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).