Not too long ago a hotel here in Hong Kong got quarantined because one of it's guests was diagnosed with Swine Flu. All the other guests were immediately confined to their rooms with their phones as the only means of communication with the outside world. Much to one expat woman's surprise she got a call from her husband with the news that he was stuck in the hotel. Not a second later their helper called with the same news. You can imagine how quickly the expat woman put 2+2 together. What are the odds of anything like this happening?!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Eva's letter to the Tooth Fairy
Eva had lost her tooth a while back and accidently swallowed it. Months later another tooth came out and she thought that this would be a great occassion to ask for the money that she missed last time. She mentions Littlest Petshop in her letter, these are little animals with big bobble heads that Eva and Ella play with all the time. They have by now more than 70 of those little guys. Here follows the letter:
Dear tooth fairy,
please give 600 HK dollers to buy the Big Gym for littlest pet shops and a tooth I Swolloed so can I have extra money,
Love,
Eva
600 HK dollars is 77 US dollars!
Ella's poems
Ella has discovered poems as a creative outlet. She has written many but here are her 2 recent ones:
Clouds and Sky
In the sky I see a ballet dancer,
and I see deer like Rudolph and and Prancer,
I see a worm wiggling by,
and I look out the window with a sparkle in my eye,
I see a man yelling with a big nose,
the sky is blue like water from a hose,
I see a fish, a dog,a skeleton,
the clouds seem like gelatin.
by Ella O'Connell
Tap Dancing
Tipety Tap,
whipety whap,
lipety lap,
clickety clack,
Oh! Please come back!
By Ella O'Connell
Clouds and Sky
In the sky I see a ballet dancer,
and I see deer like Rudolph and and Prancer,
I see a worm wiggling by,
and I look out the window with a sparkle in my eye,
I see a man yelling with a big nose,
the sky is blue like water from a hose,
I see a fish, a dog,a skeleton,
the clouds seem like gelatin.
by Ella O'Connell
Tap Dancing
Tipety Tap,
whipety whap,
lipety lap,
clickety clack,
Oh! Please come back!
By Ella O'Connell
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Soup
You know when you're in China when you find a chicken foot with nails, skin and all at the bottom of your soup bowl. I can't say it bothers me that much anymore. Not after I had downed two grasshoppers in Thailand a few years ago.....
Back on the Blog
As most of you know we've had a rough year behind us and for that reason I haven't done much writing on this blog. I now want to write again about our life here in Hong Kong and in Asia. We might move on to greener pastures (Canada, Europe?) at some point so we are making the most of our time here. I hope to record our experiences here to share with you.
We are planning to go see Angkor What in Cambodia in the near future, followed by another visit to China. On our way out we'll go see New Zealand and Australia. There is much more on our wish list but as we have already seen so much of this part of the world, we will not complain if this is it!
We are planning to go see Angkor What in Cambodia in the near future, followed by another visit to China. On our way out we'll go see New Zealand and Australia. There is much more on our wish list but as we have already seen so much of this part of the world, we will not complain if this is it!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Change of life
A lot has happened in the last couple of months. Carl had left the company he was working for and went after a few opportunities in Singapore and one here in Hong Kong. Ella, Eva and I were hoping it would be the Hong Kong option and luckily it came through. The job turns out to be exactly what he wants. He has been talking about taking it easier the last couple of years and this is the kind of job that he has been talking about all this time. After so many years of extreme long days and too little time for family and friends this has been a welcome change.
Since the company is a new start-up hedge fund with little guarantees until proven we have decided to take a step back. For this reason we have moved to a cheaper appartment which is also a blessing in disguise. The building we used to live in was on an "expat-compound" and especially for me too overwhelming. I don't know exactly how many people live there but by estimation I think that we were surrounded by at least 500 appartments. You can just imagine.....Every morning we had to wait for the schoolbus with at least 40 other family members at one tower and there was no escape from each other anywhere: we all shared a play ground, a pool, a gym, a shopping area with doctors, dentists, spa, supermarket and photo shop. You either become very rude and impolite or you just fall into it like I did, because I needed them in a way. We didn't know anybody.....For this reason it was good starting out here because we made friends in a very short time and lots of wonderful people live here. So I am grateful about that but I am much happier about being in a more local neighbourhood with a lot more privacy. Another big change has been letting go of our helper. It was actually my decision not Carl's but he was convinced very quickly. The first one we had to let go after she gave an overdosis of medicine to Eva. The second one was about to begin when all the possible changes appeared and we held of temporarily. During this break I realised how much our privacy had been invaded (helpers have to live in your house to be legally in HK) and the effect it had had on all of us. I always felt uncomfortable about my relationship with our helper (even though we got along really well in the end and we still are in contact up to this day). They become such a part of your life and a proffessional relationship is hard to keep when living in one house. After months and months of having this constant help it slowly had effect on the kids and me. Ella and Eva got quite spoiled in the way that nothing was being picked up (dirty clothes, toys etc) by them. The strange thing is that we were always so adamant about them helping out but day by day things changed. It was more work for me to keep telling the helper every day to not clean up after them and to keep reminding Ella and Eva to help out than to slowly give in. It was a lost battle. This is what I didn't like. I had seen too many cases around us where kids did absolutely nothing and at the age of 8 still had their helper dress them. The helpers are being trained to do this and mostly will insist on doing it that way since that is what a good helper is supposed to do. Anyhow to make a long story short: it wasn't good for me (okay, for a short while it was bliss...) and it wasn't good for Ella and Eva. Recently they expressed their thoughts about not having a helper: they are more happy now....glad to be just with the family.
Since the company is a new start-up hedge fund with little guarantees until proven we have decided to take a step back. For this reason we have moved to a cheaper appartment which is also a blessing in disguise. The building we used to live in was on an "expat-compound" and especially for me too overwhelming. I don't know exactly how many people live there but by estimation I think that we were surrounded by at least 500 appartments. You can just imagine.....Every morning we had to wait for the schoolbus with at least 40 other family members at one tower and there was no escape from each other anywhere: we all shared a play ground, a pool, a gym, a shopping area with doctors, dentists, spa, supermarket and photo shop. You either become very rude and impolite or you just fall into it like I did, because I needed them in a way. We didn't know anybody.....For this reason it was good starting out here because we made friends in a very short time and lots of wonderful people live here. So I am grateful about that but I am much happier about being in a more local neighbourhood with a lot more privacy. Another big change has been letting go of our helper. It was actually my decision not Carl's but he was convinced very quickly. The first one we had to let go after she gave an overdosis of medicine to Eva. The second one was about to begin when all the possible changes appeared and we held of temporarily. During this break I realised how much our privacy had been invaded (helpers have to live in your house to be legally in HK) and the effect it had had on all of us. I always felt uncomfortable about my relationship with our helper (even though we got along really well in the end and we still are in contact up to this day). They become such a part of your life and a proffessional relationship is hard to keep when living in one house. After months and months of having this constant help it slowly had effect on the kids and me. Ella and Eva got quite spoiled in the way that nothing was being picked up (dirty clothes, toys etc) by them. The strange thing is that we were always so adamant about them helping out but day by day things changed. It was more work for me to keep telling the helper every day to not clean up after them and to keep reminding Ella and Eva to help out than to slowly give in. It was a lost battle. This is what I didn't like. I had seen too many cases around us where kids did absolutely nothing and at the age of 8 still had their helper dress them. The helpers are being trained to do this and mostly will insist on doing it that way since that is what a good helper is supposed to do. Anyhow to make a long story short: it wasn't good for me (okay, for a short while it was bliss...) and it wasn't good for Ella and Eva. Recently they expressed their thoughts about not having a helper: they are more happy now....glad to be just with the family.
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