Busy Busy Bees

Another day of being on the go here.  I had a good list of places I wanted to go but only got to two of them.  Tim told me this morning that his glasses were almost broken and asked me if I could find a place to get him a new pair.  Just the frames, not the lenses.  That would have been a lot easier could he have left them with me.

The kids and I headed out with the intention of going to IKEA but I had a bright idea on the way and we detoured to Michelin.  Tim has a pair of prescription safety glasses so I called and asked him if he would be able to wear those for the day.  He said he could so we went and picked up his regular glasses to take them somewhere.  The first stop after Michelin though had to be IKEA.  I ran out of dark chocolate bars on Saturday and was beginning to panic a little.  A quick stop there and I had twenty-six of them in my bag.  One for Tian Ye, one for the kids and I to eat along the way, and twenty-four more for here and the trip home to Canada.  I hope that's enough.

Next we traveled to YooHoo for food coloring.  It's the only place I've seen it and need some for Nick's birthday cake.  It wasn't cheap but I now have lots of it.  We also had lunch and several bathroom breaks while we were at the mall.  By the time we were done there I was ready to go home but we still had Tim's glasses to figure out as well as our home telephone.  I forgot to mention that one.  For the past week I have gotten a phone call every morning at 8:30 or so.  It is a recorded message in Chinese and on Sunday we tried to record it on the iPod so we could have it translated but it wasn't loud enough.  Luckily today I had the wherewithal to get Ayi to answer it so at least she would know what was going on, not that she could tell me.  I figured that they must want some money except that when we moved in seven months ago we were supposed to have paid for a full year of phone, internet and satellite.  I managed to ask her if they were trying to collect and she said yes but that was all we were able to figure out.  Instead of frustrating myself anymore I called Tian Ye and asked him to speak to her.  Yes they wanted money but he didn't know where to pay it so I had to call Lois, our housing agent.  She told me which company it was and I thought we were all set.  That was until I talked to Tim who thought we should find out why they wanted more money if we had already paid for a year.  I wanted to be lazy and take the easy way out but level headed Tim won.

So our next stop was at China Telecom where Tian Ye went in to see what he could find out.  Thank goodness because I really didn't want to drag the kids into that place.  They were cranky and being difficult so unless I was going to be able to leave them there for the rest of the day while I came home, I didn't want to do that to myself.  Tian Ye found out that all they would tell him was nothing.  They would have to speak to the landlady.  He was able to get receipts for the past seven months, but no details.  So what am I going to do about this?  Nothing.  It is now in Tim's hands, along with the receipts, and he can take them to Lois who will have to figure it out with the landlady.  Phew, I'm free of this one.

Now on to the glasses.  Since there is a place in the Carrefour mall that sells glasses I decided we would find out if we could get him some frames there.  Mix C has a Lens Crafters but the last time we were there I noticed that they had an ad for Porche sunglasses so I have a feeling their products would be a little more than we are willing to pay for spectacles.  I asked Tian Ye to come in with me since I figured I would need a little help explaining what I was looking for (mainly because I wasn't really sure myself).  After a lot of discussion among four of us - Tian Ye, the salesman, myself and Tim on the phone about what to do, it was decided that Tim would just come in himself after work and pick something out and they would copy his lenses.  A wonderful solution and one that, had all parties been thinking logically, could have been devised without so much hassle and stress to me.  Oh well, someday we will learn.

Tonight we had a nice supper then tried to get the kids to bed early since Sue our neighbor and Sue the Seamstress were coming at 8:30.  Ryan went without too much trouble but Nick was awake for the visitors.  That's okay, at least the grumpiest kid should get lots of sleep tonight.  Maybe not the grumpy mommy though.  The ordering only took about ten minutes and hopefully everything will work out okay.  Sue the seamstress was pretty tired.

For the last hour I have been talking to Ma on the phone and filling her in on our day.  In the version I told her there was a lot of peeing (and even a little pooping) involved but I thought I would spare you those details.  I will tell you that I will be washing the boys' shoes tomorrow.

On a lighter note, somehow Nicholas and I got talking about marriage in the van as we were driving around today.  I asked him if he was ever going to get married and his response, like the last time, was a resounding "No!".  I asked why he didn't want to get married and he informed me that he didn't want to have to wear one of those "bone ties around his neck".  I realized of course that he meant bow ties and even though I explained that you only wear those for one day, he still had no interest in tying the knot.  Just out curiosity I asked Ryan the same question and his response was "Nope!".  When asked why he just said, "I don't want to".  I started to wonder if perhaps their example of a wife (me to Tim) is making marriage an unattractive option.  I guess time will tell!

That's it for now.  Another busy day coming tomorrow so I must get to bed.  Goodnight all!