Bayzilla!

Bay bit off his milk bottle teat! Cant imagine what will happened if I were still nursing him!

September 2011 - Shanghai 之 1st trip with 公公

21 September 2011 - 25 September 2011
Bay is 26 months old 

婆婆 went for a tour with her friends and the last stop of their tour was in Shanghai. We decided to meet her in Shanghai. This was Dad's first trip to Shanghai and Bay's 1st trip with 公公.

As 姨妈 had to go to work early and no one will be home during the day, Kippy went for a 2-nights stay with 二姨妈.

Dad packed a plastic bag full of bedding and titbits for Kippy.
Dad dont even have to pack his own lugguage as Mum already packed it for him before she left for her tour.

2-nights boot camp for Kippy with Nala, Bimmy

Day 1 (Travelling Day)
As usual we took the noon time flight. The last time I took the same flight with Dad was almost 10 years ago. I always wonder where I got my "on the flight 饿鬼" genes from, my mum and my other siblings cannot eat anything on the flight, Bini even said she feels like puking during meal time on board... now I know!
  

Our oriental chicken rice set with chinese sausage (Dad's favourite!)
See... finished every single drop, he must be very hungry.

Bay was very sticky to me during the flight and insisted on sitting on my lap for almost the whole time, even during his nap. But he could sleep better when I was holding him, he slept for about 3 hours.

 

My view...

Soggy chicken nuggets child's meal for Bay.
He finished half of it as I bribed him with ice-cream and a mini Chupa Chups. 

Having fun on board

Bay complained that his "ear pain pain" during previous flights, so I let him have a drink or sweet during descent. My new "秘密武器" is mini Chupa Chups. It's smaller that the normal one, so eventhough I would rather that he dont eat so much refined sugar, it's ok to take one.


"爱不释手"

I can't resist taking pics of the 云海... how I wish I have a better cam!

All eyes were on him when we arrived. Any vehical with signal lights on the top is a fire engine to him now.



@ 一茶一坐, our usual upon arrival dinner place

Day 2 (大拇指广场, 南京西路步行街, 外滩)
Mum was supposed to join us only from Day 3 onwards. Dad and us lazed in the house or hang around Thumb's plaza. Knowing my mum, she will want to join us and true enough, she called me in the afternoon and asked us to go over to 浦西 to meet her for dinner.


Morning: Running around Thumb's Plaza... and poor 公公 chasing behind him  

  

  

Evening: With 公公 and 婆婆 @ 南京西路步行街

  

Our dinner at 望湘园 (RMB228) - crab roe beancurd, very nice fried black fungus (dad loved it so much!), steam rice in a small clay bowl, the legendary 剁椒鱼头, claypot chicken (not nice and no pic), fried mix vegetable (no pic)

Most restaurants in China will give free fruits after dinner and we got some free watermelon this time. I dont eat watermelon and we hardly buy them at home, in fact this was the first time Bay encountered watermelon with the skin on. I didnt have to teach him not to eat the skin, he knows! I told him that he must eat rice before he can have another slice of watermelon. H will eat 1 mouthful of rice and then asked for a slice. He had 7 slices altogether!

After dinner, we wanted to take a walk to the bund but along the way we got attracted to the Open-top Double Decker City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. (See more information here)

Tickets are RMB 30 per adult and free for Bay. (this is the cheapest hop-on hop-off bus service I've seen in the world!)

We got on the bus at Stop 2, Nanjing Road Pedestrain Street (West). Ticket is valid for 24 hrs and thus we can use it until next day's evening. I'll highly recommend this for any first time tourist in Shanghai as the route pretty much covers all the must-see area within the city. This was Dad first time in Shanghai and so we had to bring him to all the places. Definitely beats taking cab (fighting to get a cab) or driving (and looking for parking). We took a ride on the bus and it's really interesting to see the city at night from the top of the "cabriolet" bus.

夜上海! Hop-off at the bund

Day 3 (豫园, 东方明珠塔)
We waited for mum at home before heading out for our own sightseeing. The plan was to go for lunch at 豫园 (城隍庙), tea at 新天地, followed by dinner around Pearl tower.



豫园合影
Wanted to bring Dad for the famous 南翔 buns but it was too crowded and he was not interested to queue.

We went for a walk in the old streets around 豫园 and Bay fell asleep on the stroller. I have been to this area many times but have not got a chance to explore the surrounding streets. Just behind the new mega shopping mall are really old streets with local streets side stalls, such big contrast!



Guess what mummy did while Bay was taking his nap?



Shopping at my favourite H&M! I always head for the discount area first and there were loads of summer clothes on sale. Brought some shorts for Bay (50-70% off), 顺便 grabbed some accessories for RMB10 each (60-80% off)



We run out of time to go to 新天地, so we went straight to Pearl Tower on the City Sightseeing bus instead.  Hop-off at the Pearl Tower stop and then cross the mega circular bridge to Super Brand Mall. 

Running around on the mega circular bridge

Dinner at 桥江南 - 蒜泥白肉 (must try), 鲜青椒水煮鱼 (less oily version of the original 水煮鱼), roasted chicken, salad with sasame-peanut sauce, seafood 锅巴 (so so only)
Kudos to 桥江南 management who had decided to stop the sales of shark fins and bird nest in their chain of restuarants. 

Day 4 (朱家角古镇)
Yeah! It's Saturday finally. After a lazy start, we finally decided to go to 朱家角古镇, which is about an hour drive from Shanghai city. A trip to Shanghai is not complete without visiting any of the 江南水乡. There are also 乌镇 and 周庄 but they are slightly longer drive away. After a take-out lunch on the car, we reached our destination.

Getting there
We drove. There are also bus services available from Shanghai city

There are different types of ticket packages. We bought the Line 1 package which includes a boat ride and entrance to 9 attractions. There is a 20% discount for online purchase of the tickets for Line 1 and 2.

The sales assistance at the ticket booth told us that we do not need to take the trishaw as it is just a short walk from the car park to the entrance. Somehow when the trishaw peddler approached us, we took it! It cost us RMB100 per trishaw for about 4 hours. Actually we were on the trishaw for less than 30 mins altogether as trishaws are not allowed in the old town! The plus point though was that the peddler doubled up as a tour guide to bring us around the town, if not we would be hopelessly lost.

New mode of transport for Bay 



Zoom!!!

Map of the old town area



Stop 1: 城隍庙

Stop 2: 廊桥

Stop 3: 圆津禅院

Stop 4: 泰安桥

Stop 5: Strolling and snacking along 北大街

Stop 6: 童天和药号 (medicine shop)

Stop 7: 永丰桥

Stop 8: 大清邮局 (Post office during Qing dynasty)

Stop 9: 延艺庭 (a shop selling artifacts)

Stop 10: 放生桥

 Stop 11: Boat ride

Stop 12: 课植园 (previosly home of a rich man)

For dinner, we went to the highly recommended 吉士酒家. We first tried this restaurant serving authentic Shanghainese food during the previous trip and I had been wanting to bring dad to this place since then. Each one of dishes we ordered are nicely prepared and delicious. 

I will definitely bring all our guests in Shanghai to this restaurant. It is a small restaurant though with only about 10 tables and have to make reservation 2 weeks in advance in order to get a table. We tried to booked a few days ago and had to use Mark's colleague's connection to get a slot at 6.30 pm. Must try their 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (Baked Cod Fish Head with Spring Onion), remember to order this dish when you make the reservation as supply is limited. My cam ran out of battery and thus no pics for many dishes. Boo!

My koala bear and me (I had to 抱抱 him throughout the dinner!)

Dishes: 凉菜－老醋海蜇, 干煸刀豆 (I loved it but forgot to take a pic);
热菜－红烧肉 (no pic), 蟹粉粉皮 (Bay loved it!), 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (must try), 红烧海参 (I prefer this that the meat), tomota chicken clear soup (no pic); spicy chicken and prawn;
甜品－酒酿汤圆 (no pic);
Total price: RMB 900 and Mark had to give the manager RMB 100 tip for arranging the table for us at such short notice

Satisfied diners!

Day 5 (Home Sweet Home)
After a quick lunch at Thumb's plaza foodcourt, we proceeded to the airport.

Bay's performance while we were preparing to leave for the airport

I'm glad I took this trip with my dad. After spending 5 x 24 hours with Bay, 公公 has finally been promoted to playmate status!
 

He Can Almost Do It By Himself

Getting Bay to wear his clothes on his own. He can almost do it by himself... with LOTS of protest and whining!

(click to read full post in Kids Diary @ Keat-In-Space)

Note:
Kids Diary @ Keat-In-Space is a private blog. Please contact keatinspace@gmail.com to access.

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Bay @ 2 years and 2 months 

Happy 10th Birthday, Kippy

Birthday cupcake for the boy who stole my heart 10 years ago

His name is Kippy, the puppy who came into our family 10 years ago and the one whom I missed most when I was stationed in Beijing. He's the sweetest and most affectionate doggie who is also a gentle giant with the kids. (well, he is a giant in his miniature schnauzer world, ok!)

Bay bullies Kippy all the time...

 

洁语录之:
Dont get a pet on impulse, remember, they are for life. You will always be the whole world to them, till the last day of their lives. I used to think and I still do... a dog won't abandon you but no one can say for sure that your children won't.

Stop animal abuse! Do not support illegal animals trading. If the buying stops, the killing can too!
     

Cover Up The Critical Parts - Overlay An Image On To A Video

If you are a blogger parent like me, please do be very selective on the pictures or videos of your child that you post on the web. I know... we can get carried away at times, recording their every moment... of them laughing, running, eating, singing, crying or even bathing! Arhhh... my point is, please do remember to protect your child's modesty and cover up their critical parts. See, what if 60 years down the road, the child become one of the president candidate? They will hate us for posting naked pictures or videos of them!

With photo editing tools now so readily available, it is easy to blur up or overlap the critical parts but I did have some problems when it comes to videos. I spent some time researching and found some ways to overlay an image on to a video. These might not be the best way to do it, so please share with me if there is a better method to do this.

I'm using Windows 7 and the methods provided below are based on the available freeware.

Original Video: Pooh strolling without pants. (Geez! Help him cover up please)

Method 1: Microsoft Expression Encoder 4
If needed, click here to download the software.

This is quite easy to use, however I could only overlay 1 image on to the video. Perhaps more overlays could be added but I have not explored enough with this software yet. The output file format is .wmv whereas the original file format is .mov, somehow it had been converted and the HD was lost. See this tutorial for more guidance.


You can find "Visual Overlay" under the "Enhance" tab (Different from the tutorial)



From File menu, select "Encode" to save the video



System didnt let me specify where to save the output file and it took me a while to figure out where it was saved in...

Effect: Can only cover once...

Method 2: Windows Live Movie Maker

If needed, click here to download the software and find out more about this software.

This is also quite easy to use, however it has it's limitation. Strictly speaking, what I did was not overlaying image, I simply made used of the "add caption" function to achieve the effect that I wanted. I don't think this software can overlay a real image, at least I dont know how to do that. The + point about Windows Live Movie Maker is that you can upload to youtube directly.   



Use the "add Caption" function

    

Edit the text using using some "symbol" type of fonts, big font size and colours

    

Proceed to add as many "captions" as needed. I created 8 so that the "image" can "move" too as Pooh turned his body

  

For the font type that I used:

Star = shift + 8

Bell = shift + "

Shopping bag = b

Effect: All covered up! I'm happy with the end results

Method 3: Windows Movie Maker 2.6

If needed, click here to download the software and find out more about this software.

You will also need the AddOn .xml file from PapaJohn here.

This is the most complex method of the three and some amount of initial setup is needed to get the AddOn .xml file. The AddOn .xml enabled the "Make titles or credits" function to have the custom overlay.  Windows Movie Maker 2.6 cannot read the original file format .mov and I had to convert it first. It is also a lot of trial and error artworking to create the overlay image files in order to place the rubber duckie exactly where it was needed. (I used SnagIt 10 Editor to create the image with transparent background).  

Overlay image file: Need to create a transparent image with the rubber duckie placed exactly at the right spot.
(a lot of trial and error needed!)  I created 3 files as Pooh turned around 3 times.

  

Follow the steps...

      

Effect: All Covered up! But it is quite time consuming to get the rubber duckie to appear at the exact spot. As you can see at the last turn, it was kind of out of place (and I was too lazy to shift it already)

Summary

I think I will stick with Windows Live Movie Maker most of the time, due to it's ease of use and the video quality is best preserved. Though the overlay "images" are very limited but they are quick to create and the end results are satisfactory enough for me.

    

Backing Up My Life

Blogging had become my way of life, in fact it had replaced the habit of writing diary. I would murder anyone who read my diary without my permission but now I dont even know who read my blog. Such irony right? I'm lazy and will only write what I want and when I feel like it, that's why my blog is still in bits and pieces. The major reason why I choose to blog about my life is so that I can keep a chronological record of things that happened. Right, like I'm in constant worry that I'm going to forget about these stuff when I grow old. Viewership is definitely the last thing on my mind. Blogging is an excellent way to put photos and videos together with some words of how I felt at the point in time. Some people like facebook or other social networks but I thought those are even more fragmented than the bit and pieces on my blog!

A few months back there were some technical issues with Blogger and some of my updates were lost. Luckily the damage is not huge for me but this reminded me on how important it is to backup my life. I had "dump" all my memories here and I thought I dont have to remember them anymore since they are here for me to read. But what if the system crashed and everything is lost?

Still, being the biggest procrastinator on Earth, I finally got down to doing this work today! I had to transfer all my documents to the new laptop and return the old one, might as well backup my blog at the same time.

I found that backup can be done this way with the new Blogger interface:

1. From your Blogger homepage, click on "Go to post list" for the blog that you want to backup.       
    

  

2. Under Settings > Other, you will find Blog Tools. Click on "Export blog". You will be asked to save your blog as a .xml file in your hard drive. Follow the prompt to save.

  

3. And you are done!

If for some reason, you are not able to save in the new Blogger interface, switch back to the old one and follow the old Blogger interface backup instructions from Small Small Baker.

My life is backed up for now. How about yours?