Household supplies

This year we didn't take the kids with us to the Foreign Staff Bo Bing Night. We had a pleasant enough dinner - here is a photo of what the tables looked like before they changed for Bo Bing.It is one of the habits that I find hard to stomach that Chinese deposit bones, rubbish and anything that is inedible (which isn't much) on the table - and sometimes onto the floor. I'm definitely of the school of "leave it on the side/edge of your plate" and am trying, seemingly in vain, to teach Alex this too. Then we got down to business. This seems to be the event where you get your household supplies for the year - or at least, we seem to.

Typical prizes include boxes of tissues, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper, clothes washing soap, hand soap, washing detergent, shampoo and conditioner, blankets, cooking oil and hand towels. Alex managed to win a gallon of cooking oil and was mightily unimpressed to learn it wasn't apple juice. I won another blanket (Alex won one last year) and enough "stuff" to ensure we aren't buying household cleaning products for at least six months. Shh - don't tell Brett, but I ended up giving away the ginormous bag of rice, the gallon of cooking oil, a couple of packs of toothbrushes and the laundry soap (used usually for handwashing). We just weren't going to use it.

Potty Training

So it seems that Sebastien has decided that the potty is more than just a cute little seat in the bathroom. Sometimes we even make it more interesting for him by moving his "seat" to the balcony so he can watch the cars go by. First step on the process to get him potty trained and off to school. Don't hold your breath!

I'm Chinese

Have we really been here more than a year already? Perhaps no further proof was needed than listening to a Chinese lady quiz Alex on the bus about herself and hear Alex reply to "Where are you from?" with "I'm Chinese."

I did a double take and then corrected her (in Chinese) saying that she was from Australia, she was Australian. The lady almost didn't hear me she was laughing so hard. I guess she had figured Alex definitely wasn't Chinese! I'm thinking that this is something that she's heard in the playground/at school and has therefore taken it for herself. Afterall, she wouldn't be hearing anyone saying that they were anything other than Chinese there.

Alex and I had a nice little conversation then about where she (and Sebastien) were from - with her insisting that she was MADE in Australia but BORN in America - and wasn't she "lucky to have two worlds". Out of the mouths of babes!

Stunned

It has been busy around here - and this is so clear when I look at the blog and see it's been four months since my last post! Wow. I'm stunned and not quite sure where to begin as it has just been so long (and so busy) in between. But I intend to catch up again in the coming couple of weeks before I take on another editing job.

So bear with me - and I really suggest that you sign up to receive a notification when I post a new post.
So much easier for you.

With much love.