Nearly there...new month, new home :)

Some random notes from the last few days:

• James and Laura have been blowing us away with snippets of Mandarin, one morning on the drive to school last week, after no more than 3 lessons, James pointed at a billboard we were passing and said "Look, that means small! It says 'xiao' " He then identified a specific character at the beginning of a line that looked like this:

小

 

Sure enough I checked later and it is exactly as he said...clever clogs!

• Female friends will be amused to learn that when I packed clothes and shoes to last the first 6-8 weeks until the air shipment arrives, I didn't bother to research the climate one jot (or ask Adrian). 'It's hot', I thought, I won't need anything but sandals. Hmmmm, we are not a million miles from monsoon areas so consequently we have seen a fair bit of rain and I only have one pair of canvas shoes, the rest are strappy sandals...doh!

In case I haven't mentioned it before, there have been some truly random music clips floating around. The Benny Hill theme tune played frequently in the Crowne Plaza foyer, we have been subjected to an instrumental version of Winter Wonderland far too many times in the Exec Lounge at the Holiday Inn and I swear one of the children's programs has the Steptoe and Son theme tune as one of its jingles!

I bought a shiny 'tat' parasol the other day for just under £2 as nearly all our umbrellas are black and this is slightly defeatist when trying to ward of the sun's rays. It is 'chavtastic' ;)

• Our first job today was to pick up the Medical Reports. Interesting reading...we both have 'slightly fatty liver' noted - ewwwww! I had the additional Cardio notes of Sinus Bradycardia and Sinus Arrhythmia which made me slightly nervous, but having googled both, am no longer worried. I knew about the Bradycardia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia and the other http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing/practice/resources/cardiology/function/sinus_arrhythmia.php doesn't seem to be a concern.

• We went to the house this morning to do the inspection. On the way in we saw a rather large snake sunning itself on the road. While I assumed this was normal, from WJ's reaction and immediate reporting it to Security, perhaps not! Maybe they just fancied it for lunch!?! (Sorry!)  So, we arrived at the house and while it wasn't immaculate, it was good enough and we agreed to do the inventory and take the key. Hooray! 

• We had an 'on the bus, off the bus' experience today. WJ asked to talk to Adrian while I wasn't about and he told Adrian that tomorrow we would have a new driver, but was struggling to explain. Adrian asked a member of the hotel staff to assist with translating and while we didn't understand why, we understood that we were getting a different driver the next day. We were going to Ikea to do a 'house' shop and sat at lunch really depressed as while we have only known him just over a week, we really like him. He is kind and tolerant of the children and really looks out for them. He seems good natured and thoughtful and does his job really well. He doesn't just sit there and drive the car, he runs off to fetch umbrellas if it starts to rain and he has argued the toss on our behalf/stood up for us with other locals so we both took it quite badly as we already have a very good rapport with him. I was pretty anxious as Adrian goes back to the UK next week and I am happy I know how to get around with WJ and didn't fancy starting to get to know someone new 3 days before being on my own with the children for a fortnight. We did a supermarket sweep round Ikea and grabbed as much as possible before we needed to pick up the children and went to find WJ. I started to tell him we were sad about the situation and he fished out his phone. He had prepped some text up and translated it and it said his boss/the company had changed their 'attitude' and he was staying with us. I was so relieved I all but hugged him, Adrian arrived a few minutes later and WJ jogged up to him to share the message and Adrian did actually hug him! So pleased, still haven't got to the bottom of it, but as long as he stays with us I don't really care!!

• Delighted to report that two (exceedingly cute and likely to be chased and poked a lot by Laura and I!) little geckos were spotted during the time we spent at the house today. I am chuffed to bits because a) they are soooooo cute, b) anything that eats mozzies is a big friend of mine.

 TOMORROW WE MOVE IN :)