paula tries hard

Thomas goes into the army...nice.

2010-06-19T16:46:00.003+08:00

So i can't be bothered to back track...but i guess i should at some point (no doubt that point will come and i will have forgotten what i did and when i did it, but life goes on)
So Thomas, my lovely Taiwanese boyfriend of well about 6 years if not longer..i can't remember, has joined the army....
Ok crazy thing to do right. well he had little choice if he wanted to stay in Taiwan. He has British passport and previously had in ARC (a visa to work here) Then the law changed and it was taken away as he has not done his Military service yet...as he's Taiwanese and male he has to do it for a year, which was previously 2 years so i should be grateful really.
Anyway he's away for a month of basic Training..and from what i can tell it's a like being in jail...lots of pointless rules and you don't get the chance to challenge them as they can punish you...nice.
This may be ok if your young and need to learn how to grow up and be a responsible adult and listen to people that are wiser and older than you... However Tom is there, he is over 30 (but thinks he's not) and has a PhD. the people who are telling him what to do and when to do it are a: younger than him, and B: far less educated than him. This can't be easy and is thus taking a toll. He tells me the two and a bit weeks in to the month and he got to fire a gun. This was the highlight of the whole dam thing. Everything else is pointless and boring (him learning to shoot a gun is pretty pointless too, as in the lab we don't normally have to shoot plants to kill them. However it was fun...so he tell me..i'd be scared i think that someone else with gun in their hands who may only be 18 and mentally unstable might just point that gun at me...not sure i'd be too stoked about firing riffles...
He tells me that he has to wear a face mask 24 hrs a day..yep when he is asleep under a mosquito net he has to wear a mask, and they come and check during the night, not just him i might add but all of them. Its mental. they say its to prevent germs...what ever! He got really sick the first week he was there with a throat infection and had to have 3 iv drips...he got to lie down for them..but was made to do other pointless physical work while he was "off sick" thus he didn't get to rest and thus had the illness for a long time. Every tiny brake that they gave him he had to go to the medics office to get medication ect... They did sign him off of work, but that just means that he doesn't go outside...instead he painted ceilings and attended lecturers about trench warfare...nice.
So he gets a week off on the 3rd of July, which is great can't wait. i just hope that its better than the weekend he just had off last weekend... It was not really off...he had to report to his officer every 3 hours (well at specific times) using a code word to make sure that it him (SERIOUSLY!) and had to be at his parents house by 10 pm every night. If he missed it or was late then they can take things away from him or punish him in some dumb arse way.
I was anti the whole making people go into the army thing but now i really hate it as i think its just such a waste of time. Toms not going to benefit from this, his time could be better spent...with me!!!
yes i am selfish and wish that he was home with us, i miss him and can't wait to see him in a week or so.
He finds out where he will be posted for the year on the 1July, he may get a uni place 75% chance of that, and that would be in Taipei...however if not then he could be posted to a little island in the middle of nowhere where he'll be for 3 months then off for a month...I don't like this idea at all, and pray he be in Taipei..but i guess it's up to God and what plans he has for Tom. So i try not to worry about that just yet.
Sarah seems to understand that tom isn't around and there is no point to ask if we can see him today (which is her normal question of the day). she also doesn't want to watch anything that had army stuff in it now as it upsets her. She told me on the way home the other day that she going to be in the ermy (ie army), so she can see tom. Cute. but fortune has it that here its only the men that have to join...plus she's about 16 years too young!
I'll try and post a photo of Tom's new crew cut...Sarah didn't want to touch his hair when he came home, she was on his shoulders with her hands behind her back, bless her.

The emperors new burger

2010-01-08T19:57:00.003+08:00

So we are in a burger joint with tilly and Anna but before we go in I ask to make sure that they have a veggie burger. He says they do so we go in and order anna's comes first and then mine.... Well it came he said yea this the veggie burger, in front of me was I bun with a price of lettuce and gerkins on the side. So I ask where is the burger.??
There? Ok so this is their veggie burger. We won't be back soon!!
But they do have wireless and Thomas gave me an I pod touch for christmas so that' sweet

Sarah's List to Santa

2009-12-22T13:22:00.004+08:00

My sister sent me some paper and envelopes for Sarah to write to Father Christmas/ Santa. So i sat down with her and asked her so what do you want for Christmas from Santa.

"Yellow Cakes" she replied, so i say ok anything else just think of some things that you want to have and maybe Santa can bring them.
"err yello cakes? ok blue cakes" So i probe again and say come on, something that you really like and want that mummy doesn't buy for you...
"tauw may (Strawberries), i'd like strawberries". OK great, Santa might bring you those..anything else??
"Yellow cakes", she says again and again.
So i give up and let her finish her list there as she really couldn't think of anything else she wants, she just wants yellow cakes really.
So guess what i'll be baking just before Christmas day!
I will i am sure long for Christmas list so easy when she is 13 asking for a playstation ect...

Ok its cold here now

2009-12-19T09:28:00.002+08:00

So its finally cold here...cold Taiwan cold mean 11 oC and colder inside than out due to no heating in the houses and it set up for hot weather...go figure. So this time of year i freeze to death and so does my skinny little girl..she's not so skinny these days but still she's cold even with many many layers of clothes on. bless her.
We were lying in bed (she came and joined me) the other day, it was cold don't want to get out from under the duvet. She said she wants to play a game, ok, so she pretends to shot things pow pow she goes, she tells me we are the water park and then goes on to tell me all the things she likes to do at the water park. Then she starts saying and and and mummy's boobies mummy's boobies wobble at the water park! i crack up laughing and so she repeats it of course. We haven't been to the water park since august but she still remembers everything..even things i didn't think she thought or noticed..ie my boobies wobbling! It was pretty funny, and i suspect it is an accurate observation!

Still here..just not often

2009-12-14T13:24:00.002+08:00

So i am still here just not that often, i think in the new year i will start to get the iternet at home as its doing my head in.
We baked with the kids on Saturday very cute, Tilly wanted more licking mum, meaning icing. Sarah liked to cut out the shapes and decorated them nicely, didn't like to eat them of course. however i make muffins this morning with little sugar in them and she ate 3, nice. They are teddy bear shaped as i bought a new mold...ok it cost way too much but its ace, Sarah never gets to eat cute food, there's no cute food for vegans here..
ok i have to go my boss wants her computer back..
i'll try again soon.

Its potty time for Sarah and Pickles!

2009-11-18T13:03:00.003+08:00

So at my parents Sarah started to want to pee on the potty, which she has been strongly against for some time now. So i was over the moon to see she was interested in it again. So when we got home she peed on the potty a couple of times but never when we were out and often on the floor..you know how it goes. Then we were at Kelly's house and i thought I'd give it a go, so i took of her nappy and let her bare little bum run around. Nick was sleeping, which is only relevant later, so she sat on the potty there...for ages, no pee pee. then mum its coming pee pee is coming! quick. She rushes sits down and pees, then she claps and is extremely excited to the point that she wakes up Nick. Bless her, she was so pleased with herself ( i too added to the excitement!) then later she did it again! yeah way to go. this time I'd figured out that if you turn on the potty (i didn't know you could) then it plays music when she pees in it! how cool was that, for a little girl that loves music. She was over the moon.
So at home we made a star chart,and then she stopped peeing on the potty! yep it had the reverse effect. she refused to use the potty and thus i didn't push the issue. Then i tried again at a friends house and she did it twice. I gave her jelly (little mega sweet things that come in tiny containers that every kid loves). She was well chuffed that she got the jelly and went home and peed again, and asked for a jelly.
So the jelly worked the stars didn't.
this kid likes rules so i placed some, i told her when she was at home she wasn't to wear a nappy anymore (only at night). So this week we'd had a few fights where she wanted me to put on the nappy...so she could pee/poop. but I'd say no then when we'd go out I'd put on one and yep she's poop in it. so i told her if she peed on the potty she could have a jelly if not then no jelly's. If she pooped then she could have two jelly's (oh the other thing she learnt to do well in the UK was to count, so cute).
today was the first day i had a break though with the potty fiasco. We didn't go out all morning and see peed 3 times and pooped once, her first ever poop on the potty!! i was so pleased. however i am started to regret the jelly rule as this morning she has already eaten 5 jelly's...not so good!
So we left the house to go to the nannies with no nappy on, yep i risked it and she made it just fine. i am quite sure she will kill me when she's older and knows that i shared this information with the world, but I'd happy and i want to tell people.
the other thing that happened earlier this morning is that my cat Pickles, pooped for the first time on the toilet too. the real toilet that is. She's been peeing on the toilet for about 3 years now but normally she has a bowl with a little bit of sand in it and holes so the pee goes threw and the poop stays and she can cover it ect...
Well Thomas looked after her when i was in England and when he returned her he forgot her bowl. She'd been peeing just fine on the loo, but would poop in the "garden". today the weather is horrible and wet and she wasn't going outside so she just pooped in the loo.
thus I've had a very busy poopy day! :)
i will post a video of pickles peeing that tom put on line...i'm happy as after 3 years of trying to potty train Pickles, i now have no more cat poop to clean up...i hope!

flight home.

2009-11-05T15:50:00.004+08:00

So we are back in Taiwan, Sarah was sick for the flight back but i got her some sinus medication to clear up the mass amount of snot she was producing just in time for the flight. The first 11 hrs went really well and i thought to myself wow i did it it was so much better than the trip there. Then we had a short flight from bangkok to HK, which i didn't relise was on the agenda, then HK to TW...the flight to HK wasn't too bad but she feel asleep and i had to wake her up..thus not so much fun waiting for the next flight and then dealing with the next flight...
However i have to say all in all that she did really well with the whole flighting thing. Seroiouly she was great, she never had a time that she cried inconsolably, never did she have a time where she threw herself about in a big old hissy fit. She cried a bit, yes but so would i, she hates to chew gum, sweets ect so the pressure up and down wasn't so great, particulaly on the shorter flights. I hurt me and i was chewing like crazy.
All in all i think kids will do much better than you think they will. i will say this that wrapping small (kind of crappy) little gifts REALLY helps. I have to thank Heather for this idea, it really works very well and she loved it. she would sit with one in her hand for ages waiting till we got on the plane, then open it taking another 3 mins then would play with it for well lets face it no more than 20 mins, it really helped to settle her down and pass the time. The other thing was that we took my little laptop that Tom had copied her dvds onto it so she could watch them. this was a life saver too, and made the 11 hr trip much better than it would have been, i even got to watch a movie as she was so into Dora. So thank you for the tips.
The plane that we had on the way back was just as crappy as the way there, i didn't think they even ran those type of planes still, it had just the one big screen at the front which is so well last year! haha. next time i think i will try and see if you can make sure you get the back of the head entertaiment system, its so much better.
The jet lag was worst coming back then going, i always fine that to be the case. It didn't help that i had to work the next day...i didn't relise that i would be but i had to. I told them that i was happy to go to the halloween party / not really a party. So they assumed that i would have normal teaching duty before...great. poor sarah had to go to the nannies less than 24 hrs after getting of a 15 hr flight. not good. and i had to teach...maybe not my finest hrs of teaching! next time i will make sure i come back late friday so i get a weekend before i have to teach again!

Fringes and farms

2009-10-25T06:57:00.009+08:00

Never realise the benifit to sharing a bed with someone, personally i can't bear it and would much rather sleep on my own in my own room far way from wiggly worms.
Anyway, at home (Taiwan) Sarah has to sleep in my bed (only got air con in my room and its well very hot in Taiwan in the summer) but she sleeps on her own matress so is a bit higher and generally stays on the matrise. Here however she is just in the same bed. Which isn't great, but last night it was cold here..no suprise, when i went to bed Sarah was sleeping on "my side " so i got in and pushed her over. Thats when i was enlighted to the benefits of sleeping in the same bed as someone, my bed was nice and warm and then she was lying right next to me giving off heat, so i didn't have those 10 mins when you get into be and are colder than when you where out of bed.
nice. i new there must be some benifits! but maybe that's the only one.
I cut Sarah's hair, due to the fact when she was ill her hair was GLUED to her face with snot. Seriously. My sisters kid (Sky) was the same, and louise cut a fringe into her hair, and it looked really cute. So i thought i'd try it. I like it but it makes her look older...gosh they grow up too fast!
We went to finkley down farm, which is a petting farm in the town i grew up in. i grew up going to this farm and loved it. They do a great job there. Anyway, i took Sarah and of course she loved it totally.
My friend Leah gave Sarah a baby doll, normally she has rejected ALL dolls given to her, Lili would try to share her dolls with her and she'd push them away. However she is now in love with little dolls, and can't get enough of her new baby doll. Mum brought her a bottle to feed the doll with and the look on her face when she does it is so funny, this really serious face...i guess it looks a bit like my expression when i am trying to consentrate. very cute mind.

sick little Sarah bear

2009-10-21T15:40:00.004+08:00

So we went to Wales to see my friends, they have a place that is in the middle of no where...really.
So Sarah had been sick with a cold, but so had i and i just thought it's just a heavy cold. She seemed to be getting a bit better on Saturday and i thought great she'll be fine for Wales...
needless to say i spoke to soon. We stayed over at Barrs (David's) house on Saturday and on Sunday morning she was perky and fine.
We stopped at a service station and she played fed ducks and seemed ok, a little more winny maybe but not too bad. Then we arrived at my friends lovely cottage, really lovely but there were lots of people still there and Sarah was well more than shy. She was clinging on to me for dear life poor thing. She was winny and cling, she was obviously not herself, that night after lots of people left she still was no Sarah, that night she was up and really sick with a heavy cold and fever, the next morning she was all well not right at all, so Dan took us to the hospital, which was 20mins away. The A&E (ER) staff said she was dehydrated and had really bad tonsilitus, and a heavy cold...so much snot i couldn't even belive how often i had to wipe her nose!
So they tried to put in an I.V but she moved right when they'd got it sorted and it popped the vein, so her little had swelled up and they took it out and she was left with a big old bruise, not nice.
Then she got moved to pediatricts and saw three more drs that all said the same thing, after four examinations i was a little bit naraked that no one had given her anythingfor the pain...4 hours later she was admitted to the pediatric ward and given antibiotics and pain relive (a spray along with the normal stuff). We stayed in all day and she finally got a little better. We went to leave and they gave us her medication and that was that. we didn't have to pay to sign to do anything, the NHS is and can be amazing really. They new that Sarah was adopted and we'd come from Taiwan, they didn't mind, it was so weird after living in Taiwan where you have to fill in forms show i.d ect...So at 10 pm we went back to my mates house.
That whole week i had to carry her around all the time, she was winny clingly and well just a mess. i kept praying that she would wake up and just be my Sarah bear again. She didn't the whole time, my dad came to get us on Thursday night and stayed over, on Friday she was a little bit better but still clinging to me. I was SO tired really, i wished that i could pass her to someone...of course everyone offered and but she wouldn't really go to them for long or without me right there! my joints were killing me. i was also so disapointed that my friends *(on of which Sarah is named after) didn't get to meet real Sarah bear. So sad.
So we left and on Friday she was well much better and by Saturday she was Sarah bear again! so nice.
So she's back to being herself again.
Here's some photos!

home, at last I've written a post!

2009-10-04T01:47:00.005+08:00

So i have tried to write this post endless times, but Sarah or something keeps stopping me from writing it. The Internet is in our / her room so when she goes to sleep...i can't surf or type of course ...thus i don't get alone time ok i am in England, we are fine the flight was delayed for 2 hr on the runway..not good Sarah saying i want to fly mummy fly...ect... for 2 hr. then it took off then she fell asleep, just when they served the food.. i sealed it in a spare zip lock and she ate it when she woke up. She did ok on the flight really didn't cry much but she was able to walk around alot so that helped. The wrapped presents also did the trick , thank you miss Heather for that one! They really are perfect thing to bring as it makes them sit down still for well 10 mins if your really lucky! the plane was crappy, no back of the head screens for movies no no, it was old school like one big screen way over there for every one to watch in the middle rows and a tiny one for the side rows..thus Sarah had no hope of seeing it not that she'd want to as it was all adult movie (not porn i mean grown up movies!) Tom had put all Sarah's dvd's on a hard drive so she was able to watch a few programs on my mini computers, Thank you Thomas as that was also a life saver. Oh and regardless of the delay this was by far the longest flight i ahve ever taken...seriously it seemed like forever! normally i sleep or watch movies listen to book music ect...this time i was the enteratinment system...not so easy she only slept 3 times and for an hour each time,for way over 14 hrs flying time..not good not looking forward to the trip back i can tell you. Ok so we went to my sister (Louise) and i met Sky for the first time, she's just over 1 and very cute and sweet. Sarah and her seemed to get on well, she wanted to kiss Sarah a lot and well Sarah didn't scream at her when she was holding Spot for about 2 mins..(Spot is the thing that she doesn't have to share it's her spec ail toy like a blanket or something but its a small knitted spotty cat) So here are some photos from last weekend, i will put more up from this week as soon as i get two mins, Sarah is currently sat on my lap as the bath time was over quicker than i hoped! shame. She's taken to my parents which is really great she asks where they are and wants to follow them around when they are home, she even lets mum and dad give her hugs and stuff...but still doesn't want any one but me push the buggy, put her shoes on or anything like that....what's that about. mum took her out of the bath and she let her but then grabbed hold of me like a little limp and wouldn't let go, like i was going to leave her. you really think that she still remembers all the times i did leave her, i guess that she does huh. ok here are the cute photos. enjoy. Ps some are taken by Sarah...spot those win a prize (...oh as a disclaimer no prize will really be given!) oh and i just found this video...haha

Butterflies!!

2009-09-29T19:07:00.002+08:00

So today i have butterflies and am feeling quite sick..excited nervous not sure..
Then i realised that i started my period today. Great right, so i get to fly with a 2 1/2 year old for over 14hr, while i am tired from having no sleep for the past few days due to excitement/worry ...ect, and now i will have the added joy of my period. nice.
Not!
never mind, i am sure that i will be just fine...can i really not take a hot water bottle on the plane? really can i not take Soya milk to subdue Sarah, as i know she will ask for it.
Dam those bomb makers and there stupid plans to blow up a plane with liquid. So annoying, but its still fine to take massive glass bottles from the duty free shop, but no no to nail scissors, what is that all about?? Seriously, i mean i'd rather be attacked by a pair of nail scissors that i big glass bottle, that you can knock someone out with then stab them repeatedly. Has no one ever thought about that? no really? It all stinks of making money as the reason you can and can't take some things on board.
Sarah's just turned up, the nanny brought her here as i was late...bad mother. She was screaming because she'd lost her shoe in the road and freaked out. the nanny said she's really scared of the road...err...too right then she will not run on it, am i the only one that think they should be scared of the road??
I know that Sarah will never run on the road, she walks down the street with out holding my hand and i know she's fine. She's only ever gone on the road once , and it was right in front of a car...quite road, very slow but you know scary. she's not done that again. now i trust her to be safe with road...so of course she's scared of them!!
anyway better go, we have to leave at like 3 am as the flight is at 7:30 am, i feel bad for Tom as he will be driving, i feel bad for Sarah as she will be sleeping, but i guess that is why it was the cheap flight. ho hum i am going via Thai airlines, and i have heard they are pretty good. i booked assistance and vegan meals, so i am a right complainer...gosh i wonder how on Earth i got to be so darn fussy, i nearly asked for no Almonds too but i figure that's all a little bit too much (almonds give me, and my family it would seem, mouth ulcers big painful ones..not so good. my sister had almonds on the way over and she got a big one. not good.)

getting ready to go go go!

2009-09-26T10:18:00.002+08:00

Sarah and i are in the libary checking our email...well i am, she is currenty running around with no shoes on (there is carpet here so that means its clean right mummy?) she's collecting "rocks" from flower pots and eating her manto (bread), i am sure that i will get told off at any moment..but you know she's happy and she doesn't go too far from me.
I let her walk off out of my sight quite often as she never goes far and is always safe, however i think i better no do that in the uk as someone might take her, here there's little to no chance that will happen (of course there is always a chance but its pretty slim). As for the uk i don't know maybe, she's pretty darn cute! :)
We've been doing lots of shoppping to buy stuff for people in at home, and i gave sarah some of her own money to get anything she wanted only like 60nt with is about 1 pound, so what does she buy...
She buys two peach juice boxes one for me and one for her, then she buys hello kitty wet wipes...yes wet wipes. I ask if she is sure and yes she wants that, so that's what she got.
She then used them to clean the table, the floor and her face...
she's so clean...but they smell like floor cleaner so i don't think i want her to wipe her face with them again.

Off to England

2009-09-24T14:18:00.003+08:00

So I've been away from the Internet of late due to a lot of work and not a lot of time...
My sister, Caroline, came to see me a couple of weeks ago now. It was really lovely to have her here and show her a few of the sights of Taipei...we didn't get to see that many but we saw a few and I think she had a good time. Sarah and I did so I am guessing it couldn't have all been bad for her. She slept in Sarah's room, which has no air-con at all ...so she was hot at night, I did tell her she can come and sleep on the floor in my room (on a mattress) but she didn't want to. I couldn't really give her my bed as Sarah sleeps in it and I can tell you no-one wants to try to sleep next to her...she's a wiggling nightmare to sleep with and I will be super glad when the weather is cool enough that she can go back to her own bedroom!
Pictures below are of Caroline and I when we went out and about..i don't have many as she used my camera to take photo's on her memory stick..until it ran out of space. Ok so you might ask why I didn't down load it before she left...well that would require that I thought things threw and I often don't and often forget things.
So many cool things have happened since I last wrote I am not sure where to begin. Sarah's talking why more and she's improved a lot. I'm really please as this means that maybe my parents will be able to understand what she is saying (well the English at any rate!)
We have our tickets to go home, we will fly out of Taipei next Wednesday! So soon, so excited. Yet I have had sleepless nights worrying about all the things that I need to take back with me (gifts), and all the stuff I need to prepare for the subs that will teach my classes when I am way. I've also been fretting a lot about the plane journey and what on earth I will do with Sarah for the well 24 hrs that we will be traveling for...agghhh. She can't even sit still to watch one episode of Dora!! I have brought lots of presents for her that I will wrap up and give her every hour, this is what my sister does and my mate Heather. But seriously what on Earth do you do with a slightly hyperactive 2.5 year old on such a long flight??? any ideas?
Also I am worried as I have chronic joint pain that gets much worst if I am sat down for a long period of time.. and getting up every so often on a plane doesn't cut it. So I know full way I will not be able to walk very well at all when I go to get off the plane, so how do I then carry my possible half asleep child off the plane along with all the things I am taking to entertain her for the journey?? Before I used a wheelchair and had assistance getting on and off the plane, but then I was much worst than I am now, i'd use the wheelchair to go to the super market or anywhere that involved walking a lot. Since being in Taiwan and having Sarah my joints are 100X better than they were so I feel like a bit of a fraud asking for assistance now. Do you know what I mean? So what do I do, struggle to walk and make the transfer time or get assistance? And I don't think Sarah will go to anyone else bar me so she will want me to carry her...nightmare. I went to the movies the other night with Tom (first time since having Sarah without taking her), so at the end I go to get up and I am in so much more pain that I have to walk out of there like a limping robot that needs their joints oiled...so I can image after the flight...
Good thing is that my folks will meet us at the airport so we don't have to get a train or a coach home...which would be well Marfan (trouble in Chinese).
I've been preparing Sarah for the trip, and she says a list of people that we will go and see when we are there. Which is very cute, my parents will want to hug her as soon as she gets of the airplane but I am not so sure she will just go to them like that...but I guess they are used to it with Caroline's kids not really knowing them. Did I say that I will go home for a whole month?? well I am. Whats funny is my landlord told me that he will give me a 50% discount for the time I am not there...is that weird or what? It's wonderful but strange. Also the nanny says I don't have to pay her so I am really glad I am going for a whole month.
Ok I will try to write again soon, as well as catch up on emailing people and reading blogs..sorry.

We're alive

2009-09-08T13:29:00.002+08:00

ok so i am alive just super busy.
Sarah is fine now, thank you for asking. she's was rough for a while but is now in tip top condition.
Normal school started last week so a change to my shedual ect..thus busy.
My sister is arriving on Thurdsay so i have been huntting for a sub..nightmare but maybe we have one...
I will be going home at the end of this month. i am so so excited i can't wait. Sarah will finally get to meet my family and friends. I can't stop thinking about all the food i want to eat when i get home..vegan cheese is the top of the list as is vegan ice cream ...oh the list it goes on.
Of course i can't wait to see people too! but food..mmm... i've been here too long i tell you.
I have to go prep a lesson i'm so far behind. i hope to get some good photos up here soon as i have some nice ones of Sarah of course!
Oh dear i almost fogot its my sisters birthday today, so happy birthday! i will see you in two days!! how cool!!

Pneumonia not H1N1 (we pray!)

2009-08-26T13:43:00.002+08:00

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)

2009-08-26T13:42:00.002+08:00

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...

2009-08-21T16:19:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-08-20T13:43:00.004+08:00

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)

2009-08-20T13:26:00.002+08:00

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!

2009-08-17T13:02:00.011+08:00

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

2009-08-13T13:21:00.003+08:00

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)

2009-08-13T12:56:00.006+08:00

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

2009-08-05T13:34:00.007+08:00

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!

ARCs, Phones and growth spurts

2009-07-31T13:21:00.002+08:00

So many things have been happening what happened just yesterday is Tom called me to tell me that he can no longer have an ARC...(Work permit) to live in Taiwan. Ok so this is confusing right as Tom is Taiwanese...but he's not really. He came he on his British passport to avoid military service. Which was all above board and fine...however they change the law in Feb this year (with out us knowing of course) which means that he can no longer do that. He has to do his military service or he can't have an ARC...his ARC ran out today so he has had to get a quick flight to Hong kong and get out of Taiwan fast. nightmare. So he is now flying to Hong kong just to flight back here and get a landing visa, which is for 90 days only...what a waste of money and time. He will literally go there and get the next flight back..crazy stuff. we don't know what will happen after that but it seems crazy. Poor Tom, what a nightmare.

Bar all this big drama of the day, over the past month we've been busy getting a new phone, with a lot of help from Anna and Steve...We went to get it sorted out and it was a bit of a nightmare, if you can't speak Chinese you really can not sort it out by yourself..plus if you apply and you are foreign then you have to pay even more as a deposit so you don't just leave the country.
Never mind.
I have been hunting for flights and trying to sort out a way to get back home, and i will go i have enough money just but it's tight so i was stressing over that. However it's way too important for me to go home, there are tons of things happening right when i want to go back so i have to go i feel really drawn to go back.
I miss my family and friends, but i don't miss the weather...goodness knows what i will pack..Sarah will have to wear lots of tights with trousers i guess. bye bye cute summer stuff that we can normally wear until November and hello British Autumn time...great. Sarah's skinny i can't believe that she would cope to well if we went in the winter, she was freezing this morning after half and hour at the water park...and it is and was HOT out there. bless her. She's had a big growth spurt lately and has been eating for England..so when I took her to the orphanage to see Asher, who's been sick for like forever *he has a cold. I thought i know i will show them what a great mother i am and weigh her there as she must be a lot heavy...nope still just 10 kg.. she's gotten taller she's gained like 2 cm in a month (ok nothing compared to Essies kid but seriously even her feet have grown so much i can see the difference!).
Sarah's nanny lost a bag of Sarah's stuff the other week..which had in it one Spot. So Spot is the little cat Sarah loves and takes every were. Fortune has it that Heather (who we miss and want to come back) gave her a duplicate, or doppelganger Spot last year. So Sarah has two. We only ever take one out and i always try to get her to take said doppelganger. She did and her nanny lost it. So sad. She was really upset as she sleeps with two (she says three for two ..not sure why, she's started to correct it and say two spots). Anyway we went to the nanny on Monday and the nanny had been online and brought Sarah another Spot...this time rather bigger, not the same colour and with strips not spots...however it's the same company. It must have cost a lot as the ones that both Heather and i got were far from cheap (now wishing she's attached to a cheapy thing). This nanny is really quite poor, i feel so surprised that she did that its a big shock and must have been hard for her..i can't even tell her how much Sarah loves it as i don't speak enough Chinese..
I guess she saw as Sarah had a dog with her which as soon as she got the big spot she dropped on the ground like a bit of litter!
Ok thanks for reading so far...i just could keep going but i think i should stop and do some prep for work..i start in 20 mins!

Hair dressers

2009-07-16T08:28:00.010+08:00

So Sarah's obsessed with Hair dressers...i've said it before but she is in love with them. we walk past on and she's standing at the window staring in as quick as a flash. She could spend hours just watching..even when not much is happening. I always have to pull her away. she points them out when ever she spots even a tiny glimps of one. So now she has my hair dressing playmobil in her room and she loves it. she brushes their hair, and her own with the tiny little brushes. she blow dries there hair too, and answers the phone..which she discovered was so small she can in fact put it in her ear...not so good but she's done it just the once...i am hoping we don't have to take her to the drs to remove it one of these days.
So on tuesdays i have the day off work, and i've been wanting my hair cut for a while..it's been a long time since i had it done as i (unlike Sarah) am not a big fan of hair dressers and the alike. So my friend Kelly has just gotten back from Russia, and she was going to get her hair cut, so i said i would like to join her. So we did.
We all went in together and Sarah was stoked! She sat there between us while we got her hair washed and asked again and again, my hair dressers? my hair dressers? over and over.
So Kelly said that she would like to treat her to a hair cut if that was ok. how could i turn such an offer down. Sarah was SO excited, it was SO funny and amazingly cute to watch her get her hair washed and then trimmed. Every time the hairdress left she asked where's the man gone? (man where?). She loved every minute of it. it was so cute. i asked that they don't really cut much off just trim it and they did.
My hair however..i asked for it to be a bob, then i felt lots of hair falling on the floor..you could practically hear it! I ware glasses so i can't really see what they are doing when i get my hair cut..i can just guess..so its a suprise when i put them back on.
So here it are some photos of out girls day out at the hair dressers. i have never done that before and it was so much fun i will do it again some time.
Ginger came with us, Kelly's friend and took photos, and translated for us. She was a blessing as otherwise we'd have no photos and look how cute they are!
Thanks to kelly for our wonderful hair cuts...well her's and Sarah's are great i am liking mine a bit too.

trip back home

2009-07-16T08:28:00.007+08:00

life as a dyslexic:
Planning to go back to the uk in October..thought that the flights we well cheap...turns out what i was looking at is one way and for one adult.....oh dear when will i learn to read! back to the drawing board!

cycling

2009-07-16T08:28:00.005+08:00

So we've been cycling this last couple of weeks. we have a bike on loan from a friend who has gone back to Canada for the summer (Thank you Nevada).
I want to try it out and see how Sarah liked it before i thought about getting a baby seat for her.
She LOVES it, really loves it. i am so glad. we cycled for 30 mins and we get off and she just says again again? and gets upset that we can't go on it again until tomorrow! bless her.
The problem with cycling is that in Taipei you can't take the MRT (underground) with your bike during the week you can only go on it at weekends or holidays...which i find a little annoying and strange to say the least. peak times sure but all day? and night during the week?? that's a little over the top no? also you can only take it on half the mrt the other half your not allowed...go figure.
Tom went with us for a bike ride and got rather hot, we went out at mid day...not the best idea ever, but i hadn't planned it that way it just so happened that by the time we got there Tom finished we finished eating ect..it was mid day. never mind.
We went to get the helmet for Sarah with Tilly and Anna, Sarah loves the helmet and wanted to wear it that day even though we didn't have our bike...her and Tilly used the bike stand to make believe it was a bike..or a horse or what ever they thought it was. cute.
Sarah has also taken to requesting a Tail. We have three cats currently...hopefully the kittens will go soon. But she is always saying my tail, where's my tail. i tell her she doesn't have one..but now she does she has a long sock of mine in the back of her skirt/shorts ect...and she walks around with this Tail..she loves it and even wants to sleep with it...go figure. i will take a photo to show you.
We also had a great trip yesterday to a shopping mall and Tom got Sarah some new very cool sandals. that she loves. she was miss bouncy to say the least yesterday. cute but so tiring!
the other day i got Sarah some sunnies and she wanted to wear them on the way home in the taxi...it was dark every dark out...still she wore them and told me , "bright lights."

photos of the good bye Hammonds

2009-07-13T13:49:00.003+08:00

Saying good bye to the Hammonds. We went to the roof top pool and had ourselves a little pool party, our last evening with them before they left for the states and then for Japan.
We miss them a lot but have lots of great memories stored up!

precrime

2009-07-13T13:34:00.004+08:00

Tom reminded me that i told him a story about Sarah so here you go.
We were at Tilly's and Anna's house and Tilly and Sarah were both being naughty and climbing on the coffee table then jumping on the sofa. Tilly got told off as did Sarah, she was put on a time out as per normal, so she sat with her hands on her lap for a few minutes then i say ok what do you say, she says sorry and we kiss and tell each other "i love you". So then 2 mins later Tilly climbs on the coffee table again, Sarah see's her and says "no no Tilly", looks at me and i say don't do that you've been told, and Sarah sits down with her hands on her lap on a time out...she didn't even do anything wrong. but i am guessing she thought about it!! haha precrime working at its best! (Of course i told her to get up and she'd done nothing wrong)

Just got a text from Anna saying that Sarah sung herself to sleep after eating all of her lunch..every last bit! so cute. I gave her loads of food too, she's really on a growth spurt.
this is sarah's new bedroom. before she'd always sleep with me but now she's in a big girls bed and a big girls room. Thanks to miss Heather for the lovely bed. Yes Sarah is banded from climbing up the ladder...does it stop her? not really!

Quack, quack, Quaaaaccckkk!

2009-07-12T14:39:00.002+08:00

ok so the pity party has been over for a while..but still i can't upload my photos from my sd card to the computer...and thus can't get it on line. will have to solve this problem soon as it's driving me mental.
Sarah has been loving the new summer arrangement, she has been going to Anna's house on Monday's wednesdays and fridays. She gets to play with he friend Tilly and have Anna as her nanny, i mean what more could she ask for. She loves playing here and its so good for her. i totally 100% trust Anna..unlike most of the nannies that Sarah really has. its also nice to be able to hear what she's been up to and know if she was having fun or not. it makes a big difference being able to talk to the person that is looking after your kid! She wrote about Sarah on her blog so cute. i love my daughter's clean ways...i wish i was nearly as neat as her! it can be a tad embarrassing to say the least when she points out mess...as if my place is spotless....far from it. At least her real nanny doesn't understand what she is saying as there house is a Tip! to say the least!
i took a cute video of sarah saying I love you to the camrea...which sounds like i lu loo. its cute. She has stopped calling Tilly Titty...which she did all the time, she now says Tilly quite clearly. I miss Titty, it was so cute. She also never says wherwher for water any more, she says it quite clearly Water...
Today at church a kid couldn't have a toy for some reason Sarah gave it him and his mum gave it back to Sarah, and he cried. Sarah said quack quack Quaaaaccckkkk...like in a cartoon, you know when its tough luck. it's hard to write what she said, but its a well known sound a bit like a duck but three times and the last time is very long....
I don't know where she got this from but it was sure funny to listen to her use it in this situation! She also stated that oh a lot of stuff...when packing away her toys from Church ..all four of them!
Ok best go, got to fix this sd card somehow its annoying!

inadequate

2009-07-06T13:32:00.002+08:00

This weekend i had Asher again, and got tons of things delivered from Heathers old place. A new bed for Sarah (she now has her own room,she's a big girl and i post on that later).
However this whole weekend has me now feeling darn inadequate as a person as a mother as a well every aspect that i think about.
And no this isn't just so people will say oh your not so terrible.
I just have to get it off my chest and this is the best way i can.
So as you all know, or should. i started my PhD and almost finished...to the point that i had written 95% of it...then i became a mother...
And not it will take a lot more than 5% to get it finished. this is weighting rather heavily on my mind of late as i am hoping to go back to England in the Autumn and thus meet everyone again that knows full well that i gave up so easily.
I hate it. i hate myself for giving up, i have no one not one person to blame bar my own darn self...
My good friend has just finished his and this makes me realise that i am so incredibly rubbish as he started 3 years after me... aggghh
I hate it.
I also feel really rubbish about work, i can't quite believe that i am teaching English when i can't even spell. i also was almost late today for the lesson as i didn't bargain on traffic at 8am in the morning...yes i know its really stupid of me and everyone knows there is traffic then..i forgot.
I was looking for my keys this morning, and couldn't find them anywhere...then i thought maybe they are in the front door..and low and behold they were there. so super safe i am! I've done this before back in Nottingham, but normally i was drunk, out late or stressed out as my nan died...but this time..well nothing really.
I went in to buy a drink today for 7 -11 and picked it up and just walked out of the shop...then walked back in the shop as i realised i didn't pay for it. what a idiot.
I was carrying Sarah in the sling as she was rather sleepy and it's just quicker a woman stopped me and said wow she's really big she can't walk??
Agghh go away. i just smiled like i didn't understand and walked away.
i was teaching newbies today so teaching the ABC, i forgot how to right the A..i forgot that you go down up and down and then across....so i first taught them up down across..then my co worker/boss said isn't it down up down across?? oh yes.
But answer me this...why? why do we do that its a waist of time. also with the B down up around around why not up around around??
I don't know. its all Greek to me!!
and i am the native speaker...i am, i am just not a native writer, speller, reader...speaking i have down!
ok enough moaning and groaning...sleep deprivation has got to me. i have told the orphanage that i can't take Asher this weekend. poor little thing. i just need a break before i break the law or get broken in to...wow a play on words when i am half asleep is quite an achievement..i feel better about myself already!!
ps can't be bother to check it if it doesn't make sense sorry...i will go shot myself. :P

Hammonds Head Home...

2009-07-02T13:30:00.002+08:00

So the Hammond family are leaving at 4 today and i don't know when we will see them again. Soon i hope.
As much as i love having online friends, physically present friends are way nicer. It's been so lovely to hang out at her place, really we just chill out and relax. Its like we've always been friends. Our daughters play together like they are siblings...ie they laugh have fun then hit or bite each other!! they bath together, even when it wasn't planned...(Sarah takes off her clothes and tries to get in..)
Last night we went to the hotel that they are staying at and said our good byes. We stayed over for swimming and food. Then the kids when to bed and Sarah and i chatted with Heather (Sarah still bouncing around happy as Larry at 10:30, her kids didn't nap..what a difference it makes!)
I decided that i didn't really want to reminisce and think about all the fun things that we have done and the not so fun things that have happened in the past 2 years. We just chatted. When i think about i probably talked way too much and should have listened more..but i often think about that. Sorry heather.
So we inherited lots of cool things from the Hammonds, i don't know how i will repay them for all that they have done for me. Sarah will have bunk beds, a toy cupboard and a chest of draws. This is on top of the hundreds of things they have given me over the past year. Even if you don't think of all these "things" they have given me SO much more. really i can't even put it in words. I pray that i will be able to stay in touch and meet up again soon, as it would be just too sad to never see them again.
Sarah hasn't worked out that they are gone gone, i tried to tell her and she said no no, miss heathers house. go miss heathers house? needless to say this will not be the last time that she says that.
So i am just trying not to cry, and not to think about it. God has a plan and who am i to question that. :)

As much as i would love to share the photos i took last night...they won't upload. i don't know why but they won't.

The deep blue

2009-06-25T14:27:00.004+08:00

Kelly and Nik showed us a museum in a park that we offen go to but had no idea that there was a museum there too. There was a cool excibition on about the deep blue sea. So we went and it was way cool. Lots of photos taken at the ocean bed, and some formaldihided fish in boxes..that was not very nice but the photos were amazing. i've lived in the city three years and didn't have a clue that there was this little science museum right there. I suspect i will be going again as it cost just 20nt to get in...that's less 40 pence. It was however overly airconed but the kids didn't seem to care. they had fun running about looking at bright luminated pictures of strange animals.

Air con...not Con Air!

2009-06-24T12:37:00.003+08:00

So Essie asks if it's getting hot here...well yes you could say that.
Last week i buckled under the heat and finally gave in and put on the evil Air con (AC i think you call it in the USA?).
I hate air con really i don't like it and avoid it if i can. many people put it way to high (that should be low surely), that it's a big change from outside and you find yourself putting a cardie on to go inside. not the best. The other thing that happens a lot is that i get headaches from the air con (OK no scientific study was done but there is a correlation i tell you!). The BIG thing i hate it for is that its such a massive waist of electricity that my heart sinks to think how much green house gas is cause by people wanting to sleep with a big duvet and thus put the air con on full blast...this happens, and it's incredible selfish. It drives me bananas when i get on a bus in the middle of summer, therefor wearing summer clothes, and the bus driver has the bus air con set at 16 C!! seriously this really happens, OK rare but none the less how mental is that! often it's at 19c which is just as crazy really. So i sit on a bus freezing my arse off when its 38 C outside. It does however remind me of my many trips in England on freezing buses ...but at least i was wearing the correct clothing!
SO needless to say it was a big stretch for me to put the air con on. Sarah was hot and sweaty and she insists on wearing her Knees as she calls them (shorts/or trousers). So i put it on, i set it to the low hights of 30 C. Then guilt set in and i up'd it to 31. like that makes much different. I have to say it really is amazing how much cooler it is with the air con on, i just don't know why people set it to 25C when 30 is quite cool really...maybe my termostate is broken, but i doubt it as its a brand new and never been used air con...well until last week and again three times this week. I put it on a timer so its not on all night long but i still feel guity like i need to go out there and plant some trees...maybe i will do that and just OFF SET my carbon foot print...
Here's some photos from our day out to the botanical gardens in Taipei...which i never new about but are very beutiful, and the water lillys are all in bloom. so nice. Nik got into the water and had some serious fun splashing about..can you see what Sarah thought about all that!

Yoda

2009-06-23T18:44:00.003+08:00

Yoda served me in the supermarket today...not sure i'd ever get that living in England, and there i was as a 10 year old crying because he died, i shouldn't have worried he was just working in the supermarket all this time!

swimming at the pool...

2009-06-18T18:49:00.003+08:00

so went to the pool today, tom got the day off work and i skipped a class so i could have the whole moring there. it was great and the kids loved it.
I have to say i love living in a hot place, even if it means i melt some days, today was so nice. Sarah and Nykolas still manage to get really cold so have to keep popping out and warming up, like little lizards. They are both way too skinny!
I can't belive Heather will leave us in two weeks,well less than that. i've been trying hard not to think about it but i am starting to and it doesn't feel good. Darn it!

melting

2009-06-17T12:56:00.003+08:00

so its hot hot today, i am kind of melting away...
Even inside is hot, which is strange as normally at work (and everywhere else) the air con is blowing so hard that you have to put a cardy on to go inside. however today it would seem that they are saving energy, which i am all for but wow i didn't expect it and thus am not wearing the correct attire, i wish i could spell as thats a great word.
Went to the hospital to get the normal perscription, like a hundred and one pills to take over the course of a month. Sarah was eating a cucmber stick and again some kind man gave her two lolly pops, i said no thank you in Chinese (aren't you amazed at my abilty to speak Chinese?? well don't be i am rubbish after 31/2 years you'd think i could carry off a converstaion, i can't). Anyway he takes them away and then give her one...right in her hand. what am i meant to do with that, so i just give it too her. I have a feeling that she gets sweets from her nanny as yesterday when i picked her up she smelled like candy floss (cotton candy i think you call it). I asked her if Ei Ee gave it to her(aunt in chinese...there i go again showing off my wonderfull chinese!), she said no, who did? Bar Bar (dad). So not only did the husband give her candy but she's calling him dad. great right.So now she calls Chad (Heathers husband) daddy and this guy Bar Bar...she has two dads. However i don't think she understand what it means and is just copying what the other kids call him. fair enough. As for the sweets, i am happy for her to have sweets sometimes but not often seriously this girl has already had tooth deacay i really don't need her eating tons of sweets..plus she has enough problems getting to sleep, and calming down as it is..
So i had to tell her no more sweets please...plus who knows what's in those sweets, milk, eggs, gelatin (pigs bones...) so much for a vegan baby!

Washing

2009-06-11T15:56:00.003+08:00

Washing
I've noticed that what ever the season is there is always tons of washing to do. In the winter it is colder, and of course there is way more clothes to be warn and thus to be washed. In the summer we may well wear less clothes, but they stink up pretty darn quickly, so even if you are just wearing a little top and short you have to change them everyday if not twice a day, thus creating more washing. The other thing that happens in the summer is you go out swimming or to the beach (which i hope to be doing more of this year no i know that there is a beach close by) and that creates a load of washing on its own. I guess spring and Autumn aren't too bad, but seriously God has to love watching us do washing as it would seem that He has conspired to make it a never ending process...
Tom would say to me "More laundry? You just did a load last week" This might be true but as long as we keep wearing clothes we are going to have to keep washing the darn things, over and over again. I am just totally grateful to my new apartment that has a washing machine and has a covered porch so i don't have to lug them to a laundrette (which is what tom use to help me do) and i don't have to use a tumble drier which is way nicer(ok so I've not been there in the winter yet so things may well change on that front). As it stand I'm well happy with the situation, take last night, i put the washing in when i got home hung it up to dry before i went to bed and hey presto it was dry when i woke up and i could wear the same clothes again..but clean.
Got to love living in a hot place!

Many thanks to Essie

2009-06-08T13:16:00.005+08:00

Many Many thanks to Essie for sending me some lovely clothes for Sarah, they are hand-me-downs but i am sure it cost a lot to send them to me and i thank you. They are great, and adorable. We don't have second hand shops here in Taiwan (Goodness only know why) so i get most of my clothes from my good friend Heather. She is leaving Taiwan soon (next month right?) and Sarah and i will be gutted. not only for the very cute hand-me-downs that she hands up to us (Lili is 5 days older than Sarah but a tad bigger) but for the endless things that she had done and give to us. I will write more another time as i don't want to wish away the time i have with her now.
So i am sending Essie a parcel for her little girls, and Sarah rates everything that's gone in there (she wants it all) however has been very good at saying this is for Genea, this is for Teena very cute. I just hope that they like them as much as she does. After all she is only 2 and they are 4 and 6...but Sarah's a girly girl and loves anything shiny!
Before i was a mother i always thought that i would dress my kid in gender neutral clothes and that it as really terrible to dress little girls up in pink all the time...however when i became a mother and didn't dress her in pink everyone said oh Dee Dee(which mean little brother) so cute ...so then i started with a little more girl, mostly due to other people at the time giving me very pink things for her (some very very pink) and she looked so cute i went with it. Why fight this fight, who cares she is a little girl and wow she does look good in pink. However now maybe that is why she is turning into such a girly girl. Lisa said God is funny that way, and yes He sure is.
So here are a few photos from a very rare event in Taiwan (as far as i have noticed at any rate) a rummage sale! which was great fun and Sarah had a ball playing with lots of junk. It was held to raise money for an orphange that i know quite well (not Sarahs but linked). the play group that i've started to meet with organised it so our new friend Kelly was there too with her son. Sarah's wearing one of the dresses that Essie sent, doesn't it look perfect on her. bless.

Hairdressers and makeup!

2009-06-06T18:44:00.000+08:00

Sarah is obsessed with both make up and hairdressers...she goes into the local make up place (like boots in England) and tries on all the different types of powder that they have there. she lifts up the little plastic screen and wipes her tiny finger over it and then rubs her finger onto her arm or her eye or check or where ever she feels fit. Then proclaims that she is pretty. She does this every day due to the fact that the bus stop is right there next to Watsons (like boots). I've started to think maybe i should always get off the bus early.
I don't wear make up and never really have..so i don't know where she gets that all from. The other thing she loves is hairdressers...yes we go past many hairdresses in our daily route to work and the nannnies house. She likes to point out very darn hairdresser that she ever sees and mostly she want to stand there and watch them...even when it's empty which most seem to be more often than not..
Strange, she's never been to hairdressers and i barely ever go..once a year tops.
So where did it all come from. how come i now have a girly girl that like make up and hairdressers!!
So strange.

Dragon boat Festival days.

2009-06-04T14:01:00.007+08:00

So we had a mini 4 day holiday last weekend (just two days really as two of them are the weekend when we never work anyway...but here they always put a postive spin on it!) for dragon boat festival. We didn't go to see the boats..i have never seen them but suspect that there are millions of people and thus a bit of a nightmare to go to with a two year old.
So we went on a picknic with friends, Heather and Anna...plus a few kids.
Nykolas, Mia, Gemma, Sarah, lili, Tilly and Asher.
So just a few.
I have to say that it was way better than it first looked like it might me. The kids were pretty good,and had fun playing with coloured rice...sounds strange but i tell you they like it (Gemmas mum Nevada made it for us to play with its pretty cool stuff...but you need a mat or something under where the kids are sitting or you'll either loose it or have a lot of sweeping to do).
Sarah and Tilly were playing really nicely together it was so sweet to see, they use to play like that about a year ago when Anna took care Sarah for a while during the time i was hunting for a nanny, that would take Sarah...(long and nightmare issue). So that was nice, they were chatting to each other and pouring rice into each others pots. I am all for simple toys for kids. free toys are even better but simple ones are great. Sarah loves simple and cheap toys more than normal ones i think. She played with a large box for months that she colours and stuck stickers too. She loves playing cards so i gave her some i was given and she sits and plays with them for ages. She loves money too so i got her a whole lot of it for 5nt (almost nothing) and she loves to play with that too. Its nice. i try to make her stuff to play with like a drum from a big tin of oats, that went down well too.
God love her, she isn't demanding when we go to a toy store she doesn't ask for this and that. sure she picks stuff up but she always puts it back when i tell her to with out any fuss. Last night we went out with Tom, as he wanted to get her a toy, so we go to a biggish toy place and sarah didn't loose it once when i told her to put things down. She just did it. In the end she chose a car that she wanted which was a rubbish/Garbage Truck...can i tell you why? well this is a girl that hates dirty things but here in Taiwan the Garbage truck sings a little tune to tell you they are here...so now when she plays with it she sings the tune and says err yucky! its very funny. i need it on video really.
Tom wanted to get her something else but she was well confused and just said no this on this one... so she got the truck and no doubt loves it. bless her.

Back to the drangon festival on the friday we went to the beach...but the waves were too high so we couldn't go in. it was such a shame as tom had driven us there and then we couldn't go in. We went to a little lake before hand which was a little strange but nice none the less.I'm hoping it doesn't put tom of taking us again...as i really enjoy the beach.
So here's some dragon boat festival photos...ps they give a holiday for 4 days as it fell on a Thursday so they give you friday off to, nice right...well not really as then you have to work Saturday the following week...ie this week. bummer.

soda and red

2009-05-28T18:42:00.003+08:00

So here is red and Soda...great names right??
Well they are cute but poop of course and that's not that much fun..but they sure are cute!
UPDATE: ok so now i have some cute kids holding the kittens...much nicer..Sarah didn't sit still long enough with one for me to get a good shot, but maybe she will hold them again sometime. The kids loved them but weren't too happy that the kittens weren't all that into them..i guess that the kittens are just a little bit too young yet to be man handled by 5 kids (Asher didn't try..but ate a fan instead!).They weren't really man handling they were doing pretty well not to, you could see that they just wanted to touch them pick them up walk around with them and squeze them..but they didn't they waited for a long time why the kittens had a rest (ie locked in the bathroom away from the kids), and neither of the cats squeeled from being squezed so they weren't that bad.

haircut

2009-05-28T16:16:00.003+08:00

So i decided to give Sarah a haircut...ok so i should have maybe thought it threw a little but i just went for it and this is the result.
let me know what you think, i like it now but at first i thought it was way too short

Saturday at the beach

2009-05-28T16:02:00.003+08:00

So Kelly took us to the beach last weekend and we had a blast. Sarah wasn't too sure of the sand at first but by the end of it she was well on her way to loving it. Here's some very cute photos kelly took for me.

I can't belive that i have been here for three years and didn't know that there was a lovely little beach 35mins from where i use to live! can you belive that. never mind we know where it now.

Tilly, Lili and Sarah

2009-05-24T11:31:00.000+08:00

New freinds and cute photos, and kittens.

2009-05-19T13:05:00.005+08:00

So i have found some new friends, we meet at the park the other week and it turned out that she was there with a playgroup that meets every Wednesday morning. So for the last couple of Wednesdays we have been meeting and chatting in parks around the place (not always with the play group as both of us have to work in the afternoons so we can't go too far from the city).
Her name is Kelly (for the US) and her son is Called Nikolas (Nik, 15 month or about that), her husband is Russian (they meet in Taiwan and have been here for a long time now over 10 years.) We get on well and have the same shedual so it's really great. I am glad to find some new friends as my dear friend Heather will leave Taiwan shortly to go and live in Japan. So i will need someone to replace her!! (ok i am joking of course i can't have anyone replace Heather but another friend i can hang out with is great)
So last weekend Sarah,Asher and I went over to near where they live and had a play date. (we were going to the beach but both the kids were sick they both have a cold..Sarah and Nik that is). So first we went to the park but found out it was way too hot there. Seriously what was i thinking a park at mid day in the summer...not so great. So we walked to her house. She has a lovely apartment that they moved into 4 months ago, there is tons of space and the kids had a blast. Nik happened to have the same outfit as Asher in her bag when we went to the park (a back up in case he got wet..there is water at the park). so after lunch Nik changed into the same outfit as Asher, funny. Lunch was amazing, she cooks western food and it was wow really good. We had re-fried beans in a wrap with fresh salad. It was a taste of home food not a hint of Taiwanese about it, yummy!
She took lots of photos so i have some really great shots to share, so here goes!

Aren't they so cute. Asher is such a doll, i wish i was married or had lots of money then I'd scoop him up. bless his cotton socks. He's like Sarah was in many ways, he love being scared and tiggled and thrown i guess he's an extrovert..(how do you spell that). He's already crawling really well and is just 6 months, this part isn't like Sarah Sarah crawled backwards for some time ...shuffled backward on her back...cute and fast but still not full on crawling till about 8months. Nik is very sweet and started walking not that long ago and his gate is so cute, it make your realise how much your child has grown when you see a younger kid walk. Sarah's walking is much more like a little girl than a baby. I borrows a book from Kelly called the toddler whisper and from the quick quiz in the front i'd say Sarah is a spirited child...like i didn't expect that to be the case! :)

PS found two kittens yesterday..both sickly, dehydrated, and weak. They are about 4 weeks old...of course i took them to the vet and now they are occuping my bathroom and my time. They woke me at 430 this morning needing to eat. bless them they are really skinny and were covered, really covered in fleas. I found so many you'd hardly belive it was possible. The vet sprayed them so all the fleas were dead but still grim. tons of them. it is no wonder that they are so dehydrated!
I will call one of them red (ginger female) and they other one soda (black, grey and white female). they look seriously scabby at the moment, but still cute. i have photos of how i found them before the clean up...their eyes are gunked up with yuck. bless. how could i not pick them up. there was a third but he ran away and i could get him. never mind he looked stronger than these two.

Mother's day

2009-05-14T13:58:00.005+08:00

So Mothers day came and went..i moved more of my stuff into my new place on mothers day while my friend Heather watched Sarah for me.
What a great way to spend mothers day. never mind. there is always next year!
We also didn't celebrate the 4th May, (mostly as i only remebered on the 6th...like i said before next year...!)
I met Sarah for the first time on the 4th may 2007 and never new how much that day would change my life forever. i was first handed a little boy (Quinn who later got adopted by a very lovely family, he's 2days younger than Sarah), and played with him as he was awake. someone came in and said oh so you'll take him then. i said hang on a minute, what? i don't want to choose which baby i take for the weekend. i can't do that!I can't say sorry you don't get to come home with me... Then Ina (who is the lady that first asked me "so you like kids, have you ever thought to take one home at the weekend?" )she said i thought that you should take the little girl home as she is very small and light. I looked over at Sarah who was asleep, and at that moment she woke up. Her little eyes were all glued together with sleepy eye (she had blocked ducts). Her face was round and red and cracked (Excema), and i thought that's the one. i'll take her! i was then told that she doesn't like to drink milk and it will take her an hour or so to drink 80ml...and that sometimes they have to syringe it down to get her to drink it oh and she often pukes it back up...(i thought milk allergy, they didn't for another month!)
So i brought my little bundle of joy back to work to show Tom and everyone that was still around. Tom said...Paula why do you always pick the sick ones (this goes back to the fact that i have had a number of animals and most where the smallest or sickest little things that no-one else wanted)
I wish i had taken a photo of her eyes like they were but i always cleaned her up for photos and tried to make her look her best. It's hard to belive that she was so tiny and yet so chubby. She was off the bottom of the charts for weight gain for way over a year and is now at the bottom for weight but her height is perfectly adverage. My little bundle of joy is a big bundle of engery that i love more and more. Maybe in the future she will make me a mothers day card and tell me that she's glad i am her mum, as i am sure glad that she's my little girl.

This weekend

2009-05-08T13:41:00.002+08:00

We took baby Asher home last weekend and he was a joy, but this weekend i've decided not to take him home as i have to finish moving house...yes i still haven't done that. i am hoping that Tom is free and can be the driver for us.
I realise i have way more stuff than i ever thought that i had but hey i am a horder...what can i say.
I find if i throw stuff away the next day i will need it for something. why does that happen..who knows.
So this weekend we will be busy with boxes and not babies. i might pop to see him over the weekend poor boy can't be fun in the orpange all week and all weekend.

Random photos of Sarah bear.

2009-05-08T12:47:00.009+08:00

So some random photos the first is Sarah and Lili saying Cheers. they do this alot, today Lili gave Sarah a toy cat (lili had another toy cat) and Sarah said thank you and Cheers! and clinked them together...so funny they have no idea when to say cheers!

We were waiting for Tom at the mrt (underground) so Sarah was bored i gave her a drum...she loved it. i will try and put the video up but it doesn't always work.

This photo is when Sarah was sick i gave in to the local way which is to stick a face mask on if you have a cold..i guess it's nice to warn people you may be infected. Now a days i don't even find it odd when the nanny opens the door with a full on face mask on, i don't even ask why! i know she just has a cold for sure. Live if different in Taiwan can you image that happening in the UK.. i think it would freak people out. here you see it every single day with out fail at least one person you talk to will have a face mask on...

This is at the old house Sarah watching her favorate tv show...chinese singing dancing thing, i have a video of this too very amusing to see her dancing away to mo mo time...as it's called. Here she is rubbing her tummy...i wonder why she was itching...yuck!

This is Sarah and lili at a flower market. they are like sisters they love each other and can be very sweet and the next min on of them is hitting and the other is biting...not the best. but still i guess they are just 2 years old!

This is sarah's new bath, we were given it by a friend as the new place doesn't have a bath. the old place had two..i was so lucky! now we have little one for her it works perfectly.

Dental caries...

2009-04-29T13:22:00.003+08:00

my dear sweet little girl that doesn't like sweets and loves to brush her teeth has dental caries. What a nightmare. i noticed a small hole on her front tooth so took her to the dentist yesterday and it turns out she has not just one but two little holes.
She's never been to a dentist before but she was and ANGEL. my wiggly running about little girl sat perfectly still with her mouth open and didn't bat an eyelid when they scraped the hole and filled it and set it..seriously she was perfect.
They tell me they don't add any fluoride to water in Taiwan...so she painted some on her teeth. Ten mins later Sarah puked up over me (into a paper towel mostly)...it turns out that this happens sometimes...a heads up would have been nice!
I feel like a terrible mother that can't even look after my own daughters teeth, so now we are super alert during brushing. i even brought disclosure liquid so i can see if i missed a bit. it's bright pink and she thinks it's great fun.

The weekend

2009-04-28T13:44:00.004+08:00

To start i should say Happy birthday to Heather and her daughter mia...they have the same birthday so heathers just disappears...poor thing. hope you have a good one.

So the weekend went well, he is a good little thing that loves just crawling around the floor chewing on lions,frogs and cheetahs...very cute.
Sarah loved having him around and the five flights of stairs weren't too bad...well they weren't great the first night as i had lots of stuff to carry too.
so i said things went well..and they did until Sunday night..
On Sunday night Sarah picked up Asher's bottle, by the teat, which isn't really a problem but it dropped on the floor...they gave us glass bottles due i guess in part by this stupid bispheonal A stuff (plastic leaching into the milk and causing all sorts of problems with...in fact they haven't found out what it might do, they haven't even found out if it really does leach if you don't boil it for hours)...but they changed just in case, i guess!
So of course we have tiles and of course the bottle smashed really smashed, glass splinters were EVERYWHERE, Sarah was standing there and i could see her feet were bleeding. I told her don't move DO NOT MOVE, and for once she listened and didn't. Praise the Lord, as i just kept thinking if she moved we'd have ended up in hospital.
i had to put Asher down somewhere that he wouldn't get hurt (of course he was screaming his head of as he was hungry and annoyed I'd dumped him.)
Sarah looked at her feet and started screaming too, i picked her up and showered her feet checked for glass in the cuts (thankfully there wasn't any). I ask myself why does this stuff always happen to me, Tom would tell me that it's because i do too much, i personally think that's rubbish but maybe he is onto something, or i have the worst luck...and i don't really belive in luck.
Sarah's cuts were bleeding a lot but were small and only one needed a plaster. Asher was safe.I dumped them both in the bedroom and went to work cleaning up the WHOLE of the living room.
I haven't felt like a cigarette in a long time but boy i thought that would be nice..i ate chocolate instead (a poor substitute).
Sarah was good and obedient and i am so pleased as if she wasn't it would have been a trip to the A+E (ER) for us. It scared me and it made me wish i wasn't on my own..(as in the only adult).
That night was a nightmare, after i cleaned up, i fed the kids (in the bedroom) and put them to bed. Asher screamed and screamed...he did not want to sleep. Sarah wanted to sleep but was upset by Asher...
When they finally went to sleep i cleaned again checking every inch of the living room on my knees! night mare!
So i will take asher again this weekend, minus the glass bottles! sarah likes him and is very cute to play with him, she even asked about him when we pray (if i don't say his name or i don't say Heathers name..she reminds me!) She also reminds me to pray before breakfast...which i've never done before but she seems to think we should and i guess it's a meal like the others but i just never thought about it. She's funny with her little praying hands and saying Amen. Cute.

Weekend baby...

2009-04-22T13:43:00.002+08:00

So this weekend i will look after baby Asher. Miss Heather, can't look after him this month as she is way to busy with two house guests and three children..and a hubby that isn't really there often (his job, not his lack of compassion).
So i thought you know what, i can do it...i can look after two babies on my own for the weekend...how bad can it be??
I think that i may find out how bad it can be when i have them both screaming their heads of at 3am.... but lets pray that this doesn't happen.
I have 5 flights of stairs to climb if i want to get in or out of my new apartment, Sarah's been great at climbing them, we sing she climbs...she has a strange thing that she does, she has to touch certain doors and then the one oppsite it..she has so many of these little quirks that are really OCDish...is that normal for a 2 year old?? she freaks out if i don't let her do it or i tell her not to get upset about it. one thing she does is stack up coins in her hand (between her finger and thumb) then when one pops out she freaks and gets really cross with herself and the world. So strange. I got her fake coins that stack more ready and she doesn't freak so much now as they stay where they should!
Anyway, if i am carrying Asher i am quite sure that she will want to be carried...so that will be joyous!

Easter photos

2009-04-20T13:41:00.005+08:00

so here are some Easter photos, i said i'd get them up...lets hope it works this time

I'm alive!! just not online...

2009-04-18T19:55:00.001+08:00

so i don't have internet i don't have a phone...i feel very very isolated from the rest of the world, however living here in my new place i am the most in touch with my friends here that i have ever been, as i can just pop over to peoples houses without have to plan the whole day. It's so nice to be able just get up walk out the house and be in the city, i mean before i had one shop that was open when it felt like it...and that was it. I had to get a bus or a lift to get anywhere, now Sarah and i just walk to the mrt and can be anywhere in the city without an hour wait for a bus that may or may not turn up.
Saying all this i really can't wait till i can get some sort of internet here, then i would be well happy.
Sarah's been really screaming everytime i left her a the new nannies since she started, it was breaking my heart to leave her she was clinging to me like a little monkey, and the nannie and i had to prioy her off me. However on wednesday we had a break through, she cried just a little bit, then thursday she didn't cry at all, and again yesterday. So i guess she's finally getting use to it now, and knows i am coming back. i guess that she had so much to deal with in these past couple of weeks, we've moved house, moved nannies, changed routines, and she's been sick with broncitous...so you know she has every reason to scream i guess. She's also be so darn grumpy..why do they throw a fit about every little thing, it drives you crazy. Like seriously she wanted to give something back to tom ( a lid to a can..) which i happened to think is a little too sharp for her to be picking up so i say no...she flips out really screaming fits over a lid....of course i give her a time out, where she contiues to scream for about 10 mins. Sometimes i just don't know what to do about these fits of screaming, i guess the best thing is to ignore them, not give in to them, and give her time outs to calm down...any other suggestions??
What do you do when your kid isn't feeling great and you don't want to give in to every wim that they have?
Today Sarah's been feeling better i guess as she's been being really sweet, laughing, joking, and being a little sweety pie. She's taken to pretending a lot, so she talks and feeds her toys (regardless of if they are animals or objects!). she was in love with my yoyo card (which is a travel card) she was sleeping with it, talking to it, kissing it...yes i said kissing! she's so funny. she's now back in love with her plastic coins, she is back to sleeping with one of them now...whcih i have to say is far harder to find in the bed than a card....She like to put it between her toes (Ms Heather showed her that one), tonight she was trying to put it between spot's (her toy cat) toes..he doesn't have any toes but she still played the game like he did. so cute.
she also has started to put more words together, she says i love you, which sounds more like i lurloo. she also said Jesus loves you tonight for the first time, very cute. We pray every night and she aways says Ahem at the end, tonight after the prayer she said again and then prayed by herself...but it was just laarlarr...Ahem. Cute none the less, i am sure God knows what she's on about even if i don't!
Ok so i've written for ages, i have much more to say, so many things have happened...so i will just back date my posts a bit...

Easter

2009-04-18T19:53:00.000+08:00

Easter,

On the Saturday, we went to a little Easter fair that was in the park, it was rather nice with lots of little games to play lots of little things to see, and all for free. A local church put it on, (local to the Hammonds not to me), we got candy floss (cotton candy) but Sarah didn't like it. I love it so i got to eat it...yummy.

On Easter day we went to church to find out that we were an hour late...i forgot it started at 9 not 10 like it normally does...opps...

Then we went to the Hammonds and spend the day with them, there building had an easter egg hunt so Sarah went on her first egg hunt. It was so cool. She loved it, i loved watching her. Before the big event Chad took the kids to practise with some eggs, and Sarah was taught how to do look for eggs...she go the idea and before long she need what to do.

So then the big event, and she collected a basket of eggs, that were all blue...i don't understand how she did that but they were, then someone put some more out and the blue trend was lost but she had about 10 blue plastic eggs...strange.

She open them and inside the plastic eggs were sweets, she open the sweets put them in her mouth and spat it out. some of them she licked and then said bo yow (don't want) and handed it to me. My little girl really didn't want any of them, she wanted to open them but then didn't eat one single sweet, not even skittles...i got a chewed up one to eat spat into my hand...

Can i ask when did that happen, when did it become ok for me to get a chewed up sweet in my hand and just eat it and not bat an eyelid. Its SO gross, really gross. She does it a lot but what else am i meant to do with it other than eat it. I remember my mother doing it for me and for my kid sister, but it seems to have just happend that i am the one that gets to eat this glop!

Here are some wonderful little shots of the easter egg hunt, she is such a doll.

On Thursday we went to the amusement park that i in Taipei i've never been before but its great for little ones. It was free to get in as they are moving, but it would have only been 30 nt if we did have to pay (about 50p, or 1 dollar). Inside you pay 20 nt for the rides we went on 3 rides so it didn't cost more much at all. there are lots of playgrounds there so there i little need to go on the rides...

The first one we went on i didn't really want to go, i was sure i would feel sick...and i did. I can't handle any spinning around it makes me want to chuck my guts up. Sarah, and all little kids, love to spin, i put it down to an underdeveloped inner ear..and that mine is just so developed it can't handle being spun. We went on a little train that was way better, Sarah wasn't overly impressed...see photo. but when it stopped she wanted to go on it again, so i guess you can't always tell from the face she's pulling. The train was funny, inside the tunnel (which lasted about 1 1/2 seconds) there was a topless mermaid...really very topless and very out of place. I couldn't quite belive it, they are rather prudish in Taiwan and this was toddlers ride. SO strange. Taiwan is full of these miss matchs. Like the fcat they think its really dangerous to let a kid play with chopsticks or climb a ladder to go on a slide, but it's fine to pop them on the back of a scooter with no helmet on and ride around the city in rush hour...

we went to the amusement park with heather's niece, Eleanor, she had just arrived in Taiwan and never been before, she reminded me that this place is a bit strange. We also went with Gemma, so there we were 3 adult foreigners with 2 very blond kids and one little Sarah bear. The blond girls had people coming up to them wanting photos, of course..i say of course as i've seen this happen countless times. its really quite strange and sad. They bring there kid and ask to have a photo with the strange blond kid..what are they thinking?? i mean they get home look at the photos and show friends oh this is some stranger that i don't know with my kid, but look she's not Taiwanese! Its sad as the girls really hate it, Gemma says no touchy no touchy, and Lilli says bo yow (don't want). poor things. people try to touch them like they can't believe what they are seeing, they ask dumb questions like...is her hair real?? did you curl it?? err yer heather spends hours curling it every day...

like i said i don't know what they are thinking. I guess i am just grateful for growing up in a mixed country, but i think even if we did see something really strange we wouldn't act like they do, as we know it's not the done thing.

As for unpacking, its all done..but not all my stuff is here...so i guess it's not all done. how do you manage to accumulate so much stuff, stuff that you still really want. i came her with a couple of suitcases and now i have half a ton of stuff. Cooking stuff, clothes and toys are the main things. clothes are the biggest by far, i don't even buy many clothes i think i've brought a handful of things since being here. but my dear daughter has been given, brought and handed down, a lot of clothes. plus the things that i have brought her still fit her. She can wear things for so long that really she didn't need any more clothes. Ok so they are short on her but they still fit. She was wearing 3-6 month old trousers yesterday, and they just look a but short. Dresses have just turned into tops, it's nice. she gets a lot of mileage out of her stuff. i do worry a little bit that she's too skinny, but she's doing alright. She's 10 and half kilos now she was bit more before she got sick and i hope she getting i back soon. She’s all muscle i have to a say, she has seriously defined calves, they are like a cyclists. Amazing.

my folks send some me three parcels which was so great, one for Sarah full of clothes and crisps for her (healthy crisps..well healthier than normal ones), then a parcel for my birthday, with licorice in along with some nice tops but the licorice beats the tops hands down, i miss it a lot and love it so nice to get it again. Then we got a Easter egg parcel with three big Easter eggs in, one for me that is vegan, one for Sarah that wasn't and one for tom that wasn't either, but they liked them. Sarah will just have to eat a tiny bit at a time..which is fine as she isn't that bothered about them so you know its not a big deal.

post photos tomorrow..

We've moved!

2009-04-06T12:50:00.006+08:00

So we've moved...well just over half the stuff.

Tom was able to move me on Saturday which was wonderful. He helped me (did most of the work) carrying all my stuff up 5 flights of stairs...which i can tell you isn't that much fun...plus on Saturday it was hot (which it isn't now and hasn't been for ages).
My mate Maddy came over and took care of Sarah, also carried stuff up the stairs. That was great or I'd never get anything done. She hang around and helped me unpack a bit and get some dinner too..there is a vegi place just across the street from me...how handy. 　There is also a subway just around the corner, and the real subway/underground/tube/mrt...what ever you want to call it, is also just there around the corner..
This is a big improvement on where i was living, there was a single bus that came every hour...if your are lucky, and stopped running at 730 at night...not good.
The new place is about 15 mins by bus from the nanny and work so we get home just after 7 every night rather than 830...
We moved (well Tom) moved the stuff in two goes so i guess i have another two trips to do this weekend to get everything there. It's so strange waking up in a new place, in new bed (which is very Taiwanese and as hard as a rock..) In the night i went into the second bedroom thinking it was the bathroom...i was awake so i quickly realised that it wasn't (so no horrible mistakes!...that happened to my cousin when she was young and use to sleep walk..she went the wrong way and sat on her sister chair..and you know did what you do on the loo...funny...i guess not for my aunt!)
Sarah seems less unsettled then i thought which is good but i have a feeling its due to the fact that she currently has a cold and a bit of a temp. My mate and here kids have all been sick with this cold, so i was in no doubt that Sarah and i will get it soon enough. i have the fortune of not getting it yet...i am waiting. i hope Sarah is better before i get sick, or that i don't' get sick at all.
So, i don't have Internet at the new place, i don't have a land line ( or even a mobile as i left the charger...did i tell you i am a tad dippy?), i don't have any spoons ...why i forgot them i don't know i have knifes and forks and teaspoons..just no normal ones...so i ate porridge with a fork and Heather at it with a teaspoon...
(She came over this morning to see the new place, with lilli. so wonderful that she can now just pop over, before it was a whole day trip now its just 20 mins to my place. nice.)
I do however feel a bit like a student again as i am boiling water to make tea or to drink in a sauce pan...as i haven't got a keetle yet...so i need to go and get one.
Ok i am at work so i better check for spellings...and post.
Just so you know i am not dead, just moving house!

the face of Scabies

2009-03-30T11:29:00.003+08:00

Can i just say that i think it's pretty cruel to have this poor guy's face up there as the face of Scabies..i bet he never new that that photo would be used for that! it reminds me of the friends episode when Joe is the face of some V.D.
This is what the scabies bites looked like three weeks ago when i first took her to the doctors...now they are almost all gone, just some scares left. my poor baby.
So if your kid has bumps like these that are in strange places (where a mosquito can't get too) then be aware that we may have given it to you....sorry!

A new place & dumb adoption questions...

2009-03-29T22:19:00.003+08:00

So i have found a house (well not a house of course but a flat/apartment). I am so pleased. its really nice and clean and contains plain walls, no frills, no grease and not kitchen in a box.
It's a 2 bedroom place with a little bath room (no bath, is it still called a bathroom??) and i small kitchen, but it is a kitchen...ok the fridge can't fit in the kitchen but still it is a kitchen. The walls have been freshly painted (a nice simple hue), the fridge freezer in brand new (with tags and everything. The air con in the bed room (the only one) is also new. It has a biggish balcony that is undercover that i can have a washing machine in and a CLOTHES line...which is really nice. Its all undercover so i don't have to worry about the rain. The down side is that it's the 5 floor...no lift so lots of stairs..not the best. however it's worth it.
So i took a friend of mine, Steve, (who is Taiwanese and married to my mate Anna), i basically wanted someone else other than me to think it's ok to live there. So we went today with Sarah, and of course they say to Steve...huh that kid doesn't look like a foreigner?? ...no shit Sherlock!
So he says that she's adopted (which is so obvious to the rest of the world but to Taiwanese...they don't think of that first!). The first thing that came out of the daughters mouth (who's about the same age as me with an 8 year old son) was , why would you do that? i mean you aren't even married!
She spoke a little English, but mostly spoke in Chinese to Steve. Her mother (my landlady) was not nearly as out spoken as her.
So this woman continued asking question after question about Sarah... (i have italic her speaking, so you can follow it a bit ..i hope!)
"Well how will we know that she won't just go back to England and leave the kid here, i mean my mother can;t take care of it you know".
SERIOUSLY now what kind of a person does that?
"Do you know her parents, her real parent?"
not really her mother is in Jail...
"so her mother will come looking for her and take her back right?"
...err...no. that would be illegal my dear and her mother wanted me to have her as she is not capable of caring for her!
"And what about her father?"
We don't know who the father is. The look on her face was as if i told her that Sarah's birth father was an alien...like she's never heard that people get pregnant without being married...
"So you don't want to get married then? or will you give the kid back when you find a husband?"
err...first it's none of your bees wax, and second if a guy wanted to marry me and didn't want Sarah, you really think i would want to marry him???? err...no.
"So your family in England, do they even know you have a new daughter?"
err..no i though i wouldn't mention it...??!! what the, of course they know.
"what do they think, they can't be happy about that can they?"
In fact they are over the blimming moon, as it makes me SO happy to have a baby, they already love her even if they have never met her.
She asked tons more stupid arse things but these are the ones that are most out there. i have to say that i have heard most of these before, all bar the one about leaving Sarah in an apartment when i go back to England.
It never ceases to amaze me at the ignorance level of people here. It is a lot to do with the culture, i know that but i find it so hard to hear and remain calm...
Anyway i will take the house its nice, and maybe i will educate them a little about adoption along the way!
oh just one other thing she also told Steve that she hopes that i don't have loud late night parties as lots of foreigners do and it won't be nice for her mother ...(she live downstairs)...what is she like does she have a clue what being a mother is about? i am way to shattered to have late night parties..crazy woman, and she had a son too.

Seriously, scabies!

2009-03-27T09:58:00.005+08:00

Seriously, SERIOUSLY...scabies...
i never thought that i would get scabies...you rarely ever hear about it in the uk.
I had nightmares last night, all involving things living under my or Sarah's skin. In the nightmare they were big things the size of a shrimp but with sharp spins and they were all under the surface of the skin but you could see them as the skin had blistered up and there they were in the bubble..., when it burst they would start to crawl out...
YUCK!
I am so glad that we don't live in the commune that Lisa talked about, i'd love it but this would mean all your darlings may have been infected. gross. i am so embarrassed, i feel like a woman that has VD and i have to go and tell everyone that I've slept with...but this is somehow worst as i have to tell everyone that Sarah has touched...well maybe not but certainly all my close friends, and nanny...I feel horrible about it. I pray that no one gets it from us or i'd feel even worst.
Sarah and i have spend the last few weekends at Heathers house, Sarah has slept in her kids bed and bathed with her kids...now i might have infected her kids. grim! I am sure that she will be more cautious about who she is friends with! To be honest she's been lovely about the whole thing, but still it can't be nice to hear that your kids might be infected with Scabies...gross.
I am just glad that i don't have any really close friends that are Taiwanese, i mean that i spend time at their house playing with their kids...as i have a feeling they'd be more freaked out about it...as they freak out about lots of things like that.
As for treatment...i am sat here, (smelling of scabies lotion) waiting for a ton of laundry to wash..and then tumble dry...but being Taiwan, the Internet savvy place it is, i have Internet right here...and for free cool right?! The treatment is a cream for Sarah a lotion for me. For Sarah i have to cover her head to toe in it every night for 7 days...i got two tubes and have finished one already...do you think i went a bit over board on the first application?? maybe. i guess i need to get some more and use less tonight. i have to cover myself in the lotion stuff that is really meant for head lice. (but i don't get to wash it out after 6 mins). i have to apply it to all my body bar my head and face (they told me it is too strong to use on your head and face??(but it's meant for lice i don't understand that one). I also don't get it surely they (the little bugs) will just go to the top of my head where there is no bug killer??no? who knows i just hope they all die soon..(coming from a vegan this isn't very nice but come on even the best vegan would want the dead no??)
So Sarah's gone to the nannies stinking of cream with funny sticky looking hair (the cream has to go in the hair), and is still itching...gross.
The good thing is that now we know what it is...and maybe she will start to sleep better at night, the doctor told me that they like to come out at night and move around (ie bite more at night) which maybe why she is always so itchy at night and thus not being able to sleep. poor thing ,i feel bad for her it can't be nice..i have it but i guess just one as i only have a few bites and i can tell you it's darn itchy! They did say that it looks like she only has a few bugs on her as she doesn't have tons of bites so that's a good thing...maybe easier to kill them all...maybe not.
oh i'll take a photo of the diagram they showed me...so lovely.

The gift that keeps giving....

2009-03-26T14:41:00.002+08:00

So Sarah has had some strange bites of late, and i have been a tad perplexed as to what was biting her. i took her to a pediatric dermatologist, two weeks ago, who looked at them and said she wasn't sure what they are maybe bites from an insect, have some anti histamine and come back if you get new bites.
So i left it a week there were new bites but by Thursday (the day of the clinic) there were no new new ones (if you know what i mean.) i didn't want to be the paranoid parent that thinks her kid is sick when she just had mosquito bites....
Then last Saturday i noticed a new bite/or two that where under her arm....humm how on earth does a mosquito get under there....
She had lots of them around her nappy, but she's always been a tad allergic to things so i thought it was just the washing poweder or the new type of disposible i was using. But these under her arm made me worry a little. So i thought i'd take her this Thursaday. Then this morning...which happens to be my birthday, i found a row of bites on my shoulders...right where my darling had been sleeping....
This made me think of the dreaded S word (Essie at The accidental mommy) just posted (yesterday) about the dreaded L word...LICE...
Well the S word tops it and then sum!
What S word could be worst then lice, i mean thats gross right...well SCABIES IS WORST!!!
They are little bugs that craw under your skin...really under your skin, and itch like the worst itchy itch you've had..
So i take her, the dr looks again and asked does any one else have any bite, i show my shoulder she says ...oh its Scabies! nice huh. here have some stuff and a print out all about it (in chinese!!) can a friend translate that for you??? like yes just pop over to my mates and say, here can you look at this and tell me what it says (oh its not about me or anything don't be scared, stop don't run away!!!)
Need less to say this isn't the best birthday gift i have ever recieved! but you know i've had worst birthdays!

Trolls and Torina

2009-03-24T09:41:00.005+08:00

So i am sure that most of you know but i just want to make sure that if you read it that you can carry on...she has a lot of wisdom does that Torina

A troll nearly ate Torina and she is now hiding under the bridge at a Busy Intersection. Her blog, as a result, is now private and you will need a password to get in. If you are a reader, you can email her at torina.busyintersection at yahoo dot com for access.

I just want to ask, why do people do that? i mean why do people say horrible things that make other people feel so terrible. This guy obviously wanted to get people riled up about something so that people would visit his site i guess...i didn't go there don't want to give him that pleasure. It happened to someone else that i read too she was told that, basically, that she was a terrible ungrateful mother because....she let her kid watch TV! ...yer right. It's so sad, she end up feeling terrible and they guy carried on telling her why he thinks this...i again gave him no traffic, and in the end she won as she got so much more traffic on her blog as a result of this guy and the outrage he caused.

I hope that these trolls (bullies) never come here...if they do i guess i will also be upset by them, it's hard not to be even if you know they are doing it just to get to you. its like being a school, again...its like what lisa said...i think it was lisa, about being in the in crowd at school. I don't care too much about that aspect...the people that do read my blog and comment make me feel really good as i didn't think anyone would read this when i started out, i just wanted to write it for a way to vent and for Sarah when she gets older to have a record of what she/we did. But you know what i was so happy the other day as i found out that Dawn Davenport, yes from Creating a family, looked at my blog and commented!! when i saw that i was a little like wow, that is so cool. I was a little star struck, i don't think i have ever commented on her blog as i was always intimidated by it, but now i will comment away!

Hideous house huntting....

2009-03-19T22:02:00.005+08:00

So i went to look at four more places today, they are all rather dismal.
One of them is basically for a student to live in...its has a loo, a bed and a "living room". no kitchen which is a common theme in Taiwan..(you eat out not in!). The landlord told us he had another place for us to look at that was a lot better and it had a kitchen, one bedroom, two bathrooms, and living room...yeah. i thought ok but was a tad skeptical after seeing this room. I wasn't far just 2 mins up the road, as he led us in i knew that i was right to be skeptical!
Frst he said come look, as he opened what can only be described as a walk in cupboard (ie a tiny space not big enough for even half my clothes) and i see a loo in the back with a slidey door/plastic thing, so i figure this is one of the "bathrooms" (no sink mind just a loo). Then (still in the cupboard) he starts opening a box (a little larger than the side of a cereal packet)...and then i realise that "THIS" is the kitchen! yes, i'm serious... inside the box was a small single stove thing which was a bit smaller than the one we took camping every year as a child. He was so proud of this and tells me this is the kitchen, and there are the windows (the last place had none so i asked before i came here, "does it have windows?" the answer was "of course!"). Well he was right there are windows...in a cupboard/kitchen.... Seriously...seriously!? Needless to say the rest of the "house" was just as crappy.
The next flat, i thought would be it, Grace (my boss/co-worker/friend/helper to help me find a house and nanny) told me that it was really a very beautiful place that the landlord loved, and it was all nicely decorated with three bedrooms,fully furnished, large kitchen, living room dinning room and with in walking distance to the school. Sounded great right, the landlord told Grace that normally she rents for 20,000 but after Grace negotiated got it for 15,000. So we go look...
I walk in and as soon as she opens the door, i smell cigarette smoke. great. how lovely. (i smoked when i was younger and as an ex smoker i hate it even more i think than a non non smoker...plus i have a hyper sensitive nose ..not so good to have if you live in Taiwan, trust me.) So the last tenant was smoker..no doubt there. She was also not very clean...the house was neatish but dirty, really dirty. like oh my this will take me a long time to get clean dirty. Then there is the decor...my Goodness me....where do i start! The 5 wooden peach shapes hanging from the ceiling is a good starting place (kind of like you get at the end of a stair case but hanging from the ceiling...) the ceiling its self was pretty err... "special" . It was a hatched pattern that was made with wood with inlets of greenish plastic. Then as you walk in the living room on your right is a massive glass window, which is too the master bedroom...the window has frosted ugly as flower patterns along the bottom and sides (really classy like...!). The bedroom itself was alright, bar the massive window to the living room...oh but there are curtains...hideous orange/gold curtains, but they match these little/very short curtains that are attached to the top of the door way on every room...they have them here a lot...i can't work out why or what they would be called in English, but i think they are gross (more so as they stank and were dirty..not nice to brush in and out of). Ok so it's three bed rooms, i look next door which is the only door leading off the living room, and in there there is a very strange looking kid bed thing...even though its strange its kind of cool. Its a corner bed that, the landlord tells me two kids (small /short kids) can sleep on. Its a waist high dark wooden structure that i am 100% sure Sarah would fall out off at some point, and the mattress on it was just on one of the sides, and was like a crib mattress, but on a hard wood surface (and was dirty and scabby looking of course!). Behind this bed was a wall with a window...and that was the third bedroom..which really was just a bed in a cupboard, however i really liked that. it was a single bed and that was all, it had a window to the other bedroom but it seemed some how cosy, i could see myself loving that as a bedroom/bed. This almost sold me the place, it was cute. however i can't get past the fact that this lady (the landlord) loves this place and if i was to take down all the hideous things (of which there where too many to mention, including light fittings the look a bit like a candle but not really and were plasticity and hideous) she'd be gutted! she told Grace that if i really love the place as much as her that would be wonderful...she was wearing a gold knitted shimmery top, with dyed permed hair, with lots of make up lots of perfume, and a short (too short for her age) skirt... I think that maybe just have different taste...!
As for the 4 place, it had no windows downstairs, and upstairs was a strange arrangement of bedrooms, and it smelt damp, oh and on the11th floor..(with a lift but still).
So i will carry on looking...not much fun. i wish i could just find a place like my old house in Nottingham, my mate Sarah Zadik owns it and its SO lovely...its a student house (ie shared) but so nice! i miss England.
took this photo of Sarah today as we waited for the bus...very cute.

Headaches

2009-03-17T09:45:00.002+08:00

Went to bed with a headache woke up with one, not the best.
Need to be all smiles and cheer at work as the name of the school is Happy Marian, go figure. Also the last teacher (that was fired, i might add) was very into playing games and jumping around with the kids...they didn't learn much but had fun. now i have been told that some of the kids are board in my class as i make them work too much. great right, they want it to be like it was before....where they learnt nothing but had a laugh. i guess i would too if i was them, so this week i will try to play more games and smile smile smile....

Weekend and nanny update

2009-03-16T10:36:00.004+08:00

So this weekend we spent it with The Hammonds again, this time however i feel that i let the side down a little. I was a little out of sorts and i didn't really help out at all. i have come away from this weekend thinking that i was more trouble than a help, a little like the extra short people in The Lord of the Rings that went along to "help" frodo take the ring to that place, but in fact held him up some what as they all had to be carried by normal sized people...(can you tell i am not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, i just watch it last night, well a bit of it). I don't know what got into me, well it was "that" time of the month, so i guess it could just be that. I am also worrying about finding a good nanny, a nice house, and how on earth will i afford all of it ( i need to wait to get my finance back on track after leaving one job and starting another, you know it's a waiting game). I (well Grace that i work with) found one nanny that i will use in April if i can't find anything better, she's alright but not perfect...or as good as the current one. She has two of her own children that come home half way through Sarah's stay there, which is fine. i met them, they are about 4-6 years old one boy and girl. They were in the pjs (so pretty Taiwanese). I just can't get past the fact that she has these old mickey and Mini stuffed toys that looked about 20 years old and never been washed. I just have a feeling that it's not that clean you know. It looked ok, cluttered but alright, but i think to myself, if i was having someone over to interview me for a job i'd wear nice clothes and straighten up the house...no? if this was her at her best...well lets just say i really hope it wasn't! Those mickey and mini dolls get to me, and the fact that her kids pjs were old, stained an rather shabby (but they can afford other nice things such as a beutiful big key board that Sarah loves)...and her husband was overweight...that shouldn't factor in but somehow its something i keep thinking about. I am way to quick to judge i know, i hate that i am so judgemental, i remember i thought her last nanny was a mess too...but she turned out to be very sweet and really loved/loves Sarah. which is way more important than a clean neat house...PLUS i am not that clean and really not tidy at all!...my house is normally a tip, but compared to these two people, my house pretty tidy. I however grew up in a house where there is way way too much STUFF and too much dust and too much dirt...i came out just fine, if not a little messy.
SO i will shut up, and wait to see what happens. It's very close to the school so i will get to spend way more time with Sarah than i do now so that is a big big bonus. Now i just need a house to go with the nanny....

Awards a plenty

2009-03-16T09:43:00.003+08:00

So Essie over at The accidental mommy, has kindly given me two awards. I am humbled to get them as i don't think i deserve them and i don't think i've ever been given an award for writing...which blogging is all about.

The first is a Dardos Award given in "recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.....
These awards were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.
It comes with rules, but you don't have to do them you know as you wish some people already will have the award and others won't really care too much about it... but here you go.
1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.
The Second award is the Lemonade award The "rules" are almost the same...bar you get to pick 10 rather than 5.
My two cents is that i found some new blogs to follow from other people posting their awards so you know it guess it works....however i am not too sure its a great thing as no i have more blogs to read and comment on which is a good excuse not to work. You've got to love the Internet for the distractions it causes!
So i will give both awards to my little list of blogs i love to follow, some of you will already know them and if you've ever looked at my blog roll you will see them all there...you know i advertise them all the time.

Essie of course what can i say, she is funny sassy and her blog is always good for a laugh. she is the one that i read every time i am online.
Heather is my real friend..you know i physically see her every week, she doesn't always write much on her blog but the photos are very cute. She is an adoptive mother (*international and domestic.) She also gave birth to a little lili, who has all the makings of a stand up comedian at the age of 2! She travels a lot (husband is a missionary), so her kids were born and raised in different countries. She is now thinking of adopting the fourth little Hammond, and is just waiting for God to shine His light down.
Lisa who is a very savvy, and manages to do lots of cool things with her blog...that i can't image how she does. She has a cute little Radish as she calls her, and is crazy enough to be trying to adopt a second. She is the go to for advice on RAD, and other older adoption/just adoption issues.
Tudu, is a pretty amazing mother and has a pretty amazing story to tell. She should write a book...but i guess she has (ie her blog). I printed out her blog so i could get the back story, and my it's worth it. Her kids story will have you in tears of sadness and joy. Its a great /yet terrible story. read it.
Torina is amazing, she champions adoption like no one else, and makes me think i could adopt an older child...maybe in the future i will. She has a great story to tell and i'd recommend you read it.
Tami is always there for people in the blog world and i am sure in the real world too, she also adopted from Tawian, a little boy about the same age as Sarah. Her blog full of cute photos, and i suspect she reads your blog, she always has a nice word to say about everyone.
Dawn Davenport Ok so i guess you all know her site, but i can't not mention it. Her blog and her pod cast are great. She talks about everything to do with Infertility and Adoption. Check it out if you haven't it's pretty neat.
There are tons more that i could say, all of wish i list on my blog roll so take a look.
I wish i had more time to read more blogs... but then i'd never get anything done or spend anytime with my lovely daughter.

Weekend of fun with five children, and two adults.

2009-03-10T11:04:00.008+08:00

So last weekend, (and maybe again this weekend), Sarah and i stayed with Miss (really Mrs) Heather and her 3 kids plus a baby. The baby is 5 months old and from the same orphange as Sarah. He's in a weekend foster care program, bless his cotton socks. So Heather took on this challange. However, normally she has a helpper ( a Yaya) but her Yaya has gone home for 2 months, and her husband, Chad, is off in India (which is often the case as he is a missionary that tavels ALOT). So she was on her tod, plus 4 kids. So we went over to help out, but mostly as i wanted the company and i knew we'd have fun.
So the weekend was wet, really wet so we didn't get to go out. We stayed at home (Heathers home which is my home from home) and had lots of fun doing stuff in the house. We'd pop out while the other stayed with the kids, if we needed stuff (yes she left me with all five kids man that was so hard!!...they were all sleeping, so not really!). Te little baby is a sweet pea and easy, not real fussy, however he is on lots of medication and we have to get up at 1 to give it to him and then at 5 for milk. This would be just fine, however Sarah seems to know when i am cheating on her (so to speak). She'd wake up right when i has my hands full forcing 5 ml of medication into a little baby. She starts screaming upstairs, and me helping turns into not helping at all. So Heather has to get up to do the thing i was trying to do to help her out...ho hum i tried. i even slept downstairs so i wouldn't wake Sarah up, but i guess she just knows (or the baby screaming alerted her to the fact that i was not in bed with her). I have to say that this weekend she was pretty good about the baby, she even asked me to pick the baby up at one point, and only told me to put him on the floor a couple of times! She's getting use to him i guess. This child normal is jelous when the cat is sat on my lap, let alone a baby. She was jelous but not too bad.
She was having way too much fun with all the kids. Tilly tot and Anna came over on Sat afternoon, and the girls (Sarah, Lili, and Tilly) all had a blast. It was great to see. Sarah did however get two time outs for hitting, one time was with a hammer...oh dear! i don't know what i will do about that hitting thing, its not too bad but poor tilly is normally the one to get it. bless her. Isn't it terrible when your kids do something like that, i mean i feel like a bad mother. She's pretty good normally, but just sometimes she gets really angry about something and gets tense and clenches her fists and pulls this Aggh face...then she often hits the person she is angry with. What on Earth do you do about that?? i never deal with anger well..i cry when someone shouts at me, i avoid all arguments (that are personal), and really don't know how to deal with feeling angry. i normally just get angry with myself for feeling angry/useless (if you know what i mean). Which in the past led to my own distruction. So how do i teach my kid to deal with these feelings? most of which is just frustration, more than anger. I don't want her growning up like me and not knowing what to do with all these feelings. Any ideas would be helpful even if i disagree with them!
On a lighter note, they all did dressing up on sunday and had a blast, running around in strange outfits. Little lili was by far the funnest, she is such a princes dressing in her high heels with just a nappy on...so funny, i think this girl was born wearing heels! seriously she walks better than i do in them. Sarah on the other hand...well she tried them on for the first time and i got it on video.

Dressing up is fun!

Nykolas pulling a scary face (really with a feather bower so scary!)

She's a girl in heels with a mobile...like she's 21 or something...oh minus the nappy and the naked part! haha

All playing nicely really they were no fighting no screaming just with laughter.

"Can i climb this? no, really just a bit? But Mia is climbing.."

Sarah in heels (i had to turn the video as i took it the wrong way up...thus she looks shorter and fatter than she is.)
Tom is right it really reminds me of this clip ( i tried to get a short clip but couldn't and couldn't edit it either...sorry!)

Bloggers Etiquette

2009-03-06T10:39:00.008+08:00

So my blogger friend (Essie over at Accidental mommy, i looked for the post but failed to find it sorry http://theaccidentalmommy.blogspot.com/ ) did a post about this a while ago, but i'd like to say a few words on the subject too as i had been baffled by how to do some things on here

First of all i always wondered how on earth i reply to questions left on the comments page of a post, and how do i receive answers from questions that i have written. Well just the other day i was reading a comment from someone that posted 2 comments, the first was about the blog post, the second said oh i forgot to tag it the conversation so i had to pop back. this got me thinking... I am sure that most people out there are fully aware of this option but being me i failed to notice that you can in fact tick a box that says:

I had never noticed this option before and i guess this is how people get my replies if i just add a comment. It also means that i can see what other people write in response to my comments. how good is that..why did someone out there never tell me this...maybe cause its so obvious they never thought that i wouldn't notice.

So thats one thing i have learnt this month! nice huh.

The other thing with blog etiquette is if someone is kind of hiding the add comment link does it mean that they don't want me to comment? or just that they didn't know that its kind of hidden?? http://anatomyofafamily.blogspot.com/

is an example of this...may i should just ask them.

Also why do many of you use fake names for you kids? is there a reason for this? of course from this question you can tell that i don't...i don't know how to do that (ie i don't have enough imagination to come up with names...hense my blog has my own name in it.)

I understand if the kids are in social welfare system, but if they aren't is there a reason that i just don't know? please someone enlighten me on this... but it would be a bit late to change Sarah's name now...

Ok i'm off, its raining out there so i am not looking forward to leaving to be honest. Yesterday was so nice and today well wet and miserable. never mind, i guess it will get better soon.

needing to move.

2009-03-05T12:27:00.003+08:00

just want to say aggghh.
never mind, she didn't sleep so great last night. but we are working on it. i hope that when i get a place closer to where i work we can get home earlier and thus go to bed on time and hopefully sleep through the night. i need to find a nanny too...oh it's not easy being green.
however i do get to look at my little girls lovely little face every day, and she makes me smile more than cry! She is such a cutie, but i'm bound to think that, all mothers think that. (but i'd like to add that she really is! and i am glad that other people think so too!)

Sleep and cupcakes :)

2009-03-04T12:33:00.003+08:00

So we are having a battle in the house, as sleeping battle. but last night Sarah almost slept the whole night! it was a blessing that i prayed really hard for as i was starting to loss the plot...no sleep does that to you.
She only waked once, drank some "milk" and went back to sleep. Like a angel. She did wake again but for a short time so i didn't count that really.
It was SO nice to sleep. She was however in my bed all night, but still it was so much better than the normal waking up, even when she is in my bed. this time she kind of started out in my bed. Thanks to Essie for that suggestion, it seems to work. now what i want is twin beds so she can fall asleep with me and then i can push her bed away a little bit so i don't get woken up when she turns...but that's asking too much. i was SO SO happy to have a good nights sleep, and guess what she wasn't a grumpy little mare in the morning, she was sweet and chirpy. nice.
The other day we make chocolate cup cakes. Sarah isn't a big fan of the cake but she liked licking the bowl out. (its vegan so no raw egg...i use to eat that when i was little i am sure, as i am 100% sure my mum didn't make vegan cakes, it can't be good for you surely?!)

Adam and Joe!

2009-02-28T22:37:00.002+08:00

I was featured on the Adam and Joe show..how cool. ( they read out an email i sent to them, so i wasn't like on it but featued on it...if you get me.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/adamandjoe/
not that most of you will know what or who they are but they are on bbc 6 radio, and i love them i listen to the podcast every week and laugh out loud to myself when ever i listen to it...which i am sure makes people stare even more than they normally do.
The house i looked at was nice, 2 bedrooms and clean not damp ect.. but it's on the 5th floor with just stairs..i need to think about it. it's cheap which is good and avalible which is good and the woman that owns it it also a single mum who's little (huge in fact bigger than Sarah) boy is 1. She's a nurse and can speak a little bit of English..a little bit.
I need to think about it. my joints are doing much better no the weather has picked up again but still they aren't always great and 5 flights of stairs with shopping a baby and a buggy isn't on my best of days...so we will see.

house huntting

2009-02-27T10:07:00.002+08:00

Sarah's stopped vomitting, praise The Lord. i'm feeling a bit better, not feeling sick at any rate.
Today i will go and look at a new flat, well two new places that are near where i work. i really need to save money so i hope that i can find a cheapish nice place. i don't know what i will do with Sarah as of yet..i am even thinking the worst which is to put her in kindie...so she'd be in a kind of school. i don't know if its really the worst thing that can happen to her but its something i am not keen on. kids should be kids really not go to school at the age of 2...however its half the price of a nanny, and it's easy to find. so i might see if i can try it for a month...while i look for a nanny. we will see. I think i may be worrying too much about it as i am sure that she'd have a blast, she loves to be with other people..she is not interaverted to say the least! which is a good thing as i am not sure how i'd cope with a kid that was very very shy....needless to day that i am not that shy.... i don't know what might give that away!
Ok off to meet Grace who will show me around a couple of places.
I hope everyones kids are feeling better soon, i would seem that all the blogs i read have sick kids...maybe we all have a virus...oh dear that is such a bad pun i sound like my father!

vomit and jumping

2009-02-26T10:08:00.002+08:00

So last night Sarah threw up all over me herself and the floor...nice.
I'm not feeling the best as it is but this nearly threw me over..ie i nearly spewed too.
So i guess she has Tilly's bug..or another bug who knows. She's not too bad this morning, but when i left her at the nannies she started crying and then the gaging...not a good sign. so i waited with her for a while and the nanny promised to take her to the park...she stopped crying and was fine.
I'm sure that she'll be ok, i just hope she doesn't throw up again. yuck is all i can say. normally i don't care too much about vomit but when your feeling a bit sick too...its really not what you need.
Before she vomited, she was fine running around the house doing her normal things. She did however jump of the stairs (we have strange stairs that bend and thus there is a little platform half way up...you can jump down the other side (the cat does regularly!) as there is nothing there stopping you.) she's never done it before, at least not that i know off, and has always been pretty good going up and down (for the last 4 months or so) but yesterday she went half way up the stairs and then appeared around the corner. I didn't even hear her land. she just came around like she'd just walked down...but she must have jumped or lowered herself.
What was so funny was i tried not to laugh when she appeared (which is pretty hard as she just walked around the corner like surprise!). As i was telling her off she sat on the stairs with her hands on her lap and said sorry...ie she put herself on a time out! so cute. Now she says no no no to that bit of the stairs when we go past it. I hope she doesn't do it again, as i think she could really hurt herself if she fell.
I'll take a photo of the house so you can see what i mean re the stairs...difficult to explain, but the height she jumped was taller than herself.

Gymnastics

2009-02-25T09:52:00.003+08:00

My dear daughter yesterday was doing push ups..i am not even sure if that is the right term, but it's kind of like it, she was holding onto the chair and onto my leg and lifting herself off the ground. A bit like a pull up, or push up or what ever she was going up and down up and down. Are 2 year olds meant to do that? i guess they are, she's light and strong. i mean she already holds on to a bar an dangles there for 30sec or more, but yesterday she was lifting her feet up and holding them up, a bit like a gymnast would do. Her legs were out in front of her off the ground.
I guess i need to get her in to gymnastics or something like that, shame they don't have tummle tots here. she already does a perfect forward roll whenever she sees certain people, mostly men it has to be said!

my new MSI

2009-02-24T10:55:00.003+08:00

MSI is my new computer (its one of those small things that is still a laptop but much smaller), Tom brought it for me due to the fact that i have no money currently. I will be paying him back with the next couple of pay cheques. I hate to borrow from him but he wanted me to have it, and he is thinking to buy one for himself so he can have a go with it to see if he likes it. Still it's very sweet of him, and it is a back saver for sure. it weights almost nothing compared to my old computer it is tiny. i have to say this is the first time i've really used it and i love it already. i don't notice that its so tiny. i am totally blessed with tiny hands (which is by far my best feature! if i do say so myself...is that vein to think that your hand are your best feature, i hope not i don't mean that they are better than other peoples but they are the best thing i have...except they are often painful) Going back to way it's a good thing to have small hands is that the keys are smaller on these computers but to be frank i can't tell. i have no problem touch typing this so i guess that my fingers are small enough. i can't see that this would be wonderful if you have great big sausage hands...but here in Taiwan i don't think anyone has fingers like that. Even the guys have middle size hands.
Tom picked up Sarah yesterday after work and then picked me up from the mrt, he's done this a few times since i've had the new job, on mondays and thursdays mostly as that is when he doesn't play tennis after work. He tells me that Sarah always asks where's mummy, and has even gone up to people (randoms) and asked mummy where.
Sarah is such a doll i love her so much. i miss her terribly when i am working and run, yes run to get back to her. i get really annoyed with the mrt taking oh SO long (it's really fast and reliable so i can't complain really). This leads me to the point that i have to have to find a new place and new nanny asap. it's killing me being so far from her all the time....but maybe i am getting fitter!
Tom is also lending me his ipod shuffle (due to me loosing mine and then my nano, read previous blog about that!) Its great to have podcasts back, but now with the new computer i have to download them all again...i have to remember what they are all called ect.. manic mommies is of course up there, as is creating a family (which is a great resource for adoption and/ or infertility, its also good if you've already created a family via adoption, as they have some great topics on there), then there all all the bbc ones i love so much which are funny mosltyAdam and joe are great but maybe not to everyones taste!
I admit that i am addicted to podcast. At home (england) i was always happy if i had a radio. i love listening to programs and djs talking and comedy ect.. i love it. i'm not so bothered about the music. I think it's like having a book to read, but without the headache of reading...(even though my reading has gotten way better since i discovered blogs!)
I was thinking the other day when Heather told me that she got a Kindle for Christmas, if it was possible to download blog pages to a kindle? that would be pretty cool i think. i've been reading blogs on the mrt but getting your laptop out to do that seems a little extreme! i have also printed them off (to get back stories, i recommend http://theaccidentalmommy.blogspot.com/ and http://tudusamom.blogspot.com/ ) I read lots of other blogs but the last one in particular i think the back story is very interesting. Accidental mommy is very funny to read, you can read the back story for more laughs or just drop in and read it either way its pretty funny.
ok best get back to work...i spend way to much time blogging and not working..no suprise right.

Tilly Tots vomitus maximus!

2009-02-23T10:17:00.003+08:00

On Sunday little Tilly Tot got really sick, i mean she threw up. We were in Subway and she seemed just fine and then bamm, vomitus maximus. The poor little thing, we had nothing to catch it in and no time to catch it. so she had to vomit all over the floor, table and herself. Sarah, still eating i might add, looked over and said oh mess mess! what sympathy she has! i was yelling at her no, don't come over her no...she was pretty good and stayed out of the way. I started to strip Tilly down to her underwear, so her mum could hug her. she was really brave but still so sad. I'd told the subway guy (like he couldn't see it, it's the smallest subway ever and we were right next to the till!) so he comes over with some tissue (yes tissue) and started to wipe up the mass amount of vomit with his hands (no glove no nothing)...needless to say the tissues didn't quite do the job..so this guy was picking up the egg whites (clearly visible) with his bare hands...nice. The i guess he thinks a bit more and gets a bucket and mop...

He tried to mop it up but it didn't really work that well...as the bits stayed on the floor.

I was helping sort out the table ect.. i looked and Anna and asked so do you want to eat your sandwich? which wasn't it by the vomit...and we both looked at each other and were like...somehow i've lost my appetite! yuck. so we chucked it all away said sorry and left the building...we will not frequent that subway again!

Poor little Tilly tot. we took her around to Heather (just around the corner) to get some clothes for the little thing. It was a good job that it was so hot that yesterday or she'd be freezing in her under ware/onsie (I also there would have been more clothes to take off which is marfan!)

It turns out that she does have a virus or something as both her and her mum (Anna) are sick today. i now worry that i will get sick, and more importantly that Sarah will...so pray hard that we don't! and even harder that they get better asap!

i already feel nauseated but i guess that's psychosimatic! (sorry if you do too now after reading this post!!)

loosing stuff

2009-02-20T11:16:00.004+08:00

Feeling a bit better, i am now looking for a house well not a house a flat. They don't do houses here...too many people.
I've finally joined Twitter too..i wondered for a while how to go about it, then Essie joined and i cliked on it and bobs your uncle, i am not a twitter...does it make you a twit to twitter..maybe it does. i wanted to follow Richard Herring from the Collings and herring podcast that i like. Its rude but funny.
I am going to go to work now, i am sat in Starbucks not getting work done as i don't have my file..there is a suprise i forgot something?? me no never. I wish i didn't forget things all the darn time. most of the arguments i have with Tom are about me forgetting stuff, like he never ever forgets things ??! yeah right, he just forgets that he also forgets stuff too...ok i do forget/loss stuff more than him. i can't help it i try not to but i just spend my life in a state of mania. i am always spinning from one place to the next. Trying to get things done and never getting around to doing other things. i often wish i could just pause time and get all the things done and then press play again. Maybe then i wouldn't forget things so darn often. its a big part of my personality i could live without and i am sure that my friends could live without!
Things i lost lately that make me mad...and tom madder...
Tom's camera (along with my lovely old bag that i have had for years and years), my ipod shuffle, then my ipod nano (ok there was like 6 months between these things but still i hate it). These things are lost and gone. One i left in a cab...it drove off and i thought shoot i've left it. Then the shuffle came unclipped on a bus (Sarah was playing with it so i suspect it fell off...i still had the head phones in my ears..it wasn't turned on mind) then the nano..which is a mystery as to how i lost it, but again i still have the darn head phones. Does anyone know if you can use a non-ipod with itunes? i was wondering as i might buy one of them instead next time but i just listen to podcasts so i need i-tunes.
Tom thinks one day i will just forget Sarah and leave her somewhere, i don't think that can happen, i miss her when she isn't with me..but then again i miss my ipod too!! :)

Big old rant...sorry

2009-02-18T10:53:00.003+08:00

So now i am on the train / mrt to go to the other side of town / city to go to work. Tom came and gave us a lift, which is nice as its raining out there, and I feel like rubbish (there’s a better word out there but I don’t like to swear). I have my period, which after living in Taiwan for 3 years i some how don’t mind talking about. People talk about having their periods like it’s a cold…it’s so strange. They are totally reserved about many many things but that, they don’t care who knows. Gross right. Well I tell you living here for so long you start to change, and see things a bit differently, which is why I can now tell the world (well the 10 followers that I have) that I have my period and i don't like this monthly visitor on single bit..for many reason but at the moment pain is the top of the list! My joints get really painful just before and during my period, and it’s made all the worst by the cold weather that has come upon us this week. Last week was so nice and sunny I thought that spring had sprung…but I guess I was wrong.
I’ve not talked about this before here so those that don't know me know me (in the "real world") won't know that i have lived with chronic joint pain for years, it started when I was teen and continued. It got much worst at one point and I was in a wheelchair to go anywhere more that a few steps. I started to get a bit better after I went to a pain management course in London, for people with my condition. It got amazingly better when i moved to a hotter country, like now i don't uses chruches or anything i don't even limp...well not often (once a month, and if it's really cold)
I have hypermobility, which I think is a bit of an ironic name as it sounds like I am super mobile when the reality is that it makes you want to stay still and not move because it causes so much pain. The name comes from the fact that my joints are all very very flexible…too flexible. So they are weak and that some how causes pain…they aren’t really sure why it causes pain it just does. It’s genetic so my family have the same thing..i just seem to have had it the worst. Two of my sisters have had problems with it and my lovely Nephew is sure to get it (he is mega flexible to the point that when doing a handstand his dad says bend you elbows, no not that way the other way…gross huh). If I had know when I was younger what I had I would never have got so bad..but back then they didn’t know (that’s what they say). They told my mum that I was making up the pains I had in my, fingers, toes, ankles, knees…they never thought about the fact that they are all joints and maybe maybe there was something up with that. So as a kid I was no believed…great. It explains a lot of the other stuff that went on in my past. I’ll save it for another day.
So here I am tired, sleep deprived again, on the mrt going to my office (Starbucks) to work on my thesis and prep lessons.
Tom having given me a lift to work gave me a lift to the mrt too so I didn’t get wet. He asked me to get Mc donals for him (which I of course don’t eat), so I did. However the woman didn’t understand me and messed up the order…tea not coffee…so Tom has a go at me in the car, and tells me that I should have change it (I guess I should have but I didn’t want to keep him waiting even longer out the front of Mc. He hates waiting and I am often rushing in and out of the car while he is telling me to be quicker, or take you time why don’t you…great, you try getting in and out of a car with loads of stuff and a baby….however he never thinks i am rushing, and if i do and then forget something...well that's worst) So next time he will go in and get it himself...he tells me that, I tried and failed as per normal, and will feel rubbishy about it all day.

So why am I sleep deprived? Well my darling daughter has taken it upon herself, for way over a month, to wake up a lot at night and want to get into bed with me…which she does. The problem I have is it would seem that she is having nightmares or something of that ilk as she wakes herself up crying. Its so so sad to see. I don’t know what to do about it really. It happens at least 4 times a night and even when she is in bed with me…
So advice is welcome. Thank you.
The other problem I have which is why it has made it all the worst is that now I don’t get home until 8 and thus Sarah doesn’t get to bed until later than I’d like. To be honest she isn’t a bit tired, quite the opposite, she is as high as a kite, and would be like that until 11 if I let her. I try to wind (like, wind the bobbin up not the wind that blows) her down with a bath story routine ..but she is still bouncing off the walls. It’s a happy bouncing mind so it’s not too bad. She’s singing, dancing, laughing.. jumping ect… Then we sing and sing some more and finally she calms down enough that I can leave her to go to sleep. When I go down stairs I can still here her singing to herself..it’s very cute. However this take at least half an hour..which means I can’t go to bed!
I think the nanny still gives her two long naps, even after i asked her to just give her one...
So I need to move house ASAP. I need a new nanny too go with the new house (not in the I need pink curtains to go with the sofa, more I need her to live close to where I will be living). So the search is on…however it’s pretty difficult to do this kind of searching in a country that doesn’t use English as it’s primary language….and where I don’t speak, let alone read the language of choice. Ipso fact to I need help from Chinese speaking friends, who of course have mastered both English and Chinese and often a few other languages to boot.. I however can do a bit of British Sign language (2 year course when I was 19), and the smallest amount of French (Secondary school, for like 5 years….however I can barely say I am 11 years old…which I am no longer!), . I can speak a bit of Chinese, you know to get by but that’s about it. As for English, sure i can speak but writing..not the best, in class yesterday i couldn't spell areoplane...i have to write on the board not on the computer and boards don't have spell checkers..nightmare.
I hate that I have to have help here to do everything like this I hate asking people, it’s annoying for them and for me I feel like a extra limb that doesn’t move ie useless.
Sorry that was a long rant.
Please feel free to offer advice about Sarah’s sleeping, and anything else you wish to comment on… cheers.
ps in Taiwan they have wify on the mrt...how cool is that!

Sleep deprivation

2009-02-18T07:48:00.005+08:00

Agghhh i have written this post twice and lost it twice...i am trying to write to tell you that i am sleep deprived ...obviously it is affecting my ability to type and save a post.. what is wrong with me!
Well it's partly the computer. the j doesn't have a button and the b and h barely work. the shift has gone on the left side too so it's all a bit broken...plus its my works computer so i need a new one..a little one that i can take to and from work without breaking my back..which is currently happening. carrying Sarah the computer my work, and Sarah's stuff...is killing me. Yesterday Sarah walked the whole time as i just can't do it. So we got home even later as it takes a long time for her to get anywhere...that's not very true she can run like crazy if she wants to but not in the direction i want to go...you know. She is also easily distracted so will stop at everything...including a dead cockroach...she stood over it saying oh dear oh dear... i had to drag her away from it..gross.
So i will post this and write later why i am so sleep deprived.

Playing with Tilly tot

2009-02-10T11:50:00.003+08:00

On Sunday afternoon we went to Anna's house, i needed her help with pepping for School. I will be working with her but she's been a teacher for many years and i haven't so i needed her professional advise. Really i need it! I couldn't work out how the books worked but she set me straight and i was able to prep and now i know what i am going to teach..i hope!
We went to the little park in her neighbourhood. It's perfect for little tots to play in as the slide and other things are small, and thus safer than at the previous park.
I tried to get a nice shot of Sarah and Tilly on the slide together, but this was the best i could do. Most of the time Sarah down at the slide before Tilly even set off, but with Anna's help i managed to get a couple when they were going at the same time just!

These are the see saws in Taiwan, they are great as they are spring loaded so you can play on your own or with other kids it doesn't matter. its really nice as they never bump at the bottom squishing your legs or feet. Sarah can climb on by herself and can still play. She'll get a shock when she tried the boring English ones that require another person of equalish weight to work!

Sunday at the park and broken caterpillars

2009-02-10T11:42:00.004+08:00

On Sunday Tom went to church..which rarely happens so it was really nice to see him there. After church we went to the park with Ann and Tilly, and ran into Heather, which is little to no surprise as it is next to her house. The kids had fun running about. Sarah is able to get on and off the seesaw as well as the lower rocking horse toy thing. She tried for ages to get on the slightly higher one but just wasn't quite tall enough!
This is what slides often look like in Taiwan, I forgot that they are strange as I've been here too long but when i first saw them i thought they were very weird. They are made of concrete but work quite well. They are a tad high and a tad scary when you first let your kid go on them, but Sarah does well by herself these days.

The other day Sarah came to me holding a small piece of wool /yarn, and told me broken mummy broken, i asked her what is, and she signed caterpillar broken. So cute. She thought that the wool was a dead caterpillar! bless her she is so caring.

Big, rhino bettle, grubs.

2009-02-10T11:32:00.004+08:00

So we went to Dan Suiw (can't spell it sorry) with Heather, Yaya, Ann and all the kids. They had lots of fun, especially the older two.
I found a shop that sold beetles, i wouldn't normally by them as they are always from some other county but this guy had the rhino beetle from Taiwan, that he breed rather than taking from the wild. So i brought two grubs for Tom. We / all three of us love bugs and want to watch them change from grubs to beetles, and then we can always let them go as they are native. We often get beetles on the balcony so its not like i live in the city and never see them. They are pretty big grubs, but Sarah and i like them all the same. I am sure not all kids would be so interested but my daughter is like me, and likes bugs and grubs. So we watched them for a bit before we put them in their soil home and Tom took them to his place. We will get the back to watch them shortly i am sure as at this stage they are easy to transport.
Here are photos of the grub so don't look if you don't like big old grubs! i warned you...

Onion

2009-02-10T11:27:00.002+08:00

On Saturday i had Onion put down, it was so sad. She was really thin and not getting any better. i am sure i could have kept her alive longer but i really didn't want to due to the fact that she was suffering. i can't work out if what i did was right for her but i couldn't bare to watch her waist away like that it was just too sad for me. As a vegan i struggled with this but i think it's for the best. Sarah kissed her, and said bye bye right before he took her last breath. Then she went and got Onions box and said home. so sad.
I will put a slide show of her up at a later date. I don't have the photos on this computer.

Home of Gods love

2009-02-10T11:13:00.003+08:00

So we travelled down to Yi Lan (it takes about an hour or so), to go to Home of Gods love. Sarah is registered as living there...but in fact she never has. The amazing couple Ted and Bev run home of Gods love and did the adoption for me. They are truly an amazing couple that have so much love for what they do. They have been in Taiwan for over 40 years and have seen over 800 children go through their home. Some stay for the long term but other come just to wait to find a forever family. They would like to place all the kids in Taiwan, however this isn't realistic as Taiwanese people in general don't which to adopt none family members. So the kids often go to America. All the babies i saw (bar one) has a family waiting for them. It must be so hard to be the other side of the world waiting for your child to come to you. i feel your pain. i am just so grateful that i was able to have Sarah with me the whole time, or at least be able to go and see her.
The house was full of children, i had to step over two babies to get to the loo, they were sleeping in little bouncy chair things. So cute. all of them. Sarah was very sweet with the babies and tried to put fall dummies back in their mouths. She also counted to them when they were crying ( i say count...she can count to three sometimes but mostly she repeats one and two). She did this to try and calm them down as that is what i do when she is upset and screaming. Its not 1 2 3 and time out or anything its just counting to 10 to let her get her breath and know everything is ok. She was saying one two good girl...its very sweet.
This amazing couple did my adoption without charge, i can't repay them for what they did but when i am earn more i will try to give back the financial aspect.
I went there to change Sarah's name, and house hold register. So now i have her birth certificate and everything is in my name and she has her new name with my last name. Her birth mother named her, i asked her if she'd like to and she did. Her previous given name wasn't given to her by her birth mum but someone random, and it was a terrible name for a part English child ( i think i said it before but her name was Yi Ting, which is pronouncedEating...not so good!)
Sarah took a photo of her feet which looks so sweet i thought i'd share.
The couple are Ted and Bev Skiles, my thoughts, thanks, and prayers go out to them.
I will be making an adoption book for Sarah and this photo will go in to it for sure.

2nd Birthday party for Lili and Sarah

2009-02-10T10:51:00.007+08:00

So Sarah and Lili had a joint birthday party last Friday. We took them to Playspace,which is a great indoor place for kids to have fun. It must be American or at least western as it resembles nothing i have seen here before. It cost a bit of money, not too much ..but they charge for the cake...even when i made it and brought it in go figure.
So the kids all had fun and as parents i think it was stress free...until the cab journey home (Heathers house) when we had 5 tired hungry kids in the back seat with two adults...the kids weren't so happy.

As you can see from the photos, there was lots to do at Playspace, a big sand box...that Sarah wouldn't step it. She hates the sand and wouldn't even step on it to get to the every alluring bubbles. I had to carry her! She did however love the swing, the slide the climbing frame (which she practically runs up..she's a master climber), and anything else that kept her moving. She did sit down and paint for the first time..in the photo she looks pretty serious about that picture!

I tried to get a nice shot of Sarah and lili together but most of them they were fighting over something...got to love 2 year olds!

The cake was made by me, and thus vegan and i have to say it was pretty yummy. My daughter however didn't even take a bite. She's just not that into cake, she'd rather eat veggies...strange kid. They other kids like the cake so it wasn't made in vain. Sarah got more presents, and most important of all was the bubbles that Heather gave her...which make a big mess but she loves them.

For the love of broccoli

2009-02-03T16:17:00.004+08:00

so i have 2 days left as a scientist...wow it's amazing that i won't be doing this every day.

I will however carry on doing some science stuff as i hope/pray/plan that i will finish my thesis in the mornings while Sarah still goes to day care (all day). When i am done then i will get to spend way more time with her, and i have that to, hopefully, keep me motivated. I need to finish it even if i never work in science again.

i have to sort out all this stuff at work, stuff as in work as well as just a lot of things that i have at work that i need to clear out throw out ect... that's no mean fait as i'm rather messy/disorganised and thus have tons of junk in and around my desk (both in and out of the lab) so i need to do that really. i am hoping that a fairy will come and wave a wand. I totally understand my blog friends daughter who wants a wand that really works. i do to! none of this plastic pretend stuff one that goes poof and it's all clean.

I guess that isn't going to happen and thus i need to get my finger out (out of what i don't know but out of something*). However i just want to read blogs and look at photos. Here's some of Sarah eating a chocolate biscuit, which is funny as she doesn't really eat them often and in fact when she saw some broccoli that was left over from dinner she threw down the chocolate cover biscuit in favor of the broccoli. my kid is SO cool. She didn't want the biscuit back after either...but she wanted more broccoli. What kid does that?? answer, mine.

*if you are an adam and joe listener then you will know they were talking about this too. if your not it's a pretty funny podcast from the bbc.

Happy new year!

2009-02-02T17:40:00.006+08:00

So Chinese new year has come and gone, we had a week off work so it was ace. I got to spend the whole week with my little girl...who is not so little any more.

Today is the first day back and i have to say i miss her. I don't miss the not sleeping part, and the throwing a wobbler because she's shattered part. Nope i don't miss that, but i miss her laughing talking, signing, singing ect... she has been just so adorable you could eat her up.

(Oh just to let American readers know that shattered also means really tired in British English..i didn't know that until the day i wrote on my facebook that i was really shattered, and had three people phoned me to ask if everything was ok, i thought that they were being so sensitive to me being tired, until they said "so did the adoption fail, is that why you are so shattered?? i am so sorry"..so i now know that i must mention this discrepancy between our languages.)

She got a buggy (aka stroller, yet another British word i didn't know they didn't use in the US) from the Hammonds with a monkey inside for her birthday and ever since we can not leave the house with out it. It is SO cute SO so cute. she pushed it the whole length of Dann park, it look over and hour. She's loves it. She is adverse to dolls, like really doesn't like them but the monkey in the buggy she loves. Her friend Lili Hammond, loves dolls, loves babies and has tried to share them with Sarah but Sarah pushes them away saying baoyao (no, i don't want it) she really doesn't like them its funny to see a little girl have this reaction. However the Hammonds have had a new years baby, and Sarah has come around a little bit, to the point that she asked about him in her nightly count down of all her little and not so little friends. Every night she will ask me about all of the Hammonds, and Tilly, Anna, and Tom and i say they are asleep or watching TV or what every i think they might be doing...all the kids a are always asleep, even if they aren't! So on Thursday she asked baby? sleep? and i said yes he is. she did it every night since. cute huh. before she just kept telling me to put the baby on the floor, when we were around their house. nice huh. she'd say baby floor, and point. however by the end of the week she even asked to hold him...well for 3 seconds...then she wasn't interested any more. So there is hope that in the future i could have a second child...maybe. I'd need to be earning more money before i can think of a second one oh and maybe next time i will be married....maybe.

I'll post photos of the buggy soon.

Sarah's 2!!

2009-01-23T11:52:00.004+08:00

Hard to believe the my little baby is now 2 years old, but what is amazing and wonderful is she is now a Perry.

I want to put a montage of photos of her over the last 2 years, i will try to put up a slide show as that might be easier to watch...i will try and do this before her next birthday at any rate!!

Her birthday party isn't until the 5th Feb as she will have a joint party with her friend lilli, and everywhere is shut over new year, so you know it has to be a little later than we hoped.

Happy new year to you all....

Chinese new year that is, i am not running that late! i just live in Taiwan so holidays are a tad different than at home

So next week we get the whole week off! yeah...i will still have to pop in as plants don't stop growing just because your on holiday...science, who'd do that!

However on the 11th Feb i will start a new job, teaching... i guess that the kids won't stop growing either.

meme tag from Essie

2009-01-23T11:29:00.004+08:00

So my blog friend Essie over at: http://theaccidentalmommy.blogspot.com/

gave me a meme tag...you may wonder what that is, as i did. but it's the same thing i have seen on facebook. however this time i decided to try and do it...

Here is the meme:

The rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!
6. Tag five other people to do the same!

i don't have books at work (i think that a scientific journals would not count as they don't have 56pgs...), and i don't have internet at home

but i do listen to audio books, and podcast at work...so i thought that i would just give you an extract of the audio book i am currently listening too. i stopped it randomly as i didn't know where page 56 is...however the spelling got the better of me, and thus i had to look up the section i was dictating to you or you'd never be able to understand what i was trying to say...it turns out it's from page 170, but i guess the point is that it is random..here goes.

"According to the great alchemist perrier de Boniface, the diamond rendered a man invisible, and the agate of India made him eloquent. The cornelian appeased anger, and the hyacinth provoked sleep, and the amethyst drove away the fumes of wine. The garnet cast out demons, and the hydropicus deprived the moon of her colour."

Can you see why i had problems spelling these words. my could i have picked a harder sentences to spell! thank goodness for google books, so i could just look it up.

With out searching, do you know what the book is?

As for 5 people to meme i always feel guilty doing that, but if anyone wants to let me know as i'd love to read it.

lost camera

2009-01-22T17:10:00.003+08:00

So a few weeks ago i went for my job interview and got it...but i lost my bag on the way there..i thought that all was well as i had my wallet, phone and keys all in my coat pocket...

i thought i've just lost my bag (which i loved but was well old) and my knitting...which was annoying as i was almost done making Sarah's hat...

However a few days later i wanted to take some photos...and thats when it hit me that the camera was in the bag...

i say the camera as appose to my camera as it wasn't really mine. it was my boy friends (Tom).

Of course i was annoyed and upset at loosing it but more worried about upsetting Tom..so i didn't tell him for a few days trying to figure out the best way to go about that...

I did tell him in the end and told him i will buy a new one. His reply "i don't want you to buy me a new one i want you to have not lost the old one!"

As i can't really do that, as much as i'd like to, i am now looking into buying a new camera...joy of joys. I've found one i like the look of its a cannon 1100..it looks a bit like the old one i lost.

So i will spend my Chinese new year bonus on a camera that i lost. i am such a cluts it's painful (is that even spelt right?).

Tomorrow is Sarah's 2nd birthday..hard to believe really. She will get an umbrella from me...well Tom paid for it so i guess it's really from him..but i thought of it! darn it.

I'm going to try and make a chocolate cake tonight for her, like the one in the hungry caterpillar she loves that book, and always wants to see the chocolate cake...so i will try.

Final Decree!!

2009-01-20T13:16:00.002+08:00

Ok so some of you won't have a clue what that means but to anyone who has ever adopted or is trying to adopt its a big big deal!! (also know as the adoption decree)

i've waited over a year and half for this day and now its here.

SO just before Christmas i got the letter from the judge saying that he agrees that i can be Sarah's mother. Then you have to wait, to allow the family to contest if they so wish to. Then you get this letter which is the FINAL Decree!!

So no matter what they can't take her (as a disclaimer i should state that "they" of course could take her, if i get any more mental and then do something crazy...but in lieu of this happing all is well!)

I am not so sure if this counts as the Got ya' day that many people speak about...or if that was when i first took her home..or when i got the first letter.. who knows but what i do know is that i have the same legal rights and thus responsibilities of a birth mother...so i guess i should pick up my act and get mothering that child of mine!!

Oh it's her Second birthday this Friday so its double celebrations again..

oh and it means that i will have to go to Iland to sort out her house hold register and medical insurance and well lots of thing...i need to get on the case asap!

Darn strangers being sweet and nice!

2009-01-14T12:15:00.004+08:00

So good friends of mine left Taiwan last weekend, they are going home after being here for 6months adopting and fostering there youngest two boys...yes two. they did two at once...which is no mean feat, as adopting one is hard enough.

On Sunday i helped out and looked after their baby (he's like 7-8months old i think..) for an hour or so.

So i took him, in a sling, to the local park with Sarah. Sarah loves parks but she loves the bigger kids more..however it seems the bigger kids weren't told!

So this Sunday she goes up to a bigger kid (i swear has to be an only child) who was playing in the park with little metal disk things (with pokemon or something on them) and Jenga blocks.... Of course Sarah rushs over and want to play with them and him...he yells at her no don't touch (in chinese of course). She's good and just looks, with her hands behind her back leaning over to get as close to them as possible...very cute. The boys Granddad was with him and gave Sarah a "toy" to play with, well a gun, that fires a ball. He then proceeded to teach my lovely little girl how too pull the trigger of a gun, and knock over Jenga blocks...nice!

The boy was not too amused and whenever they bulid something he thought was cool, Sarah and the Granddad were told to go to the other side and play...which they did until they build something again deemed cool and got moved!

I always thought that children here respected their elders...maybe this has broken down over the years as he clearly didn't.

Then yesterday Sarah was sat in one of those toys that you put money in and it moves and plays music..she's happy just to sit in it and never demands money. Along came a skinny old guy who was eating some fast food. and just lent over and put 10nt in the slot...and kept walking, i said thank you and he looked over his shoulder and grinned... revealing his black, mostly missing teeth!

People can be really nice just out of the blue...little do either of the men know that i wasn't that happy about it, first a gun...i don't want her knowing about gun, not yet! As for the coin man, this was a lovely gesture, however now Sarah knows that these things play music and move!! Darn those strangers being sweet and nice!

ps after carrying around Declan, i thought wow i could do this again....what am i thinking! God has an amazing way to make woman love children and forget all about the nightmare it was to get them! (I can't speak for men as i am not one)

The start of a new career?

2009-01-09T12:31:00.002+08:00

So i got the job as a teacher, and i will start working on 11th feb..so in one month.

This means that i am giving up "science", and moving to teaching...

i will be teaching science but it is nothing like the science that i am currently doing...the kids i will be teaching are about 6-9 years old... ipso facto they aren't quite and PhD level plant science.

I is hard to believe that i will be teaching in a month, i am excited but have my reservations. I will be teaching English for one thing...which is far far from my strong point (as anyone who reads this here blog would have found out!). I am just hoping that they don't ask me to explain things such as when to say without or with out...ect... as i don't know why. Also i am a little dubious as to when to use a comma with in (or is that in fact within??) a sentence...as for spelling...i will be teaching them the art of using a dictionary, based on the fact the phonics can not explain everything~!

The other aspects of the job, teaching science, social studies, maths ect.. i can do that i'm sure. i suspect i won't even need that much prep for those but the English...that will take some work!

So i will be working less hours at this new job, about 4-5 a day, and i will get paid more...go figure. I guess that i should have looked into doing this right away when i arrived here as i wouldn't be so skint right now...

I will have to find a new nanny for Sarah as i want to find one that is closer to where i work. It's such a shame as the one she has now is really good, (bar the fact that i suspect she feed Sarah meat sometime...but maybe that's just me being paranoid!). I will need a nanny for just half days and i don't know how easy that will be to come by...but i will keep looking until i find a good one. I can keep her current nanny till i find one closer i guess.

I will also have to get internet at home..as i currently don't and rely on the fact that i can "internet" at work...(that a verb right?!)

Oh me on my, oh me oh my, what a lot of things go by...(reading one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish a little too often!)

As for the adoption now word.

Oh Tom's car broke beyond repair...so now he's going to buy a NEW one..really a new car. they are quite cheap now a days what with the economic down turn ect... so i am doing some research into good small, fuel efficient japanese cars...any ideas?

Dummy free before 2, just!

2009-01-08T12:47:00.006+08:00

So Sarah will be 2 years old on the 23th (as they say here 123). I had always hoped she'd be shot of her dummy before turning 2, however, Sarah has always had a dummy, at the orphanage she had it permanently attached to her. Seriously it was barely ever out of her mouth. She loves it, the past year i have been trying to get rid of it, recently i have told her it's for babies (as she had started to point out a baby we see one). However i see that the dummy has served to comfort her and i know what that is like. i sucked my fingers until i had a brace fitted (about 15!!), i was gutted when it didn't feel the same anymore. So this is why i have never taken it away. i have restricted it to sleepy times...which is why now when she wants it she says "night night, mummy, night night"..which is of course all a ruse.

However two days ago her nanny tells me that she doesn't need it...who am i to argue, she told me that she went to sleep without even asking for it. So i try that night to not give it to her... and it worked!

Yes she asked for it but she wasn't begging or screaming for it. I just told her no, and she asked for her Spider instead...still haven't taken a photo of that and it looks more and more dishevelled everyday.

Ok so she didn't sleep wonderfully, but not too bad, asked only once for it. which was amazing. I thought that it would be a long difficult battle that i wasn't ready for but in fact it wasn't so bad. Last night she asked for it again, just once so ok...

However she has for a few nights now been getting into bed with me in the middle of the night, first of all it was due to her having a cold and not breathing well...however it seems to have become a little bit of a fixture...which i really can't be doing with. As much as i'd love to co-sleep and all those hippy ideals that i have i can't i am not build for that. I am away most of the night as i can't sleep with, what can only be described as a active octopus, in the bed next to me...nightmare. i am a really light sleeper and her turning in her crib can wake me...so you can image that i don't get much sleep with her in the bed. However the alternative is to let her cry it out..and the last time i did that (new years eve) she puked all over me and herself...nice huh.

So i'd like to avoid that. i think i will wait for this cold to be over then kick her out once and for all.

I still haven't got the letter from the judge with the final decree which is scare but i can't believe that her birth mother/ family will want her now...it's been going on long enough for them to have stepped up and said..in fact we want to keep her...i guess we just wait and see.

Other news is that i got the job...what job? well i had been half offered a teaching job and had gone for a couple of interviews for it. Yesterday i got it.

Its a bit scary as i'd be leaving Science, but i think it could be really good for me at the moment, not sure it's the best move for my career but it offers more money, fewer hours (*4 a day) and more money...

Which all means that i get to spend more time with Sarah and get to save a bit of money for a flight...i currently live from wage packet to wage packet...which isn't fun for the amount of work it do...(as i sit here blogging!)

So i'd either be starting after Chinese new year (are big holiday of course!), or in March...they have to work that out. my boss here wants me to stay till march if i can but i will see what they say.

Boxing day zoo trip.

2008-12-31T13:31:00.006+08:00

Taking 7 kids to the zoo, may sound a little crazy but with 4 mums it wasn't so bad.

So the day after Christmas a friend needed to take a trip to collect their youngest sons passport ect..their adoption had just been completed (yeah for them). So they need someone too take care of their older two while they did that. So heather and i said we'd help...well heather said yes and i said i'd help her.

So against out better judgement, we thought that we would go to the zoo, Heather had already planned to go with her other friend and her little girl. So in the morning we get ready and well we head for the MRT...with 7 kids under 5

Ok so we have 4 adults, and 7 kids, we had four pushchairs, one a double, and thus just two of the kids had to walk. older ones (3 and 5) and lots of snacks to eat while we are there.

It took us about an hour to get to the zoo, via mrt...in which almost all the kids (bar the two borrowed boys) complained about. The boys where so well behaved it was amazing, such sweet kids. they asked where their mum was a couple of times but didn't complain too much.

So we got there and the first thing that i do is try to get name tags for them all (it's a wrist band that you write your number on and thus if lost they can find the owner...) so i put my name down for all the kids...not sure that is the best idea, should have put Heathers down!

Fortune has it we didn't need them. The kids were good, apart from the fact that the older two wanted to sit in the pushchairs the whole time, and the younger ones not wanting in the pushchair...thus it took us a long time to get anyway and we'd often have to split up and let others go ahead...as some kids would run ahead and other refuse to move...

Sarah was dead happy looking and finding i might add, spiders and caterpillars and other such bugs. when she did notice the animals behind bars (well not always bars but you know), then she was find some leaf on the floor and try and coo them to come over..like you would a stray dog...needless to say they didn't come, or even notice what she was doing, but she tried..and then placed the leave down on the wall/bar ect..

Very cute. my little girl so good with animals, i am glad that she likes bugs so much i don't know what i'd do with a kid that is scared of them. trying to get a photo of all the kids was not on the cards...no way..they were all over the place. they had fun, Nykolas the oldest was the only one that didn't really seem to be so happy, due to being over tierd. but the rest were ok...even if i did have to fight sarah to sit in the buggy at times...i never thought it would be so hard to get a little (skinny) 2 year old to sit down in a pushchair...but it really is. physically it's a nightmare, and it's really embarrassing as they arch their little backs and then the buggy rolls away from you...not fun in public, i am sure all the other people are thinking i am such a rubbish mother.

But you know what, i don't care, as i am just so happy to be a mother! (i just try my hardest to be a good one)

Christmas day 2008

2008-12-31T12:35:00.011+08:00

Christmas morning:

So this was our morning. We woke up...normal time as Sarah is blissfully unaware of the fact it's Christmas and that she will be getting presents...i am so glad of this fact, i am sure that next year she will know all too well what is happening!

So we get up and she finds a stocking...well my stripy sock.

Inside she finds a number of items, most of which are from around the house. one being a packet of biscuits...she must have seen them in the cupboard as when she pulled them out of the sock she told me, back mummy back...and tried to put them back in the cupboard...opps i didn't get away with that very well. She did this with the nuts too, she's pretty observant and smart really..more than i give her credit i think!

She found the orange and then she was happy, just wanting to eat that...yep my kid turns down chocolate biscuits for an orange. am i blessed or what!

Then it was time for her main present from me (it was her only present from me to be frank the other thing i got her was a set of jigsaws from the supermarket that cost about a quid!).

So I'd "wrapped"her present in a bag that Sarah (my mate, not my daughter) made me a couple of years ago (she's wrapped her present to me in it). Well i normally use said bag to keep nappies in (its pretty covered in festive stuff, but is about the right size for 3 nappies). So sarah sees it and says, nappy nappy?? yes she thinks i've given her nappies for Christmas...along with biscuits and nuts from the cupboard!

Then she open it and says, knit knit knit?? and reaches to put it in my knitting/ sewing box (i've been knitting and sewing all the gifts i've given to little people this year). then she says Socks? Socks?....at which point i am feeling a little bit like a terrible mother, but it's also funny. I then pull the whole thing out so she can see it all, and quit telling me what she thinks it is!

Then she says...SPIDEY spidey..and gets all excited.

I'd made her a spider from a pair of her old, too small tights, and her pink babygro (onesie). I don't have a photo of it to hand..i will take one tonight. i was too busy trying to help her get it open when she was opening it to take a photo! I'd stayed up till 2 that morning making the thing..i wish i was more organised!

Mum and dad sent her a parcel too, with crisps and vegan "smarties" in it, along with my little pony esc horses and hair stuff..she put the hair band on herself...can you tell?

Next year..i will try to be.

We then went to The Hammond's, for the rest of the day. which was great, so nice to spend it with friends and little kids. Sarah had a ball with all the kids new toys.

For lunch we kept it dead simple and had soup and rice, which meant that we (Heather and i) didn't spend much time cooking, when we did the kids got to watch the computer with Chad...it was a cute side to see all the kids on his lap. so cute! I also got a vegan Christmas cake made, which was nice (not very Christmas cake like inside but they did a good job on the outside!). Heather also brought crackers which was great, but no one bar me know what to do with them...which i found a tad strange. the kids loved the of course..well little Lilli was scared of them but Sarah and the others like them.

In the evening we went out for a meal before church and Sarah had so much fun being loved on by some teenager that where there. It was really lovely to see, she was so happy Hamming it up for them. Its unusual as normally western kids would get all the attention and Sarah often gets ignored, but not this time. So cute.

We went to carols (chinese) in the evening Sarah climbed on the stage several times, as did my mates daughter mia. Very cute.

We stayed the night at Heathers which was a blessing as we were popped...at 10 pm we all went to bed!

And that was Christmas 2008.

Christmas afternoon:

Onion Pants

2008-12-31T12:28:00.003+08:00

My poor cute little onion pants is really sick with Chronic Renal failure, i brought her home boxing day (the day after Christmas), and i have to inject her twice a day with subcutaneous fluids. First of all it was with a drip and took over an hour to get 100ml into her...it was a nightmare to say the least. she would fight and struggle and it was just impossible to do alone...in fact it may have been easier alone alone but instead i had a little Sarah bear trying to "help"....

So we went back to the vet and asked him if we can inject it rather than letting gravity do the work...so we tried and it worked. within about 5 mins it was all done. 200ml that is. so i took her home again and tried at home...not as easy as it was at the vet, but do able. She's doing much better but is still so thin. She isn't eating well and vomits often so can't eat much. its so sad to see her wasting away, before she was always on the tubby side, now she's skinny. bless. We will have to wait and see how she gets on over the next weeks, the vet thinks that she might be able to live a while like this, but its unlikely that she will every be normal again. poor thing. At least i am not squeamish about injections!

little kitty

2008-12-31T12:16:00.002+08:00

So as per normal we have another kitty. well we had, i should say. no she didn't die. She's with a friend now as i really can't take care of her the way she needs it...due to the fact that i work and she needs food every 4-6 hours and lots of care.

I called her Jam..don't know why just did.

My friend at church found her and didn't know what to do with her...she has two dogs (she rescued from the street i might add). So i reluctantly went to see her thinking she would be about 3 months old (and thus not that much work). Well she wasn't she was more like 3 weeks old. bless her. She was surprisingly healthy, with no fleas, no worms ect..which is rare if they are street cats. So i suspect she was dumped that day. She is also beautiful too. Tri-coloured cat that is mostly white. So i figure she will be easy enough to re-home.

I have some people that i know that help cats and happen to live close to me, they have tons of cats that they help way more than me. she works from home so has the time to look after little one, so she said she would take jam. I'll go and visit her this Sunday. so cute, and Sarah loves her, of course. Pickles hates her and spits at her as soon as she think she is close by...no change there.

Amazing Christmas gift!!

2008-12-24T15:13:00.008+08:00

So late last night i get the letter to tell me what the judge has decided...

and it says that he accepts that i can adopt Sarah! yeah!!

how cool, what a wonderful Christmas present. i mean truly the best ever.

There are still 10 day in wish the mother can change her mind...but it's not so likely. So i can celebrate this Christmas with out the worry that the judge might find me unfit to be a mother to Sarah bear!

I prayed and prayed for this and God has truly answered my prayers. I prayed that i didn't want anything else for Christmas, just this...and look what i got two days before Christmas.

So happy i could hug the world~!

I have tons of other things to blog about but i will have to wait. i have taken two days off over Christmas...which doesn't normally happy here, but i asked nicely (and promised to work Chinese new year). So i will be back next week with many a thing to add to this...i have to work now as i have to finish everything so that i can get these next two days off....

So this morning i showed the letter to Sarah...she read it and decided it was good news! she's very advanced to 21 months!

Oh my cat (Pickles) ate the corner of the paper when my back was turned (calling everyone to tell them about it)...i can't trust Pickles, she's so naughty.

little Onion Pants is at the vet and has Kidney failure it's so sad poor little thing, and it means that Pickles is naughtier than ever with her to keep her in line!

my hated thesis

2008-12-11T16:30:00.005+08:00

i hate my brain, i hate the way i do thing or not do things.

I've had a Ph.D. pending for like forever now, and now it's way over 3 years now and i am, well at the same point i was this time last year...in fact i might be a bit worst off as new papers have been published and i haven't read them thus they aren't in the stupid thesis...ect..

You get the picture.

Every day i think about it but every day i push it to the bottom of my mind and refuses to think about it for more than a fleeting moment. Tom can't begin to understand how i might be able to let myself do that, but i can. i've done it with other stuff and i've been doing it with this too, it sucks as its my own fault and i am the only one to blame.

Every time i think about it i feel sick to my stomach really sick when i think about the logistics involved with finishing it all off. That fact that i haven't also makes me sick, like what the bleep am i playing at. I am sure that Tom and i would get on way way better if i just did it and submitted.

SO i am at an impasse in my life, i need to get it done or i can't do anything else. i need to move on but i have to finish this first. I was kind of offered a job today that would be teaching kids English and i'd earn about the same amount i do now, but work just afternoons, and have free (or almost free) child care. I want to do this as i want to spend more time with Sarah. The lady will call me tonight to ask me some questions i am sure she will ask me my education level...i say Ph.D., but not really as i've not finished it off yet...that looks really bad. The major thing i have to think about is what if i want to go and live in the UK/ Australia? then what? without my Ph.D. i have nothing.

Thats a little dramatic but what on earth would i do there. there is no way i'd teach english there...being so darn dyslexic i am not even sure i'll be able to here.

I hate that i am disorganized and frankly a mess. i hate i get easily distracted by everything and anything. It's SO annoying, goodness only knows what it must be like to be friends with me, let alone my boyfriend. Tom is organized and i am really not, not finishing this has driven him crazy for over 3 years. i use to think Tom changed when i came to Taiwan because of Taiwan, but you know i am now pretty sure that its because i haven't finished my thesis and it eats him up. He tries all the time to get me to finish but i never do, i never listen to him, as he put it. I do but i just can't seem to get around to finishing it off.

So thats my thought of the day. i need to finish and i need to now or i can't get on with my life. This means i have to read and read a lot this mean that i have to work on it all day Saturday, this means less time with Sarah, but hopefully for a short time and then i will be able to have more time with her. I don't know if she will see it like that but i will try to remember that when she gets upset that i can't play games with her.

As for the title of this post, thats a gmail account i have for saving my thesis in...i guess when i decided to call it that i didn't know just how much i would really hate, and that i wouldn't have finished it by now already

Christmas tree photo

2008-12-09T17:28:00.003+08:00

I tried to get a photo of Sarah with the Christmas tree but she wasn't having any of it...she was screaming her head of as she wanted to play with the camera rather than have her photo taken (and they tell me she's Taiwanese! if you don't know taiwanese love having the photo taken and love taking photos...it is a little strange how often i see people taking photos of themselves, or jumping in a photo just to be photographed)

So here is the tree, Pickles got in on the act.

And here is Sarah screaming on the floor...i thought i'd take it anyway.