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Sunday, March 7th, 2010

It snowed again yesterday...more expected sometime this week. Most of what fell yesterday seems to be melting away already. Rory and I were on the way to Metro to do some shopping when it started raining ice. By the time we were done shopping the snow was coming down steadily. Very pretty.

Well, I'm all caught up on my recipe book, got all the pages under control. Just waiting for the last drips and drabs to come in this week, and then it's off to the printers. I'm meeting with another printer tomorrow to get a quote. We got one last week but I don't think they're doing us any favors - it seemed pretty high.

Today I have to concentrate on the quilt. I've got a few more heart blocks to top-stitch, and then on to the border, and Chinese characters.

The snow lasted longer than the happiness.........this afternoon the worker showed up to fix the heating. I was told, via two translations, that they cannot move the thermostat hanging in my kitchen because the wire is only that long...uuuuh, then make it longer. Our upstairs heating seems to be fine until a cold spell hits and then it can't cope - right when you need it - I was told that all the houses heating systems do that....uuuuh, nooooo they don't. When I complained about the thermostat being so close to the oven, that they had to move it, I was told that the thermostat was not the part that checked the temperature - that part was somewhere in the pipe...uuuh, then what's the thermostat for, isn't that their main function? OMG! I called our agent who relayed this all to me again and I just lost it. I think my neighbor could have heard me shouting at the agent on the phone! The Chinese worker packed his bags and was out the door in a flash...probably never to be seen again....no loss there! So, once again, we're having to threaten the landlord, who tells us that he "treasures us as tenants".........riiiight. I told the agent that we would be moving into a hotel, at 2,000rmb a night, and that I wouldn't be paying rent either for the time we haven't had heat. We'll see how he reacts to that!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Our heat is fixed, hopefully that will be the last of it. We haven't needed it since it's been fixed because the weather's been so nice! Maxine actually wore shorts yesterday! Coats and hats on Monday…shorts on Friday!

I've been CRAZY busy doing the recipe book and the quilt. Of course, everyone leaves it till the last minute, so I've received about 50 recipes in the last two days! Because most of the people that are submitting recipes are foreigners and their first language is rarely English, I have to read over every one in detail. I have to make sure they've listed all the ingredients mentioned in the method, that the method makes sense and is easy to read for other non-English speakers. Then I have to look for pictures on the web if they've said something like 1 jar of cherry pie filling, to find out exactly how much filling should be included because we get different size cans than what we're used to, over here. Phew. Once I've checked the recipe I have to then re-type it, if necessary, then format it into the right text and page set-up. After I'm done with that, I have to copy all the recipes into word files to be sent to my Chinese friend to translate them into Chinese. When I get them back from her I have to insert them into the main file. If they're too long I have to create a second page for it, and then find a filler for the rest of the page. Phew!!! We're close on 200 recipes so it's going to be a fantastic book, but it's been really hard work. Monica has had to translate ALL of those recipes into Chinese too! Now THAT's hard work! This weekend is the deadline for recipe submissions, so after today it should just be proof-reading, numbering the pages and doing some final touches before getting it to the printer for a test run.

When I've needed a break from the recipe book, I've been sitting hand-sewing the quilt, trying to get that done in time. I'm finished with the "main" section, and now I'm working on the border. I abandoned the Chinese symbols. They didn't show up very well in black thread and looked cheesy in red thread. I did hearts instead - it fits with the "Hopeful Hearts" theme so I'm okay with that.

Yesterday Michael ran me up to the printer to drop off my design for the background for our EXPO display. When I got there I hadn't copied the PDF files onto the thumb drive, only the publisher ones, so they couldn't open it. Anyway, Michael emailed it too them later in the day. From there I went to Jinsheng market to find some large doilies for my trays. On Thursday and Friday I have to bake 350 milk tarts for the EXPO! I had to buy some cheap cafeteria trays to stack them on, so that's what the doilies are for! Luckily I don't have to make the pastry - you can buy frozen mini-pie crusts at Metro.
Rory and the kids have gone out the "computer street" this morning and might pick it up my vinyl display from the printers on the way. I hope it works okay because I don't have a plan-B!

So, that's why you haven't heard from me for a while. I literally haven't even thought about the web-site!

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Another day of hard work - but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! The recipe book is almost done. Just waiting for the last batch of translations to come in. Rory's been proof-reading for me. Not sure if that was a good idea or not - he's bookmarked a bunch of recipes for me to try!

I'm working on the border of the quilt now. I have 2 sides done, and I'm working on the third. I can't feel my fingertips anymore, and I have a huge hole - seriously - in one finger!

Every week some of the Hopeful Hearts ladies visit the children we have in the hospitals to see how they're recovering. This is what one of the ladies, Suzy, wrote in an email today....

Hi everyoneI just wanted to share what happened today at the hospital and how special it was - my first visit to see one of our children. We arrived just in time to see Wong Congquan being lifted by his doctor from intensive care to another bed. He was asleep - such a beautiful little boy. His parents didn't even notice us - they were so focused on their little son. Wong Congquan was settled into his new hospital bed and all the nurses started to set him up with all the drips etc. His mother was so anxious to feed him - she was carrying a bottle with milk and even though he was still sleeping, she just wanted to feed him - in Chinese hospitals, the parents are not allowed to see the child in the intensive care ward, so this would have been their first sight of him since the operation. I felt very priviliged to witness this. I watched the young father watching his wife feed their son - he had tears in his eyes. The little boy started drinking his milk in his sleep! Such a good sound! We went to leave - and the father fell to his knees to thank us. I guess HH has seen a lot of these lovely stories, but this was my first and it was amazing.

Her email brought tears to my eyes and I simply had to share it with you all. It's a reminder that all we do as volunteers really does make a difference...

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Michael found a guy who can machine embroider the Chinese symbol for "hope" onto my quilt, for 20 Rmb! He explained that it was for a charity and that he would probably get more work from us if he did a good job. Even though this is "China", when I dropped the piece of fabric off this morning I was still a bit nervous. We stopped outside a line of small shops, each no bigger than the back of a mini-van. We walked down this tiny corridor, up a few flights of treacherously steep stairs that were so dark you could barely see where you were going, then turned the corner, up two more stairs, then down three stairs, and around the corner we got to his "room". Basically it's where he lives. Just one room, with a bed, small fridge, table, clothes hanging on a string across the room, and HUGE computer screen - as big as our TV! He works at a factory where they do the embroidery. I'm not sure if he's "official" or doing this on the sly! He had all the thread catalogs…..I'm just glad I didn't have to hand over the whole quilt….I think he may have been sleeping on it tonight!

This morning I got all 400 pie crusts baked for my Milk Tarts for EXPO Day. Tomorrow we fill them….

The recipe book is almost complete. Monica is proof-reading the Chinese translations. We worked here yesterday from 8:30am to 7:30pm - non-stop. We even ate lunch (crackers and Tim-tams) in front of the computers! But, the end is near……..Monday it goes to the printer.

The flowers outside our front door are looking very bright and colorful - happy colors! Rory said they're too bright - they look fake!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Yippeee! Can cross one thing off my list - 400 pies made, and eaten! Every single pie was taken! Expo Day was really good. There were at least 24 countries represented by families from the school - I think we covered all continents. A lot were dressed in traditional outfits - wooden clogs and such. Although the three hours went relatively fast, my feet were killing me by four O'clock. We packed up, got home, rested for an hour, and then headed out to Finnegan's Wake, an Irish pub in downtown Nanjing. A new website, NanjingExpat.com, was holding its launch party with free-flow beer! A major attraction it seems! We met up with a bunch of other expats there so had a big long table. Thinking ahead, we went early to have supper before it became too packed and difficult to find a seat. We were the only ones in there! It didn't take long to fill up though - by the time we were done eating there were probably over a hundred people making the most of the beer offer. I think Rory put away about 5 pints, and the guy opposite him the same, as well as a couple of B52's all round. It was a good evening but boy, was I glad to see my bed when I got home!

This morning Rory left for Dallas, nursing a really bad headache! He took the train to Shanghai and will then connect through Chicago to Dallas. He comes back on Thursday morning. I've got a relatively quiet week ahead - just a meeting here on Wednesday, and then to turn in the recipe book for printing.

Baked potatoes for supper tonight - crumbled bacon, mushrooms, chili, onions and cheese to go on top. Hmmmm. Sydney made a lemon cake this afternoon - there might be some left for dessert!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Yesterday we took the recipe book file to the printer and he said it was the wrong size paper! Grrrrr! We'd even asked him, when we went to get our quote, if everything was the right size, etc. "Yes, yes, everything is good" was what we got. Well, we ended up coming home and reformatting each page and then emailing it back to him last night. I was so worried that it would push some recipes onto two pages and then everything would have to be re-numbered. Thank Heavens that didn't happen - that would have waaay too much work. And, he doesn't want to print us a copy to proof. He wants to run all 1500 copies at 264 pages each. I said NO WAY - this is coming from someone who can't speak a word of English, and would know a left hand page from a right hand page! Eeeeck! Last night I woke up at 3am having nightmares about the darned thing!

This morning I went to BuBuBu, the fabric "mall". I was looking for some fabrics so the tailor can make some summer separates for me. I think the most I paid for a meter of fabric was 35rmb, about $5. Of course, I still have to pay the tailor to make the top or skirt, but it's still a whole lot cheaper than buying it. I got enough to make 3 skirts, and about 6 tops in various styles. I got one lot of really soft and flowy t-shirt fabric to make a top. I'm going to see how well he sews it before I get more. I'd printed out pictures to take with me so I could ask them how much fabric to get and most of them told me what the tailor had said anyway. Before I left I visited the button and trim store. Oh my! That's one thing they aren't too good at here - you might end up with a very strange zipper or button color on your outfit, simply because they couldn't find the right color. I'm talking bright turquoise zipper on a light green dress! So, I bought all the buttons, trim, etc. that he would need to finish off the items too. So, all fingers and toes crossed, I think we'll be okay!

It's our Hopeful Hearts Auction Extravaganza on Tuesday. So far we've sold about 80% of the tickets, but most people seem to leave it till the last minute so I'm pretty sure we'll sell almost all of them by Tuesday. We've got some amazing items that have been donated - lots of original artwork, Chinese and Tibetan styled cabinets, jewelry, hampers……I'm really hoping we make some decent money. We found out just this morning that there are two new-born babies in need of operations. We actually can afford to pay for them - we're about 40,000rmb short, but we're going to give them the go ahead and we'll raise the funds somehow. They'll both die if we don't.

Monday, March 29, 2010

What a wonderful weekend! The weather was perfect…sunshine, no wind, just a little chill in the air in the mornings and evenings…..

Friday night Sydney had a sleepover at her friend's house with a bunch of girls and they went to the school dance as well. It came out yesterday that Sydney has a boyfriend. We were joking with her that she's working her way around Europe. Her first boyfriend was Dutch, now this one is German!

On Saturday night Sydney's friend Katie stayed over at our house. I didn't see them the whole time they were here so who's telling what mischief they got up to!

Saturday evening, Maxine and her friends, and Sydney and Katie went to the new movie theaters near the school to watch Alice in Wonderland, in 3D! They only show the English version once a day or something like that. But, it's better than what we had before, plus, it's much closer than having to go downtown.

Sunday morning, Maxine had to go in to school to work on a film project so Rory and I went to Golden Bridges to get some bits and pieces. I needed a cash box for the luncheon tomorrow - beats the cookie tin that was previously used! Then in the afternoon the girls and I went to BuBuBu to get some more fabric for the tailor. They'd printed off some pictures from websites of items that they like and we managed to find very similar fabric for a lot of the things. The poor tailor isn't going to know what's hit him when he arrives at our house on Tuesday evening!

I haven't seen the recipe books yet…I pick them up this afternoon…..in the meantime I've been waking up with nightmares and eating just about everything in sight! I'm a nervous wreck! I know it's going to be better than just photocopied and stapled bunchs of paper, which is what I think most people are expecting, but I'm such a stickler for getting things just right.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

They look awesome! I picked up 230 copies of the recipe book yesterday. Although they used thinner paper than they said they would (the Chinese way of making money) it still looks wonderful. No glaring problems....so we'll see how it sells today. It better sell really well because the 230 copies take up 6 boxes. We printed 1500 copies - so I'll have 40 boxes! We'll be sitting on them in the living room 'cause I've got nowhere else to put them all! Today is the day my quilt will be auctioned - hopefully there's some flush-feeling people that want to share their money out there today!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

We had an amazing day with the luncheon…all-in-all we made over 105 000rmb - enough to pay for numerous heart operations! We sold almost 100 recipe books. My quilt went for about 2,900rmb - about $400. I was sad to see it go, but my neighbor bought it so I can visit it occasionally! My friend, Becky, won my offer for four homemade desserts. She's leaving in June so she's planning on having all her friends over for coffee and cake (my cake!) Yikes!! I'd better do a good job!

When I got my ticket it was my lucky number, 22! I commented to Jeannette that I'd better win something! Well, during the lucky draw they pulled my number first, and guess what I won - my recipe book! It was so funny! I gave it to Michael, our driver. He asked Rory on the way home if all the recipes needed "this cooking thing"…..referring to an oven! They don't have one - in fact most Chinese people don't have ovens.

The day still wasn't finished….I had to rush Sydney off to the dentist after school to get her braces fixed. We were there on Monday afternoon for adjustments, but it seems that whenever the one specialist works on them, the next day there's a problem. So, after school we went back again. I wouldn't mind half as much if it weren't for the 30-minute drive each way - uugh!

Then, in the evening, the tailor came over to hand out all the stuff that he'd made and altered for the neighborhood ladies. He'd done an excellent job! And, he was sooo excited when he saw all the new work he was getting from us! Bag-loads of stuff! He'd shortened 5 pairs of jeans for me, and put straps on a top for Sydney. It all cost only 40rmb - that's only $6! No wonder he was besides himself when he saw what we had for him this week! I'll have as much next week too - I didn't give him everything since I had numerous copies of one top that I wanted making. I figured it would be best to let him do one first and then to see how it fits, before giving him all of them. He's working on making some capri's, a couple of skirts, and some tops for me. Then, for Max and Syd some dresses and tops and a pair of shorts. Angela, one of my neighbors had a really nice lined cashmere coat that was a little too tight around the bust. He managed somehow to let some seams out so that it fit perfectly. You couldn't see where he'd done it - it was amazing!

By 9:30 I was totally pooped and headed up to bed. Today was a good day for a lot of people - especially some very fortunate little ones.