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Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

I was quite startled when my auto-text inserted June 1st into my blog this morning! Surely not! Already??? Seriously?
The kids have 16 days of school left; I have six farewells / birthday lunches and dinners to attend in that time, the formal End-of-Year school dance to organize, got to keep track of the Hopeful Hearts children, Rory is in Dallas for a week, and it's the school production of Alice in Wonderland - 600 jam tarts, and I'm helping with make-up! On top of all that I've got to design and decorate the teacher's lounge, which, as fun as it sounds, is quite a challenge. Not only is sourcing and locating things a problem but the language barrier means getting answers takes 2-3 times as long as it should. There's no searching for things on the web either, aside from IKEA. Having said all that, I love being busy! I'd rather be rushed off my feet than have to sit watching TV or do mindless shopping to fill my days.

On Friday Rory went to the doctor to get an ultra-sound done of his kidney since he's got a cyst on it. It's quite a common thing and nothing to worry about. Anyway, he pulled out the x-rays he'd had done in Singapore and was looking through them, trying to figure out what was what. It took him no less than three minutes of searching, examining, looking up close, stretching out arms, flipping and turning of x-rays to realize that he was looking at Busters x-rays! You'd have thought the 4 legs would have given it away! Thank Heavens he realized BEFORE he got to the doctors! Sometimes I just don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Yesterday Wang Yi made spring rolls for us. Now she;s definitely comeing home with us to Dallas! Rory went out for supper and Maxine was downtown with friends so Syd and I had them to ourselves! She's made plently so there were enough left for Rory's lunch today. She made chicken ones this time, but next time I'll have her try pork. Yum Yum Yum!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Last night I joined 16 other ladies at Ciao Italia, my favorite restaurant, for a farewell dinner for Shihong. We had a great time - lots of fun and laughter….left home at 5 and got back at 10!

Still more partying….today eighteen ladies mostly from Hopeful Hearts and some friends went on a cultural tour around Nanjing. The Nanjing Daily News had contacted Hopeful Hearts and offered this tour to us. Basically they wanted to do a news story on Westerners visiting various cultural sites around Nanjing, and it benefitted Hopeful Hearts because it'll get the name in the news. It turned out to be a fun day. We met at the newspaper offices at 9am and boarded a bus which took us to the Nanjing Brocade Museum where we were given a tour of the factory with all the looms and a fashion show. Then we went to a tea ceremony. Usually these are held in elaborate Tea Houses….well, this one was in an apartment that the owner had turned into a tea tasting house. It was strange, but actually turned out to be better since they only did the ceremony and not the long sales pitch for tea that usually comes with it. They had a guy there painting watercolors as well and he gave Hopeful Hearts a huge long watercolor of red and pink peonies. We'll have it framed and keep it for our auction!
From there we went to an "authentic Chinese Restaurant" where we got to try making our own dumplings. It looks easy but is quite tricky trying to keep the rice from slipping through the leaves! Then we had lunch….all 20-plus courses! We sat at a huge round table - all 20 of us. It had a motorized lazy-susan which was lined with all kinds of Chinese dishes. We had vegetables, bean sprouts, fish, beef, duck, goose, pork, pupkin, leafy greens, tofu, bean curd….and those are just the few I can remember. Plus they brought around individual bowls of soups, spring rolls, dumplings, etc. etc. Then, when we thought they were eventually done, they came in to ask if we wanted some noodles to "fill up on"…..we were all stuffed already so kindly declined the noodles! It was a lot of fun getting together for a non-fundraising event! Usually we're all working our butts off trying to make money, so this was a nice change.

Tomorrow I have to go buy more fabric for tablecloths. We'd estimated 80 people to come to the End-of-Year dance. We've sold 120 tickets and there's still another 10 or so kids that forgot their money today. So, I've got to set up another 6 tables! Yikes - more tablecloths, more balloon centerpieces, more lasagna, more sodas, more brownies….

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Hopeful Hearts made the news! Well, Michael heard it on the radio this morning. I'm sure it will be on the TV news at some time because that was who wanted to organize the tour for us. Probably newspaper too.

The tailor visited again this evening. I had a dress copied. The original is a black cocktail dress which I've never had the occasion to wear, but I really like it. So, I had it copied in a more "daytime" fabric so it's more suitable for a nice lunch. I dropped a bunch of fabric off with the tailor, including a jacket to make and a coat to copy. Kind of strange this time of year, but I'll need something warm for South Africa. Once again Michael will have to drop off all the fabrics he was given - there was NO WAY he could take even half of it on his mo-ped.

My sewing machine is working overtime again. I've got 10 tablecloths and 12 overlays to hem before Saturday! The poor things light has stopped working - it kept on shaking loose and I think it eventually just gave up. I'd bought 2½ meter wide bed-sheet fabric which was the exact width I needed so I just had to cut the 15 meters into 1½ meter lengths, which was still quite a challenge! Luckily Wang Yi worked with me and we got it done in no time. Then, she had the iron board set up and as I finished sewing one she would start ironing it. We had quite a production line set up. More to do tomorrow.

Friday, June 4th, 2010

I'm done. The tablecloths are all hemmed and pressed. Sewing machine is put away. Threads are cleaned up off the floor, furniture put back in its place. Now I can move onto the next project….cleaning out my closet. Too many things in there that I never wear. Uuugh. I might have to have a caffeine infusion before I can take on that depressing chore (as I frantically look around the room for something else more fun that I can do instead!)

I could make some book thongs but that means I have to get out all my beads and make a heck of a mess. I should go for a walk, but I haven't showered yet this morning (I wasn't planning on going out today) and I just know that I'll bump into someone, or someone will see me walking by with crazy bed-hair! I know, lame excuse. I think I'll go find my book…..it is Friday afternoon afterall!

We're going to a "team-building" barbeque this evening at the Plant Managers house around the corner. The "team" is 95% Chinese so it's sure to be an interesting evening!

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

The dance last night went very well. I spent most of the day at school making sure everything was set-up. We'd sold 135 tickets and when I arrived in the morning there were tables and chairs set up for only 80! It took some time to get all the extra tables and chairs set out and arranged. Thankfully Rory had come along to help otherwise it would have taken hours longer. Rory and I didn't chaperone the dance but waited till we saw the girls come in dressed up, with their dates for the evening. Then we went to have supper across the road at Potato - the local Chinese version of Western food. It was actually quite nice. We think they've changed their menu. We weren't in a rush, and managed to polish off a bottle of wine while enjoying the evening outside on the roof-top patio. We walked back across to the school a few hours later to have a peek and see how everything was going. All seemed well - plenty of kids still there, bopping away! Michael brought a bunch of girls back to our house for a sleepover - I counted seven this morning when I got up to make them pancakes. They apparently worked up quite an appetite with all the dancing they did - they devoured 2½ dozen pancakes in no time!

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Our "new" lawn is slowing returning to its green state after dying off when no-one came to water it, as promised. We don't have built-in sprinkler systems here, so the lawn "installer" said he would come back every day to water it while we were on vacation a while back. That didn't happen. So for ten very hot days, our new lawn didn't get any water. Niiiice. It's looking rather like a mangy dog now but is getting greener by the day. It still beats the muddy mess that the landlord considered lawn!

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy day. Rory and I went out to get some supplies for my design board for the schools Teachers Lounge. I'm presenting the design tomorrow to some members of the school board as well as the director. No pressure of course! We didn't have time to do much because Sydney needed to get to her boyfriends birthday celebration. They all met at Purple Cloud lake, not far from our house, where you can swim in the lake and goof around. They spent the whole day there! I worked on my board, Rory tidied up the garage and took a nap. I have to admit I started reading my book, but somewhere along the way I nodded off!

Although Rory is here this week, he's out at meetings and work dinners every night, and then on Sunday goes to Dallas for a week! Trying to keep track of everything going on in various time-zones is a nightmare! It really is a 24-hour job.

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

It's a rainy, rainy day today. It started drizzling yesterday afternoon and then last night the rain set in and it hasn't stopped. So, I figured today would be a good day to stay home. I've been busy getting chores done that I've been putting off for days, and in some cases weeks. Just silly little things that are annoying, or just plain time-consuming - like checking 400 email addresses for the Hopeful Hearts Yahoo account! Uuugh. It's done though!

I met with the school Director yesterday to present my design proposal. He was very happy with it and it looks like they'll go ahead with it. I met with the Construction Supervisor as well and he wants me to work on the new kitchen too. So, it's probably a good thing we're not travelling a lot this summer - I'll be working!

While I was at school they had their first fire drill since opening the new building. So, everyone congregated on the track, including the moms doing their exercise classes and the Grade 8 class who were swimming - poor things! I can't think of anything worse - having to stand in your swimmers in front of the whole school! Eeeeck! They didn't even have towels - just standing there dripping wet. Lucky it wasn't today - everyone would have been standing there dripping wet!

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Why? Why? Why? Why do I always say "Yes, sure I'll help" to everything….and then end up having to organize the whole thing! Next week is the school's production of Alice in Wonderland and I've managed to stay clear of that for the past few months. This weekend is "production camp" where the kids get to camp out at school and do a whole weekend of rehearsals, including the one-and-only full dress rehearsal. I was asked by the drama teacher if I could help with the make-up, since Maxine had designed the costumes, that they were looking for some parent volunteers. I said, "Yes, sure I'll help", thinking that someone would be heading it up and I'd be told what to do. Nooooooo! On Friday morning I was told that I would have a few student helpers, most of whom didn't know a thing about make-up, that they'd wanted to work on the stage set-up but there was too many, so they got delegated to "make-up"! I think she must have noticed my dazed look because she immediately started raveling off things she would email me to help me, lists of who appears first on stage, and whose make-up would need to be done first, etc, etc, etc. I received nothing. NOTHING! So yesterday I spent the afternoon searching for pictures of all the characters online, how to do stage make-up, how to make a duck look like a duck, without a beak (he's singing and they don't want a "beak" over his mouth)….that one I'm going to have to wing!
Rory leaves for Dallas in an hour. He's fairly frustrated about having to go. He's got a 15 minute presentation. Yes. They're sending him all the way to Dallas for a 15 minute presentation. I think he's looking forward to driving his truck and going to the lake and farm houses while he's there though. The people moved out of the farmhouse so he's going to see what condition it's in. There's another young couple who might be interested in renting it.

Last week I worked on the design of the teachers lounge, and since it's attached, I made some suggestions about the kitchen. We might have ended up with 3-sinks and a whole wall full of wine-bottle holders after looking at the existing plan they'd drawn up. I'm not sure what I should read into that! I met with the cabinet contractor on Friday morning who will make custom cabinets for us. Unfortunately, my Chinese vocabulary does not extend as far as kitchen cabinets, countertop, blind-corner cabinet, open-adjustable shelving, electric outlets, water supply, etc. etc! It was slow going, even with an interpreter. I now have to provide him with floor-plans and elevations. So, that's what I worked on Friday afternoon and yesterday. Luckily I've got CAD software on my computer otherwise I'd be drafting by hand!

Anyway, must be off now…got to get some breakfast before we go to the train station to drop Rory off and then to school…

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Oh my…it's Monday morning and I'm ready for another weekend already! Thank Heavens Wednesday is a holiday!

We went to school and worked on stage make-up for the dress rehearsal for 3 hours yesterday morning. I had Maxine and a few other girls helping and we managed to work through it all. Had some challenges along the way, but in all I think we'll be okay.

After we finished make-up, Maxine took me to eat Chinese dumplings across the road from the school. They were pretty good considering we didn't know what we were going to get since the menu didn't have pictures! From there we went downtown to do some shopping. We made a run by Starbucks for some much needed caffeine. We still had to go back to the school and pick up Sydney at 4pm. By the time I got home my feet were so sore after standing or walking the whole day. Sydney was exhausted and fell asleep straight away. Strangely though, I felt the need to clean out my closet! I got the rest of my winter clothes folded and set aside for our South Africa trip. And all my other things put in the right place. Wang Yi is quite short and I don't think she can reach the top rod in the wardrobes so everything gets squished onto the bottom rod. By the time I was done with that chore I was really pooped! But, it's done!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

It's a holiday today. Dragon Boat Festival. And I'm glad. So glad. I slept till 9am this morning. It was wonderful. I think the stress and work from the last week or so eventually caught up. I still went to Shihong's house for coffee at 9:30 and a while later Jeannette, who had worked on the costumes with Maxine for the play, arrived. She too had overslept, waking up thinking it was 6:30 when it was in fact 9:30!
It was quite an emotional evening. Not only was it a mix of relief and disappointment that it was over, but also we had to say goodbye to one of the very special families that are leaving today. Katie is Sydney's best friend and she sobbed for hours last night. The family, which consists of mom and dad and four girls, is just one of those families you just can't help but love. They're always full of smiles, so positive, helpful, and friendly. I think everyone is really going to miss them all a lot.

Michael and wang Yi have the day off today so I'm enjoying being able to relax and not listen to Wang Yi cleaning up around me! I always feel so guilty that I start working too and then she gets mad with me and tells me that it's her job!
Sydney is watching a movie with a friend, and Maxine is out with Ben. They both came home last night after I'd gone to bed. Maxine went next door to watch the soccer game that only started at 10:30. Sydney went to McDonalds to have a last hoorah with her friends. When she got home she went next door as well. I went to bed and left the front door unlocked for them! I knew they were home when I heard the doors banging and slamming, and someone stomping up the stairs! I figured that someone breaking in would be a whole lot quieter!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

It was my birthday lunch today! Its ten days early but everyone leaves around the 24th so we figured we'd better do it now. We went to my favorite restaurant, Ciao Italia, for some good Italian food - yummy! I even bought some take-outs home for supper tonight! I got some very nice gifts from my friends…some scented wooden balls for drawers, insense sticks, a little Japanese jewelry bag, bath fizz balls, and a handbag hanger. When we'd all paid and were ready to leave we called our drivers and they all texted back "20 minutes"! Turns out they were all on computer street buying Wii, X-boxes, etc.

The tailor comes again tonight. He had a bunch of stuff to make for me and the girls, and I have to pick up my neighbors and another friend's things so I'm going to be loaded down. Next week, when everyone has left, I'm going to give him some of Rory's work shirts to copy. I've bought the fabric already but he's so busy that I figured I'd just wait.

Rory's exam results came yesterday and he passed. He was very surprised when I told him so. Now he just has to decide whether its worth doing the other 3 sections, if he actually needs them for work or not. He worked really hard, getting up in the weee hours to study so i'm really happy for him. Apparently his brain is not as frazzled as he thought it was!

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

A boring, boring day...no driver…nothing exciting to do at home…

This morning I went with Shihong for an hour or so to buy some white plates before she leaves next week. She found a few things and I got some rectangular serving platters that I want to get stands made for.

The rest of the day was very long. Maxine, Ben and Laurence made a cake. Sydney took Buster for a walk, twice. Poor dog is exhausted. Maxine tried to take Frisco for a walk but he didn't get very far and his legs were shaking like crazy when we got back. I sorted out my fabrics for the tailor; washed some others that are now ready to give to him too.
I'm never sure of the quality here so I always prewash my fabric. I made some book marks too. Lets see, what else did I do? I made some supper - pasta with tomato basil sauce with pepperoni and artichokes. It was really good - even Sydney had 4 helpings!

Now Maxine and her crowd have gone to watch a movie and Syd and I are sitting here, so lonely….

It was just one of those frustrating days where you want to get out the house and do stuff, but can't. I think I'll go for a walk. If you don't hear from me again...I was attacked by mosquitos and carried off....

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Well done Sydney!

The last two days have been CRAZY! Actually, it started on Sunday. I went to find and price more things for the teachers lounge. Yesterday I spent the whole day, from 8am to 5pm, shopping, negotiating, bargaining, for the best prices. I managed to get a bunch done, and just as I got into the van to make my way home the contractor called and I had to go to the school. At that point I was over 30 minutes away. Uuugh. And, I still had to do grocery shopping. L

Yesterday I woke up to find the neighbors chickens in our veggie patch. Well, what was a veggie patch. The lettuces are shredded, the tomato plants crushed and the little tomato buds got hen pecked. There's still a few flowers left on the plants so we might get some worthwhile eating. Darned chickens. They'll be lucky if they survive through the weekend. The rooster's clock is off. He starts his cock-a-doodle-dooing about 4am. If it's not that, I hear them pecking away at the wood frame of their enclosure, trying to peck their way out. I see a juicy roast chicken in my future. Or at the very least, lunch for Buster!

Today was as hectic as yesterday, but I'm about 95% DONE! Plus, today was a good day - it was the first award ceremony this evening. The first of three! Sydney won the Computer Technology Award. I think she was totally shocked! She thought her teacher didn't like her. He would always stand behind her, just silently watching over her shoulder at what she was doing. I told her that he was obviously stunned by her extraordinary abilities and just couldn't tear himself away!

Rory is on his way home! Yippeee! It's been a long time. He was supposed to come home on Saturday but was asked to stay longer. His flight arrives at 2pm tomorrow, but he still has a 4-5 hour drive from Shanghai so he'll only get home in the evening.

Maxine has to take pancakes to school tomorrow. Yes, pancakes. Not muffins, or cookies, or cupcakes. Pancakes. So, seeing that she takes the whole morning to get ready, and is still usually putting some item of clothing on while she's walking out the door, it looks like it'll be me getting up at the crack of dawn to make them! 40 pancakes. I tried to con her into letting me make mini-pancakes but that didn't fly. And she wants chocolate chips in them too! I'm not sure I'll be ready for chocolate chips at 5:30am!

On that note, it's late and I'm going to bed.

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Rory's home! It's so nice to have him back. We'd almost forgotten what he looked like! After unpacking his suitcases and dishing out all the goodies he'd bought he just about collapsed on the sofa. Sydney had the DVD of her school play and was showing it to him on her computer and I could see he was really battling to keep his eyes open. I think the only thing that kept him awak was the houseful of teenagers we had too.

It's going to be so quiet from today. Everyone leaves to go on summer break, or to return home for good. For the last few weeks the conversation has been, "Where are you going?" "When are you leaving?" "How long are you going for?". It's actually quite interesting that we have people going all over the world - Russia, Ukraine, England, Germany, Holland, Greece, Australia, South Africa, USA, France, Bulgaria, South Korea, Malaysia...we shold get a World Map and put pins in it.

Rory brought me some card-making materials back so I've got those to start working on over summer. Can't wait to start using my stamps...

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

We've had quite an eventful week and weekend…

Yesterday we added a new member to our family - Toby. He's an adorable Golden Retriever puppy. He's actually Sydney's, for her birthday. We figured it would make sense to get him now so she has the whole summer to be with him and start potty training him. He's a ball of fluff and just the cutest thing ever. Buster and Frisco seem to be fine with him. Buster just doesn't like it when he tries to walk through his legs. We picked him from a litter of about 6 puppies. Sydney couldn't choose which one she wanted so we lined them all up and she called them, and he was the first to get to her!
He's already trying to much on table-legs, doors, shoes, rugs and anything he can get into his mouth! I'm sure we're going to have our work cut out for us, but it's not our furniture he's chewing on, so it makes it a little more bearable!
We went out to supper on Friday evening, to our favorite Indian restaurant, and told her then that she was getting a puppy. It was nice because it really was a complete surprise. I've never seen her so happy! She was crying tears of joy. Actually she was sobbing tears of joy!

Yesterday evening we celebrated Father Day since Rory wasn't here for the actual day last weekend. The girls gave him a remote control truck to "play" with on the wonderful roads we have here in Top Regent! We cooked delicious steaks on the barbeque. We'd bought an entire beef tenderloin, sliced it up, and wrapped each steak with bacon. Oh my, they were scrumptious!

Then, this morning, we celebrated my birthday! I got lots of goodies from the kids and Rory, and some very nice gifts from my friends, Sharrie and Christy, which Rory had brought back from Dallas last week. It was quite funny because I opened Sharrie's gift first and it was a darling little Cupcake Maxing Kit in a little case - very cute - with dozens and dozens of cupcake papers in all different colors and patterns as well as sprinkles. Then, I opened Rory's and he'd bought me cupcake stands! Neither knew what each other had bought - it was quite funny! Christy got me some lovely earrings, which Sydney has been eyeing already. And a bookmark, with a cupcake charm attached!!!
I also got a food processor - so I can grate cheese in style J. And, Rory bought me a crepe machine. (Can you tell I'm a kitchen gadget freak???) Well, since he was in Dallas all week, he asked Michael to hunt one down for him. Some things just don't translate well in China. Sometimes, bigger is not always better. But Michael hasn't figured that out yet. I got a huge one! It's a commercial size! We don't have an outlet in the house that fits its plug! I'll have to plug it in and use it on top of the tumble-dryer. I think that might be the only place it will go. Maxine and Sydney made cupcakes this morning and used the stand. So we had a cupcake celebration for lunch.

This evening we're going out for dinner to Ciao Italia - my choice! We should really try some different restaurants. But, I'm not willing to take a chance on my birthday!