My 2 ‘Baobei’

‘Baobei’ means precious in Chinese. My 2 little ‘baobei’ would make me laugh and make me mad, sometimes. They wrote me letters one night, after a war with mummy.

Pancake Day

24 Feb 09 – A very important event happened today – Pancake Day. Pancake Day is always on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Some people refer to it as “Fat Tuesday.” It is a centuries-old traditional holiday. In Old England it was customary for the housewives to drop whatever they were doing and hurry to the church at the tolling of the bell to be “Shriven” for their sins. In 1445, a housewife in Olney, England started baking her pancakes rather late. They were not quite finished when the church bell rang. Not wishing to leave her pancakes to burn, she hurried to the “shriving” carrying her griddle and the pancakes with her. This led to the annual sporting event in England.

There were special promotion on pancakes’ ingredients in supermarkets. Basically, you could see and hear about pancakes all day, on radio, TV, paper etc. We had pancakes for breakfast, lunch (me) and dinner (Yi Hong). Yi Hong and Yi Xuen particiapted in ‘Pancake Race’ in school. Tips from a friend in school about how to make the best pancake for this race. The pancake would be better if it’s smaller and thicker, like American pancake. Yi Hong and Yi Xuen won the race in their class. I enjoyed watching the reception children and toddler group the most.

More SNOW!!!!!

When we opened our window this morning, we had a very surprise SURPRISE! Our village was all covered with snow. YH & YX first word was “It looks like Switzerland!”. Schools were closed and a lot of people didn’t go to work (but not Danny) due to the heavy snow. It was because UK seldom get this kind of snow and lack of equipment to clear up the roads. Everybody in our village got out and had fun like snow ball fight, building snowman and sledgging. YH almost spent the whole day outside. Although YX was not feeling well but still went out for 2 hours in the morning. I was not able to join the fun as I was still fighting with ‘winter bugs’. Danny came home in the afternoon because his boss was very understanding and allowed him go off early to take care of his sick family. It was nice to have him home.

9 Years of Marriage

2 Feb 09 – Today was our 8th years anniversary. We had not been really celebrating our anniversary since we had our children. This year, we wanted to start celebrating this important day for us again. We went out for a very nice evening dinner at a pub ‘Black Horse’, which is highly recommended by our American friends. It was quite romantic to have candle light dinner in a snowy night.

Guess Where/How did we first met?
(a) In a coach
(b) In a plane
(c) On Holiday

Answer: All of the above.

Now


To refresh our memory, we brought some pictures to show each other. I had the hard print photos and IT savvy, Danny had I-Phone.

Then
Our Wedding

Our honeymoon

Snow in England!!!!!

2Feb09- Finally, we had snow in England. It was the heaviest snow in 20 years. According to local news, it caused so much disruption to travel and education as analysts said the cost to the economy could be as much as £3.5 billion. London came to a near standstill today with all buses cancelled and overground and underground train services severely disrupted. School children also got 2 days off from school. The most snow was at southwest of London, with 31 centimeters (12.2 inches). Well, I wondered why it’s a big deal while Switzerland had more than 5 feet of snow but life is go on.
Anyway, Yi Hong (was ill and absent from school) and I waited anxiously for snow. It started little and getting more in the afternoon. Probably we got 2 inches of snow. YH & YX and kids from our neighbourhood enjoyed snow-ball fight and building snowman in front of our house.

CNY Party Continued……..

I invited some ladies from our village and school for Chinese New Year lunch at my house. Last year, we had a party for children and parents. This year, I wanted a quiet, sit down and more cosy afternoon (selfishness, was I?). This time, I cooked less dishes and had more time to prepare. We had noodles, my version of pineapple of fried rice, spring rolls, BBQ ribs, white chocolate cheesecake and strawberry mascaporne tart.