Category Archives: Culture

Wankernomics comedy show at Hamer Hall Arts Centre, Melbourne

Posted on by
Reply

While Chris and I have seen quite a lot of comedy shows while in New York, we’ve never seen any performing arts shows while we’ve been in Melbourne together until tonight. He got us tickets to see Wankernomics, a male duo of comedians, James Schloeffel and Charles Firth, who “unlock the secrets to workplace success through the ancient art of being an annoying wanker.” It’s geared towards anyone who has semi-recently or is currently working in a corporate office setting and has to regularly hear obnoxious but ubiquitous terms like “circle back” or “stakeholder engagement/management.” That… is pretty much my life.

Here is an example of “advice” they have given for speech at work:

Don’t say: “Sorry, I don’t have even the most basic grasp of what this project is about.”

Instead, you should say: “Let’s circle back once we’ve got more visibility.”

For Chris, it’s easy for him to laugh at these things because he’s no longer doing full-time work. For me, it’s part laugh-out-loud, part hard smile, and part painful cringe because pretty much everything they make fun of is a thousand percent true. It doesn’t matter what part of the world you work in; the chances are high that you deal with this kind of thing every single day in some shape or form. The part of the show that definitely made me feel ill was when James and Charles talked about “company values” and basically how they are all the same across any company, and are pretty much a gathering of “bullshittery” to make everyone feel holier than thou and good about what they are wasting their time doing every single day.

Corporate work life: you can’t live with it, but you can’t really live without it.

Downton Abbey – The Grand Finale, and the relativity of our “privileged” experiences

Posted on by
Reply

When we fly from New York to Australia, we cross the International Date Line, which means that we lose an entire day: we leave on the evening of December 8, and December 9 just disappears, as we arrive the morning of December 10. During this record-long 17.5-hour flight from JFK to Auckland (that’s the on-paper time; the actual time was closer to 17 hours), I was able to watch two movies, dabble in a few TV shows, eat two full meals, and sleep a decent night’s worth of sleep. I arrived in Auckland feeling really refreshed and awake. Of the two movies I watched, the first one I dove into was Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. I’ve been a huge Downton Abbey fan since 2021 when we started watching it (yes, I realize I am extremely late to the fan club). The entire series is so good, and the writing is absolutely hilarious when it comes to how snobbish and classist the Crawley family can be. In the movie, Lord Grantham and his eldest daughter, Lady Mary, are in London, considering downgrading their large London home for a much smaller London flat. As they are viewing a potential flat, Lord Grantham walks down the hallway and questions why there is a family who would live above them, and then another family living under them. He groaned about it, muttering that it felt like a “layer cake of strangers.” It was clear that he was struggling to wrap his head around understanding modern apartment living. He even says that the idea of unknown people living so close to him was “extraordinary.” He asked what they were to do when they would want to “go up to bed.” Lady Mary responds, “You don’t go up (to bed), you simply go along (in a flat)!”

I laughed out loud at this, and quite hard. I’ve spent my entire adult life living in apartments in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and so I always struggle at the idea of people who live in large homes and have too much space. To me, it always feels like wasted space. Who really needs that much space simply to live and exist?

As I laughed at this, though, I am reminded that it is all relative. Everyone’s version of “normal” Is quite different. I even thought about recent conversations I’ve had with Chris when we’ve talked about our opinions on business class in-flight service across our recent flights on British Airways, American, and now Qantas. We both agreed that BA in-flight service was pretty good, American was subpar (as to be expected since U.S. airlines are always terrible for service; even in business class, it feels like everything they do for you is a massive favor), and Qantas service was excellent (as is to be expected based on historically proven excellence). I could imagine the two of us having this conversation in public, and how some passersby could hear us and think we were two complete, utter snobs who were totally out of touch with reality. But the truth is: this is our lived reality, and well, we’re allowed to have opinions about it, are we not?

First onsite “evaluation” for kindergarten

Posted on by
Reply

Kaia will be starting kindergarten next school year, so the last couple months for us (okay, primarily Chris) have been spent researching different options in our area, both private and public. We’ve narrowed it down to two private schools to apply to, and both require online applications, application fees, parent interviews, parent essays, teacher recommendations (yes, really, if applicable from daycare/3K/4K), and child onsite evaluations. The onsite evaluation is typically a 3-4-hour block of time when you drop your child off at the school, and they are brought into a class of same-aged children to participate in the day’s lesson, and are then evaluated and scored.

These onsite evaluations are things I had only heard of previously, but I had always thought were a little nuts. What exactly are they even being evaluated on at such an early age? Children as young as just 6 months old are brought in for elite school evaluations. What are they judged on — how much or how loudly they babble, or how quickly they can crawl? The whole idea for such early ages seemed so absurd to me. Even at ages 2-4, this still just seemed so, so early to me. One of the parents I was in touch with at one of our consideration schools told me not to worry too much about the onsite evaluation or the parent interview. He summed it up as, “They want to make sure you both are decent people, and for the child evaluation, they basically want to have proof that your child is not disruptive.” So in other words, they want to make sure Pookster doesn’t smash all the windows, throw chairs and tables, or attempt to beat up all her classmates. Got it.

But we like both of these schools a lot, and so we want to “make sure we’re considering all our options,” as Chris said. So, we threw Kaia’s hat in the ring for her. Today’s school was our first onsite evaluation. Chris brought her in at 8:20, and I picked her up at noon. It ended up working out schedule-wise for us because Friday was her last day of school at her current school for the year. This evening, we’re leaving on a long-haul flight to Melbourne for Christmas. So we got to send Kaia to her onsite evaluation (aka, free childcare… or well, technically, childcare paid for by this school application fee!!) while we packed up the last bits, finished the final load of laundry, and I got some work done before we were heading to the airport.

I wasn’t sure how she would be or whether she would have liked the experience. We told her that this was “practice kindergarten” and that she would be in a class where the teachers would speak in Chinese to her, and all the kids would speak Chinese. So we encouraged her to listen and participate, and to speak as much Chinese as she could. I always know she understands Chinese. I am not always confident she can speak much other than the most basic. So I tried not to get my hopes up too much.

After I signed in to pick her up at noon, the founder greeted me and walked me to her classroom to get her. When I came in, the main teacher greeted me. In Chinese (this was a bit presumptuous, but in the end, I was actually happy with it since I understood everything she shared), the teacher did a quick but thorough run-through of what they did all morning: morning introduction, meeting, and discussion, exercise, snack time, lesson time, and wrap-up. Kaia had one pee break and was offered a pee at the end, but she declined (love this level of detail for this age). Throughout the whole day, Kaia understood what was communicated and responded in kind. She also participated throughout, and was very enthusiastic in her participation, especially with exercise (haha). She was well-behaved and listened throughout.

I felt like such a beaming, proud Asian mother of her Asian kid. She did well! The teacher was really happy with her level of understanding and participation! Kaia seemed to enjoy it and said that she liked her new (temporary) classmates and enjoyed the teachers. Pookster said she liked her practice kindergarten. This made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe this could really be a future place for her. But at this point, only time will tell where she lands.

Annual visit to Sixth Avenue and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

Posted on by
Reply

It’s our last weekend in New York for the year, and today, we walked down to the 40s to check out all the beautiful festive Christmas decorations along Sixth Avenue. Chris and I have been doing this for so many years that I’ve lost count how many times we’ve done this. And now, we do it with Kaia. All the usual fun decor was there, including my beloved super-large red Christmas ball ornaments, the nutcrackers, as well as the candy canes on “ice.” Endless Christmas trees decorate fronts of corporate office buildings. And then of course, there’s the magnificent Rockefeller Christmas tree.

Every year, it doesn’t matter what time of day you go or whether it’s Saturday or Sunday, but the entire area around Sixth Avenue and Rockefeller is completely mobbed. Getting through is never fun, and it always feels claustrophobic, especially when you have a young child in tow. You walk at the pace of snails, and the crowds are just endless. But we brave it to see our favorite Christmas decorations and the gorgeous tree. Once we finally reach the tree, it always feels worth it. It really is so extravagant and gorgeous — and SO tall and large! This year’s tree was particularly fat and bushy on the bottom. I really liked how “full” its butt was. We look at it for a few minutes, snap a few selfies and act like tourists and try to see if anyone is around who can help us take a picture of all three of us. And then we head back home.

Every year, people come from the suburbs, Long Island, upstate, the tri-state area, and all over the world to see Christmas in New York. We live right here and get to enjoy it as much as we want. Every year, I am reminded of how lucky I am that I get to live in this great, big, endlessly fun metropolis. World-class performances like the New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker happen just three blocks from where I live. The best performers in the world come through here every single day. The food and culture here just defines diversity. New York does the festive season really, really well. And I’m so happy to call New York City my home.

The enchantment of The Nutcracker – 34 years later

Posted on by
Reply

When I was a little kid, I was obsessed with ballet. I loved watching the little foot moves, the twirls, the beautiful outfits. So when I was five, my aunt and mom took me to the San Francisco ballet to see The Nutcracker, and I was so, so excited. I was going to have an entire evening of what I loved most: Christmas and ballet! Unfortunately about half way through that performance, I started running a fever and wasn’t feeling well, so we had to leave early (I can only hope my aunt and mom didn’t spend too much on those tickets…). And that was my experience with The Nutcracker, or really, any ballet for that matter.

Years went by. My parents refused to let me do any ballet classes (“that costs money”). I lost interest in ballet. But when I got to adulthood and moved to New York City, I realized I was in the center of the world for the performing arts. And of course, I was now living in the home of the New York City Ballet — world renowned, the best of the best. I had to make this happen — this decades-long dream of seeing this enchanting holiday performance. Every year I checked for tickets, and they’d either all be sold out and/or insanely priced (clearly, I didn’t have any insider knowledge…). That was a challenge, plus I knew no one who wanted to go with me — either because they had zero interest in ballet, or they weren’t willing to spend this kind of money on a show. I finally made a friend who said she’d be interested if I could find tickets under a certain price point, and I got the tickets this year! And last night, I FINALLY WENT — 34 years later!

A friend joined me for the evening, and it was everything magical and completely transported me into my 5-year-old self, completely transfixed by the massive, gorgeous, sparkling, and GROWING Christmas tree on the stage; the dainty toe work and dancing, plus borderline acrobatics by some of the performers; the orchestral music that was so beautiful and moving that at some points of the songs, I was holding my breath because I wanted to really, really hear and feel the music. The costumes and the makeup were truly stunning. I had forgotten how many children are in The Nutcracker ballet performance; the littles were so adorable, so professional and graceful despite all being relatively young. As the minutes passed, it felt like it was going by too fast: before I knew it, Act I was done, and we were in intermission. Then once the entire show ended, I felt so sad. The magic was here and gone, just like that.

The entire experience truly lived up to all my expectations. I have zero regrets on these tickets, and especially on getting orchestra right, second row tickets; I had a perfect view of everything on the stage and was just steps away from the orchestra. If money didn’t matter, I’d go see The Nutcracker every single year and make it my Christmas tradition, as it really is such a fun, beautiful, and magical way to welcome the festive season. And once Kaia were to get old enough to sit through a two-hour show (plus appreciate how beautiful it all is… and actually understand how expensive these tickets are!!!!), I’d love to take her, too. But I was telling my friend that Pookster would likely need to be an older elementary school age before I’d be comfortable taking her so that she’d really, genuinely appreciated it. These tickets are not easy to get, and they certainly do not come cheap!

I’ll be playing The Nutcracker music a lot for the next few weeks as we get closer to Christmas and reliving the sheer magic that the ballet was last night. “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is just enchantment in itself — my absolute favorite.

Kaia’s 4th birthday party at school and all the things it entails

Posted on by
Reply

We asked the teachers to reserve today for Kaia’s early 4th birthday celebration since she will not be at school next week, and so Kaia’s been anticipating her school birthday party for weeks now. Chris organized and put together all the kids’ goodie bags. I pre-ordered her birthday cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine a short walk away from her school and would be responsible for delivering the goodie bags, birthday party snacks, and picking up her helium filled birthday balloons today. I ordered an assorted mix of cupcakes with variations of chocolate and vanilla cake and buttercream. I know Kaia will specifically want the chocolate cupcake with the chocolate frosting. But she specifically asked me to get vanilla cupcakes, as well, because two of her classmates only eat vanilla, she said. My caring Pookie thinks about others even when it’s her own birthday party.

Luckily, my 9:30 call got cancelled today, so I was actually able to do both the balloons and the cupcake pickup earlier in the day to avoid the impending rain in the weather forecast. For the balloons, I went to the same little shop in the Lower East Side that I found last year. The same guy was there to help me. I asked for a hot pink metallic “4” balloon and initially thought that was all I’d get. But then I kept looking at his other balloons and quickly got swayed by a unicorn balloon I knew Kaia would adore. I asked the employee how much the unicorn balloon would be, and when he told me the total for both, I sheepishly checked my wallet to see if I had enough cash. I was annoyed to find out I was exactly one buck short. He clearly didn’t want to deal with a credit card fee, so when I told him I was just a dollar short, he told me not to worry about it, and he handed me the balloons once I gave him the cash. It was win-win for both of us!

Even though Kaia’s school will not be near here next year, I love this little shop, and I love this guy who works here. Both times, he was consistently friendly, helpful, eager to please, and quick. Who knows — I may come all the way down here just to get her future balloons and to support this little shop!

Now, I’m curious to see how her birthday party went, and if she enjoyed the party and the cupcakes. Last year, she was groggy during her birthday party due to a nap, and from jet lag. She also did not like the vanilla cake I got her. But this year, she has chocolate as explicitly requested!

Update: Pookster loved the snacks, cupcakes, and the balloons. She asked to take one of the mini chocolate cupcakes home, and the teachers obliged by putting one into a cup for her to take out with me. But alas, as I was packing up all her goodie bag items into my canvas bag, she accidentally tipped the cup over, and the cupcake fell out upside down onto the floor of the school. And being the practical mother that I am, i took the top (thick!) layer of frosting off and handed it right back to her. A little gross? Yes. But someone had to address the immediate tantrum and fat tears that ensued!

Lounge hopping at Heathrow Airport – a new experience for the Pookster

Posted on by
Reply

We woke up extremely early this morning to catch an early morning flight from Copenhagen to London, where we had an over six-plus-hours long layover. While it did initially seem like a long time, the time really flew by quite quickly. We tried to go to the Cathay First lounge, but because they had first class passengers waiting to board a flight in about 90 minutes, they asked that we come back when they left (which made sense since they’re prioritizing their own passengers first). So while we waited, we hung out at the Qantas lounge next door. We eventually went back to the Cathay lounge, had breakfast in their formal dining room, hung out by the windows and watched planes come in and out. We had lunch (another delicious meal!), then I took Kaia to have a shower with me. We spent about 30 minutes showering, drying, moisturizing, blow drying our hair, and getting ready to board our flight back to New York. I think this was our very first lounge shower together, as previous times when I’ve showered, she usually sits outside the shower and waits for me while singing. This time, she enjoyed the shower thoroughly, making up stories of ducks playing and jumping in “puddles during the rain.” Every time I told her we were almost done, she kept on insisting that she wanted to play with the ducks more in the water.

As I dried her off and applied lotion on her, I kept thinking about how all of this will come to an end. One day, she will no longer need me to shower her, to dry her, to moisturize and dress her. One day soon, it will be considered inappropriate to take her into a shower or bath with me. Kaia is already slowly but surely dressing herself already. Every day she gets older, closer to the point of eventually leaving me and not being as close to me. I feel like I am just soaking these moments up with her needing and wanting me this much. I love watching her imagination run wild in the these fancy lounge bathrooms. I also love seeing how much she enjoys the lounge and overall travel experience. She has experiences at her age that I never got to have until my mid to late 20s. I wonder if she will look back one day and remember any of these experiences and think about what a lucky little Pookie she was, and how much fun she had with her daddy and mumma.

Day trip to Malmo, Sweden

Posted on by
Reply

While looking at day trips near Copenhagen, Chris looked at the map and noticed that we could visit Sweden on a quick 40-minute train ride, so we decided to do this on Friday. Malmo is a coastal city in southern Sweden, and lots of people take the train across a bridge-tunnel running between Copenhagen and Malmo. Malmo is quite small and quaint, with a population of about 340,000 people. We spent the day walking around the city, visiting its single Christmas market, even buying several pairs of pants that were on sale for Kaia at H&M (since Sweden is H&M’s headquarters), and ending the day with a visit to the Disgusting Food Museum.

We walked through a large local park and made a quick stop at Slottstradgardens Kafe, which definitely evoked the “fika” vibe that Sweden is globally famous for. I learned about the concept of fika when a small chain of Swedish cafes opened in New York in the 2010s. Fika is like Denmark’s “hygge” in that it’s a concept for taking a break for a coffee/tea and snack, while also relaxing and enjoying time with friends, family, or colleagues, and having meaningful conversation. It’s considered an important part of the day (often happening twice in the day) that refreshes the mind and strengthens relationships. We came in when the cafe was not yet officially opened, but the manager was so warm and hospitable that she still invited us to sit down and order anything that was ready. We just wanted some hot drinks, so we got a flat white and a large inviting cup of mumma, which is a traditional Swedish Christmas spiced mixed drink. It’s traditionally alcoholic with a blend of a dark beer, light beer or ale, and a fortified wine. But the version the cafe was serving was non-alcoholic and made of apples, so it was like almost like a spiced, very thinned out apple sauce with some citrus thrown in. It was really soothing, especially since it was chilly outside. The whole vibe and decor, together with the warm hospitality of the manager, was all about the fika, and a very nice welcome to Sweden.

A highlight of our visit to Malmo was their public library. We’ve visited a lot of different libraries across the world, but this library definitely takes the cake when it comes to how warm and welcoming it is to young children and families. There’s a very colorful entry way for children, which even includes a (much lower height – watch your head!) entrance that Kaia happily ran through. It requires everyone who enters the area either remove their shoes or put on shoe coverings (so that the babies can crawl around and not worry about dirt). The floor is fully carpeted in thick, warm, brightly colored carpeting. And there are numerous rooms with books in a large array of languages, organized by age level. Age-appropriate-by-room play and reading spaces have been built, which include tunnels, bean bags, jumpy spaces, and endless stuffed animals and little friends. In the restroom, there is an adult toilet and a toddler toilet, with ample space for changing baby diapers. To really top it off to show how welcoming they are, there’s even a little kitchen area where you can prepare bottles and re-heat food. I’ve never been in a library where food and beverage were welcome!

For lunch, we stopped at a more locals’ spot for Swedish meatballs served with a rich cream sauce, topped with generous lingonberries and served with little potatoes. I remember having Swedish meatballs at Ikea and another restaurant and thinking that other than the lingonberries, this would be a pretty easy dish to re-create. But then I thought about how much heavy cream the authentic recipes use, and I wasn’t sure I’d be that comfortable having that much heavy cream-based sauce in the house; I’d rather have someone else make it for me. The meatballs are traditionally half pork, half beef (or veal); these were 100 percent pork, and they were dense and well seasoned, perfect for today’s wintery weather.

One funny thing that Chris was not very thrilled about was that all the “glogg” served at the Christmas market was non-alcoholic. Chris subsequently found out that Sweden does not allow alcoholic drinks in public areas. While it was not ideal and was likely the only Christmas market ever we’d been to where we’d had non-alcoholic mulled “wine,” the one cup we did get of hot apple must was topped with a really delicious vegan whipped cream that was made from a base of lentils. If you didn’t tell me beforehand, I never would have guessed that it was not real cream, nor that it was made from lentils!

Sweden is also the home of Oatly. Swedish people, as we were told at the Disgusting Food Musuem, absolutely love their dairy and all things like it. So when we were served lactose-free milk after tasting all the disgusting foods during the tastings portion of our visit, we were both shocked to taste how delicious and creamy it was… even without the lactose. If there’s a place that is very plant-based/focused and friendly, it is definitely Sweden.

Warm chocolate vs. hot chocolate in Denmark

Posted on by
Reply

One small thing I noticed that I found interesting at coffee shops and cafes around Copenhagen was that when you see hot drinks listed, and there is an option for chocolate, it is not listed as “hot chocolate” but rather as “warm chocolate.” I’ve never seen this before anywhere else we’ve ever traveled. And when you order it, it is exactly as the description says: it actually is warm and not hot. We had this a few times, and every time, it was most definitely warm, so an easy drinking temperature without the need to wait or blow on the drink to cool it down and not burn ourselves. This would not bode well for Chris’s mom, who loves her drinks nearly boiling hot, but it does work well for people like me who are a bit heat-sensitive. However, even for myself, I would say that I’d like the drinks hotter than “warm,” so that I could comfortably take small quick sips.

This is not the case for other drinks, though. When we’ve ordered coffee, they’ve either been hot or warm; this has not been consistent. All the glogg / gluhwein we’ve had at the Christmas markets has been piping hot with bits of raisins and toasted slivered almonds waiting to be eaten on the bottom.

A day at LEGO House in Billund

Posted on by
Reply

After a 40-minute bus ride from Vejle train station and less than a five-minute walk, we had arrived at the legendary LEGO House. Kaia cannot read yet, though, so she had no idea where we were going, and she whined and kept saying she was tired, especially when we said we wanted to take pictures outside of LEGO House. When we finally got in, it was like a LEGO lover’s dream come true; endless levels, rooms, and sections to live out all of your LEGO dreams. To be honest, I am not sure who had more fun — Kaia, Chris, or me! While it was originally meant as something to engage Kaia and keep her occupied, in the end, I actually think Chris and I built more things than she did because she kept insisting she wanted us to do all the building!

It was really amazing to see all of these huge structures that people built by hand, whether they were LEGO employees or just LEGO fans from around the world. The LEGO waterfall was particularly impressive, and the description said that if the average person were to build this by hand, it would take them over five years to build! I loved learning the history of LEGO on the bottom level, as I used to wonder where the name came from. It is an abbreviation of the Danish words LEg GOdt, meaning “play well.”

Personally, my favorite area was the LEGO botanicals. I loved seeing all the different flowers and leaves that people had put together. I also tinkered around and made my own purple and blue flower. If we had more time, I easily could have spent hours building endless flowers just in that area. The flowers that really got me were the ones that had not even “bloomed” yet, but were still on the verge of opening!

LEGO really has completed its mission, though: it’s made the world realize how important play is and how play gives way to creativity and problem solving. Adults really need to find ways to do more play, as it should not just be for kids. After all, there is an inner child in every single adult.