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Friday, 2nd April, 2010
Rory and I have been going for walks around the complex in the evenings. It's quite beautiful this time of year. Magnolia trees dripping in white and burgundy blooms, pale pink, white and fuschia blossoming fruit frees, and shrubs smothered in dainty yellow flowers all line the roads. It seems as soon as one type of bloom is fading another is waiting in the shadows to emerge and brighten your day. The climbing roses along our front fence are sprouting leaves too. I can't wait to see what color they produce. Despite the rainy day we had this week, the weather has been improving steadily. The mornings and evening are a little less chilly, and the daytimes are warm and bright. We've seen people we haven't seen in months when walking - it's like everyone has come out of hibernation.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Yesterday, the remaining recipe books were delivered. Wang Yi talked the deliver guys into carrying all 20 boxes upstairs! Thank heavens because each box weighs about 25kgs. Now I've just got to sell, sell, sell! While I was waiting - they were supposed to show up at 10am but only arrived at 2pm, I made some "book thongs". Basically a length of beading wire with beads on either end and it works as a book mark. They're really easy to make and look really nice when they're done. Great for selling at the Hopeful hearts bazaar.

This morning we picked up Sydney from her sleepover party. It was at the resort just down the road from us. It turns out that the mom went home at 10pm and left the kids to their own devices all night! Needless to say, they got up to mischief, playing soccer in the gym with the huge exercise balls, and flashlight tag in the hallways! I'm pretty sure some of the other moms whose girls were there are going to be fuming about no parents being on duty! After we got Sydney we dropped off Maxine and our neighbor, Lawrence, at one of the parks up Purple Mountain. They were meeting Ben there for a church picnic. Typical teenagers - as long as there's food they'll go! Then, Rory, Sydney and I went downtown to a DVD store. They got a bunch of new ones. We also made our obligatory stop at Golden Bridges. Sydney had to find a birthday present for another friend - there's three birthday weekends in a row!

This afternoon I had a guy come and check my sewing machine. It wasn't working so great - I think it'd been overworked with all the aprons and then the quilt. He took it apart and cleaned and oiled it, checked the tension, needle doo-dad, all for only 65rmb - that's less than $10! And he threw in a packet of sewing machine needles! Now I'm ready to start on my next project….hmmm, I do have a huge stash of fabric that I need to start working through! I've got a couple of ideas up my sleeve, but I'll have to make some "proto-types" before making any decisions! First I have to finish the diva apron I'm making for my friend's 40th birthday this week….

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

We decided that instead of going back to Dallas in summer, we would visit our family in South Africa for a few weeks. So, July 1st through July 14th the girls and I will be mixing with World Cup crowds. No, it wasn't planned that way. In fact I had no idea of the exact dates of the World Cup. Unfortunately, Rory has got to work, but we're only gone for two weeks, then we'll do some sight-seeing around China over long weekends for the rest of summer. We really want to go to Chengdu, to the Panda Reserve. You can't come to China without seeing and holding a panda bear! Rory has to go there in September for a business conference so we might just meet up with him then…I'll have to look into some other places for summer weekends….

I sorted out all my sewing stuff today. I bought a new shelf to store it all. I had it in drawers but that was a nightmare! Now I have four boxes of various fabrics - "in progress"…."fabric scraps"….."fabric cuts"….and, "quilting fabric". It's awesome…it makes me happy just looking at it. I love organizing and being organized. Unfortunately, most of my life is organized chaos!

I got some shopping done today. I hate grocery shopping. Unless I'm shopping for an event. Then it's fun. But just plain old grocery shopping is just such a chore! I did manage to find some hard-to-find fresh herbs today so I could make my "Fried Rice with Cilantro" which actually requires fresh basil (the hard-to-find part) and cilantro. It's delicious! I also got some fresh rosemary so tomorrow I can make roast chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary. It's one of my favorite dishes of all time….served with boiled baby potatoes. Yummy. Of course the oven will be on, so I might as well throw a pudding of some sort in there when the chicken is done.

Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Last night we went out to Ciao Italia, our favorite Italian restaurant. The food is always delicious. The girls went to watch the fashion show at the school so rory and I had the evening to ourselves.

Today I went with two other ladies to visit a baking supply shop. We browsed for ages, and could have stayed a whole lot longer! I got some new baking tins, frosting spreaders, a cake stand, some white chocolate and of course some fun cooking / baking gadgets! There were a lot of little baggies of powder in various colors but we'll have to go with someone who can read Chinese next time because NOTHING was in English. This afternoon I came home, and passed out on the sofa after reading for a while. I didn't sleep well at all last night - awake at 3am so I'm thinking my afternoon nap was justified!

Tomorrow I start baking again - got to make some bars for Saturday, and then a birthday cake for Sunday. The tailor will be coming tomorrow night with some of the stuff I had him make for me - I'm praying that it's looks good. That way I can give him even more to do!

Saturday, April 10th
No rain - yippee! Last year for the NIC's World Cup Soccer Day they had torrential rain and gusting winds. Sales were good because everyone was seeking cover under the portico where Hopeful Hearts were having their bake sale. This year we've got good weather but even better goodies so when I left about 30 minutes ago cakes and cookies were flying off the table! We've got the waffles irons cranking out delicious Belgian waffles too! I'm not sure they'll even be any soccer played at all!

Later.....we sold out at 3pm! Every last little muffin and cup-cake was sold. We estimate we raised about $1000 and had fun doing it....so it was a good day.

When I got back from the bake-sale I iced the "white tiger" cake. The kids love it, but I'm not so set on all the black icing....not exactly the prettiest cake I've made but they all like it so hopefully the birthday girl will too.

Monday, April 12th, 2010

It was kind of a frustrating day yesterday....rainy and stuck at home. Michael was having the van serviced so we had no car. Anyway, we managed to scrounge up a driver, after numerous calls around the neighborhood, and a bunch of us went to BuBuBu to do some fabric shopping. I went to get fabric stiffner, but also found some more summery fabrics. Just in time for the icy spell that's coming our way this week - back down to zero on Wednesday!

I'm not sleeping well at all again - not sure why??? Up at 2:30am this morning! Read till 4:30am and then dropped off till 6am when the kids got up. It's 3:30 now and I'm pooped!

This morning I went to school to drop off some recipe books and got to see some of the Kindergarten and 1st Grade Sleeping Beauty rehearsal. They're just sooo cute - lots of woodland animals and trees! After that, my friend Suzy and I went to do some shopping at Metro. It's such a drag to get there and shop so it was nice to have some company for a change. Afterwards I dropped her and her groceries off at her apartment and we had some cheese toasties and tea for lunch. Just perfect for the cold and dreary day. We're expecting freezing rain on Wednesday! What happened to Spring???
The kids are due home any minute now so I doubt I'm going to get my much-needed 40-winks. I managed to find some jalapenos today so I was planning on making loaded nachos for supper tonight but I'm not sure what I'll be feeling like at that point....seeing that I bought all new cereals today, we might just have a cereal fiesta!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I've lost a day! Yesterday I wasn't feeling well at all and spent most of the day in bed trying to sleep. I gave Wang Yi the day off so she wouldn't be buzzing around keeping me awake but even that didn't help. This morning I was feeling a bit better and I was bored so I decided to go wander around a furniture mall looking for items for our PTA room. There's a store in there that's actually called "Fake IKEA" !!! I didn't find anything and still felt rotten so came back home and tried to read and nap, but, my phone kept ringing! I think I must have had about 10 phone-calls this afternoon, and 5 people come to my door. Add Busters barking at the gardener and Wang Yi's happy whistling to that and I was pretty much wasting my time trying to nap.
So I got the sewing machine out and started to stitch some of the bag organizers but I just wasn't feeling up to it.

The good news is Claudia has handed over the running of Hopeful Hearts to me. I offered because I was worried that no-one else was stepping up, but she still had to make the call. Anyway, it's in my hands now and it's a terrifying thought to be honest.

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Well, so much for plans - this is China after all! We were SUPPOSED to get our new lawn today, well they were going to start digging out all the weeds and icky grass today. Not so. When I was caught unawares in my pj's this morning I thought it was the lawn workers arriving, but no, it's the pipe workers! Again! Yes. Again! They're digging a huge trench across my whole front yard about two feet wide and two feet deep! They started out in a straight line but then hit a tree so went around it, and instead of looking ahead, they turned back to their original path, and then hit another tree, so went around that one too! It's not looking pretty, at all.

As I've been writing this I've been watching them try to get a big pipe into a small hole, and bending it at a 45° angle at the same time. Hmmm, I wonder how they're going to feed the cable down the pipe when that time comes!

Saturday, April 17th, 2010
The lawn workers came today and dug up the whole yard. Thank heavens for them that the ground is really soft. They managed to dig through the entire front yard today. It actually looks better dug over than it did pre-digging!

I managed to get a nap this afternoon..I'd intended on doing some reading but that evidently didn't last long. The only problem is, I woke up with huge bags under my eyes and wrinkles on my face from my pillow! Yes, I'm certain they're the result of my lying with my face scrunched into the pillow. Now, I have to go out this evening to a fundraising event and...since Claudia isn't going I'm probably going to have to speak to the crowd. With the microphone. I don't do microphones. I really didn't think this one through! Now, back to the eyes. Do I slather on some extra concealer to try hide the bags, risking a make-up overload, or do I apply more darker shadow on my lids to try acheive a "dramatic" look, risking looking like a raccoon! Or, do I go with bright red glossed up lips that just out-shine everything else and leave everyone blinded so they can't actually focus on the huge sagging bags that seems to be growing worse by the second. Bring on the cucumber rings and iced-teabags, pronto!

This morning we went out and bought a safe. One of the houses in our very effective "gated and guarded" complex got broken into last week and cash stolen from a purse. So, everyone's a little more wary of leaving doors and windows open now. Since Rory's been harping on about buying a safe-box this apparently gave him the motivation to do just that. It was delivered while I was ummmm, reading. It took THREE people to deliver it. We are proud owners of a safe big enough to store the entire complex's valuables! And while I was...reading, Rory programmed the code. It's one of those silly words that as kids we used to type into our calculators and read upsidedown. Typical.

Sunday, April 18th, 2010
Wow! We had a great night at the races last night at Finnegan's Wake...an Irish pub, downtown. We sold bets for the races, and sold horses. And Finnegan's had generously donated some fantastic prizes like boxes of beer, bottles of wine and whisky, and meals in their restaurant. Hopeful Hearts made 5,500rmb. And the best part....I didn't have to talk...no microphone...no speech! Phew.

It rained last night. The whole night. Our front "lawn" is now 250 square meters of soggy foot-deep red mud. Half of which is caked onto Busters paws, or smeared across my entryway floor. Apparently he like ro run around in the mud as much as he likes to run in the snow! They are officially outdoor dogs.

Rory's doing a four-hour mock exam today and we've been "encouraged" to leave the premises. So, Lord help me, Maxine, Sydney and I are going shopping. For FOUR hours. I'm trying to be positive about this hopeless situation.

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I made it back, alive. We all made it back, alive. Barely. We shopped, we tried on (actually, I just stood around waiting), we shopped some more, we moved on to the next shopping center, we shopped, we Starbucked (necessary caffeine boost) and we shopped some more. For four hours. It wasn't quite as torturous as I thought it would be. Although, I paid for it last night with a stinker of a headache.

It's still raining. Hasn't stopped. I'm ready to build an ark!

This morning I'm going with some of the other Hopeful Hearts ladies to visit some of "our" children at the hospitals. I don't know how many we currently have in hospital recovering or waiting for operations so I'm not quite sure what to expect. I have to go and meet the doctor and the head nurse - the only ones who can speak English!

Later this evening I've got all the neighborhood ladies coming over again for the tailor. I think it's become more of an excuse to get together than it has to get stuff made. The guy doesn't have a car so he arrives on his scooter, with bags full of clothes. Although, I think we've given him enough work recently to pay for a Mercedes!

It was an interesting and humbling visit to the hospitals yesterday. As you can imagine, the hospitals are teeming with people, both patients and visitors. I don't think they receive meals because we noticed a lot of take-outs being brought in by family members. Most things look old and run-down. But no-one was complaining about their room being too hot or cold, or not having enough blankets, about their neighbors noisy visitors, or that their TV wouldn't work, because they didn't have one! The rooms had two to six beds in each, with a shared bedside table a sheet and blanket on each bed, and usually a pile of blankets on the floor where the family members had been camping out on the cold concrete. There were no attached bathrooms, no televisions, no bedside phones, no carpeted flooring or bright and cheerful paintings on the wall. They just considered themselves fortunate to be in the hospital and receiving the care they need.

At the military hospial we visited with one little boy who's operation was very successful and they were actually waiting to be discharged. Mom and dad were there along with a very proud and thankful grandma. They were all so happy to be able to take their healthy baby home.
At the second hospital, The Jiangsu Children's Hopsital, we saw two babies. Two more were arriving for their operations today, so we'll get to see them next week. One little one, about 3 years old, was recovering well. He lives with his grandmother who survives only on the generosity of her friends and daughter in law who give them wheat and rice to eat. She has no income and faced having to pay over 35,000RMB for the baby's operation. The baby's father died a few days after they took him for his 2 month check up, when they diagnosed his condition. Their farming community had an electric pump installed to bring water to their village. He went to get water one day and was electrocuted. Then, a few years later, his mother was killed in an accident. They were able to borrow 20,000RMB and Hopeful Hearts is going to assist them with another 20,000RMB ($3000) to cover the operation and any additional expenses for follow-up care. You just can't fathom the hopelessness of their situation. We (Hopeful Hearts) is very fortunate to have some incredibly enthusiastic supporters who offer us free advertising, free web-space, and really do everything thay can to encourage donations and assitance.

On the way home from the hospitals, I called in to pick up some things from the tailor. I think I caught him off guard, although he knew I was coming! He appeared from around a corner in his little sewing room/bedroom with the scariest hair-do I've ever seen. To start with he's this little frail man, and has a very bad squint which makes him a little...strange. And, the little hair he has was sticking out in every direction!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

I've decided that there is nothing on earth quite as sublime as a good cream cheese frosting. I made one today. A pound of cream cheese, a cup of butter, 6 cups of powdered sugar, 3 cups of coconut, a half cup of raisins and a half cup of pecans....and that was just the frosting! It was soooo good. I have to admit, I LICKED the bowl! Yes, after I'd finished icing the cake! Tsk! I "chaired" my first Hopeful Hearts meeting and it was Jeannette's 40th birthday so a devinely delicious cake was in order! Then the other day when I was at Metro I couldn't resist the giant wheels of brie, so we had that too. Basically it was a calorie fest!

The meeting went well though. We talked a lot, decided a lot, and planned a lot. It was drizzling the whole morning, but during the meeting it starting pouring down so a few of the ladies stayed a while longer and helped me get rid of some more of the brie! After everyone cleared out I went shopping for some new donation boxes. Ours are looking very sad. They're ancient, cardboard, and have definitely seen better days! It didn't help that Jeannette dropped one in the mud last month! I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but Michael found some online so he's going to order them for us. It was still raining like crazy and when I jumped out the car I wasn't looking down (I was watching for bicycles) and I stood in a huge puddle. My entire shoe was under water. Icky water. Brown water. It was gross. But, I was not about to turn around and go home. One soggy shoe was not going to stop me from shopping! So, I squished my way around the shops along with everyone else who were either squishing or dripping anyway!

I got home, removed the soggy shoe (and the other one) and enjoyed a bite of brie! All is good again.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Hmm, it's been a few days, hasn't it! We had a great weekend. It was Spring Fun Day at school on Saturday. Although it feels like it's rained for weeks on end, it stopped on Thursday and everything had chance to dry out in tie for a fantastic day by Saturday. We had lots of fun and games for everyone, and by the end of the day it was our goal to have every child running around with a water-gun - I think we succeeded! Sydney had her hair spray-painted blue at the hair-coloring station, and then got doused with water by her friends. The result was a blue t-shirt (was white) and a blue child! She's still blue and it's Monday morning, two showers and a soak in the tub later! I'm wondering how many other multi-colored children will be at school this morning!

After SFD Sydney brought her boyfriend, her friend and her boyfriend back home for the afternoon. They made sandwiches, and grabbed a packet of tortilla chips and quesso out the pantry and tootled off to the park to have a picnic. Then they all went back to Katie's house, in another development, where they all live, for a few hours, and then Sydney stayed overnight at Katies!

On Saturday night it was the Pfrang Gala Dinner - their main fundraiser of the year. The food was good, and we had a lot of fun even though the end-of-evening entertainment SUCKED! The band was so bad. And they weren't even Chinese! They were a combination of Americans and Brits! They only knew about 4 songs, and sang those terribly! And then, when they'd finished with their four songs, some bright spark had the idea to auction off another song from them. So not only did some fool pay 3000RMB for us all to suffer through a song again, but we had to hear the one they'd just sung!

Friday was the last "official" day for the 12th graders. They had a special graduation assembly, and celebrations. They haven't even done their final exams yet! They write them in a few weeks - they're all on study leave now. Although, each of them have been accepted to at least two or more universities around the world already based on their grades throughout the year! On Friday night Maxine went out with her boyfriend and the rest of the crowd to celebrate and hang-out. They started out downtown at AquaCity Mall for supper, then went bowling, then came home and hung out. By that time Rory and I had decided we were going to bed! I spoke to one of the mom's on Sunday and they'd all been at her house! I'm telling you - it's hard work keeping up with these girls! They're with a really good crowd of kids though.

We have a lawn, well the makings of one. The sod is down. They left big rings around the bottom of the trees so we could water them! The trees have been there longer than the development! We have one that's leaning over at a 45° angle that we wanted removed. Oh boy. The trees belong to Purple Mountain. So we have to write a letter to the Home Owners Committee, and letter to the Top Regent Management Company, a letter to Purple Mountain explaining that we have a leaning tree that is causing a hazard and needs removing. They will all come look at the tree and decide whether in fact it is leaning, and whether in fact it needs to be removed. Only then can the go ahead be given. And in any case, they can't remove the tree! They can only chop it off, leaving a stump. Because the roots belong to the mountain and we mere humans must not disrupt natures plan. So I'm leaving the tree where it is. I'll wait for it to fall on the house and then it's the landlord's problem. Some things are just not worth tackling!

Today is Najjla's farewell party. She doesn't leave for a while but one of her best friends is going back to Houston early so she can work for a few months. (She the NASA rocket scientist in the group - seriously!) So, we're having Najjla's farewell early. Ciao Italia for lunch - yummy!

Rory leaves for Guam tomorrow to write his exam. I think he's looking forward to shopping at K-mart more than anything! We meet him on Saturday in Manila, Philippines

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Well, Najjla had no idea! We totally surprised her! Some of the ladies got together and bought her a chest that she had been looking in a Chinese antique store. We placed a photo of it in her card and it's sitting at Angela's house already! It was a fun lunch. The fat Italian chef even made me a special dish. I asked for a pasta dish with artichokes, ham and olives in a gorgonzola spinach sauce. He made it and it was delicious! I think he's going to add it to the menu too!

Rory has just left for his flight to Guam. He's traveling light because we can only take one small suitcase from Manila to Cebu.

It's a nice sunshiny day today but there's still a bit of a bite in the air when you're in the shade. I think we'll be begging for cooler temperatures come next week - the heat index for the Philippines was in the 40's! Hmmm, I see fruity cocktails under a shady lapa, next to the pool in my future!

Friday, April 30, 2010

Rory felt his exam went well. Although, like he said, that doesn't always mean much, base on the mock exams he did! I think he's just glad the first one is over!
His luggage eventually arrived, almost 2 days after he did! Thank Heavens for K-mart!

Our ladies trip to Yixing went very well yesterday. We went to three different ceramic places. The first was more expensive than we were willing to spend, so we moved on to the next cheaper one! A lot of people bought stuff there, even though the owner started out really high with her prices and wasn't willing to bargain at all! A lot of us just left our stuff and ended up not buying there. We ate our packed lunch and then drove around the corner to the last stop, which actually turned out to be a warehouse, stacked to the ceiling with all the pottery! I think we almost cleared them out! The second shop we went to wanted 15RMB for one cup - these people only wanted 3RMB !!! They were so happy to see us, and so obliging - Najjla wanted a dish from the very bottom of the pile so they off-loaded the entire pile just to get her dish. Usually they just look at you as if you're nuts and wave their hand, NO! Suzy bought a bunch of dishes and mugs for Hopeful Hearts. Becky bought a car load of stuff - she's leaving in a month or so, so we told her we understood her feeling of urgency to buy everything in sight! We loaded up the vans and drove home. Jenny and I drove in my van, and we even got a nap on the way home. It's awesome having a driver!
Then, at 7:30, the tailor came to drop off and pick up again. He hadn't completed some of my things so I'll go pick them up on Saturday because I want them for my vacation!

Today I have to go back to IKEA to get some of the furniture we didn't get on Tuesday. It's got to be delivered so it's going to be interesting organizing that!