Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

It is my mistake this time, for not bringing my reusable grocery bags to Beijing. My last trip to Jakarta, I remembered to bring my Rootote, maybe because I knew I would buy something. :p

And this trip to Beijing, I’ve completely forgotten about it, maybe deep in my heart I do not feel like buying anything. :p (excuse!)

On my third day (Saturday), I was so sick of the snack served in the focus group observation room, so I went to a supermarket to buy my own snacks. Upon checking out, I was asked whether I need a plastic bag or not.

Looking at the number of items in the basket, I nodded. There goes –> they charged me 30 cents for a plastic bag.

But I am not angry! Indeed, I praised them for doing this. The cashier told me that most of the locals would bring their own bags.

This is a very good move, not sure if it is encouraged by the government, or is it just the supermarket’s own initiative. It is definitely a very good and effective way to encourage (force?) us to reduce plastic bag consumption.

I can imagine if we start this in Malaysia, people would probably boycott the supermarket. Is it because the awareness in our society is not that good, or is it lack of government’s involvement in this?

I remember back in April, when I went to Yunnan for holiday, the local town councils actually fines the outlets if they give out plastic bags. Every where, there are reminders to be environmental, to care for the animals and other resources, etc. I have to say I am extremely impressed with the effort and the results of the China government in this.

In the focus groups that I have attended in this trip, there were a lot of mentions on environmental (not our research subject). And my agency contact, an American from LA, told me that compared with other countries that we researched the same subject, China is the only country that environmental was brought in to the discussion.

BTW, this supermarket that charged me 30 cents for a plastic bag, only offered the plastic bags to customers who buy more than they can carry without a bag. For example, I returned today, to buy 2 books. The cashier didn’t even ask me whether I need a bag or not, maybe because if I don’t have one I could carry the 2 bags with my hands!

This trip teach me a lesson - keep at least one of my Envirosax/Rootote in my handbag all the time! I used to do that back home, but changed my handbag for this trip, and there I forgot to slip it in. :p

Last Saturday, I brought Ian to attend K’s wedding dinner. K is now working in Jakarta, for many years already, and finally married his dream wife. Hehehe!

Okay, back to this topic. I arrived quite early, and when TBC arrived, I almost couldn’t recognize her! She looks…, well, I don’t know how to describe.

Technically speaking, she is not different from before. Still very beautiful, gentle, elegant, slim… but I just don’t know how to describe the difference. Yes, she is different.

Then, arrived Noel and Yaw. Yaw looks exacty the same, I couldn’t tell any difference (so jealous, just like Yiwen). But Noel is also different, with more marked and distinctive difference. He grew rounder and with his beard and being darker, he looks… err… more matured.

Now, yes that word MATURED, is probably a very nice word to describe we all getting OLDER.

Well, I’m not saying TBC has wrinkles or looks old. NO! Not that. But the kind of body language, the facial expression, and what we call in Chinese: 神情. I’m not sure how others look at me, but I know I look much older and uglier than last time (plus some more putting extra 7kg on my belly!).

We definitely look like mid 30s. Well, yes, we look like our age, what is the issue? But that realization makes me suddenly feel very OLD.

It brings me back to 14 years ago, when I first met TBC. She was my roommate and she arrived before me. When I first saw her, I was stunt to her beauty. She still look the same, but she is different (of course, stupid suzette).

And then, I remember those days when we were so crazy playing Monopoly (Taiwan Ah-Toh-Gia version) in my room till late night with a few coursemates, not feeling tired at all the next day. Now, if you ask me to do the same, I will die, even before passing midnight! Yiwen you are better than me, you said that you still lepak till late in your comment earlier!

Well, TBC has 3 children now, and still maintaining her slim figure, is considered very good. But there are things that we cannot change, which is really the 神情/ 神韵, which I don’t know how to describe here in English. It is the little stuff in the eyes, the way we smile, the way we talk, etc.

Of course, when I reach mid 30s, I cannot expect that I still look like 20s. I will lose respects or confidence of others in the office, or even from peers. Maybe I have been living in denial stage all these while. Just before going to that dinner, my sister was in my house and we went through my old handbags. One was a Benneton colourful pouch that I still keep, which is like 15-20 years old, still looking new. I asked her if it is okay that I use it when I go out sporting. Her immediate reaction is, “Yuck! You are too old for that design. Give it to Isabel lah! You should use something for your age.”

Still at that point, I just felt a little sad - not because of my age, but for not able to use that cute little pouch. The biggest realization is at the point of meeting TBC again. That reality really striked me.

I AM IN MY 30s ALREADY, AND I SHOULD ACCEPT IT. :p

Not that I didn’t know how old I am, before that event. Just that, I don’t realize what 30s or getting old, really mean to one person. In the past, I just thought - well, it is just a number. Not knowing that even lifestyle, fashion, activities, everything have to be adjusted. I have been young at heart, not knowing I cannot stay young outside. People will laugh at me!

I have been thinking a lot about this, in the past few days. Thinking of how old I am now, and how little achievements I have. How many years more do I have to make a difference. And also, how much will I have to spend in my wardrobe to adjust this. :p

Seriously, I do not shop much. Apart from buying maternity clothes 5 years and 3 years ago, I rarely buy clothes. So, most of my clothes could be over 5 years old. And of course, the fashion is 5 years old (I usually buy ever green styles). I don’t really need nice clothes, because I rarely meet people. Does it mean that I have to also do some shopping too? I am perhaps too thrifty.

Oh, gosh! This post is leading me to no where. Sorry to confuse you, and thanks for reading till this point. :p My mind is very messy now… :p

无论你如何保养你的肌肤, 它再如何象昔日般光滑, 随着岁月的增长, 总会出现一些菱角. 眼神, 也随着岁月的磨练, 失去了当日的天真无邪, 取代的是以前没有的智慧, 也有一些对生活的担忧和无奈. (not talking about anyone in specific)

Nope, this is not a post to teach you how to sleep longer. Instead, just a question to myself only…

Ya, ever since Ian was born (and now Isabel too), I have not been able to sleep till late morning, unless with the help of DH (very rarely).

Last night, we went to my unimate’s wedding dinner. It was a late started dinner and the function was so grand that they had a lot of performances and Indian rituals that dragged on till 9:30pm only I found a chance for me to leave. So, by the time we went to bed, it was already past 11pm.

I thought we slept so late, they would probably let me wake up late in the morning. But NO! Well, I’ve expected this coz experienced this in the past. Before 8am already they both woke up and dragged me out of my bed.

Actually this is considered good. A year ago, Ian’s schedule is even earlier. He would wake up before 7am. So, by 6:30am he would be telling me that it is ‘morning’ already and ‘birds already wake up’, that I should also wake up!

I really missed those days when I could sleep till noon. :p

But then, come to think of it, the current schedule is healthier. One nutritionist told me that breakfast should be taken between 7 to 8am. Even for today, we are already considered late in having our breakfast — 8:45am.

Just got a note that my super old laptop will be refreshed in no time! But I am not sure if this is good or bad news.

One one hand, I really would like to replace this old crap, because of the snail speed and various problems it gave me (read here for more). Because of it, I postponed my Jakarta trip. Because of it, I lost 2 weeks precious time and stressed out these few weeks. Because of it, I cannot connect my WiFi…

My old laptop HP Compaq nc4010

After 2 weeks of fixing it, changed its brain, heart, face, bone, etc, (motherboard, harddisk, screen, screw, button board, network card, etc), it finally works though still very slow. I was thinking to stick with it for a little while longer, but now… because of Vista, they will have to change mine because it is just so old that it wouldn’t support Vista! One of the oldest that have to go!

New laptop HP 6910p

Well, getting new laptop, I should be happy right? But then… I heard many users who already got this new model, complaint about getting the horrible blue screen (fatal error, dumping physical memory, etc), or the laptop restarting itself when working half way. I am worried and really wanted to wait till they review this fully.

Apart from these rumours of it not being stable, other concerns I have is the weight.

The new laptop is full functional and weights 2.1kg (4.6lb). My current one is only 1.59kg (3.5lb), and is called the Ultraportable Business Notebook (no wonder). The laptop case will be another 1kg, so I will be carrying 3kg before adding the charger etc. For a small size lady like me, who have to travel frequently, is something very dreadfull.

Seriously, I don’t really need the built in DVD R/W drive. In the past 4 years using this old junk, I hardly use the DVD drive (external). I probably used it 4 times in total. Nowadays, USB flash drive is so commonly used and more convenient. I am also a fan of SD card, and have been surviving solely on it. How good if they can take it out to make it lighter and exchange that to external drive. I won’t carry it when I travel, of course, but would need it if I want to burn data for backup purposes.

Okay, will wait for a week and update again. Whatever said above, I am still anxious to get it, after all the troubles!

Well, it is actually quite headache (and troublesomw), to help the environment - not easy. Okay, most of the things we do, has the consequences to the place we are living in. The water we drink, the bath we take, the journey we make, what we eat, what we do, etc. EVERYTHING!

And now, people talk about using own shopping bag for their grocery shopping. Ya, this Envirosax sounds great. It makes environmental trendy as well. Who doesn’t want to carry a nice and beautiful grocery bags like the ones below?

And the kids series are just so adorable:

But, but, but… The big BUT is that, on one hand I want to save the environment by not using more plastic bags, but on the other hand I need the plastic bags to pack the garbage at home.

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