Squirtle, the beach, and some dogs

Everyone knows that we left a pile of pets behind when we moved over here. This has been extremely difficult for certain members of our family. One of the pets we had to leave was Myrtle (Kaid's turtle). We have had Myrt (a red-eared slider) for almost 3 years and she is a happy and healthy turtle (thanks again Harveys, for taking such great care of her in our absence)!! The red-eared sliders here are neither happy nor healthy. They are kept in approximately 1 inch of water. When you see turtles in the stores or markets they look sad (seriously). And sick. Amanda and Kaid went to feed the fish and turtles (the only healthy and happy ones we've seen here) at Myrtle Park the other night, and they somehow managed to return with a turtle that could fit in the palm of my hand. Her name is Squirtle (although I think it's a BOY) and the two of them have decided that they will nurse her back to health and hopefully save more of her relatives. Amanda filled the aquarium with water and put the little turtle in and it became apparent that she didn't really know how to swim (and she's an aquatic turtle)??!! Ever since, she has been blissfully swimming and eating a lot. The man at the fish store tried to refuse to sell a filter to Amanda for a turtle because he said, "turtle no need water". She managed to convince him to sell her one, but when she asked him for something that floated that the turtle could bask on, he sent her packing. So, we ingeniously put an empty soldier pail in the tank (thanks, Kaid). We filled it with water and rocks to keep it anchored, and now she has a place to climb on to bask. Yesterday Myrtle and Squirtle got to meet via Skype. Yes, I shake my head daily at the insanity!!



We had another long weekend this weekend, having Friday off for National Day. Thursday evening Kylisha went out with some friends and I tutored. On Friday our plan was to go to watch the Bubble show at the City of Dreams. The Bubble show is a free ten minute show where apparently you stand in the bubble and the show takes place above and around you. When Kaidyn heard that the show involved dragons, he decided that he was no longer interested in the bubble show??

So, we headed to the Venetian for lunch and then to the Qube instead. The Venetian has the greatest food court!!! They have Vietnamese, Malaysian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese...you name it...they've got it. They also have a Fat Burger and Amanda loves the veggie burgers and chocolate shakes there!! I went for some Thai noodles, Kaid had pizza, and Kylisha and her buddy had paninis. After lunch we spent a couple of hours at Qube and Kaidyn was a hot, sweaty mess when we were done. The fact that they insist you wear long pants and shirts may have had something to do with this. The best thing about the Qube is that if your kid is wearing a t-shit and shorts when they arrive, they will give you long pants and shirts for them to wear. Basically the ensemble looks like a pair of gray PJs. So, it's pretty funny to see the hot and sweaty kids running around in pajamas!!

On Saturday Amanda and I headed to Fisherman's Wharf to check out the US Market. It's a grocery store filled with "western food". Amanda found some pudding and chocolate chips and we stocked up on junk food and chocolate bars. The kids were happy when we got home with their treasures. Saturday afternoon I tutored and Amanda did some baking in the good old toaster oven. She managed to make banana chocolate chip muffins and I could smell them as soon as I got out of the elevator from tutoring. She also made a coconut cream pie!!



Today Kaid and Amanda and I headed to Hac Sa beach for the morning. Kylisha opted to Skype instead. Kaidyn LOVES the beach! Hac Sa is a black sand beach and the sand is super silty and black. The beach is also (quite literally) crawling with crabs!! Kaidyn thinks this is wonderful-(anyone who knows our boy knows how much he loves interesting creatures and creepy crawlies). The crabs dig little holes in the sand and can be seen scurrying along sideways all along the beach. We spent several hours watching crabs and collecting shells. Afterwards we got ice cream before heading back to Taipa. Amanda found a wonderful creation. It was like a Revel but it had a mango puree center and instead of being dipped in chocolate it was dipped in banana flavoured deliciousness.




This afternoon Amanda and Kylisha headed back to Anima with some friends to walk Don-Doe and his best pal K-K. Don-Doe continued to make them laugh, and Amanda managed to get a picture of him today lounging in some water. Those girls are huge fans of that dog, and I'm just waiting for the day they come back from their dog walking with Don-Doe himself. This had better not happen (I support the "Save the Turtle" project we've got going on, but I don't think we need to expand this little endeavor)!!!