Off to Langkawi

We have spent the last few days lounging around in Penang. Today we have had a look around Georgetown, and tomorrow morning we will catch a ferry to Langkawi. We aren't staying on the beach as all the accommodation is booked out. So we will stay near the airport and hire a motorbike for the 3 nights we are there. I hope everyone had a great Xmas, and will have a fun filled New Year.
Kelly
xxx
PS - By the way.... I am the new uno champion!!!!! I just needed to put that in writing :)

In Kota Kinubalu

Hi everyone,
I am emailing from Kota Kinubalu today. We have been in Malaysia since Sunday morning now. On day was spent in Kuala Lumpur, and he have had 2 1/2 days in KK so far. Yesterday we went island hopping off the coast of KK, today we went to a wildlife zoo and park and tomorrow we will go to Mt Kinubalu Park to walk, swim in hot spring and walk 150m above the rain forest in a canopy walk. On Friday morning we will fly to Penang and spend 2 days on an island resort. After that we are going to try to catch a ferry to LangKawi and use a voucher (a gift for a delayed flight) from Air Asia to fly back to KL.
Take care,
Luv Kelly

UPDATE!!

WE
ARE
COMING
HOME
IN
JULY
2009!!!!

We are really excited to be coming home, but disappointed also.
See you all soon, the year will fly.

Shopping!

Poor Kane is so tuckered out from shopping yesterday. It was a big day. We left home at 8.30 and got back at 9.00 last night. Here are some of the purchases.

Guess Sunny's

Abercrombie Fluffy Jacket

My Snow Jacket/Wind Breaker

My Ugg Boots

Kane's Backpack

Kane's Jocks

Kane's Shirts

Bree's Shoes

I had heapsa fun. It was a big day. We also opened an ANZ China account to transfer some funds back home. Lunch was great. We ate at a really good quality restraunt called Element Fresh. Great food and smoothies. We went with another couple that were buying presents for Xmas in Canada so it was good to know what prices to pay for things. Our leave was denied again this week, so we are making one last effort to be able to stay, otherwise, as the count down says... today : 6 months, 2 weeks, 6 days.

We fly to Malaysia on Saturday next week. We will be staying in Kuala Lumpur for 2 nights and then we fly to Kota Kinabalu on the Borneo Island. We will stay there for 5 nights and then we will fly to Penang Island on Malaysia's Peninsula. We are booked in for 2 nights on an Island spa there. After that we have 5 days to get back down to KL and to fly back to China on the 2nd of January. We will be in Kota Kinubalu for Xmas and probably between Penang and KL for New Years. I am not sure if I will be able to post while away, but I will try to do another just before we leave next week.

Cheerio.

PS - Maybe I will go without Kane, he is being really mean today.

Xmas Party

Last night we had a Christmas Party at a staff members apartment in our complex. I wasn't sure how many people were going to come, but it sure was packed! Take a look at some of these pictures...

The shoes...

The cloak room...

the dining room...

the living room...

Kane!!!! (and his dead tooth!:)

I had so much trouble sleeping last night. My muscles are screaming today from yesterday's workout and I am in a world of pain. I woke up around 3ish freezing cold, pain in my legs and hips and not being able to sleep. I was cold despite the doona, woolen blanket, polar fleece blanket, 2 pair of socks, PJ's and long sleeve under-top. So I must be getting a cold, there is no other explanation for being so cold in bed. Kane definitely said I felt warm. We'll see how the week progresses.

I bought a Buddhism head at the antique market today. It's only small, maybe 12cm tall. I'm not sure if it is old, or new to look old. It does look at thought it was once part of a bigger object.

I think it's so cute and it only cost 25RMB after a bit of haggling. The incense burner that I wanted was too expensive, I will try again next time I go for a cheaper price, I'm willing to pay between 200-250 for it but I would only haggle to 150 today. The man's lowest offer was 800RMB and then he just told me to go away. I want that metal/antique burner, it's really cool.

How time flies

It's nearly Christmas and that means holidays!!!!!
Yay! We are finally outta China for a bit and not too soon as the temperature here is plummeting, down, down, down. Twas a mere 2 degrees yesterday, today it was 5.

We are heading out for a Chrissy party tonight, but not before we have pumpkin soup and a very high density loaf of bread, it looks good though.

I have been to the gym today... a whopping 715cals burnt!!!! 1 hour of incline walking and 40 mins of weights. I could hardly walk down the stairs on my way out. Don't go jumping to any conclusions though. I am not a regular and while I try, (or maybe want to try), I am no where near in any kind of routine with getting to the gym or working out at school. I have to say though, that I have eaten very well today - Pleased with me :)

We will finally, if everything goes to plan, know if we are coming home next year or staying for another month after Tuesday this week. We have reapplied for wedding leave after the wonderful Pam has extended my leave from WPS. What a relief it will be to know what we are doing, and I am sure other family and friends also want to know where we'll be.

Bye,
Kelly

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.

News

Not much to mention this week. The week has just flown by so quickly. I guess it is because we spend so much of our day at school here. We get up around 6.30am and by 7, Kane is out the door riding his bike to work and I catch the bus to school at 7.30. It is around a 25 minute bus journey and so I am there by 7.50am (around the time I used to get up in the morning when back at WPS!) School starts at 8.30am, but the kids start coming into the room from 8.15. Then we work until 3.30pm, Monday we have a Elementary meeting as well and so we can catch the 5.00 bus home which takes around 40-45minutes, Tuesday I get to catch the 4.00 bus home and this one take30-35minutes, Wednesday I do an after school club of Sharks Swimming and have to catch the 5.00 bus and Thursday I do Yoga and catch the 5.00 bus, luckily Friday I can go home on the 4.00 bus. So 3 out of 5 night I'm not home until quarter to six and 2 nights home at twenty to five. Long days make the week definitely go quick. It still feels like last Monday!

Kane asked Luke to be in our bridal party today and so now everyone knows, thank you Luke, Ty, Becky and Narelle. It is still all up in the air about what we will be doing next year, but on Friday our pay went up another $500+ per month via the US/AU currency conversion. Kane is thinking about changing the date of our wedding from the 12th until the following week, which'll be the 19th of December, as this means less time off from work. But my Great-Grandmother has told my Mum, "Do not let her change the date, it's bad luck". I definitely want thing to go smooth, so I'll try to heed that advice Grandma :)

Have a great week everyone,

Kelly
xxx

Kane's addition to the F1

We were lucky enough to go to the Shanghai Grand Prix this weekend which was pretty amazing. There was certainly plenty of power and an unbelievable amount of noise at the race. We got to the track via a bus at about 11:00 or so. We had a nice spot on a grass hill where we could see the back straight and a big sweeping bend. I also had a couple of beers which was nice. Anyway back to the races- we watched the formula 2, the porsches and then the main event. It is amazing just how much noise and power that these cars produce. I used ear plugs which I was happy to buy. It was amazing to see that people could actually sleep when the race began- Kelly being one of them. I was not impressed and I threw some things at her- deservedly I believe. God only knows how many laps she slept for. It must have been the beer that she had before the race.

Love from the hairy chested love god!

More Cars

Lap 1 of the Shanghai Formula 1 2008

This one may not work unless you have a VLC media player. I couldn't get the format to change and my camera is a bit dodgy. It's about a minute if you want to try, and have your speakers turned right up!

Out and About

I feel like I need to write this like a meeting agenda! So here goes:

Item 1

Christmas Holidays

We have booked our flight to Malaysia. We expected it to be a lot cheaper than it actually ended up being. I think it was around AU$1250 return for both of us in the end just from China to Malaysia. We are then paying an extra AU$500 to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu on the Borneo island of Malaysia and then to fly to Penang island which is way up near the Thailand border on the Malaysian Peninsula. We are going to try and book all our accommodation through online agencies such as Agoda and Wotif, to try and get some cheaper deals at nicer places. In Kota Kinabalu you can go to Turtle Island which is a National Park that you stay over night at and watch the turtles come up and lay eggs, watch them hatch and see what the Malaysian people are doing to try and encourage more turtles to survive. Then we might try to climb to the top of Mt Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Malaysia. There is also an Orangutan Sanctuary and Rain forest walks, hot springs and canopy walks. So it will be a very busy and fun 3 days. After that we will go to Penang. We might stay one night there and have a look around, but a few people from school haven't said many good things about it. We are really only going there as it was the closest we could get to Langkawi from Kota Kinabalu (I love saying that name). We will catch a water ferry I think. I've been told it takes about 1.5 hours. Then at the end of our journey, we will catch the train back to Kuala Lumpur.

So next job... book the Phillipines Holiday. It is only 2 weeks after we get back from Malaysia.

Item 2

New Find in Suzhou

We have found a funky new street here in Suzhou. It is called Ping Jiang Lu. It has been done up with cool little coffee shops and tea shops as well as a bookshop called the Bookworm. It is housed in a 700 year old builing on a bridge. Here we are having drinks with Ron and Erin the other night.

Item 3

Currency Conversions

OMG! Have you seen how much the US/AU dollar is at the moment. Like $3000 difference to the pay check each month, yeah baby! :) Which brings us to our next issue. Do we stay an extra year to clear our mortgage debt? It's a gamble, because it may go up again and then we are stuck here. We have got a verbal agreement from our Head to have 10 days off for our wedding, so that may not be an issue. We'd have from the 5th of December off to the 20th with leave without pay plus a few weekend days and then it just joins into the Christmas break. The problem will be being able to get time off from my school in Wodonga and being away from everyone even longer. Kane said the other day, he almost wishes the dollar would go back up so it wasn't even an option to stay. I will keep you posted. I miss my job back home, I miss my house, I miss my garden, I miss my cat (I love you Leo), I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss netball (It's like I don't even have to think about exercise - I just do it), I miss my car, I miss shopping, I miss the clean air, I miss heaps of stuff. But having a mortgage paid off and being able to save all that extra money or only have one of us working when we have kids or bring able to buy another house is so tempting. It'd only be another 22 months, but like $160,000 tax free if the dollars stays under 70 cents. What would you do?

Item 4

Baby Showers

Do we have these back home? They are big here. We had one on Sunday last. Our friend Felicity (Aussie from Benella/Myrtleford) is due in 2 weeks. So we had her baby shower at the Shereton in SND. It is quite a quite expensive brunch. We all get her gifts and she came home with so much stuff. Poor dear though, she is still working. Here you only get 3 months off. This starts from the delivery of the baby. So you have to work right up to the week before delivery and have to come back so soon afterwards. Only one month is paid leave. I refuse to do that to my body. I want to be able to take 6 weeks off beforehand and enjoy every minute (If I can) of it with family and friends. I think it is so barbaric in this day and age. Even the Chinese staff get 6 months paid leave!

Item 5

New Love

I have fallen in love with creamy soda. Yum, it's an AW brand from the states. I go to Casa Zoe just to get a drink of it now. At 16RMB, its the same price as a beer.

Item 6

The F1 Grandprix

We are going to the F1 Grandprix on Sunday. I have never been to a big car or bike race before, So it'll be interesting I think. I will definitely need some ear plugs. We are in the grass section, sitting near the big hairpin bend, on the left of the course. I will post picture and share more after the event.

I think that's about it for me.

Bye everyone,

Kelly

Suzhou smells so sweet

Above is the sweet smelling plants that has perfumed Suzhou at the moment. It grows on a tree, but I am not sure what its name is. It has a vanillaery smell and the trees are all over town, so it must be a Suzhou speciality.It's smell is masking the rotting food and other China smells quite well. I picked this on the way home from the restaurant today.

This past week has gone so slow and so fast all at the same time. It's been busy and relaxing and I'm kicking myself that my camera has not been charged as we've done some fun things.

I have been feeling homesick lately, I think more so because Kane has started thinking about wanting to stay for an extra year in China. So I decided I wanted a pet. We went down to pet street and brought 3 fish, some plants and rocks and bought them home. Pet street is a sad street, so many different animals in cages. Kane though for a few days about getting snake, so cheap here less than $100 with cage and all. Thankfully Mum talked him out of it. So I got my new pets home and they looked all squashed in the bowl. The bowl that housed my fighting fish last year that died in the winter cold. Over night 1 fish died, one progressively died in the morning. I needed a bowl that allowed more oxygen in, so I got 1 for $10 at Auchan (like Kmart/Coles), by the time I got home, all dead! So I threw them all over the balcony for the birds! SO now I had a bowl, rocks and plants and ceramic pagoda, but no fish.

We did 2 big bike rides, 1 down town, we had a good look around and were gone for 2 and a bit hours and the other ride was around the lake. It too was a few hours. My bum was quite good in recovery, but I think Kane is frustrated I can't ride faster on my pedal pusher compared with his stallion!

We had brought tickets to go to Shanghai. The fast train in only $5 (first class) and only takes 34 minutes. After leaving Suzhou at 7.57, we spent 12.5 hours walking around and found a really cool area called TaiKangLu. It is really funky, arty and has lots of cafes, restaurants and bars there. I got some yummy oolong/ginseng tea that has a sweet after taste, I really liked it. Kane was disappointed he didn't have his camera and I am disappointed I didn't have mine charged. Next we went searching for Decathlon, a mega sports store, it was an expedition to get there! Never rely on Chinese business cards or maps, they are not to scale, 3 hours later.... we were again looking for another cool area we'd heard about. Finally found, it was way too expensive for us and so we headed back to the train station to go back to Suzhou. We got home around 9.30pm.

We went out for brekkie twice this past week. A place called Simon's. We took Mum there for Mothers Day. They have since renovated and revamped the Menu. A big brekkie and refills of coffee for under $5. Better than Macca's.

Yesterday I again ventured out, got some almonds at Bar street, walked to Walking street to check out some silk that I might use in my wedding dress and then onto Pet st again. You can see I am using the English description names and that if how most foreigners (laowei in Chinese) refer to them. I again tried to get a pet! This time I chose a particularly fat fish that I've named Sue and and a rather scrawny fighting fish called Jo. Put together, they become SuZhou (SuJo - our city). Of course they can not live together, so Sue has the big bowl, that was never used to house my 3 dead friends, and Jo is living in the small vase in the bathroom with some plants as company. There they are:

Today we also went out to the driving range. I hit a golf ball off the ground - Yay! Kane was hitting some monsters 250m or so the signs says, he has really good at it. I personally think it's because he has bigger muscles than me :) We got nearly 40-50 balls for only $4. It was great fun. Then we went to our favourite restraint Zen for dim sum with the people we'd golfed with. Again we had a great time. After we all came back to our apartment for coffee and cake. I made Mama's carrot cake and I pulled out the nescafe coffee sticks. The cake was a huge success, while Kane still thinks it's missing Mama's secret ingredient ;) I think it's pretty close.

So back to school tomorrow and we'll slog through to the 19th of December now, it sounds so far away.

Bye everyone, I hope you feel better soon Jenny,

KK