Aberdeen Chinese Community Gathering

I have just come home from attending a Chinese New Year gathering hosted by the Aberdeen Chinese School and Community at the Linksfield Community Centre.

Just some girls having fun making silly faces whilst the performances were going on!

There was lots of food!!! And also, i dont think i have seen that many chinese people in one location before here in Aberdeen! Man! There were loads of them!!!

What impressed me were the people who were making 饺子 (jiǎo zi) They were really good! Even then men were good! Too bad i did not get any pictures to post them on though! :(...Hadnt thought about it! But i will ask a friend who was taking pics if he has some to share....

Among other things that were happening besides have loads and loads of food and 饺子, there were also some performances by the kids who have chinese lessons and also piano lessons there. Some were good some were ok.....too bad the piano there was an old one, the kids who played on them had to really try hard to make it sound good! I was talking to a friend about this and she told me that her teacher has always told her " It's not about how good a piano is, it's how well you make the piano to be!" So you make your music and the piano is there to help you! So in essence it does not really matter at times if the piano is old, you just got to make it sound good the best you can!!!;-)

Another perfomance that really caught the attention of these people was a friend of mine and her parents with their chinese musical instruments. guzheng 古箏 Huqin 胡琴 qinqin 秦琴 These instruments were really cool! Had no idea my friend was so darn good at it!!!

Overall it was good fun and good food with good company although i probably only knew about 0.5 % of the people there tonite!

House Hunting in Aberdeen!!

House hunting in Aberdeen is a difficult...no lets say nightmarish job! At least to find a suitable one for us to live in!!! Either too far, too old, too small or something else is just not right!! So I have yet to find our next home.....hope to find it soon!!! I have since figured out why we have been on the losing end of the leasing housing market, i think i jinx myself out by going to look at the houses before speaking to an agent!!!

Anyways, saw a nice one with potentially 6 bedrooms...but i dunno if that would be feasible due to budget.....huh!!I really dont know! Am getting myself way too confused!! Well, it does seem now that the house i have mentioned is not meant to be!!:(

However, i think i may have found another good house with quite a few things that are to my liking! So, will have to wait till monday to make an appointment to see the place! Fingers crossed and hoping i dont jinx myself out of the house yet again!!

4 Feb 09

House hunting is still on...have not found the right house....am getting really tired of looking for houses everyday...especially here in aberdeen....houses here are generally older and and dated....the nicer ones are usually private homes or not available for lease!

Keeping my fingers crossed that we shall find something soon!

8 Feb 09

Today i told hubbie that after the 3 days that he is away, if no houses that are suitable comes available...he is going to see the first house that i had viewed mch earlier.......so came Wednesday 11 Feb, no suitable houses.....so we made an appointment to see the house!!! and he quite liked it despite the fact that we will be losing out some of the pluses in our current place to there......so, we were going to make and offer on certain conditions......let's see if they agree!

13 Feb 09

Today we have decided to put in an offer for a house here....Finally with some hope in hand, we might just get the house.......

20 Feb 09

We heard today that the owners of the house have agreed to our conditions but are still waiting on proper black and white to come through.....

However, the irony of all this is that, on the day that i hear we have gotten a house, another house with a sort of better location comes up on the market...which is i why i say, housing in aberdeen is just something else.....of course we can still decline the other offer and go for this one, but there is no guarantee that we will get this house......so i said to hubbie, let's just stick to this house that we've gotten an answer for and not think about the other house anymore!!!!GRRR!!! Had this house appeared on the market a week earlier!!! That would have been fantastic!!!! And then i think.....how classic!!!!Anyways...enough said....shall not think of it no more!!!!

23 Feb 09

Today i got an email from our relocations agent....apparently the black and white contract has come through with some criterias......flooring wise is okay the only thing is that it may take longer which means may not be done in time for our move in...but can be done after moving in....which is no problem for me......but the other thing was that they are refusing to change the tv for us.....which is also not a problem for me.....and they are not willing to replace the curtains upstairs and in the lounge which i think also wont be a problem for me.....we'll have to see what hubbie has to say about it all.......

2 Mar 09

Yay!! Finally we have a house we are moving to.......the house that i like from the get go.....on top of that, i discovered today that our new neighbours are friends of Mik's classmate and they have a girl going to the same school....that's pretty neat! Hope they are nice people.......Now we are waiting on paperwork to come through...hopefully that would be sooner than later.......i have already set up the transfer for our internet and phone to the new place with effect from 13th Mar.....Will post some pix sometime soon!!!

Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR OF THE OX!!!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! This is what we've been hearing a fair bit amongst our chinese friends here in Aberdeen. Indeed it is Chinese New Year....There is not much of an atmosphere here very unlike in Asia where it is one of the big celebrations......over here, Miks went to school as usual and stuff like that......However, we did have our CNY eve's meal albeit a lunch instead of a dinner....then we also went out for dinner with friends on Monday (1st day). Then on the 2nd day, I had a pot-luck lunch with the yee sang. That was rather fun!

As of my last post, i HAVE started work and that has been fun! I told my employers that yes i shall be back and the kids have not scared me enough for me not to return! ;-)


As for house hunting, just as i thought that i have found us the right house, i got beaten to it by someone else....this is 3 houses now...am going to be viewing more houses in the next 2 days....hopefully i will be able to find one to my liking as well as Miks and Mike's likings........seems like i have seen to many a house now...am getting confused myself! hehehe....

Anyways, i am hoping to be able to see just a few more houses and there is now one house that i am really keen on seeing...only problem is the house rental is over our budget! Wonder if they'll reduce rent????? Hopefully! :)

Start of the week!

It was a crazy start to the day today....i had to take Miks to school using another road coz the one i usually take is closed for road works of somekind...have no idea what it is....anyways..to top it off, it was raining and sleeting as well...so not fun start! Then after that i had an appointment with a nurse...there i felt the very powerful blustery winds of aberdeen...had to walk quickly for shelter from bone chilling winds......After that, i had to drive about 15mins to get to my 'workplace'...mind you i was supposed to be there at 9.15am...at this point it was already about 9.05am...thinking about it..wondered why i could not get out of the house intime in the morning so i did not have to rush! hhmph! by the time i got to my workplace, it was 9.25 am....was late for my 1st day at work! Not good! The good thing is i dont have to work that schedule on daily basis. I'd only be working typically on Wednesday afternoons to which i will make a mad dash into town to collect Miks from school...will have to see how that works out. First trial this week...
anyways, at playgroup today it was fun meeting some new children.....nice after being away from little ones that are not mine for almost 2 yrs....i miss those days when i was working in TLC!!! Thoroughly enjoyed myself there! Will have to see if i will be able to last here in my new job! Hopefully.......

Anyways, my day did calm down after that.....managed to come home and had lunch at home prior to going out again in the rain! Today i bought some new games for my wii....extra controls too!

What a week!

This week has been quite a week for me! Have been busy again as usual...only this weeks busy got added in with looking for houses and such....also put an offer in for a house and got beat by another person being able to move in sooner! Waaa! Not fair coz i really liked that house....however...have consoled myself to a point whereby i do not like that house anymore :p ... also this week, one of our friends who was visiting Aberdeen had a fall whilst in the bathroom...not a pretty thing but thankfully it was not serious......he had to end up visiting the A&E here and got glued up for the wound.....it was a laceration right above his eyebrow. He was really quite funny and calm about it though....so at the end of the day, we all had a good laugh! he was really concerned that they would have to shave his eyebrows!!! Anyways, this same week, another friend of mine had an accident with a deer when it ran right into her driver door...mind you, this was while driving on country roads in aberdeen with no street lamps.....not a good thing....but thankfully no one was hurt but the deer.....(it died)......
Also, this week i have decided to start on some sort of packing up for my move.......the must move out date is firm now and the reality of our decision to make this move to another house is now becoming REAL!!!!so hopefully we find a house by then!!!*fingers crossed*
I am also starting part-time work this coming week...basically i will be required to work only 3 hrs on Wednesdays at a pre-school playgroup. Getting paid to go and play with 5 yr olds! (Why not??)
So, as we start off another week, i hope that this week will be less eventful!
My great friends have helped me to decipher Mikkys name and got it emailed to me in chinese writing so here it is: 美琪 ( from what i understand it means Beautiful Jade).....wonder if it will stick.........

Friday!

Wow! After a full week of school back in, we are all beat!!! Mikayla had a great week in school and things are going to be more of normalcy next week when all the activities start up again....to full swing. This week was busy however coz Miks wanted to go and play with SueAnne right about everyday after school. I on the other hand have been busy looking at houses and shopping too.....am looking to be moving house....hopefully sometime soon...it will however be a rental....buying here just costs too much for not so nice houses.....anyways...
This week, Miks got a chinese name...you see, Miks being half chinese, we had not thought of giving her a chinese name when she was born...so whilst at a friends' house yesterday, we were going about writing in chinese....then after much conversation, i was asked if Miks had a chinese name...i said no....they said oh...so i said, why not you all give her one based on her name....so here it is...she is named in chinese after her english nick name mikky...(have to figure out a way to post it as chinese writing....note to self) so that was pretty cool! But Miks was like...huh? i got a chinese name????anyways, that's the end of my school week with miks....the weekend should be quite nice!!!

Last day of holiday

Today is the last day of my two week break from having to wake up early and driving Miks to school...:(...got to get back to normal tomorrow and i am certainly not looking forward to the early morning rise and rushing through traffic to get Miks to school..However, i do look forward to the idea that she will be in school for the day and i will be able to go shopping....:))! Hope to get some good bargains.....

Anyways, today we finally made it to church after missing it for a week....albeit a little late...but it was good nonetheless....this is what i got from today's message..." my past is definetely not my future!!!" So be in all this remembering that what is past is past..we learn from it and make amends and do not allow what has passed to rule our lives.....God loves us regardless and He knows us and what we do even from the time that we have not been born...He has and will continue to lead us if we allow Him to!

New Year's Day

Today is New Year's Day....what have i done today? Slept in again...had lunch at a friend's place and then picked up someone at the airport and then sent them to their home whilst here in Aberdeen and stayed back there to have dinner and chitchat.over here we had some really nice Malaysian 3 in 1 teh tariks! YUM!!! :) the white black coffee smelt wonderful too! didnt dare to try it...just incase i'd stare at the ceiling tonite and not sleep a wink....sleeping at 3 am in the morning these days are bad enough...can't cope with more of no sleeping!!!
..and Miks did not want to leave coz she had the fun company of another girl....in fact, what was funny today was when i asked Miks if she wanted to have the girl sleep over at our house....she very quickly said...no mommy...my bed isnt big enough...mom says: sure it is...you both arent too big...your bed will sleep 2 of you....and Miks says...no mom....my bed's teensie.......classic case of her trying to compare her bed with ours.......but with some persuasion of allowing her to go and hang out there again tomorrow, she quickly agreed! ;-) (the power of persuasion on a 7 yr old) ...that's basically how my first day of new year was spent!

Happy New Year!!

Sitting here at 2am on New Year's day....wondering, reflecting and thinking........Have decided on not having resolutions this time around....just gonna take it as it comes!!!So may this year be blessed for all and may all have God's blessing and joy to overflowing!