My Valentine!

Yes, mission accomplished! My Valentine's!

I decided to do volunteer work with senior citizens. The work involves a casual visit once every week at a senior citizen's home. I had a choice of a female or male so I chose a female, a grandma. She lives with a daughter and son-in-law and I have a choice of Thursday or Tuesday for my visits. Today, Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012 was my scheduled first visit with her. I had a preliminary meeting with her, her daughter and our volunteer coordinator two weeks ago. I was supposed to visit her last week, on the Thursday, but her daughter cancelled the appointment the night before because she realized her mom was having a doctor's appointment that day.



I was excitedly thinking about this visit in the past few days because it falls on Valentine's Day! I thought she must be missing her husband? She lost him many years ago and she herself is probably around 80 years old. Today was only our second meeting so I still haven't really asked for her age thinking it might not be a polite thing to do in this culture. I thought maybe her husband used to give her flowers on Valentine's Day, so, it would be a nice surprise if she gets some from a new friend, unexpectedly.



So, last night, although I was pressed for time as usual - getting my special needs child to eat her dinner on time, doing her homework with her, giving her a shower, cooking dinner for the rest of us, giving her before-bed snack of fruits and yoghurt, etc., (our night routine) - I went out for about an hour to shop for a Valentine's card and flowers. Looking at the cards was fun, some of them were really hilarious! The drugstore had quite a number of people shopping for cards, flowers and chocolates - Valentine celebrators like myself. Well, I have actually stopped celebrating since I was still single, thinking that it is not really a Christian festival and it's kind of meaningless. The reason I'm celebrating now is because I am being a friend to an elderly lady who most likely, just like the rest of the world, would appreciate some love and attention on this special day for lovers / romantic love. It is just another occasion to express love for our loved ones, so, why not take advantage of it? To cut the justification crap short :), I actually found a card just nice for her, and one very appropriate for my older daughter, one just right for my younger son and another one for my younger daughter, too. (Too bad for older son, he's too far away, can't mail one to reach him in time for today, but oh well, he has a girlfriend, he'll get one from her. :) I greeted him and my husband by email instead.)

The card.


Then I looked at the flowers. A single-rose bouquet which was running low fast, was selling at $5 a piece. I asked if they will have fresh ones delivered in the morning and the clerk said, "No, definitely not. They will all be gone by tomorrow." That's what I also thought, that's why I shopped the night before, though I was much pressed for time. They were selling lots of chocolates in heart boxes, too, but I thought I won't give a load of candy to an old lady to compromise her health, although she has no diet restrictions? At the back of my mind, I was mulling baking some brownies for her in the morning instead. I went to the supermarket and found better deals for the roses. Their single-rose bouquet was selling for $4 a piece and the three-rose ones for $8 each. Hmmm, I thought, the 3-rose one is a better deal although that would be twice the dollar leak from my pocket. When I'm in such a quandary, I always think, "Would the amount of money matter if I look back when I'm in Eternity?" It wouldn't. So, I went for the $8 item. :)

The three-rose bouquet.

By the time I was at the check-out counter the clerk was so glum. I asked him to please wrap the bouquet in a separate plastic bag because I bought some food items too, and to please use the biggest plastic bag they have available. And he was like, "ho-hum, that's the biggest bag we have." While I was gathering my bags the lady next to me told him, "C'mon, smile. The day's almost over. It will be over soon." And he smiled. I guess people had been checking out non-stop and they had had no rest from the brisk Valentine's sale.



I inverted the bouquet inside the plastic bag, making sure the flowers don't wilt from the extreme cold outside where it was hovering at 0 deg C and made the 10-min trek home with my other shopping. When I got home my younger daughter and I did her homework and the phone rang. It was my senior citizen's daughter. She said she forgot her mom was having a dentist appointment the next day and was calling if we could reschedule the visit (again)! So, I said, "Oh, but it's Valentine's Day tomorrow. Can I just drop by then? I won't stay long." And she said it's sweet of me to do that and if I could come earlier than scheduled I could have about an hour with my senior citizen. So, I grabbed it. I said yes, I would come 30 min. earlier.


So, this morning, right after I put Joche in her school bus, I looked up the Hershey's brownies recipe in Google. I had that recipe before in a Hershey's cooking chocolate wrapper when we were in Singapore but I had adjusted the sugar and chocolate powder in that recipe to suit my Chinese friends and in-laws' taste. But now that we're here in the US I realized I need THAT original recipe right now! I am in America and am cooking American brownies for Americans! So, I looked it up and found it just as I seem to recall that original recipe. Then last minute, I was vacillating - should I cook this super sweet stuff for my senior citizen and compromise her health or should I cook my Chinese-suited less-sweet version as a deliberate thoughtful gesture of consideration for her health??? Hmmmm, she won't eat it alone, her daughter and son-in-law would eat it too, and I believe these people are true-blooded Americans. I go for the no holds barred recipe!!!

And so for the next 45 min or so I went creaming, beating, folding, mixing and baking, and voile! - my own version of the All-American Brownies!! ;D

While it cooked in the oven for 35 min. I took my shower, dressed and got the packaging ready. The bus comes at 9:49 at the junction. It is sometimes late, or early. So, I prayed, please, let the bus be late, even just for one minute. It was 9:35, the brownies just cooked. I can't cut and lift it from the pan to the foiled plate I prepared without falling apart, unless I wait at least another 5 minutes for it to cool down. I put water-soaked kitchen paper in a foil and wrapped the rose stems in it, tied it with a rubber band and put it inside a plastic bag, rose heads first. Then it was now or never - time to cut the brownies and put them on the plate. I did just that and after I got all things ready, including the card, I marched out the door. Phew, "Please, be just one minute late, at least!" Then one block away from the bus stop, I saw the bus, yes, THE bus. It was right there at the bus stop and I had 10 seconds to dash through one block and to cross the road, a main road – three lanes on both sides. Should I go for it? I thought, can my legs carry me through this? I was already walking very fast and my legs were heavy. Besides, looking back, I could have dropped the brownies bag or ruined the roses if I ran. Well, I didnt. I watched the bus leave without me. :( I waited another 20 min. for the next bus and it was on time. But while waiting for the bus I realized I left my cellphone at home. I remember the block no. and the unit no. of my senior citizen but what if I got them wrong? I wouldn’t be able to call anyone to ask. The next option would be to walk to the nearest pay phone around which could be a few blocks away from their house. And I was under time pressure. I was praying, “Lord, let me deliver these stuff today, on Valentine’s day itself, not any other. Surely, you love this old lady.” My window of visit was only 10-11am. I was waiting for the 10:20 bus and it takes 11 minutes to get there, and probably another 2-3 min. walk to her block from the bus stop. Well, the bus came on time and I found the block no., exactly as I remember it and I found the unit no., one number off but the door instantly opened when I pressed the door bell. I was expected. And so we had a great time visiting with each other. My senior citizen loved the flowers, the card and the brownies! Her son-in-law who was home cooking for their lunch offered to give me a lift as it will take only “two minutes” for him while it would take me about “an hour” having to wait for the next bus. But I politely and firmly declined. My visits are in no way going to alter anyone’s schedule or routine, they are going to be unobtrusive and will in no way inconvenience anyone. And it is going to be brief and sweet - volunteer work as it should be! I could have left exactly at 11am but I didn’t have my cellphone and there was no wall clock in the house. I didn’t want to keep asking for the time. It was 11:10am the first time I asked and I left immediately. How time flew! So there, mission accomplished! God is good. :)

The other half of the brownies.

YAI -The Long Trek

Dated Nov. 17, 2011

Finally, my special needs child is under the health insurance that allows her
to avail of specialist services under one roof, YAI - from the Paediatrician and
Psychiatrist to the Dentist and Podiatrist.
It has been a long, arduous trek finding ourselves to this place in our
journey.

When we first came to New York we had to shop for household items and our
friends would drive us to the home goods / furniture shops. On one of those
drives going to Long Island I noticed a building with a very big sign just a
little distance from our own neighborhood – YAI. Its logo is unusual perhaps, and
it's huge; probably that's how it got my attention. Of course, that time, I
didn't know what that building was and what it would mean to us.

However, when she started attending school, we were
advised by the staff at her school to get a case manager for her, to help us
get the government support available for special needs children like her. We
were also told that YAI is the best known organization to seek help from. And
so, soon after, we made our first visit to the nearest YAI branch, and it
happened to be the one right there in our neighborhood, that same big building
with that stand-out logo – YAI. A number
of evaluations had to be done on my daughter to establish her disability, and so,
more visits ensued in the months that followed.
We soon became more familiar with this organization.

As new immigrants in this country, and with my husband and I
being unemployed, our first concern was to get into the health insurance system
here, as health care here in the US is very expensive. We are kind of "lucky",
I would say blessed, that just months
before we came here, Pres. Obama instituted reforms in the health care
system here, making health insurance affordable to everyone (in March 2010).
Although until now voters and legislators alike continue to challenge and question
these health care reforms, I would unabashedly say that we new immigrants are
among the immediate beneficiaries of these reforms. For one thing, before we
could enroll our high and middle-schooling kids, we needed to get a TB-immunity
certification for them and a physical exam, as well (the ones we obtained
abroad, though recent they were, didn't count). So, to get a physician to see
them, we needed to get health insurance so we wouldn't have to pay a fortune for
those services. And so, that's what we
did. After that, the next step was to get a primary health care provider (i.e.
General Practice Doctor) for each one of us in the family. But because our special-needs daughter
has so many medical issues requiring immediate attention, I ended up bringing
her to see so many specialists / doctors in different hospitals and clinics,
each time making sure those professionals and institutions were under the
coverage of the health insurance we chose.

That was fine, for a
while, until we needed to bring her to the dentist. Our daughter never had trouble
having to see a dentist, but apparently, being a teenager now, fairly
strong and already having a mind of her own, she has started showing
resistance, or I'd say, un-cooperation when at the dentist's clinic. The dentist
happened to have worked for YAI before and once again, we were referred to YAI,
this time for her dental treatment. He explained to us that YAI's Premier
Health Care Center doesn't just provide health services, they also are equipped
with total support for the medical treatment of special needs people. i.e.,
they have people who can restrain special-needs patients down, when they
over-react under medical treatment. Of course, we wanted that for our daughter but we
also found out that for her to avail of the Premier Health Care services, she
has to be under a different health insurance company. And so, we had to dis-enroll
her from our family's health insurance company and enroll her with the one that
covers YAI's Premier Health Care. That sounds simple enough simply because I can no longer recall every detail as to how many professionals we had to talk with / make phone calls to, or places we had to make trips to, not to mention the awful circumstances my daughter and I had to go through, before we finally arrived at this stage. So by and large, that's the story of
how we finally got into YAI. Sure enough, YAI has become more like
a neighbor's home for us now, at the rate that we frequent that place. And
thank God, it's just nearby.

Suddenly Summer

It’s suddenly Summer here in Queens, NY and it’s really surprising. As late as February we were still operating our central heating full-blast and there was still snow on the ground. Spring came quite suddenly when the trees sprouted overnight after a day or two of rain sometime in March and we had beautiful intermittent blooms in trees, grass and bushes (I don’t know the name of the trees!),  with colors mostly in white, pinks, reds and purples. And then suddenly it’s hot, humid Summer! Now we have started using the aircon instead of the heater. Just when we thought we can save on heating bills, now it’s cooling charges. Haha!

 Our house in Winter.

 Our house in Spring.

Our house this Summer. How the colours have changed within a few months!

It never gets this hot in Auckland, as far as I can recall, but we had no aircon in our house then, so, Summer in Auckland was quite tough. We also had lots of flies coming in because our windows had no netting. So, despite the extreme weather here, looks like the houses are better-built  and indoor life would be more comfortable than in mild-weather Auckland.

We’ve settled in quite a bit more now and we can’t help but compare a lot of things in the different places we’ve lived in. So, how does it compare?

                                            Auckland             Tokyo        K. Lumpur                         New York

Winter Weather                    Mild                Cold             N.A.                                 Very Cold

Heating  / Insulation             OK          Less Than OK       N.A.                                Excellent

Summer Weather                 Mild           Hot, Humid       Hot, Humid                  Hot, Humid

Cooling System                N.A.A.            N.A.A.                Quite Common             Common      

Food Costs                          High             Highest              Lowest                              Low

School Lunches           Less Healthy     Healthy           Less Healthy                      Least Healthy
Health Food             Easy to Find        Expensive        Easy to Find                   Not Easy to Find

Public Transport        Least Efficient   Most Efficient   Least Efficient                  Efficient

Clothes, Quality          Less Choices     More Choices    Most Choices                 Less Choices   

Health Care Provided         Good                Good            None                               Best  

First Language            Kiwi English       Japanese          Malay                            American English                

Second Language        Maori          practically none     English                          Spanish                                          

N.A. – not applicable

N.A.A. – not always available

Just trying to make a quick-glance comparison of the places we’ve lived in. I didn't think of including Singapore because it is quite similar to K. Lumpur in terms of weather. So, yeah, though the weather here is harsher than in Auckland we feel more comfortable, as long as we stay indoors, because of their better insulated/heated/cooled houses here. Food here is quite reasonably-priced, if you know where to go, especially Chinese “eat-out”, and they taste better too, than the Chinese “eat-out” in Auckland. There’s a big Oriental population here (Chinese, Korean, Filipino and other Asian) so, Oriental food is readily available, has a lot of variety and competitively-priced. As for school lunches, my younger son said he thought the food at his school in Auckland was junk (mostly sausages, pizza and meat pies) but then he said they taste really good (potato-topped beef pie was his favourite)! Whereas, here in New York, he says  the food in his school is really junk (mostly chicken nuggets and fries) and they taste awful, too! My younger daughter doesn’t even touch her school lunch, she still sticks to her salad lunch box which I pack for her from home. My younger son misses the Kiwi meat pies a lot and the only one, a frozen version, I can find in our local supermarket is not up to mark for him. It doesn't taste as good. :( And I haven't seen any potato-topped ones at all.

As for Health Food I find that it's readily available in Auckland. You can find vitamins, organic food, granolas and whole cereals, fruit juices ( a wide variety of them!!) off the shelves of your local supermarket. Here in New York you have to hunt for most of these items in a health food shop. Most of the food they sell in the common supermarkets are highly processed food. I get the feeling people here love highly processed, sugary and / or salty convenience food which easily can be classified as junk. Compared to K. Lumpur, Auckland has definitely more healthy food and vitamins readily available, and also cheaper. In Tokyo, everything is more expensive than in most parts of the world and that includes health food, too.

The bus and subway system here is also quite good, except that there aren’t enough buses running in certain routes and the buses hardly follow their posted schedules. But then again, in Auckland, sometimes bus services just disappear, even without prior notice, or buses simply don’t turn up at all, for unknown reasons. Their bus system is still unreliable, probably because of lack in commuter volumes. Of course, the best in public transport system would be Japan. Their buses and trains always come on time, just as predictable as the Japanese  people’s  behavior is, largely, when it comes to public protocols. It’s mostly due to their culture of discipline and excellent organization / automation.  In that sense, Singapore’s public transport comes close to that of Japan’s, too.

 There is so much diversity in population (Caucasian, African, Hispanic, Asian, Greek, Italian, etc.) here such that even for Medical , Dental and Optical care, one can have the option of visiting the health professionals of his / her own ethnic group. It’s very interesting. Thus, even if you speak only your own language, e.g. Chinese, Spanish, Greek, you can survive by doing business only with your own people group. The population of each ethnic group is big enough to be a community or economy of its own.  It is really interesting. You can easily disappear into your own microcosm. And a major discovery we had a few weeks into moving here is that America has a second language(!) and it’s called Spanish. Public signs often have Spanish versions and forms for filling up always have Spanish translations. This surprise is similar to the surprise we got when we moved to Auckland: NZ is more diverse than we thought. Before we moved there we always thought NZ is made up of mostly Caucasians when in fact their people and culture is very much diverse. The student population in the school my younger daughter first attended, for instance, was 80% coloured (made up of Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Asians, etc.) and only 20% Caucasian. The staff make-up was the other way around though - 80% Caucasian and 20% coloured. That was a kind of shock for us. But then again this may be true only in West Auckland or Auckland in general, or even the North Island. The South Island is "another kind of NZ" yet again. The Maori and Pacific Islander cultures are very similar to the more popular Polynesian culture I know which is Hawaiian. Their dances, songs and languages are so similar to that of Hawaiian and they use flowers a lot in their cultural activities, too. Thus, I get the feeling that NZ is a kind of "British Hawaii".  I have never thought of New Zealand that way before. This also makes me realize that we Asians of Malay stock - Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians (the Malay race) - have cultures similar to Polynesians, too. I was thrilled to hear some Maori words similar to that of the Filipino languages.

As for the Health Care provided by the Government, in New Zealand they cover only for the medical costs, in Japan they cover both medical and dental costs and here in New York they cover medical, dental and even optical care! (I heard it’s not necessarily the same in other States in the US, though.) So, New York is really tops, whereas in Malaysia, the government doesn’t cover any health insurance at all for its citizens. Everyone has to pay out of his own pocket or buy his own private health insurance.

Well, these are just some of the comparisons I can think of off-hand but I better stop rattling on. Many people might find my opinions and observations offensive, but then this is my blog and my statements are just a matter of personal opinion and observation, which are not backed by statistics or thorough research. So, please do bear that in mind, if you, my reader, would care to quote me. :)

So, back to the Summer heat here in Bayside. Yeah, looks like Summer in New York is going to be sweltering-hot but the heat makes everything green and beautiful!

Now I get to go for a walk in the morning, it's warm enough for walks!

These are photos of a generic and random apartment building in our neighborhood and I find the lamps are still on shortly before 8am. I thought it's pretty.

Yeah, still the same apartment block. Then, I turned around to take a photo of another lamp still lighted on the other side of the road...

...only to find a senior citizen had come out from the house next to that house with the lighted lamp, and was looking at me, suspicious and cross, probably for taking these last three photos. So, I pretended taking a photo of the tree / sky instead and got this shot. :(

I went on pretending to take photos of the grass as well, but hey, this turned out to be my best photo so far of a dying dandelion. Perfect!

I walked on and discovered this: A bird sitting on her eggs on a nest in a tree in someone's front yard. Funny, I grew up in a small farming town in the Philippines, have lived in "100% Pure and Natural New Zealand", have lived in a farming area in Tsukuba, Japan, but this is the first time I actually see a bird sitting on her eggs in its natural habitat - in the suburban city of Bayside, New York! (Well, actually, there was once a bird nest on the tree at the back of our townhouse when we first moved into it in suburban Kuala Lumpur but the eggs had already hatched and we only saw the mother bird feeding her birdies in it.) Can you see the bird in the pic below? It's facing backwards to the camera and its tummy is colored reddish. It's on the right middle side of the photo. I couldn't come closer as I didn't want to disturb it.

I walked further and saw this just-rained-on Rhododendron in bloom (not sure if that's how you call this plant).

This one is detail of a Red Maple (?) in bloom.

Two days later I walked past there again and the eggs in the nest have hatched! The mother bird was gone and  I spied on the birdies so I suspected she must be not too far away looking for food. True enough, I caught her rummaging for worms on this green road-divider. (Click on the photo twice so you can see her in the bottom middle of the pic.)

This one is another Rhododendron in a neighbor's front yard.

A Summer white bloom. This one is in front of someone's gate next to a bus stop. I saw lots of Spring white blooms here in Bayside but there are more blooming even now in Summer. What is it about "white" here? It seems people here love white flowers. I have seen white peonies, too, besides the pink ones. Well, I for one, love "white and green," anytime. :)

Detail of the same white bloom.

A "white tree" in Summer in the front yard of the church near our house. (It seems to have been left behind by the "white trees" which bloomed in Spring along that same road.)

This one's a budding rose bush - red rose! I looked forward to it going in full bloom so I can photograph it but alas, this morning, it's totally gone! The owner is renovating his driveway and totally annihilated this poor beauty! So, there goes the promising red rose bush of Summer. I guess Summer here also means Renovations. :) (The roses here are mostly red, and small-sized, unlike the very colorful and huge ones I have seen in Auckland.)

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July 6, 2011, 9:58am - Lately, my older daughter took a photo of a bird she saw in our neighborhood and it looks exactly like the bird I saw sitting on that nest above. I do not know what this bird is called.