(and an attempt to revive this weblog)
It’s been several months since anyone spent any time in the garden, but today Alexander and Johnny decided it was about time we refilled the bird feeder.
Of course, after that there was the necessary playing with watering can, football, trampolining and then chasing Daddy around the garden with the new pea-shooters that Mummy had bought today.
Bathtime tonight turned into a bit of an English lesson.
Daddy: “No, Alexander. You should say ‘Can I have two stories tonight please?’”
Alexander: “Can … two tories … PLEASE?”
D: “No. Can …”
A: “Can”
D:”I ..” A: “I”
D:”have” A:”have”
D:”two” A:”two”
D:”stories” A:”tories”
D:”No. Stories” A:”tories”
D: “No. SSSStories”
A: “Books”
Sometimes it’s just too easy outthinking Daddy…
Note: Apologies for the lack of updates. It’s not that Alexander and Johnny haven’t been doing anything worthy of an update - more that their immediate needs have taken precedence over mucking about on a computer …
My little brother, Johnny, has been sleeping in mummy’s tummy for nine months - and today he finally came out to say hello! Mummy checked into the hospital this afternoon; I wished her good luck before Daddy took me to play with YangYang and Auntie Shufen.
Johnny (or John Albert Yule to give him his full name) was born at 9.26pm weighing 3700g. I’m sure we’ll have great fun playing together!
We’ve decided to share this weblog and photo album, so you can see all his photos here.
[Location: Taipei Hospital]
Taidong is in the Southeast part of Taiwan - and we have just spent three happy days there. After taking the train to Hualien we drove down the coast, stopping briefly for a quick swim in the ocean, until we reached LuYie.
[Location: LuYie]
My 2nd birthday was another fun day. Lots of my friends came to my party, and I got more presents and cake than I knew what to do with.
[Location: Taipei]
We originally planned on a day trip to FeiCuei Wan (or Green Bay), but ended up staying for the weekend. The resort on the North coast of Taiwan has several nice swimming pools, but we were much more interested in the beach. Daddy tried to build a sandcastle for me, but my demolition skills were more than a match for his construction.
[Location: FeiCuei Wan]
Hualien is on the East coast of Taiwan, and we spent three days exploring the coastline around here.
[Locations: Baci, Beach in Hualien, Beach South of Hualien, Tropic of Cancer]
Mum went to Dr. Chappy today to get the results from my amniocentisis - everything seems fine, so they just prodded me (OK, prodded Mummy) a bit, took a few more photos and let us go. However, we got a copy of the photos on something called a ‘floppy disk‘ … how quaint! They were out of fashion even before my brother was born, so I don’t know why the Doctor is still using such antiquated technology.
Typhoon Haitang was supposed to be the fiercest typhoon to hit Taiwan in five years … but it certainly didn’t live up to its billing in Taipei. Despite impressive picture from the coast, and work being cancelled for the day (Daddy was happy about that!), there wasn’t that much wind or rain. By the afternoon, when the eye was supposed to be almost over us we got bored and went out to examine the damage. Various tree branches were down, and there were plenty of puddles for me to run through and jump into (with my new wellies), so I was quite happy.
[Location: Taipei]
On Thursday Granny Fruit and GrandPapa go on an outing. This time we joined them on their trip to Dover Castle and Samphire Hoe. We first went to the castle - we climbed all the way to the top, and then waved at Granny and GrandPapa who were sitting at the bottom. Next stop was the park above the White Cliffs, where we had a picnic lunch while watching (and listening to) the ferries. Daddy convinced himself that he could see France, but noone else was particularly convinced. After that we went to Samphire Hoe, which was created from all the excavated earth from the channel tunnel (we didn’t actually see any Samphires though).
On Friday, after a pub lunch at the ‘Dog and Duck’ Daddy spent the afternoon trying to teach me the rules of cricket. He seems to think that I’ve got a bowling action that Muttiah Muralitharan would be proud of, but that I should stop using my cricket bat to knock over the stumps!
Saturday was our last full day in England, so we took Granny Fruit and GrandPapa to Wakehurst Place to buy them lunch to say ‘thank you’ for putting up with us for two weeks. GrandPapa helped me to feed the ducks after lunch.
[Locations: Dover , Samphire Hoe, Oxted]
On Monday we drove back up to London to see my cousins again. In the evening Mummy and Daddy went to the Oval with Bernie to see Asia vs. the rest of the world cricket match, leaving me in Hampstead; luckily I was well behaved and didn’t cause Uncle Red and Auntie Grib too many problems before going to sleep.
On Tuesday, Megan and I went on an expedition to Hampstead Heath. We were planning on feeding the ducks, but Daddy left the bread at home, which made that a bit difficult. We happily played together with our inflatable hands and umbrellas, and took turns riding in the buggy on the way back.
On Wednesday we went to the London Transport Museum. There were lots of old trams, buses, taxis and trains to play in, so I spent a long time here (Mummy got bored and went shopping, and we still hadn’t finished exploring when she returned). We then went to lunch in Covent Garden; I loved the restaurants chocolate ice cream, but found out that their colouring crayons did not taste good at all.
[Locations: The Oval, Hampstead, Covent Garden]
There is a wildlife centre (a cross between a zoo and a farm) near Uncle Oswald’s house in East Grinstead which we went to with Uncle Oswald, Auntie Shirley andElizabeth and Mary. When we arrived we inspected the owner (a barn owl called Milo) before looking at all the other animals. I rather enjoyed watching the rats run around, but the smell of that area forced everyone else to leave quickly. A lady gave us a talk while feeding the deer, and then a man described the red squirrels that were running about (however, I was too busy running around myself to listen to that). We then went for afternoon tea at my cousins house, where we played on the slides, played hide and seek, and Elizabeth showed off her new dress.
Saturday was the ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ day at the Bluebell railway! We arrived at around lunchtime, which meant that our first job was to find a nice spot to sit down and eat our wonderful picnic lunch (kindly provided by Granny Fruit). While we were eating I went to inspect Percy - who was trying to sort out some troublesome trucks. His whistle was very loud (even louder than the one that surprised me at the RH&DR), which made me whimper a bit; so I made sure I didn’t get too close to him.
After lunch we took the train up and down the line twice. When I wasn’t peering out the window, I spent my time running up and down the carriages and waving (or trying to break) my little flag. At one station(?), there was a baby train which I had a short ride on while we were waiting for Thomas to turn around.
Daddy tells me that Wednesday was an important day - as it was my (and also Mummy’s) first chance to watch a game of cricket! Although the PRL cricket club isn’t the highest quality team in England, it does feature Uncle Oswald, and on this occasion also my Daddy. I may have missed the finer points of the game, but I had great fun running around the boundary, and starting the occasional pitch invasion.
On Thursday I went up to London to see Auntie Gribble, Uncle Red, and cousins Laura and Megan. We took a train up, followed by a tube ride to Hampstead. On Friday we went to (the exorbitantly expensive) Madame Tussauds - where I had a frank exchange of political views with Jiang Zemin, and Mummy met her hero. The rest of the day was spent at Regents Park, which has a very nice playground (with swings and rope forests). Our only trouble was that I didn’t have any suitably light clothes for the tropical heat of London in Summer (a problem which was solved by buying a suitably touristy T-shirt!).
We had a day out on the trains today - at the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. It seems that Dad spent large parts of his holidays when he was small chuffing up and down this line, and so he was as excited as I was. We arrived at Hythe just in time to watch one train leave - but not before it gave me a bit of a fright with its whistle. After that, we went down to have lunch on the beach at New Romney, followed by a trip on the train back up to Hythe. I watched the engine turn around, and then get ready to go again from a safe distance this time!
I’ve started my two week holiday in England, and been having a good time so far. After a long flight, which I slept through (apart from an hour-long howling and Teletubby watching session in the middle), we arrived at my grandparents house in Oxted. On Sunday, I met up again with all my English cousins: Elizabeth, Laura, Mary and Megan. I had great fun playing ‘fetch’ with Laura and her frisbee, being chased by evil crocodiles, and playing crazy golf with everyone. I think all the adults were rather relieved that the weather was good, and so the five of us could happily play in the garden!
Recently, we’ve been having the ‘Plum rains’ (Mei Yu 梅雨) in Taiwan; for about a month it rains heavily at this time of year (not monsoon like, but still pretty impressive amounts of water). This has stopped me getting out as much as I would have liked. However, there have been some nice days interspersed between the wet ones, and we’ve been on several nice bike rides along the riverbank (the right hand bank in this picture).
As you can see, I’ve also been experimenting with headgear to keep the rain off!
This is the first photo where I’m actually visible. Only 1.5cm, but already making my presence felt (sorry about that ‘evening sickness’ Mum!).
I had my first photo shoot today. You can’t see me yet, but you can see my house!
A funny thing happened on the MRT today on the way back from out trip to Bali … despite my young age, a lady in the MRT took one look at Mum and then offered up her seat. Obviously I’ve given Mummy that pregnant woman ‘glow’ early!
Date: 06/01/06
