Snippets of Samui

A little craziness. And yes I made it all the way.


Christmas Eve dinner.


Christmas Eve foot rub. Grant loves them.


A bit of shopping. The hand made bracelet has his name on it.


Christmas Eve foot rub number 2. Spoiled. Oh Kelly and I are there also but G is the one who wanted them.


To end the evening a lantern of good wishes sent in to the sky.





Christmas Day a bit of football golf with the kids.





Japanese dinner


And then to see the Hobbit.


The whole crew after the movie.



It was definitely a first for us of new Christmas activities. We missed friends and family from home and around the world (that sounds cool when I read it back "around the world")

So for those we missed Merry Christmas and hope you have a good New Years.

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Location:Thanon Chaweng-Choengmon,Bo Phut,Thailand

Diving in Samui

Sunday Grant began his Scuba diver class. As the five boys were in class, four dads headed out to sail rock to do our own diving. Seas were way rough ( Mike and Linda imagine Barbuda to Antigua, minus a few feet on the swells and a 32' power boat.). Let's just say we decided to turn back after 45 min and this is what I came back with





It looks a bit better today.

Monday was better sea forecasts they said so the 7 of us headed out for the open water dive part of their class. The first 30 min was smooth. The next 45 was not so much. But we made it to Koh Tao and Grant completed his open water dives.


Getting ready on the boat before we departed.




What hose goes where?





Not sure how he is going to dive like that.





Pre dive briefing.



First decent and ready to go


Grant doing his underwater skills of removing the regulator and replacing under water.


With dad not to far just watching.


Thank you Discovery Divers. Grant has his PADI "scuba diver" certification. Look out.


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Koh Samui - First Morning

After a great few days in Bangkok we arrived in Samui. Had dinner with a bunch of friends last night and woke up to a beautiful morning.








It's empty now but give it a few hours and I'm sure Grant and the kids will be running all over asking to swim or ride the jet skis.


Bungalow A17. Our little hut on the island for the next 2 weeks.

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Location:Bo Phut,Thailand

Another day, another foot rub

It was another leisurely day hanging with the Sharps. We leave Bangkok tomorrow for Koh Samui.

Had a last minute meeting with some folks at ISB who wanted to talk about my job at SAS. Then G and I did some bike riding. Ended up at a foot massage place. Grant's first this trip and my third. For $9 a pop it's hard to say no.


That is Grant trying to show he is relaxed and enjoying his foot rub.

We then went and watched Michael's drama classes performance. What an artist he is.

And what would a day without the pool be? G and Coco enjoying their face mask and snorkels.


Even though we are enjoying our time in Thailand we are sad about missing our time with Amy and Adam, and the boys, in Australia.


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Location:Soi Samakkhi Place 2,Bang Talat,Thailand

Back with our buds

As Kelly posted on FB earlier, we had breakfast in Shanghai yesterday, a layover in Hong Kong and dinner last night with our friends Michael and Tonya in Bangkok. We forget sometimes how lucky we are to be able to travel and collect all these "Stamps in our passport".

We spent today touring around ISB, International School of Bangkok, lounging by the pool and foot rubs from the comfort of Michael and Tonya's couch. No complaints here. Heading into town tomorrow to take Grant to the Lounging Buddha.

We are here till Thursday, then down to Koh Samui.



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Location:Bangkok Thailand

What a Saturday

It was a pretty good Saturday today. Started out with a leisurely cup of coffee and a short walk/rollerblade to the store. Then we headed to Concordia International School down the street for their annual holiday bazaar. Man was it a popular place.


Grant and Kelly discussing the wanted use of someone's allowance.


How many skittles can you pick up in 90 seconds with chopsticks? Grant did 23. Pretty impressive.


After the bazaar was a trip to the dentist, cleanings for all three. Holy "explitive" bat man. I really miss the 60,000 won (approximately $60) cleanings in Korea. Let's just say it was close to 6000 RMB for all three.

After that it was a night out for the adults to the annual SAS Pudong Quiz night. Teams of 8, made up of teachers, staff or parents, come up with team names and costumes. Then we compete in 8 rounds of trivia questions. We were the Smart Asses. Those are suppose to be donkey costumes even though they look like Eor. We came in 18 of 31


Good times.

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Location:Yanggao Middle Road,,China

Korea has arrived

Wednesday 11/20/13 @ 8:04am China time.

So short recap. We left Korea mid June. All our stuff was left at our friends Tamarisk and Shelley's apartment in Korea. Shipping company arrived on October 1st, packed it all up and sent it to China. It arrived in China on October 25th, the same day we got our resident permits. Perfect. Not so much. Problems with immigration and customs ensued. But now it is November 20th and I'm waiting patiently for it to arrive at 10:00.

9:30
Truck has arrived.


The first box arrives





10:30. The apartment is a disaster but our stuff is here. Xiao Yu is happy to have new dishes.


Grant is stocked with toys


Now Xiao Yu and I have 6.5 hours to get put away before Kelly and Grant our home. Wish us luck.

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Location:Yanggao Middle Road,,China

Back to work

Back to work that is for Watson. Grant and I took Watson out to Jialiang K9 Kennel to start his narcotic training. The hope is to get him trained to find drugs and use him in the school.



A little outdoor obstacle course work to get him back in the swing of things.


I forgot how well he can hold on to a ball.


Good boy Watson


Working with the owner of the company in the scratch box room.


I think he is getting the idea.

Watson picked up pretty well on the new concept however he enjoyed barking at the toy behind the window about as much.

Pretty good start for day one.

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Location:Yinhuan Road,,China

A few updates

We have made the move to Green Court two and are very happy with our new apartment. It is still pretty empty but our shipment from Korea should be pulling in to the elevator any day. Now Well County in Korea was nice but you will never find a tub this big.



Grant and his buddy Bruce had to prepare a UN presentation on Switzerland. Here they are in action.



Found a place that will have beer lovers happy. Anything on the shelf you can purchase cold, and walk out the door while popping the top. Rouge Brewery is quite popular here in Shanghai.



Another perk to our new apartment is a true oven, not just a broiler like we had at the last place. Yes, that is the first plate of Mark's enchiladas here in China. Mmmmm good.


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Location:Yanggao Middle Road,,China

Grant's class project

Here is a short slide show of Grant's 5th grade class doing their UN presentations.  You will catch a glimpse of him at about 1:00 into the slide show.

http://teachers.saschina.org/5mr5kw/2013/11/07/discovering-the-world-through-5kw-5mr/

Shanghai - Where we live

Here is a cool video of downtown Shanghai.  The area you see during much of the video is about 20 minutes from where we live.

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/11/01/shanghai-23rd-floor-incredible-timelapse-video.php

And a bit of the minion on halloween

Short update

It has been a crazy few weeks and getting time to post to the blog has been a challenge.

Short recap:
September 17th our friends Young and Ginger came for a visit during their Korean holiday. We spent a few days as tourists and really had a great time.
First week of October was our fall break. Passports are still with immigration getting our visas processed so we stayed in Shanghai and relaxed. Did a few tourist things and explored a bit.
The Sunday before break ended I spent the whole day on the phone and computer watching a typhoon and eventually canceled school. I was all the kids favorite person.
Monday the 7th, no school because I canceled it, and not a storm to see. Typical weather. We also moved out of our apartment at Green Court Two in to a serviced apartment, where we currently are, until we move to our new apartment in Green Court One on the 23rd.
Tuesday - It rained and the wind blew like a son-of-a-beach. Guess the typhoon was a day behind. Had to have an early release at school.
Meanwhile, spent the same week working, fighting, with China Southern airlines over the rules of flying Watson to China from Korea. After many hours of frustration he and John landed in Shanghai October 8th.

So that is a quick recap. Seven more days until the next move and hopefully a less stressful couple of weeks.

A look ahead:
Thanksgiving weekend in Singapore with the Mitchell's along with a swim meet Grant will be participating in there. Yeah.

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Location:Huangyang Road,,China

Swim meet

First swim meet of the season.






Event 1 50m breast stroke.















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