Updates

Ok we have been very slack.
We have not posted anything to this blog for over a month.
I'll summarize breifly what we've been up to and will post some photos soon.

20th Nov My old Boss from Adelaide (Larry) came to town. He is now global Technology Director for Woodbridge. The kids, Fiona and I enjoyed seeing him and his wife (Joanne) again and catching up on some old and some new times. Fiona showed Joanne the sights and sounds of the city. They went market shopping and had a massage (two of the most important things to do here).

24th Nov traveled to Beijing for the weekend. Met up with Nicole and Mark (Fiona's sister and partner). Went to The Great Wall and did lots of shopping.Visited Tian'anmen Square and the grounds of the Forbidden City. Beijing has so much to see. The kids loved it. There was even a starbucks and a Subway.

8th Dec went to Howard Johnson hotel to see the kids christmas celebration performance from their school. They thoroghly enjoyed themselves. Fiona and I went and caught up with some friends afterwards and sent the kids home with their Auntie.

9th Dec we went to a toursit spot in Wuhan where we could walk around some gardens and had a great time. There is a pagoda there where there was a traditional music performance including the ancient bells (the bells that give two distinct tones if struck in different spots). We went on a sled down the mountain there where Nicole managed to run over her thumb after making a large mistake of giving Sheridan control of a fast moving vehicle. I guess she will think twice about that one.

15th Dec Travelled to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. This is something to see if you are ever in China. Amazing how they constructed these little guys. One word of advice - wait until after you see the warriors before purchasing a replica. When we were leaving people were selling little box of 6 figures for 2Yuan where previously they were trying to sell them for 20yuan. The restoration of the warriors is amazing to see.

18th Dec Fiona and the girls travelled back to Australia for Christmas. I leave on the 23rd.

So as you can see we have had a lot going on.
We will try and post some pics very soon

everyday life

I thought I would just post a typical day (work day) in the life of the Whincops in Wuhan.

Fiona gets up at between 6 and 630am everyday, has some quiet time and then goes for a run. Sometimes she meets someone to run with and sometimes not.
I get up at around 7am most days just as Fi gets back from her run. The kids get up around this time too. They get dressed and have some cereal and a glass of milo with milk (a favourite).

Mr Li (the driver) shows up at the house around 730 and we usually walk out the door at 10 to 8. Drop me off at work first and then drive to school to drop the kids off. If I turn up at work before 8 we have to wait until 8 as the daily excersies are being done. No-one is allowed in or out during this time.

Fiona often stays at school and volunteers. On the days she is not volunteering she is networking (shopping with friends) or getting stuff done around the house. We went from a 7kg washing machine (biggest possible) to a 2kg washing machine and dryer combo. We are lucky if we can get one sheet in there at a time. This makes for many hours of washing time especially since Sheridan wears an average of three to four outfits per day. This is after they come home from school where they wear a uniform.

I have been very busy at work. Getting to know people and my new job, new challenges and a much broader job spec. Quality, Process, Tooling, Accounting, Chemical ordering, Liaison with corporate, AQP, Chemical trials etc etc.

Mr Li usually picks up Fi from home at around 315pm to go to school to pick up the kids around 330. However if there is shopping that needs to be done or an international womens event Mr Li will take Fiona and they will be back at school at 330 to get the kids.

The kids love their new school. The teachers have different styles of teaching but both seem to be having a positive effect on our kids. Delenn gets two grades for everything one for her academic grade and one for the effort she puts in and she did very well. Sheridan also did very well but was most distressed that she didn't get an excellent in art. She was adamant that we needed to go to the Art teacher and ask her why.

After school homework is usually completed very quickly so they can go out and play with friends. We invested in a couple of walkie talkies. Now the kids can go and play in and around the housing compound and be in constant communication. The compound is pretty secure though.

Talking of security. We missed the changing of the guard in London but everyday at around 4pm we have our own procession. It is quite a sight to see. I think it is blog worthy on its own so a photo will be posted soon.

Dan usually comes home between 530 and 630pm. Has confernece calls with canada two nights a week and chinese lessons one night per week.

No matter what we do or where we are we always seem to fill up our schedule.

Anyway this is a little of what we are doing. There will be more to follow.

I wonder if anyone has trouble logging onto our blog? We are blocked probably 50% of the time. I think there must be some questionable content posted and the Domain keeps getting stopped. Anyway just curious.

Uniform's

My very very good friend Sandra and I (Is that ok Sandra does it make up for me not mentioning you in my blog sooner you now officially exist on my blog. you have come a long away) have some how inherited organizing and distributing the uniforms at school. (I am sure this has something to do with our organizational skills and that we started off bored at home so we thought we would help out at school). This has been a long sager. Abby the kindergarten teacher ordered the uniforms back in May hoping that they would all be here by the start o f the school year in August. All I can say is that we are on China time. When they turn up they turn up. We still don’t have them all. We sent a lot back because the sizes where incorrect and the colour was wrong. We are still waiting to receive all the summer uniforms. (Yes believe it or not we are still wearing summer uniforms over here. It is still warm most days.) When we receive a shipment of uniforms we have to quality control them. Check sizes and colour and check that we received the right quantity. It takes us a while. But thankfully we have many other mothers that also come into the school and help us out. Our job then is to fill the orders. There are only 63 students in the school, so filling orders does not take that long. Its receiving them that seems to be taking awhile, waiting until they arrive is the hardest. Meanwhile the uniforms have been relocated to another part of the school. We had fun getting them all back on the shelves again and in the right order because the sizes aren’t labeled right on most of them. So this is how I spend my day at school. I come in one day a week. Help out the teachers do photocopies and any other odd jobs around the place. When more uniforms arrive and it is all hands on deck again to check and fill orders. 

strange behaviour

Its funny how you start to not question the strange behaviour of others. I will relay a story from one one of my colleagues who is from Canada and doesn't speak any Chinese. (he will be known as J).

J was on his way home from the Airport via taxi. The taxi driver stopped and started explaining in great detail something he wanted J to do. He stopped a few meters prior to a toll gate on a freeway to town. After about 10minutes of talking back and forth and getting nowhere J decided to get out and flag another taxi. When J got out of the taxi he walked through to the other side of the toll gate to get a taxi where the taxi driver he was just with called him over for him to get back in his car. I guess it is cheaper to go through without a passenger.

This is one example of typical situations we deal with and do it with a smile.

Working Girl

I am 35 year’s old and I have never waited tables before. There is always a first and today was that day. Friends we have met have opened a diner. It’s not far from where we live in our local restaurant area. This area happens to be called French street.

The diner is called the Aloha. I think it is really cool that an Hawaiian restaurant is on a street called French Street.

Anyway today was there grand opening and they just needed some extra help. I waited tables, lots of tables. (The rest of the waiting staff are all local girls, some have broken English, some can speak English very well). So here I am, first day on the job. Lunch was crazy we had VIP’s everywhere so lots of sucking up to do. I know what you are thinking, I can assure you I was nowhere near the local VIP’s. I had the non VIP tables. I had a blast. I had so much fun. I didn’t know waiting tables could be so much fun. After lunch was finished it was 2:30pm. Time for us volunteers to have lunch, clean the tables and get ready for the dinner crowed. It started slow, really slow, we where worried that no-one was going to turn up. Our best customers were my family and every one loved being around the kids.

A little later the Restaurant picked up. I guess most people eat dinner later here. We had a blast anyway. The owner sang and played ukulele and their granddaughter danced with her Hawaiian skirt. It was awesome. I had such a great day.

I must admit I have a new appreciation for waitresses over all of the world now. It is hard to take orders, make sure they get their drinks, and ensure the kitchen staff make the food that you actually wrote down on the little piece of paper - which was written in Chinese characters by the way. Not that I wrote them but they were where I was meant to write the food.

I still enjoyed my 12 hour shift at the dinner. I am glad they don’t have grand openings everyday. I am sure I will be volunteering there more in the future. I didn’t spill food on anyone or brake anything. I guess until I do I will be there to lend a hand until they don’t need me anymore.

Working in China

This is something I came across and seems very relevant in my experience to living and working in China (only for a very short time so far).

You know you’ve lived in China too long when…

1. - You find yourself crying over a menu in a western restaurant because they serve green salad
2. - You haven’t eaten anything baked in months
3. - You eat every kind of meat off the bone, and spit the bones on the table or wherever they land
4. - You know how to use a squatter potty
5. - Grown men and women often say hello to you, and when you reply they run away giggling
6. - you see nothing wrong with standing on a white stripe in the middle of a highway while cars whiz past you at 90kph
7. - you don’t blink an eye when a complete stranger wants to take a photo of you with his family
8. - you actually put some thought into which live snake you want cooked for your meal and don't think twice when they bring your dinner live to the table for your approval before it is cooked
9. - you eat soup with chopsticks and drink straight from the bowl
10. - you use Kleenex for table napkins
11. - you drink warm sodas and find them refreshing
12. - you are accustomed to seeing people’s heads popping up and down in the VCD you are watching
13. - you no longer use articles when you speak
14. - you bargain with the grocer over the cost of a head of lettuce
    - You no longer question why the expiration date on the milk you just bought is two months from now
15. - you buy a movie that hasn’t been released theatrically yet at home
16. - you complain about the price of chocolate bars and breakfast cereal
17. - a trim at the barber involves two washes, a scalp massage, a shoulder massage, and a crowd of onlookers
18. - you go to a park and get a warning from the police because you walked on the grass
19. - you’ve come to believe the red stamp is all powerful
20. - you find yourself spitting in public places (i.e. the street, restaurant) and not thinking twice
21. - you take it in stride when you are offered beer at lunch before going back to work
22. - you start wearing a face mask on windy days and wonder at the “silly foreigners” who don’t do the same
23. - You can’t find face lotion or cleanser that does not bleach your skin whiter
24. - you shove the guy before you in line back to where he stood half a minute before
25. - you stand 1 inch from the person in front of you so no-one can cut in line in front of you
26. - You have ten different responses to the question, “Do you like China?”
27. - You know ten different ways to point out a foreigner in Chinese
28. - You point out foreigners to your Chinese friends even though you’re foreign yourself

I Am Still Alive

Sorry it is a been awhile I have been very busy but I am alive and well and am very excited to tell you - today I ran 2.90 miles or 4.67 kilometers. Yes I am still standing, and breathing for that matter. I have a goal and with some friends we are training to meet that goal. Our goal is to run a marathon. Now we are not going to do this tomorrow nor are we going to do it this year. We are all Mother’s, Wives and over the age of 35 so we are going to do this at a comfortable level. One where we minimize this risk of injury. None of us have run a marathon before. So we are on a training schedule. First we are training for a 10k then a half marathon and then hopefully (if none of us have suffered any injuries or illness) by the end of next year we can say we have run a marathon. I know some of you think I am crazy, well now you have just cause to think that. I am in training and loving it at the moment, ask me in a few months if I am still loving it and my response may be different.

Success

Sheridan has finally used a local toilet, a squatty potty, a hole in the ground. You can choose what you would like to call it. Here is a picture of what we are dealing with. She actually likes them and prefers them now. Well at least over a western style toilet when she has a choice. 

Biking Family

We have bikes now. OK. We have bicycles now, all four of us. The girls have pink princess bikes. My bike looks like something from the wizard of oz. I have a little basket on the front and I feel like flying high in the sky when I am riding it. I guess all I need now is my trusty TOTO to go in my basket. We all know that will happen real soon. NOT

Our family went on our first bike ride. We decided to go see a site close to us. Let me just tell you I have never met such kind and helpful people as the people of Wuhan. You all have read about how Sheridan tends to fall down a lot. There is nothing different about how she rides a bike. We seem to have to stop every few meters to help her up again. I’m hoping this won’t be a regular occurrence once the training wheels come off. I am sure the extra two wheels are not helping. Then again I am her Mother, I guess I can just hope that she grows out of it. Every time we were near a local and Sheridan needed help either getting up from falling down or help riding up a little hill there was always a helping hand to help her. I guess it helps that she is sooo cute as well. (Oops hang on I am not allowed to say that she is cute anymore she thinks that’s too babyish. I guess it helps that she is sooo beautiful and everywhere we go people stop to look at her or comment and say she is beautiful and just have to have their photos taken with her.)

Our family found a great park not far from our house. Well I thought it was not far. We had to stop for lunch on the way there. It took as about 1.5 hours to ride home but we did stop for ice cream and Sheridan’s legs can only go so fast (not to mention her falling off her bike).

The park was great. A fabulous play ground for the kids with a trampoline and a rock wall. A beautiful lake with paddle boats (We did not try them out this time) and great gardens to walk around. It was well worth the bike ride there. The next day the kids wanted to go back so it couldn’t have been that bad a bike ride.

Day 1 - In Hong Kong

So as great parents we decided to go to Hong Kong to go to Disney Land for Delenn’s 8 Birthday. (Ok we had to leave China to get our visa’s organized) So off to Hong Kong we go. When we arrive it is poring with rain. So for our first tourist stop we went to the Science Museum. The kids loved it. Ok truth be told Dan and I loved it as much as the kids. The girls loved the satellite TV the best. We sat in two sound booth rooms and talked to each other while watching each other on the TV. Of course Delenn and Sheridan had to be in London like Aunty Nicci and Mark. I guess it reminded them of talking to them on skype. We wish we could talk to all of you. Now I guess you will have to set up with skype so you can talk to us and see us all the way on the other side of the world. 

Day 2 - Disney Land Hong Kong

For Delenn we went to Disneyland. I think the highlight of the day was meeting Cinderella (She eluded us in LA). It was so exciting for the kids to finally get to meet her.

The other highlight was “The Golden Mickey’s”. I really wanted to see the musical of Disney’s well known songs. So we waited and waited in line to get into the hopefully air condition theater. After waiting about 45 minutes in the warm ok it was down right hot, we arrive at our seats. Great planning by us (Ok it was just good luck) we sat near the front and more importantly in front of the English subtitle screen. The songs were all in English but the MC was only in Cantonese. It was great, the music, the dancing. We all loved it. It was a great end to a perfect day in Disney Land.

Dinner Time
We headed back to the hotel for dinner. Now I was just settling into a great meal of India food when Sheridan being Sheridan decided to climb over the arm of her chair instead of pulling her chair out and sitting on her seat. Sheridan fell backwards on to the hard marble floors. Well that sent the staff into a bit of a flap. I just sat there being the great Mother that I am. If they new Sheridan like I do they would have gone on with their usual activities. Well this time she did not cry that much and in her own words “My head feels squishy”. There was a bit of blood so Dan plops her on my lap and I check it our. By now Sheridan has stopped crying and is wondering what all the fuss is about. She had split her head open a little bit. About 1” or 3 cms (depending on where you live) Anyway she need stitches. The manger called for ambulance and informed us that we should take her to the privet hospital. Off to the hospital we go in the back of an ambulance thank you very much.


We arrived at the hospital. A few questions were asked about the nature of the accident? Was it an accident or did she slip on wet floor? After making sure all was well. Sheridan was seen by the Doctor. We had to get x rays to make sure there was no fracture. Sheridan came out of the Doctor office saying “I have to have an x ray to see if I cracked head”. The x ray was all clear so it was off to the treatment room for two stitches. Sheridan didn’t even cry when the doctor numbed the area and put the stitches in. We left the hospital only having been there one and half hours and being set back thousands of dollars. (ok it was Hong Kong dollars everything cost thousands) It sounds more dramatic that way.

Day 3

Down to business today we went to get our visa’s.
After waiting for a while to get the paper work we have to come back later to pick up our passports. We decided to go shopping or was that get coffee. Daniel finally had his wish a Starbucks family. The girls favorite place to eat and drink was Starbucks. They loved hot chocolate. And of course Dan loves his Café Latte. I suffer and go along I am not sure why? Except that at the Starbucks in Hong Kong you can get Meat Pies and Sausage rolls (Sorry to all my US friend who have never had the fortune of trying one of these yummy delicious food that made me feel a whole lot closes to home (even if we were in Starbucks)). So the kids would ask to go to Starbucks for their hot chocolate every time we saw one. I am sure Daniel has brainwashed them both.

I found a supermarket in the shopping mall. I love going into supermarkets in different counties it is interesting to see what sort of food you can get there and what people buy. We were in a very up market supermarket. I loved it and went a little crazy with my purchases. I found things I could not get the US and things I know I could not get in Wuhan. I had so much fun. Here I was in Hong Kong spending up big in a supermarket. We all had to stop for coffee after I had dragged them around the shop more than once wondering how I was going to carry all this back to the hotel and get it back to Wuhan. I am pleased to tell you no food was sacrificed. It all made it back to Wuhan. Except the captain crunch that the kids ate in two sittings.


That evening we went up to Victoria Peek for breath taking views of Hong Kong Harbor. We enjoyed dinner at a fine restaurant with an incredible view of the harbor and traveled back down the peek on the tram to the ferry and then the bus back to the hotel. What a Day.

Day 4 - Ocean Park

We are off to Ocean Park a great theme park in Hong Kong. We were there when the doors opened and explored the park with not many people around. I think it also helped that it was raining a bit but only enough to get wet. We are Australians we are not going to let a little rain get in the way of a great day. In fact Delenn and I went on a ride twice just to get wet again. Delenn also went on a ride with Daniel that span around really fast and upside down and she said that was her favorite ride. Sheridan is still not tall enough. I guess it won’t be too long before I have to get on these rides as well. I need to show my girls that I am not scared of anything (oops to late they are the ones that protect me when we go walking and come across a dog). Ocean Park was split into to areas by a large hill. To get over the hill you had to ride on a Cable car. The ride in the cable car had breath taking views of the South China Seas.
Ocean Park was also home to two Panda’s. We went to have a look and they were beautiful and playful. The girls were more interested in buying soft panda’s than watching the real ones.
At the end of the day we watched the dolphins and sea lions perform in an educational spectacular. Well that is what the guide map said. It was dolphins and sea lions performing, it was educational and fun and the girls loved it.

That evening we went to Stanley. A little sea side town with street markets and lots and lots of shops for me to go wild in. We were all a bit hungry so we went to the pub for dinner. I had to have another VB and Fish ‘n Chips while looking at the sea on the balcony of a pub. A perfect setting to end the day. Now I was ready for shopping to finish off the night. However someone needed to tell the market that I needed to eat first then shop. We got out of the pub that had the best fish n chips I have had in ages (and it was also run buy India’s). We turned the corner to enter the market and guess what. Most of the Market was closed or closing. My luck. We still managed to buy a few things before everything closed down. I still recommend going there if you are ever in Hong Kong Stanley is a must see. 

Day 5

Back to Wuhan today. We have our passports with our new stamps in it so now we can stay in China. We are tired from our full itineraries and our exciting trip to Hong Kong and wish we had more time. Oh well we will have to come back again real soon. Back home to work and School and I guess I will have to settle into being a lady of leisure. It’s a hard life

paparazzi

Well we are famous. Ok the girls are famous. Every where we go there is paparazzi. It all stared when we went to Hong Kong for five days (I know you didn’t know we went to Hong Kong but that is another story). Sunday we decide to go out as a family to a local hang out place called the Beach Park. It is the river fount on the Yankse River (I find it very amusing what other cultures call a beach.) It was a beautiful afternoon for eating ice cream and flying kites. So we arrived and we were walking around and noticed a lot of wedding photographers. It must be a favorite location. The Brides were all so beautifully dressed in white (one was in pink). We walked around and took some photos. We saw what we throught was a balloon seller. There was about 20 bridal couples there and some TV crew filming in the park to promote weddings in the park. Sheridan sat down on a seat to watch the brides. Some photographers came up and started taking picture of Sheridan. She just sat there and looked beautiful, they beckoned for Delenn to join her sister so they could get the perfect shot. The girls decide to get dressed up on Sundays so they were dressed in their Easter dresses and had there hair done really nice. They did look beautiful. Of course they are my girls.
Back to the paparazzi. So we have about five photographers taking pictures of the girls and before we knew it there was about 50 photographers snapping away. The girls just sat there smiling. (Sheridan has this smile she does only when people ask to take her photo). So the kids are being swarmed buy happy snapping professional photographers. It was rather amusing. They were all saying how beautiful our girls were (in Chinese of course).
Delenn would smile and turn her head this way and that for all of the photographers and move her sister’s head when it needed to be moved to face a clicking camera.
Sheridan finally had had enough and got up and found her Dads arms. There were so many of photographers that we had trouble walking two steps to find Delenn. We found her and walked away as quickly and politely as we could. A few followed us but that didn’t last for long. We enjoyed the rest if the day flying kites and enjoying the sunshine.

I guess they will have to get used to being famous.

 

Wining and Dining

There was an English woman, a Polish woman and an Aussie woman.

I know it sound like the start of a joke but this was no joke. I was wined and dined at a five star hotel this last Friday. It was great.

We went to lunch to try there new “Afternoon Tea” menu. I’m still not sure what it’s all about but I enjoyed the food the wine and the company.

The lady who invited us was from Malaysia. The “tea” started at 11:30 and by 2:30pm I was trying to get out the door to go and pick up my children from school, I was still late picking them up.

I know what you all are all saying - it is hard to be me in China going out to lunches and eating at a five star restaurants for free. But I am committed to do my best to fit in with the way of the life. Of course I was thinking of all of you while I was eating.

Emergence

If I press this button will I turn into a butterfly? 

Delenn dining in style

Delenn is always one to try something new with her food.

Here she is with one of Daniel's colleagues (Gerry) eating escargo (snails). We are enjoying a great dinner at one of Wuhan's fine restaurants - Cafe Brussels.
Here there is a very international feel with food from France, China, USA, Belgium and many other areas of the world (no mexican though).

Good to be back online at home now. We have a lot to tell so there will be more installments over the next few days. 

Our House

Today we looked at the house we are hopefully going to rent. I say hopefully because you never know until you sign on the dotted line.

The house is in a compound called Golden Harbor. Most of the other foreigners live here and some of the teachers that teach at the girl’s school also live in the compound.

Our house backs on at a canal. (I guess that is what you call it) That leads into a large lake behind the compound.

The house is an open style house with four bedrooms. (Yes one for our guests, it is small, but you will not come to sleep, but to visit our wonderful family). The house is two stories. The girl’s and our rooms are upstairs with a sitting area and a place for Me to set up my scrap booking station. (My goal is to get caught up. I have three years. The only problem is, I seem to be taking a lot more photos). Down stairs is an open plan with a lovely sitting area to watch TV and dining area and a small kitchen. Those of you which saw my kitchen in Kansas will understand that this kitchen is about ¼ of that size. I am not planning to be in it much anyway. The thing to do is to have an Ay do all that sort of stuff. (An Ay is a house cleaner and cook. I know it is a hard life I lead. I am willing to make a big sacrifice to help someone else have a job.) The garden is something else. It is small but breath taking. The gardener will take care of it so I can enjoy its beauty everyday. There are two sitting areas. One under a veranda and another one made out of stone. I can become one with the garden. The landlord proudly claimed that the selection of trees and shrubs will have some flowers for all four seasons. There is a pond in the garden with fish and a magnificent intricately sculptured Stone that has a water fall that flows into the pond. This can be seen from our breakfast table. There are large panoramic windows that surround the garden. I can’t wait to wake up in the morning, eat breakfast and enjoy this masterpiece and be thankful that I don’t need to attend to it. I can really appreciate someone else’s hard work.

We are hoping to be in the house by the end of this coming week. There are a few things that need to be done. Sheridan’s room needs a bed as well as our guest room. These are just small details. Oh yeah we also need to have Daniels work approve of the house and I still need to go shopping to get bed linen and kitchen supplies. If shopping is something I have to do then I will have to shop and shop and shop. 

Crossing the road

Today I went for lovely walk while Dan was at work and the girls where at school. (I know I know it is a hard life) I come across a few things I would love to sure with you.

My walk took me across a few intersections. Now let me just tell you that walking across the road to get to the other side is taking your life into your own hands. I even found guidelines on how to cross the road in Wuhan. If you ask me the first one should be don’t. Try to avoid this at all cost. Your life is on the line. It does not matter that the cute little green man is green. Car, buses, tracks, motor bikes, pedestrians and bicycles. Come at you form all directions. Yes I mean all directions.

So here are the suggestions about crossing the road.
1. Wait for a local. Cross the road when they do. Walking right beside them, I mean right beside them. Most of them have being doing this all there lives so they have a clue on how to make it safely across the road. Dan’s assistant Jessica said “They have no sense”.
2. I am told that most drivers are very skilled at missing pedestrians. (Although today on the way to pick up the girls from school (While I was being driven) I saw 3 car accidents. (OK none of them involved pedestrians). It helps if you remember this when you are crossing the road. It also helps if you don’t remember any of the road rules you where taught as a child.
3. When a driver flashes his lights at you he is not saying Hi it is safe to cross the road. He is saying get out of the way NOW. They used to just honk the horn but noise was over bearing so now it is against the law. There are signs up everywhere that have a picture of a horn on it with it crossed out.
4. Most of the Wuhanians do not like the traffic and often complain about themselves.
5. It is said that it takes about 6 to 8 weeks to get used to crossing the road. (Great I am actually going to get used to this)
6. Above all use common sense. The Chinese have a saying that describes it best. It is better to wait three minutes than to rush out recklessly. This is so comforting to know. I just hope I have common sense??

I arrived back from my walk in one piece. I did come across an interesting land mark, sculpture thing. This is a picture of a thumb print. But when I took a picture from the other side it looked more like a big toe. You can pick what you think it looks like.

Lunch

The other day we went looking at houses and we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant not far from the compound.

The three of us went to lunch.

This is a picture of the beautiful food we enjoyed. The food on little squares of bread is peking duck (now known as Beijing Duck). It was sweet tasting. You need to be very talented with the chop sticks to eat it. I still managed to eat my share. The dish on the left is eggplant. It just melted in your mouth. The seasoning they used for it was perfect you could not tell you were eating egg plant at all. Behind the egg plant dish is cool cucumber with a teriyaki like dipping sauce. On the right is a beef dish. I believe it was a stir fry dish. The food was fabulous. We really enjoyed it. We did not seem to be able to get thought it all but we sure did try. We drink Chinese tea to complement or meal.

We were getting ready to leave when the local we were with told us about the peking duck. She told us that they only use the skin of the duck and then at the end of the meal they proceeded to bring us the rest of the duck so we could take it home. This would be great if we where going straight back to the hotel but we went DVD shopping again. (We do not seem to have enough.) Then we waited for 2 hours for school to get out. (We helped out in the office for a while) So I’m not quite sure I really want to eat the duck now. I am sure it has been in the boot/trunk of the car for far too long. 

The Weather

I just can’t imagine why so many foreigners get a little sick here. When you can buy food on the side of the street and it sits in your warm, OK hot car for a few hours. The temp out side our car was 42 Celsius (with 80% humidity) or 107.6 Fahrenheit. It’s a little bit hot here. 

Swimming

Today is Sunday and we were planning to go to a swimming park. But Dan went into work instead. Lucky for him I knew this yesterday.

Yesterday, we went to our first fellowship meeting aka home church. This is a place where anyone who holds a foreign passport can attend church. We met in someone else’s home. We meet Saturday night. It was great to meet all these foreigners. Most are from America, one form Australia (now there’s 5 of us we are growing in numbers) and a few from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They welcomed us with open arms. I mean who wouldn’t, we are fabulous people to be around.

At the fellowship I met Kim. Her family is from America she as 2 children 7 and 9 both girls. Her husband works at the school as a science teacher for the high school students. They have just moved into the compound themselves. Josie (7 years old) invited Delenn to sleep over that night. (We declined as Delenn did not have her beloved rumple bear with her. She can’t sleep without him.) Kim asked if we wanted to go swimming tomorrow. Of course we said yes and made arrangements to meet and swim on Sunday. Sunday came and one thing lead to another and we ended up at the hotel pool. The kids had a great time swimming and playing together. There were six kids and Kim and I. Kim and I just laid back and talked and watched the kids swim and play. Thankfully we had the pool to ourselves. Six girls can get very loud in an indoor swimming pool. (We had a great time and didn’t really have time to miss Dad who was at work on a Sunday)

We can’t wait to move into the compound now we have some friends already. Although Kim said she could not be my friend because I don’t drink coffee and I scrapbook. Oh well I guess I will just have to rely on my winning personality. It was just great to talk to someone going through the same thing I am.

FYI The picture is of Delenn and Sheridan playing around in the pool the other day with Daniel. 

Sun-rise

Wow today is a good day.

I woke up this morning at 5:50am and decide to check my emails.
I can’t get on the internet so I open the curtains (actually I throw back the curtains) and to my surprise there is blue sky and a beautiful sunrise.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

I am watching the sun come up and it is beautiful. In fact that word can not explain it or give it justice. You cannot imagine how big a smile is on my face right now. I have a little joke with some of you about the sky and how it is always grey. It is either a light grey (meaning it is day time) or a dark grey for night. But today, well today I can see blue sky and light clouds whispering across the sky. And the sun? The sun is doing it’s best to show me that God is alive and warming my heart.

I just have to stop and watch the rest of it.


Bye.

A favorite pastime in China is to look at signs and image what they are trying to say. This one is advertising for shoes. A colleague from Melbourne calls this Chinglish. A cross between English and Chinese.

For a silk Shop - "Silk Sells Particularlly" 

traffic around Wuhan

The photo is typical of what can be seen as we travel around Wuhan. The guy on the motobike is waiting at the stop light and decided to have a smoke while he's waiting.
I have not started work yet but because the plant had a week of summer shutdown I was given a week to get adjusted and help Fi and the girls settle in. (I will start officially in the office on Monday.) Although I think Fi has adjusted already.
We took the girls to school this week and picked them up together just to help with the change but Delenn is really enjoying herself. She is still a bit apprehensive about going out to the shops, probably due to the large numbers of people. The trip to school from the hotel takes about 45 to 50 minutes so we have to leave pretty early in the mornings.
The funny thing is the trip would take 20min if the traffic flowed.
Road rules are the same here as most places in the world however the taxi drivers and some locals do decide to do the strangest things. Like a taxi driver stopping across two lanes to let someone out after he got halfway around a U turn, and then the passenger decides to take their time paying for the fare. OR Like when a ox drawn cart slowly ambles across the road. This means all the cars try and get around as well. They don't just wait but decide to try and get through causing more of a stoppage.
I think someone once said that traffic in Wuhan is like a living organism.

Dan

A New School

Today was the first day of school for Sheridan and the first day of school for Delenn in an international school. There are so many nationalities at the school I can’t keep up with them all. We are the very first Australians at the school. Australians with American accents. So the teachers can understand the girls.

The girl’s schedules have the usual school stuff like, reading, writing, math, science, art library, art, music and PE. The Girls also have two extra subjects. Bible and Chinese. They have these everyday. Hopefully they will be able to teach their Mother some Chinese.

Delenn has DEAR everyday as an added bonus. DEAR is Drop Everything and Read. This is a program Delenn also had in Kansas. The purpose of this program is to encourage a life long love of reading.

Sheridan’s schedule has a nap everyday from 2pm to 3:15pm. Sheridan has not had a nap since she was 18mths old. The tradition here in China is to have an early afternoon nap. They stop everything for and hour after lunch to wind down.


The first day went off very well. The girls seem to have enjoyed themselves. Sheridan has 8 kids in her class and her biggest problem is she is the only one who speaks English as a first language. (apart from her teacher) Delenn’s class room has 8 but only 6 turned up today. For 5 of them this was their very first day at the school. She fits in well.

First day of school

Not many people can say that they started their first day of school from a hotel. There are no nice garden photos. Just a photo near the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. 

Habits

I am trying to change one of my bad habits. So we moved countries what a great time to change your habits. I admit it I watch far too much television. Being in a non English specking country I thought this would be easy to break. Wrong. Our family went on a little outing the other day. We walked into a shop and because of us been foreigners we received special treatment. We ended up buying 30 DVD's. I think I need to go to a DVD anonymous. So do the kids. Half of them are theirs. You know we got a bargain for them. Jealous? 

The Whincop Family

For all our Aussie friends this what we look now. Delenn aged 7 and Sheridan aged 5.

The Whincop family

Street life in Wuhan

This is the other side of the hotel. Street life is amazing to see. Men gather around to sit in the shade. Most of them have their tops off or shirts rolled up to their necks. They just sit there and watch traffic go by. Clothes are hanging out windows to dry. The sky seems to always be over cast. Is it cloud cover? Smog? Or mist? Work men leave what they don’t want from a job site on the side of the road. While they are pulling down the building people are still living there. There does not seem to be anything called a safety code here. They just work with no shoes, no shirts and no safety helmets and then leave piles of debris around.
Traffic is another story all together. One lane means how many cars, buses, bikes, motor bikes and predestines can we fit into it. Drivers seem to go where every they want to. Motor bikes are often on side walks. As far as crossing the road, you take life into your own hands there. We seem to find a local (there is a few of them around in a city of 8 million) and cross the road when they cross. That does not mean you will not come across a bike or car in your way it just means you need to look in every direction all the time. We are not in Kansas any more. 

Street life

Looks like any other place? Daddy walking down the street with his two girls.
This is one side of the hotel. 

Disneyland

We went through Disneyland in LA on our way to China. The kids absolutely loved seeing the charaters and getting their autographs. We now have some major scrapbooking to do.

We arrived at the hotel at about 11:00pm and LA time and went straight to bed (1:00am KC time). The kids did not know where we were going so it was a pleasant surprise to tell them we were going to Disney (although sheridan was more interested going to the hotel pool for a swim).

We got up at about 9am and set out for Disney.

The most interest was the Princesses but we managed to get them on a few rides. However when we were on the Pinoccio ride it broke down. Delenn was cool but Sheridan was starting to get a bit worried while waiting for the attendant to come and rescue us. Then for the rest of the day we had the inevitable why did the ride stop question. She wouldn't let it go.

It was a busy and tiring day. We finished around 6pm and went back to the hotel only to check out at 8:30pm and travel back to the airport. Where we got in line after line to get through all the security checks and finally boarded the flight bound for Hong Kong at 2am.

This worked out pretty good as the kids slept the first 6hrs and that left only the last 8hrs to keep them occupied. WE had personal tvs so it wasn't too bad. Delenn watched "over the hedge" about 4 times I think.

Hong Kong airport is amazing and landing is unique. You feel like you are landing on water as the runway juts out into the ocean.