Home of the Carrick Family Website
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
OMG - it's November! We'll have been here 6 months on the 5th November. If I think about it on the whole it doesn't feel like we've been here six months, BUT, when I think about it day-to-day it feels like an eternity and we've still got an eternity to go!
Last night both kids spent the evening with friends, so Rory and I got to stay home and watch a movie - and it wasn't a spooky one either!
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
I'm soooo tired of election coverage! It's on every station, 24 hours a day and it's killing me!! I've been battling migraine headaches for the last couple of days and I've been pretty much housebound. When I have turned on the telly it's been elections or re-runs of election coverage - bleeugh! Tomorrow I'm going to try and haul my butt off to a coffee morning on Orchard Road with the AWA ladies. Perhaps a strong coffee will help!
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
It's raining again.........................I suppose I'd better get used to it! It rains pretty much every day now, and rainy season hasn't arrived yet according to the locals. We usually have a couple of hours of rain in the morning, and then again in the afternoon from around 2:30 to 3:30, and then again during the night around 3-4am. Although it's a hassle to get anywhere when it's raining, it's a pleasure to have some change in the weather!
Today I ditched scrapbooking group and went to beading instead. Malu, the Indian lady in our group made some delicious Indian dishes for lunch. We also tried to make Christmas ornaments out of straws but ours turned out looking nothing like hers. Next week wer're making beaded angel ornaments, and I'm hosting!
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
On Thursday one of my Beading Buddies friends told me about a JC Crew sale going on at Shaw Center. She's also larger in size and battles to find clothes here. So, yesterday I decided to go and see what I could find. I scored BIG TIME!!! It was just boxes of stuff in a huge office space. So, I rummaged through it all and found a bunch of great stuff - 4 pairs capris, 6 skirts, a white t-shirt all for $53 !!! They open up new box-loads all the time so I might have to take another visit in a week or so! Yippeeee for me!!!
Rory has been driving himself nuts trying to organize the trip, with his mom, to Korea! They're going for about 5 days and want to pack a lot into the time so it's been a juggle trying to fit in sight-seeing, train-trips, hotels, and getting back in time for their flight!
Rory is off to China for a few days on Tuesday, back on Friday. He's going to Nanjing which is about a 2½-hour south of Beijing.
Sydney had a sleepover at a friends house last night, and at another friends house tonight! It's becoming a challenge keeping up with both their social schedules!!! Maxine spent the day shopping on Orchard with her friends and came back after suppertime so Rory and I went to the local hawker stand for some Indian marsala and lamb curry - yummy!!!
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
Last night we had the most incredible storm! I could not believe so much rain could fall for such a long time - from 2:30am till 6am. A torrential downpour, along with lightening and thunder so loud it felt like we were in the clouds! The windows shook it was so loud! Of course, Firsco was besides himself - Rory did the first half of the dog-sitting duty downstairs on the sofa, while I came down around 5am. Even Buster scratched at the door, with his tail tucked between his legs, his ears laying flat and huge pleading eyes, to be let inside!
Monday, November 17, 2008
It's been quite an eventful couple of days! Rory was in Nanjing, China last week. He didn't get to do much sight-seeing but he enjoyed the cold weather. We went out on Saturday night to a restaurant around the corner from our house - Brazil Churrascaria. The kids were sleeping over at friends houses so Rory and I had a nice evening to ourselves. We enjoyed a never-ending supply of different cuts of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, ribs, etc.
This morning Rory woke up with chest pains and by the time I got back from applying for our China visas, around 10:30, he still wasn't well. We called the doctor and she saw him immediately for an EKG, and then sent him off to the hospital for an enzyme test, another EKG and then a consultation with a cardiologist for a stress test. Turns out everything is okay. He still has the chest pains though, but his heart is good! While we were waiting for his enzyme test results, my friend Andrea, her husband and baby Zoie walked in. Andrea had woken up this morning unable to walk! Apparently she contracted a mosquito-borne illness. Last year there were only two cases in Singapore, this year there are well over a hundred already! Baby Zoie managed to bring a smile to all of our faces though!
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Rory went for more tests today, after visiting the Gastroenterologist yesterday. We have to wait till Monday for any results.
Yesterday I went on an Antique Tour, with the AWA. Turned out to be a lot of "self-promoting" by a lady who owns a shop and warehouse of antiques and Asian furniture. It was supposed to be about being able to differentiate between fake and real antiques, as well as some history on Asian furniture. I think I can count on one hand the fact we learned. The rest was a big sales pitch, so I was a bit disappointed. One of the ladies that came to my scrap-booking group today, which I hosted, also felt the same way, so I wasn't alone in my thoughts!
Scrap-booking was a lot of fun - I had 8 ladies show up, which was a houseful, seeing that each of us needs quite a bit of space to spread out all our albums, papers and photo's. We talked about doing a scrap retreat next year sometime, perhaps in Malaysia.
Wednesday, November 26th
Rory got his results back. It seems he has a 6cm cyst on his kidney, which can be treated. He'll have to go for further testing for that when he gets back from Korea. He also has two larger ulcers, so bad that the doctor couldn't believe he wasn't double over in pain and lying in a hospital bed. Well, he almost was over the weekend - I think they disturbed the ulcer when they did the test because Rory was doubled over in pain after all the tests! I was very close to hauling him off to the emergency room. The medication the doctor put him on seems to be helping a lot though.
Rory's mom arrived on Monday evening after a long flight via Dubai. Rory took the day off work and we all went for a short wander around Chinatown yesterday. We stopped at a Thai place for a drink and a nibble - we had some Lime Juice, which is very popular here, and very refreshing albeit very sour! We also tried some desserts from the Chinese hawker stall - Pandan something???, sweet potato something, and sago cake. It all looked very questionable but actually tasted pretty good. While we were ordering a couple from the States wandered by and took a look at thwta we were getting. They asked us what it was like and still, after we told them we hadn't a clue, they ordered some too and sat at the adjacent table. They mentioned that they had visited South Africa last year, and that they were actually on vacation, from New Jersey. We enjoyed our stop and then moved on to wander through some stalls making our way back to the car before it got too hot.
One of my "beading buddy" friends is moving back to Houston and was trying to find homes for all her orchids so I jumped on the offer! I'm now the proud owner of 8 orchid plants, and 2 bougainvillias. Let's see how long I can keep them alive! She also gave me lots of planters so Rory's going to use them for his tomato plants. She also had tomatoes in them and they did very well.
It's 11pm and I'm wide awake....sitting in the study watching the lightening in the distance, the kids are in bed, and I'm listening to Hammie running in his wheel and Buster snoring! Exciting life! Nothing on TV - except politics, and Law & Order re-runs! Snoozefest! I've been reading the Tom Cruise biography and it's actually quite interesting! It's actually got more information about all the various films he's acted in and produced than information purely about him. There's the occassional juicy tidbit of course!
Rory and his mom (Bridget) left for Korea this morning. They'll be gone till Monday evening. They've got quite a full itinerary planned, including a trip on the high-speed train - 300 miles per hour! Rory's blackberry doesn't work there so he's got my cellphone and I'm having to relay all his voicemails, text messages and emails to him! Bleuuugh! We're down to one cellphone - I washed Sydney's phone the other day - it was in her jeans pocket and I didn't see it - big mistake - S$400 worth!!! Maxine's has also given up the ghost - the touch screen stopped working. Rory took it to the store and they opened it up and "announced" that it had been dropped in water (apparently there's a little dot that turns red when it's been wet) and that the warranty was no longer valid! She did drop in in the water - 6 months ago but it dried out fine and has been working great until now, but they weren't interested. So we have to pay for that to be repaired too. You would think Maxine had had her right arm chopped off! Totally distraught about not being able to be in immediate contact with any of her friends! Such a blow to her social life! Sydney wants an i-phone but that's not happening! They way she's begining to carry on about it, I'm begining to think that she "planted" the phone in the jeans pocket!!! Hmmmm!!!!
I've been beading like crazy, making Christmas gifts. I keep on sticking my thumb with the needle and it's getting really sore so I'm giving it a break tomorrow. The needle is really, really thin so it tends to stick really, really easy! Still, I managed to get about 6 bracelets made today!
Well, that's all folks! It's starting to lighten and thunder and I'm starting to yawn so I'm going to unplug the computers and run off to bed, quickly!
Saturday, November 29th
Thanksgiving came and went without any turkey or cranberry sauce.....
Rory was in Korea with his mom, the kids were at school all week, and Sydney had a soccer tournament on Thursday afternoon so we just seemed to gloss over the whole holiday! I did have a turkey, brie and cranberry sauce toasted sandwich for lunch yesterday, purely by chance!
I'm just about done with all my beading - it's been quite a marathon session! I found a new beading store yesterday - it's not new, but new to me!!! Lots and lots of awesome beads and findings. A little bit mroe expensive than Chinatown but I don't have to pay the $30 taxi fare so that more than makes up the difference!
Sydney went to a friends house last night to sleep over and watch movies, she's just got home now, at 10:30am and then at 1:30 she off to another friends house to go Christmas shopping, watch a movie and sleepover! Maxine is catching the bus and meeting friends at the movies ans also going Christmas shopping this afternoon. Phew! It's hard work keeping up with my kids social lives!!! I on the other hand will be relaxing with a book on the sofa, in front of the fan, or perhaps outside if it's not too icky. I'm definitely not going to be fighting the crowds shopping on a weekend! The checkout line at the bookstore last weekend must have been at least 50 people deep!
I've been emailing back and forth with a few of the women living in Nanjing. It looks like I'm going to be a really skinny, ultra-fit gym bunny by the time I get back to Coppell. The one lady, another Andrea, does 2 hours of tennis on Mondays, 2 hours of gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The rest of her time is taken up with massages, facials, mani's & pedi's and hair-styling! Apparently, shopping is a day-long expedition because of traffic and distance. But they all seem to go together so it becomes somewhat of an outing.
There's also the International Club, which seems to keep them very busy too......
Friday, November 28th, 2008
Well, friends and family, we're on the move again! Rory received a well-deserved promotion to Director of Finance for Asia. The only issue is that's it's based in China - so we're off to Nanjing China for two years, next summer. The original plan was to be in Singapore for two years, but that will be cut down to one year, with two years in China added……so our hiatus has been extended by a year.
We've got a 5-day trip planned in December to go and check out everything, not that we can really turn it down at this stage!
I've emailed back and forth with one of the other "Celanese wives" who have been living in Nanjing for a couple of years and they love it there - wish they didn't have to leave, so I'm quite hopeful!
The expat "neighborhood" is a gated community with about 80-100 houses. Looking at pictures of the houses you would never guess they were in China! The development has a lake in the middle with the houses surrounding it, as well as a larger reservoir that backs up to some of the houses. We're not sure if there's a boat ramp on it, but looking on Google Earth, there might be. Rory drove through while he was there last week and said it's very hilly with lots of trees. As part of the "package" we also get a designated driver since we won't be driving in China! That will take some getting used to. But, considering that we use taxi's a lot here, I think we've sort of made a bit of a transition in that direction. We also get a maid who will work 9 to 5, five days a week. Rory is very happy that his shirts will actually be ironed!!!
Although many of the houses don't have pools, the community has an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts and a club house. Since it's a proper "expat community" we're very hopeful that it will be more conducive to the kids making neighborhood friends - something we miss terribly here.
Most of the "wives" seem to keep themselves very busy with gym, coffee mornings, tours, school-volunteer work, kids activities, and volunteering at the local orphanage - something I'm really hoping I can do. There is a Nanjing International Club, which I will join. They do tours, trips and activities.
As far as grocery stores, etc. goes, there's an IKEA, a Wal-mart, Starbucks, and the usual fast-food outlets like McDonalds, KFC….
Challenges are pretty much the same as Singapore - small clothes, small shoes, no good deodorant! There's a good doctors and dentist center, with Western doctors. They did suggest we take a good supply of medications and over-the-counter medicines simply because China has a restricted list of what they have available.
The Nanjing International School is apparently a magnificent facility, with good teachers, and they do the IB program. We'll be visiting there on our trip in December. Meanwhile, I've been filling out about 100 pages of admissions forms......
Maxine would gladly live in Singapore for the rest of her life - she loves it here! Sydney can't wait to leave! Maxine's biggest concern is that she won't learn to drive until she gets back to Texas when she'll be going into 11th grade! Sydney just wants a swing in the backyard!
Our biggest challenge is figuring out what furniture we'll need to haul from Dallas, what we'll need to take from Singapore, and what we'll need to rent when we get there. Apparently "USA" style matresses can run around US$5,000 so we'll be taking ours!
Plenty to figure out and to plan so I'm sure our time here in Singapore will seem so much shorter as well!
