So we arrived home after a fortnight in Queensland, and Ellie was delighted to see her room again, and in particular was thrilled to see that all her toys were safe and happy. Even though it was pretty late, she said hello to every single toy and pulled them all out over her rug. She also did a basic inventory of every room in the house, yes the bath was still there and so was the fridge!
Monday was a slow day, and we took our time all recovering and just being glad to be home again. Mike had found us a new apartment in Shimao, and all was looking good to having a relaxed week before heading over to the UK on Friday for the summer holiday. While we were away, he'd started preparing for our move, so many boxes were packed, and some things were dismantled. As far as the mundane parts of returning from holiday go, we unpacked the cases and started the washing. I started packing boxes for some more of the big move too, which we understood would be taking place on our return from the UK.
Tuesday was equally relaxed. We started preparing what we were taking on the next trip and we continued packing up peripheral things for the move. I took Ellie out that afternoon around to a friend's house, whose daughters Ellie had been asking about while we were away. As I sat there quietly drinking tea and talking about Australia, and just having a bit of a relax I had no idea what was unfolding at home...
Mike had finally heard from the real estate agent, who has known since May about all our travel plans, and found out that our current landlord had leased our place again from 1 August, as indeed our lease expired on 31 July. We also found that our new lease at Shimao wouldn't take effect until 1 August - as the school would not pay double rent for even a day! We then asked what suggestions they had as they knew we were going to the UK on Friday! With some negotiation, managed to arrange access to our new apartment to one room on Thursday afternoon, where we could store all our stuff while away. We also had to 'check out' of our current apartment, and graciously they agreed to check us out on Thursday night, but allow us to stay until Friday morning. Phew.
So calmly put Ellie to bed. Then frantically started serious packing - everything, all the plates, cutlery, cooking stuff, the things you do need on a day to day basis. Wednesday was spent packing everything else, but trying to leave Ellie's room appearing outwardly normal until the last minute. Bless our Ayi for staying back for a couple of extra hours to help with cleaning as we finished each room!
Thursday the removalists came at 11am and needed to make 2 trips to our new place. The real estate agent then had the audacity to ask us if she could come earlier to check us out, so she could go home earlier. I really haven't conveyed how poor the service was with these guys... how many times we reiterated that we were travelling, that we had kids to consider, that safety was paramount, that we didn't like brocade wallpaper or heavy Chinese furniture, that we wanted to be walking distance from school, that it needed a full size oven, that we wanted one bedroom to have a single bed (we have settled on just having the 3rd King Size bed removed), etc, etc. I really wish I'd pushed the check out time to later, just to be annoying, but we passed it all with flying colours.
Friday 9am, we dropped the last keys we had in the letterbox and headed out to Pudong airport again... goodbye China, hello Wales!!
PS - about the airport - it was a breeze with 2 adults! Ellie could run around with one of us, and the other sat with Jamie and the luggage...
Thursday 16 July 2009
Wednesday 15 July 2009
... and back again
I was pretty sad to leave Mum and Dad at Brisbane airport. It was a wonderful 2 weeks with them, and they'd been wonderful carers of my darling kids while I completed a week long course in Hervey Bay. Ellie had been pretty cute too, saying to them that she'd "come back quite soon" when they said they were a bit sad she was heading back to China.
My flight to Sydney was lovely, and the views from the plane were stunning, but arriving in Sydney was bedlam. Our only saving grace was a trip on the motorised buggy that drives along the concourse at the airport to get us down to the international transfer section. All went swimmingly until we got off the bus at international - then there was suddenly NOBODY around. We were the last off the bus, and so all other passengers had gone, and the only way to get up was using escalators. There was a lift which was not operational. Ellie is not quite 2 and a half - she hasn't had that much experience with escalators, not enough to do it without holding a grown up hand... what hand could she hold? I was carrying the hand luggage, Big Ted and had Jamie strapped to me... in the end I put the luggage on the escalator, grabbed her, pulled her on, let go and flung the luggage off at the top and then grabbed her arm and lifted - lucky no dislocations!
Then we proceeded through the customs and immigration sections. Ellie had a harness on, something that I've always abhorred, but I needed it for on my own, and I knew it in advance. We were ushered into the 'quick' or 'special assistance' queue, but it was neither. And in the blink of an eye Ellie slipped out of my grip (while holding Jamie, the carry on luggage and Big Ted) and raced into the general queue. I screamed out for her to come back, and a lady in a uniform stepped OUT OF HER WAY. I lost it then. I yelled at the woman why didn't she stop her, with a few choice expletives thrown in for good measure as I barged past banging the carry on into people and dropping Big Ted. Fortunately another passenger in the queue worked out why I was behaving like a lunatic and grabbed Ellie's arm and held onto her until I got there. I then manhandled her (and Jamie, and the carry on) back to our space in the special assistance line retrieving Big Ted along the way. And as I went past the uniformed lady who had let Ellie escape told me she wasn't allowed to touch passengers - GRRRRR, I nearly decked her, fortunately no hand was free.
Through customs finally and got a trolley. Put all carry on and Big Ted into trolley and then hoisted Ellie into the baby seat. Finally felt like I was in some form of control. Then over the loudspeaker: "Paging X, Y and the De Borde Family, recently arrived from Brisbane. Your flight QF129 is awaiting departure. Please go straight to the terminal or contact Qantas ground staff". WHERE WERE ANY OF THE QANTAS GROUND STAFF?? Anyway, ploughed on and reached the gate, where I promptly burst into tears. By now both kids needed nappy changes, I needed something. Then suddenly all these lovely Qantas ladies were around, gave me a glass of water, took my luggage, and assisted me in changing the kids before we boarded.
Finally collapsed into my seat, got kids sorted out, and we were off! Shanghai bound! Luckily for me the lovely family who helped me out on the way over were on our flight home too. So arriving in Shanghai, they were most helpful in herding Ellie in the right direction, as well as making her keen to walk. When other kids are around Ellie is a great little walker, when there aren't she just wants to be carried.
Best bit was coming through into the concourse and seeing Mike. Ellie just ran to him. We were so glad that there were no issues for us with respect to swine flu quarantine, that had been my angst that we would have been locked in quarantine for the 5 days before we headed to the UK!!
I was so happy to have my family together again!!
My flight to Sydney was lovely, and the views from the plane were stunning, but arriving in Sydney was bedlam. Our only saving grace was a trip on the motorised buggy that drives along the concourse at the airport to get us down to the international transfer section. All went swimmingly until we got off the bus at international - then there was suddenly NOBODY around. We were the last off the bus, and so all other passengers had gone, and the only way to get up was using escalators. There was a lift which was not operational. Ellie is not quite 2 and a half - she hasn't had that much experience with escalators, not enough to do it without holding a grown up hand... what hand could she hold? I was carrying the hand luggage, Big Ted and had Jamie strapped to me... in the end I put the luggage on the escalator, grabbed her, pulled her on, let go and flung the luggage off at the top and then grabbed her arm and lifted - lucky no dislocations!Then we proceeded through the customs and immigration sections. Ellie had a harness on, something that I've always abhorred, but I needed it for on my own, and I knew it in advance. We were ushered into the 'quick' or 'special assistance' queue, but it was neither. And in the blink of an eye Ellie slipped out of my grip (while holding Jamie, the carry on luggage and Big Ted) and raced into the general queue. I screamed out for her to come back, and a lady in a uniform stepped OUT OF HER WAY. I lost it then. I yelled at the woman why didn't she stop her, with a few choice expletives thrown in for good measure as I barged past banging the carry on into people and dropping Big Ted. Fortunately another passenger in the queue worked out why I was behaving like a lunatic and grabbed Ellie's arm and held onto her until I got there. I then manhandled her (and Jamie, and the carry on) back to our space in the special assistance line retrieving Big Ted along the way. And as I went past the uniformed lady who had let Ellie escape told me she wasn't allowed to touch passengers - GRRRRR, I nearly decked her, fortunately no hand was free.
Through customs finally and got a trolley. Put all carry on and Big Ted into trolley and then hoisted Ellie into the baby seat. Finally felt like I was in some form of control. Then over the loudspeaker: "Paging X, Y and the De Borde Family, recently arrived from Brisbane. Your flight QF129 is awaiting departure. Please go straight to the terminal or contact Qantas ground staff". WHERE WERE ANY OF THE QANTAS GROUND STAFF?? Anyway, ploughed on and reached the gate, where I promptly burst into tears. By now both kids needed nappy changes, I needed something. Then suddenly all these lovely Qantas ladies were around, gave me a glass of water, took my luggage, and assisted me in changing the kids before we boarded.
Finally collapsed into my seat, got kids sorted out, and we were off! Shanghai bound! Luckily for me the lovely family who helped me out on the way over were on our flight home too. So arriving in Shanghai, they were most helpful in herding Ellie in the right direction, as well as making her keen to walk. When other kids are around Ellie is a great little walker, when there aren't she just wants to be carried.Best bit was coming through into the concourse and seeing Mike. Ellie just ran to him. We were so glad that there were no issues for us with respect to swine flu quarantine, that had been my angst that we would have been locked in quarantine for the 5 days before we headed to the UK!!
I was so happy to have my family together again!!
Tuesday 14 July 2009
From China to Australia...
Last month I embarked on a massive undertaking to take the two littles to Australia on my own. We were flying from Shanghai to Sydney, then to Brisbane. We arrived at Shanghai airport to find out that our flight had been delayed 2 hours due to late incoming plane. No problem, was OK to manage Ellie and Jamie for the extra time, with the added bonus - so to speak - of a dinner voucher, eating always helps fill in the time.
When the 2 hour delay was up, we meandered down to the gate, only to find out that due to a quarantine issue the plane was delayed a further half hour. By this time I had met a lovely lady who was also travelling alone with her 2 kids... her advantage (in my view) was that they were 8 and 10 and understood the delay bit and did not run away like a bat out of hell. My advantage was that these 2 little girls entertained Ellie, whom I could not run after while carrying all our carry on luggage plus Jamie! What was really unfortunate was that the plane was then delayed a further half hour 3 more times - so all up we were delayed for 5 hours!
Getting on that plane was a blessed relief, as Ellie was now contained. Also as it was now after 11.30pm she was also dog tired - so sleep on that trip was constant. I could then focus on how excited I was to be getting back to the west!!
Since living in China, I have held Australia in very high regard. Every time something has caused us some level of difficulty, I have always thought "That wouldn't happen in Australia". I have missed drinking water straight from the tap; I have missed the road rule that it is illegal to hit a pedestrian; I have missed being able to express myself clearly and concisely. Arriving in Sydney, my illusion was quickly shattered.
Herding Ellie through customs to the domestic transfer was awkward. No one official was there to help me, as with two small children collection of luggage off carousel was not easy, I had managed to acquire a Qantas stroller in the international airport, and a lady actually told me I couldn't take it through customs and over to the domestic airport (I decided that I was not going to be shot if I disobeyed that instruction, so I kept it anyway). I was disappointed at Sydney airport for the lack of service, the filth in the toilets and the general state of disrepair. (And it is considered to be owned by my ex-employer which made me all the crosser.)
Arriving in Brisbane was a joy! Mum and Dad were standing at the top of the boardwalk waiting for us to disembark. Finally things were easy - didn't have to worry about Ellie running off (although it took a bit to pry her off Dad's neck), they were there to help with the luggage, and then down to the Gold Coast for a week of relaxation! NOT!
After having had success with getting Jamie's citizenship sorted out, I then proceeded to contact various government organisations to get him included on our Medicare card and apply for the baby bonus. Unfortunately both of these things are unavailable to him. I had understood before we left for Shanghai that we were entitled to the baby bonus, especially as our income test was going to have dropped significantly... what everyone before I left that I spoke to neglected to tell me was that we had to be living back in the country before he is 6 months old - I thought I had language barriers in China! Medicare - again not eligible until he is resident, but once resident will be eligible immediately. At least St George let me open a bank account for him (opened with the AUD equivalent of his modelling job in China)!
We had a family trip to Seaworld - largely for Ellie's benefit. But even this was disappointing - it has been over 15 years since I last went to Seaworld, and I think they have not done any work on it since then! The audio system at the Penguins feeding display wasn't working; the audio at the waterskiing show was dreadful and the show was out of date and had little continuity; the food available was all expensive 'fast food' junk - and Seaworld have the audacity to announce that from 1st July you aren't allowed to bring food in; the toilets / facilities weren't spotless. Having said that we had a good day, Ellie loved the dolphins and the aquarium, and it was her first time having unlimited rides and she particularly enjoyed a Big Bird ride which was only for kids, so she got to go on it alone!
The other thing that bothered me in Australia is the rubbish. If someone drops something, or misses the bin, they leave it. In China litter doesn't seem to exist, but there are people who have jobs that are responsible for keeping a strip of public road clean and tidy, and they are proud of their job and do it well, and for that you see nary a cigarette butt. Similarly public bathrooms.
I had another moment in Coles which made me laugh. I was cooking a Chinese feast for my family and needed some Chinese cooking wine (3RMB in Shanghai) and looking at the selection of Chinese ingredients made me laugh. I remember being bewildered by choice when we first arrived in Shanghai, but now am aware of the slight differences between things and know what I like! I also had an altercation with a checkout boy - I won, but he wasn't happy, and it was all to do with a ten dollar note, and a pile of coins.
There were lots of good things too...
I loved catching up with so many members of my family and lots of friends while we were there. And appreciated the effort that you made to come and see us, especially to meet Jamie.
I loved the beautiful Australian countryside - we drove to Hervey Bay from the Gold Coast and some of the scenery was stunning - the Glasshouse Mountains and all along the Fraser Coast. (No we didn't make it across to Fraser Island - next time.)
I loved breathing fresh, clean air and drinking tap water, and not having a coronary each time Ellie had a sip of her bath water.
I loved driving on the right (read proper, correct, ie left) side of the road, and having a go of Dad's new BMW.
I love the blue skies.
When the 2 hour delay was up, we meandered down to the gate, only to find out that due to a quarantine issue the plane was delayed a further half hour. By this time I had met a lovely lady who was also travelling alone with her 2 kids... her advantage (in my view) was that they were 8 and 10 and understood the delay bit and did not run away like a bat out of hell. My advantage was that these 2 little girls entertained Ellie, whom I could not run after while carrying all our carry on luggage plus Jamie! What was really unfortunate was that the plane was then delayed a further half hour 3 more times - so all up we were delayed for 5 hours!
Getting on that plane was a blessed relief, as Ellie was now contained. Also as it was now after 11.30pm she was also dog tired - so sleep on that trip was constant. I could then focus on how excited I was to be getting back to the west!!
Since living in China, I have held Australia in very high regard. Every time something has caused us some level of difficulty, I have always thought "That wouldn't happen in Australia". I have missed drinking water straight from the tap; I have missed the road rule that it is illegal to hit a pedestrian; I have missed being able to express myself clearly and concisely. Arriving in Sydney, my illusion was quickly shattered.
Herding Ellie through customs to the domestic transfer was awkward. No one official was there to help me, as with two small children collection of luggage off carousel was not easy, I had managed to acquire a Qantas stroller in the international airport, and a lady actually told me I couldn't take it through customs and over to the domestic airport (I decided that I was not going to be shot if I disobeyed that instruction, so I kept it anyway). I was disappointed at Sydney airport for the lack of service, the filth in the toilets and the general state of disrepair. (And it is considered to be owned by my ex-employer which made me all the crosser.)
Arriving in Brisbane was a joy! Mum and Dad were standing at the top of the boardwalk waiting for us to disembark. Finally things were easy - didn't have to worry about Ellie running off (although it took a bit to pry her off Dad's neck), they were there to help with the luggage, and then down to the Gold Coast for a week of relaxation! NOT!After having had success with getting Jamie's citizenship sorted out, I then proceeded to contact various government organisations to get him included on our Medicare card and apply for the baby bonus. Unfortunately both of these things are unavailable to him. I had understood before we left for Shanghai that we were entitled to the baby bonus, especially as our income test was going to have dropped significantly... what everyone before I left that I spoke to neglected to tell me was that we had to be living back in the country before he is 6 months old - I thought I had language barriers in China! Medicare - again not eligible until he is resident, but once resident will be eligible immediately. At least St George let me open a bank account for him (opened with the AUD equivalent of his modelling job in China)!
We had a family trip to Seaworld - largely for Ellie's benefit. But even this was disappointing - it has been over 15 years since I last went to Seaworld, and I think they have not done any work on it since then! The audio system at the Penguins feeding display wasn't working; the audio at the waterskiing show was dreadful and the show was out of date and had little continuity; the food available was all expensive 'fast food' junk - and Seaworld have the audacity to announce that from 1st July you aren't allowed to bring food in; the toilets / facilities weren't spotless. Having said that we had a good day, Ellie loved the dolphins and the aquarium, and it was her first time having unlimited rides and she particularly enjoyed a Big Bird ride which was only for kids, so she got to go on it alone!The other thing that bothered me in Australia is the rubbish. If someone drops something, or misses the bin, they leave it. In China litter doesn't seem to exist, but there are people who have jobs that are responsible for keeping a strip of public road clean and tidy, and they are proud of their job and do it well, and for that you see nary a cigarette butt. Similarly public bathrooms.
I had another moment in Coles which made me laugh. I was cooking a Chinese feast for my family and needed some Chinese cooking wine (3RMB in Shanghai) and looking at the selection of Chinese ingredients made me laugh. I remember being bewildered by choice when we first arrived in Shanghai, but now am aware of the slight differences between things and know what I like! I also had an altercation with a checkout boy - I won, but he wasn't happy, and it was all to do with a ten dollar note, and a pile of coins.
There were lots of good things too...
I loved catching up with so many members of my family and lots of friends while we were there. And appreciated the effort that you made to come and see us, especially to meet Jamie.
I loved the beautiful Australian countryside - we drove to Hervey Bay from the Gold Coast and some of the scenery was stunning - the Glasshouse Mountains and all along the Fraser Coast. (No we didn't make it across to Fraser Island - next time.)
I loved breathing fresh, clean air and drinking tap water, and not having a coronary each time Ellie had a sip of her bath water.
I loved driving on the right (read proper, correct, ie left) side of the road, and having a go of Dad's new BMW.
I love the blue skies.
Monday 15 June 2009
Summer holidays
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… but I’m not writing masses of greeting cards at the moment. I think it is just me that is feeling Christmassy here in Shanghai, but it is helped along by random stores and street music playing Christmas carols – yes, in June.
Jinyang Road, behind our apartment, is a developing commercial area for expats, and to contribute to the ambience there is mostly always some music being played, and frequently this includes instrumental versions of movie and TV theme songs or Christmas carols – when we first arrived here it surprised us, but we just thought that getting organised for Christmas happened early (August) – as it turned out we were wrong, but that’s a whole different story.
But my current Christmas feeling really comes from the Christmas and school year down under. For as long as I can remember, the heralding of warmer weather and lengthening days was one of the indicators that the holiday season was about to kick off. When I was at school, the end of spring meant that we started winding down the academics and spending more time gearing up for the end of year performances, usually with a Christmas theme. When I was at university, the longer days coincided with the end of exams, and the start of the summer drinking sessions outside, and the planning of beachy getaways, usually to someone’s holiday house. When I was at work, the warmer weather meant it was time for catching up with friends, old and new, for “a drink before Christmas”. It always seemed so important to catch up one last time before the start of the new year.
Here in Shanghai, the warmer (read hot, stinky and humid) weather has brought on chats about the upcoming ‘laowai taitai’ (foreign wife) exodus. As a result, the social calendar has filled up as everyone gets ready to say good bye for summer. I have had a traditional Chinese foot massage with a friend who had a baby a week after Jamie, a ladies’ spa day (pedicures, massage and lunch) for the mums from playgroup, we have had dinners with friends, ‘last’ play dates for the kids and constant discussion about who is leaving when, and who’ll be on the same flight, or the next flight, and will we run into you at Pudong airport as we prepare to distribute ourselves across the globe. Prices have even gone up at the Fake Market, as the taitais stock up on gifts for people back home!!
I am glad that my time away is just over 2 weeks away from Mike. A lot of my taitai friends are leaving their husbands here to work through the summer and will be away from them for 6 or more weeks. Oh, the life and holidays of a school teacher! It is a lot for the mums to be sole parent away from home for that length of time, even though most will have their own parents to assist. I think it must be hard to be away from the routine, especially on your own.
I am leaving for Australia on Wednesday, with the kids, we come back for 5 days and then fly to the UK for a month. I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of flying all the way to Brisbane, with a plane change in Sydney on my own with two, one infant and one tearaway toddler. I think it will be a very long 12 hours. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I can’t wait for a trip to Coles and Priceline. I can’t wait to go into a shop and be able to ‘browse’. I can’t wait to feel confident crossing the road. I can’t wait to have no language difficulties. I can’t wait to get my feet in the sand, real sand, not builders sand in a sand pit. I can’t wait to see my Grandma and introduce baby James. I can’t wait for Ellie and Jamie to see their grandparents again. I can’t wait to be back in Australia!
Have a great summer everyone!!
Jinyang Road, behind our apartment, is a developing commercial area for expats, and to contribute to the ambience there is mostly always some music being played, and frequently this includes instrumental versions of movie and TV theme songs or Christmas carols – when we first arrived here it surprised us, but we just thought that getting organised for Christmas happened early (August) – as it turned out we were wrong, but that’s a whole different story.
But my current Christmas feeling really comes from the Christmas and school year down under. For as long as I can remember, the heralding of warmer weather and lengthening days was one of the indicators that the holiday season was about to kick off. When I was at school, the end of spring meant that we started winding down the academics and spending more time gearing up for the end of year performances, usually with a Christmas theme. When I was at university, the longer days coincided with the end of exams, and the start of the summer drinking sessions outside, and the planning of beachy getaways, usually to someone’s holiday house. When I was at work, the warmer weather meant it was time for catching up with friends, old and new, for “a drink before Christmas”. It always seemed so important to catch up one last time before the start of the new year.
Here in Shanghai, the warmer (read hot, stinky and humid) weather has brought on chats about the upcoming ‘laowai taitai’ (foreign wife) exodus. As a result, the social calendar has filled up as everyone gets ready to say good bye for summer. I have had a traditional Chinese foot massage with a friend who had a baby a week after Jamie, a ladies’ spa day (pedicures, massage and lunch) for the mums from playgroup, we have had dinners with friends, ‘last’ play dates for the kids and constant discussion about who is leaving when, and who’ll be on the same flight, or the next flight, and will we run into you at Pudong airport as we prepare to distribute ourselves across the globe. Prices have even gone up at the Fake Market, as the taitais stock up on gifts for people back home!!
I am glad that my time away is just over 2 weeks away from Mike. A lot of my taitai friends are leaving their husbands here to work through the summer and will be away from them for 6 or more weeks. Oh, the life and holidays of a school teacher! It is a lot for the mums to be sole parent away from home for that length of time, even though most will have their own parents to assist. I think it must be hard to be away from the routine, especially on your own.
I am leaving for Australia on Wednesday, with the kids, we come back for 5 days and then fly to the UK for a month. I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of flying all the way to Brisbane, with a plane change in Sydney on my own with two, one infant and one tearaway toddler. I think it will be a very long 12 hours. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I can’t wait for a trip to Coles and Priceline. I can’t wait to go into a shop and be able to ‘browse’. I can’t wait to feel confident crossing the road. I can’t wait to have no language difficulties. I can’t wait to get my feet in the sand, real sand, not builders sand in a sand pit. I can’t wait to see my Grandma and introduce baby James. I can’t wait for Ellie and Jamie to see their grandparents again. I can’t wait to be back in Australia!
Have a great summer everyone!!
Saturday 13 June 2009
International Communities…
It really is an amazing experience living in Shanghai, especially with children. Our daily routine includes a trip to the compound playground most afternoons from about 3.30, until Daddy gets home somewhere between 4.30 and 5.30. Our playground has kids of all nationalities, speaking a diverse selection of languages. We also meet a wide range of expats at our various activities such as music and through other friends.
We, being English speakers, greet the Spanish speakers with ‘Hola’, the French with ‘Bonjour’, the Japanese with ‘Konichiwa’, the Chinese with ‘Hello’ and other English speakers with ‘Ni Hao’.
After 9 months I am finally feeling confident in going into a shop and asking if they have something. And then telling them that my Chinese is not very good and I don’t understand their response, which usually elicits a smile and a very simple answer that they don’t have it, or they show me what I am looking for. It is the best way to learn vocabulary though, for me, to go looking for a specific thing and learn the word for it beforehand.
Once I knew where I was going I quickly built up my taxi speak, but always just told the taxi driver to turn left or right, usually without much notice. Now I am getting quite good at asking them politely, or asking to go to a particular intersection and then just giving the final directions. They all think I am crazy though, as most of the time when I am in a taxi, I have Ellie climbing around like a monkey, and Jamie in his cocoon (which looks like a sports bag) or strapped to me in the baby carrier and the most enormous pram they have ever seen, plus whatever other essential paraphernalia I am lugging around.
At our main gate, we have a lovely lady selling fruit from her bike, and with her help I have slowly learned the Chinese words for the fruit we like, so have apples, bananas, mangos, kiwis and papaya down, grapes are coming into season, so will have to learn them soon. She often sells tomatoes, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me remember that one ever. Xihongshi – I dunno, can’t get it… maybe now I’ve written it down I’ll be OK, but I’ve already looked it up 100 times, so no promises. I have a special sign language, and she knows I mean tomatoes!! The other thing she has been great with is helping me with my number pronunciation.
Our Ayi, Zhu Qing Yun, is also slowly helping me with my Chinese. Although she is a very keen learner of English, and her English is progressing far faster than my Chinese. I am sure though, that Ellie is learning well from her though, and Jamie smiles and laughs when she chats to him, so I bet his Chinese ends up being the best of all of us. [Mental note – mandatory Mandarin classes for the kids when we are home again!!]
I sometimes go to a Pump class on Friday nights, in which I am usually the only non-Chinese. I smile a lot at the instructor so that he thinks I know what he’s talking about, and I hope that I learn all the main muscle groups in Chinese by osmosis. So far I can keep up with the class as much as my poor body can keep up, so I actually have lots of time to make sure that the action matches the demonstrated action, rather than the descriptive action. Two babies and no gym work for nearly 3 years means that my fitness levels are not the highest.
Interestingly to me, since I have started consciously thinking about words in Chinese, I have found that my memory of French and German vocab from school has been jump started, and sometimes when I am struggling to think of how to say something in Chinese, it pops into my head as clear as day in French or German or both, and while I’m not proclaiming to be suddenly fluent in either of these languages, I feel I could definitely express myself as required. (And as demonstrated at station coming home from Nanjing.) I also understand a lot of what other Mums are saying to their kids in these languages, so I must have learned something at school, because I can’t understand those speaking Japanese or Spanish!! However, Dora and Diego have a lot to answer for as far as contributing to the additional language skills of my toddler. Ellie has been picking Spanish at the rate of knots!! I have heard her say sube (when climbing the rope ladder), rapido (when telling me to hurry up), arriba (when wanting to be picked up) and telling me we have to save the river dolphins when we are swimming!!
Another interesting thing is how English differs around the world. I now have a lot of American friends and aside from the basic 'cookies' vs 'biscuits' kind of vocabulary differences, there are a lot of things that are just slightly out of step, for example Americans don't tend to use or understand the concept of a fortnight. I have chatted about this extensively with one of my American friends, and she is determined to draw up a nice table with word variations, and once she has maybe I'll be able to post a link to it here!
I really hope we all become fluent in Mandarin while we are here. It is something I am definitely working on, and making a big effort with!! Will let you know how we go!!
Zai jian.
We, being English speakers, greet the Spanish speakers with ‘Hola’, the French with ‘Bonjour’, the Japanese with ‘Konichiwa’, the Chinese with ‘Hello’ and other English speakers with ‘Ni Hao’.
After 9 months I am finally feeling confident in going into a shop and asking if they have something. And then telling them that my Chinese is not very good and I don’t understand their response, which usually elicits a smile and a very simple answer that they don’t have it, or they show me what I am looking for. It is the best way to learn vocabulary though, for me, to go looking for a specific thing and learn the word for it beforehand.
Once I knew where I was going I quickly built up my taxi speak, but always just told the taxi driver to turn left or right, usually without much notice. Now I am getting quite good at asking them politely, or asking to go to a particular intersection and then just giving the final directions. They all think I am crazy though, as most of the time when I am in a taxi, I have Ellie climbing around like a monkey, and Jamie in his cocoon (which looks like a sports bag) or strapped to me in the baby carrier and the most enormous pram they have ever seen, plus whatever other essential paraphernalia I am lugging around.
At our main gate, we have a lovely lady selling fruit from her bike, and with her help I have slowly learned the Chinese words for the fruit we like, so have apples, bananas, mangos, kiwis and papaya down, grapes are coming into season, so will have to learn them soon. She often sells tomatoes, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me remember that one ever. Xihongshi – I dunno, can’t get it… maybe now I’ve written it down I’ll be OK, but I’ve already looked it up 100 times, so no promises. I have a special sign language, and she knows I mean tomatoes!! The other thing she has been great with is helping me with my number pronunciation.
Our Ayi, Zhu Qing Yun, is also slowly helping me with my Chinese. Although she is a very keen learner of English, and her English is progressing far faster than my Chinese. I am sure though, that Ellie is learning well from her though, and Jamie smiles and laughs when she chats to him, so I bet his Chinese ends up being the best of all of us. [Mental note – mandatory Mandarin classes for the kids when we are home again!!]
I sometimes go to a Pump class on Friday nights, in which I am usually the only non-Chinese. I smile a lot at the instructor so that he thinks I know what he’s talking about, and I hope that I learn all the main muscle groups in Chinese by osmosis. So far I can keep up with the class as much as my poor body can keep up, so I actually have lots of time to make sure that the action matches the demonstrated action, rather than the descriptive action. Two babies and no gym work for nearly 3 years means that my fitness levels are not the highest.
Interestingly to me, since I have started consciously thinking about words in Chinese, I have found that my memory of French and German vocab from school has been jump started, and sometimes when I am struggling to think of how to say something in Chinese, it pops into my head as clear as day in French or German or both, and while I’m not proclaiming to be suddenly fluent in either of these languages, I feel I could definitely express myself as required. (And as demonstrated at station coming home from Nanjing.) I also understand a lot of what other Mums are saying to their kids in these languages, so I must have learned something at school, because I can’t understand those speaking Japanese or Spanish!! However, Dora and Diego have a lot to answer for as far as contributing to the additional language skills of my toddler. Ellie has been picking Spanish at the rate of knots!! I have heard her say sube (when climbing the rope ladder), rapido (when telling me to hurry up), arriba (when wanting to be picked up) and telling me we have to save the river dolphins when we are swimming!!
Another interesting thing is how English differs around the world. I now have a lot of American friends and aside from the basic 'cookies' vs 'biscuits' kind of vocabulary differences, there are a lot of things that are just slightly out of step, for example Americans don't tend to use or understand the concept of a fortnight. I have chatted about this extensively with one of my American friends, and she is determined to draw up a nice table with word variations, and once she has maybe I'll be able to post a link to it here!
I really hope we all become fluent in Mandarin while we are here. It is something I am definitely working on, and making a big effort with!! Will let you know how we go!!
Zai jian.
Friday 5 June 2009
Long weekend
I love long weekends, even though I don’t actually go off to work anymore, because it means Mike is around and spending time with me and our beautiful kids. Back home I might not have known the deep history of each holiday (although I probably did), but I instinctively knew each one, and when to expect the next holiday or long weekend. Here in China, public holidays just seem to pop up… and instead of just being an excuse for a camping trip or even just a BBQ each ‘holiday’ seems to be associated with a physical celebration, a celebratory food, ‘something’ going on, and usually fireworks!
The fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calendar is known as the ‘Double Fifth’ or Duan Wu. It is the Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the festivities on the Zhangjiabang River behind us from our balcony. It was particularly exciting to watch the Chinese version of High 5 performing, and Ellie and I were out there on the balcony copying all the actions!! Fortunately some were in English as well, so we knew when to spin, touch our toes and reach for the sun!
Mike also had 2 days left of paternity leave which had to be taken before the end of the school year, so made it a nice long break, so we jumped on a train and went to Nanjing. For parents of 2 small children we were a bit spontaneous, because we didn't book anything before we left... We turned up at the station and managed to catch a train, then when we got off the train in Nanjing we just started walking in the direction we thought the hotels would be!! Unfortunately the walk in prices were too high (asking RMB1700 per night at Sofitel), so Mike used my phone as a modem and connected his computer to the internet and booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza (RMB712 per night including breakfast!). We had a great couple of days - walked everywhere - around the lake, went to the Confucian Temple, and wandered around the tourist precinct, to Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum, and the site of the Nanjing Massacre (by the Japanese). Then, got train home again.
I had a bit of a language challenge waiting for the train to come home again... An older Chinese guy was looking at our double decker pram and then said to me "parlez vous francais?" I responded "un petit petit peu". Then he said he didn't speak English, so calling on my Year 9 French I managed to tell him that the kids ages, their names and which was a girl and boy, that Mike is a teacher in a school and that we were not Canadian but Australian and had been living in Shanghai since last August. My poor brain was quite fried by the end of it, because he was translating his French questions into Chinese to about 5 Chinese women also looking at our 2 sleeping kids, and so I translated my answers into Chinese as well. I was really quite impressed with myself, and Mike was just looking at me quite bewildered, and unfortunately couldn’t help me when I struggled with a word in both languages. The guy was a French professor at a Uni that was neither in Shanghai or Nanjing, but I am not sure where!
Nanjing was all very interesting, but I think what was nicest was just being about as a family. Getting out for a day’s excursion is something we do so rarely at home, that I think having 3 days in a row where we did stuff out of the house really made an impact. We even managed to have a “grown up” lunch when the kids were asleep in the pram.
The fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calendar is known as the ‘Double Fifth’ or Duan Wu. It is the Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the festivities on the Zhangjiabang River behind us from our balcony. It was particularly exciting to watch the Chinese version of High 5 performing, and Ellie and I were out there on the balcony copying all the actions!! Fortunately some were in English as well, so we knew when to spin, touch our toes and reach for the sun!
Mike also had 2 days left of paternity leave which had to be taken before the end of the school year, so made it a nice long break, so we jumped on a train and went to Nanjing. For parents of 2 small children we were a bit spontaneous, because we didn't book anything before we left... We turned up at the station and managed to catch a train, then when we got off the train in Nanjing we just started walking in the direction we thought the hotels would be!! Unfortunately the walk in prices were too high (asking RMB1700 per night at Sofitel), so Mike used my phone as a modem and connected his computer to the internet and booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza (RMB712 per night including breakfast!). We had a great couple of days - walked everywhere - around the lake, went to the Confucian Temple, and wandered around the tourist precinct, to Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum, and the site of the Nanjing Massacre (by the Japanese). Then, got train home again.I had a bit of a language challenge waiting for the train to come home again... An older Chinese guy was looking at our double decker pram and then said to me "parlez vous francais?" I responded "un petit petit peu". Then he said he didn't speak English, so calling on my Year 9 French I managed to tell him that the kids ages, their names and which was a girl and boy, that Mike is a teacher in a school and that we were not Canadian but Australian and had been living in Shanghai since last August. My poor brain was quite fried by the end of it, because he was translating his French questions into Chinese to about 5 Chinese women also looking at our 2 sleeping kids, and so I translated my answers into Chinese as well. I was really quite impressed with myself, and Mike was just looking at me quite bewildered, and unfortunately couldn’t help me when I struggled with a word in both languages. The guy was a French professor at a Uni that was neither in Shanghai or Nanjing, but I am not sure where!
Nanjing was all very interesting, but I think what was nicest was just being about as a family. Getting out for a day’s excursion is something we do so rarely at home, that I think having 3 days in a row where we did stuff out of the house really made an impact. We even managed to have a “grown up” lunch when the kids were asleep in the pram.
Sunday 24 May 2009
Day trip to Sheshan
Last Friday, some friends who live in our compound suggested that we go on a day trip out to Sheshan, where there is a huge park with loads of activities for kids. It sounded fantastic – we arranged to meet the following morning and would work out logistics then.
In the interim, a rain forecast nearly put us off, but a “let’s wait and see what tomorrow looks like rather than rely on the weather bureau” meant that we were up and in the direction of ready to go on Saturday morning. Our kind neighbours did some maths and decided that we could all squash into their Buick van. Thanks to the lack of overloading laws in China we managed to fit in 6 adults, 5 children and a dog as passengers. This was not too bad as it meant that each adult held a child (usually one of their own) or a dog, heaps of space – we could have easily had another couple of dogs there, and maybe another child! Anyway, cozy it was, so lucky we’re all friends.
Sheshan is about 30km south west of Shanghai, and it is the only part of Shanghai that there actually is a significant hill. On the top of this hill is a Catholic Cathedral, called Our Lady of China where services are actually conducted in Latin. There is also a big radio telescope out here, which is part of the international Very Long Baseline Inferometry project (as is 'The Dish'). It was not either of these attractions though which was our Sheshan destination. We were headed to the 
Shanghai Sculpture Park, which is almost 90 hectares surrounding Yue Hu (Moon Lake) and bordered by the Sheshan Mountains, beautiful open space. Felt great to be out there, and not be able to see buildings in all directions!!
The park is divided by seasons into 4 sections, and not surprisingly we headed to the Summer section, which is basically a water park. There is a beach on the lake, with lovely sand (compared to that in our sandpit) and sculptures all along the beach, and a huge pool with fountains, bridges, islands and waterfalls,
and all less than 60cm deep, so perfect for the little people. Ellie loved playing in the water and actually was in for about 3 hours, until her lips were turning blue. She was completely disinterested in lunch, and just wanted to stay in the water splashing and swimming. Mike and I took turns in being in the water with her, and drying out on the pretext of looking after Jamie. The other kids were in and out and entertained her as well. Other activities included climbing into an enormous tree house, which was really only offered as a bribe to get the kids dry, and some climbing nets, in which I felt really uncoordinated, but the kids managed to scamper across.
We then piled back into the car for the trip back home. Unfortunately additional traffic made the trip a bit longer, and with tired kids who weren’t strapped down, it was harder to keep them contained. There is a lot to be said for compulsory childseats, besides the safety aspect! When we arrived home, some other neighbours were watching open mouthed as we just kept climbing out of the van – it was like those
Guinness Book of Records attempts squashing people into a Mini… we just seemed to keep on coming!
As it turned out, the day was perfect, not so hot and sunny that we were all fried after a day in the sun, and also not so hot and sunny that it drew an enormous Shanghai crowd, which also meant that our kids were not bombarded with paparazzi, so a bit of a holiday for them too!
In the interim, a rain forecast nearly put us off, but a “let’s wait and see what tomorrow looks like rather than rely on the weather bureau” meant that we were up and in the direction of ready to go on Saturday morning. Our kind neighbours did some maths and decided that we could all squash into their Buick van. Thanks to the lack of overloading laws in China we managed to fit in 6 adults, 5 children and a dog as passengers. This was not too bad as it meant that each adult held a child (usually one of their own) or a dog, heaps of space – we could have easily had another couple of dogs there, and maybe another child! Anyway, cozy it was, so lucky we’re all friends.
Sheshan is about 30km south west of Shanghai, and it is the only part of Shanghai that there actually is a significant hill. On the top of this hill is a Catholic Cathedral, called Our Lady of China where services are actually conducted in Latin. There is also a big radio telescope out here, which is part of the international Very Long Baseline Inferometry project (as is 'The Dish'). It was not either of these attractions though which was our Sheshan destination. We were headed to the 
Shanghai Sculpture Park, which is almost 90 hectares surrounding Yue Hu (Moon Lake) and bordered by the Sheshan Mountains, beautiful open space. Felt great to be out there, and not be able to see buildings in all directions!!The park is divided by seasons into 4 sections, and not surprisingly we headed to the Summer section, which is basically a water park. There is a beach on the lake, with lovely sand (compared to that in our sandpit) and sculptures all along the beach, and a huge pool with fountains, bridges, islands and waterfalls,
and all less than 60cm deep, so perfect for the little people. Ellie loved playing in the water and actually was in for about 3 hours, until her lips were turning blue. She was completely disinterested in lunch, and just wanted to stay in the water splashing and swimming. Mike and I took turns in being in the water with her, and drying out on the pretext of looking after Jamie. The other kids were in and out and entertained her as well. Other activities included climbing into an enormous tree house, which was really only offered as a bribe to get the kids dry, and some climbing nets, in which I felt really uncoordinated, but the kids managed to scamper across.We then piled back into the car for the trip back home. Unfortunately additional traffic made the trip a bit longer, and with tired kids who weren’t strapped down, it was harder to keep them contained. There is a lot to be said for compulsory childseats, besides the safety aspect! When we arrived home, some other neighbours were watching open mouthed as we just kept climbing out of the van – it was like those
Guinness Book of Records attempts squashing people into a Mini… we just seemed to keep on coming!As it turned out, the day was perfect, not so hot and sunny that we were all fried after a day in the sun, and also not so hot and sunny that it drew an enormous Shanghai crowd, which also meant that our kids were not bombarded with paparazzi, so a bit of a holiday for them too!
Tuesday 19 May 2009
The Great FireWall of China
I’ve hit a little snag. My updates to Blogger are no longer quite so straightforward. The Great FireWall of China has decided that a number of Weblogging sites are bubbling pots of risk and so internet censorship is rife! Basically anything with links to Tibet, Taiwan or the Tian’anmen Massacre are censored, interestingly they will show up on internet searches, but clicking the link prompts a connection reset message. As the 20th anniversary of the Tian’anmen Massacre is fast approaching, it comes as no surprise that Blogger is temporarily down.
Interestingly to me, having such strong censorship makes me more interested in reading up on these things, YouTube is also blocked, and I miss looking for fun children friendly clips for Ellie. I am definitely keen to try and find the video on the protesters, so it’s lucky that I’m coming to Australia soon!
I now feel really technologically advanced, as I am now somehow connected to a proxy server in the States. But connection is slow (even slower than regular China Broadband), so I’ll reserve it for just the bare minimum!!
Interestingly to me, having such strong censorship makes me more interested in reading up on these things, YouTube is also blocked, and I miss looking for fun children friendly clips for Ellie. I am definitely keen to try and find the video on the protesters, so it’s lucky that I’m coming to Australia soon!
I now feel really technologically advanced, as I am now somehow connected to a proxy server in the States. But connection is slow (even slower than regular China Broadband), so I’ll reserve it for just the bare minimum!!
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Cinco de Mayo
I love living in an international community, because of the opportunity of learning about different cultures and celebrations all around the world. So this weekend has been a good one for us, as Friday (1st May) was Labour Day here, coinciding with May Day in the UK. Being a public holiday, was particularly lovely as it meant Mike had a three day weekend.
To make the most of the extra weekend day, we took the plunge and got ourselves organised and out of the house. For some reason, it actually takes us longer to get out of the house when Mike is home and technically available to help organise the kids, than it does when I'm on my own... I am not sure why. Anyway, our big excursion was to the Yuyuan Gardens - somewhere so pretty I was keen to see it in spring, and also have been pushing for Mike to go there!! We got the train to Lujiazui, then walked down to the ferry terminal (not really close) and
got the open ferry across the Huangpu River, then walked through some alleys and past another park before we reached the Yuyuan Gardens.
I'd like to explain about the open ferry - there are two ferries which cross the river, one is airconditioned and only carries passengers and costs 2RMB (40c) per trip, it drops you quite close to the Bund, the big tourist attraction of Shanghai, and the other one is open air (it has a roof, but no sides) and carries passengers and their bikes (motor, pedal or electric powered) and cost 5 jiao (10c) for a passenger only. Kids under 1.2m are free, so the four of us crossed the river with our pram for 1RMB - what a bargain. Personally I preferred the fresh air and the real feeling of being on a boat, and our double decker pram caused a reasonable level of commotion, but I was a bit concerned that someone's scooter would fall on our pram and cause damage to those travelling within.
The open ferry drops you off a bit further away from the tourist area, but it was technically closer to where we were heading. We then meandered through a number of streets where the stores were overflowing onto the footpaths, and along an alley, reminiscent of the Hutongs in Beijing for their community feel. Mike and I had a little snack of some dumplings on the way - we really have become addicted to dumplings, but although tasty, these ones didn't rate in the best ever comp.
As we got closer and closer to the Yuyuan Gardens the sense that China was on holidays got stronger and stronger. There were people everywhere! We went into the Gardens and it was beautiful. The azaleas were blooming, and compared to my visit in February the garden was alive, as opposed to just waking from winter. I think having the sun shining, and warmth in the air made a difference too.
Ellie was attracted to a little girl in the garden because she had a heart on her T-shirt. The two of them were standing, and dancing, and playing on a pedestal that one of the temples is built on, and subsequently the two of them were photographed by more than 50 onlookers. It really was very cute, and lots of curious people came over to look at our pram, which is quite different to the standard prams available here, only to be blown away by "didi" (little brother) hiding in the back.
We meandered back to the river and headed home, this time crossing the river in air conditioned comfort! We met some friends for dinner at Latina, a Brazillian restaurant inside our nearest fake market. It was here that we had an early margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a Mexican holiday commemorating the Mexican army's defeat of the French Army which had been undefeated for >50 years at the Battle of Puebla in 1862). This holiday celebration has crossed the borders into the States, with the number of Mexicans who have moved, and subsequently my American friends have introduced me to this too!
I'm not sure what the greeting is officially, if indeed there is one. So hope the following causes no offence:
¡Salud! - Cinco De Mayo!!
To make the most of the extra weekend day, we took the plunge and got ourselves organised and out of the house. For some reason, it actually takes us longer to get out of the house when Mike is home and technically available to help organise the kids, than it does when I'm on my own... I am not sure why. Anyway, our big excursion was to the Yuyuan Gardens - somewhere so pretty I was keen to see it in spring, and also have been pushing for Mike to go there!! We got the train to Lujiazui, then walked down to the ferry terminal (not really close) and
got the open ferry across the Huangpu River, then walked through some alleys and past another park before we reached the Yuyuan Gardens.I'd like to explain about the open ferry - there are two ferries which cross the river, one is airconditioned and only carries passengers and costs 2RMB (40c) per trip, it drops you quite close to the Bund, the big tourist attraction of Shanghai, and the other one is open air (it has a roof, but no sides) and carries passengers and their bikes (motor, pedal or electric powered) and cost 5 jiao (10c) for a passenger only. Kids under 1.2m are free, so the four of us crossed the river with our pram for 1RMB - what a bargain. Personally I preferred the fresh air and the real feeling of being on a boat, and our double decker pram caused a reasonable level of commotion, but I was a bit concerned that someone's scooter would fall on our pram and cause damage to those travelling within.
The open ferry drops you off a bit further away from the tourist area, but it was technically closer to where we were heading. We then meandered through a number of streets where the stores were overflowing onto the footpaths, and along an alley, reminiscent of the Hutongs in Beijing for their community feel. Mike and I had a little snack of some dumplings on the way - we really have become addicted to dumplings, but although tasty, these ones didn't rate in the best ever comp.
As we got closer and closer to the Yuyuan Gardens the sense that China was on holidays got stronger and stronger. There were people everywhere! We went into the Gardens and it was beautiful. The azaleas were blooming, and compared to my visit in February the garden was alive, as opposed to just waking from winter. I think having the sun shining, and warmth in the air made a difference too.
Ellie was attracted to a little girl in the garden because she had a heart on her T-shirt. The two of them were standing, and dancing, and playing on a pedestal that one of the temples is built on, and subsequently the two of them were photographed by more than 50 onlookers. It really was very cute, and lots of curious people came over to look at our pram, which is quite different to the standard prams available here, only to be blown away by "didi" (little brother) hiding in the back.We meandered back to the river and headed home, this time crossing the river in air conditioned comfort! We met some friends for dinner at Latina, a Brazillian restaurant inside our nearest fake market. It was here that we had an early margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a Mexican holiday commemorating the Mexican army's defeat of the French Army which had been undefeated for >50 years at the Battle of Puebla in 1862). This holiday celebration has crossed the borders into the States, with the number of Mexicans who have moved, and subsequently my American friends have introduced me to this too!
I'm not sure what the greeting is officially, if indeed there is one. So hope the following causes no offence:
¡Salud! - Cinco De Mayo!!
Saturday 25 April 2009
Anzac Day
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.
This morning, the first morning ever of me waking up with two kids to look after with no Mike, (who is in Hong Kong on a work conference) I managed to get out of the house by 8.15, to go to the Anzac Day Service at the Consul General's Residence in Shanghai. Lucky it wasn't a dawn service!!
Fortunately we were given a lift by a friend who lives in the same complex as us, but getting Jamie and Ellie organised and managed is no small task, especially with only one set of hands!! But as we are heading towards summer now, the kids are waking up with the sun, which is before 6am - I now really appreciate the merits of daylight saving in the morning - so we had plenty of time to get organised, and being methodical helps things happen!!Dressed Jamie up in a gorgeous Blinky Bill outfit, which actually was Made in Australia, so felt it appropriate national costume for him. Then back into his cocoon for easy transportability!!
The service was held in the garden of the Consul General's Residence in Puxi, and we were blessed with a beautiful spring day, mild and sunny. The garden was lovely, with azaleas in bloom and a lovely Japanese maple. The Last Post was played from the balcony and was as expected very moving. Singing Advance Australia Fair was really special, and it actually sounded good!!I felt very patriotic this morning, and realise in living away, how much Australia means to me.
Thank you to all our servicemen and women for looking after our shores and keeping Australia peaceful.
Happy Anzac Day to all Aussies and Kiwis!!
Thursday 16 April 2009
Beijing
Our long anticipated trip to Beijing has finally happened!! It was planned (to a certain degree) long before Jamie was born, but definitely included him. Beijing was our choice destination for a number of reasons:
1. You can’t live in China and not go to Beijing.
2. You can’t live in China and not see the Great Wall, and easiest visitation for this is from Beijing.
3. Travelling with an infant to a big city is more sensible than travelling with an infant to a more remote location.
So, Beijing it was!!
We arrived at Beijing Capital Airport, and thought we should catch the fast train into town – seemed straight forward enough, and another vote for doing so was that both kids were asleep in the pram… We mapped out the fast train, and then the Metro trains and changes required and it all seemed pretty easy, and all went to plan until we went down the wrong set of escalators to Line 13 instead of Line 2, at the first Metro station. I’d even managed to buy our train tickets speaking Mandarin!! In Beijing, as in Shanghai, escalators only seem to go one way, and while it is mostly UP, this time they only went DOWN, a long way. So there we were on the platform for Line 13, when we needed to be on the platform for Line 2. I asked the lady guard in a combination of English, a few words of Mandarin and a lot of sign language and gesticulation, if they could turn one of the two escalators around, so we could go back up… alas, although this was understood, it was not possible. However, they were most helpful and arranged for 5 big strong male guards to come and help us with the fully laden pram, our backpack and our carry on bags. As expected, when Jamie was spotted in the pram as well there was much commotion. When we were back at the top, we saw a very clear sign pointing to Line 2, so felt a bit silly. Anyway, we were escorted right to the next platform, and put on the train – ‘Get rid of them’!!
We met up with Wendy, one of the Mums from my Mums Group back home in Sydney. It was so exciting to catch up with her all the way over here in China. Wendy took us for a rickshaw tour of the Beijing Hutongs, and it was great because the rickshaw drivers were very knowledgeable in the history of the Hutongs, but don’t speak English, so Wendy was able to translate it all for us. The Hutongs were very interesting and provided a good insight to the community lifestyle, surrounding a central well, that used to be prevalent. The alleys are very narrow, and in some cases cars couldn’t fit through. The homes of noblemen were built around a central courtyard, and we visited one which although was still being lived in by an ‘ordinary’ family was open to the public. These homes are called siheyuan which means 4 sided courtyards, and I really loved the idea of having a courtyard in the middle of the house, essentially with a main room on each side of the courtyard.
The highlight of the trip was definitely visiting the Great Wall of China – and it sure is a great wall.
We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, which is just 51km from Beijing, and for us was most recognisable as the bit where the Mens Olympic Road Race had circuited, there were a number of bridges, tunnels and other landmarks we remembered from watching the race last year. Badaling is the most accessible part of the Wall, and accordingly was packed with tourists. The scenery was stunning, it was on a very steep mountain and to reach the wall we hopped in a cable car. The wall really does snake off into the distance and was far more impressive than I imagined. Our photos don’t really do it justice! Climbing the wall was hard work, and Mike and I balanced our load reasonably evenly – he carried a 6kg Jamie constantly, and I carried a 12kg Ellie intermittently – she did astoundingly well with her walking and climbing, but did need some regular rests and lots of help as the terrain was slippery and very steep at times.
We had opted to make life easy for ourselves and had hired a private car, driver and guide. This was good for a couple of reasons –
1. Our crying/whinging children wouldn’t upset anyone else.
2. If it all went pear shaped we could get back in the car and go home again, without having to wait for the rest of the tour group.
As it turned out, James slept the whole way there, and back, and overall Ellie wasn’t a terrible passenger, and only cried when she was battling falling asleep – why do children fight sleep so vehemently? Mike and I also managed a few catnaps along the way.
That night, Mike and Ellie went to see the Beijing Acrobats, and Ellie loved it!! When we first arrived in Shanghai we went to see a performance of acrobats with a group of people from Mike’s work, and everyone was astounded at how Ellie could stay awake and enthusiastically watch every act!! She even cried at the end wanting the show to go on. Well 7 months later, she did it again. The show took her breath away. The following morning she could even tell me all about it – her favourite acts were acrobats on bicycles and those jumping on seesaws. Now, even a week later she is still climbing on chairs and when we ask her to get down, declares that she is an acrobat!
We explored the Forbidden City, which is enormous. A number of ‘tour guides’ were touting their services and offering loads of information about the highlights of the Forbidden City, but we decided to go it alone. Having the pram was not going to make going through all the palace buildings particularly easy, especially as even the courtyards were all cobbled as well. The crowd here was also quite large, and mostly was made up of tour groups
– ingeniously to keep the tour groups together they all had distinctive hats – it was funny to see groups of hats, eg colour coded hats and caps, even NY baseball caps and Burberry bucket hats, en masse. The gardens in the Forbidden City were stunning – and with spring having just sprung were resplendent with blossoms and new growth.
On our last day we visited Tian’anmen Square. I don’t think I was prepared for the vastness of this public space, it’s 800m by 500m and supposedly can hold 1 million people. It really is quite spectacular, with the Monument to the Peoples Heroes in the centre, Mao’s Mausoleum at the top and imposing stately buildings on each side, and then the contrast with the traditional (except for the portrait of Mao) Tian’anmen Gate into the Forbidden City.
As usual, Ellie attracted a crowd, and at all these amazing sights, I wonder what was more photographed. Ellie was tolerant initially, but her patience does wear thin when strangers are constantly touching her hair and face, and trying to pick her up. She picked up a new Chinese phrase on this trip – Bu Yao – 
which means ‘don’t want’, and learned that she could use it when people started invading her space, and they actually would back off. She became quite definite about when she would and wouldn’t have her photo taken, and would cover her face with her hands. It actually made it a bit tricky for us to take her picture too!! I think our guide at the Great Wall was secretly
really pleased that she had ‘free access’ to Ellie in the course of the day, and was very helpful in discouraging others from mauling the poor little girl.
We were quite the freak show when people realised that our pram was carrying two babies, and little Jamie would get lots of attention too, fortunately due to the hot weather we had the sun shade over the pram and as a result he was well hidden most of the time. It constantly surprises me in China how babies and small children are admired by everyone, but particularly by middle-aged to older men.
The culinary highlight of our trip was having genuine Peking Duck!! It was delicious!! We ordered half a roast duck, and the chef brought a whole roast duck to our table and with elegant flourish carved up half for us. Exactly half, even half the duck head. Mike declared that the brain and bit behind the eye was quite tasty, but I couldn’t bring myself to try the head. The pancakes, scallions and dipping sauce rounded off the meal perfectly, and the duck – well, yum!
We had a great few days, and proved to ourselves that travel with two kids is possible!! Yay – bring on our summer travel!!
1. You can’t live in China and not go to Beijing.
2. You can’t live in China and not see the Great Wall, and easiest visitation for this is from Beijing.
3. Travelling with an infant to a big city is more sensible than travelling with an infant to a more remote location.
So, Beijing it was!!
We arrived at Beijing Capital Airport, and thought we should catch the fast train into town – seemed straight forward enough, and another vote for doing so was that both kids were asleep in the pram… We mapped out the fast train, and then the Metro trains and changes required and it all seemed pretty easy, and all went to plan until we went down the wrong set of escalators to Line 13 instead of Line 2, at the first Metro station. I’d even managed to buy our train tickets speaking Mandarin!! In Beijing, as in Shanghai, escalators only seem to go one way, and while it is mostly UP, this time they only went DOWN, a long way. So there we were on the platform for Line 13, when we needed to be on the platform for Line 2. I asked the lady guard in a combination of English, a few words of Mandarin and a lot of sign language and gesticulation, if they could turn one of the two escalators around, so we could go back up… alas, although this was understood, it was not possible. However, they were most helpful and arranged for 5 big strong male guards to come and help us with the fully laden pram, our backpack and our carry on bags. As expected, when Jamie was spotted in the pram as well there was much commotion. When we were back at the top, we saw a very clear sign pointing to Line 2, so felt a bit silly. Anyway, we were escorted right to the next platform, and put on the train – ‘Get rid of them’!!
We met up with Wendy, one of the Mums from my Mums Group back home in Sydney. It was so exciting to catch up with her all the way over here in China. Wendy took us for a rickshaw tour of the Beijing Hutongs, and it was great because the rickshaw drivers were very knowledgeable in the history of the Hutongs, but don’t speak English, so Wendy was able to translate it all for us. The Hutongs were very interesting and provided a good insight to the community lifestyle, surrounding a central well, that used to be prevalent. The alleys are very narrow, and in some cases cars couldn’t fit through. The homes of noblemen were built around a central courtyard, and we visited one which although was still being lived in by an ‘ordinary’ family was open to the public. These homes are called siheyuan which means 4 sided courtyards, and I really loved the idea of having a courtyard in the middle of the house, essentially with a main room on each side of the courtyard.The highlight of the trip was definitely visiting the Great Wall of China – and it sure is a great wall.
We went to the Badaling section of the Wall, which is just 51km from Beijing, and for us was most recognisable as the bit where the Mens Olympic Road Race had circuited, there were a number of bridges, tunnels and other landmarks we remembered from watching the race last year. Badaling is the most accessible part of the Wall, and accordingly was packed with tourists. The scenery was stunning, it was on a very steep mountain and to reach the wall we hopped in a cable car. The wall really does snake off into the distance and was far more impressive than I imagined. Our photos don’t really do it justice! Climbing the wall was hard work, and Mike and I balanced our load reasonably evenly – he carried a 6kg Jamie constantly, and I carried a 12kg Ellie intermittently – she did astoundingly well with her walking and climbing, but did need some regular rests and lots of help as the terrain was slippery and very steep at times.We had opted to make life easy for ourselves and had hired a private car, driver and guide. This was good for a couple of reasons –
1. Our crying/whinging children wouldn’t upset anyone else.
2. If it all went pear shaped we could get back in the car and go home again, without having to wait for the rest of the tour group.
As it turned out, James slept the whole way there, and back, and overall Ellie wasn’t a terrible passenger, and only cried when she was battling falling asleep – why do children fight sleep so vehemently? Mike and I also managed a few catnaps along the way.
That night, Mike and Ellie went to see the Beijing Acrobats, and Ellie loved it!! When we first arrived in Shanghai we went to see a performance of acrobats with a group of people from Mike’s work, and everyone was astounded at how Ellie could stay awake and enthusiastically watch every act!! She even cried at the end wanting the show to go on. Well 7 months later, she did it again. The show took her breath away. The following morning she could even tell me all about it – her favourite acts were acrobats on bicycles and those jumping on seesaws. Now, even a week later she is still climbing on chairs and when we ask her to get down, declares that she is an acrobat!
We explored the Forbidden City, which is enormous. A number of ‘tour guides’ were touting their services and offering loads of information about the highlights of the Forbidden City, but we decided to go it alone. Having the pram was not going to make going through all the palace buildings particularly easy, especially as even the courtyards were all cobbled as well. The crowd here was also quite large, and mostly was made up of tour groups
– ingeniously to keep the tour groups together they all had distinctive hats – it was funny to see groups of hats, eg colour coded hats and caps, even NY baseball caps and Burberry bucket hats, en masse. The gardens in the Forbidden City were stunning – and with spring having just sprung were resplendent with blossoms and new growth.
On our last day we visited Tian’anmen Square. I don’t think I was prepared for the vastness of this public space, it’s 800m by 500m and supposedly can hold 1 million people. It really is quite spectacular, with the Monument to the Peoples Heroes in the centre, Mao’s Mausoleum at the top and imposing stately buildings on each side, and then the contrast with the traditional (except for the portrait of Mao) Tian’anmen Gate into the Forbidden City.
As usual, Ellie attracted a crowd, and at all these amazing sights, I wonder what was more photographed. Ellie was tolerant initially, but her patience does wear thin when strangers are constantly touching her hair and face, and trying to pick her up. She picked up a new Chinese phrase on this trip – Bu Yao – 
which means ‘don’t want’, and learned that she could use it when people started invading her space, and they actually would back off. She became quite definite about when she would and wouldn’t have her photo taken, and would cover her face with her hands. It actually made it a bit tricky for us to take her picture too!! I think our guide at the Great Wall was secretly
really pleased that she had ‘free access’ to Ellie in the course of the day, and was very helpful in discouraging others from mauling the poor little girl.We were quite the freak show when people realised that our pram was carrying two babies, and little Jamie would get lots of attention too, fortunately due to the hot weather we had the sun shade over the pram and as a result he was well hidden most of the time. It constantly surprises me in China how babies and small children are admired by everyone, but particularly by middle-aged to older men.
The culinary highlight of our trip was having genuine Peking Duck!! It was delicious!! We ordered half a roast duck, and the chef brought a whole roast duck to our table and with elegant flourish carved up half for us. Exactly half, even half the duck head. Mike declared that the brain and bit behind the eye was quite tasty, but I couldn’t bring myself to try the head. The pancakes, scallions and dipping sauce rounded off the meal perfectly, and the duck – well, yum!We had a great few days, and proved to ourselves that travel with two kids is possible!! Yay – bring on our summer travel!!
Saturday 11 April 2009
Hot Cross Buns
My little oven has excelled itself once more!!! I have just made a batch of Hot Cross Buns which were awesome, even if I do say so myself. Although my dear husband agrees, so I'm not just being conceited.
They rose beautifully, were soft on the inside, just hard enough on the outside, joined together while baking to make those delicious kiss-crusts and although they could have been neater, my crosses didn't separate from the bun or go hard. My Hot Cross Buns looked professional!!
The dried fruit and mixed peel I'd saved from my Christmas pudding was perfect, although I did steep the raisins and sultanas in boiling water for a bit first, as they were initially a bit too dry. I used melted strawberry jam as a glaze on top, and served with lashings of French butter - delicious!!
Hope the Easter Bunny finds you all tonight!! Happy Easter everyone!!
Sunday 5 April 2009
No longer stateless
Zippedee do dah, zippedee day, my oh my, what a fabulous day!! All the paperwork has finally been processed and Jamie has been issued with citizenship and his first Australian passport. Despite being born here, Jamie is not eligible to be a Chinese citizen - so for the first month of his life he was technically stateless, as he wasn't yet an Australian either.
It has been a long drawn out affair, with numerous trips over to Puxi where the Australian Consulate offices are. Before we could apply for his passport he had to become an Australian Citizen by Descent. This involved completing a detailed form, and getting a non-related Australian citizen from a prescribed list of professions to declare that they had known him for at least 12 months… given he was only 3 weeks old, that was a little tricky. Obviously happens all the time, but you’d think that an option of knowing from birth would be on the form too! Also photos, evidence of our marriage, evidence that one of us was definitely an Australian, all had to be included too.
One good thing was that his Chinese birth certificate is in both English and Chinese, so a translation wasn’t required! This also meant that we were able to check what was written when it was issued – imagine if we hadn’t been able to read it, and in 10 years time or something had found that they had said he was female, or had reversed the order of Mike and me as Dad and Mum!
Dad and I took Jamie in to apply for his Citizenship at the Visa office where they issue all kinds of visas to Australia, including standard travel or business visas, and although it was relatively quick waiting times, we didn’t feel special to be Australian already, in fact we were told we were in the wrong spot when we showed our Australian Passports!! It was good having Dad with me to apply for Jamie’s citizenship, as when we put in the application he was only 3 weeks old, and it was good to have the help with the pram, and it was great to have been able to leave Ellie with Mum at home.
Picking up the certificate of his citizenship was not as easy, as I went alone on the train, with both kids, so the pram well loaded up!! The good news was that the certificate was there, when they said it would be and there was not too much negotiation required with the pram. Of course, there are no passport applications at the Visa office, so although you would think that other people who had received citizenship would also need to now apply for a passport, we needed to trek on over to the Consulate to collect an application form. No tiny task with a heavy, fully loaded pram, especially when you consider that Shanghai isn’t really wheelchair friendly. Even though I had everything with me, I couldn’t submit the passport application on the same day as again you need to have a photo endorsed and a non-relative complete a section on the form to declare that Jamie is who we say he is!! So home we went, in a taxi - not quite straightforward as the pram didn't fit in the first taxi, so had to transfer kids between taxis and then all the paraphernalia in the middle of a busy driveway. I'm sure the two taxi drivers were thinking Crazy Taitai!!
A few days later, after completing the form, I headed back to the Consulate to submit the form. Fortunately, a friend down the block had offered to mind Ellie while I did it, and fortunately for her, I managed to get Ellie down for a nap (albeit in the pram) before I left! I carried Jamie in the Baby Bjorn, and it was the easiest attempt yet!! There and back on a train, didn’t have to worry about finding down escalators – easy easy easy!! Submitted the form, and was thrilled when they said that it was all fine, and the passport would be ready to be collected in 2 weeks!! I had been convinced that something trivial would cause it to be rejected – when we applied for Ellie’s and my passports back in Australia they were rejected because our witness had signed and gone outside the designated box!!
Then this week, the day Mike finished school for the term we all went into the Consulate to pick up Jamie’s passport!! It was there, waiting for us just like they said!! Now we just have to get his Chinese Visa so he can leave and re-enter China!! The Australian Consulate even acknowledged that we may need a letter from them to apply for his visa to explain how he came to be here without any record of entry – so we got that on the same day!!
Woo hoo!! Jamie is now an Australian with evidence!!
And having his passport means that we have official photo identification for him on his first flight – tomorrow to Beijing!!
It has been a long drawn out affair, with numerous trips over to Puxi where the Australian Consulate offices are. Before we could apply for his passport he had to become an Australian Citizen by Descent. This involved completing a detailed form, and getting a non-related Australian citizen from a prescribed list of professions to declare that they had known him for at least 12 months… given he was only 3 weeks old, that was a little tricky. Obviously happens all the time, but you’d think that an option of knowing from birth would be on the form too! Also photos, evidence of our marriage, evidence that one of us was definitely an Australian, all had to be included too.
One good thing was that his Chinese birth certificate is in both English and Chinese, so a translation wasn’t required! This also meant that we were able to check what was written when it was issued – imagine if we hadn’t been able to read it, and in 10 years time or something had found that they had said he was female, or had reversed the order of Mike and me as Dad and Mum!
Dad and I took Jamie in to apply for his Citizenship at the Visa office where they issue all kinds of visas to Australia, including standard travel or business visas, and although it was relatively quick waiting times, we didn’t feel special to be Australian already, in fact we were told we were in the wrong spot when we showed our Australian Passports!! It was good having Dad with me to apply for Jamie’s citizenship, as when we put in the application he was only 3 weeks old, and it was good to have the help with the pram, and it was great to have been able to leave Ellie with Mum at home.
Picking up the certificate of his citizenship was not as easy, as I went alone on the train, with both kids, so the pram well loaded up!! The good news was that the certificate was there, when they said it would be and there was not too much negotiation required with the pram. Of course, there are no passport applications at the Visa office, so although you would think that other people who had received citizenship would also need to now apply for a passport, we needed to trek on over to the Consulate to collect an application form. No tiny task with a heavy, fully loaded pram, especially when you consider that Shanghai isn’t really wheelchair friendly. Even though I had everything with me, I couldn’t submit the passport application on the same day as again you need to have a photo endorsed and a non-relative complete a section on the form to declare that Jamie is who we say he is!! So home we went, in a taxi - not quite straightforward as the pram didn't fit in the first taxi, so had to transfer kids between taxis and then all the paraphernalia in the middle of a busy driveway. I'm sure the two taxi drivers were thinking Crazy Taitai!!
A few days later, after completing the form, I headed back to the Consulate to submit the form. Fortunately, a friend down the block had offered to mind Ellie while I did it, and fortunately for her, I managed to get Ellie down for a nap (albeit in the pram) before I left! I carried Jamie in the Baby Bjorn, and it was the easiest attempt yet!! There and back on a train, didn’t have to worry about finding down escalators – easy easy easy!! Submitted the form, and was thrilled when they said that it was all fine, and the passport would be ready to be collected in 2 weeks!! I had been convinced that something trivial would cause it to be rejected – when we applied for Ellie’s and my passports back in Australia they were rejected because our witness had signed and gone outside the designated box!!
Then this week, the day Mike finished school for the term we all went into the Consulate to pick up Jamie’s passport!! It was there, waiting for us just like they said!! Now we just have to get his Chinese Visa so he can leave and re-enter China!! The Australian Consulate even acknowledged that we may need a letter from them to apply for his visa to explain how he came to be here without any record of entry – so we got that on the same day!!
Woo hoo!! Jamie is now an Australian with evidence!!
And having his passport means that we have official photo identification for him on his first flight – tomorrow to Beijing!!
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Mike's Birthday!!
The last one of us to celebrate a birthday in Shanghai... time is certainly ticking by quickly since we moved here in August, and now seven months and a new addition to the family later, it's Mike's birthday!!
As it is also St Patrick's Day, Mike has had a long standing tradition to have a Guinness on his birthday... this year was no exception, but we had his birthday Guinness on Sunday at the Irish Pub in Thumb Plaza. It was a good day to visit the Irishman's Bar as it was the day after the night before - which was the St Patrick's Day ball, so there were a lot of people working through their sins of the previous night... and a bargain offer on Bloody Marys which kept me happy.
So, today my to do list has cake baking, a bit of shopping, some minor redecoration and preparing a birthday dinner all as high priorities... better get cracking!! All of course while juggling the demands of my two beautiful children. I am Supermum.
Happy Birthday Mikey!!
Happy St Pat's Day everyone else!!
Monday 9 March 2009
Jamie's First Month
I can’t believe a month has passed since Jamie was born! It has gone so quickly!! Adapting to life with two kids has been harder than I anticipated – Ellie still needs all the attention that she needed before he was born, and Jamie is also calling out for attention!! I read somewhere that you should deal with the toddler first, because the baby won’t remember anyway… I tend to deal with Ellie first because I can understand what she is saying (for example, screaming “Mummy, save me” compels action far more than just general crying even if ‘save’ is a bit of an exaggeration).
We have had a good lot of help in this first month as Mum and Dad have been here from Australia, and have been most helpful in managing some of the mundane things with Ellie – like getting milk, changing nappies, dressing and most importantly entertaining her when I've been occupied with Jamie. However, as it was also their first trip to Shanghai, sightseeing was also part of our days – and as a result, Jamie has been to more tourist destinations in Shanghai in 4 weeks, than we had seen in 6 months.
In his first week after coming home from hospital, he went to Starbucks, Xintiandi (a reconstructed area of Shikumen houses and alleyways, with smart shops and restaurants), Thumb Plaza for a Sichuan lunch at Western Village restaurant (ref photo - both kids in pram), the local flower and fish market, Carrefour (twice) where you can buy anything from chopsticks to a washing machine plus live turtles for lunch, and was in a taxi which grazed the side of another taxi thus involving a changeover in the middle of our trip and almost in the middle of the road - no small incident when you consider moving the two year old, the baby in a carry cocoon, two back packs, one large stroller with detachable infant seat and two grandparents. No one hurt, but two angry taxi drivers.
The next fortnight was also jam packed with various outings:
Jamie visited the Old City (ref photo - Jamie in cocoon), partook in a Chinese Tea Ceremony at the Huxingting Tea House after crossing the Bridge of Nine Turnings and explored the Yuyuan Gardens. He inspected the Shanghai Planning Museum and picked out our apartment building in the scale model of the city. Roamed around Lujiazui looking at the Pearl Tower shrouded in mist and shopped at Super Brand Mall. He explored the French Concession and played in Fuxing Park, very jealous of his sister on the merry-go-ground. He has behaved himself (unlike Ellie) at various eating establishments including Din Tai Fung, the Shangri La, Western Village, Paul and Starbucks (again and again). He even made his first friend when he met Lulu Clark, born exactly 1 week after him.
His 4th week has seen him meet Pete and his Auntie Marnie and have the whole Pearce clan together again for the first time in 15 months, apply for Australian citizenship, lunch at New Heights at 3 on the Bund, cruise the Huangpu River to the mouth of the Yangtze, stroll along the Bund, have Dumplings and street food in Wujiang Lu, visit the Jing’An Sculpture Park and go to his first birthday party, complete with jumping castle, pinata and enormous chocolate cake!!
Thanks Ellie and Jamie for being great kids!!
Thanks Mum/Grandma and Dad/Bob for all your help these first few weeks and good bye for now!!
Thanks Marnie and Pete for keeping Ellie entertained!!
Thank you everyone for your good wishes and thoughts for Jamie!!
We have had a good lot of help in this first month as Mum and Dad have been here from Australia, and have been most helpful in managing some of the mundane things with Ellie – like getting milk, changing nappies, dressing and most importantly entertaining her when I've been occupied with Jamie. However, as it was also their first trip to Shanghai, sightseeing was also part of our days – and as a result, Jamie has been to more tourist destinations in Shanghai in 4 weeks, than we had seen in 6 months.
In his first week after coming home from hospital, he went to Starbucks, Xintiandi (a reconstructed area of Shikumen houses and alleyways, with smart shops and restaurants), Thumb Plaza for a Sichuan lunch at Western Village restaurant (ref photo - both kids in pram), the local flower and fish market, Carrefour (twice) where you can buy anything from chopsticks to a washing machine plus live turtles for lunch, and was in a taxi which grazed the side of another taxi thus involving a changeover in the middle of our trip and almost in the middle of the road - no small incident when you consider moving the two year old, the baby in a carry cocoon, two back packs, one large stroller with detachable infant seat and two grandparents. No one hurt, but two angry taxi drivers.The next fortnight was also jam packed with various outings:
Jamie visited the Old City (ref photo - Jamie in cocoon), partook in a Chinese Tea Ceremony at the Huxingting Tea House after crossing the Bridge of Nine Turnings and explored the Yuyuan Gardens. He inspected the Shanghai Planning Museum and picked out our apartment building in the scale model of the city. Roamed around Lujiazui looking at the Pearl Tower shrouded in mist and shopped at Super Brand Mall. He explored the French Concession and played in Fuxing Park, very jealous of his sister on the merry-go-ground. He has behaved himself (unlike Ellie) at various eating establishments including Din Tai Fung, the Shangri La, Western Village, Paul and Starbucks (again and again). He even made his first friend when he met Lulu Clark, born exactly 1 week after him.
His 4th week has seen him meet Pete and his Auntie Marnie and have the whole Pearce clan together again for the first time in 15 months, apply for Australian citizenship, lunch at New Heights at 3 on the Bund, cruise the Huangpu River to the mouth of the Yangtze, stroll along the Bund, have Dumplings and street food in Wujiang Lu, visit the Jing’An Sculpture Park and go to his first birthday party, complete with jumping castle, pinata and enormous chocolate cake!!Thanks Ellie and Jamie for being great kids!!
Thanks Mum/Grandma and Dad/Bob for all your help these first few weeks and good bye for now!!
Thanks Marnie and Pete for keeping Ellie entertained!!
Thank you everyone for your good wishes and thoughts for Jamie!!
Saturday 14 February 2009
It's a boy!!!
Ellie, Mike and I are thrilled to announce the birth of
James Michael De Borde
Jamie was born on Monday 9th February, 2009 at 2.18am
at the Shanghai East International Medical Centre
He weighed in at a very healthy 4kg and was 51cm long
James Michael De Borde
Jamie was born on Monday 9th February, 2009 at 2.18am
at the Shanghai East International Medical Centre
He weighed in at a very healthy 4kg and was 51cm long
Ellie is delighted to be a big sister, and is learning very quickly about sharing!!
Mike and I are improving our juggling skills now with one each to manage!! Fortunately we have some live in help for the next couple of weeks with my parents visiting Shanghai for the first time and being very proud grandparents!!
Welcome to the world Jamie!!
Mike and I are improving our juggling skills now with one each to manage!! Fortunately we have some live in help for the next couple of weeks with my parents visiting Shanghai for the first time and being very proud grandparents!!
Welcome to the world Jamie!!
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Ellie's 2nd Birthday
For some weeks now, Ellie and I have been reading the trusty Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book working out which cake to have for her birthday celebrations!! Interestingly, for a reasonably girly girl, Ellie selected a cake with a big purple spider on it. Ellie's favourite exhibit at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is the spider section, and one morning quite unprovoked, as she was having her nappy changed, she calmly and seriously said "I like spiders", so the cake choice really was quite fitting! It also suited me, because although the recipe made a giant cake that would have fed about 40 people, I could easily downsize it to cook it in our shoebox of an oven.
On Sunday morning, I made all of the cakes required to be the web, the spider's body and the head. I showed Ellie the cake in progress next to the picture in the book, and she could identify which bit each little cake was going to be. That night Mike and I decorated it. It had a butter cream icing, and I
didn't believe that whipping the butter would eventually make it soft and smooth enough for icing - it was almost the same temperature in our kitchen as in the fridge, so although the butter had been 'out' nearly all day it was still rock hard!! But thanks to our trusty food processor and a lot of patience on my part it actually did end up getting to the right consistency!! The best bit was mixing the colours in. We got a very satisfactory purple for the spider and a really rich green for under the web. Last year, Ellie also was supposed to have had a purple cake, but it really turned out mauve, so I was thrilled with the colour for the spider!!
Mike and I had a good reminisce of the 2 years since we had Ellie while we were decorating the cake. It's amazing it has gone so quickly, and that she has grown from being a tiny helpless baby, to a walking, talking person!!! We also remembered the big difference when we celebrated her 1st birthday in a beautiful park in Coogee overlooking the ocean!! Due to Mike's steady hand, he is actually the better cake decorator in our family, but receives artistic guidance from me, and so of course he had the big part in last years cake too!
The web was made of liquorice strips, not amazingly easy to find in Shanghai, but thanks to an imported food store I had managed to find some liquorice wheels from Germany, which were easily separated into strands. The same company had some Allsorts that have served to be the detail on the spider, plus we got some orange pipecleaners for legs. I did the web on the main part of the cake, and was really quite happy with the outcome!! But it was nothing compared to the intricacies o
f the spider!! Well done Mike!!
On Monday morning, the actual big day for our little baby girl, we told her it was her birthday and that she was now 2 years old. We were talking about the cake, and said that it was all done. Mike went to the kitchen and brought it in for her to have a look, and she was gobsmacked!! It was amazing, we really had managed to bring a picture from a book to life!! She even wanted to compare the cake to the picture in the book. Then when Mike took it back to the kitchen she leapt out of bed shouting "no, more spider"!!
At very short notice, some of our good friends in Shanghai were able to come around for a play in the afternoon. We had a lovely little celebration, and Mike managed to get home from work at 4pm, to join in too!! We had 3 mums and 6 kids, ra
nging in age from 14 months to 5 years. It was delicious chaos!! Ellie loved it when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her, but I think was even more excited about blowing out the candles, and then joy of all joys she was allowed use a 'real knife' to make the first cut in the cake!! We have saved the spider to share today, but ate almost the whole of the web cake.
With cake and chips provided so close to dinner time, who needed a birthday dinner?? We had already planned on having a takeaway pizza for our dinner, but when Mike brought the pizza home, Ellie was far too engrossed in playing with her new toys and drawing with her new textas to join us at the table for dinner!! Needless to say, we figured she'd probably eaten her fill earlier!!
During the day, we also managed to have successful conversations on Skype with both sets of grandparents who were excited about their only grandchild turning 2, on 02/02, a date milestone, that is way over Ellie's head!! Ellie was also excited to show off the whole cake to her Aussie grandparents, and the remaining spider to the Welsh ones. She also received birthday phone greetings from Aunty Marnie and our lovely neighbours from Sydney - I enjoyed talking to you both, even if Ellie wouldn't come to the phone, as well as the myriad of email greetings and facebook updates!! Thanks everyone!!
Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!!!
Love,
Mummy and Daddy
xx
On Sunday morning, I made all of the cakes required to be the web, the spider's body and the head. I showed Ellie the cake in progress next to the picture in the book, and she could identify which bit each little cake was going to be. That night Mike and I decorated it. It had a butter cream icing, and I
didn't believe that whipping the butter would eventually make it soft and smooth enough for icing - it was almost the same temperature in our kitchen as in the fridge, so although the butter had been 'out' nearly all day it was still rock hard!! But thanks to our trusty food processor and a lot of patience on my part it actually did end up getting to the right consistency!! The best bit was mixing the colours in. We got a very satisfactory purple for the spider and a really rich green for under the web. Last year, Ellie also was supposed to have had a purple cake, but it really turned out mauve, so I was thrilled with the colour for the spider!!Mike and I had a good reminisce of the 2 years since we had Ellie while we were decorating the cake. It's amazing it has gone so quickly, and that she has grown from being a tiny helpless baby, to a walking, talking person!!! We also remembered the big difference when we celebrated her 1st birthday in a beautiful park in Coogee overlooking the ocean!! Due to Mike's steady hand, he is actually the better cake decorator in our family, but receives artistic guidance from me, and so of course he had the big part in last years cake too!
The web was made of liquorice strips, not amazingly easy to find in Shanghai, but thanks to an imported food store I had managed to find some liquorice wheels from Germany, which were easily separated into strands. The same company had some Allsorts that have served to be the detail on the spider, plus we got some orange pipecleaners for legs. I did the web on the main part of the cake, and was really quite happy with the outcome!! But it was nothing compared to the intricacies o
f the spider!! Well done Mike!!On Monday morning, the actual big day for our little baby girl, we told her it was her birthday and that she was now 2 years old. We were talking about the cake, and said that it was all done. Mike went to the kitchen and brought it in for her to have a look, and she was gobsmacked!! It was amazing, we really had managed to bring a picture from a book to life!! She even wanted to compare the cake to the picture in the book. Then when Mike took it back to the kitchen she leapt out of bed shouting "no, more spider"!!
At very short notice, some of our good friends in Shanghai were able to come around for a play in the afternoon. We had a lovely little celebration, and Mike managed to get home from work at 4pm, to join in too!! We had 3 mums and 6 kids, ra
nging in age from 14 months to 5 years. It was delicious chaos!! Ellie loved it when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her, but I think was even more excited about blowing out the candles, and then joy of all joys she was allowed use a 'real knife' to make the first cut in the cake!! We have saved the spider to share today, but ate almost the whole of the web cake.With cake and chips provided so close to dinner time, who needed a birthday dinner?? We had already planned on having a takeaway pizza for our dinner, but when Mike brought the pizza home, Ellie was far too engrossed in playing with her new toys and drawing with her new textas to join us at the table for dinner!! Needless to say, we figured she'd probably eaten her fill earlier!!
During the day, we also managed to have successful conversations on Skype with both sets of grandparents who were excited about their only grandchild turning 2, on 02/02, a date milestone, that is way over Ellie's head!! Ellie was also excited to show off the whole cake to her Aussie grandparents, and the remaining spider to the Welsh ones. She also received birthday phone greetings from Aunty Marnie and our lovely neighbours from Sydney - I enjoyed talking to you both, even if Ellie wouldn't come to the phone, as well as the myriad of email greetings and facebook updates!! Thanks everyone!!
Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!!!
Love,
Mummy and Daddy
xx
Monday 26 January 2009
The Year of the Ox
Happy Chinese New Year!!! Welcome to my new blog!! I thought Chinese New Year was as good as time as any to start my online life (outside Facebook). At this stage, I haven't sent it to very many people, and as time passes I will work out what to and what not to include - so for my very first blog entry I'll start with the details of our Chinese New Year celebrations!!
We had a lovely night last night celebrating Chinese New Year's Eve with my friend Jodie, and her family. We had a big bowl of prawn crackers, a tuna dip (not very Chinese) with a big plate of crudites, chicken and shiitake & beef and bok choi dumplings that I boiled and pork and bok choi dumplings that I steamed, spring rolls that Jodie made, jiaozi that her Ayi made in advance, and we just fried and salad! A bottle of champagne to see us through the night and fireworks from every angle!! They came over about 6pm and the fireworks were already well in progress!! It was a crazy night here, and I'm glad we were safe and sound inside all night!! There were loads of crackers and actual fireworks - and they were being set off EVERYWHERE!!! It looked so pretty as fireworks framed buildings, and were reflected in building windows and the river. They left about 10pm (Jodie's younger daughter had already fallen asleep on the lounge) and headed home, and the fireworks continued and continued!!
We went to bed after we had cleaned up a little, and to be honest it was before 12, but we left our curtains open so we could continue to watch the fireworks.... and right on midnight some fireworks were set off in our driveway, and were exploding level with our flat, some of the 'shrapnel' even hit our windows!!! I never realised how bright fireworks really are!!
During the day yesterday we went to Lotus Supermarket, which is a quite Chinese supermarket compared to the French owned Carrefour, and it was nuts!! It was so full that we couldn't even navigate through with a trolley and a pram, so we 'parked' Mike and Ellie and the trolley and I ran around collecting the few things that we needed, knowing that the shops are closed today!! But looking at the Chinese people shopping you'd think they were stocking up to last through a nuclear war!! There were families with 3 trolleys full of butter biscuits!! We also saw a Fireworks Stall - smartly signposted with a no smoking symbol!! For RMB1000 you can buy a box of fireworks which would set off typically at about 15 storeys up, and would be a display lasting about 5 mins. You can also buy strings of crackers, and smaller ground level displays and even just sparklers!!! It is a bit sad to think that so many people buy these when they are effectively just setting money on fire! But fireworks (and the loud noise associated) drive the evil spirits away.
New year is also known as the Spring Festival, and the preparation involved is cleaning out your house from ceiling to floor and preparing masses of food to feast on, and then no work is allowed for the first 3 days (ie until Wednesday). You can't even sweep the floor (Lucky that is not our tradition after last night!). And this is why the food is prepared in advance because technically the feast food then only needs to be heated, not cooked!! It is the main time that families get together, so lots of Chinese people leave cities like Shanghai and return to their provinces. The government has gazetted a week holiday, but only 3 days are actual public holidays, and in order to get the full week off Chinese companies generally work (this year) the Saturday before and the Sunday afterwards. But because CNY is a movable holiday dependent on the moons this changes each year. The bangers and crackers are still going off this morning, so it's a bit noisy!!! Ellie came racing in to me this morning when some went off which must have been really close as they were very loud!! And just clung to me, then when Mike asked if she wanted to go and have a look she ran from me to him and jumped into his arms, but she did want to see what was going on. There are a number of nutters who swim in the river behind our apartment (even though it is freezing degrees!) and this morning, they have set off crackers wearing nothing but speedos!!
We are planning on a quiet week - more for my benefit than for not wanting to get out and immerse ourselves in Chinese New Year Festivities, but at 38 weeks pregnant and expected crowds it doesn't seem too smart. In advance of Chinese New Year, Mike's school put on a festival including a Lion Dance which we went to. Ellie was fascinated by the lions (dragons), and loved watching the dance, but was a bit scared when we went up to say hi!!
Kung Hei Fat Choi - is Happy New Year in Cantonese, and so in Mandarin we wish you Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year) and Gong Xi Fan Cai (Congratulations and good wishes for prosperity)!!
And to all my Australian friends and family - Happy Australia Day!!!
We had a lovely night last night celebrating Chinese New Year's Eve with my friend Jodie, and her family. We had a big bowl of prawn crackers, a tuna dip (not very Chinese) with a big plate of crudites, chicken and shiitake & beef and bok choi dumplings that I boiled and pork and bok choi dumplings that I steamed, spring rolls that Jodie made, jiaozi that her Ayi made in advance, and we just fried and salad! A bottle of champagne to see us through the night and fireworks from every angle!! They came over about 6pm and the fireworks were already well in progress!! It was a crazy night here, and I'm glad we were safe and sound inside all night!! There were loads of crackers and actual fireworks - and they were being set off EVERYWHERE!!! It looked so pretty as fireworks framed buildings, and were reflected in building windows and the river. They left about 10pm (Jodie's younger daughter had already fallen asleep on the lounge) and headed home, and the fireworks continued and continued!!
We went to bed after we had cleaned up a little, and to be honest it was before 12, but we left our curtains open so we could continue to watch the fireworks.... and right on midnight some fireworks were set off in our driveway, and were exploding level with our flat, some of the 'shrapnel' even hit our windows!!! I never realised how bright fireworks really are!!
During the day yesterday we went to Lotus Supermarket, which is a quite Chinese supermarket compared to the French owned Carrefour, and it was nuts!! It was so full that we couldn't even navigate through with a trolley and a pram, so we 'parked' Mike and Ellie and the trolley and I ran around collecting the few things that we needed, knowing that the shops are closed today!! But looking at the Chinese people shopping you'd think they were stocking up to last through a nuclear war!! There were families with 3 trolleys full of butter biscuits!! We also saw a Fireworks Stall - smartly signposted with a no smoking symbol!! For RMB1000 you can buy a box of fireworks which would set off typically at about 15 storeys up, and would be a display lasting about 5 mins. You can also buy strings of crackers, and smaller ground level displays and even just sparklers!!! It is a bit sad to think that so many people buy these when they are effectively just setting money on fire! But fireworks (and the loud noise associated) drive the evil spirits away.
New year is also known as the Spring Festival, and the preparation involved is cleaning out your house from ceiling to floor and preparing masses of food to feast on, and then no work is allowed for the first 3 days (ie until Wednesday). You can't even sweep the floor (Lucky that is not our tradition after last night!). And this is why the food is prepared in advance because technically the feast food then only needs to be heated, not cooked!! It is the main time that families get together, so lots of Chinese people leave cities like Shanghai and return to their provinces. The government has gazetted a week holiday, but only 3 days are actual public holidays, and in order to get the full week off Chinese companies generally work (this year) the Saturday before and the Sunday afterwards. But because CNY is a movable holiday dependent on the moons this changes each year. The bangers and crackers are still going off this morning, so it's a bit noisy!!! Ellie came racing in to me this morning when some went off which must have been really close as they were very loud!! And just clung to me, then when Mike asked if she wanted to go and have a look she ran from me to him and jumped into his arms, but she did want to see what was going on. There are a number of nutters who swim in the river behind our apartment (even though it is freezing degrees!) and this morning, they have set off crackers wearing nothing but speedos!!
We are planning on a quiet week - more for my benefit than for not wanting to get out and immerse ourselves in Chinese New Year Festivities, but at 38 weeks pregnant and expected crowds it doesn't seem too smart. In advance of Chinese New Year, Mike's school put on a festival including a Lion Dance which we went to. Ellie was fascinated by the lions (dragons), and loved watching the dance, but was a bit scared when we went up to say hi!!
Kung Hei Fat Choi - is Happy New Year in Cantonese, and so in Mandarin we wish you Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year) and Gong Xi Fan Cai (Congratulations and good wishes for prosperity)!!
And to all my Australian friends and family - Happy Australia Day!!!
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