BEIJING 12

Restaurant and bar in Red Capital Ranch.

+

The room.
+++

BEIJING 11

+++

More on the Red Capital Ranch.

+++

A little surprise. One day, 2 horses just appeared in front of our room. They wandered freely in the hotel premises, as free as they could be.

9.18

This is papa ziggy and ... me!


2009 Beijing

Hiding myself away is not an intention, it just happens.
I gain so much weight after iza was born ... since then, I have been escaping from being pictured ...
To portrait myself ... only this time ... just once ... for feian (just kidding)...
I take this as a celebration of my birthday, a reflection to the little history of my own.


1996 Paris ..........................................................................The year we've got married.


1999 Beijing

+++

2000 Rotterdam / utrecht

+++

2000 Amsterdam

+++

2003 Hong Kong

+++

2003 was an enlightenment to us, especially to me. Iza leads me to rediscover with her the joy, excitement and mystery of the world.

+++

MY DAY

Don't know since when, birthday is not a big day to me ...

More often, 9.18 reminds me the Mukden Incident - an early event in the Second Sino-Japanese War 九•一八事變, instead of my day.

But this year's birthday is special to me ... I come into the presence of a graceful woman who was born on the same day as me.

Happy birthday Evelyne!

BEIJING 10

+++

During our stay in Red Capital Ranch Beijing, we have been to the Great Wall. This part of Great wall is still stayed as it was, not restored, rocky to climb, but authentic.

+++

+++

A hiking map provided by the hotel...

the Great Wall is embracing the Red Capital Ranch.

TOP VIEW

Strong wind is roaring outside,
leaving me in a whirl ...




I held my camera high enough to capture iza in "miniature".
Her arms and fingers remind me of her ultrasonic images when I was still carrying her.
Not many years from now, I will no longer have this privilege to view her from this angle...
top view.

It's my urge to keep a portrait of young iza in 1:1 scale ...

Having iza silhouetted, she filled in her own face and details of finger nails ...

We have no time to color it yet.

...

Yesterday, we've just counted the time we can stay together with iza during weekdays.

It's less than 6 hours per day.

9 hours in school + traveling,

9 hours for sleep,

6 hours (maximum) left for breakfast, dinner, washing + brushing + bathing + toilet time, homework , practices for musical instruments ... all inclusive.

Leaving not much for chatting!

If she has extra activities that day, +/- 3 hours including traveling must be deducted from the "6" hours.

In reality, 4 out of the 5 days in a week, she has after school activities.

Time left is good enough for saying good morning and good night.

It's a stupid counting ... by a stupid mama ... but I start to miss iza ...

I'm still trying to catch up ... with iza's schedule ...

forget to bring books to school 2 times ...

forget to bring a camera for POI lesson ...

forget to prepare for chinese lesson ...

I better start training iza to pack her school bag, checking school handbook for homeworks ...

but

we manage to catch the school bus every morning at 6:50 :)

Some bad (not tooooo bad) news today ... about projects ...
To recharge,
I go through iza's recent drawings.
She loves ink ...
[ink matches iza's character so much]

Always, I find Hong Kong's children art classes stereotype drawing and art ...

distort concept on creativity ...

therefore, I keep iza away...

I do think drawing is no need to be

neat,

fully colored,

detailed,

look real,

very colorful in every drawing ...

But, iza lives in the world that almost every child attends art classes,

she feels that she's unable to draw ...

which is NOT TRUE.

We are lucky that we meet this art teacher,

she inspires iza ...

in a different way that papa ziggy and mama alliot can do.

Below was her drawing in the first lesson ...

she's exploring pastels.

Iza chose to use ink in the second lesson ...

there we have more explorations at home,

with ink spilled everywhere :)

iza and her beloved dinosaur...

Iza is not particularly fond of wearing hats.

She only promises to stand in front of my camera if she can be captured together with her lovely "pet".

More often, I prefer high contrast.

This time, I try to tone down a bit ...

A NEW ORDER

School begins.
Iza is now a primary student.
She adapts quite well ... but not me.
We need to wake up at 6 in the morning ... having breakfast ... preparing sandwishes/snacks for iza's tea time at school ... After school, we rush to activities that iza has been attending for quite some time ... Always, we need to steal time between activites to practice her piano, violin and flute ... Instead of quitting any of them, iza wants to join more activities !!! How can we fit in time for homework ...
I don't have the kind of energy iza has, I find the world up side down ...
Now I'm adjusting to this
WHOLE NEW ORDER ...

I like this picture iza drew last week ... to be precise ... she's not drawing, she's exploring colors ... she put some striking colors onto an earthy ground, mixed them up ...

I just feel I'm in a state like that drawing ...

Iza has finished her kindergarten.

It's such a precious stage in her life, and mine, with all lovely memories (a little rough beginning added a little drama but then everything was fine)...

I just can't tell how much I miss her kindergarten teachers ...

Not only do they care about iza, they also become my support throughout the past few years!

They are the best teachers.

It's a WHOLE NEW PAGE ...

Just want iza to wait for me for a while ...

I will soon be ready ...