawa contacts, million dollar projects across the globe, his crazy travel agency, his four zillion emails per day. The kids run in their own circles at school and then hunker down with us in the evenings. And of course, we're in India. Crazy, dusty, beautiful Delhi. In all of the places we've lived overseas there's a finite history we've got with each city; our memory only stretches back a couple of years - or four at the most here in Delhi.

Then we go back to Toronto, like we did last week for six days, and we're suddenly jolted into another world. We've got our insane and wonderful families with histories (and jokes and grievances) that stretch back for generations. We're suddenly daughter / sister / son / nephew / neice / grand-daughter / what-have-you again. Since we aren't working (and we've never really had serious jobs in Toronto) we enter into a kind of high-school-ish netherworld where it feels like maybe we never graduated, and certainly we'd never find jobs with our paltry experience. We also move differently. I can drive the car! Or we kick it old school and take the streetcar - very high schooley! We can walk year-round! There's also a huge roster of excitement - friends to catch up with, cheese to eat, movies to watch, gossip to be shared.

The strange thing is that after a couple of days our life back in Delhi seems to disappear. And then, when we get back to Delhi (or wherever we've lived overseas, really) Toronto disappears.

It does make me think about my place in the universe, that's for sure. The here-and-now is really important to value - you know, like, the impact of my work is kind of ephemeral. But still important. And it also makes me appreciate the lasting nature of my relationships with my family. And I also think it is a huge bonus that Phet and I can share late-night jokes about all the worlds we've been in together. We can reference kids we knew in grade eight, all the way up to the people we now know, what, twenty three years later?

I'd probably go nuts if it weren't for him.

[Delhi-5-January-2010]

welcome to tarmackistan

The independent republic of Tarmackistan exists only as an experience.  Its borders reach across the globe, into the very air and ether surrounding the earth.  One enters Tarmackistan unknowingly, stays for an uncertain duration, and departs for no apparent reason.  Tarmackistan is the limbo of today.  Tarmackistan is the manifestation of bureaucratic impossibilities brought to life!

If you are on actual tarmack and you don't know if or when you will ever get off the tarmack, you're in Tarmackistan! If you are dealing with an authority figure who will not let you do something you want to do or need to do, but the authority figure has only absurd reasons why you cannot or may not do the thing you need or want to do, you're in Tarmackistan! If you feel helpless and ineffective and prevented from taking action by restraints beyond your control, you may be in Tarmackistan!

Phet coined the name Tarmackistan awhile ago, and we have been spending increasing amounts of time there, much to our mutual unhappiness. Last year on a school trip to KL, Patricia and I got stuck on an airplane for 8 hours on the tarmack in Delhi because of a fog delay, and then after we had to de-plane, I couldn't get out of the airport for an hour because I hadn't saved my (completely useless, one would have thought) boarding pass. But this Christmas holiday really took the cake. A lot of cake. Like, a girl-jumping-out-of-the-cake sized cake. A Guiness Book of World Records sized cake. A really, really, bit cake.

Here's the first bit of the story, from an email I started writing while in Tarmackistan. Hard to smuggle out, but somehow the authorities let it past their notoriously tight border controls...

LIVE FROM TARMACKISTAN

So, currently in row 37 seat D – yes, the middle seat – awaiting word from the “tower” about whether our flight from London to Toronto will take off today. Or Not. There has been a severe cold spell here in the UK which has rendered the airport unfunctional. There are about 94 sad, small babies with red chins (too much acidic drool running down out of their only recently-teethed mouths) trying to hold their s**t together scattered throughout the aircraft. The parents are maintaining – thus far – very zenlike stone-cold-endurance faces and continuing to pull out squished peas and mushy squash to feed the babies. Very luckily we're on a plane with individual movie screens so most of the passengers have been stupefied enough to sit here for a few hours. It's interesting to imagine how long one can manage to not freak out when stuck on a plane. I've had a couple of close calls during which my patience was pretty severely tested. Last year, coming home after Christmas holidays from Toronto, we were just about to land in Delhi when a fog warning forced our flight to circle for over an hour. Then, when the circling time proved insufficient, we were diverted to Mumbai. That was definitely THE worst tarmac experience ever. Delirium, thanks to basically 24 hours of no sleep PLUS my fear of being stuck in small spaces with many people PLUS absolutely knowing that if I went berserk and had to run out the escape hatch I would NOT BE AT WORK ON TIME (having way-too-tightly scheduled my holidays) all conspired together to make me JUST THIS CLOSE to losing it. What got me through? A really boring book. Can't recommend that strategy enough. I pulled out “The Duchess” – the book the similarly-titled movie starring Kiera Knightly was based on – and immersed myself in incredibly random and dull information about 17 th century British aristocracy. Surely there were exciting, debaucherous stories that could have been told about the same time and same people, but this was all like “…and then, she went to visit the Earl of Gloucester, and took her larger carriage and her youngest daughter yadda yadda yadda”. In lieu of being able to enjoy the flight, though, I'll take the time to write about the highlights of the visit to England – while I listen to some vintage Snoop. Whoot whoot.

Getting out of Delhi was remarkably smooth. We'd been worried about the fog, but somehow slid out before it kicked in full force. (Should be waiting for us on our return, of course, but we'll wait to deal with that when the time comes). When we got out of the airport, Wonderful Sister Emma was waiting for us at the exit gate. We zipped over the Enterprise car rental desk and our delightful assistant Danielle helped us get a car and upgraded us as well – to a BMW! (We later found out Mum thought that it was an English car manufactured by the British Motor Works – had a good mocking chuckle at that one! Chort chort chortle!). We caught the shuttle to the car park and were treated to The Funnest Car Rental Agency In The History Of Car Rental Agencies. There were the two very handsome south asian dudes at the check in, the big passel of wild and crazy Polish car cleaners outside in their parkas, and then two drop-dead beautiful African girls who were dancing and singing while they were working. We told one of the south asian dudes, “This place should have its own reality show” and he answered, “Yeah, and it would have to be x-rated!” Fun times in London!

The good times continued to roll as we got a taxi to take most of our HUGE AMOUNT of luggage and Mum followed him out to the house we had rented in Old Windsor. Turned out to be a lovely place – UPDATE from the flight deck: we are NOT leaving any time soon. Flight was scheduled for 12:00, we had to wait till 2:30 for the update, now they're keeping the airport closed until 4:00. -- and back to the house I rented – it was very nice, right on the banks of the Thames next to the Old Windsor Lock. Spacious and lots of light, décor was a little bit child-unfriendly (crystal decanters, spiky metal objets d'art, breakable Christmas ornaments, but otherwise just fine. We immediately did a very Niedzwiecki thing and went out GROCERY SHOPPING after having a beef feast at Burger King. Love the Burger King. Mmm, mm, good. The grocery store, Sainsbury's, was filled with delights. We stocked up on all kinds of good things and then headed home and crashed.

Next day, we got up fairly early in the dark, had breakfast, lounged about, and then drove to Bath. Turned out to be a reasonable drive – hour and a bit – and it was nice to get out and see the countryside, all tidy and well-organized as it is. When we got to Bath we found a carpark conveniently located near the high street and tossed on our winter gear and walked about. Stopped for coffee, tea, and scones with clotted cream at a coffee shop, and then went to the theatre to check on our tickets for Handel's Messiah – EXCELLENTNESS! The Ramones' “I Wanna Be Sedated” just came on. SO VERY TRUE. Every visit to Tarmackistan should come with a solid dose of opiates. – Now, Handel's Messiah…I didn't realize what we were getting into with that. I kind of thought it might be a slightly extenda-mix version of the Halleluia Chorus, but no, it was ever so much more than that. It was like a two and a half hour extended mix of all the less exciting bits than the Halleluia Chorus. There's a reason why that part is so famous, and the reason is that the rest DOESN'T MEASURE UP. I kid you not, there's actually a segment called “We Like Sheep”. Yes. We Like Sheep. – Oh dear, ANGRY BABY one aisle over. He has HAD IT. NOT ENJOYING BEING STUCK ON NON-MOVING mode of transportation…and meanwhile, Ji's so hot he's pulled of his shirt and he's sitting here looking like he's at the beach. WAAAAAH!!! WAAAAAAH!!!!! – so, the Messiah. The theatre was pretty, though I had thought that The Messiah by Candlelight would involve, like, 3000 chandeliers, but there were only four. The group singing and playing were an 18 th century-style orchestra. Lovely violins and cellos and harpsichord – WAAAAAH WAAAAH WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH – but the singers were kind of too old school for me to enjoy. There was one guy who looked

***

SORRY FOR THE INTERRUPTION - We are now, at 11:45 pm IN RICHMOND - yes, that IS in LONDON - in a freaking HOTEL - after SEVEN HOURS ON THE TARMACK FOLLOWED BY THREE FREAKING HOURS IN LINE FOR A FREAKING TAXI, DURING WHICH TIME WE WERE WALKING THROUGH FREEZING FREAKING SLUSH AND I ALMOST GOT INTO A FIST FIGHT WITH AN EVIL AND STUPID AND UGLY AND OBNOXIOUS AND SKEEZY BLONDE MOM WHO BUDDED INTO THE LINEUP WITH HER STUPID FAMILY and Heathrow looked like Ellis Island circa 1846 ON A GOOD DAY WHEN NO ONE WAS DYING OF TUBERCULOSIS and there were eight billion people there, and the British system for plowing runways SUCKS!!!!!!!!

***

Ok, so here is the rest of story about the longest trip I've ever taken to Tarmackistan...

We spent seven hours on the runway, and were basically told nothing. The airplane was a hotbed of unhappy babies and overheated adults. When the flight attendants started passing out meals and bottles of wine at hour 6, we figured we were out of luck, and indeed we were. They didn't just let us go, though, they kept us for an extra hour so we could be met by a gate agent. So the whole plane de-boards and exits, and we are met by a gate agent who can tell us absolutely nothing. We are told we cannot get our luggage, it will be kept on the plane until the next day, and we should come back again for the same flight tomorrow. We go out to the exit area of the airport, and it is mayhem. There is a lineup of about 400 people ++ waiting to catch cabs, and it is freezing, and we have no winter clothes. Phet hit the "I will survive" point and stood in line for 2 hours without going inside to warm up while I hit the "I will cry" point because my shoes and socks got wet and cold and I went inside to wait, and eventually Mum and the kids joined me in there as well. We had to stand in line for THREE HOURS to get a cab, and when we were just about at the front of the line, this couple and their 2 kids tried to jump in front of us. I had this big argument with the Mom - who was a huge biatch - while the rest of our party stood by and pretended not to notice what was going on - which was probably just as well, because we eventually stopped shouting at each other, and she looked like a pub brawler who would've kicked my ass. When we finally got into a cab I was so happy I wanted to cry again. I took off my wet socks and shoes and Phet helped bring life back to my poor feet. We got to the Richmond Inn and checked into our room - small but warm that first night - ordered some pizza, had a steaming hot bath, and then went to bed.

The next morning we heard that the airport was still not functioning, but we went out to try to get our luggage and figure things out. Incredibly enough, and shockingly enough as far as we were concerned, they had completely SHUT the doors to the airport. We couldn't even step inside to ask a question or find our luggage or anything! We couldn't get into a coffee shop to warm up, and at that point we had been thinking we might actually get on our flight, but that was very obviously not going to happen. On top of it all, the airport authority was providing absolutely NO information. There were no helpful staffpeople, there were no notice boards, there were no assistance numbers to call, nothing. While we were discovering there was nothing we could do, Mum and Emma came in their cab with Emma's friend and her brother who were also trying to fly standby, and we hopped into their cab and they went to try and find out what they could about their own situation. We had our cab driver take us to the nearest Primark - the UK's answer to Walmart, but selling just clothes - and we sat and had a coffee at the nearby Subway while we waited for the Primark to open. Really felt how hard it must be for people stuck in truly helpless situations. We were freezing and sad and stuck, but we had a credit card and our family and the feeling that eventually things would work out.

At Primark, we spent the price of one winter coat at a regular shop (200 pounds) and got a parka, hats, mitts, and scarves for each of us, plus two winter outfits for Ji and Seung Yi and one for me. Sweet deal! Felt like I was on the refugee version of "What Not To Wear" during the shopping spree segment. After the mega-buy, we strolled the high street of Hounslow (very nice, multi-cultural, busy, pleasant) and I bought the greatest pair of boots from the local Punjabi bootseller - my feet were so very cold and unhappy, and I ended up buying furry-lined boots that come up to my knees! We also got boots for Phet and Ji and then went to find a cab to get back to Richmond.

We weren't quite sure what to do about all our flight problems, but we were feeling so warm and cozy with our new clothes that we decided to take a walk in Richmond to get some lunch. We had a super-delicious meal at the local Persian restaurant, and then continued on uphill to Richmond Park where the kids went toboganning! It was absolutely beautiful; sweeping view of the neighbourhood, all the trees laden with puffy snow, rosy-cheeked kids tearing down the hillsides, grey and icy Thames in the distance. Later on, we headed back to the hotel to our new and nicer room on the second floor, dried out our mitts on the radiator, and Emma and Mum came back with no good news either.

The next day we finally thought to call the world wide travel agency that had booked our original tickets so that we could re-book our flights. You might think that if your flight got cancelled that the airline would put you into priority sequencing for the next scheduled flight, but if you thought that, you would be thinking WRONG. It turns out that it was entirely up to us to re-book our flights, with absolutely no guarantee of getting anywhere by any particular time. Phet spent two and a half hours on the phone and by the end the agency had managed to get us flights - and paid tickets for Mum and Emma as well - routed through Zurich on Christmas Eve. When we got off the phone, well after midnight, we were exhausted but happy that at last we had a plan. The next day Mum and Emma took the kids toboganning while Phet and I went out to Heathrow - goody gumdrops - to try to get our luggage.

I was really scared there was going to be another thousand person scrum, and I had almost decided not to go even though we had made it to the local tube stop. I was really worried it was going to snow again, the trains and buses would shut down, we'd get stuck at the airport, there'd be no taxis, and we'd never get our luggage. Phet wisely convinced me to carry on with the plan, and we took the London Overground from Richmond to Feltham, and then caught the 385 bus out most of the way to Heathrown, and then the 555 to the airport, and then we walked through the underground walk way to get to the arrivals section to try to find our luggage. The luggage-finding was not nearly as awful as I had expected. They had tucked it all away in an unused baggage area, and then they'd have an airline staffperson come to meet you and take you to your bags. We found ours with only a little difficulty, and then got all 8 bags onto a couple of trollies (one of resolutions is to travel much more lightly in the future) and out to the cab area. We took an off licence cab driven by a crazyman, but we got back to the Inn without dying, and we were happy to putz around with all our stuff that evening.

The next day Phet and I took Ji to go see Tron at the local movie theatre. I fell asleep during the big denouement; found it surprisingly boring for such a majorly hyped show. Didn't believe in the emotional side of the story, and there was just all this endless and confusing explicating.

Then, just a couple of days before we were supposed to leave, Emma suggested we check on our flights. We did, and found out that we had LOST our bookings to Zurich! The travel agency had expected the Delhi office to "issue" the tickets (as opposed to just reserving them) and the Delhi office messed that up, and so we were left with NO way to get to Zurich! Mum and Emma's tickets were fine, but ours were gone. I was so upset I couldn't talk. Phet stayed on the phone, again for more than an hour, and by the end, through some miracle, they had booked us on a London-Toronto flight for the 24th, but this was after they suggested things like London-Rome-Toronto for 6000$ per person! Even after we managed to secure the booking, I couldn't relax. For the next two days, I had a massively anxious stomach, and every thirty seconds I'd be looking up at the sky praying that it wouldn't snow. We were really under pressure to get back to Toronto because Phet's Dad was there, and Phet had to take him from to Toronto back to Bangkok and get him onto the Pakse flight because he can't really navigate travel himself. If it had been just us, it wouldn't have been such a big deal. We could've gotten to Frankfurt at least and stayed there till Jan 1 and caught our return flight to Delhi. But in our situation, we really needed to get back to Toronto.

One evening we were lucky enough to get invited to the home of family friends Frank and Cheryl, and that was very relaxing. We ate a feast, drank lovely wine, and temporarily forgot about our worries. We were also treated to a sack of hand-delivered deli goods that Dad and Jake ordered online for us for lunch one day, and we also had the pleasure of meeting up with Phet's cousin Sandy, her husband Laurent, and their cute-as-can-be son Vincent on our last day in London. I was so terrified it would snow, I couldn't sleep on the 23rd. On the morning of the 24th, we went to the airport at 3:30 am to get in line for our 9:00 am flight. We were the first ones at the air canada counter, and we just sat there while the kids napped, and waited. At 6:15 there was a huge lineup and they finally opened the desks. We were incredibly scared when our check in agent looked very unhappy while dealing with our bookings, but he got everything sorted out, so maybe he was just a naturally unhappy and anxious looking person. We went through to the air canada lounge, which was nice enough, but I was still super paranoid something would go wrong. Our flight gate was finally announced and we went through to it, then got onto the airplane, had a little delay, and then were about to taxi down the runway. It wasn't until the wheels were actually up that I believed we'd really leave London.

More about the fun side of the trip, pre-Tarmackistan later.

[On the Road-29-December-2010]