30. Visit the beach where “The Beach” was filmed

We took a day trip to Koh Phi Phi last Wednesday and one of our stops was Maya Beach where the movie THE BEACH was partially filmed. It was pretty much one of the most beautiful places any of us have ever seen.




Check out the longtail driver having a snooze in his hammock:




20 down...80 left to go!

Basketball, Some visitors, and some Christmas Parties

The weekend before last Amanda took her basketball team to Hong Kong to a U20 basketball tournament. 95% of Amanda's team is 14 years old or younger. Take a wild guess at how they fared. Actually, they did VERY well considering the school has never had a girl's basketball team. And-they had only had about 4 practices before the big tournament. Kylisha managed to rack up 17 fouls in 5 games (and was fouled out once). It's pretty cool that she is able to play basketball...back home she wouldn't have had this opportunity. They were able to meet kids from other International Schools and are looking forward to their next tournament in Shenzhen in January. Amanda LOVES her team and is always telling me what a nice bunch of girls they are. Both Kylisha and Amanda have been RAVING about the amazing weekend they had.

Kylisha's friend makes a foul shot:






My parents and brother Jordan have been here visiting and we have really enjoyed the company. I took my brother to Zhuhai for a day of shopping and Kylisha and I took Jord and my parents to Hong Kong for the day on Thursday. We took them to the giant Buddha and it was COLD up at the top! Much different than our last visit there! It's been good showing my parents around Macau. My dad has discovered the delicious dumplings at Senado Square. He's made a few trips in the last couple of weeks. We are excited to spend 2 weeks with my family in Thailand. Looking forward to some beach time-my mom and Amanda have always dreamed of going to Thailand together. When Amanda got the job here they began planning a Thailand trip together. Should be fun.


Jordan accomplished the UNTHINKABLE the other day-he managed to receive a FINE FOR LITTERING. This is is funny and extremely ironic. Everyone here litters.

A LOT.




Jord paid his fine (almost 100 CAD) because the officers told him if he didn't pay he wouldn't be allowed back in the country. Poor guy.

Last weekend was Amanda's staff Christmas party at the Hard Rock Hotel. There was good food and lots of door prizes. After the party we went to the after party and then the after after party. I am not able to blog about the happenings of the night as this is a family blog. Let's just say it was an "interesting" evening.

On Wednesday we had our Christmas dinner. Amanda figured we wouldn't be able to pull off a traditional turkey dinner in Thailand, so she arranged it early. She found a restaurant in the City of Dreams that cooked a 13 pound turkey. Then she made some mashed potatoes and salads and we had a Wednesday night Christmas feast. Our friends Dane and Kirsten came for dinner and Kylisha invited three friends over. It was a good time. We had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jord who turned 30 back in September (since we had all missed it).

14. Watch the HK harbour light show at night

So Amanda and her friend Gill went to HK to do some shopping after their half day of parent teacher interviews on Friday. They went to SoHo for lunch, hit up Ikea for some household items and did some other girly stuff in Hong Kong (such as strip down to bra and panties and have a tickle fight). After the tickle fight, they got dressed and headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui's waterfront to watch and take photos of the Symphony of Light show on Victoria Harbour. Amanda snapped these awesome photos while she was there.





19 DOWN...81 LEFT TO GO!!!

Amanda speaking

Hi folks!!

Let me preface this by saying that this is Amanda writing this post...not Les. He has made it clear that he doesn't want anything to do with this post. Fair enough.


I miss you all. A LOT! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about someone from back home and get a little (okay, sometimes a BIG) lump in my throat. Thanksgiving was horrible for me. I spent a couple of days crying. I missed our traditions. I missed the crisp fall air, and I missed all of you and our pets! Thankfully there are wonderful people here who helped me understand that it is perfectly normal to be a little homesick at times (especially around the holidays). Still doesn't make it any easier.



We've missed some pretty wonderful things back home. 3 babies have been born (and another one is on the way in the next few weeks), our annual back to school BBQ didn't happen and my best friend turned 35. I've missed Val Chow cookies and some dinner club time with my ladies, and I missed my mom's birthday. I haven't played a soccer or basketball game since July and I miss my team members a lot. Every night my feet search the end of the bed for Brady, Lola, and Kitten who should be there. And every night they are not there.




I miss my brother and sisters terribly and would kill for a hug from my mom and dad. I want to have a beverage with Jolene while we cook dinner together. I want to go to a movie with Lynn. I want to eat good things and drink bellini's, mojitos and strawberry quicks with Kim, Sandra, Susan, Leah, Ally, Michelle, Nicole, and Val. I want to go for slurpees with Leah, Kim and Lisa. I want hugs from Amaya, Eden, and Brielle (my nieces and nephew) and Shaye, Darby and Rielly (my" family by choice" niece and nephews). I want to take the dogs for a walk around Clarkdale Meadows and visit with the moms from Kylisha's soccer team.



I miss Kylisha's pals and our house back home. I miss tea time with Brad and I want one of Dan's delicious caesar's! I want a giant Loni hug (and I desperately need a haircut too, Lon ;-) I want cuddles with Sara and Missy and I miss Myrtle too! I would do anything for one of Gail's egg salad sandwiches, Cathy Borelli's pizza or Sara Elsafadi's fattoush (and a hug from each of them)!! I miss Hope Mission Fridays and stopping for bubble tea. I miss my old students who would pop by my classroom to say hi (or come and help for the afternoon). I miss my dryer, oven, the Sherwood Park recycling program, and my KitchenAide mixer A LOT! I miss all the little things, which now (being on the other side of the world) seem like much BIGGER things.


Don't get me wrong...I LOVE it here. I really do. Every day I wake up and feel blessed to be here. Our family is loving every minute of this adventure and we are so happy that we were given this opportunity. The weather is great, we have amazing friends who we never would have met had we not come, and we are seeing and doing things most will never be fortunate enough to experience.

BUT...I just wanted to let you know that you're thought of often, remembered very fondly, and missed terribly. All of you! You are important to us and we love you!!

Thanks for Skyping and calling us! It means a lot and keeps me going!!! LOVE YOU!!! So much!!! <3

Amanda :-)

Halloween, Happy Birthday, and random stuff

We celebrated Halloween a little differently this year. The school had a Halloween dance that we attended right before the fall break. Kaid had a great time running around with his friends (and with all the boys in Amanda's class, his favourite people)!!

The dance was a fund-raiser for the grade sixes at the school and one of the events was a cake walk. Amanda loved the cake walk and desperately tried to win a cake. Basically, you are given a card and you hold that card as you walk around a huge table full of cakes. Music plays as you walk and when the music stops they draw a card. If your card is drawn, you are out. Kaidyn tried unsuccessfully to win a cake approximately 45 times. Once he became bored of walking around the cake table, his mother took over and marched around with the small children trying to win a cake. I am happy to report that she eventually beat out some poor crying children and won a cake.

This was in the taxi on the way to the Halloween dance. Check out the sign on the back of the seat...


The kindergarten kids got dressed up on the last day of school before the break and went trick or treating at the school. All the parents brought candy and as the kids walked by we put candy in their bags. After a few laps the candy ran out so the parade was over. Kaid thought it was a great time!

On Halloween Amanda asked some friends if we could bring the kids trick or treating to their apartments. Kaid got dressed up and we walked around Taipa to 6 different apartments. This took us roughly 600 hours. Our new friends were VERY generous with their treats and as a result, Kaidyn ended up with roughly the same amount of candy he would get back home (and Kylisha scored a season of Ugly Betty)! The highlight of the evening was our last stop. Our friends Dane and Kirsten asked us to come to their place last. As soon as we stepped off the elevator we could hear screaming and other terrifying sounds coming from 19B. There was also a considerable amount of blood outside the apartment. And, the door was decorated with scariness. We pushed Kaid forward to ring the bell (literally) and 2 scary monsters answered the door. They invited us in for a Halloween party complete with punch and lots of junk food. It was a great Halloween and a nice way to spend my birthday.



Kaidyn's birthday was in October and we didn't have a party for him. This was mostly due to the fact that he didn't know his friends' names. Amanda kept encouraging him to just ask the kids he played with at recess what their names were. Eventually he forwarded a list of five and we sent out invites. Last weekend Kaid had his birthday party at the City of Dreams at Kids City .It's very much like Qube at the Venetian. Slides, arcade games, ball pits etc. One thing really cool about Kids City is that it has a dress up room. We twisted Kaid's rubber arm and made him dress up as a prince. He had invited three girls to his party who were MORE than willing to dress up as princesses and pose with Kaid.

After they played for awhile we loaded them all into 2 taxis and headed home. We had pizza and cake and the kids played for a bit. Our friend Kerrie made the cake and needless to say, Kaid LOVED it!! She did an amazing job and we had enough leftovers so that the four of us could have cake every day after dinner for most of the week!


We've been sick. First Amanda, then Kaidyn and then me. Ever since we returned from Singapore we've been fighting sore throats, coughs and chest tightness. On top of all that, Amanda has had to do her report cards and I've been working A LOT! In the last 3 weeks I have subbed at the school 10 days. Apparently we are not the only ones feeling under the weather! It's been busy but good. I like working at the school. Every day is something different and sometimes Amanda and I get to have lunch together.

Other than that we haven't done too much lately. Amanda took Kaid dog walking last weekend and the workers there thought that because Kaid was small they would give them 2 puppies to walk. This turned into a bit of a gong show as the puppies had no clue how to go on a walk. At one point Amanda was carrying both puppies up some stairs on the trail and Kaidyn asked for a piggy back because he was tired. She declined.

Last Friday night Amanda and her pals went to a wine-tasting to celebrate their report cards being done. They managed to go dancing without getting kicked out and apparently they drank some bad wine because a few of them were terribly ill the next day!! She texted me a few times, but nothing funny enough to post. I was disappointed.

My parents are arriving on Thursday and we are all excited. The kids are off on Friday so we will most likely show them around Macau. We are also excited for the 3,000 tonnes of groceries, clothes, hockey equipment, Christmas presents, and care packages from our friends to arrive with them. I'm pretty sure there will be no room for any of their clothes to fit. They may be naked for the 6 weeks they are here!

Later!

87. Go to an orchid garden

On Thursday we headed to The Singapore Botanical Gardens for the morning. It's a pretty beautiful place. Because we were there in the morning we got to see some people doing tai chi near the entrance. It's pretty cool to see a bunch of people moving together at once like that. We enjoyed a nice walk through part of the garden and found the orchid garden hidden at the back. Imagine thousands of orchids in one place and you get the picture! Our plan is to take some of our favourite photos and have them made into paintings for our house back home. Here's a few of our faves.

All of the yellow flowers are orchids!!!





18 down...82 to go!!

45. Ride on a zip line

Sticking with the Amazing Race theme, we went to Sentosa Island to hit the beach and go to MegaZip Adventure Park. We opted for the zip line ride down from the peak to an island out in the water. It was fantastic and we all enjoyed the thrill of the ride!


17 down...83 to go..

71. Drink a Singapore Sling in Singapore

One evening after Universal Studios, we trekked to the Raffles Hotel, home of The Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was invented. It was a big bar with 2 levels with peanuts on every table. The floor was ultra slippery though as you just threw the peanut shells on the floor! It was a little odd being at a bar at 10 PM with kids, but apparently they are allowed on the lower level! Amanda enjoyed the Sling and we all shared some desserts!

16 down...84 to go...

42. Eat an ice cream sandwich like the one from The Amazing Race

It took us almost 4 full days in Singapore to finally find the cool treat to beat the heat! Amanda and I have been dedicated Amazing Race viewers since it began and when we saw the Singapore leg last year on TV, I knew that I would love these ice cream sandwiches. These are unique as they are a 1 inch slab of any flavor you want and you have the choice of eating the ice cream between 2 wafers or in a folded piece of normal bread. I was 100% in favor of the bread and it did not disappoint! These were the greatest ever and we all enjoyed them. When we move home, I'm buying a box of ice cream and some bread the minute we get back!

15 down....85 to go..

34. Go to a fish spa and get a pedicure from some fish

After our full day of walking around the zoo and an evening of walking around the Night Safari coming up, Amanda and the kids decided to get a much needed fish pedicure at a fish spa located just outside the zoo. It was quite hilarious watching them as the the fish consumed the excess flesh from their feet...kinda creepy if you ask me!

14 down....86 to go...