The Nevin-Graham Family

A tour of China with the Grahams - Part One

2011-04-03T15:15:00.000+08:00

**I ran out of free space for photo storage on here just as I began our summer China trip.**

**I'm organizing some work-arounds. Should be back blogging again soon.**

Our summer was to involve a "big trip" around China with Grandma and Grandad, their friend Val, and also Uncle Michael. As this trip took several weeks, it will take several posts to complete - here is the first of those posts!

On the 30th July we flew to Shanghai to meet them - they had arrived the previous day and spent it touring Shanghai. Of course, they were always going to find the beer festival near the Pearl Tower...

As we were about to spend a week at a resort, we were all collected by the resort bus so that we could travel together. They were collected first from their hotel and then we were collected from the airport. We found it funny that trees had drips.

We quickly made ourselves at home in the resort. Luckily for them, we had a seperate apartment (thanks Grandma and Grandad) so they weren't subjected to the early risings.

We took them food shopping, we tried out every restaurant that was open - unfortunately it was often a case of "yes, it is on the menu, no, we don't have it," which was very frustrating.

It was hot, hot, hot - and humid. Not an ideal time to be touring China, but there we were.

I think we checked out everything at the resort - including a pottery class. What a pity the final object broke before we left to our next destination.

Although there was a playground around 300m from our apartment, it was too hot to play outside - even if we were getting there really really early.

The resort was around an hour out of Shanghai - but quite close to one of the "watertowns". Seizing the opportunity to demonstrate our Chinese abilities, we took the local bus there and then toured around.
Stay tuned . . .

July 2010 - bits and pieces

2011-03-26T13:25:00.000+08:00

So I don't have any story to hang these photos from - and by the way I officially hate the new Blogger photo options - so I'm just going to have a general "photos from July" post with a little of each story with the photos.

July is the start of really hot and humid weather in Xiamen - ok, so June isn't much better, but July is when it really starts to hit home. This year we spent much more time at the beach. Here Alex and Sebastien are, yet again, attracting attention. They do go in the water - though that's happening less and less as the (visible) water quality seems to be worsening.

Sebastien has been really enjoying his new train track - ane we've been enjoying watching him work out ways to extend it. Note "Gordon's Hill" is the Wiggles guitar that the track goes over. A shoebox was finally turned into a tunnel as the leggo ones just weren't wide enough to take the trains' use and abuse (and Mummy wasn't up to constant requests to help rebuild said tunnel).

School finished, so we had plenty of time to - fill. Mummy had some collages ready to go which took a few hours. We also finally opened our paint pots.

When Daddy wasn't working, we went "exploring" - and found time to ride the Haiwan Park elephants!

Along with summer, comes torrential downpours. This year they seem heavier than usual - and apparently are washing lots of debris from rivers into the ocean. Lots of water lillies are being washed out too - but Xiamen local government has small boats out and about picking up rubbish out of the water. Apparently this year they hit a record - and I did have a reference for this... but no matter. Here is what I've been seeing from our balcony.

Sebastien continued to tangle with the furniture and the marble floors - adding another injury to his collection. Now that he has a full set of teeth, the common injury is tooth-in-lip - which brings with it an awful lot of blood. Mummy is anxiously assessing local dentists just on the offchance that some emergency dental work eventually needs to be done.

There are days when I am glad we have a "toy room" where we try to limit the playing to.

But some days, you walk out of your bedroom to see "snow on the Island of Sodor, Mummy!" - yep, the beanbag up and died...

Mummy is still trying to bring home something different every other day - this day it was "snake fruit". The outside skin is really easy to peel and feels just like reptile skin. The 3-4 fruit segments each have a seed which you don't eat. And the fruit tastes a little like an apple but with a blander flavour.

All too soon, it was approaching the end of July. This could mean only one thing: The imminent arrival of our second group of visitors!

Sleepover - II

2011-03-26T12:08:00.001+08:00

Gosh, we're going all the way back to 3rd July 2010!

That's when Emma had her very first sleepover ever! Alex was so excited - we organised the spare mattress in the toyroom so that the girls could sleep without Sebastien - though he was less than impressed with this.

Of course, being the day before 4th July, we had the obligatory independence wreath as the craft activity

which were hung on the front door so that Emma's parents wouldn't miss them when they came to collect her the next day (note typically Chinese-style photo poses).

It's amazing the fun you can have with a few chairs - first they are the bus to Xiamen...

...then they are shopping trolleys for when you shop with your puppy dog.

There was plenty of opportunity for dressing up,

colouring in,

Making handprints to remember just how much fun we had.

Everyone helped prepare dinner.

There was even time for some magic tricks before bedtime stories.

And, surprisingly, sleep wasn't all that long in coming.

The next day was Independence Day - and it was HOT - so we enjoyed making freedom stars and liberty bells (frozen watermelon on sticks).

Emma's parents came all too soon for Alex and Sebastien. All in all, it was pretty successful. Sebastien even managed to be included (most of the time). The girls are already discussing when "the next one" will be - but we'll give Emma some time to digest her experience first!

Grandie and Poppie visit - II

2011-03-24T15:04:00.000+08:00

So my last post said that I'd update once I had some photos from Poppie - and I've taken so long to get around to it that I can now do that post!

Looking through someone else's eyes (i.e., their photos) really gives you an idea of how far you've acclimatised - so many things I thought were strange at the start of my stay in China, now barely register as odd.

Grandie and Poppie visited us in Xiamen in June 2010 - yes, last year! We really enjoyed seeing them and were pleased to hear that they found their Wendy Wu tour to be excellent (they toured China first with a group then broke off at the end to visit us) - so much so that they are thinking of touring with Wendy Wu in 2011 to a different Asian country.

This is typically how your tour guide will have you identify them - with a flag (or some object) flying from a car antenna -- well it looks like a car antenna. (It must be important information - Mum's in "The Thinker" pose.)

They took in the Beijing hutongs in something smaller than the tour bus.

They arrived in Xiamen at night (Mummy met them their first night at the airport to get them to their hotel) so it wasn't until the following afternoon that Alex knew they were actually here - they met her off the schoolbus.

Storytime during that week was more exciting than usual.

They enjoyed being dragged around campus by ~~Sebastien~~ Brett.

While Alex spent the day at school, we toured the Botanic Gardens together - getting a close-up look at some old tanks and planes.

Later in the week we took Alex out of school for the day and took a tour of the Hakka houses - missile-silo-shaped dwellings of the Hakka minority people. Yes, these dwellings were apparently mistaken for missile silos by the US satelites overhead back in the 1960s.

We managed to show Grandie what a Chinese Mahjong game looks like - she plays it in Australia.

We took them to see Gulangyu (we can see it from our balcony but decided to brave the crowds anyway) and Alex and Sebastien were very excited because they were finally able to take a ride on the electric touriset car around the island. We saw some very bad wax impressions including Princess Diana, Mao, and Hitler - interestingly the business had changed its name to Celebrity World from Madame Tussaud's since we were last on the island...

One outcome of their visit is that Alex is absolutely, 100% sure that she now wants to live in a hotel. And not just on any old floor, on the top floor. After all, hotels are fun!

However before we knew it, the week was up. We sadly said goodbye to Grandie and Poppie - until our next visit to Australia.

Are you sure?

2011-03-22T11:24:00.000+08:00

Wow, it's been so long since I've been here -- too long really. Looking back at where I got up to with my posts I see it's been half a year. Well, another concerted effort is about to begin. I have my photos in order, I've reworked my day-to-day schedule and am back on track, I think.

I think I need to update the settings though, change the colour scheme, whatever it takes to get reinvigorated.

Back soon!

Happy Birthday Poppie!

2010-09-04T20:13:00.004+08:00

Happy 64th Birthday Poppie - Love from China

Another School Year starts

2010-09-01T17:15:00.000+08:00

Yes, it has been two months since I wrote that joyous post proclaiming to have caught up on my blog posts *sigh*. Of course, there's been a whole lot of living done since then, complete with photos. So now that the school year has started here in Xiamen, I will spend some time catching up, once again. I am crossing my fingers that I can get Sebastien into a preschool soon (his enrolment at Alex's school was denied - story to follow later) but we're going the Chinese route and bringing out the "guanxi" (connections) to see if we can still make it happen.

Anyway, look forward to a few more posts soon.

Three Cheers for Catching up on Blog Posts!

2010-06-28T18:27:00.001+08:00

Hip - hip - hooray!
Hip - hip - hooray!

Finally I am up to date - well, except for Alex and Sebastien's latest birthday and half-birthday stats posts...oh, and I also have two other drafts ready to go except for the photos.

So we'll call it even.

Sleepover!

2010-06-28T16:11:00.005+08:00

Alex and Emma have been keen for a sleepover for a while - but Alex is a year older and Emma has never been on a sleepover. So Alex went first - to show Emma just how much fun it can be!

Mummy and Sebastien dropped her off in the afternoon - Sebastien was very disappointed to be leaving and didn't quite understand why Alex got to stay. He loves playing with Emma just as much as Alex.

We were sent photographic evidence of the shenanigans (the exclamations are to approximate Alex's enthusiastic re-telling).

Dinner was followed by chocolate yogurt. Then a couple of Dora shows with popcorn!!!
Then bed in the study!!!! Do you think they were a little excited?
Apparently they still managed to fall asleep around 9.30pm and wake Emma's daddy up nice and early (but still after they had had their breakfast of cornflakes).

They even did some dragon craft tracing their hands for parts! Alex was very happy to bring home her glasses.We're now waiting a week or so before Emma gets invited over for a sleepover at Alex's house...stay tuned!

World Cup

2010-06-28T16:00:00.002+08:00

Oh how fast has time flown! It seems like only yesterday that Brett and I were discussing the possibility of leaving Alex with "someone" to babysit while we went to see the World Cup in South Africa...

...and here's the reality:Kids are in bed asleep (games were 7.30pm, 10.30pm and 2.30am our time) and here we are on the couch trying to find an English stream to have commentary for the game.

Oh well. We're now looking ahead to Brazil in 2014...might mix in visiting our many Brazilian friends while we are there.

Now you be the princess and I'll be the...

2010-06-28T15:50:00.001+08:00

...princess.

Alex had two "beautiful gowns" bought on a recent shopping spree with Grandie - and who would deny Sebastien a turn at "spinning 'round" in a dress that floats? Alex had new princess rain boots that she could wear in the house as she hadn't yet worn them outside - Sebastien was itching to get his Thomas the Tank engine boots...

Grandie and Poppie visit!

2010-06-28T15:30:00.000+08:00

Hooray! At last Grandie and Poppie arrive in Xiamen.This will be the first of a couple of posts - but Mummy is waiting for Poppie to send her some photos so she can complete them.
But the least you should know is we loved having them visit!

Jigsaw-loving family

2010-06-28T15:15:00.002+08:00

Puzzles are getting bigger and more complicated - Sebastien is fast catching up to Alex. He really enjoys doing all of our 24 piece puzzles - though the next step up to 45 is a little too much for him yet. Alex also enjoys helping with new acquisitions - Mummy insists on a number on the back of each piece so that at cleanup time, you know instantly that this piece belongs to puzzle number 3.Aunty Chelle, look out!! Your puzzles will be raided when we next visit!!

A run in with the law...

2010-06-28T14:53:00.002+08:00

When you're in another country, you usually go out of your way to avoid unnecessary contact with the authorities. When you're in China, you especially go out of your way to do that. After all, it's so much harder when you don't speak the language.

We had all of our passport, visas and resident permits synchronised - everyone's expired at the same time, be it passport or permit. This was meant to make it easy to remember to renew such things.

Until Alex was turning five...and her US passport (containing said visa and permit) was to expire as well. So we organized to get a new one (good for another five years) while in Australia last. All was good, only her residency permit expired a couple of months earlier than ours...and all good intentions aside, she was in the country illegally.

Not.a.good.idea.

Thankfully Brett had one of the university staff go with him to the official interview that he had at the entry/exit bureau to discuss his transgressions (on Alex's behalf). I'm hoping that he'll chime in with a comment or two on this to provide details. But the first I knew of it was when he arrived home - with a red thumb!
Apparently when you "confess" to breaking the law, you sign your confession with your thumbprint - and in China, red ink is the appropriate colour for all "signatures" - be they chops or thumbprints. In the end he had two interviews - paid a fine that wasn't the maximum - and Alex had a new residency permit. Now he can smile about it...
It helped our cause that hers was the only expired one - and currently all of them (except hers) are being renewed.

Time to crawl back under our rock.

Seafood restaurants are great entertainment

2010-06-28T14:50:00.002+08:00

When you go to a seafood restaurant in China, they like you to know just how fresh your food is. So it was that Daddy and the two kiddos, along with friend Emma and her parents, ended up at the "basketball restaurant" - a small Chinese restaurant around from the beach that has a basketball court just outside. The kids were entertained for ages just checking out the "aquarium"...

On the countdown for Grandie and Poppie's visit

2010-06-28T14:34:00.002+08:00

So there are eight days to go - and it's time to make a chain! We've found that any chain longer than about a week just spins out the suspense for too long. So Alex got down to draw on some paper, cut it into strips, and tape them together into a chain. She's still a little short to reach up to the nail on the stool so she had help - but check out that grin! The countdown has begun!

Colour in between the lines

2010-06-28T14:24:00.003+08:00

Sebastien is now at the age where he wants to do everything that his sister is doing...whatever it may be. For a while now his idea of "colouring" was to hand the crayon to Mummy or Daddy and ask them to draw one of the trains from the Thomas stories. No longer. Mummy and Daddy made a stand and told him colouring was for him to do...with the result:We need some practice with holding the crayon - unlike Alex who always held it the right way from the very beginning. (Not sure why she's bending down so close - eyes have been checked and are fine.) But at least he's now having fun with it!And yes, he's a lefty and she's a righty - interesting times ahead :)

You're a Princess Mummy

2010-06-24T10:56:00.002+08:00

It's mosquito season. Actually, for us it is mosquito season about 9 months of the year here. Maybe not for Daddy - mosquitoes seem to give him a wide berth.

And so we erected all the mosquito nets again...only Mummy and Daddy's was broken which necessitated another purchase.

Only this time, they didn't have what we're used to with the zip-up sides...instead we now have:

The four poster bed.
Complete with "pretty lace and ribbons and swathes of extra netting" - just what every man and woman desires in their boudoir...not! I am seriously considering developing netting that has polkadots of bold colours on it, or squiggles of primary colours, or is just...netting *gasp*.

Alex is enthralled - she thinks the bed is now the most beautiful bed ever and that we now sleep "like a prince and princess"...*gag*.

Days at the beach

2010-06-22T16:13:00.004+08:00

Mummy is not a beach person. Basically she burns to a crisp within twenty minutes of being on the sand - unless she reapplies sunscreen every half an hour. Alex and Sebastien are big fans - especially of swimming. Daddy is a fan too.

Since we live where we live, we try to get out to the beach as early as we can in the morning (which is usually around 9am on the sand) and stay until around 11am then head back to the cave. Or we go the other way and head to the beach after Sebastien's nap (usually around 3.3pm) and stay until it gets too cold or windy. Inevitably it seems that we end up there on weekends - when everyone else is too. Not usually a problem elsewhere, but as Xiamen is a destination for domestic tourism we have many mainland Chinese who haven't seen a beach...and then haven't seen a little foreign girl or boy, especially ones with blond hair and blue eyes...or who get around in a real actual swimsuit! Of course, there are always others - such as this dog who has had his ears and tail dyed. This is not the first time I've seen this here in China.
Currently we've been hitting "Calligraphy Beach" so named because of the stones with Chinese hanzi on them that are embedded in the sand near the road. This is mainly because it is a (relatively) easy half hour cycle from home and is close to where some of our friends live. Here's Alex checking out a street-seller's wares (after playing hopscotch on the stones in the background).
We usually take lots of sand toys to keep everyone amused. Polly Pocket is not amused - she didn't sign up for quicksand!Inevitably on weekends the beach is crowded - with brides and grooms! The Chinese tradition is to have an entire day devoted to photos in various scenes, in many different outfits - particularly because there is no actual "ceremony" to getting married here. An entire industry has grown up around it and it's big business. It's not unusual to see at least five sets of brides and grooms having photos taken on the beach at any time of the weekend. This particular day saw only four a the same time. You'll recall that Alex has trouble keeping her clothes on - or wearing long sleeves/pants in winter - as she is such a warm person. She loves nothing more than stripping to her swimsuit so she can prance around in the water's edge. We're still trying to find a cleaner beach. It never fails to attract the attention of just about everyone wandering past - many cameras and phones come out to take her photo because everyone else is in long pants and a jumper/sweater usually. One problem with this is that people walk through or on the castles and bridges we're building so as to get close enough to be in a photo with her or Sebastien. Highly annoying as they don't seem to have any care or concern after they've knocked things down. Mummy's working on some not-so-polite sentences for next time.

Alex has taken to building sandcastles and decorating them recently with her beach finds. Sebastien, on the other hand, enjoys tunnels and bridges in the sand. It didn't take long until Alex was converted.

Getting creative

2010-06-22T15:41:00.002+08:00

Sebastien has discovered that he has all kinds of "additions to his train set- note the "Fat Controller" standing at the end of the bridge and the animals in the fields watching.Not a day passes that Sebastien doesn't play with his trains. Although he is ready for school, I think that (after the language) having no Thomas trains there will be the biggest shock.

A contest?

2010-06-22T13:19:00.010+08:00

Alex had been asked to be in a performance - and Brett too! Alex had been hard at work (apparently) learning a performance with children from different classes. This had necessitated practices at different times. Originally Brett had agreed to be involved in the performance (he had to "give away" his daughter) as it was to be on a Sunday, however that changed at some stage to a Saturday and he couldn't do it as he was teaching. So he had said no, only to have the performance moved to the Sunday again...he was disappointed as he really wanted to be involved.

And so it was that Mummy and Alex headed to the school on Sunday afternoon to prepare for this performance. Mummy is sure that many hours of labour went into organizing and making the costumes for this performance - and felt a little left out really as she wasn't able to jump in and help with anything. Realistically, Mummy knows she hasn't an artistic bone in her body so perhaps it was for the best - these costumes are pretty impressive!

The children are from different classes so Mummy isn't really sure how children were chosen for this. There was never a "do you want your child to participate" note home. Here are some photos of the "getting ready at school" part - note the traditional "dot" in the middle of the forehead.Then we jumped onto a bus to get to the performance venue. There was a new shopping mall opening and they were conducting a contest for school children to use recycled materials and to enact a story (I believe most were traditional stories). It looked pretty serious - security was standing behind the judges.Daddy and Sebastien joined us here. Here are the children getting dressed in the middle of the Mall forecourt. You'll notice that every other child has their (winter) clothes on underneath their costume. Not Alex - who has her own little inbuilt heater!Here is Alex with her veil over her head - as the new bride.And on stage performing:And the obligatory photo with the teachers.
And according to the Kindergarten's website (and translated poorly through Google translate): "Xiamen City Bureau of Education launched the South China Mall special "Family Green Fashion Show" competition, a total of 32 kindergartens participated in the contest... we won second prize."

I look up to my big sister

2010-06-22T13:15:00.002+08:00

Sebastien sees Alex doing so much - and he almost always wants to join in. Such is the case with Alex's piano practice. Now that we've instituted a sticker practice sheet, he is especially keen. The single problem? He doesn't learn the piano. No matter. After Alex finishes her practice (and usually in the same amount of time it takes her to select her sticker(s)) Sebastien gets to jump up on the seat and practice. Here he is playing one finger at a time. Then he gets a sticker too. Smiles all around.

More homework

2010-06-22T13:04:00.002+08:00

The main problem with homework sent home is: there is no due date on the note!

Each time I get a note at the bus stop I immediately check it for any dates as that is our first clue when something is happening/due (sometimes tomorrow!) This has led Mummy to "save" a stack of newspapers, magazines, toiletpaper rolls, and other miscellaneous rubbish that otherwise would have been thrown out - just in case we have something that needs to be done overnight.

Sometimes, when we can't get a straight answer on the due date from other parents (our fault in the Chinese elocution) we simply ask Alex whether anyone has brought the homework into school yet.

And so it was that over another long weekend we had to have Alex create her "map" of the way to school. Tied in with their discussion about buildings and construction apparently. So Daddy and Alex sat down to work it out together. The map needed to show how she gets from A (home) to B (school) and show a few buildings that she passes on the way.

Here they are searching for appropriate pictures.Daddy had her draw the map and then she had to cut it out and glue it to the homework page.
And here is the finished product! Now I'm not going to mention that the next day, after Mummy had carefully rolled it up and zip locked it into a bag so it wouldn't get wet on the bike ride to school, Daddy had taken it for "safe keeping" and ... it had fallen out of his rain jacket pocket on the way to school...somewhere.

Oops. I guess I should tell you then, that Daddy retraced his path after dropping Alex off at the bus-stop and eventually found it - just outside our apartment building! Phew - homework got there the next day, with Alex holding onto it the entire way.

Progress

2010-06-22T12:53:00.005+08:00

We've really stepped up the reading - our night-time routine is dinner, shower/teeth/hair, dressed for bed, piano practice and reading. First Alex reads a story (or three pages of the slightly more complex books) then we read her a story of her choice (or chapter these days as she chooses longer books). Here she is sounding out some words in the Dora phonetics series I scored at One Week Boutique a few years ago now.Sebastien has been paying attention and likes to read to himself aloud - with his finger "following" the words. Ellie, a steady favourite has been "Stand back" said the Elephant, "I'm going to sneeze!"And this is just for you Aunty Lyndall - who knew hairclips could be reinvented?

More on the Easter Bunny

2010-06-22T12:45:00.003+08:00

I really must get my photo folders in order!! I found some more of the Easter Bunny visit ones in April - so here is post number two. A quick one though.

Alex made short work of her easter bunny.Sebastien, as I mentioned in the first post, only managed the ears.Then we settled down to chat with some Australian family.