too far away: introducing . . .

For those of you who haven't been here in a while, I have made some changes to this blog. The most apparent is the addition of a few links just to your left.

I introduce - PLANET PETE - the creation of hubby in his more insane moments. He did condescend to allow me to be a satellite in his galaxy back when we were engaged. I think now that we're married I'm a comet that has impacted his little planet leaving it forever changed.

The second addition is inspired by all the things we've seen around and in our new home. Click on it for true and inspiring ways to use the English language.

Life goes on here in South Asia (or South Aja as Princess calls it). Today we decided it was time to video some of our daily life and current neighborhood. This is a bit embarassing as it tends to attract a lot of attention, but hubby is perfecting a technique called walk and video. He doesn't actually look at the screen while he does it. I haven't seen the results yet. We may need motion sickness tablets to view it.

Our video attempts meant Princess and Thor got to do lots of things they really enjoy. Like buying chicken. Buying chicken is a multi-step process not familiar to our children after living in Australia and America. Being a farm girl myself, I decided I should prepare them for the experience (especially my fragile little Princess who might actually understand what she was watching). So, I duly relayed the process to her shortly after we arrived in South Asia. I failed to inform hubby that I had made these plans so when he first took the children down to the shops for groceries, he selected the chicken (step 1) and quickly hustled the kids to the next shop to buy bread. As they walked away, Princess let out a screech of dismay. "But Daddy, I want to see the man cut off the chicken's head". A bit taken aback, hubby mumbled something incoherent about bread and continued on.

For the next five minutes (approximate chicken processing time) Princess continued to whinge, query, beg and plead to go back to the chicken shop. They finally returned to aforementioned shop to receive their bag of still warm chicken pieces (step 7). Desperate to see the head, Princess actually managed to locate it in the bucket kept for such purposes. That helped a bit and she happily carried our dinner to the car. Hubby capitulated the next time and they watched the whole thing. On the way home, Princess and Thor played 'cut the head off' in the back seat of our car.

We also took a rickshaw home today - a special treat since we are now the proud owners of a sporty new racing van (see Planet Pete for details).

A boy needs to learn to keep his 'wheels' clean

This was less invigorating than normal. It was new, had a four stroke engine, curtains strung across the back window, and even a carpet piece at the foot for comfort and decor. Very posh and upscale compared to our normal noisy, exhaust belching, plastic enmeshed rides. Maybe we can get one for a second mode of family transportation.

Today hubby and I even had our first 'hot date' since moving here.

We're not sure this is exactly what they had in mind in marriage enrichment

I will confess there were a few 'cooling' aspects. Princess and Thor accompanied us. We went to our table - and found only chairs. (I've never been to a restaurant that delivers your table before the food) And of course, the omnipresent threat of little bugs that will 'make nests in our tummies' (Princess definition). Well, we enjoyed our vegetable samosas and hulva for the impressive amount of $1.25. Hope we're still happy with the experience tomorrow.

We really like our new home. Princess and Thor have cool sheet sets on their beds.

kid's room in South Asia

Anytime they're tempted to whinge (oh, wait, maybe that's mommy whinging), we remind them what their beds would be like if we gave in to our friends and moved to Japan.

alternative arrangements in Japan

It's not all play here in South Asia, though. Even children have to pull their weight around the place. Today we moved our TV from the third (and yet to be furnished) bedroom into the living room (yeah, that would be the one with only one working power point).