At the airport

Made it to the airport last night. One night at the Fairmont, very nice.

Up at the crack of dawn, 7 o' clock. Crack of dawn for me, anyway.

Couldn't help feeling for Mike and Cheryl in New Brunswick, who were just getting up to leave for the airport as we were going to sleep. By the time we get to our hotel in Guangzhou, they'll have been up for over 30 hours.

I don't like flying very much and was talking to Elliot yesterday about flights and flying. I told him that the group of people we were supposed to be travelling with weren't leaving until the 11th of September. September the 11th!!!!!! Oh oh.

I heard once the terrorists don't take any notice of anniversaries, but if they did, and did it again, no one would ever travel on 9/11. Except, terrorists.
Now they'd know if they were planning to blow up another plane. So the only people flying on 9/11 would be the bad guys. There, caught them all on their way to Cancun. The tall one with the beard's in first class.

8:38 am and drinking a latte, bar opens in 22 minutes. 21 minutes..................

2 Days left.

Well, just 2 days left before we jet off.

Taking Spike up to Uncle Daves and Auntie Chari's tomorrow, boy is he in for a shock when he gets home!
They have a doggy ranch www.happytailsranch.com so he'll be as happy as a clam for a couple of weeks.
It's a stunning 40 minute ferry and I never get tired of it.

Hoping to catch the noon ferry home so I can do some packing (5 minutes, tops). Then figure out where to move the cube van too so it doesn't keep getting tickets.

Have a little job to do on Thursday (thanks AK) so that's when I'll move it.

Thursday night at a hotel by the airport.

Friday, China here we come!!!!!!!!!!

Goodbye old friend

My chip pan fried its last fry this evening. My mum gave it to me 7 or so years ago, didn't give me the good chip pan, just the new one she bought that "didn't cook the chips properly (well your dad said they tasted different)".

Still, better than nothing.

Common sense says that 6 pounds of lard at a temperature close to the surface of the sun, is not a good thing to have on the stove with a kid around.

I know, I know, nothing untoward happened to me when I was a kid. I didn't reach across the flaming burner for the handle. But, I'm older than your average Pa so a lttle bit more over-protective I guess.

Still thinking about the lard? You can't cook chips in vegetable oil, it doesn't get hot enough.

My arteries are breathing a sigh of relief as I type.

The old chip pan is gone but not forgotten, it'll be doing come back appearances for chicken wings (outside on the barbeque).

Which, in itself is kind of sad. It's like a horse that won the Grand National pulling a float in the local carnival.

Car seat

Just installed the baby seat in the car, it also comes with a convenient beer can holder.

Breakables have been put away (display case with glasses in it etc) toy storage cupboard is in place.

Stair gates tomorrow.

4 more sleeps until we fly

They think of everything

Tracy went shopping today for a stroller (pushchair in English).

I'd already tried it on for size and it has an extendable handle so it works great.

Even Ilya came up and said "cool".

Here's the best part, it comes with a little thing on the handlebars for holding your beer! Is that unbelievable or what? They just think of everything

Disapointment at Superstore

There are a some things you can really only keep in your cupboard if you have a kid.

Today, in the baby section at Superstore, search as hard as I could I couldn't find Heinz Chocolate pudding. Imagine, no chocolate pudding it's one of my favourites. Organic this and that but no chocolate pudding. London Drugs here I come.

On the bright side they had Farley's Rusks which would be another of my favourites, I'm sure Tanner will like them too, he better, they're going to be in the cupboard 'til he goes to university.

Also realized that today was my last trip to superstore where I would be putting food in the place in the cart where the kid is supposed to be. Now that, is a great thought.

Itinerary in place

Good news on the travel plans.

We thought that Trace was not going to get to see any of Beijing but, as it turns out, we're leaving Guangzhou a day earlier than expected. So she'll get to see The great Wall and a couple of other things before she abandons me and Tanner.

Got a crap load of forms to fill out today too.

Finished (kind of) painting the bedroom on the main floor (Issacs room) lots of other stuff to do though.

Like packing.

Packing

I just took Tracys "zebra" suitcase upstairs, but we're still painting, so no packing has been done as of yet.
Tanners gear is laid out on the bed in his room, but, for sure, we'll be packing by Sunday.

Oh, 'ang on, last Sunday meat draw for quite some time, so packing on Monday.

Definitely.

There is, however, a kid lock on the tv cabinet? My karaoke machine is now inaccessible until Tanner figures out how to open it. Denny will be happy.

Packing, Monday, for sure.

Follow us here

I created this blog last year 5 days before Tanner was born.
This is where you'll be able to follow our trip in China.

If it's possible (internet availability) we'll post pictures everyday

cheers

Tony and Tracy

Spike chillin' at the lake waiting for his bro

We're hoping that Spike is going to be as thrilled about Tanner as we are.
He is actually looking forward to more walks and under-the-highchair snacks...