How long has it been?

You can always tell when my days get hectic by the distance between blog posts.

Once again so much has happened, Annie came for a visit (which was so much fun), or shipment finally arrived (so now we live in box city) and we have all had the flu.

Annie arrived on October 17th and we packed a lot of Beijing and pampering into our 5 days. These shots are taken at the Great Wall.

My Little Lady

I use that term very loosely when it comes to Emily. The school counsellor sent me these pictures of Emily at a "new kids" lunch. I think she is fitting in okay, don't you?

Our Apartment

I finally got some shots of our apartment. Now we are living here till February and then we can move to our choice of location - which we will do. This apartment is lovely, but not super kid friendly.

I haven't bought any bed spreads or anything like that because we are moving. Oh and for the record the land lord bought the furniture - the couch is not my taste! Or anyones for that now that I think about it. Our shipment has also not arrived yet, so there is very little in this place that is ours - but I have been hassled too many times about not showing our apartment.

Lounge Room- no matter what I do I can't hide that couch!

Dining Room - with the laundry off the end - This choice perplexes me.
So does the Landlord's taste - floral chairs!!!!!!!

The spacious kitchen - not- but I did get an oven.

Our bedroom - It is much bigger than this shot shows.

Our Ensuite - I LOVE this bath.

Emily's Bedroom


Claudia's bedroom.


View from Emily's room.


View from the kitchen - if you look really closely you can see the Bird's Nest.


Two sleepy heads.

The Summer Palace

We took a tour of the Summer Palace. I was just expecting a temple or at the most a somewhat small palace, I was wrong (as usual). The palace stretched over acres and was spectacular in so many ways. It was an amazing place and if you want to see some more artsy shots follow the link to my photography blog - www.ciempkaphotos.blogspot.com

The photos here are more fun family shots from our day out. You know I never miss the opportunity to photograph my kids.

Singing in the Park

Going to park in China is not a boring experience - far from it. There is so much going on. Something I really love about the Chinese people is their ability to just live life despite circumstances. They just get on with living - something we all could learn from.

Out side my house on the concrete a couple always play badminton. Now in Australia we wouldn't do that because there is not enough space or it is not the done thing to play where people can see you, here no one seems to care.

We went to the park the other day and saw so many interesting things. We stumbled across this group of people who get together because they love to sing. There is a conductor and a man who plays the piano accordion and people just gather because of their love of singing. We stood and listened to their songs.... it was beautiful.

In another section people were playing musical instruments or exercising. No one seems to mind what they sound or look like or even who sees them.

My favorite would have to be the people playing cards and marjhong. Such a wonderful taste of life in China.

New Bikes

Katie Melua (see clip) thinks there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing. Well after today there are 9 milion and 4!

We succumbed, well that is not true, I succumbed. We bought bikes today. Now I know what you are thinking, I would be the last person on a bike. Usually I would agree, but here in China it is really a good thing to have. We are so close to so many things that it is a pity to take a taxi when you can ride a bike, it is self imposed exercise and it is fun. Everything is flat so it is easy riding and here they actually have lanes for bikes and their own set of bike traffic lights.

I went riding today and bought the groceries and it was so nice riding along, in some ways it was kind of strange that I was actually riding a bike in China. I still keeping reminding myself that we are here.

I'd like to introduce you to our bikes. The first bike is mine - the chick bike, please note the lovely basket for shopping

Then we have Claudia's very pink and pretty bike.

Introducing Emily's cool kid bike - she picked the colour and everything.

Finally, the man of the houses bike.... for reasons only know to him, he needed a more special bike than the rest of us!

Now I have to ride the thing!

We are all so blessed,

I don't care what anyone says or thinks if we are all blessed. Sure sometimes we might have to tighten our belts and go without one or two luxuries, but we are still all blessed.

I know this to be true from what I have seen this week.

Experience 1 - I was at the Supermarket the other week and a lady came and helped me with my overflowing trolley and helped me push it to my taxi. For her she gets the 10c back when the trolley is returned. I was so grateful for her help so I gave her the $1. She took my hand, kissed it and actually cried. When I shared the story with my friend she said, "Now she can eat this week."

Experience 2 - On Saturday night we were at Ikea having dinner. I looked across at the area where we returned our food and utensils, there was a lady over there looking at the trays. She then pulls a plastic bottle out of her bag and starts pouring the left over soft drinks into it, she put them into her bag and then collected the empty cans to recycle. Then out came a plastice container and she starts collecting the letover food that she could eat!

So no matter how much you feel you are struggling, just look around and be grateful for everything you have, I know I will.