Week 45 - Ding dong ding, everybody sing

These little cuties are in the Early Years Choir... the ones with Santa hats on are 4 years old, and the ones without are 3 years old. They put on a Carols by Candlelight concert (with a lot of help from their amazing teachers) to celebrate the newborn King, and of course the other festivities that go with Christmas!  

The cutest bit was when they all stopped singing and dropped their jaws open when they heard a loud 'Ho Ho Ho' from Santa Claus!  

Week 44 - Christmas Tree Lighting

It's not even December, and Didi has befriended Santa and is leading him around to meet his friends! This was at the Tree Lighting Ceremony at school where the Junior School Choir sang and mulled wine and mince pies were enjoyed by all.

Week 42 - Shanghai Zoo

Took the kids to the Shanghai Zoo, with some reservations with reports of poor conditions for the animals, and ended up being pleasantly surprised.  The gardens in the zoo were lovely, and it was a great spot to see some autumn colour.  Most of the enclosures provided a reasonable amount of stimulation for the animals in the outside sections but the inside enclosures tended to be a little bleak.  Despite no feeding signs, it infuriated me to see people leaning over enclosure walls reaching to the animals and throwing in human food, usually junk food.

I loved the red panda - in Chinese it's name translates to Inferior Panda, but I think it is just lovely, and this name makes it really seem like the poor cousin!

Week 40 - Trick or Treat

Here we all are dressed up for Halloween.  My family are all pirates and my friend's family are all witches and wizards.  We had a great night trick or treating around the Green Villas compound, and the kids collected a huge amount of loot!!

Happy Halloween!!

Week 39 - United Nations Parade

This is Didi's class, all ready for the annual UN Parade.  His school has children from more than 60 countries, and his class of 16 manages to represent 12 countries!!  

Don't they look beautiful??

Week 38 - Sports Day

Hang on to your hat... first time these guys are having proper 'competitive' sports day, and in the sprints, you wouldn't want your hat to come off... even at the expense of first spot!!

Week 37 - Dead Things Museum

The Dead Things Museum, officially known as The Natural History Museum, really is just that...  hundreds of preserved dead animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures which have been in some fluid and have truly had all colour leached out!  There are also a couple of models, for example a big whale, and a poster demonstrating human ethnicity focussing on different noses!!

This is the most impressive room with the dinosaur skeletons... but it looks like it was curated in the 1930s, and hasn't been touched since.  It wouldn't be a surprise if Prof Indiana Jones stepped out with a group of students.

Week 28 - Fishing Village

Would you believe this is Hong Kong??  

This is a village called Tai O on Lantau Island.  The houses are built on stilts in the river, which is on the mouth of the sea and at the foothills of the mountains.  It is largely a fishing village, and the walking streets are lined with vendors selling fresh and dried produce, and the canals are the residents backyards with laundry hanging and boats moored.  

As well as walking between the houses, and stopping at a cafe with a balcony over the river, we went on a boat trip through the village which took us out into the ocean, where we were lucky enough to see wild pink dolphins frolicking in the waves.

Week 25 - Beach Holiday

This is the private beach at Le Belhamy Beach Resort about 6km outside HoiAn in Vietnam.  We are stayed here for 2 weeks, and enjoyed the beach and blue sky every day!  You can see the Cham Islands out on the horizon, and the sun loungers under the shade umbrellas to give us somewhere to relax and the kids to play.  

What a wonderful holiday spot!! 

Week 23 - China Maritime Museum

We keep finding little gems even after 4 years here - this amazing building is the China Maritime Museum out past Pudong Airport in Shanghai. The heat of the day was conquered by the air conditioning inside.  We spent about 3 hours exploring this museum, which was deceptively huge, there were control rooms to play in, engines to adjust, models to look at, phones to talk into, films to watch and computer simulated welding and crane driving exercises.  

It was amazing, and the kids loved it too.

Week 18 - Water, not wine

After about an hour of running around, and scooting, and chasing balloons, and playing with friends and frisbees, Didi kicked me out of my armchair where we had been relaxing with friends and demanded a drink in my 'fancy cup' - very happy with water in a wine glass.

He looks quite at home really... lazy Saturday afternoons in a beer garden will probably feature in his future!!

Week 17 - Founders Day

Founders Day was a day for our school to celebrate its British links, and did so by having a day full of carnival or summer fair activities; including a merry-go-round, sideshows, face painting, sports games and of course a hog roast. The kids loved running around on the field and then we sat to watch and listen to a performance of the combined choir and orchestra, from both the senior and junior schools - incredible talent capped off with an impressive fireworks display.

Week 1 - Australia Day, Jinqiao

Back in China, and the first post for my new blog with the Welsh theme, what better than to talk about than Australia Day!!   Look at our cuties with their kangaroo flag tattoos on their faces. We are in the midst of the Chinese New Year festivities and we were lucky enough to have the most spectacular firework display outside our window which we said was for Australia Day, but really was for wealth and fortune in this lucky lunar year of the dragon!!