A Little Too Much

Yesterday was a hectic day, all my own doing.  I think I may have taken on a little too much but I hate to say no when fun times might be involved.

On Thursday I had purchased a safe so that I could put away our passports, cash and jewellry.  It also meant that on Friday I could give Ayi a set of keys to the apartment so I wouldn't have to hang around while she was here.  I may sound a little paranoid but I have a habit of being a little too trusting of people I don't know that well.  It protects us and Ayi.  When I arrived at Eastern Venice after buying the safe, I also had groceries and the kids with me so I left it in the van for Tim to carry in when he got home from work.  He didn't realize that he was supposed to bring it in so it got left in the van overnight.  I asked him to bring it in on Friday morning before leaving for work and, unfortunately, he forgot so he asked Tian Ye to bring it to me after droping him off.  I had decided that I would take the kids to Happy City so that they would be able to get rid of their excess energy before going to the fabric market with Debbie in the afternoon.  Since Tian Ye was coming here, I figured we could get a drive with him up to Happy City and walk home later.  My plan was to stay at Happy City as long as possible then come home and set up the safe before Ayi got here, have some lunch then go out to the fabric market with Debbie after lunch. 

My plans seldom work out the way they are supposed to and Friday was no different.  Ayi usually shows up between 12 and 12:30 but for some reason, she called me at 11:00 to say that she was here at the apartment waiting for us.  Great.  When she called I was in Carrefour getting the kids a snack after playing at Happy City.  We quickly paid and started home, trying to hurry, but the kids had chosen ice cream bars and they don't walk fast when eating those.  Also, I had purchased a magnetic white board for sticking the kids' magnetic letters to and that kept me from carrying Ryan to speed things along.  Ayi met us halfway home and carried the white board for me.  I'm not sure if she had an idea that we were at Carrefour or was going to get herself some lunch, but it was nice to have the help.

When we did make it back to the apartment the chaos started.  I was trying to talk to Ayi about this five days per week thing, using the laptop to ask her questions, while at the same time the kids were bugging me to get them some lunch.  At this point Tim called and wanted to know if I had sent a couple of emails and asking questions about our plans for Saturday night because the were being changed.  I was a little short with him and said I didn't really have time right now.  Since I couldn't understand what Ayi was asking me about our new arrangement I decided to call Chloe and get her to translate for me.  While Ayi talked to her I made some lunch for the boys and tried to get the laundry done.  I had, unwisely, taken the sheets off the beds to wash them and because we were going out for supper in the evening, I knew I wouldn't have time to finish them later.  I can only do one king size sheet at a time because the washer isn't big enough for two.

After Ayi spoke to Chloe I got on the phone with her.  She said Ayi wants to work the five days but isn't sure if I want her to cook everyday or just a couple of times per week and she is worried that we won't like the food that she makes because it's not like the 'Chinese' food that we eat at home.  I tried to explain to Chloe that I don't always know when we want her to cook but will let her know and to not worry about us not liking it.  I gave the phone back to Ayi and at this point was really starting to regret changing our schedule.  I probably should have waited until other things were more settled.  Should have slept on it!  Once Ayi was off the phone she indicated that she wanted to make some lunch with the asparagus I had purchased the day before.  I thought that was great but told her that I would be leaving in about an hour to go out.   A few minutes later Debbie called to tell me that she was leaving to come and pick us up with her driver and that they would wait outside the apartment complex.  So, no lunch after all.  I had to tell Ayi not to bother cooking something for me.  No wonder the poor woman is confused. And the safe sat in the box in my closet.  

I got the kids fed and ready, paid Ayi for the time she has worked so far, established that she would come back on Saturday at two o'clock and cook supper for us, then grabbed a banana for myself and by that time Debbie and her driver were here.  We had arranged for us to drive with her because originally our driver was going to take Friday's off.  Since then that has changed.

We headed off to the fabric market in Debbie's car and the kids were excited and chatting up a storm.  It was quite funny and I started to relax a little bit, thinking that maybe this trip to the market wouldn't be too bad.  That thought ended as soon as we stepped out of the car.  I know I shouldn't even have tried taking two little boys to a fabric market and in fact I had even asked Tim if he wanted to take the afternoon off so I wouldn't have to.  That was a no-go and I didn't want to cancel so here we were.  Really it wasn't that bad, or wouldn't have been had I not been tired and frazzled from the last couple of days.  We did get to look around but between the kids jumping into the piles of material and people trying to hug them, it was hard to try and find something for Ryan's curtains.  The especially fun part came when Ryan decided to hide in a rack of pants and I tried to pull him out.  He had a good hold on one of the pairs of pants and started pulling on it and when it let go from the hanger, a springy kind, part of the hanger came up and whacked me right on the eyebrow.  I was stunned for a second but then got him out of the clothes and we moved on.  Although the people admire the kids for their blond hair, they don't appreciate them playing in their nice clothes.

After that incident we looked around a bit more then stopped at McDonalds for drinks and sundaes.  By then we had enough so Debbie's driver took us home.  I felt bad that she had come all that way to pick us up and take us to the market then drive us back home, but she didn't seem to mind.  She's very kind and patient.

A girl at McDonald's wanted her picture with Ryan.  They actually asked first, it was nice.

We got home a little after three and although I wanted to go in the apartment and rest before we went for supper, the boys wanted to play outside with their diggers and since it was a nice day, we did that.  Eventually we came back inside and Nicholas decided he wanted to have a bath.  Once he was in Ryan wanted one too so I threw him in with Nick.  I left them there and sat down for a few minutes.  It wasn't long before they were laughing and I could see water spraying onto the floor of the bathroom.  I looked in and they had the sprayer out and were soaking each other.  Since there is a drain in the bathroom floor, I left them alone and let them drench the place.

After the bath I dried up the bathroom, fed them some supper, finished the laundry and made the beds, got myself dressed and shortly after that Tim was home.  At 6pm our babysitter, Manon, arrived and we were ready to go out.  Hooray!  Manon's mother, Claire, recommended a Japanese restaurant and since we like the food but have never really been to an authentic Japanese restaurant, we went.  It was fantastic!  The place was really cool.  We had to take our shoes off and were seated in our own little room with a table that you sat on the floor to eat at.  However, once you sat down there was a space under the table to stretch your legs out.  As soon as we were seated a lady came in, closed the sliding door and knelt down at the head of our table.  She sat there while we looked at the menu and ordered our food.  When we were done she left, closing the door behind her.  After that, anytime they brought us something they would knock on the door and take their shoes off before stepping inside.  Aside from the really neat atmosphere the food was very tasty.  We ordered too much but spent a long time just sitting, talking and munching.  It was a lot of fun and very relaxing; just what I needed.

The unfortunate part of this cool Japanese experience is that although I brought my camera, the one that takes really good pictures, I had wisely decided earlier in the day to charge the battery.  As I was getting ready to go out, I took the battery out of the charger and not so wisely set it down.  Somewhere.  When I tried to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant, nothing happened.  It was then that I realized I hadn't put the battery back into the damn thing.  Sigh.  I did have the iPod which takes a pretty crappy picture but the good news is, we will be going back soon.

After the delicious supper we didn't want to go home yet but it was too late to do much shopping so we had our driver drop us off at the pedestrian shopping street.  It is under construction so we didn't get to see a whole lot but Tim got a Starbucks coffee and we had a nice stroll.  We were getting tired by this point so when we got in the van and Tian Ye asked us where we wanted to go now we said, in stereo, "Home".  He just looked at us, laughed and we headed for Eastern Venice.  When we got home the kids were sound asleep and Manon said they did well.  I was going to write my blog then but the internet was slow and I was too tired.  I went to bed.

Ryan was up at 6am this morning and now that Tim is awake I may go back to bed for a while.  I am having my massage in two hours and twenty-four minutes so it won't be a long sleep.  We are planning to go out tonight again so I would like to get a bit of rest.  Tomorrow, I'm not going anywhere.  Well, unless something fun comes up.

This was taken a few weeks ago but I just found it on the iPod.