Pneumonia not H1N1 (we pray!)

Sarah has had a fever since Saturday night, not too high to start with but on Monday pretty bad.
So on Monday night i thought this is really too high for too long, so i took her to the dr on Tuesday.
She wasn't herself to say the least but after she had calpol (pain killer, Tylenol ect) she was fine. She was coughing a bit but not much and no runny nose ect.
the dr looked at her and said he couldn't see anything (ie in her throat,ears, or hear in her chest) so he sent us for an xray. Sarah wasn't too happy with the xray as they made her take off her ABC top (which really says Gap or something like that!) So we went back up to see the dr and he looked at the xray and said she has pneumonia...great isn't that the first sign of the H1N1 virus?? How ever she doesn't have any flu like symptoms at all, she just has a fever and a cough so we are praying that is all it is...
We will see if it clears up now she's on antibiotics. they told me to rush her is to the hospital if she is struggling to breath...yeah because i'd just keep my kid at home not able to breath! (not!)

The other thing is after i got medication down her and she was all chirpy aggain, we went to get her passport from the office which is just down the road from the hospital. So now Sarah has a passport, i can leave the country with with finally. It's great it has her Chinese name is written Chinese(of course (its a taiwanese passport) and in "English" phonetically, the second character starts with X which i think is well cool!! haha. What i like the most is it also has a section in it where is says AKA and then her full English name, real English name is written, this is the first really document with that name in it. Cool huh.

Too True Tuesdays (well Wednesday)

So in a friends car off for a nice day out. Sarah's on my lap...there are little to no rules in Taiwan about children sitting in car seats (if there is no on abides by it, and they put the babies on scooters with no helmets in site...scary)
So she's on my lap, my friends kids in his seat and my friend and her husband are in the front.
Sarah grabs both of my boobs and says loudly, "where's my boobies mummy?" and repeats it just in case my friends husband didn't hear the first time..then she adds
"i want boobies too mummy i want them, (i) like boobies mummy" (she often just says like instead of i like..)
Needless to say i hushed her up but the whole car heard! At least they didn't see her squeezing mine!

The inevitable happened with the scissors...

So Sarah loves the hairdressers...well documented, well she was alone for a min with some scissors...guess what, well i should have forseen this happening but i hadn't. yes she cut cut her hair.

Fortune has it i was a stones trow away and thus caught her so she didn't do too much damage just a little off the front..but still...no scissors for that little girl for a while i think!
She told me "like hair dressers mummy, cut cut pretty".... hummm
i don't think so, a big time out and a telling off, however i kind of felt bad about telling her off as I'd never told her don't cut your hair..as it never came up before now. So now I've told her good and clear we only ONLY cut paper (and paper that i give you to cut!)...so no cut cut the cats, no cut cut the fingers..(any part of your body, and no cut cut hair mine or yours or the cats!!

i think she got it..at least if she does now i can tell her off without feeling like i was a little unfair.

很多人 at the pool!

So on Tuesday the day i have off, i thought it would be nice to take Sarah to the water park near our house..i even asked other people to come. Kelly and Nik, and then Gemma Guinness and Annabell. So when we arrived at 930 it was a little crazy but not too bad...by 1030 it was well mental, totally packed with people. I joked asking if there was a limit to the number of people...Kelly didn't think there would be, and she was right by 11 it was HEAVING like so many people (children) there was school after school after school, crazy. i'd hate to be in charge of 5 kids here, what a nightmare. Kelly and Nik left and i felt terrible about the fact that i'd dragged them there and Nik didn't really want to be there. Sarah was ok, she was tierd and thus clingy and grumpy...not the best combo, i asked Annabell to come along thinking she was just looking after Gemma, but she had baby Guinness too...really not the best, so we went to the quieter side away from the sides and to the little paddling pool like thing. sarah and gemma had fun, Guinness slept like a baby and Annabell and i were glad to go home.
Needless to say i won't go there till the kids go back to real school in September!
i'll try and get photos from Kelly to show you how many people Taiwanese think is ok in a small water park!

Too True Tuesdays (well Thursday)

Well like i said i don't work on Tuesday...so its Thursdays, sorry Essie!
So what shall i share...
Ok so i was thinking about this the other day when i sat on the underground (mrt, subway..what ever) and i was sat next to a guy that had a huge, pus filled, tight, ready to pop, spot on the side of his neck and plenty of black heads to boot. all i could think of was how much i wanted to squeeze it.
I was thinking this and then thinking that its pretty gross that i want to do that, its almost like a compulsion rather than a want, like i need to do it. Of course i didn't...i am not that flipping crazy. I have however seen a woman squeezing her hubbys face on the mrt, right there for all and sundry to see...not nice but i totally get why she did it.
If i get a spot, it gets squeezed as soon as i notices i can't even hold out for a min. I have to pop that little zit...sometimes i squeeze it too much (well all the time not just sometimes), and it leave me with a far bigger mess than i started with. i get these white spots which are in fact a build up of skin cells (so they tell me) well i've had them as long as i remember as do all the perry clan. these are not your normal spot, no they need tougher action, i have to get a needle out and pick them out as they are hard lumps under the skin. i love picking away but have to stop myself or i get a big old scab on my face...i currently have one.
So there it is my secret is out there i love squeezing spots, even if it is gross i still like to do it!

The big water park!

So on Saturday Tom took us to the BIG water park, which is like 40 mins drive from my place. The weather was just perfect, not too hot (still hot but with a little cloud cover), no rain and no wind. How lovely was that, and it lasted all day!
We meet up with Kelly Cos and Nik, and had a ball.
Sarah LOVES the water now, I am SO pleased to see her splashing around going up and down the water slides by herself!! She is so miss independent and I let her be (sometimes!). Taiwanese people tend not to let there kids do stuff like that by themselves they are there to hold there hand, or simply wait till they are much older to let them go. To be honest Sarah was by far the youngest little kid going up and down, which made me question whether what I was doing was ok or not? I don't know but everything turned out ok, and Sarah had a blast. I can't count how many times she went up and down but it was over 50 for sure. There were three slides she did the most, at first I went on the big green slide with her as it was quite fast…then she went on it by herself without even me knowing..(Two slides together one yellow one green, yellow was tame and green a tad fast, thought she was going down the yellow but when she didn't appear I looked to the right and there she was walking away after going down the green one by herself!)
Needless to say she has little fear of things like this, which is worrying in some way, but good in another. I am 100% sure that when she is older she will LOVE the massive slides that they have there, as she is already asking "Go big slide, Go big slide"...of course i am not that mental! (Plus they'd never allow it!!)
So here are some photos…I have tons of them that Tom and Kelly took, it was a great day and i hope we get to go back there before summer is over.
Maybe with my sister..who says she might be coming over for a few days in Sept.. How great would that be!







yes that is Sarah under the water...how proud of her i am!!

Typhoon days

So we're alive..yes we had a Typhoon...well Taiwan had one, Taipei's version was rather lame to say the least. We (well Wolfgang, my exboss and i) joke about saying that typhoons are so lame here and that we really don't think we've seen a typhoon till we see cars flying and trees falling down. i have yet to see that and praise The Lord that i haven't. However they make a big old fuss here in the city and it never really hits the city (touch wood ect..)
So we had Friday off work due to the typhoon, i was asked to collected Asher from the orphanage on Thurday, before we knew for sure we would have the day off ( i took a chance as they often will call a day off if it looks like it will hit Taipei)

Friday came, it was a bit windy and there was rain..but not so bad. I noticed Ashers milk powder was low and i new (the news said it) that the tyhoon would land on Saturday and that the morning would be the best time to get out and get it...
so we did, 9 o'clock the kids and i went out on a mission to get some milk powder, not really sure the shops would be open but betting that they would. Sarah sat in the buggy nice and dry (with the rain cover on)...bar her feet which now stick out. Asher was in the sling with Sarah's old raincoat on, and we walked. Lots of cars were parked up on the pavement so we had to walk in the road..the wind was wistling and the rain was coming down, as i walked in the road carrying one baby and pushing another....i thought what a sight i must be. Locals looked at me like i was mental or didn't know that there was a typhoon coming..we ignored them and pressed on. It was fine really not a big deal, we even stopped and got fruit and veg from the market...then the wind picked up i figured we should head home.
So we stayed inside and did craft..well i did, Sarah drew / scribbled while Asher ate everything.. crayons, chewed pens, and distroyed Sarah's "art work", (by eating it of course). if it wasn't Asher messing the game or craft up it was the kittens..they where everywhere in to everything, including eating anything that was put down down for 30secs... aggghh.
I cleaned what felt like endless poop from nappies, litter trays and the floor...aggh again to the stupid kittens!!
Cabin fever was getting really bad (for me) and i looked outside the rain was no more than a drizzle, so we went out again. Yep, i took the kids out even when the typhoon was just about to land. we didn't go far just across the street to the "Green store" This is not green as in enviromentally aware, no just green lables and cheap stuff. like a massive pound store/ dollar store. its cool Sarah loves it as do i, you can get everything there..really everything. very cool. we stayed there for like an hour brought a couple of things and went back home..i felt proud that we didn't watch any tv but then i gave in and i watch a crappy oldish moive on the box..then Tom came to see us and Sarah loved the chance to play with him, i was well into the rubbish movie so was a terrible host..then the wind picked up so tom left
Needless to say we are fine, Saturday was not so bad really kind of better than friday. The same is not to be said in some parts of Taiwan. I am just very glad that we didn't get hit by the typhoon, but you know one of these days we will and i will not belive it. Too many times have the govement/weather people cried wolf to us in Taipei city..i'm sure i'll be court short one day.

Too True Tuesdays (well Thursday)

So Essie has a very cool idea to share something true about yourself on Tuesdays...
well i have way too many and i don't think i can even bring myself to say 99% of them but i will go for a few tame things.

So a new friend of mine was came down with a cold ( a love interest from many a year ago when i was at university... studying a for biology degree) , i wanted to take something over to show i cared you know all nicely nicely.. so what do you take, i could possibly take chocolates as you can't eat chocolate when you have a cold, so i took fruit.
I said that i wanted to bring chocolate but you can't eat chocolate when you have a cold. Their face was a picture, "Paula, what are you talking about??" I repeated "You know when you have a cold you can't eat anything with chocolate in" i was put in my place and told promptly that i was talking rubbish and where did i ever get such a crazy idea...
Well that's from my father, he always told us that you can't have any chocolate (like hot chocolate) when you have a cold...i believed him without even questioning the logic behind it. seriously, how stupid am i to not even question why you don't eat chocolate..needless to say the love didn't bloom (scientist are unforgiving of ignorance!)
ho hum... i try and question a few more things these days, you know that scientific training really helps...
I also have tons of words that we used as kids that i found out as an adult that no one else uses like gogo (as in a hair band).
(As a ps and side point, the reasoning behind no chocolate is that you shouldn't have cows milk when you have a cold, which is valid, but i don't drink cows milk so it makes no sense to rule out chocolate, don't go throwing the baby out with the bath water!)

A busy weekend

So he still hasn't got an ARC..and won't be able to get one. unless he does he serves his country (if only it was a Tennis Serve, he's rock at that!). So he is back in Taiwan with gifts for me from his long trip to Hongkong..all of 2 hrs. I got Ribenna and chocolate liquires which i LOVE...mmmm, and you can't get here. Sarah also loved the Ribenna, and i wish i'd never let her taste it as she finished off the whole bottle in about 2 mins. i still have one in the fridge and will drink it at night when she is alseep so i can be totally selfish!! haha.
This weekend was really cool, and just a tad busy.
So on friday morning we went to the water park with Kelly and Nik, Sarah is loving the water way more than she did i am so pleased as she never really liked it before and now well now she is happy getting her face wet going down water slides that scare me a little and lying down in the water with her nose and mouth peaking out. So cool. I took her on this twisty water slide, i looks harmless, but in fact it's really fast. She LOVED it, i was scared that i'd drop her but she was fine about it. Kelly and Nik had a go and Kelly held on to him with one arm and tried to slow herself with the other..it was a sight to be seen, Niks legs went over the side of the slide like he was going to fly off, from the top i'm sure you'd just see his legs flaying! so funny..a little scary as i was at the bottom and his legs hit mine, i felt terrible!
After work i then took two people to see the orphanage when i went to collect Asher, one of them would like to take a baby home at the weekends when she gets back from her trip home (south Africa), she has three kids of her own, 10, 16, and 17 so she knows whats she's letting herself in for!
On Saturday morning we went and meet up with Tom in starbucks, is 30 mins late...i did warn him not to set out to early...he still did. Of course the kids need food, and poop at the time i am trying to get out of the house. we practically ran there...bar the MRT (underground) trip where it doesn't help too much to run on the train. but from trains to train yes we ran. Still we were painfully late. Tom wasn't too happy but way better than i thought that he'd be, he is mellowing in his old age! (he's younger than me). We went there and Sarah was so thrilled to see him, she asks about his wearabouts every single day more than once! so she was chuffed to see him there in Star bucks. We then went for lunch at Subway...ok so this reflects so badly on me as i would have never not ever gone to either of these places when i lived in the UK...but i am telling you when you are a fish out of water you go to places that look and feel a bit like home..trust me i think you'd do it even if you hate these places right now, you have a choice..well so do i but it's not that great. hum... feeling guilty isn't going to help, but getting a drink and something to eat from a place that speaks English and feels like home is difficult in Taiwan.
After lunch we meet up with Kelly, Cos and Nik. Cos drove us to the beach, the kids all slept on the way there so kelly and i got to chat, which is way easier with out kids hang off us (they were hanging off us but asleep so you know quite!) We went to this nice beach (fulong) Sarah loved playing in the sand (a first as before she hated it), she also went swimming with me and had lots of fun splashing around. it was great, we got there at 230 and left at like 8, nik and Asher fell asleep...Sarah my night owl was still bouncing around like she'd had hours of energy left! never mind.
Got home both kids screaming..i am wondering what i am doing with two kids as i am pooped! never mind they all get to sleep by 10 as do i!
On Sunday i get them up and go to Church to meet someone to show them what to do for the info ministry i half lead (i do a terrible job). They didn't turn up for 20 mins...so i need not have woke up the kids..never mind.
I get a cab home and get them both to sleep for an hour and a half, then we go and meet up with Nevada and go to the Water park (again!) we had a lot of fun there. Asher in a sling and Sarah desprate to go off on the slides, which she really can't do by herself the water is too deep at the end of the tunnel or slide so i have to sit with her...i can't do that too well with Asher in a sling so at the end Nevada watched her and i got to do cool things with Sarah on the slides. we even went down the twisty super fast slide. This time my shorts were not water shorts and it helped as it slowed me right down...a little too much as in the big tunnel we kind of got stuck! The we went to Nevadas to have dinner, Tom came over and joined us and then Maddy popped by. Then we all (bar Maddy) went to Church (its a different one than the morning one, its called the Pearl and is small and a younger crowd of people.
Then at 9 pm we got home...ok Shattered!! (that mean very very tiered)
kids screaming, i'm wondering what i am doing..must be mental!
The next morning i have get Asher to the orphanage by 730 due to working at 9am...not good. Rushing rushing, the kids were both out and i had to wake both of them to leave on time. Sarah wanting to be held but its very tricky, i carried her down the 5 flights of stairs from my house then dropped her in the Buggy, she practically fell back to sleep. I got to the orphanage in time, and then to the nannies...she was still alseep when i arrived at 8:20. then i got to work in time, but had a terribly put together lesson...not the best.
In short it was busy, but fun!