Author: Pappa on Leave

Day 118: The Developmental Jump of a 7 Month Baby

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Everyone’s baby develops at a different rate, as everyone painfully reminds you, but this last month we have seen a HUGE developmental jump in the little guy.  He is now 7,5 months old, and in the last month we have noticed that there have been a lot of physical developments.  Such as:

  • Teeth! 2 teeth on the bottom, which were a real pain (for him and for us)
  • Crawling!  1 month ago, being on all 4’s was a big accomplishment.  Now, he’s crawling with authority – not military-style, but proper palms and knees crawling
  • Eating solids.  He eats 2 meals a day (lunch and dinner) that are porridge, plus a vegetable, fruit, and some kind of meat (1 time a day).
  • Talking / Being more vocal.  He is not just blabbering (sometimes he is), but now I think he actually thinks he is saying things.
  • Recognition of other people besides his mother and me
  • Desire to be center of the universe makes him extra whiney sometimes (like if we are out and nobody is looking at him and telling him how cute he is)
  • Extra “huggy” and “kissy” with mother and me.  Basically he will turn to us for a hug, and will kiss us too.  Often the kiss is just an opportunity to use us as human teething toys, but whatever works for him is fine for us.
  • More comfortable with other babies.  He used to look at them like they were aliens.  Now he interacts with them and doesn’t mind when they poke his eye and pull his hair.
  • Less fun to put to bed (he is usually not super happy about bed time, but this is an extra level of not-fun for us).
  • Awareness of the world.  We got 2 new lamps in our bedroom, and he stared back and forth at them for a long time, trying to figure out what was going on with these new lamps.
  • Personality more developed.  He has always had a good personality, but now you can really see what he likes, dislikes, thinks is funny, and wants.  It’s pretty cool.
  • Exploration.  Now that he can crawl, it’s GAME ON.

If you are not a parent, or it has been a long time since you had a little baby, be aware that most of the time in the first 6 months, you are celebrating the tiniest little thing (ex: “oh!  he moved his wrist!!”).  So to have so many things happen in the last month is quite a big deal.  It’s all happening so fast, it is really crazy.  What they say about “the time goes by quickly, so enjoy it” is really true.  Next thing we know he will be getting his driver’s license. 😉

Day 117: Deliveries to Hong Kong & Discovery Bay

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If you live in Hong Kong and want to order something from Taobao (a chinese language e-commerce site that rocks), you will have to verify that they will deliver to Hong Kong.  You are in luck if the seller has no problem shipping to Hong Kong.  Further, if you live in Discovery Bay, and they will still ship to you (there is an extra charge to delivery companies when entering Discovery Bay), you will pay a bit more, but it is worth it.  Why is it worth it?

It’s worth it because we ordered some awesome lamps, but they did not deliver to Discovery Bay, so they instead delivered to my wife’s office.  So, after the playgroup in St. John’s Cathedral today, we met up with my wife to help bring them back home.  Here’s the procedure:

  1. There were 2 boxes, so we decided to tape them together to make them easier to carry
  2. My wife takes the little guy, I carry these 2 awkward boxes from her office to the MTR in Lai Chi Kok
  3. Enter the MTR during rush hour with these huge boxes
  4. Get off at Sunny Bay, carry the boxes to the bus, and enter the bus to Discovery Bay
  5. Try to get the boxes into the bus storage area (where you put strollers and other bulky things), but the boxes are too big, so they instead sit in the aisle
  6. Get to the Plaza where the bus terminal is to change busses, and realize it is 15 minutes until the bus to our apartment leaves, and we are dangerously close to the little guy’s meal time & bed time, so we decide to walk home
  7. Walk home, carrying awkward boxes up hill in the heat, humidity, and potential rain

It was a good workout, but we decided next time we must not just ask “do you ship to Hong Kong?”  Instead we must ask, “do you ship to Discovery Bay.”  Lesson learned.  See the photo below to see the size of the bundle I carried.  Much easier if someone else who has a truck will deliver it, right? 😉

why not carry this package on a 1-hour trip thru the Hong Kong public transportation system during rush hour?
why not carry this package on a 1-hour trip thru the Hong Kong public transportation system during rush hour?

Day 116: Japanese Curry: The Best of All Curries (that’s right!)

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I’m talking to YOU, Thai Green or Red Curry fans.  YOU, Indian Korai or Madras fans.  Yeah, those curries are good.  Yeah, yeah, they’re complex and have rich flavors.  But here’s the thing: they’re old news.  Everyone loves them; everyone knows how great they are.  But when was the last time someone said to you, “Let’s have Japanese curry!”  Or even more rare: “Let’s go to that Japanese restaurant and get curry.”  It just doesn’t happen.

Years ago I spent some time in Japan.  I had great food there, of course.  Everyone will tell you about the amazing sushi (true – I had some scallop sushi that tasted like candy, and some Fatty Toro that literally tasted like butter).  And then there’s the tempura.  Everyone also talks about the tempura, which is basically the fried vegetables and meats, eaten on a bed of cabbage.  Apparently the cabbage is key.

One day on a trip somewhere, in one of the restaurants in one of the many metro stations on my journey, I noticed this brown gravy with bits in it, eaten over rice.  What is that?  It’s Japanese curry, and it is cheap in a country where everything else is super expensive.  So, why not give it a try?  I still remember the actual restaurant, and the first taste of the food.  It was delicious, and every time I eat it, I am pumped to be alive.

The flavors of Japanese curry can range from a little sweet to very spicy, but the base is always the same.  The base is made of a mixture of powdered vegetables, caramel, sugar, and a bunch of other things.  It’s not really easy to explain the flavor because it’s simply the flavor of Japanese Curry.

As with every other food I like to eat in restaurants, I quickly figured out how to make it at home.  Fortunately there are 2 brands who do it really well: House and S&B.  You can buy them at most supermarkets with Asian ingredients.  Then you have to pick your spiciness – there’s usually a little gauge on the package to let you know (but even the spiciest one I have had is not at all like a Thai or Indian curry, so don’t worry).

Last night I decided it was time to make some Japanese curry.  See below for photos of how to do it!  Give it a try, and enjoy!

a typical japanese curry package looks like this (notice it is called “tasty curry sauce mix” – can’t go wrong, can you?)
inside the pack is 2 sealed bricks, each brick has 4 “pods”. You need to shave this into the water when you make the curry.
ingredients ready to go: onions, carrots, and chicken. Don’t put too many ingredients in there – less is more. Basically do onion, meat, and either carrots or potatoes.
once you cook the ingredients in oil and the onions are clear, you need to add water to it and let it boil. For 1/2 a pack like I made, it was 600 ml (3 cups)
when you have boiled it with a lid on for long enough for all ingredients to be cooked, shave in the curry seasoning
after you mix in the curry, let the mixture simmer without a lid while stirring it, and it will thicken up to look like this.
assuming you have cooked the rice by now (cook it before you start with the curry), put it on the plate in a donut shape. (I saw this at a restaurant in Japan once and I liked the technique)
bon apetit! it goes great with a Japanese beer like Asahi.

Day 115: How to Make an Iced Coffee Frappe

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Long ago I spent 6 weeks in Athens.  A lot of my time during the days was spent at bars, playing pool and drinking coffee.  The coffee was not your normal coffee, it was a frappe (not to be confused with a frappucino).  

I drank enough of these delicious drinks to watch the bartenders make them and learned how to do it.  It’s easier thank you think, and tastes great – even if you drink the decaf form like I do ;).  Follow the steps below!

 

add instant coffee to glass
  
add sugar to glass
   
use “milk frother” tool – these are really cheap hand-held battery operated devices
    
slowly work from bottom of glass to top with the frother – do not overdo it or the froth will get nasty (no more than 10 seconds on this step)
  
pour in milk, add ice, and enjoy
 

Day 114: Hong Kong Observatory App: Who Writes these Forecasts?

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Today I decided to pull up my handy Hong Kong Observatory app.  It’s the app that everyone in this city uses to see what the weather is, what it will be like, and how afraid we should be as we go about our lives.

It was really rainy last night, and I knew it was supposed to rain for the next few days at least, but I wanted to see just how much rain I could expect.  Here is a screenshot of the forecast for today:

Translated: Good luck figuring out the weather!
Translated: Good luck figuring out the weather!

I have spoken english my whole adult life and speak very good broken English, which helps me understand virtually anyone who has even a tiny bit of English capability.  Nonetheless, the Hong Kong Observatory app’s forecasts are unnecessarily silly to me.  I probably feel this way because I cannot stand when people use jargon instead of simply being clear.

You can break the forecast for today into 5 parts:

  1. “cloudy with squally showers” – ok, cloudy with some showers.  And those showers are Squally.  Ok???
  2. “maximum temperature will be about 29 degrees” – ok, I get that (good job, app!)
  3. “moderate to fresh east to southeasterly winds, occasionally strong offshore and on high ground” – ok, kind of windy but it might get fresh with us, and from the southeast.  Then It says that it will be stronger on the land than the water, and up in hills.
  4. “there will be swells” – ok, like “swell” in the 1950’s sense, where everything is nice?  Or like swollen?  Either way, we know it will happen.
  5. “Outlook:  Squally showers in the next couple of days.”  Maybe they mean “squirrelly”?  Hmmm, that also doesn’t make sense.

You can see there are really 2 words that must be special to either Hong Kong, British English, or Meteorologists:  Squally and Swells, and using context clues you can basically figure out that Squally must means sporadic and strong, and Swells must mean strong rain on the water/ocean.  The question is, why don’t they just use simple everyday terms, if it is supposed to be an app to help people?

Of course it is entirely possible that the person writing the forecasts for the app is a sailor from the 1800’s, maybe here in Hong Kong on a mission from Her Majesty the Queen to colonize the territory.  The old sailor is one of those people who wants to work instead of retire, so they said, “we’ve got it!  You can write the forecasts for the only weather app in Hong Kong!” It’s at least a little more fun to read if you think this is true. 😉

Uh-oh. That looks squally. Or is it a swell?
Uh-oh. That looks squally. Or is it a swell?

Day 113: Cheap Eyeglasses in Hong Kong

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For the last 2 years, we have been buying glasses from a place in Hong Kong whenever we need them.  We have recommended them to family and friends as well, and now when we have visitors it is on the list of things to do.  Why?  Because they are good glasses, and they are cheap.

You can buy name brand frames if you’d like (gucci, prada, rayban, and so on), but there are also a lot of other options with their off brand selection.  Some of the off brands might need someone to use Google Translate before they name the brand (see image), but there are still a lot of great styles to choose from.  There are cool materials to choose from, too – for example there are a few brands that use wood in their frames.  You will find frames there that no place in Europe or the USA has.

I would love to hear the logic on this name choice
I would love to hear the logic on this brand name choice

How it works:

  • go into the shop, find the frames you want (prices are on the frames).
  • A salesperson will help you and will give you the price of the frames + the lenses you want.
    • If you want the basic lenses, it can be as cheap as 200-300 HKD (220-330 sek, or 25 – 35 usd), and then prices go up if you want certain finishes (anti-glare) or higher quality lenses, etc.
    • You can get progressives (I think those cost 600 – 800 HKD – 640-845 sek, 75-100 usd)
    • transitions lenses (the kind that turn into sunglasses when you are outside) are 880 hkd, or 900 sek, or 110 usd.

In theory, you can walk out of there with glasses for 500 HKD (410 sek, 50 usd), if you find a 200 hkd frame and lenses for 300 hkd.  I think more realistic is about 700 hkd (715 sek, 90 usd), because there are a lot of frames for 400-500 hkd.

After they have it all sorted with what you will order, they check your eyes.  This is the part I like, because it is quick and easy, and when they are done they have really accurate prescriptions.  It does not matter if you did not bring your prescription from home (they can fill that one too if you would rather they do that).  In my case, my glasses from this place are way better than anything I have bought in Sweden or the USA, at a fraction of the price.

They will also put updated lenses into your old glasses (not a lot of places will do that anymore, they prefer to sell you new frames), and they will make any pair of glasses into sunglasses for you.  So, if you like the pair of glasses you have with the prescription, they can turn them into sunglasses for you, for 300-400 HKD (310-415 sek, 38-50 usd).

The name of the place is i-land Optical, and they have a location in Mong Kok (Grand Plaza, 19th floor, exit E1 at Mong Kok station).  There is also a location at Sino Center in Mong Kok, but I have not been there.  It can take anywhere from 3 days – 1 week to get the glasses after you order them, so if you have the time, I highly recommend it – check it out!

Day 112: The Little Guy Develops a “Fake Cry”

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New parents such as my wife and I are concerned about doing everything right, as impossible as that may be.  And one of those very basic things is making sure to take care of the little guy when he cries.  But what do you do when he “fake cries”?

A little back story on this – we are working on “sleep training”, and that means for us that we are trying to put him down for bed before he is sleeping fully (while he is drowsy and not 100% asleep), so that when he wakes up at night, he is able to put himself back to sleep.  The logic on this is that the last thing he sees should not be his parents, or else he will always need his parents to look at or be close to when falling asleep.

To make matters more complicated, the little guy is in the middle of teething, too.  And during teething, apparently it is common for babies to be extra needy – to want the parents to hold them more than usual, to cry out for attention more than usual, and so on.  I guess it makes sense, teething really takes a toll on a baby.

Anyway, earlier this week, I noticed that when I put the little guy down to bed, he was not happy to be in bed, and he would cry out.  At first, I was right there for him, and soothed him, and put him back in bed.  Although tired, he wanted to be around mom and dad, so while I was sitting next to the crib (out of his view) I heard him go through about 10 different styles of crying out (not crying, but making noise to get my attention), and when I did come to soothe him, he started laughing.  So basically he was developing his “fake cry.”  The fake cry he has is quite believable if you are not around him all day every day, and you hear the real cry (usually when hungry, scared, or waking up from a nap).

But now, I have heard him pulling the fake cry any time he wants extra attention – followed by stopping immediately when he gets the full attention again of my wife or me.  In fact he is starting to use it so much, it might start being his real cry.  So, we just go along paying attention to all cries, because we are new parents who are paranoid about being labeled “bad parents” (or worse, actually being bad parents), and we don’t want to neglect our baby, even if he is not really needing anything more than the satisfaction of seeing that his “crying” is getting our attention.  Fascinating.

Day 111: How to Pronounce the Letter Ö

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Today is Midsummer Eve in Sweden, so tomorrow is Midsummer day.  We are not there to celebrate, but I thought I could share with the internet a little lesson in something Swedish: How to pronounce the letter Ö.

The Swedish Alphabet has 29 letters.  26 are A-Z, and then there is Ä (pronounced “ayh”, like apple), Å (pronounced “oa” like boat, with a little more accent on the 2nd half of the sound, the part with the a), and the mystical and frustrating Ö.  This is the 29th letter in the Swedish alphabet, and in my opinion it would be just fine if it was eliminated for being a silly letter.

Ö.  It’s not O, it’s Ö.  If you try to pronounce Ö like O, you will find yourself being looked at by Swedes with confusion.  I have learned that using “context clues” in Swedish is not common, so if you pronounce something incorrectly (as I commonly do as an immigrant), people just seem to get confused.  It is really hard to gain your confidence when learning a new language, because you need people to give you a break when you are learning – but nope, this does not happen in Sweden.  It might be because it is a relatively small country and language in Sweden is kind of like a fun game, where every different region has their own dialect.  Nonetheless, there is definitely a feeling of “speak it 100% perfectly, or do not even try.”  This can lead to some challenges, especially when there are complicated and long words and new letters (like ö) that we do not have in the USA.  Let me give you a real story that happened:

I was in a bar (the word for beer in Swedish is Öl), so I said, “jag vill har en ål” (I want to have a beer).  Notice I mistakenly said “ål” and not “öl”.  I should point out that in my head I speak perfect Swedish without any accent at all, but in reality I have a thick American accent and I probably speak really slow and broken sounding Swedish.  So, I pronounced “öl” like you would pronounce a normal o sound in English, and since I am from the midwest in the USA, it sounded more like “ål”.  The word ål means Eel in Swedish.

You can imagine then how confused the server was.  She literally did not know what I was saying, and I tried repeating the word Öl for her: ooooohl  oahaoal.  Not working (finally I just said “ok, I’ll have a beer.”).  Now, Americans, you will appreciate this – how many times have people spoken English with poor pronunciation, and you figured out what they were saying based on the context?  So, in a bar, where they serve beer, would I really be saying, “I want to have an eel”?  I of course now only say “jag vill här en lager” (lager = lager, just like english).  Or even better, go straight for the brand and skip all the pleasantries, and simply say, “Mariestads,” “Falcon,” or another Swedish beer brand.  In other words, when ordering beer in Sweden, don’t try to get fancy!

So, how do you pronounce this dreaded letter Ö?  Ok, here goes.  It’s like this:  Ö sounds a bit like “uh”, but if you made that sound while sticking your chin out.  It has to come from deep in your throat, but not sound all breathy (in other words if you sound like a murderer when you are saying it, you are not doing it right).  You could think of it like if you said “wall” and “wool” at the same time, and then took away the w and ll in the middle of it.  Easy, right?

Again to recap those 3 magic letters:

  • Ä = “ayh”
  • Å = “oa”
  • Ö = “wall + wool – w & ll”

If you are American and find yourself in Sweden wanting to speak the language, it is highly advised you practice this sound for at least 8-9 years before going.  Or, simply skip this letter at all costs, unless you want to end up trying to drink an Eel at the bar 😉

Day 110: New Parents: We Are All Just Doing Our Best

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Today I again attended a play group (gotta love them!), and once again met some really cool parents (all mothers, no fathers).  Afterwards, we chatted a bit and went to a good baby store in Central.

One thing I noticed in thinking back about the day is that we are all basically asking the same questions – and it happens in this way every time I meet new people.  When did you start feeding the baby solids?  Does your baby have teeth?  When did your baby start crawling?  Do you use a compact stroller in the city or carry your baby?  How often does your baby wake up at night?  And so on.  We are all so diverse, coming from all over the world, with crazy different backgrounds – yet we are all concerned about the same things.

I have a feeling the things we are concerned about are in our minds because we are told we should be concerned about them through the books we read, websites we visit, or midwives and doctors we talk with.  These are the things that I could not have ever imagined I would be concerned about or would be talking about before I became a dad.  But here I am, asking and answering the same questions all the moms are asking – because we all care.  After all, these questions are just the tip of the parenting “iceberg”, and we are all just doing our best in caring for our little ones. 🙂

Day 109: H&M and Dim Sum

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I am very mobile with the little guy, as you know, and this means that I go from Discovery Bay to anywhere in the city without much thought about it.  It’s not that hard to go jump on the ferry or bus, or to take the metro – so why not, right?  Apparently I am relatively alone in this outlook and people do not go around Hong Kong as much as me and the little guy.  Nonetheless, when I was invited to “a trip to H&M and Dim Sum”, I said, “of course I will go!”

We met up and made our way on the Discovery Bay ferry to Central, followed by the Star Ferry to Tsim Tsa Tsui.  The Star Ferry is a great thing to take occasionally, because it reminds you of how cool it is to be in Hong Kong.  It goes back and forth between Hong Kong island and Kowloon, and you have amazing views both ways.  Plus, it’s cheap (like less than 3 HKD – that’s 3,50 sek, and 40 cents usd).

view from the Star Ferry
view from the Star Ferry

After a short walk dodging all the guys trying to get us to have suits made and walking past all the high-end fashion stores, we made it to H&M.  Like all H&M stores, the one in TST is big, spanning 2 floors and housing a lot of options.  It is moderately amusing to me that I made a special outing into Hong Kong to go to H&M when I have been living in Sweden, where it feels like there are H&M stores on every street corner in big cities and even the smaller towns have them.  But, it is fun anyway ;).  We all found what we needed after a while, and then it was time for lunch.

We went to a famous Dim Sum place that is located just upstairs from the H&M, called Din Tai Fung.  They have locations all over Asia (and maybe the world, too).  This place is really nice and has fantastic food – no wonder it has a Michelin star.  The thing is, you can get good dim sum at a lot of places, but most of them are not very nice (or clean), and most of them also have really bad service (or not really bad, but just “functional”).  Anyway, you get all of this, the prices are reasonable, and they were super nice to us with our little children and the needs that accompany that (3 height chairs!), so you can’t really beat it.  They don’t take reservations, so you have to take your chances and put your name in and wait for a table.  Lunch is probably better than dinner if you don’t want to wait; I have seen this place packed and with a long line at dinner time.

black sesame dim sum at Din Tai Fung
black sesame dim sum at Din Tai Fung

After that, we made our way home.  What a nice “outing” we had – much better to do these things with friends and make a day of it than to try to be efficient and to a lot of things.  Sometimes a change of pace is good 🙂