Monday, June 25, 2007

A little bit.

One Sunday afternoon at the Church (International Christian Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand): Nira was talking to Cheska, her English-speaking Filipino friend. It was Nira's first time to see Cheska's baby sibling.

"Uyy, kapatid mo? (Is he your sibling?)" Nira asks

"This is my baby brother," Cheska replied

"Lalaki ba yan? (Is he a boy?)" Nira asked

"A little bit," Cheska proudly replied. (all of us laughed our hearts out!)

Apparently Cheska didn't understand her question, she doesn't even know how to count in Filipino but she can understand her father's scolding in Kapampangan (another Filipino dialect)--or is she pretending to understand?? :)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Quick update

Dei went home last Saturday morning so I was left with the two kids for almost a week. Being the Daddy and the nanny was quite fine as Nique and Nira can basically take care of themselves. They can eat on their own, play on their own, walk on their own! Well, they basically don't need that extra attention back when they were less than 3 years old.

The timing of Dei's departure for the Philippines to pick up Nel, though, was quite bad as the office has an upcoming major meeting in three weeks time--and this is a critical time of preparation as I prepare reports, logistics among others. Anyway, I said to myself, let's see how it goes during the weekday.

The weekend together was fun but the challenging thing was where to eat. Nique, Nira and I went malling during the first day Dei was out. We checked stores for some sale on kid's winter clothes. Sunday, we went to church, it was father's day! then off to home to prepare our stuff for the week.

The first day at the office was pleasant. Nique and Nira obligingly woke up early without any fuzz. :) However, they were not used to coming to office together on a weekday that they thought it was alright to make noises at the office just as they were used to on our weekend trips to the office. So, I had to ask them to hush down and behave properly--especially when the boss was around.

At the end of the first day, my migraine struck and downed me that I almost wasn't able to serve dinner. But I was able to do my duty and clean the house a bit.

On the second day and the subsequent days. It became apparent that cleaning the house would be a task that might will be overlooked during Dei's absence. So, I wasn't able to clean the house regularly--we have to do it regularly to avoid dust mites, which are allergens to Nira.

During the weekdays we were together, we were fortunate that we were invited randomly to lunch and dinners that I wasn't obliged to cook (well, I wouldn't be able to cook complex food anyway).

Well, my kids and I survived almost a week together, regularly coming to office sometime by bus or taxi and coming home by bus. I pity my kids whenever we go home as we are all tired after a day at the office. Traffic is bad (Bangkok traffic, what do you expect?) and so is the weather sometimes.

But we survived. Dei and Nel are coming a little after midnight and we've prepared welcome home banners! :)

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Shopping Galore

This early, we are already preparing our stuff for Australia. It pays that we've been there before, so we quite have an idea what to bring.

Clothes are especially expensive there that we've invested some money for clothes especially winter clothes. We are arriving in August when winter is just winding down. For Asian people or maybe just us, winter could be very punishing (but I think not for our kids who, I remember, perspires a lot even in 10 degree celcius temperature). I usually suffer from dry skin during winter that I have to put on lotion right after taking a bath otherwise my skin cracks up and become very itchy, then my lips will follow and my legs...

Anyway, today we almost completed shopping the winter clothes of our children. I've written--almost--as you know Nel's in the Philippines but in two weeks time, she's joining us again!

Nique and Nira enjoyed shopping today at Pratunam, where we hunted for winter clothes. Clothes here are a bargain and they usually give it to you at wholesale price, well, according to them. Wholesale to them is when you buy three or more--even if it is 200 pieces they would still give you the price as they will give to a customer who's just buying three pieces of clothes.

After almost a day of searching, we're glad that we were able to secure the clothing needs of Nique and Nira--and they sure enjoyed shopping. Dei plans to buy Nel's winter clothes in the Philippines as it is quite hard to find a size for her here.

Here's a winter dress rehearsal from the sisters.

Perth, here we come!

Monday, June 4, 2007

We've got a new camera

Yes after years of borrowing a number of camera for our family activity documentation, it was time to buy our very own camera--not a handy down but a brand new one. It was not that easy to find THE camera for us but we found it anyway. Find out more details here how THE camera was found.