It is not for the faint hearted

As many people know, China is known for the strong economic growth and as one of the most populates country in the world. But it is also know for the bad image as the "fake" or "low quality" items. As the phrase : Made in China  , doesn't seem to  reflect any good image in general.

But as many know ( and also some doesn't ) China also offer the vast luxurious life style. Specially in big cities, and of the most fast growing and expanding city is the one we are living right now Shanghai.
And it is now the host of World Expo 2010. Shanghai has been undergoing many "plastic surgery" and it is at her prime and most beautiful time right now and the transportation system as been improved a lot too.

But it is not for the faint hearted people at all. You need to brace your self and you will need to choose a balance life style and keep your feet on the ground. If you have the cash, the sky is the limit! And thankfully , we do not have the cash , so we have a lot of limit here!The activities are endless so we must be very selective, and with the $$ you can basically have everything you want. And before you know it, you will be pulled down and drown in your own life.
But we came back to China, with open mind and open heart. We didn't come with our of our skeptical thought about China or the people, we 've decided to embrace it the good and the bad. Except that we are living in different city, our family are always the same, we still have the same value, we are still the same people.

The urge to have the branded clothing, bags, and all, to eat in the high end restaurant, joining a elite club or gym, to send the kids to an elite private school, to have a regular saloon visit from head to toes, to hire unlimited help fro chauffeur, personal maid and nanny or even to have a private masseuse  to come to your home.

As with the children it is the same, to keep them on the ground, with friends that going to certain restaurant, shop in certain shop and going with a luxurious car , it can be intimidating for them and the social pressure is big.

But , for us, we are what we are  , and we try to put that in our children's life that we don't have to have or do what others do. So it is important to keep things simple and yet we still be able to have fun. Because some people are funny, they spend the money they don't have, to buy thing they don't even need, to impress people they don't even like.
To live like that it is very exhausting , don't you  agree??

XOXO

S.R

The simplicity of life

When we lived back in Sabah, we always know that we can't take everything for granted. The weather, the beaches, the greenery, the sea, the islands, the food, the mountains.But we , sometimes, missed the convenience of living in the big city as well ; the shopping , the activities ( specially for kids ) the food selection, the wine and dine life .

We always tried to have outdoor activities for family, like going to beaches, islands, mountains, tamu market, and we glad we did it.

Life here is on the contrary. We literally could do anything here, and buy anything here if as long as we could afford it. It is the cliche Big City life, when you got the $$ you can live like a king ( well sort of ) :)

The activities for the family is... literally endless... do you want to go ice skating or even ski-ing? Shanghai has it. Or something more simple like flying kite ? Go to Wild safari ( should I say semi- wild)? Want to ride on the Maglev train with the max speed of 400km per hour? Go to see the view of the city from one of the tallest building in the world ( not sure if it is the 2nd or 3rd tallest building)? Have a cuppa of coffee from the super luxurious Garden Hyatt hotel over seeing the famous Shanghai skyline? Or go shopping for any well known famous brands in the world?  Or how about to eat in the best restaurant in town ( hundreds of it)Or do you want to have your organic veggies to be deliver to the door? How about to have the homemade yogurt to be deliver to your doorstep?Do you want to learn to do pottery or oil painting?Or do you want to visit the Madame Tussaud wax museum?

And then... there are activities for the children.... which ... is the same.... endless..... Lego land, Mini city, Art center, Barbie cafe, Kid's spa? ( what???? which kid need a spa? I need SPA and not kids!!!! )

So this kind of life is the total opposite of what we use to had back in Malaysia. So simple, so natural, so free.
Do I looked down at Sabah or KK? Because now we live in a " more modern" " more choice" city?
Well... I am not . It make me think that it is great to experience the simpleness of life. It makes us appreciate more of the simple things.

The same way like , when we just arrived in KK. We can rent more spacious house . Compared to where we lived before in a apartment ( back in Singapore, Shanghai and Guangzhou). So once someone asked me,  so in KK you feel like rich people then , can stay in a landed house? Well not at all. We always manage to keep down to earth and keep  one feet on the ground no matter what. If we think we are " rich" because we lived in the landed property , and had a car  for personal use, well when we moved back here and we live back in the apartment, I or we could have a " down power" syndrome. ( is it such a word? eheh not sure, but anyway.. you know what I mean).

A dear friend of mine , once said to me : "to be an " expat" ( I don't like to label my self this ) you are so nice and down to earth. You consider to live well but you still want to mix and be friend with me from other religion". Of course this made me mad! First : I am just happened to be  not local and I don't live that well , there are plenty of people who live much much "well" than me and I do not boxed my self to be friend with certain people from certain religion. So what if I am an expat? I must be snobbish and just mix with certain " level" of people? I am not that narrow minded person. So you can imagine how the conversation went with my dear friend ! Not a very good nice conversation for her since I was keep yap and yapping :P, but being close and dear friend , we can talk about everything, and she is the " lantak" type. :P


Another confidant friend of us, told us, that it is blessing in disguise to be moved back to Shanghai. She said , it is a great " break" or " long holiday" to be able to work and live in Sabah. It was the time to breath, relax, and take thing easy ( not working wise for my dh , as it is the most challenging staffs he ever got so far) and to enjoy the nature. And now , she said, it is the time to move back to the real world where we must be in high gear to be able to  survive in this land. And in the food department I can't complaint! Finally I am able to dine in a Thailand , Indonesian , Japanese, Korean , Greek, Italian ( duh ! of course),German etc etc....And since my aunt is still here with us, so it gives us the freedom to go on our wine and dine date twice a week and leave the kids at home! ( hah!  ^_^)

And here is the our first family photo in the city Over seeing a tiny part of the biggest park here, with a glimpse of our apartment compound on the back .

To learn is to change

We are finally in the new house, but our container is still in KK. The house is great, has plenty of storage and since this is a duplex unit, it has 2 floors, we are on the top floor of the building , the 11th floor, and the compound has about 25-30 towers.

It is not in the donwtown , can be considered as the suburb, some said to live in this are like not living in China at all, because we are in the new area. The house still feel " foreign " to me, as  I always need my old stuffs to make me feel at home. Right  now we are using new bedsheet, new plates, new glasses, new this and that. I will need my old bedsheet, old pillowcases, old plates, my old coffee cups ( that hosted many tea time in our home at KK and some of you drank many times from that cups!! :P )

Anyway... we are on "trial" day today, I started the first day of homeschooled Indy. I can't say It runs perfectly today. With new routine, new maid, new house, new place, plus Maya is home..
Everything is different.

But to learn is to change.. and I m willing to change my routine, and change my schedule. Maybe this is the opportunity for me to re discover something about my self that I didn't know before.I am not sure what I will achieve or when. But it is not only the mountain we will need to conquer but ourselves.

Part of that, I also found the school for Maya today. But will only start after Chinese New Year, it will be in Mandarin and no  English. :) I am not sure how she will cope, but I have faith in that wild spirited girl . :)

We have met some old friends, get in touch  by phone. And maybe we will meet one of the Shanghai homeschooler family this week . The girls had their first playdate here, and saw snow for the first time too.

Some how they still miss KK so very much , specially Maya, she still cry when she remember her Kakak Helen in KK. Poor girl and poor woman. They both cried so loud on the phone the other night. Their bonding is very tight and special, and I feel blessed to be able to witness such a great love from 2 strangers at the begining . It is great to know such a great love does exist!!And I will be forever grateful to my maid in KK for her amount of loves she give to my kids. And I will keep in touch with her no matter what.

In this foreign land some how people are more welcoming , at least in the beginning compare to the first time when we just arrived in KK.  No one cares, the company didn't even care or welcoming us. The only  family that made me feel welcome is Indy's best friend family from Burma. They helped and guide me from choosing school and hospital, where to buy some stuffs and all.But of course once I got to know more friends ( like you) I feel like at home and got some great tips about the city or where to shop!! :)

My husband  colleagues are nice enough to hosted a small but nice Christmas party to welcome us to Shanghai.
The thought it self is very heart warming.

That's it for today... I will try to upload photos for next update. Right now I am using my netbook and it is so slow....

Take care and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

LOVE from all of  us!!

Our updates

So we left KK on Saturday the 19th  December 2009, that was my dad's birthday. To think of it, life is funny and full of surprises. Exactly 5 years ago on the same date, we were in Shanghai for a short holiday, celebrating my dad's and my niece b'day in Shanghai ( my niece Abby's b'day is on the 20th of December) . And we just moved to Guangzhou on October that year , but we visited Shanghai for a short trip with my dad and my eldest sis and her family,
And yet , here we are again 5 years later , we are going back to the same city on the same date.

The trip was smooth sailing. There was an hour delay from KK to KL . But overall all were good. The departure from KK is heart breaking , specially to see Indiana's friends started to cry. This is the first time that actually people are crying for us. It made us feel weird, and guilty and bad all together. Indy told me on the way to the airport, after she shed a bit of tears that she feel sorry that she made her friends sad. And when I asked her : are you sad? She said a bit but she is more worry that she will forget them . I told her, no she won't forget them because we will still be in touch and think about them. And that made calmed her down.

As for Maya it is sad to watched her cried to say good bye to her kakak, our maid. Our maid cried and cried and it was a heart breaking thing to see.

We stayed one night in Concorde KLIA. Thank goodness makcik Taty picked us with her beloved husband and my anak angkat , :). We chatted and talked and laughed. And of course cursing each other as usual. I am glad she stayed with me in the hotel, and early next day, her dh picked us again and send us to the airport. No tears here, all were good. Planned are made,.. we will see each other in Shanghai. :). And hopefully" the beq and the tet "will conquer the Great wall of china together!!

Back to us,at first I was more worry for Indy , but it looks like she is doing very fine. She adjusting like a pro ( she is a pro after all, this is her 3 moves ) But for Maya it is hard for her to understand as this is her first move , for her KK is her home, KK is her town, and she is still thinking that we are on holiday and we gonna move back to KK soon.  :( I told her we are not going back, she is insist : I want to go to KK! I said we will but not that soon

Every thing is big and fast in Shanghai. As for me, I don't need any adjustment ( except for the weather wise, when we arrived it was minus 3 ) I lived here before, love the city and still loving it, but  every thing has it pro and con, so right now I m trying to focus on the pro rather than the con. But I miss my Astro and E! channel badly though.

And to my own surprise my mandarin level is not as bad as I thought either! Hah! that is something really good at least. I can manage daily  conversation and needs.

The unfortunate thing is when we arrived my dh was sick for 3 days, with high fever , I almost never see him this sick before. And I m worry we might get it as well. Finger cross....every one looks ok until today.
Due to his sickness we must delay our medical check up for the Residence permit to the next week.

I managed to see some apartments, and by now I just signed the leasing contract. We found a good place for us, will post the pick when we move in soon. But we need to wait more than one month to get our container, so no unpacking will need to be done soon.
Speaking of unpacking.. today I got a maid, she looks ok, and the kids like her too. And that is important.
I interview a few by phone and even met some of them. No one sounds or appear "suitable". And most of them asking for about rmb 2500 so that is about RM 1250 to 1500. That is a high salary, but that is the market price. Our maid now just arrive from her hometown , but she worked in Shanghai before, there fore her pay is slightly lower that the normal market price.

Oh and everything is much much cheaper here. And guess what, I bought a sweater in ROXY warisan square, on 50% disc. I thought I scored a good deal ( rm 100) yeah right! When I went to Carrefour herehere, I saw the identical sweater for  half price! GRRRR.... and of course without the brand and all but it is the same thing. Welcome to China!

The girls spent their Christmas here . We still stay in our friend's house. So Santa is not visiting this year. But they got 2 presents from us. For Indy she got her long waited Telescope. She wants to learn more about stars and moon and planet. And I bought her the virtual dog game too .
As for Maya she got one remote control shovel machine ( she likes to see when people building the houses and building in KK) and she got a 3 wheels scooter to replace her old scooter that we left in KK .
And I got my suede with inner fleece boots that I've been eyeing for months. It is super comfy , super warm and the sole has a great grip . Love it.

Oh the girls have no problem with the cold, Maya often walk bare footed inside the house's freezing floor. I keep yelling at her to put her home shoes. They still taking bath twice a day. But when we go out, I make sure they are well dressed. 3 top and for bottom they must put a long socks and long pants.
So far so good. The lowest temperature is -5 so far, and when the wind blows it feels like someone slapping your cheek.

Overall we are doing good here. By next week we will move to our new house. Not yet a home until we will get our belongings from the cargo. And no Wifi yet in the new house, so I must use modem ( banging my head for not packing the router in my luggage)

I will not post the photo here. I m running out of time, But you can see some photos on my FB's badge on the right side :)

Merry Christmas everyone and have a Great Year a head!!!