bike rides in Kowloon City

We don't have bikes here in Hong Kong. We could get the girls some bikes, but if we did, we don't have a place to store them. I have one smart friend who bought a parking space in her apartment and that is where they keep their double jogging stroller and their bikes. I thought that was ingenious... I hadn't thought of doing that! But they live close to a lot of bike paths, and they've lived in Hong Kong for nine years, so naturally are a bit more settled than we are.

Anyway, we just discovered a place not too far from us where you can rent bikes and bike around some bike paths. Maybe in summer we can work on getting rid of those training wheels that Annika still needs, but at least the riding part came back to her.



We are LOVING the sunshine that we've been having again. It was a great Saturday activity and we will have to do it again.

Kowloon City is famous for Thai restaurants, so we had to have some Thai food for lunch before heading home! Yum!

The Happy Skirts Arrive!

Annika and Leila are the lucky recipients of their second round of "Happy Skirts" made by their Grandma Ruth. They were a Valentine's Day present, but unfortunately the lady at the post office sent them "surface", rather than air mail. So we've been watching the mail for a loooooong time! When the door lady gave them the packages, Annika started shrieking "the Happy Skirts! The Happy Skirts!". Thanks, Grandma Ruth! They looked very cute at church wearing them, and were very easy to spot at the playground later in the afternoon.

my point of view

The other day I had our air conditioning units cleaned. Not something I would think of to do, but makes sense that you should do this before it gets hot again so that the air is (somewhat) clean that comes out of them.

They basically invaded our little flat leaving not much space for Leila and I, so I put on a show for her to watch, and despite the loud noise of them working, I looked over and this is what I saw. Not much cuter than a sleeping child! :)

Sickies

I have to say, we've been pretty healthy in the 7.5 months we've been here. I would have expected that being exposed to new germs and bugs, and with Annika in kindergarten bringing home germs that we'd have been sick a lot more. But last Wednesday when I picked Annika up from kindergarten, she whimpered the whole way home that she was cold and as soon as we walked in the door she went and laid down on the couch and spent the rest of the evening lying there under a blanket. I kept her home from school the next day, and Leila was putzing around the whole day annoying Annika who had a fever and wasn't feeling well, when all of a sudden in the late afternoon Leila joined her on the couch with her blanket. Our ear thermometer quit working, and once you've had one of those nifty things you never want to go back, so I bought a new one and it is even better than the last one because it beeps twice if you have a fever and also shows a happy face/sad face depending if you have one or not (in addition to showing the temperature). So while Annika bounced back except for a hacking cough, Leila continued to make the thermometer show a sad face for five days straight. Finally on Monday I decided it was time to see what a trip to the doctor in Hong Kong is like.

There is a hospital right across from CAIS, so Jocelyn showed us where to go and what to do. You pretty much just walk in and ask to see a doctor. You pay up front, but get reimbursed from our health insurance provider once we submit our claim. I was pretty impressed- we didn't have to wait all that long, and the doctor's English was really good. The only thing is that all the nurses and doctors have masks, so that made it a little hard to understand them because their mouths were covered. But he was really thorough, and even recommended a chest x-ray to eliminate the possibility of pneumonia. I just wanted her checked out because she had an ear infection last spring and never once told me that her ears hurt. In the end, he said it was mild bronchitis and sent us home with FOUR bottles of medicine! Isn't that crazy? And so confusing to keep track of all the instructions. One of them is just Dimetapp which is good because our reserves of Canadian medicine have been getting low. So I've just been giving her the antibiotics and the fever/cough/phloem ones as needed. And she's already feeling a lot better.

But I have been feeling the whole time that the girls have been sick that I may be getting a sinus infection. I hoped I could fight it off, but today my teeth started tingling (does anyone else get that with a sinus infection?) and realized that it was my turn to see the doctor.

And look! My own little pharmacy of pills. They give them out like candy! Now Mike came home with a hoarse voice, so he may be next. There have been lots of kids absent in both his and Annika's class, so there is definitely stuff going around. I think the cool damp weather doesn't help.

But I'm sure soon we'll be back to our healthy selves, and now we have a better idea of how the doctor/hospital system works. One good thing is that the girls go to bed SO easily while they've been under the weather. We've pretty much thrown Leila into bed as early as 6:30 some nights, and Annika is quick to follow. And all this talk of bed is making me want to retire early myself... Good night!

evening walk

The other evening after a warm day that felt like spring (but it got cold again), we went on an after supper walk. Mike had discovered this little playground, but the rest of us hadn't been there. You had to walk up these stairs up the edge of a small mountain (hill?).

And at the top... GRASS! What a treat for after all that exercise! Look how it's so grey. We haven't seen the sun in a long time. I keep reminding myself that I'd rather have grey than snow. I really would. ("Rain and grey would be welcome and preferably/melt away my frozen tears/ I'd rather be/ with an umbrella walking down the street.") But good thing the multi-vitamins I give the girls have some Vitamin D in them!

Here's some rickety steps leading up to nowhere. There were signs that we weren't allowed to use them.
And here's the view of where we came from. That big apartment complex is called Celestial Heights, and I wish we could live there. But we can't afford it- the rent is really high, but the flats are also (apparently) huge. It's a new building, and there's a shopping complex at the bottom of it which is where I always go to do my grocery shopping. And it's where the girls have their ballet lessons. There's also a dim sum place that I'd like to try, but (apparently) Mike is not a fan of dim sum. It doesn't fill him up. Well... anyway....

So at the top of this mountain, the girls became fast friends with this little guy, and he became fast friends with Mike. With the exception of his own daughters, I've never seen a baby take to Mike the way this boy did! He was like a puppy who wouldn't leave you alone. He kept toddling up to Mike and want to be picked up. Then the five or so ladies standing around would all cackle and laugh, and the one (I assume was his grandma) would come and take him back.

But it was no use. As soon as his grandma would put him back down, he'd be right back to where Mike was, wanting to be picked up again. Also, it was funny to me that he was wearing a snow suit when it was really quite warm out!

The whole thing got a little awkward because as soon as Mike would appease the little guy and pick him up, his grandma would come take him back, and it just continued like that until we left. And then he howled and was so sad. It made us wonder what kind of male involvement was happening in his life for him to have that kind of reaction. But it was still a nice walk and we continued up more steps and were rewarded with a tennis court at the top. And bathrooms.
Here the girls are modeling their new shirts, hairbands and butterfly toys from Grandma and Grandpa Janzen! They love everything you sent! Thank-you!

Leila's turn

Yesterday Leila had her first lesson, and you know that expression "her face lit up"? I put on her outfit and showed her in the mirror and the look she got on her face was priceless. There's not much that can beat a purple tutu! She had a great time and wished she could go again today. Tu-tu cute!

love