Mr. Bump and Laura Scissorhands.

Prepped this up about 10 days ago, but have been busy over Half Term. This covers the last couple of weeks of September.

We have had a busy couple of weeks, but are now thankfully on Half Term for 10 days.
The children had a GOAL day at school (12th September); this was a meeting with their class teacher and the child and they check progress and set targets. We went on a little adventure in the morning to check out a soft play area while it was quiet. Slightly thwarted as it didn’t open until 1pm, but was happily situated in an amusement arcade. Once I had worked out the machines didn’t take Yuan, but tokens, and how one bought tokens, we had a fab time. A ride that would have cost £1, maybe even £2 in the UK was 3 or at most 6 tokens, 30/60 pence!! We spent several hours there and I won a jackpot:

Arcade heaven!



How many tickets from the jackpot?!

We then traded the tickets for a pad and pencil, some dressing up glasses and a purse. All in all a successful and enjoyable outing, even though it was not remotely as I had planned. For speed and as a final treat I took the children to the KFC in the same mall. One word, yuck! Greasy, fatty, gristly chicken and far too spicy for the children (made KFC UK look like à la carte!)

The school is not open on GOAL day, so the children have a day 'off' but have to attend the 15 minute appointment in uniform. We interpreted that loosely, so Laura put hers over the top of her shorts and vest top and still wore her crocs! It’s early in the term, but both children seem to be where they should be (or better) and have settled really well. Laura’s teacher said you would never have known she wasn’t here last year, she is so confident (as always, I felt that could be taken two ways as Laura has a reputation for being forthright and needing to be kept on a tight rein!) James’s teacher has already understood that he is quite emotional for a boy and is happy that he is settling in well but it is not unusual for him to shed tears over perceived failure or struggling to understand something. Both children are loving Mandarin lessons (and I am learning from nosing through their notes) and James is really enthused about this term’s Topic of the Romans. They are dressing up on the first day back and he is really looking forward to it (pulling together an outfit has been a challenge without our usual resources!) He is also enjoying Recorder Karate; they earn ‘belts’ as they make progress and he has already had his first belt.

We went to the Emerald newcomers’ party. The theme was a celebrity bash and we were invited to come dressed as stars of stage/screen/sports, popstars, celebrities etc…While back home finding an outfit for this would have posed us little problem, without our dressing up box (still in the air shipment back in the UK waiting for Adrian’s visa to be finalised so that it can be processed) and with little local knowledge of likely sources for costumes, we went into drastic improvisation mode. I put on black trousers and a white shirt, borrowed a dicky bow from James, mascara’d on a moustache and bigger eyebrows and wore James’ straw fedora and aviators. James wore a Hawaiian shirt and tie and trousers and I eye-pencilled a curly moustache on him. Laura chose to go as a mummy (don’t ask!!) which seemed a great idea until we set off to walk 20 mins to the clubhouse. Suffice it to say it was a good thing I had elected to bring an emergency roll of toilet paper and the sellotape as I had to all but recreate her entire ‘outfit’ just before we went in. We walked up the red carpet to flash photography and screams (very well orchestrated!), signed the ‘wall’ and went in. The food was pretty good, the band were also Not Bad and thanks to some well considered entertainments for the children too, we had a good time. Unfortunately it decided to chuck it down as we were due to leave and we were so cold and wet by the time we got home we had to have hot showers and hot chocolate!! (Thankfully Laura had long since binned her mummy costume otherwise it would have quickly become pulp). 

 


Using the balloon arch to do a Dragon dance at the end of the party

The next week we had the mini drama of the first accident while at school. One afternoon James got off the bus holding an ice pack to a rather sore face and head. He told me the sorry tale that he had been running for the bus (although there is no need, they wouldn’t go without him) and had apparently been holding his rucksack on his back when someone crossed his path and he tripped over the other person. Presumably this happened so quickly that he didn’t put his arms out as he seemed to have taken the brunt of the fall on his nose and forehead, doing a fair bit of damage to his glasses too in the process. He was taken off to the nurse to be cleaned up and then taken back to the bus (which had of course waited for him!)

Imagine my anxiety the following day when Laura’s teacher phoned just after lunch to say that Laura had been using scissors… (she managed to cut her thumb knuckle quite badly with a pair of scissors at Minety, so I was dreading what was coming)….and to her teacher’s horror she had cut a significant chunk of her own hair off. I tried to establish how much and from where and she said ‘about two inches from her fringe’. Regrettably she has 'form' as it is not long since she hacked another bit off that was ‘annoying’ her. When I saw it I decided she should wait until Adrian came home before possibly trying to take her to the hairdresser. In the end we decided that I would feather/even it up a little on the other side so that it could grow out a bit and hopefully get straightened out properly in a couple of weeks by a hairdresser. It looks pretty silly right now and I’m not entirely sure she’s learnt her lesson…

Fortunately, the school photos had been done the day before for each child so we should hopefully still have half decent pictures! Laura confessed at a later stage that the Head of Infants had come to see her over the 'incident'...already blotted her copybook!

In other news the stinky (musty) curtains in the sitting room were taken away to be washed. A funny conversation took place with the chap who came to take them as he was about 5'4" and blatantly needed steps to reach the curtains. We had no steps at the time, but thanks to a trusty Ikea step, I improvised a very satisfactory solution which I later used to take down the nets/voiles and wash them:

The biggest advantage of city living is takeway access, so we wasted no time in trialling www.bakerhaus.com and were very pleased with the order; stonebaked ham pizza and hummus, pitta bread and crudités, yum! :) The children loved the delivery by moped which (poor deprived mites) they have only seen on TV before now!

 

I didn't buy this, but one of my favourite finds in a local supermarket was this vocabulary sheet including the words: sponge, shoes, glasses, kettle and that most essential word, horn :) (up at the top right)

 

I decided I was being a little too picky buying prosecco, demi-sec and cava, so thought it was time I tried the local 'fizz'. It only seemed to be available in 1.5l bottles but I figured I was up for the challenge and at approx. £3, it had to be worth a punt. I opened it and it smelt familiar, but I couldn't immediately place it. A taste enabled me to identify the 'bouquet', it smelt of cider, so presumably this was pommery or maybe it was just White Lightning in a fancy bottle. Honestly it was pretty ghastly, but much improved when some blackcurrant was added, a top suggestion from our friend Tim! Will I buy it again?? Nope!!

 

Thoughts:

• With a little bit of positive thinking, you can make a place feel like home as long as you have your family with you. I really found visiting Shanghai hard back in June as I was missing the children so much. Now it has quickly felt like home with James and Laura running about the place!
• Seemingly little things can make all the difference. Skype has made us feel much less far away and I really appreciate friends making the effort to call us relatively early in the morning on their weekends, in particular this has helped the children feel less cut off from their friends. I am eternally grateful for my VPN service too, without which I would not be able to blog, access Google easily, or use Facebook. I cannot begin to explain how comforting it is to share in friends' daily joys and woes and share mine. Again, it helps us feel much more connected.
• In some respects, on a broad scale, our lives have barely changed. Adrian goes to work, the children go to school, I clean (as little as I can get away with!), shop for food, cook, do the washing, iron, make excuses not to go to the gym/actually go to the gym, chat to Mums at drop off and pick up... But, at the same time, each one of these routines has also changed, some subtly, some significantly and for now it is a little more complicated than it used to be until we get used to it and it becomes our new normal. Effectively we are all doing the same 'work' but with less skill, ease and familiarity...