Sick boy...

Ben came down suddenly with some virus on Sunday night - complaining of a headache and having a temperature. We spent the whole day at home yesterday and he ate and drank very little all day. Thankfully today he seems to have improved a fair bit - he ate 3 Wheet-bix for breakfast - although he's still saying he feels tired (but I suspect it is just the affect of not eating much yesterday).

Peter's 30th Birthday...

Was on Thursday. I made a 'Luxury white chocolate cheesecake' for his birthday cake (for those of you who don't know, cheesecake is his favourite sort of cake!).

Productive afternoon...

Both Peter and I were in productive moods this afternoon, which meant quite a few jobs got done (some which have been waiting to be done for a while). First I cut everybody's hair (except my own) - it was Joanna's first proper hair cut...it is now in a cute bob style cut. Then Peter cleaned the bath, shower and toilet and wiped all the fly spots off the ceiling in the kitchen (the stuff I couldn't reach when I did all that cleaning on monday). While he was doing that I pinned the side hems on the blockout curtain material to put in our bedroom (which I bought a couple of months ago). The kids happily played or helped out at times (Joanna helped Dad clean the shower, Ben passed mum the pins for the curtains).

Yummy dinner...

We just ate a very yummy dinner! Peter made pasta with a bacon and blue cheese creamy sauce. It tasted really good - well for our family who all like blue cheese. It was quite a heavy sauce, so one serve in a sitting was enough (although both Peter and Ben had seconds because it tasted so good). It was definitely a case of where quality ingredients resulted in a simple, but VERY tasty meal.

It was cold this morning...

Foggy and -4C... there was ice on my gloves on the way to work.
(And my wife thinks I'm crazy for still riding in shorts. Not sure why.)

An elephant on a bicycle.

That's the most memorable picture from the book I finished reading a few days ago. The book was "China Shakes the World: A Titan's rise and troubled Future". It was a very interesting read, written by James Kynge, who has worked as the Financial Times' correspondent in Beijing for a number of years. The first few chapters describe how China has got to the position it's currently in, a rising superpower. The last few chapters contrast this, looking at some of the challenges to China's continued rise (things like environmental degradation, the collapse of trust (in government etc), and a government sometimes struggling to keep control. China's economy was what was described as the elephant... it needs to keep going, because if it slows down, it will fall off the bicycle, and shake the whole world economy (and more).
It was a good overview of China, but there were a few things that struck me as a little wrong - one of the points was how China has contributed to falling prices in a whole range of sectors. One of the main examples he used was falling prices of mobile phones and other technology items. Working in the tech industry, I know that's not quite how things work... prices fall as products mature, regardless of what China is doing.
The other thing which was slightly ironic was how Kynge credits China's buying of US Treasury bonds with keeping American iterest rates low and therefore providing a boost to the American economy. Those same (artificially) low interest rates are at least part of the reason for the current economic meltdown.
Those are some pretty minor criticisms though - overall it is well written, informative and easy to read.
If you want to do some more reading about it, there's plenty of China blogs out there: Drorism and Imagethief are two that have well-written, informative posts.

Cleaning marathon...

We had real estate inspection today, so needed to tidy the house a fair bit as things were in a bit of a mess after last week (as toys couldn't live in their normal places in the playroom because it was being the guest room). Anyway my major task was tidying up all the stuff off the carpet (with the kids help) and vaccuming it all. Well I only managed to get 1/4 of the house done before they turned up for inspection - but continued to do the rest of the house after, as I wanted it to be all tidy and clean again. After I'd finished that job, I then wiped down all the kitchen cupboards - I'd been wanting to do this for ages too, but never got around to it. Ben helped with the bottom ones and then I had to get on a chair to do the top cupboards. It looks so much better now. Anyway, this meant I ended up cleaning from 8.15am (straight after breakfast) until 12.45pm (when it was time to stop and have lunch).
I then had to go grocery shopping this afternoon. And now I feel exhausted and have a sore back (which doesn't hurt if I'm sitting in my nice comfy recliner - which is what I'm doing right now).

Disco Dancing

We went to Ben's kindy disco last night. It was this term's major fundraiser. These enable the kindy to purchase equipment/resources and make improvements to the facilities (the teacher's salaries are paid direct from the government).
Ben had been excited for more than a week about it and had apparently been doing a lot of dancing at kindy in the mini disco area they had set up to get the kids interested. The kids were also encouraged to come in fancy dress - Ben went as 'Bob the Builder' complete with orange work vest, yellow helmet and tool belt with tools (thanks Aunty Di for the Christmas present!).
Both Ben and Joanna had lots of fun dancing, as well as eating pizza and other junk food (all sold to raise money).
There was also a 'mystery bottle' activity - pay $4, pick a number out a bag, and you receive the wrapped bottle with the corresponding number (all donated by kindy parents). Ben had seen the crate of bottles at kindy during the week and so had already decided before the night that he wanted to spend some of his pocket money to buy a 'present bottle' (as he called them). Anyway, his 'mystery bottle' turned out to be a bottle of Sweet Chilli Sauce! At first he wasn't too happy with it and wanted a different bottle, but he warmed to the idea and now wants to eat sweet chilli sauce on everything!
The disco only went for 1hr (6.30-7.30pm) which was perfect timing as the kids had lots of fun and were tired and ready to go home at the end without getting bored or whingy. And Peter and I enjoyed ourselves and were also tired by the end.
(Unfortunately there aren't any photos because we forgot to take a camera)

But I would walk 500 miles...

Joanna has developed a healthy interest in walking places by herself, instead of just getting a ride in the pram. This has included walking all the way home from Ben's kindy a few times (a 10-15 minute walk) and usually at a fair pace too. Ben likes to take advantage of this by hopping in the empty pram and getting a free ride home!

Still alive...

For those of you who have noticed we haven't blogged for a week and are concerned that we are sick/have fallen off the face of the earth, we are all fine and well. A group of students from the local Capernwray Bible College (it's down the highway, in Cambridge) doing a 'ministry week' at our church. So we have a couple of the students staying with us (a German couple), and am enjoying chatting with them and therefore not chatting on our blog as much.