1060sqf of fun for Christmas

Getting in the Christmas spirit on the 1st December....

Thats right folks, we had the NZ crew staying over Christmas in our wee apartment....oh the fun we had!!! Lynne was in Tobias' room so she had to live with his cot in her face (the room isn't wider than a cot and single air bed next to each other). She tried several arrangements in there, cot at the side next to the air bed, cot at the back and air bed at the front etc....all because of the loud squeaks the air bed made when it touched the wall, the thing was, there was no configuration that didn't mean the air bed touched the wall - the room is just too darn small!! And then ma and pa were staying in the kids playroom, and well you know grandchildren assume they can do anything anyway, well my parents had to contend with the kids playing in their room, rifling amongst their stuff finding all sorts of interesting things (glasses, presents etc).

But sleeping arrangements aside, we had a blast!!! I had planned a full on timetable, trying to take in all that Hong Kong had to offer (I failed miserably, but I suppose a tummy bug that took us all out for 2 days could be to blame?? or the fact that Hong Kong has so much stuff to do that multiple trips are required hint hint to everyone reading :)

We took them up the peak tram on their first day. Its just great fun trying to fold up a Mountain Buggy and fit it onto the tram. Just imagine trying to fit a people mover into a parking space for a mini - good old Paul, he always gets the security people coming up to him reminding him to collapse it at least 10 mins before the actual event of getting on the tram....they are obviously freaked out by the size of a buggy like this and fear it will get stuck and hold up their tight schedule. But he managed to wrestle it on and Tobias had a brilliant time lying in his Moses basket on our laps while we went up. Unfortunately the weather was not so good so the view was average but still a pretty exhilirating ride. We chose a noodle place for lunch so had some sweaty upper lips and happy campers about how authentic everything was :) Check out the video of Lynne trying to use her chopsticks, notice I am filming rather than being filmed...I am useless with them!!

Believe it or not Hong Kong actually gets quite cold, so we were looking for somewhere a bit warmer to visit next....what better place than a shopping mall - but it was with a very specific purpose (but hey, if you are in a shopping mall you need to shop too right!!) - too visit the best Santa in Hong Kong (or so the chat rooms said). We rocked up to Pacific Place with high expectations....

Santas pad looked pretty impressive, there was a long queue, so we joined in. Thankfully there was a cafe right there next to the queue so we took turns sitting having a drink and acutally manning our place. I was telling everyone that this Santa was flown in from Canada each December just to do this role so he must be the shizz...well we finally got inside and maybe Santa has changed from when I was a kid, or maybe this one was on drugs?? But I had to prompt him with his lines...I mean Noah had been practicing what to say during his long wait in the queue and we were just waiting for the questions "have you been good?", "what do you want?" you know come on, not hard script to follow, but apparently the Santa from Canada just plain forgot and just wanted to put his hand on my shoulder and smile blankly at the camera. Finally I prompted him with a gentle "Do you want to know what he wants for Christmas?"....and Noah turned around and said one word of his speech "Lego" and we were ushered out. When asked by his grandparents how was it, Noah replied "Well I told Santa what I wanted but he didn't say anything" - I should definately go back to the chat room and say the Canadian Santa is a drongo!

Next day - shopping!!!! Oh yes, the girls were in heaven....Ikea etc...Paul had to man the kids at the indoor playground (thanks honey) and we just had Tobias who was very obliging, and only woke up when we got to Starbucks.

The thing is you see, moving that many people around takes time (much to the frustration of my dad who can't seem to understand why little humans take twice as long as big humans to get ready) - so we never seemed to get anywhere early. This proved to be a real big problem on the day we went to see the Reclining Buddha. It is over on Lantau Island so we had the fun of driving over these massive bridges, but that was were the fun stopped. The line to get on the cable car was going be over an hour and with 2 wriggly toddlers that was going to be hell - so we called it a day and whizzed over the outlet malls, yet again the ladies were in raptures. Everyone loved the Espirit store and it was only restless toddlers that forced our exit (mum and I were already talking about when she came back how we would visit there again with no kids next time)

We really wanted to give the parents a Chinese 'experience' for Christmas and toyed with the idea of wonton classes or a Chinese cooking class. Finally we decided on a junk boat ride so Christmas Eve saw us cruising around on the Hong Kong harbour. It was such a lovely thing to do. This ancient teak junk motored (a nod to modernisation) up to the pier and a very small group of us jumped on board. Noah was just old enough to come with us and he was so excited to be aboard a real "pirate" ship. They put up the sails and we had an hours cruise looking both at Kowloon side and Hong Kong island.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve over at our friends house. Apparently it is a custom of theirs to have this big party for those ex-pats still in Hong Kong for Christmas. We all had to do an item (thanks Paul for the reindeer rap you made up)and then we had a lovely festive meal followed by candle lit carols. It was so nice being surrounded by people (and some of them being family) all singing about the real reason for Christmas. We all had such a great time...the kids just loved it as this family has a tramp and lots of lawn for running around.

Christmas Day dawned and we actually all got to sleep in until after 7am as we had the kids up late the night before. Each of them chose one present to open before breakfast and yeah, Noah's pressie took him all morning to construct so we were free to chat, yawn and cook until neally lunch time. India was happy with her dolly and spent all that time either 'helping' her brother with his fire station construction, or attending to her dolly's rather over active bowels (frequent nappy changes were required, always involving number 2's). It was such a relaxing Christmas Day. Only one house to visit. No driving required and we had ordered in the turkey and only had to heat up the ham and cook roast veggies, I think I got out of my pj's around 4pm :) Oh and did I mention the mulled wine was lovely (Tobias slept well that night!)

I had plans for ferry trips out to one of the islands, a small spot of tramping on one of the beautiful walks, visiting Noah's Ark and of course taking in some markets. We got through none of it. Instead we enjoyed shopping at the local shopping centres, great shoes! And all of us didn't enjoy being laid up with something that Lisa called the Hong Kong Dog....the most dreadful tummy bug I have ever seen. Lynne, Mum and I did manage a walking tour of Sheung Wan which was lovely. It is one of the older areas on Hong Kong island so we had fun trying to guess what the weird looking things in the baskets were (dried innards of some animal I think). We found this lovely cafe and just generally enjoyed being kid free for a couple of hours in an exotic location. Of course China has this way of being so very authentic, what with half goat carcasses hanging beside the sidewalk, or sharks fins in baskets outside, or people carrying very long bits of bamboo around just for the heck of it. Funny though, its those experiences, that make a holiday memorable.

Speaking of memorable I forgot to mention about New Years Eve. Dad had flown back by this stage, so now we were down to 4 adults and 1 baby to move around on this big night.  I had booked us into this renown Pekking Duck restaurant which happened to be down at TST (downtown Kowloon ie very, very busy!!!) - what was I thinking??? about the food of course, and the authentic experience.....I was not thinking about the parking, the driving, the crowds...but so glad I wasn't thinking about those things because it would have put me off booking and as it all panned out it was a brilliant night.  Being the every vigilant kind of people they are, the police had put this entire lockdown in place on the roads around where the restaurant was so we were out of luck trying to park close by.  As we were also trying to watch the laser light show Lynne, Mum and I jumped out of the car and left Paul and Tobias to find a car park.  We managed to catch the laser light show which required us to turn 360 degrees continually for 10 mins or so that the show went on - not sure if all the tourists were looking like spinning tops but we didn't want to miss a single beam of light.

After all the hullabaloo settled down we got in contact with Paul and he had only had to park a short walk away - he hadn't accidentially left the sleeping Tobias in the car so we were on schedule to make it to our restaurant at 9pm (they sure do eat late over here :)  It all would have gone smoothly if only we could have A) understood the Cantonese instructions from the restaurant, or B) got our google maps to actually decide where exactly to put the restaurant as the pin it had WAS NOT THE RESTAURANT!!  Got to say its a good night to get lost on, we just wandered around looking at all the lights and people, but finally we saw the road and raced upstairs to partake in a very, very yummy dinner.  We were obviously the waiters comedy show that night as they loved gesturing and running to show us different things we could/should have.  They carved the duck right at the table (half the ruddy thing stayed on the carcass.....we wanted to pick that little quacker to bits but alas they wheeled the little fella off and we never saw any more of him)

The holiday came to an end too quickly.....and we sadly said goodbye....Noah keeps telling India that its not long until we go to NZ (no idea of time yet bless him)....but we will see everyone mid June...

Theres one person who could see the funny side of our farewells....little Tobias.....

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....