Blog

Mayday mayday

2/5/2023

JD spent his May Day holiday at a fishing pond yesterday, trying out all the fishing gear he's been buying with Christmas, Birthday and Chinese New Year money over recent months. I'm not sure where he gets his enthusiasm for angling from - certainly not from Jiajia or me!

He managed to snag a small fish on one of his three rods (his first ever) but his two fish traps were a lot more successful, with 30-40 toddlers by the end.

Unfortunately, JD started to feel a little ill after a couple of hours (he seems to have caught the chest infection that Jiajia's had for a week, and which I was suffering with yesterday). So we headed home earlier than expected. JD still felt it was a fun trip though.

Work and play

26/4/2023

JD has been maturing quite a lot in recent months. He seems to struggle a little less at school - finding ways to avoid the boredom and do enough to pass his exams (just). His class won the Year 4 Basketball Competition - JD was just cheering - AND the Year 4 Ethnic Dancing Competition (both out of 10 class teams). JD was one of the dancers.

JD's free time has been dominated by fish recently. His two aquariums teem with fish, big and small. But with 1-2 dying every day, we wonder how long it will be before he packs in that hobby! He also has aspirations to be an angler. He bought his third rod and line last week. I get really proud when I see him confidently interacting with "strangers" such as shopkeepers and neighbourhood folk with great confidence and politeness. And all in fluent Chinese, too!

Most valuable supporter

16/4/2023

Last week, JD and his class spent many, many hours taking part in a basketball competition between the ten classes in his year. The teachers take it very seriously with girls, boys and mixed teams, and live-streamed matches. By the end, JD's "Class #7" were unbeaten and destroyed their opponents in the final, 21 v 5. JD didn't play at all, but was awarded "No.1 Supporter" for his enthusiastic chanting and encouragement. As a reward, the students in "Class #7" had no homework to do last weekend. JD got home by 7pm on Friday and slept until noon on Saturday - a well-deserved rest!

Tank you!

6/4/2023

JD spent his saved-up Birthday money last weekend on an aquarium and two fish - something he has been after for ages. We just hope that the fish live for quite a while, and that JD doesn't lose interest in them (as he did with the hamsters!).

You wag, you!

2/4/2023

After school last Friday, Jiajia and I drove JD (and Ma) to a very posh 5* hotel near DianChi lake for a gourmet meal, courtesy of a free £100 VIP voucher from Jiajia's bank, and in celebration of JD's 10th Birthday! Ma hated it (of course), but JD loved it, chatting to our personal chef and experiencing Japanese WagYu beef, New Zealand lamb, squid, etc - all perfectly cooked in front of us.

The next morning, I was woken at 1am by flashing bedroom lights and spooky noises. I later realised it was April Fools Day and my scallywag son never misses the chance for a prank!

You don't see that very of ten

28/3/2023

Carrots, cooking & country construction

20/2/2023

Last week was a productive one for each of us. JD dug up (and ate) some carrots, Ma made (and we ate) jiaozi dumplings, and I completed a jigsaw of the British Isles. The black lines on the puzzle date back to my teaching days at Robert's School of Languages. I made a lesson based on UK geography, flag, history, sights etc. I'd give parts of the puzzle to small groups in class and, once they'd completed their section, we'd combine them all and talk about the five nations.

Write back to school

12/2/2023

JD's holiday homework and review papers have been ramping up this week as he's back to school next week and looking at taking his end-of-term exams, which were postponed from last semester due to the COVID school closure.

He goes to a private homework class most days and Jiajia gives him extra help where she can. JD only has about a year of Chinese education to go, so it's important to take this opportunity to make his reading and writing as solid as possible before our move to the UK next year.

Kerboom!

22/1/2023

Happy Chinese New Year! JD had a blast (literally) yesterday night setting off his huge collection of fireworks.

Pranking or spanking?

18/1/2023

Last night, as I was going to sleep, JD told me that he was planning a prank or two for me today. I didn't really take a lot of notice as I was sleepy. But this morning, when I got up my slippers had disappeared. When I switched my computer on I found the desktop background had been changed! I made myself a coffee but after a sip I realised that the milk had garlic powder in it! I grabbed my water bottle to wash out the taste and found it contained salt water.

An alarm went off behind my computer. This drew my attention to one of the photos on the wall in the office which now had my head 5x bigger on it. I've been well and truly tricked this morning with no real guarantee I've found them all! Now, do I prank him or spank him in revenge?

Makino the most of it

16/1/2023

JD was invited to "Makino Play Park" the other day by a couple of his classmates. It was a 1½ drive into the countryside - a camping and animal petting area near a large lake.

Half of the park seemed to be still under construction, but JD and his friends enjoyed feeding and playing with the emus, donkeys, llamas, chickens, pigs and - especially - the rabbits.

Reverting to type

10/1/2023

One of JD's Christmas presents was a Lego typewriter. He started it by himself, but struggled a little when the various moving parts and gears needed to be constructed. So we decided to finish it together.

We were a little disappointed to find 5 pieces missing and, though it moved like a real typewriter, it didn't actually type. But overall it was a really fun build.

Not a lotta plot

4/1/2023

JD and I went to the cinema to watch "Avatar 2" this afternoon. We took our masks just in case, but in fact there was only one other person in the theatre with us!

As expected, the film was a visual feast. Not much story, to be fair, but the world-building was exceptional and the final hour was non-stop action. JD and I loved it, and the 3¼ hours felt more like ....3 hours.

Look and cook

30/12/2022

One of JD's Christmas presents was a little cooking set including an electric hotplate, some pans, and various utensils. He got quite excited and declared he would cook for himself in future! He went on YouTube to find some simple recipes and has been cooking his own lunch ever since! No significant stomach upsets as yet. Now we just need to show him some YouTube videos about cleaning up afterwards...

Countdown to Christmas

20/12/2022

JD is keeping track of the number of days to Christmas with a self-made Post-it Advent Calendar! It has no chocolates or nativity pictures, but at least he gets to rip something off each morning and savour the countdown! He has already opened one present, actually, since we are all in quarantine with COVID - using his spare time throughout each day to construct a huge Lego aircraft!

Christmaths

18/12/2022

With JD's Primary School having been closed for a month now, his schoolwork is all assigned, handed-in and marked online. Up until last week, he has done this though the day at "Cleaner School" - his after-school club attended by 5-10 students, usually just to do homework but now doing classwork through the day too.

But with COVID ripping through the population now, since the removal of pandemic restrictions, "Cleaner School" has closed down too. JD has had COVID this last week but is now back to 90% health and so the schoolwork continues. Jiajia has to do the Chinese and Maths with him (90% of the total) while I pitch in with English and "generally keeping everyone less stressed"!! The holidays can't come quickly enough!

Lost

14/11/2022

We took JD to his "girlfiend's" 10th Birthday Party yesterday. Unfortunately, the English on their signage let them down and I spent the first 20 minutes looking for a lost girl!!

Lion in the bed

8/11/2022

Thump!

4/9/2022

Is it normal for a 9-year old to be falling
out of bed once or twice every night?

Tackling technic and tricky tank

16/8/2022

Two recent builds. JD made the "Technic Lego" yacht without any help from me, while I tackled a surprisingly tricky 2000 piece tank.

SIMply great!

10/8/2022

We finally managed to organise JD's flight simulator visit today - a treat promised for his birthday back in March! He had been before, along with 50 other kids for a brief 15 minute "flight". But planes are JD's passion and he very much wants to be a pilot when he grows up.

So this time he had a full hour's lesson with a professional flight trainer. The pilot did a 20 minute "take off, holding pattern, landing" demo and then let JD fly the plane by himself for 2 x 20 minute exercises. JD's first landing veered onto the grass a bit, but his second was right down the middle of the runway (if a bit bouncy!). Pretty impressive really, since he could only just see out of the window and was therefore flying largely by computer readouts and gauges.

Wanda ful

8/8/2022

I've been giving JD English/Maths work during the holiday (only 30-40 mins from me, compared to the daily 1-2 hours Chinese from the school!) but I try and make mine as interesting and fun as possible. We've worked out how much water is in the local swimming pool, the area of various pan lids and, for English, a project writing up the specs of various aircraft (JD's passion).

But today's homework was for JD to work out how to get to the Wanda Towers (a landmark shopping mall across the city) by public transport in time for a McDonalds lunch! He worked out the best route using my phone app (walk, underground, change trains, bus, walk) and then we went and tried it out. JD took the lead, using underground maps, bus timetables and asking locals for help where necessary. I just tagged along! We arrived 12.10pm - perfect.

We planned a different route back over an ice-cream and got back home two hours later. I am hoping JD might gradually pick up the bug for independent travel as I once did in my teens.

Picked the wrong time

6/8/2022

Half km - cool!

2/8/2022

We grabbed our last chance for a swim in the outdoor neighbourhood pool yesterday before heading back to Kunming today.

The pool was pretty cold, but JD managed 500m of fast-improving breaststroke before calling it a day.

Boatiful weather

16/7/2022

With exams all over and a week of sunshine ahead, we've been hitting the paddle boats on both Green Lake (with some of JD's school friends),and LianHua Lake (with just JD and I).

It's a good way for JD to get some exercise in a controlled area (ie no cars or pedestrians) with fresh air and a cool breeze. The pedals are too close for me to be able to help much (...that's my excuse) so I just let the kids wear themselves out, whilst ensuring they are not about to bump into any boats, ducks or islands! And at 40RMB (£4) an hour, it isn't going to break the bank anytime soon.