Shopping!

Yesterday was the annual Suzhou Expats Christmas Charity Bazaar. There were heaps of stall where you can buy various items. I came away with

a chess set,

a wall hanging and some Christmas cards and some wall pictures to have framed. They're rolled up so I can't take a picture. I went to Mei Mei's which is a silk shop with my friend Erin. She had ordered some cashmere blankets and needed to pick them up. So I went along as I wanted to talk to her about the silk I am going to use in my wedding dress. I found some light weight raw silk/sateen material in a white/ivory to use. It's 75RMB per meter so all up the material will cost around $330 AU, is that a good price? Now I all I need to do is find someone to make it. I also bought a cashmere/silk blanket for a lounge room throw/spare room back home.


It is the picture above. I want to get some made for our queen sized bed for back home also.

This morning my fish Sue is doing some funny side sleeping! Yes she does this occasionally. I will have to keep a special eye on her as she may be on the way out. The temperature has dropped here in the last few days and so the different temperature may be the cause. I have had to move my fighting fish Jo to the lounge room yesterday to be next to the heater as I try to get here through the winter, Sue may need to move from the study to the lounge also.

This is Kane holding our friends newborn Jemima Grace. She is around 8 days old in the picture. She is the daughter of our friend's Gerard and Felicity who come from Benella/Myrtleford in the NE of Victoria, only a hand-throws drive from us in Wodonga. And they also used to work a Catholic College in Wodonga. They work at our school in Suzhou! Coincidence some? She was born via cesarean and was over 4.2kg born, a big girl. She is just gorgeous!

Kane is out playing soccer, I might have brekkie, head over to get fruit and veg and see if Kane wants to go for a walk, it beautiful and sunny outside... I can see blue sky, a rarity. Take advantage while I can, but it still is chilly :)

Bye, and have a great week. Maybe this will be the week when we find out what we are doing next year, fingers crossed for us.

Kelly

15 school days to go...

Thank god it Friday... is all I can say. I am so over work at the moment. It is so hard to get into the Christmas Spirit here. I have only seen 3 xmas trees here in Suzhou and they are all in the foyer at school. School has been sooo busy. Everyday I seem to be more and more extra stuff to do and the work that I really need to do, does not get done, ie. REPORTS! Yes they are due in 3 weeks. We only sent home mid-term reports and had interviews 1 1/2 weeks ago. Ridiculous! All I can write is a repeat of what I said in the interview last Wednesday.
Any-who, off for my bath. I need to warm up somehow.
Kelly
xxx

Sleepless week.

I have had a very sleepless week of late. I think with the whole am I moving am I staying, it has definitely impacted my ability to sleep. I have had to change my whole thought patterns into, 'oh shit, I only have 7 months to lose weight for my wedding dress, have the wedding dress made, have the bridesmaid dresses made, buy that Chinese furniture, buy those Tupperware sets, get those invitations done, etc, etc'. While no definite answers have been made, it's a 50/50 chance and I just wish a decision was made so we know where we are going. And while the whole 'life in someone else's hands' is frustrating, in another way it's nice because down the track you can't blame yourself for making the wrong decision as in our case a decision will be made for us that will force whether we go or stay.

Kane is coughing a spluttering at the moment - he got sick. So many of you would know I now have a very big baby in the house. It has gotten cold. At night we now have a doona, woolen blanket and polar fleece blanket on the bed and it's only November - the worst is definitely yet to come. It was between New Years and Chinese New Year in January that it hit it's worse with down to -14 over night and 2 degrees during the days a maximums during the snow storm, I hope it doesn't happen again :(

This weekend it will be nice to have a weekend together. I am about to head to Singa Plaza to get some bread and some fresh flowers. I love having flowers in the house and here I have numerous indoor plants. Luckily I have only killed 2 so far! I bought a big one last weekend and I love it. Now I come home from work each night and it gives the place good feng shui. It's relaxes you immediately (well, me anyway).

Have a great weekend loawai's! (Chinese for foreigners)
Kelly
xxx

Coming Home???

We may just be coming home now, this is the exact replay to our application for leave...

"Dear Kane & Kelly;
First, and foremost, we certainly hope you strongly consider extending your contract with SSIS. It would be wonderful to have you for another year!
Second, while we certainly understand your situation, the SMT was not able to support your taking the significant amount of time, away from your students. We certainly hope that you are able to both stay with SSIS as well as work out the details for your wedding!
Best regards,Paul Sheppard"

So, what to do? We have (well Kane has) drafted a letter of appeal (of somewhat), but you know, I think I am OK with it now. I wasn't earlier and I think it will take time to sink in, but you know, I could get used to the idea of camping by the Murrumbidgee and skiing on lake Hume etc again.

We'll see what the week brings. I just had to get this off my chest, maybe I'll be able to sleep again...

Night everyone
Kelly
xxx

PS - If we come home, look at the count down above, only 7 momths away!!!!!

I miss my Leo

Look at his face!

Personality plus +++

How can you not love the pure arrogance of it?

I love you Leo.

Sue and Jo just don't cut it the same way -

What to post?

I really don't know what to write this weekend.

Work has been busy as usual. We did a 6 day week this week, 3 days training and 3 days of teaching. Kane is also heading for Shanghai with some students at 6.30 tomorrow morning for a table tennis championship tournament, so that's a 7 day week for him. I hope he doesn't play soccer on Sunday as well, I'll bear the brunt of his tired moods!

I have tried to do as many jobs as possible tonight so that I can have a relaxing two days off work on Saturday and Sunday. So far the only 3 jobs I have to do are: 1, groceries, 2, get pedicure/manicure (hmm - not really a job!!!), and 3, gym it. Not too hard eh? I probably should try to Xmas shop as well. We'll see if I can be bothered. I have bought a new movie that I'll watch tomorrow while Kane is not here, its called something like the sisterhood of travelling pants 2. It sounded very girly. I also saw a pretty cool movie last weekend that's really girls too (if you're into that), it was called Sydney White, very teenagey and based on Snow White. I loved it. It's what I crave at the moment in movies - brain deadening numbness. Anything that I don't have to think too hard about and without violence/action.

So that's about it for the week that was,
Kelly
xxx

Mama Mia!

Here I go again.

My my, how can I resist you?

Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you.

Yes, I've been brokenhearted, Blue since the day we parted,

Why, why did I ever let you go? Mamma mia, now I really know,


My my, I could never let you go.

Last night we had a Mama Mia themed Birthday party. So we all tried to dress in Abba/70's clothing, make-up and hair.

It was a great night as we drank and sang along to the Abba songs from the Mama Mia movie.

The wig.

Above is the boss Martyn with us.

I went shopping at Wedding Street yesterday to buy some 'item' for a Mama Mia party next Friday. We looked and looked and I settled on a wig. It was around RMB120. I really liked it so I decided to wear it to Ayun's Birthday. Everyone loved it! And as you can see below, Kane enjoyed wearing it too! It was worn by many a person. Good fun :)

Last night was our friend Aytun's (I-ton) birthday. She is Turkish and married to Kane's Grade 4 team leader Dom for England. It was at the bookworm on Ping Jiang Lu. We went there a few weeks back for drinks with Erin and Ron. Last night it was a private party. RMB100 all you can drink and we also had a small buffet of food for RMB50. It was a really good night. Kane was on fire last night and had some great moves on the dance floor as you can see from the pictures.

Above is Deputy Head Heidi and Kane.

Below is Noah and Kane 'having a moment'

On Friday I went out with a friend Carla from school to her friends house for dinner. It is so humbling to be around some people. There were many different countries present at dinner. Ecuador, Spain, Belgium, China, Canada, New Zealand, America and of course me, Australia. Some people there could speak 3-4 languages! And there was me who can only speak 1 and a bit. The lady hosting is an amazing woman. She is from Belgium and grew up in Congo until around 8 or 9. Her parents are doctors whom volunteer there and still do up to 4 times a year. See is also a doctor, she has a young son and is also pregnant and travels to volunteer in countries such as Cambodia. She speaks native Flemish, Chinese, Spanish and some African language from the Congo. Makes you really humble to be around such a woman.

Anyway, have a great week.

Congratulations to Leah and Nick on the birth of their second son.