Last week, we moved into our "permanent" house. Well, permanent for 2 or 3 years anyway ! Until now we've been living in a 5 * hotel (10 days) and a house about 20 yards from where we have ended up. It's good to be settled at last.

Alex got far too used to the hotel and keeps on asking to go back & visit for Sunday Lunch ! One day we will. Ben turned on the charm and by the end of 10 days, pretty much all of the front of house staff knew him by name !

 

We're living in a complex of about 100 American style timber framed houses and if you ignore the Chinese voices, bicycles & traffic noise (& heat & mosquitos), you could be anywhere in the US. It's all very civilised with a Clubhouse containing a children's play area, shop, restaurants & (best of all) a 15m indoor pool. Needless to say, we're making full use of the pool & Alex's swimming is improving all the time. I've even had Ben floating about and although he's much happier playing in the shallows, he's gradually becoming braver. Francesca hasn't tried it out yet & is generally happy to watch the rest of us from the side.

Alex has settled into her new school quite well but there's still a fight to get her to the school bus every Monday morning. Thinking about it that's not much different to life at home.....She's made some good friends here, one in particular, but misses her Whittlesey school friends terribly. She probably most enjoys the freedom she gets within the compound as we let her have a free rein as long as she doesn't go out of the gates into the "real" China.

 

Pip's also settled in quite well and has made a couple of friends, one English & one Malay . She's begun to venture out into the local area rather than using only the (expensive) western style shops. In consequence, not only has the variety of food in the house increased exponentially, the grocery bill's fallen as well ! She's got an Ayi (housemaid) to take away the worry of the domestic chores and concentrates on looking after Ben & Francesca. The Ayi is learning English from Pip & in return she's helping Pip with her Chinese !

 

Chinese supermarkets, even the western style ones, are fascinating. Apart from not knowing if you're looking at pets or groceries (turtles, terrapins, bullfrogs, live fish etc), the Chinese love children, especially fair haired, fair skinned ones with blue eyes. Oops........Generally, when we go shopping, I take the kids & fend off the admirers whilst Pip does the actual shopping. It's not unknown to have a group of 12 or 15 Chinese following us around the shop ! Ben plays to the audience and has learned to say "Ni hao" (hello) already. He also loves looking in the fish tanks both in the pet area and the grocery area. Alex isn't quite as keen as one (in the grocery area) leapt out and scared her early in our stay ! Ben doesn't like the streetmarkets quite as much as he thinks the chickens & ducks are after him (they can't, their feet are tied). Pip just plain doesn't like the smell and I don't blame her. Not quite like Sainsburys or Tescos.

 

I've settled into the job as well and am enjoying the new challenge. The job I've ended up doing is nothing like the one I originally applied for but I don't mind as this one is more challenging & has more responsibility. I'm taking Mandarin Chinese lessons and have got to the stage where I can string simple sentences together, introduce myself & family, ask about food, drink etc. Not too bad in 6 weeks. Pip's also learning & is much better at remembering the vocabulary than I am but I'm better at constructing sentences. I think it's an Engineer thing......

I've also arranged to buy a motorcycle & sidecar here. I couldn't stay off 2 (or 3) wheels for long. It's one like the Peoples Liberation Army used to use & is based on a pre-war BMW design. Useless brakes, but fortunately a low top speed to match ! Pip & I are in the process of getting our Chinese driving licenses and I should be mobile next month sometime, Pip sometime later (she'll wait until I get mine before making her application).