Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Day Nine - PENULTIMATE DAY



Getting used to this bath thing...OK a bit small but I will learn to like the real bath one day soon!



So hot today - I had to get this sunhat only 5 yuan all of 35 pence!



Just because she is ....



OFFICIAL - she has a PRC passport






I want get to my new home too - .....


HURRAH ...we love China, loved our time here but BOY are we ready to go home ( as our American friends in the hotel would say! )

Nelly slept OK last night and I slept really well ...apologies for lack of service the last few nights it caught up with me - she had an early night and then woke at 6 and I put her in bed with me for an hour...she kept losing her dummy in the night as it fell out of the cot - so first thing on the list on Saturday on the way home are Cot bumpers.. ( she has also just screamed because her leg was caught in the bars...we now have made makeshift cot bumper out of the duvet.. When we got back from dinner I popped out to collect the final bag of laundry and by the time I got back Rob had got the Wriggle Monster out of her clothes, into her baby gro and asleep in bed - in about 12 minutes!

Today was the day to collect Nelly's passport but also the designated day to get the packing done..so Rob took Nelly out for the morning and did what all proud Dads do and spent money on her - he bought five dresses and a pair of shoes and still got change out of a twenty quid note! I completed the visa application with the guide and swore that she has never been involved in an act of terrorism or a member of a terrorist organisation!!! ( who in their right minds would answer in the affirmative if applying for a British Visa! )

We then took ourselves over the bridge to Sam's shop to see the fakes he had lined up for us...a lovely guy and we bought a few things... all very happy with our purchases - a great Gucci Baby Bag...and few other bits for Rob and I ....sorry for all those who asked us to buy them things but there is only so much space and well you can get flights to HK these days for £299 and the train is only an hour to Guangzhou for all of £18!!!!

We discovered a great little shop today run by a UK charity called Good Rock and all the profits form the shop go to an orphanage in Guangzhou - lovely stuff and we truly stocked up knowing that the money is going to a good cause, had to avoid the numerous shop owners, who purport to being our best friends and our baby the cutest they have ever seen to get there but really worth it, they also have a website
some beautiful things and we managed to add to the pile of things that we are buying for Nelly to give as presents on either adoption day or her birthday _ I think probably the former as this will be January 24th which is the date the adoption became official, we will celebrate her life and also remember her China Mummy and Daddy so seems like a good time to give gifts that we bought during our stay in China.

We had dinner with the other family we have spent time with here who were with us on the day we met Nelly and they met their little girl Isabelle, we went to the local Thai restaurant and had a nice meal, although Nelly tires herself out so much every day by crawling in the room, pulling herself up against the bed, trying to walk and generally laughing, joking and mimicking other people must use up a lot of energy..so she was very grizzly...but still managed to eat a whole bowl of congee..

Anyway Rob is off for the visa tomorrow at 8 so I will finish off the packing and do some last minute shopping before leaving the Victory Hotel at 3 for the airport...

May not get to post tomorrow night as not sure what time we will get to the hotel ...

catch you soon

Tuesday, January 30, 2007



We're all going to the zoo .....



OKJ so whats the big deal with all these animals...!







Organised trip this morning with the guide and some of his other clients - a nice group mostly LA / San Fransisco and we went to the zoo ,by the time we got there most of the girls were asleep...but it was fun see images above - dead tired again tonight, had a monster nose bleed at 4 in the morning for about half an hour so really pooped! Following the zoo trip we had lunch with the couple on our right from San Fransisco, they are staying at our hotel rather than the White Swan we had great fun with them and their little girl Rosalie - Mellick's grandmother was called Nelly so she loved her !



Not shopping again Daddy...! we needed teething biscuits for madame so headed over the bridge to real china...also managed to wander around a weird mall and discover some great fake places - going back tomorrow to look at more stuff- lovely Gucci Baby bag!



looking experienced already!


off to bed - sorry for lack of text...tomorrow is packing and we have a schedule...Rob also has to collect Nelly's passport and thrn we need to comeplete the Via Application - with the joke questions such as - have you ever been a member of a terrorist orgsanisation!!!!!!!

Monday, January 29, 2007

day seven









PURE INDULGENCE ....HER FIRST TRIP TO STARBUCKS...

Tonight is a picture book ( v tired and I already lost the first thing I wrote so ....) - we took Nelly shopping again this time to the TEEMALL...all shiny and new 7 floors of airconned (it ws 21 degrees outside today!)retail, just bought a few bibs, Rob and I tried to buy a few items for ourselves but the shop did not accept visa so ...


went to starbucks for coffee and she had a young couple cooing over her and making a fuss taking pictures!



SUCH AMAZING BUILDINGS..THIS MUST BE THE TALLEST IN GUANGZHOU

I had to give Rob the camera to take this as I would not have got it all in ...phenomenal, the place was like a buiding site. They are in the middle of extending the Metro. SO much wealth too, on the way there we saw a Porsche dealership, followed by a Bentley, Ferrari and Maserati dealers..!!



SUCH CHANGES



SO MUCH BUILDING WORK...




AND JUST AROUND THE CORNER....these guys having their lunch contemplating a pile of rubble how long to turn that into one of those!





QUICK TRIM ANYONE...DOING ANYTHING NICE TONIGHT?!

a little street where we bought some Chinese music and some children's CDs...where you could also get a short back and sides and a colour - some woman dyeing a guys hair dark with a toothbrush!




This made us laugh - sack the translator!




I HAAAAATE having my nappy changed ..and this
helps to make her laugh! is it a hat ...is it a plane....not it is a Pamper!



Chinese New Year decorations at the mall...




PS Rob also had frogs for lunch, and this evening at dinner with another of the UK families in a Cantonese restaurnat with no English menus, he and Gilles picked out our dinner (fish) from a tank...again I had to do a mad dash to the Thai restaurant to get Miss Nelly a big bowl of Congee with chicken as she was having none of the Heinz baby pot I took with me just in case......

Tomorrow we are off to the Zoo to see some pandas! three more days to go - I love the place but now keen to get the papers sorted and go home!

Over and Out for the night as I am dead on my feet -

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Day SIx - five more days before we are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Morning - I had my hair washed today!

A good night's sleep -I managed to get Nelly to bath in the bathroom sink without too many problems and she let me wash her hair with no problem, but breakfast was as usual a feeding frenzy ...



Excuse me, don't you live in Dulwich??!

At breakfast we sat next to my friend Debbie, Chris and their little girl Molly - they live about a mile away in Dulwich, and we met up for coffee in October 2005 when we both realised that we were in the same time frame for China.... so this morning it was so cute when they sat next to each other and they had done the same in the Thai restaurant last night...They will be seeing more of each other I am sure. Debbie and I are looking forward to pushing the buggies round the park together !

Today was another "waiting day" - we decided to set off with a map to find the Beijing Road, a long pedestrianised shopping street ...on the map it looked close, in fact it took about an hour to walk there.

Guangzhou Facts
Population: 6,560,500
Area: 7,434 sq. km
Annual average temperature: 71.55F

once there it was very busy, we were approached by lots of people trying to sell us a fake this and that, but impossible to do with child in a buggy. PS this morning we also bought one of those plastic clip and chain things to attach the dummy to her clothing, aha! what a good idea.... But nuh nuh...she managed to work out how to unclasp it within 2 minutes!





OK she is just 100% cute..........




or maybe 110% cute .......

Coffee on the way to the Beijing Road



This poor little mite was wearing all these clothes on a day when it was 19 degrees!

Every time any of us leave the building the guides look in horror at the lack of clothing that the children are wearing.....people in the street stop and comment...and that is in Guangzhou where it has been "cold" i.e. similar to the temps we have had in the UK - ie 10-15 degrees.....but just look at what their children are wearing and today we were down to T shirts!




Happiness on a BROWN SOFA ......

Americans who stay at the White Swan have this tradition of putting all the babies from one group on the Red Couch - they talk about this photo for ages and dress the kids up in Chinese outfits especially! so we decided to do a BROWN SOFA picture this afternoon before the others leave for England tomorrow ...we propped them all up and then one started screaming - they all looked around and set each other off!




Out Shopping....






Our Little Angel napping this afternoon before the photocall....



My Big Angel napping at the same time - one in each room!

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Day Five



Nelly's first shoes!...




the Family Norton


Think this is probably the first picture we have as a family the guide took it this morning when we went to the temple, lots of incense, people putting fruit nuts and flowers on the altar to the three enormous Buddhas. Today was the birthday of the Buddha so lots of people there.

Today was quite quiet - some other UK families arrived last night - so really nice to see familiar faces, we had lunch in the park and two other families joined us - sharing stories and letting the girls introduce themselves. We had had a bit of a disaster that afternoon - Nelly on the way to the mini supermarket to pick up some more baby wipes had dropped her dummy - we searched for ages...all around the shelves in the shelves, we retraced our steps twice, no luck,. So we decided that she could use the one that we had brought out with us( she had tried it earlier this morning and thought it was OK!!!) BIG MISTAKE once the dummy that arrived with her from the SWI ha gone she was accepting nothing less! we had her photos taken for the visa and then I spent ten minutes on my hands and knees looking under freezer units and shelf systems back at the same supermarket! Our hearts had sunk and by this stage we were getting grouchy with each other as she was gettin more grouchy from lack of dummy...also both feeling that this could be a major set back in the SLEEPING department...so having found nothing in the supermarket on the second visit - we walked back to the hotel and Rob suddenly started shouting THERE IT IS!!!!!! and ran across the road and dived under an black Audi! came out with said dummy /......so all is back on track, she is happy, we are happy everyone is lovely!!! PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

oh well another story for the day - now we need to decude what to do for the next five days - Shopping perhaps!

apart form that we gave the Americans a run for their money in the local Thai restaurant this evening when 4 UK families with two children and 4 babies turned up !

New News - we also bought the poor child a pair of shoes...for the grand sum of £2



New Shoes - Two pounds...




Miss Busy







Trip to the Banyan Tree Temple - Buddhas Birthday ...








Daddy Day with Nelly



all change....

Friday, January 26, 2007

Day Four ...



Lunch al Fresco Guangzhou style



Don't Worry Isabelle I'll look after you ..



Weddings - Rent a frock on Shamian Island

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Daddy and Nelly!!




Dinner at our place when we get back!


Really - sorry for tortoise lovers Gabs don;t look! - think these are for the soup!



Is She yours! ...she is so sweet Bao Bao hao....

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The boys with their girls





a quiet day today and I promise not to bore for England on sleep patterns suffice it to say it is now ten o clock and she has been in bed since 8 15 with one minor hiccup when she lost that dratted dummy and could not get back to sleep...SO that is that subject closed!

Phew I hear you all say ...

Today we took her out in the stroller most of the day so her latest trick is to turn around and stand up! normally when we are chatting to other people in the lobby of the hotel! she loves the boys from one of the other UK families - she is a real flirt and not even one yet! and they were making her laugh this afternoon by sliding around the marble floor in the lobby!!

Nelly has the appetite of a horse - in the morning she has formula mixed with rice milk..then breakfast she has congee with honey ( basically rice boiled for hours in load of water until it turns into a sort of porridge...! ) she also has about half a banana, some orange, papaya and water melon! all fed herself! then at about 12 30 she has more milk and rice milk and today that was followed by lots of rice cakes and another half banana, at about 3 45 Rob and I grabbed a sandwich and she ate about three slices of cucumber minus the skin! then at 5 30 - 6 she has more congee this time flavoured with meat stock and then proceeded to eat some egg white from the boiled egg in my soup and a few plain noodles with a tiny taste of the soup!

We went back to the market today with the other UK family - will add more pics - it really showed the boys a true taste of China and this is one of the richer cities in the country... In the afternoon Rob had to go and pay the notary and collect all the official documents all done in triplicate; they went in a cab and took a shortcut through a totally Muslim area of the city at what he thinks was end of prayers at the mosque he said that the streets were so crowded people were pressed up against the car - a real eye opener as well I am sure he will tell you more when he sees you ..but not a great experience..they got back and then we wandered around collected laundry...

It is amazing how much we have come on as parents in the last few days - we are able to get up and out of the room in less than an hour! Bath time is still proving a little difficult for miss Nelly but I am determined to persevere..we manage to get most of the feeds done on time Rob is a master at bottle mixing and cleaning and is always on top of the change bag unlike me!!! Nappy changing is still a tad challenging she hates it, we forget and then tonight I let her wander around without a nappy so she could be free! OOOPS pee all over the cot! oh well something else to work on!

It feels so right having Nelly as our daughter - we could not have wished for more, she is a joy at every moment of the day and loves people, always smiling - she makes us laugh constantly, each day there is a new little trick that she has learnt from her Dad! I have stopped blubbing every time she does something wonderful though - although sometimes when she will not settle and cries hysterically it really upsets me as I do not know what to do..but I guess that will change the more she comes to trust us. Today when Rob went out to the notary she really cried when he left and then when he got back about two hours later she beamed when she saw him...

Tomorrow we are going to the Six Banyan Tree Temple - to see some large Buddhas and get a blessing may be a tad schmultzy but hey something to do on a saturday morning ion Guangzhou..our other friends from the UK should have arrived tonight so we hope to see them tomorrow- we could then have a big Brit dinner just like the Americans do - watch out Guangzhou here we come!!!

We have another six days here to fill and only one more appointment so we need to plan the time...shopping sounds good fake handbags and watches anyone!We thought we might buy shoes for Nelly through to when she is eighteen but guess she will not thanks us for a pair of un trendy shoes we bought in China in 2007 in about 12 years time!!!