Happy in da Kong

I've slept for 2 nights in a row! Thanks for the vibes :)
Yesterday I felt completely knackered though, even after sleeping about 8 hours. My body was probably in shock about actually sleeping........
Today I'm doing better again.

Auntie and I headed for the hospital for a check up yesterday. Everything is fine. The confirmation of this fact took about an hour and a half of waiting time. The check up itself took about 2 minutes:

'Poke, poke belly and check Isabelle's heart beat'

Done! Yeah...... I'm supposed to go in next week again but if I feel fine I will cancel the day before. The doc carefully agreed with me on this. She did say it is their policy to check every week in the end but it may indeed be a waste of me energy and time if I feel fine. So we made an appointment anyway just in case I feel I need to see the doc.

Blog typing view

At lunch we met up with Molly who got her visa done this week. All went well and she's in the mainland again. We took a cab back and chilled out here for a bit, as I was more dead than alive at one point.

We decided that the Cheung Kwan O malls needed another visit. Me for a haircut and Molly for a top that she had seen and liked. It turned out that the places were a ways apart so Molly took the metro for one more stop.

I found a hairdresser that looked OK from the outside. Not mega fancy but also not too shabby. I had to wait again but that was no problem. I did have to leave the salon once to go pee..... 

The service was fine and afterwards I was hungry (and needed to pee yet again). I stopped by at a 'casual Japanese restaurant' and had a snack with Lemon Iced Tea. It was very good and I was impressed by their selection of drinks. 80% of which I can't try right now ;)

I leisurely strolled back to the metro and went home.

The result

It is really hot outside today but I'm watching the weather from inside the comfort of my AC. I did buy some groceries this morning so that's already one walk taken care of.

I had really yummy greek yoghurt with blueberries as a snack. So happy! In China it is impossible to find decent yoghurt (you know, the kind that actually looks and tastes like yoghurt....).

The yoghurt arrived at 21.50 last night with the delivery guy of Park 'n Shop. Ans recommended their service so I gave it a go. The guy called me on the way over because he wasn't sure that building 10 was correct. I told him it was correct in my best Cantonese, ahem. Phone calls are the most difficult!! I've had some people on the phone this week looking for Haiwen. I can tell them he's in GZ and what his number is. Sometimes that is enough but at other times they rattle on and on..... When that happens I ask them if they can speak Mandarin or English. The result is mostly some stammering followed by a "we'll try later". I'm pretty shocked at how bad both Mandarin and English levels are here.

Another thing that makes me happy is the internet here. Everything just works. No messing around with VPN, no silly censorship and speed that is worthy of the nomination 'speed'.

37 weeks

This morning Ans came by for a visit. We hung out for a bit and went out to get lunch. After lunch we had a look around the store but my energy levels were already zapped.

Auntie and I met up with a friend for dinner last night. It turned out to be quite a pretentious place but luckily the food was nice. It was a bit far away so we got home after mommy bed time ;)

I went to bed quickly after we got home but I couldn't fall asleep. I finally fell asleep around 4 AM.

This excerpt from a pregnancy app puts it nicely:

The plan for tonight is some reading in the bathtub and general chilling out. Please send boring, sleepy vibes. They are much appreciated!

Bigger 'n bigger.........

We've been in HK for a week now. Yesterday most of the furniture arrived, how nice it is to have a table to blog from ;) During the week we had one bed, one mattress on the floor and a small chair. All in all it wasn't that bad. On Saturday night our situation improved a lot when we got a comfy chair and 2 lamps from Ans. We went out to dinner with the guys first and picked up the stuff after dinner. It was nice to get to hang out all together and not to worry about getting home.

Haiwen was with me last week but now 'babysit' duty has been transferred to auntie. Very nice of her to come over and look after me!! She arrived last night. She found our place by herself and was very pleased with that. Haiwen showed her around a bit and left this morning.

Isabelle is welcome to come out now. Yesterday I felt like I was going to topple over forwards! She feels bigger than Lexie and is very strong. Come out!!!! My lower back is pretty unhappy right now...

The official due date is July 18th but I think that is a week too late anyway.

On Sunday we stupidly took the metro into town. We had to transfer an extra time due to the Sunday schedule. How annoying! When we got to our destination we still had to walk through endless crowded corridors. I couldn't breathe and felt bad. So no more metro for now.... I only had to ask for a seat once. It was no problem, people were just too sucked into their phone to notice anything.

We had dim sum with the Yeung family. I got to cuddle their 3rd child Elena for the first time :) She's almost 6 months old now.

Sleeping is a big problem now with me waking up hungry constantly, if I've even slept through Isabelle's fitness sessions..... I've been trying loads of different ways to eat in the evening but haven't found the perfect snack yet. I'm combining carbs and proteins so that should be OK.

Ugh, just come on out!!!

Touch down

We're in HK. Hurrah! Hopefully no more scary dreams of Isabelle being born early on the mainland.......

We arrived yesterday afternoon together with grandpa who installed the curtains. 

I like our house. Pictures will follow later when we have some real furniture in it ;)

I slept very well last night on our super comfy mattress on the floor. HW slept in the somewhat smaller bed and had a good night as well. I need a lot of space now so we decided to split up for the night. Much to the benefit of rest for the both of us. 

Now I'm in a mall waiting for HW to get food. Mobile blogging is so much easier without the big bad firewall trying to block your attempts.  

Ha, food is here, see you later!!!!

The laundry basket

You see, I'm pretty used to the fact that my husband is mostly a 'Westerner'. Sometimes, however, his Chinese side emerges. This happens when you least expect it and in unpredictable ways.

This morning Lexie was playing in an empty laundry basket that happened to be in his room. He was very surprised and asked her what she was doing. I showed Lexie months ago that laundry baskets make an excellent toy. What's not to love about them? You can be either inside or out and there's always stuff around to be in there with you or to be thrown out!

We quickly figured out that Haiwen has missed out on the magic of the laundry basket, simply because he didn't have one in the house when he was growing up. Poor guy, but he seems to have made it anyway ;)

The big difference is that Lexie needed help getting in and out of the basket up to a few weeks ago. Now she does all kinds of gymnastic moves in and out, very cute!

More days like this please!

We had a few gorgeous 'cool' (about 24C) days this week, following some heavy rain. It was absolutely beautiful. Hardly any pollution and the AC was off for three days in a row. We only managed one night without AC because the wind gradually died down. Very slowly the humidity came creeping back and now we're at normal sticky weather again. I was grateful for the short respite!

On Friday I went to have a look at the pics from with preggo shoot. Molly joined me and we picked out 23 pics. There were some really nice ones so that was a relieve. Other ones were OK but I had a silly drawing on my belly. It didn't fit with the outfit or background at all so I asked them to photoshop it away. Luckily that was no problem. I can pick up a DVD with the pics on Monday. The rest won't be done until July (a large print out, key chains and some more stuff like that, haha, it was included in the package).

35 weeks.........

On Tuesday night I finally went out a bit. Off to watch the practice soccer match between Holland and China. The match itself was very bad but it was nice to chat and be out. I didn't make it to the end of the match though ;)

Later today I'm going to the China Hotel where Leon van der Zanden will perform, followed by a BBQ. Lexie and Haiwen will join me at the BBQ. Stand up performing in Dutch is also a bit too much for hubby dearest ;) In this case it works out well since Lexie is still a tad too young to appreciate such a performance.

Huffing 'n puffing

Ayaaaa, I have to admit that at 34 weeks and 4 days I'm starting to huff and puff a bit a lot. How uncool!
In my defense: the weather is not helping much much high temperatures and high humidity. The real feel right now is 43C. We have some thunderstorms around to cool off a bit but they only make matters worse if they aren't long or powerful enough.

Oh, I just tried to upload a pic but my VPN is on the wrong setting. Next blog then!

Lexie stayed with the grandparents last night. She climbed in bed there and wouldn't come out. At 8 this morning she was back here again.We played for a while and went back to grandma for lunch when the rain stopped. She is now taking her afternoon nap there. Ayi is cleaning so in a few hours our house will look very good again. I'm very happy with her and hope she can still come for a long time.

Packing for HongKong has started. Figured it is about time since I'll be going there to stay next Monday. Less than one week now..... It will be nice to be there so I don't have to worry about Isabelle wanting to break out early. Once we're there she's more than welcome to come join us!

Stuff.......

On Friday I headed to HongKong for the last check up before the move there. Haiwen was supposed to join me but he was running out of free days as he is in HK a lot already to arrange stuff for our new house. I asked my friend Nicole to join me and she had time, hurrah!! We took the first through train and off we were!

The lady at customs asked if I was a diplomat, since I was in the fast lane. Nope, pregnant, was my answer. The same happened in HK but there they have a person checking BEFORE the desk. OK, I get that you don't see my huge belly when it is hidden behind a desk but when I'm walking up and standing right next to you..... Nicole says it is because I don't waddle and walk too fast, hahaha.

Apres photo shoot make up

I wasn't sure what was going to happen at the hospital. The appointment slip was written in typical doctor scribble so I couldn't figure it out. Last time the doctor warned me that it could take a while. This time I reported to a different section in the hospital. I got my shot of Rhogum and a small examination. All in all we waited for a bit over an hour. Not bad at all, since last time we waited over 2 hours!! That's what always happens, isn't it? When you are hurried there are major delays and when you are prepared for stuff to take forever it is over before you know it! 

I was done by 12.30, perfect timing for lunch! We went to a small Japanese place nearby.

Nicole was in the mood for some shopping and since she was carrying my bag that was fine by me :) I'm still walking well but any extra added weight locks up my lower back immediately.

We came across a nice store on Nathan Road and hit M&S a bit later. We wanted to buy a little something to go with coffee at Ans and Chiels place. We bought some apple cake slices and headed to McDonalds for a little rest and some wifi. Then we continued our walk to Ans' house.

We had a nice chat and also saw Chiel. Then it was time for some dinner and Nicole and I headed to the Thai place on the square where Ans lives. I didn't eat very much as the food hit my throat the wrong way, stirring up unwanted reflexes..... Ugh! Nicole had a salad that turned out to be mega spicy. She has now decided to believe the little pepper pictogram on menu's ;)

We walked back to HungHum station and boarded the train back to GZ. Nicole never has a delay going back to GZ so it's great to travel with her, hihi. We got lucky as we got out of the train right next to the stairs. We were number one and two at customs, hurrah! All in all a very smooth and pleasant day!

On Saturday morning I had a photo shoot. I'm curious to see the results. I'm afraid that some pics will be too tacky but I have my fingers crossed for a few nice ones as well. I'm going in on Friday to see the results. Then I also get to choose which ones can be magnified. That is part of the package deal Haiwen got me. We also made plans to do a complete family shoot once Isabelle is born.

It's storm week!