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aimeeinHK
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Country: Hong Kong
Interests: Climbing up mountains and molehills; eating fresh, local fruits; reading international news; listening to musics of the world; (primarily window and sometimes clothes) shopping in boutiques; and much more....
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Member Since:
4/9/2003
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| Weekend Out
Saturday was a day for walking around the park--or in this instance, the nearest arboretum. It was wonderful weather after an entire Friday of drizzling rain. The grounds are quite vast, and there are some nature trails that I will probably try later this year. While the specimens in the greenhouse do not compare to those at the NY Botanical Gardens or the National Orchard Garden of Singapore, many gorgeous flowers were on display.
Peonies were still in bloom.
Currently the roses and lilacs are in full bloom. While I was walking among the lilacs, I could hear the buzzing of the hundreds of bees at work. I was calm, but also feared the possibility that I could die from an attack by the bee colony.
Sunday was a Poon family gathering. Let four kids loose in a small living, and you have pandemonium. I could barely get a picture that did not have some movement artifact. Christopher and Ryan demonstrated their karate moves. Kailey was not keen on playing with anyone and rested on Uncle William.
  
Ryan and Uncle Ted threw a small football around: sometimes Ryan caught the ball, other times he did not. Even when he dropped the ball, he laughed and squealed. Then Ted become the Human Monkey Bar for Ryan to hang upside down. Phoebe, aka Safa, tried the same move, but she need more help from her parents. Around this time, the excitement becomes infectious, and Kailey tries to escape from the hold of Uncle William.
    
With four kids in tow, we managed to eat at a diner without making a scene. Oustide the diner, Ryan tickles Kailey.
After lunch, Christopher got his bike with training wheels, and Ryan got his tricycle. Kailey and Phoebe cruised in their parent-powered strollers. Everyone went to Riverside Park for a couple hours. Phoebe stuck to her favorite playground object: the swings. Afterwards, she went through the sprinklers. Christopher and Ryan rode to another part of the park that had a larger set of rings in a sand court. Since I took off my socks and shoes, I burned my feet in the hot sand. Ryan could not decide whether or not keep to his shoes on, while Christopher braved the hot sands. They dug and played in the sand, but it eventually just got too hot. So we went back to the shaded playground.
At the end of the afternoon, we all had to go home. Phoebe was tired, and Kailey took a nap in the park. Ryan and Christopher ran and biked. I might have jogged 1.5 miles. Until next time, do not have too much fun without me.
Kailey turns 1 year old soon!
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| In January, I went up to NYC to interview, to visit relatives, and to enjoy Restaurant Week. The Sunday brunches at dovetail and Aquavit were definitely worth it.
Last week ended with Match Day. I was upset that I did not end up in Washington DC, so I left early and skipped all the parties. Since I recently finished pediatric clinic, I picked up some germs from the kids and developed a cough that kept me up at night. Overall, I was miserable this past week.
Any good news? I am going to NYC area for at least the next year. To happy times:
Here's to lots of snow in which to play, but much too cold to stay out all day.
Barbara's hat, apricot eyes, baby carrot nose, and someone's scarf!
  
Haircuts at an old-fashioned barber shop in Chinatown:
Ryan is happy to oblige, but Christopher has other thoughts. (Take a look at his reflection.)
  
Where is baby sister during all this buzzing? Napping in her stroller.
After a new haircut, it is time to get serious:
Christopher starts his homework, Ryan puts on his best suit for work, and Kailey wants to play too.
  
For Kailey, it's no work and all play, but Ryan breaks out his loudest Hawaiian outfit and does kung fu. The last picture looks painful, huh?
   
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| I think the highs for the entire week is going to be above 100 F. I guess that this extreme weather is to be expected when you live in the middle the desert. So thank goodness for electricity and air conditioning; otherwise I would be dehydrated from constantly sweating.
I am ready to finish out my third year and go home. I will miss the beautiful scenery, but it's too hot to be hiking in these places right now.
 
(Located 4 hours by car from where I currently live. Taken earlier when the temperatures were milder.)
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| Truths & Myths
Mini flu vaccine test: Answer true or false
1. Only the elderly need the flu vaccine.
2. The side effects of the vaccine are worse than the flu.
3. The "flu season" lasts from October to May.
4. People who are allergic to eggs cannot get the flu vaccine.
Answers: see the end
I recently read "Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach", which mentions a CDC flier about the facts and myths of the flu vaccine. In a study by social pyschologist Norbert Schwartz, "within 30 minutes, older people misremembered 28 percent of the
false statements as true. Three days later, they remembered 40 percent
of the myths as factual. Younger people did better at first, but
three days later they made as many errors as older people did after 30
minutes."
For some reason, myths tend to stick around much longer than the truth. For example, think about urban legends. Despite the efforts to counter urban legends with the facts, they still travel in the minds of impressionable youth. At the same time, the attempt to dislodge the myths with denials and clarifications seem to reinforce the myth. In the article, two examples were especially disturbing:
1. [T]he destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 was not the work of Arab terrorists but was a controlled
demolition; that 4,000 Jews working there had been warned to stay home
that day; and that the Pentagon was struck by a missile rather than a plane.
2. Arabs did not carry out the 9/11 attacks
In a Pew Research Center article entitled "The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other," a survey revealed that a majority of Muslims believe that Arabs did not play a part in the 9/11 attacks.
See the World Differently: 9/11
Perhaps the most dramatic measure of the gulf that
separates Muslims from the Western world comes in their response to
this question: Do you believe that groups of Arabs carried out the
attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001?
By wide margins, Muslims living in Muslim countries say
they do not believe this to be the case. The least skeptical Muslim
nation is Jordan; even there, a majority (53%) says they do not believe
Arabs carried out the attacks. The most skeptical nation is Indonesia,
where 65% say they do not believe it and just 16% say they do, with the
remaining 20% expressing no opinion.
In Turkey, nearly as many (59%) say they do not believe
that groups of Arabs carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, while 16% say
they did. In 2002, a much bigger share of the Turkish public - 46% -
said they believed that Arabs were responsible for Sept. 11, according
to a Gallup survey. Roughly four-in-ten Pakistanis (41%) say they do
not believe groups of Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks, compared with
5% who think they did; 44% of Pakistanis declined to respond.
The Muslim minorities of France, Germany and Spain are
fairly evenly divided over whether Arabs did, or did not, carry out the
Sept.11 attacks, while opinion among British Muslims is similar to
views in predominantly Muslim countries. By 56%-17%, British Muslims do
not believe Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Answers to Mini Flu Vaccine Test
1. F The flu vaccine is recommended in children 6 months to 5 years, pregnant women, people over 50 years of age, and people with certain chronic medical conditions. The
2. F The side effects of the flu vaccine are soreness or redness at the injection site, low grade fever (< 102 F), and soreness. The flu vaccine consists of killed virus--not live and weakened virus which can be give you the flu.
3. T
4. T The flu vaccine is grown in eggs. Any allergy to vaccine components is a contraindication for the vaccine.
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