HKG069: Quiet Remembrance

in remembrance of a sweet girl who had too little time here on earth, texpat is silent today. we wish we could be with our friends in wichita falls...to be there with them and for them.

HKG068: Time to Build an Ark

this morning, both kids woke up to nearly an inch of standing water in parts of each of their rooms. the new air con setup caused a much more severe leak. waking up to this fiasco was not the way i wanted to start my friday, and honestly, it was pretty much downhill from there.

phase 1 of the construction finished today, and part of that finish was running a gigantic blue (and ugly) drain hose out of livie's window...that is the temporary drainage until the building maintenance folks come in and clear the clogged pipe. phase 2 will be our air con pipes being rerouted to the fixed/cleared pipe and our walls being repaired and painted. you can bet that we will be looking to book a hotel room for phase 2. if we can find a serviced apartment that allows cats and a short stay, we will be signing up.

q's favorite game with the couch. i swear i put the couch back together about 100 times each day.

bug fake sleeping

nasty mosquito bite on quinn

apparently, mosquitoes find quinn delectable. he gets bitten waaaayyyy more than the rest of us. i probably need to change my tune, but i have not been able to bring myself to spray them with off or other bug repellents. there is some seriously scary shit in bug repellents, and the thought of spraying that stuff on my kids' biggest organs, their skin, makes me cringe. and then i read warnings about dengue fever, and i have to weigh which is scarier.

quinn has been working as hard at mastering this climber as sissy has on mastering the monkey bars. he's pretty proud of himself. i have about 500 new gray hairs from watching him attempt to get from the climber to the playscape and running over just in time to catch/support him.

we got a wonderful treat in the middle of an otherwise rotten day...we got a package from dear friends, and we had an absolute ball opening it and squealing over each and every item. that package truly made our day.

tonight, i rounded out the day by keeping with the theme of rotten...i accidentally ruined a batch of butter chicken, which is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. i could have cried.

tomorrow is a new day. i have my first volunteer session at the wanchai SPCA where i will be working in the cattery. i am sure that even though i will mostly be doing dirty work, i will thoroughly enjoy mugging on all of those kitties.

HKG067: Space Invaders

today was another day of construction insanity. i got us out of the house for a good 3-hour chunk of it, but we still had to endure another 3 hours of it. i think i may have to hire a cleaning company to come in and help me get rid of the grit and dirt and powdery residue that is everywhere all over everything. i am going to have to wipe down all of the kids books/toys and launder all of their stuffed animals and bedding. the laundry down the hill will be getting a lot of business from us.

the landlord informed us today that the major leak in q's room is actually caused by a clogged pipe in the communal part of the building, which means it's the responsibility of the building maintenance staff to fix it. this will take 3 weeks to get all the parts, build the scaffolding to reach this clogged pipe on the 10th floor, and then actually fix it. arrggghh. i am not clear yet if that means that the new a/c unit will also leak. due to language barrier, i am getting information about the a/c repairs mostly by pantomime. i am hoping the landlord can relay my leak question to the repair crew and that she can then relay their answer to me.

we are batting 1000 with this apartment. when i went to give the kids their bath tonight, i found that their water heater is not working. it's no big deal to give them their bath in our bathroom since we are fortunate enough to have two baths, but it just irritates the shit out of me. oh, and their medicine cabinet door won't open. that is a problem since their meds and extra tooth brushes are in there. see? batting 1000.

kiddos working on a puzzle book together. they played nicely for about 30 of the 90 minutes we were trapped inside with access to only the living room...and then mutiny ensued with a side of headache.

q looking triumphant in his climbing prowess. the climbing is not really notable, but getting him to let go of gordon and thomas so that he could climb IS notable. it's a nearly constant battle to get quinn to let go of those darn trains so he can do stuff like hold my hand to cross a street or climb on the playscape. we never experienced anything like this with olivia, and i am at a loss as to how to get q to detach from his toys.

cutie bug on the tire swing. livie's been able to swing by herself since the summer after she turned three, but she asked me to push her on this tire swing for a long time today, and she really seemed to enjoy it.

la fu has started claiming this dining room chair as his day post. he seems to like to be in this chair where he's in the thick of whatever we are doing, but he's still cozy.

this is the mess in the dining room. tomorrow, i will post a picture of the scaffolding outside our dining room window. i have had people crawling in and out of the dining room window for 2 days now.

this is the debris from the old a/c units collected in a communal space outside our apartment. i am sure that our neighbors and apartment staff are THRILLED with this mess. there are signs everywhere requiring people to keep communal spaces very clean/neat...you cannot have anything outside your apartment without getting "written up."

this is q's room. that plastic tarp on his bed? yeah, it didn't shield everything...i found all sorts of debris in q's bed tonight.

this is livie's room...it's sustained much less damage/mess than q's so far.

here's la fu....or snafu...getting into trouble. the repairmen had left that window wide open, and i had shut it not two minutes before i found la fu in this position. i about had a panic attack thinking about what could have happened.

other than the issues with the apartment, our day was okay. q is super duper over tired. he went back to napping last week, and b/c the house is a shambles and/or filled with the sounds of drilling and sawing, he has not been able to get a real nap all week. he fell asleep on me for an hour yesterday and the day before and for about 45 minutes today, but it's just not the same as a good nap. due to the energy issues, q threw some doozie tantrums today...he had 3 helpers on the playground scrambling to keep him happy and try to get him to stop wailing. i finally just yanked him and livie out of there to spare everyone and keep q from being "rewarded" for his monstrous behavior. i am wiped. i think la fu and i will cuddle up with the nook early tonight. okay, i will. la fu will conduct his nightly guard checks and la fu 500 races. he does cuddle up with me for a good portion of the night, though. he is such a little snuggle bug. he lets the kids kiss him on his head/ears/nose without trying to get away. la fu could not be more perfect for our family. i have been told that he likes dogs, too, so i am expecting him and sookie to be big buds when we go home. i think that copper will be a welcome cuddle spot while sookie will be the one he gets into trouble with.

speaking of la fu, while i really like his name and am committed to keeping it, i see potential for a couple of changes...either to loofa or snafu. loofa because he spends an inordinate amount of time licking me with his very scratchy little tongue. snafu because of all the messes he gets himself into...i found him inside of thor, on top of the stove, inside of a pan, and on the edge of the tub that was filled with warm soapy water and two kids. this cat's a riot! oh, and he did manage to get a paw into the bing residence...the bings are now protected by the glass top that comes with their tank, a cardboard cover, and a baking pan for extra measure. poor bings :-)

HKG066: Half Birthday

today is quinn's half birthday. he is now two and a half...WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO! i am big into half birthdays. josh thinks i am off my rocker. the kids and i went and had a small adventure to celebrate...we got a delicious piece of chocolate cake to share, and then we stopped in at a pet store to get la fu a climber and to pet all the dogs that were there for the day (boarding). it was a pretty good time...definitely the highlight of our morning.

bug in her school uniform, which is actually just a smock.

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q sportin' the spider shirt he got from big boy james...he loves it. he spent a lot of time studying the spider and web today.

kids playing in our room. we had to sequester ourselves in the master bedroom this morning b/c of the insanity in the living room. this was not ideal and was short lived.

mansion la fu. the smart kitty knew exactly what to do with his new climber the minute i set it down. see that item under his paw? that's a ball. in a sock. after he batted it up and down our hallway (with wood floors) for about 5 minutes at 1 o'clock this morning, i put the ball into a sock to deaden the deafening sound of a small, light, plastic ball pinging off the walls and floor.

our morning was absolutely crazy. as was the afternoon. the repair crew came to start on the air conditioners today, and wow did we underestimate that project. my god. there were at least 6 extra people in our small apartment this morning, and they brought with them 8 a/c units (one indoor and one outdoor for each room), piles and piles of bamboo for scaffolding, tools, tarp, and lord knows what else. we had to leave to escape the madness and just hope for the best. it's going to be like this all week. oh goody. i do look forward to working a/c units, though. they have replaced the outdoor and indoor units in the living room, and already the major leak in quinn's room has slowed significantly. we are going to have to get him a new dresser, though...his has major water damage. i will be asking the landlord to reimburse us for the cash we spent on that dresser...it was only 30 bucks USD, so that shouldn't be too big of a deal.

livie thoroughly enjoyed her second day of school...she stayed for the full day and had so much fun that she was a sweaty, pink-faced, curly(er)-haired mess when i picked her up. she also had flamenco class today, so it was a full and tiring day for all of us.

la fu is cruising right along on getting acclimated with us. he did not like all the racket with the construction, but as soon as the noise stopped, he was back to investigating and playing. last night, i opened the kids' climbing tunnel for him, and he has spent most of the last 24 hours scampering through it. between that and his new climber, he's in kitty heaven. monica and chandler had to get a new view to save them from the construction debris. they are now residents of the kitchen. i think they like this because they can watch my every move and give me cute-fish-face in hopes that i will feed them again. and again. these guys are so stinkin' cute. i don't think i've ever been so compelled to scoop up a fish up and kiss it, but these bubbly little guys make me want to do that. don't worry...i have not. only because it would hurt them.

HKG065: First Day of School

it was awesome. livie didn't want to go home. i had some misinformation...our welcome paperwork for the school says that this week is early out all week, but when i went to get livie at 2:30, i learned otherwise. i did take her home early today simply b/c it did not make sense to take a taxi home and then have another round trip taxi ride an hour and a half later. so, tomorrow she will stay the full day, until 4, and i think she will be thrilled with that.

quinn crashed out in the carrier while we were walking around/killing time until we could pick up sissy

la fu in the middle of playing with one of livie's stuffed animals

la fu the wonder kitty playing with a toy amid a lot of noise and chaos in our house. i still can't convince him to come out and hang with us in the living room, so we have taken to playing in "his" room. he's totally fine with all of us crowding his space...he doesn't get scared or run away...stays out and plays with us or asks for scratches. maybe in another week or so he will be ready to just come out and play with us all the time. until then, we will play with him wherever he is.

since we thought livie's school day was only an hour and a half long, q and i wandered around to kill time. q fell asleep in the carrier just a couple minutes before i found a park, but i was able to sit on a bench and watch him sleep/play games on my phone until it was time to walk back and get sissy.

we caught a taxi just down from the school to go home, but the driver misunderstood when i asked him to take us to seymour road. he took us to sing woo road in happy valley. how crazy is that to end up on the road we used to live on instead of the road we now live on? the driver was apologetic and reset the meter once we got straight on where i needed him to take us.

once we got back to the mid-levels, we stopped for a bite to eat and then went home to play with la fu and relax for a while. we have learned that la fu cries at the door when we leave. this breaks my heart. if we had more space, i'd be running back to the SPCA to adopt another cat, but it's just not feasible. now that we know how sad la fu is when we leave, we can take extra steps to spend quality time before and after we have to leave la fu.

i also took the kids down to the apartment pool today. this is the first time i have done so by myself. they did great until it was time to leave...and then there was much woe. i took them for only 30 minutes, so i think next time i will take them for a longer period of time in hopes of leaving being slightly easier.

starting tomorrow and for the remainder of the week, we will be mostly confined to the apartment as we will have people here replacing all of our a/c units. we can't wait to have a/c! it's only in the low 80s during the day, but the humidity, which is around 85%, makes it miserable in here. since we brought la fu home, we have had to keep all the windows closed. la fu, like most kitties, is very curious...i don't want to take any chances with a curious kitten, open windows, and a 10-story drop (the windows here do not have screens). it's so sticky and miserable in here tonight that quinn refused to let us put a shirt on him to sleep tonight. i will be asking that they replace his unit first...his unit leaks constantly and so quickly, that we change out a stack of towels 3x a day and yet there is still significant water damage to his dresser...all of this with the unit OFF. it leaks even faster if it's on.

HKG064: The Honeymoon is Ending with a Bang!

these last two months have been pretty much non-stop adventure, and we've almost always been having a ball. tomorrow, the non-stop fun comes to a halt...sort of. livie starts school tomorrow! this is exciting because i know she will have fun learning and making new friends, but quinn and i are going to miss her, and we are going to miss having adventures with her. livie's school day is short...only a few hours in the afternoon, so that still leaves us to have adventures in the morning, but we will have to be a little less leisurely about our adventures.

today is labor day in hong kong, so josh was off work. we ended these two months of non-stop adventure with a BIG adventure...we went to disneyland hong kong!!

entering disneyland hong kong

the kids thoroughly enjoyed this small water play area.

this is a view of a mountain near the park.

small world hong kong exhibit

small world

quinn on the dumbo ride...he kept calling it an airplane.

livie and quinn posing with a buzz exhibit... buzz is just about quinn's favorite guy ever, and it was kinda funny and kinda sad that he slept through this photo op. he was later awake to go through the ride behind this exhibit, and he LOVED it...as in hated getting off of it and had to be dragged off.

we had a great time, and we are all worn out. i have never been to any other disney park, so i wasn't really sure what to expect. even so, i did find the park here a bit small, and i was surprised by the fact that there weren't characters everywhere. i expected to be taking pics of the kids with princesses or with them shaking mickey's hand. we still had a great time, though. we had been thinking about getting season passes, but after today's visit, we realize that season passes would not make sense.

HKG063: Playdates

bug kickin' back on a butterfly

today was a social day. we started out meeting up with the family of one of josh's officemates. this family includes two girls a little older than olivia. we had a great time hanging out, playing at some really great playgrounds in their apartment compound, and learning to make dumplings. later on, i met up with a friend to go shopping in the temple street market while josh and the kids had some fun at the pool and getting ice cream.

i set out to find some fun stuff to send home to friends and family at the market, but i also ended up finding some very beautiful art for our apartment. my friend and i got a delicious curry at a typical street restaurant. we had a great time people watching while we enjoyed our curry.

la fu's second day as a member of the anderson family finds him acclimating to our activity and noise levels. it is becoming clear that he is a mama's boy, but he is super affectionate with everyone. he's still a little skittish and prefers to stay in our room and mostly under the bed until we come in to coax him out for snuggles. he is finally eating some and playing around a bit. we are really enjoying getting to know him and spoiling him with lots of affection. it has been 13 years since i had a kitten to take care of...i am enjoying the experience!