Goodbye Hannah

We have been fostering a kitten, Hannah, for the last 4 months, and unfortunately we have not found her a permanent home in that time. We were committed to looking after her until summer, or until a permanent home was found. Yesterday, we had to hand her over to her new foster mum as we are heading off for a month of travel... we were all a bit sad to say goodbye, and I was sad that she is only going to another temporary home. I think the kids have enjoyed having a cat, although our view of having an animal in a flat has been confirmed - DON'T DO IT!

As it was pouring with rain, we decided to leave the kids at home (with Ayi) and trek over to Jing'An to drop her off alone. We thought we should make the most of being kidless and enjoy a day out... but again thanks to the rain, it wasn't a great day for wandering... so we jumped in a taxi and went to "Lost Heaven" for lunch. This restaurant specialises in Yunnan Folk cuisine, which is our main destination for our imminent travels. Although I sincerely doubt we will have anything quite as exquisite on our trip, we thought it was good preparation! We had the most delicious wild vegetable cakes, Da li chicken, Lijiang beef, Miao tribe sweet and sour fish (my favourite) and Golden Triangle fried rice.

After lunch we thought a stroll along the Bund was in order. With the rain, we were quite surprised at how many others thought it was a good idea too.

This is Mike in his attractive rain coat:

Look at all the umbrellas huddling together on the Bund:

I'm still here...

Hi everyone -

So I thought I'd have all this time to blog again once getting our super special VPN, and working out how do blog by mail... pffff - I was wrong!!

We've had a busy couple of months...

We went down and checked out the sparkling new Bund.

Mum and Dad have come to stay - here for 4 weeks in total, leave in 1 more week - it's gone so quickly.

Had my little sister Marnie visit too. Was so lovely to see her and have whole family together.

Working on a couple of assignments for uni - at the end of this semester I will be HALF WAY THROUGH!!! Organising prac for August.

Planning summer holidays - going to Yunnan, staying in Lijiang, Dali City and Kunming. Promised Ellie trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong.

Busy just being mum, wife, daughter, etc.

Can't believe 2010 is half over! Hope all is going well whereever in the world you are!!