complaints about books

skyping with papa toinou

lunch in a Japanese restaurant... we did not order the right thing for Ming Ming, the noodle was a bit spicy, the beef too hard for her. She ended up enjoying her 維他奶 /soy milk most.

Outside the TKO library. Honestly, I am rather disappointed with the public library. The place is so sterilised that it loses the coziness and the sense of free play a children's library should have. The play area is too hard, all concrete (though painted in bright colors), and the worst thing is that it requires everyone to take their shoes off. As Ming Ming walks in and out of the play area, the shoes issue become a definite nuisance.

When it comes to book selection, I have even more complaints. I have a hard time finding books for Ming Ming. First, there is not so many books for her age group, most of them have really long text or outdated graphics. Also, the library (or the publishing company) is TOOOOO obssesed with dictionaries, grammar books, and science books for kids (as if story books are a distraction in a kid's life). For the rest of the story selection, far too many Disney books, and far toooooo many chinese books with a central character whose name is Tom or Nina, and they all live in American or European kind of house or farm. Is this the globalization of early childhood education? If children's books gives them a prototype of the world, how do HK kids understand the world and their own surrounding? Is this part of the colonization of the mind disguised as the cultivation of an international vision?

The books that I find acceptable are mostly from Taiwan. HK publishing industry is not interested in kid's books? That is why we all love Mcdull (because it is so rare)?

trying to follow a straight line... 八字腳更加明顯

A lot of fun

outting with German EE and Ma EE

park again - with popo

videos

Who does Ming Ming like?

going with popo and her friends

play dough

park

anti-high speed railway movement

landed on Hong Kong just in time for the last day of anti-high speed railway demonstration outside the legislative council.

十二月底至一月中的青年苦行

16 jan, the media reportage the next day all focused on the scenes of confrontation, and some even tried, most outrageously, to protray the participants as rioters. I was there from 2pm till 10pm, the demonstration was really calm during most of the time. This was already the fourth day for most of the participants, sitting outside the legislative council listening to the legco debate on the express railway funding bill.

I was very close to the confrontation scene (without realizing it). When the legco passed the funding bill, in a most undemocratic and brutal manner, everyone was really angry. The organizers mobilized people to march around the legco building, but the march was soon blocked by the police. The general sentiment was that "we just want to march and no even that is allowed", so people started shouting "police get out of the way" and some jumped out in the main road, most of them were immediately hunted down by police.

as more people jumped out, we occupied the road, and finally took up the four roads surrouding the legco building. The police used pepper spray, and mobilized the anti-riot police.

after the few scenes of confrontation that were blowed up in the media the next day, the rest of the night was mainly about sitting on the street and blocking the road with our bodies, singing, passing around and eating breads brought by organizers and sympathizers, some more experienced protestors started sharing their experience of being removed and arrested by police, and giving us tips in handling this kind of situation. At the request of the organizers, all of us marked down a few phone number (of lawyers) on our arms in case of being arrested. It is the first time that I felt like I could really got arrested.

I left at 10pm because they expected that the police would not move before 3 or 4am. The anxiety of leaving Ming Ming at home to my mum on the first day of our arrival here, and the two sleepless nights spent on the trip and on dealing with Ming Ming's jet lag, started to wear me down. Another reason was that i was alone. Looking at the young faces around me, most of them were here with a band of friends. They remind me of my own college days and I know that the JLM gang would all be there if this happened some years back. That is why I am rather puzzled why they reacted so differently this time.

arriving at Hong Kong

I was really worried before taking the Lyon-Hong Kong trip alone with Ming Ming. The trans-Atlantic flight with Antione and Ming Ming was so difficult that my heart cringed at the prospect of 20-hour of air travel alone with a 19-month old. The two hour transfer in London Heathrow was catastropic, Ming Ming was extremely tired and cranky. The rest of the trip went a lot better than I expected though. Cathay Pacific is a lot better than ALL american airlines, they gave me a seat on the first row (with the three neighbouring seats empty), so I was able to lie down Ming Ming on two seats and sat on a separate seat (not too bad for the fact that I only paid for one ticket!). I did not sleep much tough, kept worring that Ming Ming would roll down the floor. The only bad thing during the 12h flight with Cathay was that Ming Ming vomited everything (mainly on me), so I arrived at HK with am extremely stinky shirt (I packed a change of clothes for her, but not for me) =( .

with my brother. Ming Ming recognized Popo at once, but it takes some time to warm up to her. She did not recognize cowcow though, but warm up quickly with him. my brother surely knows how to cheer up girls!

Happy birthday to Momo!

les videos de Ming Ming a bourg en bresse

la neige

We did not leave the house much these few days because of the snow and the cold. We should come to France during the summer next time.

lecture

lecture avec grandmere

lecture avec mami

Ming Ming fait coucou avec grandmere et mami qui sont en bas