Andis Kaulins in China

Monday, May 28, 2012

Arnis Kaulins (1932-2012)

Arnis Kaulins passed away at 240 pm on May 28, 2012 at the Brandon General Hospital. Son of Adolfs and Iruna, he was born in Riga, Latvia on July 23, 1932. With his family, he left Latvia on October 5, 1944 to escape Communist Atrocities. He was a refugee in Germany till the end of WWII. He was then a displaced person in Germany until he was able to emigrate to Canada, arriving in Halifax on September 15, 1950 on the U.S. Troop Ship "General Harry Taylor." Taken by train to Ajax, Ontario, he signed a one year contract with the Canadian Government as a general laborer and became a farmhand in the Brandford area. Finished the contract, he then worked for flower growing companies in Brampton, Ontario for two years, then as a carpenter on construction in Toronto and after as a buffer in a leather factory. In March 1956, he joined the Canadian Army as an Artilleryman. He received basic training in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he then joined 2 RCHA, E Battery. He received his Canadian citizenship in 1957. In 1962, he married a Latvian girl, Aina Ruza, a nurse in Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital. He was posted to Germany, from 1964 to 1967, where his first two children Andis (1964) and Benita (1966) were born. Returning to Canada, he was posted to CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick. From 1971 to 1976, he served with 5 RALC in Valcartier, Quebec during which a third child Ron was born (1972, Loretteville). In 1976, he was posted to 3 RCHA in Shilo, Manitoba. From 1977 to 1980, he returned to CFB Gagetown. His final posting was to Shilo, Manitoba where he retired with the rank of Sergeant after 26 years and 4 months of service with the Canadian Armed Forces. He bought a house and settled in Brandon, Manitoba and for 10 years worked as a security officer for the Manitoba provincial government. He retired in July 1992. Arnis spent his retirement involved in a variety of voluntary activities and working on his garden in the backyard of his house. He is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren Kyle, Stephanie and Anthony.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Wuxi Tony Canadian Odyssey #31

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6h9jcTsFj8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my iPod

Friday, May 25, 2012

We have arrived in Brandon!

The Kaulins Clan China is now in the booming Southwestern Manitoba metropolis of Brandon where temperatures are unseasonably low. It was nine degrees celsius when we arrived on Thursday afternoon and dipped down to four degrees in the evening. Having experienced temperatures of 30 degrees in Wuxi and Shanghai, we weren't prepared for it. I had been checking the temperatures of Brandon on the Internet and it seemed that Wuxi and Brandon's temperatures had been the same. It was a good thing I phoned my Mom before we left and heard about the low evening temps. I did then bring along another sweatshirt which has kept me warm. Still, I didn't bring enough.
The change in temperatures in Brandon, my Mom tells me, have been very drastic.
We went immediately to see my father who is in the Brandon General Hospital. As expected, it was emotional for me. Dad, at least, seems very alert and wants me to bring his laptop to the hospital.
What to do about Tony on the flight back to Shanghai. I have been told to give him gravol. It appears that the only thing that can be done is to drug him.

Last evening, I watched the Los Angeles Kings beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-3 in overtime, thereby qualifying for the Stanley Cup Final. It was the first time I had been able to watch a hockey game live on television for over seven years. I, unfortunately, wasn't able to give the game my complete attention. Tony was asking me to find him firetruck videos on YouTube.
I hope that the Rangers and Kings meet in the Stanley Cup Final. The other option: a Kings versus Devils final would not seem so glamorous. The New Jersey Devils are the Atlanta Braves of ice hockey.
To access YouTube so easily is a wonderful thing, but Tony is going to be spoiled. My son loves watching videos of whatever his obsessions are. Currently, they are diggers and firetrucks.
I brought my grooming kit with me with in my backpack. Going through the X-ray machine in Shanghai, I had the tweezers confiscated.
Tony slept the entire Vancouver to Winnipeg flight which was a good thing. However, he was awake and whiny most of the Shanghai-Vancouver flight and so earned the wrath of some passengers other than just his parents. He slept for about an hour at the beginning of the flight which was wonderful. But he woke up and started whining and wouldn't let Dad watch a movie or listen to a podcast. He kept telling his father to take him to the bathroom so he could pee. A few times that he was taken, he didn't pee and so he left his parents with the impression that he was bored and went to the john for something to do. He also ran up and down the aisles of the plane and his Dad couldn't catch him. His behavior was such that one of the flight attendants asked his father if he was special. It wouldn't surprised me if Tony was, Dad replied.
Now, I don't know if Tony was that bad, his parents were lazy or a particular woman was being particularly cranky on the long Shanghai-Vancouver flight, but she told me to quiet Tony, "that kid of yours!", down because people were trying to sleep. I said okay to her and spent the rest of the flight, even more annoyed than Tony had already made me till that point. My first thought, about what this lady had said, was that she wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know. Other than pleading with Tony there wasn't much I could do. Disciplining him with a spanking would have only made it harder for her to sleep. And if I had lost my temper with Tony, I would have most definitely lost it with her. I just ended up stewing all the more, patiently telling Tony to shush it when I could. The flight was an ordeal that had to be borne I assured myself. I didn't bother looking at the woman again. She was seated to my left and behind. ( I should mention that Tony was on my right seated in between Jenny and me.) From what I could remember, she was past child-bearing age and looked like she had had face-lifts gone bad. She was Canadian, I assume, and had short hair.
I recall, now, a report I had heard about young children being banned from first class seating, and I figured that this woman was part of that mind set. With this in mind, I thought how, for the first time, I was directly confronted by the mindset. I recall one time when I had ridden a bus from Wuxi to Nanjing and there was a crying baby that was driving me mad. I didn't have children then so I had no sympathy. Now that I do Tony, I know that the childless me was lacking in empathy, just like that woman.
I should have asked her if she had had kids. I could tell by her looks that she probably hadn't.
Tony did raise the ire of another passenger but, on that score, I do have to plead mea culpa. Tony was playing with the fold-down table top and shaking the chair that it was on. I let him, against my better judgement, continue doing it because I thought I didn't see anyone sitting in the seat in front. When a man arose to complain, he was seated to the seat of the right, I quickly chided Tony to show I was annoyed with him too, and I could only think how long it was before he finally had the nerve to say something.
Later, Tony started playing with some children who were seated close to us. He and this three year old Chinese boy were soon seated beside each other, and me, while Tony was playing on the Ipad. As they played, they did get out of hand and became loud for an instant. As I moved to stop and quiet them, I noticed a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. I didn't put two and two together till Jenny asked me about ten minutes later if I had thrown a pillow at her and the kids. I pretended I misunderstood what she was saying but I realized then that that woman had probably thrown a pillow at us. I wasn't in a mood for a confrontation and I realized if I had told Jenny what had happened, there would have been an ungodly incident. Jenny is a Tiger Mom, not as meek as me and not at all interested in avoiding confrontation as I am. I just let it go, wanting more than ever for the flight to get to Vancouver.
I told Jenny what had happened after we had gotten off the flight and had made it through customs. She is still annoyed by what happened, but I did the right thing in not telling her till afterwards. Don't mess with a Tiger Mom!! Don't have confrontations on planes.
During out eight hour stay in Vancouver, we spent some time at a house of former students of mine.
The flight to Winnipeg was delayed two hours. It sounded like they couldn't find a plane for the fight. Carry-on luggage space was quickly taken up and the staff had to check some luggage into another spot on the plane.
In the end, I have the satisfaction of having known that that woman was pissed off without having known the full magnitude of my magnanimity in not telling my wife about it right away.
One more thing, I noticed. Air Canada, I have heard, is having labor troubles. I overheard one of the flight attendants say he didn't want to do his job for twelve more years. Jenny later asked me why all the staff was so old. They were unionized I told her.