Van Break-in!

Someone broke into our van last week.  We did not use it for about two weeks and it was just parked on a road outside our office.  

This is already the second time that something like this has happened to our van.  The first time the van was broken into, the person tried to steal the van.  He was unsuccessful and I had to spend money to fix up the damage – some wires were cut, a side window broken, and the lock on one of the doors was removed.  I changed the locks as I suspected that the thief took the lock to make a key that would open and start the van.

On this second break-in, a window was broken and the engine hood was opened.  I learned later from the shop that the thief was probably trying to steal the van’s computer.  On gasoline VW T4s, this computer is located just next to the car battery.  Fortunately, our van is a diesel and on this model there is no computer.  This computer costs about NT$40,000 new.  And there were a bunch of vans in the shop waiting for the suddenly out of stock computer which had to be shipped from Germany.

We reported the break-in to the police and were advised to park the van near a residence area instead of just anywhere.  Thefts are also probably up because Chinese New Year is just around the corner.  Everyone needs more money for the holidays.

Hsiang San

This past Saturday, we took Maita and Erika to the nearby Hsiang San (Fragrant Mountain) train station.  This train station is said to be the oldest wooden train station still being used in Taiwan.  It was interesting to see as this station was built during the Japanese times.  The station itself was small and it was manned by only one person.  I could see some beams infested by termites.  I hope someone is aware of this and will someday fix or replace these termite infested beams.  It would be a pity to lose this historical site.

The highlight of the trip was the train ride to a nearby stop – Chunan.  Maita and Erika were both very excited to be on the train.  You could see how difficult it was for Maita to suppress her smile while she was on the train.

The ride to Chunan was short but had good scenery.  The train tracks were near the sea and we saw a lot of those new windmills for generating electricity.  When we got to Chunan, we looked for a place to take lunch.  We had some noodles and rice at a nearby food stall.  Then we went back to the train station to wait before taking the train back to Hsian San.  While at the train station, Erika kept wanting to ride the orange train.  The particular train that we took was blue and the orange train was another line.  A new word for Erika that day was “cargo” train.  Cargo was the word that came to my mind when Erika pointed out the black train that looked so different from our passenger train.

The Magic Words

For some reason, Erika seems terrified of this particular illustration of Blackbeard, the pirate. It is on one of the picture books that we often look at and read. When she first saw the illustration she just got off my lap, ran away and stood a distance from me and the book. She’ll probably get over this fear in due time.

But in the meantime, I was able to use this fear as one of my magic words to convince her to follow me. One use of this was during bed time last night. Maita was long asleep as she’s a bit sick and she normally gets to sleep earlier than Erika. Erika wanted to go out of the room to play. I told her that the pirate is out there and she decided to stay in the room.

This afternoon, after coming back from lunch and grocery shopping, it was time to put both girls to sleep. I tried to convince Erika to go to the toilet before sleeping. Her mom also tried but was not successful either. The use of the magic words allowed me to finally get her to go to the toilet to pee. I told her that if she needed to pee the pirate will help her. She said she didn’t want that and I told her that she better let me help her then. She dutifully followed me to the toilet to do her thing.

A similar thing happened at dinner time. We tried to convince Erika to eat dinner but anything we said seemed to fall on deaf ears. She just ignored us and continued to look at her book. She did eat one yellow kiwi and some apple when she woke up at 5:00pm. I asked if she wanted to eat some Hwo Long Kuo (Dragon Fruit) and she pretended not to hear. The magic words that finally worked were Honey Crunch (the honey and nut coated breakfast cereal).

As I write this final post of the year, I think about the challenges in raising our two young daughters. For Erika the current challenge is to teach her to visit the toilet in a timely manner. Given that she’s three and learning to assert herself, we hope that eventually we are able to instill the habit of regular toilet visits. Hopefully, we can reduce the scrambles to the toilet whenever Erika gets that tingling feeling that’s a certain sign that she can’t hold it in anymore.

For Maita, the challenge is a bit different. She’s quite headstrong and she has to learn to compromise and share. She ends the year slightly sick. We remind her that she should have taken an extra jacket to wear in school yesterday. Her classroom is a lot colder than our home and she needs to wear more when she’s at school. We hope she sees the cause and effect of her actions.

I end this post with a picture of Maita when she’s about Erika’s age. I think it's a fitting end to the year. I like her smiling face when I picked this photo of her. I’m glad that I was able to improve it with photoshop.

18 Peak Mountain

We had two nice weekends before the cold weather came. During these two weekends, I took Maita and Erika to a popular local destination for walking – 18 Peak Mountain. This hiking trail is popular with many locals and is located quite near the Hsinchu city center. It’s a nice 20 minute walk to the top. I hesitate to call it the top of the mountain as it is more of a hill.

On the gentle slope up to the top, you can see lots of greenery and also flowers. On previous walks, we would even see squirrels scampering around some of the trees. I was looking out for squirrels to point out to both girls but unfortunately no squirrels were in sight.

Both trips to the top were rewarded with a taste of locally made ice cream. On both of these trips, Maita and Erika each had one ice cream cone. They quickly finished the ice cream cone then promptly asked for another one. As it was close to lunch time, I just obliged and got the second ice cream cone. They were able to try different flavors such as strawberry, taro root, and pineapple. In their eyes, these were the pink, purple, and yellow ice cream.

Merry Go Round

Yesterday was a cold and windy day. The weather has turned cold due to an approaching cold front.

I took Maita and Erika to the nearby Hsinchu Zoo. The objective of the trip was to see the hippopotamus, orangutan, and other animals. I did not find a parking place at the park so had to park under the overpass. This meant that we had to pass the flower market on the way to the zoo. It was then that Erika saw the merry go round. She wanted to ride it immediately but it was not possible as the old lady manning it was still setting it up. I managed to convince her to go to the zoo first and ride the merry go round when we come out.

The wind was quite cold and I was worried that Erika didn't have enough clothes. So we quickly finished looking at the animals and came out to ride the merry go round. These are the pictures I took using an old digital camera.

Maita's Stories

This week Maita asked her mom to help her write down her stories. She prepared three cards with some drawings and each card had a story to tell. These recent activities (the card drawing and storytelling) are a reflection of what Maita has been doing in school. I'm not sure whether it is a combination of two activities or just one main activity. I do know that Maita attends an art class once a week and the teachers for the storytelling and the art class are two different ladies.

Story 1
Long, long ago, there was a boy who ran up the 18 Peak Mountain. He climbed up to a very high place where it is very cool. At the top, he ate an ice cream cone. The way down was very steep and he was afraid he would fall down. Later, when he went home he ate lunch then played with his toys. After playing for awhile, he took a nap. When he woke up from his nap, he went to Hoping Hotel to eat dinner. After dinner, he went to skating class. Christmas is here and the boy got ready to go to sleep. When he woke up, he saw that there were three presents under the Christmas tree. One present was a train, another was a book, and the other present was a toy.

Story 2
Long, long ago, there was a girl who ran into the forest. In the deep forest she met a flower, a really beautiful flower. She also met a beautiful apple tree. There was an apple in the apple tree. She met a beautiful butterfly and also a beautiful bumblebee. She saw a boy and girl get married. When she went home she did her homework. After doing her homework, she played with her toys. After playing with her toys, she went to skating class.

Story 3
Long, long ago, there was a girl who ran up the mountain. She went too high and she needed to find a way to come down. At the top of the mountain she ate an ice cream cone. Then she went home and ate lunch. After lunch, she took a nap. When she woke up she had dinner then played with her toys.

It's interesting and funny to read these stories. For they are a combination of actual places and activities that we've done together. I've been taking both girls to a nearby place called 18 Peak Mountain. At the top they have each eaten ice cream. We were there again last weekend and we climbed down a very steep staircase on the way to the parking lot.

More pictures of Maita

These pictures of Maita were taken earlier this year before Maita lost her two front teeth. The close-ups were taken in our apartment while the picture of her back was taken in Windance, a nearby shopping mall.

You've come a long way baby!

This picture was taken probably around 2 years ago. Erika is now a 3 year old and is learning to assert herself. She likes to pick out her own clothes. It's constantly a challenge to try to steer her to pick more appropriate clothing. It has been a bit difficult these past few days as she's been picking her dresses. With the increasingly cold weather, it is not the best choice. Thank goodness for stockings!

Hsinchu's East Gate

I believe this picture was taken with my Yashica rangefinder. I spent quite a bit of time working on this image in Photoshop. I'm still not sure whether this is the best version of the picture.

Some pictures of Erika

These two pictures were taken in the Holland Village outdoor playground.

This was taken at home right after in-line skating. This is one of the few flash shots that i really like. I used my Nikon FM2 for this shot. The two shots in the playground must have been shot with the Minolta rangefinder camera.

This is Erika drinking her milk on the sofa. Despite just turning three this month, Erika still drinks her milk just before going to sleep.

Some pictures of Maita

These two pictures were taken at Hsinchu's East Gate. Sometimes, the door to the gate is open and you can actually walk up to take a look. These were taken while Maita was on her way down the ladder.

Manila ice cream

On Saturday morning, I took the two girls down for a walk to the convenience store.  They wanted to buy some ice cream and I needed to go buy the morning paper.  Maita chose the chocolate ice cream while Erika picked the vanilla ice cream.  I told Erika her ice cream was Vanilla flavored.  "Manila ice cream?" repeated Erika.  "No, no, not Manila ice cream!  Vanilla ice cream!  Vanilla ice cream!"  "Lola is in Manila and you are eating Vanilla ice cream!," I repeated on the way home.  Erika repeated, "Vanilla, not Manila ice cream.  Lola is in Manila"

In-line skating

After dinner Maita declared, "I want to roller roller skate." She took out her in-line skates and padding then asked me to help her put everything on. Erika then also said that she wants to roller roller skate. While helping Maita put on her padding, I tell Erika to go get her socks. Erika ran to their room to get her socks. When she came back out I notice that she changed from her red T-shirt to a pink T-shirt. But no socks. "Erika, go get your socks," I tell her again. Erika runs back to the room and comes back with a pair of socks. While helping her put on the socks, I notice that she has again changed. This time she changed to a white T-shirt.

Skating around the apartment while waiting for their mom to get ready, I notice how good they've become at in-line skating - the direct results of the almost daily skating and the once a week skating classes.

Eri-eri-alaka

"Eri-eri-erika, Eri-eri-alaka," called the big sister Maita.  And so that was how our second daughter got her names.  Maita used so many variations of Erika's name that most of them just stuck.  Erika, Kala, Alaka - these are among the most commonly used names that we call the baby in our family.

I also sometimes call her my little princess.  But she was, literally, a little witch last night.  She kept me up till about midnight before she went to sleep.  She was so in love with her witch costume that she took her pajamas off to change to her normal clothes.  I then had to help her put on the witch costume which she wore to bed.  So she woke up this morning as my little witch!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday, instead of going to market, we decided to go to B&Q to do our shopping and have lunch at the MacDonalds in the basement.  B&Q is located in the same building as Geant so we are able to conveniently do all our shopping in one place.  Although we were still early for lunch, we decided to beat the rush and take lunch before doing all our shopping.  The highlight for lunch was the free toy from MacDonald's.

The next activity after lunch was the hardware shopping for the new car.  We had to get some sun shades and a box for organizing the trunk.  The main highlight here was the halloween costumes that we bought for our two girls.  Erika got the witch costume together with a hat and matching broom.  Maita got the wizard costume complete with the Harry Potter glasses and wizard hat.  After paying for the B&Q purchases, I had to take all the stuff to the car before continuing the shopping trip for food items at Geant.

We finally finished all the weekly shopping and was back home at around 3 pm.  My two little girls were tired but couldn't resist trying on their halloween costumes.  They took their naps a half hour later and it was quiet at last.

A busy weekend

It was another busy weekend for us.  It started on Friday afternoon after we got the new Passat.  Maita was thrilled to see the new car when we picked her up from school.  She was still gushing about it when we got home and excitedly told Erika that the new car is here.  So we quickly had dinner and took everyone out for a short drive to the bakery.  We bought a chocolate birthday cake for Maita and we went home after I dropped two rolls of slides at the Kodak shop nearby.

Saturday was Maita’s 6th birthday.  After waking up, we all had breakfast together then took out Maita’s birthday cake.  A candle shaped like the number six was lit.  We sang the birthday song.  Maita blew out the candle and we all had cake.  Maita had two slices of her favorite chocolate cake.  Everybody had a piece of cake then we all got ready to go to Taipei for lunch.  We picked up my mother-in-law in Sanchung before heading out to the Nei-Hu district, where L’s younger sister’s family lives.  We’ve done this many times before and the routine normally involves lunch at a Thai restaurant and coffee at Starbucks.  The only special thing about this day was that it was Maita’s birthday and we were riding in the new car.

At the restaurant, Maita got a box of chocolates from her cousin Rita.  Erika also got a smaller package of chocolates from her cousin Kenny.  Both Rita and Kenny are one year younger than our girls.

On the way back home, Maita wanted to eat her chocolate.  We reminded her that we’ve told her many times that we should not eat in the new car.  She was very persistent and I finally told her that she could eat her chocolate outside the car.  I will stop the car and she can have her chocolate before going back in the car.  I did stop the car and it was Erika that went out to have some chocolate.  L and I believe that Maita did not dare go out to have her chocolate because she knew we were a little angry at her.  Nevertheless, she did not say a word on the way home.  Both girls took a nap on the way home to Hsinchu.  L and I discussed this and wonder whether we should just take the van when we go on trips lasting an hour or more.  The van is much bigger and we let the two girls eat or drink stuff in it.

A new car!

After a two month wait, we finally got word that our new car is at the dealership.  Yesterday, we went to see it and do some initial paperwork.  Today, we went to the bank to wire the cash portion of our purchase.  After all the paperwork is done we can expect to be driving a new car by Thursday or Friday, at the earliest.  In any case, it will make it in time for Maita's birthday.  We've been telling Maita that the new car will arrive by her birthday this Saturday.

We're financing a majority of the purchase price at a 4% interest rate.  We decided to go for a two year loan period.  Our previous car purchases had 0% interest terms as the dealer was trying to move his inventory.  This current car model, a Passat TDI, is a very popular model so there is no such financing incentive.  We had to place an order before we even saw the car!  We did test drive a Golf TDI, which had the same transmission system.

When we visited the dealer yesterday, we needed to make some decisions on the options for the car.  Earlier, we opted for the factory model sunshade for the back window.  We opted out of the window tint as the car already had colored windows - we'll just buy some individual window shades for the passenger windows.  We'll most probably add the distributor recommended blue tooth handsfree system.  Now our next purchase should be a mobile phone with blue tooth capabilities.  Both L's and I have standard 3 year old no-frills Nokias.  I guess we'll both need to upgrade our phones!  We also asked the car salesman for a car use vacuum cleaner.  This is mainly for cleaning the food bits and other stuff that our two kids will no doubt scatter on the nice leather back seats.

Summer's Gone

The weather has started to turn cooler and more comfortable.  Autumn is now here and the chill of winter is just around the corner.  This is the most comfortable time of the year when the temperature and humidity are not so high.  The water temperature in my goldfish tank has dropped from the 30s to about 23ºC.  It’s not yet sweater weather but it’s a good idea to bring a windbreaker or wear a long sleeved shirt when going out.  We now make sure that both our girls are either wearing enough clothing or a windbreaker.  Although the temperature is comfortable, many people still catch a cold because of the temperature change.

Cheap Thrills

Sunday was market day.  After purchasing the week's supply of food, we were on our way to our usual lunch at a Thai noodle shop when Maita stopped in front of a store selling slippers and other footwear.  She saw a pair of rain boots and wanted one.  So we bought a pair each for Maita and Erika.  Both of them immediately wore them to the Thai noodle shop near the market.  These pink rain boots suddenly became the favorite footwear for both our girls.  Both of them wear the rain boots and happily hunt for puddles of water to use the boots on.  They continue to wear them today despite sunny weather.  We just went with the flow and let them be.

L's sister, brother in law, and kids came to Hsinchu to spend the afternoon with us.  We had lunch together then had some ice cream and coffee at the ice cream shop nearby.  The following day (Monday), we went to Taipei to have lunch with them.  We also went to get L's mother in Sanchung so she can spend the afternoon with us.  As usual, we went to a Thai restaurant then had coffee at Starbucks.

Wo yiaw niao niao!

Wo yiaw niao niao! Wo yiaw niao niao! "I want to pee! I want to pee!" cried Maita as I was driving the van down to our basement parking spot. "I want to pee! I want to pee!" "Mama, can I pee on your pants?" cried my desperate daughter as she sat on her mama's lap. Noo! Wait! Hold it! cried my wife in panic. I stopped the van in front of the door to the elevator and let them get down quickly before I go to our parking spot.

I parked the van and walked to the elevator. As I was walking, I wondered whether they made it to the toilet. Not seeing any wet spots on the floor or the elevator, I figured that they made it. We live on the 21st floor so the elevator ride would take some time from the level 2 basement parking area. When I reached our apartment, I was surprised to get there ahead of my wife and daughter. L tells me then that she had to let Maita pee on the first floor. But there's no toilet there, I remarked. L took Maita to the back, found a grass spot and let Maita fertilize the grass. And L had a wet spot on her jeans to show for it!