It’s late March but it’s snowing !!!! it’s worst than in February whereby the weather was spring like and now in spring we are getting snow and cold winds – what the hell right? a totally opposite in weather. Had I known that the weather was going to turn this way – I would have done all my travel in February instead of waiting for warmer weather in Spring and Summer.
Quite frustrating because we were planning to head up to the city to do some shopping soon – but if the weather is this way, no one wants to go to the city because of the long drive and the icy highway. I find that we are always being fooled by the weather here in Canada – so maybe next year we should planned to go to the city in February and holiday in the South in March and April.
Yes, appointments at the doctor’s this week for some annual check up – JOY! not! of course but what can you do when you want to live to a ripe old age and see your children get married, so I pacify the spouse. The only thing I don’t like about visiting the doctor’s is going up on their scales and getting my weight recorded down for I’m ashamed to say that the week’s spring break holiday made me quite a pig or a cow as my youngest would like to put it. I loved my food too much and I loved trying just about everything when I was in Taiwan and the Mango smoothies and juices that I had must have added like 10 kg on my hips. But no regrets because what fun is it when you don’t try and eat as much as you want when you are on a vacation right? *shrug*
While we all came back home from our trip to Taiwan after a short spring break – the spouse headed out to Budapest for work and this time on his own of course. I had to head back with the kids and prepare them for the new term for school. While some of you may envy that the spouse travels for work – and goes just about everywhere – he said he doesn’t envy his lifestyle at all. Staying in hotels and eating hotel’s food isn’t an enjoyment for him anymore – in fact, he usually just stays indoor and order room service if he didn’t have to – for a business lunch or dinner. This trip he is away for 14 days but it may be more – who knows – it usually last longer and being a spouse of a traveling working man – I am used to it and I just go about my own things with my kids in tour. My life does not spin around the spouse’s schedule as his is pretty busy but whenever he is online – we all skype with him a lot.
We just got a quote back from our contractor for changing the bulbs in your backyard to leds because it will save us money in the future plus, it is also safer for us because LED bulbs won’t burn or go on fire. During spring and summer – depending on the weather, we entertain a lot in our backyard, so we had wired our backyard with a lot of lights – to pretty up the place. Anyhow, we finally decided we should change everything to LED because we don’t want any accidents to happen during the summer and we know that LED bulbs last almost forever and sure it can be expensive at first but it is a good investment. So we’ve shopped around with different contractors and different company to buy these LEDs light bulb and is also considering about changing our indoors fluorescent tubes to LEDs. It has a 5 yrs warranty and a 10 years life span on them – plus it saves a lot of money on power bills. I think it is worth looking into.
My son asked me if he could drink this ? since it was only 3.3% alcohol, he said to me, but it’s only a cocktail ! but you see in Taiwan the age limit for drinking is different as compared to the West. The spouse looked at him and laughed and allowed him to have a bottle which I frown. While in Canada, you can only buy liquor in an authorized store, in Asia, you can buy them in a grocery store, making it a lot easier for kids to get to them. No wonder we see a lot more drunk driving in Asia than in Canada where I lived.
So it’s the March break the the spouse is in Taiwan, so what do one do with a bunch of kids who are bored? you bring them with you on a short trip to Taiwan – and the cost, I’m sure you are wondering – good ole Airmiles. It’s funny to bring your western kids to a very Chinese place – especially if you have all of them with blond air because no matter how advance Taiwan is, they are extremely curious with your blond hair kids. It will be an eye opener for my kids that’s for sure and weather isn’t too bad either at this time of the year, not too hot nor too cold.
I loved that the spouse is making a lot of money with what he is doing and he travels for work 8 months a year – and I really don’t mind it at all – until I need stuff to be done around the house. The heavy lifting and the buying of welding supplies or repairing stuff around the house. Afterall, what would I know about welding supplies or the likes of it right? But not having the spouse around when you need work to be done – just sucks ! I hate to pay good money to someone just to do little things around the house – so this spring – I’ve decided to go for some improvement classes in the local community college to learn how to be a handy man around the house. The spouse said it was about time – and so did the kids – so look out fellas ! this mama is going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting myself soon.
The kids had asked that we buy some new clothes for them for spring this weekend and they had chosen to get some hip hop clothing at FlyMode.com . It’s not easy being a kid in school these days – and we know all about it because if you wear too flashy, some friends might teased you. But if you don’t dress up properly and fit in the group or crowd, you get shunned too – or teased or worst looked down on. Having some fashion sense is important for kid who are in their teenage years and they are so conscious about how they present themselves.
Although the spouse and I do not believed in giving them everything they want nor do we believed in buying branded clothing for them. It’s important that we do dress them up for school – for unlike in Asia – kids all wear the same uniform and shoes, here in the West you are on your own. So if they wanted hip hop clothing and they are reasonably priced, we will buy for them.
This is by far one of my favorite painting from Li Zijian – it’s about a Chinese girl who had suffered an earthquake in 2009 and still managed to rise up – resilient. The exhibition focus on the deep sorrow on the quake-hit areas and it was really a very emotional exhibition for some. I saw the beauty of the art/painting but I also saw how heartbreaking China was hit during that time. Li Zijian is an US based chinese artist and his most well known pieces were from the Nanjing Massacre – I would love to meet him.
Life can be so simple, if only everyone would appreciate what they have and not what they do not have. My heart aches for my friend who’ve just been abandoned by her husband. Being alone in Canada, she wonders if she can saved the marriage but no matter what she said or what she did, her husband was reluctant to let go of the other woman. Is it because she is younger? prettier? more adventurous? or what is it? I feel pain for my friend because she must be the nicest woman I’ve met thus far after migrating.
She don’t even want to fight her husband for anything, because she claims that she still cares for him but what about him, he doesn’t care how she feels anymore nor that she is hurting so bad, she had lost so much weight and had been crying non-stop for months now. What makes a man turn this way you asked? I guess it is possible to fall out of love, afterall, I’ve fallen out of love before but there was no kids involved and I guess that is what she lost in – no kids. But it’s not like she wasn’t trying, she just couldn’t have any or her womb wasn’t strong enough.
As a friend, I try to encourage her, try to empathize with her, try to help her but what more can I do? it’s really up to her to stand up and be strong. Although, it’s easier said than done, she needs to let go of her past and live for now.
