Kirst Afloat

Back in the Crease Again

Tonight was a HUGE event for me.  After 8 years of not even stepping on ice,I went and played in a game.  What was I thinking?  On the way to Dragon Centre, I was extremely nervous and my stomach was unsettled.  That is so not me.  Once the taxi dropped me off, I went into the mall and had to remember where exactly the rink is located.  On lucky level 8 although I accidentally took the escalator up to level 9 where Jumpin' Gym USA is located.  That's where you can ride on the roller coaster which goes through the rink and is located ABOVE the nets.  The first time that happened when I was playing, I was very confused.  Only in Asia.

For the first 4 or 5 years during my hockey hiatus, I had lots of dreams about playing.  Unfortunately, they were always stressful---I was at the wrong rink (that actually happened to us in Switzerland one time) or much more frequently, I was missing equipment or just not ready in time.  And I'd never make it onto the ice. 

Because of these dreams, I arrived at the rink 50 minutes before our game.  (Oh, I'm doing this because I was asked to play on a women's team for the upcoming World Hockey 5's.  Last time I did this was exactly 8 years ago and Gordie Howe was here.  My team lost the finals, but I was MVP. Gordie was supposed to award me the trophy but he was busy talking to the men.  Thus, I ended up with Mrs. Gordie.  Not excited about that.  But later Gordie came over while we were at the bar and he signed my jersey and I have photos with him.  That was very cool.) Back to my point...I arrived early because I don't have skates that fit (my feet are a size larger after kids).  I thought my skates would have already arrived from Canada but discovered this morning that they were never shipped out.  They have been shipped now, but I was really pissed earlier today.  Fortunately, the woman that is organizing our team mentioned that her husband plays goalie sometimes and that I could borrow his skates.  I did, but she was a lot later than me (probably because she has a broken foot and isn't playing).  When I got the skates, the Zamboni was already on the very small ice surface.  Flashback to my dreams.  AAGH! The skates were one size too large so I wore thick socks.  My other problem was that I have no stick.  Some guy was supposed to meet me with a stick.  He works for AsiaSports (the company that organizes hockey in Asia).  Now, I was the only Westerner at the rink and the only woman with goalie equipment. Did he come search for me?  Nope.  Shan-la (our fearless team leader) found him for me.  I finally got the stick right before the ice was finished.  I taped that sucker really quickly.  Thank god. 

I made it out on the ice on time but could barely stand up in the skates.  The edges were bizarre.  It felt terrible to not be able to skate properly.  Anyway, my goalie skills came back although my skating legs did not.  We ended up winning (a surprise for both teams, I think) 3-1.  The only goal scored on me was by one of my own defensemen! At the end of the game, my team's cheer was "Kirsten".  A bit embarrassing, but very cool considering the 8-year gap.

Our big tournament starts on June 10th at the new full-sized Mega-Box Rink which is conveniently located (20 minutes from our boat) in Kowloon Bay.  Hopefully, I'll feel a bit more prepared.

Claire's Birthday

Claire turned 7 at the end of April.  Her party was held the Saturday before her birthday up at the Club.  Somehow we ended up with 32 (!) children (not sure HOW that happened) and 20-odd adults.  I was a bit stressed beforehand but we were ready.  The venue was once again the auditorium  We had the bouncy castle, I prepared a funny game where the kids all had to pop balloons to find a small toy inside (we had a lot of biting of balloons---really funny to watch) and a pinata.  There was also A LOT of food---vegetable samosas, satays, hot dogs, mini cheese burgers, broccoli with garlic sauce, french fries and cha siu bao (Claire's favorite---steamed bun with barbecue pork inside.  We also had really cool party bags.  Tom was ordering a bunch of recycled bags for our business and we had "Claire's 7th birthday" printed on the other side.  Very cool.

Here is Claire's cake.  She wouldn't tell me what she wanted on the cake until the night before the party.  What she wanted was herself with two friends ice skating on one half of the cake and herself with two other friends playing soccer on the other side of the cake.  I wasn't happy about this and tried to convince her to pick something easier to draw.  She wouldn't budge.  I ended up cake decorating from 3:30-7:30 am.  I panicked twice during the process.  First when I couldn't find any of my cake food coloring and later when I dis-covered a bunch of my cake decorating tips were missing.  (Massive pain in the rear---I had to keep washing out the three #1 tips I could find---I normally have about 10 so that I don't have to wash anything during the decorating stage.)  I also had trouble making a flesh tone color but managed something passable on the second try.  On the left side of the cake is Mia (in orange), Katherine (in purple) and Claire leaning upside down.   On the right side is Connor (my best friend's son who lives in Virginia), Claire and Noah (who is in Claire's soccer class in Hong Kong).  Fortunately the cake was a HUGE hit with the party-goers.  I also made cupcakes (with white cake---my masterpiece contained chocolate cake) and amazingly enough all of the cake products were consumed during the party.

Buddha's Birthday

We're at home today...I didn't realize that today was a holiday until Gloria mentioned it yesterday.  I guess that's what happens when the school calendars are relocated.  After that, I put them back in their original location, blue-tacked to the wall underneath the microwave.  It's actually a good thing that there is no school today.  James was home from school yesterday with a high fever.  (It actually started on Tuesday---he must have had a low-grade fever in the morning---he felt a little warm but when I took his temp I realized that someone had managed to switch the thermometer from F to C.  And I'm not up on the correct C temps that indicate a fever (unless it was 39 or 40...).  James was happy enough at school but barely ate anything up at Burger King on the Peak.  He wanted to go to Speech earlier and then sat on my lap for 15 minutes saying stuff like, "I wuv you, Mom".  Which was sweet.  But slightly eerie since he wasn't moving around like his usual self.  He did very well at Speech.  Melinda started working with him on the "l" sound.  He can now his make the "y" sound although he still says "wes" a lot for "yes".  But he does occasionally self-correct which blows my mind.  Before he didn't even hear the difference between "wes" and "yes".  Something to do with the way his brain was processing what he heard.  Anyway, I've digressed.  James' fever yesterday ranged between 101 and 104.  His was quite happy, though, and was drinking a lot and eating a little.  Mainly Yoplait Go-Gurt (the good Australian kind that actually tastes like proper yogurt---not the scary American stuff that is oversweetened, has funny flavors and scary colors) which is stored in our freezer.  I felt like absolute C-R-A-P yesterday. It was day 13 of my cold which had definitely become a sinus infection.  Unfortunately my awesome doctor is on holiday and the doctor filling in I don't care for.  (He prescribed antibiotics for James' cold which I refused to give to James.  I waited one day and he improved all on his own.)  I tracked down my old doctor that used to work with my current doctor. (When their lease wasn't renewed they each went their own way.)  Amazingly, he is now in an office several doors down from my doctor at the Repulse Bay.  And, yes, I do have a sinus infection.  I've been walking around in a daze for awhile now but hopefully once the Augmentin takes hold I'll feel more like myself.

Planning a quiet day. James (unfortunately) woke up at 6:10 am this morning.  (I usually have to wake him up at 7 for school---GRRR)  He's still feverish but cooler than the 103.9 he was before bed.  And he doesn't like to take Tylenol so I only made him take it before he went to sleep.  Claire also had a fever last night but it was low-grade.  Mariz will come in this morning to wash the cars and tidy up.  There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether today is a statutory holiday or not for helpers. It's not---I checked the government website.  However, I told Mariz that she could leave at lunchtime.  Thus we'll have a quiet afternoon.  Plus it's not raining at the moment. It's been absolutely dreadful since last Friday night.  I guess the pool is out of the question considering our current state of sickness.

I'm really liking Typepad---much better than Blogger.  I'll have to add some photos to see how that works but everything thus far has been working GREAT.  Anyway, I should make breakfast for the kidditos...Okay, adding pictures seemed pretty straight-forward although I need to play around with it some more.  Here are James and Claire on the couch watching PlayHouse Disney.  They both have their baby blankets that my mom made for them.  (And Claire really LIKES the one James has better than her own.  Typical!)