Sure, many of you flew out of town to celebrate the Christmas. We didn't.
Last night, we slept in a waterproof tent at a country park campsite. That's our holiday idea. Oh, and I should mention that our idea of wild camping started with two families, and ended up with the third family joining us impromptu. With that, the fun more than triples.
Call me a fox who doesn't need sour grapes, or just plain jealous, but I do think that the magic of wild camping can bring new angles of holiday option.
If you haven't camped as a family before, let me tell you our tricks.
Before you go, it makes sense to buy or borrow essential camping equipment. Sleeping bag is a must, and I learned this lesson twenty years ago when I was camping without sleeping bags with my classmates (one of whom being my wife now). We did not faint as the temperature dropped after nightfall, because we didn't have time to. We were busy shivering.
Next, prepare for the bedtime rituals, as what your kids would have brought - although we'll never know for sure - when they sleep over at the best friend's place. Our examples included milk bottle, story books, stuffed panda and elephant.
What about food? Never think about haute cuisine. Your best bet in the outdoors (and, remember, in case of torrential rains) is easy-cook food. You won't have much problem with an outdoor gas stove, as a rule of thumb. On that note, here is one of our recipes last night. We cooked some rice, and brought with us seaweed. Kids could then create their own version of sushi.
The lesson? We don't have to bring an oven to roast a turkey, but we need ideas to burn off the kids' excessive energy.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Age
It should come as no surprise that the most common introductory sentences in doctors' commentary are about the age. These opening remarks appear every now and then in the morning round: "This is a 75-year-old man who came in with a fever."
That's the way medical students have been taught to describe a patient, I know.
The at-a-glance knowledge of a patient's age is so important (universal, I might add) that nobody dares to skip it. Well, yes and no. Yes, that number on the top right corner of patient's case note might give you an inkling how fit the patient is, but never emphasize too much on the chronological age. I'm more interested in my patient's biological age, and I've taught my students so.
Biological age, as it happens, is imprecise and less scientific. To many, this kind of guesswork seems like counting the grey hair. In the hands of experts, like yourself, it is a window into your real age. Instead of magical formula, it refers to "how old do you feel you are?"
Time for a quick quiz: How old do you feel you are?
A simple question, but a meaningful one. That's what I just learned from a research publication of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Researchers studied some 6500 adults aged 52 years and older, asking the exact question I just mentioned. Some of them perceived their age close to their actual age; some felt more than one year older than their chronological age. More than half (me included if I were recruited), in fact, rated their age at least 3 years younger than their actual age.
Take one more close look at the mortality rate after 8 years of follow-up, and you'll see the pattern. Alas, after adjusting for the baseline health, physical disability, and health behavior such as smoking and alcohol use, those who felt younger live longer than those who felt their actual age or older. It's not hard to explain the finding if the terminal ill patients rated themselves older. But the same conclusion was shown after excluding death within 12 months of baseline question. In short, feeling young gives you a phenomenal edge over longevity. The upshot is that we now better understand the merit of feeling young - a sense of mastery.
Although trite, the old saying still is true. "It's not how old you are. It's how you are old."
That's the way medical students have been taught to describe a patient, I know.
The at-a-glance knowledge of a patient's age is so important (universal, I might add) that nobody dares to skip it. Well, yes and no. Yes, that number on the top right corner of patient's case note might give you an inkling how fit the patient is, but never emphasize too much on the chronological age. I'm more interested in my patient's biological age, and I've taught my students so.
Biological age, as it happens, is imprecise and less scientific. To many, this kind of guesswork seems like counting the grey hair. In the hands of experts, like yourself, it is a window into your real age. Instead of magical formula, it refers to "how old do you feel you are?"
Time for a quick quiz: How old do you feel you are?
A simple question, but a meaningful one. That's what I just learned from a research publication of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Researchers studied some 6500 adults aged 52 years and older, asking the exact question I just mentioned. Some of them perceived their age close to their actual age; some felt more than one year older than their chronological age. More than half (me included if I were recruited), in fact, rated their age at least 3 years younger than their actual age.
Take one more close look at the mortality rate after 8 years of follow-up, and you'll see the pattern. Alas, after adjusting for the baseline health, physical disability, and health behavior such as smoking and alcohol use, those who felt younger live longer than those who felt their actual age or older. It's not hard to explain the finding if the terminal ill patients rated themselves older. But the same conclusion was shown after excluding death within 12 months of baseline question. In short, feeling young gives you a phenomenal edge over longevity. The upshot is that we now better understand the merit of feeling young - a sense of mastery.
Although trite, the old saying still is true. "It's not how old you are. It's how you are old."
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Five
Jasmine turned five yesterday.
How do you know when your kid is five? That's the question I put up in the Facebook on my daughter's birthday.
What's so eerie about this question is that I don't quite know how to answer it.
Many parents have trouble with telling how five-year-olds should be different from those below five - some kids, too. I have no problem with the grey zone. What's wrong, I believe, is to prescribe the milestones and be obsessed with the yardstick.
What could be luckier for a five-year-old than to make the strides at one's own pace? I went to my daughter's school on her birthday, and found all those different traits. Some kids are mastering the monkey bar skills at a level that is supposed to be attained by gorillas. A few of them are even more skillful than great apes.
So what? We're not supposed to compare children to each other. And not even to our closest evolutionary cousin.
How do you know when your kid is five? That's the question I put up in the Facebook on my daughter's birthday.
What's so eerie about this question is that I don't quite know how to answer it.
Many parents have trouble with telling how five-year-olds should be different from those below five - some kids, too. I have no problem with the grey zone. What's wrong, I believe, is to prescribe the milestones and be obsessed with the yardstick.
What could be luckier for a five-year-old than to make the strides at one's own pace? I went to my daughter's school on her birthday, and found all those different traits. Some kids are mastering the monkey bar skills at a level that is supposed to be attained by gorillas. A few of them are even more skillful than great apes.
So what? We're not supposed to compare children to each other. And not even to our closest evolutionary cousin.
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