Hello fellow steemian!
I am lousy in writing self-introduction and have thus been dragging and dragging to write this post. But after 4 months, the little man inside my head tells me any further avoidance is a criminal act. So here it goes.
My name is Cat, and I joined the steemit community since November 2017, but I wasn’t really actively posting anything until fairly recently. In all sense, I am a complete amateur.
I was born in Hong Kong, the beautiful city that never sleeps. I spent my childhood there, mainly behind books, and, more books.
When I turned 13, my parents decided to move to Auckland, New Zealand, where I have called my second home for about 5 years until I graduated from high school.
Then I moved down to Dunedin, a small town in the South Island, to pursue further study.
And it was there, at the University of Otago, in the tiny town where students do the craziest and wildest things, that I met my husband.
Image from Otago University website
To be quite honest he wasn’t really my type then. But you know what they say: love always finds its way. So romance blossomed and we have now been together for almost 20 years.
After graduation I briefly moved back to Auckland whilst my then boyfriend was working in Gisborne, a small country town in North Island. Long distance relationship was hard; luckily I landed a job in the same town the year after. We spent around 2 years there and then decided to move to Australia and that was where the journey began.
Image from google
We started off in Rocky, the beef city in Queensland where I was asked if I want a steak in the only Chinese restaurant in town. It wasn’t that much of a difference to Gisborne, although considerably bigger.
The place was great the people were brilliant but work wasn’t. So we relocated to Brisbane, and a few years later, we started a family. And now I have 2 most beautiful boys.
Motherhood has its ups and downs, and I’m not exactly the maternal type, but watching the two play together is the greatest thing ever and it is the most wonderful feeling when they give you the biggest smile while you tug them into bed.
Juggling between daycare, school and work wasn’t easy, and I’m still finding my feet. Having “me time” is a luxury but during those rare occasions, I would maybe read a book, do some sketches, write some short stories, both Chinese and English, and enjoy a glass of good wine while my body emerge under a bathtub of perfumed bubbly hot water.
We travel quite a bit as a family, as we believe the old Chinese saying: walk a thousand miles is better than reading thousands of books. Exploring the world is what I’d like to teach my kids. It’s a blessing that Brisbane is so close to the beaches and has lot of places for kids to have fun. Spending a day on the sand is what they love best.
A fun fact about me
When I asked my hubby to say a fun fact about me he replies: “you’re boring.” So I guess I have to admit I am not a very fun person, period.
However I think my life motto will resonate with lots of people – Your life is not complete, without coffee, chocolates and alcohol, no, I mean KIDS.
Given I’m not a fun person and that I am a working mum, a coffeeholic and a chocoholic and enjoy my cocktails every now and then, my blog would be most definitely about family and kids, the rest will punctuate in between every line as I journey though motherhood.
Oh, let’s not forgot my two loveliest pets, Fluffy the Dog and Trouble the cat (I guess I have no talent in picking names neither). They have been the most loyal friends who have travelled with me and my family as we toddle along in this vibrant city.
Thanks for reading! If you liked my post, please upvote, comment and resteem! Don't forget to visit my blog @straycat
Welcome @straycat
Thank you!!
Hi @straycat, I was born in Taiwan and grew up in Australia so I am always interested in other people/families with similar experiences and how they deal with the different cultures/languages/values as their life progresses. I am also happy to find someone who writes in both languages (but it's interesting how there are little differences in the way we express things in different languages) because I love reading in both Chinese and English. I follow @wentong-syhhae who writes about it from a non-native speaker's perspective which is also very interesting!
I have a few friends in HK and have visited the city on a couple of occasions, but happy to call Brisbane home when I am not working interstate.
I think now that you have started becoming a little bit more active (I really like your short stories by the way!), you'll find more of the Brisbane based people around on Steemit and I hope that we can all get to know each other better :)
Thank you for your long reply!
I love to read too, both Chinese and English. But finding the time to do that can be hard sometimes 😕
I am glad that you liked my short stories, thank you! I have my hands full with 2 kids but I’ll try my best to find time for more stories. 😀
Sometimes the best stories come from real life, and sometimes things that happen in real life are much more interesting (or stranger) than in fiction! Reading in both languages was very important for retaining my knowledge of Chinese, and I find that too much information is lost in translation so I always try to read in the original language if possible.
I am also interested in your experience with how your children are learning languages, I have friends that have tried different strategies when it comes to teaching their children multiple languages, so I wonder if you have any thoughts on this :)
Teaching my kids Chinese is very hard. My 6 years old understands what I say but can’t speak. He is slowly showing some interest though probably because i am reading Chinese books and he’s watching Chinese cartoons. Hope he would keep learning ...
What about some of the weekend Chinese schools that are around? That's how my parents made me learn Chinese... it does mean a little bit of sacrifice now but I can only imagine that Chinese will be even more important than it was before.
Welcome to Steemit. Lots of Steemians around South East Queensland now. We had a Steemup in Brisbane today hope you can make it along to the next one.
Thank you! Yes I saw that too, hopefully I can make it to the next one!
Welcome straycat, hope you will have a great time here on steemit!
Thank you! I’m sure I will!
Welcome to the best community ever which values our hardwork . Hope you'll have good time here. Gud people are waiting for you... Feel free to share what you like with me and be in touch by following @sarinakhan
Thank you! Would love to share bits and pieces of what life brings us! 😀
Hey Cat! Don't be hard on yourself. This is a great intro! Welcome to steemit and keep up the great posts!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it! 😁
Hi Cat,
Glad that finally you decided write your #introduceyourself post.
Perhaps you have a lot of questions about Steemit and no doubt the proper answer is from reading the Official website FAQ: (https://steemit.com/faq.html).
Unbelievable your cat & dog can be good friends. Unfortunately mine that don't seem to like each another.
Have fun learning and share your experiences in Steemit. Enjoy!
Thank you! Yes I am still learning about steemit!
I know, it’s strange, but I’m glad that my dog and cat get along with each other, but sometimes they still fight!
Welcome to steemit @straycat
Thank you!
Welcome to steemit Cat! I wish you great time here at steemit and expect some great content from you ! All d best for your new beginning , keep uploading , keep steeming :)
Thank you! I’ll try my best! 😀
Welcome! 辣妈一枚💕
🤣 彼此彼此！為妈妈们喝采！🎉
Fun fact about @straycat: she drink lots of coke zero
LOL ! that is so true ! she should write that XD 1.5L of Coke Zero per day lol
🤣 that’s very true!
welcome to steemit ! just gave you a follow :)
Thank you!
Welcome to Steemit and Team Australia.
Thank you!
Welcome！
Hi @straycat, I have put my hand up to be your 'mentor' but really they probably should have let the new users pick their mentors rather than the other way around, so unfortunately you are stuck with me for now :p
Just a couple of things that you might want to start doing early and get into a habit of doing that I think will really help with the posts:
Feel free to ask me anything (I use the same username on Discord) or talk to other people in teamaustralia and the other mentors because I am sure they know lots of things that I don't. The other person who I am helping out is @jac-e who is an acupuncturist and nutritionist on practising on the northside of Brisbane so I will also try to introduce people that I think share common interests for you if I can. I maintain a list at:
https://steemit.com/makesteemitgreat-again/@fibrefox/the-steemtopia-network-of-learning-update-connecting-people-and-ideas
I am sure that's enough for now and you seem to be doing quite well already (better than I did) so welcome to Steemit and enjoy the journey :)
Thank you @plushzilla! That’s very useful. I’ll work my way though this!
Sorry for the big long list, but I think if you don't do anything else at least try Discord because there is so much going on outside of Steemit and most of the conversations seem to happen on Discord :)
And please let me know if you have questions about anything I mentioned here.
Welcome to Steemit @straycat! It's a pretty cool platform to be apart of, even if I still struggle to understand it
Thank you! Yes I am still finding out different things about steemit too!
Welcome to steemit and team australia :D your pets are sooo cute fluffy and trouble ^_^
Thank you! They are very lovely 😊
Congratulations @straycat! You received a personal award!
Click here to view your Board of Honor
Congratulations @straycat! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!