Wall of Joy

I’m sitting here on a Friday night looking at the city lights in the distance and our newly established Christmas tree in the foreground. It is clearly too long since we last enlightened the world of our Hong Kong adventures. Actually, I can’t be too sure whether this is because life here has become more “normal” or if we have just been too busy lately. Anyway, one thing I do know is that life with three little ones never ceases to be full of interesting comments and events. Donna (this is Paul speaking) is out at a book club that she has started and left me with ALL three kiddies. Hmm. So right now I am at home on a Friday night with three kids and Donna is at a book club. Not exactly the recipe for thrilling stories.

I cast my eyes toward our Wall of Joy. This is where we write down funny stuff that happens in our lives so as not to forget it. So, while peace reigns here I’ll drop you a few funnies from the mouthes of babes…

In our family we call snot boog-goes (this is the phonetically correct way to spell this). For reasons unknown to us our children are really fixated on boog-goes. I am sure that Freud would have something to say about this, but we are just confounded by it all. The other day Noah declared, “I have boog-goes in my ear mum!” Concerned Donna swung around to find out what was wrong with his ear… Only to notice that Noah had just discovered earwax. India’s speaking is coming along really well and a few nights before Noah came across his earwax I went to check what India was doing making a noise at 8.30pm. I said, “Are you doing a poo?” She replied, “Yes… um… NO.” I said, “What is going on then?” Her casual reply was, “Just picking my nose.”

We have had a few rough Skype calls in recent times. For a while we were really used to seeing one of the grandparents “frozen”. Following one of Tobias’ feeds he was zoned out on Donna’s shoulder. India just loves to get close and personal and talk to her brother. So she asked Donna to turn around so she could see him. She promptly declared, “Oh no. Tobias is frozen!”

The other day Noah came rushing into our room in the morning saying, “I’ve got something kicking inside of me.” Donna jokingly said, “Do you think that it is a baby?” He promptly placed his sister’s hand over his heart to let her feel the kicking baby.

Donna wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t tell you about Noah’s powerful observation that, “Dad has a long out chin, like Fireman Sam doesn’t he?” Thanks son.

It seems after nearly 9 years of marriage Donna is completely comfortable making fun of my deteriorating physical state. Recently at church someone had a word that there were people in the congregation who needed prayer because they were losing their hair. I naturally thought about the stress related condition that some people suffer from. But Donna! Her ears plucked up and she raised her eyebrows and mouthed, “That’s you.”

Anyway, that is our news for now. We are totally amped about the upcoming visit from Nan Nan, and Nana and Granddad! Maybe the next entry will be something more meaningful like something to do with Chinese culture!... Or it might be just more snot stories.

Crazy Days of Summer

Those crazy days of summer....

I know all of our family and friends back in NZ are gloating that summer is peeking over the shore line, but may I just brag a little here....ahem.....its officially autumn apparently and we still need to use the air con, and can go swimming in pools and the sea, and the weather on Saturday was devine...sorry but had to say...eat your heart out Aucklanders!!!





Yes, so yesterday being Saturday dawned with blue skies and a lovely warm breeze. The perfect day to have a hellish shopping excursion to Ikea!! No because no day is perfect for Ikea, Ikea was designed by some nasty Swede to make parents life hell. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to make poor parents traverse their way through the whole darn store just to buy a whisk, or a pillow - man it is the ultimate in torture for parents with kids to try to run that gauntlet without one of our darlings manhandling something off a shelf (we just always hope they choose the plastic or fabric things to topple...). Anyway Paul and I ended up being real angry with all of our kids (yes even a baby can have some bad feelings directed at it when it comes to a visit to Ikea, when they cry in the middle of the garden section you just know that backtracking for 5 mins to the cafe is going to cost you big time with your two toddlers!!! That just added at least 45 mins to our flying visit!) - but we did manage to get some pots and an outdoor multi tiered thingy to put our tomatoes and basil on - oh yes, thats right, I am gardening over here...wonder if plants cough when the haze is bad from China?

So I will keep you updated on my mini garden as I just know you are on the edge of your seats wondering what I will grow...I know I can barely sleep, well thats not true, I sleep like a comatose person because Bias keeps waking me up every 2 hours....but when I am awake I get excited when I think about those 4 shelves of opportunity....flowers or produce....hmmmm tough choice....

But this post is meant to be about our Saturday - now that I have vented all my bad feelings about Ikea I can get on with the good part of the day - kite flying!!! Because I am a woman (or maybe its because I am anal and a control freak, haven't really worked out which one to blame) I love to keep lists of potential things to do and I spotted this the other day when Paul gave me half an hour off from kid duty. Kite flying in Clearwater Bay Park. Well I thought, that sounds jolly fun. We have an unopened kite and 3 kids under 5, lets go out and discover Hong Kongs natural resources......




Well Paul agreed and off we sped to find this lovely place. The secret mustn't be that well kept because the car parks and the road were heaving with cars, but never fear, we own a people mover for a reason, it can mount any verge!!! So once we disembarked all 5 of us off we headed to find some english words that would tell us where to go. I like to follow instructions while Paul likes to just wander around and hopefully find something....so we sort of did his thing and it was good, found a great bbq site for future visits....and lovely views of the islands....and then we saw the kites!





We quickly walked up the hill and Noah jumped up and down until we had his kite out and ready for action. Paul promptly threw the instructions away and I quickly went and retrieved them from the rubbish. Thank goodness I did as this video proves, kite flying doesn't come naturally!!!



Once we read the instructions we were away, the kite soared and the kids just loved it (well Tobias had no idea as his mind is filled with only thoughts of milk). It was a total blast. So much fun to race around trying not to get clotheslined by other peoples kites, and you think an All Blacks game is nerve wracking, imagine one little kite and hundreds of dreaded trees for it to catch on, ohhhh my stomach was a mess!!!






Just as we were leaving this guy made up this huge star kite, it was beautiful!!!! Noah was so cute, he had his set of instructions in his hand and was watching anyone who seemed to be having trouble making their kite fly, at their first falter he would hurry over and show them his instructions explaining the process to them.....it was very kind of him....kind of embarassing for us



- so anyway this guy had this really expensive kite and Noah started telling him what he needed to do to make it fly, oh sort of hide in a hole stuff, gotta love 4 year olds, they aren't hung up on pride like us. Well the guy was very gracious and allowed us to help him try to launch his kite - unfortunately even Noah's instructions wouldn't get that kite going - he needed a typhoon to get it off the ground!!



It was a lovely day and the photos prove what a pretty place we found.

Typhoon Day

Recently we had the good fortune of experiencing our first Typhoon Day. Good?! Yes, because in Hong Kong when there is a real hum dinger of a storm it is called a Typhoon and everything is shut down… Including schools! So I (Paul) stayed in bed on this exciting morning and watch random light objects fly past my window at 150km per hour.

We decided that we would develop a few traditions for typhoon days. The first, and hardly worth writing about, is to watch at least one DVD. As dull and uninteresting as this is as a ‘tradition’ we have discovered that it is absolutely essential on a day in Hong Kong when you can’t go outside. The second and slightly more radical tradition that we are trying to foster is – the weird and wacky photo. We decided to find, and dress up in, the weirdest clothes and combinations of clothes and take a family photo (actually a series of photos). Check out these snap shots.

Back to the storm. If you think this is just another windy day… Think again. I’m not sure I should be publishing this but Noah and I ventured out in our PJs to see just how hard the wind was really blowing. So we went to the 6th floor of our apartment block and this was the result:

There was a slightly anxious moment as Noah yelled, “I’m blowing away.” But beyond that it was quite an exhilarating experience, as you can see.

Tobias wears the tag "Made in China"

Our big delivery date was looming - with just a week to go before the 23rd Sept we made the choice to go with another hospital as this one allowed the dads to be there for the c-section (this is something I really wanted, if I had to endure all the needles etc, then Paul could endure the view!!). This last minute change of venue meant the final week of only 2 kids was spent racing to the hospital at least 3 times - very busy time!! Thank goodness for our helper who looked after the kids while I was at the visits.

So finally after all of that Friday 23rd September dawned (and I mean dawn as Paul had to go pick up Nineth at 5.30am to get her back to our place by 6am so we could waddle off to the MTR to catch the train to the hospital by 7.15am). Row had asked me for a photo of my final hours as a huge pregnant lady - as she is my sister I obliged her however I did feel it was abusive to peoples eyes.















The hospital was absolutely silent, it was like Paul and I were the only people there, in fact they hadn't even opened the doors to the ward when we got there, we had to knock and get a nurses attention to be let in. I am so glad Paul could be there with me for 3 hours of menial tasks that prepared me for surgery - things like being read the most horrific list of possibilities in the surgery (and to be fair, the english as a second language thing comes into its own in situations like this. Whereas a NZ doctor might say "Look these things never happen but we need to inform you of the very low risk you are taking", a Chinese doctor speaking english says it like this "We will try not to let this happen to you, but if it gets too bad then we will just have to do this so you don't die", or something really cheerful and upbeat like this, "You are aware that if we can't stop the bleeding, even if we try really hard, then we will have to give you a hysterectomy, are you alright with that?" - finally after the third time I had been read the riot act of what could potentially happen in there I stopped one of them and asked her "Have you ever had this happen to someone you were operating on?" "Oh no" was her response - so finally I started to feel a little bit calmer.)

Intermingled with someone taking another blinkin blood sample (I just don't get it - they must have taken 3-4 blood samples over my time in the Chinese hospital system - does your blood type change?? Apparently for matching purposes, but heck couldn't you just look at my blood type from NZ??? Anyway poor intern who came to take the blood, he knocked the whole kit and caboodle off the bed so had to replace just about all of it, poor guy. But anyway inbetween blood taking, horror reports of what could happen, showers and nail polish removal they got me into some of the most feminine coloured hospital gears ever! Pink and purple combo - devine!! It did provide a good laugh for Paul and I - and at least your back is covered as you walk around unlike the lovely Middlemore gowns which leave you shall we say, feeling slightly breezy!




















Into the op at 10am, Paul was allowed in after they started operating so he saw Tobias out and yelling within minutes of being there. He was told off each time he tried to peer past the surgeons to where he was, "No looking" was the command given - very private these doctors over here...don't want anyone to see their secret craft....we just had to sit tight and wait for our wee bundle to be bought over. Paul did get one glimpse of him and he reported to me "He's got heaps of dark hair" he said, to which i replied "You are having me on" as our other 2 were born practically bald....but no, Tobias poor kid is setting himself up to be ridiculed by his older brother and sister about the "you were adopted" type of story - he has dark hair and dark blue eyes - pretty different so far to our blonde haired, vibrant blue eyed kids.





















Anyway they quickly finished the operation - the surgeon popped out to enthusiastically tell Paul that my insides looked damn near to perfect, hardly could tell I had been the lucky recipient of 2 earlier c-sections - wish the outer shell to my body had the same testimony! But alas it is all too easy to see that I am the mother of 3 children (and I am sure many wonder if it was 3 sets of twins by the state of the stretch marks!!). After they had finished flattering remarks about my insides we were wheeled over to recovery then up to the ward - semi private which was awesome! I don't think I could have coped being in one of there wards with 6 - 8 women. It was lovely having the little guy with us, and other than the nurses who kept showing up to check my blood pressure (that was a real favourite job of the nurses during my stay, every half an hour day and night!!!), it was just Paul and I with little Tobias.

























There was only one hiccup with that first night, noone had told me that morphine can make you sick - oh dear, can it ever!!! 6 hours of vomiting later I had briefly noticed a visit from Noah and India to see their little brother, and a family from Paul's school came in to see us and bring food (and I felt so bad that I just could not eat any of it right then and there as she had made me a lovely dinner!). Let me just say that food saved me over my 5 days in hospital - instead of congee I consumed muesli bars, rather than pureed pork or steamed egg white I was lucky enough to have Angeline bring me a pasta dish she had cooked, rather than drink broth I partook of chocolate bickies, and thank you, thank you for the yogurt in the morning as the pork bun just couldn't get past my nose at 7.30am.

There were a couple of hilarious things (and plenty of frustrating things about my cross cultural stay) - one thing was the sign they hung on my curtain that first night. I was the only person in the entire ward with a sign like this - "Breastfeeding in progress" it read. I suppose that just alerted anyone with sensitive stomachs to steer clear of my bed as they might catch a glimpse of my body (who am I kidding, of course they would see all sorts of parts of my body as I tried to remember how to do this job once again). Most of the Hong Kong mums do both bottle and breast feeding from day dot, and apparently alot of them give up on the breast feeding after a very short time (ie days). So pretty different from NZ where they won't give you any formula in the hospital, here you have to explicitly tell them "no formula" - Tobias had a special sign attached to his cot that said he was not to get anything except breast milk as they are rather bottle friendly here.







So apart from their obsession with really unusual things :like intake and output of water in your body - they gave me a jug to pee into - man I felt put out, I thought my days of having to aim at something were over - I was bemoaning the fact that I had to measure my output to Paul when he stated the obvious "why don't you just make it up?" he said. Wow what a brilliant idea!! So finally I got to just relax when I went to the loo!!!. They were also obsessed with my blood pressure, it was like the most important job of the century, and so annoying the sound of them ripping that band off my arm at 3am when I had only just got to sleep after feeding a little guy for an hour!!! The funny thing was no one ever asked me about the state of the old feeding machines, they never checked to see if he was on right, or if I was using the right positions. They weren't overally interested in my wound (not until day 5 when the doctor checked it), nor the state of my stomach as it swelled up and got into some pretty funny looking shapes. It was all about water in, water out, heart beat and baby wee and poo - if I covered those bases then I was home and hose.

But finally my home day approached - with just a little encouragement from me (where I mentioned to the head nurse that if my discharge papers weren't ready by 2pm then we would just have to leave without being properly discharged - well the look on their faces was amazing, shock and horror that I would even think about doing that) we were out of there by 12 and heading home. It is lovely being home, and I feel so much better 2 days on. Even well enough to do a blog about it :) I had to do this one first, but very quickly we are going to do a blog about our first typhoon day which happened today - will let Paul document that exciting day...

Ring Ring

I have my phone set with an old fashion ring. It is the loudest one available. Well, I got a real shock this morning(at 6.30am) on the way to work when my phone went ... Oh I should mention this is Paul reporting, having briefly wrestled the blogging controls from Donna... Anyway, I answered it wondering who it could be so early in the morning. Caller: Hello sir, this is Lohas Park conceirge. Your child is here.
Me: WHAT!
Caller: Yes, your child is standing at the desk in the foyer.
Me: Can I please speak to him.
Caller(who I now know is my doorman): Yes sir.
Noah: Hi dad.
Me: What's going on! (in a confused and irritated tone)
Noah: Well after you left this morning I went and played outside of the apartment. When I tried to get back in the door was locked. I banged and banged but mum and India are sleeping.
Me: Are you ok?
Noah: Yip.
Note: Donna in late pregnancy has taken to wearing ear plugs.
Me: OK son, just stay there and I will ring your mum. Can I talk to the man again.
Noah: Sure.
Me: Hello, please keep my son there.
Doorman: Certainly sir.

The next few minutes were nervious ones as I waited through 3 attempts at phoning before Donna finally answered. Fortunately the doorman had brought Noah up the three stories to our apartment. So by the time Donna flew out the door she almost ran straight into him.

What followed? Well because we plan to return to New Zealand oneday and fear a backlash from the likes of Sue Bradford, we'll sensor that part.

Apparently, Noah had remembered that I take the exit at level one when heading to school so he tried to catch me before I made my way to school, after realising he had locked himself out of our apartment.

Donna and I haven't known whether to laugh or cry all day. Especially at the dinne table when I said,
Hey mate, why don't you tell me exactly what happened this morning.
Noah: Um, well, it's actually a bit of a long story...

In other news, I am well and truly back into work. I attended an Open House at school this evening, and if you haven't heard the parents at the school where I teach are truly listed amoung the rich and famous of Hong Kong. It was quite funning walking through the car park seeing Porche, Mercedes, Mercedes (all late models)...then Toyota Previa 1997!!! Yes, that would be our car/bus!

Well I know that you all want photos. But at this time of night I don't do photos. But I'll leave you with a quote from Plato:
"Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence."
This has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this post but I like it.

Bye for now...

Some of the funnies that always seem to happen to me!

Anyone who has known me for awhile knows that weird and wonderful situations happen to me frequently - I mean how many other people in Pakuranga had Chinese neighbours who walked around in the underwear - OUT ON THE DECK WHILE CHATTING TO YOU AND YOUR KIDS!!!, that was in between them using their drying rack to cure their pork, and growing some Chinese vegetable triffid plant that totally took over their entire front lawn and made it look a total eyesore, oh well that was until he took to his grass with scissors (I kid you not!!) - I mean come on, how many have had that happen to them???

Well here are some Hong Kong funnies:

The other night I started up the shower only to discover there were no towels in the bathroom. Now I suggest you don't picture this as it will potentially hurt your health, but I decided to make the dash out to our small deck where the towels were hanging, the only thing was that I had already taken all my clothes off before I discovered the no towel situation (that is definately the part you want to not imagine!!). In my head I was thinking, noone can see up here, and anyway I don't know anyone in Hong Kong so if anyone saw me big deal....real brave thoughts while standing out on our deck starkers! I was just about to grab the towel when I heard this "arghhhhhh", and I lept back inside behind the ranchslider - not exactly the best hiding place you might think but I was a bit shocked, someone had actually seen me and I had caused permanent damage to them I was sure!! As I hovered by the door trying to work out which neighbour would never be the same again I heard the rest of the sounds coming from outside - I laughed out loud as it was our neighbours parrot that I had offended....he speaks Cantonese so not sure what his other words were but I think we can say he wasn't saying "Polly wants a cracker", probably "arghhh Polly is going to be sick" ha ha!!!

Heres a photo of our small deck by daylight...a naked India is playing out there:



















Better chuck a video in here to keep you all interested in my blog as long winded stories by Donna might not be your cup of tea. This is something that Paul witnessed down in the lobby of our apartment. Our kids were mesmerised by this contraption that housed a small Asian child.



From a Playcentre perspective this is like bottom of the list - totally over stimulating the child while allowing them to be free to fall down stairs in their moving contraption...and you know what is hilarious, they are so safety conscious here in Hong Kong, but they allow these sort of things no prob!

Like the other day our air con unit broke. The man wanted to charge us $4,000 HK dollars to put up scaffolding, and we are on the ground floor!!!! I mean he would have needed my dining room chair to reach the unit from outside (ok, maybe a table and a chair on top, so not that high right) and he wanted to set up scaffolding for safety reasons!

Their favourite words to me as a rather large pregnant woman (they must think I have quads inside me!) - are "careful" as I go through a door, or "gentle" as I step into the lift. If one of the kids runs in the hallway they cringe. When they talk or sing in the library, the wee guard just doesn't know what to do with himself - I mean poor guy, his job is on the line because my child knows the words to "Bob the Builder" and because they are so polite they just hop from one foot to another saying "shhhh, shhhh, shhhh".

Heres a photo to prove just how unweidly I have become:



Paul wanted me to mention that I have taken to calling myself Mrs Paul as it is easier to identify myself this way (they probably don't have the english vocab to understand huge white whale, but if they did then this would be sufficient I am sure!). Paul sees this as a significant step forward in our marriage, I'm surprised he hasn't printed out the scripture about "wives submit to your husbands" for good measure.







And just incase all of that hasn't had you laughing at all, I just can't wait to go back to this place I saw on my walk home from church the other day - it was a clothing store called Wanko, I mean is that some sort of english word that you found somewhere??? Why would you call your shop an english name and not know the meaning of the word!!!! I did wonder if it was my christian duty to go in and inform them that the name of their shop was not good at all....but then again they probably wouldn't understand me and would just think I was complaining that nothing in their shop was a size 16 for me....

Another side effect of living in Hong Kong is India's perception of the correct way to carry her dollies around. She now asks me to wrap a blanket around her so she can carry her dollies inside the blanket, just like all the Phillipino helpers carry the babies around. Here is a photo of her with her dolly all safely wrapped up in her front pack.




















And just as a final farewell join with me in celebrating the development of kids language - here are a couple of fav sayings from my two at the moment:

India refers to her water logged fingers as having "linkles"
Noah tells me he is "full as a tate school"
India has had a few "tickle bites" lately - her version of an itchy bite
And Noah is very concerned about his cousins "inflections" of late, poor Connor had a throat "inflection" for awhile

Thats all folks, farewell from the Crowhurst gang....

Gotta love being a tourist!

Noah had his dream come true, a train that went up a really steep hill - wow Thomas and scary thrills all rolled in together. In Paul's last week of holidays we fitted in as much as one pregnant mum can stand in this heat - one day we went up the Peak Tram, another day we drove off to Big Wave Bay near ShekO - both trips were brilliant!

Man it is hot here at the moment. Around 35 degrees each day, which is hot, but the worst thing is the humidity, who knows what measurement they have for that but I have the drip measure - dripping off your nose is really bad, dripping from the temples is not quite as hot, and dripping under your clothes is normal - well this day was a dripping off your nose day just to put you in the picture.

We got to the Peak Tram before lunch, and hey, wouldn't you know it, a whole lot of people had the same idea as us so we waited in a hot sticky line with India attempting to pull my arm free from my body (gotta love that little balancing act of the toddler - how far can I lean out from mum before she moves or I fall over??).



Finally we got on the train and headed up the hill. The trip only takes about 10 mins but it is awesome! What a great way to appreciate Hong Kong's natural beauty (yes it actually does have some) - as you leave behind the apartments (in itself a really interesting peek into some amazing places to live) you ascend into trees and masses of greenery.


Once at the top we walked around the horrible multi layered shopping mall they have popped up there and finally escaped outside to let the kids play on the playground (this was real nose dripping heat let me tell you!!).



The trip down was a bit nerve wracking as you do it in reverse, ie you descend while facing forward. For those with vertigo it wouldn't be good! But Noah just loved it and the view again was very clear right across to the Dark Side where we live (Kowloon). Once our feet were back on terra firma again Noah promptly asked if we could go up again. We managed to keep the enthusiasm high by promising him that we can take Nana up the tram when she comes in October - so watch out Nana, you are going straight up the hill!









On another day we decided the wonderful weather called for more beach action. We headed off to other side of the island in search of Big Wave Bay. It was a hike but man it was worth it. We parked the car and started walking down the hill. We passed broken this and broken that (reminded me of lots of places in Thailand), then we came to the surf orientated shops that had surf and boogey boards for hire. We wisely chose to hire an umbrella and popped it in the sand only metres from the waves. Glorious cool water was our reward for this rather long journey. The waves were fun, the amateur surfers weren't as much fun to avoid. The kids jumped and played in the water while Paul and I took turns swimming out by ourselves. A rock pool at the base of the surf patrol tower occupied them for an hour or so, then back to the waves again.




Finally the lure of lovely small grain sand meant some digging was required. Somehow Noah became the object to pile sand on and India and Paul took great delight in loading him up.











Finally just his head was showing and India promptly sat on him - the victor! Once our tummies could wait no more we began the hike back up the hill (such a shame to be so hot at the top after being so cool at the bottom of the hill) - and took off in search of a yummy lunch. Another great Crowhurst adventure.

Food, food, food....

So moving to a new country holds lots of challenges - driving (huge for directionally challenged people like myself), making friends (still waiting for that to happen), join new things (life doesn't start here until Sept so we are making our own fun) and food is a huge new area to overcome.

We have been out on 2 food shopping expeditions so far - the whole family involved as it is such an eye opening experience. Our first one took us to what Paul calls "a very local supermarket" - they had good deals on strawberries, but that was the end of their appeal as I perused numerous aisles of oil, noodles and soya sauce. After that shocker we went upstairs to the more international supermarket (but read here slightly more, there is hardly any baking stuff, very little dried fruit, kidney beans in a can are in the special section - you kind of get what I mean). Seriously there is nothing more daunting than looking at some packaging for a good 5 min and you still aren't quite sure what product is held within its confines - hmmmm do you buy it anyway as it could be fun to get home and open it???? Its always great walking through their meat/fish area - you find yummy tidbits like chicken feet (marinated or not - your choice!), all different kinds of jelly (not the bright red kind either), unidentified bits and pieces that you apparently make into a soup of some kind???, any kind of meat that doesn't have an english translation on it is interesting - you think you know your meats until you are faced with it being cut differently and not being labelled, suddenly you can't even figure out how much it weighs let alone what part of the beast it is.....

Anyway the second shopping spree turned out to be much better - we went to a much more international supermarket, and other than the fact that the shopping trolleys are like our kid play ones (I kid you not, that is why asian people are skinny, the shopping trolleys only hold 3 things so they are always hungry@!!) so it took Paul with a trolley, myself and India, we managed to get heaps of our normal food. Now don't get the wrong impression, we are eating dumplings and pad thai and sweet and sour pork, but we just can't do without our home made cereal in the morning, or our raisins for morning tea - and choc chip cookies made at home are the bomb, so it is essential to find ingredients to complete these kiwi yummies.

Cereal making can be dangerous however and here are a couple of photos showing Paul administering home remedies to his burnt tongue (metal spoons used to stir cereal conduct heat - one science experience I hope he remembers!!)

That's peas on the tongue in case you didn't know!

You know how people in NZ can't quite understand why dairy products are so expensive, well I have a bit more sympathy with dairy being expensive in Hong Kong. I mean if they actually said the stuff was from around here I would be skeptical - cows is one thing I haven't seen hide nor hair of since being here - perhaps there are big herds up in the national parks roaming around waiting to be milked....???? Well just to give you an impression of cost of dairy (so you all feel better about buying it in NZ) - we bought a 750g block of Mainland cheese for $90.00 HKD which is about $15.00 NZD and it was on special!!!! Milk is really expensive too, so we are calling some of our cooking trails different names - like Hong Kong choc chip cookies. This is because butter and milk are so expensive that we are using oil and soya milk as substitutes - I need to contact my friends with dairy allergies to find out how to do this dairy free baking! So far the results haven't been so bad......

When I sat down at the computer tonight to write our blog I was flicking through photos and noticed how many we have taken of the kids eating...so thought yeah I will write about food. We had a total shocker the other night, I must have had a total brain lapse when purchasing 3 x broccoli heads. My thought was to make soup, but my mum hat must have been left at home with that decision. Paul made it that night and I thought it was lovely!!



I have never seen both of our kids turn their noses up at a meal, but lets just say there was a whole lot of shivering and whimpering going on. Lots of toast was consumed in an effort to conceal the fact that not much green soup was going down!! I even popped the ultimate carrot on the table to entice them - sliced up watermelon! But no, green soup is a kid nightmare!!!

And just to prove that I can give out treats as well as disasters, heres a photo of Noah recently eating an icecream at home while watching the Misty Island Thomas dvd. He was so enthralled by the movie we had to keep giving him commands to lick every 3 mins or so.

Finally after all the eating is done here are 2 videos showing Paul and kids playing after dinner (the whale isn't allowed to play, she just has to shoot the footage). The first one is rumbles, and the second one is an ode to the All Blacks (the Blacks as Noah calls them).

Ok so some funnies to get you all laughing - the other day we were trying to get to church and I was on navigation using iPhone, Paul was on driving, Noah was on commenting and India on singing. We were doing ok until Paul took a turn....into a bus terminal - it was hilarious...there we were dashing past all the buses and it felt like they were all thinking, "look at that white family, they are so lost" as I just covered my face and Paul uttered things like "oh just help me get out of here fast" and Noah kept saying "whats so funny mum??". Sometimes its great being a foreigner!!

Well the weather just keeps turning out the cracker days for us - its great as we are having a fantastic holiday before Paul goes back to school and real life hits in. The other day we shot off to a beach on the island called Repulse Bay (what a shocking name, like repulsive, not what marketing people would use I am sure). Paul is now telling me why it was called Repulse Bay, something to do with pirates being repulsed out of there or some such story....ok ok, maybe it has some historic value..



Anyway despite the name it was awesome, found a tree (hope some dog hadn't found it before us for morning abulutions!), and headed for the water - great temperature and we happily frolicked around for an hour before heading back to our towels for marmite and chippie sammies - oh the taste of home!. Of course no trip to the beach would be perfect without the mandatory icecream - and aren't you just pleased that the ocean is never far away after kids eat an icecream in 36 degree heat!!














































I am trying to learn to drive in Hong Kong. We have bought a bus, actually to be fair that is a bit sizist, it's really like a minibus....we feel like people are trying to wave us down for a lift....its great for transporting lots of potential visitors around (thats a hint that you are welcome to visit us), and great when Noah needs to stand up and stretch as he can stand up in it no prob, but bad for parking as the car parking designers over here think we all own smart cars. I have told Paul my strategy for parking will be to just take up 2 of the blighters!! That way can't get squashed in by others :) That is how a foreign female solves that problem.





Anyway learning to drive a minibus in Hong Kong has some interesting moments, like when Paul's iPhone ran out of power before we got on the freeway....hmmmmm.....that was pure fun! If your idea of fun is like hitting yourself, running into brick walls or negoitiating full on dense traffic with a husband with no idea where to go and instructions like "get in the right lane, ummm no actually the left lane looks good, quick otherwise we head off to China!!" - at least our kids see how mum and dad cope under stress (one goes really loud and angry (umm thats me), and the other goes matter of fact and patient (thats not me at all). The good part of the story, he really was right, the left lane worked like a charm and we made it home, yeah!!

A couple of day trips

Finally, finally the sun has started shining. I seriously thought it was a joke that it was meant to be summer over here, it had rained every day since we arrived, but the sun has emerged - yeah!!!

We have borrowed a car which is - exciting, nerve wracking, challenging, easier, hot and bothering all at the same time! We took off to investigate some of Hong Kong Island (we live on the Mainland so a 10 min drive to Pauls school on the island). The tunnel under the harbour was Noah's favourite part - loved not being able to see the end! We were both happy to make it through that navigational nightmare with no marks on the car and all passengers in tack!

We popped into Paul's school - nice to meet some people he works with. It's great as we can leave the car there and then shoot off to town easily (its a nightmare parking in central so much easier and cheaper to leave it at his school).

Here is a photo I took on the mini bus we take down to Causeway Bay:



First stop was Ikea (such a great place, such a shame to have to own children when you are shopping there!!!) - after that all of us needed some serious calorie loading after expending so much energy either racing around (if you are 2 or 4 yrs old) or being very grumpy (if you are the old cranky mum). The only option according to dad was McD's - now as a general rule I never enter through the golden arches but this was a once a year treat - my kids have never been inside a McD's before so it was all new to them - of course they loved it much better than the Chinese restaurant we forced them to go to the day before!!!





After that we decided to do a tram ride to the Midlevels escalator (meant to be the longest in the world, however Paul wonders about the validity of this claim as it is broken into parts but still very cool to just keep going up and up and up). The tram ride was great fun - two levels so Noah had to stay and "drive" it downstairs for a while while Paul and India kept calling for us to come up the stairs. A very cheap and fun way to see the city.





Our day ended after the last escalator ride we could find - just jumped in a taxi and raced back to dad's school - 2 kids had a nap through the tunnel and home - a really cool day out and about.




















The next day we took off to Sai Kung which is about 25 mins the other way. This is a small village on the coast - lots of expats live here but it still retains the older style village feel. There are lovely big trees that shade lots of the walkways so makes it much cooler to get around. We watched the ships in the harbour, and were amazed by the fish in the tanks (can't wait to go to that restaurant once I am not preggers - seafood!! yum)



- and finally headed off to the pool. What a great place!!! It had this small hydro slide for the littlies, water guns they can operate and other water things to play with while mum and dad lolled around in wonderful cold water!!! Oh bliss! Heres some photos of our second visit to Sai Kung pool (it was a bit more dramatic on this visit as a boy knocked out one of his teeth on the hydroslide - oh blood, tears...but his mum assured everyone it was wiggly anyway, just a great story to tell his friends)

The transforming apartment

So we have a bigger apartment than some (and much smaller than others) - 1300 sqf, but that includes window sills etc cause we like to perch on them occasionally!!! So apparently if we take out all those handy window sills and shared entrance way we are left with about 1060 sqf to work with. Now imagine a white space, white floors, white walls, white roof, thats our place!!! And then just for fun imagine these lovely dangling crystal bits of glass that hang from the roof in the bathrooms, that my friend is our decorative feature, the point of difference in this apartment. There are no wardrobes, very few cupboards, and the few we have in the kitchen like to fit one bottle of oil that is about as tall as Noah - real handy for food that is of a normal stature - oh and did I mention they are all about ceiling height, and while I applaud them for their use of space, I mean most places don't utilise that ceiling area very well, it does make it difficult for a person of my height to get things in and out of them!

So here we have a white canvas on which to begin creating. I took some photos to show the bleakness of our condition, suitcases, ugly free mats Paul got. I missed out the bed rolls that we slept on for the first week waiting for Ikea to deliver.

KIDS BEDROOM


KIDS PLAYROOM

Because we are kiwis and frugal as a nation we opted to build our own furniture - of course Paul and I saw this as a great bonding experience - he built and I navigated the instructions and sorted nails, nuts and bolts. Quite a good set up for me! I did give my opinion and technical advice more than once which sometimes was received, and sometimes just ignored. We were in good spirits until we almost finished the bed and Paul declared they had sent the wrong one - well all the air went out of us as we contemplated another night on the couch/bed roll. We decided to plough ahead and sleep on it anyway (the mattress was correct) and deal with it in the morning.

Noah got in on the action the next day, helping dad make up his bunk bed. Took all day but Paul can put up one of those in his sleep now as he had to take it apart twice to correct colours and ladder placement :) gotta love the wives like me who are definite in their thinking on these matters.

Old Indi Pindi is still in her broken porta cot (didn't used to be broken but I think Noah jumping in it might have made it age faster than it intended) - just can't face the thought of her moving into a bed of her own - she already takes an hour to go to sleep and thats in a cot!!!

So we are half way there - still the wrong bed for us, the right one is at least a month away so our room still looks like some half way house. The kids sleeping room is looking better - just working on storage - the playroom looks bereft - still waiting on our 21 boxes from NZ - I actually shudder when I think about fitting all that stuff in - I might have to take back my sarcastic comments about windowsills and actually start storing things on them!!

ONE PART OF THE PLACE THAT IS SORT OF FINISHED