Flush Nothing Down Paper Toilet

Anthony is back from Beijing – he had a great trip and I am just glad he’s back. It’s no fun when he’s gone. The girls were very difficult to handle this time around, often making me think that I’m just not cut out to be a mom. I know that’s not the truth, I think it’s just that I’m not cut out to be a SINGLE mom, kudos to all those single moms out there, I don’t know how you do it! I find that I have very little patience when Anthony is not around and I haven’t figured out why yet. Anthony pointed out that maybe I spend too much time cleaning up and picking up and doing things around the house and not enough time paying attention to the kids. Probably true in a way, but so hard to find that happy medium. When Anthony used to travel back home, the girls and I would get into a routine and it was fine, it was actually quite enjoyable sometimes, just me and the girls, but here, it’s a completely different story.

One fun day was Saturday, I took the kids to BBSmart where some of our friends were playing – so they got some exercise running around and got to play with some of their friends. Then in the afternoon, I took Ashley to see “Robots” with some friends while Beth’s helper watched Liz (who didn’t seem to care that I was gone!). Ashley loved the movie and it was so nice doing something with her all alone, without Liz or Anthony. We had dinner afterwards with Beth, Ingu and Claire, but that was trying since it was late and Ashley didn’t want to eat anything I had ordered. Other than that, it was nice.

Anthony’s birthday was yesterday. I made him a cake – Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix with homemade chocolate frosting. First time to bake a cake in a convection oven, using Chinese instructions (they covered up the English instructions with a Chinese sticker and I couldn’t get it off), it turned out GREAT! It was so yummy!!! The cakes they make here are just not sweet enough and the frosting they use is pretty nasty, usually whip cream based and more dairy than sugar. Probably healthier for you but not as tasty! Anthony was very happy with it and so was I. We all went out to dinner at Amaroni’s – an Italian restaurant. Although it was good, I think he would have preferred dinner with just the two of us, the kids are a bit difficult to handle in restaurants now. Liz is at an age where she absolutely refuses to sit still any longer than it takes to consume her food. Before the food comes and once she’s done, she just wants to run around or sit in our laps making it hard for us to eat.

I got a parking ticket this morning – ugh. Parked in normal spot in front of Ashley’s school to drop her off – they don’t have any designated parking and all the open spots near the school are red lined, meaning no parking, but really no choice, plus it was raining. Police came by and ticketed me for parking illegally. Supposedly they’ll mail the ticket to whoever owns the car (the leasing company) so everyone at Anthony’s work will know that we got another ticket. Nice, huh? Guess I’ll have to be more careful in the future.

All New Products is a Sleekly Elegant Bath

I thought I’d start giving titles to my blog that reflect the everyday things I see here that cause me to go “WHY?”. Word for word, store signs, directions, T’shirts, anything I see that I think is strange. Enjoy…

I had a great time in Hong Kong. It was fun to be away, to meet some new people, to hang out with women and not have kids in tow. I did quite a bit of shopping, mainly for myself, which I don’t do very often. The first day there, we went to a market called “Stanley”, which I bought a lot in. I got the girls some clothes, since this market has Gap and Gymboree outlet places. I got Ashley a few dresses (which I didn’t notice until I got home, were all mainly white – UGH!), Liz an out fit and some onesies and myself some really nice linen pants and tops. I’ve always wanted linen stuff, but never really been able to find stuff that fits and that I like, but I found it there! The next day, we did shopping at a mall there and I got some really gorgeous shoes (with heels!) at Nine West. It took me about an hour – they didn’t have much in my size – me and my big ole feet. I was determined to get some shoes though, so I tried on whatever they had in my size. I also got some stuff at a store called “Marks & Spencer”. It’s a European store, with UK sizes. We did quite a bit of eating and I ate lots of different cuisine – Cantonese, Vietnamese, English High Tea and others. The whole group of women I went with are all of Asian decent, so I was the only “White” girl and ended up trying lots of different foods that I wouldn’t have otherwise. There were also quite a few "high end" shoppers in our group - Louis Vutton, Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc. It was very interesting.

Parts of Hong Kong were beautiful. My impression when flying in was that it was a beautiful place – little islands everywhere. I saw one island that just had a resort on it, that’s it – it looked absolutely gorgeous. We stayed on Hong Kong Island, at the Grand Hyatt. It’s in the WanChai District. I didn’t know anything about Hong Kong before going there, so was a bit surprised at how mountainy it is. The city is built into a mountain, so lots of hills and curves – not a place for stollers or children. We went up to the Peak and rode a trolley back down the mountain – that was pretty cool. We also took a ferry from Central Hong Kong over to the Kowloon side and had a drink at a trendy club called Aqua on the 30th floor of a building. It overlooked the harbour and Hong Kong and around 8pm, a laser light show started on the other side, from many different buildings. That was pretty cool. I tried to get pics, but it was so dark, you couldn’t really see. I had no idea that Hong Kong used to be British – so the city is VERY international! It was very refreshing to have Asians speak English, have English and Chinese signs and menus and to see a large number of “white” people – Europeans. I would catch myself staring at them – how strange is that? But it’s such a rarity here in Taiwan that I was just amazed at the sheer numbers there. The drawback to that is that people aren’t so friendly there. They pretty much keep to themselves, unlike here in Taiwan.

I had a great time, but was ready to come home by Sunday. I gained 5 lbs from eating over there! I thought I walked enough, but I guess not. Anthony and the girls picked me up from the airport and I’ve never been greeted so wonderfully before! Lots of yelling and running towards me. It was great! They had a great time while I was gone and Anthony did a great job taking care of them, but they still missed me.

I’ve had a few people ask how to access our picture website – here’s the link. http://community.webshots.com/user/akaearmstrong

Caught on Camera

Apparently, about a month ago, one of us ran a red light on the way to or from Anthony's work and got caught on camera. A ticket was issued and sent to the leasing company that the car is registered to. They then sent it to Anthony at work and he had someone show it to him saying we owed the leasing company the money since they paid the ticket. UGH. Anthony swears he told me that they had cameras on the roads and sent tickets out to people who were speeding or ran lights, but I don't remember that! It took about 3 weeks for the ticket to arrive, so I'm wondering how many more there are coming - hopefully not many! Now I know why taxis will slow down at some intersections and stop at some lights and not at others. My friend, Angie, pointed the cameras out to me the other day - they are on poles with bright black and orange tape on them, not too hard to miss, if you are looking! I also remember riding in a taxi once a LONG time ago, where it had a picture of a camera that light up in the rearview mirror every so often. I wondered what that meant, now I know. Guess there are some cabbies out there who like advance warning when a police camera is around.

I'm all packed and ready to go to Hong Kong. I stayed extra this morning at Ashley's school to spend some more time with her, she knows I'm leaving and is fine with it, probably becuase I told her I was going to buy her some dresses. She was so cute this morning, makes it hard to leave her. Liz has been a bit clingy lately, last night I had to rock to her sleep again. When I take her to put her to bed, she makes this sound - rgh - which means ROCK - and looks up at me with these big blue eyes, pleading. I always give in because it's just too cute. I hope she does ok while I'm gone.

Busy, Busy, Busy

It’s been a while since I’ve written in our blog. We’ve been so busy doing stuff. Liz is better, thank goodness! When I took her back the following Monday, the doctor said it was all clear. She’s doing fine now and Ashley didn’t end up getting sick, so that was a blessing. I still have a slight cough – is getting better every week. I also am all stuffed up, that’s been going on for a while now, couple of weeks, so I’m starting to think I may have some sort of allergy going on right now. Who knows though?!

We had a wonderful time in Hualien, Taiwan. Last Thursday morning, we caught an early morning train to Hualien (got up at 5am!!!). We went with another couple and their 2 kids (both around the same age as our kids). They had the whole trip arranged, which was very nice in that we didn’t have to make any travel arrangements or try and figure out what to do or where to go or how to get there. We arrived in Hualien and had a van driver take us to Taroko Gorge, which is an ABSOLUTELY beautiful place to visit. If you are ever in Taiwan, this should definitely be one of your stops. It’s a mountainous region, with marble rock all over the place. There are gorgeous colors of marble – green, white, black, gray, blue, pink – it really is neat. There are waterfalls and caves and spring ponds and hiking trails and roads cut through the mountain. We stopped at one place, I believe an Aboriginal Park, where they have cabins set up in the mountains that you can stay at, that would be pretty incredible. After having our fill of walking, hiking and playing in the rocks and water, we headed back to the Hualien to check into our hotel, the Bellavista, a very nice hotel, with beautiful grounds and nice restaurants. On Friday, we headed over to Ocean Park, which is a mini Sea World. They have a dolphin show, a sea lion show, a mermaid show, kiddie rides, a ferris wheel, lots of little shops and food. We saw it all, stayed all day. The highlight of the day for the adults (Anthony and I) was swimming with the dolphins. For ½ an hour, we were in a tank with three dolphins. We had put on wetsuits and been shown a dolphin whom we fed and touched and got to know first. Then we got in the tank and the trainer showed us how to grab on to the dolphins fin and swim with her – it was amazing! I’ve always wanted to swim with a dolphin, so this experience was just incredible. I rubbed her belly and fins and head, fed her fish, had her follow me around the pool and let her pull me around and around. The park took some digital pictures they are supposed to send us by email, but we are still waiting. I hope we get them soon so I can post them.

That night, we had a hotel babysitter come watch the girls and we went out to dinner with the other couple. Liz screamed and screamed when we left – saying mama over and over again. It was heartbreaking and I stood outside the room listening for a long time. Now that she’s getting older, she’s becoming quite attached to me and doesn’t like it when I leave. She did eventually calm down, thank goodness. We had Japanese food, which was interesting – lots of sushi and tempura food. Then went to sit in one of the hotel bars, where a band was playing. Not a very good band, that’s for sure, and the drinks were awful. Don’t know if it was a bad night or if that’s a regular occurrence there. You’d think for a 5 star hotel, they’d have a 5 star bartender and band, but guess not.

Next morning, we headed out to a “farm” near Hualien. We can find no English name for the place, so I can’t tell you what the name is. They have a bird area with tons of bird cages and different birds from all over – peacocks, toucans, ducks, flamingos, etc. They also have camels, rabbits, ostriches, deer, horses and the main attraction – COWS. It’s a dairy farm, so they have lots of cows. There are certain times that you can feed the baby cows, but we never got a chance to. They also have many different flower gardens, ponds, butterfly gardens, playground and small water park. We rented a golf cart to drive through the park, it would have been too much to go by foot. Everyone had fun running around and we are glad we went there. That evening was the train ride back. Ashley fell asleep and Liz was pretty cranky. It’s a 3 hour ride and of course, Liz feel asleep 10 minutes before we arrived at our destination!

On Sunday, we went to the Taipei Flower Market near DaAn park. We picked up some rose plants and a big plant for our balcony. I have no idea what the plant is, I need to do some research, but it smells absolutely wonderful. It has little white and purple flowers that almost smell like lilac, but they are small flowers, not the large bunches like lilac. It’s nice to have some plants though. Ashley also picked up three tiny plants to take care of.

Yesterday, Angie and I went to the Neihu Flower Market and she got a whole bunch of indoor plants and some outdoor ones. I picked up one large indoor plant and some fresh flowers. Supposedly this market is the one where all the shops get there flowers and plants, so they are all pretty fresh and nicely priced. I got some roses, tulips and daffodils. A very nice bouquet. Angie has our big plant, the pot is too heavy to move (it was delivered to her place), so it may be a while before one of the guys can take care of it.

Before we left on our trip, we visited a fairly new store at the Far Eastern Hotel, called Super City. It has 2 sections, a home store and a grocery store. They have lots of imported food items, similar to Jason’s supermarket, so that is very nice. I picked up a few baking items since I haven’t really made anything here. I ended up making some blueberry muffins from scratch, which were ok, a little dry, so I’ll have to work on that.

They’ve started recycling in our building now. They sent us a sheet – all in Chinese, of course. So we had to have it translated. Apparently, they are sorting the garbage into compost, what pigs will eat, recyclable and regular trash. Interesting, now. So we have three different garbage bins, plus the recycling. I’m glad they are doing it, but it will take some getting used to, especially trying to figure out the difference between compost and what pigs will eat.

I leave for my trip to Hong Kong tomorrow. I am very excited and a bit nervous. Three nights without the girls. I’m sure they’ll be fine, they always are as long as Anthony is around. I will miss them, but I will also have fun doing lots of shopping and eating. I’ve heard it’s a shoppers paradise, so I’m getting ready! After I get back, then the next week, Anthony leaves for Beijing for five days, so that ought to be interesting.