Date: December 2, 2014
Mood: Wishing this headache would go away
Weather: Dreary and kinda cold
Listening to: Let's Twist Again by Chubby Checker
Reading: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
I really suck at this daily “diary” thing. It's not really surprising, honestly, because I've always been terrible about keeping a day to day diary or journal. And believe you me, I've tried numerous times. I had hopes that by doing it blog style this time I'd be more inclined to stick to my guns when it came to writing. Maybe it's the lack of followers and feedback; maybe it's just I'm lazy. Somehow I think the latter is probably more to blame. Haha
So, let's think. What's been going on? Our Turkey Day night sleepover with the youngest sister-in-laws went well. Though apparently the kids made a bit too much noise late at night and upset one of the neighbors. Ooops. :O Honestly, I think someone was maybe having a hard time sleeping and thought they'd just point a finger at any possible cause because I didn't think they were being very loud and I was in the room with them. Either way, from here on out we're striving to stay under the radar, so.... shhhhhhhh. ;P
Friday the monkeygirls went back to father-in-law's with their aunties, and enjoyed a day with grandma. They came home that night, then we made a day trip into Hong Kong the following morning so I could make it to the post office. It's not that they don'thave post offices here in China, but I've never set foot in one. I suppose they work just as well as the Hong Kong ones, yet I feel far more comfortable sending and receiving all mail on the HK side of the border.
I don't really have anything against the Chinese post office, but I sort of feel like my mail is safer and more likely to arrivewhere it is supposed to when I post and/or receive it in Hong Kong. And here at the school we have an address that is in Chinese characters which makes for difficulties when it comes to US friends and family trying to write it out on the envelope. If theywere to write the English translation it would likely never arrive here because once it made it as far as the post office over here they'd probably not understand what was written on it. Maybe they would, but then that's still only one of the hurdles. Assuming a letter or package was sent to us from the States, or anywhere really, and it was addressed to us here at our flat inside China not only would it have to make it through the regular post. It would also have to find us once it arrived on campus where no one actually has mailboxes. Granted we are on the only foreigners here so based on name alone it would be easy enough to know when mail came for us; however, then the mail man leaves the mail at the front gate and they call everyone when mail arrives for them. So it would be a complete crap shoot if we'd even get a call or if it'd just go unnoticed and become MIA. Hence, why Iprefer to just stick with using the Hong Kong post for all my mailing needs.
It wasn't an overly exciting trip to Honkers, but we did have fun at the huge mall in ShaTin. Hubby was still researching video cameras, and the kids and I busied ourselves finding something to entertain us at each shop. lol The first shop had iMacs, so while hubby fiddled with video cameras the monkeygirls played with Photobooth on the iMacs and I started reading a book on iBooks. Hey, what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good book, and if given the chance I'm gonna find one to start reading. Now I have to go buy it though, the book- not the computer, because I only read the first chapter but got hooked. At the next shop the girls and I killed time checking out the gorgeous big screen tvs. Apparently 3D is the new big thing, that and curved screen televisions. Who knew?
Later we discovered an amazing massage chair store, and OMG I wanted to buy one right then and there. Unfortunately these suckers cost, on the low end, $38K Hong Kong. That's roughly $4,900 USD which is just a little outside my current budget for a chair- even if it was like sitting in Heaven. lol Also, sadly, there's no way we could transport something like that to our flat in China, and delivery would take 3 months and cost an addition several thousand HKD. Gonna have to pass at this time. Boo
Ooh, we also found another amazing bookstore. This one was even better than the last one we found a few weeks ago. Compared to that one this one was massive. It did have a predominantly Chinese language selection, but that's not to say it was without any English books. It actually had quite a nice Children's/Young Adult's section in English and then several other Adult sections that offered English only titles.
Needless to say, the monkeygirls were once again begging to browse and buy. How do you say “no” to the request for books? Really, it's practically impossible- especially when you have such a limited selection at home because you downsized nearly everything and then stored the rest before you moved across the world. Youngest monkeygirl ended up talking her way into the ownership of two new chapter books, and big sister settled on some young adult chapter book and sweet book containing the full collection of “Where's Waldo” picture puzzles.
I have to say, it was near torture going through that store and not buying a single thing for myself. I felt physically ill. I wanted to buy all those beautiful books and bring them home with me. Even one would have been glorious, but the pain of having to downsize when we moved has me hesitant to build up any kind of a physical collection here since I don't intend to live here forever. As much as it pains me, I'd rather, for me personally, just stick to my plethora of ebooks. My collection grows daily so it isn't as if I can't find something to read. (Speaking of which I'm sure anyone reading this might wonder why I have been reading the same book for so many days. The answer for this is really simple. I've been distracted with Fall tv and new movies. It's shameful; I know.)
What I neglected to mention before now is the excitement we experienced shortly before heading back home. As were walking around the mall trying to decide what we were going to get for dinner on the way out monkeygirl #1 suddenly exclaimed “Where's my purse?!?!?!” We all turn to look at her, and sure enough she is no longer wearing her purse. Oh dear God! Would this be the purse that she was carrying her Kindle in, her just purchased perfume in, her brand new bottle of expensive hot Sriracha sauce in, her Octopus card (stored value travel ticket used for the MTR, the bus, etc) in, and her money in?! Yes, that would be the very same purse!!!! She immediately went into panic mode, and if I'm honest with myself a did a little bit too. It only took a second for her to recall when she last had it- back at the book store, 30-45 mins prior. :O
Apparently when we were in the kid's and young adult's section of the book store she asked her dad to watch her purse so she could browse comfortably without worrying about her purse. However, overcome by the wonder that was a fully stocked series of book shelves all prime for the perusing, what she didn't do was make sure her dad actually heard her ask him this before she just set the purse down next to him and walked away. Thankfully we were still in ShaTin when she made the discovery, but we were clear on the other side of this ginormous mall. So, we made our way back to the book shop like we had rockets on our heels, praying all the way that her purse would still be there. You'd almost not believe it, but it was! Didn't even look like anyone had touched it. THANK YOU, GOD!!!! It's not as though we couldn't have replaced the purse and its contents, but what a hassle and waste of money that would have been. Not to mention how terrible my darling monkeygirl would have felt. As it was, this served as a fantastic learning experience for both our girls. What do you NEVER do? You NEVER EVER EVER set down your stuff in public unless you know without a doubt someone else, that you've asked, is watching it.
Sunday was a far less eventful day in that regard, but it was a good day. Hubby's mom and older sisters met up with us and we went out to see the new Penguins of Madagascar movie at the local cinema. It was such a cute movie, and even played in English. Bonus! haha Before we got to watch it though we did have a small snafu. Our tickets said the movie started at 5:30 in theater #1, so at the right time we headed on in and found our seats. Promptly at 5:30 the lights dimmed and the commercials before the movie started. The commercial was only in Mandarin with English subtitles which was fine, but then the commercial didn't end. And it was becoming increasingly inappropriate (in a sexual nature) for young viewers. Strange considering this was a children's movie we were going to see. And that's when it hit us all. We were not watching a pre-Penguins commercial; we were watching the beginning of an actual movie. The beginning of a movie that was supposed to be playing in said theater. The theater we were not actually supposed to be in to watch our cartoon Penguins in. lol The ticket girl had given us tickets to the wrong movie at the wrong time, and our movie didn't actually start until 6pm in theater #4. Whoops!
