TheBanyanTree: Pekip Tuesday

[Woofie]

Tuesday

Despite one of my loonier friends suggesting a pekip was a cross between 
a Pekinese and a bunyip, it is actually a place - or rather a series of 
places around the world. Pekips are a special sort of playgroup/child 
development facility for babies up to 10 months of age. They were 
invented in Prague. Babies get to carry out various activities to help 
develop their balance and physical and mental skills etc. The one I 
found most intriguing was the one  I call advanced parachute training. 
The baby is slung in a towel and lifted up and down and jiggled around. 
No, I have NO idea what this was meant to achieve, but more later...

In the morning, Miz HM, Josie (more on her later), Lucas and Papaw (name 
for maternal grandmother in Cantonese) set off in the People Mover ( a 
large Honda van) for Pekip. The first hurdle was getting the PM (people 
mover) replenished with liquid nourishment. You have NO IDEA what a 
trial this is if you do not speak Cantonese! You cannot fill your petrol 
(gas) tank by yourself in HK - an attendant has to do it. If you use a 
special petrol company card to purchase it, you have to give the 
attendant the PIN for the card. In this case the PIN was the same number 
as on the car's licence plate. Conveying this in sign language was 
fraught with difficulties. It took over 10 minutes of to'ing and fro'ing 
and numerous attendants before the head dude,  who did speak some 
English, came out and said the card was damaged. More to'ing and fro'ing 
and sign language to convey that we would pay cash. Lots more sign 
language as to what sort of petrol was needed - Green, red or black ( 
Don't complicate things with using actual names like unleaded, premium 
or diesel!)?  Finally another attendant came out and actually started 
filling the tank. Eureka! This was short lived, as another car pulled in 
for a fill up and our attendant rushed off to service it. Apparently 
drivers do not like to be kept waiting;)

While this comedy of errors was unfolding we couldn't help noticing 
another driver who was out of his car strolling around. He was of the 
neck-less persuasion with one earphone in one ear attached to a speaker 
and with the build of a bouncer. He was obviously a standover man for 
one of the triads - as you know I am never wrong about these things! Miz 
HM says, "Hah! He is probably the director of a ballet company!"  "Or 
their principal dancer," I added.

Eventually, another attendant arrived and finished filling the PM. Then 
it was off to HK and Pekip (Miz HM lives on an island - actually the 
same island as the airport - the island is mostly park reserve and thus 
dense jungle type vegetation and the view out of my french windows is 
solid jungle forest:))

"You are going to find parking very interesting," Miz HM tells me.
.
She was not wrong! There is a parking garage right near the Pekip place, 
but it is not like any parking garage I have ever encountered before. 
Instead of the winding up roadways to the various floors, the cars go in 
a car lift (space is at a premium in HK itself. ) Add to this the fact 
that the PM is a very fat vehicle and has to wedge itself into a narrow 
lift thingy. Luckily the PM has retractable side mirrors so it can 
squeeze itself into small spaces.  On reaching the level with empty 
parking spaces the PM has to be reversed  and then backed into a parking 
space next to other vehicles and there is very little headroom to 
manoevre into reverse. Many many x point turns to achieve this. I was 
impressed with Miz HM's driving ability - even more so because there was 
a black BMW in the bay next to the PM's. Black BMW's are Miz HM's 
personal nemesis as she suffered a severe loss of separation with a 
black BMW one time in another car park.

Having subdued the parking bay we set off to Pekip with Josie opening 
doors for us and holding them open for us to walk through. Both Miz HM 
and I have difficulty with this. To explain, technically Josie is "the 
maid", but in reality she is part of the family. In HK everyone has 
maids  - from either Indonesia or the Philippines. These maids need the 
work in Hong Kong to support their families. Josie is from the 
Philippines where the vast majority of ppl are extremely poor and where 
there is no free medical aid. One of Josie's younger brothers is a 
diabetic who needs daily insulin. Without her salary he would not live.

Josie is also a senior member of one of the Filipino trade unions here 
which support the maids in HK and ensure they get a fair deal from their 
employers, Many employers abuse the system by paying less than what the 
maids are legally entitled to, or skimping them in other ways in 
contradiction  to the labour laws here. On her Sunday days off (all 
maids get Sunday off here) she spends her time assisting other maids who 
need help. Josie was a real find for Miz HM and Laz. (Mister HM:)) She 
is wonderful with Lucas, who absolutely adores her. What Miz HM and I 
find hard is the servant thingy where Josie opens doors for you and 
insists on carrying things.

OK..Pekip - it is a long time since I have been in close proximity to so 
many babies!  All the babies were much fatter or more solid than babies 
back home. Lucas is too, but it is not from bad diet, as he is breast 
fed and breast fed babies are usually leaner than their formula fed 
counterparts.  I think it is a genetic thingy. There was one other F1 
hybrid like Lucas there - Julian - and he was fascinated by me - dunno 
why, but so much so that at the end of the session his mother asked me 
to hold him while she got his clothes ready:
"Look!," I shouted at Miz HM, "I have my own one now!"

The teacher, Anne, was very conscientious and takes her duties very 
seriously. All the babies have to carry out different tasks and 
activities and the Mummies (most of the other mummies were actually 
maids) get into trouble if they do not follow the teacher's directions 
and carry out the tasks. Miz HM continually got into trouble because 
Lucas wanted to do his own thing and was continually taking off and 
crawling at a hundred miles an hour to either some toy or other baby 
which caught his attention. ( I have renamed Lucas to MMMII - Yes..I 
know that gives a certain Roman look, but it really stands for Muscle 
Mutt Mark II - as he is as strong and active as his Uncle MuscleMutt).

I fully expected Miz HM to be made to stand in the corner with her hands 
on her head as punishment for her disobedience. I kept a low profile, as 
I didn't want to be caught out doing the wrong thing. Josie was smarter 
- she snuck out of the centre as soon as she could and waited outside 
for us!

At the end of the session, all the babies get a massage from their 
mummies and the massage has to be carried out a special way (yes MMMII 
failed this as too, as he didn't want a massage). One of the babies just 
loves his massage (pic on Smug Mug) and flops on his back with arms 
outstretched with blissful look on his dial which says, "Bring on the 
geisha girl!"

Then it was back to the parking garage and a million point turn to 
manoevre the PM out of the bay onto the lift. I could never have managed 
it! Luckily the nemesis was gone and replaced with another car.

Must remember to ask Miz HM whether she was given lines or has to do 
detention - the teacher wants me to bring MMM|| next time and I just 
KNOW I am gonna get into big trouble!

Pics can be found under "Lucas" at woofess.smugmug.com . Also for the 
fungiphiles there is a folder called Nature HK or similar with pics of 
some fascinating fungi we found going down to the beach last night. Also 
one of those plants acacia nervosa or something, which when you touch 
the leaves all the fronds curl up - haven't had a chance to look it up 
yet. It is called the Shi Shi (or shy shy?) plant in Filipino speak.

W, who will send this when she gets on line...

-- 
Best regards,
  Woofie                          mailto:woofie at woofess.com

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"The one constant in life is absurdity" - Woofie - 30/4/02
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