Hectic Homecoming & Sad Departure

Two weeks in Singapore came & go so quickly....before I know it, I was packing my luggage for Shanghai again!

I was so overwhelmed with :

• medical checkups for evan's cough & dyllis's asthma;
• dental checkup for dyllis - dyllis's adult teeth are growing !
• dental checkup for evan - evan's first time! it wasn't planned for, but was glad that he agreed to sit on the dentist chair :)
• medical checkups for my dad's prostate problem (hospitalised for 1 night after the laser cleansing procedure);
• getting & delivering the original medical documents for the lawyer (my parent's accident case);
• delivering the original documents to Tao Nan for Dyllis's P1 enrollment;
• lots of gathering with friends & old neighbours & relatives;
• shopping for items to stock up (eg, milk powder, medications, chinese herbs, etc);
• shopping for black shoes for kids' school, kids slippers (as they've outgrown the existing ones), my shoes (as couldn't find shoes that fit my size in Shanghai!), and running shoes for B as his was broken !

So many things to do but so little time !

By Wednesday on the 2nd week, I was 99% done with the stocking up of goods, and started packing them in the luggages. But as I was doing that, I started to feel a sense of loss....I dreaded going back to Shanghai, I dreaded leaving Singapore....

Finally, I broke down the night before our departure. I was very very very sad. I felt like it's the end of the world. Why do I have to leave the country that I've lived all my live, with so many friends and so many familar things?

Everybody who'd asked if I enjoyed Shanghai so far? My answer is always not inspiring.

As I was approaching the boarding gate at the airport, I missed my dad suddenly. Gave him a call on his mobile, and ended up with tears streaming down my face again. I wish I can be there for him whenever he needs me, I do not like leaving at all...

Arrived in Shanghai on schedule !

Last Friday, 25/05/2007, we boarded SQ806 after saying many bye byes to my MIL, 2nd Sis, 3 nieces & nephew, Aunty Fun, Uncle Chris, my 3 best friends (cedar pals), and of course little Ava !

The journey was great:

• Bruce sat with Dyllis at the window seats;


• I sat with Evan at the row behind them;


• Dad sat on one of the aisle seat adjacent to our seat;


• Had satay for appetiser; main course; cake for dessert;


• I managed to watch Sleepless in Seattle (1st time I can watch a movie on plane, ever since we have kids!);


• Took a nap, with Evan following suit shortly after;


• Dyllis refused to nap after long time at the radio, and playing games;

After landing, Bruce & me had a little squabble over the lugguages, he did not tag all 9 of them, and couldn't remember how one of them looked like ! Me being the 'gan cheong queen', sure gave no 'allowance for mistake' lar ! But by the time we get up 2nd brother's car, we 'made up' liao...

Journey to Renaissance Hotel was terrible, took us 2 hours ! Really really bad jam on the way in Pudong, once reached Puxi, about after office hours, also jammed! By the time I reached the hotel, I headed straight to the restroom. Not to freshen up, but to throw up !

The last 3 days in Shanghai was a bit busy, had to spend like money is water !

Friday nite:

• Had a great dinner at a restaurant in the hotel;


• walked to the Friendship Store to check out prices for a kettle that I need to buy for Sunday's "official staying in Windsor ceremony" (aka 入伙 with a simple ritual to symbolise start of stay in the house).

Saturday:

• Spent a long time looking for an alter table. Went to furniture malls, Ikea, and back to a furniture to settle for a decent table, but not an "official" alter table;


• Managed to buy a Kettle from a local chain of electrical appliances store. Can you believe it, it costs me RMB 509 for a Braun Kettle, when at home, we can get it for less the $100? Really really "painful" man...too bad, couldn't buy and ship over from home :(


• Shopped at Carrefour after having Taiwanese Porridge, did not buy much as Evan was sleepy & Dad was tired

Sunday:

• The ceremony went on well, feel blessed and peaceful with the Buddha sitting proud in the house;


• Feeling the pitch from the laundry bills, lugged our children's clothes back to Windsor to wash;


• Sent Bruce to buy laundry stand & laundry nets from Carrefour while me & kids had gelato from a shop downstairs :)


• Dyllis & I ventured into a local market opposite our new house, quite smelly & intimidating for a non-local like us, but I bought a couple of wash basins, clothes pegs, floor rugs from there !


• Met Vincent & family, together with brother for dinner. Yummy Japanese treat!

Today:

• We started with a plan...it worked out well!


• Had bread from Breadtalk for breakfast;


• Took a cab to Windsor; walked through the Windsor support stuff on our requirments/problems;


• Took a cab to Carrefour to have lunch (but Evan going to the toilet twice with no "output" were not planned! After my trips to the toilet, totally lost my appetite for lunch...)


• Evan slept on the pram after lunch, Dad pushed him around & Dyllis stayed with him (for the 1st hour) while Bruce & I went grabbing more household stuffs;


• Driver fetched us back to Windsor; lots of service men came over to service our requests like changing the light in the study room to flourescent; adding a tap at the laundry area & shifting the dryer on top of the front load washing machine; etc etc


• Left Windsor for Hongqiao Parkson for dinner;


• Had cantonese cruisine, very tasty & value for money!


• Came back to hotel;


• Made Evan poopoo since he made me go to toilet so many times today without any output;


• Asked driver to fetch us to THE BUND


• Walked along the riverside, had gelato (again !), went back to hotel.

So here am I, after 3 days in Shanghai, still in one piece. Although I was almost down with a cold on Friday, but was strong enough to fight it off. And I definitely cannot fall sick ! Still have soooo many things to buy ! Gonna make a trip to Ikea again tomorrow to buy more household items like standing lights, chopping board, non-stick pots & pans, etc etc...(also, promised Dyllis that we'll go back there again to let her play at the ball pool !)

Gonna go to bed soon, must rest my mind enough to start another day of "divide by 5" ! What does it mean? The conversion of RMB to Sin$ lar !

33hrs to stepping a foot onto SQ806

Hectic hectic hectic....last few days simply 'zoomed pass' like a bullet train. In fact, it was so overwhelming, I didn't have much appetite !

Saturday (19th May) :

• Dyllis's & Evan's School Carnival. Participated in the parent-child games for both of them. Luckily MIL came to school to join us, hence was able to join in the games with Dyllis & Evan separately;
• That was also THE day that I kana scolded by FIL. Moody day...

Sunday (20th May) :

• Bruce came home abt 6am;
• Dyllis missed her gym make up lesson (overslept due to 'fatigue', but hallo, mummy played games twice...my thighs aching man..);
• Dyllis had swimming make up lesson, Evan joined in;
• Packing, packing & more packing. Was extremely surprised that Bruce did not show any signs of jet lag, was able to keep up to the pace of packing until the wee hours !

Monday (21st May) :

• Packers came at about 9.30am. A lot less to be packed this time, but still a 'respectable quantity', about 30 boxes for air freight. (The previous sea shipment was 89 boxes !)
• Done by about 3.30pm.
• Was telling myself, 2 down, 1 more to go....but how come my house is still so messy? How come there are so many items lying everywhere? Hm....no wonder so many people who had stepped foot into our house gave the comment that we have A LOT OF STUFFS in the house ! heeheehee..

Tuesday (22nd May) :

• Bruce helped to pack in the morning, but had to go back to the office by afternoon;
• SOS my dad to come & help out in the afternoon;
• Dad came after I put Evan to sleep on the pram, so left him looking after Evan (sleeping on pram) downstairs;
• Dyllis & I walked to United Square to run errands;
• Evan was still sleeping when we came back, left dad to continue sitting downstairs, chatting with the security uncle;
• Dyllis & I went back home to sterilising milk bottles.
• When we went back down, Evan was still asleep! He was very tired ! Slept for about 2hrs on the pram downstairs!
• More packing until dinner time;
• Met Bruce at United Square for dinner. Had a sumptious chinese dinner at Soup Restaurant, had ice-cream from Swensens...quite a relaxing time at United Square....
• But the moment we reached home, it was madness again ! Bruce & I dashed in & out rooms to pack stuffs into our luggages, sent dad home, checked into Raffles Plaza at 11pm;
• Bruce & I were both exhausted, but not the kids ! They were sooooo happy & excited, especially impressed with the bathroom....let them soaked up in the bathtub & had fun before changing them into pjaymas.
• Took us another hour to 'calm them' and put them to sleep.

Wednesday (23 May) :

• Packers arrived at about 10am;
• Left the house an hour later with the organ, a fan, the dryer, the plants, 3 single mattresses, & some bric-a-brags, headed towards Sengkang (my brother's house) & Cashew Crescent (MIL house);
• 2 packers remained behind to get items ready for the 3rd destination : my dad's house;
• 3.30pm - my house has been 'emptied'. All that is not going to Shanghai with me, and are remaining after the 1st 2 destinations, are to be stored in my dad's house. It also included items which I've given away to my aunties - such as refrigerator, washing machine & shelves (they will collect them from my dad's house in June). As a result, my dad's house has been filled to the brim! Thanks dad for the free rental of your place ! heehee...
• After the packers left our house, we took the kids out to run errands. Evan fell asleep on the pram again, and we decided to take a break at Haagen Daz - much to Dyllis's delight cos she get to eat ice cream again!
• Evan was still asleep when we reach home, he didn't wake up until he'd 3 hours of rest! But that worked out just right for us, Bruce & I were able to tidy the loose ends & pack the rest of the items for the flight;
• Had dinner with an old friend (Jolene) at Novena Square. And she turned out to be my lucky star! She made my day by agreeing to rent our car for a prolong period while we are in Shanghai ! And that means we do not need to sell our car, and we can always 'borrow it' when we come back home for holiday ! Hooray! Thanks, Jolene!
• It's 1.30am now, but cannot sleep yet. Cos need to organise those items that we've dumped into the luggages earlier...will push on, hopefully tomorrow can get to relax a bit :)

Too lazy to post any photos now...will do it in next post.

But guess what? Am beginning to feel optimistic about the move!

As if I'm not unlucky enough :(

Sigh sigh sigh...

Guess what did I 'kana' this evening? A good whole 10minutes or so of lecturing from my FIL.

As if I've not been stressed enough...

As if I've done something sinfully wrong...

As if I've got a shoulder to cry on when I go home...

All I did was to run an errand on behalf of Bruce, got a form to fill in for Dyllis's school enrollment, asked FIL for help in getting a VIP to sign on the form to support Dyllis's application....and...the rest is history.

I am just too tired to dwell on it further...I just hope for bruce to be home quick...5 more hours and he'll touch down at the airport...why am I going through all these shit? I dunno know...but Shanghai, it better be worth it !!!

Why isn't my relocation smooth sailing?

I wonder....

Today as I drove to pick the kids from school, tears start streaming down my face...yes, again...I'm a cry baby alright..

This year has been tough so far, and the focal point is of course, the relocation to Shanghai !
Somehow, everything that can go wrong, goes wrong for us !

Relocation agent, shipping company, office support, home logistics, home support, etc...I just don't seem to have the luck these few months!

Relocation agent in Shanghai : When I first heard of this, I thought 'oh great!', someone to help us from 'top to toes' ! Fat hope !

Who researched on the housing - Me;
Who researched on the schools - Me;
Who keep repeating our requirements because the agent keep 'misplacing our requirements' - Me !

I still remember those endless nights where I have to stare at my monitor until 3am prior to the Shanghai pre-move trip.

The agent is a nice guy. But somehow, it's the way people work in China.
You give clear, written information via email, it do not seem to sink well.
Everytime you have to call to confirm that they understand.

Shipping company : Nice people, cheapest (like all tenders, lowest of 3 quotes?)

1st surprise - hinting that they might charge me for the boxes when they found out there are many items that I wish to store locally;
2nd surprise - almost forgotten about our packing date (for sea shipment)!
3rd surprise - our belongings arrived in Shanghai already, but do not have Bruce's passport, hence cannot send goods for custom clearance. And Bruce is in America now, hence earliest that we can start the custom clearing process would be when we arrive next Friday.....then why on earth did I ask for early packing for sea shipment ?!)*$)%*#)#;
4th surprise ? Am still counting.....

Office support : Does it ever exist? Hm...everytime you have a question, yes it exists. And many a times, it's redirection to the relocation agent :) It's always communication between us & the relocation agent; or us and the shipping company; the office support is more than happy that it stays this way !

But hey, who is having a BIG PICTURE then? Take for example the sea shipment incident. Nobody advised on what is required for the custom clearing. Nobody advised on timing the shipment such that Bruce will be in Shanghai to provide & sign the necessary documents. He was there last week! If the office support do not know, who'll on earth should know?

And we are now exactly 1 week from departing Singapore. Nobody from office (be it from Singapore or Shanghai) touch base with us on the nitty gritty details on settling down ! What do we need -
Transport from Airport;
Hotel to tide over the period;
Collection of documents for application of residence passes;
Rental of car;
The list of details just goes on...whoops! Not forgetting, as I am typing this, the Contract for our Rented House is Not signed yet !

Home Logistics : Spent whole of last month sending letters and emails to update our home address to a PO Box. But just found out last week, due to operational limitations at the Post Office, we are not allowed to redirect mails from a PO Box ! Oh man....no time to update addresses anymore ! Quickly SOS Bruce's colleague to help redirect our mails to our Shanghai address.

A friend from the office told me that I should have just updated all our correspondence to the office and get office's support to redirect our mails to Shanghai accordingly. Oh can it be done? Nobody from the office support group told me that before? WHY? I've wasted so much effort simply because I am ill-informed? Blame it on my luck again !

Home Support : Because of the new posting, Bruce is practically out of town more than 50% of the time in a month! And even if he is in town, he is soooo swamped with the new responsibilities. So, at the end of the day, the support I get from him has decreased drastically compared to before the new posting ! Have I been 'shortchanged'? A definite YES ! I feel like I am asked to fight a war, but I am not given any ammunition ! Is it fair?

Sigh...Blame it on my luck !

One down, Two more to go!

I woke up this morning, slightly tensed....wonder if I'll survive today in good shape.

The packers from United arrived promptly. Walked the supervisor through our mess, and off went 6 of them...

They are all dispersed to the various rooms, each tackling a task on their own. But when the item is huge, like our sofa, a few of them will get together to finish up the 'masterpiece'. Bruce is right, each of them is like an artist, wrapping our furnitures/items with the right material, and bending the edges so neatly and securing them tightly, such that it's like an art piece!

More than 50% of the job was done before the kids came back from school & lunch. And the moment Evan laid his eyes on the wrapped up boxes that are stacked up, he think it's a playground! Before we knew it, he climbed up to the top of one stack of boxes, sitting there and smiling cheekily !

As for dyllis, for 1 whole hour, she was pacing up and down between the hallway & the gate to check if Aunty Pauline has come home. Pauline (our neighbour) has kindly agreed to let our kids go over to her house this afternoon, and Dyllis is eagerly waiting to bring her High School Musical DVD over to watch at Aunty Pauline's house.

Finally her wait was over, off went my two little 'monsters' to Pauline's house (for almost 2hours ! Thanks, Pauline, that was much appreciated !).

The packing process went off smoothly without much glitches (except for 1 broken glass & 1 chipped ikea box). By 3plus, the packers were loading the boxes up to the container parked along the road outside our apartment. And by 4.45pm, the doors to the container were 'sealed' with a lock.

Whew! One down....two more to go before we board the plane to Shanghai!

1st packing for shipment via sea in 6hrs time!

Finally, able to go to bed soon.

Has just finished packing the kids' toy cabinet, rearranged & labeled some boxes for ease of packing later in the morning.

The week that had just passed had not been easy...

1st of all, the neverending packing, discarding, storing;
then, the neverending disagreements with Bruce;
then, the neverending disappointments from the Shipping Co (they actually forgotten that we are having the 1st packing for shipment on 04 May !)

Why isn't my life more smooth sailing? I wonder....

Well, now that I've survived the last few months of agony, just hope it's worth every bit of the sweat & tears !

Whoops one more neverending...the ulcers in my mouth ! There are at least 3 of them present at any point in time for the last 2 weeks ! It just goes to show how stressed I've been ! hahaha...

Lots of dumping, packing & moving

After an antogonising 1 1/2 weeks, finally Bruce is back at home. I immediately declared a 'state of emergency', aka he is grounded - no more flying off till the 1st shipment of our belongings via sea is out on the 4th of May.

And we had so much done in the last 48 hours !
1. Threw out a lot of old documents.

We used to keep our old office documents for sentimental reasons. Especially for me, I kept all my old pay slips, old time report, old letters from the company, etc etc. Suddenly am convinced that I cannot hold on to those useless pieces of papers. Since I have not taken a look at them for the last 7 years, I do not think that I will be doing so in the near future! Hence, off to trash they went.

2. Put books that we are going to bring to Shanghai into boxes. (note: those are just the adults' books, kids' portion barely started).

3. Took out most of the stuff in the store room, dismantled part of the shelves used in the store room.

It was a massive operation today ! Bruce & I started almost immediately after sending kids off to school. We were clear of our goal for the morning:
a. Remove the multipurpose shelves from the store room and;
b. Send it to my dad's house for our local storing.

We did not dismantle all the shelves, but managed to finish 60% of it, as that was the maximum load our Mazda 5 can handle in a single trip.

We were running late in picking up our kids from school, hence Bruce & I had to 'divide & conquer'. He sent the shelves to my dad's house, while I took kids out for lunch after picking them up from school.

Bruce joined us for lunch after he was done. And we had a plan. The BIG Plan was to tire the kids out, so that they'll both take a nap in the afternoon, and we can continue packing.

Our living & dining areas were a mess after we left the house in the late morning, am really concerned about the dust and the kids "messing up the mess" even further if they hang around!

And...our plan worked ! Evan and Dyllis were knocked out for at least 2 1/2 hours, and that was just enough for us to finish tidying up the place for dinner :)

4. Set up the shelves at my dad's house and started arranging our boxes neatly in the room (at my dad's house).

Shortly after dinner, we bathed the kids and off we went to my dad's house. Kids were quite a handful, curious about the commotions over the setting up of the shelves in the room that used to be their toys' room in grandfather's house.

Hence, the process took longer than expected, but kids had fun.

So here we are, thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day, with both of us feeling the straints on our lower back due to a hard days' labour work !

It's a major step towards Shanghai, more to come in the next couple of days !

"Attack" on the playroom & my emotions!

Finally, got my hands dirty in the kids' playroom.

Started out in the morning while kids are at school, couldn't do much.

In the afternoon, tried taking out some boxes from the toys cabinet...but instead of packing...the 2 little 'monsters' started scattering the contents of the boxes all over the place !

Couldn't wait to put them to bed at night ! Finally they are both knocked out, here I am, spent the past 1.5 hours packing, sorting, discarding.

Created a few categories of items : To bring, to leave at Dad's house, to pass to girlfriends, to donate, to discard.

Am happy with my progress so far. But as I sat down on the chair to take a break, and take a look around the room...suddenly, I felt like crying :(

Oh dear, as I'm typing this, tears start streaming down....very sad. Why do we have to leave? What are we getting into? I'll miss so many people, so many places, so many things in Singapore. It certainly doesn't help when we have kids in tow.

Now I feel like when my mum passed away suddenly. Very very sad, want to cry all the time, but I couldn't, cos if I do, my dad will be sad, and my kids will be confused. I had to be strong then. But I am sad. Very very sad. Just like now.

What if I am not there for my dad when he needs me? What about birthdays and anniversaries at home (esp mum's bd & death anniverary)? What if I can't cope alone in Shanghai with bruce's busy travelling schedule?

I'll miss my friends, my best friends from cedar, my good neighbours, my fellow SAHMs...

I'll miss the familiar faces in my daily life, I'll miss being able to go to the market to get fresh meat, veg & fruits (in Shanghai, had been told should only get from Carrefour), I'll miss everything !

Oh no...no need to bet with me, I'll sure cry at departure gate in Airport!

Sigh....but don't worry for me, I'll SURVIVE !!! (anybody has the lyrics of this song? heehee...)

OK, no more being a coward, gotta go clear up the mess in the playroom. Another busy day tomorrow, and yippeee, daddy bruce is coming home in the next 22hours!


p.s. now u know y i enjoy blogging...gotta let off some 'steam' when there is no listening ears at this odd hour :) feels better oredi !

Started packing our first few boxes !

The week that just passed has been fruitful.

After I recovered from my fever on Wednesday (28th March 2007), I was filled with so much zest for the move ! I started packing !

1st to fit into the box were the photo albums in the store room. Decided not to bring them to Shanghai. Bruce was questioning otherwise. My reasons? What if they are lost in transit to Shanghai? What if they are damaged? These are our precious memories you know? Better leave them at my dad's home where it's safe !

Next were the "redundant" books on the shelves in our computer room. Rules of thumb: books which may be useful for bruce - bring; recipe books for carol - bring; others - store at dad's home or give away ! Filled 2 small boxes in no time.

Will be working on the next item soon, but let me learn how to cook pig's trotter from auntie peng 1st ! Am gonna have a "pig's trotter lunch party" with dad & aunties at home tomorrow ! The ginger and the vinegar is brewing in the slow cooker now :)

Pre-Move Trip to Shanghai

1st step to Shanghai - made a pre-move trip in February (03/02/2007-09/02/2007).


D & E: Hooray, going on an aeroplane !

B: eager to make me love Shanghai.

C: full of anxiety, evaluating, thinking what-ifs ?!?!


Look at my stylish kids, simply loved to be dressed in winter clothes ! Only problem is very troublesome to put on and take off when we step indoors...


D & E simply loved the "merry go round" door. Hardly see any of these doors in Singapore, but lots of such at Shanghai ! These 2 naughty fellows may not be allowed to play with it all the time, depending on which "uncle who guards the door" is on duty ;p




See the villa behind? It's our favorite so far (Shimao Lakeside). Can you imagine the beautiful view of the man-made lake at your balcony? It's a very serene place, simply loved it. But Bruce's office is in PUXI, no point for us to reside in PUDONG, and poor Man in the House may have to suffer the long traffic jams every morning.




See who is having fun and who is totally exhausted from the house hunting ?







Little rascal in action ! E is always full of mischiefs whenever he is awake and wherever he is...."air stewardess coming ! quick, auntie scold mummy don't know eh..."

D is busy listening to High School Musical Soundtrack or watching Dora the Explorer, couldn't be bothered by the commotion behind :)

On why I started this blog

On this juncture of our lives, the family of BCDE is going to embark on to a new journey.

The company has decided to post Bruce to China - Shanghai to take up a new position. It is a journey to the unknown. Why is it unknown?

Bruce - How to make it work in a foreign land, with foreign work ethnics, and total new rules of the game. Whether he will succeed or fail, nobody knows.

Carol - New SAHMs to meet, new Ayis, new supermarkets, new ways of upkeeping the family in a foreign environment.

Dyllis & Evan - New weather, new clothes for the seasons, new education system, new english slangs at school.

The only thing that we know is that our written and spoken Chinese will definitely improve.

How long is this journey? Also...Unknown :(

Bruce has to sign 2 yearly contracts. But he has warned not to think short term. For him to make a break at work, 2 years may not be enough. So, we are armed with the mindset of a one-way ticket.

Isn't it scary? It definitely is for me !

Frankly, I've freaked out twice, and threatened to abort the mission. But hey, isn't "going global" the trendy slogan right now?

And what message am i sending to my children if i "chicken out"?

To think that I've always been telling them to try new adventures, not to be afraid of failures, etc etc.

Think on the bright side of it, we'll get to stay in a new house, an uncle to drive us around, lots of green area to play in the compound of our house, many public holidays, cheaper flight ticket to Hong Kong, maybe get to see snow, etc etc.

At the end of the day, after some pep talk from bruce, I've decided a definite YES to Shanghai !

So here I am, starting on the 1st step of the journey - planning the big move !