Chet’s Chatter

I was on TV

Posted on 11 March 2010 @ 00:06 in News, Stress Busters

Thanks to that American-born panda, Tai Shan.

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In Pictures: Tai Shan’s Big Day

Posted on 9 March 2010 @ 23:57 in News, Stress Busters

After a month in quarantine since being returned from the United States to Bifengxia Panda Base in China, American-born giant panda Tai Shan came out of quarantine today and was moved to his new home on Leopard Mountain at the Base in a special “Tai Shan Moving House” event that attracted the local media in full force.

I was there, but not specifically to attend the event. I’m here for my annual volunteer trip which happens to coincide with Tai Shan’s big day. Here are some pictures from this special day.

The weather forecast had said rain from 6 March (the day I arrived), but it only rained on the 3rd day. This morning, rain in Ya’an became snow when we got to Bifengxia Panda Base. Only for Tai Shan!

Welcome banner and red carpet at the start of the path going up to Tai Shan’s new home

Volunteers called up on stage to receive certificates of appreciation

There were blank cards attached to the railings at his yard for volunteers to write messages to him. This was mine.

Caught in the act!

The volunteers each received a goody bag with a panda soft toy inside. Mine is US bound for a special foo-foo pet … I mean, baby.

And now some pictures of today’s star attraction, Tai Shan.

His keeper and team really got into the spirit of the occasion and decked out a buggy for Tai’s personal transport up to his new home

Within minutes of arrival, he was allowed outdoors. He came out, looked around and headed straight for the slope on the other side so that he disappeared for a while. But he was soon back up and facing the pandarazzi on the other side of the railings.

After the excitement of the morning, he settled down quickly to his usual routine of eating bamboo! We went back after lunch and were rewarded with his left profile …

… and his right profile

Tai in his yard – an overall view to give an idea of the size of the yard.

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Offline

Posted on 9 March 2010 @ 07:00 in News

I am currently in China, and have discovered the “Great Firewall of China”.

Yup, no access to Facebook and Twitter in China. I feel “offline”, altho I have Internet access in my hotel room, and brought along “H”, my Asus eeePC 1000H, so I am online, just not on Facebook or Twitter.

I’m at the Bifengxia Panda Base for my annual volunteer trip. This trip coincides with American-born giant panda Tai Shan coming out of his 30-day quarantine and moving into his new digs today. It’s a big event with 20 volunteers helping him to move. I’m one of the 20.

This should be a fun day.

I just remembered my blog entries are sent to my Facebook account, so this should go up there, too. If any of my FB friends read this, please post a comment on my blog to let me know. Then, I’ll update my blog more often while I’m in China.

Thanks.

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February is the shortest month

Posted on 1 March 2010 @ 23:12 in Being Silly, Writing

Even when it’s a leap year. And that’s why it’s now already March. Simply because February is the shortest month.

Don’t mind my silliness.

Earlier today, I saw a note from a friend on FB about getting together a reading group for A S Byatt’s Possession. I thought I was so smart when I replied “Persuasion was what persuaded me about A S Byatt’s wonderful-ness.” A while later, it occurred to me Persuasion is not the title of the book, but Possession. I went back and deleted the note, and later tweeted dunno what possessed me to write Persuasion instead of Possession by A S Byatt. Was trying to be funny and use the word “persuaded”. *blur*

I have various writing projects, including Panda Stories, a series of 20 stories based on 20 pictures, and A – Z, short notes on Facebook. So far, I’ve only written three of the 20 panda stories, and four of the alphabet notes. Panda Stories was “launched” on 20 December 2009 and the third story posted about a month later on 19 January 2010. The first of the alphabet notes, “Age”, was posted on 19 January 2010, and “Disorganised”, the fourth, on 23 February 2010.

Pretty pathetic output. Nevertheless, I’m feeling somewhat accomplished today, having written and posted a new story on The British Council’s A City of Shared Stories Kuala Lumpur site. I’ve posted various stories on that site, and should really include them in my recent writing output.

I’ll do better than that. I’ll post links to all my stories posted to date on that site.

Taken for a ride
17 December 2009

Kindness Remembered
18 December 2009

Urban Miracle
3 January 2010

Spiked
8 January 2010

He also started this way
10 January 2010

“You won’t believe what happened, man … “
1 March 2010

Hmm, no stories posted in February? Well, it was a short month – the shortest month! – and just whooshed by.

Hopefully, I’ll maintain, if not increase, my writing output from now on.

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Grandma’s 4-poster bed

Posted on 24 February 2010 @ 09:00 in Family, Memories

On the third day of this Chinese New Year (16 February), Jen my sister went visiting. This was a rare occurrence because previous years, she and family would be away (a lot of people go away during festive holidays), but this year, they couldn’t find anywhere interesting so they went back to my brother-in-law’s hometown for a couple of days.

It was such a rare occurrence that when we arrived at our 3rd aunt’s house (the first relative we visited), the old lady exclaimed “Which wind blew you here – north, south, east or west?”

Yes, “we” visited because I went along, partly as navigator and partly for company (I’d already visited on the first day with my brother). This really shows how long since Jen last visited our various uncles and aunts – she’s mostly forgotten the way, and this was not helped by the fact that the roads have changed and also the familiar scenery along them.

We visited three houses that day – 3rd aunt’s, 2nd uncle’s, and Sai Goo’s (she is father’s youngest sister; sai means “little” or “youngest”, while goo is the word for aunt on father’s side).

Jen managed to meet up with two cousins of her age that day. This was a treat because the rest of the year, everyone would be too busy to keep in touch, except over the phone. Meeting up with cousin Kat, Sai Goo’s eldest daughter, was probably the highlight as she and her family live in Brunei so the chances of meeting up at other times were really rare. This was why we waited for her after Jen spoke with her on the phone while at her mother’s house.

As kids, the older cousins used to hang out with one another a lot. Maybe because they hadn’t met for so long, but cousin Kat started asking my sister “do you remember?” questions when they sat down to chat after she eventually returned from lunch (as it turned out, with another cousin and her family).

“Do you remember grandfather’s big black car?” she asked my sister. “The driver would fetch me in the evenings to the main shop and we would all go to play at the roundabout.”

My sister said yes, but after comparing descriptions, it turned out she was remembering the wrong car.

“Do you remember cousin Jimmy used to stage talentime shows on Grandma’s 4-poster bed? He was our ringleader!”

My ears perked up. Grandma’s 4-poster bed? Talentime shows? My mind pictured all these little kids running on top of its mattress and pretending to sing.

Grandma’s 4-poster bed had a special place in my childhood. It was the bed that I shared with my nanny when I was under her care.

The bed was big. How big? I remember nights when I couldn’t sleep and I would get up, tie the corners of my little blanket into a “bag” (the way I’d seen it done in Chinese sword-fighting movies) and walk on the bed, pretending I was travelling, going from one village to another (the way the heroes in those Chinese sword-fighting movies used to do).

The bed was high, too. How high? Nanny used to store boxes of stuff beneath it, and I had my little secret place there, hiding my little notebooks (paper) in a box way inside the underside of the bed. It was especially cooling for naps on hot afternoons.

I remember being told Grandma had given the bed to Nanny when Nanny came to work for us. For a long time, I thought they were friends. It was only recently that I realised it couldn’t have been. Grandma had died when father was just 8 years old, and Nanny had come to work for us soon after Jen was born, when father was around 22. Grandma and Nanny couldn’t have been friends. A piece of family history has now been rewritten – well, not rewritten, but set in its proper time frame.

My guess is that Grandma’s 4-poster bed remained after she passed away. None of father’s siblings took it because its size made it difficult to dismantle and move (it was also heavy, made of brass.) Some of them were living away from the shop. The more modern ones preferred, well, more modern furniture. So, when Nanny came to work for us, and our family was living under the same roof as the bed, she was given the bed to share with the baby (my sister), and later with my brother, and then with me.

When we moved out of the shop in the early 90s, it was to a house with rooms that would not fit the bed. I asked around and a friend from my schooldays asked if she could have it. She had seen the bed before when she used to visit and always thought it would be a neat bed to own. She didn’t mind the trouble of dismantling the bed and moving it. She later told me her niece and nephews really enjoyed sleeping on the bed – they had never seen or slept in such a big bed before!

It’s years since I’ve asked about the bed, and I hope it’s still providing rest for someone somewhere. Not sure about talentime shows, tho.

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