Jeremy - The New Look

Finally, after 6 years, Jeremy is now spotted with a new look hairstyle; somewhat a 'design' that is more acceptable of a primary school boy.

I guess a RM15 investment on the mummy's hair salon seems to be working.

BEFORE



AFTER

Beijing - March 2012 Part 1

I finally got my act together this time where I actually got a chance to move around Beijing while on business trip. Being a Chinese history buff, Beijing is indeed an interesting holiday proposition for myself. After 2 days of continuous global firm meeting in this historical city, I extended a day to see for myself this enchanted city. Hence the following itenery:

1. Tiananmen Square
2. The Forbidden City
3. Temple of Heaven
4. The Summer Palace

Of course, I must also give a brief mention of Diao Yu Tai - A place not visited by many but I actually had that privilege to catch a glimpse of this interesting building.

And also decided to pay less touristy place like Temple of Sun Palace Park to see the real Beijing.

Decided to give Great Wall a miss till the next trip. Probably need to be fiitter first before embark on the walk.

Temple of Sun Palace Park

Temple of Sun Palace park, a national AAA tourist attraction and a historic site under national protection, is located on Ritan North Road, Chaoyang District, about 10 kilometers from the center of the city.

It is a spot of cultural interest in classical garden. Ritan, or Temple of Sun, was built in 1530, or the 9th year of Emperor Jiajing's reign in the Ming Dynasty. Before the People's Republic was founded, many pieces of ancient architectures had been vandalized or stolen. In 1951, the government of Beijing decided to turn it into a park. In 1956, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Parks requisitioned surrounding lands and expanded the park to 206,200 square meters, and opened it to the public.

Ritan (Temple of Sun) is one of the five altars, famous historic sites in Beijing. It was the place where the Ming and Qing emperors worshipped the god of the Sun. It covers an area of 206,200 square meters, of which 124,273.36 square meters are covered by greenery, 4,700 square meters covered by water, and 10,357 square meters covered by ancient architectures.

There are 44 ancient trees in the park. In the past few years, while maintaining its cultural traits, the park has been updated with modernized facilities.

The park has completed and opened to the public a children's amusement park and a fishing area. Since 1992, it has attracted large numbers of tourists with activities that are rich in culture, such as music festivals, flower shows in the spring, morning exercises performances, and adoption of ancient trees.




A glimpse of Beijing winter. Must say postcard kind of picture here

This is the popular Sun altar that we are talking about


One of the ancient trees in the park.

A pavilion overlooking the modern Beijing skyscrapers. A good blend between tradition and modernisation

The park incidentally is just outside the foreign embassies hence the area is quite squeaky clean and neat

This is outside the Bulgarian embassy. Seems the guard is not quite happy that I am taking a picture.

Tiananmen Square

Ah, the ever famous Tiananmen Square that was made famous in 1989 when a student stood in front of the tanks from People's Liberation Army.

The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. Towards the demise of the Ming Dynasty, heavy fighting between Li Zicheng and the early Qing emperors damaged (or perhaps destroyed) the gate. The Tian'anmen square was designed and built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size in the 1950s.^[1][2]

Near the centre of today's square, stood the "Great Ming Gate", the southern gate to the Imperial City, renamed "Great Qing Gate" during the Qing Dynasty, and "Gate of China" during the Republic of China era. Unlike the other gates in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen and the Qianmen, this was a purely ceremonial gateway, with three arches but no ramparts, similar in style to the ceremonial gateways found in the Ming Dynasty Tombs. This gate had a special status as the "Gate of the Nation", as can be seen from its successive names. It normally remained closed, except when the Emperor passed through. Commoner traffic was diverted to two side gates at the western and eastern ends of today's square, respectively. Because of this diversion in traffic, a busy marketplace, called Chessgrid Streets developed in the big, fenced square to the south of this gate.

British and French troops who invaded Beijing in 1860 pitched camp near the gate and briefly considered burning down the gate and the entire Forbidden City. They decided ultimately to spare the palace and to burn instead the emperor's Old Summer Palace. 

The main thing I first step down on this place is that the place is HUGE and full of tourists and thats only a weekday for you.

The long queue from out of towners waiting to catch a glimpse of Mao Zedong their beloved leader and founder of the Commuinist Party in China.

Everything is big in Beijing, from roads, to parks and squares !

Of course, this scene is a 'must take' for anyone who visited Tiananmen Square

Jeremy the 6 year old

Jeremy celebrated his 6th birthday with relative quietness and privacy. Much of the celebrations happened in the pre-school premise. I must say he has developed rapidly over the past one year in terms of physical and mental well being.

Here are some of the expected developments for a 6 year old:

• Six-year-olds have longer attention spans and continue to prefer structured activities to more open-ended experiences. They enjoy taking on new roles and responsibilities, but still require much direction from adults and frequently ask questions to ensure that they are completing tasks the right way.
  BRAIN : I must say Jeremy does have longer attention span. He can watched and complete a movie without disruption (if he likes the show). However, he does not necessarily ask questions to ensure he is 'completing tasks' the right way. An example, is that he does not always follow the coach's instructions during swimming lessons!
• The language skills of six-year-olds become increasingly sophisticated throughout the year. Their vocabularies rapidly increase, and their language moves beyond communication to provide a foundation for learning, including the development of independent reading skills. In general, their pronunciation of words is clear and they use complex grammatical forms accurately.
  BRAIN : Jeremy seems to be good in language skills. English is strong in him and based on the teacher's feedback, he has demonstrated strong affiliation for the Mandarin language, although he mentioned that he would not speak in Mandarin at home as its for school only ! What a reason to give !. I really hope he can pick up dialect as well like Hokkien so that he can appreciate his heritage better in future. That would be one of my 2013 resolution!
  
• In first grade, children transform into true readers. They apply their knowledge of how print works and practice strategies to decode unfamiliar words. They learn to read aloud with fluency, accuracy and understanding. They read a variety of texts for pleasure (e.g., stories, informational texts, poems) and draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies to understand and enjoy texts. Children this age write stories, notes and descriptions. Most are able to develop an idea beyond a sentence and will add some details to help describe or explain things in their world. They enjoy sharing their writing with others.
  BRAIN : Reading again is not a problem for him. Jeremy seems to have developed interest in reading books to acquire knowledge. We were initially concerned with his reading skills at the beginning of the year, but thanks to my in-laws whom have actually put him on a 'grilling' program and since then reading skills have improved tremendously.
• In mathematics, six-year-olds can typically count up to "200" and count backwards from "20." They understand the concept of "odd" and "even" numbers and can represent numbers on a number line or with written words. They use increasingly more sophisticated strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems. They also count the sides of shapes to identify them and can combine shapes to create a new one. Six-year-olds can also give and follow directions for moving around a room or on a map.
  BRAIN : An Achilles Heel for little Jeremy. Despite putting him in Kumon classes, he seems easily distracted when dealing with math. An area to watch indeed.
  
• Scientific discovery for children this age is affected by their tendency to straddle the world between make-believe and reality. Six-year-olds might continue to give animals human characteristics, such as suggesting what a worm might be thinking, or that a butterfly has eye lashes. Gentle encouragement to look closely at worms and butterflies will help children to describe more objectively what they observe. Science experiences for this age group should continue to immerse children in first-hand investigation of the world around them, so they can continue to build a reservoir of experiences from which they can begin to draw as their thinking becomes more sophisticated.
  BRAIN : He has developed curiosity in this area. He enjoys listening to grandpa on how rainbow is formed, how onions and trees can grow or how caterpillars can develop into beautiful butterflies.
• Six-year-olds continue to enjoy moving in a variety of ways. Although far from proficient in motor skills, this does little to dampen their enthusiasm for trying out new activities and sports. They are able to run in various pathways and directions and can manipulate their bodies by jumping and landing, rolling and transferring their weight from feet to hands to feet. Their hand- and foot-eye coordination is still developing, so skills like throwing, catching, kicking and striking are still emerging. With the right equipment, however, and a skillful partner, their motor skills continue to improve. Note: During this period of development, children's actual skill levels will vary based on their amount of physical activity. Sedentary children will not mature as quickly as those who participate in activities like dance lessons, team sports or backyard play.
  BRAIN : Swimming is the flavour of the year for Jeremy. Since full training a couple of months back. Now he can float and swim fairly well save for some improvement in strokes. 
  
  An investment in Bukit Kiara is indeed worth the money.
  
  

Citizenship and migration

Recently, one of the close family friends declared in the Facebook revoking of the Malaysian citizenship and moved on to Singapore citing the following reasons for the decision:

- Politics in Malaysia
- Increasing crime rate in Malaysia
- Feels more comfortable in Singapore
- Committing future with Singapore

Such events trivial and irrelevant in may seems, but it always trigger massive discussions (150 comments in FB on the status area!!) and one always start to reflect on own positions when faced with such interesting topics which always will be peppered with emotions and sense of nationalism.

Well, I might as well put my thoughts down for record purposes:

• Migration and citizenship I thought are two separate matters. In short, you can choose to live outside Malaysia but remain as citizen.
• Revocation of citizenship requires a far more serious reason than what is being mentioned above. On the first two points, it would be a valid reason to live outside Malaysia BUT not giving up citizenship. Otherwise many Filipinos, Brazilians and South Africans would have left the country for good.
• I thought valid reasons for giving up citizenship can be such as the country is in a war torn situation, massive or acute poverty level, Apartheid or holocaust situations or whenever when lives are in danger.
• In the case of Singapore, I would have accepted reasons such as, wife and children all Singaporeans or the last 2 reasons mentioned above as somewhat 'reasonable' reasons.
• More importantly, both migration and revocation of citizenships are indeed a very personal decision, and there is no right or wrong answer to that. However, what is definitely wrong is trying very hard to prove one's decision is a better one than another person's, as circumstances may differ from one to another, preferences and expectations in how to live life may also differ from to another. In short, one man's meat may be another man's poison.

As for me, I can't say for sure I will definitely live in Malaysia forever and ever. But it is unlikely to revoke my citizenship as:

1. Many of my business contacts and friends that I have built over the years are in Malaysia
2. I would like to give my children a choice to live anywhere in the world but have the options to exercise their rights from their birth nation.
3. I probably will retire in Malaysia
4. Cost of living at this juncture is acceptable
5. Practical about political matters

And no matter what is being said about our government. Well, I for one once experienced a situation where I thought I have lost my passport (I actually misplaced it) in Melbourne. When I called the consular office, they actually waited for me until 7.30pm on a Friday evening, so that they can help me process a temporary travel document to enable me to fly back to KL on the same day. Hence, I must say they do try to help.

Parting words - Reasons to migrate or revocation of citizenship must be more of how good is Singapore rather than how crappy and unworthy is Malaysia to the person. Choice of applying the latter is probably another case of an over enthusiastic converter I am afraid.

Milestone of a Rat Race

When Jeremy first enrolled for the entrance test, I was worried sick as we were informed that 150 boys and girls are taking the test and they are accepting only 102. The little ones were put in the main exam hall which I thought it was daunting for 6 year olds. Several of them cried as they were expecting to go up to the exam halls without parents' escort.

 Nevertheless, Jeremy had no problem with that and he even waved goodbye to us as he proceeded confidently to the exam hall. As expected, the moment the test is over, mommy has been interrogating him whether he knows the answer. All he said was ok ! At first we did not believe him and after several rounds of interrogation by mom and grandparents, he finally said: " I told you its ok as the teacher said not too bad after looking at my test papers" " Hey I was very seious OK !" He must be frustrated by the persistent questioning! LOL Anyway, after 3 weeks the results finally out and he actually got in ! Hence, he had his first taste of the rat race that is heading his way ! A milestone indeed.