Recess

Remember the good old days – you know, at school? I didn't go back to school but went to Berlin this week. I was there attending a medical conference on transplantation. Going to medical conference has a lot in common with sitting in classroom. There is plenty to learn in a day when the conference starts every morning at seven sharp. I learnt everything from a minuscule virus to ethics.

Trouble is, I get sleepy sooner than any schooler. My eyes fixed on the projector screen, where all the letters morphed into the alphabet z. Shoulders sagged, eyelids fell, and all my internal circuit went into hibernating mode. If ever there is a sleepiness illness, it's synonymous with getting old.

Yes, it's true. If you're like me, fear not. I'm getting old – I know that – but without getting too stubborn. I learn new tricks. Here is how.

Skip class. While it might seem naughty to skip class, I did enjoy the freedom of go-as-you-like in medical conference. Throughout this week in Berlin, I took one-hour break every afternoon. Bring the camera and jump on a train. I wasn't disappointed. A 5-minute ride from the conference centre lies a picturesque French-style Baroque garden around a legendary palace. A brief walk brought my energy back. Soon, I found myself refreshed and young again at the conference centre.    

Berlin

Upon return from Japan, I caught another flight to attend a conference in Berlin. The fact that I could find my daughter's diaper in my baggage proves that I didn't prepare much for the trip. I didn’t even check the whereabouts of the conference centre until I arrived at the city.

It's late in the evening on a rainy Friday, and I went into a bookstore to find out more about this city. The first sentence from a travel guide book reads like this: If New York is the city that never sleeps, Berlin is the city that never stands still. It didn't take long for me to find out how this is so. Before I went on to the second sentence, the sun came out of the blue. Sure, the weather changes every minute in this city, I thought. Excited as a teenager on a first date, I grabbed my camera and was to leave the bookstore. The sad truth is that I found the very bottom of my shoe get loose at that very moment.

Ouch.

My shoe simply flip-flopped with each step, like a broken castanet. I got no choice but to buy all-purpose glue and tried to fix it. I told myself to forget about the shutterbug business and stood still for the glue to work.

And no prizes for guessing that the sun disappeared before my shoe could be fixed.

Just to make sure you understand what is meant by a city that never stands still, let me tell you my shoe could not be fixed. I bought a pair of new shoes, and the sun came out again.

Holiday

It can't be stressed enough: if you bring up a kid with the help from a domestic maid - usually the case when both parents are working - be prepared to take leave when your maid is on leave too. That's the case for me over these two weeks.

It's hard to think of a better excuse to take vacation. Uh-oh! Don't forget to tell the kid that the nanny will be away. We did this over and over, each time giving our two-year-old a chance to accept and prepare for the separation. It can make a kid feel frustrated and left out.

After a few rounds of struggles, my daughter has learned to live without her maid. Of course, there are many ways to let her relax. Put our sandals on and bring her to the beach, and pretty soon, she was soaking herself in the water like a mermaid. To make this splashing experience even more a real standout, we brought her to Japan and plunge in an onsen. The first incredible thing my daughter knows about onsen is the ultimate freedom of going naked.

Relax. That's what onsen are all about. Ditto for being the parents.

Poo

It's hard to say how long it takes me to stop saying no when my wife makes a suggestion. Like going to the dentist, much depends on how long problems have been ignored.

I know that I'm hard-wired to maintain the status quo and I'm very stubborn; really, if you ask my wife, impossible to change. But saying no to the wife is forbidden; this I know, this I have learned in my lifetime. I've been learning to replace the word "no" by sounds like "humph," "uh-huh," and "hmmmm." Not that easy. I dare you to name one example of Martian who had ever heard of these sounds before arriving on Venus.

That admitted, I must further confess the shame I feel when caught saying no to my wife's idea - and then proved wrong. Many a time the idea is not a serious one. Sure, it makes saying no to a not-that-serious idea even more stupid. The question is not whether I'm wrong. The big question is, What's the big deal about who's right and who's wrong? A couple of months ago, my wife was looking for picture books to buy for our daughter. A second after she showed me the book about human digestive system, I heard myself say skeptically, "Uh-oh!" I felt the word no coming out of my mouth, and just in the nick of time I caught myself, before I made another mistake.

Okay.... okay... my daughter really loves that gorgeously gross picture book showing how the food journey comes to an end.