Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

How To Say "I Miss You" in Childish?

When my son Guy was born, a little over four years ago, I right away started calling him "Matok".  Which in Hebrew is "sweet".  As time went by, "Matok" became "Matoki", then "Toki" and finally, and that's his nickname today: "Tuki", which in Hebrew is "Parrot".  He must have been no more than six months old, when I started playing this game with him.  I would throw him up, then down and say: "Where's Tuki?".  Guy would giggle and laugh.  When we were done, I would put him on the ground, and he would always say: "one more time".  Again and again, until we were really done.  Guy was convinced that this game is a common game and everyone knew it.  He once asked his grandmother to play "Where's Tuki?", and got extremely frustrated when she said she has no clue what he was talking about.

Today, we have a few games.  "Where's Tuki" is still the favorite, but there's also "Toad on my Back", in which Guy gets to ride on my back upside down, and me turning around screaming "What is it that I have on my back?", to which he would answer "a Toad...".  And of course, the tickling game, in which I tickle him so hard that he laughs out of breath and begs me to stop.  When I do, of course, he asks for more...

Guy "Tuki" Hayardeny

And why am I writing all this? simple, I spoke to him today, and he said that he misses me using the following phrase: "Dad, when you come back, I want you to tickle me, and to play with me "Where's Tuki?", and "Toad on my Back".   Who said children can't express themselves?

When I go places, the kids always remind me to bring gifts.  There's a small ceremony when I come back.  The unpacking ceremony.  The suitcase gets to be on the bed, and so are the kids.  I deny bringing anything, but they know better.  Then I take out things one by one, and no matter how young they were, they always knew if the other got more...  I am in Russia now, and looking for gifts I have realized that this time, I will really bring no gifts.  I thought of bringing a "Babooshka", that doll which has another inside and another and another... Can you guess how much a "Babooshka" costs?  I saw one at the supermarket for $100.00.  You can get in China for a fraction of the price.  I decided to go with chocolates.  Swiss chocolates.  They love it, and for $100.00 you can get quite a lot of it.

Things here are expensive to the extreme.  Particularly coming from China, but even from the US.  I am staying at the Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel.  The room rate is over $200.00 per night.  Granted, very generous breakfast included.  But this is only the beginning.  WiFi, which is free almost everywhere these days, will cost you $34.00 per day, or $8.00 per hour.  If you want to make phone calls from the hotel, which is next to free now given Skype, Jajah, and other providers of VoIP, it will cost you a little over $8.00 per minute!  The assumption is that guest are either businessmen - for which the company picks up the tab, or tourists, who don't care for Internet connection.  Is this still true in the age of cutting costs?  My old boss used to say the following: our travel budget is a given.  We can fly business and go to more expensive hotels - as long as we are in compliance with the company guidelines.  But if we save, we get to travel more.  And traveling more is good for business.  I rarely agreed with the guy, but in this case, I agreed, and I still do it that way.  I try for my business trips to be modest.  Being in a remote site, travel is a lifeline.  Not being able to travel is like slow suffocation.  I'd rather stretch my travel budget as far as it can get.

Posted at 11:03PM Apr 14, 2007 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]