One of the kid’s household chores that they really dislike is keeping the water pitcher full. Why? Because the dispenser is sooo slow to dispense!! So one of my clever children came up with an ingenious system to NOT have to stand around and hold the pitcher and getting arm strain…check this engineering marvel out! =)

Whee! The tree is up and anchored by lemons. Now, were just waiting to collect enough eggs to paint on the weekend. So far we’ve eaten omelette twice this week, and I predict that we’ll be having pancakes soon…

*Oh, and for those of you so inclined (like Mirs perhaps)…the tree is potted in a tin can that I covered with scrapbooking paper. Literally took 5 minutes.

…but not in China! Our Easter ritual unfortunately will be changing this year as Easter is not celebrated here, and will therefore be falling off the calendar. This is a huge shame especially since it offers a week long holiday, and a much awaited break for us Filipinos. Normally, it is our family tradition to head towards the beach, paint eggs, prepare our Easter tree, and organize the egg hunt that evolved into a treasure-hunt as the kids got older and hiding eggs was not enough! We’ll be missing out on all that beach activity this year, but we are trying to keep some aspects of it alive…so, i’m happy to announce that we have managed to prepare the tree so far…and eat lots of eggs!

I wish I could say that I made these cute little thingeys, but I actually bought them on Gulangyu!

Next weekend, we plan to get together with some friends for some egg painting, so I expect that my cheeks will be very painful by the end of the week from blowing out (and eating) all those eggs…so keep checking in as surely there will be lots more pictures of this to follow.

*sigh* …Allow me to reminisce for a bit…here are some pics from Easter ‘06

Our patio provides me with constant entertainment here in China. I mean…please raise your hand if ANY of you out there have ANY of these: (Bet you don’t!)

1.    A neighbor with a myna bird that does the HAWK-A-LUGEE sound! Oh yes he does!! It’s Hilarious!
2.    Panty liners falling from the sky. (Which grossed me out SO much that I took it and THREW it into my other neighbors plants!)
3.    Clumps of hair falling from the sky.
4.    The remains of eaten watermelons falling from the sky and smashing into a gazillion mush pieces and covering everything including my laundry. Yum!
5.    My neighbor slaughtering a chicken on his patio (adjacent to ours.)
6.    My other neighbor having done the same thing but adding the extra attraction of flattening it out and hanging it to dry on his clothesline.
7.    Dave once found a dead chick skeleton. Apparently it escaped from one of the neighbors hid behind our washing machine…only to die eventually.=(
8.    But the piece de resistance that I have for you is that used condoms fall from the sky here in China too. Incredible! (And I thought the panty liner was disgusting…)

I have pictures of the condom…but do you REALLY want me to post it? What I CAN post is this though…I also occasionally have this on my patio too. *grin*

For those of you that don’t know what a lugee is, here is a definition c/o Urban Dictionary. Lugee: The wad of phlegm that comes up when one is coughing, or hocking.

A very advanced HAPPEE HOLIDAZE to each and every one of you!

Hello People!!! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year AND Happy Chinese New Year to all! May the year of the Ox have started out with a blast for everyone and I pray that it brings you the body you have always wanted, all the Euros and pound sterling (coz who wants dollars?), and strength and health of well…an OX!


Xiamen is in the middle of celebrating the Lantern Festival right now, (which immediately follows Chinese New Year) so it’s literally SPILLING OVER with red lanterns and the Bailuzhou Gongyuan (the park in the middle of the Yundang Lake) is the backdrop to this terrific lantern exposition! It is an amazing display of metal armatures covered with this stretchy silk-like material that looks as fabulous during the day as they do at night. They are hugungous too, so which ever way you look at it, it’s an impressive form of ART!

For those history buffs among you, the Lantern Festival was kind of thought of as a matchmaking festival, and that was the only night in which young women were allowed out without a chaperone and early curfews…or something like that…please never quote me though!

Guess who just got one of these popular Chinese foldy bikes - Matti! And although he was less than enthusiastic in the beginning, he just loves it now, and we have to agree that it’s pretty great! It’s much heavier than I’d wished for, but how can I complain? It only cost RMB350, folds, and works! The folding part is very handy since we have already managed to take it on a bus and taxi with us with literally no hassle, plus it makes lugging it in and out of our building a piece of cake as well…YAY for foldy foldy bikes!! Nicolas wants one too now, so we’ll be heading out and buying him one today.

All these pictures below were taken while he biked home from the bike shop.

Update: Nicolas just got a blue one and is loving it as well. =)

Today was one of the first really cold days of the year, and we decided that there would be nothing nicer than to take a stroll along the boardwalk. And what a boardwalk it was! Miles and miles of it!…We were there for around 4 hours, and must have strolled along 4-5km of lovely beaches today. The real treat however were the french fries we ate the at the end of our walk at a place called Red Armadillo! Yumm! Followed by the delicious Hachez drinking chocolate (c/o Mushka from Germany) I made at home to warm our cold bones - you know that there is nothing like exercise and an ocean breeze to work up an appetite!

Haiwan park was built on reclaimed land and is just a 10 minute walk away from our place. It’s a lovely park that offers a lot for everyone: ocean, endless gardens playgrounds, skateparks, cafe’s, In-outdoor swimming pools and hydrospa, bars…you name it, it’s pretty much got it.