Fanling....the Land of Organic Milk and Honey

 
Today we went to Fanling to visit Hong Ning Diary, a small organic dairy farm.

I had heard it was the only dairy farm in HK that was certified organic, but it is so small they don't deliver to grocery stores.  there are two ways to get this milk: either order it through one of their vendors, or if you are lucky, you may live somewhere they will deliver to your door every day, like the old times when the milk man came to your door every morning. It's a bit expensive, but I really want my daughter (who turned one year old yesterday) to have the best milk to drink during this critical growth period. Since they let people come to the farm as a tourist attraction, I thought it would be interesting for my kids to actually experience the process of how milk is collected, and such.  Plus, Fanling is just a couple train stops away from us.

Today was a wet drizzly cold Sunday, and even though we were warned on the internet that Sundays are best to be avoided due to crowds, we found ourselves the only ones there today.  On the internet, it says the tickets per person were $18, but when we arrived, they tried to charge us $30, saying the $18 dollar price is just for people who book online.  After arguing that it doesn't say that anywhere online or in writing at the farm, they agreed to let us all in for $60.   There is supposed to be a guided tour where they explain the process of how milk is collected and bottled, but we were not given the tour for some reason, just a bunch of grass to feed the cows.

 I know on farms in Maine and Vermont and California, all the cows I ever saw had at least a paddy where they can go out and eat grass, and in CA they are often seen roaming the hillside.  A California hill without a bunch of cows hanging out is a rare sight indeed.  So in my mind these Fanling cows would be frolicking in the field eating clover and whatever else I imagined cows would like to eat.

Sadly, HK cows live much like HK people: surrounded by concrete walls and concrete floors.  Remarkably clean concrete floors ( I can't imagine how often they must muck out the stalls to keep them so clean), but still hard on the hooves. The grass they eat is mowed by the farmers and brought to the cows daily.  They never walk on it.  But their manure is used to fertilize it, according to the web site.  Seems like a lot of work fertilizing and cutting the grass and schlepping it all over creation and mucking out stalls could be avoided if they just let the cows hang out in the field, but what do I know?

 

We were given lots of free samples.  They said when you are there, you can feel free to drink as much milk as you can.  Well, I hate milk.  I have had to drink it from time to time and I usually want to puke, I hate it so much. But I LOVED this milk! It tasted great!  Mabo loved it too, and so did Kiara.  Kai was weary of trying the milk because he doesn't tolerate it so well, so he missed out.  I had several samples and bought a bottle for the road too.

Besides milk, they also keep bees and make an absolutely fantastic organic honey too.  We bought two containers of honey and a bottle of milk and set out on our way home.

Unfortunately, I learned that they don't deliver to my area, but I could order a supply from a vendor in the wet market my helper goes every couple of days.  I went to the vendor later in the afternoon and set up an order of 12 bottles a week.  If I return the bottles, I will get a $1 discount for every bottle I return.  

Lucky Kiara.  She probably is going to be drinking the very freshest and most wholesome organic milk in all of Hong Kong. I'm thankful I found out about this place, and thankful I can provide something this high quality for her even in Hong Kong.


For those of you who are interested, here is the link to Hong Ning:  http://www.hongningdairy.com

Back to HK

We just got back from a three week stint in the US.  As usual, we had several adventures getting there and back.  First there was a huge typhoon the day we left which caused our flights to be delayed.  We ended up missing our connection as a result and had to stay overnight in Paris.  Air France paid for our hotel room, and gave us food vouchers for dinner, breakfast and lunch the next day.  We ate so many croissants and pain au chocolates at breakfast we could hardly waddle to the plane, much less eat lunch.

French bread is ever so much yummier in France!  I swear this is true!

Good thing we missed our connection, because Evil Immigration Officer kept us in immigration limbo for several hours the next day in Boston because of a simple and easily correctable mistake.  Nice Immigration Officer sorted us out and soothed our fears because Evil Immigration Officer acted like we were hardened criminals and threatened to never let us into the US ever again (he was full of it, the Nice Immigration Officer basically told us).  Had we made our connection, we would have been over 30 hours in transit without a rest.  

While in Maine we ate    (I had a little while Mabo had them every day)

and played in the grass among evergreen trees.       

Mabo went fishing nearly every day and caught more fish than he's had in the past several years combined, so he was happy.  Kai never once ate a vegetable.  He basically ate chicken nuggets every single day.  For me, I was happy reconnecting with friends and family.  I got to see nearly all my cousins and even managed a trip to L/A (the Maine L/A) to "visit" my mom and bring her some flowers. next to my Mom is buried an uncle of mine who died during WWII.  Kai wanted to know why he had a special marker on his grave and I explained how he had helped fight for his country and those people get a special marker.   Kai had insisted earlier that I buy him a little US flag.  When I told him abut my great uncle, he decided to give his flag to him and stuck it in the ground nearby.  I figured Uncle Marcel wouldn't mind.   

I loved meeting up with old friends and family, but the real event was saved for the end of the trip.  That was when i reunited with my father's family, whom I hadn't seen in over 20 years and hadn't met more than twice in my whole life.  After 35 years of being rather disinterested in me, they wanted to get together with my  husband and kids for a family reunion of sorts.  A recent family death made the timing spectacularly poor, but despite that, we had a great time and I realized they are really great people to know.  We had our pictures taken with my grandmother who is 88 but acts and looks like 58.  I hope they will all be around the next time I go to Maine and that we can have another gathering.  At 88, who knows how many more gatherings there may be?  

It's possible that was the last time I'll ever see my grandmother.  I'm so so so thrilled my kids could meet her at least once. 

       

Coming back from the US, we had a 12 hour layover in Paris, so we took the chance to do the one thing I never did when I was there years ago: go to the Louvre.  One day simply isn't enough.  Even taking a whirlwind tour of the museum, we didn't see everything there was to see and there wasn't enough time to really look at anything in depth or do sketches or anything.  After the Louvre closed, we had dinner at a creperie and had gallettes with cidre, something I have been wanting to have for years and years. It reminded me of the many times I had gallettes and cidre with friends while I lived in Rennes.  Ah those were the carefree days!  Happily, all my French came back to me and I was totally able to get around and    do everything I needed to do in French. I told my husband he could be in charge of learning Asian languages and I would learn the European ones.  It's so much easier that way!      

Back in Hong kong, still in one piece, and trying to get over jet lag now.  I went to work this morning and was told all I had to do was show my face and chat a bit and then I could go back home for a week before the real work began.  So I have an extra unanticipated week off!  What to do, what to do?  Time for a trip to Thailand?  Hmmm......Maybe I should be checking last minute bargain flights instead of blogging!  :-)

Happy happy joy joy

It's been three months since I last updated the blog!  I knew this would happen...I'm hopeless at journaling. But I've kept it up off and on for two years, which is a big deal for me. 

it's not that nothing has been going on....Kai started first grade in his new school and loves it. Kiara  is doing all kinds of fun things like trying to stand, laughing, and trying all kinds of foods like spinach, pumpkin, and oatmeal.  We moved to a village house and are in the midst of an ongoing drama with the Internet company who refuses to connect us, forcing us to live in a primeval cave-like state devoid of TV, cable, Internet, and other things that separates man from beast. On the plus side, the village sits on a mountain that is protected from development by being a state park, and there is a gorgeous and clean stream where we can swim under a canopy of lush green trees and other flora with butterflies dancing all around.  It's like swimming in a fairy tale picture. 

I told my school i would not re-sign a contract with them, and hoofed it all over Hong Kong trying to find a new job, terrified that I wouldn't get a job and I'd be homeless.  Then I found a job at a school on the same street as my new flat (joy joy...no more 90 minute commutes each way for me next year!)  and now I am in the process of getting my paperwork together to get a new work visa for myself and dependant visas for the fam.  I am totally excited that my job duties will be very different from my current one, and it seems like the perfect match to my skills and abilities.

   We also hired a helper from the Philippines to live with us and do all the cooking and cleaning and shopping and baby care so all i have to do when I get home is play with the kids, eat, and sleep.  I can even have a date night with my husband, which we had done all of twice in the 6 years since we had Kai. Our marriage is 1000% better these days because we no longer have to fight about money or who is doing more house chores and who's being a slob etc.  We have enough to pay the bills and some left over to get help to do the things we don't like to do and so we can relax and enjoy life and have a sparkling clean home, yummy healthy meals, and happy kids.   

And I'm really excited that, thanks to the contract clause that pays for airplane tickets every two years for the whole family, I can afford to go back to the US to visit friends and family next month! We've already been invited to three birthday parties, so Mabo and I are hoofing it all over Hong Kong to find a shop that sells these cool bamboo toys we saw at a Toy Expo last year in HK that we are dying to give to the kids.

Wow, thinking back, more changes have taken place in the past three months than in the past two years combined!  I had a time like that in 2004 when about a million life changes happened in the period of  a few months: I got married, i attended two major funerals and dealt with end of life issues, I left my job, I moved, I started grad school, just to name a few.  When it rains, it pours for me. 

But the changes in 2012 have all been really positive ones and I'm happier than I think I've ever been. 

Thank you Hong Kong.  For all your flaws, you certainly do have some good points.   

We Must Rock You

I have always enjoyed taking well loved songs and changing the lyrics. (No one can forget my teenage tribute to Paul Simon with "The Sound of Toilets")

Imagine my surprise and joy to find my son also finds this a fun and entertaining thing to do, and we have made up our own lyrics for several songs. 

For example, the other day, Kai decided he didn't like the lyrics to the second verse of "You are my Sunshine" because they are too sad.  So he made up his own song that was much happier:

The other night, dear,
As i lay sleeping,
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
And when i woke, dear,
it was true
So I laughed and snuggled and smiled.

Kai has been writing an "Ode to Kiara" with piano accompaniment for a few months(this sounds much fancier than saying he's been banging on piano keys in a slightly musical way while singing "Kiara").

While the ending to this Ode is still percolating, he came up with an ingenious tribute to Queen with lyrics he and I came up with together. we've been singing this song for a while now. the second verse I came up with myself, but Kai and i came up with the first verse 50/50.

So, all due apologies to Queen, here's the Kuwata top 10 hit: We Will Rock You/We are the Parents:

Baby you're a girl
With a big curl
sucking on your thumb
gunna be a wo-man some day
you've got milk on your face
you big disgrace
kicking your poo all over the place
Singing: we must, we must rock you!
We must we must rock you!
We must we must rock you!

We've changed your diapers
Time after time
We're doing a sentence
But have committed no crime
And some mistakes
We've made a few
We've had our share of milk squirted in our face
But we've come through!
We are the parents my friends
And we'll never sleep right again
we are the parents
we are the parents
no time for hobbies
'cause we are the parents
of 2 kids!

Birth Story #2

last year, i talked about the birth of my son, who is going to be 6 in two weeks:
http://trottingteacher.blogspot.com/2010/11/confession-my-birth-expereince-and.html

I said I would never give birth in a hospital ever again.  One year later, I have a new birth story to share:  the birth of my daughter, who ironically was born in a hospital.

Some elements of the story are the same.  Both babies were induced because the doctors were worried about their health in the womb.  I had very little amniotic fluid, which seems to be a big sign of trouble.  My daughter also had a skipping/weak heart beat and hadn't grown between week 37 and 38.  Additionally, I had lost 20 kilos and was continuing to loose weight even in that final week, so at 38 weeks, they pulled the plug on the pregnancy thing.  The thing is, my daughter, at 38 weeks, weighted almost the same as my son at 42 weeks.  It's possible my son also stopped growing at 38 weeks but just no one noticed.

Both times copious amounts of drugs were used to stimulate the body and get it into labor.  Pictocin in the US and Syntocin in HK but basically the same thing.  Both times my cervix refused to completely open.  For my son, it opened almost enough so that the doctor could open me by hand for a vaginal birth.  But with my DD, my cervix hardly opened at all, even after 15 hours of drugs and contractions.

One difference: I learned that being strapped to the bed was the thing that forced me to ask for pain meds last time, more than the contractions themselves.  This time, despite being a major pain in the nurses ass, I insisted that i get up and move around the bed, change positions, do what I needed to do to relieve the sore feeling in my body when i stayed too long in a position.  I breathed through contractions and listened to a Calmbirth CD that helped me experience the contractions as waves of energy, and refused to call them pains.  I even asked the nurses not to call it "pain" but "waves" so i wouldn't get out of my mentality.  I didn't need a single drug for the labor and didn't even experience them as being particularly painful.  The nurses were surprised, because I was being monitored and the waves were quite strong, but I was just sitting up and breathing calmly with my eyes closed and being very Zen about it all...they kept asking me if I needed pain medication, but I insisted the waves were just fine thank you and no medication was necessary.  When I started to feel uncomfortable, I stood up and did a bit of a dance to rotate the hips sockets and flex the spine and get relief.  It was truly awesome and exactly why I took the Calmbirth class in the first place.  No screaming, moaning, groaning, or crying for drugs for me!  That hypnosis stuff really works...but you have to put lots of mental energy into it.  I listened to that CD every single night in my waking and sleeping for 3 months prior, to properly seed my subconscious.

However, the cervix not opening was a problem and after 24 hours of being on labor inducing drugs with little effect on the cervix, I was getting a bit weak, as I had not eaten or drunk anything in that 24 hour period and i was tired and since they had broken my waters in an effort to get things going 12 hours earlier, they were on the clock to get her out before the waters broke.  I had 2 options: keep going another 3 hours (their limit) and if nothing happened, get a cesarean, or allow them to do the cesarean right then and there.  Since I was only 2 cm dilated and the chances of going from 2 to 10 in three hours seemed slim to us at that point, I agreed to let them cut me open.

Kiara was born on Dec 1st, 2011, at 9:29 am and weighed 3.03 kilos.  She was pretty mad about being taken from her warm home, and since then, being cold is just about the only time she really exercises her lungs.  An hour or two later, she made her first breastfeeding attempt, and we cuddled in the recovery room.  After that, she slept for about 3 weeks.  During this time, nothing and no one could wake her up or get her to eat, by breast, cup, or spoon.  She lost tons of weight, which made her even sleepier.

After my son's 6 months of constant screaming, I had wished for a sleeping baby, but I never realized how I would regret that wish!  One wonderful thing about it though was I had three weeks to get rest and relax and recover.  And when she did wake up, we sorted out our issues with feeding and breastfeeding within two weeks.  Now she is feeding like a champion, gaining lots of weight, off formula, off the SNS feeder, off the nipple shield, and pumping has been reduced from 15-20 times a day (yes, due to milk issues I was pumping 20 times a day the first two weeks) to about 3 times a day.

She hardly ever cries.  Usually only when she is cold.  Unlike with my son, I fell in love with her right away.  And the happiest thing I can say is no PPD!  I read that 50% of mothers who get PPD get it again with subsequent babies.  So far, so good for me!

My son LOVES his sister and has been very active in her care.  He has changed a diaper, fed her a bottle, burped her, bathes with her, and asks to hold her every day.  He lavishes kisses and hugs and is always as gentle and careful as can be.  IN turn, she has graced only him with her smiles.  She clearly adores him and he adores her.  I'm so thankful I have such a wonderful son and wonderful daughter.  They both fill my life with light and joy.  I hope they fill each other's life with joy as well.  having a sibling to relate with and share memories with when parents pass away is such a gift.  Sure kids bicker and don't see eye to eye on everything; but when the chips are down, they will have each other and that is a wonderful gift.

All in all, this experience has been far superior, and very healing for me.  I'm so glad I have this precious being in my life and so glad my son thinks she is as wonderful as I do.  Kiara, my little sunshine.