Chinese New Year stay-cation

The Year of the Horse draws to a close - and it is time for the Goat to take center stage!! Yes, the Year of the Goat is here..or is it the Year of the Sheep?? Seems that Goat and Sheep are used quite interchangeably here...and all the posters for the New Year show an animal which looks like a cross between a mountain goat and a ram...which confused me even more. Although, 'Sheep' does sound better than 'Goat', doesn't it?? Take your pick - it's still the Chinese New Year, and time for celebrations!! This year, Manasi's school was off for a whopping 2 weeks - but still, the decision to remain in Suzhou was unchanged!!

Welcome to the Year of the Sheep!!

The Chinese New Year break also coincided with the start of another highly anticipated event - I'm talking, of course, about the ICC Cricket World Cup!! India is the defending champion, and slogans of "We won't give it back!" have been making the rounds!! Possibly even more anticipated than the actual World Cup final is the India-Pakistan clash - scheduled on the first Sunday of the break, well - we had to have a viewing party with all our friends!! For the all day game, we had decided on a pot-luck - with enough food for lunch and then an early dinner!! I was on snack-duty, so had the easiest part - and all my friends came through with a sumptuous spread!!

Bon appétit!

Emotions always run high during India-Pak games - both teams dig deep and come up with performances that far exceed expectations!! India has never lost a game to Pakistan in a World Cup... and Sunday's firecracker of a game kept the tradition intact!! India batting first, and Virat Kohli's brilliant century set the pace of things to come. Our bowling side is competent at best, and there were quite a few tense moments when the game could have gone either way - but India prevailed!! What a start to the World Cup!! Watching India win with all our friends made things even more fun!!

Rapt audience!

Go India!!!

After the high of Sunday's match, we had a week of relative quiet. Manasi came down with a bad throat infection - stared off with a high fever, and after a couple of nights of cold compresses and Ibuprofen, it was time for a visit to the doctor's office and much-needed antibiotics. Ajey was home too, and we had a simple routine going on - sleeping in, late breakfast, an even later lunch - lots of TV, caught up on some movies - minimum interaction with the outside world. Manasi and I barely left the house for the entire week - Ajey venturing out once a day to the gym and Sam's club. Really relaxing!!

The second week saw a lot of Manasi's friends return to Suzhou - and we were back on a round of play-dates - my house was filled with a lot of chattering girls many times!! Another World Cup match, another India victory, this time against S. Africa was the highlight of the weekend!! Ajey's vacation was coming to an end - he had to be back at work on Wednesday - but he managed to take care of a big project in the last 2 days. A little background - for a few years now, along with crochet, I have also been a big cross-stitcher, and have managed to finish quite a few frames. My work has been displayed all over the house, and it was Ajey's idea to put all of my frames together on one wall - more impact, he said, more appreciation!!

So we started - first task, get all the frames down and in one place. Next, we had to arrange them in pleasing fashion on the floor - this always takes time, as Ajey needs everything to be symmetrical, whereas I think quirky is charming. Next step - start drilling?!! Of course not - any self-respecting engineer worth his (or her!) salt will tell you that you don't just pick up a drill - you first need a template to transfer the positions of the frames to the wall, then you make careful markings, and then you drill!! For our template, Ajey came up with one of his ingenious ideas - he took down a window blind, marked it, then taped it to the wall, and transferred the markings - a process I was certain wouldn't work - but work it did, and within no time, he had all 10 of my frames up on the wall - and even if I do say it myself, it is a spectacular display!!

And all too soon, our Chinese New Year stay-cation was at an end!! Friday night was dinner with our friends - a last celebration before the kids go back to school on Monday. Friday also brought us some very good news - a little baby boy was born to V & A, more reason to celebrate! I hope you will all join me in congratulating the parents, and welcoming the newest addition to our family!! Can't hardly wait to see my newest nephew!! It has certainly been a great start to the New Year - a very happy Year of the Sheep to all of you!! Xin nian kuai le!!!

Masterchef Junior comes to Suzhou!!

No, not the real Masterchef - but our Dulwich version of the show!! No wonder kids here love school so much - leave aside the production and Fobisia, which are the 2 biggest events - there's ton of other stuff happening all year round!! It's a wonder they get any time in class at all!! Anyway - Michelin star chef Marc Fosh is visiting Dulwich College Suzhou in March, and Masterchef Junior will be one of the highlights of his tour!

Of course, there's rarely an event that Manasi and her friends don't participate in - and they were all really, really excited - except for the teensy fact that none of them can cook. Let alone cook, I don't think any of them has set foot in a kitchen in all of their 10 years. And although Manasi very indignantly pointed out that she can too make a jam sandwich - I'm sorry, sweetie, but I think it's safe to assume that Masterchef will certainly be a little more complicated!!

In any case, this wasn't as simple as just putting down your name and entering the contest. First, the girls in teams of 2 had to submit recipes for a 2 course meal. Based on the recipes, 4 teams from each House would be chosen for a cook-off. The winning teams from each house would then compete in the Masterchef contest. I figured it was quite a long shot that our girls would make it to the final - so when Manasi and her friend SW decided they wanted to make something Indian, I thought it better to humor them - be supportive, good parenting and all that jazz!

The challenge was then to find an Indian recipe easy enough for the girls to make - a lot of chopping, tempering, frying in most dishes - sharp knives, hot oil and distracted girls - not really an ideal combination, not even close!! Narrowing it down then - a recipe with minimum knife skills and not much oil - a sandwich or a wrap, maybe? But no, the girls were adamant that they wanted to 'cook' - no sandwiches for them, and no easy out for me!! We finally settled on a simplified version of egg curry as main course and shrikhand for dessert...

My only condition was that the girls come to my kitchen and make the dish before they submit the recipe - and they surprised me, by showing up at the right time, all eager to cook! Writing down the recipe took some time - spent a lot of time explaining sauté, simmer, garnish - all alien terms!! They thought the shrikhand recipe was way too simple - no cooking there, only mixing ingredients. Manasi asked if they could make gulab jamun instead - ok, let me think about that - well, maybe not just yet...

 

And of course, when I said 'blender', they both heard 'vending machine' - that led to a lot of confusion. Me: "Do they have a blender in school?" Girls, sassy: "Of course, they do!" Me: "Never mind, you can just take mine in if you need to." Girls, awestruck: "You have a vending machine at home??" Me: "Then put the onion-tomato mixture in the blender." Girls, perplexed: "How do you put stuff into a vending machine?" And so on...until I figured out what they were thinking. Giggles all around - these girls are too precious - and totally clueless!!! Help!!!

More fun in the kitchen - I did my best to only give instructions and not plunge into the fray - which was quite hard. Cutting onions - watch your thumbs, girls, yes, that thumb, which is right under the knife, watch it!! Eggs in the water - gently, gently now, don't just lob them in, no, we want the shell on until the eggs are boiled! Now the wok - don't splash the oil, and don't lean over, you don't need to look at the oil, let's not throw the onions in, careful now, hot oil. Tomatoes now, no don't touch them to see if they are cooked, actually don't touch anything in the hot wok. Put the lid on the blender jar before you turn it on, wait, wait, lid on first!! So much talking - very, very exhausting!! 

To their credit, the girls actually did a pretty good job - considering their amateur status, of course!! We came up with a pretty decent curry - looked nice, tasted good! They weren't satisfied with just making it though - we had to go through plating and presentation, and what a gorgeous dish that turned out to be! The dads got to judge this very first effort by their daughters - and they both unanimously voted this to be the best curry ever!! There was enough for dinner at both houses - which made all the work totally worth it!!

The judging!!

So the recipe has been duly submitted - we won't know until after the Chinese New Year break if they've made the cut or not! In either case, I'm glad that they got a chance to actually get in the kitchen and cook, to try something different - and I had a surprisingly good time too!! They are pretty confident about their chances - and I'm keeping my fingers crossed too!! Good luck, girls!!

Cruise to Taiwan - Part 2

So where were we now? Oh yes, Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, heading from Hongkong to Taiwan!! First stop - Kaohsiung! What now, where are we going? That was my first reaction when I saw the itinerary - although, to be fair, the only city I actually knew in Taiwan was Taipei. Turns out that Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan - and the largest port!!

The ship wasn't due to reach the port until 1pm and I was looking forward to enjoying some time in the pool - but incredibly, the waters were really, really rough, putting an end to all onboard activity!! On the upper deck, found a deck chair, and tried to remain as still as possible - the fresh ocean air helps, in any case! They had to eventually shut down the pool - the water kept sloshing out, and the roller blade rink and the rock-climbing wall were closed because of the high winds too!! We did spend some time at the miniature golf and basketball courts - not many people there this morning!!

Currency exchange and taxis were available right at the port, ready for our Kaohsiung adventure!! I was hoping to go to Fokuangshan - which is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, and also has a 108m high seated Buddha - I've always been partial to the huge Buddha statues in this part of the world - but that would have taken up almost all day!! Instead, we took a taxi to the Lotus Pond scenic area - highly recommended by our driver! The Dragon and Tiger pavilion are a major attraction here - and it was certainly quite spectacular!! From the top of the pagoda could be seen the Confucius Temple and the Spring and Autumn pavilions - and the entire Lotus Lake, of course!!

Dragon and Tiger pavilion

Lotus lake

View of the Confucius Temple

Our token sight-seeing done, we were ready for some retail therapy!! Just needed to find where to go - our earlier taxi driver spoke a reasonable mix of English and Mandarin, so clearly, another taxi was needed!! Of course, we could barely communicate with this driver - and after a few exasperating dead-ends, he finally dropped us off at a huge mall - not quite the shopping we had in mind!! Luckily, we ran into a couple of Taiwanese, who were quite eager to strike up a conversation and try out their English!! They gave us directions to the Liuhe night market - and another Kaohsiung must-see - the Dome of Light located in the MRT's Formosa Boulevard station! 'Dome of Light' - a huge stained glass ceiling right in the middle of a Metro station - and it is the largest public glass work of art in the world!! Glad to get that off my bucket list!! No, jokes aside, it is actually quite beautiful - and you can sit down and enjoy a mojito - yes, right in the middle of the station - while admiring the artwork!!

Dome of Light

Mojito time!!

The Liuhe night market is located at one of the exits from the Formosa Boulevard station - it was still evening, though, and the 'night' market was just waking up!!! Lot of food stalls with exotic wares - I'm quite surprised to find that our years in China have made us quite immune to a lot of the 'food' for sale - and few souvenir stalls!! A little browsing, and then we took a taxi back to the ship - gorgeous views of the lighted entrance gate to Kaohsiung, and also of the ship!! Back on board, after a relaxed dinner and show, we spent the evening on our little balcony - watching our ship pull out of the harbor, past so many other barges and container ships - all our furniture must have been transported in a similar manner!!

A bite of cobra?!

Liuhe Night market

The seas weren't any calmer the next day - and it was a relief when we pulled into Keelung port!! Here it was - Taipei, barely an hour away!! We still took our time to leave - once again, spent the morning on the deck - rock-climing still not available, a little disappointed with that!! Once we left the ship, we did have to spend some time trying to figure out a way to get to Taipei - there were a lot of taxis available, but not metered, and the flat rate of 100 USD each way was very clearly a tourist trap!! In any case, there seemed to be no other viable option, so we had to shell out!! The hour drive to Taipei was reminiscent of the Mumbai-Pune expressway - the scraggly shrubs, the little villages, the hills, the bumpy ride!!

First stop in Taipei - the Taipei 101 building, of course - and I have to add, this is probably the most unimaginatively named building ever!! Briefly the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101 has a very unique architecture - a very graceful, pretty structure, almost like a multilayered cake! Next, the Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall - is of course, a memorial for the founding father of the Republic of China! It was too late for us to go inside, but the gardens are very well landscaped - perfect place to sit down and relax!! I did want to go see the National Palace Museum - which holds artifacts from the Forbidden City in Beijing - but half a day is just not enough!!

Taipei 101 - looking up...

Taipei 101 - from a distance

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial

As we walked around the city blocks, we stumbled upon the Taipei bus depot - literally minutes away from the Taipei 101 - and surprise, surprise, buses to Keelung every half hour - and the price of the ticket? - less than $2 per person! And not only was the bus really fancy, we got dropped off exactly where our ship was - was right about that taxi tourist trap!! We still had some time to walk around Keelung's busy night market - the most important stop was at a Burger King - not for the food, but the Wi-fi - the one thing that the ship does not provide on board!! And while it is good to be offline for a bit - it was great to get a Facebook fix!!

Keelung night market

Inside the bus..

Last day of the cruise - sailing back to Hongkong - an entire day to spend on the ship! A lot of the onboard boutiques had blow-out sales - designer purses and watches for the connoisseurs! The spa had a sale too - so I decided to go in for a Ionithermie detox treatment - guaranteed to take inches off!! Was quite interesting - I was slathered in a mixture of seaweed and cleansing mud, and then hooked up to electrodes to stimulate the muscles - the feeling was similar to doing a lot of ab crunches rather quickly. And while the spa lady assured me that the detox works on a deep internal level, I'm sorry to report that there was no visible loss of inches - no shortcuts in life, people!! Last night on the ship is also a formal dress-up dinner, which was followed by a parade of Madagascar characters through the atrium - the best for the last!!

A cruise is not the most ideal means to go sightseeing - being on the cruise is obviously the main attraction, the ports of call secondary. So this was more of a "Glimpses of Taiwan" than anything else! And as I've said before, Royal Caribbean has never disappointed us - but I wouldn't really recommend this particular itinerary for first-time cruisers - 4 days is quite short, and the company left much to be desired. There are a ton of other cruises available though - so what are you waiting for - I'm already looking for our next cruise vacation!! 

How do you get to Wonderland?

How do you get to Wonderland? Over the hill and under the land, and then swim through an Ocean of tears - well, if you're Alice, that is! Here in Suzhou, Wonderland came to us - 2 evenings in a row at the Dulwich College Theatre!! That's right - the Junior School Production this year - drumroll, please - Alice in Wonderland!!

The front cover of the program

Year 3 and Year 4 - Annie and Aladdin - Manasi has been on stage both years, and she really wanted to do Production this year, too. I was, however, a bit reluctant - it is a huge commitment of time, homework suffers, weekends are gone, and school lessons are missed - seems like too much to be just part of the chorus. I know, I wasn't being much of a sport - and if every parent felt the way I did, there would be no production at all - I just felt like she had paid her dues, and that it was time to concentrate on something else. So, we reached a compromise - I told Manasi she could do it if she was able to land a speaking part!

My little one always dreams big - love her for that - so she auditioned for the plum role of Queen of Hearts. She practiced non-stop - we could hear 'Silence!!!' and 'Off with her head!!' thundering through the house at all odd hours - I was really ready for the auditions to be done with. She didn't get the Queen, but she did get the role of the Dodo Bird, the Admiral of the Queen's Navy - 2 songs, 4 scenes, about 10 lines of dialogue - there was nothing left for me to do but say yes. So there she was, a part of the 'Main Cast'!! Interestingly, this year, our director Ms SS, announced there would be 2 Main Casts, one for each night of the performance. Seemed like a lot of extra work for her - but would also let more kids get 'important' roles!!

'Alice in Wonderland' is wonderfully complicated - a host of quirky characters, exotic backdrops and an absolutely nonsensical plot! Alice changes sizes - that is taken care of on the stage by having Alice played by 3 girls - Little Alice, Medium Alice and Large Alice. In addition to the 3 Alices, the Main Cast comprises of the White Rabbit and Queen if Hearts, of course, and then the Cheshire Cat (also played by 3 kids, Head, Body & Tail), the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Tweedles, the Caterpillar, Flowers, King of Hearts, the Doorknob and the Dodo bird. And yes, 2 sets of all these characters!! Most of Manasi's friends were also in the Main Cast - right here in GL, we had 2 White Rabbits, a Little Alice, a pair of Tweedles, a Flower and of course my Dodo (absolutely not a pun!).

Rehearsals were in full swing all the way up to the Christmas break. I did think that the rehearsals were a lot lesser than they had been the preceding years. Only Saturday mornings, instead of all day on Saturday and Sunday - and the kids weren't being pulled out of class either. But everyone seemed pretty confident!! Then the 3 week break - I'm sure the teachers were agonizing that all the kids were going to forget everything - and that they would be back to square one with barely 4 weeks left before the show. That didn't happen - although, a very different problem did arise over the Christmas break - something totally unexpected!!

While on vacation in Europe, Ms SS's bag was stolen - along with her passport, computer and everything else!! Sounds like one of those hoax emails going around, doesn't it - except this time, it was true! Poor thing, she was stranded - had to get an emergency passport and then the Chinese visa processed - not to mention all the stress!! She finally made it back to Suzhou a full 2 weeks after school started - and while her very able team had kept rehearsals going, it was quite a setback to have her gone for so long. As the week of the show approached, still no all-day rehearsals - quite mystifying, really!! But they did manage to rally magnificently!!

The dress rehearsals were nerve-racking - the kids seemed a bit shaky, and the stage managers a bit frazzled - but they still had one more day to work out the kinks!! And as always, the night of the show, the kids rose to the occasion and performed magnificently!!! Sure, there were a few forgotten dialogues and a few missed cues - but it is incredible how much these kids can achieve! Under the arc-lights on the stage, dressed in full costume and make-up, facing a packed auditorium - it is miraculous that they neither falter nor stumble, and sing and dance with a grace that many adults would find impossible - me included, put me on a stage and I turn into a blubbering idiot!! Here are some pictures from the show...

Dodo Bird

The very sassy flowers!

Alice!

                                   

Cheshire Cat

Monarch of the seas!

The hilarious Tweedles

Golden Afternoon

Simon says...

The three Alices

I was a little more involved in the show this year - helped with the costumes, and then backstage helping the kids get dresses. As can be seen from the pictures, the costumes were pretty elaborate - and while some were easy enough to buy, many had to be made - intrepid parents with nimble fingers to the rescue - no, no, absolutely not me! One of the friends, MW, is an absolute genius when it comes to designing and creating costumes - and my help was limited to cutting and glueing (unskilled labor!) under her supervision! The Mad Hatter, March Hare and the White Rabbit costumes were made by her - and so were costumes for lobsters, fish and the irresistible bird wings and helmets!! The Flower dresses were made by another parent, and they turned out to be amazing too!! The gorgeous costumes were definitely a highlight of the show!!

And helping out backstage - how much fun was that!! Exhausting, true - but just so much fun!! Handing out the costumes, helping the kids into them, running around trying to locate a spare white shirt - that was just the start. The dress rehearsal helped calm my nerves a bit - at least I knew what to expect on the night of the performance! Obviously, I watched the show with Manasi in it, and helped the second night! But even as part of the audience, I was constantly watching - did everyone make it on stage in time, do all the cards have white makeup, ooh the caterpillar's hood fell off - just couldn't switch it off!! There were a couple of really, really quick costume changes that had all us 'helpers' on tenterhooks - but fortunately, everything went smoothly on both nights, no slip-ups! Whew!!

It was definitely an eye-opener to be backstage - unbelievable how much activity takes place behind the scenes - an organized chaos of sorts - and then the complete contrast on stage, where everything is bright and shiny and perfect!! Was really gratifying to see all that hard work pay off - and I think Manasi was delighted that I was around - that alone was worth everything! It is all about the kids, isn't it?? And I know I should be more dignified about this - but I was thrilled to see my name in the program - don't judge, this is a first for me, so it's kind of a big deal!! The beautiful flowers were a nice surprise, too!!

It is a huge undertaking to put on this kind of show - and it is our wonderful Dulwich staff that makes it happen year after year, better every year!! All their hard work, working with the kids, bringing out their best - requires a lot of patience and dedication, and these teachers give it their all!! I was very happy to be a part of the team and see first-hand the amount of effort put in - simply amazing!! Rumor has it that next year will see Lion King on stage at Dulwich - but for now, I'm still lost in Wonderland!!