10 busy days!

Almost 10 days without an entry and I am pulling my hairs out already. But it has been a busy 10 days and I shall back track ...

June 15th - I visited Watchdog Early Education Centre located in Jordan. I spoke with Jessie Yee who is runs all the projects at the Jordan center. What a lovely lady. She went to school in New Zealand and she went in as a graphic design art major, but decided to change her path because she was the only female in the class. I guess I am glad she did. My children need help. My son has speech delay and both my son and daughter needs occupational therapy in sensory processing disorder.

The Jordan Center was established because parents on the Kowloon sides are seeking help and it is only two years old. The center is using part of the Kowloon Union Church premise. And they remodeled the center a bit, but they still need a lot of work. I like the fact that their class room are made from separating compartments and they can easily reconfigure the space without doing any major reconstruction. You just need a large open space. And they have fish bowl windows to see how your child is doing which is a plus. And they also have a parents lounge room area with video monitors of the rooms to see how your child is doing with sight and sound. They are pretty high tech.

My children are starting their OT sessions next Thursday (June 30th). Let see how that goes.

June 16th - I met with C today to visit Hong Lok Yuen International School. The school is located all the way out in Tai Po, New Territories. It was raining hard, but the drive out was not too bad considering the weather. Hong Lok Yuen itself is a gated community and the school served the community and also near by areas. My friend have to show her HKID in order to get in and states why she wants to come in for. I love the security. C told me that security was a problem and that is why the check in station was added to insure safety. It is definitely a suburban community, no high rises, but stand alone houses. I miss my house back in the states. Of course in Hong Kong living in a community like that as its drawback which means you really need a car and going to the supermarket is really a chore.

I wanted to visit the school because this school has an integrated program for children who seeks special needs. Of course, I was on a quest of the impossible since all the classes are full. I placed my children on the wait list.

June 17th - I was really desperate to get my children enrolled to a school ... any school at this point of time. I finally spoke to Belinda at Beacon Hill School part of the English Schools Foundation. She is with the special needs section and I was hoping to get some guidance from her. She has been a tremendous help in answering all my questions and where to seek help. After talking to her I contacted two ESF kindergarten schools that are close to where I live,  Tsing Yi and Wu Kai Sha. Tsing Yi unfortunately has no space and Wu Kai Sha contacted us and invited us to visit the school and to speak with one of their special needs teacher.

At this point of time I felt a burden lifted off my shoulders, but we are not near the finish line.

June 18th - We took a tour at The Kowloon Tong Tsai Home Owners Association after receiving an ad in the mail. The facilities are not that great as other clubs that we visited. But it is okay for tennis, swimming and gym. We joined the club. It is a lifetime family membership for HKD 60,000 and monthly fee of HKD 550 + facilities usage fee or tariffs (for family monthly plan is HKD 250). And they are giving away HKD 10,000 worth of food services. Our memberships starts June 26th. Overall I like the friendly people. But waiting for the so called interview as a bitch. We went there at noon and got out almost 3 hours later and had lunch at McD.

June 19th - Sportful Garden again ... I really love to try another dim sum place not that this place is bad. I really like their braised chicken feet. I wrote a review of it couple weeks back on Open Rice.

June 20th - I went to Tutor Time again for a second visit to speak with Mandy. She called in regards to their school program for September. I told her to speak in Cantonese just to be polite because I really don't understand her at all over the phone.

June 21st - I stayed home with Clem all day awhile JP took Theo and head out to the jungle to get Theo's schooling straighten out in regarding to admission fee and debenture fee. Apparently French International School do not accept any corporate checks for personal debenture since they have to reimburse to the owner of the check. So we made a mistake. He will have to go back to pay that before the end of June.

June 22nd - Shipment came in ... YEA! And nay for rain. So much to do and so much to unpack ... it is insane how much stuff I have that I probably have to throw out since real estate is expensive even for storage. The four movers were super fast. We have 300 boxes give or take and it took them about 2 hours to get them all up to the apartment and then they took a lunch break. And they came back and help us open most of the boxes and basically dump all our clothes on the bed. Then lay the carpet down in the living area and move the coffee table. One of the movers was sad that my paintings got damaged because of how Northstar packaged the paintings and the packaging papers literally melted into my paintings and the paint came off the canvases. The mover said they should have used waxed paper instead of just the gray paper stock. Now I know who to move with next time.

June 23rd - We were scrambling to cut checks for the intense French summer program at Petits Lascars and my parents are stuck in Macau ... storm and wind.