The children in Hangzhou

Hello again....it has been quite a while since my last entry...I have been busy with work....holidays and some daily chores ….it’s difficult to get organize without the maid around ....this is the price I have to pay after relying on the maid so much ....:( plus my limitation of doing some heavy household chores after my prolapsed disc incident……..but I consider myself as lucky since I can always call the Ah yee to come for cleaning the apartment with minimum fee if I want to but had not done so since I thought that I can burnt some fats while cleaning the apartment and getting things organize…LOL…..

Rozi came with the kids to spend the last school holiday with me. We went backpacking to Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.

They reached Hangzhou on Sat 08th March via Airasia (thank god for that! otherwise, I can't really afford to fly them to China). I went to Xiaoshan airport to pick them up at midnight as Rozi is not very familiar with Hangzhou. This will also be Rozi’s training ground on how to move around in Hangzhou so that I can leave him independently on his next trip to see me. Brought them out of gate no 5 at the airport and bought 6 bus tickets which cost RMB 15 each for adult to Hangzhou downtown (Wulinmen). Then, we came down at the 2nd bus stop before continuing our journey in a 10 minutes ride by cab to the Best Western Premier Hotel which cost about RMB 12. Since we were bringing 4 children and Nabihah a.k.a Ayong has been considered as adult since she is already 15, we booked two rooms so that she can share with her sisters and leave Adam with us (Adam has been very attached to Ayong since he was a baby …due to my temporary disability during my confinement…). ..but as usual Adam refused to sleep with us……

We woke up early and I prepared some instant noodles in the cup with 2 in 1 Milo they brought from Malaysia for breakfast. Then, we went out, took a cab and started our first visit to the West Lake. We walked around the lake for nearly 3 hours. Here are some of the photos I managed to capture while we were in Hangzhou:

One of the tree in full bloom during Spring at the West Lake

The kids having splendid time by the lake

Me and my wonderful children........

Adam & Nadhirah enjoying their cotton candy

Rozi with his adorable children (as he always brag to me.............)

My favorite spots in West Lake

The children at the Centre of the West Lake

At Wushan Market...........

Having lunch outside the Muslim coffeeshop located at the entrance of Hangzhou Silk Market

We enjoyed their curry beef rice andstir fried beef .....hhhmmmmm yummmmyyy.....

Then, we continue our 3 hours journey by bus to my apartment in the evening. They spend one night in my apartment before we took 4 hours bus ride to Shanghai on Monday morning. We reached Shanghai in the afternoon and straight ahead to the railway station to purchase the night train to Beijing. We did not managed to get the soft sleeper so have to be on soft seat for 16 hours journey.


Prior to the journey, I briefed the children and I assigned each of them with a duty. Ayong in charged for the luggage, Rozi looked after Adam while on the move and read the map, Ueya and Wawa check the room before check out to ensure that we did not left anything behind. I am in charge of the cash and communication since I am the only one in the group who can speak little Mandarin. I had also earlier set up the time frame for the children to get organize such as who goes to the bathroom first, how many minutes they were allowable to spend taking bath….I made the rule that Ayong should use the bathroom first, follow by Najwa and Nadhirah. Then Najwa & Nadhirah should immediately come to our room for breakfast right after they had dressed up, then, Ayong will bath Adam and get him dressed up. During my last trip back in February, I also remind the children to do some exercise for instance brisk walking in the evening, so that they will not feel tire while backpacking and enough stamina to move fast. I warn them this will not be an easy trip as we need to stick to our plan for 6 days travel covering Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and back to Shanghai. They have also been informed that Mom & Dad do not want to listen to any complaint or grievances during the whole trip. Rozi left the children to choose whether they want to continue with the plan or just stay in door in my apartment. The children have been in the high spirit since they wanted to visit Great Wall of China more than anything else.


I had also giving them some tips on the different cultural values and warned they may see some funny behaviors along the journey..….whatever it is to make sure that they keep it by themselves first then only make a comment at the right time appropriately.

To be continue.......

Special package from Paris...

Raph, my colleague called me today asking if I am free for a dinner. We have not met since I came back from my Spring holidays as his office is located in a different building. Raph is a French, he is living nearby my apartment with his beautiful wife, Veronique and cute baby girl, Marie. I agreed to meet him at the hotel cafe.

I had known Veron since they came to stay in China. To my surprise, they bought some stitching stuffs from French for me. Both of them discovered that I am a serious stitcher when they came over for lunch and have a look at my apartment for the first time in December. Raph commented that I had a cross stitch industry in the apartment right after he step into my little stitching room where I place all my stash.

These are the snapshot of my French stuff from both of them...

Veron handpicked the colors of the Soei d'Algier, the silk thread which is quite popular among stitchers in Europe, a chart from Danielle Gouriou-Curie and a set of John James needle I feel so delighted to have them as my special stash collection !!... thanks to both of you....they are soo lovelyyy!!!

I also found some "linen heaven" today.....I bump into a shop while walking at nearby so called market.....I browse around and was shock to find they are in fact a Belfast linen made in Italy....but in China !!....too good to be true...and the price is very cheap......I thought of buying at first but have to put the thought away since I have about 1/2 meter of Belfast linen and some other fabrics....and since the shop is a fabric speciality it carry a few different colors which make me crazy !!!....I wanted to take some photos but had forgotten to bring along my digital camera....I will definately go again and will take some snapshots....

I have been up to a few WIP of late plus one exchange plan for mattress pincushion ....hope to update in my next journal entry....and last but not least, tried my hand into making one pincushion for weekend project which turn out to be disastrous....I put the blame of not having a sewing machine to assemble the cotton fabric (LOL)......

Happy stitchings! and hope you had enjoyed reading my entry.
CT

I am still alive and stitching......

Hello again...

I have not been able to update my blog from China all this while. I have been thinking of switching my blog and use myspace or wordpress instead. In case I am disappearing then all of you will know where to find me (he...he...).Since I am back for holidays, I thought it work be nice to share my latest stitching achievement...but the photos did not turned well since I took it in a hurry, right before I step out of my apartment heading to the airport.........

Cross Stitcher in Residence by Lizzie Kate

Fabric : 14 ct Aida

Thread : 100% silk (meant for Chinese Embroidery)

I bought the chart from Needlelittlelove Singapore in November. I was so excited to stitch this piece, and decided to put on hold the rest of my WIP. At first I thought I will managed to finish within 3 days since it is a small piece. But instead it takes me more than 7 days to complete.

This is the most difficult stitching piece I ever made. I choose to stitch with 100% silk I got from a shop in Suzhou. I visited Tiger Hill and found a shop selling Chinese Embroidery. I begged the lady to sell me the thread and bought 10 colors. Since the thread is 100% silk, it is very soft, also since it was Winter and my finger was quite dry, the thread always stuck between my skin and nails. It really test my patience!. In the end of the stitching, I even forgotten to stitch a charm on top of the door so it does not looks nice. I hope I will have a chance to stitch another piece using cotton thread soon.

Then, I also pick up a kit from KEC ( China local kit )...this is the piece I had finished and took me 7 days to stitch....

A Bouquet of Tulip in Chinese pot on 14ct aida

I love tulips so much ( it always remind me of my courting period with Rozi....walking in the park full of tulip during Spring )....this is the second Tulip I stitched after another set which is still incomplete (in my WIP basket since last year). They look so lovely....there are another 4 sets of pattern with different flowers....I still have another 2 kits to go to match with this one.....hhhhmmmm.....can't really tell when to finish them...I had started one with 30% completion.....

My small piece....a Fall leaf I took from Tantes Zolder freebie.....I wanted to finish this as scissor fob...can;t really find time as yet to assemble them....I had decided to stitch a leaf charm in the middle....I will feature again here once I had finished them into fob.....

Fall Leaf
Freebie from Tantes Zolder stitch on 32 ct raw linen

These are the pieces I had finished since I relocated to China in December (not bad for one and a half month period) the best so far I managed to achieve....Since I am alone and no one is disturbing my time at home, I manage to focus on my stitching once I am home from work. There is not much activity at night except when the guys wanted me to cook some Malaysian dish for them once in a while...(I am the big momma to them now....) or my boss force all of us for dinner which I always managed to escape. Most of the time I will spend at least 4 hours a day stitching and weekend means I will have more time, at least 6 hours marathon if I am not too tired...

I am now into knitting too.......had started to knit small muffler for Wawa for her Beijing trip in March, but so far I make a very slow progress. I don;t really put much hope to finish it when they are here in March. My colleague in the office is willing to teach me and promised will start full force after the Spring Holidays.

Bought these small goodies from China for a dear friend I met in cyber....some multicolor yarn.....luckily she likes all the color that she wanted....

Thanks for dropping by and read my journal....

Happy stitching!!!

//siti

My Latest Achievement.......

Finally, this is the completed piece of Bouquet For Cheryl. I hope Barbara will drop by and read my entry....hhhhmmmm ......another 5 sparkling colors of CC thread is on the wayyyyy......yes....yes....yes....but it should reach me before 2nd Dec as I will be leaving to China for 3 months assignment this time (but if my boss kind enough to let me come back, otherwise, I have to wait for another 6 months.....ouuccchhhhh...)

BOUQUET FOR CHERY

Start on : 03/09/07 (based on the date of my first photo shoot)

Completed on : 16/11/07

Thread : Carrie Creation

Shade : Olde World Red

But I have to think whether to restitch the border or just leave it as it is without border. I had decided to frame this piece. At first I thought of sew it into a small pillow, but since the thread is not colorfast, it is quite difficult to maintain for washing or cleaning. The only option is sending it for dry cleaning I guess....

Now is the time to stitch some Xmas ornaments for my colleague and long distance friends....I hope I have enough time to stitch them. I have been wanting to stitch some pattern from Blue Ribbon Design which featured in 2006 JCS Xmas mag. Due to the time constraint, I had also plan some simple design using one color of thread.

I can't really take more time to write since there are lots of other things to be done. I will try to download more pictures from my travelling throughout China soon (the laptop has not been nice off late...sometime it's just gone all of a sudden.....)

H a p p y S t i t c h i n g !

November updates..

Yeahhh, i finally able to update my blog in China...I hope this will work well!

I was in Hangzhou just to kill time for the weekend.....I bump into a small stall at Wushan Market which sell exquisite Chinese embroidery. I was stuck there for hours admiring the work. I enjoy watching the lady stitching at the stall. I did asked where can I buy the silk threads she is using...she refused to tell me and keep saying it's very difficult to get them. I try to get her to sell some thread to me but still she declined...will keep on trying to search around...

I finally found a shop selling DMC thread which takes me an hour of bus ride (just in case I am desperate for stock!).

On my stitching front..not much progress since has been very busy working...I only need an hour of stitching to finish the "Bouquet for Cheryl" still I can't find time to complete them..

H a p p y S t i t c h i n g!!

Happy stitching!