tiny taiwanese ants

We've been invaded by tiny ant...

they aren't the smallest ants that i have seen in Taiwan but compared to British ants they are pretty small.

We've not had any problems with the before but now they can be found in most rooms in the house..if you look hard enough.

If you just look at the cat food you can see it moving...thus i have now removed the cat food (after the cats have eaten that is)

Not sure what i'll do about these ants, at the moment i put them out of the window...but i guess they just keep coming back in.

Sarah likes the ants i think as she will happily go up to a pile of ants and watch them, until i spot what she's doing and wipe them away.
(the photo is a cat hair, not a whisker but a normal hair and an ant, the other is a pencil tip..for those who don't know how thick hair is)



I'm off to hospital tomorrow morning, they tell me that my op will be on Saturday but i have to go in on Friday with out eating anything before hand. Thus i think that they may try to fit me in on the Friday if there is a spot.

Tom will look after Sarah, so that's great i am so pleased about that. She now signs his name...well the letter T when ever she see him, and yesterday on they way home she asked where's Thomas. so cute.

Photos of Sky

So here she is, and isn't see a cutie pie, little Sky
It makes Sarah look kind of huge in comparison
Louise looks pretty amazing considering she just gave birth a few hours ago!
i wish i could have a big cuddle from the pair of them.
Bless their little cotton socks!!

Sky Matilda Rose is Born!

Wow my little sister had her baby
She weighted 6.10 pounds and was born on 21st July 2008 at 9:30 am

I haven't gotten photos yet but have spoken to Louise and she tells me that she has a full head of jet black hair, and i am guessing that it's just like Louise when she was born.

I really want to go back home and see them, its made me feel really home sick. Plus it now looks like Tom will be going back to Nottingham for a couple of week in September with work. That makes it even worst.

Ho hum

Sarah's doing much better and was dancing to Prince this morning, wearing my head band and refusing to put on her T-shirt just saying Boo Yow (with is no in Chinese) and taking it off. So she cheered me up. She is so funny some days it cracks me up how now she wants and doesn't want to wear certain things! she's 1 and 1/2!!




I also went for a scan yesterday to check on my kidney cyst..which is huge so they will De roof it next week. that mean that i have to have key hole surgery next week and stay in hospital for a couple of nights. Poor little Sarah bear will have to cope with out me collecting her from the nannies..the truth is she'll be fine and i will miss her much more!

first baked beans on toast

On Saturday (19th July) both Sarah and i were sick of being sick she had a fever for 4 days,and not been sleeping well or eating well. So i reached for comfort, easy, food. So we had baked beans on toast, it was Sarah’s first time to have it, which is late in life really, as at home we grew up eating it almost every week.

However it's a different story here and i don't get to eat them much as they are hard to come by and if i can get them they are SO expensive i can't justify the cost (over a quid for a small can). Caroline (my Australian sister) was so kind to bring me a couple of cans over when she came to visit, along with other scrummy stuff that i can't get here like licorice, Vegemite, lentils. ect..strange things that you can't really buy here with out paying threw the nose for simple things..i mean we use to use lentils to make pictures with when we were kids, here it way to expensive for that!

So we had them and they were delicious…(thank you Caroline!) it has to be said that Sarah wasn't overly impressed, which is a shame...I guess I need to feed her more baked beans or she'll never learn to love them!

Onion and rice

So Sarah likes to share things with the other members of the house, like the hamsters (OOrra) and the cats. Often the cats don't want the things she offer them..like Pickles when she gave her a book to read and placed it between her paws when she was trying to sleep.

This time i walked in and she's been "feeding" Onion her left over rice...

As you can see she placed the rice on Onion...needless to say Onion wasn't that impressed and just ignored her! (for the record Onion's eye is fine, it just watery..it's always like that the poor thing, we clean it often but obviously not that day!)

colds aren't much fun

So we have a cold, that is Sarah and I have a cold. Sarah was up all night, well up and down, coughing and with a fever..thus i didn't really sleep at all. So i am really tired now..which doesn't make for a great employee..

Despite the cold she is still on the whole chipper. She received a present from Jin Chi yesterday, a cap and a bag. She looks so so cute in it.

The bruise on her face is looking a bit darker now and thus more obvious,, but i guess its healing!

The good thing is we have health insurance!! yeah!!

ITs great to know that we have it sorted finally.

New Clothes from England!

My mum sent Sarah some new clothes and they fit her perfectly...all be it that they are for 9-12months...she is almost 18.

They look so great on her as they are bright and cool, perfect for the summer.

It's so lovely that i never have to buy clothes for her as i get so many "hand-me-downs", and my mum manages to get great outfits for her.

It seems a shame as i guess they are made in China, shipped to England, and then my mum posts them back to China..well Taiwan.

However its great as i think its difficult to get lovely clothes here, unless you pay a fortune. Oh how i love the French kids clothes shop..wow they are so cute and pretty. However I'd have to take out a loan in order to buy anything from there. Its still nice to look at mind!

Here's some photos of her in one of the outfits...they aren't the best photos but she really won't stay still for her photo these days. She just wants to grab the camera!

Tumble down Sarah!

Yesterday (Sunday night) Sarah took a big tumble, down the stairs well 5 stairs.
I'd been worried about this happening the day she first managed to climb one stair...(a while ago now) so i put a "gate"up most of the time so she doesn't climb up and down the stairs (which she LOVES to do of course)
I'm sat there and see her climbing and go to stop her as she starts to fall...in what seems like slow mo, however slow it was i didn't manage to catch her and she end face first on the floor..a cold tiled floor.
Oh dear, i scoped her up as quick as possible. She's screaming, of course, but it would seem that all her limbs are still in working order. So i try to ice the lump, however if you have ever tried to do this with a kid it's not so easy due to them just refusing to let you.
So i think I'll calm her down and then ice the bump, so out comes the chocolate (*thanks mum for the Easter egg).

first she was still sobbing as she stuffed chocolate in her mouth, then a min later she was laughing..so she wasn't that hurt i guess. I tried again with the ice but she wasn't having any of it, she wanted to eat it so i let her (it hurts my teeth just watching her eat ice).

She slept alright and this morning in the car she touched her face and said bang bang, and did the hand actions to boot. So she remembered that she fell and i guess it's sore.
My poor baby, however she doesn't really have that much of a bruise. Its smaller than i thought it would be. maybe it will come out over time but as it you can see...you can barely see the bump.

Kids are amazing really.

Dora, the hamster video

So here is the video i took yesterday with Sarah and Dora, and Peanut...oh and Pickles and Onion.. Enjoy and listen for the ORRRAA...aka Dora

Dora, the hamster

So we are looking after a friends little hamsters while she is on holiday in the US for the summer.

In under a week Sarah was able to say one on the hamsters name, Dora well Ora. Yet she isn't able to say Tom or Pickles or Onion (the later being the cats that have been in the house all the time she has been in the house!).

She is so in love with the hamster we have to go and see them all the time, (they live upstairs away from the cats..). She wants to see Ora Ora and points up the stairs . The other hamster, Peanut, also gets called Ora and she loves her just as much. She's learnt how to feed them and loves the way that they take the food so quickly and eat it...well they don't really eat it but she thinks they do. She makes little chewing noises mouth when she feeds them. it's very cute.

They are super tame, which is wonderful. i was a little worried that the wouldn't be, but they are and its perfect as they come to their "doors" when Sarah calls them or just taps the cage.

She's a little bit apprehensive about them crawling on her but she strokes them with one finger (very cute) and has tried to pick them up...with me there to make sure that the hamsters aren't squished! She's pretty gentile so i think they are fine. (They haven't squealed or bitten her so i guess she can't be annoying them that much.)

So i wanted to post some better photos but i can't seem to get very good shots of them...they move quickly and i hate holding the camera when a little person (Sarah) is playing with little animals (hamsters). i want my hands free to make sure nothing happens to the hamsters or to Sarah. so here are a couple of photo i will put more up soon, i will go in and take photos when Sarah's in bed i think at least i might get some better ones.

I have to say that Dora freaks me out a bit as every day as i think she's dead due to the fact that she sleeps like shes dead (see photo).

ps Sarah's never seen Dora the explorer..but maybe she'd love it just because she has the same name!

Baby sister is having a baby

So my baby sister, Louise, is having a baby.

Strange but true.

I was convinced that she would give birth yesterday (she is due around the 25th), to my knowledge she hasn't yes so i pick the 17th.

It's so strange when your little sister get pregnant, and you don't even get to see her pregnant. its so strange to think the next time i see her she will have a little girl. It doesn't seem that long ago when dad took us to the hospital on a Friday (the 13th!) morning before school to go and see our baby sister. She had jet black hair, lots of it too, and no teeth...this is no surprise to most people but when i was 9 i asked "where are her teeth?" the family laughed at my naivety but i thought it was a valid question. I was so excited to have a little baby sister. I helped to choose her name and was so pleased that mum and dad agreed...ok so i got the second name not the first but still. Louise Melanie March Perry was a cute black haired baby. Her hair later at about a year was very blond...weird really, it went darker by her teens...and then went all the colours of the sun (from a bottle this time mind!)

Well i wonder what her little one will look like? i can't wait to find out but i guess i will have to wait longer than i thought.

oh dear, still no health insurance!

Just got word that in fact the health insurance is NOT sorted out like we thought.
There are still some problems and thus Sarah is not covered...
"ok, so where did i put the bubble wrap??"
Also the Life Caring & Animal Rescue Organization that is helping us got its facts wrong on their website...not so clever really after the last fiasco with the press! God love them, they are trying so hard to help us but getting these facts wrong really can be a nightmare for me and Sarah.
http://www.lco.org.tw/share/detail.aspx?title_id=108
It's all in Chinese mind but maybe by going to it their number of hits is up thus they can get advertising ect...maybe.
Ho hum, some prayers about Health insurance are really needed!
Thank you.

Me and modeling...??

Modeling

Ok so a year or so ago i was walking down the street by 101 with Sarah (who was a wee little baby) and asked if Sarah and i would be interested in doing modeling work for things like advertisements, now this is only due to the fact that i am a white woman in a very Taiwanese world..


"They" apparently always need people (white people) for adverts....don't ask me why i don't know, its strange really and a little sad too as i guess that these companies be live that white faces are able to sale their products better than Taiwanese faces...to the Taiwanese.


The woman seemed nice enough so i gave her my mobile and went about my life. A year later i get a phone call, in very broken English, if i would like to have photos taken of me and my baby....it was a guy and it all got confusing with his broken English and my in ability to recollect this conversation i had with a woman (who's English was perfect). So i past the phone to my mate to talk to him thinking she will just say its some weirdo ect..


but she didn't she looked up the company online and it seemed fair enough. So she called him back saying that Sarah and i could come in on Saturday (5/7/8).


So i went!


After all i am rather poor (to say the least, which is my own fault as if i just submitted my Stupid Thesis i'd earn alot more...agghh) so instead i think this i a good idea (and yes i know i do that instead of writing ie take away time from completing something that is more solid on to a mear wim of an idea...).


So i go along with some clothes that they asked me to take (high heels...that i don't own but brought along the best pair of shoes i do have)


Tom came with me, which i am so grateful to ask i'd hate to go on my own (well with Sarah but does she count? i don't think so in this case). i figured that they would see me and Sarah and say in fact we are interested. i doubt they were expecting me to bring a Taiwanese baby...ie no blue eyed blond little girl. but they didn't she was very nice and asked if we would both like to have photos taken, which they then would show to companies looking for models and if they wanted to shoot something with either of us they'd contact them and they would contact me.


Sarah was a tad out of sorts and has been all weekend. not sure why but i guess she's not feeling too great, however i think they got a few nice photos of her and a few photos of me (not sure about the nice for me but they will do, maybe i can be in a crowd ect..)


So i think i have a couple of photos that Tom took (including Sarah trying on fake glasses) and a small video that Sarah took...(very funny but mostly of the floor!)

Health insurance!

Finally Sarah has Health insurance!

Her birth mum had run up a big debt and couldn't pay it off (no income due to being in jail...go figure), so Sarah's health insurance was with drawn from her. Nice huh, punish the kids for what the parents have done..or not done. So every time, for over 4 months, that i took her to the hospital (which people here use like a GP) it cost a fortune...

However a really lovely Charity has help us out and now Sarah is covered again. which is great as she is really active and thus likely to run into things or fall over, thus needing medical attention...so we are now covered. few!

so she can run and run, its fine we're covered.....

;)

Re-homing Kibbles and Fat boy

Trying to find a new home for a big male cat, and a smallish...female dog.

We found the dog on the streets about 6 or more months ago, we called her Kibbles she had a bad skin infection along with other problems. but was very tame and lovable. She was fostered by someone that trained her how to walk on the lead and is now fully house trained. She's pretty cool little dog. i wish i had time and money to keep her but i don't and the foster career is leaving Taiwan. Thus we need to find her a home, i don't know how i will ever find her a home as in Taiwan no one really likes to adopt dogs, particularly black dogs with white feet ( i don't know something to do with death i guess...)

anyway wish me luck as i plaster her face everywhere in the vain attempt to get her adopted. bless her its so unfair.

The other animal i also have to re-home is a male cat, who is huge! well on the large side i should say. He's never been on the street...and wouldn't survive a second as he is spoiled. He had a owner but the owner got a dog...thus doesn't want or can't have the cat. So he was kicked out. He's beening foster by the same person thus needs a home.

So thoughts and a prayer or two wouldn't go a miss! i really don't know what i will do with them if i can't re home them...oh its too sad.

God will help me i am sure.

Zoo days

So for the record i dislike zoos, i hate seening animals in cages at the best of times but in zoos where they are in zoo 27/7 it just doesn't seem right particular if they don't belong in that country (too hot, too cold ect...)

Saying all this Taipei zoo isn't too bad..its bad yes but not as bad as some i saw growing up (there's been a big gap from when i was a little kid to now as i refused to go to zoos most of my adult (teen) life.

Taipei has a few cages, but mostly inclosers...(big cages basically without wire bars). Taipei zoo also has a lot, a lot of space. its great as the city is over crowed, (no one lives in a house everyone lives in flats that are over 5 stories high, and right next door to another flat...think council astate in london).

The zoo however is very spacey and has lots of nice little path ways and wooded areas. you can go there and not really see the caged board animals.

So i take my little one to the zoo. She's at the age where walking is great fun and running is even better...don't know how long that will last but currenly she loves running and walking everywhere. She also is a big fan of plants, which is wonderful for me as she would rather be looking at the plants growing next to the animals than the animals...unless its a cat or dog then its a different story!

So we have been to the zoo a record breaking 3 times in a year! thats amazing for me as i can't even remeber the last time that i went to the zoo. We have been with Heather and her family (who we miss alot!!) Natasha (we also miss) and Maddy (we don't miss her, she is still here, yeah! )

Taipe zoo is very cheap (not sure thats a good thing for the animals but good for my pocket) and sarah loves to run around. So we get a nice day out where its not over crowed with kids (like the public parks), has no cars (like everywhere else in Taipei) and is cheap.

Thus i am now a zoo goer but avoid looking at the animals or i feel really sad and wish i wasn't there.

fun with a Bucket

last weekend the weather was REALLY hot so i decide to clean the balcony, Sarah joined me of course so i stripped her down and she was splashing around in the water, then decided to climb into the bucket of water. Nice, she loved it, i thought i have to have a photo. so i picked her up...soaking myself and the floor, and grabbed that camera. She climbed back into the bucket, but as soon as i got the camera out she wanted the camera and thus tried to climb back out of the bucket...so not great photos but still cute!